end of a fateful year

* The unnecessary disaster in Iraq - the haste in getting into it, the inadequate preparation and resources to pursue it - now partly acknowledged even by the president and his "stuff happens" secretary of defense.
* The mess in an underfunded Homeland Security regime that requires every airline passenger to remove his shoes and risk a humiliating frisking, grants government snoops broad new powers, locks up suspects without legal rights, but can't properly vet its own Cabinet secretary-designee, or those charged with maintaining security for a US military base in the heart of a war zone???
* The huge tax cuts, most of them for the rich, in a professed time of war, which supposedly requires no sacrifice from anyone other than the troops overseas. Among those men and women, even those who make it home in good physical health, a large percentage will need extended psychological help for the emotional battering they've undergone. View the pictures on the Memory Hole today!!!!
* The ballooning federal deficit resulting in large part from those tax cuts, the decline of the dollar to record lows against the Euro and the nation's concomitant decline in economic and political influence. At some point, federal borrowing will require interest rates high enough that they will choke us. They just cut the NSF budget for 05/06 insuring that creationism and intelligent design will not be challenged by actual factual scientific study.
* The ongoing failure to launch a massive energy conservation program through higher auto efficiency standards and higher gas taxes to reduce our dependency on the very regimes that finance terrorism and which represent the most undemocratic forces on earth.
* The growing visa and security barriers to foreign scholars and students, once a mainstay of the nation's economic and scientific superiority, and the shrinking federal support for low income students in the face of the growing technical power and attractiveness of universities in China, India, Canada and Europe. Go overseas to universities, they are cheaper and a lot more fun!!!!!!
* The increasingly dysfunctional health care system, which with every "reform" becomes more costly, corrupt, inefficient and unfair. The fiscally destructive proposals for privatizing Social Security in the effort to take it down the same road. Combining the failure of Medicare with the impending defrauding of millions upon millions of citizens through privitization can only lead to one conclusion: the reactionary radical right are desperately trying to turn the US into a third world country.

"The United States is not stingy," pouted Colin Powell, the outgoing secretary of state. when challenged on this point on Nightline, he classically quoted his edict: we will not go down this road!! There was no mention that the Bush Administration a week earlier proposed cutting back its contribution to the World Food Bank. Nevertheless, following Egeland's challenge, the United States announced it would donate another $20 million in aid, for a total of $35 million. today, the US announced, for some miraculous reason(a pile of bs) that they would immediately donate $350 million. Given that factor of 10x, redue the following math. Canada, with a population of about 11 percent that of the U.S. and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) about 6 percent that of the U.S., pledged $33 million. Spain, with a population of about one-seventh that of the U.S. and a GDP about 6 percent that of the U.S., quickly pledged more than $68 million in relief, twice that initially committed by the U.S. Australia, with a population about 7 percent and a GDP about 4 percent of that of the United States, pledged $20 million. Japan, with a population about two-fifths and a GDP about half that of the U.S., pledged at least $40 million; the United Kingdom, with a population of one-fifth and a GDP of about 13 percent of that of the U.S. also pledged at least $40 million. France, with a population about one-fifth that of the U.S. and a GDP about one-tenth that of the U.S., quickly pledged $27 million. Also responding quickly, with statements by their leaders coupled with financial and humanitarian assistance, were dozens of other countries. Israel contributed millions and pledged a 150-member medical team; other countries had already been shipping thousands of tons of relief supplies. International aid organizations believe more than $14 billion will be needed for humanitarian assistance, much of it donated by individuals and corporations.

But it's unfair to say the Bush administration is stingy -- it just has different priorities. The White House has so far requested roughly $100 billion for the occupation of Iraq in FY 2005, which translates to about $8.3 billion per month, or over $270 million per day (eighteen times more than the administration's first offer of help to tsunami victims). And that's only Iraq. The US military budget request for FY 2005 was 420.7 billion dollars -- double that of China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany combined. in other words the US will now donate a day and a half's worth of Iraq funding to the tsunami relief. whoa, i don't know if they can afford that.

Of course, perpetual war requires a lavish arsenal so the US spends further billions each year perfecting its weapons of mass destruction. In 2004 alone, a full $6 billion was earmarked for federal biological weapons programs, dedicated to destructive pursuits including bringing back elements of the 1918 Spanish flu (which killed 40 million people) and producing even deadlier strains of anthrax. Meanwhile the US budget for nuclear-weapon activities in fiscal 2004 topped $6 billion, which is twelve times more than it spent on securing/reducing existing stockpiles or on non-proliferation efforts. Also factor in the $10 billion Bush requested in FY 2005 for his failed missile "defense" program, a budget almost double what the Department of Homeland Security pays for the crucial activities of customs and border patrol.

ooohh dear, they don't like us..

The survey cited 40 U.S.-based companies and asked consumers who said they were trying to avoid buying U.S. brands to rate each one of them by how closely they were identified with being "American," and whether or not they deliberately avoided buying their products. The survey then plotted each company's position on a quadrant divided into "safe" and "insulated" squares at the bottom and "at risk" and "problem squares" at the top.
this is exciting news really. here we have a survey that links perception with conception based on available information. US corporations have an expectation that the US government is providing them with the best results their money can buy. There can be no mistaking the foreign policy behavior of the US as differing from the intent of US business. They are one and the same.

Those deemed "safe" or "insulated" generally were either not seen as particularly "American" (Visa, Kodak, Kleenex or Gillette), or they apparently lacked real competition (Microsoft, Heinz, and Disney).
kleenex, mmm. a company that is one of the most forest abusive in the world, gets an almost pass from euro interests, yet is perceived as being canadian. why? well because they are single handedly destroying the canadain boreal forest. I am not sure how gillette is different than schick.

Visa was the single best performer: only 17 percent of consumers identified as intending to avoid U.S. brands thought that it was "extremely American," and only 15 percent said they intended to boycott it. Fifty-four percent said they had used Visa at least once in the previous month.
visa not an issue?? well maybe there is something to be said for their satiation of the market place rather then the perception of brand nation connectivity. visa is the most useful card, not the most well liked. and euro based visa accounts are kept at very low interest rates rather than the typical US usury abuse.

"Problem" companies, on the other hand, included those which more than a third of boycotting consumers said they intended to avoid, and more than 40 percent of consumers said they considered to be "extremely American." On that scale, Marlboro was found to be the most problematic. Sixty percent of respondents said they avoided the product, while two-thirds said they considered it to be "extremely American." Only McDonald's had a higher "American" score, at 73 percent, but only 42 percent of respondents said they avoided the Golden Arches.
i like this one, in that of that 42% who avoid McD's, this must also not represent all of those that don't eat fast food in the first place, or that only have McD in their vicinity. thus the number of people who don't use it must be huge. of course Marlboro is extremely american, aaahh the advertising and the fact that Phillip Morris gets to advertize in europe and asia.

In contrast to Visa's performance, 48 percent of boycotting consumers said they would definitely avoid using American Express; 64 percent said they thought the company was "extremely American," and only two percent reported using it during the previous month. Other problem brands included Exxon-Mobil, AOL, American, Chevron Texaco, United Airlines, Budweiser, Chrysler, Barbie Doll, Starbucks, and General Motors.
Barbie Doll? really??? cool. hehehe. the world doesn't like fake reality? hehehe. i am curious about chrysler? in that it is now a major partner of Daimler-Benz and thus inextricably linked to europe in so many way. and hell, citizens of the US don't like the two largest oil companies in the world either. AOL tried to ram its way into europe, when it was owned by one of the US's most infamous pornographers.

The latest poll found that more than two thirds of European and Canadian consumers have had a negative change in their view of the United States as a result of U.S. foreign policy over the last three years. Nearly half believe that the war in Iraq was motivated by a desire to control oil supplies, while only 15 percent believed it was related to terrorism.
wow, nearly half of the people actually know what is real. that is hugely reassuring, at least in terms of validating what some of us know to be true. there is something scary that more euros know that terrorism is phony than do those who actually voted for kerry. this is not good.

Nearly two thirds of European and Canadian consumers also said they believe U.S. foreign policy is guided primarily by self-interest and empire-building, while only 17 percent believe that the defense of freedom and democracy is its guiding principle. Half of the entire sample said they distrusted U.S. companies, at least in part because of the U.S. foreign policy. Seventy-nine percent said they distrusted the U.S. government for the same reason, while 39 percent said they distrusted the American public.
this last fact is alarming in the sense that the results of the election should indicate that at least one-sixth of the US population is frightfully scary just by voting for Bush, and that the other third supports these policies and are the most vile and nefarious of anti-euro fascists.

