Linda B is first for promoting this.

linda b is very first and is among those that personify the Howardly. Have a wonderful and productive time at TBA, linda. Oh, I wish I could be there to see you in action!

36.

Huron John
Sat, 06/16/07
6:36 am

.........
As Seashell has said many times, our foreign policy is being driven by Israel...
---------

John, when someone in their assessment is using words "our foreign policy" and/or "driven by Israel" the immediate question must follow: who are "we"? and who are "Israel"?

In both cases there is none. There is no "our/we" as well as there is no "Israel".

There are Bush&Co. and American People.
There are Israeli Government and Israeli People.

Bush&Co. and Israeli Government have common interests.
American People and Israeli People have common interests.
Distinguish them, don't confuse them, they AREN'T reconcilable!

46.

Phil Specht
Sat, 06/16/07
9:18 am

........
yes who would have thought an old liberal like me would be espousing what used to be conservative doctrines of limiting state power
-------
...lol,
The one only who is able to learn during entire lifetime stay always young!

bbl.

Check out the list of speakers...it is amazing and includes Senator Barack Obama and other Candidates. Wish I had the loot and carbon offsets to make the trip.

Great news and outstanding work, Lindab and DFA. This is an important conference for DFA to be visible and active. People need to see what great work you are doing.

TBA was one of the first conference in 2004 that we DFA'ers all gathered together at a meetup I helped organize. Several of us were featured in a picture in the Washington Post under a banner, DFA Bloggers love the Guv. I still have it posted on my frig! Then we had Demfest 1 the next month and the rest was history.

Wish I could be there; am kicking myself for not planning my life around this, but will be there in spirit. I look forward to your and others' blogging, Linda. We want pics and details!!

Indy Steve, I remember our meetup at the Hilton. It was fun with Kimmy and her green hair and us sitting in the front row and on the floor cheering on Howard! I remember the pix in the WApost. My right arm was on the front page of the WApost!!!!!!!!!!. What fun.

I wish you all could be there and now yesterday I read that Democracy for America is a sponsor of the TBA conf. Thank you Jim and Sheri for doing this.

Can't wait to get to DC.

I will blog from there, promise . Maybe Jim will stop by and say hi too. I know he is going to be busy with all the media there. He has a busy schedule.

I may not be able to push myself to the front but I will try to let the Hillarys and the Pelosi's that we need to get the heck out of Iraq.

former
Sat, 06/16/07
10:08 am
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Your last paragraph says alot..............our "common interests" with ertain ME countires is exactly whats gotten this nation into hot water with reprisals like 911 and so on.........the US should ow out of that region entirely, but they wont.............Americans have to accept that we are now direct contributors to our own demise.........i simple terms it means a permanent military garrison or two in the ME, future terroist targets abroad and most likely an eventual strike here at home....this is what the experts say............

Just to let you know, DC4Democracy is having a table there to promote DC voting rights.

I got a call and email from the young lady that is the chair of the group. She said that Jim Webb has not taken a stance on this important bill.

I told her to call Jim's office in DC. She did but got no answer.

So, I called the VA Beach office where our city committee chair is a staffer.

He used the office telephone to get someone in the DC office to get in touch with Keshe.

Jim Webb's staffer who handles the voting rights legislation called me to find out what the call was about.  I informed her about the DC group and the voting rights legislation she was working on. I told her I was a Virginia resident and had worked on Sen. Webb's campaign in my town and had set up all the precincts.

Well things started happening and on Monday at 5pm we have an appointment with Sen Webb and his staffers in his office on capitol hill. Kesha , myself and Jim Dean will be there to ask Sen Webb to support the DC Voting Rights act.

How do I get in the middle of these things.

A special thank you to Jim Dean for helping Kesha and DC4Democracy with this important bill.

Congrats Linda b !!

I was skeptical of this conference's lineup-and still believe clinton
and obama(and certain others) dont belong near anything 'progressive', but there
are also some good speakers lined up and Im hoping you can spread
the DFA 'word'.

thanks for doing what you do Linda!

I know, I am gonna sit on my hands with some of those speakers. Self serving but it makes the conf. look good to have them.

I am interested to see what Code Pink will be up to. Last year they tried to disrupt Clinton's speech and got stopped. That was great for democracy.

Medea Benjamin, the groups head is going to be on a panel. So we will see.

A funny story about the TBA Conference in 04. Hillary Clinton wasn't scheduled to speak. But when she saw that Dean and Edwards and Kerry would be there, she jumped into the ring by introducing George Soros. She is an opportunist of the first order which has its pluses and minuses.

She was NOT met with great applause but Howard Dean received a hero's welcome. It was nearly a riot....so the fact that some who are coming are not that progressive is fine. They have a lot of work to do.

linda b
Sat, 06/16/07
11:33 am

Yes, I remember your arm!! Just looked at it and it was right behind my head; looks like you're going to hit me....And I took a pic of Kimmy's tatoo (faith and hope, Howard Dean) and posted it on the blog. Those were good times. And there are many more to come!

Yes Indy, it was a near riot when Howard came out, I remember John Corizone was introducing him and the crowd saw Howard at the door. Well people were hanging over the balcony to cheer him on.

I remember John saying "but I'm not finished!!" then he just gave up.

It was electric.

Memories.

January 26, 2007

The 28,200-square-foot Edwards home in Orange County is expected to be valued at more than $6 million.

RALEIGH — Presidential candidate John Edwards and his family recently moved into what county tax officials say is the most valuable home in Orange County. The house, which includes a recreational building attached to the main living quarters, also is probably the largest in the county.

“The Edwardses’ residential property will likely have the highest tax value in the county,” Orange County Tax Assessor John Smith told Carolina Journal. He estimated that the tax value will exceed $6 million when the facility is completed.

The rambling structure sits in the middle of a 102-acre estate on Old Greensboro Road west of Chapel Hill. The heavily wooded site and winding driveway ensure that the home is not visible from the road. “No Trespassing” signs discourage passersby from venturing past the gate.

Don Knight, Orange County building plans examiner, told CJ that, including the recreational building, the Edwardses’ home would be one of the largest in Orange County.

Knight approved the building plans that showed the Edwards home totaling 28,200 square feet of connected space. The main house is 10,400 square feet and has two garages. The recreation building, a red, barn-like building containing 15,600 square feet, is connected to the house by a closed-in and roofed structure of varying widths and elevations that totals 2,200 square feet.

The main house is all on one level except for a 600-square-foot bedroom and bath area above the guest garage.

The recreation building contains a basketball court, a squash court, two stages, a bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, swimming pool, a four-story tower, and a room designated “John’s Lounge.”

Edwards was the Democratic candidate for vice president in 2004 and a former N.C. senator.

Thursday afternoon, the Edwards for President press office was unable to provide information on any additional buildings planned for the estate.

Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal

Freedom, not climate, is at risk

Financial Times | June 15, 2007
Vaclav Klaus

We are living in strange times. One exceptionally warm winter is enough – irrespective of the fact that in the course of the 20th century the global temperature increased only by 0.6 per cent – for the environmentalists and their followers to suggest radical measures to do something about the weather, and to do it right now.

In the past year, Al Gore's so-called “documentary” film was shown in cinemas worldwide, Britain's – more or less Tony Blair's – Stern report was published, the fourth report of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was put together and the Group of Eight summit announced ambitions to do something about the weather. Rational and freedom-loving people have to respond. The dictates of political correctness are strict and only one permitted truth, not for the first time in human history, is imposed on us. Everything else is denounced.

The author Michael Crichton stated it clearly: “the greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda”. I feel the same way, because global warming hysteria has become a prime example of the truth versus propaganda problem. It requires courage to oppose the “established” truth, although a lot of people – including top-class scientists – see the issue of climate change entirely differently. They protest against the arrogance of those who advocate the global warming hypothesis and relate it to human activities.

As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not in communism. This ideology wants to replace the free and spontaneous evolution of mankind by a sort of central (now global) planning.

The environmentalists ask for immediate political action because they do not believe in the long-term positive impact of economic growth and ignore both the technological progress that future generations will undoubtedly enjoy, and the proven fact that the higher the wealth of society, the higher is the quality of the environment. They are Malthusian pessimists.

The scientists should help us and take into consideration the political effects of their scientific opinions. They have an obligation to declare their political and value assumptions and how much they have affected their selection and interpretation of scientific evidence.

Does it make any sense to speak about warming of the Earth when we see it in the context of the evolution of our planet over hundreds of millions of years? Every child is taught at school about temperature variations, about the ice ages, about the much warmer climate in the Middle Ages. All of us have noticed that even during our life-time temperature changes occur (in both directions).

Due to advances in technology, increases in disposable wealth, the rationality of institutions and the ability of countries to organise themselves, the adaptability of human society has been radically increased. It will continue to increase and will solve any potential consequences of mild climate changes.

I agree with Professor Richard Lindzen from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who said: “future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century's developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age”.

The issue of global warming is more about social than natural sciences and more about man and his freedom than about tenths of a degree Celsius changes in average global temperature.

As a witness to today's worldwide debate on climate change, I suggest the following:
¦Small climate changes do not demand far-reaching restrictive measures

¦Any suppression of freedom and democracy should be avoided

¦Instead of organising people from above, let us allow everyone to live as he wants

¦Let us resist the politicisation of science and oppose the term “scientific consensus”, which is always achieved only by a loud minority, never by a silent majority

¦Instead of speaking about “the environment”, let us be attentive to it in our personal behaviour

¦Let us be humble but confident in the spontaneous evolution of human society. Let us trust its rationality and not try to slow it down or divert it in any direction

¦Let us not scare ourselves with catastrophic forecasts, or use them to defend and promote irrational interventions in human lives.

