A Controversial and/or Informative Site [Archive] - Page 3

Saundra Hummer

February 10th, 2005, 12:31 AM

From "The Black Commentator - The Twilight Zone - Black History, Bush Style
Issue 125

This article is by Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, a former staff member on the U.Sl House Ways and Means Committee Social Security Subcommittee, co -editor of Strenghting Communities (link provided) Social Insurance in a Diverse America, and the authour of The Political Action Handbook (link provided) A How To Guide for the Hip Hop Generation.

An interesting read, and the other side of an issue being thrust upon us, one which is pretty frightening to those of us who feel that something is amiss in the administrations plans for social security, shoving it out the back door so as to rid this country of our most important program, one which has benefited so many and kept so many elderly from being totally destitute. We need to be very careful as to what we allow to happen, as most younger voters have no recollection of how things were, well most recipients of social security don't either, it was their grandparents and our great grandparents who might remember how terrible it could be for those no longer able to be employed.

How do individual Accounts address the problem of African Americans Shorter Life Expectancy? They don't.

African Americans are expected to take the GOP's newfound interest in their socio-economic security at face value.

President Bush could help close these health disparities by leading the effort to change how health care is provided in this country.

Racial disparities in income and unemployment would remain and even grow under a system of individual accounts.
................

These are the prefaces to features in the article; to see the complete article & visit this website, just click on the following link:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/125/125/_twilightzone_.html

Saundra Hummer

February 10th, 2005, 11:13 AM

A story from the "Los Angeles Times"

By Peter Wallsten Times Staff Writer

Feb. 9, 2005.

Rove's White House Role Expands into Policy

This is an appointment that Democrats believe "shows that Bush cares more about political positioning than honest policy discussions."

"Bush knows that Rove is neither an economic nor a national security expert," McAuliffe said

Dubbed "Bush's brain" by one biographer, Rove has emerged as a high-profile controversial figure since the 2000 campaign -- a strategist who has been criticized for politicizing policymaking in executive branch agencies.

Democrats accused him of presenting a slide show on political strategy to federal agency managers in the months before the 202 midterm elections. That slide presentation said GOP candidates should focus on the war on terrorism to score politcal points -- a position that drew scorn from Democrats.

"This move formalizes and solidifies the preeminence of Karl Rove as the political architect not only of the campaign but of the presidency, and it represents the centralization of political control in the administratin in the very highest echelons of the White House.

I've skipped through the article leaving out parts, so to see it in it's entirety, go to the address at the bottom.

I have a question on all of this, and it is, if Karl Rove was hired as George Bush's adviser to coordinate his campaign and to put out a positive image of GW, and to tear down the credibility of Democratic opposition, then was he paid privately, or with government money. If privately, now it's the government paying his check, right? GOP fundraising will no longer be needed to pay for his services, right? Same job, but we pay for his dirty deeds?

To see the article just click on the following link:(the story itself isn't coming in, so go to the site with the link below and click on the Yahoo News Home page or one of the links which show up to see the article.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=2026&e=12&u=/latimests/20050209/ts_latimes/roveswhitehouseroleexexpands

Saundra Hummer

February 10th, 2005, 03:16 PM

For you history Buffs, here is an online site which is dedicated to the Civil War.

Here's a brief rundown:

Skedaddle: Nineteenth Century Writings of the American Civil War

Skedaddle Publications.

It will take you reading this web page to understand what it is all about and how it is compiled and what the end result is.

"Material on the site includes:
......over 350 pages related to the guerilla chief William Clark Quantrill (link)
......incidents that occurred at Shelton-Laurel, North Carolina (link)
......the tragic end of the steamer Sultana, (link)
......the Andersonville prison, (link)
......free graphic images, (link)

Public Domain - Material is "harvested' from public domain sources, many of them on-line. On-line sources are generally government or collegiate sites.

Here's the address just click on it:(these links aren't working for me, pehaps you'll have to type them in on your address bar.

http://www.pddoc.com/skedaddle/

Saundra Hummer

February 10th, 2005, 05:27 PM

******************************

What a cruel thing is war: to seperate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world, to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world: Robert E. Lee, letter to his wife, 1864.

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

Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime: Ernest Hemingway.

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

If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war: Pentagon official explaining why the U.S. Military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War/

These quotes are from: These links aren't workng for me, so just go to Information Clearing House on your address bar if they won't work for you.

http://informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

February 11th, 2005, 02:42 PM

DROPPING IN ON THE APOCALYPSE

February 7, 2005

This is from MotherJones.com

This is a rational look at the problems facing us due to our using up and our polluting of our natural resources and our planet. This is no longer just coming from those a lot of us have thought of as radical tree huggers, but from informed and respected sources. (srh)

From the politically inept to the most dangerous weapons and people out there, we are living in such times as to be worried about our future. We need to work for peaceful ends, using peaceful means. We need to protect our little planet, thereby protecting our future. Concern? We should all have concern. Absolutely! There is much out there to be concerned about, and if we aren't then that Pollyanish belief will be our downfall, truly, I believe this is a fact. (srh)

Here's the excerpt from a story by Tom Englehardt.

"It's global-warming time again; or perhaps it's the more neutral "climate-change" time favored, for its non-apocalyptic mildness, by the fossill-fuel enraptured Bush administratin and by others for its temperature inclusiveness (after all, there may be freezing wrapped in global warming); or perhaps it's the time (link provided) of "climate destruction" or even "the heat death of humanity," phrases evidently being used by the young activists who are about to bestow the latest Flat Earth Award' or perhaps we whould choose no name at all in the honor of the native peoples of the north whose lands have by now been invaded by well-warmed soutehr species of insects, plants, and animals that they have no words for in thie languages. ("We can't even describe what we are seeing, "says Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.)"

There is so much to this article and it talks about so much more and even goes into Polar Bear extinction once again, and what a tragedy that would be, however there is much more to be learned here.

Mail this article to your friends!

To see the article in it's entirety, just click on the following address:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2005/02/global_warming.html

Saundra Hummer

February 11th, 2005, 04:02 PM

Another little gem of a "quote" by Benjamin Franklin.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety": Benjamin Franklin

Saundra Hummer

February 12th, 2005, 11:26 AM

CLARK MEMO WARNED OF AL QAEDA THREAT.

February 11, 2005, 6:40 PM ET
At NPR (thre is a link to hear this report)

A newly released memo from former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke warned then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice that al Qaeda was an "active, major force" that needed immediate attention. The communique was written five days after President Bush took office in 2001

(I recall her saying early in the investigation that she had told people that it was missle defense they were concerned about, not terrorism.)

Again, policy mistakes and this was early one and they continue to multiply in my view.

Who has the tin ear now? It doesn't seem to be just the administration. :frown2:

Click on the following report to HEAR this report:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=106

:You might have to go to the story first and click on it's link.

Saundra Hummer

February 12th, 2005, 05:13 PM

"Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly and totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming---WOW---WHAT a RIDE!!!"

:dill: :dill: :dill: :clap: :dill: :dill: :dill:

I've really lived by this. What a great time I've had, and what great friends I've made. Wouldn't change much, and would just add to the experiences in my life, didn't miss much and could have seen more, all in all a wonderful time !

Saundra Hummer

February 13th, 2005, 02:34 AM

AMERICAN NUN SHOT TO DEATH IN BRAZIL

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 12, 2005,

By Tales Azzoni, Associated Press Writer

Sao Paulo, Brazil - An American nun who spent decades fighting effortsby loggers and large landowners to expropriate lands, and clear large areas of the Amazon rainforest was shot to death Saturday in nothern Brazil authorities said.

Dorothy Stang, 74 was shot in the face three times near the town of Anapu, about 1, 300 miles north of Sao Paulo in the Amazon region, federal police officer Fernando Raiol said. The early morning attack came less than a week after Stang met Human Rights Secretary Nilmario Miranda to report that four local farmers had received death threats from loggers and landowners.

Last year, loggers accused Stang of inciting violence in the region and supplying weapons and ammunition to local people, a claim her family denies

"This is extremely serious," Miranda told reporters. "We cannot allow this murder to go unpunished."

The Brazilian government compared the murder with the 1988 killing of Chico Mendesthe renowned rubber taper who drew international attention to Amazon rainforest destruction.

"It's the type of crime that shows a profound disrepect for a democratic society, like the crime against Chico Mendes," Justice Minister Marcio Thomaz Bastos told te Estado news agency.

The Catholic Church's Land Pastora in Brazil, an organization that helps landless farmers, condemed the incident as an "asssassination."

Stang, a native of Dayton, Ohio, had lived in Brazil since the early 1960's, and worked in the region for more than 20 years. She was headed to a meeting with local peasants when her group was attacked, police siad. No one else was hurt.

Two suspects have been taken into custody, police said.

Stangs niece Angela Mason , who lives in Dayton Ohio said her aunt had told her family there was a price on her head.

"She was basically protected by her status as being an old lady and being a nun. She also recently became a Brazilian citizen, and she thought that would help but it obviously didn't," Mason said.

Brazilian President Luiz inacio Lula da Silva ordered a thorough investigation into Stang's murder.

About 15 federal officers were immediately dispatched to the crime scene, police said. Miranda and Environment Minister Marina Silva also were sent to Anapu to oversee the investigation.

Stang was a member of the Congregaton of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, an international Catholic religious order of about 2,000 women in five continents.

Last June, Stang was honored by the state of Para for her work in the Amazon region. In December, she received an award from the Brazilian Bar Association for her work helping the local rural workers.

"She was awesome. A little old bundle of joy." Mason said. "She was the happiest person. She needed nothing. She just loved the people down there."

I found this on Yahoo news.

Saundra Hummer

February 13th, 2005, 12:26 PM

This is an interesting site, expecially for me, as they interview Howard Rumsey and talk about several of our jazz greats. There are references pertaining to Charlie Parker, Wayne Shorter, and several others. An interesting site for jazz, and for how the musicians felt about their music. Howard talks about live as compared to televised. For any of us lucky enough to have seen the people in this article perform live several times, Howards statements are a given. No comparison, not really!

"Rumsey is very much the elder statesman of West Coast jazz. He played string bass in the Stan Kenton band's original 1941 lineup. He also played in bands with Charlie Barnet,, Freddie Slack, and Johnny Richards. Back in 1949 he started The Lighthouse jazz club in a Hermosa Beach bar, (Owned by John Levine, probably the best club owner about) and it's Sunday afternoon sessions became a vital center for the music that record companies and press eventually hyped as 'West Coast cool.' "

........Skipping over a few paragraphs to get to this.....

According to Rumsey, they were presenting their innermost feelings and virtually telling the audience "The material we perform on television is just somebody else's idea of what music should be. And this, that we're playing tonight, is where our head and our soul really is."

An interesting part of the article is when Howard explains the term "Outside" Rumsey saying its a term to describe playing outside the chord changes of a composition while retaining the original chord changes in the mind. "So they are 'out there' playing things that are relative but are completely disconnected with what is going on in the bottom, and then they are able to get back in again" he said.

In this article it talks about Howard being nostalgic about the music scene of some 50 years or so ago, telling about his emotions and memories, and the article states, "it's about now" and how a musician had realized this and is doing it up so well. (Not the words used but close enough). This is the thing; those were unbelievable times and to see and hear live so many fabulously talented musicians, and us knowing them from the intimacy of the small clubs scattered about Los Angeles County, it has filled our heads and our senses with those memories and they just have to be cherished. Those were the best of times and the music, well it was "The Golden Age of Jazz." Their talens and improvisional skills along with the emotions with which they
played, They filled your beings. It's like most of us can't but help being nostalgic. With the memories Howard has, it has to be a fabulous place. Even for me iit's a good place to be. Music will, and has to progress, and that is what we called the jazz of those days, "Progressive Jazz", "Contemporaty Jazz." Then it was "West Coast Cool", and that it needs to "progress" now
is no different now than then. It's the way it needs to be, but it seems the fellows of our day covered most of the bases. They were just so innovative that they didn't leave much wiggle room did they? So for talent to be recognized today, one has to be darned good don't you think? There are some good ones popping up that's for sure. It's just that it's hard to be innovative when so much has gone on before. Charlie Parker and his contemporaries opened quite a few doors didn't they? Sure we have some terrffic new artists on the scene, and having read their posts, they are jiust the brightest. Brainy and smart, besides being a bundle of talent. Lots of you will have your nostalgic moments based on them as well, it's great to have these terrific memories. Hope all of you out there can experience these
same feelings, They're a keeper! :laugh:

Here's the address to the site, just click on it:

http://byronik.com/jazz.html

Saundra Hummer

February 14th, 2005, 11:54 AM

COLD TYPE.net

WRITING WORTH READING FROM AROUND THE WORLD

A Message from their Editor

COLDTYPE was launched eight years ago as a print publication to counter a belief - which still continues - that the best way for newspapers to solve the problem of declining readership is to tinker with the design without too much thought to the quality - or quantity - of content. The result of this shortsightedness as I pointed out in my first editor's note, "is the production of newspapers that are often bland and lifeless... and that isnot good journalism. An attractive package is desirable, but we should pay as much - or more - attention to the grey stuff as we do to it's packaging."

Things haven't changed much over the past eight years; in fact the speed of redesigns has heated up while circulations fall at a concurrent rate.

ColdType, revived after a hiatus of five years - it took nearly four years to persuade my former bosses at Thomson Newspapers to give me the title and another 15 months to decide what to do with it - continues its original missiom: to reprint examples of excellent writing from around th world in a format that emphasises jhow a neat and unobtrusive design can enhance, without subsuming, the power of The Word.

That's the mission, but the point is much simpler: Great writing should be available to as many people as possible - and preferably free of charge. Hence our new pdf format and internet distribution. I hope you find our postings in pdf format interesting, informative and amusing. If you do,(or if youdon't) contact me at editor@coldtype.net. Your feedback is important,
......TONY SUTTON, Editor

PS PDF versions of the original printed copies of ColdType are available for download on this site. You can find them by clicking here (link provided), and here (link provided)

In the February line up:

THEY KILL REPORTERS DON'T THEY, AND STUDIES OF HYPOCRISY, (two outstanding new essays by Edward S. Herman

............................

Joe Bageant strikes again in his book........Drink, Pray, Fuck, Fight. How the Scots-Irish Screwed Up America.

.................................................

Between the Lies. A free download from a South African author about the military industrial complex.

.................................................. .

DECEIT- The British Media and Iraq's election

.................................................

There's a lot going on at this site, lots to look into, whether or not you agree, well it's your call, it's how you view things in your own mind, but it's good in my view to know all sides of an issue, especially when they are so readily available to all of us, if time isn't an issue we should all be looking into as much as we can as maybe then we will know enough to make good choices, at least we'll be informed.

++++I edited out where I said it isn't exactly free, beacause it is, it's... FREE, GREAT FOR US.++++

:clap: :clap: :clap: :thewave :clap: :clap: :clap:

Here's the address, just clink on the link below:

http://www.coldtype.net/Subscribe.html

Saundra Hummer

February 14th, 2005, 03:38 PM

Hellraiser I Get OffYour Ass and (Culture) Jam

How a poir of Gen Y activists became pioneers in cyber disobedience

By Rob Gurwitt
Photo: William Huber

January/February 2005, Issue

I received this in a newletter form MotherJones.com

The article starts out like this: "Meet Nicholas Reville and Holmes Wilson, From a decidedly modest outpost (the Worcester, Massachusetts, attic belonging to Reville's mother), these 25 year olds have garnered a cease-and -desist letter from music giant EMI, gotternunder the skin of Apple Computer and helped focus the notoriously unruly indie music scene on the battle against corporate control of digital music."

"Reville and Wilson are the founder of Downhill Battle, a group that has broken new ground in using the Internet as a forum for civil disobedience. In their latest campaign, the duo mounted a legally dicey protest of a court decision that threatens to curtail the practice of music sampling. The 6th Circuit Court rulled in September that rap artists NWA had violated copyright by sampling a scarcely recognizable three note guitar riff from Funkadelic's "Get Off Your Ass and Jam" for their son "100 Miles and Runnin'." The suit was filed not by Funkadelic's front man George Clinton, who suports sampling, but by his Label. Bridgeport Music won full ownership of Clinton's '70's catalog in a 2001 Lawsit and has since sued samplers for royalties more than 700 times.

To see the complete article hit the link below:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/hellraiser/2005/01/12_400.html

Saundra Hummer

February 14th, 2005, 04:20 PM

Just a thought..... Why is it when someone comes on a website such as we have here on AAJ, knowing full well when you express your own thoughts, your own beliefs, someone out there will have divergent ones? Especially in politics. Why then do we become so angry when others express theirs? There is no way everyone is going to agree with what any of us end up saying on most issues. It then becomes necessary to either keep quiet when the fur begins to fly or speak up and wait to be admonished and ridiculed by many. This is just how boards like these go. Why is it always necessary to become so mean, and juvinile?

If you want to go after a politician, government institutions such as the FBI, CIA, or the brass at the Pentagon, and/or their, policies, fine, but don't attack, as I said earleir, Religion Mom, and Apple Pie. That makes blood boil and ruins all perspective as to how we see things, it is debasing and not something any of us, or most of us want to do to anyone.

Let others have their beliefs without the ridicule, point out where they're wrong, if you must, showing or backing up what it is you believe or know to be true; factual articles and opposing viewpoints without the personal attacks. In otherwords, a bit of delving, finess and courtesy couldn't hurt now could it? The debate would be allowed to go on without attacking or impugning someones character, their motives, etc.

Question them, that's normal, but making fun of people? Vindictivness? That isn't condusive to things running smoothly. Telling them how wrong they are is fine, or at least to my way of thinking, but implying or telling someone how stupid you believe they are, really stirs things up. Keep that to yourself, ourselves. Face it a lot of us all think it, but is there really the need to say it?

Saundra Hummer

February 14th, 2005, 04:38 PM

Our founding father's wisdom is astrounding, and so topiical to this day.

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost." Thomas Jefferson.

There are more quotes today in the newsletter from Information Clearing House.info

here's the address link, just click on it:

http://informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

February 14th, 2005, 05:19 PM

.....OUTFOXED

Outfoxed examines how media empires, led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News, have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations takng control of the publics right to know.

This in the form of a video.

The first minute is in Dutch, the rest in English.

Again this is on Information Clearing House.info

Here's the link, just click on it:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

or:

http://207.44.245.159/article7798.htm

Saundra Hummer

February 14th, 2005, 06:50 PM

After the killing of Rafik Harrin, I wondered how long this would take to have the finger pointed at us, the U.S. and here it is:

Israel and/or America Implicated in Killing of Farid Harrin?;

"This is the work of an intelligence service, not a small group siad Rime Allaf,
Middle East analyst at London's Royal Institure of International Affairs.

here's the link:

http://207.44.245.159/article8060.
.................................................. ..........

Regardless, it's as though we live in a world gone mad. We are all being caught up in this parade of violence, and it is damaging to all of us, one way or another. srh.

I can't imagine the good that anyone will see from this mans death, if any of you have seen his rebuilding efforts, his accomplishments, then who will gain? We are saying it's Syria who is to blame for this attack and for other assassination's how many others, three? An elected official and two others? Can't remember but we are saying Syria is the suspect and probably is and was the the culprit. Are we going to attack them now? What kind of milirary do they have as compared to what Iraq had? Well, like we've said before the Chinese had it right when they wished this on someone, the old curse, "May you live in interesting times." We sure do and it is getting spookier by the day. No end in sight.

Saundra Hummer

February 14th, 2005, 07:32 PM

This is a great site, with listings for alternative news.

Good Evening, Welcome to Today's Alternative News. Established in 2000.

"Today's Alternative News"
"The truth, always the truth--at all costs"

Todays Alternative News
....will strive to give you perspectives on the news that you will rarely receive from other sources. At times, there will be eye-witness reports from troubled areas, at other times, there will be commentary, interviews and literary works.

the opinions of the writers are thier own and may or may not represent the position of: www.todaysalternative news.com

.This is the beginning text on their website. It features "10 Most recent articles in each area."

There are email addresses for several Newspapers, Government E-mail addresses, Web pages for newspapers, magazines, blogs, Government web pages, etc

There is a User article and link Submission Section, where you can submit either your article and/or your site's link.

There are International articles, National and articles on culture.

Another article has has caught my eye and it is: in the National column and it is dated: 02/13/2005 (2)(2264)

"You Won't Believe This New Republican Madness Against the Poor and Disabled." by Sam Hamod and Sandy Bergo.

Then there is the Richard Clarke Memo to Conde Rice of January 2001: "Did Conde Rice Lie to Congress?"...Richard Clark e

In the culture column there is: "Remembering Johnny Carson of Norfolk, Nebraska" by Sam Hamod

This is a terrific site, and here's the link, just click on it and check it all out for yourself.

http://www.todaysalternativenews.com/

Saxman

February 15th, 2005, 10:53 AM

Sandi,

Thanks for the link. It's an amazing site! Not everyone had their head in the sand when it comes to Bush!

Saxman

Saundra Hummer

February 15th, 2005, 11:12 AM

Thanks Saxman.

There's just so much out there that it is mind boggling and with sites like these, many won't agree with what it is they're reading. Often times articles on this and similar sites are pure fact, not conjecture, not spin, just the facts. It's still obvious however that people believe what it is they want to believe.

If it is a slant on how a contributor thinks, then fine, not all of us think the same, witness Bush's being escalated on high, like the next coming, well, it's good to see he is only a power seeking politician with policies and words which harm us all. Perhaps I'm missing the boat, but I can't name legislation this administration has promoted and signed into law which is helpful to this country, domestic or foreign. Lot's of harm though, freedoms lost, and shame brought on our heads. Often times however the articles are fact based, not always conjecture, not just their take.

Scattered about thoughts, but up late and so it's still early for me to think straight. Four nights of not sleeping, leaves me grasping for logic. Roof damage again and water running into this house like you wouldn't believe. Too wind swept, no shelter from it here out in the open like we are. Can't imagine Kansas!

Again, thanks, glad you enjoy it. :cheers

jonesy

February 15th, 2005, 11:37 AM

Thanks too, Sandi. I had stumbled upon it once before and never found it again.

Saxman

February 15th, 2005, 11:44 AM

Saundra Hummer

February 15th, 2005, 12:27 PM

Sandi,

Hope all goes well, house and weather wise. Now really think about writing that book of your jazz stories!

Saxman

This thing with the roof isn't to be believed, it's a yearly occurance, and always in the same spot. When we moved in, we saw where it had been patched (inside) It had a new roof, and every year in the same exact spot, it leaks. For years and years, this happens, same exact spot. It's like some sort of mischievious little imp is doing this for his jollies, and it's driving us wacko! Water runs in a stream, a slight one but not a drip, but a stream, then there are scattered areas which do drip and it's all so loud as to drive you nuts, so I was up until 4:45 in the morning waiting for the worst of it to be over. Thank goodness for large plastic storage bins and buckets from the hamburger joints, or I would be wading in water. We would put on a metal roof, but the winds here are so severe, that the school in Sister's metal roof blew off and it was a heavy duty one for commercial installations, not the kind you have for homes. A lot of people here in this general area are going for them, but they get blown off too. I would like to have a tile roof, but not sure that this house could handle the weight, and not sure we could handle it financially. With Spanish tiles, if they were to blow off it would pretty much be an easy fix, besides they are just so pretty.

Glad you enjoyed the site and happy to have found it for you again, now if I could just find the site with the picture of the discs with Art Pepper and Don Joham on it, that would be great, I had only stumbled on it myself, and now, there is no way I can find it even in an ogranized search.

Want to see photo's taken at the Lighthouse and elsewhere with Don, Charlie Shoemake, Charles Lloyd, George Stearn and Howard Rumsey? If you do, E-mail me and I'll send them to you. Charles Lloyd is only 18 in the picture, Charlie Shoemake 19, Howard 39, and Don Joham, he's 22. Too cute a picture, watched Stan Levey take it, as Don asked me to stay there for it for it for some reason.

I also have pictures of musicians and I'm trying to put names to their faces, and I'm just not having any luck so far. They were in 3rd place in the competition, and somewhat embarrassed to not have placed higher, but they were fantastic. I can't remember who the young kid with the horn rim glasses is, trumpet player, but who is he? I have some shots of Frank Patchen, Don and others but I just can't remember who some of the fellows are. The picture of everyone in front of the Lighthouse is still hanging on the wall, different ownership, different scene, but they kept that one. Glad to hear it, it was a great day with great music and a bunch of great guys.

Again, thanks for letting me know you like the link, like the site.

Saundra Hummer

February 15th, 2005, 04:06 PM

INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE.INFO

To Subscribe to the site which posts most of the news and quotes I post on this thread, just go to the following link by clicking on it.

http;//www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm

Here's some more news:

Secrets and Lies:
An Australian intelligence insider reveals how key dossiers on Iraq's weapons of mass destructon were censored, and ow his early reports to Canberra about prisoner abuse were ignored.

http://207.44.245.159/article8067.htm

German kidnapped by Americans. Charges are being investigated

http://207.44.245.159/article8066.htm

.................................

Here is one of the worst things in the list in an article by Robert Fisk:

"The Killing of "Mr Lebanon".

This was a bomb that took a long time to construct, a long time to plan. Parked outside the wall of an empty hotel, few would have looked at the car or noticed that it was weighed down on it's axles by the weight of explosives, as it must have been.
http://297.44.245.159/articles8068.htm.

It has been suggested that it is Israel or the U.S. who is behind this bombing and I have a link to the article about this suspicion back up a bit.

On Information clearing house is an article about our withdrawing our U.S. Ambassador from Syria, as it Syria we are accusing. Is an invasion immenint?

Robert Fisk was one of the first people to get to the site of the attack, and there is a Real Audo interview about it.

http://207.44.245.159/article8065.htm

.........................................

War Pimp Alert.

Finger pointing begins as nations ask, "Who?"

The United States will consult with other governments "about measures that can be taken to punish those responsible for this terrorist attack" and t"to restore Lebanon's independence, sovereignty and democracy by freeing it from foreign occupation," The White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, said.

http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/2005/02/14/news/react.html

http://tinyurl.com/6o6fa

.................................................. ...........

There is so much more and link after link about these things, and everything else. Then there are Tom's archives. This site alone can send you off on numerous searches and the articles are revealatory, much to learn out there.

Sign up for the news letter and don't worry about spamming from having done so, it doesn't happen. Not to me anyway, and I love gettng the daily quotes. Food for thought.

Here's the link again, redundant, but hey this is a site to make sure you don't forget.

He is also asking that your forward news to him.

http://informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

February 15th, 2005, 05:07 PM

Here's a site which sent me an email wanting me to sign letters to the President and Senate. Of course I am all for stopping this act in it's tracks, so I tried to access the site, it just crawled, I couldn't and since the letters they would like for me to sign are considered to be important by me, to me and to all of us, I tried three more times. This letter is saying this is a fiasco, and I am saying this is a fiasco all dressed up in it's party clothes and being called the "Clear Air Act." It is more about allowing polluting to advance more than anything it might have to do with cleaning up our air, in fact it wll make things much worse than you could imagine. So try to make a difference writing your own senators and getting your friends and neighbors to do the same. People just don't remember what truly dirty air is. Ride behind a Grayhound, or city bus in stop and go traffic with you windows down for several miles and you still won't even approach how bad the air used to be. We really need to stop this act from being passed.

If the site comes up with the letter to be signed I'll try to type in the actual address for it, but following is one address you can get onto, and see more of what the site has to offer. The site has US Political News, a discussion on politics in which you can join in on I believe, Cuban Politics, eBay sale of political items. Polls with a Starbucks give away, probably to get your address for selling it, and more.

Here's the address for the letter, perhaps they will get it up and running in a much faster mode.

http://faithfulamerica.org

Saundra Hummer

February 15th, 2005, 05:11 PM

Check out this site, not free, but reasonable with varied choices for you.

KeepMedia

http://www.keepmedia.com/HomePage.do

Saundra Hummer

February 16th, 2005, 07:57 PM

"War grows out of the desire of the individual to gain advantage at the expense of his fellow man": Napoleon Hill

....................

"The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations": David Friedman

...........................

"Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty": George Washington

Saundra Hummer

February 16th, 2005, 08:12 PM

WHY WE MUST LOSE THIS WAR

BY JACK LESSENBERRY

"The United States needs to lose the war in Iraq as soon as possible. Even more urgently, the whole world needs the United States to lose the war in Iraq. What is at stake now is theway we run the world for the next generation or more, and really bad things will happen if we get it wrong."

http://207.44.245.159/article8077.htm

I haven't read this article yet but the title grabbed my attention, but if I'll agree as to what he is saying and thinking I really don't know, but it is an incendiary topic that's for sure! :shrug:

..................................

U.S. contractors in Iraq allege abuses.

Four men say they witnessed shootings of unarmed civilians

By Lisa Meyers and the NBC investigative unit.

There are new allegations that heavily armed private security contractors in Iraq are brutalizing Iraqi civilians. In an exclusive interview, four former security contractors told NBC News that they watched as innocent Iraqi civilians were fired upon, and one crushed by a truck. The contractors worked for an American company paid by U.S. taxpayers. The Army is looking into the allegations.

Http://207.44.245.159/article8090.htm

Why is this always the way it is, the abuses happen and after the fact there's the possibility that perhaps someone will be punished? What happened to the principle of laying down the law before it even becomes a thing in their minds? Let them know that this type of action is not going to fly, that the heaviest of penalties will be inflicted for such acts. that they will be handed over perhaps, as it is Iraqi's they are killing, to Iraqi courts. Perhaps it is Iraqi's who should mete out the punishment. Well, that could be a problem, as innocents could fall under justice which we consider injust. Their day in court by all we know and understand of justice wouldn't be followed to our letter of the law.

Saundra Hummer

February 16th, 2005, 08:26 PM

Read the article by Jack Lessenberry, and it is too sensible for people to grasp, as it is complication that people are into, like the waging of war, of subverting hope, of filling our heads with long thought out propaganda. How much more simple a solution, a less expensive solution in monetary and human lives.

Gwynne Dyer is the one with these thoughts and he has a book out, which explains them in depth, sounds like a must read.

Saundra Hummer

February 16th, 2005, 11:50 PM

Oil Extends Gains Above $48.00

By Jonathan Leff

Singapore (reuters) - Oil prices added to strong gains on Thrusday, spurred by persistent OPEC (news - web sites a lnk provided.) talk of cut in supplies ahead of the second quarter that could drain healthy U.S. stockpiles before summer.

U.S. light crude rose 13 cents to $48.46 a barrel, building on Wednesday's rally of more than 2 percent that took prices to the highest level in three weeks.

Oil has rallied $3.00 over the past week on new forecasts for a tighter-than-expected market this year, as well as continued warnings from OPEC that a slide in prices or steep build in inventories could prompt swift action to stem output.
.................

To see the rest of this article click on the following link or go to Yahoo News.com

here's the link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=749&e=1&u=/nm/20050217/bs_nm/markets_oil_dc

Saundra Hummer

February 17th, 2005, 12:30 PM

THE BLACK COMMENTATOR

COVER STORY:

THREAT OF DRAFT WILL TAME WARLIKE U.S. POPULACE

Here's a brief breakdown of what's in the article.

THE PRIMARY QUESTION IS THE PIRATES' ABILITY TO SUSTAIN POLITICAL SUPPORT FOR THIER WARS OF AGGRESSION.

A HUGE SLICE OF EURO-AMERICANS ACTIVELY REVEL IN PUNISHING DARK PEOPLE IN LANDS THEY CANNOT FIND ON A MAP -- A VICAROUS THRILL EXPERIENCED FROM A GREAT DISTANCE.

THE SOCIAL BASE FOR BUSH'S WAR POLICY REMAINS INTACT

A DRAFT (OR EVEN THE SERIOUS THREAT OF A DRAFT) WOULD ACT AS A BREAK ON DEPLOYMENT OF THE U.S. MILITARY.

SECRETARY RUMSFELD BOMBASTICALLY DENIES THAT ANYTHING RESEMBLING A DRAFT HAS EVER BEEN ON THE TABLE.

UNIVERSAL NATIONAL SERVICE IS NECESSARY TO BRING THE PIRATES' GLOBAL PROJECT TO A PERMANENT HALT.

There is so much more to this article and there are links to pursue it's content.

Black Commentator has a quote from "THE ROLLING STONE'S Tim dickinson, who notes, correctly, that a societywide draft would ...make it more difficult for politicians to commit troops to battle without popular approval" Black Commentator: that universal national service is necessary to bring the Pirates' global project to a permanent halt. As we wrote on Jan 9, 2003, soon afer Rangel and his small band of colleagues first introduced HR 163:

.........."Permanent War requires the political acauiescence of broad section of
..........the middle and upper middle classes. Immunity from conscription
..........guarantees a high level of acceptance of the current ruller's global
..........military ambitions."

Short of global catastrophe, the only force on Earth that can pull the plug on the Pirate project, is an aroused American people. Yet the vast majority of the public perceive no direct stake in foreign policy, they either applaud or fail to decipher the codes of war-talk, because "the bulk ofthis cocooned population, which has the power to extinguish the species, cares only about itself. Before they will embrace humanity, they must first be given cause for personal anxiety. A draft is both moral and a practical necessity, if there is to be any impediment to Americans' second-hand, long distance, mass killing sprees."

Black Commentator goes on to say it "has no quarell with our friends who oppose militaries in all forms, on principle. However, even as the U.S. declines, it will remain a huge power, with an awesome military - a curse on the world - unless the Pirate class is deprived of the domestic social base for its aggressions. A draft will do that. We also believe that "national service' is anything that democratically elected governments want it to be -- and Lord knows, much of this nation needs servicing.

Let's be clear: an anti-draft movement is not necessarily an anti-war movement. This is evident in the February 14 (link provided) press prelease of Mother's Against the Draft (MAD)
..............................

There is much much more to this article, I've just highlighted some of what it is saying. There are links and more links. An interesting perspective.

A good newsletter to subscribe to.

Here's the address:

http://www.blackcommentator.com/126/126_cover_draft.html

Saundra Hummer

February 17th, 2005, 04:27 PM

'"TO CHANGE THE WORLD...'"

"{Condoleezza Rice} forgot, above all, to tell us whether the leaders of a country who have lied to their own people, to their friends, and to their allies to justify their military intervention by the presence in Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, whether, in consequence, those leaders are the best placed to provide an expample to civilizations. judged inferior."

Click on the following link to see the complete story:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021605H.shtml

llllllllllllllllllllllllllll

FROM BAGHDAD TO BEIRUT:

Blame it on Syria. Blame it on al-Qaeda. Better yet, blame it both on Syria and al-Qaeda. Without a shred of evidence - or perhaps profiting from "intelligence" ammassed by the Pentagon, the Israeli Mossad, or both - the Bush administration immediately blamed Syria for the bombing that killed "Mr Beirut", former Leganese prime minister Fafil Hariri.

http://207.45.245.159/article8092.htm

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll l

"BUSH IS LINING UP SYRIA IN HIS SITES."

AUDIO AND TRANSCRIPT. REAL AUDIO

http://207.44.245.159/articles8095.htm

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll ll

ISRAEL: GETTING TIGHT WITH THE BIBLE BELT :

MK Benny Elon (National Union) invests more time and effort than perhaps more than any oher Israeli in nurturing the relationship with Evangelical Christians in the U.s.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/540774.html

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll lllllllllllllllllllll

Video: Mosaic: World News Reports From Middle East TV for 02/16/05:

The nations only uncensored compilaton of daily television news reports from more that 15 countries in the Middle East. Quick Time Video

http://tinyurl.com/4xrge

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

See more about Venezuela and how the CIA is describing it and about the current concerns it has about the situalions in several Latin American countries,

http://www.eluniversal.com/2005/02/16/en_pol_art_16A533269.shtml

Then there are many other articles and one involves this

Washington Amps up the Rhetoric about Oil_Flush Chavez Begins to Strut His Stuff.

Our wanting to test nuke bombs.

Nepal report about Amnesty International: Nepal on brink of "human rights catastrophe" Arrests of Politicians and Journalists Continue, While Maoists use ideology, and strategy are feeling that a broad political front against the King is a "historica necessity."

There are more articles dealing with Ward Churchill, the fellow who has caused such a furor with his statements concerning 9/11, and other things we are involved in around the world. Heavy stuff, hard to hear.

Check out the Gwynne Dyer, Kyoto comes into effect : this is an interesting author.

Follow the links above by clicking on them or go directly to the site and choose what intersts you the most, here's the link, just click on it:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

February 17th, 2005, 05:00 PM

"What is it men cannot be made to believe!": Thomas Jefferson

=

"Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standng in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them": Nathional Hawthorne

=

"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." : Thomas Jefferson

=

Saundra Hummer

February 18th, 2005, 11:47 AM

Call to Navy Recruiter

This is a clip off KMOD in Tulsa, OK. Roy Mercer makes these calls every day to unsuspecting people.

It is a real call to a Navy recruiter. Click on the following and sit back and enjoy.

It is short and you don't have to download anything.

http://www.blueshado.com/deadhamster.shtml

Saundra Hummer

February 18th, 2005, 05:07 PM

AUSTRALIANS HUNTED OVER HARIRI DEATH:

Twelve people wanted over the assassinatin of former Lebanese prime minister Hariri are believed to be in Australia.

http://207.44.245.159/article8121.htm

Saundra Hummer

February 18th, 2005, 05:10 PM

JOHN PILGER FINDS OUR CHILDREN LEARNING LIES

How many more innocent people have to die before those who filter the past and the present wake up to their moral responsibility to protect our memory and the lives of human beings? :embarass:

http://207.44.245.159/article8112.htm

Click on the above link to see the complete article.

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

Saundra Hummer

February 18th, 2005, 05:20 PM

"Herorism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!" Stephen Decatur

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superiour to all others because you were born in it.": William Shakespeare.

"All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.": Alexis de Tocqueville

An alternative independent non-commercial source for news, information and insight. PLEASE ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO SUBSCRIBE:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/subscribe.htm

Saundra Hummer

February 18th, 2005, 05:31 PM

PHARAISEE NATION

AMERICAN NATION BRAINWASHED

By John Dear

I spoke to some 2,000 students during their annual lecture at a Baptist college in Pennsylvania. After a short prayer service for peace centered on the Beatitudes, I took stage and got right to the point. "Now let me get this straight." I said. "Jesus says, 'Blessed are the warmakers,' - With that , the place exploded, and 500 students stormed out. The rest of them then started chanting, "Bush! Bush! Bush!"

http://207.44.245.159/article8113.htm

Click on the above link too see this article and to see others after reading this one, go to Information Clearing House's home page and see more, the archives, links and more.

There are too many articles today telling of our military men losing their lives. The abuses of prisoners in Iraq, the slaughter of Iraqi's at the hand of their own, and by us.

Then there is this: Iran calls for an alliance against us. Lots to see on this sight, but if it's humor you want, go back up a few posts and listen to the Mercer telephone call to the Navy recruiter in Oklahoma.

If you are looking for more and like shock visit that site's homepage.

Saundra Hummer

February 18th, 2005, 06:17 PM

Greg Palast has a new newsletter out regarding Bush signing onto Tort Reform today.

