Flowers and Curses

Mordechai Vanunu, flanked by his two loyal and devoted brothers, Meir and Asher, emerged through the prison gate into the spring sunshine. He raised his hands in the air with the 'V' sign, and told the world he was the same man who had been captured and imprisoned in 1986, and that he was proud and happy with what he had done.

Mordechai Vanunu has been freed.
From NPR's Julie McCarthy: "Since Vanunu's been in jail, India and Pakistan joined the nuclear club. The US went to war to destroy what it said was Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. His release comes as Libya and Iran have been put under intense scrutiny to dismantle their nuclear capabilities. It's against that backdrop that Israel continues to maintain its decades-long policy of nuclear ambiguity, neither confirming nor denying the existence of nuclear weapons. And successive US administrations haven't demanded anything more. Meanwhile, Vanunu, we're told by associates, says he's going to campaign to the extent he can against the spread of nuclear weapons."

On Being a Desert

Being a Desert

There is an ancient teaching that is at the core of true spiritual development: in order to connect constantly to the Light of the Creator we must develop and become like the desert.

The desert is un-owned, open space within which anybody can do anything they want. This is the level to which we are supposed to develop. Being like the desert means that you do not care what people do to you, what people say to you, or what they do not do for you or say to you. It means being free in the deepest sense.

Our nature is usually the opposite of the desert. We are extremely and constantly concerned about what people do, say or even think about us. We are captive to almost everybody, for their actions, words and even thoughts can influence our feelings and life. In order to develop spiritually we need to constantly work on becoming like the desert, feeling open and free like the desert. It is not an easy process but one that not only greatly enables our spiritual development, but also brings to a level of equanimity and peace that cannot be reached any other way.

It is a process that takes constant focus and effort but one whose spiritual and practical effect is immense.

Rabbi Michael Berg

The honoring of our fallen should not be censored


"Just look at these people. Look at their names. And look at their ages.
Consider what they've done for you. Honor them.
I truly believe that people will take away from this program the reflection of what they bring to it.''

--Ted Koppel


Many of you may not be aware of my Honor Roll website/blog. I went there today to add what I consider to be a shameful headline: Sinclair Broadcasting refuses to air Nightline reading of the list of our fallen.
I applaud any network that would devote its time and effort to honor the men and women who gave their lives for the cause and commitment they made for this nation, regardless of politics.

Whatever brought Sinclair Broadcasting to this decision..I don't understand it, but silencing mention of our dead is f*cking shameful! Those men and women fought for American values and freedoms that are being stepped on by the likes of Sinclair.

Jane Bright of Military Families Speak Out is the mother of Sgt. Evan Ashcraft, who died July 24, 2003, near Mosul, Iraq. She said: "The Sinclair Broadcast Group is trying to undermine the lives of our soldiers killed in Iraq. By censoring Nightline they want to hide the toll the war on Iraq is having on thousands of soldiers and their families, like mine."

Sinclair's soft money political contributions will probably tell you exactly what they're afraid of. The hard money tells the same sordid tale.

I'm right on this. I know it clearly. Our soldiers know it. Their families know it.
If we cannot distinguish public mourning from making statements against a war, then we have failed as a free and civil people. We are no longer beholding of the American ideals on which our nation was founded.

See: Sen. John McCain's protest to Sinclair
See: "Koppel defends the fallen" by Al Tompkins

Daniel Pipes: U.S. military is not an instrument for social work

Daniel Pipes has written an interesting article about Americans and their vision of our nation in relation to the world-at-large. He means to show that the ensured success of bringing democracy to Iraq by miltary force is clearly not a foregone conclusion. He states that the U.S. goal 'cannot be a free Iraq, but an Iraq that does not endanger Americans'.

He offers a triad of perceptions/ideas formulated by Samuel P. Huntington, a Harvard professor, from his new book, Who Are We: The Challenges to America's National Identity (forthcoming in May).

*Cosmopolitan: America ''welcomes the world, its ideas, its goods, and, most important, its people.'' In this vision, the country strives to become multiethnic, multiracial and multicultural. The United Nations and other international organizations increasingly influence American life. Diversity is an end in itself; national identity declines in importance. In brief, the world reshapes America.

*Imperial: America reshapes the world. This impulse is fueled by a belief in ''the supremacy of American power and the universality of American values.'' America's unique military, economic and cultural might bestows on it the responsibility to confront evil and to order the world. Other peoples are assumed basically to share the same values as Americans; Americans should help them attain those values. America is less a nation than ''the dominant component of a supranational empire.''

