Gratitude

This Thanksgiving Day, I'm happy my daughter is safely home from college to be with us.

I'm thankful my family is healthy.

I'm thankful for the roof over my head and the love I have in my life.

I'm thankful to have my friendship with all of you on the blog and irc and forum.

I am thankful for the sun in the sky and the warmth it brings.

To me, that is what the DCP is: The sun...warming all of us and giving us the strength to keep up the fight over darkness.

I have definitely been Blessed!

Peace and love to all of you.

THANKSGIVING
20 Reasons to Give Thanks

This Thanksgiving, progressives have a lot to be thankful for. Here's our list (Center for American Progress):

We're thankful for our country's troops.

We're thankful for Rep. Jack Murtha for showing us it's patriotic to speak your mind.

We're thankful for 90 Senators who stood up to Vice President Cheney to say that torture is not an American value.

We're thankful for 79 Senators who demanded the Bush administration detail a plan for Iraq.

We're thankful that Sen. Bill Frist is not our physician.

We're thankful for the generosity of Americans, who raised some $2.3 billion to help victims on the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina.

We're thankful all Americans can still rely on Social Security.

We're thankful for American Airlines, Verizon, and Nissan, who all agreed to Drop the Hammer.

We're thankful for Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald for conducting a "very serious" and "very dignified" investigation.

We're thankful for good friends.

We're thankful for the success of progressive talk radio.

We're thankful to the voters of Colorado for putting priorities like education, health care, and fiscal sanity over right-wing ideology.

We're thankful for autumn. Out West, where some PR readers vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them.

We're thankful Judy Miller won't be reporting on Iran's WMD program for the New York Times.

We're thankful we don't live in Samuel Alito's America...yet.

We're thankful for HorsesAss.org, for exposing (in such ironic fashion) ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown's checkered past at the International Arabian Horse Association.

We're thankful for Tai Shan, the National Zoo's newest celebrity.

We're thankful we're not Scott McClellan.

We're thankful for the residents of Dover, Pennsylvania for doing the right thing for their kids' education. (Don't listen to Pat, we've got your back.)

And last but not least: We're thankful to the Progress Report readers for their tips, energy and support.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You know that it would be untrue
You know that I would be a liar
If I was to say to you
Friends, we couldn’t get much higher
Come on bloggers, light my fire
Come on bloggers, light my fire
Try to set the Right on... FIRE!

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now, we can only lose
Else our kids become their funeral pyre

Come on bloggers, light my fire
Come on bloggers, light my fire
Try to set the Right on ...

FIRED!

M.Wood,

I adore that picture on the front page. I am speechless from the innate symbolism in it. It needs no words...

If there is ever a museum for these people who served in the illegal Iraq war (occupation) and a museum to recognise the Pro-Peace movement, then that picture belongs there!

Hi jim Monkeyson,

We're firing them for you, kiddo!

(And dad too!)

Rock on MOnkEy...Keep on swinging!!!

In my gratitude for Cindy Sheehan standing up to this criminal cabal of Bush's.

I've nominated her for Time's person of the year. Please nominate her as well.

http://www.time.com/time/personoftheyear/2005/walkup/talkback.html#form

While last year Bush was nominated even though his party stole democracy (and democratic elections in the USA for the second time!). Let TIME have an HONEST, a committed, and a brave person as the person of the year this time.

A brief and incomplete list:
I am thankful for abqLinda (the better half of me), my family, and my whole political family. We have come here from the most different and diverse backgrounds to join together to once again make America the great nation we know it is. We are joined by our love of our country and our patriotism is the glue that keeps us together. We are driven by our desire not to settle for anything less than an America that is strong and caring for all of its citizens no matter what.
Happy Thanksgiving to All !

Happy Thanksgiving from your DCP outpost right here in the nation's capital, on a sleepy, gray DC midwinter day. Living just a few blocks from the Capitol, and a few minutes bike ride down to the White House, I sometimes feel like a scout in a once familiar territory that became a dark and dangerous place when the conservatives took over in 2000.

With friends and neighbors, we used to walk down to the west front of the Capitol on summer days to watch the sun set over the Mall, and stop for a drink at the little grotto that was once the source of the Capitol's water. When it snowed, the kids would grab their sleds and sliders and we'd all troop over to the top of the hill on the western side of the Capitol, the only real hill within walking distance in the neighborhood.

Those pleasures are all gone, buried in the spree of post-9/11 bunker building that has sealed off access to huge areas of the Capitol. I stand with bus loads of visitors to DC in front of the west front of the Capitol, looking longingly up the cascading steps to the terrace overlooking the Mall, inaccessible behind several sagging strips of yellow police tape.

