Rara Avis Menagerie

Small Organic Farmers Can Cool the World That Chemical Farming Has Overheated

2009-10-15T18:10:00.001-07:00

Small Organic Farmers Can Cool the World That Chemical Farming Has Overheated

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america, we have come so far

2008-11-05T13:59:00.001-08:00

no matter which way you vote, you cannot deny that we witnessed history last night

we have come so far as a nation. this is something to celebrate.

even 60 years ago, an african american could barely even dream of one day becoming president. we are getting closer and closer to living out the phrase that all "are created equal."

and this is something to celebrate.

i am also very proud of the grace that the mccain camp showed last night. the talk of working together and respect and . . . simply just graciousness. i was impressed.

this is something to celebrate.

i was touched by the tears and the pride that so many americans displayed last night. i was awed at the sheer number of voters that turned out. humbled by how much passion people who aren't even members of our country showed (a friend of mine cried last night and he isn't even from america. he's from britain).

this is beautiful. and this is something to celebrate.

america spoke loudly last night. they want change. the results of the votes cast reflect this. our new president elect made a lot of promises to bring that change on his campaign trail. let's support him and remind him and stand by him and help him as he works to fulfill those promises of a better america, a better future and a better world.

he and his family have quite a task ahead of them. our economy, healthcare, global reputation and national pride are slowly going down the toilet. he will be handed all of these problems on a silver platter come january. bitterness and anger from those who did not "get their way" during this election are in no way appropriate responses at this time. instead, a sense of community and hard work and hope and the deisre for progress which are spoken about so greatly as part of the american spirit should be put to use here. i believe in humanity and i know it is possible for people to put differences aside in order to work together to fix what is broken in our culture, in our society, and in our politics.

and this is something to celebrate.

did she just WINK at the camera?

2008-10-02T20:46:00.001-07:00

i don't even really need words for this.

first watch this

then watch this

and then watch this

this could be the future, folks.

'm just sayin'

dear friend,

2008-10-02T08:04:00.001-07:00

I just signed the Green Jobs Now "I'm Ready" Petition, to urge our leaders to invest in millions of Green Jobs, and a Clean Energy Corps. Join me, and a growing movement of people who are ready for an inclusive green economy. sign here.

thanks!

how do you get to 100 yrs in iraq?

2008-04-10T11:30:00.001-07:00

gross

2008-02-07T15:36:00.000-08:00

Are you already eating cloned meat?

You may have been discouraged to hear that the FDA gave the green light for companies to sell meat from cloned animals.[1] The real news? It has probably already been on our shelves for years.

For years, the FDA has asked major cattle cloning companies to keep their products off the market. For years, they've ignored. One Kansas farmer has already come forward and admitted to openly selling semen from prize-winning clones to U.S. meat producers, while another cattleman says that, "This is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain."[2] This is unacceptable. That's why TrueMajorityAction is demanding that Congress pass a law requiring that all products from cloned animals be clearly labeled.

Tell Congress: Cloned animal products should be clearly labeled.

It should be up to us to decide whether or not we want to consume these products, not a group of people who repeatedly put political and corporate interests above the health of the nation. Nothing is more important than the food we put into our bodies. We deserve to know what we are eating. Tell your member of Congress to take action on this important issue.

Thank you for working to build a better world.

Sincerely,

Ben Kroetz
TrueMajorityAction.org Online Organizer

1. "FDA Says Cloned Animals Safe Is Food," Associated Press, January 15, 2008.
2. "USDA Recommends That Food From Clones Stay Off the Market," Washington Post, January 16, 2008.

from truemajorityaction.org
and credoaction.com

orangs book show

2008-01-10T07:33:00.000-08:00

a fundraiser for the dorcas children's home.

food for thought

2007-10-02T13:07:00.000-07:00

From: Reuters, Sept. 27, 2007
[Printer-friendly version]
Reuters, September 27, 2007

U.N. CLIMATE PANEL REPORT'S KEY FINDINGS

[Rachel's introduction: Here is a concise summary of the findings of the Feb., 2007, report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), representing the work of 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations.]

Here are the key findings on climate change from a February 2, 2007 report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which represents the work of 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations.

Evidence Of Human Causes

** "Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (human) greenhouse gas concentrations," it says. The IPCC says "very likely" means at least a 90-percent probability.

** "The level of confidence that humans are causing global warming has increased a lot," report author Peter Stott said.

Temperature Increases

** It is very likely that extremes such as heat waves and heavy rains will become more frequent.

** "For the first time we have a best estimate of what we can achieve if we keep emissions levels lower," said report chair Susan Solomon.

** The report does not include possible warming from methane, a potent greenhouse gas, escaping from melting permafrost.

** Warming is expected to be greatest over land and at high northern latitudes, and least over the Southern Ocean and North Atlantic.

Sea Level Rises

** The report cites six models with core projections of sea level rises ranging from 7.2 to 23.6 inches this century. That is a narrower and lower band than the 3.5 to 34.6 inch gain forecast in 2001.

** If the Greenland ice sheet melts proportionally to the temperature increases, then sea levels would rise by up to 31.6 inches this century.

** Some models show an ice-free Arctic in summer by 2100, meaning that sea ice floating in the water disappears, but not ice resting on Greenland.

** If the Greenland ice sheet melted completely, that would lead to a 23.1-foot (7-metre) sea level increase.

Changing Ocean Currents

** The report predicts a gradual slowdown this century in ocean currents such as the one that carries warm water to northwest Europe.

** "It's very unlikely there will be an abrupt breakdown in ocean currents in the 21st century," said Jurgen Willebrand, the report's author with special expertise in ocean effects.

Hurricanes

** The report says it is "more likely than not" that a trend of increasing intense tropical cyclones and hurricanes has a human cause.

** It predicts such tropical cyclones will become more intense in the future.

** "There may not be an increase in number, there may be a redistribution to more intense events -- which is what has been observed in the Atlantic since 1970," Stott said.

Copyright Reuters 2007

really?

2006-10-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

did the president really just outlaw online gambling? doesn't he have better things to do with his time? like seek world peace? or stop global warming? or provide access to quality health care?

tobias

2006-09-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

my friend tobias was in the armed forces in iraq.

he is home now, with his family. his kids.

he is one of the few in my life who really is able to have true perspective on this war - since he has been an active part in it. i value his opinion and perspective.

please read what he has to say about this sept 11.

update on net-neutrality

2006-07-06T18:01:00.000-07:00

you can read about what's happening here

call or fax your senator today!!

The Net Needs Your Help This Week -For The Senate Battle!

2006-06-20T09:10:00.000-07:00

Its a great debate! Net Neutrality is in The Senate!
Are we going to continue to have a free exchange of ideas or are we going to have to pay double to some corporate gatekeeper in order to have any sort of discussion? Who gets to decide what is or is not appropriate discourse the free market or corporate gatekeepers?
These are the questions you ought to be asking yourself and your elected representatives.
You can contact the members of the Senate Commerce Committee via the main switchboard toll free at: 1-888-355-3588. Or you can contact them individually at the following phone and fax numbers:
Chairman Ted Stevens (AK): (202) 224-3004; (202) 224-2354 FAX
John McCain (AZ): (202) 224-2235; Fax: (202) 228-2862
Conrad Burns (MT): 202-224-2644; Fax: 202-224-8594
Trent Lott (MS): (202) 224-6253; Fax: (202) 224-2262
Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX): 202-224-5922; 202-224-0776 (FAX)
Olympia J. Snowe (ME): (202) 224-5344; FAX (202) 224-1946
Gordon H. Smith (OR): 202.224.3753; Fax: 202.228.3997
John Ensign (NV): (202) 224-6244; Fax: (202) 228-2193
George Allen (VA): (202) 224-4024; Fax: (202) 224-5432
John E. Sununu (NH): (202) 224-2841; FAX (202) 228-4131
Jim DeMint (SC): 202-224-6121; Fax: 202-228-5143
David Vitter (LA): (202) 224-4623; Fax: (202) 228-5061
Co-Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (HI): 202-224-3934; Fax: 202-224-6747
John D. Rockefeller (WV): (202) 224-6472; (202) 224-7665 Fax
John F. Kerry (MA): (202) 224-2742 - Phone; (202) 224-8525 - Fax
Byron L. Dorgan (ND): 202-224-2551; Fax: 202-224-1193
Barbara Boxer (CA): 202-224-3553
Bill Nelson (FL): 202-224-5274; Fax: 202-228-2183
Maria Cantwell (WA): 202-224-3441; 202-228-0514 - FAX
Frank R. Lautenberg (NJ): (202) 224-3224; Fax: (202) 228-4054
E. Benjamin Nelson (NE): Tel: (202) 224-6551; Fax: (202) 228-0012
Mark Pryor (AR): (202) 224-2353; Fax: (202) 228-0908

When you have Sen. Ted Stevens giving a speech to the TelCo industry, you pretty much know where he stands. But a lot of these Senators are on the bubble, and your phone call or FAX could make all the difference.

