100, 10, 5 Years Later

What a wonderful piece of writing to read on this day. I have a ten year old library book by Chomsky that I was paging through. He was talking about speaking truth to power and also about how the pyramid of corporate power works. Then I noticed that most of the people he was influenced by wrote at least half a century ago. It always impresses me too, when reading Buddhist scriptures about greed and compassion, especially, to think not much has changed about human nature - in more than 3000 years.

Today I can already hear an alarm clock radio from the basement but have no real reason to pay much attention to media. They will layer word upon word and image upon image but I doubt most will say anything very original, provocative or insightful - not like you wrote about. I do know that the peace movement is still strong here, and that we're still surrounded by at least 3 military bases & a big factory that makes things for war.

Karen, thanks for being there to honor their memories.

Namaste

From Winning the War for Hearts and Minds - While We Still Can

It strikes this observer that the war that we became engaged in after 9/11 may indeed be about bigger issues than we can possibly imagine. In a very real sense, the ideal endpoint of this war may not be victory at all, but reconciliation, and a new paradigm where all of us change a little, and some of us change a lot. That may seem like a frightening prospect, but it may also ultimately represent the only credible option – the decision of a nation and a world to embark on a collective journey of discovery and reconciliation. As Joseph Campbell wrote, the essential outlines of this path are neither strange nor forbidding, and have been with us from the very beginning of spiritual history.

"Furthermore, we have not even to risk the journey alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world."

In an era where weapons of mass destruction make it entirely possible to end life as we know it, and the very strong likelihood that those weapons will someday end up in terrorist hands if things continue apace, it strikes me that it is in the best interests of the United States – the nation that clearly has the most to lose, and a nation that possesses what I would argue is a spiritual charter entirely consistent with such a process – to begin to actively, and seriously, promote this kind of expansive spiritual and intellectual dialogue across the planet.

America is about nothing if not ideas, or the courage to expand frontiers, or a willingness to perpetually adjust for the discrepancy between our Founders' magnificent vision and reality on the ground. As a nation that exists as an ever expanding global village, who is better positioned to lead this process of understanding the many strands of the great cosmic song – and to very specifically identify those things that unite us, rather than divide us? What I am very specifically suggesting is that the ultimate weapon in a war of ideas might actually be the embrace of a greater, more luminous idea. In this time of ever-increasing danger for the species, it simply strikes me that friends who share so much with each other, and who believe that they have so much to learn from each other, are much less likely to destroy each other. Hence, in the final analysis, my lofty idea could also be viewed as nothing more than a prudent strategy for self-preservation.

http://www.hpleft.com/110603.html

Posted without comment:

Worried CIA Officers Buy Legal Insurance
Plans Fund Defense In Anti-Terror Cases

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 11, 2006; Page A01

CIA counterterrorism officers have signed up in growing numbers for a government-reimbursed, private insurance plan that would pay their civil judgments and legal expenses if they are sued or charged with criminal wrongdoing, according to current and former intelligence officials and others with knowledge of the program.

The new enrollments reflect heightened anxiety at the CIA that officers may be vulnerable to accusations they were involved in abuse, torture, human rights violations and other misconduct, including wrongdoing related to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They worry that they will not have Justice Department representation in court or congressional inquiries, the officials said.

The anxieties stem partly from public controversy about a system of secret CIA prisons in which detainees were subjected to harsh interrogation methods, including temperature extremes and simulated drowning. The White House contends the methods were legal, but some CIA officers have worried privately that they may have violated international law or domestic criminal statutes.

read the rest here...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091001286.html

Karen,

Thank you for your post.

Message Man
by The Subdudes

The pressure's on
You got to make it happen
Deadline stares you in the face
Will you pull up, will you carry on?
The people around you
It seems like they've lost their faith

But it ain't me
I'm just the message man
It ain't me
'Cause there's no news at hand
I'm not the one
That's come, to set them free
It ain't me
I'm just the message man

Late last night you called
You said that I'11 have to wait
Well you know that I'm under the gun
You say in time it will come
But I can't help being scared
Because I know not what's out there

But it ain't me
I'm just the message man
It ain't me
Cause there's no news at hand
I'm not the one
Thats come, to set them free
It ain't me
I'm just the message man

We can't help but feel unwanted
Being held upon a string
It was just a mistake that somebody made
I guess it was just one of those business things

They're not friends
They're just a company
But it hurts me when I hear them say
'Cause I wasn't brought up that way
What you done boy it ain't through
Well you know they don't understand

But it ain't me
I'm just the message man
It ain't me
'Cause there's no news at hand
I'm not the one
Thats come, to set them free
It ain't me
I'm just the message man

It ain't me
I'm just the message man

"The medium is the message."

Marshall McLuhan knows.

Posted by: Otter at September 11, 2006 11:14 AM

Now ya tell me, I've been in the XL section all this time.

Super Size Lies

That's very big of you, monkeyman.

At the Pentagon, where 184 people died when American Flight 77 plowed into the building, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld walked side-by-side to a platform. They sang along to “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and observed a moment of silence at 9:37 a.m., the time the plane struck.

“We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history’s latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power,” Cheney said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14780747/

Bush said in an interview broadcast Monday that on the day the country was attacked, he came harshly to grip with the reality that “we were involved in an ideological struggle akin to the Cold War.”

“In the long term, we’ve got to defeat an ideology of hate with an ideology of hope,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show.

“There’s a reason why people like (al-Qaida leader Osama) bin Laden are able to recruit suiciders,” Bush said, “because if you don’t have hope, you’re attracted to an ideology which says, it’s OK to kill people and kill yourself.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14780747/

Cheney said it is "hard to say" whether there are more terrorists now than five years ago. But the fact that al-Qaeda has launched no successful attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11, 2001, shows that the administration's policies are working, he added.

"I don't know how you can explain five years of no attacks, five years of successful disruption of attacks, five years of, of defeating the efforts of al-Qaeda to come back and kill more Americans," Cheney said. "You've got to give some credence to the notion that maybe somebody did something right."

Cheney said he sees "part of my job is to think about the unthinkable, to focus upon what, in fact, the terrorists may have in store for us." He said the threat that drives administration thinking is "the possibility of a cell of al-Qaeda in the midst of one of our own cities with a nuclear weapon, or a biological agent. In that case, you'd be dealing -- for example, if on 9/11 they'd had a nuke instead of an airplane, you'd have been looking at a casualty toll that would rival all the deaths in all the wars fought by Americans in 230 years."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/10/AR2006091000427.html?nav=rss_email/components

And if Grannie had wheels, she'd be a tricycle.

Monkey
They are mental! (those dignitaries)

I'm reading a really interesting article:

Unwinding Bush: How long will it take to fix his mistakes.
Mine is from the magazine, but hope this link will open.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200610/bush/2

-snip-
For a short while - an instant in geopolitical time - virtually the whole world stood with America, even those who didn’t really care for us. What did we do with this moment?

Are we better off for not more effectively pursuing the architect of this atrocity, Osama bin Laden? Could we not see that to a culture steeped in a tradition of honor and vengeance, this failure to bring bin Laden to justice shamed us? Did we think that would make it easier to win hearts and minds?

Secret prisons, torture, and an unnecessary war against the wrong enemy - were these signs of wisdom or panic? Was there no more constructive way to approach that part of the world which spawned our attackers - not to appease but to creatively engage? Have we, in the intervening years, done our nation proud?

We will all remember 9/11 in our own ways. For me, the tragedy merely began on that day, then continued every day since in a litany of missed chances and squandered opportunities.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445086/#060911c

They are mental! (those dignitaries)

Posted by: DiAnne at September 11, 2006 01:27 PM

One might say, fundemental.

Two can be as sad as one.

Five years after 9/11, Arab resentment grows
U.S. ‘War on Terror’ not winning friends in the Arab world

ANALYSIS
By Jim Maceda
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 1 hour, 26 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon — September 11th is a date that resonates in several ways for the Arab world.

It is marked with pride and celebration by al-Qaida leaders and operatives; it is mourned by the families of hundreds of Muslim victims who died in the terrorist attacks five years ago. And, for many ordinary Arabs, from Cairo, to Riyadh, to Beirut, it evokes fear — and the prospect of further pain.

“9/11 was a turning point,” explained Makram Rabah, a law major and one of several graduate students I spoke to at the American University of Beirut campus this week. ''This is a new world war, basically, that will change everything. It has changed our lives from bad to worse,” he said.

Five years after that fateful day and the subsequent launching of the Bush administration's “War on Terror,” Arab-affairs analysts and media professionals say that Arab public opinion — the so-called “Arab street” — is even angrier against America and U.S. policies today than it was then.

Indeed, most of these experts agree that the positive, sympathetic feelings that emerged, across the Arab world immediately following the 9/11 attacks were quickly squandered. ''People perceive it as a kind of victimization of the Arab world,'' said Dr. Gamal Abdul Gawad, professor of international relations at the University of Cairo. ''The American invasion of Iraq had a huge negative effect, so did America's perceived disregard for Palestine and, recently, the war in Lebanon.”

Insults continue to mount (more)...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14784142/from/RS.1/

I was nosey and kind of wanted to see what the ABC docudrama was like, so I turned it on but turned the sound off and glanced at it once in a while.

They had the Al Qaeda guys and all arabs basically looking dark, mean, wrinkled. They even showed a booger in one guy's nose (they did, really!) The screen was very dark when on them, and then, ta da, lighter when on others. You know, the old dark like night and death and bright like day, hope, and life.

At a quarter to eleven they had a brief "news snippet" from ABC saying that because of CIA Director George Tenet pulling the plug every time they had bin Laden in the cross-hairs, we didn't get him when we could have. They said the 9-ll Commission states that our best shot to get him was while Clinton was in office, showed the page from the Commission's report stating that date and place, then stated that:

The Clinton administration and the Bush administration both failed to get bin Laden before 9-11.

Tweety is on MSNBC giving the Neocons hell. He said: (paraphrased by me, but pretty accurate) All these words about the war in Iraq being about terrorism is pure political propoganda from the Neoconservatives and is a bunch of crap. Everybody knows the war in Iraq was preplanned before 9-ll, and was partly a personal vendetta, and had nothing to do with "terrorists", or Al Qaeda.

P.S. The airing of the Path to 9-11 last night "was brought to you without interuption".
I saw no commercials.

Monkey's right at 2:04 pm, as he so often is at other times, too, it's the loneliest number since the number one.

I am sitting here with Ryan McAllister. The workshop is Parenting for Social Change, and since we have bad weather and no one here to DO the workshop, I am going to BLOG it!

Ryan started down this road by studying how humans relate to one another. It does not always go warmly. He has studied how people are raised.

There is a huge opportunity to learn about all human relationships through understanding how we raise children. Soren, who is with Ryan is sharing her own experience of watching her siblings being born. She describes the beauty of the process and she learned that pain is OK; it can be a good thing. Pain can produce a sense of empowerment.

Some terms and perspectives:

Ryan aims to increase consciousness about the choices. Every human is a set of human needs and choices about how to fulfill those needs. Some things that are harmful: that we do not have choices. We tell ourselves "I have to...".

First it is easy to feel bad; to judge ourselves, find our selves less than others. We pretend we don[t have personal responsibility and that others dont either. We are having those feelings because of something someone else did and I need to tell you that. This is a doomed approach.

We have a good model for conflict and relationships that makes learning and growing much more difficult.

We want to raise consciousness about our choices and shift our vocabulary to create a different world with words (This is Liza and Ryan.)

What are we trying to do with all these things we want to eliminate? Every judemtn or mainpiulation is an attemtp to get human needs met. (ours or others) It is enrichment. It may be a tragic attempt.

List human needs people have:

(We all have these) (universal)

Nutrition
The Need to Contribute to Others' Well-Being
Connection
To be heard
Rest

etc.

I shared with Ryan that this blog is very much about the need to contribute to the well-being of others and connection. I shared Truths current concerns about her mother as something we are all more or less aware of and concerned about as we talk politics.

Autonomy is also essential. Perhaps not the best name but acknowledging choices is a way of acknowledging humanness.

As social progressive activists, most of us want people to be make those cpnscious choices rather than being directed by the power structures around us.

As parents if we use authority with our children as a way of training, we are modeling that power structure.

Every moment we are using authority, we are not in relationship with them. If we take the authority out we get to experience a fuller relationship with them.

What we need to parent for social change:

Give Attention for strong feelings

Develop a needs-based awareness.

As an aside, we have been trained to demand things from people rather than ask. We have low expectations of asking. Sonia just expressed hunger and Ryan happened to offer a Clif bar; David a sandwich. Sonia was surprised to find her needs met, especially after such a rigorous schedule (Sonia has been running the bookstore)

We hear requests as demands as well. Check out Marshall Rosenberg on nonviolent communication.:
http://cnvc.org/
(Possibly one of the single best tools for peace activists).

Why do we need attention for feelings? When they are not met there is a lack.

A person needs something that isn't happening, do we need to guess? Attention: tantrum-training--holding a space for someone to cry or tantrum.

