THE FORCE OF PEACE

ISRAEL KILLED 4 IRISH U.N. PEACEKEEPERS AFTER BEING TOLD REPEATEDLY NOT TO BOMB THEM! WRONG IS WRONG NO MATTER WHAT SIDE YOU'RE ON.

BUSH: When he's out of office, he will sit on the board of a big oil company and reap the profits from the blood of our young soldiers. PRO-BIG OIL, PRO-WAR, PRO-PROFITEERING.

Exxon Oil just posted a $10.36 Billion profit. Now that is what the Iraq war is all about. Trading lives for oil. Posted by: Larry

Soldiers in Iraq were asked by Washington Post reporter Josh Partlow about their feelings on the war. Such answers like "It Sucks, it feels like we are just driving around, waiting to get blown up." Another said " noone wants to be here, and no one is truly enthused about what we do." True words from the mouths of those who are there. This is from a soldiers own mouth.



President Clinton, the Rhodes scholar with brilliant diplomatic skills is right: ISRAEL HAS GONE TOO FAR. He also said Israel went too far in bombing the airport in Beirut. "I understand why (Israel) wanted to degrade their military capacity, but I question whether it was worth it to wreck the airport because the airport was the symbol of the new Lebanon."

Clinton said the United States and other western countries should be pushing hard for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, along with the insertion of an international peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, former U.S. president Bill Clinton said Wednesday.

NATO is probably the only international group with the military muscle capable of fielding a peacekeeping force, said Clinton.
"If we're ever going to have a peaceful Middle East, then the peacemakers will have to be protected in a way that won't get them blamed every time they fight back," he said.

"The Force of Peace" is a multi-part series I'm writing. The first part here will be revelatory findings from the military. The second installment, will offer viable solutions for peace from a moral and spiritual point of view. I am working on that section this weekend.

From CLIF, U.S. Combat Vet, Desert Storm Commander: "This is how the fiasco in Iraq became as bad as it is right now. Sorry but we tried to tell you and now the military records say the same basic story we have...but since it is from military sources they must have more legitimacy than Coultergeist's anal brain extrusions. This story is written from the militaries own records...just like the Pentagon Papers was during the Vietnam War, but you repugs will attack the messenger instead of reading the message and trying to actually LEARN from it..."

I Hate To Say I Told You So by Ethan Heitner July 24, 2006

Those of us who were labeled America-haters for saying that Iraq was a mess and that our military presence was making things worse are actually being proven right – by the military’s own documentation.

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, written by Washington Post senior Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks and set to be published this summer, is not to be dismissed as the opinions of shifty Iraqis or pointy-headed academics. Instead, for his material Ricks went straight to the good old, blood-and-guts sources, the Armed Services archives themselves – or, as The Washington Post puts it in its excerpts from the book, which started running in the paper Sunday, "a review of more than 30,000 pages of military documents and several hundred interviews with U.S. military personnel."

And what do they tell us ? ...There is ... strong evidence, based on a review of thousands of military documents and hundreds of interviews with military personnel, that the U.S. approach to pacifying Iraq in the months after the collapse of Hussein helped spur the insurgency and made it bigger and stronger than it might have been. ...

What did the army do wrong? Massive troop presence that only served to remind the Iraqis of the constant presence of foreign occupiers. Indiscriminate sweeps that caught up thousands of ordinary Iraqi citizens in the maws of a gulag system without accountability or order, where they were exposed to abuse at every level by U.S. soldiers and enticed by actual members of the insurgency to find vent for their understandable rage. Or, as Ricks has it (again, based on the military's own evaluations):

Senior U.S. intelligence officers in Iraq later estimated that about 85 percent of the tens of thousands rounded up were of no intelligence value. But as they were delivered to Abu Ghraib prison, they overwhelmed the system and often waited for weeks to be interrogated, during which time they could be recruited by hard-core insurgents, who weren't isolated from the general prison population.

