Jan 08 2008

Provocation in the Strait of Hormuz

Cross Posted at OOIBC and SanchoPress

If the Iranians attack a US ship in the gulf, or shut down the strait, it will be, in historical context, retribution and retaliation for US Foreign Policy and imperialism over the past century, and we will be as much or more to blame than they.

We get what we give. As we sow, so we reap.

Imperialism is coming home to bite us on the ass, bigtime. It has been coming for a long time…

In about a year, when there will probably be a Democratic President sitting in The White House, we’re going to have the same “Foreign Policy” we’ve had for the past nearly a century.

Nothing more, nothing less, and nothing changing.

“Ancient History”: U.S. Conduct in the Middle East Since World War II and the Folly Of Intervention

If the chief natural resource of the Middle East were bananas, the region would not have attracted the attention of U.S. policymakers as it has for decades. Americans became interested in the oil riches of the region in the 1920s, and two U.S. companies, Standard Oil of California and Texaco, won the first concession to explore for oil in Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. They discovered oil there in 1938, just after Standard Oil of California found it in Bahrain. The same year Gulf Oil (along with its British partner Anglo-Persian Oil) found oil in Kuwait. During and after World War II, the region became a primary object of U.S. foreign policy. It was then that policymakers realized that the Middle East was “a stupendous source of strategic power, and one of the greatest material prizes in world history.”

Subsequently, as a result of cooperation between the U.S. government and several American oil companies, the United States replaced Great Britain as the chief Western power in the region.(5) In Iran and Saudi Arabia, American gains were British (and French) losses.(6) Originally, the dominant American oil interests had had limited access to Iraqi oil only (through the Iraq Petroleum Company, under the 1928 Red Line Agreement). In 1946, however, Standard Oil of New Jersey and Mobil Oil Corp., seeing the irresistible opportunities in Saudi Arabia, had the agreement voided.(7) When the awakening countries of the Middle East asserted control over their oil resources, the United States found ways to protect its access to the oil. Nearly everything the United States has done in the Middle East can be understood as contributing to the protection of its long-term access to Middle Eastern oil and, through that control, Washington’s claim to world leadership. The U.S. build-up of Israel and Iran as powerful gendarmeries beholden to the United States, and U.S. aid given to “moderate,” pro-Western Arab regimes, such as those in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan, were intended to keep the region in friendly hands. That was always the meaning of the term “regional stability.”

Provocation in the Strait of Hormuz

By Marc Ash, t r u t h o u t | Perspective, Tuesday 08 January 2008

Two separate news reports relying mostly on information provided by the Pentagon were picked up and disseminated by US mainstream media outlets Monday. The reports point to two separate instances involving US armed forces operating in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

 The first, typified by The New York Times, “US Describes Confrontation With Iranian Boats”, and the second, tucked away from the features sections, “Navy Fighter Jets Crash in Persian Gulf”, reported by the Associated Press, are not connected directly in the reports, but bear consideration side-by-side nonetheless.

 The report in The Times, in fact, tells you everything you need to know, albeit in a conclusionless form. US Warships are in the Persian Gulf. The Strait of Hormuz, through which all warships must pass to enter the Gulf, is the same passage through which all oil-bearing ships must pass bringing oil to the US. And “Oil prices on world markets spiked briefly on the news, which was first reported by CNN.” That pretty much says it all.

 US Navy warships are parked a few miles off the coast of Iran. They are there, apparently, to protect oil shipping lanes into and out of the Persian Gulf. Tensions are mounting. If provocation is at issue, those facts must remain front and center. If Iranian warships ever made it as close to the American coastline as US warships now lie to Iranian shores, our military would in all likelihood attack them. Iran is not attacking our warships – parked on their doorstep.

 The US State Department last year warned Iran, “not to interfere with US interests in the region.” What the State Department did not explain to the American people is what interests average Americans have in the region. The answer to that question is, likely none. That leads to the next question: whose interests is the American Navy protecting in the Persian Gulf? The owners of the oil tankers, apparently. The American people are the end consumers; we pay what’s marked on the pump. Bluntly stated, the United States Navy appears to be in the Persian Gulf to protect the interests of US-based oil businesses, not the interests of the American people. Incidentally, the second-largest deposits of oil in the world lie beneath the soil of Iraq, so the same formula applies there as well.

