Friday, April 30, 2004

Circus Inside the Beltway

WHAT really goes on inside bushie's head AND inside the beltway?  10 more of our finest killed today (4/29 -- some 126 in April alone)  and bushie can't "testify" about 9/11 in public OR without cheney at his warm side  -- WHAT'S HE GOT TO HIDE ???

Then Rummie tells all, that he, et al, were never asked to cast their "go" vote for the war in Iraq, so was it unilateral?  Little George's sole decision?  Now they are finally admitting no connection or correlation between 9/11 and the war, so again, WHY are we embroiled in bushie's blunder???

For more populist commentary, read some of Jim Boy Hightower:  ROBUST GEORGE:  Have you noticed that one of the Bushites' favorite words is "robust?" It implies vigor, action, power. It's a manly sort of word that they punch out of their mouths like a fist.
http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=31495

THE FALL OF WAL-MART'S INGLEWOOD FIEFDOM :  Wal-Mart bites the dust! The largest, richest, most arrogant corporate bully on the block tried to run over the good people Inglewood, California, but the people rose up, fought back, and knocked the bully on its broad butt!
http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=31496

BURYING THE MIDDLE CLASS IN STATISTICS :  "Job growth surges in March," blared the headlines, and what a rose-colored rush of self-congratulation ensued! George W gloated like the boy who stuck in his thumb and pulled out a plum, economists were high-fiving each other, editorialists hailed the "new boom," and you'd have thought the Bluebird of
Happiness was singing in every backyard.
http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=31497

CONVERTING TO RENEWABLE ENERGY :  How about a little good news on this Earth Day? Good environmental news from, of all places, George W's own state of Texas!
http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=31498

posted by ladywolfsong, 08:23 | link | comments

Thursday, April 29, 2004

Fuss in Falujah...

and Flag Furor...  We keep shelling real estate and killing civilians in order to "free" them in Falujah -- and wonder how come they don't much like us?  The 12,000 hummvies we have there all need "body armour" (which some of our troops have to buy for themselves) but only 300 a month of the 'clad' vehicles are made in the states -- what would normally take 3 years will be done (re-cladding those already in Iraq) by August.  Guess that means we'll be out-staying our "welcome' a bit longer.

War by the numbers... JEEEEEEEZE, a thousand dollars PER SECOND???  Is THAT what bushie's blunder is costing us (or rather our grandkids) ~!! ~?????  i put the cost of war counter (in dollars) on my website, http://findhornwest.topcities.com, and when i saw how FAST that danged thing was changing numbers, figured i MUSTA got the javascript wrong -- so i went to their site (link below) and did a wee bit of reading.  Now a grand a second would keep ME in pinto beans and rice clear through the year 5,878 or so ~!

WHY are we running up such a debt?  To avenge bushie's pappa?  For Halliburton contracts?  To make friends and influence peddle?  For the oil? To "christianize" the evil heathens?  None of these seem like very good answers or valid reasons to me.   http://costofwar.com/numbers.html

More numbers:  Last month 58% amerikans approved bushie's war program - this has dropped to 47%.  Overall approval rating has dropped from 46% to 41%.  Of registered voters, 46% would go for Kerry, 44% for bushie, but is Kerry really any better?  Some think he's a neo-con clone.  I hope not.  Still want "NONE OF THE ABOVE" on MY ballot, and a "do-over" for candidates.

Then, there's that flag furor in Iraq -- did you know that "we" designed them a brand new flag?  White background, two blue lines with a yellow one in between and a lighter blue crescent moon -- and the locals aren't happy with it -- reminds them of the Israli flag (white background with two blue lines flanking blue star of david in center) -- ungrateful peasants ~!  Of course, all the other flags in the middle east include red, black and white, usually w/ arabic lettering ~!

And who says bushie isn't into "nation building"?

posted by ladywolfsong, 07:31 | link | comments

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

New LINK just added:  http://antiwar.com/

posted by ladywolfsong, 14:57 | link | comments

OOOOPS ~!

I couldn't have said it better...  than one of my favorite op-ed writers, Paul Krugman, who has NO trouble noting the king has NO clothes on...

Subject: The New York Times - Opinion - Op-Ed Columnist: What Went Wrong?  By PAUL Krugman

"On April 11 of last year, just after U.S. forces took Baghdad, I warned that the Bush administration had a "pattern of conquest followed by malign neglect," and that the same was likely to happen in Iraq. I'm sorry to say those worries proved justified.

It's now widely accepted that the administration "failed dismally to prepare for the security and nation-building missions in Iraq," to quote Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies — not heretofore known as a Bush basher. Just as experts on peacekeeping predicted before the war, the invading force was grossly inadequate to maintain postwar security. And this problem was compounded by a chain of blunders: doing nothing to stop the postwar looting,
disbanding the Iraqi Army, canceling local elections, appointing an interim council dominated by exiles with no political base and excluding important domestic groups.

The lesson of the last few weeks is that the occupation has never those early months of chaos, has spread. Iraqi security forces have walked off their jobs, or turned against us. Attacks on convoys have multiplied, major roads have been closed, and reconstruction has slowed where it hasn't stopped. Deteriorating security prevents progress, lack of progress feeds popular disillusionment, and disillusionment feeds the insurgency.

Why was it predictable that Iraq would go wrong? The squandered victory in Afghanistan was an obvious precedent. But the character flaws in the Bush administration that led to the present crisis were fully visible in the months that followed 9/11.
It quickly became apparent that President Bush, while willing to spend vast sums on the military, wasn't willing to spend enough on security. And 9/11 didn't shake the administration's fanatical commitment to privatization and outsourcing, in which free-market ideology is inextricably mixed with eagerness to protect and reward corporate friends.

Sure enough, the administration was unprepared for predictable security problems in Iraq, but moved quickly — in violation of international law — to impose its economic vision. Last month Jay Garner, the first U.S. administrator of Iraq, told the BBC that he was sacked in part because he wanted to hold quick elections. His superiors wanted to privatize Iraqi industries first — as part of a plan that, according to Mr. Garner, was drawn up in late 2001.

Meanwhile, the administration handed out contracts without competitive bidding or even minimal oversight. It also systematically blocked proposals to have Congressional auditors oversee spending, or to impose severe penalties for fraud.
Cronyism and corruption are major factors in Iraq's downward spiral. This week the public radio program "Marketplace" is running a series titled "The Spoils of War," which documents a level of corruption in Iraq worse than even harsh critics had suspected. The waste of money, though it may run into the billions, is arguably the least of it — though military expenses are now $4.7 billion a month. The administration, true to form, is trying to hide the need for more money until after the election; Mr. Cordesman predicts that Iraq will need "in excess of $50-70 billion a year for probably two fiscal years."