Fully 87 percent of German, 84 percent of French, and 71 percent of British respondents have negative feelings toward Bush himself. Moreover, British, French and German consumers all felt that the cultural values of the other two countries were closer to their own than "American values."

Re vera

Rejecting a United Nations official's suggestion that it had been a "stingy" aid donor, the Bush administration on Tuesday announced another $20 million in relief for victims of the Asian earthquake and tsunamis and dispatched an aircraft carrier and other ships to the region for possible relief operations. -- I have just read that the United States has now pledged $35 million for tsunami relief. While I applaud this initial pledge, the need will be far, far greater. Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN representatives have estimated that billions may be needed for the relief effort, and initial estimates for food aid alone are $30 million. As one of the world's wealthiest and most prosperous nations, the United States should step up to that leadership role by increasing its aid pledge significantly and by urging all nations to donate as much as they can in terms of funds, food and other aid support.

Currently the United States is spending close to $10 million dollars per hour in Iraq, or roughly $250 million per day. There is $8.8 billion missing from the oil reserve funds administered by Paul "medal of freedom winner" Bremer, who refuses to discuss the problem. Another $2 billion or so is missing from Halliburton contracted services, and Cheney won't allow that to be investigated or reviewed. So claiming the US is pledging some huge amount is totally bogus. Just giving four days worth of the exhorbitant amount we spend in Iraqwould cover the major share of the initial and follow-up relief efforts. But of course the US can't do that, because all of that Iraq money is tied up in government contracts with their friends raking in billions and moving the profits offshore to avoid ever paying taxes on them... yeah for us

what do these two stories have in common??

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents launched multiple attacks on Iraqi police across the dangerous Sunni Triangle today, killing 24 people, including 19 policemen, a day after the major Sunni Muslim political party pulled out of the Jan. 30 elections citing the deteriorating security situation. Also today, a militant group claimed to have executed eight Iraqi employees of the Sandi Group, American security company, saying they had supported the U.S.-led occupation. Twelve policemen died when gunmen attacked a station 12 miles south of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, said Arkan Mohammed, a local government official. A car bomb killed five Iraqi National Guardsmen and injured 26 near Baqouba, a town 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, after the paramilitary troops had cordoned off an area in order to disarm a roadside bomb, said Maj. Neal O'Brien.
so we have "insurgents" terrorizing those who occupy their country, those who are expanding an empire to take control of the resources of that country and to subjegate its population. the occupiers are upset because they are not able to defeat the indigenous population... mmmm

<>GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli drone aircraft fired a missile into a car carrying two Hamas militants in Gaza on Tuesday but both escaped without serious injury, witnesses said. Some passersby suffered minor wounds, they said, in the incident in the city of Khan Younis, a stronghold of militants who often fire mortar bombs and rockets at nearby Jewish settlements. Palestinian security sources said the Hamas men were apparently en route to staging an attack on part of the fortified Gush Katif settlement bloc nearby when they were spotted by a patrolling drone and targeted. There was no immediate Israeli army comment. Israeli Army Radio said the missile was fired at a suspected mortar-launching crews in Khan Younis but no casualties resulted. Israeli tanks and troops have raided Khan Younis repeatedly to kill or capture militants behind constant rocket and mortar salvoes against settlements.
here you have the occupiers using terror tactics against the indigenous population in hopes of forcing them to become subject passive willing participants in their own slaughter. darn those pesky insurgents, if they would just let the occupiers kill them and not try to get away it would all go so much better... sometimes i just don't get it..

yackademic freedom

Traditionally, clashes over academic freedom pitted politicians or administrators against instructors who wanted to express their opinions and teach as they saw fit. But increasingly, students are invoking academic freedom, contending that biased professors violate their right to classes free from indoctrination.
it totally cracks me up.. their right to not be told the truth about stuff.. where is that written as the code of a public educational system. "you have no right to indoctrinate me with the truth"

In many ways, the trend echoes past campus conflicts — but turns them around. Once, it was liberal activists citing the importance of "diversity" in pressing their agendas for curriculum change. Now, conservatives have adopted much of the same language in calling for greater openness to their viewpoints.
i am wondering if these same conservatives would understand that those who oppose their views would want the same rights they are claiming for themselves? i don't think so...

Similarly, academic freedom guidelines have traditionally been cited to protect left-leaning students from punishment for disagreeing with teachers about such issues as U.S. neutrality before World War II and involvement in Vietnam. Now, those same guidelines are being invoked by conservative students who support the war in Iraq.
an examination of the causal reasons for going to war?? sure why not? ooh that's right, to demonstrate the inherent lies, deception, duplicity etc. of the administration's efforts to go to war would be violating the rights of those conservatives to retain their beliefs, no matter how false and erroneous they are...

To many professors, there's a new and deeply troubling aspect to this latest chapter in the debate over academic freedom: students trying to dictate what they don't want to be taught.
it is not what they don't want to be taught as much as it really is what they don't want taught or acknowledged or documented or studied by anyone... there is a pressing need to quash any efforts at honest historical study right now. it is far too dangerous to have the truth out there.

"Even the most contentious or disaffected of students in the '60s or early '70s never really pressed this kind of issue," said Robert O'Neil, former University of Virginia president and director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

Those behind the trend call it an antidote to the liberal dominance of university faculties. But many educators, while agreeing that students should never feel bullied, worry that they just want to avoid exposure to ideas that challenge their core beliefs — an essential part of education.
challenge their core beliefs that are based on falsehoods and glaring factual errors of substance and analysis. putting many of the conservative positions under the spotlight of critical academic inquiry illuminates the philosophical bankruptcy of most of them and the hideous underlying intent of the rest of them.

<> Some also fear that teachers will shy away from sensitive topics or fend off criticism by "balancing" their syllabuses with opposing viewpoints, even if they represent inferior scholarship.
indeed. where is the evidence for many of the conservative positions.. lost in the deceptive rhetoric of its neo-con straussian message machine manipulators. there are no facts or artifacts to validate them.. but they want them taught--including creationism and that the US is a christian nation..

Leading the movement is Students for Academic Freedom, with chapters on 135 campuses and close ties to David Horowitz, a onetime liberal campus activist turned conservative commentator. The group posts student complaints on its website about alleged episodes of grading bias and unbalanced, anti-American propaganda by professors — often in classes.
you have to appreciate the gaul here. complaining that what you are experiencing is anti-amerikan because you feel it is, based solely on belief values that can't be challenged or questioned. this is the essence of fascism and the end of academic freedom as we know it.

Instructors "need to make students aware of the spectrum of scholarly opinion," Horowitz said. "You can't get a good education if you're only getting half the story."
except of course, these folks refuse to acknowledge that the mainstream and cable media are all presenting that other half of the story. their goal being to push the balance way over on their side, making every effort to nullify fact and truth.

In the wider debate, both sides cite the guidelines on academic freedom first set out in 1915 by the American Assn. of University Professors.

The objecting students emphasize the portion calling on teachers to "set forth justly … the divergent opinions of other investigators." But many teachers note that the guidelines also say that instructors need not "hide [their] own opinions under a mountain of equivocal verbiage," and that their job is teaching students "to think for themselves."
divergent views of others for them means ideas not based on factual realities... thus if you argue that students might want to think for themselves when they analyze the substantive underlying beliefs of their positions, they would suggest they are free not to do so...

Horowitz believes that the American Assn. of University Professors, which opposes his bill of rights, and liberals in general are now the establishment and have abandoned their commitment to real diversity and student rights.

But critics say Horowitz is pushing a political agenda, not an academic one.

"It's often phrased in the language of academic freedom. That's what's so strange about it," said Ellen Schrecker, a Yeshiva University historian who has written about academic freedom during the McCarthy area. "What they're saying is, 'We want people to reflect our point of view.' "
even though we know our point of view is not factual, rational, nor valid.

what a barrel of feces..