 Could Iranian forces sink an American ship a few miles off the Iranian coast? Yes, although it is highly unlikely that they would say beforehand, “I am coming at you, and you will explode in a few minutes.” Would such a sinking take the lives of many good American sailors? Yes, it would. Such a sinking and the attendant loss of life would affect the best interests of the American people. The American armed forces are the true interest of the American people. For too long, the American people have turned a blind eye to their interest: their service members. It’s time to bring our soldiers home and let the gas station mind its own business.

*emphasis added

This cannot be taken out of historical context. To do so is the “neocon” way.

If anyone is doing any “provocatin’” in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, it has been successive US and British administrations, and oil companies, for nearly a century…

Jan 08 2008

Truth and Consequences: What Does the Future Hold, If We Don’t Hold the Present Accountable?

Originally posted over on ePluribus Media.

The story by Mike Corder of the Associated Press over on My Way (via TruthOut) began simply enough:

The Hague, Netherlands – The war crimes trial of Charles Taylor, Liberia’s former president, heard its first testimony Monday and saw video of victims telling of being sexually assaulted or dismembered by rebels who plundered West African diamond fields.

[Emphasis mine.]

That one sentence got me thinking, particularly when I saw the term sexually assaulted.

Not to play down the other horrors like amputation that the victims underwent, but — sexual assaults mentioned in the same sentence as “war crimes trial” caught my attention.

I wonder what they’d call the CIA torture tapes, or the pictures and videos from Abu Graihb or Gitmo?

I wonder if our soon-to-be-former President and any of his staff will ever be held accountable for their war crimes.  Does the intentional invasion of a nation based on known false evidence count? (Yep — it’s called a “war of aggression.”) Does the use of waterboarding and other “enhanced interrogation techniques” like stress positions count as torture? (Yes — which is why the US Justice Department reframed the definition of torture to exclude things like waterboarding, so that GWB could claim a degree of plausible deniability when he lied and said we didn’t torture.)

Does fooling one’s own nation into war — or at least into an attack on a nation — through false provocation and false pretenses count as a war crime? (Not sure — I think it false under the same “war of aggression” definition — but I’m pretty certain that purposely undermining the operation of the government and misleading Congress counts as “subversion”.)

There aren’t enough years in the life of an ordinary man or woman to do the time required to pay for the crimes that have been committed and continue unabated under this Administration.

Will there ever be any accountability assessed, or consequences levied against those reponsible?

Will the folks who strove in Congress to subvert the investigation into torture, illegal warrantless wiretapping, the outing of a covert CIA agent or the discovery of evidence that the President suggested baiting another nation into war ever have to face charges of complicity in the crimes they gleefully protected? The Trent Lotts, who claimed that waterboarding was akin to swimming, or the Joe Liebermans who refused to investigate the failings of the government to respond adequately to Katrina victims (still! They’re STILL not responding adequately!)…what will become of them? Will they be able to walk away scott free, and escape the responsibility — and thus be “safe” from being drawn back in as a result of investigations of other instances of corruption, graft and abuse?

Will we ever get even a quarter of the truth from any of the multiple investigations going on, when the very people who stand to lose — and stand to be held accountable for major crimes — are the ones in charge of both the investigators and the evidence that is needed to convict them?

Do we have, in our upcoming cast of candidates, anyone who will pledge to deliver the whole truth, no matter where it leads, and promise to NOT pardon the wrongdoers in some foolish claim of “healing the nation” when the very act of a pardon would put a stamp of approval upon the crimes and the criminals — an abuse of privilege daringly applied to Nixon by Ford, and used with gusto by Bush senior to effectively end an investigation into multiple dirty cesspools of corruption?

Those precedents, those players, and those cesspools of corruption are back and propagating through the halls of our nation.

To clean up the corruption, those precedents must be purged, the cesspools emptied, and the participants punished in accordance with the law — just like any ordinary citizen. No pardons, no commutation, no “executive privileges” should be granted; no sentences stayed.

Who will stand for the people?

