Friday, February 16, 2007

Presidents' Day


Think there will ever be a national celebration of George W. Bush's birthday (and mall sales in his honor)?....See you Tuesday, after closing arguments in the Scooter Libby case.

Posted by David Corn at February 16, 2007 05:09 PM

80 comments:

capt said...

TOO MANY CHIEFS


According to some of the calendars and appointment books floating around this office, Monday, February 19th, is Presidents’ Day. Others say it’s President’s Day. Still others opt for Presidents Day. Which is it? The bouncing apostrophe bespeaks a certain uncertainty. President’s Day suggests that only one holder of the nation’s supreme magistracy is being commemorated—presumably the first. Presidents’ Day hints at more than one, most likely the Sage of Mount Vernon plus Abraham Lincoln, generally agreed to be the greatest of them all. And Presidents Day, apostropheless, implies a promiscuous celebration of all forty-two—Jefferson but also Pierce, F.D.R. but also Buchanan, Truman but also Harding. To say nothing of the incumbent, of whom, perhaps, the less said the better.

So which is it? Trick question. The answer, strictly speaking, is none of the above. Ever since 1968, when, in one of the last gasps of Great Society reformism, holidays were rejiggered to create more three-day weekends, federal law has decreed the third Monday in February to be Washington’s Birthday. And Presidents’/’s/s Day? According to Prologue, the magazine of the National Archives, it was a local department-store promotion that went national when retailers discovered that, mysteriously, generic Presidents clear more inventory than particular ones, even the Father of His Country. Now everybody thinks it’s official, but it’s not. (Note to Fox News: could be a War on Washington’s Birthday angle here, similar to the War on Christmas. Over to you, Bill.)

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

The New Yorker seldom disappoints.


capt

David B. Benson said...

David Corn --- It'll be more like England's Guy Fox Day...

Hajji said...

Tonight on "NOW" (PBS)...

US govt. e-mail mining in conjunction with ATT...

John Yoo makes an even BIGGER ass of his traitorous self!

-T

Hajji said...

and thanx, all..


I'm cuttin' and pastin' all these responses to show Grant, when he finally gets home, Hopefully near the middle of next month.

Gonna be hard for him to sit on his hands and stay out of trouble, back in Germany for a month!

-T

Hajji said...

...I forgot what England's Guy Fox Day is..."


Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder, treason, and plot,
I see of no reason why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent
To blow up the King and Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!

A penny loaf to feed the Pope.
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah hoorah!

capt said...

"Zealotry of either kind -- the puritan's need to regiment others or the victim's passion for blaming everyone except himself -- tends to produce a depressing civic stupidity. Each trait has about it the immobility of addiction. Victims become addicted to being victims: they derive identity, innocence and a kind of devious power from sheer, defaulting helplessness. On the other side, the candlesnuffers of behavioral and political correctness enact their paradox, accomplishing intolerance in the name of tolerance, regimentation in the name of betterment.": Lance Morrow (1939- ) Essayist, professor

=
"One of the things that bothers me most is the growing belief in the country that security is more important than freedom. It ain't.": Lyn Nofziger [Franklyn C. Nofziger] Press Secretary for President Reagan

=
"The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.": Theodore Roosevelt - (1858-1919) 26th US President - Source: letter 01/10/1917


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O'Reilly said...

Think there will ever be a national celebration of George W. Bush's birthday (and mall sales in his honor)?
- David Corn

Just what are you saying, that George Bush will not be celebrated for his leadership of our country? Hell, I reckon I'd buy a gas guzlin' SUV on sale on W's birthday and fill 'er up, 25 gallons, for $150 plus the war premium of 3000+ American soldiers, tens of thousands of seriously wounded, and 650,000 dead Iraqis. Now that I think about it. You might be on to something here.

O'Reilly said...

Corn, If you still don't want to impeach Bush how about going after the high crimes of his subordinates?

Your Plame Trial coverage has been great. Its fun to read your reports after following the days story on FDL. Now that you've seen Fitz in action, is he really as good as everyone says?

I look forward to your reorton Tuesday.

Tuesday at the Libby trial:
1. Zandenberg (sp?)closes for Gov't
2. Wells closes for defense
3. Fitzgerald redirects

It might be worth the price of a ticket, follow it for free on Firedoglake live-blogging.

O'Reilly

PS Kathleen, that must be you on FDL, no?

Anonymous said...

George Washington was actually born on February 12, 1731/32 of the Julian calendar, in use before England's calendar reformation in September 1752. His birthday is equivalent to February 22, 1732 in the Gregorian calendar used since 1752. Later in life, Washington himself considered February 22 to be his birthday.

capt said...

Texas GOP memo: It's Jewish conspiracy that Earth revolves around sun



It's not surprising that the Earth doesn't move for Warren Chisum, and maybe it's not surprising that he blames a Jewish conspiracy for it.

Still, it's enough to set the world a-spinning that the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the most powerful committee in the [Texas] House [of Representatives], distributed to legislators a memo pitching crazed wingers who believe the earth stands still -- doesn't spin on its axis or revolve around the Sun -- that Copernicus was part of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the Old Testament. That would be the same Old Testament that was written by the folks Chisum's friends say are conspiring to undermine it.

Chisum has no problem believing that GOP interests revolve around the pocketbooks of its wealthy contributors. And that's why he wants to take dollars stolen from middle class Texans in higher tuition, double-taxed highways, underpaid teachers, sick kids and teachers and cut property taxes for those who own a lot of property -- businesses and the very, very wealthy.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Un-effin-believeable!


capt

capt said...

Nader Pondering Another Presidential Run



I really believe that one of the ways we could "fix" Washington is by getting some third (and fourth) party candidates in the process. When Ralph Nader first announced his candidacy in 2000, I was a big fan. When he announced in 2004, I was less than thrilled. Whether or not he wants to accept responsibility for it, Nader's campaign arguably did contribute significantly to Bush's ultimate placement in the White House. That protestations and requests from even the Green Party to not run in 2004 fell on deaf ears, my (and others', judging from this SF Chronicle article) esteem feel quite a bit.

Former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader said he is considering a presidential run in 2008 and strongly suggested today he would enter the race if Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wins the Democratic Party nomination.

"She's just another bad version of (former President) Bill Clinton,'' Nader told KGO radio host Ronn Owens in San Francisco.