UPDATE: Also, please contact Sen. Arlen Specter, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and ask that he consider oversight on the legality of this issue. 202-224-4254

Please be calm, patient and professional - but use your voice to demand... Net Neutrality!!!

luv,
{the net}

paralells of george III and george w (made by nader, rebup'ed by me)

2006-06-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

(made with quotes from the declaration of independance)

"He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good." Hello!

"He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent of Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers." Hello!

"He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy... and totally unworthy of the Head of a civilized nation." (Bush's "coalition of the willing" shipped to the fabricated, costly, illegal invasion of a devastated Iraq).

"For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury." (Bush is seeking to federally handcuff both juries and judges in state tort-injury cases).

$$$

2006-06-09T12:04:00.000-07:00

where is our country headed?

financially speaking . . . it doesn't look good.

2006-05-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

From http://donkephant.blogspot.com/2006/05/you-might-be-terrorist-if.html:

Well I have had the unique opportunity of looking at some of this NSA intelligence and I have made a list of things you may or may not know. Trust me, this is being done for our protection.

You might be a terrorist if God tells Bush you are.
You might be a terrorist if after 14 months of torture you admit you are.
You might be a terrorist if you live in the US.
You might be a terrorist if you're Muslim and live in Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, etc, etc.
You might be a terrorist if you're dating someone in a foreign country.
You might be a terrorist if you are calling anyone outside the US.
You might be a terrorist if you own a bank account that has overseas transactions.
You might be a terrorist if you are a Quaker opposing the war.
You might be a terrorist if you are any race and object to the war.
You are a terrorist if you protest the war.
You might be a terrorist if you are Muslim and live anywhere (except Iraq, then you are an insurgent)
You might be a terrorist if you question any part of this administrations intentions.
You are a terrorist if you question the above vocally.
You might be a terrorist if you have ever visited a website from the Middle East.
You might be a terrorist if you have ever talked to a Muslim person.
You might be a terrorist if you object to the violations of your civil liberties.
You might be a terrorist if you have ever .......well let's admit it we probably all are terrorists, it's just that the Pentagon hasn't gotten around to starting a file on us yet.

As you can see there really is no way to know without cutting a few constitutional corners.

I will leave you with this thought. It has only come to light just recently that spying on Americans has been taking place now for the last few years. We are being told this from our Secretary of State and former National Security Advisor as justification for these programs.
"We have to remember that the President looks at many many many pieces of intelligence about coming attacks. Frankly almost none of them specific enough to act upon."

As you can see this program is yielding some very impressive results, that the President can't act upon.
And when he did have valid research warning of terrorist attacks (or a coming hurricaine) he didn't act upon it . . . huh.

Am I a terrorist for posting this?
No, I am not.

to quote Ani Difranco:
"I love my country
By which I mean
I am indebted joyfully
To all the people throughout its history
Who have fought the government to make right
Where so many cunning sons and daughters
Our foremothers and forefathers
Came singing through slaughter
Came through hell and high water
So that we could stand here
And behold breathlessly the sight
How a raging river of tears
Cut a grand canyon of light"

cut and paste from seventh generation . . .

2006-05-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

THE NON-TOXIC TIMES, The Seventh Generation Newsletter
Vol. 7, No. 7 May 2006
If have trouble reading this email please go directly to our website:http://www.seventhgeneration.com/making_difference/newsletter.php

Lee & Me: My Meeting With Wal-Mart’s CEO, the World’s Most Powerful BusinessmanA Few Thoughts from Jeffrey Hollender, President
If you spend your days immersed in the corporate world, there’s really only one way to describe a business trip I took last December: I was invited to an audience with the King. I was called to the commercial realm that is ostensibly the world’s 20th largest economy and the home of more indentured servants than any other. And so it was that I went to the very palace of the corporate kingdom some people love and others love to hate—to Bentonville, Arkansas, and the headquarters of Wal-Mart, for my meeting with CEO Lee Scott.
[How does a CEO of an itsy bitsy responsible business end up talking to the CEO of the world’s biggest, and what does he say when gets there? Click here to read all about my trip to the top of what many say is the bottom…]

Is That Benzene on Little Bobby’s Breath? Chemicals in Kids’ Drinks Can Combine in the Can to Create a Carcinogen
Okay. We know that children’s beverages generally aren’t the most natural things on the planet. There aren’t hidden springs in alpine forests that bubble out Sunny D. There’s no fruit you can pick for a fresh-squeezed glass of Hawaiian Punch. But still, these drinks are for kids, so whatever artificial ingredients are inside them have got to be among the safest around. Right? Kinda. Sorta. The ingredients themselves might be okay, but the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has revealed that certain among them can react with each other inside the can or bottle to form the carcinogen benzene.
[Not to open up a can of worms, but some soft drinks may be dangerous to your health. Pop on over here and we’ll quench your need to know…]

Resolutionary War: Activists Battle the System by Exploiting the System
For years, countless companies responding to public demands for change have essentially said, “Sorry, we can’t do anything that would negatively affect our shareholders’ financial interests. In fact, since you’re not shareholders, we’re obligated to disregard you in the name of quarterly profits!” What are all those poor activists to do in the face of such legal imperatives? Simple: buy a few shares themselves, and use their newfound ownership stake to force companies to behave via shareholder resolutions that corporate management teams aren’t allowed to ignore.
[It’s business as unusual at increasing numbers of annual meetings. Click here for our full prospectus on the plan…]

Flower Power: When a Bouquet is in Order, Go Organic and Help the Whole World Smell Like a Rose
Roses are red. Violets are Blue. And most flower bouquets are full of P.U. It’s a fact: the majority of fresh-cut flowers sold in the U.S. are grown in Latin America where our country’s own pesticide laws don’t apply and up to 20% of the chemicals that growers use are so hazardous they’ve been banned here at home. That’s why all too many conventional bouquets expose those who receive them to a lot more than love.
This Mother’s Day, we’ve got a better arrangement. Send Mom a very special bouquet of one dozen Veriflora™-certified sustainable Sweet Moment Roses from Organic Bouquet instead and give her a healthier home and a safer world with every blossom. Sustainably grown, these wonderfully fragrant pinkish-purple roses are a gift she’ll remember. And you’ll be giving her more than a stunning display of all-natural beauty because 10% of your purchase will be donated to the Children’s Health Environment Coalition (CHEC), the same organization we’re partnering with to put the proceeds from our new book, Naturally Clean, to work. Every contribution made to CHEC helps protect kids and mothers everywhere from the toxic hazards hidden in flowers and other places.
This Mother’s Day, give the gift that grows a better world. Just visit www.organicbouquet.com/chec and start shopping. As long as you use this start page, Organic Bouquet will donate 10% of the purchase of any arrangement you choose to CHEC. For more information about the Children’s Health Environment Coalition, visit http://www.checnet.org .
A Cereious Honor: Seventh Generation’s CR Report Declared Tops at Ceres Conference
Okay, we knew it was good, but we didn’t think it was that good! But who are we to second-guess the judges at the Ceres-ACCA North American Awards for Sustainability Reporting? They seem like bright people. And we don’t see any reason to argue with their decision to declare our 2004 Corporate Responsibility (CR) report the Best Small or Medium Enterprise Report of the Year.
[Sure, we won big. But the really big winner is the planet. Click here to share the joy…]

Use the Information Superhighway to Reduce Your Impacts on the Road
Summer travel season is upon us. And regardless of the financial finagling it may take to tank up, Americans show no signs of lessening their love affair with the open road. In fact, we’re expected to hit the highways and skyways in record numbers this year. And while we each may find our own private paradises, all that getting there may leave those destinations worse for the wear. That’s because to travel is to pollute, and more than you might think. The good news is that we’ve found three web sites that can help you enjoy your getaway without the guilt.
[Is your car’s pollution driving you crazy? Park it right here, and we’ll steer you to some websites that can ameliorate your travel impacts…]

2006-04-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

Du hast nicht eine Seele. Du bist eine Seele. Du hast einen Körper.