Who stands for the Constitution, and for the restoral and depoliticalization of Justice?

Are there any actual patriots left in any of the branches of government, or has the corruption and cronyism corrupted it all?

Tell me, please: who will stand for the children, the future and promise of our nation, and guard against the passing of this dangerously insidious darkness into their lives?

Jan 08 2008

Once More Into The Breach, Impeach!….Impeach!!!

There can be no Peace without Justice.

There can be no unity without Justice either. Nor can there be meaningful change.

George McGovern, Representative Wexler, Jack frikking Cafferty…..It seems that the cry goes up anew among the rubble that Bushco has created!

IMPEACH!

For the children in Iraq, for the millions spied upon, for the Imprisoned in Guantanamo and around the world, for the Constitution and for the very concept at the heart of democracy, the cry goes out….Impeach!

Photobucket

from serendipity

The list of crimes and scandals is nearly endless…as is the harm that they have done, we cannot sit by and let this pass the outrage pass, we can not afford to be numb. The lawlessness and tyranny they are trying to impose will not vanish with elections no matter the intentions of those who would take the mantle of power for themselves. We must root out the sickness, before moving down the road.

Lest we forget:

A stolen election. (or two)

Warned of 9/11 and nothing done.

Lying to Congress and America to start an illegal war of aggression, the number one offense under Nuremberg conventions.

Colin Powell at the UN.

Using White Phosphorous as a weapon.

Abu Ghraib, straight off of Rumsfelds desk, with Bush and Cheney’s knowledge and approval.

Guantanamo. Snatching people of the street on the word of their jealous neighbor and imprisoning them for 6 years….and still.

An entire network of secret torture prisons, serviced by an frikking airline for gods sake.

The elimination of Habeas Corpus.

Signing statements to subvert the will of Congress.

Spying on Americans BEFORE 9/11.

And exposing an entire counter terrorism network and treasonously exposing a CIA agent. For personal revenge.

And those are just the highlights. Can we truly just let this go and still be a Republic? Can we truly claim to be a beacon of freedom and justice and human rights in the world, with our record stained and those who stained it set free to open their libraries and go on book tours?

How can this stand? How can it be ignored? How can anyone say move on? Move on to what? A nation soaked in the blood of an illegal invasion and torture and tyranny cannot move on. Some accounting must be made, some truth laid bare some Justice done….or we are not a nation of laws and freedom, but an ugly joke and a puppet show and a sham of what our founding fathers worked so hard to achieve, that millions of soldiers have fought and died to protect.

Bring AMERICA back and to hell with this banana republic and tin horn dictatorship. Give us our rights back, our dignity back, our pride back.

Give us Justice back……IMPEACH!!!

Photobucket

Next Left Notes

Jan 08 2008

The Primary Season, the Way of Politics

(Crossposted)

There are many things we encounter in the Primary Season. Too many to recount here.

So I will use the law of three, and recount three.

Opposition. Need. Reconciliation.

We encounter opposition, we generate opposition, we oppose others, sometimes we oppose ourselves.

We address needs, we point to needs, we have needs, sometimes we create needs.

We, eventually, consider reconciliation.

More, over the fold.

36. Opposition

To reduce someone’s influence, first expand it;

To reduce someone’s force, first increase it;

To overthrow someone, first exalt them;

To take from someone, first give to them.

This is the subtlety by which the weak overcome the strong:

Fish should not leave their depths,

And swords should not leave their scabbards.

We have, after all, too many swords out of too many scabbards, but when a sword is drawn and not returned, it will sooner or later rust and break.

77. Need

Is the action of nature not unlike drawing a bow?

What is higher is pulled down, and what is lower is raised up;

What is taller is shortened, and what is thinner is broadened;

Nature’s motion decreases those who have more than they need

And increases those who need more than they have.

It is not so with Man.

Man decreases those who need more than they have

And increases those who have more than they need.

To give away what you do not need is to follow the Way.

So the sage gives without expectation,

Accomplishes without claiming credit,

And has no desire for ostentation.

… and so we insist that the one thing that is impossible is to be have a sage President, since we demand accomplishments for which credit can be and has been claimed, and demand that the lack of desire for ostentation be displayed as ostentatiously as can be arranged.