<> WASHINGTON -- President Bush issued a Christmas Day call for compassion toward the sick and suffering, urging Americans to volunteer to help the neediest among their fellow citizens.
''The Christmas season fills our hearts with gratitude for the many blessings in our lives, and with those blessings comes a responsibility to reach out to others," Bush said in his weekly radio address. ''Many of our fellow Americans still suffer from the effects of illness or poverty; others fight cruel addictions, or cope with division in their families, or grieve the loss of a loved one," he said. ''Christmastime reminds each of us . . . we are called to love our neighbor just as we would like to be loved ourselves. By volunteering our time and talents where they are needed most, we help heal the sick, comfort those who suffer, and bring hope to those who despair -- one heart and one soul at a time."

say what?? right... while the Rove machine destroys the capability of the US government from meeting its constitutional commitment (promote the general welfare and secure the blessing of liberty) the talking head puppet suggests that other citizens do the job. So where are the billionaires to pick up the cuts that will keep a million kids out of college now that Rove cut Pell grants? Where are the corporations to pay for public education now that Rove cut funding to schools? Where are the hospitals and insurance companies to fund health care now that Rove/Bush cut total funding while raising the costs of drugs and access?? Where is the trickle down of the billions of dollars put into the coffers of the rich and powerful after hugely cutting income taxes for the rich?

It is all so much feces... these guys are working on the goal of destroying all aspects of government other than a military police state... and then deceptively suggesting that those patrons of this state help others. When does the bake sale for the troops start???

secret holiday hell on earth... coming soon

-- the new forest rules adopted this week... lovely screw job during quiet holiday news cycle..

" The extent to which regional and individual federal forest managers can be trusted to do the right thing in balancing environmental protection and timber production. That's an evolving story as "timber beasts" within the Forest Service lose relative influence, and biologists, hydrologists, and other habitat scientists are more closely listened to. Part of the issue here is that local forest managers frequently are pressured by politicians to "get out the cut" in order to boost the local economy."
what kind of notion is "timber beasts... lose influence?" this whole change in the rules is about giving in to the timber beasts over the intelligence of the science...

• Whether or not vast areas need protection in order to stem the decline of key "indicator species" that scientists say are the best gauge of forest health.
i particularly like this one. it basically says all we need to do is protect a few species in specific places and log the rest; nothing about determining how the rest of the species are doing...

How to mitigate fire danger and manage burned areas, which typically includes thinning trees beforehand and "salvage logging" charred timber afterward."
of course the easiest way to mitigate fire danger is for there to be no forest, right?

• The administration (and Forest Service) urge to lessen the "analysis paralysis" they say prevents proper forest management versus activists' efforts to slow if not prevent virtually all timber sales - efforts that typically involve lawsuits.
yes, damn those pesky studies. oh wait, well, when it comes to global warming we need more analysis paralysis right??

The economics of forest management. Because of the cost of road building and other aspects of forest management, most timber sales are money losers for Uncle Sam. Still, they're often the economic lifeblood for rural communities.
could be because they just give it away to their corporate buddies, but then that would be corrupt...

"The new rules are designed to speed up the planning process. They give local and regional forest managers more responsibility and accountability for developing plans, including protection of ecosystems. Sustainability will be the key, officials say, and independent audits will be required."
sustainability of what??? the ability to mow down forests like hay and wheat on a regular basis... auditing the tax accounts of the timber companies--i don't think so..

Forest Service officials say the rules will make it easier for them to respond to the impact of wildfires as well as such emerging threats as invasive plant species. "This rule applies the most current thinking in natural resource management," says Ms. Collins, who supervised the Deschutes National Forest in Oregon for 13 years. "
rape pillage destroy maim desertify .. yep current thinking all right.. ever seen what is left of the deschutes national forest... try to find a tree that is older than 25 years.. that isn't in a private reserve or a park.

Sally Collins, associate chief of the U.S. Forest Service, said the changes will replace a bureaucratic planning process with a more corporate management approach that will allow officials to respond to changing ecological and social conditions.
aaaaahh because, well, corporations have a vested interest in ecology?? no no no i forgot. they are required by law to make money for their shareholders, and that law needs to take precedent over EPA, and Clean Air and Clean Water and the rest of those

The new rules give economic activity equal priority with preserving the ecological health of the forests in making management decisions and in potentially liberalizing caps on how much timber can be taken from a forest. Forest Service officials estimated the changes will cut their planning costs by 30 percent and will allow managers to finish what amounts to zoning requirements for forest users in two to three years, instead of the nine or 10 years they sometimes take now.
gosh darn it. how dare anyone consider that the ecological health of forests might be more valuable than how much money they can generate in the short term immediately.. these guys are nutballs.. but people are so susceptable to these sort of deception and lying.. they learn to ignore it and then are later surprised when they drive through clearcuts...

The government will no longer require that its managers prepare an environmental impact analysis with each forest's management plan, or use numerical counts to ensure there are "viable populations" of fish and wildlife. The changes will reduce the number of required scientific reports and ask federal officials to focus on a forest's overall health, rather than the fate of individual species, when evaluating how to protect local plants and animals.
no longer require??? yes... that's it... and certainly don't count species, just make up a new reality and say that three male salmon are viable and that two breeding buffalo wandering across leased range land are viable... forest's overall health???? like how much can be cut how fast right?? cause well species other than monoforest timber trees and humans are not healthy...

"We're really in a new world," Collins said. "You've got to have different plans for different places, and you've got to have more dynamic plans."
translate dynamic as creating new realities that don't include any notion or awareness of any species other than dollars and cents... yes yes.. different plans indeed....

Environmentalists say the new rule undermines wildlife protection and excludes the public from decisions about how to manage federal land. It is likely that the new rule will be challenged in court under such landmark laws as the National Forest Management Act and the Endangered Species Act.

"The White House is deliberately creating a legal controversy, knowing the rule will be struck down in court, so it can give Congress the justification to roll back the forest protection laws these new rules violate," says Amy Mall, senior forestry specialist with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's a backdoor ruse to cripple the law."
think about it this way.. a traffic light intersection will now require more study and research than clearcutting a forest... how's that for the US mandate...

While Forest Service officials pledge to base decisions on "the best available science" in order to protect air, water, wildlife, and other important natural resources, activists see an administration pattern of orders and policies that indicate otherwise.
this sounds vaguely like global warming rhetoric.. we all need to use the "available" science--which is bushspeak/doublespeak for saying they will not make themselves look at any science whatsoever... no way

A year ago, the administration announced it would open 300,000 acres in Alaska's Tongass National Forest to logging. White House officials have reversed a Clinton-era order to prevent road building in some 59 million acres of roadless national forest land. The administration's "Healthy Forests Initiative" emphasizes logging to deal with burned areas before they deteriorate. The administration also wants to lessen some of the restrictions on development required under the Endangered Species Act. Critics further note that President Bush has received large campaign contributions from timber industry executives and trade groups."
having worked to protect the Tongass, i think the only way to make sure it is protected is to take the fight into the forest, and not in the courts...

mind journey's make great gifts...

Gifts that we must know, are those that bring us the perception of Oneness of all things, and the Harmony and Balance of Nature. To know these gifts is important for America. The Indian knew their land. They knew all of the relationships between all the living things of this land, and they knew their own relationship to all of these relationships. Living this knowledge, they had the power to survive and maintain their existence for thousands of years. It would do us no good to seek to know about America and its natural ways from any source other than the American Indian. Their knowledge was far superior to that of our progressive scientific and technological community. We, as Americans today, are destroying America and are, in the way of frozen circles, destroying the Earth. We must know these gifts that the Indians have for us, and we must know them their way. Here is my story of how I learned.

On the day of the last full moon of Summer, I went very high into the Sierra Nevada Mountains to a very special place, where I know that I am close to the Great Spirit and close to aII of the beings that create and dream our universe. We have these sacred places, and it is our duty and honored task to seek them, for they are the only places where we can find our centers, our unity between our hearts and minds. My place is very powerful, and I go there to strengthen my own power and to reinforce my spirit through communion with all spirits. There I find the oneness and harmony that is truly the way of the Red path of the living medicine way. On this occassion, I was most disturbed by the failing on my part to find the path and to continue seeking the Truth.

As I approached the summit of this particular pass, I was suddenly overcome by the immensity of this universe and the most humbling realization that I was to this universe lowlier than the smallest ants. This realization seemed not only to refer to myself alone but to all men. As my awareness of this became more intense I succombed to the darkness of my spirit. The blackness filled my whole presence, and it was as if it were night; but a night with no stars nor moon nor any thing, a void. From the depths of the void came a sound that was much familiar yet was one i could not place nor understand. As it grew louder and came closer to me, i realized, much to my embarrassment, that the sound was the great waves of the Pacific Ocean. They came from some small orifice that i could not accurately sense in any perceptable manner.