[..]"To an awful lot of people, Ralph Nader appears to be threatening, once again, to play the role of a spoiled brat whose purpose in life appears to be … electing Republicans by draining off votes from Democrats,'' said (Phil) Trounstine, who heads the San Jose State Center for Policy and Research.

Nader's presidential aspirations are viewed by many as evidence that he is on "an enormous ego trip with potentially destructive impact,'' Trounstine said.

Nader's is the subject of a searing new documentary, "An Unreasonable Man,'' which chronicles his early work as a consumer advocate and the turn in his career toward presidential politics. In the film, critics lambaste Nader, the author of "Unsafe at Any Speed,'' for abandoning his consumer advocacy, and suggest he is the ultimate egotist.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

I have always hoped Ralph would be an advocate for the little people (us) with regard to the vote. It seems he has chosen to do the opposite.


capt

capt said...

The High-Fivers



More proof the Israelis were shadowing the 9/11 hijackers


It was the tail-end of a bleak November, 2001: a pall of shocked numbness hung over the country, and a rising war hysteria had nearly everyone cowed. Americans were just beginning to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and focus on what had happened, and how to react. It was very early on the morning of the 23rd when, scanning the headlines, I came across a Washington Post story by John Mintz: "60 Israelis Detained on Tourist Visas Since Sept. 11." Odd, I thought, why go after the Israelis, probably the least likely suspects?

The subhead was even more intriguing: "Government Calls Several Cases 'of Special Interest,’ Meaning Related to Post-Attacks Investigation." Apparently organized groups of Israelis had been arrested, and "dozens" held without bond. Inquiries to the Justice Department had yielded this response:

"In several cases, such as those in Cleveland and St. Louis, INS officials testified in court hearings that they were 'of special interest to the government,’ a term that federal agents have used in many of the hundreds of cases involving mostly Muslim Arab men who have been detained around the country since the terrorist attacks.

"An INS official who requested anonymity said the agency will not comment on the Israelis. But he said the use of the term 'special interest’ means the case in question is 'related to the investigation of September 11th.’"


It wasn’t some anti-Semitic conspiracy crank sitting in his parents’ basement, or Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who first linked Israeli nationals to the events of 9/11: it was the U.S. government, specifically its law enforcement arm.

This I found utterly astonishing, because it was clear to me, at that point, that there was a link, albeit one largely unknown in its specifics. Why else were the feds casting their nets around for Israelis rather than Arabs, Persians, and, yes, Muslims?

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

All it takes is an open mind willing to question a lying manipulative and nefarious government. There are too many substantial and valid questions that must be addressed.

It doesn't matter how many true believers there are - believing the lies does not make them true.


capt

capt said...

Cracks in the Pentagon


[...]

We have witnessed a decline in the integrity of NPR reporting over the past six years. The Bush Regime put an ideological commissar in charge of NPR and the result is that NPR sounds increasingly like Fox "news." The few people with integrity that America has left in the news business desperately need their independence.

On February 13, I listened for two hours to NPR and did not hear a single report of General Pace's contradiction of Bush/Cheney propaganda about Iran's leaders. But I did hear a neoconservative from the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a propaganda institution in Washington D.C., push the buttons for war with Iran.

The Clinton Administration permitted the destruction of independent news in the US when it allowed the extraordinary concentration of the media. The American media is no longer run by journalists with a commitment to truth but by advertising executives who seek to protect profits by avoiding "controversy" and who seek to protect the value of the conglomerates, a value that depends on government-granted broadcast licenses, by accommodating the government's line, whatever it might be.

The only free and independent media in the US is online. The best thing that could possibly happen to NPR is to lose all federal funding and to become totally independent of Washington.

Then we could trust it again.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Another very good piece from PCR.


capt

Gerald said...

The mint has come out with a new dollar coin. The faces on the coin will rotate and you can expect that pickle brain Bush's face will be on one of them.

In fact I predict that his face will eventually settle on it.

Just think the poor and the middle class can be reminded how much we have been screwed by Hitler Bush.

capt said...

Mea culpa to Bush on Presidents Day



Our great country has had 43 presidents. Many very good. A few pretty bad. On Presidents Day next Monday, it's appropriate to commemorate them all.

I remember every president since Herbert Hoover, when I was a grade school kid. He was one of the worst. I've personally met every president since Dwight Eisenhower. He was one of the best.

A year ago I criticized Hillary Clinton for saying "this (Bush) administration will go down in history as one of the worst."

"She's wrong," I wrote. Then I rated these five presidents, in this order, as the worst: Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Ulysses Grant, Hoover and Richard Nixon. "It's very unlikely Bush can crack that list," I added.

I was wrong. This is my mea culpa. Not only has Bush cracked that list, but he is planted firmly at the top.

The Iraq war, of course, has become Bush's albatross. He and his buddies are great at coining words or slogans. "Bushisms" that will haunt him historically:

"Shock and Awe," early 2003.

"Mission Accomplished," May 1, 2003.

"Stay the Course," June 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.

"New Strategy," 2007.

Another term historians may weigh critically is "Decider."

Is he just a self-touted decider doing what he thinks right? Or is he an arrogant ruler who doesn't care or consider what the public or Congress believes best for the country?

Despite his play on words and slogans, Bush didn't learn the value or meaning of mea culpa (acknowledgement of an error) during his years at Yale.

Bush admitting his many mistakes on Iraq and ending that fiasco might make many of us forgive, even though we can never forget the terrible toll in lives and dollars.

Feedback: Other views on Bush presidency

"Just as we don't stop football games after three quarters, we shouldn't judge the historical place of presidents when they've still got nearly two years in office."
— John J. Miller, political reporter, National Review

"Unless there is some great reversal, Bush will be seen as one of the country's poorest presidents. Iraq will stand at the top of the list, but the administration's failed responses to Katrina and global warming will stand with its abuse of civil liberties to mark Bush out as a man with poor judgment and a failed leader."
— Robert Dallek, historian; his new book, Nixon and Kissinger: Powers in Power, will be published in April.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

We can impeach our chief executive for a BJ but the worst prez in history should get a pass? I can't wait for the next knuckle-head to lie us into a war. We are setting the standard for all future presidencies - we ought to get it right.


capt

Gerald said...

Praying Each Day: February 17

People, if you recall, I said that heaven will comprise about the same percentage of faithful that our Earth has, 85% non-white and 15% white. God does not separate the faithful in heaven.

Gerald said...