Bush Tort Reform: Executive Clemency For Executive Killers

This is how the prefice to his newsletter reads.

Greg Palast is author of the New Yourk Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. For more information, go to:

http://www.gregpalast.com/

==

To receive Greg Palasts investigative reports, sign up at:

http://www.gregpalast.com/contact.cfm

Saundra Hummer

February 18th, 2005, 10:16 PM

Are we in the middle of a powder keg, with all the little soldiers lining up in row to blow us all to kingdom come thrilling those who are wishing for such?

Now look in your newspapers, listen to the radio and watch television to see who is lining up against us now. If you don't think this administration is dangerous, just dance around the Maypole a while longer. Surely it will improve, after all it's about everyone dying over there not here, so we are just fine. We are being protected by GW, Cheney and Rumsfelds policies.

I thought the Cuban missle crisis was terrible; well this is lining up to be every bit as much a danger.

Hope it is only pessimism on my part, I really truly do, but not having tunnel vision, as it's necessary to look around, it just doesn't look good at all, and each day it grows worse.

Even an artist needs to step back now and then, take stock, and ascess what it they have done and see if changes need to be made, whether they want or need to continue as they have been doing, or make some drastic or even subtle changes, perhaps even quit. We aren't seeing this, we see the administration and it's advocates believing they should continue on at full steam ahead "damn the torpedos", with their devil may care attitude, it's our way or the highway intent. No room for improvment, when it is not just their lives they're dealing with, we're all at stake here.

How I wish they would take off their blinders, take a breather and realize where we're headed.

Saundra Hummer

February 19th, 2005, 01:27 PM

Interested in photography, interested in pets?

here's a link, click on it and enjoy!

http://www.blueshado.com/goat.shtml

check out the web site for more, but might be more than you want to hear.

Saundra Hummer

February 19th, 2005, 02:45 PM

They keep thinking of new ways to steal.
>>>>>
>>>>> "The Switch."
>>>>>
>>>>>Scene 1
>>>>>
:::::::What somebody woud do with expired credit cards.....
>>>>>
>>>>>Friend goes to the local gym and places his belongings in the locker. After the work out and a shower, comes out, sees the locker open and thinks to himself "Funny...I thought I locked the locker...hmmm" dresses and just flips throught his wallet to make sure all is in check. Everything looks ok, all cards in their place.

A few weeks later...his credit card bill comes...! A whopping bill of $14K! Call's up the credit card company and starts yelling at them saying that he did not make the transactions...customer credit personnel verified that there is no mistake in the system and asks if his card hand been stolen. "No" he says...takes out his wallet and pulls out card...and...Yup!, you guessed it........a switch was made!! Another similar (same type Master/Visa from the same bank) expired card was placed in the wallet. The thief broke into his locker at the gym and switched cards.
>>>>>
??????Verdict? Credit card issuer says since he did not report the card missing earlier, he would have to still pay the amount owed to them.
........
OUCH!!!
??????
?????? How much does he have to pay for items he did not buy? $9K!
??????
Why were there no calls to verify the amount swiped? Small amounts rarely trigger a 'warning bell' in some credit card companies. It just so happens that the small amounts amounted to big ones!
>>>>>
>>>>>
+++++
>>>>>
>>>>>
.
.
My Dad at a local restaurant paid for his meal with his credit card. The bill came, he signed it and the waitress folds the receipt and passes the credit card along. Usually, he would just take it and place it in his wallet or pocket. Funny enough, he actually just took a look at the card and lo and behold.....wrong expired card of another person. He called the waitress and she looked perplexed. She too it back, apologized and hurried back to the counter under the watchful eye of my dad. All the waitress did whilst walking to the counter was she waved the wrong expired card to the counter cashier and the counter cashier immediately looked down and took out the real card.....No exchange of words...nothing....She took it, and came back to my dad with apologies.
?????
?????
Verdict: Make sure the credit cards in your wallet are yours! Check the name on your card everytime you sign for something and that it's yours, even when taken away for only a short time. I believe many of us would just take back our credit card without even looking at it, thinking that it has to be ours.

For your own sake DEVELOP THE HABIT OF CHECKING YOUR CREDIT CARD, EACH TIME YOU TAKE IT BACK!

"BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY"

An online freind sent this to me. Good to know.

Saundra Hummer

February 19th, 2005, 02:58 PM

Negroponte, Servant of the Empire, Rises to the Top:

If you wink at torture, if you don't mind mass slaughter , if lying is of no concern, you can go far in this world. Just ask John Negroponte

Http://www.progressive.org/webex05/wx021805.php

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

Scum Also Rises: The Bloody Career of John Negroponte:

The nonimantion by President George Bush of John Negroponte for the new post of director of national intelligence, in charge of overseeing all the burgeoning intelligence operations of the United States, isboth obscene and predictable.

http://www.counterpunch.com/lindorfl0218205

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

POLL: War support shrinking in Texas:

Majority also believes attack on U.S. is likely

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3046886

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

Lots More!

go to:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

February 21st, 2005, 04:42 PM

"The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by it's superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do.": Samuel P. Huntington

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

"Find out what people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them. and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they opress." Frederick Douglas, African-American slave, and later abolitionist.

A fascinating quote!

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

"So let us regard this as settled: what is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43. B.C.)

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

Then there is this:

WHY GO TO COLLEGE, WHEN YOU CAN BE CANNON FODDER?

DO OU KNOW WHAT YOUR KIDS ARE WATCHING ON "EDUCATIONAL" TV AT SCHOOL?

BY DR. TERESA WHITEHURST

I learned something new yesterday. Channel One News. the "educational" TV show that my daughter Isa and millions of other American kids watch every morning at school is busy recruiting our teenagers into the military.

http://207.44.245.159/article8125.htm

I have to wonder, do the private schools in the "Beltway" carry these programs? These efforts to recruit, to manipulate?

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

Here is an article on the aftermath of the comments by Ward Churchill, the comments that not many of us like to hear. Thought provoking? Certainly, but his need to rub salt, while making his point hurts too many I believe, sure he got the attention that his beliefs wouln't have had he not been so abrasive, so in your face with what he has to say. Even after this late date, we don't like hearing that the men who went down on the Arizona deserved their fate. That all of those who died and were injured that day deserved their fate. This was a long time ago, and this would be hurtful to hear. His statements about the Twin Towers and the people who died in them hurt too many people, so much so that his message is considered so radical, many peole won't even begin to look at the deeper meaning of what it is he is trying to convey, not that we would agree in the first place, but the way in which he has put out his thoughts has people not reading on, or listening what it is he is trying to convey.

Here's the rundown and the link:

THE JUSTICE OF ROOSTING CHICKENS: WARD CHURCHILL SPEAKS

Professor Churchill, do you think that the World Trade Center was an acceptable target on September 11? Do you think it was a legitimate target?

Video - Audio Transcript

What you have to understand, and what the listeners have to understand is that under U.S. rules, it was an acceptable target.

http://207.44.245.159?article8124.htm

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

SCOTT RITTER SAYS U.S. PLANS JUNE ATTACK ON IRAN:

Ritter said plans for a June attack on Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush and that the president has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say U.S. officials "cooked" the results of the Jan 30 elections in Iraq.

http://207.44.245.159/article8130.htm

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

Israel pushes U.S. on Iran nuke soluton:

http://washingtontimes.com/national/20050221-123842-3048r.htm

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

Israel must be preparred to an air strike on Iran.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=543087&contrassID=1&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y

===

If any of these addresses are incorrect just go to the following link this will take you to a source with stories and links to lots of topical information, and the archives aren't to be missed.

Sign up to their news letter and recieve a daily update and the quotes which seem to fit right in with the news of the day, even if written thousands of years ago or in Nazi Germany. I'm especially fond of the quotes of our earliest Americans, those of our founding fathers especially.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

February 21st, 2005, 04:55 PM

With reporters being threatened with jail time and another is at this time under house arrest for a much lesser crime (one I believe was a community service, not criminal) than national security being threatened, this is the question being asked:

Why isn't Bob Novak going to jail?:

Will someone please explain in a simple, easy-to-understand language, why we never see right-wing pundit Bob Novak's name mentioned in the same breath as reporters facing jail time for contempt in the Valerie Plame affair?

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05049428.stm

maygar

February 22nd, 2005, 06:34 AM

http://www.thecorporation.com/about/whoswho.php

this is an eye-opener !

Saundra Hummer

February 22nd, 2005, 11:20 AM

Thanks Maygar, kept this site to refer to later, night person you know! Well sometimes that is.

Saundra Hummer

February 22nd, 2005, 11:51 AM

A GREG PALAST NEWSLETTER:

NOSE HAIR AND HUNTER
Monday, February 21, 2005
Greg Palast on HST

It was Princess Di's photographer who told me to shave the hair on top of my nose. When I was famous, famous for a whole week. I was famous only in England, an island off the coast of Ireland, but it was fame nonetheless. The entire front page of the Mirror. a London tabloid newspaper, was splashed with a ghastly photo of my head (hair on nose, not on head), an attacking my investigation of Tony Blair. My own paper, the Guardian/Observer, wanted to give a different impression of me, so the editors spent an ungodly sum of money to hire Princess Di's photographer to make me pretty for a large photo spread of their own. But there was noting much the lens man could do. "Get rid of the nose hair," he suggested, working, without success, on the 200th snap.

I met Hunter Thompson when I was twenty years old; that is, saw him from the back of a crowd at the gym at my college where he was performing. Isay "performing" because that's what Thompson did, even three decades ago. He'd become an astonishing success as a writer -- and his writing was astonishing. Then he became very accomplished at success and stopped accomplsihing much as a writer. Thants wehn I decided not to become a journalist.

If that's what a journalist does, I thought, I'd rather do something a little more interesting with my life. I switched to the hospital administration program with a plan to open a community health center in Woodlawn, then the hardest of the hard-core poverty troughs in Chicago

Things didn't work out as planned, and twenty five years later I ended up a reporter. Thompson ended up as a cartoon character. No kidding. "Transformer," the bald headed comic book journalist hero, drinker, druggie, smart-alec scourge of bad guys and editor.

That was the comic book, then there's the man. Thompson the writer kept writing in bits and snips, but it was always a parody of Thompson. His later compilations (he couldn't sustain a book) like "Generation of Swine" were brilliant one-joke rants. You'd read them and you didn't know a goddamn thing you didnt' know before you read them.

Thompson stopped taking on the big topics -- after all, what topic could measure up to him?

It wasn't always that way. What impressed me about "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" that it was written as a coda, a needed break, from Thompson's grueling investigative report on the death of Chicano activist Ruben Salazar. And this I also know: all that cool fear-and-loathing patter was not written on acid in a Ghia doing 140, it was typed alone in a quiet room.

Alone in a quiet room. No shcool gyms of adulating audiences on their feet to cheer the genius, no comic book figures dripping bon mots could press those keys.

And then came the satanic sucker punch, celebrity. Poor Mr Thompson.

When I think of how my one goofy week of offshore stardom twisted my head (I'm still neurotically plucking hairs off my nose), I can only imagine what Thompson's daily dose of fame cocaine did to him.

When I go off track, wehn I catch myself obsessing about my number on the Times' paperback nonfiction list, I wrestle my thoughts back to Tundu Lissu. Tundu's the lawyer who followed up on my investigation of the deaths of 50 Africans in George Bush Sr's gold mines. They were burried alive and Lissu brought back the evidence for which he was arrested and charged with sedition by the government of Tanzania. Released from prison, he rufuses to seek refuge and safety.

Tundu Lissu is a giant. I barely reach his knees, that is, as a moral being. But I can do one thing, tell his story to the world -- and keep myself out of the way.

When a writer gets bigger than his subjects, he's dead -- though not yet buried.

This morning, I heard that Thompson faced this intractable truth, and completed the job, suicide with one of the guns he toyed with for the cameras.

Goodnight, Mr. Thompson.

And thanks for those astonishing words, no matter what they cost you.

---------------
Greg Palast is a journalist.

www.gregpalast.com

Saundra Hummer

February 22nd, 2005, 02:13 PM

***********************CHILDREN DYING IN SNOWBOUND AFGHANISTAN:

DISEASES, INCLUDING MEASLES AND PNEUMONIA, KILL MORE THAN 125 CHILDREN IN SNOWBOUND AFGHANISTAN

BY STEPHEN GRAHAM ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

To see the article and to learn of efforts to aid them, go to this address:

Click on the link:

http://abcnews.go.com/health/wireStory?id=514456

This story has been moved, you'll be directed to a search and you will find it that way, once you are on the site.

Saundra Hummer

February 22nd, 2005, 03:13 PM

If GW Bush seeks a higher power other than his own father when needing guidance then why is it the people around him, the ones with the plum appointments and positions, are his fathers old tainted friends, and staff? Start looking about at who has control, who is listened to, and who sets out policy. We have GHW Bush's presidency terms in office and in the CIA all over again, but meaner leaner and tougher, or so it seems, and what GHW Bush was doing covertly, GW is in your face daring you to stop him. They have studdied up and learned well, and they could sense that after 9/11 we are ripe for the pickings, not having to use the "I'm a Contra, you're a Contra" mantra which was used in the past to have us believe the sky is falling.

Now here comes Negroponte back from the horrors of Honduras to lead the National Intelligence of this country, when his hands are soiled, so very soiled according to all accounts. We don't seem to have a very long attention span, so will we American's even remember the horrors of that dirty time in our history?

How can we want this man in office, when even seasoned intelligence officers are dubious about his being capable, and their being against him because of his past. This is the drift I've been getting, perhaps I'm reading more into his part in all of the fiasco which happened in Central America than actually happened, but suspicion as to his bloody part is something we don't want.

Here's an article about the appointee:

====

HAIL, HAIL, THE GANG'S ALL HERE

BY RAY MCGOVERN
FEBRUARY 18, 2005

TO SEE THE ARTICLE VISIT THIS SITE, CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW:

http://www.tompaine.com/articles_hail_hail_the_gangs_all_here.php

Go to:

http://informationclearinghouse.info

Look up the article there should you have problems. It might just be easier to find there.

Saundra Hummer

February 23rd, 2005, 07:19 PM

This download may take about 3 minutes for you to see, or less, depending on your hookup, etc.

http://www.jacquielawson.com/viewcard.asp?code=1483260750&btnViewCard=Show+Card

Late with it but there's more to come.

Saundra Hummer

February 23rd, 2005, 11:53 PM

The most amazing statement wasn't about drugs in the secret tapes of George W. Bush in his somewhat unguarded moments, it was his belief that reading the Bible keeps his ego in check! Do tell! What would we be seeing otherwise? Lot's of us have a strong dose of ego in us, but this just takes the cake. This from a man who says he was chosen by his God. Whew!!!!

Saundra Hummer

February 24th, 2005, 12:18 PM

JIM HIGHTOWERS TAKE ON THE POLITICAL SCENE: TO EITHER READ OR LISTEN TO HIM, (I PREFER THE AUDIO), GO TO THIS SITE, JUST CLICK ON IT:

A HUMOROUS TAKE ON SERIOUS SITUATIONS:

http://www.jimhightower.com/air/archive.asp

Saundra Hummer

February 24th, 2005, 03:45 PM

A disturbing "small study" has found a rocket fuel chemical in breast milk.

It has been found in 18 states.

There are measures to be taken such as doubling iodine intake, which could be helpful, but the article also points out that a naturally occuring element important in maintaining thyroid function, can actually be dangerous for pregnant women at high levels.

"It's definately not somethign you'd recommend as a blanket policy for women in pregnancy or who are lactating.

There are also special concerns for those suffering from cancer.

This is an article which needs to be seen in full as there might be confusion instilled when you only read what I typed out about it. Much more to it than I have included. More complicated.

To see the article go to the following address:

http;//www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/10978820.htm

Saundra Hummer

February 24th, 2005, 08:07 PM

This is an interesting site with some interesting blogs, interesting articles, here's the link:

http://www.tompaine.com/blogs/

There is one article here which might interest a lot of us, and it is:

Private Accounts: Tried and Failed
February 22, 2005

From Political Animal:

PRIVATE ACCOUNTS AROUND THE COUNTRY.....The excellent Peter Gosselin has an interesting piece in the LA Times today about states and counties that have experimented with private accounts over the past couple of decades THE RESULTS ARE NOT ESPECIALLY PRETTY:

Go to this link to read the story:

http://www.tompaine.com/blogs/
-------------------------------------------------

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

There are these stories as well:

The Dreyfuss Report

Goodbye to the Dreyfuss Report
Feb. 23, 205

Target: Syria
Feb. 15, 2005

Blog of Blogs

Republican Playbook
Taegan Goddard
Feb. 24, 2005

From Political Wire:
This looks to be informative and interesting.

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

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

Sexy, Healthy, Clean And Green
Emily Gertz
February 23, 2005
-------------------------------------------

There's much more and don't limit yourself to the blogs, surf his site and see what else there is to offer.

Saundra Hummer

February 26th, 2005, 01:25 PM

How are things to progress in the Middle East when as in Iraq women think as they do?

I saw a Iraqi woman who is susposed to have a say in the new government asking the woman of her country, "To be nice to your husbands." To not do anything which will "force him to beat you." Actually saying it is their faults if they are beaten. So this is the cause of spousal abuse around the world? Women are forcing their husbands to beat them?

I have never in my life heard such coming from an educated woman's mouth in my life, regardless of nationality or religion. This is what we are dealing with, much like some offshoots of "R" here in our own country, what is wrong with peoples minds???? I would think they could see for themselves that a mans rage is more often than not, is not having anything to do with a womans actions, but more to do with how they were raised and the rages they haven't learned how to control, than from a womans actions. They oftentimes take out on their wives the frustations left over from harsh childhoods, or spoiled indulgent childhoods, (Scott Peterson comes to mind), either at the hands of their fathers, their mothers or both. Their wives fault? They forced them into it? How will we ever change that attitude and stop such nonsense? Such insanity?

Saundra Hummer

February 26th, 2005, 10:40 PM

HELEN THOMAS: $9B GOES MISSING IN IRAQ:

Huge Sum Disappears Without A Trace: Profiteering from the Iraq war is not a surprise, especially in light of the Bush administration's pandering to the military-industrial complex. - This money was to have been used for humanitarian aid and reconstruction for Iraq.

http://www.thewgalchannel.com/helenthomas/4228758/detail.hatml

Pretty sharp gal that Helen, no wonder GW won't direct his acceptance of inquiries her way. Not in his pocket is she? Not like the fellow so much in the news now. This manipulation of the press doesn't work with her does it? Nor does paying her to report a story in a favorable vein. Congress is trying to write new laws to stop the abuses of this administration when it comes to the press, their actually hiring of actors to pretend they're reporters, to paying others to feed the press what it is they want us to believe, it just gets more strange and bizarre by the day.

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

I'm have a small problem with the link provided, so go to this sight to see her story:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Just look her up on above site's link, just click on it to take you there, and while there sign up for the news letter, it's great just for the quotes alone.

Saundra Hummer

February 28th, 2005, 02:14 PM

Check out MotherJones.com today, it is full of interesting articles, and then there are the cartoon archives.

Check out the MoJoBLOG,
Politicizing the SSA

Risk and Bankruptcy

The CID stonewalls

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

From the >DAILY MOJO.............................................. ........
there's "Bush's Potemkin World" by Tom Engelhardt.
A world from which reality has been banished and where there are no rough edges.

