Spring Revery

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060415/ap_en_ot/obit_spark_9
'Jean Brodie' Author Muriel Spark Dies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUiP6dqPynE

After watching this, you will see that no words are necessary.

Blue Sky
by The Allman Brothers

Walk along the river, sweet lullaby, it just keeps on flowing,
It don’t worry ’bout where it’s going, no, no.
Don’t fly, mister blue bird, I’m just walking down the road,
Early morning sunshine tells me all I need to know

You’re my blue sky, you’re my sunny day.
Lord, you know it makes me high when you turn your love my way,
Turn your love my way, yeah.

Good old Sunday morning, bells are ringing everywhere.
Goin' to Carolina, it won’t be long and I’ll be there

You’re my blue sky, you’re my sunny day.
Lord, you know it makes me high when you turn your love my way,
Turn your love my way, yeah.

We went to the Easter Parade with Marjorie G & her husband - we ran into the Code Pink women in their best Easter bonnets!
Photos to follow!

How twisted can these people be?

NASHVILLE, April 11 — As dozens of mourners streamed solemnly into church to bury Cpl. David A. Bass, a fresh-faced 20-year-old marine who was killed in Iraq on April 2, a small clutch of protesters stood across the street on Tuesday, celebrating his violent death.

"Thank God for Dead Soldiers," read one of their placards. "Thank God for I.E.D.'s," read another, a reference to the bombs used to kill service members in the war. To drive home their point — that God is killing soldiers to punish America for condoning homosexuality — members of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., a tiny fundamentalist splinter group, kicked around an American flag and shouted, if someone approached, that the dead soldiers were rotting in hell.

Since last summer, a Westboro contingent, numbering 6 to 20 people, has been showing up at the funerals of soldiers with their telltale placards, chants and tattered American flags. The protests, viewed by many as cruel and unpatriotic, have set off a wave of grass-roots outrage and a flurry of laws seeking to restrict demonstrations at funerals and burials.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/17/us/17picket.html

Posted by: Cyrano at April 16, 2006 11:31 PM

I agree with you that this is sick and twisted. This is obviously a cult, and not a true reflection of mainstream Christianity.

There was an excellent discussion of religion and politics on Meet the Press today. They had a panel consisting of a priest, a nun, a preacher, a professor of Islamic studies, a mainstream pastor, and I believe a rabbi. It was quite interesting, and encouraging. The transcript should be available at MSNBC or NBC.

The professor of Islamic studies made it clear that most Muslim's religion teaches the exact same things that Judeo-Christians believe as far as peace, tolerance, and goodwill.

There are radicals in every religion, and often times they form cults that do not reflect the true values of the original form of the religious practices or beliefs.

Cyrano and Truth,

That's very upsetting. I say get a video tape of them and then superimpose the Republican and Bush insignia over it. Then use the words, 'Supporting your troops?"

Diane Feinstein: Stop Threatening Iran
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041606Z.shtml
Diane Feinstein ponders whether the Bush administration has learned from its mistakes in Iraq, or if they will set our nation on a road that leads to military confrontation with Iran?

{{{Feinstein's husband's company profits from the Iraq war. Feinstein has remained committed to the idea of a US presence in Iraq, something I can't support. The one thing I agree with in her essay is about not using nuclear bunker buster bombs. She also advocates diplomacy. Whether it's Feinstein or anyone else who says 'we' must stop Iran from using nuclear technology, I find that stance hypocritical. The knowledge about nuclear technology for an energy source is out there, and not likely to go away, even if no one using nuclear energy is going to build a nuclear bomb (or at least no more nuclear bombs - although Boy King George wants approval to make more nuclear bombs, which I consider an insane proposal). Preventing Iran (or anyone else) from using nuclear power to provide electricity means keeping a whole nation behind the rest of the so-called civilized world in providing for its people, meaning keeping the people ignorant, or in the category of a 'third world' nation; that's an elitist notion that I think needs to be checked. I'm not that crazy about the idea of nuclear energy because of radioactive fallout and the real problems of finding places to store nuclear waste products which will remain radioactive for millions of years. There are other energy technologies that are far safer and they need to be developed more fully for mass production, but some of those technologies still have a few bugs to work out, and until that happens, nuclear energy as a power source for electricity seems to be what most countries are using for now, including the US. The ideal solution would be for all the scientists in all countries who are working on safe, non-polluting sources of energy to get together and combine their ideas into workable solutions... but, of course, that's a pipe dream that lives only in my head....}}}

That Westboro church is the work of one twisted individual, Fred Phelps, and most of the church members are his children and grandchildren. I don't believe any political party claims them.

