High School Students Protest Military Recruiters

Topsy Turvy Bus : Political Art in Action

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/6/141638/1647

votre religion n'est pas à moi

su religión no es mina

ihre religion ist nicht grube

la vostra religione non è miniera

sua religião não é mina

Posted by: Otter at May 6, 2007 02:08 PM

I need one of those T-shirts too. The Confucio-Christo-fascism is WAY out of hand in my neck of woods.

Better be in some Asian languages too, including Korean, the Confucio-Christo-fascists' official language.

This one's for DiAnne:

Sarko won the French election.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6630797.stm

Ally
The French can look forward to losing some of their social benefits and the rich can look forward to getting richer. The economy will "grow" but with globalization, the gap between workers and CEOs will as well. More of the world is swinging to the right .. what can I say!

Otter, Ally
Re (alternative, ancient) religion .. I am uploading some photos from a celebration of the Goddess in Ravenna Park and if you click on my name in awhile, you'll see! I realized when I was there that the phrase "They hate us for our freedom" applies probably more exactly to bigots than to "evildoers" it's usually applied to!

Hey, monkey! You get over to Books 'n' Books in Coral Gables to get your copy of 'This Moment on Earth' signed this afternoon? And, while we're at it, did you make time to catch a Big Leg Emma gig when they were down that at the end of April or what?

Posted by: not my president at May 6, 2007 05:40 PM

Lovely photos! I would've loved to be there.

Thanks for sharing.

When Will American People Be Told The Truth About Iraq?
By Michael Goodwin
The president's promise to "complete the mission" is a triumph of a tired slogan over reality, just as the Dems' pledge to "end the war" is riddled with loopholes. It's time to cut the bull and be realistic about where we're going.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17655.htm

America's Deadly "Love" Embrace
By William Blum
"If the United States leaves Iraq things will really get bad." This appears to be the last remaining, barely-breathing argument of that vanishing species who still support the god-awful war. The argument implies a deeply-felt concern about the welfare and safety of the Iraqi people.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17653.htm

EU/US Merger: New Global Order By Stealth
By Steve Watson
In a sweeping move that has garnered surprisingly little attention this week the United States and the European Union have signed up to a new transatlantic economic partnership that will see regulatory standards "harmonized" and will lay the basis for a merging of the US and EU into one single market, a huge step on the path to a new globalized world order.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17657.htm

{{{IMHO, this last article as scarier than hell.}}}

{{{IMHO, this last article as scarier than hell.}}}

Posted by: NonnyO at May 6, 2007 06:55 PM

And the LSM is doing a great job of keeping all the details away from the American people.

Same with CAFTA and the KorUS FTA.

I found this quite interesante:

Republicans Defect to the Obama Camp
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050607G.shtml
Disillusioned supporters of President George W. Bush are defecting to Barack Obama, the Democratic senator for Illinois, as the White House candidate with the best chance of uniting a divided nation.

NonnyO, Ally

from above cited article at end:
"merging of the US and EU into one single market, a huge step on the path to a new globalized world order."

Now you see why I have been going on about Sarko - it's all planned. Jerome a Paris has an interesting article about it among the Recommended Diaries currently up on Kos, with 195 comments last I looked. He cautions about two families in France- one reactionary, one globalizationist - who own alot of military hardware manufacture and media there, and are friends/backers of the new regime. It may all be good for billionaire CEOs of multinationals and their biggest stockholders but it will pull down most of the rest of the planet including the middle class.

Posted by: Ally McRepuke at May 6, 2007 05:28 PM
Posted by: Ally McRepuke at May 6, 2007 07:11 PM

I did wonder what was wrong with Merkel when she was mouthing platitudes and appeasiong words to Bu$hCo when she visited not long ago, and now if Sarko does the same in France... well, it doesn't bode well for the EU, especially if England elects someone too friendly to BushCo. They are under the thrall of US domination and that can't be good.

I wish any of our Congress Critters of both political parties and Dem candidates would stop bleating platitudes and stop appeasing the spoiled frat brat as the current three Dem front-runners are still doing. They will only ensure that the troops will stay in Iraq until at least inauguration day '09 and beyond (depending on whether or not Turd Blossom or his agents invent a reason to stop the '08 elections and declare martial law).

Any politicians who use common-send reasoned rhetoric are effectively silenced by Lamestream Media. That can't do us any good either.

I'm SO bored with the same ol' same ol' rhetoric that never seems to change. It hits my low threshold of boredom and then I ignore what everyone has to say....

Posted by: not my president at May 6, 2007 07:32 PM

You caught the exact same sentence that made the little hairs on the back of my neck stand out in stark fear....

It's Bush 41's "new world order.' That bodes ill for all of us (and sounds like Hitler!)....

NonnyO
Well business is important, growth, productivity, all that - BUT not at the expense of the majority of people having a decent quality of life (education, health, housing, freedom).

The pendulum needs to be somewhere between populist and hypercapitalist and I maintain that it is swinging further to the right in too many places and that it is terrible for the planet.

I just read through all the comments over at Kos on Jerome a Paris' article about the French election and cited the article you mentioned. Thought it was very timely.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/06/romney-at-regent-treading-lightly-on-facts/
Romney At Regent: Treading Lightly On Facts

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/06/cls-may-book-of-the-month-vice-dick-cheney-and-the-hijacking-of-the-american-presidency/
C&L’s May Book Of The Month: VICE: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
{{{Read this book review to the end. Wow. Just... wow. I've said it before: Kucinich is our only viable candidate for President. He's the only one advocating doing something on behalf of the American people: getting rid of Cheney. All other Dem candidates are using Repubican-Lite rhetoric which gets us precisely nowhere and gives us no choices other than Republican-Lite or Republican. That's not a "choice" in my book.}}}

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/06/the-dc-madams-late-night-television-advertisment/
The DC Madam’s Late Night Television Advertisment
{For all Bill Maher fans....;-)}

BTW, I think the Bushistas are going after Norway, too:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/business/worldbusiness/04norway.html
Norway Keeps Nest Egg From Some U.S. Companies

Read the entire article to see what prompted my response (tirade, rant) to someone about it. Excerpts of what I had to say about this article:

I've read something similar before; 'Ambassador' Benson Whitney's name was mentioned in those articles, and I think Whitney is trying to stir up trouble and anti-Norwegian sentiment fostered by a compliant right-wing corporate media slant in the US. Perhaps the Norwegian government should send Whitney back to Washington and cease diplomatic ties with the Bush administration, and not renew diplomatic ties with the US until Bush and his criminal cohorts are out of power. Whitney is a disgrace to his office if this is the best he can do as ambassador to Norway.