More important, the "Marketplace" report confirms what is being widely reported: that the common view in Iraq is that members of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council are using their positions to enrich themselves, and that U.S. companies are doing the same. President Bush's idealistic language may be persuasive to Americans, but many Iraqis see U.S. forces as there to back a corrupt regime, not democracy. Now what? There's a growing sense of foreboding, even panic, about Iraq
among national security experts. "This is an extremely uncertain struggle," says Mr. Cordesman, who, to his credit, also says the unsayable: we may not be able to "stay the course." But yesterday Condoleezza Rice gave Republican lawmakers what Senator Rick Santorum called "a very upbeat report."

That's very bad news. The mess in Iraq was created by officials who believed what they wanted to believe, and ignored awkward facts. It seems they have learned nothing." E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com

posted by ladywolfsong, 12:37 | link | comments

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Doubts Linger...

To get the "right" answers, you have to ask the right questions, as any good defense attorney (or mother of a teenager) knows.  YOu can't just stop with Q:  "Where's you go?  Ans:  Out.  In re: the 9/11 "inquiry", is ANYONE asking embarassing, technical questions re: controlled demolition look-alikes here???? 

Yeah, i know, we should put that down and go on -- but the doubt just won't go away, and the consequences certainly linger -- those would include bush's blunder of a way in the middle east that HE started and it doesn't look like he's big enough to end it.  I stumbled across just a few more pertinent notions on just HOW those twin towers managed to get leveled so quickly -- and the questions behind the questions are as unsettling as the dust was.  Read on if you, too, have doubts.  We had company this week and day trip today, so more manana.

WTC-7, which collapsed on the afternoon of 9/11, looks like a classic controlled demolition, almost uncannily smooth.  At the start of the collapse the south tower begins to lean to the south, away from us in this view, so there should be no significant compression (and possibly some traction, if the core has any resistance) on the side closest to us. This means that there is no way from the action of gravity to generate the high pressures it would take to pulverize and eject material in the manner seen. Instead of the kind of slow start we would expect near the beginning of a gravitational collapse we see high speed “demolition waves” coming directly toward us, with another set shooting out to the left, from the east side of the building. These are exactly the sort of confluent rows of small explosions that are so characteristic of a controlled demolition,
and can be seen emerging in flat rings extending all the way around the tower and propagating rapidly downward.

 http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/collapse%20update/

Motherlode of WTC demolition data:   http://home.comcast.net/~jeffrey.king2/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

Nuther good link, to Citizens for Legitimate Government:   http://legitgov.org/9_1_1_oddities.html

posted by ladywolfsong, 07:45 | link | comments

Monday, April 26, 2004

BYOB

F.Y.I. B.Y.O.B. -- Garwsh, i feel just like a regular D.C. insider using all these here letters to mean words...

Citizens For Legitimate Government Launches B.Y.O.B., Bring Your Own (paper) Ballot, Campaign for "Election" 2004 (press release from www.legitgov.org) CLG Founder and Honorary Chair, Michael D. Rectenwald, announced the CLG's
inauguration of the B.Y.O.B., Bring Your Own (paper) Ballot, campaign. The group calls for voters in the 2004 presidential contest to print, fill-out, and notarize their own copy of the CLG paper ballot receipt, as a safeguard against known flaws and vulnerabilities of touch-screen voting and the recent history of discarding votes and overthrowing election results. *Sign
up to receive B.Y.O.B. project updates: ballot_news-subscribe@lists.legitgov.org or visit  http://legitgov.org/

In case you haven't visited it lately, check out  http://antiwar.com/.  My daughter just made me a frig magnet in the shape of the old peace signs, using her perler beads.  Shades of the 60's, but antiwar.com is up to date.  Now i feel like I'M having flashbacks, only all of us who yammered against war back THEN now have a lotta gray hair on top ~!  Maybe our grandchildren will do a better job of effecting a lasting peace ~!  Or perish. 

posted by ladywolfsong, 07:50 | link | comments

Sunday, April 25, 2004

Evolution of a Spirit

I read rocks.  In that i can almost always pick out the "pictures" in rocks.  Always figured everyone could, but maybe not.

Living out in the country, there's always a LOT of "yard" work to be done.  The back yard alone is a good quarter acre, fenced.  Since it's not always the same ole same ole -- some stuff dies, new plants are brought in, it seems "change" is the only constant in my "landscaping".  But, as some tasks get repeated, easier, simpler ways are "found".

It occurred to me yesterday, that while this kind of "evolution" of "technology" is readily apparent on a physical, tangible level, more importantly,  are we perhaps here so that our spirits -- souls -- can also "evolve" or morph into something better -- an improved version of "who we are" over the decades, just as doing the physical, tangible stuff changes.

Whether an IC (intentional community) is ever formed here or not, wearing the name Findhorn West, (see:  http://findhornwest.topcities.com)  i AM intent on getting closer to the little "nature spirits" -- listening to, learning from and working with them.  And NO, i haven't gone round the bend -- i've always "talked" to plants and they talk back -- at least they tell me when they are thirsty ~!  But when you see protoplasm streaming in the veins of leaves, just like our body fluids course through arteries, it brings home that these ARE living beings -- thus, they have a "spirit" -- and can't our spirits "talk" to their spirits?

Jane Goodall, primatologist, said in her book, Reason for Hope:  "Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference.  Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.  Together we must reestablish our connections with the natural world and with the Spiritual Power that is around us.  And then we can move triumphantly, joyously, into the final stage of human evolution -- spiritual evolution." 

Just a cursory knowledge of physics tells us everything is "in motion" at a sub-atomic level -- even in the rocks.

Go in Peace this, and every day.

For the rest of the Photos of Military Coffins (Casualties From Iraq) at Dover Air Force Base

Photo Gallery (361 photos)
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/coffin_photos/dover/gallery.htm

posted by ladywolfsong, 05:49 | link | comments

Saturday, April 24, 2004

Our "True" Nature... ?

Is war inevitable?  Or are we, as two-leggeds, basically peaceful beings?  Some would point to the holy bi-ble and claim there have always been wars and rumors of wars, so we'll always HAVE wars.  I disagree.  In fact, I STRONGLY DISAGREE.  And, I dispute that the examples of peace-loving indigenous tribal peoples (Hopi, some in the rainforests, et al) are social anamolies.

There will always be different ways of living, and "believing" (ie worship), since the Creator obviously got off on variety.  But I think it's highly UN-natural for differences of opinions or disputes to lead to armed conflict.

IMHO, the reason those photos of flag-draped caskets evoke such emotion and deliver such a dramatic message, is dual :  a)  they were kept from us for over a year and b) at some level, we ALL realize that, as a people on this small rock circling the sun, AND after two world wars, Korea and Nam, it is high time we evolved to and evoked a less deadly way of resolving differences THAN BY KILLING OUR YOUNG ~!

And, perhaps only subconsciously, we are deeply offended that this is not happening...  YET ~!  The operative word in that sentence is "yet". 

