THE ULTIMATE ANTIDEPRESSANT * MEDIA AS MENTAL SWITCHBLADE *

Depressed, sad, anxious? Read about the ultimate ANTIDEPRESSANT below. But first these items:

From HuffPo: 25,000 U.S. troops dead or injured since war began...

O.I.L. Do you know why Ari Fleischer had to stop calling the invasion of Iraq, "Operation Iraqi Liberation" (Oil)? Because it was too close to the truth; Bush was embarrassed that it spelled OIL. Hence the war slogan was changed to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Got this tidbit from Cenk and Jilly, THE YOUNG TURKS, on Air America this morning.

Did anyone see the brilliant Robert Dreyfuss on Hannity & Colmes last night? Last time he was on with Sean Hannity during the Israel-Lebanon strikes, Hannity said, "If I hear the word 'proportional' one more time I'm going to punch myself.' So Dreyfuss very dryly says, "Proportional." And Hannity just sat there; he didn't punch himself darn it. Another false Republican promise. But it was a hilarious moment. Dreyfuss is an Iraq strategist, investigative reporter for Rolling Stone, The Nation, Mother Jones — and good friend of mine. He also had a cover story in THE NATION last week. check out his latest article at http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/12/13/bush_v_the_two_majorities.php

THE ULTIMATE ANTIDEPRESSANT: helping others. Angelina Jolie said that until she found "her purpose", in being a mother and helping others — she was depressed, nihilistic, suicidal — as many of us are until we transcend our ego-centered selfishness and really look around at the world. As pain is the touchstone of all spiritual progress, we grow from our tragedies. Again, kudos to Jolie for her compassion, her humanitarian work -- and for using the gifts God gave her.

This is a spiritual-progressive blog, and after this week I want to get back to our true moral values: loving our neighbor as ourself peaceful solutions to conflict, and understanding our enemy. Or in the case of George Bush, SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL. On that note I have to say that I'm beginning to think Bush is a planted spy for Al Quaeda or the Taliban. He had plastic surgery and his Muslim name was changed from Al-Bushawi. He has got to be on their side because every move he makes empowers the enemy and enhances their cause. Definition of a narcissist or Neo-Con: Someone who is so full of self-loathing, he projects all of his self-hatred onto others. No one can live up to his perfectionistic standards because he is so unaccepting of himself — and his flaws. Ted Haggart, Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Mark Foley come to mind, among many others.

The extreme right-wingers are the poor souls who need to be deprogrammed. They need a new view of liberals and a healing view of their fellow man. Of course you can’t propagandize someone who doesn’t want to be swayed or lied to. Neo-Republicans have been willing participants in a brainwashing, and this is because Bush and his hatemongers feeds their bigotry, anger and fear of their fellow man. It's a form of "getting high" by indulging in self-righteous anger.

The remarkable thing is that if we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.
– Eric Hoffer

CAN WE TRUST THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA?
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — After toppling the long-dominant Republicans in a hard-fought election, the Democratic Party's incoming congressional leaders have immediately found themselves in another difficult struggle — with their own supporters...

My letter to the editor regarding the above article

This article provides a perfect example for showing you why Americans no longer trust newspapers, one of the main reasons your circulation is declining.

First, you create controversy where there is none. Very few people, if any, in the Democratic base are demanding immediate action on anything other than what the Party promised in the campaign--raising the minimum wage, affordable health care, bringing accountability to Congress and the administration, and so on. We will lobby for other issues, but we're not demanding that Party leaders to shoot themselves in the foot the way overeager Republicans did just after 1994.

Second, you have an amazingly poor understanding of politics. I rolled on the floor laughing when I read your assertion that "Conservatives, though splintered over Iraq, immigration and other issues, had succeeded in keeping power since 1994 in part by forging a coalition built on compromise and shared goals — a practice that Democrats have yet to perfect."

How anyone who's lived in this country for the last twelve years could believe that Republicans built their coalition on anything other than lies, hate, fear, and corruption has just not been paying attention. There was no compromise in the Republican coalition. The leadership used blackmail, fear, bribery and coercion to force their members of Congress to do what the leadership wanted. And that led to some of the most god-awful legislation ever passed in this country. I sincerely hope the Democrats never "perfect" that kind of "compromise".

Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com

WE CAN'T WAIT UNTIL 2008 TO BRING THE TROOPS HOME

Here is a post from a friend, a Paratrooper stationed in Iraq: "All of us wont be out of here for some time. It wont be a full withdrawal for some years. You have to pay attention to their definitions and nuance. Combat troops: I dont really know what this means but the media has been slinging this phrase around re: "pull out all combat troops." First of all troop refers to a member of a Cavalry unit which are a minority of Army units, and two we are all over here in combat which would give everyone over here the first part of that moniker. But what they mean is pull out all Line tactical units aka Combat Arms personnel (Infantry/Armor/Cav/Arty/Engineers), which would leave Combat Support and Service Support (Logisitcs, Mechanics, MPs, MI, Medics etc.), to do what????? Drive convoys to supply Iraqi units on routes secured only by Iraqis with a few embedded American trainers? That seems like a bullshit proposition to me. They're trying to make it sound like we'll all be out of here by 2008 but I sincerely doubt it. We'll have PTTs and MTTs here for sometime and we have to build up there logistics infrastructure which takes more than one year. It briefs well and sounds great but I'm not counting out another deployment to Iraq." ANGER MANAGEMENT

When the good guys won back Congress, I felt as if we had awakened from a terrible nightmare, and there was hope again. But half-measures avail us nothing. We cannot stand by and let our troops be killed for the bully-dictator's ego. I am proud of the Iraq Study Group, but will wait to hear from Robert Dreyfuss (who has a cover story in this weeks NATION.) Dreyfuss was there today at Congress, and at the White House press conference and he has some wisdom on how this will pan out.

Here is a photo of Larry Johnson, of Kokomo Indiana, taken on my trip there with Robert Dreyfuss. I have an article in today's "Perspective on Labor" issue. I'll have a monthly column in the Kokomo Perspective starting in January.

THANK YOU TO ALL my BLOGGERS called in on Sunday. You guys are incredible, and I feel so lucky to have such a great support system. The show I did was BARRY GORDON FROM LEFT FIELD with Arianna Huffington, Congresswoman Holtzman and Swannee Hunt.
Here's the archive link: DEC 3 SHOW ARCHIVE
Here's the direct podcast link: PODCASTmp3 I am on in the 3rd hour, after Arianna.

Ten more U.S. troops died today. Ten innocent American lives. On NPR last night I heard of one young soldier who was on his third tour of duty, on his way home, and he was killed in a roadside explosion. This is too much to bear. And thinking about Bush having the gall to ask James Webb about his son, and then ordering Webb not to respond in a way that made the dictator "uncomfortable," is just too much.

Bye Bye Bolton

There's nothing like starting your work week off on the right foot. And theres nothing more right than seeing the proud, arrogant, hand-picked policy drones of the Bush administration being forced to accept reality as they are being handed their walking papers and shown to the door. And John Bolton's reality this week? His 15 minutes are up. He has burned all the bridges he can burn for now, and since no one at the UN likes him. well, maybe the Chinese ambassador likes him, just a little, he has pretty much worn out his welcome. And for a diplomat, thats as real as it gets.

Back in March of 2005 when John Bolton was nominated to the stately position of U.S Ambassador to the United Nations by President Bush, he was already the subject of extensive criticism. Complaints from coworkers and subordinates dotted his resume, and he seemed perhaps the most unlikely candidate to serve in any position requiring diplomacy or statemenship. But President Bush knew better.

Now, after just over a year of service at the United Nations, Bolton is disliked and even despised by representatives from many other countries, and is described as being rude, arrogant and undiplomatic. In fact, the North Korean ambassador referred to him as "such human scum and bloodsucker", after Bolton openly insulted the North Korean President, Kim Jong Il during the 2003 6 party nuclear proliferation talks. Not exactly what one would normally call "diplomatic" but that didn't stop Bolton. Many republicans admire him for his frankness in speaking his mind. But those who do are missing the point.

He wasn't there to insult our neighbors and their leaders. He wasn't there to tell people "what he thought". He was there to work with representatives from other nantions in open and genuine dialogue that is designed to strengthen international relationships and ease tensions. He was there to "avoid" wars and make friends, and calling the leader of another country a "tyrannical dictator" is probably not the best way to accomplish that. I bet you knew that, didn't you?

Well try and tell him that. Like most Bush appointees, and indeed like Bush himself, Bolton seemed to feel he"knew it all", and no one was going to tell him otherwise. Not while still expecting to keep their jobs anyway. Bolton had mastered that amazing "my way or the highway" smuggery that is signature within the Bush regime. And Bolton also shares his leaders affinity for supporting wars in which one has no intention of fighting in. During the Viet Nam era, John Bolton was a strong supporter of the war. At least vocally. But instead of taking that support for the war and turning it into real action, like Bush, Bolton chose to instead enlist in the National Guard, and opted to avoid the actual combat of the war he so strongly tauted his support for. In fact, Bolton wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost".