Or, in Ricks' portrait of one particularly bad unit, the 4th Infantry Division :

The unit, a heavy armored division despite its name, was known for "grabbing whole villages, because combat soldiers [were] unable to figure out who was of value and who was not," according to a subsequent investigation of the 4th Infantry Division's detainee operations by the Army inspector general's office. Its indiscriminate detention of Iraqis filled Abu Ghraib prison, swamped the U.S. interrogation system and overwhelmed the U.S. soldiers guarding the prison.

Lt. Col. David Poirier, who commanded a military police battalion attached to the 4th Infantry Division and was based in Tikrit from June 2003 to March 2004, said the division's approach was indiscriminate. ... "Every male from 16 to 60" that the 4th Infantry could catch was detained, he said. "And when they got out, they were supporters of the insurgency."

This is the draft of history written by the military, for the military:

In language unusual for an officially produced document, the history of the operation produced by the Marines 1st Division is disapproving, even contemptuous, of what it calls the 4th Infantry Division's "very aggressive" posture as the unit came into Iraq.

The history dryly noted that the Marines, "despite some misgivings," turned over the area to the 4th Infantry Division and departed April 21. "Stores that had re-opened quickly closed back up as the people once again evacuated the streets, adjusting to the new security tactics," the final draft of the history reported. "A budding cooperative environment between the citizens and American forces was quickly snuffed out. The new adversarial relationship would become a major source of trouble in the coming months."

Is it any surprise that the result is exactly what we said it would be?

Cumulatively, the American ignorance of long-held precepts of counterinsurgency warfare impeded the U.S. military during 2003 and part of 2004. Combined with a personnel policy that pulled out all the seasoned forces early in 2004 and replaced them with green troops, it isn't surprising that the U.S. effort often resembled that of Sisyphus, the king in Greek legend who was condemned to perpetually roll a boulder up a hill, only to have it roll back down as he neared the top.

Again and again, in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, U.S. forces launched major new operations to assert and reassert control in Fallujah, in Ramadi, in Samarra, in Mosul.

Read the whole thing to get details of how the U.S. military hierarchy ignored common sense, their own experience in Vietnam and all standards of decency to make everything worse.

While I'm on the "things we knew already but it's nice to hear them say," for a long time it's been obvious that military abuses of civillians in Iraq were neither confined to "a few bad apples" at Abu Ghraib prison, nor did they end with the imprisonment of those few. Systematic lack of leadership regarding detainee abuse is another area documented extensively by Ricks:

On the morning of Aug. 14, 2003 Capt. William Ponce, an officer in the "Human Intelligence Effects Coordination Cell" at the top U.S. military headquarters in Iraq, sent a memo to subordinate commands asking what interrogation techniques they would like to use ...

The 4th Infantry Division's intelligence operation responded three days later with suggestions that captives be hit with closed fists and also subjected to "low-voltage electrocution." (This was in addition to facial slaps and mid-section punches.)

Ricks chillingly details more specific incidents of abuse from the military records. Surprise surprise, they closely parallel the allegations made in a new report by Human Rights Watch. From their summary :

“Soldiers were told that the Geneva Conventions did not apply, and that interrogators could use abusive techniques to get detainees to talk,” said John Sifton, the author of the report and the senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. “These accounts rebut U.S. government claims that torture and abuse in Iraq was unauthorized and exceptional – on the contrary, it was condoned and commonly used.”

The accounts reveal that detainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of the detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003-2005. They also suggest that soldiers who sought to report abuse were rebuffed or ignored. ...

Herrington concluded, “It seems clear that TF 121 needs to be reined in with respect to its treatment of detainees.” Despite this warning, abuses by the task force continued.

Human Rights Watch said that the new report shows how soldiers who felt abusive practices were wrong or illegal faced significant obstacles at every turn when they attempted to report or expose the abuses. For example, an MP guard at the facility near al-Qaim, who complained to an officer about beatings and other abuse he witnessed, was told, “You need to go ahead and drop this, sergeant.”