Holding a space, creating a container for those real human needs.

Ryan's website: http://www.notjustskin.org

Tools that help:

special time: child knows it's his/her time and he/she is in charge

play-listening: a way of interacting with children in a context in which that behaviors they do are processing. We flexibly and playfully react to what they throw at us. Put them in charge and give them the strong role.

Stay-listening: When they "have" their feelings, (the bumpy part), the parent stays, provides as large a container as possible.

Of course, these also work with peace activists. Too often we attack the people whose cooperation we could use .
(Moment of personal contemplation. hmmm. yes)

These tools of attention for feelings and others are really to help us get to needs-centered awareness.

For adults Ryan speaks of listening partnerships. Taking turns with attention.

We're taught to shut down our feelings, but even more importantly we shut down our needs. Once we have let the feelings happen, we may get to more clarity about what those needs might be. Getting needs met: a way to resolve conflict and be the peace.

Every time we try to meet a need we can find a approach. But if the approach becomes the need, the problem is not solved.

In Shanksville, where United Flight 93 crashed into the ground, killing 40, hundreds of people gathered at a temporary memorial — a 10-foot chainlink fence covered with American flags, firefighter helmets and children’s drawings. They opened the ceremony with prayer.

United 93 crashed after passengers apparently rushed the cockpit in an effort to wrest control from the terrorists.

“These men and women stood in solidarity so others would receive salvation,” said Tom Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania and the nation’s first homeland security secretary.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14780747/

Salvation???? Gee, subtle framing, TommyBoy.

Resignation Superman
by Big Head Todd & The Monsters

He'll come flying out of this town,
A resignation superman,
And today the bad guys win,
Cause he turned his cape in,
Now, he says,
And I'll turn my back on this world,
Yes I'll turn my eyes from this world,
Oh well...

Yes he's tired of fighting in this town,
All the suffering and vice,
He wants to fall in love,
Maybe settle in and live a life,
And I'll turn my back on this world,
Yes I'll turn my eyes from this world,

Oh I want to believe in you now that I'm suffering.
Oh lord, I need to receive your hand in my heart.

And he keeps an eye upon this town,
The resignation superman,
He'll keep himself amused,
With the evening news,
Oh my...
And I'll turn my back on this world,
Yes I'll turn my eyes from this world,
Now I broke my back on this world,
Now I'll wash my hands of this world,

Oh I want to believe in you now that I'm suffering.
Oh lord, I need to receive your hand in my heart

CNN Poll
Have the 9/11 attacks made the United States stronger or weaker?
Stronger
Weaker
or View Results

Running 52:48 Stronger:Weaker

Posted by: karen at September 11, 2006 03:06 PM

Excellent thoughts and facts, Karen.

Leads me to think why the neocons equate might with right. Most times I believe it is because of the way they were raised. Performance oriented, and very image oriented. Extreme performance centered mindsets tune out and shut out personal needs of one's self, as well as others' needs. Then one loses contact with his authentic self, can't bear to admit let alone contemplate mistakes or failures, and this process is essential to grow. The process shuts down, and denial sets in to the point where the person himself begins believing the lies.

When "they" lie they may believe their own lies. It really does happen in the process.

M. Scott Peck has wonderful writings about these truths, I believe his first book was "The Road Less Traveled". He delves into this extensively - both on a personal and interactive level. One of the very best books I have read. I recommend it highly.

Peck also wrote "People of the Lie", and he sees evil as an extreme personality disorder.

Peck also wrote a book on community building, titled "The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace".

He converted to Christianity while writing "The Road Less Traveled", but many fundamentalist Christians took ought with him. He was a psychiatrist, but took a spiritual (not religious) approach to emotional health.

I absolutely loved his books and wasn't aware of his religious preference as a way of expressing his spirituality until well after I finished a couple of them. I am sad to see he died last year after a bout with cancer and Parkinson's disease.

More about M. Scott Peck and his writings:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._Scott_Peck

Jason Leopold | Iraq and 9/11: The Truth Is Out
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106A.shtml
Jason Leopold writes, "9/11 gave the Bush administration the excuse they needed to execute a long-planned military strike against Iraq. President Bush and his cabinet duped Congress and the American people into believing the country had ties to al-Qaeda, and helped the terrorist organization plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon five years ago."

Ahmed Rashid | Losing the War on Terror
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106B.shtml
"Islamic extremists are winning the war by not losing, and they are steadily expanding to create new battlefronts," writes Ahmed Rashid.

The Hidden Scope of Domestic Spying Since 9/11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106C.shtml
The scope of domestic surveillance has steadily expanded since 9/11. But lawmakers and privacy experts complain of too little information on it.

Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily | Fallujah Under Threat Yet Again
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106D.shtml
After enduring two major assaults, Fallujah is under threat from US forces again, residents say.

GOP Plans to Get Personal Digging Up Dirt on Democrats
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106E.shtml
Republicans are planning to spend the vast majority of their sizable financial war chest over the final 60 days of the campaign attacking Democratic House and Senate candidates over personal issues and local controversies, GOP officials said.

30 Arrested Calling For Action on Dafur
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106F.shtml
Protesters marched yesterday on the White House, demanding that the president press for UN peacekeepers who could halt the continuing attacks in the country's Darfur region.

Global Media Abhors US Response to 9/11
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106G.shtml
Newspapers across the world have strongly criticized the US response to September 11, accusing the Bush administration of bungling its "war on terror" and squandering global goodwill by invading Iraq.

Jean-Pierre Stroobants | September 11, Permanent Fear
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106H.shtml
"In order to eliminate fear of the other - by definition a mysterious, multiform, and more or less anonymous other - further risks are taken that give birth to other fears: the risks of outrages to personal freedom and the fear of violence coming from those same states or empires that we had charged with protecting us," a prophecy Jean-Pierre Stroobants suggests has come true.

Robert Scheer | Gaping Holes in the 9/11 Narrative
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091106I.shtml
Robert Scheer writes, "What we still don't know about 9/11 could kill us ... Instead of grappling with the thorny origins of that disaster, George Bush willfully turned the nation's attention and resources to a totally unrelated and disastrous imperial adventure in Iraq."

I went down to Red River today, and I expected many things.

I expected to get arrested, treated badly, thrown off a bridge. I expected to get chewwed out with the words 'You better be very careful who you accuse young lady!' I was waiting for those words.

I expected monkeys to fly from the belfy of the courthouse as soon as I pulled up, or lightning to strike me as soon as I reached the stairs.

What I never expected was to sit across the desk from a sheriff who was so scared his whole body was shaking.

At first I thought he was angry, I kept my head down, stuck to the script and thought I was trippin, but when I looked back across at him that second time, I saw nothing but a terrified old man.

I knew he was not afraid of me, he is afraid of HER. Of this thing that is happening.

Halway through the questions he was sweating and stammering and dodging, spinning like crazy, and he was literally shaking so hard he kept throwing down the papers in his hand to keep it from being even more obvious.

Of my three pages of questions he only answered 2 of them.

It was an unbelievable scene.

Not 2 pages of questions.

He only answered two questions, in all.

PS,.. Did I mention I got it all on tape and how sickly white he turned when I sat the recorder on his desk and hit record?

IT WAS AWSOME!!!!!!!!!!!

(Christy,

In the course of looking up something else, I found & re-read this particular ritual right after I read your posts above. The coincidence of this is not lost on me, especially in connection with your own unabated and undeterred commitment to Faye Aline.

blessed be, both ye and she,
Otter)

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

Sending a message to a departed love:

1. ink made of soot and pink wine
2. two black candles
3. place paper between the two black candles

Write at the top of the letter:

"Thou who are mourned, see now the nature of this mourning: As thou knowest now my sorrow, so on this paper I affirm it. I write thee my heart here, for thy sight and that we may be bound by such silent words even better than when our words were spoken. Receive this letter, a sign of my commitment not to forget thee nor to cease mourning for thee until my own life shall be ended."

4. Now write your feelings, emotions, devotion, memories, love, etc.
5. Fold the paper three times
6. Seal with herbs
7. Burn in a fire.

Posted by: Christy at September 11, 2006 04:52 PM

I pray for you and your every night hun, you will get justice for her!! I have no doubt.

She is at peace knowing you and your family are searching and will find her.

Hugggss and much love to you and yours hun.

Fragile
by Sting

If blood will flow when fresh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrows rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetimes argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are

Excellent selection, monkey. Those lyrics are particularly apropos today. As are these words, which I've posted here before and spoken elsewhere often:

The wheel of life turns,
The cycle of rebirth continues.
Those beyond life,
You are remembered today.
Gifts of love and hope
Are offered whole heartedly,
To those we remember,
To those we do not,
To all of those we have lost.
Lady and Lord,
In your gentle embrace,
Our dead you have taken.
All threads of life are cut,
All threads are woven anew.
May the wheel turn,
And begin the cycle again.
We give freely
Juniper for love
Yew for rebirth
Bay for strength
Parsley for cleansing
Alyssum for happiness
Basil for peace.
May our blessings be received.
You are remembered.

Great songs by great people (and posted by some of my favorite people)...

Here's one more that seems a propos for today:

One Word (Peace)
by Subdudes

A man stands on the corner holding a sign
People yell at him as they drive by
I wonder what they read
That made them so upset
I looked at the sign and all it said was

One word
Peace, peace, peace, peace
In the neighborhood
One word
Peace, peace, peace, peace
In my own backyard

A man in a foreign land kneels to pray
Wonders where the bombs will fall today
My leaders tell me to fear him you see
But love conquers all
Is what I believe

One word
Peace, peace, peace, peace
In the neighborhood
One word
Peace, peace, peace, peace
In my own backyard

Everybody's talkin' about it
Everybody's got to have their say
But to achieve it there is only one way
And it starts with me and the word
And the word is

One word
Peace, peace, peace, peace
In the neighborhood
One word
Peace, peace, peace, peace
In my own backyard

Thank yall.

Just your awareness alone is what will make the truth come out.

They can no longer contain the lies and deceit. It is bigger than they are, and I saw today, they are terrified of it.

And strangely enough, I no longer am afraid of them.

TERRORISM: WE'RE IN DESPERATE NEED OF PERSPECTIVE
Joshua Holland, AlterNet
The threat posed by terrorists - like that of the Soviet menace during the Cold War - has been massively exaggerated, and the public is understandably terrified. It’s time for Americans to get a grip.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41444/

Christy - you've got nothing to fear. You've got the quest for truth on your side.

Sorry to disrupt the good vibes.. Here's some potentially good news (hattip rawstory):

American Airlines criticizes ABC miniseries on 9/11 attacks
By TREBOR BANSTETTER
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH — Executives with American Airlines say they are “outraged” at the airline’s depiction in the ABC miniseries The Path to 9-11.

Airline spokesman Roger Frizzell said Monday that the miniseries, which concludes tonight, falsely portrays an American gate agent at Boston’s Logan Airport allowing a terrorist onto a flight despite a warning that he may have been a threat.

“It’s important for the public to know that the ABC dramatization is inaccurate and irresponsible in its portrayal of the airport check-in events that occurred on the morning of Sept. 11,” he said.

more here: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/15494253.htm

Can anyone say....lawsuit?

Posted by: Carol at September 11, 2006 08:01 PM

This had to come, considering that some of us have been doing a letter-writing campaign to American Airlines regarding this. Thanks for sharing!

According to military intelligence, we've lost Anbar Province to Al Queda in Iraq - and it would take a miracle to take it back.

Dubya - doing for Iraq what he did for Harken and Arbusto.

ABC Consultant Richard Clarke Blasts First Installment Of Film, Hints At ABC "Conspiracy"
By Greg Sargent

Richard Clarke, a consultant for ABC News and a senior counterterrorism official in the Bush and Clinton administrations, has just released a statement blasting the first installment of "The Path to 9/11."

Interestingly, Clarke appeared to suggest that more than profit motivated the film: "Although I am not one to easily believe in conspiracy theories and have spent a great deal of time debunking them, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the errors in this screen play are more than the result of dramatization and time compression. There is throughout the screenplay a consistent bias and distortion seeking to portray senior Clinton Administration officials as holding back the hard charging CIA, FBI, and military officers who would otherwise have prevented 9-11. The exact opposite is true."

more (including full statement from Clarke)...
http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/sep/11/abc_consultant_richard_clarke_blasts_first_installment_of_film

WHO: Senator John Kerry

WHAT: Speech on the War in Iraq and National Security

WHEN: Thursday, September 14, 2006
12:30 pm

WHERE: Howard University
A.J. Blackburn Center

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

Seattle: (making my head spin!)

Tonight
PBS Newshour correspondent Ray Suarez on his new book "America, The Holy Vote"

Tuesday
Profession Skeptic Michael Shermer on Evolution as it relates to his new book
"Why Darwin Matters, the Case Against Intelligent Design"

Wednesday
Former Colorado Senator and Hart-Rudman Committee on Terrorism co-chair Gary Hart (D) on Homeland Security and an alternative to our current policy.