79. Reconciliation

When conflict is reconciled, some hard feelings remain;

This is dangerous.

The sage accepts less than is due

And does not blame or punish;

For harmony seeks agreement

Where justice seeks payment.

The ancients said: “nature is impartial;

Therefore it serves those who serve all.”

World War I ended with a demand that the losers refund the victors the cost of their victory, and the Economic Consequences of the Peace of Versailles helped pave the way for the Great Depression and the rise of fascism through Europe. World War II ended with something less than that demand … not as shining and noble as is sometimes portrayed, certainly not to the level of this contemplation but, still, less than a refund of the cost of the victory.

And from the ashes of defeat emerged, by slow, faltering steps at first and then greater, two of the three great markets of our world economy, the European Union and Sino-Japan.

How much less hard should it be, when the primary process has run its course, sometime in March or May, to achieve reconciliation inside the Democratic Party?

Jan 08 2008

Pony Party, Soup

January is National Soup Month

from Garden and Hearth

Ten Reasons to Love Soup

It’s a great way to use leftovers such as vegetables, cheese, and pasta.

You can make an excellent tasting soup with low cost ingredients.

It’s a way to tenderize tougher, and yes, cheaper cuts of meat.

It’s easy to reheat and makes the ultimate dinner in a dash.

It’s a great food to have on hand for any time of the day, especially if you’re feeling under the weather.

Most soups…except for creamed ones freeze well.

Just about anyone can make soup.

It’s the ideal meal to make in a slow cooker.

It’s great for any season.

Put it together with bread and a salad and you’ve got a budget smart meal.

my personal favorite soup is one i make with canned tomatoes, fresh cabbage, and kidney beans (usually canned), flavored with onions and garlic.  there’s no ‘recipe’…i just throw it together and cook it until it tastes right.  i probably add salt and pepper.

my mom took YEARS to perfect her potato soup recipe…and then was gracious enough to switch it up when my youngest (who LOVES potato soup more than life!!) gave up meat and poultry.  she moved to a vegetable stock with extra garlic and onions for depth of flavor.  isnt she the best!!??!!

if youre looking for a soup recipe, you might visit make chicken soup dot com.  some of their recipes look amazing.

be good.  no recs 😉

~73v  

Jan 08 2008

Before This Day Is Done

it is possible that the contest for the soul of the Democratic Party will be between conservatives and liberals rather than between genders and mythological races.

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not forecasting that the Rapture is about to commence.  It is little more than a wan hope but I was surprised that even a sodden bastion of the MSM would spy such a wondrous mirage in the intellectual desert.  Newsweek asked if maybe the contest would be between Obama and Edwards after New Hampshire.

(I couldn’t immediately lay my hands on the article but try to believe me.  I saw it. I swear I did.  I had intended this entry as a critique when I started it. Maybe I am delusional. :-()

If any object that Obama is far from an ideal symbol of conservatism and maybe Edwards even less so as a stand-in for liberalism, I admit to the problem in advance.

Still the relative elitist against the mill worker’s son, the man who wants to get along for smooth sailing compared to the man who wants to make waves to rock the boat is a symbolism that only a Chris Matthews or Tim Russert could be blind to.

Could it happen?

“All things are possible,” says the Good Book.

Sometimes I wish I weren’t a committed heretic.

Best,  Terry

Jan 08 2008

A poem

This poem started off on dailyKos….I added a lot of images, fixed some of the text, and put it all below the fold

Chickenhawks , chickenhawks,

running our great land , ,

Invading foreign countries

and taking craven stands

Sending other people’s kids to die.

Their time will come when we ask WHY?

The stock of Halliburton went climbing through the roof

When asking why your father died, you should demand

the truth

It was not about the weapons (there were none there you

 see)

It sure as hell was not about spreading democracy.

Bush’s daughters aren’t there

Nor Romney’s children either

When asked why they aren’t there (after all, they’ve  

 not defected)

He says they’re serving Uncle Sam by getting him

  elected.

All these brave chickenhawks may dream

I hope that they have nightmares.

But when we ask whose boots are these?



They surely aren’t theirs.