~C.S. Lewis

what's your theological world view?

2006-04-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern.
You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
Emergent/Postmodern 93%
Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 82%
Neo orthodox 54%
Roman Catholic 54%
Classical Liberal 54%
Charismatic/Pentecostal 43%
Reformed Evangelical 43%
Modern Liberal 39%
Fundamentalist 29%

i think the reason i scored so high as a fundamentalist is because that is sort of my background and it is hard to break away . . .

why haven't i heard about this before?

2006-04-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

missing wings in the pentagon crash

some say a boeing 747 did not strike the pentagon

here is some footage claiming the same thing . . .

my questions are:
then what did happen to american arilines flight 77 and the people on it? did it even exist in the first place? and if flight 77 did exist, but did not crash, where are the passengers and what are their stories?
and why haven't i heard about this before?

any opinions, ideas, remarks, further info, etc?

2006-03-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

This guy, Jamie Raskin, is running for a seat in the Maryland State Senate, and he said this to some religious right senator when she stated that same sex marriage should be unconstitutional because it goes against biblical principles:

"People place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution," Raskin said. "They don't put their hand on the Constitution and swear to uphold the Bible."

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

just putting that out there . . . peaceful and respectful responses welcomed.

2006-03-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

Cost of Basic education for everyone in the world per year: $6 Billion
Cosmetics in the United States per year: $8 Billion
Cost of Water and sanitation for everyone in the world per year: $9
Billion
Ice cream in Europe per year: $11 Billion
Number of people worldwide who will die as a result of malnutrition
this
year: 20 Million
Number of people who could be adequately fed using land freed if
Americans
reduced their intake of meat by just 10% per year: 100 Million

Something's not right here.

2006-02-15T15:56:00.000-08:00

Gripping that hallow space below your ribcage
Barefoot and wide-eyed the world rushes past you

You have become one of them

Gone are the days of endless play and carefree side-walk chalk covered pavement
Gone are the ice cream stains and the peanut butter on the corners of your mouth
Pig tales replaced by a sensible ponytail at the nape of your neck
The blue tongue from a raspberry lollipop replaced by a healthy green salad. Dressing on the side please

Yet you are hungry for freedom
Craving ignorance and bliss
It all disappeared in a moment

Welcome to world of adulthood

2006-01-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

this woman is amazing!

three

2005-12-29T16:30:00.000-08:00

though the folding of my hands
enacts the emptiest of emotions,
even when my knees strike the floor
like contact pads of a defribrillator,
and in spite
of these routines
like machines
or hollow tin cans
dragging behind caravans of monks,

this seemingly hollow praying-posture
breaks through energy,
epoch, emotion, and epidermis--
immediately, syringe-like,
into eternity.

read more here.
who is this guy?

Two Days to Stop the Patriot Act

2005-12-13T16:22:00.000-08:00

Now is the time to take a stand on the Patriot Act. Senators from both parties have vowed to fight reauthorization—by filibuster if necessary—until it includes needed reforms. Can you help us reach our goal of 250,000 signatures to show support for filibustering the Patriot Act?

Stop the Patriot Act

A bipartisan group of senators have agreed to fight the Patriot Act—by filibuster if necessary. The law currently goes too far in curtailing our civil liberties and they're fighting back. The Senate will vote as soon as Thursday. This is the time to act.

This is a huge moment. Senators from both parties are standing together to protect privacy and liberty in a time of war—and they're ready to go all the way. It's important to support them and to show those who are still on the fence how important this issue is to you. Will you help us reach 250,000 signatures on our petition by Thursday so we can deliver them in time for the vote?

sign this petition

If this filibuster holds, Congress could vote to temporarily extend the Patriot Act as it stands—allowing time for a new, better version that addresses the big problems in the law. This would be a huge victory for those of us who believe that liberty is non-negotiable.

The tide is turning in Congress. Leaders in Washington are beginning to demand accountability from the Bush administration on everything from Iraq to the use of torture. Now it looks like President Bush's plan to pass a new and more dangerous version of the Patriot Act is also in trouble.

1. In 2001, only one senator voted against the Patriot Act. Since then, people from all across the political spectrum have come to realize that the Patriot Act strikes a blow to the fundamental rights, liberties, and privacy of all Americans. Protecting freedom is something that all of us—progressives and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans—can agree on.

That's why a bipartisan group of senators, including Republicans Larry Craig, John Sununu, Lisa Murkowski and Democrats Russ Feingold, Dick Durbin and Ken Salazar, have been working to fix the Patriot Act. They have vowed to fight the most egregious provisions and filibuster reauthorization if necessary. We need to show them that we have their backs.

The Patriot Act that the president wants them to pass now goes too far and doesn't protect the privacy of innocent Americans. It doesn't address some of the biggest problems in the law.

For example:

2. The government can obtain your private records, like medical, library, school, and other records—without showing any connection between your activities and and a suspected foreign terrorist.

Some 30,000 National Security Letters ("NSLs") are issued each year to obtain private records,3 and the recipients of those NSLs are under a gag order that is almost impossible to overturn. But the Patriot Act does nothing to address these abusive powers.

The government is allowed to get "sneak and peek" search warrants to search a home or business and doesn't have to tell the owner of the premises for a month. This power can be used in cases that don't have anything to do with terrorism.

Right now, the Patriot Act is just bad law about to get worse—and leaders in the Washington are actually willing to try to block it. We can't let our only chance to fix it slip away without a fight.
Hundreds of thousands of signatures on a petition like this will show the Senate how serious Americans are about protecting their constitutional freedoms. Will you sign the petition and show your support for filibustering a Patriot Act that doesn't include privacy protections?

click here

Together, we can make sure we're safe—and our freedom is safe, too.
Thanks for all you do,

–Eli, Nita, Ben, Jennifer and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Tuesday, December 13th, 2005

Sources: 1. ACLU: Reform the Patriot Act
2. ACLU: Summary of Patriot Reauthorization Act Conference Report
3. "The FBI's Secret Scrutiny," Washington Post, November 6, 2005

Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.3 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now here.

2005-12-13T09:07:00.000-08:00

Burning Man has decided on next year's theme. Let the planning begin!

This is What You Shall Do:

2005-12-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off you hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in words but in silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body . . .

~Walt Whitman

2005-11-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Current and former Senators -- including presidential hopeful John Edwards -- are responding to calls to "come out" on Iraq. Over 30,000 people have already signed a petition urging Senators and House members who had voted for Bush's blank check for war to publicly admit they were fed falsehoods, and say they regret giving Mr. Bush the power to invade.

It was just three years ago that 77 senators and 296 representatives voted to give the president unilateral authority to invade Iraq. Seven have already admitted their mistake. Only 267 to go.

Former Senator John Edwards declared in an editorial last week: "It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake -- the men and women of our armed forces and their families -- have performed heroically and paid a dear price... The world desperately needs moral leadership from America, and the foundation for moral leadership is telling the truth."

To date, seven politicians have taken this brave step, and now, having admitted their mistakes, are free to begin to address the blunt truths about the disasterous occupation of Iraq. They are: Former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Diane Feinstein, former Rep. Dick Gephardt, Sen. Tom Harkin, Sen. John Kerry, and Sen. Jay Rockefeller.

Click on the link below to sign a petition calling on every other member of Congress who voted for the invasion to admit their mistake. click here

Martha went to jail; so should White House Traitors.

