May have been a hoax.  If it was, then I apologize.  So much craziness with the republican

bunch..Who knows?

Let's hear it for the General.     Gen. Shelcon Butler who refused to lead the soldiers in a takeover of FDR's  WH.
Some Americans still like to dip into the Political Royalty for future leadership, but, I think we should check out Gen. Butler's family.    Maybe there's a son or daughter who could help to inject some courage and integrity into our Congress or some guidance to Obama about the power of corporations, and "The Racket of War".

Bush fulfills his grandfather's dream. by David Swanson, at DU

Revealed at BBc. didn't know some of the things.

Work to elect 'em, if they turn bad on the job, work to eject 'em. The "working: part ain't going away. Might as well enjoy it.

Some interesting thoughts in the comments at DU regarding the on going take over by the Corp. of our gov't.    I have long thought that the liberals should have been buying up radio stations when the religious groups started to accumulate them.

Commenters on DU are suggesting that we pool our resources and purchase a TV  station that would be controlled by the people.    I had hopes that maybe Gore had something like that in mind, but, I guess not.

Can something like that be done in the internet?      One publication, our point of view to get out into the mainstream instead of many voices that don't reach most people.

It's almost impossible to believe nothing can be done about the havoc befalling the people of Zimbabwe (Mugabe Plays The God Card - June 27). Too bad the country doesn't have oil: Someone would be in there to protect Zimbabweans' rights faster than you can say ''Dick Cheney.''

Regardless of public opinion, or Obama's stated plan for Iraq, the Pentagon is arranging for 30,000 more troops to be sent to Iraq early next year in order to keep up the supply for the entire year. AP

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/27/conyers-subpoenas-doj-for-scandal-documents/

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) issued a subpoena today to the Department of Justice for documents related to a variety of Bush administration scandals, including the Valerie Plame leak investigation, the U.S attorney scandal, the politicization of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

Another case of cynical Democratic posturing. When was the last time that Democrats were able to enforce a Subpoena?

Puts me in mind of Howard Dean's specious claim that the Telecoms will be subject to criminal prosecution, even if [when] the Democratic cave in on FISA passes.

When?  by whom? Certainly not by Congressional Democrats, who are awash in Telecom campaign contributions.

Not by Obama's AG either.

Speaking LIVE to Lationao Ellected Officials.

If you are sooooo unhappy with the  Democrats and Obama, why do you hang out here consistently putting them all down.  If it were me, I would get a life.

Don't tell me we are back to inviting people we don't agree with to leave the blog.!!!   Let's don't go there.

Huron stays here becuz he likes my legs~~and becuz he brings realism to the blog.

Good for your Grandma, Huron.  It keeps the whole body trim as well.

Protecting the Constitution and wanting an end to was is not ME ME ME .  iT'S WE WE WE.

FISA IS WE WE WE.......ENDING WAR IS WE WE WE

about how indies are flocking to Obama. Very good if true.

Obama's current poll numbers are about the same as Kerry's were at this point in 2004

http://www.counterpunch.org/fantina06282008.html

In his most recent editorial, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times discusses the great progress he sees in Iraq, and attributes it to President George Bush’s troop ‘surge’ of eighteen months ago. A look at just a few of Mr. Friedman’s bizarre comments causes one to wonder why he is writing for the Times and not for Mr. Bush himself.

“One of the first things I realized when visiting Iraq after the U.S. invasion was that the very fact that Iraqis did not liberate themselves, but had to be liberated by Americans, was a source of humiliation to them. It’s one reason they never threw flowers.”

So Mr. Friedman apparently buys into Mr. Bush’s definition of liberation. Let’s see now: following the invasion of a sovereign nation, one sets about to kill approximately 1,000,000 of its men, women and children, and drives an estimated 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 from their homes, many of them from the country. These ‘liberators’ deprive the remaining citizens of basic services such as electricity and potable water, and storm into their homes in the middle of the night. They then ransack those homes looking for who knows what, and drag any male over the age of twelve out into the darkness and take them to who knows where, as their anguished mothers, sisters and wives scream in despair.