And this is the man Bush thought should represent us in a position of diplomat to the world. This is what passes for "character" with George W. Bush, and his administration. After all, it mirrors his own. But fortunately for the rest of the planet, Boltons time is up. His lame duck President can't hold back the tides any longer, and smug, arrogant "chickenhawks" are having their wings clipped on an almost weekly basis now. Rumsfelds out, and now the bully Bolton is following him out the door. Who's next? Rice? Rove? We'll see.

But in the meantime, lets all open a cold beer, light up a good cigar, and wave old Johnny B, bye bye. In fact, lets throw a party. A celebration to acknowledge the leaving of a diplomat who had not one diplomatic bone in his body. We might as well. After all, we know they're rippin it up in the UN building this morning.

Mr Bolton. Your "shoot first and ask questions later" approach was just not welcome in an organization designed to facilitate discourse and comprimise between nations. So Bye Bye Mr Bolton. You were fun to watch, kind of like Yosemite Sam with a necktie, only not as funny. But now, thankfully, your 15 minutes are up and its time for you to go. So go.

Oh and in parting, I'd like to remind you sir, to not let the door hit you on your backside as you exit the building.

UNDER THE BRIDGE ON THANKSGIVING

Myth: Homeless people are useless members of society.
Fact: 40% of homeless adult males served honorably in the US military. (Read more below)

THE BRIDGE MINISTRY: There is an angel named Candy Christmas, a beautiful Gospel singer in Nashville whose vision it was to feed the homeless. The power of one person's vision is miraculous. All by herself, on a wing and a prayer, she found a way to feed hundreds of desperate souls twice a week, every week. She started "Ministry Under the Bridge" in Nashville

THE BRIDGE MINISTRY

Myth vs. Fact
Myth: Homeless are so old they are not "worth" helping.
Fact: The average age of the homeless adult male is 38; the average age of the homeless adult female is 32. Both genders have many good years left to offer.
Myth:People are homeless because they are lazy.
Fact: 90% of homeless have successful work histories, and many are currently employed.
Myth: A minimum wage job is all a homeless person needs.
Fact: In Davidson county, it requires a job paying $10.54 per hour/ 40 hours per week to afford the most modest one-bedroom apartment. Minimum wage is $5.15.
Myth: If you want to work, you can find a job.
Fact: Manufacturing and industrial blue collar jobs are steadily decreasing. Homeless people need new skills to keep up with the changing face of labor.
Myth: Homeless don't want to do better.
Fact: 92% desperately desire a permanent home.

Candy Christmas began this ministry in late 2004. The ministry currently meets under the Jefferson Street Bridge on Tuesday nights and on Shelby Street at the First Wesleyan Church on Thursday nights.
A team of more than 75 volunteers work each week packing trucks, bagging groceries, setting up the meetings, preparing meals and gathering clothes to aid over 300 homes every Tuesday and Thursday night.
You can help! Contact us from the contact page and we will let you know how you can help!
Candy Christmas
P. O. Box 463 • Goodlettsville, TN 37070-0463

THE BRIDGE MINISTRY

DISARMING THE MADHOUSE

Bush should stay out of his mind; it's a bad neighborhood. Two articles I wrote on this administration, "BUSH'S LAST WILL AND TESTICLE" and "DEATH IS SEXIER THAN SEX (to Ann Coulter), will be reprinted here soon -- or you can find them in various news journals in the sidebar. The books HOW TO TALK TO ANN COULTER, IF YOU MUST ; BLOGGING WITH THE DEVIL and FALLING UP are in the pipeline, not necessarily in that order.



There are those who find themselves exiled
On whom the fortunes never smile
And upon whose lives the heartache has been piled - Jackson Browne "The Only Child"

Ran into several of my favorite people last night: the songwriter whose music changed my life, Jackson Browne — whose music is so beautiful it makes me weep, it actually hurts; Norman Lear (activist and creator of "All in the Family"), Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com and Greg Palast, author of the New York Times bestseller, “Armed Madhouse” (Penguin 2006), about the Bush administration. When Palast, an investigator of corporate fraud and racketeering, turned his skills to journalism, he was quickly recognized as, “The most important investigative reporter of our time” [Tribune Magazine] in Britain, where his first reports appeared on BBC television and in the Guardian newspapers. Palast is also the author of "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy", and is launching an even more crucial investigation into how the right wing steals elections by eliminating Blacks from the voter rolls, and sending them to Iraq. You will not believe how corrupt and anti-American these maniacs are, and the criminal tactics they use in voter registration. Please contribute to the Palast Investigative Fund, which employs a team of investigators all over the world, uncovering the neocons' dense maze of crimes and lies.