Here is a website that has a very long article done by a local reporter that ended up being published via the courts. It's probably much more than you ever wanted to know but it gives you an idea of just how screwed up this man is and how he has twisted an entire family.

http://www.baptistwatch.org/fredphelps.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060414/ts_alt_afp/uspolitics
More Americans feel US should mind its own business: poll
Excerpt:
Bush's rating, which rose from 32 percent in September to 39 percent in the ensuing months, has fallen back to 32 percent in the latest survey, the USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll said.

Ward Reilly: The Failure Of The U.S. "Free Press":
Television is a wonderful tool used responsibly. It is a nation-killer if used improperly, as it is today.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12740.htm

Monday Morning Prayer Service...

Dear Lord, Westboro Baptist Church of Duhpeka, Kansas requires a visit of some sort, as they seem to believe that they can speak for you and ignore your advice on judging others and say and do terrible things to people who are in the depths of untold grief, all in YOUR NAME.

They seem to be under the impression that this is ok with you, and that you are cool with the notion of punishing innocent people, completely unrelated to the deeds of others, again, all in YOUR NAME.

I understand that they are quite fond of the fire and brimstone stuff, so feel free to send some in the form of, say, a well placed lightning bolt or three. Amen.

Steeplechase.

Army report on al-Qaida accuses Rumsfeld :
Donald Rumsfeld was directly linked to prisoner abuse for the first time yesterday, when it emerged he had been "personally involved" in a Guantánamo Bay interrogation found by military investigators to have been "degrading and abusive".
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12746.htm

U.S.: Rumsfeld Potentially Liable for Torture:
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could be criminally liable for the torture of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 and early 2003, Human Rights Watch said today.
http://tinyurl.com/ryb5g

Torture? What Rumsfeld knew:
In a sworn statement to the inspector general, Schmidt described Rumsfeld as "personally involved" in the interrogation and said that the defense secretary was "talking weekly" with Miller.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12738.htm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060416/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
Political Impasse Delays Iraq Parliament

{{{Like The Cretin needed an excuse to keep our troops in Iraq???}}}

How wonderful to comae back to Wordsworth, after my weekend in rural England, which was, of course, wet and cold, but so beautiful.

The flowers are amazing and give such a shot of hope into the dark air.

I am going to write more alter today, after teaching, but I wanted to weigh in on this thread, because I think what I want to hang on to from my week away is the ability to step back and breathe in flowers when necessary, and to work with love and commitment.

Posted by: monkey at April 17, 2006 08:21 AM

AMEN, AMEN, AMEN....

Posted by: karen at April 17, 2006 08:23 AM

Welcome home, Karen....

It's Benson time...

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/

Breaking: A federal jury in Chicago has found former Governor George Ryan and businessman Larry Warner guilty on all charges after a five-month trial in federal court.

http://tinyurl.com/j9hsp = Chicago Tribune

Putting lipstick on a pig:

Bolten Says White House Staff Must 'Re-Engage' or Leave Posts
April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Joshua Bolten, the new White House chief of staff, indicated he's preparing to make changes in the Bush administration, telling senior aides today to 'refresh, re- engage' or quit now.

"If you're thinking about leaving, now's the time," Press Secretary Scott McClellan quoted Bolten as telling White House senior staff. The former budget director said he wanted people with enough energy to be "charging ahead for the next two-and one-half years," McClellan said.

http://tinyurl.com/kd9db

...people with enough energy...

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at April 17, 2006 04:07 PM

It's always about energy with these hogs, ain't it?

Got gas?

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at April 17, 2006 04:07 PM

Speaking of little piggies, here's a good article on Snotty Scotty. It points out how much headway we bloggers are making by keeping up with his lame, empty, meaningless press conferences. Also has an interesting view about why the admin uses Snotty Scotty and how that may not be working out as they intented. ;)

Words Fail Him
Now that the daily White House briefings are instantly available online, Press Secretary Scott McClellan's mangled sentences, flat-footed evasions, and genial befuddlement have made him the butt of a thousand blogs, as well as of an increasingly savage press corps. Is he a victim, a pawn, or a P.R. disaster?
http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060404fege01

One scene we added to FEAR UP was a scene between Helen Thomas and Scotty. Since most of the actors were Brits, Marietta did Scotty's lines, since she is American.

I WISH you could have seen her doing a Condi-esque Scotty, complete with the wide smile that follows outrageous remarks--as if an inappropriate warmth makes up for the ridiculous lies. Marietta really nailed the timing--just seconds AFTER a smile would have made a difference, she smiled. Oooh it was creepy...

She also did a mean Kay Bailey Hutchison...spot on and terrifying.

I am feeling that the house of cards will come crumbling down just as soon as we get that lipstick off the pig...anyone got a truckload of Pond's?