From the Heart

Do you believe there is such thing as a sixth sense? Nancy Rosanoff, a consultant and teacher, says that “sometimes what we call intuition is simply admitting to ourselves things we have long known or felt in our hearts.”

She suggests writing and repetition as good ways to get in touch with our selves. Here’s an exercise she gives students:

Write down a specific concern; perhaps a work issue or a relationship concern.

Below it write, “I know in my heart…” and finish the thought with whatever comes naturally to mind about your concern.

Write the phrase again and finish the sentence with another response that occurs to you immediately. Repeat ten times.

Your finished product, which may read like a poem, a litany or a refrain, may help connect you to your truest feelings.

Next time you have a troubling concern, listen to your intuition, to your deepest self.

You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. (Matthew 16:3)

Holy Spirit, teach me how to interpret the signs of the times both internally and externally.

Gerald said...

In Him We Are Strong

“A chronic illness can be incredibly lonely and isolating. But I refused to let it rob me of the joy of living,” says Maureen Pratt. The Santa Fe, California, woman fights to live a life of beauty.

Pratt was diagnosed with lupus, a serious chronic illness which has altered her life. But she has the support of family and friends as well as a strong faith to keep her going. She also has a hobby she loves, gardening. While everyday is a struggle for her, she says she is grateful: “I believe God is with me. And he is closest to me when I am deepest in my pain.”

We can learn from Maureen Pratt to focus on God at all times. In His presence, we can find the source peace, no matter how difficult or painful our lives may be.

He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness’. So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Compassionate God, help me hold on to Your promise and remain faithful to You through good times and difficult ones.

Gerald said...

Thirty-Six Signs

Gerald said...

The Couch

Gerald said...

Just Like Clockwork

Gerald said...

GOP Claims

Gerald said...

Psychotic Fears

Gerald said...

Dysfunctional

capt said...

Did Bush have financial linkswith the scandal-plagued Enron?


[…]

According to David Corn, author of "Capital Games," the deal took months to work out. In September 1986, Spectrum 7 and Harken announced they had reached an agreement. Under the plan, Spectrum 7 shareholders would receive Harken stock. Bush publicly said that Spectrum 7 would continue to operate in Midland, Texas, as a wholly owned subsidiary of Harken and that he would become an active member of Harken’s board of directors.

As Minutaglio noted, the deal would give Bush about $ 600,000 in Harken shares and $ 50,000 to $ 120,000 a year in consultant’s fees. It would also provide $ 2.25 million in Harken stock for a company with a net value close to $ 1.8 million.

As Corn noted, as the details of the Spectrum-Harken acquisition – which Bush badly needed – were being finalised, Enron Oil and Gas Company, a subsidiary of Enron Corporation, announced on October 16, 1986 that it had completed a well producing both oil and natural gas in Martin County, Texas.

An Enron Oil and Gas press release said the well was producing 24,000 cubic feet of natural gas and 411 barrels of oil a day in the Belspec Fusselman Field, 15 miles northeast of Midland. Enron held 52 per cent interest in the well. According to the company’s announcement, 10 per cent belonged to Spectrum 7. As Corn noted, at that point in time Spectrum 7 was still Bush’s company. Harken’s completion of the Spectrum 7 acquisition was announced in early November 1986.

To spell it out: George W. Bush and Enron Oil and Gas were in business together in 1986 – when Kenneth Lay was head of Enron (Lay was named Enron chairman in February that year). How did this deal come about? Was this the only project in which Bush and Enron were partners?

Corn notes that a telephone call placed to the White House produced no response. Karen Denne, an Enron spokeswoman, told Corn, "I can’t tell you anything about that project, explaining that Enron "sold its domestic exploration and production assets about two years earlier to EOG Resources".

Elizabeth Ivers, a spokeswoman for EOG Resources (formerly Enron Oil and Gas) told Corn, "If we did have any records on that well, it would be nothing that we would share with the public. We do not disclose the details or specifics of who we have interests with" – evidently, from what she said, not even when those shared interests are with a man who went on to become president of the United States. So much for full disclosure!

After the Enron affair began generating front-page headlines, Bush attempted to distance himself from Enron and Kenneth Lay (the firm’s disgraced former chairman). In January 2002, Bush claimed he and Lay had not always been close friends. "He was a supporter of (Texas governor) Anne Richards in my run (against her) in 1994," Bush asserted, claiming he did not get "to know Ken" and work with him until after he won that election.

But campaign records show that Lay donated three times as much money to Bush in that race as he did to Richards. Moreover, as Corn notes, contacts between Lay and the Bush family pre-dated that campaign. In 1992, Lay chaired the host committee for the Republican Party convention in Houston, Texas, where Bush’s father won his second presidential nomination. And Lay was a sleepover guest at the White House of President George H. Bush.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Seems Mr. Corn's writing is popular in Pakistan. Bush claims he hardly knew Ken Lay - kind of funny looking back.


capt

Gerald said...

Ten Questions

Gerald said...

Inner Demons

Gerald said...

Bush is acting out an inner program of self-defeat and self-destruction that extends to us all. Other public figures who have displayed their gross ignorance of the inner self include Ted Haggard and William Bennett. Haggard followed up his anti-gay rants by cavorting with a gay prostitute, indicating that he was projecting on to homosexuals his superego's harassment of him for his secret gay lust. The same inner mechanism plagued Bennett, the compulsive gambler who fervently lectured us about morals. The damage Bush is inflicting, though, is many times greater.

Knowledge of the inner dynamics of projection, transference, identification, and displacement has been available in the Western canon for almost 100 years. Each of us benefits greatly when we can identify these dynamics in our daily experiences, even if we can't quite define these terms per se.

The theoretical psychologist Carl Jung wrote in 1933 in Modern Man in Search of a Soul, that "much of the evil in the world is due to the fact that man in general is hopelessly unconscious," adding that enhanced insight combats this evil at its source in us. Mainly for reasons of fear and egotism, we have declined to assimilate this vital knowledge. If ever there existed another species so stubbornly in denial, it's probably extinct.

Gerald said...

Hitler Bush is totally in a state of denial regarding his psyche and inner demons that are driving him to nuke Iran. Hitler Bush lusts for vaporized human flesh on the streets all over our planet. Hitler Bush is a case study of a psycho!!!

capt said...