'Nuther "must read":  Strategic Ignorance by Carl Pope, Sierra Club exec. director.  He was on Bill Moyers' "NOW" show last nite on PBS with the other side of bushie's environmental policies -- bush has done more in the last 24 months to undermine our air and water than we'd improved in the prior three decades.  In Florida this week bushie talked about protecting more wetlands, but he said nothing about his administration DE-protecting 135 MILLION acres  of public lands -- an area the size of  Texas and Oklahoma by opening them to drilling and logging..

Bushie met with oil company execs this week, too, and now wants to "relax" rules on clean air to allow more sulfur in the air, from gasoline, claiming this is "only common sense" as it will drop the cost of gas by 5 cents per gal.  Faulty reasoning -- more sulfur will ruin expensive catlytic converters AND pollute our already smoggy air in large cities ~!  Like much of bushie's so-called "reasoning", the long term consequences aren't considered for short-term gain.  Having no clear exit strategy BEFORE bombing Bagdad comes to mind ~!  For more on this book/interview, click the "Bill Moyers NOW" link.  For removal and retirement away from the madness in amerika, check out http://findhornwest.topcities.com.

posted by ladywolfsong, 08:12 | link | comments

Friday, April 23, 2004

Outta Sight, Outta Mind... ???

When it suits his purposes, bushie says (loudly), "We're at WAR ~!"  But it doesn't seem to suit him to see (or have us see) sights like coffins, flag-drapped, coming home to Dover AFB.  And this was a military-made decision, NOT by families.  What could bring home the message any more clear than this photo??  Inside each coffin is a YOUNG (usually) man or woman, in the prime of life -- many leaving spouses &/or children. 

Guess this is a 'cost of war' bushie wants to hide, figuring not too many will pay attention to the $40 Billion more expected to be needed this year or the $200 Billion prolly required over the next three years for his blunder, but this might grab folks' attention. 

Terrorist Alert:   Keep your duck tape handy and go shopping at Wal-Mart -- some plan for Homeland Security ~!  What with 55% of us thinking another attack is likely by election time (only 40% thought so in December), per CNN -- we have money to hire and train cops in Bagdad while we're under-funding and laying cops off in the good ole US of A -- go figure. 

posted by ladywolfsong, 14:26 | link | comments (1)

Thursday, April 22, 2004

I done went and tole' you SO ~!  Almost two months ago, i noted here (twice in fact) that the "D" word would be heard soon, emmanating from inside the beltway.  And so it is.  That senator from Nebraska is voicing concern that we should "think" about reinstating the draft -- after 30 years without it.  Well, anything stupid that two-leggeds can THINK of doing, the next step is usually they do DO it.

And the more i hear of Woodward's book (which should be sub-titled "Into the Fray", it seems bushie went to war on a moral imperative as much as for the oil in Iraq.  Guess he skipped reading about the Crusades of old and the Ottoman empire in history class.  So, to save their Muslim souls, he's gonna kill a buncha ours and more of theirs and pray to his "other' daddy for forgiveness.  I wouldn't want G.W. Bush's karma ~!

Losing Control  inside the Oval Office?

Echoes of Watergate fill the air: a president is charged with misdeeds. He is besieged by plans gone awry, betrayed by underlings blowing whistles, harassed by a once-compliant press and barraged by querulous demands for data, documents and testimony.

Watergate words like "credibility gap," "cover-up," "stonewall," and "crisis" abound. As for Iraq, we now hear Vietnam echoes like "chaos," "quagmire" and "nightmare" instead of "liberation," "freedom" and "democracy."

So, Mr. Bush, ever precocious in his reach for and use of power, is being quickly undone, in part, by chronically miscalculating its potency and limits. Call it hubris, the blind pride and arrogance that often precipitates a fall from power. Mr. Bush sees himself as Ronald Reagan's heir—the cheerful and Teflon-coated conservative. Instead, he may find deeper and stickier genetic ancestry in the dark and ultimately disgraced Nixon.

Read the rest of this at:   http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10271

posted by ladywolfsong, 12:59 | link | comments

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

BACK WITH MORE FROM HIGHTOWER...

Jim Hightower's Common Sense Commentaries April 12, 2004 THE B.S. OF BUSH'S MAD COW POLICIES The only thing madder than Mad Cow disease is our government's Mad Cow policies. http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=29912 DEMOCRACY VISITS KARL Poor Karl. He's had a bad few weeks and... well, Karl is cranky. Karl Rove, I'm talking about, George W's Machiavellian-Svengalian political operative who specializes in personal-attack hatchet jobs on his client's political enemies. Mudslinging is not enough for Rove - he tries to slime those he goes after. Nice is not in his vocabulary... or character. http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=29913 POUNDING THE PULPIT FOR OFFSHORING The offshoring of U.S. jobs is good for you! We know this is so because the Powers That Be keep telling us so... and they've never been wrong, have they? http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=29914 TYCO REJECTS REFORM WARNING: Being a top corporate official at Tyco International can be hazardous to your health. Apparently, working at the highest ranks there triggers the greed gene, which grows out of control and totally engulfs any sense of personal and corporate propriety. http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=29915 WOODY WANTS A STADIUM Time for another report [sports theme] from the "Wide, Wide, Wide, WILD World of Sports." http://updates.jimhightower.com/ctt.asp?u=1833291&l=29916 ******************************************** Jim Hightower is currently speaking in various cities in France. He'll be back in the U.S.A. in May. ******************************************** AMERICA'S MOST POPULAR POPULIST No one in America today delivers a motivational speech like Jim Hightower, bringing home a hard-hitting, tell-it-like-it-is political message, yet keeping his audience doubled-up with laughter. In the tradition of Mark Twain, Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie, he skewers the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought to Be -- America's workaday folks. TO BOOK JIM Contact Laura via email to laura@jimhightower.com or call 512-477-5588. +++++++++++++++++++++++ To unsubscribe send an email to updates@updates.jimhightower.com with only the word "REMOVE" in the subject line of your e-mail, or visit http://updates.jimhightower.com/unsubscribe/index.asp and follow the instructions listed there.

posted by ladywolfsong, 20:08 | link | comments

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

YOUR VOTE is in THEIR pocket ... read the full article for the whole scoop: In 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act, or HAVA, which allocated $3.9 billion in matching federal funds to help states upgrade to new e-voting systems. Touted as the answer to the hanging chads in Florida that marred the 2000 presidential election, e-voting machines have been lauded by their makers as faster, more accurate and easier to use than punch-card and lever machines. But election glitches involving the systems paint a different picture, depicting machines that sometimes fail to boot up, fail to record votes or even record them for the wrong candidates. Computer scientists say the machines are also easy to hack. http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,62790,00.html For an absolutly AMAZING journey and peek from outter worlds to deep space within worlds, check out this site ~! http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

posted by ladywolfsong, 12:21 | link | comments (1)

