September 1, 2005
Waiting for a Leader
George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end... http://tinyurl.com/bafly
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http://mediamatters.org/items/200508310004
David Brock's MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA is almost always a great read. He's a former right wing 'hitman' responsible for attack books and articles on Anita Hill and Hillary Clinton and a participent in the infamous Scaife-funded Arkansas Project dedicated to the constant attacks on Bill Clinton. He saw the light at some point and wrote BLINDED BY THE RIGHT and other books opening up the nether-world of the right wing echo chamber whose powers to enthrall weak minds seems to be on the wane.
The above link to his site features an expose of a recent piece of Sean Hannity insanity. Sean claims that the ultra bizarre Westboro Baptist Church, the 'God Hates Fags' church is part of the 'anti-war left'.
FOX 'NEWS' NETWORK should be disallowed from calling themselves a news operation under existing truth in labeling laws. They deliberately tell outright lies. It's not news. It's propaganda deliberately intended to mislead people.
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STEP RIGHT UP FOLKS TRY THIS RATIONALIZATION ON FOR SIZE. DO YOU LIKE IT ANY BETTER THAN THE LAST ONE?


Published on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 by the Associated Press
Bush Gives New Reason for Iraq War
Says US must prevent oil fields from falling into hands of terrorists
By Jennifer Loven
CORONADO, California - President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.
The president, standing against a backdrop of the USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists would be denied their goal of making Iraq a base from which to recruit followers, train them, and finance attacks.
''We will defeat the terrorists," Bush said. ''We will build a free Iraq that will fight terrorists instead of giving them aid and sanctuary." http://tinyurl.com/cv3a2
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Hope in '06

I am hectoring invading armies
with my squirrely diatribes
the ice makes-up with my lips
leaping Tyranosaurii in my bathroom
there is spackle on my elbows
cheese in all the locks

rudimentory Pheasants
crossing highways
that could only be more lonesome
if they were the alimentory canals
of the first man and woman
or their first victim
*

President's Poll Rating Falls to a New Low
In Post-ABC Survey, 53 Percent of Respondents Say They Disapprove of Bush... http://tinyurl.com/7dwhl
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When I was a little boy and the few existing TV stations had to find programming to fill the time, one of the things they did was take the old movie serials of the '30s and '40s and show them as half-hour TV shows. One of my favorites was Flash Gordon which was still running as a color comic in Hearst papers on Sundays. I was mightily impressed by Ming the Merciless of the Planet Mongo.
I have a vid of the complete serial which I watch some or all of from time to time with complete pleasure. I still dig Ming the most. And the art deco sets...
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AUGUST SOL

AUGUST SOL (& His Wife)

Salute the burning sky!

diaspheric hope
corrodes the interstices of motes
in a dead dog's eye

owls chew on the wings of eels
grapes are shored against the day's urn
of fossil fuel

another eye peals off from this world
but slinks back by supper
like a runaway child

Salute the Moon
patron saint of wiley squirrels
Fair Hope Harbor in sight
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WWL TV( NO,LA) though flooded out and off the air for a time has began rebroadcasting and streaming on the web. Amazing video footage and thoughtful, helpful commentary and information from official voices rather than newsbots. The majority of the broadcasters seem to be life-long residents of NO rather than Barbie and Ken Dolls recently arrived from the newsbot factory. And Goodness Gracious I wish we had a President with half as much going on as the Mayor of NO. Try to cut/paste this:
http://tinyurl.com/cekgs
or look around..
I don't have anything to compare it to really other than what people are saying on the web, but I don't think I'm missing anything.
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IS BUSH DEMENTED?
This picture was taken today. I mean, even the most reality-challenged Bush supporter has got to wonder. This is a picture taken today.Have his handlers kept the news of the social unrest and tragedy along the Gulf Coast from him? This is what we rely on our leaders for, leadership. Is it so lost a cause that his handlers are just throwing him to the wolves at this point? I cannot figure it out. Have his handlers given up trying to make him do an decent imitation of a President? Do they rely on the fact that the Bush base is also demented?

Dr. Hager's Family Values
by AYELISH MCGARVEY
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050530/mcgarvey

Take the time and read this article. THE NATION posted it again. Don't know why but it's a doozy. Ranks right up there with the Gannon/Guckert story. Remember that one? The male prostitute who disguised himself as a journalist and joined the White House Press corps(e?). Spent some over- nights at the White House too.

See if you don't find yourself asking "What would The Clenis say?"

You remember The Clenis don't you? The sexually normal (or pretty damn close) fellow who used to be President. Robust economy, no illegal wars, respected world-wide. Pretty much the smartest guy in the room whatever room he was in and if not had the smartest guy standing there or on the phone.

Anyway...read the article. Like I say it's a doozy...
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THE EMERALD TABLET

1) It is true without untruth, certain and most true:
2) that which is below is like that which is on high, and that which is on high is like that which is below; by these things are made the miracles of one thing.
3) And as all things are, and come from One, by the mediation of One, So all things are born from this unique thing by adaption.
4) The Sun is the father and the Moon the mother.
5) The wind carries it in its stomach. The earth is its nourisher and its receptacle.
6 The Father of all the Theleme of the universal world is here.
6a) Its force, or power, remains entire,
7) if it is converted into earth.
7a) You separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, gently with great industry.
8) It climbs from the earth and descends from the sky, and receives the force of things superior and things inferior.
9) You will have by this way, the glory of the world and all obscurity will flee from you.
10) It is the power strong with all power, for it will defeat every subtle thing and penetrate every solid thing
11a) In this way the world was created.
12) From it are born wonderful adaptations, of which the way here is given.
13) That is why I have been called Hermes Tristmegistus, having the three parts of the universal philosophy.
14) This, that I have called the solar Work, is complete.
(Translated from Fulcanelli 1964)

A couple of the TOWER OF BABYLON

Now Playing! The Conservative Meltdown
By W. David Jenkins III

My, what a busy summer it’s been! I’ve been away for awhile enjoying time with the family and, during my travels; I’ve noticed something very odd happening out there. People are talking about Iraq instead of “American Idol.” They’re bitching about gas prices instead of bitching about the wrong person being “fired” by The Donald. There are more and more people expressing outrage about what they’re reading and seeing on the media rather than being outraged with the media itself. There seems to be a tsunami of buyer’s remorse sweeping over the land and the size and nature of this phenomenon prohibits the lazy media from engaging in their usual practice of ignoring what’s really going on.