Suddenly, all was quiet and i grew fearful. A voice touched my right ear and said, "Do not fear little Lost One, I am sent here to protect you.” The voice spoke with the rolling slush of an ebbing tide, but also with the crashing of storm surf on rocky shorelines. It was confusing and frightening and yet simultaneously very peaceful.

This creature with such a voice, informed me that he was a sea otter from the West, and he was to show me the ways of that direction, so that i would know them. He brought to me old lady who was a rug maker. She began to weave a rug. As the rug took shape, she grew younger and then began her story. It was now quite light again, and I could see very clearly as she wove her rug, teaching me, through the otter, the circle of the West. She revealed to me that each stitch of the rug has in its nature, the existence of the whole rug. Without that one stitch, in any one place, the rug would not be whole, nor would the rug be the same. For all time, that stitch exists as does the rug. Even when the wool that made that stitch was just growing on the sheep, when the sheep was born, the existence of the rug and that stitch was inherent in that wool. The grasses and plants that fed the sheep and dyed the wool are synchronicitously inherent. And should the rug be burned and the ashes scattered, the existence of the rug and that stitch remain eternal in the scattered ashes, even as they return to sediments in the eons to yet come. Likewise, the sea otter and the mountains and all things live in eternity. The glaciers that carved the mountains are forever carving them, as are the mountains always as they are now. All things of power and spirit, that are the unity of the universe, are related in this manner. The way of the West is to look inside yourself and see this and see how this relates to everything.

The otter said to me, "It is the Indian way that the universe is conceived as a living, unified community in which all living things, plants as well as animals and men, rocks and mountains as well as clouds and air, from the lowest and most humble, to the highest and most powerful, the spirit beings, and all the elements and powers of the earth and heaven, have their proper and useful places. Man as one of the forms of living beings in this universal community, is in vital relation with all others." When any of these things are touched by processes other than the natural flow, or by people outside of the path and unable to see the unique flowing of nature, then the whole world and universe is involved and subject to the evil inherent in that action. "Look inside yourself and see the responsibility that you hold in any action that you precipitate in the cosmos and the ripples of effect that flow endlessly outward. Know yourself from the inside.''

The rug-maker gave me her completed rug at this time and showed me the pattern. This teaching of the West brought to me the understanding of the grief and pain experienced by Indians when they see the indigenous/native forms of life ruthlessly and wantonly destroyed. The rug showed that is was not the reality of economic loss, nor the loss of valuable sources of food, which caused distress to Indians when they witnessed the destruction of wild rice fields and forests of pines, but it was the sense of a fearful Void in nature, ensuing upon the extinction of any given species where it had formerly flourished. They were deeply hurt to contemplate the disruption of nature's nice balance; the destruction of the universes’ symmetries. As i held the rug it began to disappear. I asked why this was, but i heard, nor saw nothing. It was the void; the darkness returned, and i again grew fearful.

As my fear grew, compounded by my feeling that i had been found and lost again, i was whirled around by powerful winds, from what i thought had been the West. Staggering to maintain a sense of direction from my previous orientation, i bumped into something of much greater size and bulk than myself. Throwing caution to the wind, in hopes of finding some semblance of order and direction, i clung to this being which was covered by a thick layer of fur. As my grasp became more furious, this thing made a very discernable and quite frightening noise. Sort of like "harrummph!" The sound, i learned later, is known as the bear (mata) sound, or the hunting kill sound. I interpreted it to mean let go and cool it, so i did what I felt I had been told to do. Light once again was made manifest. I could see that this creature was indeed a bear, of medium size, cinnamon colored, and not overly aggressive. The bear was now covered with snow, and I grew very cold. He took some notice of this and surrounded me with his immense bulk to keep me warm. All the while he was obviously thinking or concentrating on something other than me.

winter disharmony

i woke up yesterday on the first moment of winter, watched the winter morning star rise above the lightening hem of sky and felt somewhat better about everything. maybe that was why i didn't feel the need to post on this blog. i still feel that way. but there is some disturbing news out of the world that makes one feel that as this season begins to open before us, all things are not as they should be.

We can only hope that the arrogant stupidiy of the US executive and legislative branches will be seen for what it is before too much more damage is done to people and the planet. Otherwise, by spring, or fall if you are in the southern hemisphere, the fragile balance between common sanity and militant lunacy will explode into a cacaphony of chaos and despair. It really is time to commit to breaking away from it all. and for that i strongly recommend crimethinc.org. your best place to think...

it is all too clear, we're on our own

singing ashes to ashes all fall down...
from Thom Hartmann... know the ends and be fully aware of the means, especially in the beginning

It's Christmas week - Adolf Hitler's favorite season after he declared an official merger of church and state - and, ironically, conservatives are using the occasion to mount a new and bizarre attack.

They said liberals are out to destroy Christmas. Cobbling together a few anecdotes (unsupportable attacks are always anecdote-based), they managed to imply a vast anti-Christian conspiracy bubbling just under the belly of America, and pushed that frightening implication into the minds of millions of Americans just in time for the holiday season.

Conservatives must constantly attack others (and focus on "morality") to keep hidden their own true agenda, which is no less than a return to the world of Scrooge & Marley, Inc. They're working to bring about a return to Robber Baron feudalism, with a stable, rich, and powerful ruling class, and an impoverished, frightened, and politically impotent working class.

But for conservatives to keep the loyalty of the working-class victims of their policies (which are shipping American jobs overseas, while fighting unions and minimum-wage increases here), they must convince people that there is a "them" out there - liberals in this case - who are out to destroy America's moral fiber and are thus responsible for working-class misery.

Perhaps Joe went to unnecessary effort in converting "Jews" to "Liberals" in Hitler's screed, since apparently it's again fashionable to be publicly anti-Semitic in America. Last week William Donahue, president of the Catholic League, told the nation on MSNBC, "Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It's not a secret, OK? And I'm not afraid to say it."

As you can see, the formula is simple. Identify real problems within a society, such as crime, poverty, and unemployment. Invent a conspiracy responsible for these problems, say it is led by a specific group, and hyperinflate a few anecdotes to make the conspiracy seem vast and powerful. Say they are trying to destroy the nation by weakening its defenses and corrupting its morals, thus causing the economic pains felt by the average person. Rally the people behind you in self-defense to restore military strength, moral clarity, and empower great wealth and corporations to "create jobs again."

As Leo Strauss - the mentor of the Neoconservatives currently controlling much of Washington, DC - pointed out, it's not even necessary that the so-called enemies of the nation really be enemies. The myth of national Victimhood, when wrapped in the language of morality, will elevate a politician to power just as surely as will true national victimhood.

It was the formula Hitler used, and it still works today. It is, in fact, the most consistently reliable way for demagogues to gain power. It works because it's gradual but relentless, and progressively absorbs - and then intimidates or co-opts - both government and the media.

"How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men?" Mayer's friend asked rhetorically. And, without the benefit of a previous and recent and well-remembered fascistic regime to refer to, he had to candidly answer: "Frankly, I do not know."

This was the great problem that Mayer and so many in his day faced.

As Mayer's friend noted, "I do not see, even now [how we could have stopped it]. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Principiis obsta and Finem respice - 'Resist the beginnings' and 'consider the end.' But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men?"

And here we are.

Sinclair Broadcast Group runs right-wing editorials on its stations over public airways with no pretense of balance.

Former MSNBC producer Jeff Cohen tells me that he was ordered to always have at least two conservatives on the Donahue show whenever one liberal appeared, "and three conservatives to Michael Moore." Apparently the Moore Rule at MSNBC now also extends to Amy Goodman - a few days after Cohen said this on my radio program, I watched MSNBC's Chris Matthews position Goodman against three conservatives, and then dismiss her before the show ended so the remaining three could make their final points.

Hundreds of hours a day of right-wing programming pour out of radio stations nationwide, and conservative extremists are the most common "guests" and "experts" on network news and weekend political TV shows.

The 2004 election may have been stolen with massive nationwide fraud - the statistics in New Mexico, Ohio, and Florida are truly startling - and Alliance for Democracy lawyer Cliff Arnebeck has filed a lawsuit against Bush, Cheney, Rove, et al, suggesting that Kerry actually won Ohio. The story was only covered in any depth by C-SPAN.