Thursday
Former Ag Commissioner and populist radio host Jim Hightower kicks off the Institute for Washington Future's "Back to the Roots" series of forums on
sustainable comunity.

Saturday
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! on hew new book "Static: Government Liars, Media
Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back"

Wednesday, 9/20, 7:30 $5
James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic, on his new book "Blind Into Baghdad: America's War In Iraq"
_______________________________________________________________

The Ten Suggestions
by Paul Krassner

1. Stay well-informed and be on the alert for disinformation;
besides mainstream media, check out alternative papers
and the Internet, especially the international press.

2. Maintain empathy for the motivation of terrorists and sympathizers,
bearing in mind that they are victims of their own conditioning.

3. Start saving the world by acting in every aspect of your daily life
as though you were a role model for all humankind.

4. Understand and forgive your foibles instead of guilt-tripping yourself.

5. Resist police-state legislation passed in the guise of security.

6. Pro-choice or not, Don't Abort your Inner Child.

7. With the stench and sadness of death so much in the air,
practice loving those you cherish while they're still alive.

8. Keep feeling hopeful by finding your balance between
total despair and the 100th Monkey fable. As Harry Chapin said,
"If we don't act like there's hope, there is no hope."
And remember, placebos work.

9. Pay attention to God's spin, such as,
"I never said Promised Land,
I said I'd see what I could do."

10. When eating a sandwich at the delicatessen,
be sure to remove the toothpick before taking your first bite.

To xxx:

I think it is important for you to know that ABC had factual errors in its dramatization, and we are looking at possible legal actions as a result. According to the 9-11 Commission report, it was not American Airlines, nor was it even the right airport that was depicted. Inreality, it was another airline, flying out of Maine. Please know this was a tragic incident in our company's history and we hope you will be sympathetic to our employees and our airline on this day especially.

Again, we are outraged by this situation, and we alerted ABC about its gross error. It is very unfortunate.

Roger Frizzell
Vice President, Corporate Communications & Advertising
American Airlines

This Hole in the Ground
by Keith Olbermann

Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter.

All the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and -- as I discovered from those "missing posters" seared still into my soul -- two more in the Towers.

And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our ancestors.

I belabor this to emphasize that, for me this was, and is, and always shall be, personal.

And anyone who claims that I and others like me are "soft,"or have "forgotten" the lessons of what happened here is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante and at worst, an idiot whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President.

However, of all the things those of us who were here five years ago could have forecast -- of all the nightmares that unfolded before our eyes, and the others that unfolded only in our minds -- none of us could have predicted this.

Five years later this space is still empty.

Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.

Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.

Five years later this country's wound is still open.

Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.

Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.

It is beyond shameful.

At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial -- barely four months after the last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field -- Mr. Lincoln said, "we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract."

Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.

Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. "We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground." So we won't.

Instead they bicker and buck pass. They thwart private efforts, and jostle to claim credit for initiatives that go nowhere. They spend the money on irrelevant wars, and elaborate self-congratulations, and buying off columnists to write how good a job they're doing instead of doing any job at all.

Five years later, Mr. Bush, we are still fighting the terrorists on these streets. And look carefully, sir, on these 16 empty acres. The terrorists are clearly, still winning.

And, in a crime against every victim here and every patriotic sentiment you mouthed but did not enact, you have done nothing about it.

And there is something worse still than this vast gaping hole in this city, and in the fabric of our nation. There is its symbolism of the promise unfulfilled, the urgent oath, reduced to lazy execution.

The only positive on 9/11 and the days and weeks that so slowly and painfully followed it was the unanimous humanity, here, and throughout the country. The government, the President in particular, was given every possible measure of support.

Those who did not belong to his party -- tabled that.

Those who doubted the mechanics of his election -- ignored that.

Those who wondered of his qualifications -- forgot that.

History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage.

Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people.

The President -- and those around him -- did that.

They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, "bi-partisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused, as appeasers, as those who, in the Vice President's words yesterday, "validate the strategy of the terrorists."

They promised protection, and then showed that to them "protection" meant going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken, a despot who we now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated al-Qaida as much as we did.

The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had 'something to do' with 9/11 is "lying by implication."

The impolite phrase is "impeachable offense."

Not once in now five years has this President ever offered to assume responsibility for the failures that led to this empty space, and to this, the current, curdled, version of our beloved country.

Still, there is a last snapping flame from a final candle of respect and fairness: even his most virulent critics have never suggested he alone bears the full brunt of the blame for 9/11.

Half the time, in fact, this President has been so gently treated, that he has seemed not even to be the man most responsible for anything in his own administration.

Yet what is happening this very night?

A mini-series, created, influenced -- possibly financed by -- the most radical and cold of domestic political Machiavellis, continues to be televised into our homes.

The documented truths of the last fifteen years are replaced by bald-faced lies; the talking points of the current regime parroted; the whole sorry story blurred, by spin, to make the party out of office seem vacillating and impotent, and the party in office, seem like the only option.

How dare you, Mr. President, after taking cynical advantage of the unanimity and love, and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death, after monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections? How dare you -- or those around you -- ever "spin" 9/11?

Just as the terrorists have succeeded -- are still succeeding -- as long as there is no memorial and no construction here at Ground Zero.

So, too, have they succeeded, and are still succeeding as long as this government uses 9/11 as a wedge to pit Americans against Americans.

This is an odd point to cite a television program, especially one from March of 1960. But as Disney's continuing sell-out of the truth (and this country) suggests, even television programs can be powerful things.

And long ago, a series called "The Twilight Zone" broadcast a riveting episode entitled "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street."

In brief: a meteor sparks rumors of an invasion by extra-terrestrials disguised as humans. The electricity goes out. A neighbor pleads for calm. Suddenly his car -- and only his car -- starts. Someone suggests he must be the alien. Then another man's lights go on. As charges and suspicion and panic overtake the street, guns are inevitably produced. An "alien" is shot -- but he turns out to be just another neighbor, returning from going for help. The camera pulls back to a near-by hill, where two extra-terrestrials are seen manipulating a small device that can jam electricity. The veteran tells his novice that there's no need to actually attack, that you just turn off a few of the human machines and then, "they pick the most dangerous enemy they can find, and it's themselves."

And then, in perhaps his finest piece of writing, Rod Serling sums it up with words of remarkable prescience, given where we find ourselves tonight: "The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men.

"For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own -- for the children, and the children yet unborn."

When those who dissent are told time and time again -- as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus -- that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American...When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11"... look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me:

Who has left this hole in the ground?

We have not forgotten, Mr. President.

You have.

May this country forgive you.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

I heard the Olbermann Special Comment.

He nuked Dubya. He simply nuked him.

Posted by: Cyrano at September 11, 2006 09:00 PM

Good. Damn good.

Hell To The Cheat

"On 9/11 Americans saw the face of evil".

I didn't know Cheney was on TV that night?

Posted by: Cyrano at September 11, 2006 09:04 PM

Nope, he was under it.

Jackal & Hide

is there something wrong with the irc?

IRC works for me. But it's lonely in there...

"The terrorists are thrown into panic by the sight of an old man pulling an election lever."

Mr. President, that's because Rove, Cheney and your brother haven't taught them how to steal elections.

cyrano and monkey,

I watched Olbermann as well - God, he's good.

If anyone out there is watching in central, mountain, or pacific time, watch him on Countdown on msnbc. His commentary about 9-11 comes at #1 on the countdown, about 10 minutes before the end of the show.

It is nothing short of amazing.

I think my computer has been bugged by the NSA. I am still unable to get into the irc.

Watch Olbermann here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/

Blah, Blah, Blah

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush told the American people Monday night that the country faces "a struggle for civilization" as it fights the war on terrorism sparked by the 9/11 attacks five years ago.

In an address from the Oval Office, the president stressed the necessity of victory, tying together conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq to Lebanon as a "struggle between tyranny and freedom" that rivaled World War II.

"Do we have the confidence to do in the Middle East what our fathers and grandfathers accomplished in Europe and Asia?" Bush asked.

"If we do not defeat these enemies now, we will leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons," Bush said. "We are in a war that will set the course for this new century and determine the destiny of millions across the world."

"We are fighting to maintain the way of life enjoyed by free nations, and we are fighting for the possibility that good and decent people across the Middle East can raise up societies based on freedom and tolerance and personal dignity," Bush said. "By standing with democratic leaders and reformers, by giving voice to the hopes of decent men and women, we are offering a path away from radicalism."

Bush said the invasion of Iraq was a necessary part of the war on terror because the regime of Saddam Hussein was a "clear threat" that posed "a risk that the world could not afford to take."

The president pledged not to waver in Iraq so terrorists would not gain psychological and tactical victories.

"If we yield Iraq to men like (Osama) Bin Laden, our enemies will be emboldened," Bush said. "They will gain a new safe haven, and they will use Iraq's resources to fuel their extremist movement."

During the speech, the president acknowledged setbacks in Iraq.

"Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone.

"They will not leave us alone. They will follow us.

"The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad," Bush said.

Bush said doubts about promoting democracy in the Middle East had led to 60 years of failed policy.

"On a bright September morning, it became clear that the calm we saw in the Middle East was only a mirage. Years of pursuing stability to promote peace had left us with neither," he said.

Bush said the war on terror was "unlike any we've ever fought before," but said the sacrifices Americans made to defeat Japan and Germany in World War II, and to prevail in the Cold War, are akin to what is needed now.

"America has confronted evil before, and we have defeated it," he said.

The president called on the American people to "put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us."

"We will defeat our enemies, we will protect our people, and we will lead the 21st century into a shining age of human liberty," Bush said.

moreon...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/11/bush.memorials/index.html

I saw Obermann as well, and after that came Bush's hollow speech. Obermann ripped Bush a new one. Maybe that was why Bush was grimacing during his speech.

Thank Keith and msnbc here:

countdown@msnbc.com

Here's my email:

Keith and staff,

Thanks once again for your strong and true statements on this September 11 anniversary. All you say is true, and has needed to be said as boldly and strongly as you say it. If only our politicians were as true to us. I hope you'll continue with the EXCELLENT work you are doing. You are a light in the darkness.

You are doing your country proud.

Here are other msnbc addresses (thanks FDL). Write!

viewerservices@msnbc.com
letters@msnbc.com
countdown@msnbc.com
KOlbermann@msnbc.com
dabrams@MSNBC.com

Posted by: Carol at September 11, 2006 10:00 PM

I just sent him my letter.

And speaking of http://www.crooksandliars.com/ ... right below the piece there on Olbermann's special report tonight (complete with links to .wmv and .mov video of same) there is also the following item (complete with links to .wmv and .mov video of same):

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

Matt Lauer went after Bush over his secret prisons and the use of torture on the captured terrorists via 'The Today Show' this morning. He was uncommonly strong and didn't back down when Bush gave his pet answer. He hits the right note because if what we've been doing is legal then why was there the need for secret prisons? When Bush gets cornered, he starts saying he's not going to talk about it anymore ... (Glenn Greenwald has a post up now about John Yoo -- Bush's torture man.)

Matt Lauer: And yet you admitted that there were these CIA secret facilities. OK?

President Bush: So what? Why is that not within the law?

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

constitution? what constitution?,
Otter

Posted by: Otter at September 11, 2006 10:41 PM

No man is above the law... this so-called man is far below it.

Falling through the bottom line.

Has to look straight up to salute a snake's belly as it slithers by.

(Glenn Greenwald has a post up now about John Yoo -- Bush's torture man.)

Posted by: Otter at September 11, 2006 10:41 PM

John Yoo likes to crush testicles.

Now, that's something we could use against Mann Coulter.

Nuts to that!

Just gave my husband the link for Olbermann. He has the complete Twilight Zone set & says Rod Serling had subtle messages in his old films, to counteract the paranoia about the Red Menace. He was a huge fan when he was a kid & still is.

This is great.

This will scare the bejesus out of you.

http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/

More Mush From the Wimp
http://www.politicalgateway.com/main/columns/read.html?col=651
Good counterpoint.

Oncall
That scared the hell out of me. The music alone. It crashed my computer. I Googled and morbidly watched the trailer.

Re W, my husband just watched Olbermann, then watched Matt Lauer with Bush. He is commenting that Bush doesn't really seem to be able to empathize with anything to do with suffering, humanity.