Bush is scheduled to emerge from his western hidey hole soon and quite honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he tries to extend his vacation just a bit longer. Really, who could blame him? Even with the controlled settings of his last two public appearances in Utah and Idaho , Bush came across as a guy who is just not well. After my time off, I’m feeling pretty rested and all but Bush looks and sounds tired, irritated, pale, thin and – well just plain sick. One might speculate that the bubble Bush’s people have tried to keep him in is beginning to burst and I’d think they’d be right. After all, it’s been a busy summer...http://tinyurl.com/8j4xr
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August 29, 2005
Senator Will Ask Rumsfeld to Testify to Panel on Iraq
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 - With lawmakers facing tough questions at home about the war in Iraq, Senator John W. Warner, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, says he intends to summon Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld quickly for a hearing when Congress returns next week.
Mr. Warner, a Virginia Republican who is one of the most important Congressional voices on military policy, said mounting numbers of dead and wounded Americans, the contentious process of drafting an Iraqi constitution and the economic cost of the war were adding up to new anxiety in Congress.
"The level of concern is, I think, gradually rising," Mr. Warner said in an interview on Friday. "Our nation has given so much to the Iraqi people, and what are they giving us in return?"
Unlike some of his colleagues in both parties, Mr. Warner said he did not see parallels between the current situation and the Vietnam era. While he said he believed that most Republican lawmakers remained strongly behind administration policy, he indicated that continuing on the same course could steadily erode Congressional backing for the war.
"I don't see that the Congress is going to suddenly pull back like in the days of Vietnam," Mr. Warner said. "It is the desire of the Congress to continue to work with and support the administration. But there is always a tipping point."
http://tinyurl.com/byo2k
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Miniature Merv Griffin casting three shadows emerges to start today's show!

Drudge was funny last night. He does a three hour radio version of his fake news/all spin web site Sunday nights. I sometimes have it on.
He opened last night's spin session with criticism of the NEW YORK TIMES for having a front page story on Iraq( and other news) rather than total coverage of nothing but Hurricane Katrina.
Just stop and think for a moment here.
Now, why would a right-wing media propaganda operative like Drudge not want coverage of Iraq(or anything else) and instead have total front page coverage of a storm (that wasn't even to come ashore for ten hours and nobody knew where)?
The calm and mundane part of me just laughs.
Another part of me doesn't. This other part of me thinks about a new, newer, newest 'Pearl Harbor' type of event.
Think about what's going on. The occupation of Iraq is a diaster. Top members of the Bush Administration are under investigation by a grand jury for what quite possibly could be treason. Another investigation is focused on espionage involving the Pentagon/DoD and Israel. The DoD is also fighting a court order for the release of more (and worse) Abu Ghraib photos and videos. The SCOTUS nominee, John Roberts, may have left his fingerprints on Reagan era documents that could(should) lead to further inquiries into Iran/Contra. By any account things are not looking good for GWB and his jolly band of 'thugs in suits'.
A distraction is badly needed. Nature and the media didn't cooperate last night and this morning.
I wonder what Plan B is?
Watch yourselves out there.
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BOSTON GLOBE LOWERS THE BOOM WITH THE LOWDOWN ON:
Rove's role
...Rove's record has been consistent. Over 35 years, he has been a master of dirty tricks, divisiveness, innuendo, manipulation, character assassination, and roiling partisanship... http://tinyurl.com/cymk3
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Good stuff from a guy too good to work in MSM-land.
(Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek.Visit his site often and consider making a donation.Link follows article excerpts as usual. Look around the site. Good stuff.)

Explaining the Bush Cocoon

By Robert Parry
August 24, 2005

Under traditional news judgment, the lead paragraph in American newspapers on the morning of Nov. 12, 2001, should have read something like: “If all legally cast votes in Florida were counted in Election 2000, Democrat Al Gore would have carried the state and thus won the White House, according to an unofficial tally of disputed ballots.”

Indeed, the tally found that Gore would have carried Florida’s key electoral votes regardless of the standard used for judging so-called “undervotes,” ballots kicked out by vote-counting machines which could detect no presidential choice. Gore won even ignoring Florida’s other irregularities – such as the badly designed “butterfly ballots” and the improper “felon purges” – that cost him thousands of additional votes.

To put it more starkly, a recount conducted by a consortium of major media organizations had determined that George W. Bush, the guy in the White House, not only lost the national popular vote but should have lost the Electoral College, too. To be even blunter, a pivotal U.S. presidential election had been stolen...

...Iraq War Prelude
This early example of the U.S. news media building a protective cocoon around George W. Bush’s presidency is relevant again today as many Americans try to understand how Bush was able to lead the nation so deeply into a disastrous war in Iraq and why the U.S. news media has performed its watchdog duties so miserably...

...Perhaps one of the most remarkable facts about the Iraq War is that despite all the errors and misjudgments, the Washington pundit class, which cheered the nation off to war, remains remarkably unchanged...

...there’s been no known case of a media personality being publicly punished for buying into the Bush administration’s bogus arguments for invading Iraq. Instead, many of these same media personalities continue to lecture the American people about what needs to be done in Iraq.... http://tinyurl.com/dm37d
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WisDOM's Dog

The discipline of hair

A shadow on the throat

Dark song from the wound mill

Play things left on the stair

I've a Viper named "so what?"

That lives at the bottom of the sea

And rises like a cartoon

Of creation and apocalypse

Combined in one character

Vaguely original

Originally vague

Renewed for another season

Coming Soon this Fall

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THE 'SCUM IN THE SUN' REPORT FROM CRAWFORD:
Pro-Violence Lunatics fight it out to see who's more for war than thou

Arrests, rhetoric highlight protests

By Thaddeus DeJesus and J.B. Smith
Waco Tribune-Herald staff writers
Sunday, August 28, 2005

CRAWFORD -– With five days left until the end of anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's vigil near President Bush's ranch, Crawford became protest central Saturday as supporters and opponents of the Iraq war rallied, marched and simmered in 101-degree heat.

A handful also got themselves arrested, including a protester whose anti-Sheehan sign was deemed unnecessarily offensive by organizers of a large pro-Bush rally. The man carrying the sign became violent when he was asked to put it down.

Ken Robinson, of Richardson, Texas, who described himself as a Vietnam veteran, was carrying a sign at a “You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy!” rally. The sign read, “How to wreck your family in 30 days by ‘b**** in the ditch' Cindy Sheehan.”

Kristinn Taylor, an event organizer with FreeRepublic.com, heard about the sign and rushed up to Robinson.

“This is our rally and you can't do that here,” he said, only for Robinson to insist he was within his rights.

Camera crews rushed in and Taylor turned to face them.

“To all the media here, this sign is not representative of the crowd here today,” Taylor announced. Some of the crowd around Robinson came forward to shake his hand, while others chanted, “Idiot, go home.”

The two men then squared off and raised their voices.

“Just get outta here!” Robinson yelled, and aimed a kick at Taylor's midsection. Taylor called for security, and a young Woodway policeman quickly showed up.

“I have the right to freedom of speech,” Robinson said.

Robinson continued to protest loudly as police handcuffed him and led him away...


...Underneath a giant revival tent about a mile from the Western White House, peace mom Cindy Sheehan continued to stoke the fires of the anti-war movement.

Sheehan, 48, has challenged President Bush by staging a nearly month-long vigil near his Central Texas vacation home. She says she wants to meet with the president to learn what “noble cause” her son died for in Iraq and to call for withdrawal of U.S. troops.

At Saturday's large rally at Camp Casey II, Sheehan partially answered her own question.