2005-10-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

Tell President Bush: Don't Pardon Traitors
His father called them the "most insidious of traitors." He was referring, of course, to those who reveal the identities of America's covert operatives.
It's now abundantly clear -- people working in this Bush administration conspired to do precisely that.
Tell this President that any pardons in this affair would be a direct encouragement of treason.
This whole case has always been about the Bush Administration's brazen efforts to mislead the American public into supporting the invasion of Iraq. This isn't a failed real estate deal, or a stained blue dress -- this is the national security of the United States, deliberately compromised by high-level officials in this administration.
Working Assets is calling on President Bush to publicly renounce any potential use of the presidential pardon in this case and let justice run its course. There is simply no reason to use pardon powers to shelter those who may have committed acts of treason against our nation.
Tell the President that his "get out of jail free" card should NOT be used in cases of treason.
Please forward this newsletter to your friends, email lists, and bloggers you know to help spread the word about this important campaign!

Thank you for working to build a better world.
Will EastonManager
ActForChange.com/Working Assets

----------

Dear blogging friends:
Please join me in asking the President to renounce the use of presidential pardons for anyone indicted by the special prosecutor in the "Treason-gate" scandal. This was one of the most serious crimes in our nation's history -- the deliberate outing of a CIA operative as political retribution against her husband for speaking the truth to power.

Share the Wealth; a message from Ralph Nader

2005-09-20T13:49:00.000-07:00

I was riding in a car last week with an old friend.
He worked with me many years ago to set up a nationwide network of student run citizen groups.
Now, he is organizing in Ohio for congressional redistricting reform.
We were talking about New Orleans.
And his snap observation?
Those people in New Orleans should have gotten out when they were told to evacuate.
Many did, but what if some 100,000 couldn’t, I asked?
If it were me, I would have crawled out, he said.
What if there was no way out – no car, sickness, caring for ailing relatives, no seats on public transportation, streets blocked, nowhere to go, fear of the unknown?
There always is a way, he said.
And this from a highly educated and accomplished “liberal.”
Many in America are in denial.
Especially “highly educated” America is in denial.
They know, but still are in denial, about the deep poverty of tens of millions in our midst.
Ancient Chinese proverb – To know and not to act is not to know.
Even after television showed the poor – day after day – being left behind in New Orleans, many in America remained in denial.
How else to explain the poverty of response from both the Democrats and Republicans?
Watching the disaster in New Orleans made me think back over 80 years to Huey Long, the former Governor and Senator from Louisiana.

Long’s mission – defend the people against the avarice of corporate America.
He taxed the oil companies to pay for text books for the children of Louisiana.
His response to poverty?
Share the wealth – with those who worked to create it.
Long’s was a detailed program – during the 1930s Depression – which would impose a capital tax that would prevent any family from owning a fortune of more than $5 million or more 350 times that of the average family.
And it would have imposed an income tax that would prohibit a family from earning more than one million dollars a year, or more than 300 times the income of the average family.
The income from these taxes would provide every family in the country with a home valued at not less than $5,000.
The government would further guarantee that every family would receive an annual income of $2,000 to $3,000.
He knew that defending the people meant a showdown with the greed of corporations and their super-rich bosses.
His expected run for the Presidency on a wave of popular support for his Share the Wealth platform pushed Franklin Roosevelt and the Democrats to enact more of the New Deal.
With his dramatic proposals, Long got people thinking about the concentration of wealth.
That was then.
Now, Katrina has exposed to all the mass poverty in our midst.
A quarter of America’s working families are living in poverty.
And yet, the ratio of average annual large company CEO pay (now $11.8 million) to average worker pay (now $27,460) spiked up last year from 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 in 2004.
If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the US would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour.
Some of the nation’s most enlightened wealthy are fearful of what these numbers portend.
Led by William Gates Sr. and Chuck Collins, more than 1,000 of these wealthy Americans have organized to defend taxes on the super wealthy.
Gates and Collins argue that individual wealth is a product not only of hard work and smart choices but of the society that provides the fertile soil for success.
They don’t subscribe to the “Great Man” theory of wealth creation but contend that society’s investments – such as public works, government research, economic development, education, and health care – all contribute to any individual’s good fortune.

They have written a blockbuster book – Wealth and Our Commonwealth – Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.
In response to New Orleans, will the Democratic Party stand up with William Gates Sr. and say out loud – tax accumulated fortunes, defend the estate tax, and defend our progressive income tax structure?
Will the Democratic Party stand against the massive redistribution of wealth and income upward over the past twenty years from the many to the few?
The corporate Democrats fear opening up this topic of fair return for hard work done – staying silent on a living wage demand.
They want the business campaign money too much.
This despite the falling median household income, now in its fifth straight year, and the widening gap between rich and poor.
And so, the issue of the rising poverty rate and the widening gap between rich and poor will remain untouched.
The wealth gap, the income gap and mass poverty are too hot to handle by the corporate Democrats and Republicans alike.

Nader for President 2004
www.votenader.org
PO Box 18002
Washington, DC 20036
USA

global warming anyone?

2005-09-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050915/D8CKRFHO4.html

crucifixion american style

2005-09-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

Information Clearing House --
"For God so loved the world..." he returned his only begotten son to the land where he shed his grace on thee.

Vindication for the faithful, rejoicing for the true believers, it was the second coming of Christ - and he was coming to America. Not to bring Armageddon, but to save mankind from Armageddon.

Jesus will make his first appearance at the intersection of the streets appropriately named "Liberty" and "Church" in New York City, located at what has come to be known as "Ground Zero."

Lower Manhattan was virtually shut down as millions ofthe faithful and curious flooded the streets to get a glimpse of the second coming of their lord and savior.

Even the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading as the crowds swelled from the Battery to midtown Manhattan. The joy and hope that Christ was bringing was palpable - breathtaking, you might say - in the near carnival-like atmosphere that was created in lower Manhattan.

Songs like "Amazing Grace" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" played from loudspeakers where the Twin Towers had once stood. American flags and crosses were everywhere.

Martin Luther King's "dream" was now a reality, as black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, young and old, "red staters" and "blue staters," even atheists and agnostics, all joined hands in love and friendship at this celebration of the second coming of the Prince of Peace.

The media frenzy was unprecedented.

It was "all Jesus all the time": round-the-clock coverage as priests, rabbis, and even an ayatollah appeared as expert commentators to explain what this all meant and what we should think.

Mel Gibson, who produced the film "The Passion of the Christ," was interviewed on so many television stations the joke was he must have a double. A female CNN reporter facetiously asked if the handsome Gibson's identical twin was married.

The night before, the new Pope, Benedict XVI, gave a rare interview with Mike Wallace from the CBS News show, "60 Minutes." And for good reason: This was to be "the greatest story ever told."

On vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, President Bush read a brief statement, calling the second coming of Christ a "miracle of faith," and formally welcoming him to America. Bush ended his remarks by declaring,"Let freedom reign and God bless America."

Christ had chosen to begin speaking at 8:46 a.m., the precise time when, on September 11, 2001, the first plane smashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

The clock in the corner of the TV screen read "Countdown to Jesus" as the minutes and seconds ticked away. It looked a little like we were about to launch the Space Shuttle, one reporter noted.

At exactly 8:46 a.m., there was a sudden, immediate, "deafening" silence, almost as if the world had ended. Then Jesus Christ appeared alone before a massive bank of microphones, placed just two blocks north of Ground Zero on a little street appropriately named "Trinity Place."

Looking much as he did two thousand years ago, the long-haired, bearded Jesus Christ, shabbily dressed in a robe and sandals, began to speak in a soft voice.

"Shalom, salaam and may peace be with you," he offered.

"I, Jesus of Nazareth, use this sacred ground to symbolize where nearly four years ago, at this exact moment, man's inhumanity to man was broadcast live for the entire world to bear witness to.

"Those who committed these barbaric acts thought of themselves as 'believers,' but only a believer in Satan could commit such a heinous act," said Christ.

The applause rang out like booming thunder, echoing off the skyscrapers along the narrow streets of lower Manhattan, and down the section of Broadway known as the Canyon of Heroes. Shouts of "hallelujah, hallelujah" sent goose bumps up people's arms. The faithful were not crying; they were sobbing. Some people fainted.

For the viewers at home, in the corner of TV screens a small woman provided sign language for the hearing impaired.

Christ continued. "But I come before America today, for she is the greatest danger to world peace since Genesis.

"To suggest that God, our father, would ever be on the side of an America - or any country, for that matter -which attacks poor, defenseless, impoverished peopleout of revenge, fear, ignorance or greed, contradicts everything I stand for today and, more importantly, died for two thousand years ago."