Go to Bloggerman and rate his page. It is getting freeped.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

No Mercy
By Sheila Samples
We have been insulted and deceived, our courts dismantled, our Congress neutered, our children murdered in an illegal, genocidal war, our elections stolen, our tax dollars wasted. Today, we are stranded on our own rooftops, pleading for a November 2006 rescue.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14926.htm
Excerpt:
Which brings us back to FEMA. Bush said FEMA had learned its lesson and would be "ready" for the next disaster. No doubt. The next time Bush declares martial law, Halliburton's KBR should have the detention facilities, for which it received a $385 million contract in January, ready and waiting. According to a KBR release, the camps call for preparing for "an emergency influx of immigrants or to support the rapid development of new programs" in the event of other emergencies, such as "a national disaster." Under emergency plans already in existence, the power exists to suspend the Constitution and turn over the reins of government to FEMA. State and local governments will be under military control.
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=eed74d9d44c30493706fe03f4c9b3a77
http://www.sonic.net/sentinel/gvcon5.html

Is American Democracy Too Feeble To Deal With 9/11?
Paul Craig Roberts
I would be more confident of the survival of democracy and civil liberty in the United States if, on this fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, a majority of Americans were reading David Ray Griffin’s challenging new book, “Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14921.htm

9-11; the "unifying myth" for the war on terror
By Mike Whitney
To a large extent, the war on terror is a shabby promotional scheme designed to mobilize the nation for a permanent state of war while curtailing civil liberties. There’s nothing original in this analysis, but it does explain the importance of media as a vehicle for Bush’s public relations campaign. It also explains why high-ranking officials in the administration are still provided unlimited air-time to reiterate the same bland bromides over and over again without being challenged.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14927.htm

Annals of Liberation: The Noble Fruits of 9/11
By Chris Floyd
Let us turn our tear-filled eyes away from the noble Leader's sentimental journey through the three sites of mass murder in which his greatness is firmly rooted, and look for a moment to Mesopotamia, to the great and ancient land of Babylon, where the noble Leader has bestowed – entirely unasked, an act of purest noblesse oblige – the benefits of liberation, democracy and the free market.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14928.htm

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_en_mo/film_toronto_death_of_a_president
Bush 'Death' drama aired at Toronto fest

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060911/ap_on_go_pr_wh/sept11_bush_43
Bush to appeal for unity in terror war

http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com/

Posted by: oncall at September 11, 2006 11:37 PM

Thanks for sharing!

PFAW alerted me to this film as well, and will hold a screening this week somewhere on the west (progressive) side of Los Angeles.

Re W, my husband just watched Olbermann, then watched Matt Lauer with Bush. He is commenting that Bush doesn't really seem to be able to empathize with anything to do with suffering, humanity.

Posted by: DiAnne at September 11, 2006 11:59 PM

I don't think empathy is in the Bush family gene. A posh family that can't even shop at a supermarket is NOT qualified to represent the best interests of the common people. After all, W's mother can't waste her beautiful mind on the sufferings of the Katrina victims.

Dumbya is the snotty little kid who used to love to put firecrackers in frogs mouth and watch em done blowed up.

Dumbya is the spoiled rich kid who talks tough only when he KNOWS the cards are heavily stacked in his favor, and gets his butt kicked on the odd occassion that he has a little too much of the naughty stuff and runs his mouth off when he doesn't have his posse around.

Dumbya talks to the world with his fingers crossed behind his back, winking sheepishly at Turdblossoms, Grim Reapers and Cocoa Krispies.

The Bully Armpit

And now for something completely different, check out this diary for something to do with the money that you won't be spending on Disney/ABC:

How I started a third world lending organization. From nothing.

by HollywoodOz

I run an editorial services company in Vancouver BC - a company called Unreel Media. It's not a bad company, as far as company's go. Makes a little profit, keeps thirty writers in rent and food, but it has an added benefit to dozens - perhaps hundreds - of other people, all over the world... a benefit that few companies I know of could boast.

See, my company is also a money lender. No, we're not loan sharks, and we're not a payday loan outfit. Rather, we give loans to people in places like the Sudan and Tanzania, Samoa and Cambodia, Honduars and Bulgaria, in the form of business loans for entrepreneurs who wish to get themselves and their families out of poverty forever.

Over the past year, we have handed out loans to 23 third and developing world entrepreneurs, one of which has since been fully repaid, three of which have been almost fully repaid, and 15 of which are in some sort of early stage of repayment.

In my eyes, it's an outstanding success, but the reason I decided to write a dairy about it is not to boast, and it's not to brag. It's to point out that, with a little time, and a little effort, you too could be in charge of a third world business development fund. Here's how we did it:

So a few years back, I read something here about a new non-profit outfit called Kiva. You might have heard something about them yourself. If not, here's the skinny:

Kiva is like Napster for people who have a little coin they'd like to send to people in the developing world, to help them start businesses and get out of poverty. That is, the third world entrepreneur puts forth a request for a business loan, which is administered by a third party microcredit organization (IE: someone who will ensure the money is properly spent), and Kiva is the peer-to-peer method for people like you and me to actually send some cash to help out.

Simply go to their website, look at the businesses in need, and if you spot one you think you'd like to invest in, you can do so via credit card or Paypal. Simple.

It's not a donation - you're not throwing money down the memoryhole - it's a loan. And it also happens to be a loan that is repaid somewhere around 97% of the time, which is a far better rate than local banks manage.

The entrepreneur pays interest on the loan, and that interest goes to covering admin costs (feet on the ground isn't cheap, especially in places like Sudan and Palestine), and the principal, when it is paid back, comes back to you. When it's paid off, you then decide whether you want to take the money back, or reloan it.

Once you've given out your loan, you receive monthly updates from the borrower, telling you how the money has been spent, and how the business is progressing.
~snip~
My company has loans to the following entrepreneurs:

Tanzania: General store, cattle breeder
Palestine: Construction company
Senegal: Jewelry makers, fishing collective, farmers supplies
Cambodia: Food seller, tuk tuk driver, soil transporter
Uganda: Food shop, peanut butter maker, maize seller, water tap, cattle breeder
Honduras: Shoe store, restaurant, hot dog vendor, barber
Ecuador: Clothing shop
Kenya: Electrical repair store, groundnut miller, furniture manufacturer

Now, that's a LOT of good being done by really not a lot of effort on my company's part. It cost the same amount to buy a Cambodian guy a Tuk-Tuk as it would have cost to fly me to Seattle for a business meeting, so instead of flying to the meeting, I took the train and put the money saved towards the tuk-tuk.

The recipe to set up your own charitable loan organization is simple: Just go to Kiva right now and pick someone to loan $25 to. Then, in a few weeks, go do it again. Don't even think about it, just go do it.

~snip~
We talk a lot about how we want to make change in the world, but how much do we really make? We, as first world consumers, exploit the ever-loving heck out of the developing (and undeveloping) world, and we think that by not going to Starbucks or driving a Prius we're really doing our part?

I can't imagine what it would be like to have to not send your kids to school because school fees take up half your income. I can't imagine what it would be like to not have two cents to my name, and have a family starving to death before me. But I know that other people in this world suffer that indignity every single day, and I also know that I'm doing my part to change that.

Build your non-profit organization today. It'll only cost you $25 to start, but if you've got a few grand sitting in the bank earning pennies on the dollar in interest, think about using it for something better.

It's the least we can do, to those we've exploited for so long. I mean, geez, can you imagine if all of us with companies started making small loans here and there? If we can get political candidates elected, we could transform much of the third world in a few years. Imagine if just one of us with the right contacts managed to get an AT&T or Microsoft to devote 0.0001% of profits to something like this.

All too often we look to government to do this kind of stuff, but this is the online age - nowadays, we can go do it ourselves.

Your turn.

read the complete diary...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/9/11/2022/05238

Bush tries to win over war-weary nation
Five years after 9/11, his capacity to move public is weakened

ANALYSIS
By Dan Balz and Michael Abramowitz
The Washington Post
Updated: 29 minutes ago

President Bush's Oval Office speech last night was the culmination of two weeks of efforts to rally the nation behind his policies and presidency by summoning the memory of Sept. 11, 2001. Five years after that indelible day, however, this president's capacity to move the public is severely diminished.

There were echoes of the language and logic Bush invoked five years ago when he united a stricken nation looking to him for both comfort and leadership. But he was speaking to a different nation last night.

Setbacks in Iraq have soured a majority of Americans on that mission. Falsely optimistic predictions of progress have undermined the administration's credibility. A majority of Americans question fundamental elements of the president's argument, including his contention that Iraq is the central front in the campaign against terrorism.

Cumulatively, it leaves decidedly uncertain whether this week's flood of rhetoric and remembrance can alter Bush's perilous circumstances -- at a critical moment for the future of the Iraq mission and the president's own domestic standing 56 days before the midterm elections.

"The power of his rhetoric is in marked decline, and that's no reflection on the quality of what he says, which is still very high," said Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a neoconservative scholar who has been sympathetic to Bush's anti-terrorism policies. "There's a desire in the country for more deeds, not more words. . . . We are losing a war right now, and there is no way to get around that."

Three previous times in the past 18 months, as public opinion has slipped, White House officials have announced that Bush would embark on a renewed effort to explain and defend his Iraq and anti-terrorism policies. None produced a lasting positive effect on how Americans view either the president or his policies.

more on...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14777090/

Even though I am getting sick of seeing my own name in the newspaper, we made front page again!

Man how we have dreamed about this happening without ever once daring to believe it would.

Her name, our families name, it is all over and they will not be able to put the genie back into the bottle this time.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060912/NEWS01/609120327/1002

White House officials are hopeful that the round of speeches will have some impact on moving public opinion. They said that Bush has presented an enormous amount of information and background about Iraq and terrorism, much of which they believe will come as news to many Americans with only a general impression of events.

"I am not so sure that the views [about the Iraq war and terrorism] are chiseled in stone," said White House press secretary Tony Snow. "There's been a lot of debate -- one side that may not have been fully represented in ours. . . . It seems that on a lot of things, people may not have fully understood the approach the president took and his thinking."

Both Snow and White House counselor Dan Bartlett singled out the effort to quote the terrorists' own words as a tactic they hope will break through to ordinary Americans who may not be aware of the terrorists' aims. "We may be having a debate in this country about whether Iraq is part of the war on terrorism, but our enemies believe it is," Bartlett said. "We were trying to transcend the political debate in Washington by letting the words of the enemies speak for themselves."

More Things That Make You Go 'Hmmm':

"More than a third (36 percent) of the American public believes it is likely that the Bush administration either perpetrated the 9/11 attacks or deliberately failed to stop them 'because they wanted the United States to go to war in the Middle East,' according to a Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll released last month. A Zogby poll in August 2004 found that half of New York City residents believed the Bush administration knew the attacks were coming and 'consciously failed to act.'"

Good for you, Christy. It was amazing to see your comments earlier about how nervous the sheriff was when you met with him.

I'm sending lots of wishes / vibes for strength and wisdom. You are doing great at this.

Dwahzon
Thanks for posting about the microloan thing. My husband also read an article where those have been proposed for people affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Can any one go?

Senator John Kerry
Address at Pepperdine University
Monday, September 18, 2006
1:30 PM Smothers Theater
Corner of Pacific Coast Highway
and Malibu Canyon Road
Malibu, CA

Marine Report Sees Grim Outlook in West Iraq
By MICHAEL R. GORDON

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 — The political and security situation in western Iraq is grim and will continue to deteriorate unless the region receives a major infusion of aid and a division is sent to reinforce the American troops operating there, according to the senior Marine intelligence officer in Iraq.

The assessment, prepared last month by Col. Peter Devlin at the Marine headquarters in Anbar Province, has been sent to senior military officials in Iraq and at the Pentagon.

While the American military is focused on trying to secure Baghdad and prevent the sectarian strife there from escalating into a civil war, the assessment points to the difficulties in Anbar, a vast Sunni-dominated area of western Iraq where the insurgency is particularly strong. The province includes such restive towns as Ramadi, Haditha and Hit.

Marine commanders have been mounting a campaign to secure the province in the face of a virulent insurgency. But they have had to cope with seriously short-handed Iraqi Army units and a Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad that has tended to view the area as a low priority for government spending and programs.

Elements of the assessment were reported Monday in The Washington Post. Military officials familiar with the document disclosed additional material and provided several quotations from the assessment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/12/world/middleeast/12anbar.html

TY DW.

Before we got to the courthouse, we made an extra two blocks, so I could show my friend Alines old house, and the one beside it where Browne lived. (The one Wanda lived in was 'removed' some time ago).

The teddybears and flowers and pictures of her we left are still there!!!! Right smack dab in the middle of his family's property!

I am all choked up just thinking about it, it feels so strange to feel so grateful for that, but I am. They even added some to it.

Someone has even put a little tiny fence around them and has been taking care of it.

I will make it a point to find out who that person is. They deserve a hug no matter what name they carry.

I prayed to her when I saw it, I asked her to give me clarity. I really did feel she came with me to see about the sheriff. I could FEEL her and it made me completely calm.

It was an amazing day, even if we still have no answers we are closer now than ever.

Thank you guys for being here, for caring about her. To my family it is a miracle we can never repay you for.

There are other families too that still need answers in Red River, if we can just go a little bit further, we will find the others lost along this same path.

I choose to believe they refused to look for Aline, because she would bring others home with her. Others they also refused to look for. I still believe that. I believe it more every day now.

This may be our last and only chance to find any of them.

Posted by: Otter at September 12, 2006 09:11 AM

No "Hmmmm..." about it.

6 August 2001 PDB was IGNORED. That (IMHO) just shows me that willful gross negligence "allowed" 9/11 to happen on Dumbya's watch. Period. It no longer matters whether or not the gross negligence was willful or not; 9/11 happened on their watch, and they're responsible because the Aug. 6 PDB was IGNORED (as were all the other intelligence reports prior to the Aug. 6 PDB).