Look, all I'm saying is, the facts are actually not hard to obtain.The information is out there. The documentation exists. These are not baseless allegations—they are the eyewitness testimonies of those involved.

Someday there will have to be justice.

Just don't say you didn't know, and don't let anyone currently sitting in a position of power in Washington D.C. claim it either.

http://www.tompaine.com/print/i_hate_to_say_i_told_you_so.php

DEMOCRACY AT RISK

"Condoleeza Rice has never worked so hard at faking facial expressions of concern and compassion. Remember, wars don't just happen, WE HAVE TO MAKE THEM HAPPEN!" Heard this in between station ids on Randi Rhodes show today. Thank God for PROGRESSIVE TALK and Randi Rhodes and Al Franken! I cannot stop laughing (in between crying.)



"Democracy in Crisis - An Exclusive BRADBLOG Interview with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr."

"CNN's Lou Dobbs: This Congress, This Administration, I Cannot Fathom What They Are Thinking"

A MUST READ: "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Rolling Stone The issue has started to heat up.

Brad Friedman's The BRAD BLOG has been covering this surge of interest in our voting system. Robert Kennedy Jr. has been joined by Lou Dobbs of CNN who has started a series on his nightly newscast called "Democracy at Risk."

OUT OF IRAQ NOW! and REPORT FROM INSIDE ISRAEL

Quick Report from the Israeli Peace Front

The peace movement in Israel has pulled out all stops to end this mad war. Lots of groups are active, and we had a big joint demonstration last night - at least 5,000 people (though the media reported 2,500). Marching through the streets of Tel Aviv with signs, "End the War", "End the Occupation" felt like a relief after the roar of pro-war-talk on all the media.

HERE IS a short note from Hannah Safran of the Haifa vigil of Women in Black. The women were shelled during the vigil, but they returned to complete it. Later that day, under the newly formed "Women Against War", they again left their homes to protest.

" Hi gila, how are you? we are having a terrible day today. while we were demonstrating at our regular Women in Black square (30-40 people in all), we were bombed on both sides. it felt like being targeted from close. we had to abandon the vigil and look for shelter. we came back 20 min. later and completed the vigil on time. As we were traveling home, there was a second attack and we had to stop the car and look for shelter. When we came home we opened the newspaper to read letters of women from Lebanon. The devastation is horrific. Has Israel gone crazy or have we not noticed what a mad country we live in? It is 5:45 p.m. now and we had two attacks since then. I am off to our daily demonstration of Women Against War in front of the Foreign Office and all the foreign press. We will not be silenced. War must be stopped now. Every min. counts as people's lives are in danger. do all you can to stop this madness. only someone from outside can put pressure on Israel to stop. i have to hurry. be well and let's pray for better days.
love, hannah
Please continue to voice your protest throughout the world.

Gila Svirsky
www.coalitionofwomen.org

Demonstrations and Vigils held this weekend (or just before) THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

'Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' - Lord Acton

A REPUBLICAN senator has now confirmed that things in Iraq are worse than we were "led to believe." This implies that we were MISLED DELIBERATELY. We must bring our troops home and save their lives.

Bush is operating like an unconscious madman. Our very presence on Muslim soil is the reason there is non-stop violence and terrorism there. What on earth are we doing there? We must remove ourselves from the equation. Pride is not a virtue. Whatever Bush's reasons for being there (which obviously weren't the reasons he told us initially) it's time to come home. His lies have been uncovered, and like the alcoholic who has been beaten by the bottle — it's time to surrender to a higher power, God. Providence will move for us when we do the RIGHT THING. No matter how many lies Bush tells himself about how "patriotic" it is to be at war in Iraq, THE TRUTH IS NOT WITH HIM. HE IS LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND TO HIMSELF. It's time to humble ourselves and come home. Great men have humility. Arrogant ones do not. Bush must not believe in God because he thinks he himself has to control everything; he doesn't trust God enough to let the Iraqi people fix themselves. We must "let go and let God." 