Google Earth Censors the "Butt Mountain" Darpa Facility in Blacksburg Virginia

DEFEND ROSIE! SIGN THE PETITION NOW

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Get TERRORSTORM on DVD now

9/11 and more at PrisonPlanet.tv

Matt Kazee / TheTruthMovement.net | June 14, 2007

On Saturday June 9th, 2007 Matthew Kazee called in to the Alex Ansary show to discuss the Underground DARPA base in Blacksburg Virginia. For years there have been rumors that hidden away in in Blacksburg was a top secret underground DARPA base where research was done on many things including robotics, chips for humans so they can control computers with their mind, and chips for computers to control people's minds.

The rumors broke nationally from a woman by the name of Cathy O'Brien who wrote a book in 1995 called "Trance-Formation of America", in which she claimed that Bill Clinton was a partner with George Bush Sr. in a drug smuggling operation that was exposed in the Iran Contra Affair, and later proved by former D.E.A. Cele Castillo. It involved smuggling guns to the Contra's in exchange for cocaine which was air lifted by the C.I.A. in C-130 airplanes to the small town of Mena, Arkansas while Bill Clinton was Governor. O'Brien claimed that they had a plan to bring in a "new world order" and after people got tired of Republicans that Bill Clinton would be President. This was decided in 1984.

She also claims she was a victim of the M.K. Ultra Program in Blacksburg Virginia in a underground DARPA base located in "Butt Mountain". The strangest quote I read that Cathy O'Brien said was "Virginia Tech is good for two things, engineering and mind control." and that "most of the east coast M.K. Ultra Mind Control experiments happened in this DARPA facility." This was written in 1995, the same year that a plane crashed in to the White House on September 11 in an attempt to kill President Clinton.

There is only one problem with her claims-- Butt Mountain is not in Blacksburg. Internet searches seem to point to the Kimballton mine that is located inside Butt Mountain at Pearisburg, Virginia. So why did she say Blacksburg? The 7000ft deep mine is 30 minutes from Blacksburg. I set out to see if this story had any legs. I was shocked at what I found.

36.

Huron John
Sat, 06/16/07
6:36 am

.........
As Seashell has said many times, our foreign policy is being driven by Israel...

==================

More like the far right-wing of Revisionist Zionism in Israel.  We may just have to wait until these guys die off.  The stay in power by imposing fear on Israelis and Jews worldwide, by provoking the Palestinians and others, who strike back at the country with rockets and suicide bombers.  They have a "Gitmo" system of arresting thousands of people and keeping them in prison without charges, trials, or habeus corpus.  That's why we have Hamas and Hezbollah, not because Arabs supposed to hate Jews.

Now we have Simon Peres in power, maybe a step in the right direction.  He was minister of defense under Itzak Rabin, one of the few good leaders Israel ever had, and the first Israeli-born prime minister.

Here's the pic from the Washington Post of us at the TBA Conference when Dean was giving his talk. A little fuzzy scanned from a printed photo on the WA Post front page.

MISSIE

http://www.counterpunch.org/beattie06162007.html

I’m afraid. I’m very afraid. I fear for my children and future grandchildren. I fear for everybody’s children and future grandchildren. Because there truly are evil people in this world. George Bush has told us so.

I’m afraid. I’m afraid and I fear for my children and future grandchildren because of evil. The evil residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the evil living at Number One Observatory Circle. These two, along with the rest of their ultraconservative administration and a complicit Congress are an axis of evil, thrusting their ultimatums with oppressively brutal footprints on countries to be conquered while telling us that foreign terrorists wish to kill us because they, the terrorists, are jealous of our freedom.

Let’s identify those who really want to remove our liberties and distort all that we hold dear. Let’s recognize that an agenda of evil has caused us to be hated throughout most of the world.

I’m afraid. I’m afraid because the evil that exists in my world owns the mainstream media, those blathering, emoting, eye-lined and eye-shadowed, mascara-lashed objects that bring us stories about Paris Hilton’s rash and rarely mention depleted uranium exposure and its effects on our troops and the people of Iraq. I’m afraid because so many of my fellow citizens seem to be more interested in the escapades of the stars and titillating stories than in what is being done in our names--cataclysmic destruction, torture, and death.

Let’s call evil by its name--American imperialism. And leadership that profits from the anguish of others.

DANIEL ROONEY 

The 28,200-square-foot Edwards home in Orange County is expected to be valued at more than $6 million.

================

just three words "Hip"  "pock"  "Chrissy"

Last night on PBS Charlie Rose, Brzezsinki, Scrowcroft, and Henry Kissinger, discuss Iraq, the I/P issue and other subjects, together at a round table discussion - catch the rerun on Monday if you can

DANIEL ROONEY
Sat, 06/16/07
12:08 pm

That's the ticket...let's just smear the good guys. Edwards has made sure the home will offset any carbon emissions with solar and other energy efficient designs.

 How about posting all the stories about the Rethugs and where they live, or how Rudy made millions off 9/11 while letting firefighters die. Oh, right, the press isn't doing stories about them, just doing things to smear Edwards and Gore. And you fall right into the trap. good going.

Just what purpose is served by this? Please shorten your posts; they pollute the blog.

rapid response needed by Edwards as it is a 10,000 sq. ft. home attached to a recreational facility in a barn and counted as all house

10,000 is still a large house but not of the obscene size if it actually was as big as two barns

look at the photo

Edwards has been smeared.

Indy, that is not my are (the blue one) mine is orangy to the right of the lady in black. that lady was out to get u (the one in blue).

Lindab, the woman in black next to me? That is Melissa from PA i think. Old blogger. Dean from san diego is sitting on the floor next to the sign. Others? I don't remember who is holding the sign.

Kissinger didn't have much to say did he Fred? The other two got it right and he got it wrong.

any guesses as to who is spreading the story on Edwards house? Rove? Carville?

Howard had to put up with alot of that. As a candidate you think you don't have to dignify something with a response, but Kerry's swift boaters proved that you do need a rapid response team.

linda b .....democracy's friend indeed!!!
She will show you, as she takes lead, to help get training for you and me. A fighter for our rights, showing what activism is all about, cheering on the Governor, from the audience she gives a shout.

GOOO LINDA!

Phil, what picture on Edwards home.

Phil Specht
Sat, 06/16/07
12:51 pm

How to lie with statistics!! ;-) Next someone will calculate the cubic foot volume and there will be a story on that "obscene" house. It's amazing and discouraging how these stories like the house and the haircut bounce around forever.

I agree with you on rapid response. Edwards has responded to this repeatedly. If a Democratic opponent is behind these stories, we need to know. This is the kind of crap we don't need this time around.

Indy, you looked good in the photo. But I haven't seen a bad pic of you yet.

Linda*in*SFNM
Sat, 06/16/07
1:15 pm

Hi, Linda,

Too kind!! I am not "photo genetic" as my brother-in-law used to say!

Phil Specht

========

Well, honestly, I kept falling asleep.  I'll watch it on Monday, but i did get the last 20 minutes on tape.  Kissinger seems knowledgeable but speaks in broader terms.  He was the greatest asset to Nixon, and a quintessential negotiator.

There was considerable innuendo to the fact that we cannot just pack up and leave our mess in Iraq.  That what we are doing there is not right, but if we leave it this way, it could have bad consequences.  That we need to bring in the world and regional community to fill the vacuum and help restore order as we leave in Iraq

The people who talk as if the best and only thing to do is to get out ASAP, speak about the country as if it were a stable established government and we are destablizing it..

There is no government there.  There is no longer an Iraq.  The Maliki regime is just a poor excuse for Shiites to get armed and trained by the naive USA, so they can fight Sunnis, who have been labeled "insurgents."

  I think it was Brzezinki that said something, we have a world that is a relic of colonialism, with artificial borders created by powers, and this is causing a world of Balkanization in places like the ME.

Indy I had heard the story but not the response. Club for Growth?

 Indy,

More evidence to the contrary! 

any guesses as to who is spreading the story on Edwards house? Rove? Carville?  Howard had to put up with alot of that.

===============

Don't see the comparison.  Did Howard build a house like that?  Better to have it out now than in the general campaign.  What would Rove or Carville gain by knocking out Edwards from the primary?

FRED from OR
Sat, 06/16/07
1:21 pm

Kissinger is a murderous thug once removed. His actions have resulted in the deaths of millions. No way should he be regarded as an asset to anyone. Sound strong? I can't say it strongly enough.

Indy...someone leaking stories???

From TPM Café…

Obama Campaign Circulating Negative (And Ultimately False) Story About Bill Clinton

By Greg Sargent | bio

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/jun/15/obama_campaign_circulating_negative_story_about_bill_clinton 

Thanks for all the good memories, Linda's from VA and SFNM!

Gotta go get some yard work done. BBL.