The birthplace of success for each person is in his Inner-Consciousness. The Inner-Consciousness will use whatever it is given. If constructive thoughts are planted positive outcomes will be the result. Plant the seeds of failure and failure will follow. And since the only real freedom a person has is the choice of what thoughts he will feed to his Inner-Consciousness he is totally responsible for the outcomes he gets.
~ Sidney Madwed

Saladin said...

All it takes is an open mind willing to question a lying manipulative and nefarious government. There are too many substantial and valid questions that must be addressed.

It doesn't matter how many true believers there are - believing the lies does not make them true.
========
AMEN Capt! That could be applied to SO many things.

David B. Benson said...

Carey --- I had in mind the part about burning Guy Fawkes effigies...

capt said...

GA Lawmaker: "Kabbalists" Behind Evolution



Oy vey.

People For The American Way:

Powerful Texas state Rep. Warren Chisum (R), an advocate of religious-right causes such as banning adoption by gay couples and amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage, has passed along a "memo" from a kindred spirit in the Georgia House claiming that "teaching evolution amounts to indoctrinating students in an ancient Jewish sect's beliefs," reports the Dallas Morning-News.

"Indisputable evidence - long hidden but now available to everyone - demonstrates conclusively that so-called 'secular evolution science' is the Big Bang, 15-billion-year, alternate 'creation scenario' of the Pharisee Religion," writes Mr. Bridges …

Mr. Bridges also supplies a link to a document that describes scientists Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein as "Kabbalists" and laments "Hollywood's unrelenting role in flooding the movie theaters with explicit or implicit endorsement of evolutionism."

Bridges, the sponsor of bills to undermine the teaching of evolution in Georgia, referred Texas lawmakers to a web site dedicated to opposing both the theory of evolution and that the earth revolves around the sun.


BurntOrangeReport has more…

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Some people?


capt

David B. Benson said...

The sun clearly revolves around Mr. Bridges, as does everything else...

Anyway, the Repugs in the Senate were certainly repugnant today. As Saladin says, "Off with their heads!" I'll add, "if you can find them."

capt said...

Incumbency has provided a luxury for the slugs in the senate, they have little or no reason to fear the wrath of their constituencies.

The senators occupy a position of great wealth and power and couldn't care less about the war, the troops, the deficit or much else. What they do care about is lining their pockets with our tax dollars, building bridges to nowhere and protecting their asses(t).

This is what they do, both parties with an exception or two in both parties.

I try very hard not to be partisan and so I dislike all politicians equally.

capt

Robert S said...

Hajji, I once heard this performed as a dirge, slowed way down.

Here's a toast and three times three for Sgt. and those that remain.

When Johnny comes marching home again,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We'll give him a hearty welcome then
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The men will cheer and the boys will shout
The ladies they will all turn out
And we'll all feel gay,
When Johnny comes marching home.

The old church bell will peal with joy
Hurrah! Hurrah!
To welcome home our darling boy
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The village lads and lassies say
With roses they will strew the way,
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.

Get ready for the Jubilee,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
We'll give the hero three times three,
Hurrah! Hurrah!
The laurel wreath is ready now
To place upon his loyal brow
And we'll all feel gay
When Johnny comes marching home.

capt said...

We cloak ourselves in cold indifference to the unnecessary suffering of others--even when we cause it: - James Carroll

=
"A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason": Thomas Paine - Common Sense -[January 10, 1776]
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11567.htm

=
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.": Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), US civil rights leader

=
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.": Rudyard Kipling - (1865-1936)


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capt said...

Mummified body found in front of blaring TV



NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Police called to a Long Island man's house discovered the mummified remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a blaring television set.

The 70-year-old Hampton Bays, New York, resident, identified as Vincenzo Ricardo, appeared to have died of natural causes. Police said on Saturday his body was discovered on Thursday when they went to the house to investigate a report of a burst water pipe.

"You could see his face. He still had hair on his head," Newsday quoted morgue assistant Jeff Bacchus as saying. The home's low humidity had preserved the body.

Officials could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering Ricardo had not been heard from since December 2005.

Neighbors said when they had not seen Ricardo, who was diabetic and had been blind for years, they assumed he was in the hospital or a long-term care facility.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

How sad the guy probably died of loneliness. No friend, family or neighbor to look in on him?


capt

kathleen said...

Have been out of this loop for awhile, dealing with student rentals, fronzen pipes, brothers open heart surgery etc. Have been spending any extra time over at firedoglake...reading their minute to minute takes on the Libby trial. They are doing incredible work.

I will catch up with folks, will take me a while.

But have corn folks been discussing the conference that Flynt Leverett/ New America Foundation and Trita Parsi of the National Iranian American Council last week on Wednesday in Washington. Sounded like an incredible conference Read about it at Steve Clemons "The Washington Note".

If it is so that the Iranian offer went from the Swiss handlers to Trita Parsi to Rove to Elliot Abrams.

Do you think Condi saw the offer or is she bluffing.

Npr's Daniel Schorr made some very serious efforts to undermine Condi today on Scott Simons saturday program. Condi seems to be pissing off quite a few Israeli firsters...something must be up!

I really think Cheney will retire soon...

kathleen said...

Feith is all over the place continuing to lie and attempt to cover his ass. He was on Charlie Rose, attempting to continue to set the stage for a strike on Iran. He wants "The Clean(bloody) break" to be completed before the next two years. Let's hope that PHASE II OF THE SSCI does more than slap the hands of the co-creators of the lies that took our nation into war.

Frank Gaffney was on a radio program with Glenn Greenwald. Gaffney was lying up a storm about Iraq, I don't know why people waste time talking to compulsive liars?

The Watada trial turn is exciting. What a remarkable and honorable young man!

kathleen said...

"War is bad for all living things, Mr. President" Pope John Paul

kathleen said...

Hajji...tears. What can one say..more tears

Pentagon Inspector General says Intelligence Snowjob = "inappropriate"

Congress says Lying about a blowjob under oath = Impeachment

Is it any wonder the U.s. has become the laughing stock of the world?

kathleen said...

"stupido" Pope John Paul

Saladin said...

Kathleen, I think we've moved passed laughing stock to serial murderer. I doubt anyone is laughing anymore.

capt said...

The real treason. Our maimed soldiers are living in cockroach infested ghettos back here in the states.


[…]

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

The politicians do not care about our troops. This kind of crud goes on while Pelosi funds the war.

I am still looking for my party hat and favors.


capt

capt said...