Jan 08 2008

Docudharma Times Tuesday January 8

This is an Open Thread: Welcome to Dixville Notch

Headlines For Tuesday: Their last bids for the first primary: Violent Crime Down In First Half of 2007: New Leaders Of Sunnis Make Gains In Influence: German rail operator attacked over track fees for ‘Holocaust train’

Justices Weigh Injection Issue for Death Row

With conservative justices questioning their motives and liberal justices questioning their evidence, opponents of the American manner of capital punishment made little headway Monday in their effort to persuade the Supreme Court that the Constitution requires states to change the way they carry out executions by lethal injection.

Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the lawyer for two inmates on Kentucky’s death row who are facing execution by the commonly used three-chemical protocol, conceded that theoretically his clients would have no case if the first drug, a barbiturate used for anesthesia, could be guaranteed to work perfectly by inducing deep unconsciousness.

Their last bids for the first primary

Candidates show wear and tear in the push to stay alive in New Hampshire. A record turnout is expected.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Hillary Rodham Clinton choked up. Barack Obama flubbed his lines. Even Chuck Norris, Mike Huckabee’s action-star sidekick, was laid low.

Fatigue, tension and, for some, the prospect of harsh judgment weighed heavily on White House hopefuls — and their supporters — as they churned across New Hampshire in a final burst of campaigning before today’s first-in-the-nation primary.

A record turnout of more than 500,000 voters, many of them independents, was expected, reflecting the hard-fought nature of the Democratic and Republican races, and New Hampshire’s pride in its traditional role in culling the field of contenders.

Violent Crime Down In First Half of 2007

Two-Year Increase May Have Ended

Tuesday, January 8, 2008; Page A02

The number of violent crimes reported nationwide appears to have fallen modestly in the first half of 2007, signaling the first notable decline in violence in two years, the FBI said yesterday.

Violent crimes including homicides, robberies and assaults fell 1.8 percent in January to June of last year compared with the same period in 2006, according to the preliminary FBI statistics.

The largest declines were in the Northeast and in cities with more than 250,000 residents, while crime in rural areas and cities with fewer than 25,000 residents increased 1.1 percent. The number of homicides in suburbs rose by 5 percent.

Middle East

New Leaders Of Sunnis Make Gains In Influence

U.S.-Backed Fighters Find Empowering Role

MADERIYAH, Iraq — Saad Mahami wanted more firepower. He didn’t trust the Iraqi government to give him support, so inside Patrol Base Whiskey, at the edge of this village south of Baghdad, he told U.S. commanders that his 71 Sunni fighters needed additional weapons to fight the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq.

As he listened to Mahami’s demand, Capt. David Underwood reminded his superiors that Mahami’s men — all members of a U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitary movement called Sahwa, or “Awakening” — were already buying arms with U.S. reward money for finding enemy ammunition dumps.

Leaders prepare for key Bush tour

Israeli and Palestinian leaders are set to meet in Jerusalem to try to ease problems in the Mid-East peace process ahead of the US president’s key tour.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli PM Ehud Olmert had vowed at a US summit last year to try to achieve a two-state solution by the end of 2008.

But conflict over Israeli settlements and security have soured the process.

Afica

Kenya diplomatic moves intensify

The chairman of the African Union is due to arrive in Kenya as diplomatic moves to try to end the country’s political crisis intensify.

John Kufuor, also Ghana’s president, will try to help resolve divisions that erupted after the disputed victory of President Mwai Kibaki in elections.

Opposition head Raila Odinga has said he would only talk with President Kibaki if Mr Kufuor mediated.

Kenyan president invites rival to face-to-face talks on disputed poll

By Steve Bloomfield in Nairobi

Published: 08 January 2008

Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki extended an olive branch to the opposition leader Raila Odinga last night, inviting him to face-to-face talks about the disputed election result which has plunged the country in chaos.

His offer of negotiations this Friday about how to stop the violence, consolidate peace and forge “national reconciliation” came as the senior US official for Africa acknowledged that Kenyans had been cheated by their leaders, but urged them to “haul themselves back from the brink”.