Monday, April 19, 2004

Well, just a BIT of erratta here -- some say those who heisted the 9/11 jets were NOT the ones flying them ~! Now how's THAT for shapeshifting? Despite all the $$$ spent and time flapping their gums, i STILL figure more heat than light shall emminate from the 9/11 hearings... just like the Warren Commission rigged to do the 'who killed JKF' coverup did ~! http://members.fortunecity.com/911/september-eleven/hijackers-alive.htm THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THOSE WHO HIJACKED THE PLANES ARE NOT THE ONES THE FBI SAYS THEY ARE.

posted by ladywolfsong, 10:23 | link | comments

HOWIE KWAPPPP `!!! i leave town for 48 hours, get back and my Motime is all done gone and changed ~! A whole new face lift and NOT either easier to use -- how am i gonna get boldface or italic now??? Let alone copy and paste all my 'vital' info? Oh well. Some tho't the model "T" was an improvement over the "A", too, i guess. We had a dandy time at the celt fest -- i met 4 or 5 hairy-legged guys in kilts, all appearing to be single and near my age. Maybe with a little 'celtic magic' some will come sniffin' around ~! (yipee) We got t-shirts reflecting our Scottish heritage, a CD of pipe music, and in general enjoyed the event. But good to be back 'om. I did go thru withdrawal not having my nose in all the 'nooze' the tube had to offer so was amazed when NBC aired a scathing report last nite on how the 'worst thing for air pollution' in this country is the Bush administration -shades of what i'm reading in the Hightower book (more of that as soon as i learn up this new blog deal) and even CBS aired Woodward (?) and HIS indictment of "bushie at war" before he even got his hand off the bible at swearing in ceremonies in '00. NOT that that many folks watch sunday nite 'talk' news shows -- one guy i met at the celtic fest wears a Libertarian bumper sticker on his truck -- maybe they have "the" answer to what all is wrong w/ our republicrats -- but i still like the idea of peasants with pitchforks and hot vats of boiling oil beseiging the castle. If we don't do something to take back our country from the pinheads, the 7th generation hence is gonna be in deep doo-doo. More voo-doo reported here soon.

posted by ladywolfsong, 10:12 | link | comments (1)

Saturday, April 17, 2004

They really REALLY don't like us over there... in Iraq, that is.  Sure, they're glad to be shed of sadaam, but now they'd like for US to leave -- after all, we did make quite a mess of their country ~!  A snipet from M. Moore  (and BTW, i'm sorry for the double posting here yesterday -- my mojo wasn't working well on motime) 

Friends,

I have never seen a head so far up a Presidential ass (pardon my Falluja) than the one I saw last night at the "news conference" given by George W. Bush. He's still talking about finding "weapons of mass destruction" -- this time on Saddam's "turkey farm." Turkey indeed. Clearly the White House believes there are enough idiots in the 17 swing states who will buy this. I think they are in for a rude awakening.

First, can we stop the Orwellian language and start using the proper names for things? Those are not “contractors” in Iraq. They are not there to fix a roof or to pour concrete in a driveway. They are MERCENARIES and SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE. They are there for the money, and the money is very good if you live long enough to spend it.

Halliburton is not a "company" doing business in Iraq. It is a WAR PROFITEER, bilking millions from the pockets of average Americans. In past wars they would have been arrested -- or worse.

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush? You closed down a friggin' weekly newspaper, you great giver of freedom and democracy! Then all hell broke loose. The paper only had 10,000 readers! Why are you smirking?

One year after we wiped the face of the Saddam statue with our American flag before yanking him down, it is now too dangerous for a single media person to go to that square in Baghdad and file a report on the wonderful one-year anniversary celebration. Of course, there is no celebration, and those brave blow-dried "embeds" can't even leave the safety of the fort in downtown Baghdad. They never actually SEE what is taking place across Iraq (most of the pictures we see on TV are shot by Arab media and some Europeans). When you watch a report "from Iraq" what you are getting is the press release handed out by the U.S. occupation force and repeated to you as "news."
-----------------
While moore doesn't think the should ask the UN to pull our fat outta the fire in Iraq, many (including moi) think that's a dandy idear -- if you agree, please JOIN THE MOVEMENT FROM MoveOn.org Sign the Petition demanding THE US IMMEDIATELY TURN OVER CONTROL OF IRAQ TO THE UNITED NATIONS!

1. See this sobering New York Times article for details:
"Anti-U.S. Outrage Unites a Growing Iraqi Resistance"

2. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/opinion/11FRIE.html

3. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A355-2004Apr9.html
----------------

C U sunday nite.  in meantime, if you haven't visited my new site, http://findhornwest.topcities.com, feel free todo so.

posted by ladywolfsong, 06:51 | link | comments

Friday, April 16, 2004

YOU JUST GOTTA SEE THIS 'UN:   http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/startrek.htm Dancin' in the Glen... well at least dancin' In the DIRT -- not many "glens" around here in west texas, but the girl and i are off manana to the celtic fest in odessa to enjoy a scone or two, listen to live bagpipes and soak up all things celtic. Neither of us can do an Irish jig -- but i am good at pow-wow dancing but we love the music and the portions of our gene pool that aren't Italian or Choctaw is Scotch-Irish. Early in the morning i'll post more from Hightower's thieves in high places but for now, several good links from Tom Paine below for your reading enjoyment ~! TGIF and have a good weekend ~!

Fixing The Election by Steven Hill and Rob Richie Ordinary people can ensure the 2004 presidential election isn't stolen. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10261

I'll Scratch Your Bank... by Rabbi Michael Lerner Bush's new policies on the West Bank are political cover for our actions in Iraq and beyond. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10262

Dude, Where's My Retirement? by Christian Weller The White House's two- front assault on retirement benefits. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10247

The Rocky Road by Ruy Teixeira In this edition of Public Opinion Watch: Mission Not Accomplished... Economic Performance: Still A No-Go... and more. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10245

posted by ladywolfsong, 07:19 | link | comments

Dancin' in the Glen... well at least dancin' on the grass -- not many "glens" around here in west texas, but the girl and i are off manana to the celtic fest in odessa to enjoy a scone or two, listen to live bagpipes and soak up all things celtic.  Neither of us can do an Irish jig -- but i am good at pow-wow dancing but we love the music and the portions of our gene pool that aren't Italian or Choctaw is Scotch-Irish.   Early in the morning i'll post more from Hightower's thieves in high places but for now, several good links from Tom Paine below for your reading enjoyment ~!  TGIF and have a good weekend ~!