Perhaps Mr. Friedman simply wants to justify his support for the invasion and, like Arizona Senator and GOP presidential candidate John McCain, will attempt to skew reality to fit his particular point of view. But the fact remains that the Iraqi people are far worse off today under U.S. oppression than they ever were under their previous murderous dictator, Saddam Hussein, and things were no picnic for them during his reign. Despite Mr. Friedman’s interpretation of a new liberation (he concedes that the U.S. invasion for ‘liberation’ five  years ago “didn’t count”), the Iraqi people will not be truly liberated until such time as there are no more foreign soldiers terrorizing them, directed by a greedy, money-lustful government that covets their oil. Only when they are allowed to find their own system of government, or possibly multiple governments, will they be truly liberated. This cannot and will not happen while U.S. soldiers remain in Iraq.

Morning Folks:

I noticed a few weeks ago some beautiful primroses growing along side our road.  Where we are, our roads are private: the subdivision planners exempted the country from responsibility.  So, we pay to have the roads graded and kept in some kind of condition.  We also have a forest service access road that is part of the subdivision.

In June, we had about 6 inches of rain, and the meadows are glorious: blue flax, mariposa lilies, wild roses, blue penstemon.  Well, everytime I walked out onto the dirt road, I noticed more brilliant pink and white primroses, wild geraniums, and Indian blanket (school bus yellow petals with scarlet centers) grouping along the road.  I felt delight at the beauty.

Then yesterday, I noticed they were all dug up, scraped off, and piled in a row along the road.  It took my breath away.  We have only about 3 cars a day that use this road, and only once in seven years have I met a car coming in the opposite direction.  And so, I felt grief and anger at the unnecessary destruction of such beauty.  Why,  why, why, do we so wantonly make way for our machines, our things and without any awareness at all, kill off flowers, animals, birds, etc. 

There's  an incident in the Chinese classic, A Dream of Red Mansions, that our dear friend and fellow teacher Zhang told us about.  A young girl, weeping holds a funeral for the flowers.  And yes, that's how I feel even today.  Why do we kill everything that seems to get in our way?

And a parting thought as an old school teacher: negative attention is better than no attention, and it only took one child to totally disrupt the class room, get everyone fighting with each other, and destroying harmony to the extent that no teaching was possible.  Yet, that personality will always be with us.  I watched in Samoa when somone was upset, the group came close to the individual and provided support, comfort, and enclosure.  We, in our individuality, are sometimes at loose ends when disruption causes dysfunction.  I think we have something to learn from other societies.

And, Obama couldn't possibly repair and rectify so much that has gone wrong, and we as a society are part and part responsible.  So, maybe we might direct our critical energies to solutions that we as citizens can help enact.  Our leaders represent us, but they need us.  A leader without support and energy from followers isn't a leader.

If interested:

"As soon as the other two had gone, he gathered up the fallen flowers in the skirt of his gown and made his way over a small hill, across a stream and through an orchard toward the mound where Tai-yu had buried the peach-blossom. Just before rounding the hill by the flowers' grave he caught the sound of sobs on the other side. Someone was lamenting and weeping there in a heart-rending fashion."

From the song:
"As blossoms fade and fly across the sky,
Who pities the faded red, the scent that has been?

...

Fallen, the brightest blooms are hard to find:
With aching heart their grave-digger comes now
Alone, her hoe in hand, her secret tears
Falling like drops of blood on each bare bough.

...
Better shroud the fair petals in silk
With clean earth for their outer attire;
For pure you came and pure shall go,
Not sinking into some foul ditch or mire.

Now you are dead I come to bury you:
None has divined the day when I shall die:
Men laugh at my folly in burying fallen flowers,
But who will bury me when dead I lie?"

One has to really pick their battles to obtain the final goal.

Even though I am very much against Bush's FISA's deal ..IMO, this is not the

time to give fodder to the republicans for being weak on terror.  We have dealt with

Bush's and spineless congress this long, we can wait until after the election to take this

back up.  There is absolutely no wiggle room for a terrorism argument and the weakness

the repugs always put into place against a democratic  nominee. 

I think personally Obama is going in the right direction as to how to deal with this

situation at this time.  No fodder..no defense....Attack and offensive .

Just my opinion of the strategy.