Jendayi Frazer, who has spent three days meeting the two rivals in Nairobi, pointedly refused to recognise the disputed re-election of Mr Kibaki, which has sparked violent clashes across the country and left the Kenyan people reeling. “They have been cheated by their leadership and their institutions,” said Ms Frazer. “The political leaders have to stop the violence and they have to reform the institutions.”

Europe

Prodi under pressure as army moves in to clear Naples trash

By John Phillips in Rome

Published: 08 January 2008

Soldiers were deployed to clear piles of rubbish outside schools in the Naples area yesterday as protests flared over months of failure to collect rotting refuse. Italian Army engineering units were called in to carry out the refuse clearance in Caserta on the outskirts of the chaotic city in the south of the country so pupils could resume classes. “The schools must reopen,” said the Italian prime minister, Romano Prodi.

The EU Environment Commissioner last week warned Rome that Brussels would impose sanctions on Italy if the Government does not resolve the crisis.

German rail operator attacked over track fees for ‘Holocaust train’

By Tony Paterson in Berlin

Published: 08 January 2008

The organisers of a rolling train exhibition about the Holocaust are embroiled in a furious row with Germany’s national rail company because the state-owned network is charging the exhibitors tens of thousands of euros to use its system.

The Train of Memory, a vintage steam-engine pulling two coaches containing photographs and biographies of child Holocaust victims, began a 1,864-mile educational tour of Germany last November and is scheduled to reach the Auschwitz death camp in Poland in early May. The demand by Deutsche Bahn, the state rail company, and the Ministry of Transport for toll fees is especially controversial for Deutsche Bahn, the successor to the Deutsche Reichsbahn, which willingly collaborated with the Nazi regime and sent millions to their deaths by rail during the Holocaust.

Asia

Tribal killings shatter hopes for ceasefire

Jeremy Page in Islamabad

Suspected Islamist militants shot dead eight tribal leaders in coordinated attacks just hours before they were due to discuss a planned ceasefire between Pakistan’s security forces and al-Qaeda and Taleban insurgents near the border with Afghanistan.

The killings took place yesterday morning and on Sunday night in the mountainous region of South Waziristan, home to Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taleban leader who has been blamed by the Government for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto last month.

There are now fears that fighting could worsen in northwestern Pakistan, after the expiry of a militant deadline and the resignation on Saturday of a leading local official who had long advocated a negotiated solution. While not explicitly blaming Mr Mehsud for the latest killings, the Pakistani Government announced yesterday that it was preparing to launch a big offensive against him.

Sri Lankan minister dies in blast

A Sri Lankan minister, DM Dassanayake, has died in hospital after his convoy was hit by a powerful roadside blast near the capital, doctors said.

The minister for nation-building was in a convoy between Colombo and the international airport when the bomb went off. Seven others were wounded.

The blast, in Ja-Ela town, 12 miles (19kms) north of Colombo, has been blamed on the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Latin America

Colombia rejects foreign missions

The Colombian government said it will not accept any more international commissions like that set up last month by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela.

Mr Chavez had launched an operation to receive three of the 46 hostages held by the Farc rebels.

In the end the Farc did not free the hostages because one of them, a three-year-old boy called Emmanuel, was found to be in a foster home instead.

The government seized on this to resume control in dealings with the Farc.

Jan 08 2008

We’re a Long, Long Way From Home

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

In his haunting song, “Devils and Dust”, Bruce Springsteen observed, “We’re a long, long way from home . . . home’s a long, long way from us.”

As usual, The Boss knows what he’s talking about.  Americans have never been so far from home. Our “leaders” have taken us all into a bizarre Twilight Zone America where torture is patriotic, civil liberties have been erased, and proclaimers of endless war are sanctified.  Treason is rewarded, justice is waterboarded, and the truth dies unreported.

In the America we used to know, a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty welcomed the world to our shores with this guarantee:

“Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

That guarantee has been replaced with this disclaimer:

The Twilight Zone      

Craven politicians in Washington bear most of the blame for dragging us through all of this shame and degradation, but they are not solely responsible. Too many Americans have never voted in an election.  Too many of them used to vote but have given up trying to make a difference.  They’ve heard the lies of politicians too many times. They’ve seen the corruption in Washington and don’t trust anyone in government.  They’re disillusioned.  They feel helpless.  They don’t want to have anything to do with politics.  What good would it do?  “Politicians never listen to us anyway,” they say. “They’ll do whatever they want once they get elected, so why should I pay any attention to politics, why should I go out and vote?”        