James Madison wrote in Federalist Paper No. 47:

The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many...may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

That extraordinary powers have, under Bush, been accumulated in the "same hands" is now undeniable. For the first time in more than thirty years, and to a greater extent than even then, our constitutional form of government is in jeopardy.
Power Grabhttp://www.metafilter.com/mefi/52363

Coulter Dropped by 'Augusta Chronicle' Over 'Stridency'

"But biting commentary is one thing. A personal attack is another -- such as when she slammed several 9-11 widows for backing Democrats and allegedly milking the tragedy for political purposes. That charge alone isn't necessarily unfair, but to suggest they were 'enjoying' their husbands' deaths and calling them 'witches' -- well, that's where stridency crosses a line.

AN ISRAELI SOLDIER'S POINT OF VIEW

Last night I had dinner with an amazing soldier who flew reconnaissance missions over Lebanon last week from Israel. Though he lived in Israel for 21 years, he has also lived in the United States for over 30 years, and made his fortune here. He's was a sharp-shooter in the Israeli military but still flies missions. I believe he's in their National Guard. Last week he used rapid-fire to shoot Hezbollah on the ground from his plane.

He enlightened me about many things: he said that every Israeli soldier is indoctrinated — practically brainwashed — on the importance of saving civilian lives, and going out of their way to NEVER hit civilians. This is drilled into them from the beginning of their training. This is of the utmost importance and they go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties. For example, regarding yesterdays attack on the Mosque: they used close-range satellite technology to see inside the Mosque, and saw that bombs were being stored there. They first dropped leaflets announcing to all civilians to get out of harms way. Only then, did they attack.

He also said that every Israeli thinks now is the time to once and for all get rid of Hezbollah. No Israeli wants to back down. He also said my information is wrong regarding Israelis holding children as prisoners, and that the only prisoners they are holding are terrorists.

I deeply honor and respect this soldier's position. I pray for Israel's success.

But on a higher level, the spiritual level which I know is the solution to everything — this is the Way: only by disarming our enemies with the shock of non-retaliation can we ever have true, lasting peace. No one has ever tried it before. I don't mean grumbling with hatred while avoiding confrontation like cowards. I don't mean FEAR-BASED avoidance.

I mean truly going out of our way to NOT REACT, to be still. We and the Israelites must stop giving our enemies so much power by fearing them. We must change our thinking about our enemies. But this takes a huge leap in consciousness to come out of the primitive, archaic religious thought into the New Thought. We must lead by a new, enlightened path. Don't react. Trust God before reacting with force. An eye-for-an-eye only makes us blind.

Just like in this blog: when an angry person doesn't get a reaction he has nothing left to fight. In fact, when I asked this man if he thinks Hezbollah will be annihilated through a catastrophic bombing campaign, he said no. The evidence is that retaliation just breeds more of the same: they will proliferate like cockroaches and embed themselves deeper into civilian communities.

I truly believe the only way to fight is to send our prayers (meaning: change our consciousness toward our enemies by seeing them as children of a loving God. Though ignorant and spiritually sick, Love (God) can truly heal them.) and pray for our enemies, the way the Great Peacemaker instructed. Love disarms the worst evil.

Every time I have an enemy, when I change my thought about him, he changes too.

To Newlyweds Stacy and Ned: Congratulations! (A good friend of mine, Stacy, spent her honeymoon in Israel, after having lived there for several months in separate quarters from her fiance. The couple is from California; they got deeper into their faith prior to marriage. God Bless them.

To the HACKER who has broken a pipe on this blog and prevented people they disagree with from commenting. We have launched a full-scale investigation. I will be on several radio shows this week letting people know how our government wastes tax-payer money by hacking into blogs to stop the truth from coming out. There is an agency above the one you work for.