It indicates complicity before or after the fact, and it doesn't matter any longer if it was before or after the fact. It still happened on Dumbya's watch, and a misdirected, misbegotten illegal war of aggression and occupation was begun because they wanted to go into Iraq and take over the oil fields anyway, so they IGNORED the PDB and the attack happened and it gave PNAC members the "excuse" they needed to invade and occupy Iraq, even though no one in that country from Saddam Hussein on down, had anything whatsoever to do with 9/11.

But I notice the entire McAdministration is STILL trying to push that LIE as truth, by direct LIES and/or implication and allusion by mentioning 9/11 and Iraq and Hussein in the same sentences usually - it's designed to set up the connection in the hearer's mind, even if it is nothing but a pack of LIES. To hear them say "al Qaida-like" 'ter-rists' (in Iraq or Afghanistan, since I notice now 'news' reports are placing al Quaida-like activities in Afghanistan, too, even if it's technically the Taliban committing criminal terrorist acts, not al Qaida) is enough to make the false connection because the hearer eliminates the word 'like' and just thinks all criminals who commit terrorist acts are somehow connected to al Qaida, whether that's true or not. The McAdministration has made all 'ter-rists' into al Qaida members by that implied association. The false allusion is enough to set up a false link.... and Lamestream McMedia spinmeisters never catch that and ask for clarification....

The fact that McMedia spinmeisters have not investigated the reality vs. the implied associations has irritated me for five very long years....

President Bush: "So what? Why is that not within the law?"

"So what? Why is that not within the law?"

That particular soundbite from yesterday's Today Show is still ringing in my ears. It alone, all by itself, sums up the most egregious elements of this administration's droit-de-seigneur arrogance -- and it alone, run all by itself in the midst of a soundless series of black-and-white images (from 9/11, from Abu Ghraib, from Katrina, et al), would make an incredibly powerful, incredibly damning anti-neocon television commercial when the time comes. Hello, progressive media consultants? Are you listening out there?

Breaking The Law
by Judas Priest

There I was completely wasting, out of work and down
All inside its so frustrating as I drift from town to town
Feel as though nobody cares if I live or die
So I might as well begin to put some action in my life

Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law

So much for the golden future, I cant even start
Ive had every promise broken, theres anger in my heart
You dont know what its like, you dont have a clue
If you did you'd find yourselves doing the same thing too

Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law

You dont know what its like

Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law

Breaking the law

Down Bylaws.

More Like Buy Down Laws.

Did you all see the interveiw Matty boy had with the President? My husband said Bush's posture and actions were classic bully, at one point he crowded Matty's space. For once though I will give the Today Show some props or at least Matt he did not back down or go off topic and it was obvious from what I saw that he was a little ticked and a lot frustrated. Bush did not make a friend in that interview.

Would you like to hear a story from my childhood? A ghost story?

No, I am serious, I was raised on this, and if anyone whos name is about to be mentioned is watching this and decides to sue for libel, do note I said 'story' and bring it on because I am most eager for the discovery process to get underway.

The truth, it would seem, depends on which side you're on.

Why am I telling you this 'story' now? I don't know really, except I think now you know I am not lying or making things up about this case. Everything I have said is the literal truth as I know it. But yet some things can only be understood if you know other stories... Stories that come attatched to other restless spirits.

Now for a Louisiana ghost story. And old one that just won't die.

It goes like this, Kerwin Brown was sheriff when Aline vanished and Wanda Hudson was butchered. But for this story it involves another, different girl, who was 8 months pregnant. If I ever heard her name spoken I forgot it.

The story goes, that the 'son of the sheriff', was sitting in his parked car, in a very public parking lot, with his girlfriend who was 8 months pregnant with his child.

All versions of this story mentions that witnesses were around and about.

Anyways, a vicious argument/struggle ensues inside the car. It goes on for a time and somehow the girlfriend winds up decapitated with a .12 gauge shotgun.

The rumor always was she took BOTH barrels to her face, there inside the car. Needless to say both she and the unborn child died together.

Well, according to the one who walked away from the car undecapitated, this 'son of the sheriff', his 'official statement' and claim is basic, she killed herself you see, and he felt just awful about it, and he tried so hard to get the shotgun away from her.

And that was it, it went down as a suicide. The adults said no investigation was done at all, they spoke of it often.

This story they (the adults) spoke of in whispers, they feared it. We did not speak of it to those outside the family. Us kids too. We have all been haunted. To this day it is the only time I have heard of a pregnant woman killing herself.

Anyways, I call my mom up the other day to ask her about this old story. I ask, did this happen before or after Aline went missing?

My mom says, very quickly, 'It had to be right before because there was always talk of Kerwin Browns son getting away with murder."

The End.

In another not unrelated ghost story, the adults also spoke in whispers about the police trying to rule Wanda Hudsons death a 'suicide' but the coroner freaked out and 'refused to cover it up'. That is how the story always went. It never changed in all these years.

My parents used to tell bitter jokes about Wanda Hudsons death being 'The most effective suicide in the entire history of the world.' As you know she was stabbed almost 30 times with a screwdriver.

I grew up listening to these things over and over and over again. Us kids would bind together and vow to solve it. We would remind each other of it, just to scare the jeehebus out of each other. We had plenty of reasons to believe in ghosts.

Other kids spoke of super heros, me and my cousins and siblings spent hours contemplating murder. Entire summers devoted to it.

But a new chapter of Wanda Hudsons story was revealed the other day. It is no wonder the AP jumped the gun and said Robert Brownes daddy was the first deputy on the scene of her murder.

It was not his daddy Deputy brownE.. it was Deputy A.L. Brown, and I do believe he was a son of the sitting sheriff at that time, Kerwin Brown.

Ummm, sorry but I do not know how any of these stories end, I never did.

Stay tuned.

Cheney to stump for GOPer who bullied wife with guns

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday September 12, 2006

Vice President Dick Cheney will be attending a fundraiser for Rep. Randy Kuhl (R-NY) in late September, today's issue of Roll Call reports.

The Vice President and Kuhl have each earned a measure of infamy for incidents involving firearms. Cheney accidentally shot his hunting partner Harry Whittington in the face earlier this year, while according to divorce records obtained by RAW STORY, Kuhl once bullied his wife with shotguns. RAW STORY has archived the divorce filing here

The San Francisco Chronicle noted in a 2004 article that Kuhl had past run-ins with the law, including an arrest in 1997 for drunken driving. Kuhl's license was suspended for six months:

Kuhl-Peterson filed for divorce in late 1998, charging that Kuhl "endangered (her) mental and physical well-being and rendered it unsafe and improper for the parties to continue to reside together." After Kuhl was arrested in 1997 for drunken driving, he refused his wife's requests "to attend counseling to deal with his excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages," she said in the papers. As a result of that arrest, Kuhl had his driver's license suspended for six months. He launched his congressional campaign bid by publicly discussing the arrest.
Kuhl is considered a vulnerable incumbent in the mid-term election.

Excerpts from the registration-restricted article follow...

#
If readers recall, widely reported divorce records showed that Kuhl, currently running for his second term, pulled not one but two shotguns on his wife during a 1994 dinner party at their home. Kuhl's ex-wife also described him as an abusive drunk who "hustled women."

Cheney, the man who may always be remembered for accidentally shooting his good friend on a hunting trip, has agreed to do a private photo-op at a Sept. 22 fundraiser for Kuhl in Rochester, N.Y. And, yes, you guessed it, Kuhl is considered vulnerable this year.

As one Democratic operative told HOH, "I can't tell what Cheney likes best about him—Kuhl's penchant for rubber-stamping the president or for combining beer with firearm use."

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Cheney_stumps_for_GOPer_who_bullied_0912.html

Important editorial in today's Newsday, outlining the truly radical nature of Dick Cheney's view of Presidential power.

What checks and balances?
Cheney disregards court's supremacy

(introduction snipped)

Even worse, Cheney trotted out again the downright dangerous doctrine of the unified presidency. That's the view that the president can do anything he wants, without any check or balance from the other branches of government.

Russert asked him about the secret overseas prisons where foreigners have been detained with no legal basis. The Supreme Court has ruled that the administration's behavior violates the Constitution and needs congressional authorization. But Cheney defended the practice, saying, "I happen to disagree with the Supreme Court. I think they made a - I think the Thomas/Scalia/Alito minority views were the correct ones ... "

This is outrageous. Cheney allowed not even a nod to the supremacy of the court, a foundation of our system since Marbury v. Madison in 1803. He'll go with the minority opinion, because it coincides with the president's policy.

What about the rule of law, Mr. Vice President? It's the foundation of our system of constitutional government.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpche124888042sep12,0,5621087.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_4
Bush invokes 9/11 to argue for Iraq war
Excerpt:
"I am often asked why we are in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was not responsible for the 9/11 attacks," Bush said. "The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat.

"America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over. So do I," Bush said. "But the war is not over, and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious."

Although his administration has been criticized for trying to link Osama bin Laden to Baghdad, Bush made further comparisons between the al-Qaida leader and Iraq. The president quoted bin Laden as saying the battle in Iraq is the "Third World War" that could bring America's "defeat and disgrace forever."

"If we yield Iraq to men like bin Laden," Bush said, "our enemies will be emboldened, they will gain a new safe haven, and they will use Iraq's resources to fuel their extremist movement. We will not allow this to happen."