This is why:  

Take your cynicism and apathy off the table, America.  Put your children’s future on it, and keep it there.

When destiny calls you, you must be strong.

When destiny called in Iowa, 240,000 Americans were strong.  In the cold, snow, and darkness of a Midwestern winter night, they took the first steps on America’s long way home.  They didn’t ask David Broder if it was OK with him.  They didn’t seek Madame Speaker’s permission.  They didn’t consult “Life Is A Campaign” for sage advice from Tweety.  They didn’t watch NBC Nightly News so they could hear the latest political news from hack “journalists” who report what their corporate bosses tell them to report.

They want to leave this Bush/Cheney wasteland behind and go home, to the land of hope and dreams America used to be.  Iowa teachers and students, housewives and retail clerks, waitresses and truck drivers, blue collar workers and white collar workers, single mothers, grandparents, and the families of Bush’s hostages in uniform in Iraq are all determined to live in that America again.

This Amerika is obscene:  

Old American Century Fascism

Iowans stood up from Rock Rapids to Cedar Rapids and said IT IS FASCISM WHEN WE DO IT, you brainless Beltway fucks.  240,000 of them said so.  They stood up for every American.   They stood up for every deceived soldier, they stood up for their frightened wives and children, they stood up for every spied on, lied to, robbed blind, abused, ignored, and exploited American.  Someone had to. Nancy Pelosi never will.  Harry Reid never will. Rahm Emanuel never will.  Too many of their bought and paid for K-Street Democrats in Congress never will.  Too many tuba players in the Dancing Donuts Marching Band at Daily Kos Junior High never will.

So 240,000 Iowans did.  They bundled up against the cold and set out on the long way home to that land where democracy thrived, where no one was above the law, where voters were respected, not caged.  In that America, war was a last resort, not the standard policy of trigger happy lunatics.  War crimes were not plotted in the White House, they were something our enemies committed.  The world looked up to us, now it turns its back on us in revulsion.

It’s your turn to take a stand, New Hampshire.  Your ancestors faced the same choice between freedom and submission you are facing now.  They knew what they had to do.  They took a stand for freedom in 1775 and showed the rest of the world how its done.  The world needs to see American courage and determination like that again.  Iowa showed them some, it’s your turn now.  

Lock and load, New Hampshire.

You know who the Redcoats of the 21st Century are.

Fire when you see the whites of their beady corporate eyes.      

Jan 08 2008

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

The muses are ancient.  The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them.  Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward.  In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.

It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse.  Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets.  Others have been suggested throughout the centuries.  I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts.  And maybe there should be many more.

Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…

An Opened Mind XXII:

The following is one of only a few pieces where the art and the poem were created together and share a name.

Art Link
Folds

Folds

Each conclusion

is an initiation

a fold in the fabric

our our spacetime

One phase

passes into another

a relationship ends

another begins

creasing our stories

writing our narratives

in the available media

The wrinkled origami

thus formed

is a life

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 21, 2006

I know you have talent.  What sometimes is forgotten is that being practical is a talent.  I have a paucity for that sort of talent in many situations, though it turns out that I’m a pretty darn good cook.  ðŸ™‚  

Let your talent bloom.  You can share it here.  Encourage others to let it bloom inside them as well.

Won’t you share your words or art, your sounds or visions, your thoughts scientific or philosophic, the comedy or tragedy of your days, the stories of doing and making?  And be excellent to one another!

Jan 08 2008

RNN News asks: “Time for Cheney ‘Impeachment’ Hearings?”

Richard French of RNN, Regional News Network, out of New York’s Hudson Valley aired a report, on January 3rd, after a sitin at Congressman Jerry Nadlers office.

Richard French of RNN News on growing movement for Cheney Impeachment.

And asks the Question: Time for Cheney ‘Impeachment’ Hearings?