Norway should keep its own money and continue its policy of investing wisely and ethically on behalf of their own people. Like other advanced countries in Europe and Scandinavia, they have medical care for all their people, they have paid parental leave (for both parents!) when a new baby is born that can last up to two years; they have generous paid leave packages when a spouse, child, or parent becomes ill and needs long-term care at home, and their educational system is beyond ours (they start teaching their children English as a second language in grade school and continue that through high school and college).

What the Norwegian people quoted in the article have to say about American corporations is accurate, and we all know it. Norway's leaders have proved that they have they have the interests of their own people uppermost in their minds, as well as future generations. Think of how many "investment" firms based in the US have gone broke (with their executives absconding with billions of dollars in off-shore accounts). Does the name Enron ring any bells? What the US investment firms have done is criminal by anyone's standards. Anyway, aren't executives of Wal-Mart and Boeing and Lockheed-Martin and Northrup-Grumman and their ilk rich enough already without demanding money from Norway, too? Why try to subtly coerce or threaten Norwegians into investing their money into US corporations that consistently lose money even as they bilk the US taxpayers (and others) for more? And worse; put those veiled coercive threats into a newspaper article which can only prompt other articles critical and envious of Norway's wealth? Norwegians earned their money honestly and ethically; that's more than we can say of US corporations.

Whitney is a "loyal Bushie" at best. What's next? Will he try to get the Bush administration to declare Norway a 'terrorist country' for protecting the money Norway has accumulated legally and invests for the future of its own people? Articles like this prove Whitney is just as disconnected from reality as the rest of the Bush administration (and just as greedy about wanting to steal Norway's wealth, by coercion, if not by force or illegal war).

The Bush administration is full of war criminals. They've committed war crimes by invading Iraq for no good reason, and illegally torturing and incarcerating innocent people at Guantanamo and elsewhere - all contrary to the Geneva Conventions, the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and US law (Title 18; war crimes). Anyone who has read those documents knows the Bush administration has committed war crimes.

I'm sure the Bush administration (of which Whitney is a member) would like nothing better than to illegally, unethically, and dishonorably get its greedy little fingers on the wealth of Norway and control the oil wells in Norway, just as they're trying to do in Iraq. The Bush administration has inserted amendments into their dictated Iraq constitution that mandates oil profits go to US oil corporations, as well as profits from new oil wells that will be drilled in the future, all to the benefit of US oil corporations. The Iraqis have not voted on the dictated constitution yet; they're involved with their own civil war which would not have happened if the US had not illegally invaded.

Like it or not, admit it or not, America under the Bush administration IS “the greatest threat to world peace” - at least as long as the Bush administration is in power; they've made the US the equivalent of a third-world terrorist nation, and Bush is the #1 poster boy for recruiting new criminals who commit terrorist acts. They've already proved that by illegally invading Iraq and approving torture and illegal detention of prisoners (war crimes for which I hope they are tried for at The Hague, since no one in Congress seems ready to impeach them for their lies and war crimes). Normal Americans are horrified and deeply ashamed of these facts, and normal Americans are horrified because Congress has not stopped these criminal actions.

Norway is acting on behalf of the best interests of its own people, so the people of Norway have no reason to feel guilty for protecting the interests of their present and future generations. The Norwegian ethical and moral standards are certainly much higher than those of the Bush administration!

The Bush administration needs to keep it's greedy fingers off of Norway's wealth, as do future US administrations. They've already corrupted and stolen the wealth of other nations, as well as impoverished the US in favor of greedy US corporations (oil, media, military, pharmaceutical, insurance, plus Halliburton, Blackwater, and other mercenary corporations getting money directly from the US government, etc.).

Obviously, greed does not motivate the leaders of Norway.... If the US were fortunate enough to have moral and ethical leaders, we wouldn't find ourselves mired in an illegal war that was lost before it began (since the invasion of Iraq was a war crime to begin with; no "victory" is possible in the commission of a war crime), nor would we have "leaders" who are trying to steal the wealth of other nations for the benefit of themselves and the corporate cronies - like "venture capitalist" Whitney who is obviously trying to (unethically) gain more wealth through his post as ambassador to Norway; shame on Whitney! The US has a lock-down on many other countries because of money (and oil). Norway's leaders should not fall prey to the psychological tactics they've used on leaders of other countries.

You guys should go take the time to read this dKos diary (and yes, it's on-topic, bigtime):

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/6/18532/95418

And as a comment I posted in that diary thread noted:

Time to rekindle this sense of righteous outrage -- and the massive cross-country surge of synergistic activism-energy that accompanied it -- only this time without the kind of tragically unnecessary incident that provided the spark that finally ignited it, please...

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/analysis/back.time/9605/20/index.shtml

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

"Let's pretend this plug is 'Iraq' and you're trying to connect it to the 'War on Terror,' which is this avocado. You can do it, but here's the problem: the avocado still doesn't turn on. And now your plug is covered in guacamole." -- Jon Stewart, October 2006

NonnyO
Any place with oil and we're probably after it. It's an addiction and we don't know how to build the equivalent of meth labs for oil or we probably would!

It's not hard to find Canadians who feat that in the future we will be having wars with them - over water!

Oh my my.

How did this story not get any attention?

Alaskan Lawmakers Arrested, Charged With Taking Oil Company Bribes

AP | STEVE QUINN

For several thousand dollars and other promises, an Alaska legislator and two former lawmakers threw their support behind a tax scheme and a natural gas pipeline plan that would have benefited an oil services company, prosecutors said.

The three men, Rep. Victor Kohring of Wasilla, and former state Reps. Pete Kott of Eagle River and Bruce Weyhrauch of Juneau, were arrested Friday but deny wrongdoing. The three Republicans pleaded not guilty at their arraignments.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/05/05/alaskan-lawmakers-arreste_n_47738.html

Kayakbiker has a new feature up called "Black Role Models" that shows both Congressman Ellison and Obama.
http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com Minneapolis scene

Oh my my.
How did this story not get any attention?
Posted by: Christy at May 6, 2007 10:59 PM

Because it's Alaska, and no one except polar bears and caribou and oil companies who want to drill in Alaska's oil fields where wildlife lives pays any attention to them....

And because Lamestream Media is controlled by neoCons and they protect their own and sin by omission when they don't tell about the crimes of their own in neoCon controlled Lamestream Media (Lib'rul Media, my big fat arse!)....

I don't expect we'll hear much about it in the lower 48....