I'll wait for a map that shows which oil company gets which oil field and lay it up against the corresponding map from Cheney's energy task force before I think the balkanization wasn't the plan all along. Kissinger is a war crimminal that ought to be rotting in a cell at the Hague. (the one they were saving for Pinochet would do)

20,000 or so of those names in marble at that sad slash are Kissinger's to claim.

this isn't the first bad advice he has given

and if this wasn't a public space I tell you what I really think of dear Henry

Kissinger is one reason why we have such troubles in the ME today. He literqlly told the Israelis that possession was 9/10 of the law and they had better get their settlements on the Occupied Territories as fast as they could. So they complied, with an unofficial US imprimatur.

He gave the Shah of Iran carte blanche insofar as US military hardware went. The Shah got prime weaponry even ahead of Israel.

Kissinger is BAD News all round.

Then the weaponry that got stalled in its tracks after the embargo in 1979 when Iran took US hostages ... ended up making its way back to Iran through Iran-Contra ... and also into Afghanistan to help out the mujaheddin.

What goes around comes around ... and thus, 9-11.

Kissinger is a traitor, no less.

Renember this picture from the overllow crowd at TBA in 2004?  I forget who took it. 

JudyforDean

==========

Interesting.,  I did not know that.  I am up to 1992 in Avi Shlaim's The Iron Wall  and don't remember reading anything like that.  The book is very straightforward and does not whitewash anybody and does not defend bad actions of Israel or the U.S.  Do you have a direct reference to that fact??? (not a second-hand source or opinion)

46.   I mean about Kissinger pushing settlements

Edwards is being smeared becuz he's be the hardest to beat if Gore doesn't enter IMO. Betcha Rove wants Clinton cuz oh what history she has.

I talked with several dancers last night who feel exactly the way some of us here about putzco foreign policy, AIPAC and Israel Zionists.  And it didn't start with putzco.  This messing in our ME affairs started years ago and frankly, I've had quite enuf of it.

lindab, if you get the chance, please ask Clinton or/and Obama why they're kissing AIPAC a$$.  Someone has to have the courage to begin this dialogue which is surpressed in this country. 

Re Edwards' house. Why don't the media go after the Kennedys the Rockefellers, the Bush's for their lavish life style.

 Edwards is drawing attacks because he's on the progressive side of the issues.

I think this is altogether likely, knowing what we know about the lies getting us into Iraq and the messianic WH we have.  The awful truth is that I think the American people would never dream that it was an inside job since they can't bring themselves to admit they elected an insane person and that our country is being destroyed by the cabal.  Flags would spring up and out all over the place since it's *our country,right or wrong.*

I would hope to god I'm wrong about all this. 

**********

Brzezinski Suggests False Flag Event Could Kick-Start Iran War
Top globalist warns Congress of provocation or terrorist attack inside U.S.

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Paul Joseph Watson / Prison Planet | February 6, 2007

Former National Security Advisor and founding member of the Trilateral Commission Zbigniew Brzezinski tacitly warned a Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week that an attack on Iran could be launched following a staged provocation in Iraq or a false flag terror attack within the U.S.

Brzezinski alluded to the potential for the Bush administration to manufacture a false flag Gulf of Tonkin type incident in describing a "plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran," which would revolve around "some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the US blamed on Iran, culminating in a ‘defensive’ US military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

Oh shoot, all that blue stuff wasn't supposed to be there.  Sorry.  I'll stop posting now.

Please note that there are certain people here (very few) that I do not respond to directly here because they have cast asperions, without knowing the slightest thing about me (or apparently have not paid attention when I've told things).

There are lots of references to Kissinger's role, official and unofficial, in Israeli settlement policy. I do have more direct knowledge, but all it takes is a couple Google searches and all sorts of things pop up for the world to see.

Here's one, for instance ... and there are lots of others that go more into unofficial aspects.

http://www.counterpunch.org/kchristison0...

Interestingly enough, many Israelis at the time did NOT want to resettle thes areas, in fact, reading the law correctly. But it was Kissinger and US hawks, among them Washington State's Henry Jackson (mentor to people like Elliott Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, etc., all of whom are resurgent today in one way or another), who kept feeding the US RWingers until the RW took over altogether and drowned out voices of reason.

See, for example, this interesting bit about how many Israelis themselves saw their occupation at the time. What a shame that the US interfered at all.

http://justworldnews.org/archives/001782...

43. 

Found this

=========

---

PLO leader Yasser Arafat has called Israel's plans to offer financial incentives to Jewish settlers on the West Bank ''a ticking bomb"; eight former U.S. foreign policy chiefs concur in a letter to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Kwame Holman presents a backgrounder followed by a newsmaker interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry Kissinger

....ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: I signed it largely for the reasons that the letter states, namely that at this extremely delicate stage in the Arab-Israeli peace process, with so many issues still unresolved, even with issues resolved not being implemented, the additional burden of new settlements, of enlarging existing settlements, runs the real risk of undermining a peace process which is clearly, clearly in the interest of Israel, in the interest of the Palestinians, and very much in the U.S. interest. In fact, the notion of enlarging the settlements, or creating new ones, is something that the United States has consistently opposed for something like more than two decades.

JIM LEHRER: Through all administrations.

ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI: Through all administrations, Democratic or Republican.

JIM LEHRER: Now, Dr. Kissinger, you chose not to sign the letter. Why not?

HENRY KISSINGER, Former Secretary of State: (New York City) Well, for two reasons. First, I have just published an article which states comprehensively my views of how diplomacy in the Middle East should proceed, and I did not see any point in picking out one item, namely the issue of settlements, for special attention. Secondly, I did not think this was the ideal moment for a public statement when there are no actual negotiations going on and to single out one of the parties for special opprobrium, when, in fact, I believe that both sides have had significant shortcomings over the recent month.

And so I think that the peace process should re-start. I think, in fact, it should be given a new basis, than the existing one, which is a series of small steps, and I think they should make--try to achieve a comprehensive solution, and for all of these reasons, I did not think it was wise to write such a letter, much as I respect the people who signed it and friendly as I am to all of them....

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/middle_east/december96/letter_12-18.html

Quite distracted since I am chatting with my husband (currently in MD) using the Skype chat feature. For some reason, we seem to be getting a lot of static when we speak so we've reverted to *chat* and he's giving me a bunch of information about changing interest rates on mortgages.

Rates here just moved up, to 2.5%! This is one reason why purchasing property is attractive at the moment. Believe me, the actual prices are not.

This place is really booming.

JudyforDean

=========

Hope you are not insinuating that I am a great admirer of Kissinger.  I just said he was Nixon's best asset and a quitessential negotiator.  I did not say I agree with his politics and policies.  However, having said that, I don't find much evidence that he is a devil or a saint.   He was a holocaust survivor and that will forever make him skeptical and wary (and possibly even paranoid) of anything perceived to be threatening to Israel.

I am not trying to demean holocaust survivors as mentally biased or deranged, but they are human beings severely effected by an experience, as we all are affected by our experiences.

...Brzezinski Suggests False Flag Event Could Kick-Start Iran War...

===========

That's a weird line, Brzezinski is currently very much a dove on the Iran issue

Oh, I see Brzezinski is warning us.... thought it said he was causing it to start

I'll hold Edwards' record for or against him, but not his house.

55,
I don't agree Fred. Kissenger was one of the others of "Pease with Honor" which prolonged the war for many years.
They could have the deal they eventually got in 1969 but HK wanted to "save our honour".

So instead, we bugged out with bombing.
The Cambodia bombings drove the people into the arms of the Kyber Rouge.

Skipping through from the library in Franklin MA, site of the first public library in the US and home to Dean College.

19. Awesome pic, Indy! Are you going this year?

23. 25. Yep, it's easy on this one to skew and omit facts. Like everyone else, I'd like to see the day when Repub. candidates have their assets strewn across the news. (That's not to say I want to see them smeared in return, just the facts all around:)

Later folks. ♥'s to all

Kindness is free!

Mind you, I'm not complaining. But it would sure be nice to have captions with  these Dfest photos that tell who is in them LtoR, Front/Back. 

Lots of non-sequiturs ???? Ah well.

**********
For some real belly-laughs, do take a gander at the DUzy awards, a composite of the responses judged most witty during the week that was over on DU.

I just discovered these last week and they really do promote internal jogging, aka laughter.

====================
http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...

And, the last for now, but first ...

{{{♥ lindab ♥}}} Great work!!

=====================
Source: The Independent

" How troublesome the Muslims of the Middle East are. First, we demand that the Palestinians embrace democracy and then they elect the wrong party - Hamas - and then Hamas wins a mini-civil war and presides over the Gaza Strip. And we Westerners still want to negotiate with the discredited President, Mahmoud Abbas. Today "Palestine" - and let's keep those quotation marks in place - has two prime ministers. Welcome to the Middle East.

Who can we negotiate with? To whom do we talk? Well of course, we should have talked to Hamas months ago. But we didn't like the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people. They were supposed to have voted for Fatah and its corrupt leadership. But they voted for Hamas, which declines to recognise Israel or abide by the totally discredited Oslo agreement.

No one asked - on our side - which particular Israel Hamas was supposed to recognise. The Israel of 1948? The Israel of the post-1967 borders? The Israel which builds - and goes on building - vast settlements for Jews and Jews only on Arab land, gobbling up even more of the 22 per cent of "Palestine" still left to negotiate over ?"

Read more: http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/artic...

**************
And for the DU comments,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...

The Cambodia bombings drove the people into the arms of the Kyber Rouge.

That was part of it. But it was Kissinger's overthrow of Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk who wouldn't allow US troops into Cambodia and installation of US puppet Lon Nol which gave the Khmer Rouge legitamacy as freedom fighters. Before that they were just a little band of cranks hiding in the ruins of Ankgor Watt. 