On this Thanksgiving Day, I give thanks for the cracks that have been appearing in the empire's facade, even as I deeply regret the pain, suffering, and deaths that lie behind those cracks. Where there are cracks, there is hope. I give thanks for all of the people who have fought so hard to unravel the skein of lies with which we were seduced into war. I give thanks to all those people who refuse to be extinguished, who provide the sparks that inspire us to act in ways that transcend our personal, ego-driven, advertising generated wants, which show us that human beings are capable of so much more than the sad and shriveled bottom-line-driven homo economicus who serves as the foundation for market-based theology. I give thanks to my wife and my children for all of the love and joy which they have brought into the world. And I give thanks to everyone who has given so much time and energy to sustain the DCP as a spark on its own.

Gravy Leak: Bush - Cheney Feud Worsens Over Traditional Turkey Pardon

The growing rift within the White House between those the nations two top executives is showing signs of total meltdown, as the traditional pardoning of the national thanksgiving turkey was delayed due to last-minute maneuvering by the office of the vice-president.

The president is said to be dumbfounded by the attack by the vice-president, who is said to be against pardoning the turkey.

A source close the White House speaking anonymously, says that the vice-president wants to have "all options at our disposal" when interviewing the turkey about what it may or may not know about suspected global stockpiles of the so-called "bird virus".

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who owns an unknown quantity of stock in Tamiflu, the vaccine which the government is purchasing in enormous quanitites, supports the vice-presidents position.

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know", said Rumsfeld.

Further complicating the issue are numerous photo's of turkey abuse which have surfaced in recent days on the Internet. Graphic images of turkey's being stuffed, poked, and put in other compromising positions.

This "story" is developing...

Happy Thanksgiving, DCP!

I give thanks for my beautiful niece Felicia, President of her high school Peace Club and a young activist, whose passion is theater and who loves marine biology-because its a spiritual practice.

I give thanks to my sister, a teacher all her life, who now trains teachers across the country and speaks on behalf of teachers in the halls of government.

I give thanks for my nephew Nicholas, who is studying to be an industrial designer, and whose mid-term project on computer gadgets for people with disabilities makes my heart soar.

I give thanks for my homegirl Rhodessa, who teaches theater to incarcerated women in San Francisco and across the country, and has just finished teaching to incarcerated women in South Africa and Italy. I give thanks to my homegirl Sean who represents victims for our city's District Attorney.

I give thanks for having Karen in my life at LEAST once a day, for Casey's sanity and brilliance, for Victoria's wit and her indomitable Aunt Mavis, for Matt's depth of thought and quality of mind, for Suz's heart, for abq john's calmness, for Marianne's passion for peace, dwahzon's steady hand and focus, for DiAnne's generosity of spirit, Barry's tenacity, and for Dick Bell's wisdom, experience and curry coconut chicken.

I give thanks for monkey's ability to make me laugh, for Christy's ability to make me cry, for Ira's unstoppable ability to fight, and for Chuck all the way out in doha for staying tuned. For oncall and the White Sox (GO SOX!!). I give thanks for Ally in a red region, for Truth standing tall. For Native, wherever you are.

I give thanks for everyone I didn't name yet, but will get to know as we grow as a family.

We're a community now. We've made it past a year and I don't see any sign of let up.

And for that, I am most grateful.

I did a favorite things list for this Thanksgiving (from my blog):

OK, I'm not Oprah and I'm not giving away diamond watches, but here are my favorite things in no particular order:

Buzzflash and Rawstory

Tenth Dems and DCP and Progressive Democracts of Illinois

Air America Radio--Ring of Fire and Randi Rhodes in particular

Thomas Legislative--great for research and you can even read the Congressional Record to see what our representatives are up to.

The Democat

http://thedailycurmudgeon.blogspot.com/ and http://deeplyblue.blogspot.com/

Steve from Ohio, now known as Blue Meanie who posts on Illinois 4 Hillary and makes sure that even though I am really busy at work, I have all the latest government and political news.

The Food Network

AtCenterNetwork.com

That I live in a state with 2 Democratic Senators and a Democratic Governor and an area with a Democratic State Senator and State Rep.

That I live in a township with 4 Democratic Trustees.

My Turbo Cooker (don't laugh, I love it!)

BORDC and CCCLR--both organizations keeping us informed about our losses of civil rights and liberties.

The Constitution and Bill of Rights

Zane Smith and Dan Seals running for Congress in the Illinois Tenth.

That Patrick Fitzgerald is the US attorney in Chicago. I get subpoenas from him all the time in my office--we're a keeper of records. I used to think they were mundane, now they're cool.

High speed internet access

Blogger, Bloglet and Blogpoll

A political cartoon I recently saw: One turkey brags that he was pardoned by Bush, the other turkey says "That's nothing, I was given immunity by Patrick Fitzgerald."

That the rest of the Chicago Metro area got to see what Mark Kirk is all about on CBS News.

Ovaltine

Ginny's mailing list--see it on Tenth Dems Yahoo Group

Articles by William Rivers Pitt or Dave Swanson

State Rep. Elaine Nekritz for attending the protest against Mark Kirk's support for racial profiling and State Sen. Susan Garrett for sending her greetings and thanks to the protesters demanding an apology.

My mom who is making all of thanksgiving dinner so I can use all my energy to write this blog and my family which is so great because we have no republicans to argue at the dinner table.