Bush delivered a message to bin Laden and other terrorists who are still on the run. "No matter how long it takes, America will find you, and we will bring you to justice," Bush said.
~~~~~~~~~~

Right in only one thing, Resident NitWit: America did NOT ask for this war. It was FORCED on us by you and your administration (and PNAC) with LIES and innuendo and implications that linked Iraq with 9/11. Iraq was not a threat to the US. Before your illegal invasion and occupation, the murders and injuries done to the Iraqi people by Saddam Hussein were done with US complicity since the US sold him the biotoxins and weapons to begin with. We are culpable accessories, before or after the fact, to the crimes Hussein committed against his own people. What the hell was in the minds of the Congress Critters or DoD or the Pentagon (or whomever) when they sold Hussein the biotoxins, fer pete's sake?!? If they knew he was a warped little pea-brain to begin with, why on earth were the biotoxins and weapons even sold to him?!? It just defies all logic that they didn't know what he would do with the biotoxins and weapons...! Hussein was never a direct threat to the US; the US had sanctions against Iraq, after all, when it wasn't directly aiding Hussein. He was a tool of the US for a great many years before Resident NitWit 'decided' he was a 'threat' in order to justify his so-called pre-emptive strike....

Will someone PLEASE get Resident NitWit and/or the Vice NitWit to define WHO these "enemies" of the US are? Where do they live? What country do they represent? In five long years, I've not heard one single solitary definition of just WHO these "enemies" are supposed to be! If they can't define the "enemies" then there are no "enemies" and the "enemies" exist only in their paranoid little NitWit "brains."

We are already "defeated and disgraced" in the eyes of the world because Resident Nitwit illegally and unconstitutionally ordered the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq; they had UN permission to invade Afghanistan, but now that NATO troops are there, I notice US forces have not been withdrawn and Taliban attacks are up in the last few weeks. If "news" crews can find Taliban members to interview only ten miles from a US military base, why can't US or NATO forces find the same men...?!? There is no conceivable way possible that there can ever be "victory" over anyone in this whole sorry state of affairs, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq; the Afghanistan invasion was 'legal' by UN standards, but the Iraq invasion was NOT; it is a war crime to illegally invade another nation by the Geneva Conventions (and the judgment at Nuremberg). If the US withdraws, yes, of course those countries will use their resources.... It's their country, their oil (no matter how badly bungled their new dictated constitutions are which allow the greedy US oil corporations to take over their oil fields or build pipelines through their countries). US corporations are robbing our treasury blind, as well as gaining control of the oil resources in other countries, going about it "legally" by dictating laws in the invaded and occupied countries. That's thievery on a world-class scale...!!!

Osama bin Laden "brought to justice"...? Bwahahahahahahaha.... That's just so much hot air being blown up our collective arses. If OBL hasn't been caught by now, that means Bu$hCo is refusing to find him. OBL was cornered at Tora Bora and troops were not allowed to capture him. I predict that by the time Resident NitWit leaves office in January, 2009 (if not impeached before then), OBL will still be free.... Seriously. If satellites can read what's printed on a dime from outer space, they should be able to catch OBL with all the high tech equipment at their disposal.... Or, is it a matter of high tech stuff can't match their low-tech methods of hiding in places where they know they won't be caught...? So what's the point of eavesdropping on phone calls and emails of US citizens if low-tech methods are so good at keeping one criminal from being caught...? Or is OBL not being caught because "someone" is making sure he stays hidden and/or not caught, because keeping OBL free ensures he will release tapes conveniently timed for our *our elections* - which coerces kool-aid-drinking-sheeple into voting for collaborators (i.e. Congress Critters) who rubber-stamp all of Resident NitWit's demented legislation that takes away more and more of our rights and spies on US citizens (like, for instance, political opponents, most importantly, and the rest of us secondarily...)...?

I'm glad I turned my TV off for two days. My disgust at reading these quotes after the fact knows no bounds. If anyone but the kool-aid-drinking-sheeple still believes Resident NitWit or the Vice NitWit, we are, indeed, doomed to failure as a democratic republic, and rigged elections will shortly make the appointed "leaders" of this country the dictators-in-fact....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/memo-to-democrats-stop-b_b_28933.html
Memo to Democrats: Stop Buying into the GOP Framing on Iraq

Was Iraq more of a threat after 9/11 than say, the TERRORIST breeding ground that has been created there that didn't exist in the first place until numbnuts decidered that there was a threat that nobody else saw?

Now that makes me go hmmmmmmmmmmm.

"The answer is that the regime of Saddam Hussein was a clear threat."

To whom? Certainly not to us.

"America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over. So do I."

We didn't, but you sure did. And I'll bet you sure do wish it were by now, too.

"But the war is not over, and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious."

Measured by what? There is no way for us ever to prove that we've 'won' a shadow war against unknown assailants.

"If we yield Iraq to men like bin Laden..."

'We' already have. Saddam didn't and wouldn't, but you already did.

"...our enemies will be emboldened..."

They already are, in spades.

"...they will gain a new safe haven..."

They already have it, and you handed it to them on a platter.

"...and they will use Iraq's resources to fuel their extremist movement."

Whatever resources are still left undestroyed over there, that is.

"We will not allow this to happen."

Oh, bullspit. You already have.

"No matter how long it takes, America will find you, and we will bring you to justice."

Of course it's already been five years and you haven't done squat to catch him, but there's still time left before the 2008 elections.

What a world-class crock o' crap. Is there *anybody* out there besides his speechwriters -- and not even them, I suspect -- who actually believes a single word this putz says anymore??

"The president should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning to commandeer the airwaves to give a speech that was designed not to unite the country and commemorate the fallen but to seek support for a war in Iraq that he has admitted had nothing to do with 9/11," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said in a statement. "There will be time to debate this president's policies in Iraq. September 11th is not that time."

Totally way off topic but funny.

This video is about four minutes and worth every second.

http://alanlaz.blogspot.com/2006/08/we-got-2-jews.html

Posted by: monkey at September 12, 2006 01:24 PM

Teddy's right.

Was the supreme irony of acknowledging that Iraq had not one single thing to do with 9/11 contrasted with NumbNutz *trying* to make the case "for war" (and occupation) in Iraq - on 9/11, no less - lost on anyone? (Well, anyone but the kool-aid-drinking sheeple, that is. Those fools still believe every word he says.)

There's reality... and then there's reality as defined by NitWit. His definition does not match the dictionary definition. Well, not that he's ever cracked open a dictionary....

Robert Dreyfuss | The Phony War
[Rolling Stone]
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206M.shtml
Robert Dreyfuss writes, "President Bush not only created a fake 'War on Terror' to scare voters into supporting his policies - he is failing to address the real threat facing America."

Excerpt:

Terrorism Can't Be Defeated - Ever

Terrorism is not an enemy, but a method. As such, it can never be defeated - only contained and reduced.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/12/the_pbsfema_connection.php
The PBS-FEMA Connection
{{{Urg... highly recommended reading all the way to the bitter end....}}}

Bill Quigley | "No Clowning Around Weapons of Mass Destruction!"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206P.shtml
Bill Quigley writes: "A federal judge cleared the way for a priest and two veterans to be tried before a federal jury on September 13, 2006, for damaging a Minuteman III intercontinental nuclear missile in North Dakota. The three, dressed as clowns, hammered and poured their blood on the silo of the 40-ton weapon."
{{{Ya think this will make the evening snooze? Somehow, I doubt it....}}}

Posted by: dwahzon at September 12, 2006 08:47 AM

My wife and I volunteered our time in a small Honduran mountain community. We saw many different projects in full swing. We did not see nor hear about the local recipients and volunteers stealing any of the privately donated funds. We did hear a lot about the large city bankers entrusted to deliver loans via government contracts buying new cars, homes and taking fabulous trips to America. It was the locals who were most involved in making the plans work. Micro-loans are very effective and can bypass the corruption that infects these very poor countries.

Politics: 'St. Jack' Examines His Conscience—And Party

Newsweek

Sept. 18, 2006 issue - Jack Danforth once stood at the intersection of religion and politics. He was a moderate Re-publican, three-term senator, diplomat. He is also an Episcopal priest, so pious that his Senate colleagues called him "St. Jack." With his new book "Faith and Politics," in stores next week, Danforth—now 70 and retired—positions himself as an outsider. He takes his own beloved party to task for allowing itself to be hijacked by the Christian right.

This conviction took hold the spring of 2005 as he watched the coverage of the Terri Schiavo case on TV. "The idea that religious groups were having rallies and that the members of Congress were considering legislation and that the president was very much involved—I remember watching that and thinking, This is just wrong," he told NEWSWEEK. Danforth quickly wrote two controversial opinion pieces for The New York Times, rebuking his party for adopting the agenda of the religious right and for using wedge issues—Schiavo, but also stem-cell research, gay marriage and public prayer—to gain votes. Real faith is about searching for answers, not presuming to know them, he says, and "an assumption that ... I am God's chosen messenger to deliver a certain political message is divisive."

It's hard to see his book as anything but a condemnation, but he denies that it's an attack on the religious rhetoric of President George W. Bush or his administration. "I like President Bush," he says. "I don't think it's helpful to try to blame one person or another or try to accuse one person of being a liar or another of being a coward."

The book is surprisingly confessional. He writes of his personal anguish as a young man over whether to become a priest when he thought he really wanted to be a lawyer; he wound up doing both. Danforth tells of being insensitive in public (mentioning the Holy Spirit during a speech at Yale graduation) and in private (hurrying his wife to a black-tie dinner minutes after she'd had a terrifying run-in with thugs). Most revelatory are his recollections of his role in the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1991. A devoted friend and supporter of Thomas's, Danforth did everything he could to discredit Anita Hill. "I am a real admirer of Clarence Thomas," he says, "and ... I found myself in this fight and I felt really beleaguered. It was a fight without any rules. It was a brawl, and I'm sorry I was involved in it, but I was. Would I have done it differently? I don't know. It was.... It was the worst thing I've ever done in my life." He's not taking it back, but he is taking a hard look at his conscience, which is some-thing he wishes his peers would do as well.

—Lisa Miller

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14756611/site/newsweek/

http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sfile=nq060911&vts=91120061405
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=nq060912
Non Sequitur

This is a good cathartic for the sadness spilling over from the 5th Anniversary of the attack. I am in need some humor so I thought I would share what I have found.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38673

Posted by: monkey at September 12, 2006 02:22 PM

Is Danforth looking for a sympathetic pat on the back for confessing his sin in promoting Clarence Thomas ... this late in the game...?!? Why didn't Danforth examine his conscience when he found out what kind of a man Thomas was all those years ago, how Thomas treated Anita Hill (among others)?

Thomas has his lifetime appointment.

Too late Danforth; your damage can't be undone at this point, so you can't be forgiven for helping to foist Thomas on us. If push comes to shove, Thomas, Scalia, Alito & Roberts will coerce or inflict W on us as the unitary executive (aka dictator) for life - if they have a chance to do so.

Go cheney yourself, Danforth....

CNN QuickVote

In his 9/11 anniversary address to the nation, President Bush:

Took pains to be non-partisan 30% 11279 votes

Tried to use day of mourning for political gain 70% 26044 votes
Total: 37323 votes

That pesky 30%
aka The One Turd

U.S. Commanders in Iraq have privately expressed the need for an increase of three times the number of troops currently serving in Iraq, reports Michael Ware of CNN. Officially, the military continues to say that "we have an appropriate level of force to do what we have to do within the confines of our mission."

Ramadi has become a base of operations for Al Qaeda. Ware says, "Al Qaeda is almost untouched in its area of operations, and in the city of Ramadi itself, al Qaeda fighters are constantly attacking U.S. troops. Brigades sent to Ramadi are losing, on average, 100 American soldiers and Marines every year. And we don't see that abating. So, here's the heart of Al Qaeda in Iraq, and there's simply not enough troops and no strategy to combat it."

Al Qaeda leadership enjoys near free reign in an area north of the Euphrates which is the size of New Hampshire. The U.S. can only deploy a few hundred troops to this area. Ware laments, "They can do nothing to hamper al Qaeda's leadership in that area."

A full transcript follows ...

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Video_Commanders_privately_express_needing_3X_0912.html

Posted by: oncall at September 12, 2006 02:35 PM

Just what the doctor ordered.

Grazzi.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_on_re_eu/britain_blair_2
Union members walk out on Blair speech
BRIGHTON, England - Union members booed and hissed Prime Minister Tony Blair during a speech to an organized labor conference Tuesday, and more than a dozen delegates walked out to protest his efforts to partly privatize public services.

{{{This would never, ever happen in today's USA with the McAdministration officials we have whose audiences are all screened. Half a point credit to Blair for daring to speak in front of an audience like the ones hissing and booing and walking out on him.... Hiss & Diss otherwise for being NitWit's lap dog.}}}

Reading at lunch

NonnyO
I'll bet union members here (Seattle) would walk out on Blair OR Bush - at least ones I know.

Monkey
I'll bet it pains military honchos when they hear Bush, Rummie etc. speak of progress in Iraq & Afghanistan. I think Anbar province is lost beyond redemption.

Great rebuttals and deconstruction!
Well, off to the feed trough.

Call for Bush to stop using 'Islamic fascists'
Feingold says term offensive and unconnected to global terrorism fight

(AP)WASHINGTON - Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold called on President Bush to refrain from using the phrase "Islamic fascists," saying it was offensive to Muslims and has nothing to do with global terrorists fighting the United States.

"We must avoid using misleading and offensive terms that link Islam with those who subvert this great religion or who distort its teachings to justify terrorist activities," Feingold said Tuesday in a speech to the Arab American Institute on Capitol Hill.

The Wisconsin senator, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said the label "Islamic fascists" makes no sense and doesn't help the U.S. effort to combat terrorism.

"Fascist ideology doesn't have anything to do with the way global terrorist networks think or operate, and it doesn't have anything to do with the overwhelming majority of Muslims around the world who practice the peaceful teachings of Islam," Feingold said.
In seeking to explain the term, the White House referred to comments made last week by homeland security adviser Fran Townsend.