SPIRITUAL HEALING * PRO-LIFE OR PRO-DEATH?

Note: the ads for Ann Coulter at the top of this page are not affiliated with this website. ANN COULTER is morally handicapped and HAS CRACKS IN HER FOUNDATION. SHE IS ALSO WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING. Coulter ads are put there by the opposition. You can read articles about Ann Coulter by clicking the sidebar.

"Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination." - Harry S Truman

Though Jesus himself called the Bush-Cheney-Roves of his day a "brood of vipers," I am never comfortable using harsh language to malign others. The office of President of the United States should command the utmost respect, but the man Bush is merely a politician, who was not elected legally in my view, and has betrayed us. My higher self cannot stand the anger I feel toward Bush, so I need to dwell on Love and raise the dialogue here. Personally I know that life is spiritual, and the reason God has clothed us in so many colors and territories, is for the very purpose of overcoming our tribal separateness, bigotry and territoriality — in order to turn our hearts to love. In other words, THE GOLDEN RULE. This is not a religious issue, it's a social/humanitarian issue.

At this radioactive time in our history the last thing we need is a president who wants to be a barbaric war lord who condones indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians. Bush has set our beautiful world back lightyears, instead of using his power and gifts for uniting people in peace. It's a shame that we can't do anything; it's a shame that we are burdened with this obtuse, truly deplorable president at a time we need leadership most.

But as long as Bush calls himself a Christian, we must remind him that "Loving one's neighbor as oneself" is Christ's most urgent instruction. And since Israel and Lebanon are neighbors of each other, the leader of the free world should be a peacemaker here. Bush has to be a leader. Congress must to stop pretending that gay marriage and flag-burning are as important as Christ's main commandment to LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR and CREATE PEACE ON EARTH.

Our whole test in this life is to turn our hatred into love and see the good in each other. We must become color-blind and less chauvinistic and nationalistic; we must start seeing that we are all one race, Human. This is based on God, the God of love.

If Bush is pro-life, then "life" these days must mean death and torture. How can one explain his thirst for war and blood and chaos? If Bush calls himself pro-life, then he has a lot of nerve depriving others of cures to prolong life. Bush thinks using MEDICAL WASTE TO SAVE LIVES IS MURDER. But it's OKAY AS LONG AS PRIVATE COMPANIES USE THE STEM CELLS?! I GUESS SINCE THEY'RE MAKING MONEY IT'S ALL GOOD. Why DOES BUSH TAKE MONEY FROM CHINA, A COUNTRY THAT NOT ONLY CONDONES ABORTION, ORGAN HARVESTING AND KILLING BABY GIRLS?

According to the Old Testament, which fundamentalists go by, life must contain blood, skin and flesh. Blastocysts, or embryonic stem cells are not human life; they are potential life and do not have blood yet, in the first 18 days prior to implantation, and therefore are not considered human life. Anyway, in the bible, God breathed life into man; he didn't culture life in a petri dish.

If fundamentalists quote the bible live by the bible, they have a lot of nerve eating shellfish or allowing women to speak in public without flogging them. All these things are in the Old Testament. Of course Jesus doesn't appear until the New Testament; he came to bring the New Law, the law of spirit over matter, the law of Love. Fundamentalist "Christians" have a lot of nerve callling themselves Christian if they completely ignore Christ's teachings. I guess don't know that Christ is the root of the word Christian because the vowel sounds are different. They surely do not follow Christ in any way.

HOW CAN WE SIT BACK AND LET THE WORLD BE RUINED BY THIS MADMAN who has no wisdom, compassion or heart? Not only has George Bush's Iraq war caused over 14,000 civilian deaths but over 20,000 of our own troops have been maimed (that means they lost arms, legs and brain cells) and 2,500 killed. Bush also has now condoned the bombing of Lebanese civilians and now with the veto of embryonic stem cell research, he has destroyed the hope of millions of Americans. And never forget, as you read the following article, that Bush flew to Florida in the middle of the night to intervene in the Terry Schiavo issue, a private family matter — yet took several days to care about the Katrina victims.