*National: ''America is different'' and its people recognize and accept what distinguishes them from others. That difference results in large part from the country's religious commitment and its Anglo-Protestant culture. The nationalist outlook preserves and enhances those qualities that have defined America from its inception. As for people who are not white Anglo-Saxon Protestants, they ''become Americans by adopting its Anglo-Protestant culture and political values.''

Mr. Pipes admits to wavering between the bottom two choices. I'd have to say I waver between the top choice and bottom choice. The more of the world we take within and incorporate into our national psyche, the more we erase the differences that once acted as a barrier to ultimate understanding and peace. I find the choice to be quite simple. I don't understand why the second choice would ever be paramount... it seems smug, ego-based and greed-driven. In Sunday school I learned about the Golden Rule and, gosh-darn it, it's made every subsequent choice in my own life amazingly clear and simple. In these days of terror, the world really does need to work as a team. Each team member needs to respect all the differences brought to the table and ego and imperialistic attitude simply must be left at the door, regardless of who's carrying the biggest stick at the table.

How about you? Where do you fall within these choices?

Three questions

ABC's political web daily, The Note asks:

--Which candidate would you say the national political press like more?

--Who do you imagine the national political press think will win in November?

--Who do you suppose the national political press think is running the more competent campaign?

_________________________

The Note previews Kerry's speech, which is to be given today at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.

The Note offers a preview excerpt:

"We need to put pride aside to build a stable Iraq. We must reclaim our country's standing in the world by doing what has kept America safe and made it more secure before-leading in a way that brings others to us so that we are respected, not simply feared, around the globe."

"Will all this be difficult to achieve? Yes. Is there a guarantee of success? No. In light of all the mistakes that have been made, no one can guarantee success. No one can say that success is certain, but I can say that if we do not try this, failure is all too likely."

Only the dead never change their opinions.

Why I will be supporting John Kerry

"There is no violent reason for this; I'm doing this for peace and justice and to try to help this country wake up once and for all."
--John Kerry, anguished as he committed his war decorations to the wind in his hope for America to learn the truth about a war which made no sense. [LINK]

He lived and breathed the terror of battle. He saw with his own eyes. He stood up strongly and non-violently at a confused time for his cause (for truth) which we now see, through the clear lens of history, was a righteous cause.

I believe Iraq is as wrong as Viet Nam. I'll never understand why John Kerry voted "Yes" for the Iraq resolution on a fatefully sad day in October 2002. Because he did, John Kerry was not my first choice for the Democratic presidential nominee. I still find it intellectually difficult to personally forgive him for what I perceived as a gross lack of intuition and a violation of decent political ethics.

I ask myself: "Where was Kerry lacking in intuition?"
My answer: "For having trusted George W. Bush".

Now Kerry is running up against the man he trusted..the man who betrayed his trust. A man who betrayed all our trust. A man who fed us lies and material misinformation in order to obtain the political keys to his warped and inadequate war plans.

I'm heartsick to the point of nausea about the American men and women we've already lost in Iraq. (Not to mention the raw pity I am feeling for the innocent civilian life already lost or living in hell alongside our soldiers).

The only success George W. Bush has had in uniting Iraq is unting Iraq against America. He did a bang-up job of doing that.

By the betrayal of my trust and John Kerry's trust, he has also succeeded in uniting the betrayed against him in the next election.

I will warn John Kerry, though...if he gets my vote, he can expect me to remind him as loudly as possible that I want our troops back home where they are respected, valued....loved. They're our precious treasure. I believe, in the depths of my heart, that John Kerry agrees with me.

John Kerry, I hand you my hope.

I read the news today, oh boy



Blogger Soj isn't trying to bum you out. Really. She underscores her current blog entry titled "World Unrest Report", which is a round-up of news from around the world, with:

Note: The links are provided to raise awareness. Please click on one (or all!) of them and find out what's going on. They are not provided to depress you, or to focus solely on the negative, but to raise consciousness about what's going on around this big planet of ours.

Grover Norquist mocks followers of Jesus Christ
Heretics call Norquist a "prophet"

Excerpts from an adoring and glowing review of Norquist:

Excerpt One:

---Grover views those of us on the right as being "the good guys" who "just want to be left alone." Conservatives ask the government for nothing.

America is not for yourselves alone. If you want to be left alone, relinquish your citizenship and move to Mars.

Excerpt Two:

---Norquist then shared the secret for Republican transcendence and that is to constantly seize upon the populace's hatred for taxation.

Cheap and easy. Grover is nothing but a whore. Wait until Grandma starts eating from garbage cans because she has no money and nursing her never-healing wounds with her own spittle because she has no medical coverage.

Excerpt Three:

---He told of the Governor of Alabama who "outwardly had no signs of mad cow disease" and even cited Jesus in his attempt to create a bigger and lazier leviathan [although Norquist comically noted here that he was previously unaware of Paul advocating for a progressive income tax in the New Testament].