“I finally figured out what the ‘noble cause' is ...” she said, referring to two words the president uses to talk about the sacrifices of U.S. troops. “He wants more American soldiers killed because American soldiers have already been killed, and that's his mission. We have to stop him. We have to stop him as soon as possible.”... http://tinyurl.com/aqpef
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The aide said that guys like me were ''in what we call the reality-based community,'' which he defined as people who ''believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.'' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ''That's not the way the world really works anymore,'' he continued. ''We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality -- judiciously, as you will -- we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.''--from Without a Doubt By RON SUSKIND, October 17, 2004 in the NEW YORK TIMES.

Let's consider for a moment where we are vis a vis reality and Iraq.

We are about to install an Islamic Republic. I don't remember this being mentioned as our goal until the last couple of weeks.

I remember the threat of Saddam's WMD.

Here's a link to a database originally put together by Henry Waxman (and staff.)http://hgrm.ctsg.com/index.asp. You can pick a speaker, a subject or a key word and find out who said what about what and when. You know, the precise day when Condi Rice said Saddam had nuclear weapons that he planned to use on the US. Or Dick Cheney. Or Donald R. Rumsfeld, etc. It's very clear. It makes denials into exactly what they are in reality; LIES. They lied when they said it was true. They lied again when they said they'd never said it was true. Lies on top of lies. All in reality.

Now, this might have something to do with Bill Clinton's penis or the very fact that I'm pointing this out but I don't think so.

Other reasons for invading and occupying Iraq were put forward. Some were rather vague, Freedom for instance. Some were less so, Democracy for instance.

These don't seem to be in the cards either in any way most Americans understand.

There are certain Americans who desire to be ruled by clerics. Most do not. There are certain Americans who wish to deny women equal rights. Again, most do not. There are certain Americans who wish establish an official state religion. And once again, most do not. There are even certain Americans who think (in their own reality) that the US has a state religion. Patrick Henry is their man. But fortunately for the rest of us there was also Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams, et al. All of these profoundly unamerican things are rapidly on their way in the constitution Iraq is about to ratify.

Where does that leave us vis a vis Iraq and reality?

With nearly 2,000 dead combatants (at least. The ones who die on helicopters and in hospitals, etc. aren't counted.) Who knows how many maimed. Hundreds of thousands of dead innocents. Billions of dollars down the drain (some lost track of). All for....

...An Islamic Republic in the Middle East. Another one. Just like Iran next door.

I tell you, that Clenis has some splainin' to do.
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Hommage to Leonardo

by

Rudolph Hausner

A comment received on the AMERICAblog follows. Now I don't spell well and I have lapses in standard usage that are not always intentional, but this is ridiculous.This is a child that done got left behind. Scary part? This maybe an adult writing. Or a pResident even.

this sight should be named the hate america blog.What a bunch of self rightious egomaniacs and loosers you all sound like.The funny thing is you all make up these wacky theories and then believe them because you all never look for the truth.Only what you want to be the truth I guess.Lissen if you really want to hear the truth tune into RUSH LIMBAUGH.He has more brains in his pinkey finger then all of you wanna bees put together .Truth is painfull but it can also set you free

If this had been a work of beauty or rare good sense I wouldn't care about it's flaws. I'm sure this person, because Rush tells him not to, doesn't read newspapers and therefore doesn't know his is becoming more and more a minority opinion . I am so glad the Republican mantra of "dissent=treason" is passing. I do hope these angry dim-bulb types get that message. These whiney-baby conservatives, when things aren't going their way, can be a real social problem. The Dept. of Homeland Security should probably do a threat assessment. Think Timothy McVeigh. Think Eric Rudolph. Think Larry Northern.
Maybe a profile of these potential domestic terrorists should be developed and circulated to law enforcement agencies.
I guess one flaw would be that some cops would have to arrest themselves. But maybe they'd get cells next to Rush if he's convicted (as he should be) of the drug charges against him.
Oh well so it goes...we may have to destroy the village to save the village; throw out the constitution to save it.
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August 28, 2005
The Vietnamization of Bush's Vacation
By FRANK RICH

ANOTHER week in Iraq, another light at the end of the tunnel. On Monday President Bush saluted the Iraqis for "completing work on a democratic constitution" even as the process was breaking down yet again. But was anyone even listening to his latest premature celebration?
We have long since lost count of all the historic turning points and fast-evaporating victories hyped by this president. The toppling of Saddam's statue, "Mission Accomplished," the transfer of sovereignty and the purple fingers all blur into a hallucinatory loop of delusion... http://tinyurl.com/7lppc
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Letters to the Editor for Sunday, August 28, 2005
Stars and Stripes (YES, THE STARS AND STRIPES)
European and Mideast editions

[Information I’ve seen indicates that] 89 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan so far this month as the four-year anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, with no sign, or mention, of Osama bin Laden, despite bombings in London, nor does President Bush appear interested in finding him or the anthrax terrorists. Indeed, Bush is busy setting vacation records.

For Americans who’ve noticed the looming cloud over the United States since Bush took office and wonder, “What’s going on?” the blueprint is laid out in the September 2000 document “Project for a New American Century (PNAC): Rebuilding America’s Defenses.” Written by neoconservative government power players from the 1990s whose membership includes Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton and Lewis “Scooter” Libby (currently under investigation for outing a CIA agent), PNAC’s mission is “to fight and win multiple simultaneous major theater wars,” invade and permanently occupy Iraq and take over its oil industry, and overthrow regimes in the Middle East.

PNAC defines peacekeeping missions as “demanding American political leadership rather than that of the United Nations” an ideology realized in Bolton’s summer recess appointment as U.N. ambassador, and his 750 amendments to de-emphasize poverty in a U.N. document designed to alleviate it.

The PNAC document notes that “the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event — like a new Pearl Harbor.” Or like Sept. 11, which Bush continues to exploit. The 9/11 Commission has determined, however, that Iraq was not responsible for the World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks and that it possessed no weapons of mass destruction.

PNAC predicted America’s “global struggle against violent extremism” could proceed without public interference provided the U.S. casualty rate remains below 30,000 — PNAC’s threshold of public outrage and a grim reminder of what Americans face in Iraq during its next four years of occupation.

Michele Winter
Würzburg, Germany
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Saturday :: Aug 27, 2005

If Roberts Helped Set Up NHAO, Hearings Will Revisit Ties Between Iran Contra and Drugs

Does John Roberts have his fingerprints on the Reagan Administration’s support for Central American drug runners in the 1980’s? And how excited is John Kerry at the chance to relive the work of his subcommittee during the Roberts confirmation hearings?

You will recall that the Washington Post reported earlier this week that Senate Democrats want to know why a draft memo that outlined the legal advice given by Roberts to the Reagan White House on how to get around the Boland Amendment from the Reagan Library archives has been withheld from the Senate after Rove sent the scrubbers to the library earlier this month... http://tinyurl.com/bares
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Trent Duffy's been filling in for Scott McClelland lately at the daily White House press briefings. This exchange is from last Thursday the 25th. Do YOU think there's a reason to say 9/11 twice (and a Sept. 14th, 2001 thrown in for good measure)? I mean other than that they're still trying to peddle the lie that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. You know, the lie that killed Casey Sheehan and almost 2,000 other Americans, maimed an unknown number and tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis? You don't, do you? Of course not.

Q Does the President feel that over the last couple of days he's made an effective and convincing case that Cindy Sheehan is misguided in her feelings about the war and what should happen to the troops?