Wounded and waiting



A slow medical evaluation process leaves many injured troops in limbo


Here’s how the process works:

* A physician evaluates the soldier’s injury or disease.

* The doctor’s report initiates the medical evaluation board process. At least two doctors informally decide whether that soldier can return to duty. If so, he goes back to work — process over. That’s all supposed to happen within 30 days of the first diagnosis, according to Army regulations.

* If not, the medical evaluation board doctors forward their evaluation of the solder deemed not fit to return to duty to the physical evaluation board. The soldier selects a counselor, either from the Army or a civilian provided by the Disabled American Veterans. Without the soldier present, the physical evaluation board conducts an informal assessment. Three voting members — a combat arms colonel, a personnel management officer and a physician — look at the evidence and decide whether the soldier is fit for duty. If so, the soldier is returned. If not, the board assigns that soldier a disability rating, based on injury- or disease-specific factors.

* If the disability rating is at least 30 percent, the soldier gets medical benefits for life as well as the same percentage of base pay.

If it is lower, the soldier receives a one-time severance payment, calculated by multiplying his number of years in service by his monthly pay and then doubling the total.

* The soldier then talks with his counselor about whether he should accept the recommendations or request a formal hearing. The government does not argue its case against the soldier — the board is there to hear the evidence from the soldier.

If the soldier is still not satisfied, he can appeal to the Physical Disability Agency — the Defense Department’s oversight agency.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

"You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too."
~ John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006)


capt

Saladin said...

Labour will force everyone to give fingerprints at ID card interview centres
By Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:47am GMT 18/02/2007

Ministers plan to force all adults to travel miles at their own expense to fingerprint scanning units so their details can go onto an identity card database. From 2009, everyone will have to attend one of 69 "interview centres", whose locations are revealed today for the first time.


When people apply for an ID card, fingerprint data will be stored in the National Identity Register


People without their own transport, such as the elderly and the less well off, will be hit hardest by having to make round trips that in some cases will be more than 100 miles. Somebody living in Cambridge would be forced to make a 62-mile round trip to Bury St Edmunds, while people in Blackpool would have to travel 54 miles to Blackburn and back. In Stranraer, residents face a 128-mile round trip to Kilmarnock.

The revelations are the latest blow for the Government's crisis-hit ID card scheme. Ministers claim the scheme, which will see the first cards issued in two years' time, will cost £5.4 billion, although experts at the London School of Economics say the total bill could be £19.3 billion. Biometric passports, which hold similar personal details to ID cards, will be issued later this year. There will then be a two-year period during which people will be able to apply for a passport without also being forced to apply for an ID card.

From 2010, all passport applicants, even if they are simply renewing their old one, will also have to apply for an identity card.

Last night David Davis, the shadow home secretary, branded the latest revelations an "outrage" and repeated the Conservative pledge to abolish ID cards, which he dubbed the "plastic poll tax".

advertisementLabour also wants all first-time applicants for a British passport to travel to the same 69 centres for interview, when they will be asked about things like previous addresses and bank accounts.

If the party wins the next election, it will make ID cards compulsory for all British citizens over the age of 16, whether they have a passport or not. In its ID cards "Action Plan", the Government has confirmed that when people are forced to enrol for an ID card, "fingerprint biometrics (for all 10 fingerprints) will be recorded and stored in the National Identity Register". It is possible that iris scans will also be taken. Ministers also published a report to Parliament on the cost of the scheme last October, which did not include plans to cover interview costs.

Mr Davis said: "It is bad enough that we will be forced to pay for an ID card, but to have to pay to go to a Government centre to be interviewed and fingerprinted is an outrage.

"These costs will hit low-income families and pensioners, who might otherwise not want passports, hardest. Conservatives will abolish this costly plastic poll tax. It will hit the taxpayer, not the terrorists."
=============
How long until this hits the US?

capt said...

Copernicus Was Wrong ? : The Flat Earth Temptation



Influential Christian right leaders say the Sun revolves around the Earth


An emergent scandal over a Texas Republican Party politician's distribution of a memo citing a "fixed Earth" website alleging the Earth to be non-rotating and at the center of the universe has raised the question; where do such eccentric views as Rep. Chisum's, that the Copernican model of the Solar System is wrong and derives from a Jewish Kabbalistic Conspiracy, come from ? Until recently, it's been generally assumed that the debate over heliocentric vs. geocentric models of the universe, that raged up until the advent of Copernicus, had been well resolved. Lately though, an American movement has sought to restore the Earth to a central position in the grand cosmological scheme... Since the existence of the "Flat Earth Society" became a widely traveled joke, it has become hard to determine if card-carrying flat-earthers really exist any more; many join the society for amusement. But, there are real geocentrists who dream of spheres within spheres and orreries, speculate that Copernicus killed Tycho Brahe and write dense, arcane mathematical proofs placing the Earth at the center of it all. Variants of such views apparently can be found in the Texas State legislature and, in 1999, Tom Willis --head of the Mid-Atlantic Creation Research Association-- was " intrumental in revising the Kansas elementary school curriculum to remove references to evolution, earth history, and science methodology". Willis was also a "geocentrist" and wrote, in 2000, a bold manifesto for both Young-Earth Creationism and Geocentrism:

"...all experiments to demonstrate that the earth moves at all have failed. All seem to indicate the earth does not move at all. There is much evidence that the earth is young and cannot possibly be millions, much less billions of years old but we will not treat that herein.... The Bible does not say that the earth is at the center of the universe. But, anyone looking up can see that the sun, planets and stars are moving. Galileo argued that this motion was relative, that really the earth was spinning and it only looks like these other objects move. But, both the observations and the Bible indicate quite strongly that the earth does not move." - Tom Willis

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

This is from the crazy people that brought us Bunnypants.

" The problem with political jokes is they get elected."
~ Henry Cate VII


capt

capt said...

Evolution memo prompts call for apology



ATLANTA — A Jewish organization is demanding an apology from a Georgia legislator for a memo that says the teaching of evolution should be banned because it is a myth propagated by an ancient Jewish sect.

State Rep. Ben Bridges denies writing the memo, which attributes the Big Bang theory to Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.

Bridges has long opposed the teaching of evolution in Georgia classrooms and has introduced legislation requiring only that "scientific fact" be taught.

Marshall Hall, president of the Fair Education Foundation, says the Republican lawmaker gave him approval to write the memo, which has been distributed to legislators in several states, including California and Texas.