As if Jesus Christ and St. Paul didn't advocate helping the poor amongst us. It is the Judeo-Christian's moral responsibility and conscience-based drive to be compassionate, even when it comes to formulating decent public policy. Grover's irreverent mockery of the Christian sensibilities in most Americans will lose him more than he'd ever hope to gain. He should know America better. He's a clown..and a hypocritical clown to boot.

We also know he's in big trouble for courting dubious Islamic-fundamentalist groups for Republican campaign funds. Ask Frank Gaffney.

I suggest that the pledges our representatives are signing- with the promise not to raise taxes- are decidedly not only undemocratic, but anti-American. It is a form of political enslavement. There are many forms of enslavement. Condemning certain citizens to poverty can be far more oppressively enslaving than the requirement for the government (of the people) to require some to pay a share that will not materially harm them and will benefit the necessary welfare of the nation.

We need to speak out on this issue. Look at how these pledges are being used and beware!

I think every American who cares about democracy should pledge NOT TO VOTE for any politician who would enslave themselves by signing away their integrity and political freedom like this. Why? Because they represent us..and they're signing away OUR political freedoms.

______________________

Read:

March of the Banana Republicans
by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

At ABC News' Political Note, it says: "Grover Norquist is tearing out his hair …" LINK

Looking For Your Own Face


Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.
You can never see your own face,
only a reflection, not the face itself.

So you sigh in front of mirrors
and cloud the surface.



It's better to keep your breath cold.
Hold it, like a diver does in the ocean.
One slight movement, the mirror-image goes.

Don't be dead or asleep or awake.
Don't be anything.

What you most want,
what you travel around wishing to find,
lose yourself as lovers lose themselves,
and you'll be that.

--Attar
Persian Sufi poet, 12th Century
as translated by Coleman Barks

Pat Tillman was a man who believed in a cause, died for his country

Pat Tillman was a man who believed in a cause, died for his country

The cause in which his country was engaged mattered more to Pat than the dull emptiness of greed. It mattered more to Pat than life.

Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

--ee cummings
from a wonderful Sports Illustrated article

I saw this line in an article today:

[Pat] Tillman has been lauded by many Americans, including President Bush, as a hero for walking away from a $3.6 million contract in the prime of his football career to join units serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How do we reconcile Bush's applause regarding one decent and honorable man's walking away from millions for a cause in which he felt so strongly that he gave all for country --- while nearly every policy of the Bush administration is filled with the motives of the greediest among us? It makes me so sad. I honor Pat's service. I honor the life he gave for this country. I honor every man and woman who died, was wounded, or is going through a non-stop hell because of the greed that brings people to the point of war. They all walked away from shelter, safety, beloved family, for their country. Those are the things our president should be applauding. During his State of the Union speech last January, he never gave tribute to the dead at all. I respect the office of the president, but I have to say, from what I've seen of his political face (which is the only way I could possibly be able to judge), that I don't think I like Mr. Bush very much as far as human beings are concerned. His values are so very different from my own.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I saw a headline at World Net Daily: "Firm will give Tillman's jersey to family--Could have made up to $4 million selling pieces with trading cards"
A businessman is meant to look like a hero for not being a sleaze who'd cash in on the back of a dead American hero. I'm sorry, I think I'll refrain giving him any special pat on the back. Why do we glorify the greediest-worst of businesspeople when they finally do something ethical? What does that say about our society?

Sgt. Pat Tillman wore two uniforms that Americans will always remember: the Army fatigues in which he died, and the NFL jersey he sacrificed first..... Before his death, Pat Tillman's NFL jersey might have been lost in the 55,000-square-foot building near the Ballpark in Arlington, where Donruss Trading Cards assimilates iconic souvenirs, putting small pieces of history on collectors' cards. The pieces of a typical game-worn jersey will yield about 2,000 trading cards. In the case of Pat Tillman, the company estimates it could have made up to $4 million. "What Pat Tillman is going to mean to the United States of America is better left to his family and who they want to write that chapter ... not us," said Dully.

Coming Tomorrow to a 9-11 Commission Near You...

Coming Tomorrow to a 9-11 Commission Near You

No..it's not Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy...it's..

THE DICK CHENEY AND DUBYA MCBUSHY SHOW!

Frank Lautenberg sticks it to VP Cheney

Frank Lautenberg sticks it to VP Cheney

At ABC's Political Note, it says:

Sen. Lautenberg on "chicken hawks":

"The lead chicken hawk is the Vice President. He's been attacking Kerry. What nerve. Where was Dick Cheney during the Vietnam War?... Cheney said he had other priorities, he should tell that to others who served and died in Vietnam."