On the streets and watching at home and at work, theAmerican people were in "shock and awe" at this blunt criticism from their lord and savior.

A few cheered, but Christ's condemnation of America's response to the evils of 9/11 and of their President, Bush - the born-again man of faith, leader of the greatest country on earth - drew immediate and harsh disapproval.

Christian conservatives went on the attack, charging that Christ was wrong to criticize Bush while he was fighting the evil forces of Satan in his divinely inspired worldwide crusade on the war on terror. Christ, as one remarked, seemed to speak with a French accent, and sounded a lot like a bleeding-heart liberal.

Fearing that Christ's message might undermine troop morale in Iraq and Afghanistan conservative Republicans launched an urgent campaign to - as they term it - "swift-boat" Christ.

"Swift-boat" is a new verb in the American lexicon, meaning "to smear in the name of truth, justice and freedom."

A Conservative evangelical group from the Bible Belt was quickly formed, named "The Twelve Veteran Disciples for Truth."

Using only their first names, Peter, Paul, James, John, Andy, Phil, Bart, Matthew, Simon, Thad, Tom, along with their spokesman, Judas, appeared together on Fox News to, as they stated, "to set the record straight."

They all claimed to have ancestors who served with Jesus back in the Middle East, and stated that his message of "love your enemies" was outdated and dangerous in these troubled times, when terrorists and evildoers lurk around every corner and can strike at any moment. "

George W. Bush is a strong and sincere proponent of Christianity, a strong advocate of using military force to attack - even pre-emptively attack - our enemies. Notice that I say 'attack,' not 'love'," said Judas.

Vice President Dick Cheney, appearing with former Georgia Senator Zell Miller before a uniformed military audience in Texas, suggested that Jesus' "love your enemy" message was a thinly veiled liberal euphemism that meant Christ wants to cut the defense budget and reduce the federal funding for the body armor badly needed by our brave young men and women in harm's way.

"Let he without sin cast the first spitball," Cheney mocked, to a standing ovation from the troops.

The American media, which loves simple soundbites to always entertain and sometimes inform, played Cheney's clever spitball line over and over ad nauseum.

One enterprising young Republican trademarked the term "Let he without sin cast the first spitball," embroidered it on t-shirts and is selling them on eBay, along with a scowling "have you hugged a terrorist today" teddy bear in a little turban.

On his daily radio program, Rush Limbaugh - the lord of the airwaves, the voice of the people, his excellency in broadcasting, revered by millions of "ditto heads" - asked whether the wounds Jesus suffered during his crucifixion had possibly been exaggerated.

According to Limbaugh: "Thorns are not lethal, and nails in your hands and feet can only cause flesh wounds."

Nails, Limbaugh went on with a chuckle, "should be an occupational hazard for Jesus Christ, the carpenter from Nazareth. "What's next, Christ building houses for the poor, along with the second most annoying liberal, that other bleeding heart carpenter, Jimmy Carter?" Limbaugh mocked.

Immediately after the show, on sale at www.rushlimbaugh.com were steel-toed workboots adorned with the American flag, a pair of "thorn-resistant" "holy" garden gloves (minus the holes), and a box ofBand Aids with tiny red crosses should the gloves fail.

On his program, radical preacher and firebrand television evangelist Pat Robertson referred to Christ's "meek shall inherit the earth" remark as "communist infiltration and extremism."

He suggests, like Limbaugh, that the liberal Christ is soft on the freedom-hating Islamic evildoers who detest our values.

Robertson went so far as to say that Christ was dangerous, and posed the question "perhaps someone needs to take him out before he brings on Armageddon?"

President Bush, speaking to new Marine recruits at Paris Island, praised the Lord Jesus and thanked him for his sacrifices. The President, who speaks to God regularly, insisted, however, that God also put him on this earth during these dangerous times to do his will.

"Christ is my brother," Bush emphasized, "and brothers often have differences of opinion, that's all. Christ believes in turning the other cheek; I prefer an eye for and eye. Or, as we say in Texas - dead or alive," he said to applause from his troops.

"Semper fi," shouted Bush.

Bush declared, "Jesus has never been elected to any public office. I come to work every day as your Commander–in-Chief with war on my mind. Christ speaks of peace this and love that... all kinds of dangerous messages in the post 9/11 world, when we have been attacked by the evildoers who can't stand our freedoms," Bush said, to a standing ovation.

Bush ended his speech by reciting his own version of "The Lord's Prayer":
Our Father,
Who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy Name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And never forgive the terrorists, who trespass against us.
And lead us not into appeasement, and deliver the U.S. from evil.
Amen.

The Democrats, eager to dispel rumors that they will forever be irrelevant, have got into the act.

Fearing that the compassionate Christ might be pro-life, they have set out to - as they term it -"Bork" Jesus.

Like "swift-boat," "Bork," taken from the name of the rejected Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, has also become a verb meaning "to publicly destroy the character of those opposed to the Democrats' single issue of abortion."

Teams of lawyers paid for by the Democrats, many of whom, opponents allege, have never read a Bible, sworn on a Bible or seen a Bible except in a cheap motel room, are now scouring the Bible to determine whether Jesus, two thousand years ago, may have had an inappropriate relationship with Mary Magdalene and engaged in a sexual relationship with a subordinate.

Former President Bill Clinton advising the Democrats, as an expert in this area, stated emphatically, "Jesus did not have sexual relations with that women!"

With Clinton's declaration, Democrats ended the investigation and went back to their fund raising.

The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal stepped in and was sharply critical of Christ's message that "the love of money is the root of all evil and that it would be easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."

Greed, according to the Wall Street Journal is good; greed works; greed is what made America great.

They added that "to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's" suggests that Christ is in favor of raising taxes to fund liberal social programs and increase handouts to welfare mothers.

Jewish groups, fearing that Christ - who was, after all, born in Bethlehem, Palestine - would be sympathetic to Palestinian suffering and thus would oppose increased military aid for Israel, labeled him anti-Semitic. When reminded Christ was born Jewish they amended the label to "self-hating Jew."

Catholics, fearing that this time around not only would Christ clear the temples, but the churches too, were quietly distancing themselves from their lord and savior. With sky-rocketing insurance premiums caused by the lawsuits stemming from the church's sex scandal, Saturday Night Bingo is needed now more than ever and must not be interrupted.

President Bush's advisor and brain, Karl Rove, has denied reports suggesting he was the source of the leak that begs the question "when did Christ stop beating his gay wife." A defensive Rove vehemently denied he was the source and offered proof by reminding everyone that the Bush administration is clear in its opposition to gay marriage.

Sensing blood in the water, the Republican spin machine revved up to full throttle.

Ann Coulter, the "angelic"-looking "Republican Party Doll," appeared on The O'Reilly Factor in a pure white dress with a Victorian collar, her Rapunzel- like blond hair gleaming; under the set lighting. O'Reilly, complimented Coulter saying she reminded him tonight of "Glinda, the good witch of the north in the Wizardof Oz." However, some critics suggested she sounded more like the "wicked witch of the west" when she said: "...with his sandals, long hair and beard, Christ bore an eerie resemblance to Osama bin Laden." O'Reilly said nothing but nodded his approval.

But the coup de grace for Jesus was when Judas, the spokesman for "The Twelve Veteran Disciples forTruth," approached the Justice Department with evidence that the Middle Eastern–born, bearded Christ, who speaks Arabic and is in the US illegally, is a card-carrying member of Al Qaeda.

Judas charged that Christ was not the son of God, but rather the son of Allah.

With silver selling at about $6.80 an ounce (down 9.5cents), thirty pieces of silver - about $200 - just doesn't buy what it did two thousand years ago. So Judas opted for "fifteen minutes of fame" instead.

He is scheduled to appear on "Oprah" tomorrow, "Larry King Live" at night and "Good Morning America" the next day.

President Bush has invited him to his State of the Union address in January, where he will sit beside Laura Bush.

All suggestions regarding book deals and movie rights are referred to Judas's agent at International Creative Management.

With Christ-approval numbers now in the single digits, and with compelling evidence from the "disciples for truth" that Christ is a member of Al Qaeda, he was arrested under the provisions of the US Patriot Actand whisked off to an undisclosed location.