Couple that with the Pinochet coup and it's amazing Kissinger isn't treated like the inhuman bonehead that he really is. On second thought, the corporate media always covers for cretins like him and Powell.

Howard Dean spoke out very clearly on why the judges were fired.  Best I have heard anyone say. This was on the Tavis Smiley show which was one of his best in studio interviews ever and no one saw it. 

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1347

We absolutely have to impeach Cheney who will run all over condi/putz.  But how? How?

FOCUS | Strategy on Iran Stirs New Debate at White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061607Y.shtml
A year after President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced a new strategy toward Iran, a behind-the-scenes debate has broken out that has pitted Ms. Rice and her deputies against the few remaining hawks inside the administration, especially those in Vice President Dick Cheney's office who, according to some people familiar with the discussions, are pressing for greater consideration of military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.
 

55,
I don't agree Fred. Kissenger was one of the others of "Pease with Honor" which prolonged the war for many

==========

maybe you are right but he did not have much policy power..  Kissinger was just a pawn, but he seemed to do his best to bring opposing sides together - I was against the war from 1966, but that's the way I remember it. 

64.
Thanks for the extra detail. I am blogging and running today.
One of the many dirty little secrets of mass bombings results in people being so demoralized they are easy prey for someone who seems willing to provide them security.
This is what happened with the Cambodia bombings and the Iraq bombings.
When we destroy a house or villages full of folks who just want to get on with their lives we end up empowering someone who would not have a chance at taking power.
The example is al Queda in Iraq and Pol Pot in Cambodia.
Each were fringe organizations until we started murdering innocent folks.

We did the same in VN.
We would walk on the rice field dams and collapse them because booby traps would be in the fields. Many imes, they were ours (baseballs which were banned by the UN but were used anyway).
Facing hunger, what were the folks supposed to do? Since we often let them starve, the NVN supplied food, killed a few of us to show security and concern, and won the locals hearts and minds.
When the folks started supporting the VC, we would and wipe the villages out.
Then repeat the process in the next village.

JudyforDean

=========

It looks like a two-State solution,  awright, Gaza is one, and the "United States" of Israel and the West Bank, is the other.

When the folks started supporting the VC, we would and wipe the villages out.
Then repeat the process in the next village.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

judging by this countries history with what you explain truthfully (and thank you) I do not think I would relish those memories regardless for whatever cause that was dreamed up here at home......................

I really thought we had learned our lesson from Vietnam, until the early 80s when i saw the same stupid war fervor cropping up again.............it seems this country always needs an enemy...........meanwhile, the majority of the world does just fine and gets on with a normal life...............

59.
dog soldier

========

Don't forget that until the very end, Viet Nam was not a partisan war.  Both parties were bad, and anyone who brags about being a Democrat during that war, is just grandstanding. In fact Democrats started it.  Neither party was good, except for Democrats in Civil Rights in 1964 and some social programs, but some of the programs were so mismanaged, it helped push people over to being Republicans and started the legacy of the "tax and spend" attack, which stuck to us for years.  We are still trying to get rid of that baggage.

Michael Ellis

=========

Now the Sunnis ["insurgents"]are the bad guys, along with Al Qaeda, and nobody can tell who's who, half the time, but it's weird because the Shiites are closer to Iran, the big bogeyman.  BTW with regard to Lieberman's asshole statement,  we have done more to arm both sides, than Iran could ever dream of doing.

lindab, if you get the chance, please ask Clinton or/and Obama why they're kissing AIPAC a$$.  Someone has to have the courage to begin this dialogue which is surpressed in this country. 

I am so infuriated with hillary now I may just stand up and ask her . what can they do? throw me out? we shall see.

linda b

=========

I wish a Democratic candidate would say something besides, " Israel has a right to defend herself" [by denying habeus corpus and killing civilians] and "They have to recognize Israel's right to exist" [and Palestinians then have to agree with Israel that Palestinians don't exist]

In VN, the real axis of evil was Johnson/Nixon, Macnamara/Laird and Kissenger.

HK had a ton of power as NSA and Sec of State. Instead of leaving VN in 1069, we left in 1973.
A whole lot of people died needlessly.

70,
The reason we are doing the same dumb thing now as in VN is the same dumb folks who got us in this mess were involved in VN...
The neocons laid in the weeds, waiting for their chance to avenge the mistaken VN conflict.
After wrecking VN and Iraq, the same set of nutjobs want to repeat their errors in Iran.

The neocons laid in the weeds, waiting for their chance to avenge the mistaken VN conflict

============

This is all well and good, but you have to put much, if not most of the blame, on the American people, too.  I remember seeing flags on every car, after 9/11 and wondering "how the hell is flag-waving going to help undo the mistake of these guys catching us with our pants down"

At that point I knew that any politician who spoke of rounding up a posse and hanging the evil-doers would get voted in.  Get ready for another war.  I remember lots of people talking about Bush senior being responsible for 9/11 for "not finishing the job" in Iraq.   That was nonsense but I don't think people needed politicians to tell them this... it was good old American hubris.

71,
Actually, some blame Dems for NVN defeating the South Vietnam Army by cutting of the funds...
http://hnn.us/articles/31400.html

Let me state that this article is total garbage. The South Vietnam Army was content to let us do the dieing while they stayed home. The exception was the South Vietnames Marines who were savage beasts and the Montgarnds who were superb allies.
In most cases, The SVN troops would finger someone for an assasination which turned out to be some personel vendetta.
Any POWs we captured were to be turned over to the SVN for interrogation. They were simply tortured and then mercifillly murdered. If we were to go on joint missions, they never shwed up at the drop zone.
I shed no tears when SVN fell to the North.

The same things go on in Iraq except we help with the torturing and murdering.

Fred,
The American folks have proven time and time again to be dumb as rocks.
It is easy to manipulate us because we take great pains to be ignorant of world events.

The Iraq war was orchestrated and sold like a Madison Avenue brand of corn flakes.
It is all marketing and secrecy. no photographs of coffins; landing at Andrews at night...everything to avoid putting the dead on TV.

This is what happened with the Cambodia bombings and the Iraq bombings.
When we destroy a house or villages full of folks who just want to get on with their lives we end up empowering someone who would not have a chance at taking power.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

in addition to committing a war crime

Both Iraq and VN were giant war crimes.
I think I am going to rush out and put a bunch of "Support our Troops" stickers on my walker.

Nebraskan Gov. and Senator Bob Kerrey is my example of someone who has a Presidential intellect and character and may have been one, but acknowledged that some of the deaths of innocent civilians he caused during covert actions behind enemy lines in Vietnam were crimes under international law even as they were decorated acts of heroism under the rues of engagement, and withdrew his candidacy as he came to grips with his personal history. (Source: personal face to face conversation, Fred) 

"Israel has a right to defend itself" means *the US will send every US man and woman under 60 to die in wars so that Israel has a right to defend itself.* The bully defends the bully.

So now we have Israeli senator Liberputz and Israeli vice prez Cheney pushing for bombing Iran.  Can you imagine the upheaval in the WH with Cheney and Co fighting for power with Condi/putz?   Condi prolly realizes the stakes, whereas putz can't find his latest "non-alcoholic" beer; so it's Condi against Cheney and the neo-cons.  She hasn't a chance............

So cheney is running the executive branch, the legislative is paralyzed and with all the defections and firings at Justice, I think maybe Gonzalez is now totally in charge of that as well and since he's not a very bright bulb, Rove/Cheney are now controlling Justice. 

Warm fuzzies all around.  

I don't have good feelings about 08.  These maniacs are playing for keeps and will stop at nothing to stay in control.  They're stealing and disenfranchising the votes as we speak  and if congress is going the long legal route to bring these criminals to justice, it'll be way too late. Arrest them now on suspicion of war crimes.

They will also control who wins the nominations and the presidency, assuming there's another election. The CMW will aid them in this.

The question is, how many decades has this been going on?  When did we really lose our country, or have we never really had it, since the rich white elite have been in power since the beginning.  Our framers neglected to give the people true power.  They were hoping the rich white elite would not become corrupted.  Nor did the framers seem to have any problems with genocide and war-mongering and slavery.

Bah, Humbug!  Go TBA!   

Actually, next week I am having surgery to remove more debris and bone fragments from my right side and hip. Hopefully, I'll be able to ditch the walker...

82,
I watched an interview where Bob Kerry told his story.
It was the same as a million other firefights...
A village is approached....everyone is scared shitless...a sudden noise...a movement..someone shoots...a lot of folks die.

I thought it was nuts that Kerry was critisized for this.

9.

Michael Ellis
Sat, 06/16/07
11:43 am


...the US should ow out of that region entirely, but they wont.............
----------
They will..., sooner or later, it's not matter of "if" but "when".


Americans have to accept that we are now direct contributors to our own demise.........
-----------
Americans (the large enough part at least, won't say the majority) don't realize that THEY and their Government AREN'T the one and the same...., while none (including Demos aren't explaining it to them).