The smell of the Bloomer Chocolate Factory on a cold Chicago morning despite what the EPA has to say about it.

Ellen Beth:

What does a Turbo COoker do?

Aaah, the inner caterer in Fe emerges...

Of the many people & things I'm thankful for,
very, very high on the list is all of you, my virtual friends,
who on a daily basis graciously help fill me with
hope, enlightenment, knowledge, spirit, inspiration, perspective, laughter, & passion.

Namaste.

Chuck in Doha with a Happy Thanksgiving for All!

Always was my favorite holiday. I'm thankful that my family is well. I'm thankful for good friends. I'm thankful that I can appreciate beauty and grace in this world. I'm thankful to all of you for keeping the faith and helping me maintain my faith. Best wished to all!

Chuck in Doha

Ditto madame.....

Test

A Turbo Cooker is pretty much a huge steamer, and it's best for fish and vegetables. The infomercials are terrible, but I really do like the product. However, I still would not cook a chocolate cake and salmon filet at the same time....

happy thanksgiving....off to my mom's where to food is much better than at my house ;-)

I am thankful for many things this Thanksgiving Day.

The love of my family and friends, the peace and joy that comes from fond remembrances, and the anticipation of new adventures on the horizon.

I thank you all for your patriotic perserverance.
I have learned so very much from each of you.

I am certainly thankful we only have three years left of the current regime (less if God smiles upon us).

Enjoy your turkey, pie, and all the trimmings. Kiss and cuddle your loved ones.

Then say a prayer, or think good wishes, for Cindy Sheehan and all the mothers and fathers across this world who have lost someone dear and near to them this past year because of men with children's hearts who lust for money and power.

I am so thankful we still have a chance to make it right.

Does anybody know how we can wish Cindy and the Gold Star Moms a Happy Thanksgiving?

    Blessings?
    By Cindy Sheehan
    
    It was hard to feel blessed today as I sat at Casey's grave here in Vacaville, California. Sure, a lot of good things have happened in my sphere of influence this year, but the blessings are always hampered by the reason for the blessings.

    If Casey had not been killed in Iraq in George's imperialistic war for power and wealth, I wouldn't be on this path. I wish to God I weren't on this path. But I am, so here are the blessings I am thankful for this year.

    The main blessings that I can thankfully still count are my three children: Carly, Andy, and Janey. They are incredibly wonderful children who didn't ask for the trail that George Bush has set them on by the murder of their oldest brother. They didn't ask to have a mom who is away most of the time trying to make the world a better place to leave for them. They didn't ask for it, but they are handling everything with the courage and integrity that are the hallmarks of Sheehan children.

    I can look at the events of the past week or so and be thankful that some Democrats are finally displaying a modicum of courage in speaking out against the war and for bringing the troops home from this monstrosity. I hope we can look toward this with the expectation that the Democrats will finally unite against the immoral occupation of Iraq that has put an empty place at the holiday tables of over 2100 American families.

    I can also hope against hope that the war criminals in power that advocate and condone torture and use the same chemical weapons against innocent Iraqis that they hypocritically accused Saddam of using against his own people will finally have to resign in disgrace before a mostly complicit Congress has to impeach them. After George and Co. resign in shame, someone needs to haul them off to The Hague for war crimes trials. That would be something to celebrate.

    I am especially thankful for the inspiration that led me to Crawford in August to confront the criminal on his own turf. I am thankful to George, who very predictably did not meet with me and so sparked the Camp Casey Peace movement. I am extremely appreciative for the thousands of Americans who came out to Camp Casey over our three-week miraculous stay, and I am also gratified for the millions of citizens who stood behind us with their prayers and support. The peace movement is gaining momentum, and we will see our troops come home soon. This fact is overwhelmingly miraculous to me.

    I have met so many amazing, loving, and delightful people since I started my quest to end the occupation of Iraq. My Gold Star Families are especially dear to me. In their tragedies they have found a way to bring their horrible grief to the forefront of the American consciousness and help America see the terrible price some of us have had to pay. One of my Gold Star Moms had her son commit suicide two years ago as George was smirkingly serving the plastic turkey. Another dad got in touch with me this week to tell me that they are sadly burying their son on the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year. The Gold Star Families for Peace are handling their losses with grace, courage and integrity. The Bush crime family and their cronies can take lessons from them. This administration full of neocon crooks has ruined the holidays for so many people worldwide. I don't know how they can choke down their turkey!

    I am profoundly grateful for the life of my son Casey Austin. He always lived his life with grace, courage and integrity. His life has been a model for me in my resolve to bring his buddies home alive. Unlike George, Casey never got anything handed to him on a silver platter. Casey put himself on a silver platter and handed his young life over to save the lives of his buddies. I am not grateful for the way he died and the too many others who have tragically come home in flag-draped coffins, too. The atrocity has to end before too many more families experience the emptiness of a chair at the family table that once rang with laughter and now rings with sighs and forced, mostly false, mirth.