But it is interesting, and thanks for finding it.

~~~~~

Posted by: not my president at May 6, 2007 09:32 PM

"Oil Addiction" notwithstanding, I think we'd best adopt a 12 step program to get over the excessive use of oil which only abuses our air and our lungs (and our autoimmune systems for those sensitive/allergic to pollution).

Step 1: Smaller cars with high mpg that use alternative energy when possible - immediately!

Step 2: Cold turkey break with driving for the sake of driving, learning to think ahead and learn how to plan stock-up shopping trips, not run to the store several times a week. (Yes, I know; summer's coming, it means trips to the lake cabins for those who can afford it, weekend camping trips for others, summer vacations... But if we don't start soon, this year, if not now, then when...?) If the oil supply exceeds demand, the price of gas has to go down - in spite of the fact that prices just started rising in time for summer vacations.... The side benefit is that the oil companies *might* not make record profits this year like they have done for the last few years since Georgie's and Dickie's illegal war for oil started. The less we spend, the less profit the oil corporations make.

Step 3: Stop buying things that are made with a petroleum base, including plastic products, polyester or polyester blend clothing, and the like.... Some things are only made with plastic (ink cartridges for computer printers, for one), so the best one can do is cut down on the amount of plastic things one buys, but cutting down where possible and eliminating plastic products when other alternatives are available is a start (paper vs plastic bags - or, better yet, save trees while we're at it since they produce oxygen, bring your own cotton grocery bags with you to the grocery store, or get those re-usable cardboard boxes at the grocery store). Start recycling if not already doing so.

Add your own steps....

We'ver got to start somewhere. If we can't go cold turkey, then we must think of ways to reduce our consumption of oil on a daily, weekly, monthly basis....

Posted by: Christy at May 6, 2007 10:59 PM

Alaska is a one-party reactionary hellhole, where the people keep voting for the Republicans because they keep digging for more oil, which includes more dividend for the residents.

I was in Anchorage and Homer in 2002. I am never going back.

Posted by: NonnyO at May 6, 2007 11:57 PM

My mother wants to take a road trip, with me, to the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia this Fourth of July.

It'll be a tough call - between letting the enlightened Vancouverites show my mother the better way to live, and saving gasoline by staying grounded in Reagan Country.

(BTW, DiAnne - even if I go ahead with this trip, I won't be able to meet with you this time, sorry!)

It's not hard to find Canadians who feat that in the future we will be having wars with them - over water!

Posted by: not my president at May 6, 2007 09:32 PM

Mann Coulter wants to wipe Canada off the world map badly.

And the Canadians know it. Stanley Park, in Vancouver, originally was a land set aside for a fort, to defend against a US invasion.

The South Koreans, having just sneaked in an FTA with the US *without* the knowledge and approval of the American people, now want to do the same with the EU.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6631187.stm

Fortunately for the Europeans, the European media isn't going to be as secretive as the American media (at least not yet), so I hope they will be making an informed choice.

Posted by: NonnyO at May 6, 2007 06:55 PM

Yes, it is.

Sick. Should I laugh or cry? Break the tension! 9/11 changed everything. Et Cetera. Our Heroes!! Where do I start?!
____
Four soldiers and a reserve police officer were arrested Sunday on suspicion of looting cigarettes and alcohol from a store in this tornado-ravaged town, state officials said.

In a separate incident, two people wearing Red Cross jackets who were not members of the relief agency were arrested Sunday on suspicion of looting, said Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the adjutant general's office. She did not have any additional details.

The soldiers from Fort Riley Army base and the reserve police officer had come to assist on their own and were not part of any official detachment, said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state's adjutant general.

"These were people who weren't supposed to be there," Bunting said.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/06/tornadoes.looting.ap/i...

hat tip to Astrobuff

Ally
Keep me posted anyway!

Seeds of the Next Reformation?

May 7, 2007
As Pope Heads to Brazil, a Rival Theology Persists
By LARRY ROHTER
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, May 2 — In the early 1980s, when Pope John Paul II wanted to clamp down on what he considered a dangerous, Marxist-inspired movement in the Roman Catholic Church, liberation theology, he turned to a trusted aide: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

Now Cardinal Ratzinger is Pope Benedict XVI, and when he arrives here on Wednesday for his first pastoral visit to Latin America he may be surprised at what he finds. Liberation theology, which he once called “a fundamental threat to the faith of the church,” persists as an active, even defiant force in Latin America, home to nearly half the world’s one billion Roman Catholics.

Over the past 25 years, even as the Vatican moved to silence the clerical theorists of liberation theology and the church fortified its conservative hierarchy, the social and economic ills the movement highlighted have worsened. In recent years, the politics of the region have also drifted leftward, giving the movement’s demand that the church embrace “a preferential option for the poor” new impetus and credibility.

Today some 80,000 “base communities,” as the grass-roots building blocks of liberation theology are called, operate in Brazil, the world’s most populous Roman Catholic nation, and nearly one million “Bible circles” meet regularly to read and discuss scripture from the viewpoint of the theology of liberation.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/world/americas/07theology.html

It miht be al polar bears and Eskimos, but it would seem Alaska is the logical location of a nexus between oil payoffs and legislation for sale.

'For a few thousand dollrs and som other promises....'

They are not just crooks bu cheap ass crooks, AND it lays out a very clear conundrum.

If Alaska is buying off legislators with oil money, how many other state legislators are getting the same deal?

My state is oil rich too, but, the damndest thing is we are still considered the poorest state in the nation.

How does that happen?

I actually think if we were polar bears or fur seals, they probably would have treated us better.

Sorry for all the wierd mispellings.

New keyboard that is supposed to be 'indestructable', and I thought that was real cool until I realized I am supposed to be typing with a hammer.

Or somethin.

Regarding the irc chat. My work schedule has changed for the next few months so that means that my plans to 'hostess' in the irc are altered too.

So officially, I'm available to hostess morning birds any morning after if anyone wants to join me in picking a time to make this happen. And I'm able to hostess Tuesday evenings or Thursday evenings after 8pm est.

If you're interested in setting up a schedule to visit or host or hostess times too, then please click my name. And include a few relevant key words in the subject line. (If you don't include the key words or your name, I'm not likely to open it.)

Thanks

May 7, 2007
Whistle-Blower on Student Aid Is Vindicated
By SAM DILLON
WASHINGTON — When Jon Oberg, a Department of Education researcher, warned in 2003 that student lending companies were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies and suggested how to correct the problem, his supervisor told him to work on something else.

The department “does not have an intramural program of research on postsecondary education finance,” the supervisor, Grover Whitehurst, a political appointee, wrote in a November 2003 e-mail message to Mr. Oberg, a civil servant who was soon to retire. “In the 18 months you have remaining, I will expect your time and talents to be directed primarily to our business of conceptualizing, competing and monitoring research grants.”