They don't realize it YET...., but doubts have already been sown... As you may know, what is sown will be harvested.... sooner or later.

dog soldier

actually it wasn't quite like that. but we will sanitize that version for the innocent children who might read these posts

good luck with the surgery

seashell

========

I hate to say it sea, but even Dean used this knee-jerk phrase in Florida (talking to Jewish old folks,) when Olmert was bombing civilians in Lebanon - it is really scary to see such blind solidarity to such a right-wing administration (in Israel)

one of the reasons I buy the 9-11 Commission Report is Bob Kerrey is a true patriot and a man of great personal integrity, count me as an admirer, we put our forces in impossible situations in VietNam

dog soldier

=========

You probably remember more and know more about Viet Nam.  I don't remember all that much, even about politics.  I was very active from 1967 to about 1971 but then I just dropped out and did not even follow things any more.  I kind of withdrew from society and got into my art and craft.

Actually, next week I am having surgery to remove more debris and bone fragments from my right side and hip. Hopefully, I'll be able to ditch the walker

oh my goodness, take care, let us know how u r.

one thing that sealed it for me with hill. is she and obama waited til the last minute to say they were voting against funding. the very last minute when they knew what the outcome was.

get a spine.

Happy Fathers Day to all you great dads out there.

Here is a clip about jim webb and his son, just back from Iraq.

My dad was not so good. A military man, violent. and I still don't like  him but...............................

I wish him peace.

peace out.

and u probably want that clip

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/

scroll down to the father and son video.

Re: Subway's mention of my intense resistance to regressive sales taxes affecting low income folks the most (Gravel's proposal).

 Absolutely...we're in a turmoil here in ME about that issue right now. Steve Forbes wanted that crap when he ran in the Rethug primary back in 2000.  It only benefits the wealthy; as they already have plenty of tax write-offs.

Over piddly haircuts, no less (I've been a licensed cosmetologist since 1974; and 6% isn't gong to hurt anyone in the middle-upper tax brackets...get real)!  I wish they'd tax the shit out of luxury yachts, too (plenty of 'em up here, but the locals certainly don't own them)!

There are different*types* of sales tax, too (low income folks should benefit moreso, as it's beefed up our Homestead Exemption & Circuit Breaker Rent/Homeowner Refund programs).

Wealthy tourists can afford multi-milllion dollar yachts & secondary oceanfront  homes; and should be hit up for it...ME's CofC & Realtor's lobbies are livid (tourism pays shit seasonal only wages & no bennies).  We're stuck once they leave after Labor Day & Leaf Peeper season (hotel/lodging/restaurant industry is also 100% ballistic).  Tough.  Low income folks can't afford ski lift tickets @Sugarloaf/Sunday River, an accountant, fine dining (they're serving the over-priced lobsters!),--as well as the beers, wine, soda, & booze lobbyists.

 Augusta will be crawling w/'em tomorrow @the statehouse.

We're also responsible for fixing the roads, so part of this package is to remove some of the onus off of the locals (largest state in area in New England...also the poorest, per capita). Anyone on vacation here (driving an Airstream /hauling an SUV)  isn't going to cancel it, over these cost-shifted sales taxes. Nor will it hurt folks like Martha Stewart (Edsels' former mansion in Seal Harbor)--she refers to it as a "cottage."  Yeah, sure, Martha..

The Rethugs are rabid about it...read the Freeper comments, legislation, & related articles in the Portland Press Herald fmi.

Gravel is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off-base, re: flat sales tax...we always lift low income folks up from the bowels of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, folks. 

Have fun, Linda B.--you've been agitating about the TBA conference for how many yrs. now?

Give 'em all hell!

linda b
Sat, 06/16/07
6:30 pm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

It seems war and the military and combat and killing can turn even the best of men into monsters.................mankind has yet to evolve mch beyond his ancestral roots in this regard.

First a big WOOOT for linda b...

89.
Phil,
I think the jury is still out on 9-11, in fact if anything, more and more people are questioning it. There are many reasons I question the 9-11 commission's report...below are just a few but there's a whole lot more...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwQa5eoki...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ4dVo5Qg...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaYepwRb5...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzGJrQ4Er...

http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/

One of jc's bumper stickers on my car reads "PATRIOTISM Is Making Sure Your Country Has Values Worth Defending".

96.
mainefem,
I'm no economist but I have a pretty good idea that the wealthy aren't paying their fair share under our current taxation system. The National sales tax would make those yachts taxed and much, much more that is hidden with those tax write offs. The sales tax eliminates the tax write offs first of all. Second the prebate for the essentials of life does make this sales tax progressive with the essentials...food, shelter, heat, clothing, medicine, transportation, etc. being tax free. Gravel's proposal, if implemented, would tax the rich and ease the burden on the middle and lower classes...imo. I doubt anything will change though, we'll get one of the front runners and the screws will be continued to be put to us worker bees.
Vermont has a State sales tax and I like it! Everyone that comes here and buys something eases the burden on the residents. My real estate taxes are almost half of what someone in N.H. pays for a comparable property.

'allo,

just a notion and a question...

"collateral damage"

Why does the Taliban git a pass, when they kill innocents?

The TBA Conference was well done in 2005.  Happy as a pig in xxxx that DFA will BE there.

mainefem

>

I second that comment. 

...THE AYES HAVE IT!

"paying their fair share"

>

"Government is a product of society"

and so

I favor your point of view.  All WE need now is a majority, Reed.

bbl

paine

how was your visit to Minnowisupcowa? are people waking up in the land of Senselessbrenner?

don't forget "Jail a Priest" was the Republican immigration bill, and would be law were it not for all of our efforts to change the Senate

thank god senselessbrenner no longer chairs a committee

Lynn in Cinnci I have to tell a story about your namesake blog baby. The mulberries are ripe and she is the only one (besides me and the kingbirds) to figure out how tasty they are and looked like a giraffe as she streched up and ate them by the mouthfull leaves and all. cows hooves are like the last digits of your toes so they always stand on their tip toes, but I have never seen a cow stand up on their hind legs like a deer to browse in a tree. "Lynn" almost gave it a try.

stop and pick the berries, folks, even some cows do

visit a farmers market if you just can't find the time

 on Monday at 5pm we have an appointment with Sen Webb and his staffers in his office on capitol hill. Kesha , myself and Jim Dean will be there to ask Sen Webb to support the DC Voting Rights act.

>

LindaB rocks "in the real world"

Zip, zipping through. Probably won't be back online til Monday but will keep in touch with folks :-)

101. The 2004 TBA conference was great for the day we were there (Indy Steve, Charlie, bunches went from Dfest 1.0)

linda b ♥'s

the land of Senselessbrenner

>Phil,

 the repugs hate the Clintons, and I fear that many Dems fear "that Congress is spending too much time on things (Gonzo and the like) while the peoples business is not addressed.

Not that I agree.

~thank god senselessbrenner no longer chairs a committee~

>

And Hastert is O U T

Hey Paine, welcome back :-)

http://www2.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall01/030676.htm

The Strength of Architecture

~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~

OR:

http://www2.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall01/031152.htm

Why Structures Fail

Merci,

My eight min. older bro said this was a good link.   Will find out.

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php

webcast/courses

.berkeley (IE UC-Berkeley)

http://webcast.berkeley.edu/course_details.php?seriesid=1906978412

Legal Studies 103 Theories of Law and Society

http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_06_04/...

June 4, 2007 Issue
Copyright © 2007 The American Conservative

Bushed Army

Our forces strain under a surge of new missions.

by Andrew J. Bacevich

.....Once you get in, there’s next to no chance of washing out. Whereas in 2005, the graduation rate in Army basic training was 82 percent, the following year it rose to 94 percent—a clear indication that training standards are eroding as the war drags on.

-------

Just the other day, I hear there will be a muster call-up of some 5,000 IRR folks...the United States Army has seen better days. And the disconnect continues....

Why does the Taliban git a pass, when they kill innocents?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

apaine,

Whos giving passes out ?  remember, it is WE that are supposed to stand for something..what that something is, however no longer exists.............

Hey Paine, you came in for a bomber and ran the other day.

I didn't even get to say I hope you're Mom enjoyed her Bday and visit by you.

I hope it was a good one. :)

Whos giving passes out ? 

(to the Taliban)

>

Good question, Mike.  I'll say they don't get a pass.  Neither side does.  Maybe the weight of the discussion here in America (or on the blog) tips the scale from level toward  "our" proxies.  Our proxies get no pass.  Does the Taliban benefit from a grated underdog position?

And best wishes for Mrs linda b and hubby on their travels to TAKE BACK AMERICA!!!....she's been doing a mighty fine job so far!

Linda*in*SFNM

>

Hey Linda!  Yes, I sure did.  Vacation ya know;) ...and, using someone else's laptop, to satisfy my "Jones"

I was able to lurk back many hours later and saw that Thankful comment stated my position well.  (commander-in-chief)

Linda*in*SFNM

>

she did, thanks.  Her four strapping boys home (all at the same time) !   She's a ...as the old man says... jewel.

A little nice story and how people are just waiting for Al Gore to be our President.

I was shopping today and all of the sudden a women exuberantly shouted "DID HE ANNOUNCE HE's RUNNING". I was taken back for a moment, and then realized she saw my button. I explained no, not yet, I am a hopeful. I then shared with her the apropriate information, and then I gave her my button. And she is from Los Alamos, down for shopping.

AL...you see....we're waiting for you.

Run, Al, Run


...from Paul Simon.

A man walks down the street,
He says, Why am I soft in the middle now?
Why am I soft in the middle?
The rest of my life is so hard!
I need a photo-opportunity,
I want a shot at redemption!
Don't want to end up a cartoon,
In a cartoon graveyard .....