See, not even in the country 24 hours and I'm mean again...

I was really NICE in England, I swear!

Here's a good poll on MSNBC...

Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment? * 254671 responses

86% Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.

4.4% No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."

7.4% No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching.

1.8% I don't know.

Add your vote...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10562904#survey

Daniel Ellsberg has a very long article in Salon.com that's worth waiting for the little commercial to get the free pass to read it.

Here's just a small snippet:

I don't want to label Republicans in general, but these people are extreme slanderers. They are very vicious. These people are unusual. In many respects we have a White House now that is extremely dangerous. And among other things, I would say very anti-democratic. They don't believe in democracy, in my opinion. And that's why I am very, very concerned that they will exploit the next 9/11. I expect there to be another 9/11. They will use that as a Reichstag fire to close down democracy very seriously in this country. I don't use that analogy lightly either. We really are in a pre-authoritarian situation here.

This is the time for people to show courage. People have more courage than they realize. It is the situation that challenges them. I think a lot about what happened in Germany in 1933 and I also wonder what people could have done in '32 to try to avert that in Germany. With each year it got much harder, and after that it was very hard to do anything about it. It took increasing courage. Now is the time for people to show that courage, and one thing specifically that I would like to see is a lot more whistle-blowing.

For the past three years, I have been calling for whistle-blowing and truthtelling within the government. One obvious example was the Downing Street memo, which was leaked to the British press. It revealed that Prime Minister Blair had been briefed in July 2002 that President Bush had decided on a war against Iraq and that intelligence was being fixed around the policy. It got almost no attention over here. Nearly a month went by before anybody even mentioned it. The New York Times eventually gave it a certain amount of discussion. But very little from the media. It almost blanked out. Second, the Downing Street memo was written in July of 2002. If it had been leaked then, instead of several years later, that probably could have prevented the British participation. Although Bush was so determined to go in, he would probably have gone in alone even without the British. The same is true of a lot of the stuff that came out from Richard Clarke in his book, "Against All Enemies." Or Mike Scheuer of the CIA who wrote a book under the name "Anonymous." Both are good books and definitely worth having even at this late date. But there is nothing in them that they could not have told back in 2001! Let alone in 2002. If they had put out documents that backed up what they later said in those books, I believe either one of them would have prevented this war. They probably would have gone to prison if they had put out those documents. But you can't tell somebody, "You should give your life. You should go to prison. You should do this." But I do tell people you should consider doing that when there are so many lives at stake. And I wish they had.

When Clarke was speaking before a congressional committee, someone asked him, "You told us a year ago that the president was doing a great job against terrorism. Now your book is saying he wasn't doing anything that needed to be done, that he was tremendously incompetent and wrongly directed. Which should we believe? How can we believe you now?" And so Clarke said, "Well, I'm not an official now. I'm not being told what to say. If I had told you then what I am saying in my book, I would have been fired before I got back to the office." That's probably true. But given the stakes, should that have been an absolute bar to telling the truth?

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2006/04/17/ellsberg/

In another good salon.com article, Joe Conason points out that Bush's bluster has lost all credibility with foreign governments.

Here's a snippet:

For warning noises to be taken seriously, however, the noisemakers must possess credibility -- and over the past three years, the Bush administration has squandered that precious commodity, along with many lives and much treasure. Having gone to war under the false pretense of preventing a rogue state from obtaining nuclear weapons, President Bush has badly undermined his government's capability to cope with the real thing.

So still another of the nightmare scenarios foreseen by opponents of the Iraq war may now be coming true. The White House hawks bluster about American power, but Bush's war has weakened us politically, diplomatically, militarily and economically in a dangerous world.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/04/14/iran/index.html

Carl Bernstein calls for probe of Bush
Journalist urges Watergate-style investigation in Senate

Updated: 10:08 p.m. ET April 17, 2006

LOS ANGELES (Reuters)- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein, who with Bob Woodward helped expose President Nixon's role in the Watergate scandal, Monday called for the U.S. Senate to open a full-scale probe of President Bush's conduct in office.

Writing in the online edition of Vanity Fair magazine, Bernstein said that during Watergate "there was understandable reluctance in the Congress to begin a serious investigation of the Nixon presidency. Then there came a time when it was unavoidable. That time in the Bush presidency has arrived."

He said the investigation should concentrate on the run-up to war in Iraq, the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity to the press and the administration's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Bernstein said that any Senate investigation must not be a fishing expedition but try to determine whether "lying, disinformation, misinformation and manipulation of information have been a basic matter of policy" in the Bush administration.

more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12361384/from/RS.3/

US Building Massive Embassy in Baghdad
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041606A.shtml
A fortress-like compound, the new US Embassy being constructed in Baghdad is rising beside the Tigris River and will be the largest of its kind in the world, the size of Vatican City. It will have the population of a small town, its own defense force, self-contained power and water, and a precarious perch at the heart of Iraq's turbulent future.