MR. DUFFY: Well, first of all, the President has spoken continuously about the way he approaches this war, following September 11th, 2001. On September 14th, 2001, he stood at the National Cathedral and told all of America that this was going to be a very long and difficult war, and that there were going to be some very trying moments; but that because of what happened on 9/11, that we had to view the world in a different way.
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Really think about this. To believe that the criminal imbecile GWB is POTUS you have to also believe all these other things too. An individual who goes by the name TruthIsAll put this together.

To believe that Bush won the 2004 election, you must also believe:

That the exit polls were wrong;

That Zogby's 5pm election day calls for Kerry winning Ohio and Florida were wrong (he was exactly right in his 2000 final poll);

That Harris' last-minute polling for Kerry was wrong (he was exactly right in his 2000 final poll);

That incumbent rule #1 - undecideds break for the challenger - was wrong;

That the 50% rule - an incumbent doesn't do better than his final polling - was wrong;

That the approval rating rule - an incumbent with less than 50% approval will most likely lose the election - was wrong;

That it was just a coincidence that the exit polls were correct where there was a paper trail and incorrect (+5% for Bush) where there was no paper trail;

That the surge in new young voters had no positive effect for Kerry;

That Kerry did worse than Gore against an opponent who lost the support of scores of Republican newspapers who were for Bush in 2000;

That voting machines made by Republicans with no paper trail and with no software publication, which have been proven by thousands of computer scientists to be vulnerable in scores of ways, were not tampered with in this election.
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Bush vs. the Mother
On the president's doorstep -- a dead soldier, an aggrieved housewife and the start of something big
By MATT TAIBBI

...Late that night, a car pulled up at the campsite. There was a woman at the wheel, and she was crying.

She was a Bush supporter who lives in the area, but her son was about to be shipped off to Iraq. She had made a special trip out here to complain about the long row of white crosses the protesters had planted along the side of the road -- each cross bearing the name of a fallen soldier. "Y'all are breaking my heart!" she cried. "My son hasn't gone yet, and I have to see those crosses every morning." She collected herself, wailed, and cried again, "You've broken one woman's heart!"

She drove off.

In the Sixties, the anti-war movement was part of a cultural revolution: If you opposed Vietnam, you were also rejecting the whole rigid worldview that said life meant going to war, fighting the Commies, then coming back to work for the man, buying two cars and dying with plenty of insurance. That life blueprint was the inflexible expectation of the time, and so ending the war of that era required a visionary movement.

Iraq isn't like that. Iraq is an insane blunder committed by a bunch of criminal incompetents who have managed so far to avoid the lash and the rack only because the machinery for avoiding reality is so advanced in this country. We don't watch the fighting, we don't see the bodies come home and we don't hear anyone screaming when a house in Baghdad burns down or a child steps on a mine.

The only movement we're going to need to end this fiasco is a more regular exposure to consequence. It needs to feel its own pain. Cindy Sheehan didn't bring us folk songs, but she did put pain on the front pages. And along a lonely Texas road late at night, I saw it spread.
(Posted Aug 25, 2005) http://tinyurl.com/c25fo
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Gallup: President Bush's Approval Rating Hits New Low, at 40%
By E&P Staff

Published: August 26, 2005 3:15 PM ET
NEW YORK

A new Gallup poll released today finds President George W. Bush's approval rating decline sharply to a new low, 40%, with 56% expressing disapproval. His previous low point was 44%, one month ago.

This confirms findings by other polls earlier this week, one of which pegged the approval rating even lower. The poll of 1,007 adults was conducted Aug. 22-25, so it includes the period of the president's series of speeches this week defending his Iraq war policies. Apparently the “Sheehan Effect” may be holding firm.

The current Gallup poll finds a strong drop in support from independents, to 32%, and even some erosion in his Republican base (though still strong at 82%).

Bush's current approval rating stands far below those for every other second term president at this point, save for Richard Nixon (34%). At this stage, for example, in August 1997, Bill Clinton's approval rating stood at 61%.

Bush's approval rating has plunged 12% since March.At the same time, Gallup finds only 34% of American satisfied with the way things are going in the country, with 62% dissatisfied.
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P.S. your cat is dead...

"Far from the cheering crowds, this is the word in the Nation's Capital: Forget all that prewar talk about a secular, modern and united Iraq emerging after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Get ready instead for some form of Islamic republic in Iraq that gives special status to clerics and majority ethnic groups, and less deference to women's rights. A new Iraq free of violence and divisions? Oops, never mind.

Which brings us back to the troops who are doing the suffering and dying. Are their sacrifices worth it?

Consider the Iraq now unfolding on the ground.

What's the value of Americans giving their lives so that cleric-dominated Shiites and northern Kurds can get their hands on political power and oil revenue?

Why are American women and men sacrificing lives and limbs in a country where women may have to settle for less?

Stay the course. What course? So religious-based militia can divvy up the northern and southern portions of the country? So Islam can be enshrined as a principal source of new Iraqi legislation? " http://tinyurl.com/b2uye
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POEM (for Raul Ruiz)

We are perhaps hopping into a car
that's maybe going nowhere
I think I remember you being there
insisting it was a real place
that you'd imagined for the first time
at the age of three at three in the afternoon
It's not that I doubted you it's that
I thought that maybe I wasn't there
that night or maybe the car had been stolen
earlier that day while we'd watched a movie on TV
HORROR OF SPIDER ISLAND
the best movie ever made but surely
not as good as some that aren't
*

Have you seen Betty?
http://bettybowers.com/index.html
*

I like it when establishment Democrats speak up and maybe by accident say the things I want to hear. I ought to get something for my votes...

Rangel launches rambling, blistering attack on Cheney
BY GLENN THRUSH
STAFF WRITER
August 27, 2005
Rep. Charles Rangel, the gravelly voiced dean of the New York State congressional delegation, launched a blistering attack on Vice President Dick Cheney Friday night, calling him a "sick man" who was unfit to lead...

... "Sometimes I don't think Cheney is awake enough to know what's going on," Rangel said.

"He's a sick man, you know.He's got heart disease but the disease is not restricted to that part of his body. He grunts a lot so you never really know what he's thinking." ...

..."Why do you think people are spending so much time praying for Bush's health?" he asked as the show's host, Davidson Goldin, sat stunned. "If he ever leaves and Cheney's in charge there's not very much else to pull together our nation."
...http://tinyurl.com/8nq5s
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Some of the obvious things about our current situation laid out clearly:

The Decline of Civilization
by Anthony Wade

There is so much pain and death in this world. So many people with evil intent in their heart. The worst thing though, is there are so many people of good intentions, who willingly help them. Good intentions as they say pave the road to hell...

... I honestly started this piece because I was fed up and was going to stop writing. I have been at it now for a year and a half and done over 100 articles in defense of the truth. I have learned a lot along the way. I learned that the Democratic Party is no more innocent then the Republican Party. The GOP may be mugging this country and the principles upon which it was founded, but most democrats look the other way with a nod and a wink and allow the mugging to continue. They are both part of the failed system. This crystallized for me when John Kerry quit on this country six hours after the election was stolen after promising us he would not. He went back to being the millionaire Congressman; we went on for four more years of the deterioration of the fabric of this republic and the decline of civilization.