    Since Camp Casey, I do have hope that one of these days our holidays will have real joy and laughter again. I have hope that America is ready to take back our rights, freedoms and responsibilities. I have hope that people will be held accountable for the needless death and destruction they have caused the world. I am intensely grateful for the return of hope.

    I also have high hopes that we are at a unique point in history where we will be able to change the paradigm of our existence from one of perpetual war and killing to one of perpetual love and peace. This will be the best blessing that a mom could ever ask for! Maybe next year!

I believe we can leave Cindy a greeting at After Downing St. dot Org.if so desired.

In keeping with your theme of the flame today, Karen, I would like to share this poem with you all.

The Ascent

Grab hold,
And take this hand that
Reaches out to you.

Look up
Into my eyes;
My spirit
Cries out to you:

Friendship is my thought.

Let us climb the jagged cliff of life
And fight the ascent of Opposition together,

If I can lift you today,
You will look back
And grab the hands of a thousand more.

~ Howard Rainer
American Indian Poet

http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Poll Shock
Off by 40 points, newspaper's predictions may be disturbingly accurate

One of the most wildly inaccurate pre-election polls in memory, which was off by over 40 points on some predictions, may prove to be deadly accurate as an indicator of the problems we face as a nation with our voting process — and democracy itself.

But you won’t learn this by reading the Columbus Dispatch, the newspaper that conducted the poll just prior to Ohio’s Nov. 8 election. The paper’s public affairs editor conceded to me that the poll results the Dispatch wrote about, wrongly indicating massive public support for several proposed constitutional amendments were, in essence, the journalistic equivalent of the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

“Much like the American space program, both our triumphs and our shortcomings are out there for all to see,” Darrel Rowland said in an e-mail. Unlike NASA, however, which did manage to find that faulty O-ring, the newspaper’s powers that be don’t seem particularly interested in learning how their big public flop occurred. “We’ll certainly double-check the poll mechanics,” he said, “but see no reason to discontinue a methodology that’s proven accurate for decades.”

And Rowland’s right, as far as I can tell: The Columbus Dispatch’s survey of voters, conducted by mail, has historically been a reliable poll; it has been cited for its precision in the scholarly journal Public Opinion Quarterly and is considered far more accurate than telephone surveys. There is no faulty O-ring, in other words; the methodology doesn’t need changing.

And that’s why there’s a story here that must not be allowed to vanish.

The story is about how America votes, and evidence that pandemic chaos and perhaps even centrally orchestrated malfeasance are accompanying the spread of electronic voting machines to the nation’s precincts. We know there’s cause to worry about the state of our democracy because of the historical accuracy of the Columbus Dispatch voter poll.

Of the five proposed amendments on the Ohio ballot, only the first — a $2 billion state bond initiative to promote high-tech industry — was not related to the conduct of elections, and oddly enough its results were accurately forecast in the poll (predicted yes vote, 53 percent; final yes vote, 54 percent). Then it gets hairy.

Issue 2 would have made absentee voting easier in the state. It had lots of high-profile support, and the Dispatch poll predicted a cakewalk for it: 59 percent yes, 33 percent no, 9 percent undecided. The actual result: 36 percent yes, a whopping 63 percent no.

Then there was issue 3, which would have lowered the campaign-contribution limits that a lame-duck state legislature had raised a year ago. Prediction: 61 percent yes, 25 percent no, 14 percent undecided. Actual result: 33 percent yes, 66 percent no.

The results of issue 4, to control gerrymandering by establishing an independent board to draw congressional districts, were only slightly less dramatic. Prediction: 31 percent yes, 45 percent no, 25 percent undecided. Result: 30 percent yes, 69 percent no. And for issue 5, to establish an independent board instead of the secretary of state’s office to oversee elections, a 41 percent predicted yes vote shrank to 29 percent, while the no vote ballooned from 43 to 70 percent.

Ka-boom goes the Challenger.

Here’s the telling thing. The Dispatch, member in good standing of the mainstream media, has no interest in raising doubts about the integrity of the U.S. electoral system, and so hasn’t looked in that direction for an explanation of what voting-rights activist Bob Fitrakis called a polling error of “Landon beats FDR” proportions.

Instead, the paper blames the notorious volatility of statewide referendum issues. Rowland hypothesized “a huge shift in the electorate in the last few days before the election, when the ads started peppering airwaves.” Maybe, though Fitrakis maintains that the big pre-election ad blitz was conducted by the losing side.

Why, I wonder, in a state that made a national spectacle of itself with widespread irregularities and voter disenfranchisement a year ago, would there be so little interest in investigating whether the “voting chaos” reported by the Toledo Blade or the “night of surprises” reported by the Dayton Daily News could have produced tainted results?

“One problem discovered Tuesday: Some machines began registering votes for the wrong item when voters touched the screen correctly,” wrote Jim Bebbington in the Daily News. “Those machines had lost their calibration during shipping or installation and had to be recalibrated.”