Pro-Death Politics by William Greider

I was astounded to read an E.J. Dionne column in the Washington Post about a baby boy in Texas who was denied life support by hospital officials over the objections of his mother--astounded because this act of euthanasia was authorized by a state law passed by then-Governor George W. Bush. Or should we call it "murder," as some Republicans fervently insist in the death of Terri Schiavo? I wanted to know more about Bush's role, but the Post never returned to the matter. I wanted to know more about the circumstances surrounding the death of Representative Tom DeLay's injured father (the doctors pulled the plug on him with the family's consent).

I also want to know who makes these godlike choices for the Hospital Corporation of America, the 191-hospital chain built by Senator-Doctor Bill Frist's family. Does HCA follow the end-of-life logic suggested by Bush's law, or do the hospitals subscribe to Pope John Paul II's dictum that providing food and water to sustain brain-dead mortals is "morally obligatory"?

These questions sound tasteless and insensitive, I know, but our sensibilities have been jarred by the recent melodrama mounted by the right. The Pope's death was, by contrast, a model for dying with dignity and proper mourning. The life-or-death issue goes deeper than the obvious hypocrisy of certain politicians. It leads us into intriguing, disturbing questions about what "moral people" believe in this very moralistic country. Shouldn't we have a fuller discussion about who is pro-life, who is pro-death?Bush pretends to believe in God, but he is anti-Christian, and anti-God. From The Nation.

On a less spiritual note, I found this article to be insightful and hilarious.
Bush - Stoned? Drunk? Medicated? Presidential Tester for the Pharmaceutical Industry? You Decide........
Submitted by BuzzFlash Reader Contribution
by Ruth Lopez

Bush is fried. He's either drinking, smoking pot, medicated, or some combination of all of them. Either that or the man has taken a one-way trip to crazy town. Watch his gibberish at the G8, especially the bizarre stuff about how long the plane flights to various countries are. If you take out the comments of the other leaders (because they actually sound intelligent and not like drunken bar talk) and just read what Bush says, he sounds just like someone who is more than half looped.

"Gotta go home. Gotta do sumthin tonight. Get ona plane. Go home. It's a long flight. How long is your flight? That's a long flight. Your country is big. His country is big too." Retarded or stoned, you decide.

This is the kind of mindless bar drivel that drunks who can't shut up drone on with. They just keep running their mouths, totally disconnected from the non-verbal clues of the people around them.

Watch the press conference where Bush couldn't stop talking about the pig roast. It didn't matter what anyone asked him, he just kept saying whatever his addled brain was looping on, in this case, the pig. Typical stoned behavior. It reminded me of the time Bush went to Canada and couldn't get off the subject of the mouth one of the Canadian Prime Minister's staff members! "You've got a purty mouth." Not once but several times. "You've sure got a purty mouth." And, "Your mouth is prettier than my Scott's mouth." (The poor guy's name was Scott.) Who does this? Outside of bars or institutions, I mean.

Watch Bush's body language at the table with Blair talking over his shoulder. Bush is sitting, almost slouched back in his chair, like a guy at a barbeque on his second or third 6 pack, chomping on his food with his mouth open, and making minimal effort to intelligently keep up his end of the conversation by occasionally throwing in something he mistakenly thinks is sufficient. (read the rest at Buzzflash)


REGARDING IRAN Christopher Hitchens says:

"The overwhelmingly young population—an ironic result of the mullahs' attempt to increase the birth rate after the calamitous war with Iraq—is fed up with medieval rule. Unlike the hermetic societies of Baathist Iraq and North Korea, Iran has been forced to permit a lot of latitude to its citizens. A huge number of them have relatives in the West, access to satellite dishes and cell phones, and regular contact with neighboring societies. ... Opinion polling is a new science in Iran, but several believable surveys have shown that a huge majority converges on one point: that it is time to resume diplomatic relations with the United States."