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

NEWS

From Bagram to Abu Ghraib
By Emily Bazelon
For nearly three years, U.S> military authorities have been investigating evidence of torture at American prisons in Afghanistan. But instead of disciplining those involved, the Pentagon sent them to Iraq.

~~~~~They expect us to believe it is the actions of a few, that they weren't being ordered from higher ups to conduct business as usual? They must truly believe we are so naive, so very stupid.

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

The Condemned,
By Gary Grenberg

In Ohio and across the country, homeowners are battling cities and developers conspiring to seize their property.

This can be a pretty irksome practice. We have relatives who owned several acres of land along a river in Central California, and the county tried to condem their property for no other reason that to build a golf course. That wasn't something that went over well with Rich's uncle and grandmother, so they let it be known that they werern't going to let it happen, and somehow they did manage to stop that plan in it's tracks. It didn't even take a big battle, just stating what they knew of laws and how they wouldn't go quietly. Most people aren't so fortunate and do lose to governments all over the U.S.
=============================

Check out their book reviews, their letters from readers, and more.

They have published our American losses since the U.S. campaign began March 19, 2003, and it has reached (as of their having sent out this news letter) 1455.

We keep losing men in our sparsely populated state, too many.

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

There are Dozens of Words for Snow,
None for Pollution (what?)

=============================
Check out their polls and their results,

"The Unhappy Majority...By Michael Scherer

Plus The Mother Jones Poll: On the Road to Nowhere, and :::Beyond Anger..... and the poll:...About the Poll.

Surf around within the site to see all maner of articles. Most or all are from a liberal view point or as we prefer to say, from the side of truth.
Here's the address for MotherJones.com's web site:

http://www.motherjones.com/index.html

Saundra Hummer

February 28th, 2005, 04:39 PM

"I BELIEVE that God wants me to be president." George W. Bush

I started to include all of the quotes from this latest newsletter, but thought that it might provoke a lot of hatred, but if you would like to see the comparison of GW's thoughts and Hitlers on a few issues, go to this site and look up the newletter, I believe you can do this, if not, well, there must be a book of quotes easily available or even quotes on the www. How strange and odd that these men believe so much in the same vein when it comes to God and country! Strange indeed.

Here't the link, just click on it. The news letter does say to see this newsletter online go to the link I'm including.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

Saundra Hummer

February 28th, 2005, 06:25 PM

While on Information Clearing House.info, I came across these websites and references aout the story on depleted uranium:

"Dirty bombs, dirty missiles, dirty bullets: A death sentence here and abroad" by Lauren Moret,

http://www.sfbayview.com/o81804/Depleteduranium081804.shtml

Veterans for Constitutional Law, 112 Jefferson Ave. Port Jefferson NY 11777, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director, (516) 474-4261, fax 516-474-1968.

Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter. Email Gary Kohls, gkohls@cpinternet.com, with "Subscribe" in the subject line

I remember logging on to Al Basrah and seeing the children suffering from malformations from the residue of war, and it was horrific and now our own troops are suffering as well. This needs to be stopped -- for eveyone.

This apathetic way seeing things here in our country, this view our people seem to here in this country, in the U.S. is something I can't or won't get used to, things need to change, we need to wake up and look about, see what it is that is going on in our names, and demand it be stopped, this would be the decent thing to do.

Here are excerpts from the story about our troops:

Heads roll at Veterans Administration

Mushrooming depleted uranium (DU) scandal blames

by Bob Nichols

02/23/05 "BFBV" - - Considering the tons of depleted uranium used by the U.S.,, the Iraq war can truly be called a nuclear war. Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War. "This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed."

He added, "Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of 'Disabled Vets' means taht a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of peranent medical problems!" The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent, it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.

"The long-term effects have revealed taht DU (Uranium oxide) is a virtual death sentence." stated Berklau. "Marion Fulk, a nuclear physical chemist, who retired from the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, and was also involved with the Manhattan Project interprets the new and rapid malignancies in teh soldiers (from teh 2003 Iraq War) as 'spectacular ... and a matter of concern!"

When asked if the main purpose of using DU was for "destroying things and killing people," Fulk was more specific: "I would say it is the perfect weapon for killing lots of people!"

Check out this site for the complete article:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8172.htm

Wish this were all a fantasy, some horrific nightmare we will all wake up from and that it won't have a thing to do with reality, but it just doesn't seem to be so, indeed, things are worse than they seemed, the nightmare's are bad and they're progressing into full blown "terrors."

Saundra Hummer

February 28th, 2005, 07:31 PM

"I'm very disappointed that he would use that kind of language. I'm hoping that he's apologizing." -- White House Chief of Staff Andy Card on Sen. John Kerry's use of profanity, 12/7/03

"F--- Saddam. We're taking him out."
--President Bush, March 2002

"There's Adam Clymer, major league asshole from the New York Times."
__ President Bush, 9/04. 2000

"What do you and [your father] talk about? 'Pussy,' George W. replied."
-- Salon, 4/09/99

"You no good f---ing sonofa bitch. I will never f---ing forget what you wrote."
-- George W. Bush, April 1986

Lets quit thinking that this self-professed man of God is beyond reproach. Seems like no one ever taught him common decency, that which he says he has. His bringing decency back to the White House is somewhat laughable, he may not be doing Monica, but he is doing us.

His swearing doesn't bother me, it doesn't change how I live, it's his policies which I believe are the real indecencies going on. His swearing doesn't cost lives, his swearing doesn't raise the cost of living, or make me lose a job, but look around, it's all about what he pretends to be, not what he would have us believe.

We have handed over the store to those who would rob it.

Saundra Hummer

February 28th, 2005, 07:47 PM

"Bush has a chemical-dependency problem, but it's not cocaine. It's Monsanto, Dow, and Union Carbide. They wrote the checks that put him into the Texas governor's mansion....Bush had two voluntary emissions-control programs here in Texas. One involved polluting industries. The other was directed at adolescent males, who were encouraged to 'try abstinence.' Only 3 of our 8,645 most obnoxiously polluting refineries actually volunteered to cut back on their toxic emissions. Numbers on teenage boys are not yet in." Molly Ivins.

Saundra Hummer

February 28th, 2005, 08:20 PM

....."I could never be the president. Think about it. I've abused cocaine, I've been arrested, I'm not a very smart guy. It's a big joke to think people would want someone like me ....just because my dad was president."--------

---------------Charlie Sheen on SNL when asked if he'd ever be president.

Just going to have to invest in a book of quotes, and keep looking at the ones the web provides, great fun.

Saundra Hummer

March 1st, 2005, 06:40 PM

Tonight on CNN is a "story about the good in people. The parents of a U.S. soldier in Iraq have started a website wehre anyone can sign up to send needed items to units in Iraq. Making sure soldiers get a piece of hom when they need it most. From shaving cream to beanie babies, (those are more for the Iraqi kids than the soldiers), a report on why this site was set up and how everyone can contribute.

I don't get CNN so if anyone you out there gets a chance before I can locate the site that is being mentioned, if I even can, would you please post it for all of us, and anything of interest that comes from that broadcast. Thanks!

Saundra Hummer

March 1st, 2005, 07:49 PM

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

gabegabrielsky

March 2nd, 2005, 09:51 PM

Saundra Hummer

March 2nd, 2005, 10:48 PM

[QUOTE=Saundra Hummer]Do any of you ever wonder if you might have American Indian in your heritage?

How many Native Americans in big time jazz? I know of Big Chief Russell Moore who played trombone for Armstrong and claimed to be the only full blooded Indian in big time jazz. Lee Wiley also had a Native American heritage as did Al Cohn ex, singer Marilyn Moore.

I do, I have American Indian ancestors, my Texas ranger grandfather married a lady who is part American Indian, full blood we've been told, have a picture of her, cute little thing, my husband has Powhattan and other Indian blood as well. Here is a way to check, so all of you out there if you have no Oriental , no Asian heritage, check your teeth like I stated in a post way back in this thread, if they are scooped like a spoon, then you have what is refered to as "shovel teeth". There are other dental traits as well. This won't be obvious from the front or side, only from behind your teeth, you will be able to feel this with your finger or tongue, and it is one way to know for certain if you do have American Indian Heritage.

Then there are the Melungeons, another story entirely, but an intersting one. Most of us whose ancestors arrived on this continent early have Indian blood and through the Melungeons also have African blood or through the interacial carryings on of slave owners and their other workers, just the way it was. On African heritage it is more than one would suspect--the percentages are something like 1 in 7 or some such figure.

We have jazz men who have all sorts of ethnic heritage and this includes those you only think of as black. How about those who lived close to the Iberian Peninsula? They get sickle cell anemia, a black disease and they are white, or so they believe. White or black, Indian or Japanese, not many of us know our exact heritage, as trade and wars saw to that.

A horseshoeer we met out partying one night told us that the whole damned trouble started with the "damned Vikings" I laugh everytime I think of it. Too funny but the bartender was getting spooked, wondering what would happen next. Everytime he pounded his fist on the bar all the drinks would shake, I had the best time that night, the bartender thanked us for talking to him and keeping it all underwraps. Love characters, makes the world go round.

Saundra Hummer

March 3rd, 2005, 11:48 AM

Today's quote, well it's interesting, but it is the quote within the quote which hits home with me:

"Often war is waged only in order to show valor, thus an inner dignity is ascribed to war itself, and even some philosophers have praised it as an ennoblement of humanity, forgetting the pronouncement of the Greek who said "War is an evil in as much as it produces more wicked men than it takes away.". Immanuel Kant

Then there is this:

"If a war be undertaken for the most righteous end, before the resources of peace have been tried and proved vain to secure it, that war has no defense, it is a national crime" Charles Eliot Norton:

Saundra Hummer

March 3rd, 2005, 12:09 PM

AMERICA NO. 1?

AMERICA BY THE NUMBERS

By Michael Ventura

02/03/05 "ICH" - - No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, oontinuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying toherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is eneradicable. We're No. 1. Well...this is the country you really live in:

****The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (the New Yourk Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

****The U.S. ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy. (NYT, Dec, 2004).

****Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

**** "The International Adult LIteracy Survey...found that Americans with less than nine years of education 'score worse than virtually all of the other countries' " (Jeremy Rifkin's superbly documented book. The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, p.78).

****Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that Am;erican businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training. (NYT, Dec 12, 2004) No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

To see the rest of this article go to this site:

Just click on the address:

http://207.44.245.159/article8191.htm

We are however NUMBER UNO IN A FEW THINGS, and you know what they are.

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

Anyone catch Jay Leno last night (WEDS. March 3rd?) If so it just reinforces this article. Intelligent people without a bit of what we consider to be common knowledge, as they just live in their own little worlds. Good for a hard laugh, but sad when you come to think of how little most people know and these are people of voting age. Maybe I'll Join Andy Rooney and hope they never do exercise that right.

Saundra Hummer

March 3rd, 2005, 02:25 PM

I just had to pull this out of the above article for those of us so frightened by the happenings of 9/11 and since and it's this:

"Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary 'American' deaths a year." (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)

We have a right to be cautious, villigant and even fearful, but lets get realistic and go after the main causes of deaths in this country, and there are many more than "terrorism". Of course just that word invokes terror in many, but for most of us, we aren't living in fear of Al Qaeda as much as we are of being hit by a car, by a drunk driver or a young kid out for a joy ride in a stolen car with the police in hot pursuit.

Prevenative health care should be a concern, as is actual treatment of illnesses one they hit you. This is more of a concern to me than any brand of terrorism they've thrown at us, as it's an every day thing. Look around, these problems are for real, and a constant. Sure terrorism is a concern, but lets keep it all in perspective, not dream up what isn't.

Saundra Hummer

March 3rd, 2005, 02:48 PM

Saundra Hummer

March 3rd, 2005, 03:03 PM

In high school we were told by teachers that the American public school system was set up to educate factory workers, that was it. Well, some teachers reached beyond and grabbed our imaginations, going giant steps farther then the school systems ever dreamed. When I hear how narrowly people on the street, (like in the Jay Leno bits), think, how little they know, it seems that is exactly what is going on now, and factories? They've all, for the most part, moved across our border, or offshore. :confused:

Saundra Hummer

March 3rd, 2005, 03:55 PM

....."When you lose your job, the unemployment rate isn't four percent, it's 100%." Thomas Friedman, on Paula Zahn News show, CNN, June 3, 2004.

...."Visions are contagious. They animate and empower. They literally transform - from the smal (family, community, region) to the entire planet. And they can just as easily be toxic as positive, a reality our Founders both knew and used. Thom Hartmann May 31, 2004

.....It must kill George Bush that John McCain is the most popular and Beloved Republican in America. Paul Begalla Crossfire May 28, 2004 "to announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore Roosevelt, 1918

.....This is one time I'm in agreement with George Will, at least on this thought: "This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think, and having thought, to have second thoughts." George Will

........"If your opponent is drowning, throw the son of a bitch an anvil" James Carville

Saundra Hummer

March 3rd, 2005, 04:28 PM

.........."You can say anything you want during a debate, and 80 million people hear it." If "anything" turns out to be false and journalists correct it, "So what. Maybe 200 people read it, or 2,000 or 20,000."

PETER TEELEY, press secretary to then Vice PResident George H.W. Bush. Teeley was responding to complaints that the elder Bush, during a televised debate, had grossly distorted the words of his and Ronald Reagan's opponents, the Democratic candidates Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro. As Teeley explained to The New York tTimes in October 1984.

======

....."I can assure you from first-hand experience that a President acting secretly usually does not have the best interest of Americans in mind. It is his own personal interest that is on his mind instead." John Dean, of Watergate ilk

Saundra Hummer

March 4th, 2005, 03:06 PM

MEMBER OF CONGRESS CALLS FOR NUKING SYRIA:

Rep. Sam Johnson (R-TX) has advocated for attacking Syria with nuclear weapons.

http://207.44.245.159/article8194.htm

This is hopefully, a lone voice out there, as this is turning ugier and uglier each day. To think that this might even be thought of is distressing, and frightening. We have learned that this is part of the PNAC plans of war, small nuclear arms to be used to make our point and to gain control. I hope that nuclear arms will not come into play, regardless of how long ago things were called for that fit this scenario. I'm sure all of you out there feel the same way. I just wish we would back off and take stock of where this is all headed. Do we truly believe that we won't be hit with similar or worse weapons if we don't start using more diplomacy?

We need to make sure that those in office know in certain terms that we here in this country are against using nuclear power on these countries, any country. We really do. Things are getting too out of control, or at least it looks that way to me.

We are on the snowball it seems, and hell's approaching.

Saundra Hummer

March 4th, 2005, 03:17 PM

CONGRESSMAN SAYS HE WAS "JOKING" WITH NUKE SYRIA SUGGESTION

http;//www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/11051923.htm.

If anything perhaps he be hooted out of office, and replaced by someone with a bit more smarts.

How assinine to say such!

Talk about poltically incorrect!

Johnson was quoted telling a recent church gathering "Syria is the problem, Syria is where those weapons of mass destruction are, in my view. You know I can fly an F-15, put two nukes on 'em and I'll make one pass. W e won't have to worry about Syria anymore." The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Commitee (ADC) is outraged at Rep. Johanson's statement advocating for mass destruction and genocide and view this as a sad day in our country's tradidition when an elected member of the United States Congress openly advocates for attacking another country with nuclear weapons.

ADC calls upon Rep. Johnson to provide an immediate and public explanation for his remarks. Additionally, ADC calls on the White House to publicaly distance itself from such un-American views. In a letter faxed to Rep. Johnson today, former congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar, president of ADC, said, "While we recognize the current differences between the Bush Administration and the Syrian Government, these differences should be addressed in negotioations at the conference table in coordination with our international partners, rather than confrontation in the battle field by using nuclear weapons," Oakar continued, "Advocating for genocide by nuclear attack against any country is completely unacceptable and contrary to our American values and traditions."

Oakar said, "these remarks have no place in the United States Congress."

Rep. Johnson can be reached at:

Districk Office- 2929 North Central Expressway
Suite 240
Richardson, TX 75080
Phone (972) 470-0892
Fax (972) 470-9937

Washington Office- 1211 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone (202) 225-4201
Fax (202) 225-1485

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

To read this article and much more or to sign up for the news letter, here's the address:

http://informationclearinghouse.info

What are we going to have to end up doing? Will we need to send in someone to monitor these types of groups or churches? Do we need to be sending in reporters to all of the churches and church meetings to see who, what and why? Are other members of the government advocating things such as these unbeknownst to us trying to raise up a ground swell of support should we ever want to implement such as this? Far out there in thought, but look at what has been going on.

Who would have ever thought we, the United States would build a prison facility off shore to take prisoners to, so as not to fall under legal scrutiny from our courts? Strange things are rampant with this administration, shameful things so we can expect just about any tactic from these men, the ones Washington insiders used to call "The Crazies".

Is Johnson only repeating what is being said behind closed doors either in jest or as a real thought? Who knows with the men who run things, these "Crazies"!

Saundra Hummer

March 4th, 2005, 07:01 PM

AMERICA'S BEEN TOUGH ON THE JAZZMAN

Posted 2005-02-28

By Eric Pettine

Consier the "Language" Barrier

Consider our Attention Span.

Consider this "Idol" Business

Consider our Lacking Cultural Pride.

Consider Jazz' Future.

See all of these interesting takes on this site:

www.trombone-usa.com

Saundra Hummer

March 5th, 2005, 01:37 PM

......................FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN.....................

We are living today in a science fiction nightmare, a worLd where, becuase somebody gave money to a politician, our children are brought into a world where the air is too posonious for them to breathe.

By ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.

From the beginning of American history our greatest political leaders - Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams and Andrew Jackson - have warned against allowing large corporations to dominate our political systems and our lives.

03/05/05 - - Published in the Winter 2005 issue of EarthLight --I have been an environmental advocate for twenty years, and I've been disciplined during that period about bening nonpartisan in my approach to this issue. The worst thing that can happen to the environment is if it becomes the province of a single political party. Most of the environmental leaders in our country agree with me. Five years ago, if you asked the leaders of the major environmental groups in America, What's the gravest threat to the global environment?, they would have given you a range of answers: overpopulation, habitat destruction, global warming. Today, theY will all tell you one thing, it's George W. Bush. This is the worst environmental president that we have ever had. You simply cannot speak honestly about the environment in any context today without speaking critically about this president. If you go to the Natural Resources Defense Council's web site you will see over 400 major environmental rollbacks that have been promoted by this administration over the last three and half years. It is a concerted, deliberate attempt to eviscerate thirty years of environmental law. It is a stealth attack, one that's been hidden from the public.

We found in 2003, a memo from Frank Luntz, the president's pollster, to the president saying that if you go through with the evisceration of America's environmental law, you are going to alienate not just Democrats, but the Repubican rank and file. Eighty-one percent in both parties want clean air, they want stronger environmental laws and they want them striclty enforced. Luntz said that to the president, and he siad, if we do this we have to do a stealth attack. He recommended using Orwellian rhetoric to mask this ratical agenda: They want to destroy the forest, they call it the healthy Forest Act, they want to destroy the air, they call it the Clear Skies Act. Most insidiously they have installed the worst, most irresponsible polluters in American, and the lobbyists from those companies, as the heads of virtually all the agencies and sub-secretariats and even Cabinet positions that regulate of oversee our environment. The head of the Forest Service is a timber industry lobbyist who is probably the most rapacious timber industry lobbyist in American history. The head of public lands is a mining industry lobbyist who believes that public lands are unconstitutional. The head of the Air Division at the EPA is a utility lobbyist who has represented the worst polluters in America for twenty years. The head of Superfund is a woman whose former job was advising companies how to evade Superfund. The second in command of EPA is a Monsanto lobbyist - these are not exceptions, these are the rules across the agencies. I think it is a good idea to bring business people into government, to bring that experience and expertise.

These individuals did not enter government service for the purpose of promoting the public interest, but in each of these cases, rather to subvert the very laws that they are now charged with enforcing. We are seeing the impacts of this already. This year, for the first year on record, the EPA announced that the dead zone in Lake Erie - you remember Lake Erie was declared dead prior to Earth Day 1970 - is growing. Our water in this country , according to EPA, is getting dirty for the first time since the Clean Water Act was passed.

The rollbacks from the Bush administration have affected the lives of millions and millions of Americans adversely. consider just one industry: the coal-burning utilities. One out of every four black children in New York, now has asthma. I have three sons who have asthma. We don't know why we have this epidemic of pediatric asthma, but we do know that asthma attacks are caused primarily by two components of air pollution, ozone and particulates. In the Los Angeles Times recently there was a description of a study that's about to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine that shows that even small amounts of ozone pollution do permanent damage to childrens lungs. In San Bernadino, for example, ten percent of the children have lungs that are permanently damaged, that will never recover, and that lung injury precipitates in human beings a whole host of other diseases through their lifetime.

We know that the principal source of ozone and particulates in our air is coming from 1,000 coal-burning poser plants that are burning coal illegally. They were supposed to install controls over firteen years ago. The Clinton administration was prosecuting 75 of the worst of those plants. But this industry gave $48 million to President Bush during the 2000 campaign, and they 've contributed $58 million since. One of the first things that President Bush did when he came to office was to order the Justice Department to drop all 75 of those suits. The justice Department lawyers were shocked. This has never happened in our history before, where somebody running as a presidential candidtate accepts money from a criminal and then lets that criminal off the hook. Many of you remember what happened when President Clinton pardoned Mark Rich and how indignant the press and the public was at that action. But Mark Rich was one person and he never killed anybody. According to EPA, these 75 plants, just the criminal exceedences from these plants, kill 5,500 Americans every year. After letting these criminals off the hook, the president then went and rewrote the Clean Air Act, illegally we believe. We're suing him, we'll win the suit, but it make take ten years and in the meantime they'll discharge what they want.

I live in New York State. Most of the fish in New York are now unsafe to eat from mercury contamination. I live two miles from the state of Connecticut; in Connecticut every freshwater fish is now unsafe to eat. Last week, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that in 19 states it is unsafe to regularly eat any fresh water fish, and in 48 states at least some fish are unsafe to eat. 'The mercury is coming, largely, from those same 1,100 coal-burning power plants. We know a lot about mercury that we didn't know five or ten years ago. We know that one out of ever six American women of childbearing years now has so much mercury in her womb that her children are at risk for a grim inventory of diseases: cognitive impairment: mental retardation; autism; blindness; kidney, liver or heart disease. I have so much mercury in my body, I was told by Dr. David Carpenter, who is the national authority on mercury contamination, that if I were a woman of childbearing years and produced a child, that the child would have cognitive impairment, and, he estimated, a permanent IQ loss of five to seven points. There are 630,000 children born in the country every year who have been exposed to dangerous levels of mercury in the womb.

There is much more to this article and to read it in it's entirety go to this address, just click on it:

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8203.htm

http://207.44.245.159/article8203.htm

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

We're not all radical tree huggers here. We are concerned and need to be, as this is our only home, and we are fouling it.

WHAT YOU CAN DO: TO TRACK THE BUSH RECORD ON THE ENVIRONMENT, GO TO:

http://www.nrdc.org/bushrecord

AT THE WEBSITE FOR THE NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL WHERE YOU WILL ALSO FIND ALERTS, UPDATES ON VICTORIES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ACTION.

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

SEND THIS ARTICLE TO ALL FRIENDS WHO ARE YOUNG, HAVE CHILDREN, OR WILL BE HAVING CHILDREN, SEND TO GRANDPARENTS, JUST ANYONE YOU KNOW AND ASK THEM TO FORWARD THIS INFORMATION, AS OUR LIVES DO DEPEND ON IT, AS DOES THIS WORLD WE LIVE IN.

Saundra Hummer

March 5th, 2005, 03:05 PM

JOURNALIST RECALLS NEARLY 45 YEARS AS WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT

BY ROBERT CRISTO: THE RECORD
03/05/05

LOUDONVILLE - For 57 years former White House reporter Helen Thomas had a front row seat to history unfolding before her eyes, but she said the current administration is making her wish she was blind.

Thomas, who spoke at Siena college's First Woman President symposium Friday, also had plenty to say about serving as a White House correspondent for United Press International . Not all of it was encouraging.

...."This president (Bush) doesn't think he has to answer any questions....He even says (during press conferences) this is scripted," bemoaned Thomas, 83, who gave up her reporter job to become a syndicated columnist two years ago and routinely trashes Bush on economic and military policy in her columns.

...."He stopped taking questions from me," she added with a laugh.

She dubbed the war in Iraq "spreading democracy at gunpoint." calls Bush "the worst" president in Amerian history, and blames Congress for not standing up to Bush on many issues along with the media for failing to ask the tough questions she never shied away from.

...."Since September 11 (2001 terrorist attacks), reporters have been afraid to ask (tough) questions because they were afraid to be called un-American or unpatriotic, but (even when they do) the president doesn't answer them anyway," said Thomas, who added she believes reporters are beginning to get back to asking more hard hitting questions.

While Bush might be her least favorite leader, Thomas had the most praise for President John F. Kennedy, the first commander in chief she covered.
....It was during Thomas' first White House assignment that she began closing presidential press conferences with "Thank you, Mr. President," a tradition that lasted up until the current administration's reign.
......"Kenenedy was the most inspirational president.....You always got the feeling with thim that he knew he was living on borrowed time," said Thoimas. "He gave people hope and that's something that's missing today."
.....Thomas joked a little about a Kennedy press conference she attended where he was taling to astronauts about going to the moon.

"He said to the astronauts "Do you think we could land on the moon?" and they said 'sure,' but after he left (they said) they thought he was crazy." said Thomas, who pointed out that only seven years after Kennedy's assassination the first man did in fact land on the moon.

Thomas also was present at Kennedy's funeral the moment of his son John F. Kennedy Jr.'s, poignant salute that illustrated the nation's feelings of pain and loss. Thomas was also the only female print journalist to travel with then President Richard Nixon to China and has also traveled around the globe several times with presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes.

As the longest tenured White House correspondent, she also wanted people to know that there is no truth tho the myth that the media is softer on a Democratic president than a Republican.

I've never seen it that way.....Do you really think the press was easy on (President) Clinton during (the) Monica Lewinsky (scandal)?" asked Thomas, who contends that Clinton "tarnished" the Oval Office but was the complete opposite of Bush when it came to answering questions.

"Clinton would answer any question you asked. He never flinched," she said. She said she was appalled at how it was recently revealed that someone who wasn't even a real reporter (Jeff Gannon) was allowed a coveted spot in the White House press corp and called upon by the Bush administration to ask "softball" questions. "He didn't even have a (Capital) Hill pass or represent a credible, legitimate agency, but he was let in because he was considered friendly (to the Bush) administration," quipped Thomas.
She also called it despicable that the Department of Education paid a radio talk show host $240,000.00 to promote Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, and leaders from Bush's marriage initiative paid a syndicated columnist $10,000.00 to push their views.

"Thats sad and reprehensible to see an administration pay off outsiders, but at at least such practices have a way of getting exposed," she said.

On what makes a good president, Thomas siad they should respect the honor and influence that comes with being president and they use that power to simply "do the right thing."

"Our lives and futures are in the president hands, " she said. "Great presidents don't have to be macho, just great human beings."

Thomas is listed in the World Almanac as one of the 25 most influential women in America.

Go to this site to read this article and many others:

http://informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

March 5th, 2005, 03:45 PM

................RUSH LIMBAUGH LIES, ATTEMPTS TO DEMORALIZE OUR TROOPS.

THIS IS AN AMAZING STORY.

I ALWAYS THOUGHT NOTHING THIS MAN SAYS OR DOES WILL SUPRISE ME, HOWEVER, HE HAS THIS TIME. HE IS A JERK! THIS IS ABOUT AS LOW AS HE CAN GO, BUT AFTER HAVING SEEN THIS ARTICLE IN THE HAMSTER, I DO REALIZE HE WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY TO LOWER HUMAN KIND INTO THE CESSPOOL OF HIS MIND. IT'S JUST HARD TO IMAGINE THE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE HINGING THEMSELVES TO HIS EVERY WORD. HOW ON EARTH COULD THEY?

click on this address and find "The Hamster" link on the column on the left of the page and look this up. The address was so long, so this is the easiest way to show you where to find it.

http://informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

March 7th, 2005, 10:34 PM

Check out Allan Weisbecker's Down South Perspective.

http://www.aweisbecker.com/faq/index.php

category=Living+in+Paradise

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

Or check out his Captain Zero reviews this is supposed to be made into a movie. If Bruce Brown liked it, it must be good.

http://www.aweisbecker.com/zero/

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

He has an article regarding an old Bob Woodward story, and here it is" it really should be read again, as it is so revealatory as to what is happening today. I remember Ollie North saying he "worked for the real goverment" as they/it flooded our poor neighborhoods with drugs. How it came home to haunt them and us, this(look at Jeb's daughter!) is another story entirely, yet all hooked in to this mess that was the Iran/Contra affair. We are still hurting here in this country because of it, look at the drug abuse and crime due to it, look at the deaths alone, not even taking into account the economic toll.

http://www.aweisbecker.com/contents/woodward.shtml

This is a somewhat different website, full of rememberances and other bits of info, real estate, surfing and just chatter. He's now based in Costa Rica and since this is where I would like to go, and since it was my old friends who were the top surfers of the day, I found this site to be something I relate to, but then, we beach people have always been there, in that place.

Saundra Hummer

March 7th, 2005, 10:48 PM

BUSH ACCUSED OF 'FIDDLING WHILE WORLD BURNS' BY IGNORING CLIMATE CHANGE:

One of Britain's most eminent scientists has attacked president Bush for acting like a latter-day Nero who fiddles while the world burns because of global warming.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=617595

Saundra Hummer

March 8th, 2005, 04:26 PM

PITY....PITY....PIty

OSAMA BIN LADEN SAID THIS WOULD HAPPEN AND IT IS COMING TO PASS!

"10 terrorists in 6 weeks have been able to command 300 million North Americans to do away with the entirety of their civil liberties that took 700 years to advance from the Magna Cart onward. The terrorists have already won the political and ideological war with one terrorist act. It is mindboggling that we are that weak as a society": Roca Galati

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

"The government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by it's example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law, it invites every man to become a law unto himself, it invites anarchy. To declare that the end justifies the means, - to declare that the government may commit crimes - would bring terrible retribution." Justice Lous D. Brandeis.

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

"The constitutional right of free speech has been declared to be the same in peace and war. Inpeace, too, men may differ widely as to what loyalty to our country demands, and an intolerant majority, swayed by passion or by fear, may be prone in the future, as it has been in the past, to stamp as disloyal opinions with which it disagrees." Louis D Brandeis

TWISTING THE MINDS OF THE AMERIAN PEOPLE

MORE WAR CRIMES

By Brian Cloughley

The attitude of millions of Americans is exactly that of the German supporters of fascism in the 1930's and early 1940's. - The present wave of hysterical intolerance in the US makes the McCarthy years of persecution look benign because the idea has been planted by Bush and his people that US citizens are superior in every possible way. Tere can be no admission of frailty, and no acceptance of equality. Internaional law and treaties are ignored or treated with contempt, and human dignity has become irrelevant. Hysterical ultra-nationalism is thriving and gathering pace.

http://207.44.245.159/article8214.htm

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

There are those who say and believe that armies,or insurgants will fight us to the death now that we have sanctioned unlawful imprisoment and torture, as a way to fight this war, this invasion. We have had wars before and the fear of reprisal from us has been slight whenever a person has surrendered to our men, not always, as abuse has always happened, but to our knowledge it has never been on such a scale, with such blatant acceptance from different government agencies, along with the Congress, the Senate, and the American people

Now it's different, they expect to be abused and tortured, so they fight us harder, they recruit more to fight us, as we've lost our moral base, they are as fearful of us as we are of them. Now it seems there are still differences, but very few.

Where are we headed?

Saundra Hummer

March 9th, 2005, 05:27 PM

PROTESTS PLANNED ACROSS THE U.S.

BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0309-21.htm

Saundra Hummer

March 9th, 2005, 06:07 PM

UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

An interesting site with an up-to-date list of United States and international actions online for peace at:

http://www.unitedforpeace.org

United for Peace and Justice is the largest United States peace and justice coalition with more then 1,000 gropus under its umbrella. Since its founding in October 2002, UFPJ has spurred hundreds of protests and rallies around the country, including the two largest demonstrations against the Iraq war.

Here are some of their causes:

March 18-20:
The World Says End the war.

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

$82 BILLION MORE FOR WAR?
NO WAY!
BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW.....

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

APRIL 1: FOSSIL FOOLS DAY
CALL TO ACTION......

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

WEAR AND DISTRIBUTE
WHITE RIBBONS TO
HONOR ALL WHO HAVE
DIED IN IRAQ.......

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

NATIONAL CONVERGENCE FOR
FARMWORKER JUSTICE......
(Your health even depends on this as these people are handling our foods.
There are times when no bathroom facilities are furnished in the fields and
they use the fields your foods are in for their toilets, and then there's no way to wash their hands. So think about it, and the number of illnesse's that pop up in the spring and summer when these crops being harvested by hand. Many farmers now furnish facilites - but how many don't? Besides, workers should have decent wages, and conditions don't you think? Sandi)

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

GREAT LITANY AT ISAIAH WALL.....

A SERVICE FOR PEACE.....

A WALK FOR PEACE......

SILENT VIGIL/PROCESSION.....

WAGE PEACE.....

END THE WAR NOW/STAND UP, CHATTANOOGA........

CANDLELIGHT VIGIL......

THE MARCH 20TH PROJECT/BRING THEM HOME NOW!

Regional protests are happening across the U.S. and worldwide to acknowledge the 2nd anniversary of the US invasion and occupation in Iraq.

Contact:

March20Project@gmail.com for information

CHECK OUT THE MUSIC FOR PEACE PROJECT 2005
Stony Brook, New York, April, 8

The Music for Peace Project is an unprecedented global effort to fill the world with music as a call for peace. Throught the simultaneous performance of a vast number of concerts world wide during the weekend of April 8-10, 2005, The Music for Peace Project will bring popular and media attention to international peace efforts while building a global community of active, socially conscious artists. Dedicated to cultivating peace as both a means and an end. The Music for Peace Project is a global celebration of peace as both a means and an end. The Music for Peace Project is a global celebration of peace, uniting a vibrant community that believes in peaceful solutions for the future..

Last February, the Music for Peace Project 2004 sponsored 70 concerts in 13 countries in 50 hours during the first annual Music for Peace Project. This internaional, non-partisan call for peace included music from around the world and was shared with audiences as diverse as the music itself. More>>>. (Go to their web site near the top of this post.)

In fact, check out the next page for topics as diverse as Turtles Can Fly and one of the greatest anti-war films of all time "A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES"

This is an interesting site for those of you working for change, hoping for change. We're facing a steam roller you know, so it will take Herculean efforts to divert or stop it, as it's momentum is up and cooking.

Saundra Hummer

March 9th, 2005, 07:19 PM

AFTER THE WAR COMES CANCER :

The number of cancer cases and children born with deformities has skyrocketed after the two Gulf Wars.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1510710,00.html

This has been reported on for a long time now, and I first learned of it on Al Basrah, an Iraq website which used to be dedicated to Iraq's ancient art. I always enjoyed seeing it, and then the next time I saw it after the start of this latest war, I was shocked. The deformaties are appalling and the suffering has to be beyond our imaginations, except that now, our troops are bringing the suffering home with them, even their children are being affected.

********************************************

Here is another problem our men in uniform are facing:

Returning US Marines prepare for the battle to retain sanity:

The emotional toll is real. Sixteen percent of army personnel who served in the invasion of Iraq in 2003 report combat related mental illness. There has been a marked rise in the number of broken marriages, car accidents, fights and alcohol and drug abuse.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/03/08/wirq108.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/03/08/ixworld.html

http://tinyurl.com/6nbw3

(hope I got that long one in correctly, if not, go to Information Clearing House. info, and look it up, and there's more. Too many sad things this time that's for sure.)

http://informatinclearinghouse.info

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

US Threatens to take actions against Iran :

The United States warned of Iran on Tuesday that it will consider possible actions against Iran if Iran does not fulfull its obligations to stop its sensitive nuclear activitie.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/09/content_2671031.htm

(Is this from a reliable source? I haven't heard this from any other place, only the "all options are on the table" remark Bush made, in that "fun and crazy guy" way of his.)

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

Again, I never thought I would be in agreement with one Patrick J. Buchanan, but here is one thing which he seems to be right on about.

THE STILLBORN EMPIRE

For America 2005, unlike the America we knew not long ago, has become a newly dependent nation, dependent on the Gulf for oil to run our economy, on imports for the necessities of our national life, on Beijing and Tokyo to buy the bonds to subsidize our self-indulgent lifestyles.

http://amconmag.com/2005-03-14/buchanan.html

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

Chalmers Johnson: The Largest Covert Operation in CIA History:

The central Intelligence Agency has an almost unblemished record of screwing up every "secret" armed intervention it ever undertook. From the overthrow of the Iranian government in 1953 through Ronald Regan's Iran-Contra war against Nicaragua, there is not a single instance in which the agency's activities did not prove acutely embarrassing to the United States.

http://207.44.245.159/article8218.h

How about the surfers knowing about Ollie Norths landing strip in Costa Rica and it being an inside joke with them, and the press and goverment oversight agencies didn't? Give me a break. Read Captain Zero, or Alan Weisbecker's Down South Perspective. his news letter and then the links to his web site I furnished earlier, this is all so odd. We are in a continuation that's all..... with more seasoned drivers at the wheel. They have learned more about how to carry it all off this time, and look out whomever of you who might get in their way. Dan Rather, you should have known better!

======================
++++++++++++++++++++++

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: CHALMERS JOHNSON: MILITARISM AND THE AMERICAN EMPIRE:

Chalmers Johnson, on the nature of the American Empire, and its costs and consequences for the future of American democracy and powe in the world.

Real Video:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6379.htm

====================
++++++++++++++++++++
====================

From Right to Left: -or, How I Discovered W's Plan for Global Domination:

It frightens me to think that the very same people who re-elected W. blindly supported the war and vilified those who questioned it, are no longer talking about the whereabouts of Iraq's WMDS, but of the threat coming from Iran and Syria.

http://207.44.245.159/articles8220.htm

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

There's much, much more in the same vein. Even an Ex marine saying that the Public Version of Saddams Capture is fiction, that it was fabricated, well I don't know about that, but here's the story:

http://207.44.245.159/article8219.htm

(you'll have to go to Information Clearning House.Info to get on as it isn't pulling up with out hitting other letters on the not available page, but it's there.)

Here's one that at least has a crazy wacked title. "Butt Prints in the Sand"
by Sheila Samples, again go to site.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

........then there's the article about Senator Byrd:

Senator Byrd is Correct to Equate Bush With Hitler,

by Harvey Wasserman.................

The U.S. Senate's seniour Constitutional scholar has correctly equated bush with Hitler, and the usual attack dogs are howling. But they are wrong, and Americans must now face the harsh realities of an increasingly fascist and totalitirian GOP. CONTINUED. (on Information Clearing House.info

http://informatinclearinghouse.info

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

There's just so many complicated issues out there that it is dificult to keep up with it all and to hear both sides, hope this has helped as there is more to the news than USA Today, and Fox. This is only a dribble, a drop in the proverbial bucket, more like spitting in the ocean.

***************************

Saundra Hummer

March 9th, 2005, 08:47 PM

I'D RATHER NOT SAY GOOD-BYE, DAN

Wednesday, March 9, 2005
by Greg Palast

Without his make-up, Dan looked like hell warmed over: old, defeated, yet angry. And he told our television audience something that just blew me away. Dan Rather said that American reporters may not ask tough questions about George Bush or his wars.

"It's an obscene comparison," Rather said, "but there was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around peoples' necks if they dissented. In some ways, the fear is that you will be neck-laced here, if you have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck."

Talking to another reporter, Dan told it straight about the careerism that keeps US journalists in line. "It's the fears that keep {American} journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to continue to bore-in-on the tough questions so often."

Silence as patriotism. Ugh. He confessed, "one finds oneself saying.? I know the right question, but you know what, this is not exactly the right time to ask it." It was making him ill and he was ready to say BASTA, enough. Suddenly there was fire in those eyes. "It's extremely dangerous and cannot and should not be accepted and I'm sorry to say that, up to and including this moment of this interview, that overwhelmingly it has been accepted by the American people, And the current Administration revels in that, they relish and take refuge in that."

Of course, Dan said all these things to a British audience,. But back in the USA, Dan had promised America he would be a good boy, a trained press puppy who would poop on the paper set down for him. He told his US audience, "George bush is the President. He makes the decisions,. He wants me to line up, just tell me where."

But CBS' million-dollar man was about to step out of line.

In 2003, BBC Television questioned George Bush's career as Viet Nam era Top Gun fighter pilot. In the British broadcast, I held up a confidential letter from Justice Department files stating that Poppy Bush had put in the fix to get Junior Bush out of 'Nam and into the Texas Air Guard. George could spend the war protectiong Houston from Viet Cong attack.

A year after the BBC broadcast, the I'm-going-to-be-a-real-journalist-now Rather decided to run the same story on 60 Minutes. And just as he predicted, the press-police at the network and in the White House seized him and lit the tire around his neck.