But the spark won’t jump in the media mind. You know: Hmm, we have widespread confusion in the voting process, a recent GAO report that cites many glaring insecurities in e-voting, and our own polls indicating big victories that turn into big defeats. Could it be …? Nah! What are we thinking? This is the world’s greatest democracy.

Relax.

http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00002064.htm

This should be good.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007094.php
We're almost two-thirds of the way to our goal of 3,000 contributors for our TPM Muckraking Fund Fundraiser http://talkingpointsmemo.com/tpm-muckraking-fund.html . So we wanted to make one more push before everyone leaves for the holiday. The funds are going to hiring two staff reporter-bloggers for our new site http://tpmmuckraker.com which will be devoted to unearthing, explaining and publicizing the web of public corruption scandals breaking out across Washington today. Along the way we'll try to keep in the TPM punch and edge many of you who've written in have said you want in the new site.

There's so much muck to be raked, it'll be a challenge for the two of them to cover it all. But we'll make sure they burn the midnight oil to bring you all of it.

For those of you who've already contributed, our sincere thanks. You'll be hearing from us shortly.

And to all of you a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

-- Josh Marshall
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com

Millions of Americans celebrate "Thanksgiving". They gather to feast and most of are unaware of the true history of the holiday. America's schools have taught that the coming of the pilgrims made everyone happy. In reality, it was the beginning of the longest war in the U.S's extermination of the Indigenous peoples. Thanksgiving day was first proclaimed by the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1637 to commemorate the massacre of 700 men, women and children who were celebrating their annual Green Corn Dance in their own house. Gathered at this place, they were attacked by mercenaries, English and Dutch. The Pequot were ordered from the building and as they came forth they were killed with guns, swords, cannons and torches. The rest were burned alive in the building. The very next day the governor proclaimed a holiday and feast to "give thanks" for the massacre. For the next 100 years a governor would ordain a day to honor a bloody, thanking god the "battle" had been won.

-- Thanksgiving is a farce of a holiday. I side with the Native Americans in calling this a day of mourning.

At least I get the day off work & ate almost all of a Mango Merinque Exotique pie!!

I am grateful that I was able to get to know DCP in the past year - especially during the pro-peace activities late September in DC.

DCP has kept my sanity alive, even as I continue to live in a neighborhood that has always been overwhelmingly pro-Bush and pro-Ahnuld.

I look forward to continuing to work with the DCP crew, and to making change happen in this once-great but now-broken country.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I'm thankful this year for this website where I can air all my frustrations about the course our country is taking, and find others who agree with me. Living down here in this part of the country, there isn't much support sometimes for my views.
I'm thankful for my three adult children, that they all share my political beliefs, and that my oldest daugher will have her last chemo treatment tomorrow, and is now cancer free. I'm very thankful for the advances that have been made in Breast cancer therapy over the last 10 years or so, especially in therapies for young women.
I'm thankful that gas is now around $2 per gallon in my part of the country, so driving to my sister's house in Mobile today wasn't so expensive that we couldn't go. And that my 83 year old mother is still able to make the trip with us.
I'm thankful for the two new babies in our family, and that their former Marine dads (my nephews) are now out of the service and living safely at home with their wives and children.
And I'm thankful for the service of the two young Marines, one from Wisconsin and one from Arizona, who shared our family meal with us today. And that my youngest daughter was thoughtful enough to suggest inviting some servicemen over for dinner today. They seemed truly grateful to get off base and have a homecooked meal.
It's been a good day all around, and I hope all my friends on the DCP had a good day as well.

Happy Thanksgiving from Uncle Jerry
(who took me to MN Republican convention because his friend Harold Stassen was running for President)

The Misleaders: Who is Dick Cheney Kidding?
by Jacob Weisberg

http://www.slate.com/id/2130884/?nav=ais

I love breaking tradition - instead of watching football I bought a used CD that is all in German and very dark & Goth. Paradoxically, it is putting me in a good mood, maybe because the world itself seems very dark sometimes & the music fits. On the way home from the record store (the only thing open), we were listening to NPR reports from inside Bagdad - very depressing story about the state of hospitals in Iraq & you can imagine there is a huge need for them. Then Adam Davidson (business reporter, my 2nd favorite after Anne "Naked in Bagdad" Garels) - talking about racism in France if you or your parents are not native-born. It boils down to an economic problem too, I think, & connected well in my mind with an NPR broadcast I heard yesterday about layoff of 30,000 workers at GM in the US. Long-term workers who are unionized are expensive to train and retain. Cheaper for global neocon CEOs to bust down unions (US) or hire interns for peanuts (France).

It actually comforts me to know there are other relentlers trudgers toward truth here at DCP & other niches in the blogosphere who don't burn themselves out (though sometimes disheartened) but keep the light burning & read, listen, watch and analyze. Thank you all!

Merci beaucoup...pour beaucoup bénédictions...