The memo asks readers to challenge the "evolution monopoly in the schools" by logging onto Hall's anti-evolution Web site, http://www.fixedearth.com .

"Indisputable evidence — long hidden but now available to everyone — demonstrates conclusively that so-called 'secular evolution science' is the Big Bang, 15-billion-year, alternate 'creation scenario' of the Pharisee Religion," says the memo, which has Bridges' name on it. "This scenario is derived concept-for-concept from Rabbinic writings in the mystic 'holy book' Kabbala dating back at least two millennia."

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

It would be funny if they weren't serious. It sounds like a SNL sketch. Maybe my sense of humor is as warped are the rest of me.


capt

Gerald said...

Praying Each Day: February 18

I will be honest and open with you. I have a very difficult time seeing any good in Hitler Bush and Hitler Cheney!!!!!

Gerald said...

A Must Read Article!

Gerald said...

Some words from Bishop Thomas Gumbleton's homily of January 25, 2007! He is a retired pastor from St. Leo's parish community in Detroit. These are some of his final words as pastor.

There are so many ways in which we need to work for justice so we can rid our world of violence. Just this past week, we heard once more about the terrible things that are happening in Iraq. Perhaps you've read the report that the United Nations released about the fact that during this one year -- 2006 -- 34,000 Iraqis were killed -- more than 10 times the number of people killed in the World Trade Towers attack which was so traumatic for us. Think what it means. These are not military people, these are men, women, tiny children, being blown apart, being killed in a war that is clearly unjust, totally wrong, not only because of all the killing and that 34,000 this past year -- it's only a tiny amount of the total number that have been killed in Iraq since 1991 -- the first war, 12 1/2 years of sanctions, now a second war, 3 1/2 years. When will it end? When enough of us demand that it ends! This is what it means to work for justice and for peace.

There will be demonstrations because we're coming close to the anniversary of the beginning of this second war and more and more people are going to be out in the streets protesting. That is one of the ways that we try to work for peace. We make our voices heard, so we must commit ourselves to do that.

Of course, another aspect of the injustice of this war -- and this was also reported this week -- we are spending, out of the resources that we have, $200 billion a year to wage war, to kill, to destroy. That's $4 billion a week. One article that I read about this indicated that of that $200 billion, we could use $35 billion, a small part of the total, and could educate all the three- and four-year-olds in this country; give preschool education to every youngster in our country. That is something that is dramatically needed, but we waste our resources on things that are unjust and violent.

It's time that we really committed ourselves, as the people of God, as the Body of Christ, to do what Jesus came to do, what he meant when said, "This day this scripture passage is fulfilled," now we must understand that it is fulfilled in us. We are the Body of Christ, in not only those ways that I suggested, but other ways we have to continue to look around us to see where there's injustice, where there's evil, where there's violence. We have to work to change it. That's what we're called to do.

So my hope and my prayer today is that all of us will have a deeper awareness that we are the Body of Christ and that we carry on his work, and that you, the people of St. Leo's, who have done this so marvelously over these past years, that you'll continue to do it and even more than ever before, that you'll make it clear that you understand that you are the Body of Christ and that you are carrying out his work and that you will commit yourselves to continue this. We, as this parish community, must carry on the work of Jesus, and so I trust that that's what you will do even as I leave you.

Gerald said...

On the Fourth Anniversary

Gerald said...

Paganism: Ancient and Modern

David B. Benson said...

In the 2007 Jan 29 issue of The Nation, George Scialabba writes "The Work Cut Out for Us", a review of 8 books with plenty of commentary. To quote a bit:

"Likewise, the real danger to American democracy is not so much reckless misjudgement or flagrant lawlessness as the methodical hollowing out of regulatory and labor law enforcement, environmental protection, fiscal solvency, repect for international law, Congressional sovereignty, judicial integrity, a competent civil service, procedural transparency, the contemporary and historical record and the ideal of civic virtue. ... A generation's worth of damage won't be easily repaired. And it's not certain yet that the Democrats will even try."

Perhaps the most important sentence:

"Don't take the New Deal for granted."

Gerald said...

Has paganism taken over from Christianity in Nazi America? With Christ being removed from the words, Christian and Christianity, it would appear that Nazi America is becoming more pagan in actions, behaviors, and deeds. We only have to look at what Nazi Americans embrace in their present pagan rituals, such as hatred, murders, torture, war crimes, corruption, decadence, greed, and lies to come to the belief that Nazi America is embedded with paganism. In fact these pagan practices have become more profound and deep-rooted in the Nazi America psyche. Will these pagan practices in Nazi America lead the nation to more cannibalism? We can see that that Nazi Americans seem to lust for more and more blood to quench their thirst.

Robert S said...

The Power and the Glory: The Undertaker's Tally (Part 2)
By Roger Morris


A little light Sunday reading.

Moon/Bush 'Ongoing Crime Enterprise'
by Robert Parry


Lunacy.

capt said...

The convention which framed the Constitution of the United States was composed of fifty-five members. A majority were lawyers-not one farmer, mechanic or laborer. Forty owned Revolutionary Scrip. Fourteen were land speculators. Twenty-four were money-lenders. Eleven were merchants. Fifteen were slave-holders. They made a Constitution to protect the rights of property and not the rights of man,: Senator Richard Pettigrew - Triumphant Plutocracy (1922)

=
" I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of war, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed. I feel, at this moment, more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless." Lincoln in a letter to Col. William F. Elkins on November 21, 1864 :

=
This great and powerful force-the accumulated wealth of the United States-has taken over all the functions of Government, Congress, the issue of money, and banking and the army and navy in order to have a band of mercenaries to do their bidding and protect their stolen property.
Senator Richard Pettigrew - Triumphant Plutocracy - Published, January 1, 1922.

=
"A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you." : Ramsey Clark - U. S. Attorney General: Source: New York Times, 2 October 1977

=
"It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives.": Dorothy Thompson (1894-1961) - Source: Ladies Home Journal, May 1958

===

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capt said...

Reid Lets Senate Go Into Recess



Wow, so after the failed Iraq surge vote, Harry Reid lets the Senate vote to go on recess. That's the key, not the nonsensical anti-surge resolution which was always going to fail. You see, recess is something the Senators want for themselves. This is how they suffer from the Iraq war, by having to give up a weekend. Keeping them in session, and I know it sounds lame, is one of the only ways that a Senate majority leader can create leverage on the opposition to vote. The fact that Reid wasn't even willing to force the Senate to give up recess time to debate the war is pathetic.