The indigent, penniless Christ was represented in court by a public defender who appealed Christ's incarceration all the way up to the US Supreme court.

Justice Antonin Scalia, who is of Italian ancestry tracing back to ancient Rome, when speaking for the court refused to hear the appeal. In a tersely worded opinion for a unanimous court, he stated: "We wash our hands of this matter."

The High Court, however, then overturned the twenty-five-year sentence of convicted WorldCom (MCI) thief Bernard "Bernie" Ebbers, declaring that his rights under the 8th Amendment, prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment, were violated.

Ebbers was immediately released back into society and received a hero's welcome in his hometown. Signs of "Give us Bernard" appeared everywhere.

Outside the court at Christ's hearing, one lone supporter of Christ held up a sign that read "crucify the sinless, and set the guilty free." He was immediately arrested.

Accompanied by his legal aid lawyer, Christ was returned to the courtroom from his undisclosed location, along with two other prisoners.

Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists and ankles, he looked gaunt and sad at his circumstances.

His public defender angrily referred to this proceeding as a "high-tech crucifixion." The public defender was immediately cited for contempt of court.

"You judge, you will be judged," Christ's lawyer reminded him.

Christ never spoke during the brief hearing, except when the judge asked him if he had any final words before sentencing. "Yes, your honor. Father, forgive them, again, for they know not what they do."

Amen.

Jerry Ghinelli writes essays exclusively forInformation Clearing House and contributes his time
and efforts as a private citizen, with the hope ofencouraging readers to think more broadly about the important issues that threaten the peace and securityof the world community. He welcomes all intelligent feedback, whether positive or negative, which should be sent to email@jerryghinelli.com, or visit http://www.jerryghinelli.com. Copyright: Jerry Ghinelli. All rights reserved. You may republish under the following conditions: An active link to the original publication must be provided. You must not alter, edit or remove any text within the article, including this copyright notice.

2005-09-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

"you are already complete and whole, and nothing external to yourself in the physical world can make you more complete."

~from a book called "everyday wisdom"

INSUGENCY UNABATED

2005-08-31T08:54:00.000-07:00

(taken from a yahoo news report)

Despite the draft constitution, there has been no easing in an insurgency waged by Sunni Muslims, dominant under Saddam, and international guerrillas inspired by
Osama bin Laden (News News Photos Images Web Osama bin Laden).

The U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in March 2003 and has been battling insurgents while Iraqis have tried to form a new post-Saddam constitution and government.

The persistent fighting has helped to push down
President George W. Bush's (News News Photos Images Web President George W. Bush) approval rating to a career low of 45 percent, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

The U.S. war in Iraq now costs more per month than the average monthly cost of military operations in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, according to a report issued on Wednesday.

The report, entitled "The Iraq Quagmire" from the Institute for Policy Studies and Foreign Policy in Focus, both liberal and anti-war organizations, put the cost of operations in Iraq at $5.6 billion per month.

This breaks down to almost $186 million a day.

"By comparison, the average cost of U.S. operations in Vietnam over the eight-year war was $5.1 billion per month, adjusting for inflation," it said.

Left Behind

2005-08-18T08:13:00.000-07:00

By THOMAS LYNCH
Published: August 17, 2005
Moveen, Ireland

LIKE President Bush, I enjoy clearing brush in August. We both like quittance of the suit and tie, freedom from duty and detail and to breathe deeply the insouciant air of summer.

He makes for his ranch in Crawford, Tex., a town with no bars and five churches. I come to my holdings near Carrigaholt, here in County Clare, where there are six bars and one church and the house my great-grandfather left more than a century ago for a better life in America.

Of course, we have our differences - the president and I. He flies on Air Force One with an entourage. I fly steerage with hopes for an aisle seat. His ranch runs to 1,600 acres. My cottage sits on something less than two. He fishes for bass stocked in his private lake. I fish for mackerel in the North Atlantic. He keeps cattle and horses. I have a pair of piebald asses - Charles and Camilla I call them, after the sweethearts on the neighboring island.

I suppose we're just trying to reconnect with our roots and home places - Mr. Bush and I. He identifies as a Texan in the John Wayne sense as I do with the Irish in the Barry Fitzgerald sense. And we're both in our 50's, white, male, Christian and American with all the perks. We both went into our fathers' businesses: he does leadership of the free world; I do mostly local funerals. Neither of us went to Vietnam, and we both quit drink for all of the usual reasons. I imagine we both pray for our children to outlive us and that we have the usual performance anxieties.

The president works out a couple of hours a day. I go for long walks by the sea. We occupy that fraction of a fraction of the planet's inhabitants for whom keeping body and soul together - shelter, safety, food and drink - is not the immediate, everyday concern. We count ourselves among the blessed and elect who struggle with the troubles of surfeit rather than shortfall.

So why do I sense we are from different planets?

"The same but different" my late and ancient cousin Nora Lynch used to say, confronted by such mysteries and verities.

Out of Ireland have we come.
Great hatred, little room,
Maimed us at the start.
I carry from my mother's womb
A fanatic heart.

It was in August 1931 when W. B. Yeats wrote "Remorse for Intemperate Speech," which includes this remarkable stanza. Yeats had witnessed the birthing of a new Irish nation through insurgency and civil war. He had served as a Free State senator, and, after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, was the country's public man of letters. An Anglo-Irishman who had ditched high-church Christianity in favor of swamis and Theosophists and his wife's dabblings in the occult, he was torn between the right-wing politics of between-wars Europe and the romantic, mythic past of Ireland.

His poem confesses and laments that reason and breeding, imagination and good intentions are nonetheless trumped by the contagion of hatred and by the human propensity toward extreme and unquestioning enthusiasm for a cause - whatever cause. It is what links enemies, what makes terrorists "martyrs" and "patriots" among their own - the fanatic heart beating in the breast of every true believer.

Yeats' remorse was real, and well it should have been. The century he wrote this poem in became the bloodiest in the history of our species. Wars and ethnic cleansings, holocausts and atom bombings - each an exercise in the god-awful formula by which the smaller the world becomes, by technologies of travel and communications, the more amplified our hatreds and the more lethal our weaponries become. Great hatred, little room, indeed.

So far this century proceeds apace: famines and genocides, invasions, occupations and suicide bombers. Humankind goes on burning the bridges in front and behind us without apology, our own worst enemies, God help us all.

And maybe this is the part I find most distancing about my president, not his fanatic heart - the unassailable sense he projects that God is on his side - we all have that. But that he seems to lack anything like real remorse, here in the third August of Iraq, in the fourth August of Afghanistan, in the fifth August of his presidency - for all of the intemperate speech, for the weapons of mass destruction that were not there, the "Mission Accomplished" that really wasn't, for the funerals he will not attend, the mothers of the dead he will not speak to, the bodies of the dead we are not allowed to see and all of the soldiers and civilians whose lives have been irretrievably lost or irreparably changed by his (and our) "Bring it On" bravado in a world made more perilous by such pronouncements.

Surely we must all bear our share of guilt and deep regret, some sadness at the idea that here we are, another August into our existence, and whether we arrived by way of evolution or intelligent design or the hand of God working over the void, no history can record that we've progressed beyond our hateful, warring and fanatical ways.

We may be irreversibly committed to play out the saga of Iraq. But each of us, we humans, if we are to look our own kind in the eye, should at least be willing to say we're sorry, that all over our smaller and more lethal planet, whatever the causes, we're still killing our own kind - the same but different - but our own kind nonetheless. Even on vacation we oughtn't hide from that.

Thomas Lynch, a funeral director, is the author of"The Undertaking" and "Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans."

non-toxic

2005-08-02T15:22:00.000-07:00

the July non-toxic times published by seventh generation is currently available.

check it out! (I finally got around to it and it is August).

2005-07-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

"The stability of the large world house, which is ours, will involve a revolution of values to accompany the scientific and freedom revolutions engulfing the earth. We must rapidly shift from the thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A civilization can flounder as readily in the face of moral and spiritual bankruptcy as it can through financial bankruptcy."

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Not Again

2005-07-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

Why would someone do this?

I just don't understand.