The possibility that the election of 2002 was also stolen - particularly in Georgia, where Max Cleland losing his seat to Saxby Chambliss gave Republicans control of the Senate - has never been seriously investigated.

And when a consortium of news organizations recounted the Florida 2000 vote and it was found that Al Gore actually won the entire state - and thus the presidency - no matter what standard was used to count the ballots, the corporate news organizations of America buried the story (although the New York Times and Washington Post at least did report it on 09/12/01).

Our Attorney General-designate calls the Geneva Conventions "quaint"; our Secretary of Defense stands accused of ordering torture; our President and Vice President knowingly lie to us and the world in order to lead an election-year preemptive war; and Congress passes national security bills without reading them - eerily like the German Parliament passed the Enabling Acts after the Reichstag was burned.

too much Kool-Aid?? really?? not possible

one of the most common idioms out on the weg in the blogsphere this year is the phrase" too much kool- aid." I can only assume that this is a referent suggesting that the person to whom the blogger is posting a response, is being accused of having been under the influence of LSD, and too much LSD. I find this particularly interesting and would like to find out how this attained its connotive energies. Why is the right so interested and focussed on casting such dispersions, albeit, seriously misguided and wrong.

Was there such a thing as too much kool-aid in the old day? Given my own personal experience, and that of friends, we never really had any problem with too much kool-aid. Indeed the problem was too little. It was gone by the end of 1966, way too soon. If you were to study the archives of the Merry Pranksters you would discover that the incidents in which an individual experienced a negative psychedelic state were decidedly rare. Given the purity of the LSD, and the dosage levels(very high 200 to 500 mcgs) those using the kool-aid were very experienced. When one signifcantly increased the dosage for special ritual experimental purposes, 2000-5000 mcgs or more, the disconnect between consensual conceptual realities and that of the pure, substantive constantly perceiving experential reality did not preclude the ability to shift between them. There just wasn't the possibility of too much being too much. ONLY when individuals with previous or hidden psychological damage or mental illness used LSD did they experience psychotic episodes and/or breaks. These were very rare, yet much more highly publicized.

Studies using RockMed and the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic log reports found that there were less than .001% freakouts at events where inordinately large numbers of people were under the influence of LSD. The sheer fact that there is so little LSD available today in the culture, makes it almost impossible to acquire sufficient quantities to use too much kool-aid. This is the intent and purpose of the federal policies of the war on some drugs. There has been a decided, determined, huge effort to rid the population of access to LSD. More direct interdiction to LSD than to terrorism. WHY??

Because LSD reduces the conformity and acceptance of the pseudo-consensual corporate consumptive reality. When large groups of people stop consuming and start cooperative organizations, the powers that be lose all control over extracting resources from people and planet. This is bad for them. Thus they cannot afford there to be "too much kool-aid" out there. War is good, killing is good, extracting minerals is good, stupid cow herd populations of wage slaves is good. People who see through this are bad. Too much LSD makes people see through this= not good.

call the odds, not the tails.. make it even

<> RISK VS REWARD or those damn trial lawyers who just won't let a flood of mistakes run free. So Bush's ilk wants to direct attacks on the lawyers rather than risk the profits to the corporate bosses although they know in the long run they are going to kill people to do so.

Industry analysts said the slew of bad news reflected the difficulties of bringing effective new medicines to market and the increasingly tough regulatory environment in terms of proving safety and efficacy. The final quarter of this year has been overshadowed by fallout from the withdrawal of Vioxx, which analysts believe will make it harder for drug companies to win approval for products aimed at big patient populations.

in order to save Social Security in 75 years we have to destroy it now... makes perfect sense...like Vietnam and so forth, destory the village to save it. Who the hell is going to still be alive to retire in 75 years time that is going to pay into the SS system in the next thirteen years. This whole thing is just one giant fraudulent swindle.

The Social Security Trustees report that in 13 years, payroll taxes will no longer cover benefits. By 2042, taxes will cover only 73 percent of benefits, and that ratio will continue to fall with time. To fix the program for 75 years would require an immediate 15 percent increase in payroll taxes or 13 percent benefit cut, the trustees say. Those figures grow rapidly if the actions are delayed.

I find it pretty funny to think that these folks who are using the Bush statement that jesus is his favorite philosopher are arguing that christmas needs to be honored for that reason. It is sort of like saying that although the muslims hold jesus on the same tier or hierarchical plane as moses and abraham and mohammed, O'Reilly saying he is a philosopher trumps all that somehow. Wouldn't it be more powerful to say that maybe jesus was the son of a god or something rather than a mere, and actually not very good, philosopher? You just never know with these folks

O'Reilly responded by stating that by deeming Christmas a national holiday the United States was honoring the "philosopher" Jesus. This recognition, O'Reilly continued, was similar to the recognition afforded to Martin Luther King Jr.

The problem with this view, of course, is that, to most Christians, Jesus is not a simply a "philosopher," a thinker such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, John Locke or even St. Thomas Aquinas, for that matter. Depending upon one's theology, one sees Jesus as the Messiah, the son of God, savior of fallen humanity, the second person of the Trinity, fully man and fully God.

the common elemental form of evil???

here are three stories today that have one common link. that the single major elemental component form of evil in the world is greed. greed, stinking slimy smelly disgusting greed. those corporate personages whose existence is textually based on the grace of the people's government, but who act solely as if they are the government, demand such things as free markets--solely for themselves--corporate entities, and not for the people upon whom they prey. you can't extract resources from people and the earth without assuming certain costs of business. business, in order to increase profitability, needs to pass on those costs to the consumer. now these costs include the lives of the consumers. choosing how many will die so that the profit can be extracted and accumulated is now the business of business. it is all so evil

Metabolife, the producers of "a dietary supplement banned in 2003 only after the FDA had received reports of more than 155 deaths of ephedra users," spent "more than $4 million between 1998 and 2000 in Texas to lobby against state regulations." Yesterday, former Metabolife lobbyist Jonathan Snare was appointed deputy assistant secretary for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

--
Home Depot reported 185 customer injuries a week in 1998 and has since refused media inquiries into its safety record. The company also uses its vast legal team to bully victims into signing confidentiality agreements about their injuries. The federal government "has recorded nine worker deaths in the past four years at Home Depot stores" and, in 2002, recorded a "45 percent jump" in workplace safety violations. In one high-profile accident, NASA astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien's shoulder was crushed when a 68-pound drill press fell on him from more than 10 feet up – ending his career. Because Home Depot refuses to take adequate safety precautions, "They are creating canyons of death and injury and inviting customers to walk down them," said one attorney representing families of victims. According to that attorney, the company has made a management decision that it is cheaper to pay claims to injured customers than pay for the necessary safety changes.

Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-LA), one of the chief authors of the industry-backed Medicare drug law pushed through Congress last year, announced he will be the new president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the chief lobby for brand-name drug companies. The Medicare bill Tauzin co-sponsored "showered billions of dollars on the pharmaceutical industry while doing nothing to slow increases in drug prices." The legislation banned the reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada and forbid the federal government from using its bulk purchasing power to negotiate lower prices on medicines. Today, Tauzin is reaping the benefits of that legislation, landing a million-dollar job with the group he used to regulate.

We are at a critical moment in human history with respect to both offensive and defensive nuclear forces. There is a willingness to continue the offensive strategies of the Cold War and add to them “mini-nukes” and “bunker buster” nuclear weapons and defensive deployments. These actions increase unacceptable risks to all nations across the globe and threaten nonproliferation efforts by undermining our longstanding and unequivocal treaty commitment to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.

Re vera, potas bene.

it was another interesting day of struggle for control of the US population. the best was the statement by pro-life advocates supporting the death penalty. the lunacy of their rhetoric as glaring hypocrisy is so shrill and void of any self reflection whatsoever. one has to appreciate how these people can hold views so alien to reality and maintain some semblance of coherency. it says more about the way we live life in the US, so insane is our way and lifestyles that they have to be accepted by those that are totally nuts..

you have columnists advocating a return to racism and fascism as a response to the failure of the economy. the rise of the US aryan fascist regime that is "destined" to take over the planet, speaks volumes when the Federal REserve raises the long term prime rate interest. as the dollar falls into an oblivion and takes much of the world with it, these folks are spewing their venomous hate in hopes of attracting adhereents to their positions of domination and subjegation.. we are heros.