What was Dan's mistake? Yes, yes, he shouldn't have embellished the story with a document he couldn't fully source. but that memo (not the one in the BBC report) was about a side issue, not the key accusation, that Senior Bush got Junior out of the draft. Despite not a lot of evidence that the main story of draft-dodgin' George was wrong (BBC never withdrew it), CBS cited Rather's insistence on the veracity of that report as grounds to crush his career and his reputation.

Rather was convicted by a corporate kangaroo court. Dicke Thomburgh, who had been Poppy Bush's Attorney General and owned his big salaries and career to the Bush family, ran an "independent" investigation which concluded - surprise! - the Bushes had done no wrong. It was Dan that committed the evil. That whacky conclusion went along just fine with the diktat of Sumner Redstone, CEO of Viacom, CBS' owner, that a "Republican administration is better for media companies."

In "Darkeness at Noon," Arthur Koestler explained why old Communisits, brought up for trial by Stalin, still sang the syetem's praises - just before they were shot. To do otherwise woud have been to cast doubt on the cause to which they sacrificed their lives. Now, Dan Rather, like those soon -to-be executed victims of Stalin, has bowed his head in silence in the face of the evil purge. To do otherwise, I suppose, would be to acknowledge that his career has been a path of increasing salaries and celebrity bought by increasing toady-dom

Imagine if Edward R. Murrow, after having exposed Joe McCarthy, replied to criticism by bowing his head for the noose-man.

Rather died as a jouirnalist years ago by accepting the evil gag orders of the media moguls. Still, I applaud his attempt with the Bush story to kick his way out of his professional coffin. Unfortuanately, his current silence simply gives aid and comfort to he censoring corporate news-killers.

Last night, Rather read off his last "news" broadcast, if you can call it that. To Dan the newsman, and to American journalism, all I can say is, rest in peace. :shrug:

To see a segment regarding George Bush's war years from the BBC film "Bush Family Fortunes," winner of the Freedom Film Festival's George Orwell Prize (2005), go to:

http://www.gregpalast.com/images/TrailerClips.mov

Subscribe to Greg Palasts reports at:

www.gregpalast.com

Saundra Hummer

March 10th, 2005, 03:53 PM

Military hopefuls called anti-social:

Young Canadians interested in joining the military tend to lack life goals, feel alienated and accept violence to achieve ends, says an internal army study

http://tinyurl.com/5jh2w

Odd for a military to release a study such as this, and odd they conducted such a study, although I do imagine they like to know what type of person they are training and dealing with on a day-to-day basis.

So why is it that large segments of our own countries population accept violence as a means to solve problems? Is it that we believed WWII saved us, and bettered all of our lives? We feel safe because of what war accomplished in that instance? What is it that makes the general population so willing to accept and want war? Are we feeling it will stay over there? Do we feel if we are the first to instill damage they won't attack us here? What is it in our make up that has us so willing to inflict so much harm on others? To not even look back at the toll it is taking on our own men and women, much less our allies, and the Iraqi population who are caught up in this violence which is not of their making. But hey, we're giving them democracy, so it doesn't matter how many hundreds of thousands might die in the meantime, if this democracy we're offering even lasts, even takes off, which some experts say doesn't stand much of a chance.

Saundra Hummer

March 10th, 2005, 04:10 PM

CHINA IS MAKING IT'S THREATS ONCE AGAIN. :(

Taiwan issue could lead to war, says China:

CHINA is demanding that the Howard Government review it's 50-year-old military pact with the US, warning that the ANZUS alliance could threaten regional stability if Australia is drawn into Sino-US conflict over Taiwan.

http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12477132%255E421,00.html

http://tinyurl.com/6ugup

Saundra Hummer

March 11th, 2005, 07:21 PM

The "Center on Law and Security at NYU School of Law suggests that men who have been on our list of wanted terrorists, and on those of other countries, that almost all of the "Major captures of significant al-Qaeda figures (or claimed to be significant) have been made not by the American military (a blunt instrument indeed when it came to the capture of men like Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, or countless others) but by law enforcement. There is a listing of a number of the alleged terrorist figures large and small, who were captured in the post-9/11 years (arranged by name, place and time of apprehension, whom apprehended by {LA stends for "Local Authorities."}, and current custody if known): There is a long list to see when you visit the site of this story, and after the list it goes on to say much more:.......As you'll note, with few exceptions, these men were taken by "local authorities." While the Bush administration has used our military to turn Iraq into a terrorist hot spot in the Middle East, police forces around the world have taken terrorists down. This is one reality that lies behind the "global war on terrorism." Had the post-9/11 focus been on international police work (backed up by military force), we might be in a far different situation today.

All of this is in the story:

ARE WE IN WORLD WARIV?

It's become a (wishful) commonplace
of the imperial right that we are.

BY TOM ENGELHARDT,
MARCH 10, 2005

IT IS THE PICK OF THE WEEK IN MOTHERJONES.COM, A NON PROFIT NEWS SITE

Here's the address just click on it and go to the PICK OF THE WEEK:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2005/03/world_war_iv.html

Saundra Hummer

March 12th, 2005, 12:36 PM

Knight Ridder Newspaper: List of potentially harmful cosmetic products.

March 11, 2005

"here are some products identified as possibly troublesome for health reasons in a study called "Skin Deep" b the Environtmental Working Group, a nonprofit group that watchdogs the cosmetics industry.

LIPSTICK: 28% OF 711 PRODUCTS

NAIL POLISH 71% OF 123 PRODUCTS

SHAVING PRODUCTS: 51% OF 167 PRODUCTS

SHAMPOO: ALL 413 PRODUCTS EXAMINED CONTAINED INGREDIENTS WHOSE POTENTIAL ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS HAVE NOT BEEN FULLY STUDIED BY THE INDUSTRY, ACCORDING TO THE STUDY. tHEY INCLUDE COAL TAR, ETHANOL, SILICA AND ZINC CHLORIDE.

The "Skin Deep" report and a searchable product guide are available online on the Environmental Working Group's Web site, at:

www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep

This is from a report by David Goldstein at Knight Ridder, go to this site for the complete report, look the article up once you get on-line with them.,

http://www.realcities.com/mid/krwashington/

Or go to Yahoo News.com and look up Knight Ridder Newspaper.

I became terribly ill one time from artists supplies, I had to be hospitalized, it was that serious. It was the heavy metals in the reds and yellows, the cadmiums, and I'm certain there were other heavy metals in them as well, lead, and then there was cobalt, so I know the dangers in some items, and Nail polish to this day has cadmium in them, and I would wonder what other cosmetics might? There is no way you can avoid contamination from these things, and if you knew how very sick they can make you, you would avoid anything with certain substances such as heavy metals.

Saundra Hummer

March 12th, 2005, 01:59 PM

MOVIE: 'Gunner' Documentary Tracks Surreal Story of War

by Jenifer Ludden'

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, MARCH 2003 - In the weeks following the March 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq, soldiers of the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field artillery Regiment -- known as the "Gunners" -- set up quarters in a war-damaged palace in Baghdad. A once-opulent lair of Uday Hussein, Saddam's son, the crumbling palace barracks serve as a backdrop to the new war documentary, Gunner Palace.

The film offers a glimpse into the day-to-day life of the soldiers on the ground. From mortar attacks and nightime raids to palace pool parties and golf on Uday's putting green, the soldier' experiences are at once chaotic, and surreal. "For ya'll, this is just a show," a soldier reminds the camera, "but we live in this movie."

NPR's Jennifer Ludeen speaks with the filmaker Michael Tucker.

Go to the address below to see a clip from "Gunner Palace." Courtesy Palm Pictures, (real Player only.)

Baghadad Diaries: Read notes from the Soldiers and Production crew for 'Gunner Palace'. These are most interesting with links to more of the story with each photo. ******************

Here's the address, just click on it:(The link doesn't take you to the story, so just type in "Gunners" when you reach NPR's web site and it along with other related articles will come up and you can then click on them.)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story.php?storyld=4521732

Saundra Hummer

March 12th, 2005, 02:50 PM

Since there is a huge bulge on South Sister, one of three mountains which are visible from my front porch, not too far from us, 30 miles or so, and because Mt. Saint Helens is spewing her steam and ash once again, and because of the thousands of earthquakes off of the coast of Oregon, I thought it might be interesting to visit the Volocano site again.

We keep talking of a move to Costa Rica, and they also have their volcano, which is somewhat active.

We live at the foot of a very tall butte, and it is volcanic, and it is being monitored they say.. All of the mountains around us, all of them are volcanic. We have neighbors, well we call them neighbors, even though they are miles away, as there are so few houses here because of the size of their properties, and many of them have hot water wells. They have to pump water into holding tanks to cool before use.

Anyway, here's the site:

http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vw.html

Saundra Hummer

March 12th, 2005, 10:44 PM

THE SPOILS OF WAR

Halliburton subsidiary KBR got $12 billion worth of exclusive contracts for work in Iraq. But even more shocking is how KBR spent some of the money. Former U.S. Army Corp of Engineers official Bunnatine Greenhouse is blowing the whistle on the Dick Cheney-linked company's profits of war.

By Michael Shnayerson'
03/12/05 "Vanity Fair" - - This time, she was sure, they were going to get her.

Bunnatine Greenhouse had been a huge nuisance since the buildup to the war in Iraq---questioning contracts, writing caveats on them in her spidery script, wanting to know why Halliburton and its subsidiary KBR (formerly known as Kellogg, Brown and Root) should be thrown billions of dollars of government business while other companies, big and small, were shut out.

And Bunny Greenhouse wasn't that easy to ignore, she was the highest -ranking civilian at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Specifically, she was the officer in charge of ensuring that any work contracted out by the Army corps to private industry--from help in building bridges and dams and highways to support for wartime troops---was granted in a fair and aboveboard way. For two years, Greenhouse had asked hard questions about why the head of the the Corps, to whom she reported directly, kept giving exclusive, non-compete contracts to KBR that now amounted to roughly $10.8 billion. Greenhouse was fearless, and she was blunt. In the Corp's male hierachy, it probably didn't help that she was a woman--or that she was black.

On October 6, 2004, Greenhouse was summoned by the Corps's deputy commander, Major General Robert Griffin. She knew that the top brass was eager to finalize the Corps's latest contract for KBR, a $75 million extension for troop support in the Balkans. Already it had gone through several drafts, mostly because Greenhouse kept questioning the rationale for giving it to KBR without competitive bidding. What she didn't know was that her superiors had closed ranks against her.

When Greenhouse entered the general's office, he handed her a letter that explained she was being demoted for poor performance--a curious indictment, given that she'd received high performance ratings before the war. The demotion would knock her down to the government rank of GS-15. That was like going from senior vice president in a Fortune 500 company to middle management. She could retire instead with full benefits if she liked, the letter went on to say. She was, after all, 60.

Greenhouse chose a third alternative she hired a lawyer and began to fight.

All through last year's searing presidential campaign, the mere mention of Halliburton stirred fury and bitterness in the blue states. How, Democrats asked, had the Houston-based oil-and-gas conglomerate won all those deals to provide services to troops in Iraq? What role had Dick Cheney played behind the scenes, given that the vice president had been Halliburton's C.E.O. from 1995 to 2000, walked away from the job with an estimated $35 million, and continues to get six-figure deferred-salary compensation from the company, despite his denials that he does? True, Halliburtons $12.5 billion division KBR had expanded over the years from oil and gas to do lots of government work: about half of its 60,000 employees in 43 countries handle military needs, from building bases to serving food. But other companies--Fluor for one, Parsons for another --service the military, too. Why hadn't they been considered?

Worse, KBR appeared to have mismanaged the work it got. At various hearings of he House Committee on Government Reform last year, ranking minority member Henry Waxman (a Democrat from California) turned livid as he detailed charges of reckless spending, chaos in the distributin of supplies, and profiteering by KBR executives--charges less often refuted than shrugged off.

Waxman had gotten many of his talking points from a plucky group of whistle-blowers: contract staffers and truckdrivers who'd worked for KBR in Iraq. Their view was from the ground, with startling allegations of how KBR operated--and operates still--on a day-to-day basis in the war zone.

Greenhouse, though, is the first to offer that view from a top-down perspective. The picture that emerges when her account is added to the others is of a company much like the law practice in John grisham's novel The Firm: a rogue operation, with corrupt management, cynically conning the federal government as it rakes in billions of ill-earned taxpayer dollars.

To see the rest of this story go to this address:

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8247.html

I have issue with the statement "conning the federal government", as it is well known what it is Halliburton is doing and how they got their contracts, it is known by almost everyone on Capital Hill, down to the mailroom clerks, it is known by those in this administration and those closest to them. They know full well what is going on and what has gone on, as it is and has been public knowledge for a long time now.

Saundra Hummer

March 13th, 2005, 07:44 PM

I received this notice in an email from:

www.trombone~usa.com

It has this information:

This Sunday, March 13, during my weekly "Just Jazz" rado program, I will be presenting an hour-long feature on the music of Frank Rosolino.

Just Jazz can be heard this Sunday night from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m., eastern time in the US -- and the Frank Rosolino hour will run from 11:00 to midnight -- over the Internet at www.wnti.org. (Next week the show returns to its usual time slot, Monday morning 1:00-6:00 a.m.)

Hope you can tune in,
Bob Bernotas www.boptism.com
host of "Just Jazz"
WNTI-FM, Hackettstown, JN
91.9 FM &www.wnti.org

Frank's amazing talent is still being recognized, and well it should be. I don't know how or why he ended up in such despair; how he could have ended up like he did, but to me he was always such a nice man, and a friend. I believe that grief can oftentimes be totally overwhelming and not let rational thought be at the fore. I know he was a kind man, a caring man, with such a good heart, so there is more to his story than we've been told.

Saundra Hummer

March 14th, 2005, 12:29 AM

NEWS FLASH!!!!
WOW THE "ARMY" DECIDES THAT THERE'S IS A NEED FOR TOURNIQUETS AFTER ALL!!!

LIVES COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED THEY ARE SAYING!

Now they are saying the didn't think that there was a need because they believed that the body armor and armor on the vehicles that were furnished would have protected them enough. They are now saying they were wrong that lives could have been saved if they had had these $20 an item devise.

Who is running this show? Who is letting these men and women die all for the lack of a $20 dollar tourniquet? This is just crazy!

Well there is one thing that we can praise, and that is the willingness of someone to admit mistakes were made and try to rectify them. Now if only the higher-ups would do the same.

Back to the problem as it has been.......What body armor? The armor parents and wives were sending to their loved ones becuuse the army wasn't furnishing any? The gerry-rigged armor on the Hum-vees, or the sandbags they hope and pray will stop metal fragments from blowing off their feet and legs? It's a good thing these people in charge weren't in the war effort of WWII.

They are still saying they haven't the armor that has been promised to them. It still hasn't been sent to Iraq.

Saundra Hummer

March 14th, 2005, 02:23 PM

Earlier in Post 598 I talked a little about the health dangers in artists supplies as well as the list of potential dangers lurking in items many of us use every day.

Today on Yahoo news is another story about "heavy metals", this time in "Tatoo Ink"

STUDY: TATOO INK MAY CONTAIN HEAVY METALS

BY AMY NORTON: REUTERS

MARCH 14, 2005

New Your (Reuters Health) - Dirty needles may be the chief health concern with tattoos, but preliminary research suggests the inks used to make the body art may harbor potentially toxic heavy metals.

In an analysis of 17 tattoo inks from five manufacturers, researchers found evidence of a number of different metals, such as nickle and copper in the products. It's unclear how much metal may be in the different inks - or whether there is any health risk.

Still, the study authors say the findings highlight the lack of oversight of tattoo ink manufacturing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approves the color additives used in foods, cosmetics and drugs, does not regulate the inks used for tattooing, and no color additive has ever been approved for injection into the skin. "A lot of people are surprised by that," said Leslie Wagner, a chemistry student of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff and a co-author on the new study.

Many tattoo enthusiasts may assume that an ink that's injected into the skin has been approved by regulators to meet certain standards, she noted in an interview with Reuters Health.

However, it is not even clear what goes into a given tattoo pigment. Because the inks are not sold directly to consumers, manufacturers are not required to list the components on the product label, according to the FDA.

And no previous scientific studies have attempted to describe the composition of the inks, Wagner said.

In their research, Wagner and co-authour Haley Finley Jones have so far found that tattoo ink compositions vary from manufacturer, and from color to color. Moreover, Wagner said "we've found a lot of indications of metals."
++++++++++++++++++++

This story continues and, I for one am interested in which other heavy metals are in tattoo inks. Cadmium red is one red which could be being used and it is toxic in the extreme, as are the other cadmium colors so favored because of their lightfastness and strength, it's abiity to last. Ever wonder why cobalt blue or green tarps and covers are so prevelant on boats? They are lightfast and aren't effected by light or acids in the air, they are bright and they stay that way. So it makes me wonder which colors are bing used for the yellows reds, blues and greens in tattoos, as the most desired colors are extrememly toxic.

I really have to wonder about the people who are covered with tattoos, I wonder how much toxin has built up in thier vital organs, and if it will or does damage them. I know I have never been so sick for so long, and heavy metals are nothing to take lightly, they are dangerous and if you don't die you are wishing you would to get over the suffering, it is something all of us need to be aware of. There is more out there than just lead poisoning, and it is every bit as dangerous.

Here's the address to the article, just click on it:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tpml=story&ncid=751&e=1&u=nm/20050314/hl_nm/tattoos_dc

Saundra Hummer

March 14th, 2005, 04:11 PM

QUOTES

"In the First Amendment, the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government's power to censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure the Government. The press was protected so thst it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distand lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell." Justice Black. NYT v US. 403 US 713

"Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves to be wheedled out of your liberties by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency. These, as they are often used, are but three differnet names for hypocrisy, chicanery, and cowardice." John Adams - (1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President 1765.

Saundra Hummer

March 14th, 2005, 04:57 PM

There's a lot to read today which looks interesting, so I'll just furnish the artilces title and you can decide what it is you would like to see and then enter the site for the complete story.

UN finds evidence of official cover-up in Hariri assassination. By Robert Fisk in Beirut
======================

Car Bomb blast kills four Iraqis south of Baghdad

US helicopter opens fire in Mosul wounds five civilians.

US troops kill woman and kids.

Iraqi camerman working for Kurdish televison killed in Mosul.

Juan Cole: Shite-Kurdish deal Collapses

Irritated Iraqis Wait for Change

Second Fort Carson Soldier Faces Court Martial In Iraqi Drowning Case.

Pain and anxiety grip wounded soldier.

This war walks among us. (Most of the injured in Iraq are surviving, and their homecoming could under cut Bush.)

Has anyone seen the article about amputee's being fitted with artificial limbs and returning to the war? This isn't what this article is about, but it is happening, and to me it just sounds so amazing, as in recent wars anyone with any sort of problem were rejected as they were considered unfit for duty in the military. They weren't even used in desk jobs.

Left Behind: Children of the Fallen

Over 1,000 American kids have lost a parent in the Iraqi War.

Baghdad's streets now a deadly guantlet.

US unaware of realities of Iraq war, vet says.: A poll in a military magazine found that about 60 percent of soldiers in Iraq did not approve of the war.

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

Extreme Cinema Verite:

GIs shoot Iraq battle footage and edit it into music videos filled with death and destruction. And they display their work as entertainment.

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

Iraqi's find irony in U.S. stance on Syria, Lebanon

800,000 Lebanese rally to protest against Syria.

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

Patrick J. Buchanan: The unpredictability of revolutions. In the Middle East, rebellions and revolutions do not have Hollywood endings.

Stan Goff: On Revolutionary Optimism.

====

Judge Stops Guantanamo Detainees From Being Shipped Overseas

Torture: Bush's Nominee May Be 'DOA'.

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

Greenberg on the Legal War on Terror at home.

Bush Supports Dictators While Selling Democracy: the Bush administration supports and funds some of the worst dictatorships on the planet in its effort to fight the "war on terror" and fill the coffers of the Bush administrations corporate sponsors.

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

Report: Abbas to offer giving up Right of Return.

Sharon rejects Palestinian truce with militants.

Israel will attack Iran 'only as last resort'.

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

China's President Tells Army to Be Prepared for War.

Taiwan seethes over 'war' bill

Russia understands China's position on Taiwan issue.

US watches China warily

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

North Korea warns US-S Korean military drill could result in "actual war".

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

Bush orders policy to 'contain' Chavez.

President Hugo Chavez waiting for USA to announce that Venezuela has WMD

Venezuela: Bush's next oil war?

Who's Afraid of Venezuela-Cuba Alliance?
=======================

Christains flee homes after Druze youths riot (Northern Israel)

Palestinians oppose Israeli final plan for wall.

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

UN announces start demobilization in Haiti as ex-fighters lay down arms.

Aristide accuses US govt. of financing rebels in Haiti.

Rep. Maxine Waters travels to Haiti to visit former Prime Minister Neptune, who is being detaind illegally in prison.

Haiti: the forgotten milestone in Bush's crusade for "freedom".

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

The CIA's Campus Spies.

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

Growing fears credit boom may implode.

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

Visit this site to see these articles or to subscribe.

http://informationclearinghouse.info

There are links on this site to political cartoons, and to other newspapers, and video links to a few of the stories. Lots and lots of links to interesting news sites, such as The Hamster, Mother Jones, and many others; plus links to blogger's sites which can be quite intersting.

Saundra Hummer

March 15th, 2005, 11:54 AM

March 15th, "Beware the Ides of March!"

"Julius Caesar" on DVD, with Marlon Brando and James Mason. It also comes on VHS, check out this site to order it:

www.wings.to/rarevid/jc.htm

Here's another address for him. He says no request is too big or too small.

http://www.moviehunter.tv

Spam? Well maybe, since it is for rare video's etc., thought I would chance listing the source.

===========

Need a Shakespeare Glossary?

http://shakespeare.about.com/library/blglossery.htm
===========

Shakespearean Quotations

http://shakespeare.about.com/library/weekly/blquotationsindex.htm
===========

There is more on this little newsletter on Shakespeare, and other topics as well, some not so interesting, some that are, or will be. Not my favorite site, but they do have things of interest now and then.

Saundra Hummer

March 15th, 2005, 02:32 PM

FREE TRADE AT ALL COSTS?

BY LOU dOBBS
CNN
FRIDAY MARCH 4, 2005.

Not a new story by any means, however it warrents a look just the same as the topic is current and relevant to our economy.

(CNN) -- The Bush administration is trying to push the Central American Free Trade Agreement through Congress quickly and quietly.

The White House, however, couldn't find the votes for this so-called free trade agreement before his re-election in the fall, and the president likely doesn't have the votes for it now anyway. And that's a good thing for American workers.

=======

To see the rest of the story go to this address by just clicking on it:

http://www.cnn.com/2005.US/03/03/cafta.push/index.html

Saundra Hummer

March 15th, 2005, 04:02 PM

.......................THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC...................

Another story by Lou Dobbs...CNN columnist... in it he gives credit (yet talks of how it should be) to GW and his........ "attempting to suport and nurture democratization in the Middle East. By so doing, he (GW) has given the United States and opportunity to improve the lives of hundreds of millions of Middle Easterners and aligned our foreign policy with traditional American values of liberty and integrity while acting in our national self-interest.

Now that the political rationality is at hand in our relationship with the Middle East, the president has a further opportunity to rationalize our economic relationship with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. With crude oil prices near $56 a barrel and the average price of regular unleaded gasoline selling for more than $2 a gallon, our dependence on foreign oil is clearly an economic vulnerability and risk that we must soon remove.

Homeowners are also paying higher heating bills this winter, as if our nation's working men and women needed another squeeze on thier monthly budgets. Oil prices will rise even higher if insurgents continue to disrupt supply in the Middle East. The Saudi Arabian oil minister, Ali al-Naim, has responded as any friendly government official would: Get used to it--high prices are here to stay.

The United States consumes mroe than 25 percent of the worlds oil each year, despite the fact that we control only 3 percent of the world's oil and gas reserves. As such, we now import about 58 percent of the more than 20 million barrels of oil we use every day, with more than one fifth of those net petroleum imports coming from Persian Gulf states, according to the Energy Information Administration. In the years ahead, imported oil is on track to grow to 68 percent of our total supply by 2025, with U.S. crude production at the lowest level in 50 years.

The sharp jump in the cost of oil and the ever rising volume of imports contributed to more than a third of the increase in our trade deficit last year. We spent more than $179 billion last year on imported oil, and that accounted for more than a quarter of the overall trade deficit. Foreign oil, in point of fact, last year created a larger deficit by itself than any of our overall total trade deficits before 1998.

"TROOPS AND DOLLARS." Our dependence on foreign oil is more than a daunting economic problem. Many of the dollars we spend on imported oil are going to nations that support the radical Isamist terrorists against whom we're ingaged in a global war. The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security estimates that 22 percent of the world's oil is controlled by states that sponsor terrorism and are under U.S./United Nations sanctions. "We are, in fact, fighting a war on terrorism and paying for both sides of the war," says Gal Luft, executive director of the institute. "On the one hand, we are sending our troops and dollars to fight for freedom and democracy all over the world, and on the other hand, we are sending money to the people who don't like us."

..........(Check up on how Halliburton has skirted these sanctions, talked about in this article, for years in Libyia and in Iraq.)..........

To reduce our dependence on foreign oil, the institute helped organize Set America Free, a coalition of nonprofit organizations and individuals spanning the entire political spectrum that is introducing ways to solve this imminent crisis. Set America Free's blueprint is based entirely on increasing the use of existing technologies like hybrid cars, flexible fuel vehicles, and cheap alcohol-based fuels that require no additional research and development. The number of hybrid cars has actually grown 10 fold since the turn of the century, but the 100,000 hybrids sold last year still represent only about one half of 1 percent of the 17 million new cars sold in 2004.

Whether we pursue the president's plan or any number of others that will originate in congress this year, we must work immediately to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The president's timing for a rational energy plan is good. We can't afford to waste another quarter century in coming to terms withour dependence on imported oil."

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/050321/21dobbs.htm

Saundra Hummer

March 15th, 2005, 04:22 PM

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""'QUOTES"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

"The essence of immorality is the tendency to make an exceptin of myself." Jane Addams

=

"The accumulaton of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny." James Madison. Federalist 47.

=

Read this newsletter online http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

Subscribe and get it delivered everyday.

Saundra Hummer

March 15th, 2005, 04:30 PM

...............A MASTER MORALITY.......................

Bush, Inc, is an enterprise operating of, by and for the privileged stockholders, as such it is an embodiementof what Friedrich Nietzsche called a "master morality".

Ernest Partridge:

The greatest threat to the Bush regime is a widespread appreciation amongst our fellow citizens that there is a superior alternative to the "Master Morality" of Bush, Inc. It is "Social Democratic Morality," expressed in a political system best described by Abraham Lincoln as a "government of the people, by the people and for the people." It is a government constrained by the rule of law to which all citizens, including the President and his Administration, must submit.

=

For the full story, click on the following address:

http://tinyurl.com/5zrsd

=
(Who is he kidding? "Including the president and his Administration." ??? I don't see it happening. Oh that it would!)

Saundra Hummer

March 15th, 2005, 04:57 PM

SHRINKING HIMALAYAN GLACIERS COULD CAUSE WIDESPREAD FLOODING.

China, India and Nepal will suffere nt then there will be water shortages across the region.

This is what I had talked about in an earlier post, thankfully Information Clearing House.info has picked up on it and it is in their newsletter.

Here are the linkls to the stories about this impending disaster.

Photo's show climate chnge:'

Mount Kilmanjaro Pnoto Wake-Up Call : A photo of Mount Kilimanjaro stripped of its snowcap for the first time in 11,000 years will be used as dramatic testimony for action against global warmng as ministers from the world's biggest polluters meet on Tuesday.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0314-10.htm.

==

Expert warns water crisis impending :

A leading environmental group has warned that he shrinking of Himalayan glaciers could cause widespread flooding in China, India and Nepal, and create water shortages across the region.

http//news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-03/15/content_2699704.htm

=

Like I said earlier in another post, it is being said water will become more important in the scheme of things and more costly than oil.

There is another problem and that is they say that it is the effects of 50 (and earlier), years ago that we are feeling, it takes that long to know the damage, so is it the bombs and factory output from the great World Wars, Korea and other pollutants which are causing todays global warming, and if so, what will the effects of todays pollution have on it? Is it all cumulative ? Is it recognizable right away? Look at the A-Bomb tests we conducted, I remember them lighting up the night sky from our vantage point up on the hills overlooking the ocean and Los Angeles, Palos Verdes, all the way from Nevada. Look at the pollution in Romania, this is just one small country who polluted, we were all in on it and most of us still are, look at our new and proposed lax laws regarding coal. Clean coal?

What is going to happen down the road 50 years for now because of our excesses today? We didn't know any of this back during earlier times, we didn't realize the dangers of pollution. Now we do and it is time to act on this knowledge. We know how to counteract the problems that we faced in the past, and we can learn more, and it is time to implement this knowledge. Are we like rats who foul their nests?

Saundra Hummer

March 16th, 2005, 10:07 AM

YOUNG CELL PHONE USERS DRIVE LIKE ELDERLY, STUDY SAYS

BRIAN HANDWERK
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS

=

This is an old report but timely nonetheless.

Lately, every near-collision we have experienced has been with people on cell phones, however not all of them have been young, but young drivers are often the ones doing the crazy things. If they're not driving 75 miles an hour on snow and ice in their four-wheel drive trucks they are cell phoning and off somewhere in that world all cell phone users seem to rush to, The look on their faces are unmistakable, they aren't here with us any more they are off in cell phone la-la land.

=
=

"Young drivers who use cell phones at the wheel drive like the elderly--with slower reaction times and an increased risk of accidents--a new study shows. And what's more, hands-free phones are no safer then handheld ones, scientists behind the study say."

"If you put a 20-year old driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, their reaction times are the same as a 70-year old driver who is not using a cell phone," said David Strayer, a University of Utah psychology professor and principal author of the study.

"For five years or so we've been interested in what happens when someone picks up a cell phone and starts to drive," Strayer said.

One thing that appears to happen is that phone-using drivers of all ages have significantly diminished reaction times. They are slower to hit the brakes and more likely to get into accidents.

Subjects took "freeway drives" in a simulator, using a hands-free mobile phone for half of the drive.

"We're seeing an 18 to 20 percent slowing {of reaction times}," Strayer explained. "That means if someone is talking on a phone, it takes them longer to hit the brakes. They are more likely to get into an accident, and if they do get into one, it might be more severe, because they won't be able to decelerate as much. What you've effectively done is made the reactions of a 20-year-old comparable to those of a 70-year old."

The deteriorating responses can have serous repercussions--results of this and previous simulator based studies show that the number of rear end collisions double for phone-using drivers.

Perhaps to compensate for slower reaction times, cell phone users also increased the distance between their cars and cars ahead of them by some 12 percent.

Elderly drivers saw similar declines in reaction times when they took the wheel with phones. In a bit of a surprise, however, their reactions did not deteriorate at a greater rate than those of their younger counterparts.

+++++++++++++++++++++=

There is much more to this article and to see it, click on the address:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/02/0202_050202_phone.html

Saundra Hummer

March 16th, 2005, 01:30 PM

:clap: ST. PATRICK'S DAY FAST FACTS: BEYOND THE BLARNEY

BY SEAN MARKEY FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS.

Millions of revelers will celebrate St. Patrick's Day on Thrusday. A portion of them will undoubtedly find their way to an Irish pub, where they'll raise a pint of stout -- not a glass of green beer, God willing and wish their companions "Slante'," the Irish word, pornounced SLAN-cha, for "health."

The toast may hold scientific truth. At a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida two years ago, researchers reported that Guinness may be as effective as daily aspirin in reducing the blood clots that cause heart attacks. (The benefit derives from antioxidants, which the researchers said reduce cholesterol deposits on arterial walls. The compounds are found in dark Irish Stouts, but not their paler cousins.) :clap: :cheers :clap:

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In the spirit of the holiday, National Geographic News rustled up other facts related to St. Patrick's Day festivities. Take heart __ we skipped the blarney.

***St Patrick's Day marks the Roman Catholic feast day for Ireland's patron saint, who died in the 5th century. St Patrick (Patricius in Latin) was not born in Ireland, but in Britain.

***Irish brigands kidnapped St. Patrick at 16 and brought him to Ireland. He was sold as a slave in the county of Antrim and served in bondage for six years untill he escaped to Gaul, in present-day France. He later returned to his parents home in Britain, where he had a vision that he would preach to the Irish. After 14 years of study, Patrick returned to Ireland, where he built churches and spread the Christian faith for some 30 years.

***Many myths surround St. Patrick. One of the best known -- and most inaccurate -- is that Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland into the Irish Sea, where the serpents drowned. (Some still say that is why the sea is so rough.)

But snakes have never been native to the Emerald Isle. The serpents were likely a metaphor for druidic religions, which steadily disappeared from Ireland in the centuries after St. Patrick planted the seeds of Christianity on the island.

88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888 8888888888888

There' more to this article and links as well, such as "Ireland's Past is True Gold, and St. Patrick's Day: Fact vs. Fiction.

*********

Click on this address to see the complete story and link:

http://rl.channel.aol.com/natgeo?id=20050315102009990001

Saundra Hummer

March 16th, 2005, 02:28 PM

...........................................ANNIVER SARIES

MARCH 16

********1521 --- Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines

********1815 --- William I proclaimed himself King of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the first constitutional monarch in the Netherlands.

********1900 --- The ruins of Knossos, a major centre of the MINOAN CIVILIZATION and the largest BRONZE AGE arehaelogical site on CRETE, were purchased by Sir Arthur Evans for excavations.

********1968 --- Vietnam War: Americans soldiers killed 347 civilians in My Lai, Vietnam.

********1978 --- Former Prime Minister of Italy Aldo Moro was kidnapped in Rome by the Red Brigades.

Recent days:**********March 15 --- March 14 --- March 13

********Archive --- More historical anniversaries...

Main Page: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Go to their site for links on the dates mentioned, just click on the address. This a somewhat unusual site as you can make entries and contribute to the site if you wish. :light:

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

Saundra Hummer

March 16th, 2005, 02:48 PM

We had been talking about the arts and Minoan art on another post, and while looking for another subject, I ran across the Wikipedia site on an older post of mine and decided that Wikipedia needed to be brought to the front again, as it's an unusual and fun site, and no telling what one might find here as even you or me can furnish a bit of information here. Editing is even an option.

Well, here's a bit about Minoan art and a link to get to it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization#Art

PERIODS OF MINOAN HISTORY:

...* 7000 BC first settlement (link)

...* 3100 BC-2100 BC Early Minoan period (link)

...* 2100 BC-2100 BC Middle Minoan period = Old Palace Age (link)

...* 1700 BC-1420 BC Late Minoan period = Young Palace Age (link)

...* 1420 BC-1050 BC Mycenaean period.

Chronological history

...* Theories of failure

...* Agriculture

...* Palaces

...* Art

...* Culture

...* Language and writing

...* Religion

...* Technology

...*Trade

Archeological sites: Links to all of the sites.

SEE ALSO:
...* Linear A
...* Phaistos Disc

EXTERNAL LINKS

...*Sources. Categories Crete / Minoan civilization links.

...........***If you see mistakes you are allowed to edit or add to the post.***

Saundra Hummer

March 16th, 2005, 07:14 PM

QUOTES

"If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.". Howard Zinn, historian, and author

=

The point of public relations slogans like "Support our troops: is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. It's crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something. Do you support our policy? Thats the one you're not allowed to talk about." Noam chomsy.

( have a bit of a disagreement with this quote and it is this. After Vietnam and during Vietnam for some reason the troops who came home from over there were treated pretty shabily in some instances, and it caused such problems that we here in this country wanted to make sure this never happened again, so we "support our troops." I support our troops and the slogan, however, it is no surprise that political forces would use this slogan to build up support for their policies however wrong they might be. Are we surprised? Not at all, as there have always been opportunists at every corner, so why would we be surprised? Do we all not know what they are up to? No, we know what it is they are doing, but too many just don't care. Any means to accomplish their objective --- Middle East domination and control with massive bases in Iraq. We will have the best strategic location imaginable. Ahhh, Dreams of Empire! Not since Napolean have they been so grandiose. Waterloo? Hell...It doesn't snow in the desert! SRH.)

==

[torture] "presupposes, it requires, it craves the abrogation of our capacity to imagine others' suffering, dehumanizing them so much that their pain is not our pain. It demands this of the torturer, placing the victim outside and beyond any form of compassion or empathy, but also demands of everyone else the same distancing , the same numbness..." from his new book "Torture. A Collection", Ariel Dorfman

==

http://informationclearinghouse.info/

==

Suport this site and become a subscriber, it is non profit and full of links to all sorts of stories, and news sites. Humor as well :laugh:

Saundra Hummer

March 16th, 2005, 10:53 PM

Need something for the kids to do on a rainy day, or just when you think they've played enough video games and you would like to stimulate their minds and creativity, try this site, it's fun, and, maybe we adults might enjoy a bit of it ourselves.

There are World Flags. and other printouts, Crafts, books to print, How to make a Dinosaur Cake, Geography, Jokes, Black History, Butterflies,Inventions and Inventors, Physical Sciences, Anatomy, Animal Printouts, and the lists just go on and on. Wish this had all been available when I was little or when our daughter was. What great learning tools. Don't forget the St. Patricks day crafts and projects, and then Easter is coming up, there are lots of good ideas for it as well.

Here's te address:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html

This is just fantastic for several age groups, so much to do and so much they can learn while having fun.

Saundra Hummer

March 17th, 2005, 12:39 PM

........SECRET PLANS FOR IRAQ'S OIL...BY GREG PALAST

REPORTING FOR BBC NEWSNIGHT'
17 MARCH 2005

The Bush adminstration made plans for war and for Iraq oil before the 9/11 attacks sparking a policy battle between neo-cons and Big Oil, BBC's Newsnight has revealed.

Two years ago today ~ when President George Bush anounced US, British and Allied forces would begin to bomb Baghdad ~ protesters claimed tha US had a secret plan for Iraq's oil once Saddam had been conquered.

In fact there were two conflicting plans, setting off a hidden policy war between neo-conservatives at the Pentagon, on one side, versus a combination of "Big Oil" executives and US State Department "pragmatists."

"Big Oil" appears to have won. The latest plan, obtained by Newsnight from the US State Department was, we learn, drafted with the help of American oil industry consultants.

Insiders told Newsnight that planning began "within weeks" of Bush's first taking office in 2001, long before the September 11th. attack on the US.

An Iraqi-born oil industry consultant Falah Aljibury says he took part in the secret meetings in California, Washington and the Middle East. He described a State Department plan for a forced coup d'etat.

Mr. Aljibury himself told Newsnight that he interviewed potential successors to Saddam Hussein on behalf of the Bush adminsitration.

Secret sell-off plan.

The industry-favored plan was pushed aside by yet another secret plan, drafted just before the invasion in 2003, which called for the sell-off of all of Iraq's oil fields. The new plan, crafted by neo-conservatives intent on using Iraq's oil to destroy the Opec cartel through massive increases in production above Opec quotas.

The sell-off was given the green light in a secret meeting in London headed by Ahmed Chalabi shortly after the US entered Bagfhdad according to Robert Ebel. Mr Ebel, a former Energy and CIA oil analyst, now a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, flew to the London meeting, he told Newsnight, at the request of the State Department.

Mr. Aljibury, once Ronald Reagan's "back-channel" to Saddam, claims that plans to sell of Iraq's oil, pushed by the US-installed Governing Council in 2003, helped instigate the insurgency and attacks on US and British occupying forces.

"Insurgents used this, saying 'Look, your're losing your country, you're losing your resources to a bunch of wealthy billionaires who want to take you over and make your life miserable,' said Mr Aljibury from his home near San Francisco.

"We saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, built on the premise that privatization is coming."

Privatization blocked by industry.

Philip Carroll, the former CEO of Shel Oil USA who took control of Iraq's oil productin for the US government a month after the invasion, stalled the sell-off scheme.

Mr Carroll told us he made it clear to Paul Bremer, the US occupation chief who arrived in Iraq in May 2003, that: "There was to be no privatizatio of Iraqi oil resources or facilities while I was involved."

The chosen successor to Mr. Carroll a Conoco Oil executive, ordered up a new plan for a state oil company preferred by the industry.

Ari Cohen, of the neo-conservative Heritage Foundation told Newsnight that an opportunity had been missed to privatize Iraq's oil fields. He advocated the plan as a means to help the US defeat Opec, and said America should have gone ahead with what he called a "no-brainer" decision.

Mr. Carroll hit back, telling Newsnight, "I would agree with that statment. To privatize woud be a no-brainer. It would only be thought about by someone with no brain."

New plans, obtained from the State Department by Newsnight and Harper's Magazine under the US Freedom of Information Act, called for creation of a state-owned oil company favored by the US oil industry. It was completed in January 2004, Harpers discovered, under the guidance of Amy Jaffe of the James Baker Institute in Texas. Former US Secretary of State Baker is now an attorney. His law firm Baker Botts is representing ExxonMobil and the Saudi Arabian government.

View segments of Iraq oil plans at:
www.GregPalast.com/opeconthemarch.html

Questioned by Newsnight, Ms Jaffe said the oil industry prefers state control of Iraq's oil over a sell-off because it fears a repeat of Russia's energy privatization. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, US oil companies were barred from bidding for the reserves.

Jaffe said "There is no question that an American oil company __could not be enthuasiastic about a plan that would privatize all the assets with Iraq companies and they (US companies) might be left out of the transaction."

In addition, Ms Jaffe says US oil companies are not warm to any plan that would undermine Opec, "They [oil companies] have to worry about the price of oil."

"I'm not sure that if I'm the chair of an American company, and you put me on a lie detector test, I would say high oil prices are bad for me or my company."

The former Shell oil boss agrees. In Houston, he told Newsnight, "Many neo -conservatives are peole who have certain ideological beliefs about markets, about democracy, about this that and the other. International oil companies without exception are very pragmatic commercial organizations. They don't have a theology."

========

Greg Palast's film - the result of a joint investigation by BBC Newsnight and Harper's Magazine - will broadcast on Thrusday, 17, March, 2005.

You can watch the program online - available Thursday, March 17 after 7pm EST for 24 hours - from the Newsnight website:'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm

You can also read the story in greater detail in the latest issue of Harper's magazine

========

This has been talked about on this site (AAJ) for some time now, it has been known of with "The Plan". We have talked about and posted information on this several times here on AAJ. It seems changes were made from the original plans but none of them seem to be very good for Iraq.

I believe from now on we will buy Shell Gas. (Well maybe not, as he is no longer the CEO, and why is that?) . A display of moral fortitude (by Mr. Carroll) in the oil buisness? Great, an honest and above board executive for a change, and how refreshing is this after Exon, Enron, and other scandals which have rocked the energy suppliers for years now? Give that man a medal! In this cutthroat business he stood up for what is right instead of the almighty dollar. WOW!!!.