Bonedigger, Bonedigger,
Dogs in the moonlight.
Far away, my well-lit door.
Mr. Beerbelly, Beerbelly,
Get these mutts away from me!
You know, I don't find this stuff amusing anymore ....

If you'll be my bodyguard,
I can be your long lost pal!
I can call you Betty,
And Betty, when you call me,
You can call me Al!

A man walks down the street,
He says, Why am I short of attention?
Got a short little span of attention,
And whoa, my nights are so long!
Where's my wife and family?
What if I die here?
Who'll be my role-model?
Now that my role-model is ....
Gone ...... gone,
He ducked back down the alley,
With some roly-poly, little bat-faced girl.
All along .... along ....
There were incidents and accidents,
There were hints and allegations .....

If you'll be my bodyguard,
I can be your long lost pal!
I can call you Betty,
And Betty, when you call me,
You can call me Al!
Call me Al ......

A man walks down the street,
It's a street in a strange world.
Maybe it's the Third World.
Maybe it's his first time around.
He doesn't speak the language,
He holds no currency.
He is a foreign man,
He is surrounded by the sound, sound ....
Cattle in the marketplace.
Scatterlings and orphanages.
He looks around, around .....
He sees angels in the architecture,
Spinning in infinity,
He says, Amen! and Hallelujah!

If you'll be my bodyguard,
I can be your long lost pal!
I can call you Betty,
And Betty, when you call me,
You can call me Al!
You can call me Al ......

there will be a muster call-up of some 5,000 IRR folks

>  detail, HALT

The Individual Ready Reserve ("IRR")

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

An individual assigned to the IRR receives no pay or benefits and is not obligated to drill, conduct annual training, or participate in any military activities (except for periodic Muster activities) until activated by Presidential Reserve Callup Authority.

LZ XRAY
Sat, 06/16/07
10:14 pm

>

IF specific  IRR are called-up, then the best part of it is the TEST of this action.  What are the bugs?  Does it work as on paper?

Other than that, it sickens me ever further how much a failure dumbya-down dubya Bush is as leader of this country.

Linda*in*SFNM

>

Told my bro and his other half to keep an eye out for ya.  BTW he has put some time into a master plan for (i think) north west quadrant of Santa Fe.  Anyhoo, hope he catches a glimpse of your "cool change" banner or auto's lic. plate.

124.

Imn2Paine

Paine, REALLY? Do you mean buidling a community (sorry Monica, Mike, those are about all we're getting built here)???? I've been inquiring about up there...I can't afford to touch North/North East, but I was hoping some building on the NW would open. A realtor I talked to said they were talking of opening up land for building, but nothing yet.

Or am I jumping a head of myself and you meant just for him. :(

We need to start moving within a years time for a house and I'm guessing, if it aint up there, it will have to be your brothers turf. We have some friends there, too.

Imn2Paine
Sat, 06/16/07
10:24 pm
__________________________________________________________________________

Its the clasic scenario where both sides feel they are in the right........good guys and bad guys..good vs evil sort of thing..........as for the taliban, .............................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyoA2tX-S9E

Linda*in*SFNM

>

From what I gather there is a quadrant of the city which the city mothers/fathers have set aside for "future" development and some(one) has been tasked to work through the process to the point at which zoning laws will be set.  

Various levels of income will be part and parcel.  But I'm even less than Sgt Schultz ..."I know nothing"

Think the Navajo nation is thinking ahead, too;) LOL

122.

Linda*in*SFNM



Thanks

Call in the Gurkhas, Mike!

Night

3521

127 Paine, thanks. I guess I'll have to make some more calls.

______________________

128. my pleasure :)

Nite all, B well.

Good morning, BFA!

Looking at the outright glee in coverage of Mike Nifong's fate (not that he does not deserve it), I wondered wny the difference in media treatment between a prosecutor who behaved badly (albeit locally) and the US attorneys who were NOT fired by putzCo, presumably because they are behaving exactly as putzCo wish them to and are a much greater threat to all of our civil liberties.

I still haven't seen any media coverage about that, nor have I seen quite the same outrage against Gonzo and putz in their egregious intereference with justice in the firing of US Attorneys who didn't toe their line. So, perhaps those of you who have followed this story all along, already knew this, but I just checked Wiki to discover a BIG clue.

Please note that I am NOT defending his actions (there are indeed some very bad apples with *D* after their names), only marvelling ... yet again ... about the MSM coverage.

====================
Michael Nifong

North Carolina District Attorney for Prosecutorial District 14
In office
April 27, 2005 – Present
Preceded by Jim Hardin
Succeeded by Incumbent
Constituency Durham, North Carolina

Born September 14, 1950
Wilmington, North Carolina
Political party Democratic

[...]
On December 12, 2006, it was reported that Republican Representative Walter Jones of North Carolina's 3rd district sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for an investigation into whether Nifong committed "prosecutorial misconduct" and violated the civil rights of the three suspects in the case;[33] Gonzales has stated that his office might investigate how Nifong has handled the case.

[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Nif...

Then again, the old double standard is on full display for the world to see at The Smoking Gun, who clearly have performed a public service.

So far as I am concerned, the whole lot (including the *Matalinized* Carville) should be in Gitmo, as should Scooter. Their only saving grace is that they have not yet been convicted.

===============
Scooter Libby Love Letters
Washington elite petition judge on behalf of convicted Cheney aide

[...]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/yea...

Here's a good comment from Dahlia Lithwick in today's WaPo. We can all watch to see whether Harriet & Sara follow her advice.

=================
Testimonial Two-Step
By Dahlia Lithwick
Sunday, June 17, 2007; B02

When the long-awaited congressional subpoenas went out this week to former White House counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor, we assumed that what would follow would be weeks of legal wrangling between the White House and Congress. That's okay. It will allow Miers and Taylor to spend a little time with their respective dance coaches, learning the tricky footwork necessary for government officials caught up in political scandals when they're called upon to testify before Congress.

Now Harriet, Sara, I know what you're thinking: "How am I going to master the testimonial two-step in just a few short weeks?" Take heart, ladies. Just watch some old tapes of Kyle Sampson, Alberto Gonzales, Lurita Alexis Doan and their government friends, and you, too, can be twisting and shouting in no time. The steps are really rather simple:

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Good morning, everybody

Judy, are you still here?  Good to "see" you.  I can't seem to wake up today.  Coffee's already cold.  LOL 

I'll be looking forward to lindab's update about TBA ... presume that she has been much too busy to blog lately and is probably now getting some well-deserved rest.

***********
*Support the troops* indeed!

==============
The War Inside
Troops Are Returning From the Battlefield With Psychological Wounds, But the Mental-Health System That Serves Them Makes Healing Difficult
By Dana Priest and Anne Hull
Sunday, June 17, 2007; A01

Army Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents' home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.

But a "black shadow" had followed Cruz home from Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.

In public, the former Army scout stood tall for the cameras and marched in the parades. In private, he slashed his forearms to provoke the pain and adrenaline of combat. He heard voices and smelled stale blood. Soon the offers of help evaporated and he found himself estranged and alone, struggling with financial collapse and a darkening depression.

At a low point, he went to the local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center for help. One VA psychologist diagnosed Cruz with post-traumatic stress disorder. His condition was labeled "severe and chronic." In a letter supporting his request for PTSD-related disability pay, the psychologist wrote that Cruz was "in need of major help" and that he had provided "more than enough evidence" to back up his PTSD claim. His combat experiences, the letter said, "have been well documented."

None of that seemed to matter when his case reached VA disability evaluators. They turned him down flat, ruling that he deserved no compensation because his psychological problems existed before he joined the Army. They also said that Cruz had not proved he was ever in combat. "The available evidence is insufficient to confirm that you actually engaged in combat," his rejection letter stated.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

"Washington elite" 

That's a good formulation.  The elite do all seem to congregate in D.C. nowadays.  One has to wonder how come they do want it represented in Congress.  Is it because the vote would be too informed?   

Hey, Monica, I must be very *late* to be blogging with you in *real* time!

I had a *grasse matinée* this am. What happens is that I automatically wake up at the usual time, remember that it's a weekend, and then turn back over. The height of luxury and slovenliness perhaps, but I enjoy it.

I have noticed that when I am on vacation, after the first few days, I go right back into the early routine. There is something psychologically healthy about choosing to wake up early rather than having to.

With putzCo's policies, there are very few *success* stories, unless one redefines *success* as chaos, slaughter and destruction.

In that version, they do *succeed.*

================
35 Killed in Kabul Bus Bomb Attack
By RAHIM FAIEZ
The Associated Press
Sunday, June 17, 2007; 4:51 AM

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A bomb ripped through a police bus in a crowded civilian area in Kabul on Sunday, killing more than 35 people, officials said, in what appears to be the deadliest attack in the capital since the fall of the Taliban.

The police academy bus was carrying several police recruits when the bomb went off inside it, leaving several dead, said Zalmai Khan, the deputy police chief of Kabul province. At least 35 people were also wounded.

The thunderous explosion was heard throughout central Kabul at about 8:10 a.m. local time.

Ali Shah Paktiawal, Kabul police director of criminal investigation, said more than 35 people were killed, including policemen and civilians. He said dozens were wounded and sent to nearby hospitals.

Fazel Rahim, a doctor from a nearby hospital, said 18 dead bodies lay in the hospital courtyard, while more than 35 wounded were being treated inside the building.