Bush OKs Ruling That May Endanger Species

Bobby Rayburn, president of the National Association of Home Builders, said the rules strike "a fair balance between two important priorities: protecting endangered species and building adequate, affordable housing."

In this statement, in response the the following inquiries: Mr. Rayburn intimates that somewhere in the US, there will be affordable housing being built in an environment that is so pristine and natural that endangered and threatened species still live there. What the hell? If he means that there is some huge very expensive housing development, along a coastline or in some mountain meadows or along the ridges of wondrous peaks, where one or two low-cost units will be hidden amongst the outrageously priced ones, then you could assume that he was trying to be honest, maybe. I don't think so. He is no different than the rest of these folks, trying to extract every possible last remaining dollar of value they can from the planet at the expense of all remaining life forms. I hate this stuff.

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Friday it will allow developers to complete construction and other projects even after belated discoveries that the work could endanger protected species.

The new rules from the Interior Department's Fish and Wildlife Service restore a Clinton-era initiative known as "no surprises." It will let federal agencies give blanket assurances to home builders, timber and mining companies and other developers that they won't have unforeseen requirements to protect rare species once a project has begun.

A federal judge had blocked the rules last June, telling the government it needed to hear more ideas from the public about the changes. The administration gathered the extra comment and moved ahead Friday in a victory for business over environmentalists.

Six groups led by California-based Spirit of the Sage Council, which represents some American Indians and environmentalists, had challenged the rules from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforce the Endangered Species Act.

Eric Glitzenstein, a Washington-based lawyer for the groups, said the rules remain "a legally and scientifically bankrupt policy that can only drive species closer to extinction."

The rules had been halted in June by U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, who ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to get more public input and re-evaluate the rules within six months. He said the government had violated the Administrative Procedure Act by denying the public a chance to weigh in on the rules and their consequences.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said it had received about 250 comments since June to comply with the judge's order, mostly from people who felt the rules were appropriate. Some told the government it should have more of a free hand to revoke permits, or that it should create a new government fund to pay for restoring habitat in cases where permits and the developers' conservation plans prove harmful.

A rule in effect from 1998 until this past June offered some immunity during development. In 1999, the Clinton administration adopted a second rule spelling out narrow circumstances under which permits could be revoked.

Under the twin rules, landowners and developers must develop plans for dealing with species' habitats if they want to obtain a permit that lets them off the hook for killing, injuring or harassing rare plants and animals.

Any such harm to species on the government's threatened and endangered list must be during "otherwise lawful development or land use activities," Fish and Wildlife officials said in a statement.

The government reserves the right to revoke a permit, if killing a plant or animal "will reduce the likelihood of (its) survival and recovery in the wild, ... and the Service cannot find a remedy to prevent this situation," the statement said.

So far, no permits have been revoked, said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Mitch Snow.

Revoking a permit "is not going to solve the fundamental problem because the failure of these political deals will only become apparent after the permit is no longer needed," said John Kostyack, senior counsel for the National Wildlife Federation, a conservation group. "The destruction happens up front; conservation happens later."

It's Mel Gibson 'Road Warrior' stuff verus Hillbilly armor...

now which would you rather have--RoadWarrior armor or hillbilly armor. Get the image and the picture of this, a crazed looking battering ram monster truck w/ a 70's type chrysler product covered in black armor, versus say the van of the A-Team and the truck of the beverly hillbillys and the crazed Dodge Ram/RoadRunner of BossHog of the Dukes of Hazzard... get that picture, then read this. It seems the preferred view of our pundits and pentagon is Hillbilly armor. Why????


Last fall, he notes, when the Army realized the gravity of the insurgency, engineers at the Army Research Lab at Aberdeen, Md., designed the add-on armor kits for the Humvees "over a weekend.
Dov Zakheim—who, until his recent departure, was the DoD's comptroller—told NEWSWEEK that another holdup has been an "antiquated" acquisitions system. Zakheim said the Pentagon fixed the problem only in the past six weeks with "joint rapid action cells," which allow contractors to waive regulatory red tape in wartime. Other Army officials complain that the nation does not have the industrial base any longer to produce equipment for a new kind of war. That's one reason so many supply trucks—seven out of eight, in fact—are still unarmored. The Army's "family" of medium trucks is now made by a single firm, Stewart & Stevenson of Sealy, Texas. All the features that make trucks driver-friendly—like a big front window—also make it a nightmare to drive on Iraq's lethal highways. So the Army has contracted both with its own depots and with outside firms to build appliqué armor kits.
Yet some critics contend that, contrary to what Rumsfeld told Wilson, America is not going to war with the Army equipment it already has. They claim that vested interests at the Pentagon are sometimes obstructing the best firepower and equipment available. Why? In part because the Pentagon is still obsessed with its "lighter, faster" vision and is hyping new, ill-tested armaments like the Stryker fighting vehicle. Much older equipment, like treaded M113 personnel carriers, lies unused in arms "boneyards" although they could be up-armored far more cheaply than Humvees.

Among these second-guessers is Rep. Robin Hayes, a North Carolina Republican. Hayes told NEWSWEEK that "the secretary of Defense exhibited a remarkable lack of sensitivity" in his remarks. Hayes said he has been frustrated by delays in getting several heavier armored gun carriers to the light-gunned 82nd Airborne, which first requested them a year ago. Four such tank-treaded vehicles are still sitting in mothballs in Pennsylvania. Army Gen. Richard Cody approved the transfer last March. But then the Army decided to wait for a newer system mounted on a wheeled Stryker, though the system has been held up due to reliability issues, according to a recent General Accounting Office report. On Dec. 9, a day after Rumsfeld's Kuwait appearance, Hayes wrote him a letter saying, "I simply cannot understand why we are not equipping our soldiers and Marines on the front lines with every weapon in our arsenal."

is there time left to breathe

we live in an age of velocity. that relative correlationship between movement and the perception of time passing. As our concept of our velocity increases the increments of time and vectors begin to zig and zag in ever crazier patterns. These vectors are so chaotic that they make it near virtually impossible to be one of the people who don't want to move, don't need to associate velocity to being alive. The system has become utterly dependent upon movement, deriving its energy from all of those little superstrings bouncing and vibrating without control or conscious creation. The universe is trying to tell us to stop, but we can't because we can't see how that manifests itself. i just want to stop, to sit by the river and let the natural rhythms of the earth flow in their inherent wisdom and beauty. So people, why won't you let me..

the intentional confusion of corporate greed

<>now keep in mind that energy lobbiests are saying that they "don't know" Bodman and have no idea how to work with him. why they are saying this at this point is really intriguing in that he has had the experience in government for quite some time and taught at MIT. They, the energy industry, are making this claim as an effort to hide their real agenda from the public. they know that he will give them every thing they want. and like the story at the bottom--searching for people over the protection of the environment is at the core of their intent to destroy the fragile arctic ocean...

Bodman told Bush he wanted to "carry forth your vision of sound energy policy to ensure a steady supply of affordable energy for America's homes and businesses and to work toward the day when America achieves energy independence."

Bodman took over as Treasury deputy secretary last February after serving as deputy secretary at the Commerce Department.

At Treasury, he was charged with a range of matters, including making sure the economic recovery is lasting, stopping the flow of funds to terrorists and helping efforts to modernize the IRS.

The Energy Department manages the nation's emergency petroleum reserve. Despite frequent calls by some Democrats to use some of these reserves to ease prices, the administration has argued repeatedly that the stored oil should be used only in time of severe shortages.

Bodman said his new job would "combine all aspects of my life's work." He has taught chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, served as president of Fidelity Investments, and run a chemical company. He graduated from Cornell University with a degree in chemical engineering in 1961 and has a doctorate in science from MIT.

The new energy secretary will have to deal with high oil and natural gas prices, and help the Bush administration win congressional approval to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska Dec 10, 2004 — A major spill of dense, viscous fuel from a freighter that ran aground was menacing sensitive wildlife habitat in the Aleutian Islands, but finding the six crew members lost at sea was the priority despite their diminishing odds for survival.

No sign of the missing crew had been found as of Friday morning. Petty Officer Amy Thomas said aircraft were not searching in the dark but would fly out at first light late morning. Two cutters were at the scene of the grounding and another cutter with oil vacuuming equipment was en route and expected to arrive by Saturday morning, Thomas said.

Thousands of gallons of heavy bunker fuel and diesel spilled from a soybean freighter that was ripped clean in half off the shore of Unalaska Island. Near a wildlife refuge, the area is home to sea lions, harbor seals, sea otters, tanner crabs, halibut and kelp beds.