I have learned that the media is no longer on the side of the people. If they had just attacked the lies that started this war with the fervor they have attacked Cindy Sheehan, Bush would be impeached already. It is a sad statement when the only show that truly hits the hard news stories is on Comedy Central. When they wish to distract us, they will push nonsense as news for weeks on end. A missing girl in Aruba suddenly becomes the spotlight. The Jackson trial becomes the most important story in America. The Scott Peterson trial is more important that our children dying in a war they should not be in. And we buy it, over and over again... http://tinyurl.com/8dgnu
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"...One such critic is United States Army General Tommy Franks, who, according to Bob Woodward's 2004 Plan of Attack, described leading neocon Feith as the "f_cking stupidest guy on the face of the earth" ...

Iran's Growing Sway in Iraq Defies Neocons' Logic
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Aug 25 (IPS) - Anyone who still believes that the U.S. neo-conservatives who led the drive to war in Iraq are diabolically clever geo-strategic masterminds should now consider Iran's vastly improved position vis-a-vis its U.S.-occupied neighbour.
Not only did Washington knock off Tehran's arch-foe, Saddam Hussein, as well as the anti-Iranian Taliban in Afghanistan, but, with this week's completion of a new constitution that would guarantee a weak central government and substantial autonomy to much of the Shiite south, it also appears that Iran's influence in Iraq -- already on the rise after last spring's inauguration of a pro-Iranian interim government -- is set to grow further.
"The new constitution will strengthen the hand of the provincial forces in the South which are pro-Iranian," according to University of Michigan Iraq expert Juan Cole, who notes that the state structure authorised by the draft charter would amount more to a confederation than a federal system.
Moreover, Cole told IPS, the constitutional ban on any law that contravenes Islamic law will likely give Shiite clerics significant power over the state, moving Iraq much closer to the Iranian model. "While there's no clerical dictator at the head of government as in Iran, if you had five ayatollahs on the Supreme Court who were striking down laws because they contravened Islam, that's pretty close to the Iranian system," he said.
In a recent colloquium for The Nation magazine, Shibley Telhami, a Middle East specialist at the Brookings Institution, noted that, "No one in Washington would have imagined that with all the human and financial costs of the war, the United States would find itself supporting a government ... (with) close ties to Iran and that would conclude a military agreement with Tehran for the training of Iraq forces, even as nearly 140,000 U.S. troops remained on Iraq soil."
This indeed was not how it was supposed to turn out for neo-conservatives who had argued that the gratitude of Iraqis for their "liberation" from Saddam would result in the installation of a secular, pro-western government that would permit its territory to be used for U.S. military bases as yet another pressure point -- or possible launching pad -- against an increasingly beleaguered and unpopular Islamic Republic (and Syria, too) next door. http://tinyurl.com/72r6x
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SERIAL SURREAL NO BOWL

the seed burst thru the window

at an angle to the plane of spine

and with the space of the paper intact

we were all going somewhere

the cut-off switch was no longer working

*

a horn blew in an empty field

and a world began-one of many

*

open the can of sidewalk

and read the water

better days coming

when the scars in the sky

coalesce around a choral fart

and Jesus learns to make better biscuits

*

I like when the legend of rain

outsaves it's uselessness

a bliss of corruption sets in

some overdetermination of surface appeal

surfaces even further

perhaps even crossing some line of contempt

even unto a violation of oracular space

*

the words that I love

and on whose side I try to be

words like: I love you

or: wave of labor unrest

or: prom queen mauled by tiger

*

Friday, August 26, 2005 · Last updated 4:21 a.m. PT

Poll: Many back right to protest Iraq war

By WILL LESTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- An overwhelming number of people say critics of the Iraq war should be free to voice their objections - a rare example of widespread agreement about a conflict that has divided the nation along partisan lines.

Nearly three weeks after a grieving California mother named Cindy Sheehan started her anti-war protest near President Bush's Texas ranch, nine of 10 people surveyed in an AP-Ipsos poll say it's OK for war opponents to publicly share their concerns about the conflict... http://tinyurl.com/77v6n
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I remember during the lead-up to the criminal invasion of Iraq how distorted the news coverage of the anti-war movement was.

I lived twelve blocks from the main site of several large demonstrations and there wasn't a single parking space left in my neighborhood And the people parking? Families. Husbands in dockers or weekend jeans and crew neck sweaters over Oxford cloth shirts (and sensible shoes), wives in the equivalent, kids in tow.

Demonstration organizers(Portland Peaceful Response) inflate numbers, broadcast media under-report and the cops give fairly accurate figures. I can remember three demonstrations one of which brought 12,000 people to hear the speakers and to demonstrate their opposition to an invasion of Iraq.

There were counter-demonstrations. Some organized by Clear Channel. You could see the call-letters of the radio stations on their pro-war/support Bush signs. Little groups of 40 or 50 people were made to look like vast crowds by shooting in close-up. No overhead shots of the much larger anti-war crowds were shown on TV to the best of my recollection. It was disgusting. TV gave more time to the pro-war 'cranks' than to the concerned citizens who'd driven miles to exercise their right to assemble and register their opposition to an illegal and immoral act of imperialist adventurism. The fix was in.

We never had a snowball's chance in hell of changing anything. The neocon criminal cabal had made up their minds years ago. The fix was in.
As pissed off as I am about all this I guess I should be glad that the tide is finally turning. But I still have to think about who's going to be the last person to die for a mistake. I can think of a few names of people I'd like it to be.
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The Peace Movement: Right Before the War, Right Today
by Steve Breyman

"... Not just occasionally right, but on the money across the board. Antiwar people argued that the "big three" reasons put forward directly and indirectly by the Bush administration and its echo chamber in the press were bogus. The movement argued rightly that there was little or no evidence for claims that: (1) the Iraqis were close to possessing nuclear weapons, or still had vast quantities of chemical or biological weapons; (2) Saddam Hussein was allied with al-Qaeda; or (3) Iraq had anything to do with 9/11...." http://tinyurl.com/dnb6l

...And I'm waiting for the apologies to come pouring in, but I'm not holding my breath. I think pretty soon there's going to be a lot of people who, as if by magic, "knew it all along." That's fine, just as long as they never ever vote Republican again. At least not for any as murderously crooked as the bunch that's in there now.
I hope there are ghosts.
*

Here's something you don't see everyday:
The art of Mark Lombardi:

http://tinyurl.com/ac42e (Article by Uri Dowbenko at Steamshovel press ("All conspiracy. No theory") .

And another that originally appeared in ART IN AMERICA magazine: http://tinyurl.com/9dlvw

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Hans and Unica hanging out and enjoying a but. Together 4 ever.

An engraving by Rudolfe Bresdin who once entered a contest for the design of US currency.