Politics is about priorities, not just theater. Reid just doesn't think the war in Iraq is an important priority at this moment. It's not that he thinks the war is a good thing, it's just that he would prefer to delegate authority to Joe Biden, keep caucus cohesion, and stomp on any real action than try to take ownership of the war and stop it. And so the war rages on. And don't worry, the Republicans will take some blame, but now, so will we.

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

I am wondering where is all of the good governance since the Democratic party is holding the majority?

Bush gets his war funds with a wink and a nod. Next it will be another round of raises for themselves and the another recess. Maybe they will slip in a further destruction of our rights.


capt

Robert S said...

President's Day?

Screw that, how about Citizen's Day?

Power to the People - John Lennon

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

A million workers working for nothing
You better give em what they really own
We got to put you down
When we come into town

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

I gotta ask you comrades and brothers
How do you treat you own woman back home
She got to be herself
So she can free herself

Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Now, now, now, now

Oh well, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Yeah, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

capt said...

Murder, Inc.


That's the reality of American foreign policy

[…]

America is, today, the fountainhead of evil in the world. No one is killing people faster, and with more cruelty and indifference, than the warlords of Washington. The temptation is to turn away in disgust and resign oneself to the degeneration of Jefferson's benevolent legacy into a maelstrom of malevolence worthy of Caligula.

Yet the triumph of domination as the guiding principle of U.S. foreign policy is not inevitable, or irreversible. Its overthrow, however, requires a moral reawakening. By this, I don't mean a return to religion, although – unlike all too many libertarians – I wouldn't rule it out entirely. This moral revolution, in any case, will be born in an instinctive revulsion against what is depicted in the video links above, married to an unwillingness to let such evil continue for a moment longer.

Sooner or later, the American people must be made to understand that the choice is between noninterventionism and barbarism. Americans are naïve: they believe in the myth of automatic progress, the illusion of history as an ever ascending stairway to higher levels of civilization, but the truth is far grimmer. Empires rise – and fall. Dark ages follow. The kind of degeneracy we are now seeing acted out in Iraq promises a fall that will plumb new depths of darkness.

More HERE

Saladin said...

Friday, February 16, 2007
Democracy For New Mexico

BREAKING: NM Senate Rules Committee Passes Bush-Cheney Impeachment Resolution
Senate Joint Resolution 5, the legislation urging impeachment of Bush and Cheney, was passed this morning in the NM Senate Rules Committee with only Democrats present, all of whom voted for the resolution! The meeting room was packed to the gills, with a huge crowd winding down the hallways outside the hearing. Several hours were spent listening to citizens speak on behalf of the bill, until Committee members were forced to move on to other business.
==========
GO GO NEW MEXICO!! At LAST, some dems with the courage to do what is right!!
Note, all fascists refused attendance

Robert S said...

Shame on the WaPo, Again. Robert Parry

capt said...

Saladin,

It is a bit odd but the NM impeachment issue seems to be under a local blackout. Virtually nothing reported on it locally (so far).

They might still report it but one might be tempted to assume the MSM is at it again.

capt

Gerald said...

The picture of the Pope with his head down in his hand is an actual picture. I first saw it in the Catholic News Service newsletter that I was receiving in the past.

There is one exception and Hitler Bush did not say, "Dear Dalai Lama."

Hitler Bush appeared before the Pope in June, 2004 and just before the election. The Pope saw Hitler without the usual POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCES that are given to heads of state.

The Pope as Jesus head shepherd on earth is open to see the people even though he may disagree with the person as he has so often disagreed with Hitler's murderous ways.

The Pope comes under great criticism for his openness to meet various heads of state.

capt said...

A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming. - Ralph Waldo Emerson:

=
He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, science for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable an ignorable war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." (Albert Einstein)

=
"Either man is obsolete or war is. War is the ultimate tool of politics. Political leaders look out only for their own side. Politicians are always realistically maneuvering for the next election. They are obsolete as fundamental problem-solvers." -- R. Buckminster Fuller

=
An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, stays bought." - Simon Cameron (Lincoln's Secretary of War)
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Robert S said...

Depleted Uranium: Pernicious Killer Keeps on Killing
By Craig Etchison, Ph.D


[...]

We have enough evidence to suggest with considerable certainty that DU munitions break the four basic laws and customs that govern modern weapons use: that the weapon is confined to the battlefield, that it does not kill after a battle is over, that it doesn't cause inhumane suffering, and that it doesn't have a negative effect on the natural environment. We certainly have enough evidence to stop using these weapons until further research by independent scientists has been done. And yet we continue to produce, sell, and use DU munitions. How can this be justified?

Perhaps looking at the paradigm of Agent Orange gives insight. Our government ignored veterans affected by Agent Orange for thirty years before admitting Agent Orange was, in fact, the cause of many physical problems endured by Vietnam veterans. By then, the most seriously affected veterans were dead. The government incurred a far smaller financial liability than if the government had owned up to the problems earlier.

If the government ever admitted what it has done in Iraq-between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of DU ordnance expended according to most estimates-the financial consequences, not to mention the moral outrage engendered, is almost beyond imagination. Cleaning up the DU blanketing Iraq would entail enormous costs. And in a few years, soldiers who have served in the current debacle-many with two or three tours-are going to start coming down with the same diseases that have struck Gulf War I veterans. Some who got good doses of DU have already seen their lives ruined by multiple physical problems.

We must also consider the real possibility of Iraq as an uninhabitable wasteland, with the residue of the DU aerosol blowing in the wind and flowing in the waters to adjacent lands, a residue with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Is this outlook too bleak?

Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra said the following in 2003. "Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient.... We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer.... My wife has nine members of her family with cancer." He went on to point out that these were families with no history of cancer. After Gulf War I, the United Kingdom's Atomic Energy Authority estimated that DU contamination could kill half a million Iraqis.

[...]

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

This is not the first time that I will posit the notion that even if "our cause it is just," (a stipulation I do not allow, of course) our means of warfare are contrary to international norms, and indeed threatening the very existence of humanity.

Pat said...

Carey, If the Rep. Goode you mentioned above is Virgil Goode (R), I'm glad to say he's not from Florida. We have enough such from FL already. I'm glad to return V. Goode to the good people in Virginia 5th District who probably elected him to represent them and their values.