But with resources scarce in the harsh area 800 miles southwest of Anchorage, the search for the missing took precedence over the environmental threat.

teacher sues to protect his christian curriculum

you know the story, the teacher was let go because he passed our religious material to his elementary students. he didn't really make it very clear how some of the things he chose represented christianity per se, as in how jefferson used the term creator in the D of I. But then nobody in our culture cares all that much these days about the facts. So i offer this tidbit on tradition and curriculum development in CA.

This essay focuses on the most basic systemic problem of publicly sponsored education, a quagmire that i define as the pampering of paradox, or the illusion (maya) of doing something. The conceptual nature of this madness is addressed through my own personal experiences within the public educational system and is discussed with reference to specific circumstances and environments. This method however does not preclude the appropriateness of generalizations as all publicly, and most privately, funded school systems suffer from the dictates of control by those in power.

The other day at the elementary school where i teach Seventh and Eighth Grade, there was a discussion by the faculty concerning the applicability of the “control theory of quality schools “ as espoused by Glasser. The essential question, which dominated the discourse, was whether to practice what one preached, especially with regard to coercion, or to allow the real world to influence the classroom environment? By real world, the staff seemed to accept that somewhere out there exists another space and time which, and i quote:

1. forces people to work in jobs and perform tasks that they hate and despise because they must do this to live regardless of the quality of their lives....and...

2. we are simply running out of time, we can’t seem to catch up with all the things we have to do. Life has become too stressful and complex...and...

3. we simply must be able to control the children especially those who tell us that they don’t have to do this or that and that they can’t be made to do this or that and that they won’t do this or that...

The problem then, for them, was whether to focus on non-coercive pedagogical relationships within the classroom framework or to allow, or really insist, that real world behaviors dictate the course and curriculum. By this i suppose they mean that certain teachers have agendas which are predicated on the belief that society is best served by teaching children to act like little adults rather than to become the best humans they can be.

Remember back to where we discussed the long and useful history of the Fallen Star Myth among the Great Plains Indians. This powerful and dramatic lesson in the need to continually crush traditional forms is the true and real nature of public education. If we deeply believe in the sanctity of GAIA and the wondrous ability of the DNA to self-educate the species, we must also recognize the need to provide each successive generation with a clean slate of opportunities and possibilities.

I think an important question is “Do we as human beings want a better quality of life for ourselves and our children?” If the answer is “YES!” then the fundamental role of all education whether it be publicly or privately supported is to subvert the dominant paradigm. In no other way can a better world be created.
It is vital that we reduce pollution, plant trees, recycle, and so forth, and yet the most critical change that must take place is a transformation in our very relationship with the Earth. The Earth does not need to change in order to survive--she will survive with or without us. If we are to continue, it is our values that need to change.
At the same time, we should re-examine, from an ethical perspective, what kind of world we have inherited, what we are responsible for, and what we will pass on to coming generations.

The dominant paradigm is predicated on the paradox that can be stated, “A better quality of life is available to me if i just had more money!” Subsequently, all educational curricula dictated at every level of ‘government’ has been designed to conform future citizens to this impossible goal. All pedagogical instruction and training reinforces this ideal. And all deliverance of revenues to schools is predicated on the neo-conservation of the concept.

In what ways are these blanket generalizations verified by the evidence? The following listing of observations and factual accounting can help illuminate the premise:

• The controlling impetus for evaluation, accounting, and auditing of educational activities has been the dictated curriculum.
• All education which is controlled or dictated by government must conform to the power of the controlling capital interests.
• All efforts made to reform schools are based on the application of curriculum standards as evaluated by normative testing.
• All funding is predicated on the application of curricula which is formulated only as testable criteria.
• Teachers are conditioned to not question themselves, nor to question, change, or drop mandated curriculums.
• Societies, as represented by the governments that they created, fail to provide acknowledgment of the educational environments.
• It is in the best interest of the corporate capitalists to: reject competition which would devalue the power of holdings, to consolidate capital, and to inhibit education of the public.
• It is necessary to create and empower the illusion that education actually does anything other than maintain the status quo of consensual reality.
• All educational systems must necessarily repress and prohibit subversive thought and chaotic random elements.

Before we examine the evidence for curriculum abuse by the system to control the population we should first get an overview of how the curriculum process works.

I begin by quoting from the preface to the HISTORY-SOCIAL SCIENCE FRAMEWORKS for the State of California to show the intent of the State in mandating curriculum for its citizens.

The planning for this document, which was shaped over a two-year period, began with a meeting of the Blue Ribbon Advisory Committee for History Scope and Sequence. This group discussed current research in history-social science; student interest and achievement in the subject; and the current state of curriculum and instruction, textbooks, testing, and teacher training...These recommendations were shared with the History-Social Science Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee, whose task was to develop a new framework...The Framework Committee determined the basic nature of this framework when it made fundamental decisions about the following issues: the central importance of history; the curricular goals and learning strands; the enriched courses of the early grade; the required number of years for instruction in world and United States history; the thoughtful sequencing of chronological periods of emphasis; the inclusion of different cultural traditions in each year’s course; the integration of history and geography and humanities and social sciences; and the correlation of history-social science with other disciplines.

My, oh my. What an ambitious and presumptuous undertaking? The preface was signed by four State Department of Education bureaucrats with such illustrious titles as Deputy Superintendent of Curriculum and Instructional Leadership Branch and the Manager of the History-Social Science and Visual and Perfoming Arts Unit. The History-Social Science Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee, in whose name this document was published was comprised of twenty members only five of whom were indeed school teachers. The remainder, six administrators in public education; six professors from universities, mostly California based; and three representatives of think tanks, met a total of twelve times to decide what all of California school children will learn about history-social sciences.

Me ineptum. Interdum modo elabitur.

WHAT DO THESE THREE STORIES HAVE IN COMMON?
<> CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday faced open criticism from his own U.S. troops, who complained about inadequate armor for Iraq and questioned a policy that stops them from leaving the military when their voluntary term ends. The unusually blunt public exchange came at a town hall-style session with American soldiers at this camp 12 miles south of the border with Iraq, where more than 1,200 U.S. troops have died since the March 2003 invasion. Hundreds of troops applauded a comrade who complained to Rumsfeld that U.S. forces were being forced to dig up scrap metal to protect their vehicles in Iraq because of a shortage of armored ones. "Now why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles? And why don't we have those resources readily available to us?" the soldier asked.
<>
CAMP PENDLETON, CA (AP) - Standing before thousands of Marines, President Bush asked other Americans on Tuesday to make the war their own by helping battle-weary troops and their families. "The time of war is a time of sacrifice, especially for our military families," Bush said, wearing a tan military jacket with epaulets. "I urge every American to find some way to thank our military and to help out the military family down the street. In October 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, Bush ordered the invasion of Afghanistan to rout the terrorist-protecting Taliban government. The military took on the additional burden of the war in Iraq starting with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. In all that time, while traveling widely to visit military personnel and sit at the bedsides of the wounded, the president has asked little of the civilian public. But with casualties increasing and the number of U.S. troops in Iraq slated to rise before next month's planned elections there, Bush urged civilians to do more. <> Bush, who flew across the country and back in one long day to a base that has seen one of the highest casualty rates in Iraq, suggested ways Americans now can support troops and their left-behind families by citing the example of several already doing so. Groups have been established to welcome home the wounded, collect thank-you letters, build homes adapted to disabled vets, and raise money for military families who must forsake home and jobs to stand beside a recovering soldier, he said.

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<>WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 - Two Defense Department intelligence officials reported observing brutal treatment of Iraqi insurgents captured in Baghdad last June, several weeks after disclosures of abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison there created a worldwide uproar, according to a memorandum disclosed today. The memorandum, written by the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency to a senior Pentagon official, said that when the two members of his agency objected to the treatment, they were threatened and told to keep quiet by other military interrogators. The memorandum said that the Defense Intelligence Agency officials saw prisoners being brought in to a detention center with burn marks on their backs and complaining about sore kidneys. The memorandum was disclosed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which obtained it as part of a cache of documents from a civil lawsuit seeking to discover the extent of abuse of prisoners by the military.