Family Privacy Act

2005-07-18T11:41:00.000-07:00

No Child Left Behind really means Every Child Recruited for the Military. Check out the Leave My Child Alone website for more information on how to help get recruiters out of our high schools.

Children should be learning how to keep peace not how to fight.

Country Fair

2005-07-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

I went to Oregon Country Fair last weekend and had a great time! There was: faeries, wizards, great food, belly dancers, poetry, drum circles, a sauna, port-o-potties, body paint, trees, Dr Weil, parades, people on stilts, a guy dressed like an Orc, dijeridoo players, massage therapy, and more. Next year, I am going for the entire weekend! And I am dancing in the drum tower!

2005-07-08T14:57:00.000-07:00

Update on London.

Earth First Rendesvous

2005-07-07T13:43:00.000-07:00

In progress now on Mt. Hood.

Wish I were there instead of in this office right now.

BBC NEWS:

2005-07-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

In full: Blair on bomb blasts

Prime Minister Tony Blair has made two statements about the series of explosions in London on Thursday morning. Here are his statements in full:

STATEMENT FROM DOWNING STREET, 1730 BST
This is a terrible and tragic atrocity that has cost many innocent lives.
I have just attended a meeting of the Government's emergency committee. I received a full report from the ministers and officials responsible.
There will be an announcement made in respect of the various services, in particular we hope the Underground as far as is possible and rail and bus services are up and running as soon as possible.
I would like again to express my profound condolences to the families of the victims and to those who are casualties of this terrorist act.
I would also like to thank the emergency services that have been magnificent today in every respect.
There, of course, will now be the most intense police and security service action to make sure we bring those responsible to justice.
I would also pay tribute to the stoicism and resilience of the people of London who have responded in a way typical of them.
In addition, I welcome the statement put out by the Muslim Council who know that those people acted in the name of Islam but who also know that the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims, here and abroad, are decent and law-abiding people who abhor this act of terrorism every bit as much as we do.
It's through terrorism that the people that have committed this terrible act express their values and it's right at this moment that we demonstrate ours.
I think we all know what they are trying to do, they are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cow us, to frighten us out of doing the things we want to do, of trying to stop us going about our business as normal as we are entitled to do and they should not and must not succeed.
When they try to intimidate us, we will not be intimidated, when they seek to change our country, our way of life by these methods, we will not be changed.
When they try to divide our people or weaken our resolve, we will not be divided and our resolve will hold firm.
We will show by our spirit and dignity and by a quiet and true strength that there is in the British people, that our values will long outlast theirs.
The purpose of terrorism is just that, it is to terrorise people and we will not be terrorised.
I would like once again to express my sympathy and sorrow for those families that will be grieving so unexpectedly and tragically tonight.
This is a very sad day for the British people but we will hold true to the British way of life.

STATEMENT FROM GLENEAGLES, 1200 BST THURSDAY
It's reasonably clear that there have been a series of terrorist attacks in London.
There are obviously casualties, both people that have died and people seriously injured and our thoughts and prayers, of course, are with victims and their families.
It's my intention to leave the G8 within the next couple of hours and go down to London and get a report face-to-face with the police and emergency services and the ministers that have been dealing with this, and then to return later this evening.
It is the will of all the leaders of the G8, however, that the meeting should continue in my absence, that we should continue to discuss the issues that we were going to discuss and reach the conclusions that we were going to reach.
Each of the countries round that table have some experience of the effects of terrorism and all the leaders, as they will indicate later, share our complete resolution to defeat this terrorism.
It's particularly barbaric that this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa and the long-term problems of climate change and the environment.
Just as it is reasonably clear that this is a terrorist attack or a series of terrorist attacks, it is also reasonably clear that it is designed and aimed to coincide with the opening of the G8.
There'll be time to talk later about this.
It's important however that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire to impose extremism on the world.
Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilised nations throughout the world.

Story from BBC NEWS

London. But Why?

2005-07-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

Brian Paddick, Assistant Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: "This clearly was a callous attack on purely innocent members of the public deliberately designed to kill and injure innocent members of the public."

Mr Blair, at Gleneagles, said that the attack was clearly designed to coincide with the opening of the summit, which is being policed by a force of some 10,000 officers drafted in from around the country.
He said: "It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on the day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa and the long-term problems of climate change in the environment.
"Just as this is recently clear that this a terrorist attack or a series of terrorist attacks it is also reasonably clear that it is designed and aimed to coincide with the opening of the G8."

I say, who would do something like this? Clearly, there were no political targets here. Only innocent people going about their daily lives. Children, Women and Men, none of whom had ever done anything to warrent such an attack.

This is sick.

Country Fair

2005-07-05T16:42:00.000-07:00

The Oregon Country Fair is this weekend and I am trying to think of a way to work it out so that I can go . . . Anyone interested?? We could carpool, Call in sick to work, paint ourselves blue and purple and eat waaaay to much kettle corn!

Bowling Alone. by Ralph Nader

2005-06-30T13:36:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July.
Independence Day.
Fireworks.
Family and friends.
Baseball.
Backyard cookout.
Carnage in Iraq.
What’s the reality on this Independence Day?
That we are not independent at all.
That we are held hostage by a President who is above law, committing war crimes.
That we have no effective political opposition to bring him under the rule of law.
That we are held hostage by an ever enveloping corporate commercial culture.
And here’s the thing.
Most Americans understand this.
Deep down, they know who is in control.
And they know equally well their own situation – in debt, holding two or more jobs to make ends meet, caring for their parents and grandparents and children and grandchildren, driving hundreds of miles to and from work, with very little time left to even think.
Let alone organize to fight corporate domination and war.
And so, with that limited time, we give ourselves a break here and there.
If it is not going to make a difference, why even lift a finger?
Ten years ago, Robert Putnam made the observation that with the advent of television, suburban sprawl, and two career families, American participation in civic and community life tanked.
He turned this observation into a book – Bowling Alone – we used to bowl in leagues, now we bowl alone.
In it, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, and neighbors.
While market capital continues to seek higher ground – HMO charges at record highs each year and oil prices $60 a barrel – the stock of our social capital – the very fabric of our connections with each other – has plummeted.
But guess what?
One hundred years ago, Americans faced the same situation.
Rapid unregulated industrialization, abuse of workers, and urbanization disrupted families and social institutions.
The corporate demigods took advantage of the resulting fear, isolation, and intimidation to drive home their agendas that resulted in perpetual war, pollution, obscene concentration of wealth, and obscene poverty.
And what happened?
One hundred years ago, as Putnam describes it, Americans pulled themselves together and founded reading groups, community organizations, playgrounds, kindergartens, the League of Women Voters, the Rotary and the NAACP – and the populist movements that challenged the big corporate trusts.
No doubt, we are now at a similar tipping point.
It could tip either way – into corporate style fascism and surrender.
Or into democratic renewal and light.
On this Fourth of July, I call on you, our long-time supporters, to again declare your independence from corporate domination.
To declare your independence from fear, isolation and despair.
To declare your independence from the corporate Democrats and Republicans.
Stand tall.
And join with us for an American renewal.
Let us tip the balance to hope, humanity and light.

what does happen when you burn the american flag?

2005-06-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

genius.

Naked as We Came

2005-06-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

She says "wake up, it's no use pretending"
I'll keep stealing, breathing her
Birds are leaving over autumn's ending
One of us will die inside these arms
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes round the yard

She says "if I leave before you, darling
Don't you waste me in the ground"
I lay smiling like our sleeping children
One of us will die inside these arms
Eyes wide open, naked as we came
One will spread our ashes round the yard

~by Sam Beam

Downing Street Memo

2005-06-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

What I don't understand it how a "British memo noticed what was missing" but hasn't gotten more press coverage. I mean, really why hasn't this caused more of a scandal? More of an outrage? Instead, it has been dismissed, hushed, and waived away.

What is happening to America? Is our media completely controlled by the government?!

Raped, Kidnapped and Silenced

2005-06-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

Ooohhhh, this makes me angry!!

How can anyone in their right mind see this as something that is ok to do to anyone?!

How to help:
For more information about Mukhtaran Bibi: The Asian-American Network Against Abuse of Women, is run by a group of Pakistani doctors. It is the group that is arranging her visit to the U.S.
In addition, Mercy Corps is working with Ms. Mukhtaran in administering the funds that Times readers sent for her.