For three more years, the vast overpayments continued. Education Secretary Rod Paige and his successor, Margaret Spellings, argued repeatedly that under existing law they were powerless to stop the payments and that it was Congress that needed to act. Then this past January, the department largely shut off the subsidies by sending a simple letter to lenders — the very measure Mr. Oberg had urged in 2003.

The story of Mr. Oberg’s effort to stop this hemorrhage of taxpayers’ money opens a window, lawmakers say, onto how the Bush administration repeatedly resisted calls to improve oversight of the $85 billion student loan industry. The department failed to halt the payments to lenders who had exploited loopholes to inflate their eligibility for subsidies on the student loans they issued.

Recent investigations by state attorneys general and Congress have highlighted how the department failed to clamp down on gifts and incentives that lenders offered to universities and their financial aid officers to get more student loans. Under this pressure, the department is now seeking to set new rules.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/washington/07loans.html

According to TPM today, the Justice Department has gotten rid of alot of its minority lawyers in the civil rights and voting rights departments.

Sent to me without a link but it must be from the Independent in the UK:

Tony Blair is preparing a mission to build bridges between the major world religions when he leaves office, and plans to act as an ambassador for multi-faith dialogue in Britain and abroad.

Friends of the Prime Minister have told The Independent on Sunday that he is planning to set up a Blair Foundation soon after leaving No 10, and one of its main aims will be to promote communication between Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

But the plan has been greeted with incredulity among MPs who say he has done more to create divisions between Islam and the West than any Prime Minister in living memory.

but don't watch this video at work.....

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/06/the-dc-madams-late-night-television-advertisment/

Posted by: not my president at May 7, 2007 11:01 AM

WHEN will these "world leaders" STOP promoting religion as part of politics?!?!? I think I read a BBC story about that a few days ago.

Are politicians getting dumber as time goes on, especially since 2000 and DimWit's alignment with religion that crossed paths with his status as a wannabe world dictator?

Religion and religious views are a personal matter and ought not ever be brought into any political discussions in any country!!!

Disgusting - on SO many levels!!!

May 7, 2007

Ottaways Deplore Bid by Murdoch

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

Two members of the Ottaway family, a minority partner in Dow Jones & Company, released scathing statements yesterday saying that a takeover by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation would ruin Dow Jones and its crown jewel, The Wall Street Journal.

The controlling Bancroft family said last week that family members representing 52 percent of shareholder votes opposed Mr. Murdoch’s $60-a-share bid, a steep premium for a stock that had recently traded around $36. But their statement was vague, leaving it unclear whether family members objected to the price, to Mr. Murdoch or to a sale on any terms.

The Ottaways’ statements left no such ambiguity, questioning the journalism and the ethics of Mr. Murdoch and of News Corporation properties like the Fox News Channel and The New York Post, known for their right-wing political bent and racy tone.

James H. Ottaway Jr., a trustee for most of the family shares and formerly a longtime Dow Jones executive and board member, said, “Dow Jones has no good reason to be sold to anyone.” And the reputation of The Journal and Dow Jones for serious, accurate and objective work, he said, “would be damaged if Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation take over Dow Jones,” he said.

“He has for a long time expressed his personal, political and business biases through his newspapers and television channels,” Mr. Ottaway said. The Post “regularly runs biased news stories and headlines supporting his friends, political candidates and public policies, and attacks people he personally opposes,” while at Fox News, “one man’s political opinions have become the editorial and news policy.”

He accused Mr. Murdoch of caving in to political pressure to advance his business interests, contrasting the actions of a News Corporation property, Star TV, in bowing to Chinese government censorship, with The Journal’s editorial page censure of Chinese human rights abuses. “I doubt its freedom to criticize the Chinese government would continue under Murdoch ownership,” he said.

The right answer to the News Corporation bid, Mr. Ottaway added, is that “Dow Jones is not for sale, at any price, to Rupert Murdoch.”

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/business/media/07ottaway.html

Jason Leopold | Clarke, O'Neill Accounts Support Tenet's Claims
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050707J.shtml
Former CIA Director George Tenet joins a growing list of former Bush administration officials who have written books accusing the White House of cooking intelligence immediately after 9/11 to win support for a US-led invasion of Iraq. Tenet is the highest-ranking administration official to level such charges against senior White House members. The ex-CIA chief's assertions support similar claims over the past few years by other, former high-ranking officials.
Excerpts:
~ Veracity of Prewar Iraq Intelligence Hotly Debated
~ Bush's Hard-line Stance Toward Iraq Surfaced in January 2001
~ Sanctions Were Working, Powell Said
~ Former Officials Call White House "Obsessed With Iraq Prior to 9/11"
~ Tenet Warned Rice About al-Qaeda
~ Documents Show National Security Not a White House Priority Before 9/11
~ Rice Lobbied for Preemptive Strike Against Iraq in 2000
~ Rice Subpoenaed

{{{Those are the headers to sections of Leopold's article. Bloggers have known about these details for years. Will Lamestream Media EVER catch up and start reporting these things in detail? I wonder if Condisleazy will defy the congressional subpoena? If she does, will Congress Critters find their spines (and the logical sides of their brains) and do something about it? Or, will they continue to appease the spoiled brat and his appointed ilk and just hope he and his evil minions go away quietly if/when his term in office expires...? Tenet's whining aside, at least what he has to say seems to back up what more rational beings have talked about in years past. This is all getting SO old: all talk, no action, no publicity about the war crimes of the administration..., no nothing.....}}}

Los Angeles Times | Bring Them Home
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050707N.shtml
Los Angeles Times laments: "This newspaper reluctantly endorsed the US troop surge as the last, best hope for stabilizing conditions so that the elected Iraqi government could assume full responsibility for its affairs. But we also warned that the troops should not be used to referee a civil war. That, regrettably, is what has happened."

Missouri Attorney a Focus in Firings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050707M.shtml
The firing of US Attorney Todd Graves in Missouri, and his replacement, Bradley Schlozman, are emerging as focal points of the investigation into the firing of eight US attorneys last year - and as a symbol of broader complaints that the Bush administration has misused its stewardship of law enforcement to give Republicans an electoral edge.

Switch to Organic Crops Could Help Poor
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050707O.shtml
Organic food has long been considered a niche market, a luxury for wealthy consumers. But researchers told a UN conference on Saturday that a large-scale shift to organic agriculture could help fight world hunger while improving the environment.
Excerpts:
Farmers who go back to traditional agricultural methods would not have to spend money on expensive chemicals and would grow more diverse and sustainable crops, the report said. In addition, if their food is certified as organic, farmers could export any surpluses at premium prices.
~~~~~
"These models suggest that organic agriculture has the potential to secure a global food supply, just as conventional agriculture today, but with reduced environmental impacts," Scialabba said in a paper presented to the conference.