Than yesterday, January 7th, they had another, updated report, after George McGovern’s Op-Ed on ‘Impeachment’ on Sunday. This one carry’s some of the original parts, from above report, but adds parts of what McGovern had said as well as an interview with Ray McGovern about the Charges for Impeachment.

From the ‘Richard French Show’

On RNN TV New Yorks Hudson Valley

With Ray McGovern

Jan 08 2008

it’s not weakness; the Dems are ashamed

It hit me out of the blue. The Democrats in Congress aren’t afraid of looking weak as the majority. They are ashamed for having been weak in the minority. Investigating BushCo and shining the light of day on this most corrupt of administrations exposes a Democratic minority without principles or courage. They are ashamed because their lack of action is one of the major factors in the world being as it is today.

Yeah. Ashamed. They don’t know how to push back at George W. Bush without exposing their lack of principle. How their going along to get along has made the lot of them complicit in perhaps the worst seven years this country has ever had.

They are ashamed that they kept their collective mouths shut when some of them must have had large, looming questions about the veracity of the intelligence on Iraq. They are ashamed that they didn’t fight the Faith-Based & Community Initiatives and instead, pandered to theocrats who really and truly want to legislate the Bible. Meaning they want to control, take over the country. This is not funny or crazy. They say it right out in the open and the Democrats, by keeping their mouths shut and eyes closed, have given these theocrats seven additional years to grow their influence. Democrats are ashamed that they pandered to false patriots who used this country of ours as collateral to fund a war on behalf of global corporate power.

The Democrats are ashamed that they let education turn into meaningless testing gambit to shut down public education so George W. Bush could argue for privatizing our schools and handing out yet more of our tax dollars to his cronies. The same with Medicare.

They are ashamed that they let George W. Bush and his minions get away with torture. TORTURE. AMERICA TORTURES. Dems are ashamed to even comprehend, imagine, put words to how many dead Iraqis there are. Not just dead. But how many destroyed lives and orphans and widows and people who have lost everything but their lives. Imagine it.

Heh. it’s like Bill Maher says… there are so many ways in which the Democrats have let us down, and so many scandals and ways in which George W. Bush has fucked up this country, it’s hard to keep up on the daily debacles.

I’m tired of listing all the assaults on America and the rest of the world. I am tired of waiting for the Democrats to wake up. I am tired of listening to fucking pundits on television tell me how Hillary’s campaign needs to be retooled. Because she lost in Iowa. And telling me if she doesn’t do well in New Hampshire or if the poll numbers say this, then it means that…. are you fucking kidding me??????????????????????????????????? I have no intention of voting for Hillary but I don’t want Jon Alter telling me what my future will be. STOP IT. Okay? Leave us alone. OKAY? Let us make our own decisions.

Damn it. There are so many things to be mad about. I have had a vacation here at DD. But I can see that will come to an end. I can’t avoid it… the same shit. The media telling me what will happen.

And the Democrats, like fools on the hill, sit in their shame. Afraid to do anything for fear of exposing how their silence has made them complicit in torture, death, and war. Complicit in turning profit into value and things of value into nothing. Complicit in eroding the our Constitutional freedoms by being silent on Supreme Court appointees. It’s enough to make you scream or vomit or break something. See, I could keep on listing and listing and ……………..

I wonder if that decision aligns with Nancy Pelosi’s idea of First Amendment… I will never get over this…

“If they were poor and they were sleeping on my sidewalk, they would be arrested for loitering, but because they have ‘Impeach Bush’ across their chest, it’s the First Amendment.”

Nancy Pelosi

So here’s my advice. Don’t let Barack Obama become the defacto nominee. Don’t allow Hillary’s campaign to be predicted off the stage. Fight for your right to vote for the nominee. And really. Don’t waste your vote. Vote your conscience. Vote your principles. Don’t worry about electability. Worry about the truth. We need to start acting out the truth.

Whomever you vote for. Whomever you believe in. I don’t care if it’s Ron Paul or Mike Gravel. Vote your core principles. And I’d respect in you in the morning if you voted for Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards.

Be OUT LOUD about restoring our core principles, our country, our Constitution, and the need to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney.  Stand up for law with justice, and demand our legislators defend our Constitution and our country. And tell them, scream at them to stand against the corrupted silence of complicity.


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