Philip Carroll, I will try to remember his name, I know I'll remember his honesty, his decency, his backbone. Don't you think this takes courage?

Saundra Hummer

March 17th, 2005, 09:06 PM

FAMILIES' LIVES MEASURE PACE OF PROGRESS IN IRAQ:

Untill recently, it was a bad sign in the al Taie household when the generator went silent. It generally meant thieves had stolen the family's power source. Lately, the silence signal something else. Electricity is flowing agan to their middle-class neighborhood in Baghdad, so the generator has switched off automatically. Two years after the U.S.-led invasion that brought down Saddam Hussein's regime, progress for typical Iraqi families is measured in small increments.

To see and learn of the progress and the remaining problems go to Yahoo.com/news and see their USA today story, or check it out in USA Today.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=676

Saundra Hummer

March 17th, 2005, 09:25 PM

VOTE SETS STAGE FOR DRILLING IN REFUGE

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

The senate gave a green light Wednesday to drilling for oil and gas in Alaska's Artic National Wildlife Refuge, handing President Bush a big victory and dealing a blow to environmentalists.

the 51-49 vote sets the stage for energy exploration in 1.5 million acres of the 19.6 million acre refuge. It also showed the increased power of the Republican majority. Two years ago, the Senate rejected drilling 52-48, but Republicans gained four seats in last years elections, and those votes proved decisive.

Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Harry Reid and Maria Cantwell of Washington, vow a parliamentary fight to keep oil rigs out of the refuge. But Wednesday's vote represents a breakthrough for the oil industry which has been trying since 1987 to gain access to the refuge's coastal plain, in the northeastern corner of Alaska. It is the first time that the Senate the House, and the president agree on the proposal.

The Senate vote came on a day that oil prices hit a record $56.46 per barrel.

Bush who has made increased domestic oil and gas exploration a centerpiece of his energy policy, hailed the Senate action, saying it will "make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy." The United states imports 11 million barrels of oil a day, or 58% of its needs.

(Enron has still not cleaned up the mess from the Alaskan spill, and the environment in that beautiful state, on that beautiful coast, is still suffering. How about that? srh)

How big a difference drilling in ANWR could make is a matter of heated debate. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (news, bio, voting record link), D-Calif, said the nation could reduce its dependence on foreign oil just as much by raising fuel economy standards for sport-utility vechicles.

To see the story go to USA today on this site:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=676

Rich says this is why the hike in prices, it is to get this vote, and to have the approval of the American public. We won't be so concerned about the wilderness being protected if we have to pay over two dollars and more for gas, with us worrying it will go to $4 dollars, and no telling how much more.

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 11:17 AM

...............BILL BERKOWITZ: WorkingForChange........3.18.05

SUPER-SIZED FOOD INDUSTRY TARGETS FAMILIES

FAST FOOD, FAMILY VALUES, THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

He, Bill Berkowitz starts our saying "I know I'm late to the party, but last weeked I finally saw Morgan Spurlock's Academy Award-nominated film Supersize Me."

This article goes into all sorts of conclusions he, Berkowitz has about this movie and then some. Such as:

THE CONCEIT
THE EXPECTATION
THE RESULT
THE KIDS
THE GRIM REAPER
..........Click on the address below to read these sections.

He then goes to sources saying, "Several sources say that around two thirds of U.S. adults and around 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight. A stucy for the University of California showed that one-third of California's African-American and Latino children are overweight. Less than 10 percent of us come close to following the five federal Food Guide Pyramid recomendations for the intake of grains, fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meats."

"Around 50 percent of all Americans get no significant exercise. Meanwhile teachers and administrators routinely skip PE class in favor of academic requirements."

"Seventy-seven percent of California students tested in 2001 flunked the state's physicAl fitness test, while a California Department of Education study in 2002 found that students' academic achievement is closely related to their levels of health-related physical fitness."

"Each year, U.S. kids watch an average 10,000 commercials for fast food, sugared cereal, candy, soft drinks and unhealthy snacks, Supersize Me points out that if parents ate each meal with thier children and counseled them each time on the improtance of healthy food that would add up to only about 1,000 times per year."

"Excess weight is the second leading cause of preventable death in America and it's fast becoming No. 1. Still there are very few marketing restrictions on companies selling junk food to our kids."

ARGUMENTS FOR FAST FOOD (I'm skipping this paragraph, to see it go to site.)
ARGUMENTS AGAINST FAST FOOD (same)
THE DISCLOSURE: (same)
THE NAYSAYERS: (same)
THE COUNTER POINT: (same)
THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION: (same)
THE CHRISIAN RIGHT: (same)
CHANGES AT McDONALDS: (same)

tHE CHALLANGE: The fast food industry and its posse -- the lobbyists, advertising agencies and well-positioned public relations firms -- has been conducting its own "shock and awe" campaign aimed at kids. The campaign features wall-to-wall advertising on children's television programming. Can these trends be reversed?

HELPING PARENTS HELP KIDS: Commercial Alert (link to it's site) thinks so, the non-profit group is working to "keep the commercial culture within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and democracy."

You can sign on the Commercial Alert's Parents Bill of Rights, (link provided on the site this article is from) a campaign aimed at getting the U.S. Congress and our fifty state legislatures to "right the balance between parents and corporations and restore to parents some measure of control over commercial influences on their childern." Included in the Bill of Rights' aims: a federal ban on "televison advertising aimed at children under 12"; "restore to parents the ability to safeguard the privacy of their own children"; pass a federal law forcing corporations to disclose"who created" the advertisements aimed at their children and where the "market research" for the ads came from; pass federal and state laws prohibiting corporations "from using the schools and compulsory school laws to bypass parents and pitch their products to impressionable schoolchildren", and legislation providing a Fairness Doctrine for Parents allowing them equal broadcast time to rebut advertisements aimed at children 12 and younger.

===========

To see this article in it's complete form go to this address by just clicking on it:

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18750

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 11:50 AM

.......EASTER EGGS.........

Did you know that you can dye eggs for Easter once they have been hardboiled and peeled? This can make for a very pretty Easter offering at the dinner table or for the buffet.

To get truly pretty colors, go to a bakery supply or craft store and get food coloring there from their section for cake decorating. You can mix up some truly unusual colors. You can dye the eggs after peeling, and then after drying you can cut them open, you can dye them after being cut and the yolk removed as well, you may devil the yolks if you would like. Put on a bed of pretty lettuces and serve. You can even paint on them with a brush or use Saran wrap which has been wadded up, or cheese cloth to vary the texture of the egg. I haven't tried this method, but you might be able to float some oil on the dye and marbelize the peeled eggs, it might be fun to try.

Here's another method, which I saw in: MercuryNews.com

This is for blown out eggs: Squeeze a small amount of paint into a saucer. Use a foam brush to coat an entire egg with this base color.

Squeeze a dollop of a contrasting or deeper shade of pint into a suacer. Dip a wad of cheesecloth into the second color and pat it on the egg to produce a mottled look.

You can add a third color for a deeper texture, rotating the egg within the cheesecloth. This will produce a more even less mottled look. You can also use a fine brush to paint contrasting dots on the egg.

When the egg is thoroughly dry, coat it with varnish. The easiest method is to put one teaspoon in a plastic sandwich bag, place the egg inside the bag and gently rotate it for a few seconds to get even coverage.

They say these eggs are pretty enough to use in a centerpiece, and these are traditional faux finishing techniques. They also say, the charm of these eggs is in their subtle colors and marbelized appearance. The secret being the blending of two and sometimes three colors while the paint is still wet.

Of course you can get as involved as you would like with eggs, even doing the Russian style which is so involved and intricate, but this is a simple and easy to do, anyone can do, technique.

The article also says to check out Sunset Magazine for more crafts.

I saw an egg wreath on the web yesterday. You would have to eat a lot of scrambled eggs to be able to make it, but it was pretty nice looking. Not trashey clutter crafty looking, but really pretty nice.

The Enchanted Learning site I posted yesterday has lots of things for Easter for Kids, or for those who are kids at heart I would imagine.

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 12:05 PM

.................QUOTE OF THE DAY...................

..............."There is no United Nations. ... When the United States leads the United Nations will follow. When it suits our interst to do so, we will do so. When it does not suit our intersts, we will not."

.................John Bolton, Bush nominee for ambassador to the United Nations.

.................From: http://www.workingforchange.com/index.cfm?

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

................THIS DAY IN RADICAL HISTORY................
................by Gary Parrish
................
.................3/18/1922: Gandhi jailed for six years after 'Great Trial" for
.................writing seditious nonviolent articles, Ahmedabad, India.

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 12:37 PM

I remember the joke the UN was during the cold war and how the Soviets and their satellites dominated it, and the votes for things which we considered important were overridden by them to the point of being ridiculous. It seemed they used it for all we considered evil. It was a mess, however, it does seem to have improved, again there is still much more that needs to be done. It is at least a place for interaction and idea sharing, not that much comes from it, but at times it is useful and helpful, but only slightly it seems.

It is at least a place where sometimes good can be accomplished even if only once in a while, but it seems to be a place where lots of money is spent with very few results.

I don't think we should close any doors, as we in this world need every door open to try to improve mans lot, and the environments of the world. We are a tiny planet after all and we need to realize it and protect our own, and the environment we inhabit.

Perhaps good will come out of this institution in larger increments than in the past. One can only hope.

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 01:31 PM

...................................MR BUSH'S STEALTHY TAX INCREASE............................

EDITORIAL FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES.
MARCH 13, 2005

PRESIDENT BUSH IS PRESIDING OVER A BIG MIDDLE-CLASS TAX HIKE..........

As recently as 2000, only about one million taxpayers owed the alternative minimum tax, created by a provision in the federal tax code that is supposed to prevent multimillionaires from using loopholes to avoid paying their fair share. But by the time Americans file thier 2005 taxes, some 3 million taxpayers will owe the alternative tax and by 2001, nearly 30 million taxpayers will be hit - among them, a staggering 94 percent of married filers who have children and make $75,000 to $100,000.

Big families in high-tax states - New York, New Jersey, California and Massachusetts - will bear the heaviest burden, largely because the alternative tax increasingly disallows write-offs for dependents, state income taxes and local property taxes. On average, by 2010, people who make under $100,000 and owe the alternative tax will pay an additional $1,321 in federal income taxes, while alternative tax payers who make between $100,000 and $200,000 will owe an additional $2,592.

Meanwhile, and most outrageous, only 35 percent of taxpayers who earn $1 million or more will owe the alternative tax.

*

Why does the alternative tax increasingly afflict middle-rung taxpayers for whom it was never intended, whiile largely ignoring the highest-end taxpayers it is meant for?

First the alternative tax is not adjusted for inflation, so over time, more and more middle-income taxpayers find themselves owing it.

Second, and crucially important it is the interplay of the alternative tax and Mr. Bush's first-term tax cuts. When the tax cuts were enacted, no long-term corresponding changes were made to the alternative tax system - even though the administration was well aware that was a recipe for disaster. Not only will many families that thought they were in for lower income taxes wind oup feeling shortchanged, some will find that the Bush tax cuts have done nothing at all to cut their taxes.

Here's why: 'The alternative tax applies to people whose income tax bills are low relative to their income. So as tax cuts reduce the liability on a filer's From 1040, the alternative tax kicks in. In effect, it claws back all or part of the supposed savings from the Bush tax cuts. By 2010 the Bush tax cuts alone will cause an additional 17 million taxpayers to owe the alternative tax. By 2014, assuming the Bush tax cuts are permanent, 40 million taxpayers will owe the alternative tax, nearly half of whom would never have faced it but for the tax cuts.

Meanwhile, the people who should be paying the alternative tax do not. Mr. Bush's administration, more than any other, has bestowed tax breaks on wealthy investors in the form of superflow rates on capital gains and dividends. But the alternative tax system - which regards deductions for property taxes or state income taxes as a kind of tax shelter - does not recognize this preferential treatment of investment income. That is a huge loophole. The alternative tax, whose very purpose is to prevent excessive sheltering, ignores the biggest tax breaks of all: special, low rates on capital gains and dividends that allow investors to avoid paying tens of billions of dollars in taxes every year.

Ever since the first round of Bush tax cuts were enacted, Congress has passed temporary relief measures to keep most middle-income taspayers from owing the alternative tax, but the problem is becoming too big, too fast for stopgaps to keep working. Mr bush, for his part says that he wants to shield the middle class from the alternative tax and that his tax reform commission will recommend a solution when it makes its report to him in July.

But Mr. Bush needs the alternative tax - he relies on it's projected revenue to mask the debilitating cost of making his tax cuts permanent. Congressional estimates say the extending them permanently will cost $281 billion in 2014. But that estimate assumes that nothing will be done to prevent the alternative tax form further burdening the middle class. If the middle class is fully protected, the cost of extending the tax cuts will mushroom to $356 billion - 27 percent hight than the official estimate. The federal budget deficit would explode.

The obvious answer is to restore the alternative tax to its true antisheltering
purpose, by making inflation adjustemnts that will exempt the middle class once and for all and by fully taxing capital gains and dividends under the alternative system. But Congress and the administration are currently heading in precisely the wrong direction. The Bush tax breaks for investment income are shceduled to expire in 2008, but both the president and Congressional leaders are calling for extending them, at least through 2010, while proposing no corresponding long-term changes in alternative tax.

Bush administration officials and their antitax allies seem to believe that if taxpayers become angry enough at having to pay the alternative tax, they will throw their support behind any tax reform plan the administration puts forth. That is fomenting a crisis in order to appear to solve it. Is it too much to ask not to put the country through that kind of cynical exercise yet again?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/opinions/13sun1.html?incamp=article_popular_3.

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 02:41 PM

[

Bravo!!!!! Long overdue and about time someone said it outright. It's called leadership. Much needed in these times, and completely and utterly lacking in the UN.

I pulled this quote from the site: workingforchange.com

I furthered up on the story and here is the Molly Ivins OP Ed which accompanies it:

Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
03.10.05

.....................MOVE UP THE DATE FOR ARMAGEDDON
....BOLTON UN APPOINTMENT IS SLAP IN THE FACE TO GLOBAL DIPLOMATIC COMMUNITY.

By Molly Ivins....

AUSTIN, Texas -- I must confess, I have sadly underestimated the Bush administration's sense of humor. Appointing John Bolton ambassador to the United Nations: boffo! What a laff riot! Hilarious comedy, a delicious romp, great setup for a sit-com!

Bolton in known for being arrogant, humorless, self-righteous and confrontational, and he hates the United Nations. In other words, the perfect diplomat.

Speaking of setups, would the joke be half as good if President Bush hadn't just returned from a tour of Europe during which he assured our allies he was anxious to improve international cooperation? There, he was promising Europeans old and new, that we'd turned a new page, we want nothing more than consultation, cooperaton, being buddy-buddy. And then he names Bolton ambassador (oh, ha ha) to the United Nations, (ha, ha, ha,). Bolton keeps a bronzed grenade in his office to show how proud his is of being called a bomb-thrower.

Bolton himself has said, "I don't do carrots." Meaning he's strictly a stick guy. Intimidation, bullying, threats. The hawk's hawk, the neo-con's darling. This is a single-digit salute to the United Nations.

Bolton's contempt for the United Nations is notorius and could not be clearer. Bolton said: "There is no United Nations. When the United States leads, the United Nations will follow. When it suits our interests to do so, we will do so. When it does not suit our intersts, we will not." Let's hear it for the international consultation and consideration for everyone.

Conservative economist Jude Wanniski writes, "Does President Bush realize he is practically spitting in the faces of the global diplomatic community with his Bolton pick?" Poor Wanniski, just another guy who doesn't get the Bush sense of humor. When W's inner frat boy comes out, we get nothng but yuks. Why do you think Bolton was named Undersecretary of State for arms control in the first place? Because he supports arms control? Don't be silly. He opposed the Anti-Balistic Missle Treaty, and his version of trying to stop nuclear proliferation is trully arresting.

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

Read more of this account by Molly Ivins and his radical prescripton for dealing with proliferation threat, how he maddened both North Korea and Iran, and his claims that Fidel Castro was starting a germ weapons program, a claim denied by the rest of the administration. His veracity is forever suspect, and his association with Jesse Helms, well all Molly says is "Bush sure can pick 'em.

check out her article and her humorous take on the men who would take us on these dangerous rides.

http://www.workingforchange.com

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 02:49 PM

........LOTS OF STORIES AT THIS ADDRESS AND LINKS TO CARTOONS ETC.....

JUST CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS, I SHOULD HAVE INCLUDED IT EARLIER!

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=14750

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 05:43 PM

..............JOHNSON BEHARRY...........

Private Johanson Gideon Beharry VC, of 1st Battalion, Princess of Wales Royal Regiment (Born 26 July, 1979 in Grenada), is a British soldier. In March 2005, he was awarded teh Victoria Cross for twice saving members of his unit from ambushes on 1 May and 11 June 2004 at Al-Amarah, Iraq. As of March 2005, he is still recovering from wounds received in the actions that led to the award.

Behary is the first recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration for valour in the British and Commonwealth armed forces, since the posthumous awards to Lieutenant Colonel 'H' Jones and Sergeant Ian John McKay for service in the Falklands War in 1982. He is the first living recipient of the VC since Keith Payne and Rayene Stewart Simpson, both Australian, for actions in Vietnam in 1969, and the first living recipient of the VC in the British Army since Rambahadur Limbu a Gurkha in the Indonesian Confrontation in 1965. He joins only 13 other living recipients of the VC.

Beharry was born in Grenada and has four brothers and three sisters, he moved to the UK in 1999. He is married to Lynthia Beharry, who is also from Grenada and is three years his junior.

Beharry joined the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment in August 2001. After training at Catterick, he became the driver of Warrior armoured vehicles in C Company, 1st Battalion. Prior to Iraq, he served for six months in Kosovo and three months in Northern Ireland.

To see this story in it's entirety and to access it's photo, numerous links to facts and history, go to this address by just clicking on it.

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

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 05:49 PM

................................QUOTES

..."The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." Daniel Webster - (1782-1852), US Senator

===

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts." Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 06:04 PM

Wikipedia again:

Selected Anniversaries

March 19:

Saint Josephs Day in Catholisism and Fathers day in various countries.

1279 - The Song Dynasty in Imperial China ended with a Mongolian victory in the battle of Yamen.

1687 - The search for the mouth of the Mississippi River led by French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle ended with a mutiny and his murder in Texas.

1915 - The planet Pluto was photgraphed for the first time, 15 years before it was eventually discovered by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory.

1932 - The Sydney Harbour Bridge, a major landmark in Sydney, Australia, was formally opened.

1982 - The Falklands War began with an Argentine occupaton of South Georgia

Recent days: March 18 -- March 17 -- March 16

Archive -- More historical Anniversaries, just hit the links as this site is just full of links and it does have tabs for other languages, several. I won't even attempt to enter all of the languages that are available on this site because there are so many.

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

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 07:34 PM

03/18/05
FILTER TIPS:
BY CHRIS FLOYD:

A relentless degeneration of American society is taking place. Brutality and atrocity are becoming normalized, systemized and rewarded.

http://tinyurl.com/

"Moscow Times" -- President George W. Bush often complains about the "media filter" that distorts the true picture of his administrations accomplishments in Iraq. And he's right. For regardless of where you stand on Bush's policies in the region, it's undeniable that the political and commercial biases of the American press have consistently rmisrepresented the reality of the situation.

Here's an excellent example. Earlier this month, the American media completely ignored an important announcement from an official of the Iraqi government concerning the oft-maligned U.S. operation to clear insurgents from the city of Fallujah last November. Although the press conference of Health Ministry investigator Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli was attended by representatives for the Washington Post, Knight Ridder, and more than 20 other international news outlets, nary a word of his team's thorough investigation into the truth about the battle to make it through the filters dense mesh. Once again, the American public was denied the full story of one of President Bush's remarkable triumphs.

To see more of this report go to this site by clicking on the address below:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8301.htm

If this is true, how pitiful, how very sad. Regardless of how you are killed, death is death, dead is dead, maimed is maimed, but if we are using banned weapons.......

There are many annotations to this story.

[I just don't get this apathy on the part of the press and the public. It's like it's destiny and there's not a thing anyone can do about anything that might be down the road, waiting for us around the next curve. We can only guess what might be there, but what action do we take to lessen the dangers? If we aren't informed as to what they are, how will we know what to do. Perhaps even more improtantly, if we don't listen to what they are, if we don't look at all of the possibilities and figure out what it the safest and best thing to do then what good does it do to even know? Ignorance is bliss? Seems so in this day and age, while we cheer "CONDI, CONDI, CONDI!" srh]
=============
=============

This is a strange story, copied the address down by mistake and when I looked it up -- it is about a scientist, or so he says. Leaving it - as it is different.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2114963/

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

Then check this out"

THE AGE OF MISSING INFORMATION:

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST OPENNESS:

Listen to this story on NPR's Day to Day

The government does a remarkable job of countng the number of natrional security secrets it generates each year. Since President George W. Bush entered office, the pace of William Leonard in March 2 congressional Testimony. His information Security Oversight Office oversees the classification system and recorded a rise form 9 million classificatin actions in fiscal year 2001 to 16 million in fiscal year 200r.

Yet an even more aggessive form of government information control has gone unenumerated and often unrecognized in the Bush era, as government agencies have restricted access to unclassified information in libraries, archives, Web sites, and official databases. Once freeley available, a growing number of these sources are now barred to the public as "sensitive but unclassified" or "for official use only." Less of a goal -directed policy than a bureaucratic reflex, the widespread clampdown on formerly public information reflects a largely inarticulate concern about "security" It also accords neatly with the Bush administration's preference for unchecked executive authority.

No comprehensive catalog of deleted information exists, which is part of the problem. What follows is a representative selection of categories of data that have been withdrawn from public access in the Bush years, with reflections on what they mean.

To see the rest of this story go to:

Information Clearing House.Info

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

I don't know about you, but reading this gives me a trapped, claustrophobic sensation. It's like we are becoming imprisoned, the light of day refused to us, and it is going where???? :rolleyes:

==

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 07:43 PM

Time for dinner, taco's from town so instead of a story, I'll just give you the title and you can read it onsite.

Independent Media: Enemy Target:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8304.htm

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 10:14 PM

QUOTES

Librarians, environmentalists, and others complained to the NGA--a defense agency that is part of the U.S. intelligence community--that these maps and publications are now part of their professional toolkit as well and would be sorely missed. biologists used them in the mapping of species distribution. Engineering firms used them in construction projects. While too specialized to be missed by the general public, this data contributes to the public well-being.

The list of government records removed from public access during the Bush administration goes on and on, and includes environmental data from Environmental Protection Agency reading rooms, various unclassified records on the safety of chemical and nuclear plants, and other infrastructure data. This purge reverses the "openness initiatives" of the previous administration during which government Web sites emerged by the thousands and nearly a billion pages of historically valuable records were declassified.

"The information blackout may serve the short-term interests of the present administration, which is allergic to criticism or even to probing questions. But it is a disservice to the country. Worst of all, the Bush administration's information policies are conditioning Americans to lower their expectations of governement accountability and to doubt their own ability to challange their political leaders.

Information is the oxygen of democracy. Day by day the Bush administration is cutting of the supply. ***************

Steven Aftergood is difector of the project on government wecrecy at th e Federation of American Scientists, where he writes the SECRECY NEWS news letter.

How is it that we are letting this happen without so much as a wimper from the general public? It's as though we have all been drugged, and we can't see the forest for the trees. It is as plain as the nose on our face what is happening, and it is really a harmful situation for all of us.

Saundra Hummer

March 18th, 2005, 11:27 PM

INDEPENDENT MEDIA: ENEMY TARGET

BY GHALI HASSAN

03/18/05

"ICH" SINCE THE START OF THE 2003 WAR ON IRAQ, THERE HAVE BEEN 13 INCIDENTS INVOLVING THE KILLING OF JOURNALISTS BY US SOLDIERS. ALL THE JOURNALISTS WHO HAVE BEEN KILLED WERE 'UNEMBEDDED" JOURNALISTS. NO JOURNALIST EMPLOYED BY MAINSTREAM MEDIA SUCH AS THE BBC OR CNN HAVE BEEN KILLED OR ABDUCTED IN IRAQ, INDEPENDENT MEDIA WORLDWIDE ARE FINDING IT DIFFICULT TO EXIST IN A WORLD CONTROLLED BY A FEW LARGE CORPORATONS AND GOVERNMENT'S CONTROLED PUBLIC BROADCASTERS.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

This is a disturbing story and one which we hear snippets of here and there on all of the news, but nothing in deep detail. This goes into the killing "of more than 2 million Iraqis, a third of them children under the age of 5 years old, as a result of 13 years of criminal sanctions and wars perpetuated by the US and Britain."

It has references to the shooting of the woman Italian independent award winning journalist by our troops. which she and the Italians are still saying was planned because of her reports and what she planned to report. The fact that the only reporters shelled while at the Sheraton in Basra were al-Jazeera journalists, their only guests. Four direct hits. There are other incidents they talk about. The leveling of Falluja and other towns which are being attacked or will be in for the same are being reported on by independents, and therefor they believe this is why they are being targeted, and were targeted.

To see other articles by Ghali Hassan go to this site:

http://www.ilmanifesto.it/pag/sgrena/en/

This main article is on:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

March 19th, 2005, 10:38 AM

............SOUTH KOREAN SCIENTISTS SAY KIMCHI COULD CURE BIRD FLU

SEOUL -- An extract of South Korea's famed spicey fermented cabbage dish known as kimchi could cure bird flu and other chicken diseases scientists said.

Researchers at Seol National University said chickens infected with the deadly virus began recovering a week after they were fed with fermented bacilli extracted from kimchi.

The experiment has yet to be scientifically proven but professor Kang Sa-Ouk said kimchi did appear to have a curative effect.

Kimchi, made by fermenting cabbage with radishes, red peppers, garlic and ginger is a symbol of national cuisine.

"Our research showed the chickens fed with a cultured fluid of fermented bacilli extracted from kimchi were recovering rapidly form bird flu and other diseases," Kang said.

"Only four of the 26 chickens used for our experiment died within four days," he said.

Park said his team needs more research to see whether the exptract is an effective remedy against bird flu. "We will speed up a chemical study into its constituents," he said.

Since late 2003 millions of birds and 69 humans in Asia have been infected with bird flu. A total of 33 people have died in Vietnam, 12 in Thailand and one in Cambodia.

Kimchi consumption rose sharply two years ago when some Asian countries were hit by SARS. It was reputed to prevent the respiratory disease although there was no scientific proof.

Offbeat - AFP ....from Yahoo News.

Saundra Hummer

March 19th, 2005, 11:49 AM

We used to eat Kimche all the time and one time I had the flu and ate some and immediately felt better, Rich came down with it so he had a bunch of it too and he felt better so we swore by it. We used to eat it a lot and for some reason haven't had any for ages, so glad to see this article and be reminded of it's curative powers. We really did believe it was curing our flu's, managing them at least, as we would feel so much better if we had some of it. Like we were cured. Funny, but we had forgotten all about it, and haven't had any in several years.

We haven't had the flu in over 20 years so can't complain, we live out in the country and now that our daughter is grown and we aren't around children, we seldom get colds or the flu, and we wash our hands as well as we can after handling grocery carts, etc., after anytime we are in any public place. One time we started buying baby wipes to clean our hands after being in the markets as there were so many sick little babies in the carts we all were having to use, and it was like we were catching whatever it was they had. It seemed to help and we stopped getting sick with their bugs. Haven't done that for a while, but it did help, or at least we thought it did. Mind over matter perhaps.

Glad to see the article on bird flu, as it reminded me of our experience with Kimchi. I kept telling Rich that everytime I started into a flu type feeling that if I ate it, I wouldn't get sick with it. This article reminded me of that ,and it's curative powers, and how we live on hot sauce, and chili pepoers in adobo sauce, Chipotle's they make you feel good too. We really do live on Mexican food, can't seem to get enough of it and their chili peppers, mild and hot. In fact, I have some chili heating up right now, just for California style enchilladas, the fried crisp stacked, layered kind with lettuce's, tomato's, olives, cheese, and green oniions all stacked up like a dagwood sandwich, A favorite with us. Several ways to make them, but delicious each way.

Saundra Hummer

March 20th, 2005, 03:12 PM

............................WEEKEND VIDEO

...................THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES

In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares.

The most frightening of these is the threat of an international terror network. But just as the dreams were not true, neither are these nightmares.

THIS IS A MUST WATCH DOCUMENTARY:

GO TO THIS SITE TO VIEW IT, OR TO READ THE TRANSCRIPT

JUST CLICK ON IT:

http://informationclearinghouse.info/video1037.htm

Check out this site for links to several magazine and newspaper articles, as well as radio and video from all over the world, A wealth of information is available to you on this site.

Saundra Hummer

March 20th, 2005, 03:57 PM

BLAIR WAS TOLD US 'FIXED' CASE FOR WAR

The head of Britain's foreign intelligence agency told the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, that the case for war in Iraq was being "fixed" by Washington to suit US policy, a BBC documentary will claim today.

Sydney Morning Herald

Richard Dearlove, head of M16, briefed Blair and a group of ministers on the United States' determination to launch the invasion nine months before hostilities began in March 2003, the Sunday Times reported, citing the BBC program, which is due to be aired later in the day.

After attending a briefing in Washington, he told the meeting that war was "inevitable", according to the newspaper.

"The facts and intelligence" were being "fixed round the policy" by US President George Bush's administration, Dearlove said.

The allegations against Blair just weeks before an expected general election are likely to reopen a feud between the Government and the British broadcaster.

The two fell out last year over allegations by a BBC reporter that Britain "sexed up" the case for war.

The documentary argues that Blair had signed up to follow Bush's plans for regime change in Iraq as early as April 2002, the Sunday Times said

Robin Cook, Britains's former foreign secretary who resigned as leader of the House of Commons over Iraq, claimed that the threat of weapons of mass destruction was not the prime minister's true reason for going to war.

"What was propelling the prime minister was a determintaion that he would be the closest ally to George Bush and they would prove to the United States administration that Britain was their closest ally, Cook tells the program.

"His problem is that George Bush's motivation was regime change. It was not disarmament. Tony Blair knew perfectly well what he was doing.

"His problem was that he could not be honest about that with either the British people or Larour MPs, hence the stress on disarmament."

The documentary, on BBC's Panorama, comes one day after tens of thousands of protesters marched through the center of London demanding that Blair pull British troops out of Iraq and warning against any more "Bush wars.".

Meanwhile, Tony Blair faced another challenger in Britain's upcoming elections after the father of a military policeman killed in Iraq pledged to stand against him.

Reg Keys, 52, said he would battle blair in the prime minister's constituency of Sedgefield, northern England, as part of a campaign for justice after the death of his son, Tom, in June 2003.

"This isn't a publicity stunt, it's a serious full blown political campaign to take the fight to Tony Blari's doorstep," Keys, who took part in a huge anti-war protest march in London today, told the domestic press Association.

"There will be crackposts standing as independents, but I shouldn't be confused with them. I want to make him accountable for his actions in taking us to war," said Keys.

The former paramedic from Wales said he would travel to Sedgefield on Monday.

"I have got to be confident about this. My full intention is to remove Tony Blair from his seat in Sedgelield and ZI have to believe I can do that," he said.

"It will be a David and Goliath fight, but Goliath was a Philistine and I think that word sums up my opponent."

Key's one Lance Corporal Tom, 20, was one of six military policemen killed by an Iraqi mob as they manned a small police station on June 24, 2003.

The bereaved father told AFP at the London rally earlier today that he was demonstrating against government lies.

"I stand here a betrayed man by my government wo lied to me about the need to send my son to war." he said.

Keys' challenge echoes a pledge by a former British spy to stand against Blair in his constituency. David Shayler has lambasted the Prime Minister for his "illegal invasion of Iraq."

Shayler, who first made headlines in 1997 as a whistleblower after he disclosed secret M15 documents to a British newspaper, said he would campaign for Blair's seat.

Shayler told the Guardian newspaper yesterday that he would challenge Blair's credibility and ability to lead "in the light of his lies over the war".

If Blair were an American or French President, the electorate would have a chance to remove him from power," said Shayler.

"As things stand in Britain's increasingly undemocratic society, only the people of Sedgefield have the opportunity to vote him out of power."

The ex-secret agent who was served time in prison for breaking the Official Secrets Act with his disclosure to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, said he would neither be representing the left nor the right.

A General election is widely expected to be called for May 5.

---A survey for the Sunday Times newspaper today revealed Labour had a five-point lead over the main oppostition Conservative Party. The YouGov survey put Labour comfortably in the lead on 37 percent of the vote, followed by the Conservatives with 32 per cent and the smaller Liberal Democrats on 23 per cent.

AFP

The Sydney Morning Herald

Again, go to this site to read the story and for more links to topical subjects:

http://informatinclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

March 20th, 2005, 06:15 PM

..........................................HOW SOON WE FORGET!

IT HASN'T BEEN SO TERRIBLY LONG AGO THAT THESE WORDS WERE TOLD TO US:............................................... Quotes:

"When the President starts lying he begins to need evidence to back up his lies because in this democracy he is questioned on his statements. It then percolates down through the bureaucracy that you are helping the Boss if you come up with evidence that is supportive of our public position and you are distinctly unhelpful if you commit to paper statements that might leak to the wrong people.

The effect of that is to poison the flow of information to the President himself to create a situation where a President can almost be, to use a metaphor, psychotically divorced from the realities in which he is acting..." Daniel Ellsburg to the US Sennate on Foreign Relations, May 13, 1970.

=

The process [of mass-media deception] has to be conscious, or it would not be carried outwith sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt....To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies -- All this is indispensably necessary.". George Orwell in a book. 1984.

=

Like the effect of advertising upon the customer, the methods of political porpaganda tend to increase the feeling of insignificance of the individual voter. Erich Fromm, psychianalyst and social philosopher, 1900-1980.

=

Half a truth is often a great lie. Benjamin Franklin

Saundra Hummer

March 20th, 2005, 06:24 PM

.....................U.S. MISLED ALLIES ABOUT NUCLEAR EXPORT.........

NORTH KOREAN MATERIAL LANDED IN PAKISTAN, INSTEAD OF LIBYA

BY DAFNA LINZER

In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earler this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state.

http://tinyurl.com/47/ycf

Click on the above address to access this story or see it on :

informationclearinghouse.info

Is our world going to be so distrusted because of these falsehoods, that we will be like the little boy who cried wolf? Who will believe us when a more dangerous sitiuation might arise? Who will trust us in the future? Who trusts us now? Who of us trusts this administration to level with us, their own people, this countries own citizens?

Saundra Hummer

March 20th, 2005, 06:57 PM

Growing Number of US troops refusing to return to Iraq:
They can't train you for the reality of Iraq. You can't have a mass grave with dogs eating the people in it."

http://tinyurl.com/624de

...Or:

httP://www.guardian.com.uk/Iraq?story/0,2763,1441289,00.html?gusrc=rss

==

Bush's Bureaucracy Stiffs Wounded Vets:

Not only did he completely miscalculate the number of troops required to pursue his ideologically-motivated mission--but now we learn that he rushed America into the hell of war without preparing for the medical needs of thousands of soldiers who are coming home with severe wounds.

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/21549/

Army experiments with raising maximum age for Reserve recruits:

Dubbed a three year "test, the new policy will bump up the maximum age for new enlistments from 34 years to 39 years, according to an Army announcement.

http://wwwestripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27871

==

EXPOSING THE COMING DRAFT:

Young Americans need to be clear: both parties-Republican and Democrats-are parties of war and parties of empire. Likewise, both ideilogical stances-liberal and conservative-rationalize and memorialize war and empire, each with a particular bent and emphasis.

http://www.counterpunch.org/reeves03192005.html

==

Sam Hamod: 2 years of Death and Destruction

Time for Bush and his band to send their own kids to war.

http://tinyurl.com/4chk2

==

Norman Solomon: MoveOn.org: Making Peace With the War in Iraq.

Sadly, it has come to this. Two years after the invasion of Iraq, the online powerhouse MoveOn.org - leadership has decided against opposing the American occupation of Iraq.

http://tinyurl.com/55w7m

Amazing!

=

U.Sl Policy OKs First Strike:

http://tinyurl.com/59jt9

==

Juan cole : The Democracy Lie:

President Bush and his supporters are taking credit for spreading freedom across the Middle East. Middle East expert Cole disputes the gomino thory in the region and lavels Iraq==at best--a failed state. where changes are genuinely occurring they have nothing to do with the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/the_democracy_lie.php

==

Development, Debt and Obedience to Empire:

The World Bank: a Bigger Problem Than Wolfowitz

http://www.conterpunch.com/weisbrot03192005.html

==

Militarism and the War on Drugs:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/GC18Aa01.html

++

Much more on this site and more and more links to several news sources around the world.

http://informationclearinghouse.info

There's several new articles as well as archived materials, a very informative and differnt view from most news you see on television, and I'm finding the stories appear here days ahead of mainstream news. They often times report the same story, but two or more days down the road. Nice to have a jump on them.

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 12:37 PM

.............................RESURGENT RUSSIA CHALLENGES US

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM HAS BEEN STRENGTHENED AFTER THREE YEARS OF WAR AS EVIDENCED BY THE UPSURGE IN TERRORIST STRIKES WORLDWIDE.

BY JEPHRAIM P GUNDZIK

Washington's "war on terrorism" is designed to militarily establish United States economic and geopolitical hegemony on a global scale. Rather than subduing Russia, the "war on terrorism" is encouraging Moscow to strengthen its relations with Washington's prominent foes. The war is also supercharging Russia's economy. Over the next four years, Russia will increasingly challenge the foreign policy goals of the Bush administration.

To read the complete report go to this address by just clicking on it.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 01:21 PM

.................................SACRIFICIAL RAM

CONSERVATION GROUPS THINK THEY'VE FOUND A WAY TO SAVE ENDANGERED ANIMALS--BY SELLING OFF THE RIGHT TO KILL A FEW.

By Daniel Duane
March/April 2005 Issue

WHAT DO YOU THINK your'd feel--you the lover of wilderness, the Sierra Club member, the admirer of great Western megafauna--while watching a globe-trotting millionaire gringo hunter, owner of a business with the web address www.trophywhitetailedeer.com, level a custom 300 Winchester Magnum on a rare and elusive bighorn ram, steady his breathing, and pull the trigger? Do you think you'd feel revulsion? Do you think the rifle's boom would violate the exquisite mountain silence? Do you imagine yourself lamenting that one fewer of those magnificent animals woud animate the Baja dessert?

Read the rest of this article at this address, just click on it:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/03/03_2005_Duane.html

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 01:34 PM

.................THE SIREN OF SANTIAGO

HOW A PINOCHET PROTEGE HELPED CHARM BUSH INTO PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY.

BY BARBARA T. DREYFUSS
MARCH/APRIL 2005 ISSUE

President Bush's enthusiasm for Social security privatizaton may have had its start on a yacht off the Italian island of Elba in June 1997. As the vessel cruised the Tyrrhenian Sea, Jose Pinera, once the labor minster for Chilean military dictaror Augusto Pinochet, told another passenger--a close friend of Bush's--how he had taken Chile's equivalent of Social Security private. Two months later, Pinera got an invitation to the Texas governor's mansion, where he dined with Bush and Ed Crane, founder and president of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C. Afterward, says Crane, they retired to the library for further discussion about privatization.

Crane credits Pinera's ardent comments that night with convincing Bush to advocate replacing part of Social Security wth Wall Street investments. As he recounts it, "Bush said, Jose, you make a very compelling case. I do believe that privatizing Social Security is the most important issue facing the nation." Policy analyst Peter Ferrara, who in 1981 wrote a highly influential Social Security primer for Cato while studying the Chilean system, and who has been a leading figure in the debate over the programs future, agrees: "I believe that conversation was the whole genesis of the president's commitment to personal accounts".

To see the complete article, just click on the address:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2005/03/jose_pinera.html

Interesting article, now we probably know where the idea stems from, whether we belive it is what we want, or not.

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 02:01 PM

.................................PLAYING THE DEMOCRACY CARD

BY DILIP HIRO
MARCH 17, 2005

HOW AMERICA FURTHERS IT'S NATIONAL INTERESTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

INTRODUCTION BY TOM ENGELHARDT

Have we really almost rolled around--yet again--to the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, this time amid much Bush administration and neocon self-congratulation, (link provided) as well as media congratulations( grudging or otherwise), for an Iraqi-election-inspired spread of democracy in the Middle East? And what will we be congratulating ourselves on next year, when the usefulness of "Democracy" passes, oil prices continue to rise, and the war in Iraq grinds on?

Right now, we're in "Arab Spring," "the Cedar revolution," " a mighty storm," and opinions on what's actually going on in the Middle East are varied indeed. Youssef M. Ibrahim (link provided), a thoughtful former New York Times reporter, writes from Dubai for the Washington Post:

......."listen to the conversations in the cafes on the edge of the creek that runs through this Persian Gulf city, and it is hard to believe that the George W. Bush being praised by Arab diners is the same George W. Bush who has been widely excoriated in these parts ever since he took office...Nowadays, intellectuals, businessmen and working-class people alike can be caught lauding Bush's hard-edged posture on democracy and cheering his handling of Arab rulers who are U.S. allies...It's enough for someone like me who has felt that Bush's attitude toward the Mideast has been all wrong, to wonder whether his idea of setting the Muslim house in order is right."

==

Fascinating article, it really is, and to see it in it's complete form, just click on the address below:

http//www.motherjones.com/'news/dailymojo/2005/03/democracy_card.html

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 02:44 PM

...................................MOJO BLOG HAS MOVED!

HERE IS THE NEW ADDRESS:

www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/

Link onto the site for more info on RSS feed.