However, she stressed that the studies were only economic models.

The United Nations defines organic agriculture as a "holistic" food system that avoids the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, minimizes pollution and optimizes the health of plants, animals and people. It is commercially practiced in 120 countries and represented a $40 billion market last year, Scialabba said.

{{{(Someone's finally had a "Duh!" moment...!!! Will anyone listen??? We all know the chemical producers that help pollute the environment will scream like pigs being led to slaughter as they realize they wouldn't make as many billions in switching to safe and economical farming practices, but aside from them, will anyone go back to sustainable, chemical-free, environmentally-safe farming practices...???}}}

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/05/07/monochrome_candidates_stale_ideas.php
Monochrome Candidates, Stale Ideas
by Robert L. Borosage, TomPaine.com
The Gipper would be proud of how much the conservatives running for president are divorced from reality.

An Historic Day - George III welcomes Elizabeth II to the White House! Film at 6 pm.

Posted by: Cyrano at May 7, 2007 01:26 PM

Some history, eh?

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/06/tony-blair-faith-healer/
Tony Blair, Faith Healer
This is story quoted by nmp above.....

DOJ Hired Lawyers Based on Political Affiliations
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050707A.shtml
Congressional investigators are beginning to focus on accusations that a top civil rights official at the Justice Department illegally hired lawyers based on their political affiliations, especially for sensitive voting rights jobs.

The New York Times | The Soft Bigotry of Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050707B.shtml
The editors of The New York Times write: "Whether out of blind loyalty or blind denial, most Congressional Republicans are prepared to back up President Bush's veto of the Iraq spending bill. It is now essential that the revised version not back away from demanding that Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, finally deliver on the crucial national reconciliation measures he has spent the last year dodging. And it must make clear that American support for his failures - and Mr. Bush's - is fast waning."

Michael Schwartz | The Struggle Over Iraqi Oil: Eyes Eternally on the Prize
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050707D.shtml
"The date when the struggle for Iraqi oil began is less critical than our ability to trace the ever-growing willingness to use 'any means necessary' to control such a 'vital prize' into the present," writes Michael Schwartz. "We know, for example, that before and after he ascended to the vice-presidency, Dick Cheney has had his eye squarely on the prize."

GOP Convention Papers Ordered Opened
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050707F.shtml
The city cannot prevent the public from seeing documents describing intelligence that police gathered to help them create policies for arrests at the 2004 Republican National Convention, a judge said on Friday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070507/pl_nm/worldbank_wolfowitz_dc

Wolfowitz aide quits World Bank amid controversy

Excerpt:

The departure of Kevin Kellems was a blow in a critical week for Wolfowitz, a key architect of the Iraq war who is now under fire for his handling of a lucrative promotion and pay raise for his companion, Shaha Riza, a Middle East expert at the bank.

Kellems, who served as an advisor to Wolfowitz from 2002 when he was U.S. deputy defense secretary and before he became World Bank president in 2005, told Reuters he was leaving to pursue other opportunities.

Kellems worked briefly for U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney as spokesman before he rejoined Wolfowitz at the World Bank in 2005 because of previous experience in development issues.

{{{More on link. Isn't it "interesting" how all the roads lead back to either Dickie-Doo-Doo or Turd Blossom for these administration scandals...?}}}

Newsweek MS NBC poll:

Bush approval rating at all-time low: 28%

Obama and Edwards beat Clinton among general voters:

While the poll has some high marks for Clinton, it’s not all good news. Though the New York senator and former first lady aims to project an aura of inevitability that she will win the Democratic nomination, Obama beats the leading Republicans by larger margins than any other Democrat: besting Giuliani 50 to 43 percent, among registered voters; beating McCain 52 to 39 percent, and defeating Romney 58 percent to 29 percent.

Like Obama, Edwards defeats the Republicans by larger margins than Clinton does: the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee outdistances Giuliani by six points, McCain by 10 and Romney by 37, the largest lead in any of the head-to-head matchups. Meanwhile, Sen. Clinton wins 49 percent to 46 percent against Giuliani, well within the poll’s margin of error; 50 to 44 against McCain; and 57 to 35 against Romney.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18505030/site/newsweek/page/2/

July 8, 1947

Many will recall that on July 8, 1947, witnesses claimed that an unidentified object with five aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep and cattle ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico.

This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered up by the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. government.

However, what you may NOT know that in the month of March 1948, exactly nine months after that historic day, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfield, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Condolezza Rice, and Dan Quyale were all born.

See what happens when aliens breed with sheep!

"See what happens when aliens breed with sheep!"

Baaaa, humbug.

Since monkey can't and/or won't answer my earlier query, here the skinny on a certain Tall Guy pimping his book in Coral Gables yesterday:

http://blog.johnkerry.com/2007/05/this_moment_in_florida.html

Posted by: Ralpheh at May 7, 2007 07:17 PM

Too bad one can't distinguish between a Con and Dem candidate.... 'support the troops' - 'we'll get the troops home someday' - blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....

Whatever.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070507/us_nm/tornado_kansas_dc

Iraq war hampers tornado recovery

OVERLAND PARK, Kansas (Reuters) - A shortage of trucks, helicopters and other equipment -- all sent to the war in Iraq -- has hampered recovery in a U.S. town obliterated by a tornado, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday.

"There is no doubt at all that this will slow down and hamper the recovery," Sebelius, a Democrat, told Reuters in Kansas where officials said the statewide death toll had risen to 12 on Monday.

"Not having this equipment in place all over the state is a huge handicap," Sebelius said.
~~~~~
"We're getting pounded in Kansas. We have the need for National Guard in two different parts of our state now. This is really going to be a problem," Sebelius said.

Sebelius and other Democratic governors earlier this year assailed the Republican Bush administration for the strains they said the war had placed on their states' National Guardsmen, frequently mobilized for state emergencies.

On Monday, anti-war groups, including the National Security Network and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq cited the shortage of equipment to deal with the Kansas disaster as the latest example of what they see as the war's detrimental impact on domestic security.

A Pentagon spokesman in Washington said other states were supposed to help provide resources in an emergency. White House spokesman Tony Snow said the administration was doing what it could and equipment would arrive if it was needed.

Kansas Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson said because of the shortage of National Guard equipment, the state was rushing to hire contractors to help clear debris.

Nearly 70 Kansas National Guard troops were arriving in Greensburg on Monday to supplement about 40 troops already on the ground, and some guard Humvees were available to start clearing wreckage, Watson said.

Sebelius said the failure by Washington to replace or return state National Guard equipment deployed to Iraq was "not a very satisfying effort."

The governor said Kansas lacked about half the large equipment it could use for recovery efforts and debris removal, including dump trucks and front loaders. More than 20 percent of its Humvees and 15 of 19 helicopters were sent to Iraq, the governor said.

{{{More on link. Which "contractors?!?" Blackwater...? We all remember what happened in Louisiana and other southern coastal states when their guard troops were in Iraq and not at home where they were needed.... Gee. I wonder what would happen if a governor tried to demand her/his state's troops come home to help residents (and neighbors) in their own states... would they remember that Georgie now has control of their guard troops, that the control of each state's guard troops is no longer under the control of each governor...? Bet they forgot that little piece of idiotic legislation that DimWit and his cohorts forced through Congress last year....}}}

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070507/ap_on_bi_ge/world_bank_wolfowitz

World Bank panel: Wolfowitz broke rules

WASHINGTON - A special panel has found that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz broke bank rules in arranging a pay package and promotion for his girlfriend, a person familiar with the report said Monday.
~~~~~
The report was not made public, but the person familiar with its findings confirmed that violations were cited but did not provide any details.
~~~~~
Wolfowitz' attorney, Robert Bennett (news, bio, voting record), said his client was being given 48 hours to respond, which he called "unreasonable and unfair," and said they had requested to have until next Monday.

The developments come as a top adviser to Wolfowitz, Kevin Kellems, said he is leaving the institution.
~~~~~
The bank's 24-member board will decide what action should be taken, if any. A decision is expected soon.