"Most of the wounded are in serious condition," said Rahim, whose hands and white coat were covered in blood.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Apparently, some truly damning information about Blair will be aired on the UK's Channel 4 next Saturday. You can bet that I'll be watching.

Of course, this is also evidence against putzCO for war crimes.

Blair should rightfully stand with them in the dock. He KNEW better and went along anyway.

=================
Blair knew US had no post-war plan for Iraq
· PM committed troops despite chaos fears
· Bush 'offered to fight without UK'
Nicholas Watt, political editor
Sunday June 17, 2007
Observer

Tony Blair agreed to commit British troops to battle in Iraq in the full knowledge that Washington had failed to make adequate preparations for the postwar reconstruction of the country.

In a devastating account of the chaotic preparations for the war, which comes as Blair enters his final full week in Downing Street, key No 10 aides and friends of Blair have revealed the Prime Minister repeatedly and unsuccessfully raised his concerns with the White House.

He also agreed to commit troops to the conflict even though President George Bush had personally said Britain could help 'some other way'.

The disclosures, in a two-part Channel 4 documentary about Blair's decade in Downing Street, will raise questions about Blair's public assurances at the time of the war in 2003 that he was satisfied with the post-war planning. In one of the most significant interviews in the programme, Peter Mandelson says that the Prime Minister knew the preparations were inadequate but said he was powerless to do more.

[...]
Condoleezza Rice, then Bush's national security adviser, confirms that the President offered Blair a way out. Bush told Blair: 'Perhaps there's some other way that Britain can be involved.' Blair replied: 'No, I'm with you.'

· The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair will be screened on Channel 4 next Saturday.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

I am afraid that when we hear the whole truth ... if we ever do ... about US treatment of prisoners in our custody, we too will be sickened. As well we should be.

Of course, many of us are already sickened by the comparative little that we know now.

These actions being taken in our name, in spite of whether we support them or not, which I do NOT. But so long as they continue, we all must bear the shame ... and the blame ... and ultimately, the consequences.

===============
Robert Fisk: A cry for justice from a good man who expected us to protect his son
A report from the man who broke the original story...
Published: 17 June 2007

From the moment I knocked on the front door of Daoud Mousa al-Maliki's home in Basra, I knew something had gone terribly wrong in the British Army in southern Iraq.

I had seen British military brutality in Northern Ireland - I had even been threatened by British officers in Belfast - but I somehow thought that things had changed, that a new, more disciplined army had emerged from the dark, sinister days of the Irish conflict. But I was wrong. Baha Mousa, Daoud's son, had died from the injuries he received in British custody, a young, decent man whose father was a cop, who did nothing worse than work as a receptionist in a Basra hotel.

Then I went to see Kifah Taha, who had been so badly beaten by British troops in the presence of Baha Mousa that he had terrible wounds in the groin. He told me how the soldiers would call their Iraqi prisoners by the names of football stars - Beckham was one name they used - before kicking them around the detention headquarters in Basra. There were stories of Iraqi prisoners being forced to kneel on sharp stones, of being kicked and punched in the groin, the kidneys, the back, shoulders, forced to sit with their heads down lavatory holes.

All this is among the evidence which ex-prisoners - and Baha Mousa's father - are taking to the High Court, now that the courts martial which followed Mousa's death have produced just one solitary conviction, a soldier jailed for a year and dismissed from the Army for "mistreating" prisoners.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/artic...

141.

Typical.  Can't you just hear the god-father making an onerous proposal and then challenging the underling to back out, if he's not up to it?  It's not extortion and it's not blackmail, but it is a well-worn coercive techique, leading the victim to assume responsibility for his own eventual failure, regardles's of the outcome of the action.  If the "action" is a success, the reluctant participant feels guilt for having doubted, and if the outcome is a failure, he feels guilty for having known better and still participated.  

Poppy's son is well-schooled in the art of psychological manipulation.  It's what concerns me about the close relationship between Poppy and Bill Clinton.  It's like he's keeping tabs on the Manchurian Candidate.  Except, of course, Poppy's got a thing about China.  Maybe he's afraid of the dragon.

Both DU and Kos are reporting this story ...

In case anyone has ever wondered whatever happened to the very courageous General Taguba, who refused to sweep the Abu Ghraib scandal under the rug and thus displeased putzCo mightily, here is a DU report, that also includes the url for the *excellent and depressing* Seymour Hersh article referred to.

WHY are ANY of these bozos STILL in office? Evidence of their wrongdoing is so ample that it actually overwhelms.

===============
Excellent And Depressing New Seymour Hersh Article: "The General's Report"

Excellent and depressing new Seymour Hersh article

We all serve at the pleasure of the President." A retired four-star Army general later told Taguba that he had been sent to the job in the Pentagon so that he could "be watched." Taguba realized that his career was at a dead end.

It's a 9 page article that is well worth reading in its entirety, and I can barely scratch the surface here. But after introducing General Taguba and describing his background as the son of a Filipino veteran of the Army, Hersh begins by describing Taguba's first meeting with Rumsfeld and his military aide after the existence of his report was revealed:

*Taguba was met at the door of the conference room by an old friend, Lieutenant General Bantz J. Craddock, who was Rumsfeld’s senior military assistant. Craddock’s daughter had been a babysitter for Taguba’s two children when the officers served together years earlier at Fort Stewart, Georgia. But that afternoon, Taguba recalled, "Craddock just said, very coldly, ‘Wait here.’ " In a series of interviews early this year, the first he has given, Taguba told me that he understood when he began the inquiry that it could damage his career; early on, a senior general in Iraq had pointed out to him that the abused detainees were "only Iraqis." Even so, he was not prepared for the greeting he received when he was finally ushered in.*

[...]
Taguba report
http://www.agonist.org/annex/taguba.htm

Hersh Article
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/...
via:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6...

[...]
http://www.democraticunderground.com/dis...

143.

Agreed, it's definitely a strange pairing! I'd be much happier if Clinton were closer to Jimmy Carter, who is truly a man od principle.

But Carter and Clinton are like oil and water.

"od" shoul be "of", of course! More coffee needed apparently.

****************
Actually, I'm just as happy that the smear campaign against Hillary is *hotting up* right now. If Gore doesn't step in and if she DOES turn out to be the Dem nominee, hopefully she will have shown by then what tempests in a teapot these were in comparison to the real crimes against humanity committed by Rethugs.

Hopefully, she will meet these as they should be met. Anything that Dick Morris is involved with is not only suspect, but outright putrid.

===================
Anti-Hillary dirty tricks war hots up
Republicans use the internet, books and a film to try to derail Clinton's White House campaign
Paul Harris in New York
Sunday June 17, 2007
Observer

She's ahead in the polls and on course to become the Democrats' presidential candidate for 2008. So it is no surprise that a right-wing smear campaign is gathering speed to derail Senator Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House. Conservative groups and political figures are planning a film, books and a concerted media campaign to demonise Clinton, who is already one of the most polarising figures in American politics.

Top of the list of projects is a planned movie, being filmed by veteran Republican operator David Bossie. Bossie is raising money for the film through his conservative group Citizens United, which is appealing for video footage, stories about Clinton and money. It plans a release by the end of the year, just as the first primary elections are held in New Hampshire. Bossie is being helped in the project by Dick Morris, a former top Clinton aide who has become a leading Clinton critic.

The film aims to delve into past Clinton scandals, such as the Whitewater real estate deals, and to dig up new dirt. 'This project aims to expose the truth about her conflicts in the past and her liberal plot for the future,' said a statement on the film's website. Bossie did not return repeated calls for comment.

[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

141.

On the other hand.......

Blair's concern about reconstruction was probably mis-directed.  If you assume that the urban renewal model was being replayed on a grander scale, reconstruction was never intended.  The urban renewal model leads to "redevelopment" which developers are assumed to swarm in and accomplish all on their own.  The government role (in this case the departments of the Pentagon) is very simple.  

1)  Idenitfy the target area on the basis of geographic suitability.

2)  Identify the target population that needs to be removed (distress is a good reason)

3)  Promote "voluntary" relocation by shutting off social services while the plan is completed.

4)  Acquire title to the target area.

5)  Send in the bulldozers to tear down buildings and rip out the infra-structure (bombs and missiles were used in Iraq)

6)  Announce that the area is ready for development and wait for the private sector to do its thing (Halliburton and KBR in Iraq). 

It's my sense that the movers and shakers convinced themselves that the reason the results of urban renewal were disappointing in the States was because the populations weren't resilient enough (not like the Germans who picked themselves up after WWII) and because community groups and environmentalists made unreasonable demands that discouraged the kind of risk-taking and enterprise they were looking for.

Also, citizens, coming out of the civil rights and consumer rights movements, were entirely too uppity.  Serves them right if the money-men picked up their plans and moved them overseas.  It's not just cheap labor that makes undeveloped countries attractive; it's the prospect of doing projects without the social and environmental restraints that have come to dominate at home.

Really, government BY THE PEOPLE is a real pain in the ass! 

Yikes, *shoul* ... wow!

**************
Lip service to *democracy* continuing in the ME ... plain for all to see.

=============
Those who denied poll result were the real coup plotters
The reality is that the only people who are really behind Salam Fayyad are the European and US diplomats who have long sung his praises behind the scenes to any journalist prepared to listen.
Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday June 17, 2007
Observer

Here is how democracy works in the Alice in Wonderland world of Palestinian politics under the tutelage of the US and international community. After years of being hectored to hold elections and adopt democratic norms, a year and a half ago Palestinians duly elected Hamas with 44 per cent of the vote, ahead of Fatah on 41 per cent.