The blog today is going to the issue of torture, Donald Rumsfeld, the CIA, the State Department and "destinationcutnries" link provided, There is also discussion of financing to build a new modern prison in Guantanamo.

==

Then there is this:

........................................LEGAL TRICKERY....

YESTERDAY THE NEW YORK TIMES REPORTED......

..........PROMPTED BY AN INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL'S DECISION LAST YEAR ORDERING NEW HEARINGS FOR 51 MEXICANS ON DEATH ROWS IN THE UNITED STATES, THE STATE DEPARTMENT SAID YESTERDAY THAT THE UNITED STATES HAD WITHDRAWN FROM THE PROTOCOL THAT GAVE THE TRIBUNAL JURISDICTION TO HEAR SUCH DISPUTES.

It's new--and legally questionable--manisfestation of the administrations desire to have no infringements upon it's power. It all started with a memo from President Bush to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, directing state courts to review cases of non-citizen prisoners who claim that they didn't get access to thier home-country diplomats, an act generally mandated by the International Court of Justice.

That memo seemed odd given the adminstrations general distaste for international institutions, Then the pieces started coming together. Yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sent a memo to UN Secretary general Kofi Annan declaring that the U.S. would withdraw form the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Conventon on Consular Relations Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes. A brief translation: "The protocol requires signatories to let the International Court of Justice (ICJ) make the final decision when their citizens say they have been illegally denied the right to see a home-country diplomat when jailed abroad." This legal safeguard has often been used to fight the sentences of foreigners who are facing the death penalty in the U.S.

==

I haven't had time to read and absorb all of this at this time, but it does look to be interesting; the twists turns of intertnational diplomacy and law. How confusing all of this can seem when only reading about it and not experiencing the reality. Diplomatic and legal speak being foreign to me.

I just know that in most countries, getting any kind of personal help from embassies or their emmissaries is a joke, they are there for other reasons other than helping those of us who pay their salaries.

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 04:55 PM

.................................................. .QUOTES

"In the councils of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compell the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together." President Eisenhower - January 1961

==

Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism." :
Thomas Jefferson

==

Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance. It is also owed to justice and to humanity. Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong." James Bryce

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 07:27 PM

..............A different site, written by fans of these shows on television:

Station 51

EMERGENCY
.....Fan Fiction

"This site contains fan-written fictrin based on the '70s television series "Emergency". You won't see a lot of bells and whistles here (perhaps I should say klaxons and sirens) nor pages and pages of information about the show. There are other sites on the Web that do that so much better than I.

But what you will find here are stories - tales of the crew from Station 51, and the doctors and nurses from Rampart General Hospital. And, if you give us some feedback about the stories you read here, I can almost guarantee we'll keep writing more."

==

I have never been into soaps, so I have no clue as to what this is about, but thought it looked somewhat odd and perhaps intersting. Maybe not.

The address, just click on it:

http://home.earthlink.net/~station51/index.html#home

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 07:59 PM

...................................2 TO BLAZES
....................BY PAUL BITZEL

..FROM THE: LAFIRE.COM WEB SITE.

LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT HISTORICAL ARCHIVE.

I found this an interesting story as I spent a lot of time down on the waterfront and up on the hills in San Pedro overlooking Los Angeles Harbor.

I had friends who lived in the house up on the hill over looking the harbor that was in "To Live and Die in LA." Art Pepper lived just down the hill a bit in a white two story building and it is shown in the documentry on his life, so this area from the time I was old enough to remember things, was always an interesting place for me.

I remember some of the blazes and remember the fireboat they are talking about, Some of the story is pretty dramatic and interesting.

Here's the address, just click on it:

http://www.lafire.com/fire_boats/articles_fireboats/boat2_19760800_westways_2toBlazes_Ditzel.htm

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 09:02 PM

.................................................. .BAR POETRY

http://www.spinelessbooks.com/newspoetry/1999/991106.html

Saundra Hummer

March 21st, 2005, 09:15 PM

................................WILLIAM GILLESPIE'S NEWSPOETRY

Newspoetry

newspoetry.com is a collaboratively written website documenting the years 1999--1002 and the best thing ever on the web. the newspoetry server is temporarily downuntil it is up again, the URL newpoetry.com will point to this index as a substitute.

(There is a long list of poems, and then an authors list)

William's Author Profile fromt eh Newspoery Swimsuit issue

FAVORITE POET
NOAM CHOMSKY

FAVORITE NEWS SOURCE
MY FEELINGS

MOST RECENT BOOK READ
COVER UP: HOW dea IMCOMPETENCE, CORRUPTION AND SUBTERFUGE LOST US THE BIGGEST BATTLE OF THE DRUG WAR BY MICHEL LEVINE

MOST RECENT NEWPOEM READ
"THE NINE-HAIKU BLANK VERSE HYPERSONNET BY PAUL KOTHEIMER

FAVORITE MOVIE
BOB ROBERTS

MEASUREMENTS (OF THE NEAREST DOORFRAME)
RECTANGULAR.

BIGGEST NEWSPOETRY TURN-ONS
WRITING POEMS AT WORK, ANIMATIION, ARDUOUS FORMAL CONSTRAINTS, PARANOIA, REALMEADIA, MULTISEQUENTIAL FICTION, PROFANITY AND OBSCENITY

BIGGEST NEWPOETRY TURN-OFF
GRATUITOUS REFERENCES TO COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS FOR PURPOSES OF IRONY

FAVORITE QUOTE
"ADVISE TO STRUGGLING WRITERS: STOP STRUGGLING AND WRITE"

http://www.spinelessbooks.com/newspoetry/william/index.html

Saundra Hummer

March 22nd, 2005, 01:02 PM

.................HE DIDN'T KNOW WHERE HE WAS, WELL i GUESS NOT!

GIANT CAT ALERT AFTER LONDON MAN ATTACKED BY 'BEAST OF THE SUBURBS'

TO SEE THIS STORY GO TO THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS, AN AFP OFFBEAT STORY.

This hit my fnnny bone as we have cougar sightings here where we live, in a a densly populated area as well as 30 or so miles away on a ranch a friend owned, and there are actual video's of our Puma, our Cougar, our Mountain Lion lounging in a tree up on Pilot Butte in Bend. A grade school is at it's base as are several homes, car dealerships, restaurants, grocery stores, Barnes and Noble, and a new shopping center, a heavily congested area.
just not where you would expect a wild mountain lion to be. There have been sightings for years and years now, and finally a young one has been spotted and video taped. No doubt about it now.

We saw a fully grown one one day between our place and town, town is about 8 miles from here, and since their radius is so large, we know it is more than posible for them to be around our place. Now about 12 miles away they are having bears showing up. The public golf course in Prineville is one place they have been spotted. These animals are becoming so adapted to human presence, they don't have the fear most wild animals used to have. We have had several instances lately with people being attacked by mountain lions, even killed in the southwest, so they are something we have to be aware of. My son in law thought I was crazy for telling him to be so careful of the kids when they go up to Kennedy Meadows, their property in the Sierra's, there are thousands of acres there and it is a fun place for them to hike and just enjoy the mountains and the outofdoors. There are mountain lions and all sorts of critters there, and they have seen a huge male in broad daylight, which surprised them. So since the reports of attacks they are more cautious than before, but there the main concern is rattlesnakes, they have to watch for them all the time. This is property up next to Yosemite. A really pretty place. It has been in their family since the 1800's.

Here where live, we are forever having to go out at night and handle some situation and I have asked Rich to quit irrigaiting the fields after dark, as I believe there have been times when I've heard a large cat. We had one where we lived once before in California, and everyone I told about it, well,, they thought I was just wacked, until the irrigation fellow saw it and had a heart attack while running down to his truck. They believed him, but not some girl from Hermosa Beach, they just thought I had an over active imagination and thought I was out to get attention. Anyway, I can well imagaine this Holder fellows disbelief and confusion in such a situation.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1516&ncid=1516&e=1&u=/afp/20050322/od_afp/britainanimalscatoffbeat_050322151451

Saundra Hummer

March 22nd, 2005, 04:02 PM

.................................FUNNY OLD WORLD...............................

cARTOON:

http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,187288.00.jpg

=

Like Noj says

=

from:

http//www.informationsclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

March 22nd, 2005, 04:25 PM

....................................MAY I HAVE THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE

SO WHY IS THE BUSH GANG SO INTENT ON ENCOURAGING DEMOCRACY ALL OVER THE WORLD?

BY WILLIAM BLUM

13/22/05 "ICH" - - I don't understand all this talk about how US actions in IRAQ and Afghanistan have inspired a "democracy movement" in the Middle East. Well, actually, I do understand it. People are desperate to derive something positive from all the horror wreaked upion the region by the American interventions, something to reassure themselves that what their country has done isn't so bad after all, that they themselves are not as gullible as they were starting to feel.

The bad news is that they're being gullible again. The only country in the area where anything of any political significance has recently occurred is in Lebanon, with a burgeoning movement to make Syria remove its armed forces. But this movement clearly arose form the murder of the former prime minister Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, whiich has been blamed on Syria. What does this have to do with the United states? Do the people celebrationg a US-inspired "democracy movement" think that the United States was behind the assassination? In any event, Lebanon has been a democracy for many years, as that word is loosely used by almost everyone, i.e., they've had elections on a regular basis, at least as credible as those in the United States and a lively free press.

As to what happened in Iraq in January ... Imagine if during the Cold War, Hungary had held an "election" under Soviet occupation, in which the voters did not know the names of the candidates, or what they stood for, and no candidate or party called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The American media would have had a field day.

Even more farcical was the presidential election in Afghanistan shortly before -- (I think it may have been farcical, but Karzai seems to be a decent good man with the countries well being at heart., maybe I am being gullible myself, but I think this of him.)

To see the story and charges of American imperialistic actions, old and new,
reports about the US and the woman of Afghanistan, reports on steroids, etc, go to this address by clicking on it.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8339.htm

Saundra Hummer

March 22nd, 2005, 04:39 PM

.................................................. ......QUOTES.......................

"That's not really a number I'm terribly interested in." General Colin Powell, chairman of the US-Joint Chiefs of Staff, on being asked his assessment of Iraqi military and civilian casualties, April 1991

(In what context was this said? Not such a diplomatic statement from someone so who has always seemed so careful as to what kind of impression he might or might not make.)

===

Lesley Stahl: "I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima & ---and you know, is the price woth it?"

Madeline Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price -- we think the price is worth it."

Former U.N. Ambassador Madeline Albright, responding to reporter Lesley Stahl as to whether the over half a million Iraqi children killed by the UN sanctions against Iraq were "worth it" CBS May 11, 1996.

--

"Why shoudl we hear about body bags and deaths and how many, what day it's gonna happen? It's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mine on somethign like that?" George W. Bush's mother Barbara on ABC/Good Morning America, March 18, 2003.

(........I really find this last quote hard to believe. Surely this isn't an actual quote! If it is, in what context was it made, if it was said by her? If said ... then surely she was on a sarcastic, tongue in cheek rant. This is a terrible thing to have said, terrible to think and what in the world possessed her to say such on national t.v.? This is nuts!)

from:

"ICH"

Saundra Hummer

March 22nd, 2005, 11:39 PM

.....................FINALLY.....BAGHDAD CITIZENS ARE PROTECTING THEMSELVES

BAGHDAD SHOPKEEPERS KILL THREE MILITANTS

TUESDAY MARCH 22 2005

BY TRACI CARL, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Baghdad, Iraq - Shopkeepers and residents on one of Baghdads main streets pulled out their own guns Tuesday and killed three insurgents when hooded men began shooting at passers-by, giving a rare victory to civilians increasingly frustrated by the violence bleeding Iraq (link given)

The clash in the capital's southern Doura neighborhood erupted when militants in three cars sprayed bullets at shoppers, Interior Ministry officials said. Three people a man a woman and a chld ---- were wounded.

The motive was unclear, but there have been previous attacks in the ethnically mixed neighborhood. Earlier in the day, gunmen in the same quarter killed a policeman as he drove to work, police Lt. Col. Hafidh Al-Ghrayn said.

A forceful citizen response is rare, but not unheard of in a country where conflict has become commonplace and the law allows each home to have a weapon. Early this month police said townsmen in Wihda, 25 miles south of Baghdad, attacked a group of militants believed planning to raid the town and killed seven.

To see the rest of the story go to Yahoo News, just click on the following link:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u=/ap/20050323/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&sid=84439559

Saundra Hummer

March 23rd, 2005, 03:15 PM

........................JIM HIGHTOWER's COMMENTARIES AUDIO OR VISUAL.. :elephant: ........

http://www.jimhightower.com/air/archive.asp

THE GOP's FAKE REPORTER is an interesting bit to hear, and how is it that this happened? I sure don't believe the spin put on this story do you?

Saundra Hummer

March 23rd, 2005, 04:59 PM

.................QUOTES FROM GEORGE ORWELL, SEEMS THEY FIT TODAY PERFECTLY DON'T YOU THINK?

"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men" George Orwell

==

"They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening." George Orwell

==

"Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." George Orwell

=

"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." George Orwell (There is more truth in this!)

=

Read George Orwell's, 1984 online.
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/

From:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

March 23rd, 2005, 05:19 PM

............................THE UNDOING OF AMERICA

GORE VIDAL ON WAR FOR OIL, POLITICS-FREE ELECTIONS, AND THE LATE, GREAT U.S. CONSTITUTION

BY STEVE PERRY

The old American republic is well and truly dead. The institutions that we thought were eternal proved not to be. And that goes for the three departments of government, and it also goes for the Bill of Rights. So we're in uncharted territory. We're governed by public relations. Very little information gets to the people, thanks to the corruption and/or ineptitude of the media.

http://tinyurl.com/Shckh

=

Hijacking Catastrophe

9/11, Fear, and the Selling of American Empire.

Hijacking Catastrophe is powerful, understated, straightforward and educational. In a single meticulously organized hour of evidence and analysis, viewers are treated to a thoughtful explaination of modern American empire, neo-conservatism as a driving force for the current Bush administration

Watch it now. Real Video.
( When I'll get time to see all of this, I don't know. Bits and pieces I suppose is how I'll end up seeing it.)

http://tinyurl.com/6vsf4

==

HiJacking Democracy in Iraq

The Iraqi elections have been embraced almost universally as a great victory for the forces of democracy.

By Scott Ritter

The fact, however is that the Iraqi elections weren't about the free election of a government reflecting the will of the Iraqi people, but the carefully engineered selection of a govenment that would behave in a manner dictated by the United States. In Iraq, democracy was hijacked by the Americans.

http://tinyurl.com/6tw4x

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HIDING OUR WAR DEAD

While Italy publicly honors its war dead, America hides its dead. Is that respecting our soldiers?

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file+article&sid=1041

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

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

VIDEO: HIJACKING CATASTROPHE : 9/11, FEAR AND THE SELLING OF AMERICAN EMPIRE:

Hijacking Castastrophe is powerful, understated, straightforward and educational. In a single meticulously organized hour of evidence and analysis, viewers are treated to a thoughtful explanatin of modern American empire, neo-conservatism as a driving force for the current Bush administartion.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6895.htm

http.//tinyurl.com/6vsf4

Many more archived articles in the"In case you missed it section."

Saundra Hummer

March 24th, 2005, 12:07 PM

...................................THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT...............

YOUR BEST ADVICE:

What's the best advice you''ve ever gotten? Was it from a boss, a family member, a mentor?

BUSINESS READING

FORTUNE selects 75 books that teach you everything you really need to know abut business: * The Ultimate Reading List.

BEST ADVICE QUIZ:

How much do ou know about what top business leaders say is the best advice they ever got? Try your luck guessing advice from eBay's Meg Whitman, others. ....(I hear she is on the way out for her disasterous new pricing for sellers, which I can attest to first hand.)

* Take FORTUNE"s Quiz

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

Check our their "RECENT FEATURES" :

* Do You Have a LIving Will?..... (after the Schiavo tragedy, we all should have one, along with a revokable trust, leaving our assests to whomever we would like to have them without their having to go through the legal hassle of probate. This can be a terrible legal expense if someone challanges the will, which we went through and it was foolishness, but it happens, and can happen with whom you least expect it.)

==

* Want a 53% Return This Year?

==

* 'Dirty Dozen' Tax Schemes

==

* Best, Worst Cities for Credit

http://pf.channel.aol.com/fortune/investing/bestadvice

Saundra Hummer

March 24th, 2005, 12:26 PM

..........................Amateur Radio Community:

Amateur Radio Newsline is produced as an audio service by Newsline, a service of the Westlink Radio Network.

There are Newsline's to listen to.

To listen to audio clips you should be using Real Audio version 2.0 or Plus.

(Since the computer I don't know if Ham radio is as popular as it once was, but it is a fascinating hobby, and much good has been done by ham operators around the world.)

http://www.tapr.org/newsline/newsline99.html

Saundra Hummer

March 24th, 2005, 12:47 PM

..................................A QUOTE: From "THE BLANKET, A JOURNAL OF PROTEST AND DISSENT. Plus a rundown on what this site contains.

The Blanket project exists as a commitment to freedom of speech.
......Its purpose is to facilitate analysis, debate and discussion to resist censorshiop, and to create the space for a diversity of views.

(Perhaps after the poll taken of our school aged young, their believing the press should be curtailed, that freedom of the press should be abandoned, that the press sbould be censored, they should study what it is this site is advocating and trying to save,.... and the reasons why. srh)

ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS, IN AMERICA.

NED McGINLEY, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS IN AMERICA

........."Our differences will never defeat us so long as we have the courage to air them". .......It also reduces paranoia

Richard Wallace's article (link provided), or comment was read by several of our members who wanted an answer from us. I felt that in the true spirit of ......"better I am blamed than someone else", which several signers of the American Colonies Declaraton of Independence from England used to justify their large handwriting or additional identifying remarks (John Carroll of Carrolton) while declaring their freedom from British rule in 1775, I would write the clarification.

(Go to this site for a different perspective on history. An unusual and interesting place to visit. Very different for us here in the U.S. our history educations being somewhat if not very limited in it's scope. We know a bit about Ireland, but not from this prospective. srh)

http://lark.phoblacht.net/

This is the working link ... the above link.^

==

This link isn't working, instead go to the top link and connect and search that way.

http://lark.phoblacht.net/oahamerica.html

The Blanket: Check our their ... Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews + Letters + Archives.

Again the quote:

...."Our differences will never defeat us so long as we have the courage to air them".

Saundra Hummer

March 24th, 2005, 04:10 PM

.......................THE IRANIAN THREAT: tHE BOMB OR THE EURO?

BY DR. ELIAS AKLEH

03/24/05 "AMIN" -- IRAN does not pose a threat to the United States because of its nuclear projects, its WMD, or its support to "terrorists organizations" as the American adminstration is claiming, but in its attempt to re-shape the global economical system by converting it from a petrodollar to a petroeuro system. Such conversion is looked upon as a flagrant declaration of economical war against the US that would flatten the revenues of the American corporations and eventually might cause an economic collapse.

In June of 2004 Iran declared its intention of setting up an international oil exchange a (a bourse) denominated in the Euro currency. Many oil-producing as well as oil-consuming countries had expressed their welcome to such petroeuro bourse. The Iranian reports had stated that this bourse may start its trade with the beginning of 2006. Naturally such an oil bourse would compete against London's International Petroleum Exchange (IPW), as well as against the New York Mercantile exchange (NYMEX), both owned by American Corporations.

Oil consuming countries have no choice but use the American Dollar to purchase their oil, since the Dollar has been so far the global standard monetary fund for oil exchange. This necessitates those countries to keep the Dollar in their central banks as their reserve fund, thus strengthening the American economy. But if Iran----followed by the other oil producing countries --- offered to accept the Euro as another choice for oil exchange the American economy would suffer a real crisis. We could witness this crisis at the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006 when oil investors woud have the choice to pay $57.00 a barrel of oil at the American (NYMEX) and at Londons (IPE), or pay 37 Euros a barrel at the Iranian oil bourse. Such choilce would reduce trade volumes at both the Dollar-dependent (NYMEX ) and the (IPE).

Many countries had studied the conversion from the ever weakening petrodollar to the gradually strengthening petroeuro system. The de-valuation of the Dollar was caused by the American economy shying away from manufacturing local products,--- except those of the military - , by outsourcing the American jobs to the cheaper third world countries and depending only on the general service sector, and by the huge cost of two major wars that are still going on. Foreign investors started withdrawing their money form the shaky American market causing further devaluation of the Dollar.

The keen observer of the money market could have noticied that the devaluation of the American Dollar had started since November 2002, while the purchasing power of European Euro had crept upward to reach nowadays to $1.34. Compared to the Japanese Yen the Dollar had dropped from 104.45 to 103.90 yen. The British pound climbed another notch from $1.9122 to $1.9272.

=

Much more to this story, this article on the sorry state of affairs this administration, and the corporate world has plunged us into, by going to war, and by sending manufacturing jobs overseas and across borders.

======

(This article clears up a lot of questions I had in my mind, or it seems to,.......so unless someone explains differently, in a more comprehensive manner, in a way that makes more sense than what is being said here, this is what I do believe is happening, what has happened and where we're headed. ..... Spooky.....it really is. The administration, the government, and most of the people here in this country aren't ready to let this happen as it will put us on a downhill course like we've never experienced before, or that is how it looks. The governments on the other sides of the oceans would like to be the dominant force for a change, and they seem to be working towards that aim. .....srh)

==

Go to the address below to read the complete story, (as there is much more to it), by clicking on the address:

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8354.htm

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 02:06 PM

.......................................THE COMING DENOMINATIONAL STORM

MoJoBLOG

There's an interestig little article by Laurie Goodstein in the New York Times today on how the Terry Schiavo affair has joined conservative Catholics and evangelicals in a common cause:

The struggle is only the latest indication of a strengthening religious alliance between denominations that were once bitterly divided. Evangelical leaders say they frequently lean on Catholic intellectuals like Robery George at Princeton University and the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor ot the journal First Things, to help them frame political issues theologically.

Read the whole piece and Goodstein notices an important trend. The days of inter-denominational disputes, at least among conservatives, are very much a thing of the past. As Goodstein reports, the alliances here were forged in the smithy of the "culture wars" over abortion , gay rights, sex, and smut. But left unmentioned in the article is the flip side to all of this: namely, the extent to which these culture war issues are creationg fault lines across and within denominations.

This goes into more and into the Terry Schiavo case. To see the complete story go to the following address by just clicking on it:

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2005/03/the_coming_deno.html

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 02:14 PM

Saundra, is it fair, do you think, to exploit a jazz enthusiast website, even in a "Current Events" section - with a continual regurgitation of every liberal message from external, politically oriented sites. I doubt this has anything to do with free speech. The sites that you post verbatim from have the freedom to post their message. Your reposting of it here seems exploitive and inappropriate to me, and has been bothering me for some time now. In other words, if I, or anyone else wanted to read Informationclearinghouse.com, or the like - we could simply find those sites. It seems by promoting those sites ad nauseum here, you're promoting them at the expense of those who enjoy AAJ, but don't wish to endore the sites you continually link to. I'm expressing my own opinion here, and as usual, I'm probably in the extreme minority, but don't you see a vast difference between having a site where each poster could express their own opinions, in their own thoughts and words - and your use of the site to recycle other site's articles?

So far, the response I've had, other than from you and one other member, is positive, the emails I've received have been pretty encouraging. If you don't want to read what I post, or learn of other viewpoints, then move to another thread.

Feel free to add your comments any time, as others do, or send me a letter to counteract the nice ones I've received.

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 02:56 PM

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 03:45 PM

Evasive?

You're the one who often times doesn't respond if it is something you don't want to provide an honest straightforward answer to; you with your name calling and derisions. You love to hide behind accusations and insults, and when you are called on it, or shown the way things really are, where do you run to?

Evade you, no, it's just that what you have to say doesn' t really hold my interest, as what I'm talking about and sharing doesn't grab yours. You don't understand what it is I'm posting? So what's the big deal? Why should I care if you just don't get it, I don't... so why should you care what I talk about? Or how many articles I post "verbatim?", what I understand of your questions and beliefs?

As far as replying to your quizzes... or your derisive posts, why would anyone even want to? We at least have the courtesy to respond in a civil manner, whereas your posts are oftentimes something most of us marvel at.

Are you truly interested, in what it is I might or might not comprehend? Or are you just wanting to hurl your barbs once again?

If you would like to make a point, make it. Post an opposite viewpoint, then perhaps people might listen to what it is you have to say, but leave out the insults and then maybe, just maybe, you will have some credibility.

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 03:49 PM

.............................................Quote .....................

"Herein lies a riddle. How can a people so gifted by God become so seduced by naked power, so greedy for money, so addicted to violence, so slavish before mediocre and treacherous leadership, so paranoid, deluded, lunatic?" : Philip Berrigan - Source: Hell, Healing and Resistance Veterans Speak

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 04:43 PM

Well, it's just that I asked you a specific question, and if you were going to bother to reply at all, it would have been nice if you answered the issue I raised, not the one you wanted to answer. Either you don't understand what I asked, or you're being evasive.

Edit: You know what, never mind, Saundra. Forget it.

FWIW, I'd be interested toi know if anyone else has any thoughts on what I asked Saundra.

Calling in the troops? :shrug:

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 05:11 PM

So you see no merit to what I've said? Do you even understand the distinction I made between the objecting to the "Viewpoints", or my desire to read the posts - and my stated objection as to your methodology and the appropriateness of such systematic recycling of other sites?

Your implications are another thing all together. You choose not to understand my answer, and I see your intent.

So you think, that with over 10,400 views on this thread, that I am hurting the board?

Hurting your sensibilities perhaps? How is that? How is it that you are so easily put off? (It's a tough world isn't it?) And there are, after all, people out there with different viewpoints from yours and mine, We all have different perspectives, and I have fun letting people know what theirs and mine, (ours) are. I feel I am providing a service. I'm pointing the way for a different view of what is going on in the world, and it is just so odd to me that this would bother you so.

Don't read it, forget about it if it is too disturbing to you. Turn it off in your mind like you switch off a bad song on the radio. You sure don't have to participate in what I post, you surely must realize that. I would think that having a way pointed out to increase your understanding (or anyone for that matter), of what is happening in the world isn't such a bad thing, it seems to me to be a bonus. Post an opposing article or viewpoint, it's your call.

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 05:47 PM

.................................................. ..QUOTE.............................

"Our differences will never defeat us as long as we have the courage to air them." ....."It also reduces paranoia."

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 06:31 PM

So, you threaten not to support the All About Jazz Fund Drive with money because of me? Because of differering viewpoints which I post links to.... articles which I sometimes put in a comment or two about? This just seems so odd and uncalled for. It would be like not patronizing a pharmacy because it sells birthcontrol pills and condoms and you don't believe in that either.

You enjoy jazz, that's obvious, but there is no need for you to ever see what it is I post, just ignore, that's the easiest thing for you to do. This is after all the current events area.

Perhaps my comparing the thread to a song on the radio wasn't such a good comparison after all. It isn't like the radio, the radio isn't multiple choice. Not where I live at times. You can choose not to read or learn of my posts if you don't choose to. You needent ever click onto the thread I post on, you really don't. Do you choose to just to get your ire up? Once on and you learn what the thread is about, you, or anyone else for that matter can click it off, turn off, just like you would a tune you don't want to hear.

You resent a jazz forum giving out a point of view that you disagree with? You the one who posted in the past about politics? No..... I just believe it is because I have differing views than you, that I knew of the Haliburton scandal concerning Iraq, and Libyia, while you were thinking, and believing I was making it all up. This and the story about the Military (Navy) pilots from Klamath Falls, Oregon, causing two different elderly couples to be severely injured, which you, instead of researching, chose to ridicule and question my honesty. Look back on that thread and see how it was you were. I just feel you like to dish it out, but you are too thin skinned yourself to be doing it, because when it turns around you try to garner support from other board members, and cause a ruckus. So why on earth would what I'm saying about political issues even bother you? It seems you weren't that into all of it in the first place? There were just so many things you didn't know about. Why is this so much of a concern with you?

Avoid the "Controversial and/or Informative Post" and you should be just fine. The title tells you what it is about, that and the fact that I'm the one posting and informing about sites and philosophies is another clue you couldn't have missed.

Franki

March 25th, 2005, 07:50 PM

Sndy, I'm withyou. Here's a link to another artist you might like to check out:

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/5991/

Peace, Franki

Saundra Hummer

March 25th, 2005, 08:22 PM

Thank you Franki :dill:

I was on there today and the thing I wanted to see called for a special download so I backed off. Some downloads scare me off, they really do especially after a Symantec online download of Norton crashed my whole system and Symantec wouldn't refund my money for the download that caused the problem, (which I only had used less than a few hours) when I purchased a disk to get their program. Can't afford another computer repair at this time, not like before when we had to have the whole system rebuilt, and so I'm, needless to say, spooked of online downloads most of the time.

Nice to hear from you and thanks for the link. :dill: Thanks for your support in this,

Sandi

Franki

March 26th, 2005, 06:11 AM

You're welcome, Sandy. I wish I could convey my sentiments in other ways than by posting links ...

xricci

March 26th, 2005, 07:34 AM

I have a real problem with donating to a site like AAJ

Mike,

I have a real problem with this comment. You visit the bulletin board and (most importantly) the website often and you've been doing it for a while.

I'm looking to raise funds for the WEBSITE: http://www.allaboutjazz.com . The website helps jazz musicians, we're building systems to serve educators, students, promote gigs/drive people to live events, sell tickets, etc.

We've done a world of good for thousands of people over the last nine years and we've only scratched the surface. We can do much more with reader support.

Some readers are under the impression that a $10 contribution will not make a difference, but the fact of the matter is, IT WILL. Collectively, readers can make a HUGE difference with $10.

AAJ will reach 500,000 readers in March. The bulletin board represents less than 1% of the website’s traffic.

If this board ever became a thorn in my ass, I'd shut it down.

Sandi isn't violating board rules with this thread and you have the option not to read it (and put her on your ignore list). I suggest that you ignore this thread.

Mike

jkelman

March 26th, 2005, 08:09 AM

With the AAJ fund drive notices, I've given some consideration to donating to help support the site. Personally, I have a real problem with donating to a site like AAJ and inadvertently endorsing the sites that you link to in the process.

NJ4M, you incredibly off the mark here. Bulletin boards, barring certain rules of etiquette that moderators try to maintain, are strictly the opinions of the posters, and that includes links they provide to other sites.

AAJ, the WEBSITE, provides an incredibly valuable service to artists, industry folks and fans alike. The board is a miniscule part of what the site is about. As the all-encompassing site it is trying to be it is, I think, important to provide a forum for the readers, and that's why there's a bulletin board, but I think you're being unfair to colour your views of the site as a whole, based on one board member's contributions to that forum - which she's entitled to as much as you are to post your comments, which are often quite hotly contested as well. (do you think it would be reasonable for someone else to say they aren't contributing to AAJ because they disagree with your right-of-centre views?)

So if you're considering contributing to AAJ but choosing not to, don't use this as the excuse...it's unreasonable for you to link the philosophies of any member of the bulletin board - which they are entitled to expound upon and promote however they see fit, just as you are - with the larger good that AAJ is trying to accomplish for the jazz world as a WEBSITE.

John

clave

March 26th, 2005, 12:17 PM

NJ4M, with your interest in jazz, I'd be very surprised to find out that you haven't read anything that's been posted on AAJ -- the web site.

Try it out and you'll see what Mike and John are talking about. Peronally, I spent plenty of time reading articles and reviews published on the AAJ site long before I stared posting on the AAJ board -- and I *still* read a lot of pieces. (There are so many!!)

Saundra Hummer

March 26th, 2005, 07:35 PM

.................................................. .......Quote....................

"There never has been a war yet which, if the facts had been put calmly before the ordinary folk, could not have been prevented ... The common man, I think, is the great protection against war. Ernest Bevin : Source: Speech in the House of Commons, November 23, 1945............
(Perhaps in his time, but it seems as though in our time, it is "ordinary folk" who are backing this war with all that is in them as they are too gullible and/or frightened to do otherwise. srh)

Saundra Hummer

March 26th, 2005, 07:55 PM

.......I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service. Major General Smedley Butler, USMC.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm

THIS ^ ARTICLE IS REALLY ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING FOR THOSE OF YOU INTERESTED IN HISTORY, IT IS QUITE DIFFERENT, AND I THINK ANY OF YOU WILL ENJOY READING IT REGARDLESS OF PARTY OR LEANINGS.

==

NOAM CHOMSKY Edinburgh Lecture

Entitiled "Illegal but Legitimate: a dubious doctrine for the times."

Noam chomsky delivered the last in the Gifford Lecture series at Edinburgh University's McEwan Hall on Tuesday, 03/22/05.

Watch it Now, Real Video

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8377.htm

http://tinyurl.com/3qaoo

==

Weekend Video

National Teach-in on Iraq "How Can We End This War?"

Watch it online

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8379.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6escr

==

There are other articles on issues regarding the war in Iraq, and how Iran is frightening the US with it's stockpile of weapons which they say they need to fight drugs, .... how we plan to make India a world power, ,,,, and the "God Racket, From Demille to DeLay...... How Mr. Bush who couldn't be bothered to interrupt his vacation during the darkening summer of 2001, not even when he received a briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S., "flew from his Crawford ranch to Washingtron to sign Congress's Schiavo bill into law. ....... There is also an article which asks... "Is This A New Dark Age? ....There are many who care about this war, witness the rallies attended in Fayetteville, North Carolina and hear the speaker who spoke March 19th, 2005. ...........

It is all on Information Clearing House.info
( here's it's link: http://tinyurl.com/5hacb ) (here's another link to another audio and photos:
http://www.traprockpeace.org/layetteville_rally_1.html

Enjoy!~

Saundra Hummer

March 27th, 2005, 11:33 AM

........................MANY GERMANS WANT BERLIN WALL BACK, STUDY FINDS.........

SAT MAY 26, 2005

REUTERS

BERLIN --- Nearly a quarter of western Germans and 12 percent of easterners want the Berlin Wall back -- more than 15 years after the fall of the barrier that split Germany during the Cold War, according to a new survey.

The results of the poll, published Saturday, reflected die-hard animosities over high reunification costs lowering western standards of living and economic turmoil in the east.

The survey of 2,000 Germans by Berlin's Free University and pollsters Forsa found 24 percent of those living in western Germany want the Wall back -- double the eastern level.

In Berlin itself, 11 percent of westerners and 8 percent of easterners said "yes" when asked. "Would it be better if the Wall between East and West were still standing?"

The Berlin Wall was breached on Nov. 9, 1989, paving the way for the unification of Communist East Germany with the West on Oct. 3, 1990.
But billions of euros (dollars) spent rebuilding the east have failed to prop up the depressed region, which is plagued by high unemployment and a shrinking population.

The poll also found that 47 percent of the easterners agree with the statement that the West "acquired the east like a colony." while 58 percent of the westerners back the statement that "easterners tend to wallow in self-pity."

Saundra Hummer

March 28th, 2005, 10:19 AM

.............................THE LONG EMERGENCY

WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN WE START RUNNING OUT OF CHEAP GAS TO GUZZLE?

By James HOward Kimster

03/27/05 "Rolling Stone" - - A few weeks ago, the price of oil ratcheted above fifty-five dollars a barrel, which is about twenty dollars a barrel more than a year ago. The next day, the oil story was buried on page six of the New York Times business sectin. Apparently, the price of oil is not considered significant news, even when it goes up five bucks a barrel in teh span of ten days. That same day, the stock market shot up more than a hundred points, CNN said, government data showed no signs of inflation. Note to clueless nation: Call planet earth.

Carl Jung, one of the fathers of psychology, famously remarked that "people cannot stand too much reality." what you're about to read may challenge your assumptions about the kind of world we live in, and especially the kind of world into which events are propelling us. We are in for a rough ride through uncharted territory.

It has been very hard for Americans -- lost in dark raptures of nonstop infotainment, recreational shopping and compulsive motoring -- to make sense of the gathering forces that will fundamentally alter the terms of everyday life in our technological society. Even after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America is still sleep-walking in to the future. I call this coming time The Long Emergency.

Most immediately we face the end of the cheap-fossil-fuel-era. It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as the necessities of modern life -- not to mention all of its comforts and luxuries: central heating, air conditioning, cars, airplanes, electric lights, inexpensive clothing, recorded music, movies, hip replacement surgery, national defense, -- you name it.

The few Americans who are even aware that there is a gathering global-energy predicament usually misunderstnd the core of the argument. That argument states that we don't have to run out of oil to start having severe problems with industrial civilization and its dependent systems. We only have to slip over the all-time productin peak and begin a slide down the arc of steady depletion.

The term "global oil-production peak" means that a turning point will come when the world produces the most oil it will ever produce in a given year and, after that, yearly production will inexorably decline. It is usually represented graphically in a bell curve. The peak is the top of the curve, the halfway point of the world's all-time total endowment, meaning half the world's oil will be left. That seems like a lot of oil, and it is, but there's a big catch: It's the half that is much more difficult to extract, far more costly to get, of much poorer quality and located mostly in places where the people hate us. A substantial amount of it will never be extracted.

The United States passed its own oil peak -- about 11 million barrels a day -- in 1970, and since then production has dropped steadily. In 2004 it ran just above 5 million barrels a day (we get a tad more from natural-gas condensates). Yet we consume roughly 20 million barrels a day now. That means we have to import about two thirds of our oil, and the ratio will continue to worsen.

The U.S. peak in 1970 brought on a portentous change in geoeconomic power. Within a few years, foreign producers, chiefly OPEC, were setting the price of oil, and this in turn led to the oil crises of the 1970s. In response, frantic development of non-OPEC oil, especially the North Sea Fields of England and Norway, essentially saved the West's ass for about two decades. Since 1999, these fields have entered depletion. Meanwhile world wide discovery of new oil had steadily declined to insignificant levels in 2003, and 2004.

Some "cornucopians" claim that the Earth has something like a creamy nougat center of "abiotic" oil that will naturally replenish the great oil fields of the world. The facts speak differently. There has been no replacement whatsoever of oil already extracted from the fields of America or any other place.

======

There's alot more to this story. It goes into what he believes the problems will be socially and economically in regions of the U.S., for instance the Pacific Northwest, the South East, and the South West. Not such a pretty picture, as he is seeing a worse case scenario in the South East and South West. To read the rest of the story, click on the following address to access the site.

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8380.htm

Saundra Hummer

March 28th, 2005, 10:26 AM

..............8.2 EARTHQUAKE ALONG COASTS OF COUNTRIES ON iNDIAN OCEAN HAS U.S. AGENCY URGING EVACUATIONS ONCE AGAIN FEARING TSUNAMI'S. HOPEFULLY THESE WARNINGS WILL BE PASSED ON IN TIME FOR FACILLITATING THEM. GODSPEED!

Saundra Hummer

March 28th, 2005, 11:46 AM

.................................................. ...FOLLOW THE MONEY........

WATCHDOGS ARE WARNING THAT CORRUPTION IN IRAQ IS OUT OF CONTROL. BUT WILL THE UNITED STATES JOIN EFFORTS TO CLAMP DOWN ON IT?

THIS IS AN INTERESTING ARTICLE FROM: NEWSWEEK, WORLD NEWS, BY MICHAEL HIRSH

Then there's this article:

IRAQ; RECONSTRUCTION CORRUPTON, BY MARK HOSENBALL, NEWSWEEK INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT/LONDON AND JUANITA OLAYA, PROGRAM MANAGER FOR PUBLIC CONTRACTING, TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL (BERLIN)

You can "Listen to Audo"

FRANKLIN WILLIS. After thE fall of Baghdad, there was no Iraqi law because Saddam Husseins's regime was dead. But if no U.S. law applied either, then everything was permissible, says Willis. The former CPA official compares Iraq to the "Wild West," saying he delievered one $2 million payment to Custer Battles in bricks of cash. ("We called Mike Battles in and said, 'Bring a bag'," Willis told Congress in February.) Willis and other critics worry that with just $4.1 billion of the $18.7 billion spent so far, the U.S. legal stance opens the door to much more fraud in the future. "If urgent steps are not taken, Iraq ... will become the biggest corruption scandal in history," warned the anti-corruption group Transparency International in recent report. Grassley adds that if the government decides the False Claims Act doesn't apply to Iraq, " any recovery for fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars ... would be prohibited." .....CONTINUED....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7306162/site/newsweek/

SEE THE PREVIOUS POST ABOUT WAR BY MAJOR GENERAL SMEDLEY BUTLER USMC, IT ALSO TELLS OF CORRUPTION IN WAR, JUST GO TO THIS SITE ONCE AGAIN BY CLICKING ON THE FOLLOWING ADDRESS:

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm

THIS ALL SEEMS TO TIE INTO THE WHISTLEBLOWER ISSUE NASUS KEEPS WARNING US OF, WHICH WE DO NEED TO TAKE VERY SERIOUSLY, AS WE ARE LIVING IN TIMES WHICH "Are a 'changin" HOW WE'RE LIVING, AND THESE PEOPLE AND CORPORATIONS WHICH ARE CAUSING HARM PHYSICALLY AND ECONOMICALLY NEED TO BE REIGNED IN DON'T YOU THINK? WE DON'T HAVE THE LEEWAY FOR ERROR AND GRAFT AS BEFORE, NOT THAT IT WAS EVER NOT HARMFUL, IT WAS. HOWEVER NOW, MORE THAN EVER WE NEED PROTECTIONS AGAINST SUCH HAPPENINGS AS ARE BEING DESCRIBED IN THESE ARTICLES AND WE HAVE, OR SOME OF US HAVE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES WHICH WE KNOW SHOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED, BUT BECAUSE OF ALL SORTS OF REASONS THERE WAS NO RECOURSE TO STOP THEM OR CHANGE THEM. WE NEED TO BUILD UP PROTECTIONS NOT DO AWAY WITH THEM AS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND OTHER ELECTED OFFICIALS ARE DOING TO US, AND THEY INCLUDE BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLE. WE NEED TO FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AND PROTECT OURSELVES, KEEPING OUR GOVERNMENTS POLICIES AND ACTIONS TRANSPARENT, NOT HIDING AWAY EVEN THE MOST MUNDANE. :secret

Saundra Hummer

March 28th, 2005, 03:02 PM

.........MOTHER JONES.....The MoJournal.....The MoJo Blogg... Daily MoJo .... MoJokes..............

EDITORS PICKS:

Jesus Christ's Superflock

At todays mega churches, endless amenitites -- like high-end child care, celebrity speakers and thousands of support groups -- feed the needs of the exurban soul.

=====

Mojo Blog: Our take on the news of the moment, updated hourly.

Daily MoJo: A daily review of under-reported news and commentary.

=====

THIS WEEK ON MOTHERJONES.COM

The Money Pose
by Joshua Kurlantzick

Yoga teacher Bikram Choudhury owns a Rolls-Royce and a Rolex, and he's hoping to own the rights to a piece of the ancient discipline itself

(I would have thought he would have more than two of these luxury items or at least more things close in value, I would have thought he would have more than one of each item, like a fleet, and in all of his mansions a floor safe with Phillipe Patek's and other goodies just bulging out of it, as people are so desperate to "find themselves", they will pump anyones pockets full who make them feel good about themselves. Silly, but that's how it goes.