A range of disciplinary options has been discussed. The board could fire Wolfowitz, ask him to resign, signal that it lacks confidence in his leadership, reprimand him or take no action. Some believed that prospects were fading for a compromise under which Wolfowitz would avoid a harsh reprimand but would resign anyway.

Wolfowitz has maintained that he acted in good faith in arranging Riza's pay package and has accused his critics of launching a "smear campaign" against him.

The bank's executive directors, however, have said the terms and conditions of the package had not been "commented on, reviewed or approved" by the bank's ethics committee, its chairman or the bank's board.

{{{Oh, wa-a-a-a-a-a-a...! The Cons are getting whining down to a fine art.... If Clinton had done what Wolfie has, this would be headline news every hour on the hour, as "teasers" for the evening snooze, if nothing else.... I didn't listen to Lamestream Media evening snooze, but did hear part of PBS's News Hour and didn't hear anything about Wolfie....}}}

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/cartoons/2007/05/iraq_strategy.html
The New Strategy

See what happens when aliens breed with sheep!
Posted by: not my president at May 7, 2007 07:47 PM

I think some bred with sheeple, others bred with poisonous adders....

Thinking about dinner? Eating at the computer?

Epidemic Is Killing Pigs in Southeastern China

HONG KONG, May 7 — A mysterious epidemic is killing pigs in southeastern China, but international and Hong Kong authorities said today that the Chinese government is providing little information about it, or about the contaminated wheat gluten that has caused deaths and illnesses in other animals.

The lack of even basic details is reviving longstanding questions about whether China is willing to share information about health and food safety issues with potential global implications.

(snip)

Hong Kong television broadcasts and newspapers were full of lurid accounts today of pigs staggering around with blood pouring from their bodies in Gaoyao and neighboring Yunfu, both in Guangdong Province. The Apple Daily newspaper said that as many as 80 percent of the pigs in the area had died, that panicky farmers were selling ailing animals at deep discounts and that pig carcasses were floating in a river.

The reports in Hong Kong said the disease began killing pigs after the Chinese New Year celebrations in February, and is now spreading. But state-controlled news outlets in China have reported almost nothing about the pig deaths, and very little about the wheat gluten problem.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/world/asia/07cnd-hong...

I posted an anecdote the other day about a gaffe W made another time the Queen was here. For this trip, he was to be given some lessons in etiquette. Seems the crash course didn't take. The guy narcissistically thinks constantly that he is funny.

Bush welcomes the Queen with a gaffe

By Tom Leonard in Washington
Last Updated: 1:55am BST 08/05/2007

With the Queen standing at his side on the White House lawn and the world's media hanging on his words, it was probably not the best moment for George Bush to make one of his famous gaffes.

Mr Bush said that in response to his slip the Queen gave him a look 'only a mother could give a child'

But with impressive comic timing, the American President recovered from almost suggesting that his guest was around in the 18th century and ended up ensuring that his 7,000 strong audience laughed with him, rather than at him.

Mr Bush's slip came during a welcoming speech as the Queen began the Washington stage of her US state visit.

The United States was a nation she "had come to know very well", he said. "After all, you've dined with 10 US presidents. You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 - 1976."

As many in the crowd burst out laughing, Mr Bush turned and looked sheepishly at the Queen. Peering at him from beneath her hat, she did not appear to share the general merriment.

Turning back, Mr Bush prompted the Queen to laugh as he said with a smile: "She gave me a look that only a mother could give a child."

Read the rest at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/08/wqueen08.xml but she sounds like an unapologetic old warhawk anyway, justifying the killing in the middle east by going on about terra.

I'm sure the Queen is not too thrilled -- or amused -- by the Bushes. And while the Queen isn't exactly the fashion queen, she at least has the good sense not to wear what one DU'er called a "mermaid-bullfighter outfit" that Laura is wearing...

Check out this thread to see how elegant Nancy Pelosi is & then scroll down (but be ready to shield your eyes...) & look at Laura & Lynne Cheney's get-ups... Don't say I didn't warn you...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x842011

Gore Sees Spiritual Crisis in Global Warming

http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/stories/MYSA050607.01B.gore.35aecd4.html

This is a great report on a supposedly closed-to-the-media event but this local reporter did a good job.

Posted by: Ralpheh at May 7, 2007 07:17 PM

Too bad one can't distinguish between a Con and Dem candidate.... 'support the troops' - 'we'll get the troops home someday' - blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....

Whatever.

Posted by: NonnyO at May 7, 2007 09:03 PM

@@@@@@

The race for president has become (and is becoming more and more, in recent elections) like a beauty contest. I don't think one could design a more boring presidential race in 2008 than McCain Vs. Hillary. And forget the junk about being the first woman president etc.. Hillary is where she because of Bill Clinton - she is riding his coattails and his popularity. At least Pelosi seems to have reached her high office through skill, talent and work (not name ID). The same can be said for Obama - who does not come from a politically connected family etc... (Edwards too)

Hey All:

What's with the bashing of harmonizing regulations between the EU and the US? In my experience of international business, almost everything "out-of-harmony," when you get to the root of it, is just a racket or a way of extracting bribes. Harmonizing regulations reduces white noise and therefore makes it possible -- with the right political allignments -- to do something positive about the direction our world is going in.

Chuck in Houston

By the way, the same applies for our own lack of harmony within various federal codes -- the lobbies pressure the legislature to confuse regulations so that their sponsors can manipulate the legal system to their advantage. Think of how much simpler your 1040 was twenty years ago. All that confusion favors various industries represented by various lobbies that write the legislation through your elected (on the lobbies' ticket) representatives. Representative democracy can't regulate what the voter can't understand. Simplifying and harmonizing regulations is one thing people favoring democracy should always support.