I am thankful because there are people who are spending Thanksgiving in a guard shack in Iraq or on the bridge of a ship, with the company of their shipmates or fellow soldiers a poor substitute for their families back home, eating something that once passed for a Thanksgiving dinner.
I am thankful that they are still alive to do so.
I am selfishly thankful that this isn't my year to have Thanksgiving duty and that my road trip wrapped up in time for me to come home for Thanksgiving.
I am thankful for all the people who feel it is their duty and responsibility to show their gratitude to their country by giving of themselves...no matter what "uniform" they may be wearing to do so. And I'm thankful for those who will sacrifice themselves for their country even if they doubt its leaders, even if they have better job prospects, even if they are tempted to take rather than give.
I am thankful for all their brothers and sisters and parents and children and neighbors who work tirelessly to ensure that those men and women in uniform are safe and cared for whether away or when they return. And that their leadership is sober and visionary and aware of the weight of the possibilities of those young people's lives that they are tossing in the breach.
I am thankful for all the Americans who put humanity before politics and who can respect the differences that make us a great country without resorting to the divisiveness that will undermine us.
I am thankful that we open our hearts and our pocketbooks and our homes to those who are hurting. I am thankful that some of us do it without regard for season and long before disasters strike.
I am thankful for the visionaries and the passionate; and for the reliable and the ethical and those with gravitas. I am thankful for the leaders who can harness our diversity together and thankful for the followers who trust them.
I am thankful for all the blessings God gives us even when we don't want them. I'm thankful that God loves all of us, no matter how we see God or if we believe in a God at all. I'm thankful that God continues to work for good in us, even in those of us who twist the name and purpose of God to our own selfish means. I'm thankful that God doesn't choose sides and that God has high standards...and that God accepts us all and forgives us for not meeting them.
Most of all I am thankful for the gracious among us, those for whom thankfulness is as natural as breathing in and out.
May we move forward in grace and generosity, as we share the abundance of blessings that have been poured out among us as a nation.

Veritas
Very wonderful to read

Katrina Survivors More Thankful than Ever

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5436980,00.html

..a little silver lining to the clouds

Happy Thanksgiving, DCPers!

I'm so, so thankful for all of you. You are such an important part of my life and I feel blessed to know you!

So many blessings, and feeling so very lucky.

Peace, everybody.

Thankful yall didnt kill all of us.

Other than that,... Party on.

http://rossiannsretreat.blogspot.com/2005/11/question-was-simple-and-matter-of-fact.html

And at the end of the evening, I am simply grateful that my entire brood has moved over to another house to continue the rampage created by 3 grown sons, 2 daughters-in-law and 2 two-year old grandaughters!

It is the first time in many years we've all been together on a holiday, so first and foremost I am grateful for that.

I am grateful for the eloquence that is spoken here.
Even if I may choose to not completely agree, I've seldom, perhaps never, been offended by a post in this communitiy.

I am thankful that we've learned the meaning of speaking truth to power, clearly, simply, and if needed loudly.

I am humbled by those who not only speak the words, but take the actions, Going to Camp Casey this summer, all who Marched Sept 24, all who canvass and call and make real democracy happen.

I am proud to feel a part of this. Thank You

Such sweetness here, and we are off to bed now--had a wonderful turkey dinner with old friends and new and we feel hopeful and warm and ready to rest before beginning the fight again tomorrow.

Meet you all back here then...

I am thankful for so many different things it is impossible to mention them all. Simply, I am thankful for my wonderful wife and children and how they mean my life to me.

Good piece on Rossian's blog, Christy

Mitakuye Owasin

Sheehan back in Texas for war protest

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Crawford_War_Protest.html

I do not know if any of you remember me saying that yahoo was hiding group lots of Iraq photos in their Ireland/UK site... Groupings from all wire news services stock photos of the day

Well anyway..I noticed right after Katrina that it was not being updated. I have searched a few times trying every trick I knew to find the new lots.. Nada.

What was there up until Sept 11th is still there suspended in time. No new lots, no new updates.

I do not know wtf happened but... something.. is going on with Yahoo and I think all backdoors to info is being shut down.

If anyone else comes across group lots of Iraq pics that are after Sept 11th 2005 please let me know where to find them, no matter what they show.

The ones I am looking for are group lots of ap, afp, rueters stock pics.. BUT we are also looking for groups of private collections or any Iraq pic that shows wtf is going on.

I have just gone through 264 new AP pics offered through yahoo, and every single one of them looks as if bush himself approved them for our viewing.

If I see one more pic of some obscure council member meeting with the Japanese leader I think my eyeballs will explode

Christy
I heard Bush had to drink fermented horse milk.

Photo links under separate cover.
Whatever happened to Peter Arnett?