Fixing The Election by Steven Hill and Rob Richie      Ordinary people can ensure the 2004 presidential election isn't stolen. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10261

I'll Scratch Your Bank... by Rabbi Michael Lerner      Bush's new policies on the West Bank are political cover for our actions in Iraq and beyond. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10262

Dude, Where's My Retirement? by Christian Weller     The White House's two- front assault on retirement benefits. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10247

The Rocky Road by Ruy Teixeira      In this edition of Public Opinion Watch: Mission Not Accomplished... Economic Performance: Still A No-Go... and more. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10245

posted by ladywolfsong, 07:18 | link | comments

Thursday, April 15, 2004

Thieves in High Places (palaces?)  I'm only up to p. 53 in Jim Hightower's book by the aforementioned title -- but already, it's great - and excerpts will be posted here from time to time.  I don't see how ANYONE could read just the firt 50 pages and still support G.W. Bush -- NOT that Hightower bashes bushie - he just tells the truth -- one little tidbit on p. 23 --

Charles Schwab, mega-rich N.Y. stockbroker and best bud to bushie, has 1,500 acres of picturesque wetlands in northern California -- and in the federal farm program so we, the taxpayers, GIVE him $500,000.00 a year (that's right, half a MIL) to NOT grow rice ...  Not that farmer Schwab ever intended to grow rice -- this is his private duck hunting preserve where he brings friends, clients, bankers, et al to blow a few birds outta the sky.  Since ducks will come to rice paddies, we pay him to grow the stuff so his elite associates will have ducks to kill. 

Bushie would see nothing 'wrong' w/ schwabbie's grabbing taxpayer cash for his rich man's club from the farm program -- a program that delivers zero, zip, nada to 60% of America's real farmers, awarding some of the biggest payments to such corpo-giants as DuPont and Chevron.  To bushie, this is just another example of 'entrepreneurship' and amerika's best values at work ~!

Personally, i'd rather see that half a mil in taxpayer dollars in a few homeless shelters in the Bay area ~!  Guess they'd call me a bleeding heart liberal, but really i'm quite conservative w/ anyone's dollars ~!  Check out my website, http://findhornwest.topcities.com for my views on affordable housing, et al.

Think you're getting all the story on Iraq??  NOT ~!  For another set of insight, check out:

Report From Fallujah -- Destroying A Town In Order To Save It Blog chronicling the daily horrors of everyday Iraqis
—By Rahul Mahajan, EmpireNotes.org   April 15, 2004 Issue

     Rahul Mahajan's sobering, evocative weblog that he updates several times a day from the heart of the war zone completely dispels the Bush administration's stance that only a handful of mujahadeen are behind the uprisings in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq. If you're looking for a lighthearted account that justifies the presence of American troops in Iraq and foresees a quick solution, look elsewhere. But if you crave a street account of the quagmire that sheds light on why many normal Iraqis are rising up against the invaders even though they hated Saddam Hussein, then check out http://empirenotes.org (EmpireNotes.org).

posted by ladywolfsong, 06:39 | link | comments

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

NONE OF THE ABOVE...  that's what i want to see on the Nov. ballot and that's who i'll vote for ~!  Otherwise, it may not be worth the effort.  If i hear "stay the course' one more time, i think i'll puke.  We've yet to be given a good reason -- just ONE -- valid -- for WHY the Iraq War "course" was ever SET in the first place ~!

Altho i swore not to waste time listening to bushie's speech last nite, after catching the first few sentences and wondering WHAT ON EARTH he was trying to say as he mispronounced big words, i was hooked -- and heard him stutter, stumble, dissemble and mis-speak, ad nauseum.  He called both Powel and Rummy secretaries of state and then gagged when asked what OTHER mistake he'd ever made, in addition to trading sammy sosa.

What i'd have liked to have heard would have been short and sweet:  "I'm sorry for 9/11, the intel was faulty, WE made some big mistakes, and now that Sadaam is toppled, I'm ordering our troops home."  Period.

We're spending billions for Bush's Blunder, while domestic needs go un-met.  And, now i'm getting emails that Kerry (whom i've never trusted), is no better, but even MORE hawkish than bushie, and Hillary is waiting in the wings to "rescue" the democratic pardy.  What i'm wondering, is WHO is going to rescue my country ~!!!

posted by ladywolfsong, 06:02 | link | comments (1)

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Welcome home Mulan... for those of you keeping tabs, the dog's back home.  She didn't get on well or play nicely w/ her other housemates so new owner was happy to bring her back.  Other than helping me 'prune' a 2 ft. tall Italian cypress JUST PLANTED, I GUESS I'M glad she's back ~!

Now, for my rant of the day, it seems Bushie's double-talk is catching up with him -- he "liberated" Iraq but killed thousands of people there in the process.  He "knew nothing" about impending 9/11 attack -- guess Bin L. shoulda sent an engraved NOTICE stating time, date, place with specifics -- altho i DID think the Aug. memo was sufficient for a headz'up.  Tom Paine had the following comments on current doin's:

From The Dreyfuss Report

     With the latest two Americans killed in a helicopter that was shot down Sunday, that makes 663 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq since the start of the war last March. That's bad.

     Far worse is the number of Iraqis killed—in just the past week or so. Associated Press reports that since April 1, 700 Iraqis have died in fighting across Iraq, including the dozens killed when U.S. forces rocketed a mosque last week. That's probably greatly underestimating the actual number of dead. In all, uncounted tens of thousands of Iraqis have died, thanks to President Bush's "liberation" of Iraq.

http://tompaine.com/blog.cfm/ID/10198

Unasked Questions by Craig Unger      The 9/11 commission should ask who helped evacuate Saudi nationals in the days following the attacks. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10232

Abortion On Trial by Donna E. Shalala      Women's health as political football. http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10231

The Wal-Mart Myth by Jonathan Tasini     Who says you can't give workers a living wage and give consumers low prices? http://tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10226

posted by ladywolfsong, 06:28 | link | comments

Monday, April 12, 2004

Transference...  of emotions.  THAT'S what makes people so attached to their pets (companion animals being the fancy term for 4-leggeds we co-habit with).  My daughter's dog got re-located saturday -- dug up one too many times around my yard i've been pouring time, energy and MONEY into for landscaping after a year of neglect ~!  Guess who misses the little digging machine the most ~!  ME ~!  I didn't think i even LIKED the varmint -- too much digging and chewing goin' on.  Besides, i claim to be a 'cat person' -- they're like me, aloof, impersonal, independent.

But she WAS my constant companion, since i'm home 24/7 and while i SAID i didn't want, like or need the added responsibility, i didn't realize how much a part of my life all that had become until it was gone.  I woke up this a.m. thinking about her little dog house on the porch and how i looked forward to seeing her come bolting out of it to welcome me/us home after a town trip - or how comforting it was to have her curl up by the kitchen door.  Of all the dogs we've tried over the past 7 years, she really is/was the smartest and most personable (ie fairly well-behaved).  I'll never live it down, but i think i'm gonna go, tearfully, and ask for the dog BACK ~!  (ndn giver).  'Nuf of my stuff.  Here's news you won't catch on the tellie:

Bush OKs Pension Aid to U.S. Companies

Bush Doles Out $80 Billion in Corporate Welfare, But Leaves Union-Worker Companies Out in Cold

Bush signed into law on Saturday a measure aimed at saving U.S. companies more than $80 billion in pension contributions over two years, days before many firms make quarterly payments. 