Back to Politics.

2005-06-13T11:59:00.000-07:00

For those of you who missed Ralph Nader on CSPAN's Washington Journal on Sunday June 5, at 10am est, you can watch the hour long interview with callers' questions archived on CSPAN's website here.

Check CSPAN 1, 2, and 3's listings for Washington Journal's replay on your local cable affililiate. Ralph spoke about the case of impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. His editorial was coauthored with Kevin Zeese and was published in the Boston Globe on May 31, 2005. You can view the article by clicking this link.

2005-06-07T14:18:00.000-07:00

"Backwoods Nation"

by d. bazan

Calling all rednecks to put down their sluggers

Turn their attention from beating the buggers

Pick up machine guns and kill camel fuckers

Backwoods nation...

Calling all doctors of spin and the smoke screen

To whip the new hateriots into a frenzy

Of good versus evil ignoring the history

Of the Backwoods Nation

Ain't it a shame

When due process

Stands in the way of swift justice

Calling all frat' boys

To trade in their hazing

Their keggers and cocaine

And casual date raping

For cabinet appointments

And rose-garden tapings

Backwoods, backwoods, backwoods......nation

hooray for the cage-free!

2005-06-02T16:50:00.000-07:00

this is one of the reasons why i shop at wild oats even though it is sort of expensive.

China, Inc.

2005-06-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

This was the "daily dose" (recommended book of the day) sent to me from powells.com last Saturday. I thought it fitting, stemming from a few blogging experiences I encounterd a few weeks ago with fellow bloggers who firmly believed that China is going nowhere . . . I beg to differ:

"China, Inc.: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World"
by Ted Fishman

PUBLISHER COMMENTS
China today is visible everywhere -- in the news, in the economic pressures battering America, in the workplace, and in every trip to the store. Provocative, timely, and essential, this dramatic account of China's growing dominance as an industrial super-power by journalist Ted C. Fishman explains how the profound shift in the global economic order has occurred -- and why it already affects us all. How has an enormous country once hobbled by poverty and Communist ideology come to be the supercharged center of global capitalism? What does it mean that China now grows three times faster than the United States? That China uses 40 percent of the world's concrete and 25 percent of its steel? What is the global impact of 300 million rural Chinese walking off their farms and heading to the cities in the greatest migration in human history? Why do nearly all of the world's biggest companies now have large-scale operations in China? What does the corporate march into China mean for workers left behind in America, Europe, and the rest of the world? Meanwhile, what makes China's emerging corporations so dangerously competitive? What could happen when China will be able to manufacture nearly everything -- computers, cars, jumbo jets, and pharmaceuticals-- that the United States and Europe can, at perhaps half the cost? How do these developments reach around the world and straight into the lives of all Americans?

2005-05-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) is a non-profit educational organization committed to the elimination of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, the achievement of a healthy and sustainable environment, and the reduction of violence and its causes. PSR is the US affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize.

They are a Portland Based group. I intend to check them out further . . . how about you?

the power of the third party

2005-05-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

I got this email in my inbox a few days ago . . .

Dear Friend,

Six months have passed since the 2004 presidential elections. While it is still early to fully analyze the meaning of Ralph Nader’s candidacy for president, it has occurred to me that certain fundamental themes are now easier to see than at the time of the campaign.

Fundamentally what separates Ralph Nader from the progressives who opposed his running is Nader’s deep belief in the people themselves being able to change society. That is, Nader really believes democracy is possible. Those who opposed Nader and capitulated by calling for a vote for a candidate who opposed everything they claim to support reflect a hopelessness that there is no way to overcome the control of money over people. Deep down they do not really believe the people could ever rise up and take control of their lives, their country and institute democracy.

Never in the history of our nation has there been such a massive campaign to try and prevent ballot access by an individual running for Presidential office so that those who agreed with him could actually vote for him.

The anti-Nader campaign was a totalitarian effort against free elections aimed at the people’s right to choose and specifically aimed at those who will not surrender their commitment to democracy. Not a single elected Democrat in the United States spoke out against their party’s campaign not to allow the voters to choose. Not one. This alone shows the utter political and moral bankruptcy of that Party.

The Nation, the Progressive, Mother Jones, MoveOn.org, all the leaders of the Progressive Democrats of America not only did not oppose the campaign against democracy but in most cases participated and promoted it.

I can think of only one similar historical event. The early abolitionist movement believed slavery could only be ended if the slave owners could be convinced to free their slaves. Like today they believed you had to accept the political system, you could not go outside the framework and challenge the two pro-slavery parties. You could only lobby, petition, beg but not challenge directly who should rule.

Then in 1840 James G. Birney ran for president on behalf of a newly formed party, the abolitionist Liberty Party. Many of the abolitionists, like progressives today, opposed Birney’s daring to run. It was not realistic. But in fact Birney’s campaign was the opening shot of what was to change America forever and lead to the collapse of the political framework that had allowed slavery to remain unchallenged.

The Liberty Party supporters were called fanatics, self-isolating, unrealistic, and even crazy, as Michael Moore called Nader for daring to run for peace, democracy and pro labor.

But Birney and Nader are not alone in American history. General James B. Weaver ran in 1880 for president for the Greenback Labor Party and campaigned in the South after the crushing of the reconstruction government defending the rights of African Americans. Weaver’s campaign helped set the background for the great rise of the Populist movement and later the rise of another champion of the people - Eugene V. Debs.

There has been a long history of efforts to break the control of money over people and to establish a political movement to fight for democracy in the United States. Nader’s whole life has been rooted in his belief that the people through their own actions can make a difference. His appeals have always been to mobilize from the bottom up.

Nader’s efforts have resulted in so many important victories. While many know of Nader having made their cars safer they do not realize that his efforts have been instrumental in protecting our air, and water, including the establishment of the EPA and OSHA in the early Seventies.

He helped win rights for passengers on airlines, fought for national health care, living wage, freedom of information, against nuclear power, against all kinds of corporate abuses, manipulation, false advertising, and fraudulent practices. He has fought to protect our national resources and public assets. He has defended workers in the mines, auto factories and throughout America and fought against WTO and corporate globalization. He advocated for the use of industrial hemp early, fought discrimination against women and minorities and the rise of monopolies.

As an incorruptible symbol of the rights of the people Nader is a threat to a world based on the corrupting power of money. In time Nader’s campaigns in 2000 and 2004 will be seen as the beginning of what may become a new wave in the battle for democracy. There are now so many signs world wide of the beginning of another radicalizing wave, waves that appear about once every 30 years. We can see it in the events in Latin America, the recent rise of the Maori people in New Zealand, and the massive world opposition to the war in Iraq and globalization. Unlike the radicalizations of the 1930s and 60s, the need to break with the two parties of money is in the air. Twenty five percent of our people are not registered in the two major parties and 38% answer they are independent in polls.

Six months after the election we see Nader fighting at rally after rally for peace as the Democrats declare their loyalty to Bush’s war. Even Howard Dean has dropped his anti-war rhetoric as the Democrats gave George Bush thirty-nine standing ovations at his 2005 State of the Union address.

Nader stands on the side of all the mass social movements. His call for the need to break with the political duopoly will resound as the next wave develops.

As I speak at meetings here in California since the elections I notice how no one but absolutely no one gets up to defend John Kerry. Even those who voted for him feel a bit embarrassed. The winds are starting to shift.

It was a great honor for me to be part of Nader’s historic challenge as his vice presidential associate. As I traveled throughout our nation speaking to audiences, primarily of young people, I knew I was looking into the eyes of those in the future who will be the leaders of our nation. We know not yet what our nation owes Nader for the seeds he has planted among the minds of our people, especially our youth.

Sincerely,
Peter Miguel Camejo

yellow bird

2005-05-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

you're the yellow bird that i've been waiting for . . .

excerpt from "we are nowhere and it's now" by Bright Eyes:

I got no plans and too much time
I feel to restless to unwind
I’m always lost in thought
As I walk a block to my favourite neon sign

Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the jukebox on
And we hum along
And I smile back at her

And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
And you probably should have learned

Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget that yellow bird?

She took a small silver wreathe and pinned it onto me
She said this one will bring you love
I don’t know if it’s true but I keep it for good luck