Christopher, I hope you're right. But what I find interesting is what Randi Rhodes said the other day: that Iran, so full of young people, was on its way to becoming westernized BEFORE we invaded and bombed Iraq. The youth were sick of the old mullahs with their fundamentalist archaic religiosity — and they were turning to the West for an exchange of ideas and fashion. Bush's Iraq war helped usher in a backlash in the democratic elections: the militant regimes of Hezbollah and Hamas won! People are so turned off to our form of dictatorship and "democracy" we set them back light years. We lost all these young Iranians who were on the brink of really befriending us — and we set back the peace process in the Middle East.

WHAT HAPPENED TO PRINCIPLES and morals? If you operate from principle you never have to worry. You dont' have to side with Israel when they overreact and bomb innocent civilians. Bush's neocons have no interest in what's right. They lie, cheat and steal. Obviously Bush doesn't really want peace. What a tragedy. But I know with enough love and prayer sent his way, we can help him.

DEVIL'S GAME * PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN

We are on a Windjammer Sailboat, island-hopping in the Caribbean. Went to Bimini, where Hemingway lived for a while and wrote Islands in the Stream. Did he write "The Old Man and the Sea" here? I don't know. The bar he hung out in is now burned down. More below, but first this:

KayInMaine said...
If I hear Bush one more time say that the current aggression in the Middle East is Lebanon's fault because they fired rockets at Israel, I'm going to scream and bang my head against a wall! The current escalation started a few weeks ago when Israel killed a bunch of Palestinians who were on the beach. Of course, Israel is blaming everyone but themselves on why those people died! A few weeks goes by and Palestinian soldiers capture two of Israel's soldiers in retaliation for what Israel did to them. Did Israel overreact to that? Yup!!!!!! In my eyes, it is Israel who is provoking madness right now. I put most of the blame on them, because if you think about it, why couldn't Israel just hand over a few Palestinian prisoners in exchange for their soldiers back? I mean, really, that would have been the diplomatic solution to this, right?

After careful consideration I've determined that the Bush White House is telling Israel to push forward with force (but of course, the exact opposite is leaving Bush's mouth in public) and to use the reaction to it as a reason for America to invade Iran and Syria! But of course.

And remember....Bush always puts the blame on the country he wants to invade and occupy. Case closed. No further comment or explanation needed here." (from commenter KayInMaine)

* PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS OF AMERICA Reiterates CALL FOR AN END TO ISRAELI OCCUPATION

Around the world, people are watching in fear and horror as the Middle East sinks further into violence. We are witnessing human rights violations and civilian deaths on a massive scale in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. And now, the conflict has escalated with added violence between the Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel. All of this comes on top of the chaos in Iraq caused by the unjust and ill-considered U.S. invasion and occupation.

Progressive Democrats of America asserts that any remedy to the escalating conflicts involving Israel and its neighbors must begin by addressing the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and the consistent violence, humiliation and brutality the occupation entails. In the absence of this fundamental assertion, the violence will no doubt continue.

* CHEERS TO VALERIE PLAME and HER HUSBAND JOE WILSON!! Thank you for your courage in combatting the evil triumvirate CHENEY-ROVE-AND WHOEVER THE THIRD GUY IS who supports the most corrupt administration the United States has ever had.

* Also, I urge you all to read the brilliant book Devil's Game by my friend Robert Dreyfuss. The book will be out in paperback in August.