At a news conference, Townsend said, "What the President was trying to capture was this idea of using violence to achieve ideological ends - and that's wrong. Regardless of what label you pin on it, it is this form of radical extremism that really wants to deny people freedom and impose a totalitarian vision of society on everyone, that we object to."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14800287/from/RS.2/

gee, the White House sure does have to explain NumbNutz statements an awful lot.

"what the president was trying to say is..."

Posted by: DiAnne at September 12, 2006 03:06 PM

Union members might be allowed to attend a Blair speech...

Unless a union was already committed to Bu$h, the members would not be allowed in, I believe. He did speak before a union recently, and it was noted in the article (wish I could remember which one!) that the union backed him.

HOW BUSH'S METAPHORICAL WAR BECAME REAL
George Lakoff, Evan Frisch, AlterNet
The 9/11 attacks were a crime -- a crime against humanity. But Bush called it a war, then used that frame to justify an invasion he had planned since his first days in office.
http://www.alternet.org/story/41471/
{{{I also agree with the first comment on this story. Lakoff's article pretty much says the same thing as part five of the Rolling Stone article.}}}

BUSH, CHENEY AND RUMSFELD DIAGNOSED AS 'WAR-AHOLICS'
Rick Gell, AlterNet
With the Democrats and the mainstream media enabling them, administration leaders are five years into a major war binge. They won't stop until they've hit bottom.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41472/

GAPING HOLES IN THE 9/11 NARRATIVE
Robert Scheer, AlterNet
Five years out from the attacks, why do we still know so little about what really happened that day?
http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/41474/

Posted by: NonnyO at September 12, 2006 02:11 PM

Holy Canoli, Batman! Re: the clowns being prosecuted for protesting the nuke in N.D.

Tried in Bismarck, my recently old stomping ground! And here I thought N.D. would be one of the last places ever hit in an attack because of the lack of population.

My own views are that, as a deterrant, we should be able to defend ourselves to the max, including nuclear weapons. I don't believe we have the right to police the rest of the world and tell them they cannot defend themselves the same way we do, however. And, of course, many people think that we don't really care, either, but that we use the possibility of them doing so as an excuse to wage war against them. At least that's what I have heard. (laughing at myself..)

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh Furry One, and One Who Swings on Vines:

You guys are GOOD.

So very witty are thee.

Glad I didn't watch the snake oil show last night. Asked my mom if she wanted to watch him, and she said "Turn the Son of a (well you can guess the rest) off." My dad still has his Kerry/Edwards sticker on their car.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at September 12, 2006 05:29 PM

Two half wits equal a-hole wit, especially when nitpicking DimWit.

If the wit fits...

xo

Oh Witty Vine Swinging Truth Bearing Banana Bearing One:

Come up with these precious gems, where and how do you come up with?

Double U:

Be with U, may the Farce.

See? Wannabe? Shoulda said:

Come up with these precious gems, where and how do you?

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at September 12, 2006 05:25 PM

Actually, as the fellow in the taxi said to someone who wrote an article about it, if ND seceded from the union, it would be the largest nuclear state on this continent. ND actually has more warheads than any other state in the union in silos all over the state.

I have no memory about who wrote the article, but I do remember posting a link to the story on this blog a while back - it was published on either TO or ICH. (Maybe you were busy doing other stuff and missed it. I do remember thinking about you when I posted the link a few months ago.)

On a much lighter and more comfortable note: I just got back from voting in the MN primaries today (and on a PAPER ballot - I made sure the little ovals were entirely colored in in black ink pen).... Makes me feel better, even if the voter turnout for primaries is notoriously low, and has been getting lower every year in this state. I guess I'll have to give up my ban on TV "news" today and actually watch the in-state news tonight at 10 p.m. to see who won - or at least who's ahead by that time, depending on how many precincts have reported. There are a couple of contested seats for both Dems and Repubs, and I want to know who got how many votes.

:-) I think Otter oughta have a crown made of gemstones shaped like starfish and monkey oughta have a crown made of gems shaped like bananas....

gee, the White House sure does have to explain NumbNutz statements an awful lot.
"what the president was trying to say is..."
Posted by: monkey at September 12, 2006 03:10 PM

Yes, I've noticed that, too.... Every time NitWit comes up with something 'new' and incomprehensible, someone has to translate his 'Bu$hSpeak' into some altered version of Americanese - and it's usually just as incomprehensible.

Makes me wonder where they went to school to learn to master doublespeak so easily....

NonnyO,

Well, that explains why my aunt and uncle laughed when I kept saying that we didn't ever have to worry because we were the last place to ever get hit. My uncle even said when I first said it that they had warheads stockpiled all over the state. I was only thinking about population and never gave it a second thought.

Glad you got out to vote. Let us know how you came out!

Off now until tomorrow.........

Blessed be........

NonnyO,

P.S.,

I agree about the crowns for Otter and Monkey!
We'll have to think about your crown!

NonnyO,

Gemstones shaped like books?

I Wanna Be Like You (The Monkey Song)
by Los Lobos

Now I'm the king of the swingers world
The jungle-be I be
I reach the top and have to stop
And that's what's a bother to me

I wan'na be a man, a man cub
And stroll right into town
And be just like the other men
I'm tired of monkeyin around

So, ooh, I wan'na be just like you
I wan'na walk like you
Talk like you too
You see it's true
An ape like me
Can learn to be human too

Now don't try to kid me, man cub
I made a deal with you
What I desire, is man's red fire
To make my dream come true

Give me the secret, man cub
Just clue me what to do
Give me the power, of man's red flower
So I can be like you

So, ooh, I wan'na be just like you
I wan'na walk like you
Talk like you too
You see it's true
An ape like me
Can learn to be human too
You see it's true
An ape like me
Can learn to be human too

Christy-
May you know happiness and the root of happiness
May you be free from suffering and the root of sufffering

may you find all you need to and may justice reign upon us all.

Amen

hugs and support!

Damn - 1 out of 5 Snohomish County Washington ballots may have to be thrown out because people are forgetting to indicate party affiliation, invalidating the whole ballot. Wonder if same is true statewide?

and..received this via email

MARYLAND IN VOTER MELT-DOWN TODAY

We are having problems all across the state in the MD primary. Early in the morning, the machines could not be used because the voter "smart cards," used to download the appropriate ballot face, had not been delivered to the precincts.

Early arrivals were being given provisional ballots to vote on. One Democratic Area Coordinator reported that voters were concerned to see the completed provisonal ballots being stacked on chairs in the voting station.

In places where the Diebold AccuVote TS machines were up and working, voters reported problems with trying to record their selections. Long lines may be a problem all day as Maryland uses Diebold e-poll books for the first time for voter check in. There were reports of voters leaving in disgust over long waits.

Baltimore media outlets had reported calls from angry voters in 30-40 precincts around the city. The Washington Post had been swamped with calls before the Metro Desk was open.

It is going to be a long day for voters, and a long night for Boards of Election workers, trying to count the vote.

Unfortunately, activists have been predicting that it might take an election meltdown to force the Legislatlure and the State Board of Elections to address the vulnerabilities and flaws in paperless touchscreen voting. They may be getting that message at last.

I remember when I was back home from Vietnam and veterans were speaking out against the Vietnam war policy, someone yelled at the vets: "You should support the troops." One of those veterans said simply: "Lady, we are the troops."

John Kerry

Thank you Russ Feingold

U.S. excluded bombs from Iraq murder toll
Military says mass attacks left out of report showing dramatic death drop

The Associated Press
September 12, 2006

The American military did not count people killed by bombs, mortars, rockets or other mass attacks including suicide bombings when it reported a dramatic drop in the number of murders in the Baghdad area last month, the U.S. command said Monday.

The decision to include only victims of drive-by shootings and those killed by torture and execution, usually at the hands of death squads, allowed U.S. officials to argue that a security crackdown that began in the capital Aug. 7 had more than halved the city's murder rate.

But the types of slayings, including suicide bombings, that the U.S. excluded from the category of "murder" were not made explicit at the time. That led to confusion after Iraqi Health Ministry figures showed that 1,536 people died violently in and around Baghdad in August, nearly the same number as in July.

The figures raise serious questions about the success of the security operation launched by the U.S.-led coalition. When they released the murder rate figures, U.S. officials and their Iraqi counterparts were eager to show progress in restoring security in Baghdad at a time when Iraq appeared on the verge of civil war.

At the end of August, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said violence had dropped significantly because of the operation. Caldwell said "attacks in Baghdad were well below the monthly average for July. Since Aug. 7, the murder rate in Baghdad dropped 52 percent from the daily rate for July."

more ons...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14801520/

Stunning... not.

A day of strange bedfellows: Iraqi PM visting Iran and Syrians disrupting a suicide attack on the US embassy.

Jack Cafferty is killing the Bush Administration on CNN - pointing out Bush's role in facilitating an historic alliance between the Persians of Iran and the Arabs of Iraq.

Dubya is the anti-Midas: everything he touches turns to dung.

Posted by: Cyrano at September 12, 2006 07:38 PM

That would be The Minus Touch.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday the president wasn't "picking fights" when he brought up the Iraq war, according to The Associated Press.

"This was not a speech that was designed to single out anybody for partisan reasons, but gave the president's honest reflections and reactions to what has happened since September 11, 2001," Snow said, according to the AP. "The president decided that yesterday wasn't a day for partisanship."

But the speech, Reid charged, was partisan, meant only for his administration. Bush did not speak for the nation, Reid said, unlike the time the president stood on the rubble of the World Trade Center five years ago and used a bullhorn to promise a quick response to the September 11 attacks.

"No bullhorn, only the bully pulpit of his office, which he used to defend an unpopular war in Iraq and to launch clumsily disguised barbs at those who disagree with his policies there," Reid said.

"By focusing on Iraq in the manner he did, the president engaged in an all-too-familiar administration tactic: conflate and blur the war in Iraq with the response to 9/11," he added.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, also denounced Bush's speech, citing a Senate Intelligence Committee report released last week that said that the CIA had dismissed ties between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

"In fact, the war in Iraq has made our effort to defeat terrorism and terrorists more difficult," Pelosi said in a written statement. "Last night's speech demonstrated that the president will go to any lengths to distract attention from his failures in Iraq, which have diverted focus from the war on terrorism."

Republicans question Democrats' motives
Sen. Reid's speech provoked quick and angry responses from Republicans.

"I listen to the questions today and I listen to my Democrat friends, and I wonder if they are more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people," House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said "The fact is, these people want to kill Americans -- they have killed Americans. And if we do not go after them and defeat them they are going to continue to kill and injure more Americans."

Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, took the floor after Reid's comments and denounced them.

"The very people that planned the attacks are the people who are in Iraq -- al Qaeda in Iraq -- causing that sectarian violence," he said. "Should we ignore that, I ask the senator from Nevada?"

more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/12/911.politics/index.html

Hey Senatorum!

re: al Qaeda in Iraq ... Question: Were they there before you and your dumbclub invaded illegally?

... and a follow-up if I may...

You said, "The very people that planned the attacks are the people who are in Iraq -- al Qaeda in Iraq --....

Are you saying that al Qaeda, who wasn't in Iraq before we invaded, is responsible for the 9/11 attacks?

Can Tony Snow please translate for SickRick as well?????

DAMN!

Olberman just compared Bush's logic to David Koresh's.

I'm not making this up.

Matt Lauer has grown a pair since the 2004 general election. Too bad he was such a tool of the Bush family back then.

What ever happened to the alleged liberal media?

My kingdom for a liberal media!

Well Dixie Chicks called Bush a "dumb f*ck" in Toronto.

A day of strange bedfellows: Iraqi PM visting Iran and Syrians disrupting a suicide attack on the US embassy. Condi begrudgingly had to thank them.

Posted by: Cyrano at September 12, 2006 07:33 PM

You got that right!! Maliki sounded downright enthusiastic! & Condi begrudgingly had to thank the Syrians!

Posted by: DiAnne at September 12, 2006 08:24 PM

Come on, he's a dumb f*ck in way more places than just Toronto.

Globusto

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at September 12, 2006 06:35 PM

Gems in the shape of books will work nicely, thank you! :-)

What would you like for your crown? Twinkling stars of truth radiating out in little laser beams...?

Posted by: monkey at September 12, 2006 08:27 PM

Whatever you're on today...share!

Too damn funny.

Bush's speech is ridiculous. He wouldn't have had to bluster after 9/11 or invade anyone, & he could have accomplished more. It is impossible to have a war on terror but he could have neutralized much of the power of rogue religious extremist elements. Intelligence and special forces on the ground in Afghanistan, under cover, could probably have disempowered Al Quaida significantly.

Iraq will end up as a religious regime. US already failed at keeping a dictator they liked going in Iran and it ended up a religious regime. Bush has actually empowered the Shiites in the middle east - the less moderate element. That is supposed to foster democracy?

It's especially insane when they trumpet Iraq and Afghanistan as instances of progress toward democracy in the middle east. Iraq is out of control, especially Anbar province. After all this time, roads aren't safe, water isn't clean, lights don't work, schools aren't open. As for Afghanistan, the Brits & Canadians are at the end of their rope, taking casualties like crazy, and it's a buyer's global market for heroin.

Our tax money pays for this and our housing market is headed toward meltdown. People who borrowed against their equity will be sweating it, as will people trying to sell and people in construction. Recession is coming - on Bush's watch. New college grads are pumping gas and selling lattes - ask my son!

Are you saying that al Qaeda, who wasn't in Iraq before we invaded, is responsible for the 9/11 attacks?

Posted by: monkey at September 12, 2006 08:05 PM

That was worded almost like Dubya channeled thru me, so allow me clarify myself, in public.

Ahem... y'all know what I meant. Perhaps you could word the rebuttal back to Sen.Rick better than I.

Oh, and be glad I didn't rectify myself in public instead.

Posted by: madame defarge at September 12, 2006 08:35 PM

Runnin' on pure High Octane Angst.

p.s. You're soaking in it, Madge.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/apps/nl/content3.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=675513&ct=2930697
Don't know whether to laugh or cry about this cartoon....

William Rivers Pitt | The Day After the Day
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206A.shtml
William Rivers Pitt begins: "The anniversary has passed, and with it went an ocean of televised words and images to mark the day. I can't be sure, of course, because I marked the day by refusing to turn on my television. I didn't care to commemorate the occasion by wallowing in a lot of noise from TV people who maybe should have known better five years ago, TV people who have hauled oceans of water between then and now to help us into our diseased estate, simply because scaring people to boost ratings is a shortcut to thinking."