Also met Ed Rampell, the prolific journalist, critic and author of many books. His most recent is "Progressive Hollywood." With an introduction by Greg Palast, "Progressive Hollywood" features Rampell's interviews and interactions with Hollywood luminaries such as producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Robert Greenwald; actors Jack Nicholson, Rob Reiner, Mike Farrell, Ed Asner, Martin Sheen, David Clennon, Gore Vidal and Dennis Hopper; directors Michael Moore, Spike Lee, Oliver Stone and Lionel Chetwynd; blacklisted screenwriters Bernie Gordon (who initiated the 1999 protests against Elia Kazan's lifetime achievement Oscar), Bobby Lees (who injected dialectical materialism into Abbott and Costello comedies) and Norma Barzman (author of 2003's The Red and the Blacklist).


Jackson Browne looks so much like my brother, who died a few years ago, it's uncanny. Browne is also a great soul and activist for peace, the downtrodden, the environment and all good Democratic causes. His first album has a song called "Song For Adam", which is about a friend's suicide. After my brother died, I must have played this song 500 times. To this day, I believe Jackson Browne is the best songwriter alive. I love his album LATE FOR THE SKY. His mainstream hits are great, but I really love the songs that never got enough airplay, his hauntingly bittersweet melodies and lyrics mixed with violin, piano and acoustic guitar. Some of my favorites: "The Only Child"; "For A Dancer"; "Fountain of Sorrow", "Before the Deluge", "From SilverLake", "Looking Into You"; "These Days"; "Take It Easy"; "For Everyman" ... and of course "The Pretender"

Jackson Browne was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. He is highly respected for both his musical gifts and his integrity. He spends most of his time helping important social causes he believes in. As Bruce Springsteen put it during his speech at the Hall of Fame inductions: "Listen to the chord changes of 'Rock Me On the Water' and 'Before the Deluge,' it's gospel through and through. Now I always thought that... our job here on earth, the way we regain our divinity, our sacredness, and our general good-standing is by reconstructing love and creating love out of the broken pieces that we've been given. That's all we have of human promise. That's the way we prove ourselves in the eyes of God and facilitate our own redemption. Now, to me Jackson Browne's work was always the sound of that reconstruction." Thank you, Jackson, for a creating the soundtrack to our lives.

Lyrics to "Song for Adam"

Though Adam was a friend of mine, I did not know him well
He was alone into his distance
He was deep into his well
I could guess what he was laughing at, but I couldn't really tell
Now the story's told that Adam jumped, but I've been thinking that he fell

Together we went traveling, as we received the call
His destination India, and I had none at all
Well, I still remember laughing with our backs against the wall
So free of fear, we never thought that one of us might fall

I sit before my only candle, but it's so little light to find my way
Now this story unfolds before my candle
Which is shorter every hour as it reaches for the day
But I feel just like a candle in the way
I guess I'll get there, but I wouldn't say for sure

When we parted we were laughing still, as our goodbyes were said
And I never heard from him again as each our lives we led
Except for once in someone else's letter that I read
Until I heard the sudden word that a friend of mine was dead....

Listen to the lyrics of "The Only Child" --

Take good care of your brother
Let the disappointment pass,
Let the laughter fill your glass
Let your illusions last until they shatter...

Take good care of your mother
And remember to be kind
When the pain of another will serve to remind...
That there those who find themselves exiled
on whom the fortunes never smile
And upon whose lives the heartache has been piled...
They're just looking for another only child

And when you've found another soul
Who sees into your own
Take good care of each other
When you're thinking you're alone
Be aware of each other....
Take good care of each other

Check out his website and listen to some of his hits from various concerts: jacksonbrowne.com

I also love Loreena McKennitt "Book of Secrets" #8. It's a haunting Celtic ballad. We played it at our wedding in Malibu, filtered through the oak trees. Sometimes I feel that if you're part Welsh or Irish, as we are, you have Celtic music in your blood. That's why I love the LORD OF THE RINGS soundtrack so much.

CAN WE TRUST THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA?

The remarkable thing is that we really love our neighbor as ourselves: we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. We are prone to sacrifice others when we are ready to sacrifice ourselves.
– Eric Hoffer

Los Angeles Times Liberal groups expect postelection results

WASHINGTON — After toppling the long-dominant Republicans in a hard-fought election, the Democratic Party's incoming congressional leaders have immediately found themselves in another difficult struggle — with their own supporters...

My letter to the editor regarding the above article

This article provides a perfect example for showing you why Americans no longer trust newspapers, one of the main reasons your circulation is declining.