Chuck in Houston

In case you're wondering what the web is really for... these people aren't.

http://www.platformlondon.org/

DOJ prosecutor murdered in Washington state:

Wales' brother-in-law speaks out about the McKay firing

Anonymity is a fine thing. Many an evening I have rafted down the Internets Tubes, safe and secure in my anonymity: unafraid to speak up and unafraid of consequences. Toes have been stomped. Feathers ruffled (my tactfulness is not legendary). Well, mea culpa.

Today I risk nakedness, my fig leaf Googleable.

In testimony Thursday, James Comey, former #2 at the Department of Justice under Ashcroft, testified to the House Judiciary Committee (actually brought up first by Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC), while Watt was questioning him) that John McKay, one of the fired USA’s, got in hot water in 2005 for agitating with the bigwigs in DC for more resources in hunting the assassin of Tom Wales, an assistant DA in Seattle killed on October 11, 2001.

Tom was shot a half-dozen times in the neck and head with hollow-point bullets (aka "cop killers”") as he sat at his home computer, answering an email. Sitting as we do, now. He prosecuted white-collar crime in Washington State, and was also a visible and dedicated gun-control advocate. I watched him debate Wayne LaPierre once, on Good Morning America, and thought Tom ate Wayne’s lunch. He headed Washington Cease Fire until murdered with a handgun.

His slaying has never been solved.

The FBI has a team, permanently investigating...they’re on record as saying they know the killer. They released a letter to the press, purportedly from the suspect, and asked the public’s help in identifying him. The FBI has, they say, ruined the suspect’s life, and hassled many a gun owner.

Now I learn through these Internets Tubes that John McKay may have been fired for paying too much attention to the assassination of his fellow federal prosecutor, instead of filing bogus voter-fraud suits.

It appears the DOJ (who sent no reps to Tom’s memorial service, btw, even though he was the first active Federal DA to be murdered, and this just one month after 9/11) was directed to minimize the hunt for Tom’s killer because it would harm the Republican Party’s NRA base, and inflame gun-control advocates.

I don’t speak for the Wales family. Several of them still lose sleep when the case re-makes the news, fearful for the safety of Tom’s children, now grown. And I see their point, though the children are as brave as he.

But if the DOJ is now in the business of ignoring the murders of dedicated prosecutors who spent a career contributing to the community and standing up for the powerless to better win the next election, then it’s time to clean house. If I had been murdered, instead, and my case swept under the rug, Tom would have charged in like an angry wolf.

I married his sister, you see.

And so I ask you, gentle reader, to call or write your Congresspersons, especially if they sit on the Judiciary Committees; demand they ask each DOJ employee, parading through in this shameful affair, what they know or knew of reasons for McKay’s firing.

If this White House is willing to murder Justice for power, we should replace them. Now.

OK, so I am on a contrarian bent tonight. On the "no-recruiters-in-schools" issue, is that the right concept? I mean, it's not the fact that we have a military that is at issue, it's how that military is used. Why shouldn't the military be representaed at high schools?? For the longest time on Iraq I wondered: "Why didn't we learn from Vietnam that it makes no sense to invade and occupy a country that isn't a threat?" Now, turning that on its head, I thought for a second, and it occurred to me that as a corollary to that it means the way we stopped the Vietnam war did not create the sort of situation that might prevent future Vietnams. We won ugly. So why can't we learn from that? The anti-war movement in many ways brought us Ronald Reagan and George Bush Jr. In other words, so much Vietnam protest was simply anti-military or "our boys are dying" -- but on the otherhand (1) we have a great military and (2) shouldn't we have been at least as concerned with the millions (?) of Vietnamese that were dying or (3) what the heck business of ours was the whole thing in the first place? (I know, it was a legacy of post WWII French politics, but anyway....) In other words, "No Viet Cong ever called me" ANYTHING. THAT should have beenthe point. So attacking military recruiting is attacking a symptom, not the disease, to my mind. We really have to work off of first principles in such matters, I think.

Same with the regulatory harmonization issue alluded to above. Harmonization is good. Bad regulations are the problem. But you won't even be able to know what the regulations are unless you get some harmony.

OK, well, hope that made sense. Sorry for the rant and I'm stepping down off my soap-box.

Chuck in Houston

Gore Sees Spiritual Crisis in Global Warming
http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/stories/MYSA050607.01B.gore.35aecd4.html
Posted by: not my president at May 7, 2007 09:46 PM
Excerpt:

"It's in part a spiritual crisis," Gore told the crowd in the Convention Center at the American Institute of Architects national convention. "It's a crisis of our own self-definition — who we are. Are we creatures destined to destroy our own species? Clearly not."
~~~~~
In between jokes, Gore called for a change in thinking about climate issues and the pollution that causes global warming. He was especially critical of the business community's current focus on quarterly profits at the expense of sustainable business practices.

"That's functionally insane, but that is the dominant reality in the world today," Gore said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spiritual Smiritual. Au contraire, dear Al; no spirituality involved at all, just greed (mostly corporate greed, but personal greed on the part of some, too). Since December 2000 this country has been DYSfunctionally insane. Humans have killed each other in massive numbers in the past, continue to do so in the present with illegal wars for oil in many/most areas and "ethnic cleansing" in other areas. And if that isn't enough, pollution will likely will doom our species (and lots of others) to extinction because many of us humans are a greedy and selfish lot who care more for the profit margins of corporations than they/we do for each other or the generations who will be born in the future....

Until/Unless we see the pollution and global warming problems as something to survive as a species (tax and pollution exchanges are NOT going to solve the problems - that's a band-aid tradeoff that halts nothing; the pollution of our earth, water, and air must STOP; period - and even stopping immediately will not reverse the damage that has already been done, although it might slow the accelerated progression), we will cause our own species (and lots of others) to become extinct.

And it will be our own fault because we are indulging the profit margins of corporations and not stopping them (or ourselves) from killing ourselves, each other, and our future children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren, and so on. There is no vengeful patriarchal god to blame for our own stupidity. We have only ourselves to blame....

Or maybe it is a vengeful patriarchal god....

Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address is sort of metaphysical on that account in another context:

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said 'the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Chuck in Houston

And in the same address, as to fault:

"It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged."

Chuck in Houston

"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."

Euripides, unsourced (as per Wikipedia)

Chuck in Houston

For the record, I don't really believe in a vengeful patriarchal god. But it does make a nice metaphor. Or maybe even a parable.

Chuck in Houston

"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
Euripides, unsourced (as per Wikipedia)
Posted by: Chuck at May 8, 2007 12:28 AM

Sounds like an apt description of this nation since December 2000.....

I tend to favor quotes by the old Greek philosophers. They knew more about human foibles than most later writers.....

May 8, 2007
For Democrats, New Challenge in Age-Old Rift
By ROBIN TONER
WASHINGTON, May 7 — Almost nothing rouses as much passion, anger or history for the Democrats as the issue of trade.

Defining the rules of engagement in a fiercely competitive global marketplace, trade policy cuts to the heart of the Democrats’ identity, how they view their party’s past and envision its future. It can divide them along regional and economic lines — Midwest vs. Pacific Rim, manufacturing vs. agriculture, Main Street vs. Wall Street.

Nobody knows this better than Representative Sander M. Levin, chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade and a 24-year veteran of the House from the suburbs of Detroit.

Mr. Levin is one of the newly empowered Democratic leaders trying to find a trade policy that can unite their party and heal a painful rift between those who see a globalized economy as inevitable and good and those who see the cost under current policies, in lost jobs and unsettled lives, as simply too great.

President Bill Clinton sought to forge a new, protrade consensus in his party in the early 1990s, but it was always fragile, and it has come under growing strain in recent years.

Now, the issue poses one of the most important challenges for this new Democratic-led Congress — in some ways, as important to the soul of the Democratic Party as the struggle over the war in Iraq.

It may be leading Democrats to yet another confrontation with the Bush administration. And the Ways and Means Committee, with sweeping jurisdiction over tariffs and trade for more than 200 years, is at the center of it.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/08/washington/08trade.html

Speaking of spirituality and religion, the NY Times has a blog up reporting on a debate last night between Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton, on the subject: "Is God Great".

http://empirezone.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/07/hitchens-sharpton-and-faith/

Here's what I had to say:

I never thought that I would find myself cheering for Al Sharpton in a debate, but he made most of the right points. He left out one, however - that it, it is the purely "secular" societies that have committed, by far, the worst atrocities in recent human history - like Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Communist China, and the French Republic after the Revolution. I honestly can't think of a single instance of a "religious" reign of terror that approaches the monstrous scale of any of these. Even the Iranian Revolution was tame in comparison to the sheer terror incited by this quartet of secular insanity.

Hitchens also fails to mention that while Jefferson, who he evokes repeatedly, indeed describes himself as a “naturalist”, he attended church services every Sunday while President, and spent quite a number of years in later life working on his edited version of the New Testament. In a letter to Edward Dowse, he describes “the moral precepts of Jesus as more pure, correct and sublime than those of the ancient philosophers.” Hitchens needs to cease and desist in this attempt to misrepresent Jefferson’s complex philosophical makeup.

I’m far from a fan of organized religion, but these new mechanistic evangelists – and that’s what they are - have little to offer civilization that is an improvement, and the potential to empower an ideology that might prove far worse.

When challenging Christians, it is Christ’s actual teaching that stands as the most powerful weapon in the critic’s arsenal – for every Christian society that has turned to the dark side has explicitly walked away from Christ’s actual teachings (as opposed to the ravings of Popes and clerics of every persuasion). There is nothing in Marx or indeed Freud that can approach the insights into the human condition offered by the Buddha or Lao Tse. In comparison, look at what twenty years of psychoanalysis did for Woody Allen? You call that an improvement?

The reality is that while much ancient religious dogma is probably little more than parable, the spiritual impulse in man is real and enduring. The urge for transcendence is clearly an integral component of the human psyche. And there are still, to this day, intimations to be seen of a reality that surpasses any human understanding – like the incident that the New York Times reported on a few weeks ago, of a French Nun who is said to have experienced a spontaneous remission of Parkinson’s Disease, after praying to the late John Paul II. As Shakespeare had Hamlet reflect: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” Indeed, there are.

The one area where I will applaud Hitchens is in his call for a new “Enlightenment”. The day when literalistic interpretations of sacred texts could suffice has long passed. If spiritual men and women are ever going to successfully reconcile the claims of transcendent experience with that of science, or even more critically, the claims of one allegedly infallible prophet or guru with another, then we’re going to have to begin thinking far outside the box. We are a species that lives on a planet that revolves around a relatively insignificant star in the heavens. At this moment in our evolution as a species, we are likely as close to understanding ultimate reality, and with it the mystery of spiritual experience, as we are of traveling to the next star system. The humility that must accompany this realization strikes me as the best remedy to date for our current wars between religions, and between religion and irreligion.

well written Matthew. Almost sounds like the beginning of a Tao of Religion post.

It was a thrill for me photographically to wake up to "Water is Life" by Kayakbiker, as Water was the theme of Minneapolis' May Day parade, from the land of 10,000 lakes & an old home.
http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com/

If you go through that Times Blog thread, you discover reports of Hitchens apparently appearing on The Daily Show, and elsewhere, drunk. When he appeared to thrash Mother Teresa on the Penn & Teller program (on Showtime, which will go unnamed on this family oriented Blog, due it's colorful title), even they made reference to the fact that he appeared half-lit to them.

Why doesn't he just come clean, and admit that he's a disciple of Dionysius...

Cyrano
If you pick up the March issue of Vanity Fair, read the article about the guy who is making the pro-war documentary (aims to be the conservative Michael Moore) called "Young Americans." He is worshipped by Anne Coulter, & aims to be the Hunter S. Thompson of the right. His decadence was shocking. He developed a cataract on one eye and just left it, then left the same contact lens in the other for six months. The article was one of the most shocking things I've read, and throughout, I was hoping his movie is derailed. Unbelievable!

There is also an incredible piece in that issue about the Iraq war underpinnings and plans to go into Iran. It hit me so hard how many times things could have gone in a different direction. In 2003, our government completely ignored Iran's attempts to initiate a diplomatic solution via the Swiss embassy and instead of responding, reprimanded the Swiss ambassador for interfering. Just last Christmas, James Baker et al proposed a face-saving solution and W and cohorts went in the opposite direction with "the surge." They now have enough personnel and equipment for an airstrike against Iran, long championed by people like Netanayu of Israel and conservative tanks like PNAC. The Iranians would blockade the Strait of Hormuz and oil would rocket up to $150/barrel, sending the world economy into a tailspin. & they'll probably do it! Local Congressmen have said they're surprised it wasn't done before the 2006 elections!

I did hear this morning that the Democrats are trying to head off the missile intercepter money waste in Poland that is so aggravating Russia (it's also excused as being a defense against Iran). & Cheney is heading off to several mideast countries to wheel and deal. Now that the lame duck is lamer and mostly reduced to being ridiculed by the Australian press for his gaffes against the British queen, looks like the real president Cheney is operating out of the shadows, unfettered.

By the way, a couple of fun facts.

Dennis Kucinich is not only a vegan but doesn't eat cooked food.

Monica Goodling is the one who covered the breasts of the art deco statues in the Justice Department.

Well, back to work!

There is, by the way, a new thread. I'm just sayin'.

:0)