=====

The Torn Fabric of the Law: An Interview With Michael Rtatner:
Interview by Onnesha Roychoudhuri

One key battle is being fought in courtrooms. And the administration isn't winning there either.

=====

Georgie's Angels

Cartoon by Mark fiore
When life and death decisions threaten the moral fabric of our nation, we know who to turn to.

=====

Daily MoJo: They've Got the Guns, We've got the Numbers
by Bradford Plumer

What's standing between the U.S. and an exit strategy in Iraq? Bad statistics.

=====

Too Cruel For School ***************
By Jeff Fleischer
The infamous School of the Americas is still in business, albeit with a new name. And you can still get thrown in jail for protesting there.

(This is the institution we have talked about on this board before. How one would think to name it the School of the America's is beyond me, one would hope that a "School" with such a name would be full of good and hopeful enlightened teachings, not that of torture and subversion.)

=====

People Power: An Interview With David Solnit
Interview by Katie Renz

A direct-action organizer talks about waging common-sense social revolution.

=====

Daily MoJo: One-Way Planet
By Tom Engelhardt

How the range of what's debatable, what's "normal" in US news reports has narrowed in recent years.

=====

Daily Mojo: The Energy Crunch to Come
By Michael T. Klare

Soaring Oil Profits, Declining Discoveries and Danger Signs

=====

Daily MoJo: Deconstructing Iraq: Year Three Begins
By Tom Engelhardt

Two years after the US mission in there was declared "accomplished," mayhem reigns in Iraq.

=====

There are many more articles:

The Asthama Trap
==
How screwed is Tom Delay (A lot I hope, not my favorite goverment hack, srh)
==
The Politics of Drilling: How Florida's junior senator got entangled in the debate over ANWR
==
WildLife: An Interview with Tim Cahill
==
=====

Permission to Speak Freely: A new crusade aims to protect conservative students from left wing professors. but the real victim is robust debate -- on campus, and beyond.

=====

People Power: An interview with David Solnit

=====

Lipstick Jihad: An interview with Azadeh Moaveni by Michal Lumsden.

An Iranian-American journalist discovers a complex, paradoxical Iran.

Then there is their letter forum.

=====

The Mother Jones Interviews: We ask ... they tell. An archive f Mother Jones Q&A's.

Lots more.........

http://www.motherjones.com/index.html

Saundra Hummer

March 28th, 2005, 04:25 PM

..........GREG PALAST REPORTS: BAGHDAD COUP D'ETAT FOR BIG OIL

MONDAY, MARCH 28, 2005

HARPERS MAGAZINE investigation reveals how Big Oil vanquished the neo-cons ... and OPEC is the winner. (Remember Gerald Ford, or his people, saying Dick Cheney ruined everything he touched? Or some such statement, so this is close enough. srh)

"For months, the State Department officially denied the existence of this 323-page plan for Iraq's oil ... "

Some conspiracy nuts believe the Bush Adminisration had a secret plan to control Iraq's oil. In fact, there were TWO plans. In a joint investigation with BBC Television Newsnight, Harper's Magazine has uncovered a hidden battle over Iraq's oil. It began right afer Mr Bush took office - with a previously unreported plot to invade Iraq.

From the exclusive Harper's report by Greg Palast:

Within weeks of the first inaugural, prominent Iraqi expatriates -- many with ties to US industry -- were invited to secret discussions direcred by Pamela Quanrud, National Security Council, now at the State Department. "It quickly became an oil group." said one participant, Falah Aljibury. Aljibury is an advisor to Amerada Hess" oil trading arm and Goldman Sachs.

"The petroleum industry, the chemical industry, the banking industry -- they'd hoped that Iraq would go for a revolution like in the past and governemnt was shut down for two or three days," Aljibury told me. On this plan, Hussein would simply have been replaced by some former Baathist general.

However, by February 2003, a hundred-page blue-print for the occupied nation, favored by neo-cons, had been enshrined as official policy. "Moving the Iraqi Economy form Recovery to Sustainable Growth" generally embodied the principles for postwar Iraq favored by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and the Iran-Contra figure, now Deputy National Security Advisor, Elliot Abrams (Remember him??? This is amazing. It is the same old corrupt criminals working in the Whitehose with favored status, how is this??? SRH) The blue print mapped out a radical makeover of Iraq as a free-market Xanadu including, on page 73, the sell-off of the nations crown jewels: "privatization" [of] the oil and supporting industries.

It was reasoned that if Iraq's fields were broken up and sold off, competing operators would crank up production. this extra crude would flood world petroleum markets, OPEC would devolve into mass cheating and overproduction, oil prices woud fall over a cliff, and Saudi Arabia, both economically and politically, would fall to its knees.

However, in plotting the destruction of OPEC, the neocons failed to predict the virulent resistance of insurgent forces: the U.S. oil industry itself, Rob McKee, a former executive vice-president of ConocoPhillips, designated by the Bush Administration to advise the Iraqi oil ministry, had little tolerance for the neocons' threat to privatize the oil fields nor their obsession on ways to undermine OPEC. (In 2004, with oil approaching the $50 a barrel mark all year, the major U.S. oil companinies posted record or near-record profits. ConocoPhillips this February reported a doubling of its quarterly profits.)

In November 2003, McKee quietly orderd up a new plan for Iraq's oil. For months, the State Department officially denied the existence of this 323 page plan, but when I threathened legal action, I was able to obtain the multi-volume document describing seven possible models of oil production for Iraq, each one merely a different flavor of a single option: a state owned oil company under which the state maintains official title to the reserves but operation and control are given to the foreign oil companies.

According to Ed Morse, another Hess Oil advisor, the switch to an OPEC-friendly policy for Iraq was driven by Dick Cheney. (Not the least bit surprised as it had his markers all over it, so you see the reasons for not bringing forth the minutes of the secret meetings in his office. srh) "The VP's office [has] not pursued a policy in Iraq that would lead to a rapid opening of the Iraqi energy sector that would put us on a track to say, "We're going to put a squeeze on OPEC."

Cheney, far from "putting the squeeze on OPEC," has taken a defacto seat there, allowing the cartel to maintain its suffocating grip on the U.S. economy.

Read the whole story in the April edition of Harper's Magazine out this week. "OPEC ON THE MARCH. Why Iraq Still Sells its Oil a la Cartel," by Greg Palast.

BBC Newsnight - U.S. Secret plan for Iraq's Oil

http://greagpalast.com/video/BBCIraqOilReport.mov

Leni von Eckardt contributed investigative research to this project.

=====

We've all been talking about this for months and it is just another part or so it seems to me, of the PNAC dreams of empire.

Saundra Hummer

March 28th, 2005, 06:02 PM

IRAQ'S MOST-WANTED TERRORIST 'SAID TO BE sURROUNDED'

Saundra Hummer

March 28th, 2005, 06:16 PM

......... IRAQ'S MOST-WANTED TERRORIST SAID TO BE 'SURROUNDED'

Iraqi security forces have surrounded Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the country's interior minister said today.

Al-Zarqawi, the leader of the terror network al Qaida in Iraq, has eluded arrest while kidnapping and killing peop;le in Iraq. Yesterday, militants posted a video on the internet showing the purported execution of a man identifyng himself as Interior Ministry official Col. Ryadh Gatie Olyway.

"We have not arrested al Zarqawi, "Interior Minister Falah al-Nakib siad during a news conference. "He is surrounded in a certain area and we hope for the best. This operation is ongoing. We hope that the situation will be completely different in Iraq at the end of this year."

Al-Nakib said al-Zarqawi was moving in "more than one area," but he refused to give details. (They have tunnels all over the place it seems, and they say they have been using them to escape and have tried to dig more from the prison.)

The outgoing interior minister also predicted the insurgency was nearing an end.

"I think it will collapse very soon," he said, adding: "Maybe by the end of this year, we will see a change, depending on the political situation."

=====

It seems someone may have said something to this effect some time back, didn't they? Or was that only in Pakistan?

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4318492

Saundra Hummer

March 28th, 2005, 07:02 PM

WHITE HOUSE MUST LEAD BY EXAMPLE FOR DEPARTMENT OF STATE'S DEMOCRACY REPORT TO BE EFFECTIVE.

Amnesty Inernational USA warns that as long as the White House continues to flout international law and blatantly disregard the Geneva Conventions, many of it's policies to promote democracy and human rights will be greeted with deep skepticism.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0328-06.htm

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COMMUNIST REBELS SAY U.S. TROOPS COULD COME UNDER ATTACK IN PHILIPPINES, AS IN IRAQ.

Communist gueririllas on Monday renewed their threat against U.S. troops on training missions in the Philippines, saying the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq prove they can be killed despite their superior militrary power.

(Odd, but when Rich was a small boy, friends of his family, a man and his wife from California's central valley, went over to the Philippines to help the people. They had the Philippino people at heart and for it they were murdered by the HUKS. They had gone to help show them better ways to manage farm and dairy lands, how to manage dairy herds and keep their cattle producing ... maximum output, ... and how to keep them healthy and well, and for it they were murdered. Not much has changed in all these years.)

http://www.wkrc.com/news/world/story.aspx?content_id=AB6E37DA-7725-46E3-A550-C1CFC7A27613

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LOOK WHO'S NOT TALKING---STILL

A new report says U.S. intelligence agencies haven't learned to share information, despite lessons of 9/11

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7306163/site/newsweek/

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Saundra Hummer

March 29th, 2005, 12:20 PM

...........................THE "SCHOOL OF THE AMERICA'S"

WHO IS BEING TRAINED AND EDUCATED THERE NOW, NOW THAT THEY HAVE REOPENED UNDER A NEW NAME ... "HEMISPHERE INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC COOPERATION ... AT FORT BENNING, GEORGIA. ???? (NOVEMBER 2004)

THE LIST OF SCHOLARS WHO ONCE ATTENDED THIS "SCHOOL" WHEN IT WAS THE 'SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS: ARE: Manuel Noriega, and Augusto Pinochet's government's high ranking members, "among many, many others."

The "School of the Americas, (SOA) gained much of it's public notoriety in 1989 after six Jesuit priests were killed in El Salvador by SOA graduates. The next year, a Catholic priest, Rev. Roy Bourgeois, founded SOA WATCH - an independent group working to close the school - as well as the annual protest held -- in November, to mark the anniversary of the priests' murders -- to advance that goal. In 1996, declassified SOA training manuals, obtained by the Baltimore Sun via a Freedom of Information request, showed quite explicitly that the school's curriculum featured torture techniques.

(this article goes on to describe efforts to not have this school continue iits operations. It also tells of the reasons for one person's crusade to end this type of training for others who would torture and kill and subvert freedoms we all consider in this country as our god given rights.)

Ms. Deligio, who is serving a sentence for protesting and trespassing on the GA military base, says "I'm coming from a Christian perspective," she says. "I really believe that we're called to live in community with one another. If I live in a place of privilege where I can protest without being killed, murdered, tortured or have my family disappeared, then I feel you have to be a voice for those who can't speak out for themselves."

==
===
====

.....There are efforts afoot to do away with this "school", and I would hope that it will happen. This is one reason we are so despised around the world, and who among us is so blind as to not see it for what it is? A deterrent to world peace and prosperity. I feel that it is policies like this which have brought us to where we are today, and it is another failed policy which needs to change, and actions taken to undo the damage, if it's not too late.

This type of educating isn't what the USA (I have always believed it to be), is all about is it? We have higher aspirations and I feel most of us are better than this, and we shouldn't condone or let this type of subversion go on in our name.

Again, I'm reminded of Oliver North's remark "I work for the 'REAL' government." Was he right? Are we all being duped? Who is funding this school, paid for with our tax money, which elected officials are keeping it up and running? Which of these men and women who we elect are against this type of occurance, this training of despots and jailers? These men who would murder, torture and cheat? ......We elect these men, and women who fund this program and perhaps others which might be similar, so are we wanting to keep them in office if they back these ideologies, these realities?...These horrors? (srh)

==

Click on the address below to access the site:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/hellraiser/2005/03/WHISC.html

Saundra Hummer

March 29th, 2005, 03:39 PM

.........................................FIGHT TO SURVIVE...........

This site (found on: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info ) is the mouthpiece for a group of soldiers who are fighting in a war they oppose, for a president they didn't elect, while the petrochemical complex turns the blood of their fallen comrades into oil.

http://ftssoldier.blogspot.com/2004/11/holiday-in-falluja_19.html

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........................................IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR:

..."We, the veterans of the war, now know all of these reasons for invading the sovereign country of Iraq were false, and we have paid a heavy price for these lies.

http://www.ivaw.net/

Just click on the addresses above to access these stories.

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...................................OUR NEW NIGHTMARE: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:

Australians are just as concerned about United States foreign policy as Islamic extremism and regard the US as more dangerous than a rising China, according to a new poll.

http://www.informationclearing house.info/article8398.htm

=====

...................................MORE ON THE POLITICAL HACK TOM DeLAY....

Paul Krigman: What's going on?:

We can't count on restraint from people like Mr. DeLay, who believes that he's on a mission to bring a "biblical worldview" to American Politics, and that God broght him a brain-damaged patient to help him with that mission.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8402.htm

(All of this is so handy for him, taking the focus off his illegal activities and focusing them on that poor girl and her family. SRH)

(I remember his visiting offshore sweatshops, where the seamstresses were nothing more than abused slave labor, living in squalid condidtions, locked in at night, fed terrible food, no toilets, sexually tormented and the abuse was horrific and he gave the contractors who supplied these workers to American companies his praise, his blessings, and told of what good conditions those women were working in. After having seen this on PBS, I then realized this man hasn't a clue as to what it is to have scruples. It is his bank account and paid for junkets (which even his wife takes part in at times,) which he is looking out for. Again, (as I mentioned his offshore trips in other posts, and it has been a few years now since I saw that program), his traveling and being wined and dined by lobbyists and others is coming back into view once again. Will we let it all slide once more? ..... srh)

http://tinyurl.com/6sggfl

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..........................................PLAYING GOD..........

Given the vehemence with which he has been fighting to prolong Terri's life, it is a little surprising to learn that Robert (Schivo, Terri's father after one week of kidney failure, afflicting his mother, however she was in her 70's) decided to turn off the life support system for his mother.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1077219,00.html

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.......................................SPYING ON CITIZENS...............

The American tradition of free speech is under attack across the country, as law enforcement agencies - under the guise of the war on terror -- intimidate ordinary citizens into silence.

http://tinyurl.com/4ak7e

=====

Saundra Hummer

March 29th, 2005, 04:46 PM

..........................JOHNNIE COCHRAN, HAS DIED.

Lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who famously defended actor O.J. Simpson, had died at his home in Los Angeles, at age 67, CNN confirms.

I have difficulty believing this age as I remember him walking down the hall every weekday in UCLA's medical wing, which the law students often times took shortcuts through. He always had an entourage or at least most of the time. Once in a while he would be alone, but very seldom. Most of the time he would be surrounded by men and women of all ages, fluttering about him like moth's.

One day after I had been there for several months he came in my room to talk to me, and said he had been wanting to for a long time, but hadn't wanted to disturb me, had he only known how it was boredom which was bothering me, not strangers popping in; which actually happened quite a bit. It was sometimes surprising that people visiting other people would come in to visit me. I was going home that week when Johnnie stopped in and he said he was glad to hear I was, but wished he had stopped in sooner. I felt that he was older than the age given for him, and wonder if he gave a different age much like movie stars do? Shaperio and Monica's attorney were going to school there as well, along with Joel (?) Siegal the movie critic, (in one of my mental blocks, can't think of either one of their first names), but we, my friends and me knew Shaperio and Siegal just well enough to stop and say hello, and they were pretty nice fellows. Seems we were always stopping and talkng to them when they would be coming back from playing Tennis in their white tennis sweaters and white shorts, headed back to their fraternity house, they were pretty athletic in those days. Monica's Lewinski's attorney, can't think of his name at all, he went to school at UCLA at the same time as the other fellows did, and he was a very nice studious fellow. He sure got slammed in the press, hated to see that.

It's too bad Johnnie Cochran died, and I wish we knew the whole O.J., Nicole story. Something is just still so odd about it all. Even Al Michaels said something just doesn't fit, and he knew them.

I always wondered if whoever killed her had time to dump their bloody clothing in UCLA's incinerator or trash bin at it's hospital or at St. Johns hospital in Santia Monica, (if so, bloody clothing wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary if it had been seen there) and if they had the time to clean up at one of the darkened and not lit car washes in the area, as one I know of was absolutely pitch black, but it was in Century City and I don't see how enough time woud have been available to make it there and back home in the time-frame which had been told of.

Anyway, Johnny died today. Wish he would have left information to be read after his death.

The spelling Johnnie is from CNN's newsletter, I always thought it was Johnny.

Saundra Hummer

March 30th, 2005, 11:35 AM

........................RICE ALARMS REFORMIST ARABS WITH STABILITY REMARKS

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has alarmed many reformist Arabs with comments suggesting a new U.S. approach that promotes rapid political change without regard to internal stability.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=8022839&src=rss/ElectionCoverage

Or:

http://tinyurl.com/6e4jc

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..................................US DRAWS UP LIST OF UNSTABLE COUNTRIES:

US intelligence services are drawing up a secret watch-list of 25 countries in which instability might lead to US intervention.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article 8395.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6ag7g

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...................................US SCATTERS BASES TO CONTROL EURASIA

The United States is beefing up its military presence in Afghanistan, at the same time encircling Iran. Washington will set up nine new bases in Afghanistan in the provinces of Helmand, Herat, Nimrouz, Balkh, Khost, and Paktia.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GC30Ag01.html

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........................................59 AMERICAN EX-DIPLOMATS OPPOSE BOLTON:

Challenging the White House, 59 former American diplomats are urging the Senate to reject John R. Boltons nomination to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=620746

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Did you know that Tom DeLays own father was injured severely while building a tram to move his family and guests up and down a mountain side to a lake? He was put on life support which the famiy decided to remove him from and how they sued to be compensated for their loss, he signing over his share to his mother. However, he is now fighting against feeding tube removal and against the right to sue for damages in cases much the same as their own. He was on the fringes of this, but his family had much of the same emotional tragedy as Terry Schaivo's relatives and husband are going through now. It just didn't encompass as much time, as many years. The tragedy never the less was every bit as much a sorrowful time in their lives.

Strange, all of this "political" wrangling over a poor families tragedy. So many diverse feelings going on in each and every one of us. I myself feel one way one minute and another in the next, who's to say who is right and wrong, but to play politics with this poor girls life and her families lives is just not right. One of the more shameful political happenings that I can recall.

Living wills need to be made to try to stop what is going on.

I wonder if the people out in force protesting the removal of her feeding tube would volunteer to help take care of her for even a short period of time each day, as her husband and her family members have? Would they sacrifice part of their daIly routine to help with her, or with even a close family member, such as an aunt or cousin? It is so easy to take up a cause while no effort to sustain her is done by them. So easy, so removed, so unattached. How about financial support? Would these sign carrying and shouting protestors give up few dollars each week to try to make a difference? Some likely would, but others, for the most part, I don't believe they would. Just my take on this tragedy.

Bulemic girls beware, it is a possibility you could end up much the same.

Saundra Hummer

March 30th, 2005, 02:44 PM

...........................................QUOTES. ...

"We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security." Dwight David Eisenhower : 34th president of the United States, 1890-1969.

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"I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security - out of which grow a bored and slothfull cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is, and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self-satisfaction." : John Steinbeck: American novelist, Nobel Prize for Literature for 1962, 1902-1968

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"The only security for the American people today, or for any people, is to be found through the control of force rather than the use of force." : Norman Cousins: American essayist and editor, long associated with the Saturday Revies, 1912-1990

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"Power always had to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security is doubly dangerous. : William Proxmire.

=====

Saundra Hummer

March 31st, 2005, 11:39 AM

AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW

SHEILA TRACY TALKS TO BILL REICHENBACH

Bill Reichenbach is one of Hollywood's busiest session trombonists. He lives with his wife, Fran, plus ten cats, three dogs, four squirrels and two rabbits in the Hollywood Hills where the animals are not allowed to wander because of maurading coyotes. Oh, I forgot to mention his collection of a hundred or so antique instruments including various cornets, ten euphoniums and some twenty trombones, which has spilled over into a storage room down near the freeway.

This in an open all encompassing interview and an interesting take on the creative and business side of performing, writing, recording, a really fascinating interview, at least I found it interesting and fun to read. So, he's the musician responsible for one of my favorite show's music, the short lived "Franks Place." One of the best written and original series on television. Too bad it wasn't given a chance to catch on. I was amazed that jazz was a feature.

Here's the address to his interview, just click on it:

http://www.trombone-society.org.uk/reichenbach.htm

I posted this interview on the Gene Brusiloff obituary because of his having studied with Gene, and because it is such an interesting take on the music business, but it isn't getting viewed very much as Gene probably isn't known by a lot of members, but thought Bill's interview and insight into how musicians are hired and paid for movies today is pretty intersting in itself. I thought it was and I think you will as well. :banana:

Saundra Hummer

April 1st, 2005, 02:48 PM

..............BUSHSPEAK: CRACKING THE CODE

INTRODUCTION BY TOM ENGELHARDT

For the last few years we have been ruled by lexicographers. Never has an administration spent so much time creating, defining, or redefining terms, perhaps because no one (since George Orwell) has grasped the power and possibility that lay hidden in plain sight in the naming and renaming of words. In a sense, our post-9/11 moment began with two difinitions: The Bush administration named our global enemy "terrorism" and called the acts that followed a "war," which was soon given the moniker "the global war on terror" (later reduced to the acronym GWOT, also known as World War IV), which was then given an instant future -- being defined as a "generational struggle" that was still to come. All this along with "war" itself, was simply announced rather than officially "declared."

Given that we were (by administratin definition) at war, it should have been self-evident that thouse we captured in our "war" on terrorism would then be "prisoners of war," but no such luck for them, since their rights would in that case have been clearly defined in international treaties signed by the United States. So the Bush administratin opened its Devil's Dictionary and came up with a new, tortured term for our new prisoners, "unlawful combatants," which really stood for: We can do anything we want to you in a place of our choosing. for that place they then chose Guantanamo, an American base in Cuba (which they promptly defined as within "Cuban sovereignty" for the purpose of putting our dentention camps beyond the purview of Amerian courts or Congress, but within Bush adminsitration sovereignty -- the sole kind that counted with them -- for the purposes of the Cubans).

In this way, we moved from a self-declared generational war against a method of making war to a world of torture beyond the reach of, or even sight of, the law in a place that (until the Supreme Court recently ruled otherwise) more or less didn't exist. All this was then supported by a world of pretzeled language constantly being reshapaed in the White House Counsel's office, the Justice Department, and the Pentagon so that reality would have no choice but to comply with the names given it.

The way gunmen once reached for their six-guns, so the various legal and other counselors of this administration reach for their dictonaries. The lawyer-authors of the varius tortured memos about torture that came out of the White House Counsel's office and the Justice Department, for instance, expended much effort acting as if they were part of a panel for a new edition of some dictionary. Here are a couple of examples along their tortuous path to redefiing responsibility for hte inflicthing of pain:......

Go to this address to read the rest of this article:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2005/03/devilsdictionary.html

It very well could be that Information Clearing House is also carrying this story, you can visit them at this address:

http://www.informatinclearinghouse.info

Saundra Hummer

April 1st, 2005, 02:58 PM

If you click on to the sight above, Mother Jones, while there read the following aricle and check out their jokes:

...."WHY WORLD WAR IV CAN'T SELL
BY John Brown

Here's the address again.

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dailymojo/2005/05/why_world_war_iv_wont_sell.html

Saundra Hummer

April 1st, 2005, 03:13 PM

I wonder when we will be doing something about this man? Will we be going in and hunting him down as we did Manuel Norriega, and Saddam Hussein, his sons and inner-circle? When will we decide we can make more money without him? Will we lock him away never to be seen or heard from again, afraid he might spill the beans? Perhaps he will be killed in a coup one of these days, it's a shakey world these despots live in. Will we be the ones to pull the plug once we use him to get what it is we want, all the while letting him function as he is, will we continue facillitating his apetites? SRH.

Check out the story of how "American handled his loot. Oil companies played by his rules. The Bush administratin woos him. How the pursuit of oil is propping up the West African dictatorship of Teodoro Obiang."

A TOUCH OF CRUDE

By Peter Mass,

Illustration and maps by Jeffrey Decoster and Baker Vail

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/12/12_400.html

Saundra Hummer

April 1st, 2005, 06:08 PM

FROM GREG PALAST: WOLFOWITZ TURNS DOWN WORLD BANK POST NEOCONSERVATIVE ACCEPTS BLAME FOR INTELLIGENCE ERRORS

Friday April 1, 2005
[Brussels] In an unexpected turn of events, controversial US Pentagon official Paul Wolfowitz has turned down the post of President of the World Bank. The Deputy Defense Secretary had won unanimous support of World Bank trustees in a vote Thursday despite widespread objections to the appointment in the European press.

In a statement issued today by the Deputy Secretary before departing Brussels, Mr. Wolfowitz cited the release of the Silberman-Robb Commission report to the president on failures of US intelligence in Iraq.

Mr Wolfowitz noted that on March 27, 2003, he had testified before the US Congress that the post-war reconstruction of that nation would not cost any "US taxpayer money." Rather, Iraq's oil would pay for the post-conquest rebuilding.

The price tag is now inching toward $200 billion. Mr. Wolfowitz, long associated with neo-conservative faction in the Bush Administration, angrily responded tot he Silberman-Rohb Commission's accusation that his intelligence on Iraq was flawed or deficient.

"That's just plain wrong. In fact, the Pentagon had incontrovertible evidence that my projections were as phony as a three-dollar bill. Don't blame the CIA. We saw their intelligence and preferred an alternative reality."

A World Bank spokesman reached in Washington, when asked about the Wolfowitz rejection of the institutions presidency, said, "It's sounds like another cheap April Fool's Day trick by Greg Palast to call attention to his own investigative report on the Bush Administration's secret plans for Iraq's oil" ---out in this month's Harpers Magazine.

Saundra Hummer

April 1st, 2005, 08:44 PM

THIS ONE SEEMS TO BE REAL AS IT WAS WRITTEN MARCH 23, 2005 BY BOB HOFFMAN -- Political_Gateway.com

Last Thrusday AFP, A French based news service and the oldest news service in the world, sued Google, the biggest search engine in the world for copyright infringement. An amount around 17 million was asked for in damages. This story will give you an overviews of the situation and the damage it has done.

(this article is on Yahoo News, and here is their address, hope it gets you there without too much jockeying around.)

http://www.searchengineguide.com/articles/2005/0303_rc1.html

==

Try this one, and subscribe if you like news, tech news, etc.:

http://www.politicalgateway.com/news/read.html?id=3313

==

What will this bring on? Surely this is an April Fools joke???

Saundra Hummer

April 3rd, 2005, 01:05 PM

I don't know what it is like where all of you live, but here where we are ,the malcontented grumblings of the disillusioned are growing louder and louder, and it isn't about just one concern, it is about all sorts of issues from citizens rights, monetary issues, drug pervsiveness and the crimes which accompanie it, military issues, the courts, the law, oil, power such as electricity and heating costs, the military and government officials from local to federal.

People are becoming terribly disillusioned, and they are becoming vocal about it even stranger to stranger. We haven't heard this since Viet Nam, & the Iran Contra scandal. We have never noticed such a fast rise in people becoming disinchanted with what is happening in our country and in the world in a long, long time.

I guess it doesn't much matter as we see no change in policy and none of the people in the administration seems to be willing to change course to avert catastrophy in any of these areas.

Here, where we live, Meth is an epidemic, the whole state of Oregon is considered the very worst in the nation, and the identity theft that accompanies it is a disaster. Police officials are trying to have this recognized immediately by the "Feds" so as to get help in fighting it but the Feds say a study needs to be done to prove that Meth is a factor, the driving force behind idenitity theft, that it needs to be proven to the Feds before anything will be done. Before they will even take a look at the problem. A study? Any person arested for it will tell you they were feeding a habit. The crime in our area, not just identity theft is drug driven, and Meth is the worst. We have had terrible experiences ourselves with it's harm, and how it drives people to commit breakins, armed robberies, petty thefts and on, and on. A man who Rich had worked with suffered a terrible tragedy due to Meth. His daughter had either come to visit or had moved back home or was trying to get back home and she wandered out into the grassland near where her father lived while she was visiting, a semi wilderness area, rugged country full of volcanic rock and juniper trees, and she froze to death as did her little baby. She was in a meth induced stupor and instead of trying to reach home she walked off away from everyones homes and was peeling off her clothing believing she was hot. It was winter and she and the baby froze to death before anyone was able to find them, This poor man was heartbroken, as he loved her so and was so very proud of and loved the baby as well. Just one tragic incident, and they need to do a study before they will try to combat it? This is nonsense.

Saundra Hummer

April 3rd, 2005, 04:21 PM

"The minority, the ruling class at present, has the schools and press, usually the Church as well, under its thumb. This enables it to organize and sway the emotions of the masses, and make a tool of them": Albert Einstein - Source: letter to Sigmund Freud, 30 July 1952

==

"A people living under the perpetual menace of war and invasion is very easy to govern. It demands no social reforms. It does not haggle over expenditures for armaments and military equipment. It pays without discussion, it ruins itself, and that is an excellent thing for the syndicates of financiers and manufacturers for whom patriotic terrors are an abundant source of gain." Anatole France, pseudonym for Jacques Anatole Thibault (1844-1924)

Saundra Hummer

April 4th, 2005, 02:37 PM

.....IN A SEASON OF campaign rallies and million-dollar ad buys, President Bush opted for one decidedly understated ceremony. On October 22, just 11 days before the election, he boarded Air Force One to sign $137 billion in new tax breaks for corporate America, one of the largest industry giveaways in two decades. This was his fifth major tax cut, but this time there was no glad-handing, no photo-op just a one-sentence press release. The president had nothing to brag about. His signature expanded exactly the sort of tax avoidance he had raled against at a campaign rally that morning: "The rich hire lawyers and accountants for a reason when it comes to taxes," Bush had told a roaring audience at a hockey arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. "Thats to slip the bill and stick you with it."

It was an apt description of the vaingloriously named American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. Though the law began with an effort to end a $5 billion-a-year corporate tax subsidy that had been declared illegal by the World Trade Organization,. it had grown into a hydra-headed beast. >>>>>> Continued, see the rest where it says the bill, "From the beginning to the end was designed by lobbyists", by clicking onto the following address:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2005/03/corporate_tax_bill.html

WHILE THERE CLICK ON THE BOX WHERE IT IS TRYING TO GET SUPPORT TO END CANADA'S SEAL HUNT. THEY ARE TRYING TO STOP IT "FOREVER."

The largest commercial slaughter of marine mammals on this planet has begun. By the end of this years hunt, more than 300,000 seals wiill have been brutally killed--many of them babies as young as 12 days old. Some of them will have been skinned while still conscious and able to feel pain.

http://hsus.ga4.org/campaign/protectseals?source=GABADD

I used to wear black seal skin apre' ski boots, (the black is from older seals, however, what does that matter?), they kept my feet dry, and toasty warm and I didn't slip and fall on the ice in them. I saw some gorgeous seal skin parka's at Mamouth Mt. and how I wanted one of those. I always went hunting for the same style seal skin boots when mine were wearing out and I was always able to find a pair in the ski shop. Then one night I saw the baby seal hunt on PBS, and that was it. I for some reason never equated my boots with that kind of cruelty, but it exists. I no longer want a parka and I no longer buy anything made from seal skin. I'm not a vegan, but this hunt, this killing, is vanity driven, not food driven, but just so some of us out here in comsumer land can try to look good. There are other ways, after all we are't ethnic peoples living in the artic and northern latitudes "needing" to keep warm and dry, we are only buying these things to look our best, as there are other things out there that will keep us as warm and as dry, and the suffering won't happen if we buy the new high tech products.

Saundra Hummer

April 4th, 2005, 02:45 PM

Go To To The Sight Above, ..... Hit The Address For The Seal Hunt, .........and Sign The Petition To Stop The Hunt, That Is, If You Are Against It.

Saundra Hummer

April 4th, 2005, 07:48 PM

SUPREME COURT: CREDITORS CAN'T SEIZE IRA'S

Finally a judgement from Clarance Thomas which I agree with, of course those who perhaps shouldn't will benefit from this as well. O.J. comes to mind, however, there would be so many others who would be terribly disadvantaged if their retirement were taken. (SRH)

"The ruling effects 16 states and the District of Columbia, which do not have their own state laws protecting IRAs. The remaining 34 have separate state laws on banckruptcy protection, with a few of those, including New York, California and Iowa, that have language mirroring the federal bankruptcy statute."

To see more of this Associated Press (AP) story go to this address by just clicking on it:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tpml=story&e=3&u=/ap/20050404/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_bankruptcy&sid=84439559

Saundra Hummer

April 4th, 2005, 08:59 PM

FISH FARMING THE GULF OF MEXICO, USING OIL PLATFORMS AS THE BASE OF OPERATIONS: BUSH HAS JUMPED TO ENDORSE THIS IDEA.

I love sea food and could eat it every day and not tire of it, however, the oceans since countries around the world allowed and promoted factory fishing fleets, the oceans and the fish in them didn't stand a chance. Many fish have been exploited to the edge of extinction, Red Snapper comes to mind, along with other favorites of the deep.

I wish it would be a feasible operation, one that would allow the native species to recover, and thrive, but it seems there is a catch and that is the weakening of native species by inbreeding with farmed fish and other problems associated with this type of farming. Environmentalists are concerned and rightly so, and if this does become a reality, it will have to be monitored closely, and handled properly by all involved.

Knowing how GW Bush and this administration are about ecological threats, his seemingly not caring what happens to the country, wanting to mine coal and use what he calls "clean coal" for energy consumption here in the states, I thought there has to be a catch somewhere in his swift approval and endorsement of such a project. It seems the main thing is, the oil companies won't have the expense of dismantling the huge rigs sitting out there. It won't have to be paid for, and the oil rigs are ideal for this they say.

It would be nice if this would work, and if it is done, lets hope it is done correctly without endangering native species.

Saundra Hummer

April 5th, 2005, 01:34 PM

......"Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive." Henry Steele Commager - (1902-1998) Historian and author.

Saundra Hummer

April 5th, 2005, 01:42 PM

When in the past, if I posted what I knew as an opionion (my own opinion), and an addition to what it was I had heard or read elsewhere, you (NJ4M). wanted links as you didn't believe me. You kept asking for links. I had never been one to post in that manner, it was just that I wasn't believed by you without them, however, you kept wanting them, and now that I post links and the actual story so that it is something you can see with your own eyes, not giving you reason to question my verasity, you complain. No pleasing you it seems.

Saundra Hummer

April 5th, 2005, 01:44 PM

Thank you for pointing out the difference between the bulletin board and the site in total, John... and I mean that sincerely. As I'll mention to Xricci, its a distinction I hadn't considered, and thanks to the few responses I've received in this thread, its another consideration I've given thought to in the past week or so while deciding whether to continue here, and whether to support the AAJ site. (I can imagine quite a few posters here thinking now.... "Just GO, please", and that's OK.). All things considered, the bulletin board is still a part of the site, and as a part of the site, I have a problem supporting it. If AAJ is intended to do good work in the cause of jazz, my own opinion is that it should stick to that goal, and not corrupt or taint the site with controversial issues... but that's just my opinion.

In response to your observations: ... I think this still misses the essence of my problem here. Primarily, when I post my opinions, theyt are just that - MY opinions. I form them, I articulate them, and I post them. There's a vast difference between that type of opinionating, and the recycling of posts, verbatim, from other websites. The former supports people's opportunity to express their opinions, the latter supports other websites. Beyond that, I think the opportunity to post opinions is valuable, but there is, again, a big difference about posting about many things... and posting links only about one thing. I hope I've made my ideas clear here. I endorse people's right to express their opinions, but not a systematic, exploitive linking to external sites. Just my opinion.

Regards,
Mike

Read post 716, I should have put it in as a quote so you understand it was directed in your direction. You always wanted links from me, so post 716 is in response to what it is you think, after the fact.

Saundra Hummer

April 5th, 2005, 03:38 PM

My first vivid memory of Pope John Paul II's political influence was when I saw him standing with the leader of Poland. They were standing "face to Face" and how the despot's legs began to quiver ever so slightly, (he standing there in his military uniform with all of his medals across his chest), until they were trembling so (I believed he would fall to the floor), that it seems, or made it look to the observer, to me, as though he thought the wrath of God would strike him dead. I will never forget that scene, and how terribly guilty he seemed and acted standing before a Pope of Polish origin. An amazing and telling sight.

Saundra Hummer

April 6th, 2005, 11:23 AM

The the things which show up on eBay are amazing.

A friend of mine who lives in California and is a friend of Howard Rumsey, sent me a download of a trombone listing on eBay. The trombone belonged to Frank Rosolino. The fellow listing it had taken lessons from Frank, and he had given it to him one day. He has a short story about it on the sale site. It has two days to go yet, or when he sent the sales listing it says two days, and it is at $287.50 or there abouts. Probably not one of his best, but still it would be nice to own. I would like to have it just for the sentiment.

clave

April 6th, 2005, 01:13 PM

I'm sorry that you feel that way, Mike. I asked what I thought was an honest, legitimate, ethical question. You also seem to miss my point that I'm all for people's right to express their opinions, but I feel that it isn't at all appropriate to use a site dedicated to jazz, a site asking for donations and support from its visitors, jazz enthusiasts - to promote the ideologies of other, non-jazz websites, through the systematic reposting of their links here. The message of these other sites is objectionable to me, and I can't in good conscience support their propogation through this board, especially since the political messages are specifically non-jazz). Yes, I object to the opinions as expressed by other posters here, as they object to mine. We can disagree without having to support the message with a link though, and that is the difference. I appreciate the distinction that you made between the bulletin board and the total website, and I applaud your efforts in promoting and supporting jazz. The taint on the site with all the political spewing is hard for me to reconcile, however, and I think this is probably not a good place for me. Those other sites that are contiunually linked to have NO bearing on jazz. They deserve to exist, to succeed or to fail - based on their own merit, and the attraction to their own audience. To use this jazz site to effectively double their exposure, strikes me as exploitive and inappropriate. To support those other sites through AAJ, even though it is a small portion of AAJ, is ethically unacceptable to me. I made the point initially, because I supposed that if I had these feelings, perhaps other posters also had them. Apparently I was wrong - the consensus is clear that they're welcome here, and I'm in the overwhelming minority. No hard feelings Mike, but as I said, this doesn't seem to be the right site for me.

Regards,
Mike

NJ4M - you've actively participated in thread in the Current Events section, when you could have avoided it altogether. I see your reply (personally, that is) as being more than a little ingenuous. A handful of people participate in the threads in the Current Events section. All the rest of the AAJ board -- and the AAJ site, the real core of everything here -- is about music.

I guess i don't understand how you can take your feelings for this specific section and the people (other than yourself) who post here, and somehow make it a blanket statement about the entire AAJ site.

You've aired your opinions very freely here; are you saying that others shouldn't, simply because they are coming from a different place than you?

What this has to do with jazz, I'm not at all sure...

Saundra Hummer

April 6th, 2005, 02:39 PM

NJ4M - you've actively participated in thread in the Current Events section, when you could have avoided it altogether. I see your reply (personally, that is) as being more than a little ingenuous. A handful of people participate in the threads in the Current Events section. All the rest of the AAJ board -- and the AAJ site, the real core of everything here -- is about music.

I guess i don't understand how you can take your feelings for this specific section and the people (other than yourself) who post here, and somehow make it a blanket statement about the entire AAJ site.

You've aired your opinions very freely here; are you saying that others shouldn't, simply because they are coming from a different place than you?

What this has to do with jazz, I'm not at all sure...

To all of you out there (and to NJ4Mike) .......

When I posted my opinion and what I knew myself of Haliburton's involvement with Iraq, how they skirted the law by contracting with foreign companies to conduct business (business as usual & the same was also going on with Libya), avoiding sanctions because of their dealings with Iraq. NJ4M accused me of scandulous behaviour and said I should be ashamed; he then started asking for links. I had never done the link thing before, never kept track of which web site or magazine I had read the article in, as it could have been months earler, so I couldn't remember who told these stories, and had a problem trying to dig them up again, however, other members posted the sites links for me as they knew of them.

There were other instances with the same sort ot ridicule and attacks, so when he wanted links, I, instead of just doing a second hand reference, began to post links and stories while they are fresh, either partial or whole articles, as I believed links would help everone, and this way the mimicing, ridicule and accusations of me making the story up would stop with him. Besides - I thought the stories in them were pretty engrossing and an alternative to what we see and hear most of the time on national news and in the national magazines. At least, if not new or unreported elsewhere, they were earlier, sometimes by days or even weeks.

NJ4Mike asked for links, over and over, he said he wanted proof. So I gave him his links - his proof, for nothing it seems - as his personal attacks still happen.

I attack the perpertrators and the policies, he attacks the messenger. He also attacks policies, candidates, and the parties various wings, however there's a big difference in my eyes. Sure I've fought back, who wouldn't? Could be a lot of members wouldn't, but I have, and do.

I give a source, he attacks with a visciousness and puts on the martyr mantle. I remember his posts before and during my posts with links, everybit as disapproving then and he was dishing out some vitriol toward what he considers our Leftist views himself, party-wise as well as personal attacks. He was attacking our party ideals and politicians we back or might back. That was fine, as both of us were just providing a viewpoint that might differ from others.

There are times I even don't believe fully in what is being written I am just showing another point of view, articles which can start one thinking and questioning --- which I believe is a healthy thing, not that everything I post is gospel, but enough is factual and should whet your appetite to find out more on your own, the pro's and con's, that's the reason behind my posts. These are multiple reasons I feel the way I do, and post what I post and respond as I do to others like NJ4M. Sure, I'm providing the links NJ4M kept prodding me into posting. I guess they weren't really wanted as this is what he complans of now, links. Now that he has them he wants them stopped, and holds me and my posts over Mikes head, withholding his donating to the site. Amazing!