(Thanks to Rick who also noticed it and placed that Goode where appropriate.)

Great posts by everyone, as usual, and I thank you.

Pat

Gerald said...

Simply Want to be with Jesus

One of my favorite writers is Fr. John Dear. He talks about people wanting to evangelize. I am tired of the word evangelize. Most people whom I know that evangelize are not prime examples of a Christian. WE EVANGELIZE BY OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE AND BY OUR ACTIONS OF LOVE AND MERCY.

Gerald said...

Fr. Dear asks of us some questions!

Whenever I lead a retreat, I ask the participants to reflect on the presence of Jesus in their lives. "When did Jesus call you? When have you felt the presence of Jesus? Where do you feel Jesus in your life now? What is your experience of Jesus? Who is Jesus for you? What do you find attractive about the life of Jesus? Where do you see Jesus in the world? Where is he leading you? What would it look like for you to become his friend and companion? How can you deepen your relationship with Jesus? What does discipleship to Jesus mean for you?" Such questions can help open up the spiritual life and encourage us on our journey toward becoming modern day saints and apostles, friends of Jesus.

As I read the lives of saints, I notice that as they grew older, they wanted simply to be with Jesus and do God's will. Likewise, the older we get, the more dissatisfied we are with our selfish pursuits. We will want more and more to be with Jesus, to know Jesus, to love Jesus, to listen to Jesus, to follow Jesus and to do exactly what Jesus wants. With him, we feel centered, happier, and at peace. Anything can happen because Jesus walks with us. Even better, miracles will transform us and the whole world if we dare walk with him.

UNLESS WE WANT TO KNOW JESUS AND TO BE WITH JESUS, OUR WORLD WILL RESIDE IN AN EARTHLY HELL BEFORE IT MOVES INTO THE SUPERNATURAL HELL FOR ALL ETERNITY.

JESUS IS THE LIGHT, THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH. TALK TO JESUS AND EMBRACE JESUS IN OUR LIVES!!!

Gerald said...

Rappin’ on the F Train

Angelo Stagnaro was riding the train and reading St. Teresa of Avila when a group of young men “replete with do-rags…gaudy jewelry…and dirty jeans pulled halfway down their rear ends…” boarded.

Though they looked like “everyone’s worst nightmare,” as Stagnaro wrote in National Catholic Reporter, he helped them find their destination on a subway map, and found them to be friendly and thankful. When one of them asked him about his book, Stagnaro learned that the men were Catholic rappers.

The discussion continued for the rest of their ride together.

Afterwards, Stagnaro listened to some of the young men’s recordings and appreciated both their message and their musicianship.

And so, from an encounter that he initially assumed would be negative, Stagnaro found himself with a new appreciation for both rap music and for his own religion.

Keep an open mind – you never know where you might discover inspiration and enlightenment.

Judge your neighbor’s feelings by your own. (Sirach 31:15)

Lord, help me to keep an open mind and to not make unfounded judgments.

Gerald said...

Provoke Radio

Please go to the Provoke Radio archives and listen to Bishop Thomas Gumbleton's conversation January 21, 2007!

Gerald said...

The conversation with Bishop Gumbleton was about 15 or 20 minutes. He said that the Catholic Church does not spend enough time on justice and war issues. He also said that immigrants, both legal and illegal come to America out of desperation. No immigrant wants to leave his family. We in the American government must pursue social justice issues in foreign countries, such as our New Deal that the Nazis want to overturn in our country. Posters, we live with evil all around us in Nazi America.

Gerald said...

The Catholic Church's commitment to the elimination of nuclear weapons is not the same as 25 years ago. My Church must lead by example and she seems to have abdicated that responsibility. Thank God for my Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church! Being a Catholic is very difficult. The Church must find her moral compass. Catholics in the world today are down to 360 million from 460 million 20 years ago.

Gerald said...

George Hitler Just Can't Let Go of a Bad Idea

Gerald said...

Like Keech before him, it seems once Bush has got hold of a bad idea he just can't let it go. Just because it is irresponsible, irrational, unpopular and unconscionable doesn't mean he won't do it.

Gerald said...

Normally, David Corn has a new blog whenever I dominate the comment section. So far no new thread?

capt said...

For Your Eyes Only?



This week, NOW reports on new evidence suggesting the existence of a secret government program that intercepts millions of private e-mails each day in the name of terrorist surveillance. News about the alleged program came to light when a former AT&T employee, Mark Klein, blew the whistle on what he believes to be a large-scale installation of secret Internet monitoring equipment deep inside AT&T's San Francisco office. The equipment, he contends, was created at the request of the U.S. government to spy on e-mail traffic across the entire Internet. Though the government and AT&T refuse to address the issue directly, Klein backs up his charges with internal company documents and personal photos.

Criminal Defense Lawyer Nancy Hollander, who represents several Muslim-Americans, feels her confidential e-mails are anything but secure. "I've personally never been afraid of my government until now. And now I feel personally afraid that I could be locked up tomorrow," she told NOW.

Who might be eyeing the hundreds of millions of e-mails Americans send out each day, and to what end?

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Grrrrrrr.

Some solid information at the NOW site (PBS).


capt

capt said...

I can put up a stop-gap thread - this one might be getting a bit long and I do not expect a new post up from Mr. Corn until later.

So a new thread is in the works.

Been a little busy but reading all I can - great and good stuff!

And the hits keep on coming!

Thanks

capt

Gerald said...

When You Fast This Lent

Are you “giving up” something for Lent? That’s fine as long as it’s truly pertinent to your life.

Sr. Melannie Svoboda, SND, author of Abundant Treasures, suggests developing a healthy spirituality. “Our fasting during Lent should be integral to our daily living,” she says. “Some people choose to do only ‘tacked-on’ penances that are extraneous to their lives. A workaholic, for example, gives up chocolate for Lent. Wouldn’t it be more fitting to ‘fast’ from work and spend more time with family?

“Healthy penance flows from our relationships, responsibilities and religious convictions. Some examples are: to drive compassionately, to be patient with coworkers, to be kinder to store clerks, to visit an elderly relative or friend, to be honest, to slow down, to extend forgiveness…to count blessings.”

Lent is an intensified opportunity to grow in holiness in some little way every day. Only never let yourself fast or abstain from joy.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. (Philippians 4:4)

Beloved Redeemer, help me give up all that separates me from You and to embrace all that draws me closer to You.