Pentagon, media agree on Iraq war censorship.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/med-m05.shtml

http://www.projectcensored.org

US slammed for Iraq media deaths
http://www.independent-media.tv

http://www.fair.org/press-releases/iraq-censorship.html

War and the Media Press Freedom vs. Military Censorship.
http://www.crf-usa.org/Iraqwar_html

Coalition media management for the Iraq war
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ MiddleEast/Iraq/PostWar/Media.asp

Media self-censorship in Iraq
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Media_censorship

American Media Censorship
http://www.ccmep.org/ccmep/american031902.html

The International Centre Against Censorship,
http://www.al-bab.com/media/freedom.htm

I don't want to interrupt the flow of this thread or place a long article here in its entirety, but I have put Sydney Blumenthal's Salon article "The Long March of Dick Cheney" at the end of the topic below this one. It's incredible to read - details his plan for unrestrained imperior power dating back to the Nixon era.

Posted by: not my vice president at November 25, 2005 12:50 PM

That is an absolutely fascinating article. It deserves to be widely distributed. Not only does it confirm many people's impressions of Cheney as the "man behind the curtain", but also gives a succinct history to his megalomania.

Not My,

? is the article?

NMP,

Found it on previous thread. Thanks. (I think.)

I guess I haven't been on DCP in ages. Glad to see so many of you are still here.

Truth Shall Prevail
It is the long one about Cheney & how he's been behind the scenes during the presidencies of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II - running the show with his neocon friends & planning a future where one-party rule will be sustained for the foreseeable future & he will be the global dominator, whether he is technically president or not. He actually wanted to run for president at one time, but I think he may have had more power & influence behind the scenes. As Karen said, chilling.

Don't miss the Salon article about Cheney, end of previous thread.

I love it - when I was 9 months pregnant I went to see Stevie Wonder & I was really dancing. So my 24 year old son is a Stevie Wonder fanatic & is collecting his entire catalog.

So a couple of days ago I happened to run into a bunch of photos of Stevie Wonder & John Kerry, when Stevie played at a concert in Detroit right before the election. & now I read in the Guardia that he just did a concert in England & this is from the interview done with him:

He tells me he has met George Bush, and I ask if he gave him a mouthful. "Well, he knows my politics and I know his. There was no need to get into some kind of thing. My mother used to say this: 'When you feel you've got to tell it all, just go in the closet, close the door and talk to God and be done with it.' "

Wonder often plays at the Church of God in Christ near his home in Los Angeles, and plans to make a gospel album next as a celebration of faith. Has his faith ever been challenged? He shakes his head. Not by racism, not by blindness, not by terrorism, not by the car crash that nearly killed him in 1973.

Does he think Bush has made the world more dangerous? Look, he says, anger against American imperialism goes way deeper. "This whole thing was set in motion long long ago. I mean, people are still arguing and fighting about dropping the [developing world] debt, and it's a joke to me. It's a joke because look at how much has been taken from Africa. God has given every continent on this planet some natural resource we can use to survive, for trading or whatever. But the world powers go and turn over the areas and take whatever they do, work out those ridiculous contracts ..."

And then there is the misappropriation of religion. While Bush talks about having God on his side and Islamicists talk about jihad, Wonder says both take God's name in vain. "People can't say this is a holy war. The people suffered, while their leaders made the money from deals. We're living in a mad world where people do mad crazy things. The God that I believe in doesn't believe in bombing, and the Allah that I respect for Muslims doesn't believe in terrorising innocent people."

He says he was distraught when John Lennon was killed 25 years ago, but not shocked. Imagine, with its plea for a world without religion, always seemed a dangerous song to him. "After he died I couldn't stop crying whenever I heard Imagine, but I wasn't surprised that he'd been shot. The guy said he shot him because he said he didn't believe in Jesus, and I remember when I heard Imagine, I thought, 'Somebody's not going to like that.'

Peter principle -
"Brownie" of FEMA to start own consulting business - planning for disasters

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10198491/

America is Caught in a Conflict Between Science & Religion

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1651333,00.html

fascinating British look at our situation - I sent it to Andree in France & I also just received a playable copy of the DVD about evolution that I bought in Paris - the subtitles are still in French but I think I can understand what I'm watching.

It's hard to know what to do about our media, about our flawed voting system, about the bizarre mentality, the polarization - it's alot of responsibility just to keep personally informed, through "the fog"

Protesters Unveil Monument Honoring Cindy Sheehan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-5438714,00.html

Not My Vice President,

OH yes, I found it. I want to do more research if I can, and see who it is behind Cheney.

Really scummy, slimely feel to it. And very, very, DARK.

I went to enter the contest Wednesday where DCP'rs are encouraged to put words in Cheney's mouth, and I couldn't get into it. I just had a problem getting any where near his energy.

Definately going to reread the one you posted on prev. thread at least one time again, maybe more, and see where that leads me....

Truth Shall Prevail

Cheney is definitely dark, in fact after 9/11, he said, "We have to work..the dark side, if you will." (Newsweek, Nov. 21, 2005)

& check out the final part of this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

Murray Waas , writing in the National Journal, digs up some new evidence that Bush and Vice President Cheney had reason to know that their suggestions of linkages between Iraq and al Qaeda were debatable at best.

"Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

"One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime."

Nevertheless, Waas reports: "In arguing their case for war with Iraq, the president and vice president said after the September 11 attacks that Al Qaeda and Iraq had significant ties, and they cited the possibility that Iraq might share chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons with Al Qaeda for a terrorist attack against the United States."