I didn't run to Mike like a school child to have his posts deriding me stopped, I didn't need to, I could either ignore them or tell him what I thought of them and, let it go at that. Do I have to like what he posts? No way - and other than in the jazz venues, I don't agree with or like what I see and hear from him. But react as he is, why bother? For what? Why would I need to? :violin

Saundra Hummer

April 7th, 2005, 10:32 AM

While browsing google, I found this site and it gives a short bio on several people (and more) It is part of a Los Angeles web site, the official address is:

http://www.ci.la.ca.us/

=

But here's the link to the site's page which has the short bio's - among other things, school links, etc.

http://www.nndb.com/geo/582/000069375/

=

The site asks you "do you know something we don't?" and if you have additional comments.

Saundra Hummer

April 7th, 2005, 12:04 PM

ON THE AIR: BUSH'S DANGEROUS PROPAGANDA GAME

JIM HIGHTOWERS AUDIO/OR PRINT ARTICLE

Reporting on the ringers the Bush administration is putting out there as legitimate news sources, while feeding us propaganda in it's guise.

http://www.jimhightower.com/air/read.asp?id=11634

While on his site check out the archives for more audio or print articles. He does an article on lack of tourniquets for troops which is said caused several of our young men to bleed to death, lives could have been saved with them. These are short little articles full of relevent current events.

The article "Senators Step On Workers." Then the tragedy of our military in the Middle East and the tragedy of what happens to injured men and women once they come home which he reports on in short little concise bits.

He tells of Senators voing themselves a pay raise every five years and how they expect others to live on $10 thousand dollars a year, minimum wage, which millions are doing. It's no longer government by the people. Corporate America is calling the shots, and look where they're taking us. :eek2:

Saundra Hummer

April 7th, 2005, 03:20 PM

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty and democracy?" Mahandas Gandhi

==

"In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always the people who get killed." Eduardo Galeano

==

"Another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one's own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard - every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilshness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals, which they serve." Eric Fromm

Saundra Hummer

April 7th, 2005, 05:00 PM

..."Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war in which the folly and wickedness of the government may engage itself? Under what concealment has this power lain hidden, which now for first time comes forth, with a tremendous and baleful aspect, to trample down and destroy the dearest right of personal liberty? Who will show me any Constitutional injunction which make it the duty of the American people to surrender everything valuable in life, and even life itself whenever the purposes of an ambitious and mischievous government may require it? A free government with an uncontrolled power of military conscription is the most ridiculous and abominable contradiction and nonsense that ever entered into the heads of men." Daniel Webster (1782-1852), US Senator, Source: Speech in the House of Represenatives, January 14, 1814

(Times have changed, yet some ideas stay the same, as even then there were differing viewpoints being brought out and recognized as well. Daniel Webster, or any one else had and has this riight to voice differing viewpoints and arguments against what it was that was happening in his lifetime, and we in ours. It is a freedom we all enjoy and we need to protect it regardless of how small the wimpers or loud the crys for others viewpoints to be quelled.)

Saundra Hummer

April 7th, 2005, 05:13 PM

THE HUMAN COST OF WAR

THE GROUND TRUTH: THE HUMAN COST OF WAR

This film is our soldiers' perspective of the Iraq War, and how they are being treated upon returning home. It goes beyond the war stories to look undernearh our American tradtion of engaging in war and then abandoning the warrior. :confused:

THIS IS A MUST WATCH DOCUMENTRY

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7693.htm

http://snipur.com/dvqw

jazz_man

April 7th, 2005, 09:15 PM

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com

As you scramble to fill out your 1040 form this week, consider this.
When Congress voted to authorize the use of military force in Iraq, it included two requirements. The first was that the President prove that Iraq was in defiance of the United Nations by being in possession of banned weapons of mass destruction. The second was that the President have proof that Iraq was involved in 9-11. In his letter to Congress activating the authorization for the use of force, Bush claimed he had proof of both of those conditions.

And the nation invaded Iraq.

And nobody knows the number of the dead.

In hindsight, Bush lied when he claimed to have proof that Iraq had WMDs. He lied when he claimed to have proof that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11.

Bush lied.

And that means that the Congressional Authorization for the use of force in Iraq was not legally in effect when Bush ordered the military to invade. Bush has been misappropriating government property for personal use.

So, why should you pay for it?

Bush is holding his hand out to you this month to send in a check to pay for a war that is illegal under both US and International law. If you agree to pay for that illegal war, then you are just as guilty as Bush is. If you agree to pay for the torturers of Abu Ghraib, who tortured innocent Iraqis to find those WMDs we now know did not exist, the blood of innocents stains your hands. If you agree to pay for the depleted uranium that poisons not only Iraq but our own sons and daughters in uniform, then you are as guilty as those who poisoned them.

I don't think you should pay for an illegal war. I don't think there is a law that compels any US citizen to pay for an illegal war or indeed to pay for any illegal act of any US Government official.

When a US Government official is caught using government property for personal use, he is required to reimburse the treasury for that personal use. So should it be with Bush and his private little war in Iraq. He, not you, should be paying those costs. It's his war, not yours.

Saundra Hummer

April 12th, 2005, 10:48 AM

U.S GEOLOGICAL SURVEY - NATIONAL EARTHQUAKE iNFORMATION CENTER ---
WORLD DATA CENTER FOR SEISMOLOGY - DENVER

A strong earthquake occurred at 17:08:54 (UTC) on Monday, April 11, 2005.

The magnitude 6.8 event has been located SOUTHEAST OF THE LOYALTY ISLANDS. The hypocentral depth was estimated to be 68 km (42 miles). (This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.)

Check out this site, I'm saving it to my favorite places as it is correct information.

There are maps, animations, history and other factors regarding earthquakes.

Here's the address, just click on it.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/equinthenews/2005/uswtbt/

That site sends you to the following address, so if you should have problems with the first address, just click on this one:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

Saundra Hummer

April 12th, 2005, 11:14 AM

U.S. AUDIT PROBES 4212 MILLION IN HALLIBURTON IRAQ WORK

BY SUE PLEMING, REUTERS

( I have to wonder if it will go the way of the investigation into the Plame affair, which according to U.S. law was treason, a betrayal which is being swept under the carpet by all who could bring this tawdry affair into the light of day, however in the world of partisan politics this isn't happening. Will this investigation fare any better? SRH)

"U.S. oil services giant Halliburton Co. may have overcharged by at least $212 million to get fuel to Iraqi civilians under a no-bid deal with the U.S. military, said Pentagon audits released on April 11.

California Rep. Henry Waxman, a leading critic of Halliburton's work in Iraq, released portions of audits by the Defense Contract Audit Agency that identified overcharges and questioned costs for fuel delivered in Iraq by Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root in 2003 and 2004.

In one case, the overcharges exceeded 47 percent of the total value of one work order, said Waxman in a letter to Rep. Christopher Shays, chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security, emerging threats and international relations.

Halliburton, which was run by Vice President Dick Cheney until he joined the race for the White House in 2000, has said its KBR subsidiary delivered fuel for the best possible price in Iraq and has consistently denied it overcharged.

Neither Halliburton not the Pentagon immediately responded to questions regarding the latest audits.

==

To get the whole article go to this address by just clicking on it:

http://www.defensenews.com/story.php?F=779788&C=america

Saundra Hummer

April 12th, 2005, 03:04 PM

This coming weekend (it is on tonight or tomorrow night I believe - and is being rerun during the weekend, or I believe it will be as that is usually the pattern on PBS) there's a special on PBS about Karl Rove that is going to be broadcast and it tells of how he has arrived to where he is in the administration and how he is working to perpetuate GOP rule in the country, a GOP which falls into line with how he and the powers that be want the country and it's politicians to step. (I keep saying, as this statement just floored me when it was said by Oliver North in the Iran Contra, drugs for arms scandal, "I work for the real government." It seems he knew what he was talking about as the real goverment is doing things which shock us all and sicken us, all under the guise of bettering the world. I need to believe we don't want what is happening with the unwarranted deaths and torture being carried out in our name, the administration saying all along we are promoting democracy! What a ruse!. Who would want it after seeing how brutal it can be, how narrow a view of others it evokes, how it is power and greed driven? Their brand anyway, not the democracy we have always believed in as citizens. The hypocrisy is staggering. SRH) :rant2:

Here's an interesting quote from Information Clearing House.info's news letter:

"The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life___ A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors... Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same.": Geroge Orwell. 1984

Saundra Hummer

April 12th, 2005, 03:57 PM

High School To Pay Student Informants For Tips On Campus Crime.

Rome, Ga --- A High School Is Looking For A Few Good Snitches.

There Is A Vote Available To See How You View This.

I would imagine every parent and friend or relative of those shot in the numerous school shootings would wish that a program had been in place to stop what has been happening in our schools over the past several years.

Could we be damned if we do, and damned if we don't? Literally!

To want to stop crime is one thing, but to only want to if one is being paid is another; what is the lesson in this? I don't see any good coming from such a program, only more abuse of the system.

I don't know what is going on with kids, and a lot of adults as far as this goes. I remember when my friends and me were growing up how we all looked out after one another, how we tried to help and guide one another in the right directions. If we felt one of us headed too far in one direction or another we would try to help. We were't angels, we did things we shouldn't have like most kids, but we did try to keep each other out of trouble, we didn't bully kids who didn't fit in, we just wouldn't have done this, not in the wide group of friends we all had up and down the coast. We saw people who did and they were the ones made to feel badly as a rule. Now I see kids dragging their best friends down with them, not protecting one another like you expect friends to do. Why is this? Who is guiding them? No one it seems, too much time alone or with people who are not a good influence. SRH

.....The school will be..... "Using revenue from its candy and soda sales (this is another reason for bad behavior some people believe, sweets in their diets), Model High School plans to pay up to $100 for information about thefts and drug or gun possession on campus."

"It's not that we feel there are any problems here," said Principal Glenn White. "It's a proactive move for getting information that will help deter any sort of illegal activity."

"Under the new policy, a student would receive $10 for information about a theft on campus, $25 or $50 for information about drug possession, and $100 for information about gun possession or other serious felonies."

"Informants will not receive the reward if they are involved in the crime," White said.

==

The report goes on, and talks about another school which has such a program in place.

==
Visit the site for the last few words and to vote on what you believe the policy about this should be.

http://www.wftv.com/news/4366400/detail.html

Saundra Hummer

April 12th, 2005, 04:51 PM

SECRET SERVICE VISITS ART SHOW AT COLUMBIA COLLEGE'S GLASS CURTAIN GALLERY.

The show, named: AXIS OF EVIL, THE SECRET HISTORY OF SIN was looked in on by the Secret Service , and they wanted names and other information about the artists. They also wanted to know what the artists meant by their work, and they asked to hear from the curator of the exhibit, Michael Hernandes del Luna withn 24 hours.acording to museum director Carol Ann Brown. They said "They just want to make sure it isn't something more than a statement," according to Ms Brown.

There is a fake stamp which is stirring up concern, it is of George W. Bush with a pistol pointed at his head on a 37 cent stamp depiction, and it isn't the first time an artwork depicting a U.S. stamp had caused a controversy; Hernandes has had a brush with the feds over a fake stamp before. In 2001 authorities said they suspected he was behind a bogus stamp which bore a black skull and crossbones and the word "Anthrax." It was sent through the mail diuring the height of the anthrax scare.

Go to the address below to see all of the things which are discussed in this article. The exhibition "features 47 artists from 11 countries and depicts "powerful religious and political leaders worldwide on mock postage stamps. One, called "Citizen John Ashcroft." shows Ashcroft's face fashioned from images of naked bodies at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq." Another shows GW Bush with a revolver being held to his head. I would imagine that could be considered inciteful.

The article seems to lead us to believe it's another "Big Brother" scenario.

==

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-axis12.html

Saundra Hummer

April 12th, 2005, 06:49 PM

HAIL TO THE ROBBER BARON?

SATURDAY 4/9/2005

Thirty years ago, President Bush was my student at Harvard Business School. In my class, he called former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Class of 1904, a "socialist" and spoke against Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other New Deal inovations. He refused to understand that capitalism becomes corrupt without democratic civic values and ethical restraints. (He must have learned this at home as he doesn't seem to have origianal thoughts. ..... Remember George Schultz's "in the catbird seat grin" on his face when he realized he could get him to think anyway he and his coherts chose? We about fell over! SRH).....

In those days, Bush belonged to a minority of MBA students who were seriously disconnected from taking the moral and social responsibility for their actions. Today, he would fit in comfortably with an overwhelming majority of business students and teachers wholse role models are celebrated captains of piracy. Since the 1980's as neo-conservatives have captured the
the Republican party, America's business education has also increasingly become contaminated by the robber baron culture of the pre-Great Depression era.

Bush is the first president of the United States with a Master's of Business Administration (MBA). Yet, he epitomizes the worst aspects of Amerian business education. To privatize Social Security, he is peddling a colossal lie about it's solvency. Furthermore, Bush along with todays business aristocrats, shows no compassion for working Americans, robbing them to benefit big business and the very rich. Last year due to Bush's tax cuts, over 80 of America's most profitable 200 corporations did not pay even a penny of their federal and state income taxes. Meanwhile to pay for his additional tax cuts for the very rich, Bush is drastically cutting back several social services, such as federal lunch programs for poor children, .....( he must have learned this from when his father was in office, remember how in his fathers term as vice president, the very men in power now (Abrams comes to mind), were in the government then, how they wanted to designate ketchup as a vegatable to cut costs. Look at how they tried and did cut programs for children. "No child left behind."??? Did any of you out there truly believe this great sound bite?)...

There's a bit more to this article, and to see it go to this address by clicking on it:

http://www.proudliberals.com/home2/

Saundra Hummer

April 12th, 2005, 07:06 PM

This is an old report but current in it's importance due to current events.

THE BUSH FAMILY'S MURKY DEALINGS IN VENEZUELA

FROM GLOBAL EXCHANGE PROGRAMS IN THE AMERICA'S.....

Viteadline.com
July o2, 2004

What a tangled web the dealings of this family entails, it sounds all made up it really does when you hear of the sons connections (China and the savings and loans debacle come to mind, srh), and how many fingers they seem to have in the pie.

==

Here's the address just click on it:

http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/2181.html

Saundra Hummer

April 13th, 2005, 11:32 AM

TO HELL IN A RED TRUCK.

It is happening. We are finally on our last leg when it comes to the environment, we are fouling it to get to the oil wherever it might be.

I remember back some time ago, when there were people trying to promote effecient ways to run car's, seems to me there were proponents of hydro and other far fetched sounding inventions. We saw them, the inventors on the news and on the late night talk shows. We were told General Motors fought and bought the patents and that was the end of that.

There are other energy needs which require natural gas, and so it is one of our most beautiful and unspoiled areas which will suffer the onslaught of our energy hungry needs.

At this time according to a news article in CSM, Halliburton is flying down the roads kicking up the dust rushing to sprouting gas derricks, while nomadic wildlife and magestic snow capped mountains in the Wind River mountain range look down on the carnage. "The convergence of the three is creating a clash here in western Wyioming as part of one of the largest energy booms in United States History."

"We are seeing more and more public lands to development."

"We/ve got a world class gas play occurring in the same landscape that is home to world class populations of wildlife." says Mr. Belinda, the lead wildlife scientist with the Pinedale office of the BLM. "I think we can have both without sacrificing one for the other."

To see the article click on the address at the bottom of this post, it is informative. It tells of of the efforts underway to minimize the effects of such projects. Hopefully they will have worked.

I know when there was a road widening in our area, and numerous large juniper trees were cut down by the government, and huge piles of juniper were heaped and piled along the country road for almost 7 miles, piles and piles of juniper, the kind of wood most of us in our area prefer to use for firewood as it has a high BTU count and it burns for hours, and hours. Sometimes for 8 hours at a time. It heats better than any other fype of firewood, however the government wouldn't allow anyone to go in and get any of it as they didn't want to be sued (they say). We were told if anyone were hurt getting it they didn't want to be held liable. Yet they sell firewood permits all the time and the buyers of these permits have to fall the trees themselves, much more dangerous than cutting up wood already down, that is if they haven't taken a cat and piled it into massive tangles of wood, then it is terribly dangerous. So anyway, they put the torch to it, burning it all. One pile would have heated our home for 3 years I would imagine, and this is just one home, it would have heated several, saving energy and saving money for us homeowners, but no --- they burned it all. They did this along another hiway between Bend and Redmond, probably about a 15 mile or so stretch, if not further; the waste was terrible. We would have saved $500.00 a month in heating costs, or close to that figure, and so would have hundreds of others. It isn't as though they were worried about the smoke, as they burned it themselves, it was really hard to watch it happen.

The government oftentimes don't have a clue. The waste and ineptitude are unimaginable, and so bizarre. Perhaps it would have hurt our energy companies bottom line as so many of us would have been using an alternate source for our heating of our homes, maybe this is the reasoning behind their decision to burn it all. I just know it made all of us in our community pretty upset watching so much potential firewood for our homes going up in month long burnings by the government. Senior citizens on fixed incomes could have benefited tremendously by being allowed to have that wood, any needy person, and anyone who is just bucking the economical situation of raising a family. What a shameful waste, at least this is my point of view. Sun's too bright in here again, forgive any typo's and just down and out errors, SRH

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2352&ncid=2352&e=3&u=/csm.20050413/ts_csm/apronghorn

Hope I got the address right, if not go to Christain Science Monitor, or to Yahoo and get the story under the title, author, and date.

Drilling Where Antelope Play
By: Todd Wilkinson,
April 13, 2005

This paper is noted and award winning for it's unbiased on the top of it all reporting; one of the best papers published, not a religous tone to their politics, just good comprehensive fair reporting.

====I checked it out and you will need to go to the home page once you click on the site address I gave to you, a page will come up instructing you to do this and so click on it, and once the Front Page News comes up, on the right is a column of news agencies, find the CSM, Christian Science Monitor and click on it, and then look down the list for the story, it is close to the top today.

Saundra Hummer

April 13th, 2005, 01:02 PM

Why feel a need to delete your posts NJ4M?

Most of your comments and thoughts are in quotes and are still on this thread, so why the effort?

Saundra Hummer

April 13th, 2005, 06:18 PM

There is so much to post about Tom DeLay, that it is mind boggling - so thought I would start with a humorous look at his serious problems, the rest is all out there to see, Information Clearing House, Mother Jones, Newsweek, Time, daily's and any number of on line news sites have his carrying's on down in black and white. But looking at Jim Hightowers take on it and playing the audio is more fun.

"WIMPERING TOM" DELAY :violin

http://www.jimhightower.com/air/archive.asp

Saundra Hummer

April 14th, 2005, 11:57 AM

CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT for International Peace

Listen to a broadcast with this as the topic

Help Wanted: More and Better Jobs in a Globalized Economy

What is the impact of globalization on employment? What can countries, multilateral agencies and other organizations do to spread the benefits of globalization to more workers around the world?

This week the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, and the Global Fairness Initiative will co-host a two-day forum on April 14-15 addressing these pressing issues. The Carnegie Endowment will broadcast thie audio of the keynote panel that opens the event.

Check the full forum agenda online and listen live at 4:00pm Thursday, April 14

There is more, to this and you can read the article at the following address by just clicking on it. They also furnish an audio link.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/events/index.cfm?fa=eventDetail&id=762

==

Check out their other stories:

Job Anxiety Is Real--and It's Global.

Download Windows Media Player and there are "More Carnegie Audio"

Saundra Hummer

April 14th, 2005, 12:22 PM

Devil's Dictionary of the Bush Era

By, Tomdispatch.com

Posted March 29, 2005, Printed on April 14, 2005..

http://www.alternet.org/story/21615/

Just click on the above address to enter the site and you will find stories and things such as:

Intelligence n: What Dick Cheney wants and the CIA must provide or else. (See Iraq, weapons of mass destruction)

Oil n: 1. Black gold. 2. (defunct acronym) OPERATION IRAQI LIBERATION or
OIL,(name changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF, without explanation).
3. What the Bush Administration wasn't after in Iraq and isn't after in Iran (See, Democracy)

There are links to articles by Bill Moyers and others, here is the Bill Moyers one: "Burning Bush": A biblical allusion to the response of the President of the United States when asked a question by a journalist who has not been paid to inquire.

Lot and lots of links to other journalists input to this site, print version link provided.

Saundra Hummer

April 14th, 2005, 01:10 PM

From the post preceeding this one Bill Moyers talks of Bill McKibben. He says his pioneer work in writing about the environment in his book 'THE END OF NATURE", he carried on where Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" left off.

"Writing in Mother Jones recently, Bill described how the problems we journalists routinely cover conventional, manageable programs like budget shortfalls and pollution - may be about to convert chaotic, unpredictable, unmanageable situations. The most unmanageable of all, he writes, could be
the accelerating deterioration of the environment, creating perils with huge momentum like the greenhouse effect that is causing the melt of the artic to release so much freshwater into the North Atlantic that even the Pentagon is growing alarmed that a weakening gulf stream could yield abrupt and overwhelming changes, the kind of changes that could radically alter civilizations."

I don't believe the Pentagon is overflowing with tree huggers or PETA advocates, so if they are alarmed, what should we be?

http://www.commondreams.org/views/04/1206-10.htm

Saundra Hummer

April 14th, 2005, 01:39 PM

"This all started with a report in The New York Times last week that the administration is finding heavy sledding in it's efforts to go after terrorist financing. But who could oppose such a worth endeavor? For starters, this administration. You may recall that Bill Clinton had commenced an international effort to track terrorist money, but the Bushies, upon arriving, denounced it as yet another soft-headed multilateralist iniative and promptly abandoned it. Then came the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and suddenly it was in vogue again, though experts in the field, such as Sen. Paul Sarbanes, criticized the administrations's initial efforts as lukewarm and half hearted."

==
This starts off an interesting Molly Ivins article, to see the rest this humourous columnist has to say click on the following address:

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0413-32.htm

Saundra Hummer

April 14th, 2005, 01:51 PM

IT'S NOT YOUR FATHERS AMERICA ANY MORE

By Herbert G. Lock

"In the past several weeks, for example, some science museums, mainly in the South, have announced they will no longer show films that discuss evoluton, the geology of the Earth or the Big Bang theory for fear of offending people who think such topics contradict the Bible. Topping this enlightening development is the spectacle of the U.S. Congress leaping into the midst of a tragedy confronting a family in Florida faced with deciding whether to end the tube feeding of a 41-year old woman whom doctors describe as existing in a vegetative state for the past 15 years. Several of the biggest crooks in Congress who face multiple wrongdoing inquiries have managed to deflect attention from their misdeeds by turning this into a "cause du jour" for the religious right."

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0325-26.htm

Just an excerpt from near the end of the article,

Saundra Hummer

April 14th, 2005, 06:23 PM

CANSECO CLAIMS HE DID STEROIDS WITH BUSH

BY JOHN BRENEMAN

Former pro baseball knucklehead Jose Canseco claims in a new book that he shared steroids not only with the slugger Mark McGwire, but also with George W. Bush. :laugh:

http://humorgazette.com/blog/?postid=73

Satire and a fake take on news and on politics. :laugh:

Saundra Hummer

April 14th, 2005, 10:08 PM

Did anyone catch the PBS broadcast last night featuring Milt Hinton? I only caught part ot it and recorded what I was lucky enough to catch, which was quite a bit of it.

I have another question. How tall was Milt? I know people's height lessens with age with a lot of people, some more than others. How tall was he? Does anyone know? Does anyone have a pretty good idea as to his height?

Saundra Hummer

April 15th, 2005, 11:35 AM

WHAT I DIDN'T SEE IN IRAQ

BY JIM MCGOVERN

04/14/05

'THE NATION' - - 'Trust me when I tell you things are so much better in Iraq." said one US military official to me on my recent visit to that war-ravaged country. I didn't know whether to scream or pull the remaining two strands of hair out of my head. I was in Iraq as part of a delegation of eight members of Congress, led by House minority leader Nancy Pelosi. Everything we have been told about Iraq by the Bush administration has either been an outright lie or overwhelmingly false. There were no weapons of mass destructin, we have not been greeted as liberators, and the cost in terms of blood and treasure has outpaced even their worst -case scenarios. Trust is something I cannot give to this Administration.

If things in Iraq are so much better, why are we not decreasing the number of US forces there? Why is the insurgency showing no signs of waning? Why are we being told that in a few months the Administration will again ask Congress for billions of dollars more to fight this war? Why, according to the World Food Program, is hunger among the Iraqi people getting worse? It's time for some candor, but candor is hard to come by in Iraq.

We were in Iraq for one day--for security reasons, it is US policy that Congressional delegations are not allowed to spend the night. We spent most of our time in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which serves as coalition headquarters. It's the most heavily guarded encampment I've ever seen -- and it still gets attacked. I even had armed guards accompany me to the bathroom. The briefings we received from US military and diplomatic officials were, to say the least, unsatisfying. The Nixonian approach that our military and diplomatic leaders have adopted in dealing with visiting members of Congress is aimed more at saving face than at engaging in an honest dialogue. at first, our briefers wanted to get away with slick slide presentations, but we insisted on asking real questions and attempting to get real answers.

During one such briefing, Lieut. Gen. David Petraeus, tasked with overseeing training of Iraqi security forces, informed us that 147,000 Iraqis had been trained. That sounded good to me. Perhaps we could start reducing the number of American forces, I suggested. But upon further questioning, General Petracus conceded that less than one-fourth of the 147,000 were actually "combat capable." Why didn't he say that to begin with? I asked --respectfully -- our military and diplomatic officials -- what the gap was between the Iraqis we have trained and the number we needed to train in order to draw down the number of US troops. I could not get a straight answer.

==

He goes on and then says: "Our young men and women in uniform are performing their difficult duties extraordinarily well. Indeed, the only honest and direct responses I got from any American in Iraq were from the soldiers. They told me thay had been instructed by their superiors not to share any complaints with visitors."

To read the complete article, go to this address by just clicking on it:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8549.htm

Saundra Hummer

April 15th, 2005, 02:15 PM

CYCLOPS PINK EYE

Bolton nomination sends wrong message to already frightened world.

By Will Durst
WorkingForChange.com
04. 15. 05

"Who Knows More About Mending Bridges Than The Guy Attempting To Set Fire To Them?"

(I have differeing viewpoints, viewpoints that are one day believing the UN is a flawed entitiy and at times thinking he just might straighten things around, but then it will seem he is too anti-UN to accomplish much good, so about the appointment to the UN, of John Bolton, I have more fears than confidence. SRH), ........ "President GW Bush's nomination for US Ambassador to the United Nations is John Bolton, a well known critic of that very organization. And to say he's a critic of the UN might be an understatement... on the order of saying the Swift Boat Verterans were not John Kerry's biggest fans. Bolton has gone so far as to declare that as far as he's concerned, the UN doesn't exist. Call me wacky, but shouldn't the guy who's going to represent us at least accept the institution's exixtence? How's the man going to get to work? Is he destined to wander aimlessly around the East Side of Manhattan querying strangers as to the location of his own Brigadoon?"

"The 56-year-old State Department chief of arms control, a hardliner with a suspicious view of U.S. arms control treaties, is also on record as saying if you lopped off the top ten floors of the UN, "It wouldn't make a difference." Oh yeah, lets have HIM run our diplomatic corp. Because who knows more about mending bridges than the guy atempting to set fire to them? Who does the administration have in mind for future appointments? Howard Stearn to head up the FCC? Michael Jackson as official envoy tu UNICEF? Kenneth Lay as the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission? Laugh at the first two, the last is not so funny.

==

To see the complete article (in the right order), go to this address just by clicking on it:

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18902

==

"Supporters describe Bolton as a blunt, straight talking, tough minded, tell it like it is, not afraid to ruffle foreign feathers, while putting America's interests first kind of a guy. But we already got one of those kind of guy in charge of the White House, Meanwhile Boltons detractors insist he is a he is an abrasive, confrontational insensitive, kiss-ass, prudent-as-a-flatulent -porcupine, abusive-with-analysts-who-disagree-with-him kind of a guy. If the Ambassador Nominee's function is to be the designated Rottweiler, I could understand, but we already got a kennel full of Rottweilers, most of whom appear to have missed the paper training course in obedience school. "Tough Love" is one thing. "Rabid Frothing at the Mouth with an Unattached Ear Hangout Out Between the Teeth" is another.

Saundra Hummer

April 15th, 2005, 02:57 PM

MOLLY IVINS

BUSH'S POLITICAL PICKLE

DUBYA GETS IN TROUBLE WITH BANKING INDUSTRY FOR FINALLY TRYING TO TRACK TERRORIST FINANCING.

(REMEMBER WHEN kERRY TRACKED THE DRUG MONEY AND BUSH AND REAGAN ONLY GAVE THE BANKING INDUSTRY A SLAP ON THE WRIST, INSTEAD TURNING THEIR EFFORTS AGAINST KERRY KNOWING HE WAS A THREAT, HIRING THE SWIFT BOAT MEN BACK WHEN IT WAS REAGAN IN OFFICE, NOT GW, BUT USING THEM TO DISCREDIT KERRY AND HOLD HIM BACK EVEN DURING THAT PERIOD. ALL KNOWN NOW, BUT IT WORKED AGAINST HIM LIKE THEY KNEW IT WOULD, MAKING PEOPLE DOUBT HIM AND QUESTION HIS PATRIOTISM AND HEROISM. SRH)

"AUSTIN, Texas, -- Freshly returned from a week of intellectual sparring at the Confernce on World Affairs, the annual gabfest in Boulder, Colorado (the late jazz critic Leanord Feather called it "the leisure of the theory class"), I find making connections between headlines mere childs play.

After a week of contemplating Persian poetry, the possible aphrodisiac effect of black licorice, American foreign policy, what we do in the name of God (an actual panel title), war and medicine, I scarcely blink, much less boggle, at such simple topics as tax policy, international finance, terrorism and offshore money laundering.

==

to read about the administrations perceived heavy sledding go to this address just by clicking on it.

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18878

Saundra Hummer

April 15th, 2005, 03:51 PM

"Once a government is commited to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." Harry Truman

==

"The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to "create" rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting." Justice William J Brennan, 1982

Saundra Hummer

April 15th, 2005, 04:10 PM

Exclusive - Iraq Resistance Video, Transcript and Documents.

Further Evidence Regarding the Killing of (CIA Director - Iraq) Dale Stoffel

The following video and information is purported to be from the Iraqi Resistance. (there doesn't seem to be anything graphic in nature as to the killing, just documents and their blatherings about their reasons for killing.)

Click here to view:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8545.htm

==

Exclusive

Another article from the same source.

How the CIA Looted $40 Billion Of Military Equipment From Iraq.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8546.htm

Saundra Hummer

April 15th, 2005, 11:08 PM

"ONCE WE WERE RULED BY A DICTATOR, NOW WE ARE RULED BY CLOWNS": "THE PRESIDENT, WHO MAINTAINS A SUPERMODELS'S APPETITE FOR READING, HAS NO RECOGNITION OF HISTORY THAT MOST ARABS POSSESS."

BUSH'S VISION OF ARAB DEMOCRACY V. TWO REPORTS

GO TO THIS SITE TO READ THE ARTICLE PUBLISHED ON COUTNER PUNCH BY JUST CLICKING ON IT:

http://www.counterpunch.org/landau04142005.html

While onsite, check out the archive column on the left.

Saundra Hummer

April 15th, 2005, 11:24 PM

I'M WITH THE BUSH-CHENEY TEAM, AND I'M HERE TO STOP THE COUNTING."

Those were the words John Bolton yelled as he burst into a Tallahassee library on Saturday, Dec. 9, 2000, where local election workers were recounting ballots cast in Florioda's disputed presidential race between George W. Bush and Al Gore.

Bolton was one of the pack of lawyers for the Republican presidential ticket who repeadedly sought to shut down recount of the ballots from Florida counties before those counts revealed that Gore had actually won the states electoral votes and the presidency.

The December 9 intervention was Boltons last and most significant blow against the democratic process.

==

Bolton was in South Korea when it became clear that the Nov. 7, 2000 , election would be decided in Florida. at the behest of former Secretary of State James Baker, who fronted the Bush-Cheney team during the Florida fight, Bolton winged his way to Palm Beach, where he took the lead in challenging ballots during that county's recount. Then when the ballots from around the state were transported to Tallahassee for the recount ordered by the state Supreme Court, Bolton followed them.

It was there that he personally shut down the review of ballots from Miami-Dade Country, a populous and partricularly contested county where independent review would later reveal that hundreds of ballots that could reasonably have been counted for Gore were instead discarded.

==

See the whole article about this controversial UN appointee at this address, by just clicking on it:

http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=2320

Saundra Hummer

April 16th, 2005, 12:25 PM

AOL SUED BY GIRL ALLEGEDLY SEDUCED BY CHAT ROOM MONITOR

Sex offenders are devious no good b*#@*#d's and are much too clever for young children and teenagers. So folks be careful out there and do your best to educate and instill the needed caution, and even fear of striking up revealing chats with anyone on line in your children, your relatives and get your friends to do the same. Most people on line in these chats for kids are just that, kids, but lurkers with terrible thoughts and plans are out there, and this story is about a man who was hired by AOL to monitor for sexual predators, and he was one himself. This is crazy and I would hope that laws will be written that are much more punishing than those we have today for sexual preditors.

We had a man who preyed on women in our area, we had met him and had known him casually for quite a few years and come to find out he was giving women he met in bars the date rape drug, and when caught the judge gave him life in prison. Why is it that men who rape and abuse children or those who plan on raping children get off (oftentimes) with just the lightest of sentences and then go back and commit the same acts upon release and oftentimes, kill those they abduct? Nation wide laws which are so much stricter and punishing than we have now need to be written, and implemented.

Here is a bit of the story:

America Online hires adult monitors to keep its children-only chat rooms safe form sexual predators. But one of those monitors seduced a California girl online and was about to meet her for sex before he was caught, according to court documents.

AOL officials declined to confirm or deny specifics of the case. But spokesman Nicholas Graham said the company fired the employee immediately after discovering the incident in April 2003 and reported it to the FBI and local law enforcement authorities, who notified the family.

The amazing thing is this online relationship lasted for almost two years.

To read the facts about this incident involving a 23 year old man in Oklahoma and a 15 year old Kern Country California girl, the exchange of explicit photographs and videos, go to this address by just clicking on it, you may have to register with the site, which is free to receive the story. (I just checked the link and it showed up for me.)

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-aol16apr16,1,3856147.story?coll=la-headlines-california

Saundra Hummer

April 16th, 2005, 04:07 PM

APRIL 15: YOU'RE GETTING SCREWED

TAX CHANGES THAT MISSED THE HEADLINES IMPACTED YOUR BOTTOM LINE

AUSTIN, TEXAS -- HAPPY TAX DAY FELLOW CITIZENS!

My favorite authority on taxes is David Cay Johnston of the New York Times, who won a Pulitzer for reporting on the terminally unsexy topic of taxes. His book "Perfectly Legal -- The Covert Campaign to Rig our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich -- and Cheat Everyone Else": is the single best work on public policy of recent years, I think.

Johnston reports: "Through explicit policies, as well as tax laws never reported in the news, Congress now literally takes money from those making $30,000 to $500,000 per year and funnels it in subtle ways to the super-rich -- the top one-one hundredth of one percent of Americans."

"People making $50,000 paid a larger share fo their 2001 income in federal income, social Security and Medicare taxes, than a family making $25 million, the latest Internal Revenue Service data show. And in income taxes alone, people making $400,000 paid a larger share of their incomes than the 7,000 households who made $10 mllion or more."

The rest of us are subsidizing not only the super-rich, but also corporations. Fifty years ago, corporations paid 60 percent of all federal taxes. But by 2003, that was down to 16 percent. So individual taxpayers have to make up the difference, as corporate profits soar and wages fall.

As more and more rich people cheat on their taxes, the IRS is increasingly unable to go after them because it is so poorly funded.

For all this, we can thank the Republican Party.

Every year at this time, conservatives moan and groan and tell us how terribly, terribly overburdened we are by taxes,. We wouldn't be overburdened if the tax code hadn't been rewritten by Republicans, and if Republicans hadn't weakened the IRS so much it can barely function. Damn right, this is a partisan effort. And damn right, I'm bitter about it. We don't need to raise taxes in this country, we need to collect them. We need tax cuts that don't favor the obscenely rich. You are getting screwed.

OK, now that I've gotten that rant off my chest, back to how it's done. Johnston: "One 1985 law, promoted in the Senate as relieving middle class Americans, gave a huge tax break to corporate executives who make personal use of company jets. CEO's may now fly to vacatins or Saturday golf outings in luxury for a penny a mile. Congress shifted the real cost of about $6 per mile to shareholders, who pay two-thirds, and to taxpayers, who suffer the cost lost as a result of reduced corporate income taxes.

"Since 1988, Congress has also cut in half the Internal Revenue Service's capacity to enforce tax laws, replacing ti with extra effort to reduce audits of corporatins and the rich.

"On March 30, congress was told that 78 percent of known tax cheats in investment partnerships are not even asked to pay becuase there are not enough tax collectors to go after them."

The IRS oversight board asked for money to go after these cheaters, but both Congress and PResident Bush refused,. The IRS's computer system was installed when John Kennedy was president.

==

To read the remaining third of the article go to this address by just clicking on it:

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18898

Molly Ivins, columnist. ..... She finished this story with a quote by John Kenneth Gailbraith........"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."

Saundra Hummer

April 16th, 2005, 05:44 PM

An Enlightening article by Ariannia Huffington

BUSHES IN THE HOOD

W. Fights gangs with budget cuts and photo ops.

(This shows just how devious and cunning these slight of hand artists have become and how we are oh so willing to fall into line as to how we believe all we are being told, forgetting it is an old pickpocket ploy detract and make off with the loot. Fund a project, let the country see you doing it and then in the back door you come -- cutting funding by 20 times more than was funded by the GOP, by Bush/Cheney in the photo op public signing. Bait and Switch it seems to me, how about you? SRH)

Typical.

Here is the address for the article, just click on it:

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=18854

Saundra Hummer

April 17th, 2005, 06:43 PM

ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE

"COULD A MEDIA SYSTEM, CONTROLLED BY A FEW GLOBAL CORPORATIONS WITH THE ABILITY TO OVERWHELM ALL COMPETING VOICES, BE ABLE TO TURN LIES INTO TRUTH?...."

Director Robert Kane Pappas' "Orwell Rolls in His Grave" is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of double speak where outright lies can pass for the truth. Pappas explores what the media doesn't like to talk about: itself.

This is a must see documentary. Click here to watch it now Real Video.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8560.htm

http://snipurl.com/e2jj

Saundra Hummer

April 17th, 2005, 07:44 PM

SECRET AGENT: RUMSFELD SNEAKS OFF TO BAKU

UNREPORTED IN U.S. PRESS, HE STALKS OIL AND IRAN IN AZERBAIJAN

04/15/O5 "VILLAGE VOICE" - -

(Check out the map furnished and Azerbaijan's strategic locatin.)

HARDLY ANY COUNTRY on the planet sits in a more crucial spot on than the harsh dictatorship of Azerbaijan, so that's probably why Don Rumsfeld sneaked off to it's rowdy capital, Baku, earlier this week.

Do you hear the neocons beating the drums of war?

Rumsfeld's visit this week to Iraq generated some smoke, especially his laughable warnings (link) to the Iraqis about "government corruption."

But then, like the mysterious Mr. Arkadin, (link), Rumsfeld left Iraq, flew to Baku for meetings, spent the night, and then sneaked out the next day---- with no announcements from the Pentagon and (as a result) no noitice form teh U.S. press.

Plenty of Azeris, chafing under the Aliyev family's harsh rule and fearing war or other trouble from the oil-hungry U.S., freaked out, and there were stories in the Turkish and Russian press. But leave it to the excellent news service EurasiaNet (link) to capture the not-meant-to-be-captured moment . In a story posted April 13, political analyst Alman Talyshli wrote from Baku"

....."Rumsfield is interested in oil" (link) read a headline in the April 12 edition of the popular daily Echo. The April 12 visit of the Pentagon chief to Azerbaijan was a natural target for local media hungry for sensational news. But not only the press is looking for answers.

.....Rumsfeld's visit took place under extreme secrecy, with limited public information, leaving many local analysts and phndits to speculate about the reasons for the U.S. secretary of defense's trip, the third such visit in the past 15 months.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter has warned (link) that the U.s. has been making plans to attack Iran---one of Azerbaijan's neighbors---this summer. That's not as far fetched as you may think. Seymour Hersh ahs said basically the same thing. In "The Coming Wars," A mid-January piece in The New Yorker that zeroed in on Rumsfeld's various plottings, Hersh wrote:

......In my interviews, I was repeatedly told that the next strategic target was Iran.

Here's an excerpt from the Hersh poiece that could explain Rumsfeld's sudden fondness for grimy, violent Baku:

Click on the following address to see the story and follow the links:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8564.htm

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I find it hard to stomach, ... the complacency that much of the country is exhibiting, as the actions and policies of our government are turning the world into a most dangerous place, and needless to say they are taking the safety of our young men and women in the military, our country and our economy on a wild ride. Who will it be that will have to foot the bill for all of this? We all know. It will be us, as this administration has seen to this, as they have exempted big buisiness and often times themselves from any responsibility finacially. It is the average citizen whose loved ones are fighting this war of the administrations. Are their children dying for us? No. ..... It is our children who are dying for them! It is us dying for their need to control the Middle East, and much of the world if they can manage to accomplish their goals, and it is them wanting the power and the oil. Do we also want it so much as to allow this administration to hurt us and others in such a way, just so we can have all of the oil? Remember, it's us us who are being shot at, blown up and terrorized over their cockamamie dreams of empire. Us the average citizen; no it's not them that's for sure. Do we, ourselves, really want this? I would hope it will be worth it, but I just can't see this being the case, I really can't.

We are in a mess and it is not getting any better.

We have an aquaintance whose husband died with a heart attack, strapping her with medical bills and less income, and this is the first time she has had to pay taxes, and she is saying she really doesn't know how she is going to manage, she is very worried. She had qualified for tax relief in the past, but now even though she is on social security and is elderly she will have to pay out instead of receiving a tax break. Needless to say, she is worried sick. I mean this literally, as it makes the elderly sick to worry so.

This is a family who worked hard all of their lives, she lives in an modest home, an FHA style home, very modest, so modest most of the people out there would think of it as a home for only the needy, which really is what it is, not new or up-to-date. She doesn't know if she can continue to live there any longer, she just can't afford to do much.

Rentals for very low income people in this area are in the price range of $500, $600, $785, etc, so what is she to do? This tax break, it is killing the disadvantaged and the elderly, and we hear it will lower the status of the middle class as well - as they will be hit heavily. Lets hope not, but it really doesn't look good. Add this all up with the increase in goods around the country and the increasing energy and gasoline costs, and we are in a world of hurt, and it is increasing it seems in leaps and bounds.