GIVE UP?????
Well, the suggestion that the US government, spending 2 billion a day, cannot adequately provide for the troops, while simultaneously providing huge rebates and tax breaks for less than a couple million citizens, needs the help of its citizens to support the war is mind boggling. War by bake sale? And in providing these war support activities are all those loyal and flag colored citizens also choosing openly and honestly to support the torture of people?? Yeah, you bet. We are a nation that is so dysfunctional that all our government can do is hide the facts and spout more lies. There has always been the Real Reality of myths and fables. Midas and the Emperor's New Clothes fit all too well. I am deeply saddened by these stories all coming out the same day. It represents the catastrophic failure of government to do even as it said it would do.

Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for "vote switching" software

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

December 6, 2004—The manipulation of computer voting machines in the recent presidential election and the funding of programmers who were involved in the operation are tied to an intricate web of shady off-shore financial trusts and companies, shady espionage operatives, Republican Party politicians close to the Bush family, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contract vehicles.

An exhaustive investigation has turned up a link between current Florida Republican Representative Tom Feeney, a customized Windows-based program to suppress Democratic votes on touch screen voting machines, a Florida computer services company with whom Feeney worked as a general counsel and registered lobbyist while he was Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and top level officials of the Bush administration.

According to a notarized affidavit signed by Clint Curtis, while he was employed by the NASA Kennedy Space Center contractor, Yang Enterprises, Inc., during 2000, Feeney solicited him to write a program to "control the vote." At the time, Curtis was of the opinion that the program was to be used for preventing fraud in the in the 2002 election in Palm Beach County, Florida. His mind was changed, however, when the true intentions of Feeney became clear: the computer program was going to be used to suppress the Democratic vote in counties with large Democratic registrations.

According to Curtis, Feeney and other top brass at Yang Enterprises, a company located in a three-story building in Oviedo, Florida, wanted the program, written in Visual Basic 5 (VB.5) and designed to operate in Windows and be portable to Unix-based vote tabulation systems, to be "undetectable" to voters and election supervisors.

Yang, an engineering and computer services company subcontracted to NASA prime contractors like Lockheed Martin, was founded in 1986 by Dr. Tyng-Lin (Tim) Yang. Granted minority-owned "Section 8A" and woman-owned preferential status by the U.S. government, Yang's clients also include the Florida Department of Transportation (DOT). Yang's President, Li-Woan (Lee) Yang, is Tim Yang's wife. Feeney was the registered agent for another Yang company, Y & H Greens, Inc., a company that was dissolved in 1988 and operated from the Yangs' residence on Merritt Island. The Yangs also serve as co-trustees for an entity called Yang of Merritt Island, Ltd., founded on January 31, 2000, and also run from their residence.

In the autumn of 1999, Curtis, who served as a sort of technology adviser for Yang, first became aware of Feeney's interest in election rigging. Curtis said at one meeting, Feeney "bragged that he could reduce the minority vote and deliver the election to 'George.'" At the same meeting, according to Curtis, Feeney said he had "implemented a list that would eliminate thousands of voters that would vote for Democratic candidates" and that "a proper placement of police patrols could further reduce the black vote by as much as 25 percent."

Feeney's desire to manipulate the vote would be manifested in his home base of Volusia County in the 2000 presidential election. According to The Washington Post, at 10 p.m. on election night, Al Gore was leading Bush in Volusia County by 83,000 to 62,000 votes.

One-half hour later, Gore's vote total had been reduced by 16,000 to 67,000 and an obscure Socialist candidate saw a sudden surge to 10,000 votes in a precinct with only 600 voters. The information on the Volusia optical scanner voting anomalies came from a leaked internal Diebold memorandum. In the end, Bush won Florida and the White House by a mere 537 votes in the most controversial U.S. presidential election in history.
Feeney had long been a voice in Florida GOP politics. He was gubernatorial candidate Jeb Bush's running mate in 1994, a race in which Democratic incumbent Lawton Chiles defeated Bush. Chiles once referred to Feeney as "the David Duke of Florida politics."

In 2002, Feeney asked Curtis if he could develop a touch screen voting machine "flip flop" program. According to Curtis, Feeney asked him, "Can you write a program to flip votes around on touch screen machines?" Curtis said Feeney wanted the program to merely reduce votes in heavily Democratic areas and flip Republican votes to 51 percent and keep Democrat votes to 49 percent. Curtis added that Feeney "did not want to win by a lot." In return, Curtis said Feeney offered him "big jobs." Curtis's main tasks at Yang were to develop the Florida DOT's Electronic Document Management System. He also worked on the Project Pipeline Information System at another one of Yang's major clients, Exxon Mobil's Coral Gables facility.

Curtis said he developed the voting program and eventually handed off his prototype to Feeney. The program was also reviewed by Curtis's senior coder, Hai Lin (Henry) Nee, who according to Florida Department of Transportation sources, was an illegal alien working in the United States. According Curtis, not only did Nee review the vote switching program code but he constantly downloaded sensitive data to his computer from NASA's computers. Nee, according to Curtis, moonlighted at an Orlando company called Azure Systems, described by The Orlando Sentinel as a "three person engineering firm" and one of a number of companies linked to Ting Ih-Hsu, a former Lockheed Martin employee. At the same time Nee was reviewing Yang's vote switching program, he was also being investigated by U.S. federal investigators for illegally shipping Hellfire missile parts to China. Oddly, although U.S. law enforcement agents had put Nee and his associates under surveillance for illegal exports of technology to China in 1999, he and his colleagues were not arrested until March of this year.

Curtis claimed that Yang's corporate bosses stressed that the company had "unlimited" sources of money that came "mostly" from China. According to Florida DOT employees, House Speaker Feeney pressured their agency to give money to Yang for nonexistent software. The sources also revealed that Feeney was aware that Yang was employing a number of illegal aliens on State of Florida and federal contracts.

Feeney's ties to Yang paralleled similar close ties to NASA. Feeney's wife Ellen has worked as an engineer for NASA's Kennedy Space Center since 1985. Jeb Bush ensured that Florida's 24th Congressional District was redrawn so that Feeney would have an easy time in his 2002 race against Democratic opponent Harry Jacobs. According to Florida state officials, who spoke on the condition anonymity, 500 Yang employees at the Kennedy Space Center were paid for their time when they agreed to picket against Jacobs. In addition, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe, according to the same sources, lobbied extensively for Feeney within NASA. In addition, O'Keefe and his close friend and former Pentagon boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, made campaign appearances for Feeney at the Kennedy Space Center.

Feeney's close ties to Jeb Bush and Cheney paid off. In 2002, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a race that also saw the re-election of Jeb Bush. Early in "vote switch's" development stages, Feeney had told Curtis that he wanted the program "made to control Palm Beach" in 2002. Palm Beach County's Election Supervisor was still the controversial Theresa LePore, nicknamed "Madam Butterfly," who designed the infamous "butterfly ballots" in the 2000 election. LePore had once been an employee of Saudi multi-billionaire Adnan Khashoggi, a Saudi link that is tied to a huge multi-billion tranche of money distributed throughout off-shore trusts, accounts, and corporations with interlocking directorships that are controlled by Bush interests in Houston. It was this Bush-controlled money cache, originating in the East, and known in Houston by the name "Five Star" and other cryptonyms that was, according to U.S. intelligence insiders, used to fund the rigging of the 2004 election.

When he arrived in Congress, Feeney was given a seat on the House Science and Technology Committee, which oversees NASA's operations. Feeney was also appointed to the important House Finance and Judiciary Committees. He was also given a clean bill of ethical health by Florida's Ethics Commission, a panel that has a Republican majority.

After Feeney's ascension to Congress, Yang's questionable billing activities with its Florida DOT contract came to the attention of Ray C. Lemme, a seasoned senior investigator with the Florida DOT Inspector General's Office and a combat veteran of the Vietnam War. Lemme had a lot of evidence to suspect that Yang was overbilling the DOT for "millions." After discovering Yang's dirty laundry, Curtis went to work for the DOT. Mavis Georgalis, the DOT's contracting officer for the Yang contract, was also aware of improprieties with the contract. As a result of pressure from the Florida State House, both Curtis and Georgalis were eventually fired by the DOT because of their complaints about the Yang contract. Someone was obviously trying to send Curtis a message when, on August 14, 2002, he discovered that someone poisoned his pet Pomeranian dog, Emily. Lemme was forced to stop his official investigation of Yang for similar reasons. However, he decided to continue an "unofficial" investigation of Yang and its practices on the side. It was a fateful decision.