Waas writes: "One reason that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld made statements that contradicted what they were told in CIA briefings might have been that they were receiving information from another source that purported to have evidence of Al Qaeda-Iraq ties. The information came from a covert intelligence unit set up shortly after the September 11 attacks by then-Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith.

"Feith was a protege of, and intensely loyal to, Cheney, Rumsfeld, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, and Cheney's then-chief of staff and national security adviser, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby. The secretive unit was set up because Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Libby did not believe the CIA would be able to get to the bottom of the matter of Iraq-Al Qaeda ties. The four men shared a long-standing distrust of the CIA from their earlier positions in government, and felt that the agency had failed massively by not predicting the September 11 attacks. . . .

"Those grievances were also perhaps illustrated by comments that Vice President Cheney himself wrote on one of Feith's reports detailing purported evidence of links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. In barely legible handwriting, Cheney wrote in the margin of the report:

" 'This is very good indeed. . . . Encouraging. . . . Not like the crap we are all so used to getting out of CIA.' "

Truth Shall Prevail
This is good background on Project for a New American Century. I once tried to trace their funding & ended up with defense contractors.

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

10 Mind-Numbingly Stupid Quotes by Tom DeLay

1) "I AM the federal government."
–Tom DeLay, to the owner of Ruth's Chris Steak House, after being told to put out his cigar because of federal government regulations banning smoking in the building, May 14, 2003

2) "So many minority youths had volunteered…that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like myself."
--Tom DeLay, explaining at the 1988 GOP convention why he and vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle did not fight in the Vietnam War

3) "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"
–Tom Delay, to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept.

4) "We're no longer a superpower. We're a super-duper power."
–Tom DeLay, explaining why America must topple Saddam Hussein in 2002 interview with Fox News

5) "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes."
–Tom DeLay, March 12, 2003

6) "Guns have little or nothing to do with juvenile violence. The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills."
–Tom DeLay, on causes of the Columbine High School massacre, 1999

7) "A woman can take care of the family. It takes a man to provide structure. To provide stability. Not that a woman can't provide stability, I'm not saying that... It does take a father, though." -Tom DeLay, in a radio interview, Feb. 10, 2004

8) "I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. The only separation is that there will not be a government church."
–Tom DeLay

9) "Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour [the minimum wage in 1996] are hard to resist. Fortunately, such families do not exist."
–Tom DeLay, during a debate in Congress on increasing the minimum wage, April 23, 1996

10) "I am not a federal employee. I am a constitutional officer. My job is the Constitution of the United States, I am not a government employee. I am in the Constitution." –Tom DeLay, in a CNN interview, Dec. 19, 1995

Venezuela's Leader to Send Heating Oil to South Bronx

A group of South Bronx residents will soon receive a large shipment of heating oil, courtesy of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela.

(read the rest if you subscribe to NY Times)

I just bought my 8th tank of Citgo.

Several Bush supporters also gathered in Crawford on Friday with a sign reading: "The price of freedom is not free." Hundreds were expected to attend a pro-Bush rally Saturday.

"I disagree with her (Sheehan) claims that the president is a murderer and a liar," said James Vergauwen of Windthorst, Texas. "When you're at war, you need to be at war as a whole country and not as a divided country."

"When you're at war, you need to be at war as a whole country and not as a divided country."

--That is a sick mentality and also not Christian at all. We didn't have to go to war. He took us to war based on lies. These people (proBush protesters) are in denial & don't want to acknowledge that they are guilty like he is, for supporting him blindly.

Monkey- I guess the only answer to that protester is to bring our troops home and end the war then.
Because we are not ever going to be united behind this war.
It was only the segment of the public that doesn't read newspapers that was ever in favor of it.

And, unfortunately, that segment includes our esteemed Commander in Chief.

There were rumors flying around week before last in the MSM that there was a breechbetween the Bush and Cheney camps. A reporter said that "anonymous sources close to the President said that the President felt he was given some bad information prior to the build up to the Iraq war from Cheney's camp.

A fly in the ointment?

It's creepy, but it makes sense. Now, what can we all do about it?

Truth Shall Prevail

I think that's because Cheney always has Plan B, or in this case, Office of Special Plans. He is a civilian yet he forms his own intelligence units, disregarding the Pentagon and CIA. Who knows what he doesn't tell Bush (remember "My Pet Goat?") - what I think we can do it know it & expose it. The Republican party will scramble to come up with candidates but let's hope some of Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" (or Contract ON America) propaganda work is done, & it would also help if Rove were stopped (indicted?) - since Lee Atwater is gone. & I suppose he has a replacement in the wings, but we must keep exposing these propagandists.

I would think there are people in the CIA and Pentagon who are plenty pissed off. I had heard they want to further investigate neocon Doug Feith and the Office of Special Plans, whose specialty was coming up with tailor-made "intelligence" to justify going to war.

Here is info:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1109-05.htm