First, you create controversy where there is none. Very few people, if any, in the Democratic base are demanding immediate action on anything other than what the Party promised in the campaign--raising the minimum wage, affordable health care, bringing accountability to Congress and the administration, and so on. We will lobby for other issues, but we're not demanding that Party leaders to shoot themselves in the foot the way overeager Republicans did just after 1994.

Second, you have an amazingly poor understanding of politics. I rolled on the floor laughing when I read your assertion that "Conservatives, though splintered over Iraq, immigration and other issues, had succeeded in keeping power since 1994 in part by forging a coalition built on compromise and shared goals — a practice that Democrats have yet to perfect."

How anyone who's lived in this country for the last twelve years could believe that Republicans built their coalition on anything other than lies, hate, fear, and corruption has just not been paying attention. There was no compromise in the Republican coalition. The leadership used blackmail, fear, bribery and coercion to force their members of Congress to do what the leadership wanted. And that led to some of the most god-awful legislation ever passed in this country.

I sincerely hope the Democrats never "perfect" that kind of "compromise".

Carolyn Kay
MakeThemAccountable.com

HOPE FOR VETERANS * JOY AND VICTORY

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn." Harriet Beecher Stowe

"Everyone is walking around smiling and grinning and happy like the bright light of the sun just destroyed all the bloodsucking vampires." - A Comment from Mike, about Democrats winning a majority of seats in Congress.


Happy Veterans Day! GOD BLESS OUR LOST LOVED ONES... and a special THANK YOU to Clif, Desert Storm Commander; Marcus, currently stationed in Iraq — and John Conley, Marine Combat Vet who sent me his Purple Heart for speaking out against the invasion of Iraq. We need to take care of our troops, who made the ultimate sacrifice.

BUSH AND THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESS CUT VETERANS BENEFITS!! What a shameful legacy. Haliburton should pay for our handicapped Veterans' severed limbs and all the medical bills and life support these Vets and their families need. Cheney and Haliburton, war profiteers, who charged $45 for a case of Coke in Iraq! They enriched themselves at the expense of our soliders, while cutting their benefits.

DEMOCRATS TOOK CONGRESS and WE ARE ECSTATIC!! Fascism was defeated and there is HOPE again! America's glory and esteem in the world has a chance now. Good always wins over evil, because evil has no real power. There were almost too many text-book scandals on the republican side. It almost seemed like divine intervention.

Two articles I wrote on this administration, "BUSH'S LAST WILL AND TESTICLE" and "DEATH IS SEXIER THAN SEX (to Ann Coulter), will be reprinted here soon -- or you can find them in various news journals in the sidebar. The books HOW TO TALK TO ANN COULTER, IF YOU MUST ; BLOGGING WITH THE DEVIL and FALLING UP are in the pipeline, not necessarily in that order.

"Watch FOX the day after the election. It is like watching Soviet TV after Brezhnev died." Quote from my friend Steve Kelly, head of programming over at KPSI, the ABC affliiate in Palm Springs.

"I can't help but notice the history channel is showing 'The Fall of the Nazi party'.
Wonder if this was scheduled, or impromptu?" - Doctor Von Worfeus

Got this letter today:

Lydia,
Some time ago I wrote you an e-mail, my first of a few to you, in which I wrote about my fears that we were on the verge of a new dark age. You wrote me a nice e-mail back and mentioned in your blog that you were confident that things would turn around and that the people of this nation would awaken to what was going on. Never have I been happier about being wrong.Now if we can just start moving ahead. It's my hope that our party will show everyone how our government is supposed to work. A democracy is based on compromise. We mustn't act like the Republicans did in 1994. We must work together and move forward. I have no doubt that is exactly what we will do. During the past two to three years I have had little faith in the future of our nation, but now, finally, the morning has broken.

May we make the day that has dawned the beginning of a new, bright and enlightened age for all Americans, regardless of race, creed or political philosophy. May we bring that enlightened age to the world through understanding and communication.

Your faith has been rewarded Lydia. In the future I will endeavor to keep the faith myself.

Thank you, with love, Thomas J. Comer

Thank you to all commenters on this blog. Your committment and unrelenting troll-bashing have actually helped win this election in some small way, in this blog. Every single voice counts. Every prayer counts. And we actually made a difference. Also, after doing over 30 radio shows across the country from a spiritual-progressive perspective, and in the South and Southeast — I know for a fact that we changed some hearts and minds. Everything we do makes a dent in the machine.

"Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little." Plutarch

Love & Peace xoxo
Lydia