This is what I think and it is , of course, colored by what I'd like to happen.
I think Patrick Fitzgerald is onto Cheney. I think Cheney is the one to whom the evidence has pointed. He's the one for whom doctored intel was most important and any dissent was most inconvenient. And I think he's a vindictive little prick. He resigned from the human race a long time ago. With Cheney one has to remember just what happens to people who only care about money. It consumes them. 'They' go away. Something else replaces them. This is not a metaphysical thought. It's reality, to me at least.
I think I have a fix on Fitz. He's a highly skilled but essentially simple guy. He goes where the evidence goes and he goes as far as the evidence goes. It's that simple. He's not a political entity. He doesn't think about the political implications of what he's doing, he follows the evidence. And here's what he's finding out, in my opinion.
Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Feith, etc. wanted war. Good for business and good for Israel. Win/Win from their twisted point of view. The reality of the situation didn't matter. Saddam's containment was unacceptable. Occupation was the ticket. Bald, bare-assed naked imperialism needed to be brought back into style. And they did it. They cooked up a case for invading and occupying Iraq. They forgot the little niceties of whether it would be possible or not as anybody looking can see. Halliburton, Rand, etc have made out like big dogs. Our or our neighbors sons and daughters have sacrificed their lives and limbs for profit they will never see and the security of a nation that's irrelevant to their lives.
It's pretty sick really.
I hope the Grand Jury brings indictments against the whole crew or, at least, against the ones in their perview and then the other dominos fall.
I want the truth. The Bush administration took the United States to war based on lies, while giving tax cuts to the people who benefit the most from war . It's almost unreal how evil this is.
The problem with the world is , in general, the wealthy and governments that work for them.
Eventually it will come down to taxing them out of existence or something else.
In closing I want to emphasize that I am talking about the four or five hundred 'households' that have annual incomes of two hundred million (or more) dollars. (In other words, I'm not talking about the worthy well-to-do.) Almost everything bad in the world can to traced to them. We the people need to be rid of them. They're in the way of progress.
*

It's an odd thing that the lyric of the most popular and best selling record of 1959 was written by that most Communist of poets, Bertolt Brecht.

Mack the Knife

Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear
And he shows them pearly white.
Just a jack knife has Macheath, dear
And he keeps it out of sight.
When the shark bites with his teeth, dear
Scarlet billows start to spread.
Fancy gloves, though, wears Macheath, dear
So there's not a trace of red.

On the side-walk Sunday morning
Lies a body oozing life;
Someone's sneaking 'round the corner.
Is that someone Mack the Knife?
From a tugboat by the river
A cement bag's dropping down;
The cement's just for the weight, dear.
Bet you Mackie's back in town.
Louie Miller disappeared, dear
After drawing out his cash;
And Macheath spends like a sailor.
Did our boy do something rash?
Sukey Tawdry, Jenny Diver,Polly Peachum, Lucy Brown
Oh, the line forms on the right, dear
Now that Mackie's back in town.
*
It's from the THREE PENNY OPERA which was filmed in 1931 by G.W.Pabst. Watch those gorgeous tracking shots. Stanley Kubrick sure did I was thinking while watching FULL METAL JACKET the other night.
*

THE SACRED CHILDREN by H. R. HAYS:

Children believe in clover, magic numbers,
And wish on falling stars.
They are afraid of cracks in sidewalks,
Dangerous Fridays, they worship
Luck in mirrors, months
And the coming of white horses.

Shadows are large in the minds of children,
Moving in mystic and primal algebras
That shall solve sunrise. Signs make a music
Of warning and praise.

Oh there are marvels in the minds of children
Prophetic insects, stones that grow. They see
Life in a drowned hair
And know that death flies into rooms
On a bird's wings.
*

Last throes of the somewhat cool...

Hitchens Manning Iraq Barricades In Siege At Home

By Sheelah Kolhatkar

“George Packer has to live in the world of the readers of The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker and so forth. Those of us who are strongly for the war are still in the minority. But, I don’t give a shit.”

That was how Christopher Hitchens summed up a recent spat he’d had with Mr. Packer over the war in Iraq...
http://tinyurl.com/7fjq7
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WHY WE MUST LEAVE IRAQ
by Larry C. Johnson

Sometimes in life there are no good options. It is part of our nature to always assume that we can fix a problem. But in life there are many problems or situations where there is no pleasant solution. If you were at the Windows on the World Restaurant in the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 9 am on September 11, 2001 you had no good options. You could choose to jump or to burn to death. Some choice.

A hard, clear-eyed look at the current situation in Iraq reveals that we are confronted with equally bad choices... http://tinyurl.com/dds6x
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LATE

BRONZE

SEA

PEOPLES

Unica

Bruce

&

Jean

Some of that 'old school' from Gary Hart:

Who Will Say 'No More'?

"Waist deep in the Big Muddy and the big fool said to push on," warned an anti-Vietnam war song those many years ago. The McGovern presidential campaign, in those days, which I know something about, is widely viewed as a cause for the decline of the Democratic Party, a gateway through which a new conservative era entered.
Like the cat that jumped on a hot stove and thereafter wouldn't jump on any stove, hot or cold, today's Democratic leaders didn't want to make that mistake again. Many supported the Iraq war resolution and -- as the Big Muddy is rising yet again -- now find themselves tongue-tied or trying to trump a war president by calling for deployment of more troops. Thus does good money follow bad and bad politics get even worse.
History will deal with George W. Bush and the neoconservatives who misled a mighty nation into a flawed war that is draining the finest military in the world, diverting Guard and reserve forces that should be on the front line of homeland defense, shredding international alliances that prevailed in two world wars and the Cold War, accumulating staggering deficits, misdirecting revenue from education to rebuilding Iraqi buildings we've blown up, and weakening America's national security.
But what will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all this goes on?...

... Franklin D. Roosevelt established a national community based on social justice. Harry Truman created international networks that repaired the damage of World War II and defeated communism. John F. Kennedy recaptured the ideal of the republic and the sense of civic duty. To expect to enter this pantheon, the next Democratic leader must now undertake all three tasks ...http://tinyurl.com/7qel6
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Pat Robertson is human garbage. It's really getting to be time to clean up the United States. Time to take out the garbage. What a joke it is to consider the crap he says to be Christian doctrine. I'd bet that no legitimate clergyman or credentialed theologian thinks so.
And please, don't cite anyone who went to some non-accredited 'Bible College' as legitimate. It really doesn't work that way. Those deals are closer to the scam 'computer institutes' or Beautician 'colleges' or art schools you see advertised on matchbooks. Let's bring back bunko squads in our police departments and start shutting these scam operations down. Stop the 'war on drugs' and start the war on predatory bullshit. Imagine some unholy combination of Joe Friday and Jesus wiping out all these flim-flam tax dodges. That'd be a beautiful day.
*

Ravings of a cranky old man! Who let Pat Robertson out of the sanitarium?

Argile Stox writes: Is Pat Robertson suffering from dementia? Who in God’s green Earth does he think he is calling for the United States government to pull the trigger and ‘take out’ the President of Venezuela?

Look out America, the Conservatives are drunk with power, again.

America has suffered the loss of our own presidents by the bullets of self-righteous individuals. Do we need to mark a man for death because a religious zealot -- who proudly endorses the Republican Party & president Bush ... suggests that our Black Operations Units immediately "Get’er Done?"