Some reviews: “A fluent tour de force—Dreyfuss skillfully documents the misguided stratagems of generations of statesmen whose attempts to use the Islamic right to Western strategic advantage have helped make political Islam the formidable force it is today. He makes a convincing case that the U.S. government inadvertently played a central role in building up the forces that struck New York and Washington on 9/11, and questions whether some current U.S. policies and actions are not still strengthening rather than weakening enemies of our country. Dreyfuss’ carefully researched and well-written story will be a revelation to experts on the Islamic world and a shock to concerned Americans.”
—Chas W. Freeman, Jr., former assistant secretary of defense and U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, 1989-92

Dreyfuss's thorough research on the subject involves extensive interviews with former officials as well as the study of published works. The result is a stunning summary of missed opportunities and signals ignored. Highly recommended. —Library Journal

“’The enemy of enemy is my friend’ is usually considered unsophisticated, tribal thinking. But Robert Dreyfuss shows how, during the Cold War, precisely this principle led the United States to support anti-Communist Islamist movements throughout the Muslim world—nurturing the whirlwind we are reaping today. His book is judicious, fascinating, and deeply grounded in a little-know history that stretches many decades back from the CIA’s support for anti-Soviet forces in Afghanistan. He is wise enough to know that all the strength of fundamentalist Islam can’t be blamed on American bungling, but the amount that can is appalling.”
—Adam Hochschild, author of Bury the Chains and King Leopold’s Ghost


WINDJAMMER TRIP: Went to two uninhabited islands, with the most amazing beaches and clear crystal water. A small storm (mini-hurricane) caught up with us and we almost capsized in the launch. But most of the time we've been snorkeling and diving with the kids. Saw a scorpion fish and got to pet some wild stingrays; they're so amazing with these big round eyes. They remind me of our puppy dog. Also saw a shark in a cove. This trip was a gift/payment for hosting the World Travel Awards, courtesy of the Really Spectacular Company. We are at the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise island right now.

We met the most wonderful people on this boat; can't wait to sail with them again. And we are all madly in love with Captain Fernando!

I teach my sons to have the deepest respect for the office of the President of the United States, but we must remember it is an elected office, and the president is a politician. When one political party does not have the best interest of honest Americans at heart, it is our duty to take notice, speak out and earnestly seek the truth. Most of all, we cannot have this lack of fundamental trust. The minute George W. Bush was "elected" to power, I knew something was terribly wrong. We need full disclosure of the motives and deeds of this corrupt regime. This does not feel like the America of my childhood. Maybe we are not jaded enough, but I believe in the American dream of our forefathers. I am heartsick at this administration. The American public deserves to know what the government is spending our money on. If they are wasting American taxpayer money hacking into bloggers and regular American citizens who are merely expressing their opinions on blogs and newspapers, this is the worst form of censorship. It is criminal.

Back in a week.
Love xo
OPEN THREAD - let's talk about Beirut and the Valerie Plame lawsuit!!

The SECRET OF THE UNIVERSE

"Those who want the government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination." - Harry S Truman

Coulter is currently facing a legal investigation for voter fraud in Palm Beach, Florida. Coulter may have lied about her address on her voter registration there. Yet, she recently announced on Hannity & Colmes that she lives in New York. As Brad Blog has noted, that may open her up to charges of tax fraud, as well.



THE SECRET of THE UNIVERSE Check out: http://www.thesecret.tv/

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Loud and Vexatious Person: Ann Coulter has a bad habit. And that habit, as mentioned before by the Rude Pundit (followed up by Raw Story), is that she appears to like to copy whole sentences from other sources without putting them in as quotes or even citing where she might have "paraphrased" from. You judge for yourself:

Here's Coulter from Chapter 1 of Godless: The massive Dickey-Lincoln Dam, a $227 million hydroelectric project proposed on upper St. John River in Maine, was halted by the discovery of the Furbish lousewort, a plant previously believed to be extinct.



KAREEM Abdul-Jabar at CEDAR-SINAI SPORTS SPECTACULAR fundraiser for Genetic Birth Defects . This picture taken by my son, who is a big fan of Abdul-Jabar.