{{{Amazing... shaking head in disbelief....}}}

Blood On Our Hands
By Craig Winters
This country, my country, has already become a fascist police state. Our government lies to the people, spies on citizens, kidnaps, imprisons without trial, engages in torture, and is leading the country to ruin. Incredibly, all of this is done with the support of its citizens. How is this possible? How can a democratic government abandon the people it serves and squander blood, treasure, and traditions in an irrational pursuit of global domination?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12765.htm

The Most Evil People in the World?
By Doug Soderstrom, Ph.D.
I have come to the conclusion that the Christian fundamentalists, also known as the religious right, are the most evil people in the world. Others (such as those of various Islamic terrorist groups) were considered, but after due consideration, the Christians won……. hands down. In fact it was no contest.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12759.htm

{{{HIGHLY Recommended Reading.}}}

Posted by: monkey at April 17, 2006 10:44 PM

Two thoughts ran through my brain simultaneously: About danged time!!! ... Isn't this just a little bit late? An investigation should have started with the illegal invasion of Iraq...!

We also have to get our legislators to STOP any premature plans on the part of the administration to illegally invade Iran and/or STOP even the idea to use 'nu-cu-ler' bombs of any kind.

So many balls to juggle in the air, one needs committees to monitor each illegal action or offense and list the endless LIES about each offense and/or illegal activity (which likely would take many reams if one printed them all out now).

In other headlines, they're trotting out the threat of avian flu pandemic - again! (Did someone forget to tell the idiots that one can only contract avian flu by handling bird droppings from sick birds, and that it does NOT pass from human to human?) - and there are any number of stories about Iran & invasion, threat therof, plans that have been on the table for attacking Iran since 2003 this time, etc.

What to take seriously? The avian flu pandemic is just to frighten sheeple, not a threat to any humans who are not handling feces of infected birds, since it is not spread from human to human contact. Duh. Pure diversionary tactic, just as the tired old hackneyed topics of 'god, guns, and gays - and abortion' are divisive "issues" that keep sheeple's attention away from what's going on behind closed doors and the crimes being plotted by the criminals behind closed doors at *our* White House, the illegal wars going on and the illegal wars they're still planning....

I see the manipulation so clearly. What's wrong with Lamestream Media not being able to tell when they're being manipulated to broadcast such obvious propaganda?

Posted by: monkey at April 17, 2006 10:44 PM

Has arrived?

Heck...it's been knocking on the door and ringing the d*mn doorbell for 5 years perhaps even beginning with an investigation of the paid republican riot personel in Florida 2000.

waaaaaayyyyyyy past due.

Posted by: dwahzon at April 17, 2006 10:07 PM

Ray McGovern told us last week at his lecture that he & Ellsberg are a part of a group called "Truth Tellers Coalition" -- those with experience & prior prominent positions in government & business who are showing their courage by speaking out at every opportunity.

The 1930's Germany scenerio is the one that McGovern used too, because anyone with any 20th century historical perspective can relate to it. And in my opinion, the comparison is very valid & real. I know some people freak out (i.e., the media makes a huge deal out of it...) when the comparison is made between George & Adolf; I say, "If it walks like a duck & talks like a duck..."

But McGovern (and the snippet I read from Ellsberg) never mention Hitler; they're focusing on the complacency & "unreasoned patience" of the German citizens in the 30's... We need to do the same now in the US...

Because "what it is, is up to us..."

This seems appropriate to mention too RE: 1930's Germany & its relevancy to today's situations...

McGovern mentioned Albrecht Haushofer, a professor at the University of Berlin. Haushofer refused to sign a guilty plea before he was shot, but the guards found a sonnet in his pocket entitled “Guilt.” McGovern recited the poem in German, and then translated each line:

Schuld
…schuldig bin ich
Anders als Ihr denkt.
Ich musste früher meine Pflicht erkennen;
Ich musste schärfer Unheil Unheil nennen;
Mein Urteil habe ich zu lang gelenkt…
Ich habe gewarnt,
Aber nicht genug, und klar;
Und heute weiß ich, was ich schuldig war.

Guilt
I am guilty,
But not in the way you think.
I should have earlier recognized my duty;
I should have more sharply called evil, evil;
I reined in my judgment too long.
I did warn,
But not enough, and clear;
And today I know what I was guilty of.

Totally OT but here's an interesting article on how the brain reprocesses memories during sleep...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4908484.stm