Mr. Robertson sites Manifest Destiny & the Monroe Doctrine as a Prime Directive to take such an action? Who let Mr. Robertson out of the sanitarium?... http://tinyurl.com/9ayg6
*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Robertson

Title Unknown by Jofra Bosschart

It's kind of fun to think about the day when we might have a leader with the common good as the basis of his/her plans rather than a criminal exploiter working only on behalf of the uber-wealthy.
(Added:Citgo Petroleum service station locator. Support Chavez. F_ck Bush: http://tinyurl.com/c6lje )

Chavez offers cheap gas to poor in U.S.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005; Posted: 7:29 p.m. EDT (23:29 GMT)

HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, popular with the poor at home, offered on Tuesday to help needy Americans with cheap supplies of gasoline.
"We want to sell gasoline and heating fuel directly to poor communities in the United States," the populist leader told reporters at the end of a visit to Communist-run Cuba.
Chavez did not say how Venezuela would go about providing gasoline to poor communities. Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA owns Citgo, which has 14,000 gas stations in the United States.
The offer may sound attractive to Americans feeling pinched by soaring prices at the pump but not to the U.S. government, which sees Chavez as a left-wing troublemaker in Latin America.
Gasoline is cheaper than mineral water in oil-producing Venezuela, where consumers can fill their tanks for less than $2. Average gas prices have risen to $2.61 a gallon in the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. http://tinyurl.com/9q73t
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Beautiful guy at GWB's speech before the VFW.

Do they send the checks (or coupons for hair care products) directly from the White House to people like Norah O'Donnell or do they do a secret 'drop' kind of thing like in a spy novel?

Here's a transcript from MSNBC'S HARDBALL:News Bunny O'Donnell is 'interviewing' Coleen Rowley (Fmr. FBI agent and Democratic congressional candidate in Minnesota.)


"O'DONNELL: Coleen, let me ask you, why do you support Cindy Sheehan's anti-war position?
ROWLEY: Well, I happened to be a person who spoke out publicly against the war a couple of weeks before it was started and warned that it would prove counterproductive to our efforts to combat terrorism. And if you have gone through this chain of mistakes that started with the pre-9-11 lapses and you have seen all of these errors that have occurred since, very serious to our country's security. I don't think you can do anything, except continue to speak out.
O'DONNELL: You're a Democrat running for Congress. It was reported that Republican leaders in your state were just thrilled that you had decided to align yourself with anti-war extremists. Do you think that this could affect your race for Congress?
ROWLEY: Well, I will quickly correct the record that they are not anti-war extremists. The majority of the people I saw down in Crawford were actually veterans groups. There were military families and --
O'DONNELL: But, Coleen, they do oppose the war in Iraq, do they not?
ROWLEY: Yes, they do. But that does not make, I guess the term extremists. They're really, I think, reflective of mainstream America in many ways."

People like O'Donnell should be put on space ships and sent to the 'non-reality based" space station/planet ZIPPY. ("It's just like a mall!!!Only in outer space!!!") along with all the people who buy into crap like this. Think about it. Do you enjoy 'reality tv', read books aimed at children, go to animated films, are largely ignorant of history, geography or anything else relevent to world current events? And perhaps most importantly, do you NOT laugh your ass off when GWB tries to make a serious statement about important 'adult' things?
If the answer is YES consider ZIPPY. Please.
It'll be almost like a real life and that's what you like anyway, right?
*

These are being found all over the world. He IS a uniter.

PATRICIA ROBERTS: My name is Patricia Roberts. My son was specialist Jamaal Addison. He was in the 507 Maintenance Company. He was the unit that took the wrong turn, and he died when the P.O.W.s were taken. It's an honor to be here today. Unfortunately, not like Miss Montgomery, not like Miss Johnson, I never got to speak to Mr. George Bush. He never came and acknowledged in any way my son. I wish, I pray to get the opportunity to speak to Mr. Bush, and I pray while I'm here until Tuesday that I will be able to see him. I have prayed that he will step up to the plate, and even if he does not come to meet me, that he will note my presence here and that he will do the right thing and bring our troops home...from this morning's DEMOCRACY NOW: http://tinyurl.com/75aos
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RUIN
The failed ruin of a house
A single stone, which was
Re-entombed in the living room
After how many screams
The failed ruin of the living room
Where the defunct family was discussed
The Grandparent's sermon of excuses
For the extinguished branch of the family
And the dead cousin of St. Anne
Searches for her wits on a donkey
Galloping through an oat field
Resembling which feigned disease
Jean-Pierre Duprey (1930-1959)
(My translation)***

CANZONA#2

By

Colini

“We will confront weapons of mass destruction, so that a new century is spared new horrors,” Bush said. “The enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake … We will defend our allies and our interests.”
GWB on 1/20/01
*

PAT ROBERTSON BEGINS FINAL DESCENT INTO MADNESS:
(Two stories in one.)

Chavez ally: Robertson a 'fascist'
Tuesday, August 23, 2005

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- A Venezuelan lawmaker on Tuesday accused U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson of shedding his Christian values by calling for President Hugo Chavez's assassination.

Pro-Chavez lawmaker Desire Santos Amaral said she was shocked to learn that Robertson, a former U.S. presidential candidate, said on his show that if Chavez believes the United States is out to kill him, then it should. Robertson said this would stop Venezuela from becoming "a launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism." http://tinyurl.com/9brrw
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OIL & DOPE NEWS: "We relate it, you debate it."


Able Danger Intel Exposed"Protected" Heroin Trafficking

by Daniel Hopsicker
Mohamed Atta was protected from official scrutiny as part of an officially-protected cocaine and heroin trafficking network with ties to top political figures, including Republican officials Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris, and it was this fact—and not the “terrible lapses” of “weak on terror” Clinton Administration officials cited by Republican Congressman Curt Weldon—which shielded him from being apprehended before the 9.11 attack... http://tinyurl.com/79zsc
*

Nothing expresses love of country better than a codpiece.

The guy looks pretty well kept for being on the run in the mountains. Damn insurgents!
*

Dennis Kucinich( http://tinyurl.com/79y7z ) got married.
*

FRED'S HOUSE

Fred Deuce got excommunicated twice. Once for not going on a crusade and once for going. He won it by treaty so it's not counted. He liked to hunt birds with birds and wrote about it. He grew up on the streets and hung with a mixed crowd. He lived in this house.

*

Often

My eye

Goes along

A head

Without me

QUESTION: How can any decent person support the Bush Administration? They're scum.

August 21, 2005
The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan
By FRANK RICH

CINDY SHEEHAN couldn't have picked a more apt date to begin the vigil that ambushed a president: Aug. 6 was the fourth anniversary of that fateful 2001 Crawford vacation day when George W. Bush responded to an intelligence briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" by going fishing. On this Aug. 6 the president was no less determined to shrug off bad news. Though 14 marine reservists had been killed days earlier by a roadside bomb in Haditha, his national radio address that morning made no mention of Iraq. Once again Mr. Bush was in his bubble, ensuring that he wouldn't see Ms. Sheehan coming. So it goes with a president who hasn't foreseen any of the setbacks in the war he fabricated against an enemy who did not attack inside the United States in 2001.