Many traditional pension plans are underfunded because of the weak stock market the last few years and current low interest rates, and companies are struggling to keep up with the payments as profits have shrunk in part because of the struggling economy.  The relief comes from replacing a formula for calculating pension contributions. None of the aid comes from government payments.

The payoff is designed to exclude and therefore punish companies that employ union workers.

Some Democrats were angered by the legislation because it contained little help for plans sponsored by more than one employer, which cover mostly union workers like in the construction and trucking industries.

Bush Solution for the Jobless: Turn Them over to Religious Charities

Labor Department Announces $6.5 Million in Available Grants; Faith-Based Organizations, Workforce Investment Boards Eligible

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=150-04072004

Expert's Analysis Shows Kerry's Health Care Plan Would Cost One-Fourth Less than Predicted

AP: "A new analysis reduces the estimated cost of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's health care plan by more than one-quarter by accounting for savings the government might achieve from a more efficient system of medical care. The assumptions, if correct, would take some of the pressure off Kerry to raise taxes quite so much to pay for his plan. Kerry's proposal to extend health coverage to most uninsured Americans and make premiums more affordable for others would cost $653 billion over a decade, down from nearly $900 billion, said Kenneth Thorpe, who teaches health policy at Emory University." http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apelection_story.asp?category=1131&slug=Kerry%20Health%20Care

Texans Fight to Repeal Bush Law that Allows Auto Dealers to Rob Customers and Keep their Kickbacks Secret

Public Citizen reports: "Two consumer groups today called on the Texas Legislature to repeal a unique law  passed under former Gov. George Bush that blocks Texas consumers from recovering $6 billion in overcharges on car loans and allows dealers to keep kickbacks secret. The 1999 law allows auto dealers to pocket kickbacks from lenders in exchange for inflating the interest rates on car loans, without disclosing the kickbacks to car buyers. Using court records and insider information from whistleblowers, consumer groups and attorneys have found overcharges ranging from hundreds of dollars to more than $15,000. These kickbacks have led to higher-priced auto loans for consumers, even when the consumers have good credit. The law makes Texas the only state in the nation to specifically permit non-disclosure of the dealer kickbacks from lenders."
http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0406-03.htm

posted by ladywolfsong, 05:38 | link | comments

Sunday, April 11, 2004

When Johnny goes marching off to war, again, hoo-rah, hoo-rah ...  remember that old civil war ballad -- only it was when Johnny comes marching HOME, again.  Try singing it (if you're old 'nuf to recall it), same tune, different words as bushie & crew re-instate the draft -- they're running outta cannon fodder and holding their breath they can squeak by til after nov 4th, but i'll bet the farm we'll have "conscripts" before this xmas ~! 

And I feel really, really sorry for those who will have to go through it in the near future, cause I don’t see any way with Bush in the White House that Bush can forestall the military draft another four years. He got away with it this term because of timing, it took a year for Osama and Co. to get their act organized. What you see happening in Fallujah this week is only the tip of the iceberg.

Of course, this really ISN'T bushie's "problemo" -- his problem is not having enough time for his favorite hobby -- fishing, but he did get some in this weekend:  " While Soldiers Fighting His 'War',  Appointed Commander-In-Chief Fishes

Bush Catches Bass With Crew From TV Show
Apr 10, 4:13 PM (ET)

By SCOTT LINDLAW 
President Bush receives an update on the situation in Iraq during a National Security Council...
CRAWFORD, Texas (AP) - President Bush skipped a scheduled morning of fishing Saturday to deal with the Iraq crisis, but his catch the day before was something to brag about. "He took the biggest one of the day," a bass nearly four pounds, said Roland Martin, host of the Outdoor Life Network program, "Fishing with Roland Martin."
Bush had planned to spend Saturday with his father, the former president, and Martin and his crew fishing on the pond at Bush's Crawford ranch.  "The president was very relaxed," Martin said.

White House aides told Martin that "things were kind of calmed down" in Iraq and that prospects were good for another session (of fishing) Saturday." 
 
Bush stretched out our troops to their weakest level. Our military is screwed to the max. There's no other way to say it, some men are born to lead...some men are born George Bush.
 
The terrorists are going to open up a world wide campaign, and we can’t do squat to stop them. Same thing happened to the British with Adolph Hitler back when Britain first carved up Iraq out of the Ottoman Empire after World War One. The Brits were so strung out taking care of the 'Empire Where The Sun Never Sets' that Hitler gave Chamberlain the middle finger and said, “Just try to stop me from taking Czechoslovakia and Poland and France.”  Imperialism bankrupted Britain. Think Dunkirk and how Britain couldn’t do spit to stop Hitler.
 
Bush has no other choice but the military draft.
 
What’s the military draft going to do? Well, for one, it’s going to educate a lot of people.
 
Sometimes education ain’t the kindest animal on the block. Laying on the ground pulling buttons off your shirt so you can get closer to the ground while AK-47 rounds whiz over your head is one bad-ass education. Some guys graduate. Some guys die. It’s going to open that eyes of a lot of people who’ve been somnambulistic.
 
You know that line in the Godfather, “Michael, every ten years we got to have one of these wars to clear out the bad blood.” Well, sad as it is to say about human nature, people get lazy as hell. They watch television. They think they might vote but they go to the beach that day instead. Next thing you know, old Jed’s a millionaire and your ass is in Baghdad and your hotfooting around shrapnel. And your saying to yourself, “How in the f&^% did this happen?” Because it happens so fast you can’t grab onto your butt for the spinning sensation.
 
I’m voting for Kerry in November, no doubt about it. Mostly because the world hates Bush, Americans hate Bush, and the world ain’t going to help America while Bush is in office, and America is going to be in the throes of self-destruction amongst themselves with Bush in office. If we can get Kerry in there, and do a little diplomatic tap dancing, a few mea culpas, and get some help…well, we might get some military strategy in place that might actually work. Ya know, it ain't too late yet. We might be able to kick some ass before this is all over. If the Nazi brass had managed to kill Hitler with that bomb, back around 1942. long before the allies came onto Normandy's shore, the Nazis would have sued for peace and Spielberg would never have made that movie about Saving Private Ryan. But as long as Bush's  military strategy is devoted to increasing the personal bank accounts of Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld…….and come on, these guys are so freaking old how does anyone really expect this  group to lead a war?