[Very poignant....]

Arnaud de La Grange | The Failures of George W. Bush's "War on
Terrorism"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206H.shtml
Arnaud de La Grange argues in the conservative Figaro that "everything takes place as though al-Qaeda's would-be destroyers had been unceasingly knocking themselves out to enlarge the terrorist organization's base of support the last five years."
Rhode Island Senate Primary Has National Impact
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206D.shtml
Rhode Island Republicans go to the polls Tuesday to choose their nominee in a primary that could affect which party controls the US Senate and sets its legislative agenda.

Judge Won't Block Arizona Voter ID Law
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206F.shtml
A federal judge on Monday refused to block a law that requires Arizona voters to present identification before casting a ballot. Democrats charge that this will disenfranchise seniors, minorities, students and others who tend to vote Democratic.

Jason Salzman | Jeff Cohen: Cable News, Hazardous to the Republic
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206G.shtml
Jason Salzman reviews Jeff Cohen's new book, "Cable News, Hazardous to the Republic": "After reading Cohen's book, cable news will never look the same to you, as you'll understand the formula of fake 'breaking news,' false debates, and journalistic gutter-feeding that add up to, as Cohen puts it, 'disinfotainment.'"

Spilling the Beans
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206I.shtml
A whistleblower and former employee of Monsanto says genetically engineered crops may cause disease and that GMOs are endangering the food supply.

{{{O.M.G...!!! Monsanto anything goes on my banned list of things not to buy....}}}

Posted by: Cyrano at September 12, 2006 08:09 PM

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... Link when you find one, please..... Gotta see that.....

For Truthahontas:

You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
Now can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

bless all the beasts and children,
M. Loutre

More strange bedfellows: Hugo Chavez & Ken Livingstone!
http://society.guardian.co.uk/localgovt/story/0,,1871226,00.html

Can any one go?

Senator John Kerry
Address at Pepperdine University
Monday, September 18, 2006
1:30 PM Smothers Theater
Corner of Pacific Coast Highway
and Malibu Canyon Road
Malibu, CA

Posted by: DiAnne at September 12, 2006 09:28 AM

Would love to, but work gets in the way. :(

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060912/pl_nm/primaries_dc
Nine states hold crucial primaries

Iraq Vets Force Congressional Investigation of Suzanne Swift Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206R.shtml
Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Veterans for Peace, and Oregon constituents achieved a victory on the road to ending military sexual violence today with a pledge from Congressman Peter DeFazio's (D-Ore.) office that he will be initiating a congressional investigation into the case of Army Specialist Suzanne Swift.
Excerpt:
The group from Camp Democracy delivered a letter containing the phone numbers of Swift's chain of command and refused to leave the office until the Congressman acted appropriately on behalf of his constituent and all women in uniform. In unison with the direct action in Washington, constituents in Oregon and Rep. DeFazio's district flooded his offices with phone calls, emails and faxes in support of SPC Swift. Rep. DeFazio also scheduled a personal meeting with Sara Rich, Suzanne's mother, and members of IVAW for September 21, 2006.
{{{Go Camp Democracy people - that means you, Karen, and the others with you...!!! I don't expect anything will come of this until/unless we get a Dem majority on Nov. 7, but it's a start.... Shameful, utterly shameful, that Swift is the only one now up on charges...!!!}}}

Climate Change Seen Pushing Plants to the Brink
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/091206EA.shtml
Thousands of plant species are being pushed to the brink of extinction by global warming, and those already at the extremes are in the greatest danger, a leading botanist said on Tuesday. Botanists are on target to have sorted and stored seeds from 10 percent of the world's plant species by 2010 in a race against time as global temperatures rise due to burning fossil fuels.
{{{Two articles on this page.... So, the jury's still out on "global warming" - eh, neoCon-artists? Ri-i-i-i-i-ight....! Tell me another wispy fairy tale....}}}

Firefighters Feeling the Wear and Tear of Long, Stubborn Season
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/091206LA.shtml
All across the West, firefighters are feeling the wear and tear of a wildfire season that never ends. For many, it began a year ago with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. There's been little chance to rest since. By January, Texas and Oklahoma were on fire and the flames slowly started marching north and west. Some have worked as long as 45 days without a break.
{{{I wonder how many of these fires are as a result of climate change... and how many could have been put out by now if the National Guard troops in those states were here at home helping to fight those fires...???}}}

Arizona Seeks to Bypass Bush on CO2 Emissions
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/091206EB.shtml
Arizona's governor signed an executive order late last week to cut emissions of gases linked to global warming, becoming the second state leader in the US West to try to bypass President George W. Bush's refusal to regulate output of the gases.

Iraqi Leader Asks Iran for Help With Security
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091206T.shtml
In his first state visit to Iran, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki today discussed the security situation in Iraq with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and asked for Mr. Ahmadinejad's support in quelling the violence that threatens to fracture his country.
Excerpt:
The initial American reaction today was cautious. In Washington, Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, told reporters: "As you know, though, we've repeatedly expressed our concerns, as have others, about Iranian interference in Iraq's internal affairs. That is something that we remain concerned about.

"And while certainly we would welcome any statements of support for Iraq's government and democracy, and any pledges to act in a responsible way that does not interfere in the internal affairs of Iraq,'' he said, "we certainly want to make sure that any statements made were followed up by real concrete actions to address some of the concerns that are out there.''

{{{From the handwriting-on-the-wall-department: I read the sentence that says Iraq's leader asked Iran's leader for help. From subsequent paragraphs, it seems the McAdministration is going to "interpret" that as Iran "interfering" in Iraq.... Has Iraq's puppet leader been set up...? Did someone tell him to ask Iran for help...? Or did he think of asking for help for help on his own...?}}}

Jessica Neuwirth | Time for a Woman at the UN
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/091206WB.shtml
Kofi Annan says the world is ready for a female secretary general. Jessica Neuwirth asks, "So why are there only men on the short list of candidates to succeed him?"

Noe gets 27 months in federal prison for illegal Bush contributions

Noe said he arranged the scheme because “in 2003 I was pressured by Bush-Cheney officials to become a Pioneer,” a name the campaign gives to people who raise $100,000.

more on...
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060912/BREAKINGNEWS/60912029

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_democrats
GOP, Dems spar over Bush speech on 9/11
Excerpt:

Reid and Pelosi circulated a letter they sent to the television networks and cable news channels asking for equal coverage of Democratic viewpoints on terrorism and Iraq. "There has been a complete absence of balance in the news coverage of national security issues," they wrote.

In response, representatives for ABC and CBS said the networks cover news fairly and accurately and will continue to do so.

{{{Bwahahahahahahaaaaaaa.... WHAT planet are the people in those "news" departments living on?!? Certainly not this planet if they think *we* haven't noticed that they broadcast neoCon propaganda from the McAdministration's skewed viewpoint, all delivered with double-speak inflammatory adjectives and all due fear-and-warmongering rhetoric, down to the hysterical tones of voice on the part of most "news" anchors....!!! I'm only amazed that the Dem Congress Critters have actually started noticing it, have now demanded equal time...! Well, not that they'll get equal time before Nov. 7....}}}

Posted by: monkey at September 12, 2006 09:41 PM

Tsk, tsk, tsk.... Noe should have followed Nancy Reagan's advice and just said no....

27 months in the pen....just long enough for Bush to be out of office and not use a last minute pardon. Unless of course he pardons him before then. Can he do that? Would anyone be surprised?

Hi everyone.

Well, I'm back to a cold, rainy, dark Michigan.

Camp Democracy was great. I learned a lot as well as participated in some new and interesting things.

I met some wonderful people and I was so honored to have been there.

I'm exhausted or I'd share more info. Maybe tomorrow if I can lift a few muscles.

Posted by: Carol at September 12, 2006 10:14 PM

I don't know - but it wouldn't at all suprise me.... I'm sure he'll pardon Libby and whomever else is brought up on charges when Fitzgerald gets through with his investigations. The only hope we have of seeing any justice done is if DimWit and Vice Wit are impeached before they can pardon anyone. That's still a long shot, and I don't gamble....

Noe still has another trial to go through, so he's not out of the woods yet. Don't know if DimWit can pardon anyone for offenses involving state law....

just wanted to report in from Cleveland. This week I have concentrated on organizing a Seniors outreach plan for absentee ballots but can't disclose details.
Apparently Blackwell has gotten his voter id requirement in force just in time for Nov. Just read the absentee application form my generous host showed me,along with the requirement of each Ohio voter and it talks about a requirement of providing a driver's, social security number (who in the world would want to release that to the bd of electors, or utility bill(xeroxed of course setting up another obstacle). The kicker is language that states in bold print that false information is subject to criminal prosecution as a fifth degree felony. Can you imagine the chilling effect that language will have. Its sure different reading about these shananagans from afar and being in the middle of them. I was advised that the Naturalized Citizen id requirement initiated by Blackwell, that I was concerned about was struck down several weeks ago by their state Supreme Court. Seems like these Ohio Republicans burn the midnight oil dreaming up these schemes. On Saturday Bill Clinton will be here for a fund raiser I will be attending. Will try and keep you guys posted.

Ira,

Thanks for all your hard work, and for keeping us posted.

7 prominent conservatives come out in favor of Democrats winning in November:

Let's quit while we're behind
By Christopher Buckley

Bring on Pelosi
By Bruce Bartlett

And we thought Clinton had no self-control
By Joe Scarborough

Give divided government a chance
By William A. Niskanen

Restrain this White House
By Bruce Fein

Idéologie has taken over
By Jeffrey Hart

The show must not go on
By Richard A. Viguerie

Read 'em all here:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0610.forum.html

(hat tip to DU)

A lawsuit was filed in Ohio.

http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/electionlaw/litigation/documents/DeclarationofRichardHayesPhillipsfiledbyRichardHayesPhillips.pdf

Posted by: Carol at September 12, 2006 10:43 PM

Amazing stuff. But, then again, the American Conservative did endorse John Kerry in 2004.

I wonder what Hannity and Rush will have to say about this, not to mention the House and Senate members who were so sure that Terry Schiavo's health was as sound as their political philosophy.

Well, I for one am sending that link out to all the know-it-all compassionate conservatives I know.

The irony is, WE'VE been RIGHT all along.

Posted by: monkey at September 13, 2006 09:23 AM

You bet.

Posted by: monkey at September 13, 2006 09:23 AM

As the goofball said while holding out his left hand and then his right hand, "The right hand needs to know what the left hand is doing."

I want to report that a local candidate (Democratic) for the county board is making significant strides to becoming elected as the first Democrat to the County Board here in DuPage County. He has an exemplary record as a civic volunteer and manager in municpal governments. He has broad support even among Republicans. This is truly a person who deserves to be in local government, and it is heartening to see that the race is tame. The Republicans have ruled the county for generations and Dunn is willing to challenge one party rule. He wants to cut back the number of commissioners, reduce their salary, and improve health care access. I do expect it will get nastier. But I surely hope not. Just look at this site and see what one dedicated person can do. It is inspiring.

http://glen-ellyn.com/rldunn/

Posted by: NonnyO at September 12, 2006 08:33 PM

I think I would like my gemstones to be in the shape of question marks.

Posted by: Otter at September 12, 2006 08:47 PM

Vanessa Williams sang Colors of the Wind from the words in your post, and it was used in the film Pocahontas (I know you knew that)........

That is one of my MOST FAVORITE SONGS OF ALL TIME!!!!!

I used to play it over and over and over AND OVER.............

http://tinyurl.com/f7f9p

EXCLUSIVE: Air America To Declare Bankruptcy, But Progressive Radio Remains Strong

Air America Radio will announce a major restructuring on Friday, which is expected to include a bankruptcy filing, three independent sources have told ThinkProgress.

Air America could remain on the air under the deal, but significant personnel changes are already in the works. Sources say five Air America employees were laid off yesterday and were told there would be no severance without capital infusion or bankruptcy. Also, Air America has ended its relationship with host Jerry Springer.

The right wing is sure to seize on Air America’s financial woes as a sign that progressive talk radio is unpopular. In fact, Air America succeeded at creating something that didn’t exist: the progressive talk radio format. That format is now established and strong and will continue with or without Air America. Indeed, many of the country’s most successful and widely-syndicated progressive talk hosts — Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, for instance — aren’t even associated with Air America.

Radio giant Clear Channel is so committed to progressive talk radio that, this week, it will announce a partnership with the Center for American Progress, Jones Radio, and MSS Inc., to conduct a nationwide search for the next Progressive Talk Radio Star.

http://tinyurl.com/f2tru

Cyrano and Monkey,

The Minus Touch is for sure.

It'll Come to You
by John Hiatt

That girl you were seein' back in '72
Somethin' 'bout a hotel room and bath water in your shoe
Were you into your Catholic thing then, or some other stew
Were you both holed up in that honeymoon suite, practicing voodoo

It'll come to you
Don't look back, it'll come to you
In the middle of the night, with you covers pulled up tight
It'll come to you

And that business partner you took for every red cent
You can't even remember where all of that money went
Some on liquor and women, maybe a little rent
But as far as paying it back now, Buddy, you ain't made a dent

It'll come to you
Don't look back, it'll come to you
In the middle of the night, with you covers pulled up tight
It'll come to you

Yes they'll all be standin' 'round you in your sleep
Askin' for a promise you couldn't keep
'Cause back when you were hollow inside
You were tryin' to puff yourself up with your own foolish pride

Now you're happily married with a wife and kids of you're own
But sometimes in the closet at night you can hear them rattlin' bones
Takin' bets on your future and your current postal zone
It's a spooky equation, but check out yourself, Jack, you're the great unknown

It'll come to you
Don't look back, it's gonna come right to you
In the middle of the night, with you covers pulled up tight
It'll come to you

Posted by: monkey at September 13, 2006 01:08 PM

Disappointing news.

Ann Richards, feisty ex-governor of Texas and keynote speaker at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, died tonight at her home of cancer. She's remembered for a lot of great lines, including saying this about Papa Bush at the convention: "Poor George, he can't help it, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth." (Like father, like son.)