When these setbacks happen in Iraq itself, the administration punts. But when they happen at home, there's a game plan. Once Ms. Sheehan could no longer be ignored, the Swift Boating began. Character assassination is the Karl Rove tactic of choice, eagerly mimicked by his media surrogates, whenever the White House is confronted by a critic who challenges it on matters of war. The Swift Boating is especially vicious if the critic has more battle scars than a president who connived to serve stateside and a vice president who had "other priorities" during Vietnam.

The most prominent smear victims have been Bush political opponents with heroic Vietnam résumés: John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry. But the list of past targets stretches from the former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke to Specialist Thomas Wilson, the grunt who publicly challenged Donald Rumsfeld about inadequately armored vehicles last December. The assault on the whistle-blower Joseph Wilson - the diplomat described by the first President Bush as "courageous" and "a true American hero" for confronting Saddam to save American hostages in 1991 - was so toxic it may yet send its perpetrators to jail.

True to form, the attack on Cindy Sheehan surfaced early on Fox News, where she was immediately labeled a "crackpot" by Fred Barnes. The right-wing blogosphere quickly spread tales of her divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering and her association with known ticket-stub-carrying attendees of "Fahrenheit 9/11." Rush Limbaugh went so far as to declare that Ms. Sheehan's "story is nothing more than forged documents - there's nothing about it that's real."

But this time the Swift Boating failed, utterly, and that failure is yet another revealing historical marker in this summer's collapse of political support for the Iraq war... http://tinyurl.com/alnf5
*

Beckett's House

From the Bad Men dept.

CAVALIER SHOOTING: Gunman charged
Hensel, N.D., farmer hospitalized after shootout with officers over protection order
By Elisa L. Rineheart
Herald Staff Writer

CAVALIER, N.D. - James Thorlakson, the Hensel, N.D., farmer arrested late Friday for shooting a police officer and setting two public buildings on fire, was charged Saturday with eight counts of attempted murder.

Pembina County Sheriff Wayne Samdahl confirmed many of the details that were rumored late Friday, including that Thorlakson was arrested at a Park River, N.D., hospital, about 30 miles south of Cavalier. Thorlakson drove himself to the hospital to be treated for multiple gunshot wounds sustained in several confrontations with authorities, Samdahl said.

Thorlakson, who was listed in stable condition at Altru Hospital late Saturday, has several charges pending. He has no prior criminal records, Samdahl said... http://tinyurl.com/7lw95
*

I can't resist.

From Juan Cole's INFORMED COMMENT: Feith-based Foreign Policy adventures
Saturday, August 20, 2005

Village Voice on FeithUS foreign policy supports the withdrawal of Israeli colonizers from the Palestinian Gaza Strip. But the outgoing number 3 man at the Pentagon, the son of a founder of the proto-fascist Likud Party, has his own foreign policy and fanatically favors the aggressive expansion of Israel and further expropriation of Palestinian property. It is shameful that he is only now resigning, since he has all along opposed the roadmap to peace of the Bush administration. And while others might have had complex motives for taking out Saddam, the reams of disinformation that issued from Feith's "Office of Special Plans" are easily explained. He saw the Baath regime as a brake on his hopes for a "Greater Israel." As number 3 in the US Department of Defense, moroever, it is hard to see how he could have been insulated from the decisions that led to the torture of Arab prisoners.

If France appointed Jean-Marie LePen as its number 3 in the Ministry of Defense, there would be howls of outrage from the international community... http://tinyurl.com/d46d6
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Further reference: http://tinyurl.com/93vdz
http://tinyurl.com/blrmp

WORKS AND DAYS

Let the clarity of doom prevail

while the energies stream from the stars

Let the equality set in

between forces and charges

at logger-heads, there,

there you find the silence where work can be done

*

Lense-grinder brings the mojo

for the root-worker to make the betterment

in the most practical of ways

40 PHDs land across from a bar in Philly

and this is what happens

Go figure

The tools to oppose the American beat-down

are in the pantry and backyard

Who knew?

*

Well, the stuff's already coming out at the Ben Franklin store down on Brown Ave so I guess it's alright...

Nice post from THINK PROGRESS. Clears things up.

Cheney on Iraq: Clarity in its Last Throes
Yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney was on hand at the National Convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart to talk about Iraq. The speech was full of the usual pabulum and dishonesty about the conflict, and there were even some bad jokes (“at ease, please,” he jestingly opens his remarks)—strange, coming from a serial draft-dodger.
But Cheney wasn’t there to talk up an imminent victory, or to discuss the last throes of the insurgency. He was there to claim that we have clarity: “Our mission in Iraq is clear,” Cheney tells the crowd. And again, in closing: “We will not relent in this effort, because we have the clearest possible understanding of what is at stake.”
Clarity?
Last Month, General George Casey, commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, told reporters that large-scale troop withdrawals could start as early as next spring. Then, just last Monday, we learned that a troop increase can be expected in the short term. Three days later, President Bush said no decision had yet been made on whether troop levels would increase or decrease. Just yesterday, we learn that 700 new troops will be dispatched to Iraq.
Ah, very clear. Everyone on the same page? http://tinyurl.com/dq8ed
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1582 Sir Humphrey Gilbert Map (drawn by John Dee).

"That all these Northern Iles and Septentrional Parts are lawfully appropriated to the Crown of this Brytish Impire: and the terrible adventure and great loss of the Brytish people and other of King Arthur his subjects perishing about the first discovery thereof. And the placing of Colonies in the same Iles and Regions by the same King Arthur. And an entire and general Description of all the part of the world within 12 degrees o fthe North Pole and somewhat more." Mercator to Dee
4/20/1577

"Look at me. I was a warrior on this land where the sun rises, now I come from where the sun sets. Whose voice was first surrounded on this land - the red people with bows and arrows. The Great Father says he is good and kind to us. I can't see it..."- Red Cloud : http://tinyurl.com/889mr


Cheney Watch
The veep wound up a busy week Thursday, braving high humidity and temperatures nearing 100 degrees in a flying noontime visit to the national convention of the Military Order of the Purple Heart in Springfield, Mo.
During his 20-minute speech on the war in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney told 400 members of the organization, "Once again, we're seeing the power of freedom to change the course of the world." He compared American efforts in Iraq to the heroism of George Washington's army.
Windshield protest: Just before Cheney's address, the Democratic National Committee accused the Bush administration of failing to adequately fund veterans benefits. No organized protests were spotted near the Springfield hotel, but fliers left on cars in the parking lot read, "Halliburton funded, veterans not funded."
Bad veep! Legal ethicists say the White House broke the law when Cheney and others interviewed John Roberts Jr. last spring for the Supreme Court while Roberts presided over a challenge to the president's military tribunals.
No free lunch: Veep Watch reveals the details of what dedicated Cheney fans get for their money during stumping stops in Idaho and Montana:
* Ice cream, cake and bottled water in a sweltering airplane hangar -- 60 bucks.
* Chocolate cake and a salad topped with chicken -- $125.
* Photo ops with the veepster -- $1,000 per click.
* Money raised for war chest: Unknown.
-- From wire reports... http://tinyurl.com/9wobu
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