It was a good election, as former US President Jimmy Carter observed at the time, a free, fair and accurate expression of the desires of a Palestinian people sick of the uselessness, corruption and gangsterism of Fatah. The problem was that it didn't quite reflect the wishes of Washington and the international community.

And while there can be no denying that Hamas, which refutes the existence of Israel and has backed suicide bombings, is a threatening organisation, there was no attempt at engagement, in the way that Fatah, whose militants have perpetrated scores of attacks, has been engaged with for years.

Now, after the months of financial embargo of the Hamas-led government by the US and Europe, after the funding and propping up of Fatah's President Mahmoud Abbas, after the slow, crushing squeeze on Palestinian society that encouraged its social disintegration, what have we got? Virtual civil war in Gaza, the polarisation of Palestinian society, a government dissolved by decree, and a new Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, appointed with the explicit blessing of the US.

[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

Earth is still very much in the balance ... .

============
Wonder of nature under threat from illegal logging
Juliette Jowit and Javier Espinoza
Sunday June 17, 2007
Observer

One of the world's greatest wildlife spectacles is under threat because environmental projects to protect the monarch butterfly are failing, a leading expert has warned.

The flight of clouds consisting of millions of the orange and black butterflies migrating thousands of miles across North America to the mountains of Mexico is considered one of the great natural wonders of the world.

Scientists have warned for years that the butterflies are under threat because genetically modified crops are destroying the weeds and flowers they feed on and lay eggs in, and illegal logging is decimating their winter habitat high in the Mexican mountains.

Professor Lincoln Brower, who has been studying the species for more than half a century, claims a Mexican government scheme to protect the forests where the butterflies spend the winter is failing. He will visit Britain later this month to draw attention to the problems he has observed. 'The illegal logging has not only accelerated; it has become a lot more intense, with dozens, up to hundreds, of people involved in big logging operations,' he told The Observer.

[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

This books sounds definitely worth a read ... and one I have missed so far.

=================
Vindication for the voice of Africa
As Chinua Achebe's work is recognised at last, he tells Paul Harris of a 50-year struggle to be heard
Paul Harris
Sunday June 17, 2007
Observer

Bard College, in the Hudson Valley north of New York, is a classic American campus. It has carefully clipped lawns, sturdy brick buildings and a view across the Hudson River of the forested peaks of the Catskill Mountains.

But for Chinua Achebe, who now calls Bard home, the beautiful views are a mere distraction. His thoughts are always back across the Atlantic in Africa; in the villages, forests and savannahs of his native Nigeria. 'That is where my work is,' he told The Observer in a voice that is quiet and slow with old age but still undeniably strong.

Achebe, who has just won the prestigious Man Booker International Prize, is the grandfather of African literature. In winning the prize he beat off competition from such illustrious figures as Doris Lessing, Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth and Ian McEwan. The award came for a lifetime's work chronicling the woes of the modern African experience and conveying African themes into the Western medium of the novel. His most famous work, Things Fall Apart, has been translated into 50 languages and been a bestseller worldwide.

For Achebe, often snubbed for his staunch criticism of the Western treatment of Africa, the award has come as a final vindication. 'Really it is difficult to put into words,' he said 'I don't know how to say what I feel now. It is a humble feeling that what I have done has not gone unnoticed.'

That is certainly true. It has been almost 50 years since Things Fall Apart was published.
[...]
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,...

Fingers still behaving badly ... even and in spite of ... coffee.

*************
Monica, I leave what remains of this thread in your capable hands.

*************
A very Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there today, whether the children concerned are yours by blood or by love alone. You truly help to make the world go round and be a safe place for those children!

bbl, if I can!

Perhaps that will give Hillary Clinton an opening to disavow any project Dick Morris may have had a hand in and distance herself from the first Clinton adminstration in the process.

Unless she figures out a way to distance herself from Bill and, by extension, the Bushes, she's a disaster waiting to happen.  The scenario I'm looking for is an admission that basing rights in Iraq were the goal even before 1991 and that the only reason Bill Clinton opted for using pressure with the no-fly zones and periodic bombardment was because he anticipated that the plans being put together to acquire the real estate by force were bound to fail.

Somalia as an alternative site actually makes more sense.  The only drawback is probably that it's too far for boost intercept missiles to be effective against Russia and China. 

The Seymour Hersh Article Quoted by Judy is absolutely devastating in its indictment of the perjury and coverup by the Pentagon, and theguilt of Bushco in punishing a good and honorable General, while doing backflips to keep Scooter Libby ou of Jail. The whole article is highly informative, and will probably be ignored by our courageous media:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/25/070625fa_fact_hersh?currentPage=1

Also, many of the craven, cowardly congressional Democrats and their enablers will be making spirited statements to the "Take Back America" conference at the same time as they ignore the Taguba story, and try to spin their failure to implement the mandate of last November into some sort of victory.

How anyone can take that conference seriously mystifies me.

We need to support a third party, untainted by corporate donors and dedicated to carrying out the wishes of the people. The fact that the Democratic Congress' approval ratings are now down in the toilet with Bush's is ample evidence of their abject failure to carry out November's mandate.

They have the power. They're just to chicken-sh*t to use it, and they'll pay the price, as will we.

What an infelicitous way to describe a success!!

In winning the prize he beat off competition from such illustrious figures as Doris Lessing, Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth and Ian McEwan.

This is a good example of how African successes are denigrated.  I highly doubt that the author had ANY involvement in making the selection for the prize.  The author of the article would no-doubt assert that he's just using a well-worn frame.  Probably doesn't even notice that he's employing an inappropriate attribution of action. That is, the subject of his sentence did not do the act.  He didn't even "win" the prize.  The prize was awarded without him having even applied.

What's the harm?  Well, if nothing else, it reinforced the illusion that the individual is responsible for everything that happens to him.  Which not only isn't true, but sets the individual up to being less attentive than he ought to be to other people's bad actions towards him.  If you're convinced that your fate is in your hands, you're less likely to notice the hangman.  LOL

Now it's time to walk the dog. 

Sorry, one final comment about Kissinger (discussion upthread). He is not technically a *Holocaust survivor,* at least not in the generally accepted sense of the term.

True, his family came to the US, fleeing Nazi persecution because they were Jewish. But they arrived in the US before the *Holocaust* really got ginned up, although all the warnings had been there for zears. If anything, he is a Holocaust anticipator whose family read the signs in time. As such, he is definitely among the *lucky* ones.

Neither designation justifies his subsequent behavior, I'm afraid.

And this IS it for now.

=============
[...]
He was born in Fürth in Franconia (Bavaria), as Heinz Alfred Kissinger to Jewish parents Louis Kissinger, a schoolteacher, and Paula Stern. His name refers to the city of Bad Kissingen and was taken by his great great grandfather, Meyer Löb, in 1817.[3] In 1938, fleeing Nazi persecution, his family moved to New York. Kissinger was naturalized a U.S. citizen on June 19, 1943, while in military training at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

[...]
With the recent declassification of Nixon and Ford administration documents relating to U.S. policy toward South America and East Timor, Kissinger has come under fire from certain journalists and human rights advocacy groups, both in the U.S. and abroad;[1] author and journalist Christopher Hitchens is prominent among them. Following the release of these documents, officials in France, Brazil, Chile, Spain, and Argentina have sought him for questioning in connection with suspected war crimes such as Operation Condor, hindering his travel abroad.[2]

[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissi...

[...]
Many scholars date the start of the Holocaust to the anti-Jewish riots of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, on November 9, 1938, in which Jews were attacked and Jewish property was vandalized across Germany.

Approximately 100 Jews were killed, and another 30,000 sent to concentration camps, while over 7,000 Jewish shops and 1,668 synagogues (almost every synagogue in Germany) were damaged or destroyed. Similar events took place in Austria, particularly Vienna.

[...]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holocau...

Well, I do have an excuse for "zears" ... I have a French keyboard at the office and the *y* and the *z* are transposed!

Now, I promise ... I'm gone.

157,

Yes, let me reiterate that we make a mistake when we assume that people who have suffered, or whose families have been distressed, will have sympathy for the distress of others and make an effort to lessen negative effects.   It's more likely for such individuals to ascribe their own survival or success to their own superior talents and dismiss those who suffer with the rationalization that "if I could do it (overcome the negatives), so can they."

Having overcome adversity often makes people less sympathetic, rather than more. 

Taguba didn't understand that the tried and true system of keeping subject populations subject is to punish those in the in-group who might help them.  As the son of immigrants who enjoyed success, he thought that meritorious behavior is what defines class and that, like him, anybody could move up the ranks, if their performance is/was first-rate.  He didn't understand that the power structure demands subservience from its own members.  The elite cadre isn't maintained by excellent performance; it's maintained by covering up its failures.

That's why our nation is on a downward slide.  You'd think the economic history of our segregated south would have taught us that a ruling elite always produces a stagnant situation.  Individual enterprise isn't a matter of motivation; it's a matter of not being suppressed by having one's productive effort stolen. 

The NYT continues to employ and support Judith Miller's partner in crime, Micharel R. Gordon, and he continues to prattle Pentagon/Bushevik propaganda under the guise of news:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/world/middleeast/17iraq.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

New thread