But, you want to know something, maybe what this country needs is another round of George Bush for four more years. Maybe Kerry would be too easy a way out. Maybe what we need is four more years of Bush.
 
Want to know why? Because, during the American Civil War more Americans were killed than in all other wars combined that Americans participated in. Nobody kills Americans like Americans. My guess is that if Bush is elected, the draft instituted, before Bush’s second term of office is over you are going to see things so unpretty you ain’t gon’na believe your eyes half the time, and the rest of the time you are going to keep your eyes closed. This country is on the cusp of explosion already. 

Oh, of course, Bush and his buddies are going to be hunkered down in the bunkers taxpayers built for them in Crawford.
 
Everyone who is in the know has been making contingency plans for a Mad Max scenarios, but that’s another issue.
 
One last word on the military draft? When the top ranked Nazis knew that the war was over and Hitler was personally doomed, and the top ranked Nazis had to make their escape to South America via Odessa (Russia, not my home town), they sent sixteen year old boys out into the battlefield. Sometimes younger. Anyone who could carry a rifle, they sent them out to the Battle of the Bulge to waylay the Americans. They sent them eastward to try to slow down the Russians coming into Berlin. All to give the top ranked Nazis time to escape.
 
Don’t think that this tactic isn’t lost on Bush. Keep everyone looking the other way while Bush and his team make their escape.
 
PS...In the meantime, for a belly laugh, I want this asshole to explain why he feels that the deaths of 650 American soldiers in Iraq is justified....

posted by ladywolfsong, 07:50 | link | comments

Saturday, April 10, 2004

Energy policy?? WHAT energy policy ~!! *** HELP Defeat this BILL ~!!!

The message below, an open letter from John Adams of the NRDC Action Fund about the potential consequences of the Bush-Cheney energy bill, was sent to you by Cathy Tinder from http://www.nrdcactionfund.org

Dear Friend,

The leadership of the U.S. Senate is promising to hold a vote on the devastating Bush-Cheney energy bill in the next two weeks!

If this legislation passes, America's biggest energy companies will start drilling their way through our last wild places . . . building risky nuclear power plants in our backyards . . . and burning massive quantities of dirty coal that will sicken countless Americans.

We need your immediate help to alert millions of Americans to this looming disaster and mobilize massive grassroots pressure on senators in all 50 states.

You can make that happen by doing two things:

First, go to the NRDC Action Fund website (http://www.nrdcactionfund.org) and send your two senators an email or fax, telling them to vote against the pro-polluter energy bill (S.2095).

Second, forward this message to at least five of your friends, family or colleagues.

This disgraceful bill will hand out billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to the oil, coal, and nuclear industries. That's their
long-awaited reward for making big-time contributions to the Bush-Cheney campaign. They profit while the rest of us pay the price -- in tax dollars and environmental degradation.

The bill would make oil and gas drilling the top priority across the West, even in national treasures like Greater Yellowstone . . . let the oil and gas industry evade clean water laws . . . and shield nuclear companies from full liability in the event of a catastrophic nuclear meltdown!

Similar legislation was narrowly blocked -- by a mere two votes -- last November when the staggering scope of its corporate welfare became public. That's when the White House and Senate leaders realized they wouldn't be able to pass the bill in that discredited form.

So they gave the "old" energy bill a new number (S.2095), a new disguise (they're calling it a "jobs creation bill") and they've tricked it up with accounting gimmicks to hide the billions in corporate pork.

Now, they're attempting to rush this stealth bill past the American people before they can even find out what's in it.

Please, make your voice heard today. Go to the NRDC Action Fund website (http://www.nrdcactionfund.org) and tell your senators to obey the will of the American people, not the dictates of giant energy corporations.

And be sure to forward this message to at least five other people.

Working together, we will break Big Oil's stranglehold on our environment and on our future.

More...
We get e-mailings from Lester Brown's earth Policy Institute; while seeing pretty clearly the pickle we're all in, they do claim that there IS a series of actions that can be taken to avert total "lights out". They may have something, there. Seems not all developed countries are as disastrously shortsighted as our own USA. Of course, those nations aren't led by a triad, Bush I & II plus Cheny, who are in bed with the oil companies, Halliburton, et al.

If you go to: http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/Update37.htm you'll find an article by Brown entitled "Europe Leading World Into Age of Wind Energy". The Europeans, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), are rapidly building and installing, and hope to meet 1/2 of their population's residential needs by 2020. Denmark already provides 20% through wind, and is the world's foremost exporter of wind turbine hardware and technology.

IF we in the USA will it, we can still put enough fossil energy into renewables and rail (or possible wind to electric to nightime hydrogen generation for cars, as the article states), to avert an absolutely abysmal situation. Our main problem...lack of leadership. The most effective thing that we can do as a nation to vote out of office this current Administration, and hope that Kerry & Co. will be at least a little less clueless than the neo-cons.

Visit my website: http://findhornwest.topcities.com

posted by ladywolfsong, 07:59 | link | comments

Friday, April 09, 2004

Asleep at the switch???  Condy Rice would have us believe they weren't.  Either she's lying through that gap in her teeth or they WERE TOO snoozin' ~!  I mean, how MUCH notice do you need to get a few fighter jets into the air -- apparently five weeks, let alone an hour and a half, isn't enough time to scramble our jets,  $30 BILLION with a big "B" dollars a year for national defense ain't enough money to have the USAF at the ready -- what's the deal here?  Is anyone else as skeptical as moi'?

Someone should tell Condy that stonewalling is NOT the same thing as "standing your ground".  I didn't catch all 3 hours of her VERY good effort at evading straight answers (like "yes" or "no" to a yes or no question) but saw quite enough of her fillibuster yesterday. Did she REALLY "task" the FBI (FIB?) to get more info on the sleeper cells and they a) forgot to do it because she's a woman or b) a BLACK woman or is c) she lying?  How come she forgot to tell bushie about the sleeper cells and in light of the  August 6th memo?  Or did he just get to having too much fun driving his pick 'em up truck at the ranch last summer and forgot this was on his "to do" list to follow up?

'Nuther question...  Sadaam's gone, finito, over, toast.  His 40 ft tall effigy was grounded a year ago.  WHY are we still in Iraq where 41 of our military have been killed, so far, this week???  Add this to "why did we even GO THERE in the first place?"

In case you managed to miss all the buck-passing (beltway shuckin' and jivin'), check out ===============================
THE DAILY MIS-LEAD
< http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=27235 >
===============================

RICE YET TO ANSWER FOR TWO DISHONEST STATEMENTS

As Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the 9/11 Commission approaches, she continues to push two distinctly dishonest statements in an effort to blur President Bush's failure to defend America in 2001.

First and foremost, Rice continues to make the now-discredited claim that the White House did not have intelligence warning them that terrorists were plotting to use airplanes as missiles in an attack on America. In 2002 she said, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that ... they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile" (1).  She said this in spite of the intelligence community having issued 12 separate warnings of such a plan, including a 1999 warning saying that "suicide bomber(s) belonging to al Qaeda's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft...into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), or the White House" (2).  When presented with these facts, she told the 9/11 Commission in January 2004 that she misspoke and that she "regretted" her earlier denials (3). Yet less than four months after her apology, she made the same false claim, writing in a March 22, 2004 op-ed in the Washington Post that "we received no intelligence that terrorists were preparing to attack the homeland using airplanes as missiles" (4).

Secondly, Rice is now saying through spokesmen that she was "not briefed" about terrorists' plans to use airplanes as missiles before 2002, when she began making the false claim that she had no such warnings (5). But even if Rice did neglect all 12 previous intelligence reports, she cannot claim she was never briefed about such a threat, considering she was the top national
security official accompanying President Bush to the G-8 Summit in Genoa, Italy in July 2001. There, she and the president were explicitly warned that "Islamic terrorists might attempt to kill world leaders by crashing an airliner" into the summit (6).

Sources:
1. National Security Advisor Holds Press Briefing, 05/16/2002,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=27236.
2. "Report Warned Of Suicide Hijackings", CBS News, 05/17/2002,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=27237.
3. "As Rice Testimony Nears, Tone Remains a Question", New York Times,
04/07/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=27238.
4. "9/11: For The Record", Washington Post, 03/22/2004,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=27239.
5. "As Rice Testimony Nears, Tone Remains a Question", New York Times,
04/07/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=27238.
6. "Italy Tells of Threat at Genoa Summit", Los Angeles Times, 09/27/2001,
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=27240.

Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. -->
< http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1342965&l=27241 >

Subscribe to the Daily Mislead! Go to http://www.misleader.org and enter
your e-mail address in the "Receive the Daily Mislead" box in the
top-left corner of the page.

posted by ladywolfsong, 06:24 | link | comments

Thursday, April 08, 2004

"Good citizenship would teach accuracy of thinking and accuracy of statement" - Mark Twain

"Opinions are like armpits -- we all have a coupla of 'em" - A. Bruce (that would be me)

Looking at more than one side of an issue, let alone more than one small facet on the crystal, seems scarey at worst, threatening at best, to some people.  And, long-held opinions, e.g. mine that PEACE is better than killing anytime, tend to become cast in stone, with age.  However, a mark of maturity at any age is the ability to maintain an open mind, and heart, and at least consider we might a) be "wrong" or b) change our minds when more information is available and processed.  I sure can't say, unequivocably, that there's NOTHING I'd fight for -- but my lifelong stance has been "let's try discussion, negotiation, reason and compromise FIRST". 

If you find yourself in "dialogue" with others who don't share your views, a nifty website i just found is:  http://www.americanvoice2004.org/

How to Win An Argument With a Conservative
—By Staff, The American Voice 2004: A Pocket Guide to Issues and Allegations

April 8, 2004 Issue

Whether you're looking for clear differences between the Republicans and Democrats to convince a friend not to vote for a third party, sleuthing for information on campaign funding sources, or just want a few juicy statistics proving that companies are actually given larger tax breaks when they buy gas-guzzling cars, The American Voice website featuring Dr. Dave as its resident expert could be your lucky find.

Dr. Dave's Fact of the Day may shock you, or simply back up your already-firm opinion with useful statistics. Did you know that just over 30 percent of all 18-24 year-olds in the United States voted in the 2000 presidential elections, compared to more than 50 percent in 1964? Did you know that "the minimum wage has not increased in eight years" or that "its effective buying power has dropped to its lowest level since 1949?"

In his "Pocket Guide to Issues and Allegations" Dr. Dave chronicles the backgrounds of issues as confusing as Social Security or as polarizing as Capital Punishment, and offers both the conservative and the liberal perspective. For instance, "The death penalty promotes public safety, as those executed will never commit crimes again," say the conservatives, while the liberals counter with, "the death penalty is irrevocable, eliminating the chance that a defendant could be exonerated by new evidence coming to light."

Or ask Dr. Dave a question yourself. He'll be happy to help out with both the technical (How do I register to vote?) and the theoretical (Can one vote make a difference?) And he's sure to help you win an argument with a conservative, or a liberal.
-- Jacob Wheeler

Go there>> The American Voice 2004

Related Links:

• Ten Minute Citizen
• Project Vote Smart
• Informed Voters Must Reach Beyond Images

Please visit my website, http://findhornwest.topcities.com

posted by ladywolfsong, 08:59 | link | comments

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

If mutant seeds make mutant plants and we eat them.... Do we turn into mutants, too???? Such is THE question of life that not enough politicos are asking, let alone hearing answers to ~! Barely halfway thru Jeff Smith's Seeds of Deception, it came time to start planting MY seeds, here -- all heirloom (rather than hybrid) so i can collect my OWN seeds for next year's planting, etc. But interesting newsletter about biotech seeds/foods came, which i'll share below.

Also, i AM more than halfway thru reading from The Findhorn Garden (opps, reminder here - visit my site, http://findhornwest.topcities.com) and, as a rank neophyte in the fine art of both talking to the devas and plant sprites / spirits, it's a lovely book -- i've been "talking" to my plants and huggin' trees for over 50 years -- but never cease to be amazed at the sheer magnitude of energy and "layers" of life on this planet ~! Mind-boggling. Also boggles me mind that two-leggeds think they a) have any right to or  b) even CAN play god in the lab -- i don't like being the subject of lab experiments without my stated permission AND knowlege ~! A pox upon Monsanto, et al.

"Welcome to the April 2004 issue of Spilling the Beans, the electronic newsletter of the Institute for Responsible Technology, in association with the book Seeds of Deception. For those of you wishing to receive more frequent news about genetically engineered foods, please also sign up for the newsletter of the Campaign to Label Genetically Engineered Foods, available at www.thecampaign.org/emaillists.php. They do an excellent job and have an up-to-date action alert system—steps you can take to respond to current proposals, legislation, etc. See www.thecampaign.org/action_alerts.php
In this issue:  (note - these are links only in the newsletter, not here)

· Local GM-free Zones Spring Up Worldwide

· Resistance to Monsanto’s GM wheat strengthens in Canada and the US

· California Rice Commission Approves First GM Pharmaceutical Rice

· African Nations Ban GMOs

· The USDA is Considering New Ways to Regulate Biotech Crops

· Studies Show GMO Contamination a Serious Problem

· Biotech Critic Denied Tenure

· Monsanto Cuts Back on rbGH

· Update on Jeffrey Smith's Tour: Helping to Shape Policy

An excerpt from this monthly e-newsletter, "Spilling the Beans":

A January 22 report by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology describes the development of GM insects, and raises questions about their impacts to human health and the environment. According to the Washington Post, “Scientists are at work developing silkwo