Lautenberg on Bush:

"Last July, he said bring 'em on, he wasn't brought on the field of Vietnam when there was a chance for him to do something."

McCain responds to Lautenberg "chicken hawk" charge, calls for peace, reasonableness, bipartisanship, ratcheting down of the rhetoric while sticking up for both Bush and Kerry, ABC News' Linda Douglass reports.

By the way, VP Cheney took in a cool $178,437 from Halliburton in 2003.

In another news story about Frank Lautenberg: He accused American companies this week of collecting "blood money" by doing business with terror sponsors and said he would push for legislation to stop it.

Jim McDermott is a godless Marxist and other assorted fables

Jim McDermott is a godless Marxist and other assorted fables

OH MY GOD!!
He didn't say GOD!
*I can't wait to see World Net Daily's headline on this one*

If Jim McDermott had left out the words "..one nation, indivisible.." out of his recital of the Pledge, we'd have a bona fide problem. Only the truest patriot understands that, in order to maintain the bonds of a strong nation, our common faith lies not in believing that God exists, but that we have an undying drive to survive as a united force in the cause of freedom for all.

Trivia: Yesterday, April 27 was the 50th anniversary of when the phrase "under God" was added to the original pledge (which never before contained it).

Congratulations go out to Arlen Specter

Congratulations go out to Arlen Specter

One thing the president has done as (begrudging) political necessity is to have backed Arlen Specter in this attempted coup by the extreme right wing Norquistian crowd. Toomey fooled some of the people in Pennsylvania with his faux-drumbeat about strict social and economic conservatism, but he couldn't fool all of them. Toomey will fully support Specter after this defeat. The Club for Growth claims it was Specter's "grit" and "money" that snared the win.
Just what we look for in our greatest leaders... grit...money....... (*whatever happened to character, accountability, respect for true freedom, respect for the rule of law and ethics, intelligence, trustworthiness and honesty, anyway?)

On the Drudge report, the headline reads: Specter ekes out win in Pennsylvania primary.
When you look at the results..Specter had 526,120 votes, or 51 percent, to Toomey's 509,507 votes, or 49 percent...you'll see there's a division in the Republican party mirroring today's national overall polarizing political numbers. Trouble in Republican paradise? It's no wonder the president felt he had to back Specter.

I honestly like Arlen Specter and I'm very happy for his victory.
Now it's on to face the Democratic candidate Joe Hoeffel this November.

Bush's gift to Osama..

Bush's gift to Osama..

George W. Bush has given Osama bin Laden everything he could ever have wished for.

Bush invaded a Muslim country without just cause and in defiance of practically the entire world, and delivered to bin Laden a terrorist recruitment poster for the ages. The Middle East is coming together in unprecedented ways to fight the United States, a crucial step along the path towards bin Laden's desire to create a pure Islamic Caliphate. The bloodshed spurred by the Shi'ite uprising, aided by the unlikely alliance with the Sunnis, have left Iraq in utterly unsolvable turmoil. American soldiers, and Iraqi civilians, continue to die. There is absolutely, positively no good side to this situation.

Osama bin Laden need only sit back and watch everything go his way. He is almost certainly aware of the old military rule which states, "Never interfere with an enemy who is in the process of destroying himself."

--William Rivers Pitt [LINK]

Dems sorry they "screwed" Howard Dean?

Dems sorry they "screwed" Howard Dean?

James Ridgeway poses the possibility in the Village Voice, stating: "..the dim-bulb Dem leaders are going to be very sorry they screwed Howard Dean."

Mr. Ridgeway seems very doubtful about Kerry's ability to beat Bush this November. He first cites Kerry's wealth as a roadblock to the Oval Office...and then the fiasco about the medals (To which I say: ..at least he earned medals, unlike the other rich boys who deliberately avoided the overseas gig in Viet Nam). I feel that his "wishy-washiness" (especially on the Iraq resolution) has always been a point of weakness-in-truth, even though Senator Kerry may have seen giving Bush authority on Iraq as "political insurance" at the time. Read Ridgeway and decide for yourselves.

Personally, I still think The "Real Souls" of the Democratic Party-Bruce Reed and Al From are among the worst of the Democratic party's leading figures. Ridgeway doesn't mention them, but since he did mention what was done to Howard Dean, I make reference to two of the biggest culprits. It's nice to pretend "we're" all one happy unified party, but take just one look at Reed and From's "Real Soul" and you'll realize "we--the happily unified" never were, in actuality.

The only thing we have in common is the need to find someone to replace Bush in November. The world really needs for that to happen. America really needs for that to happen. Ivy league or not, Bush has been too easily convinced by a God-voice (imagine him relying on something like this). He's been led by human voices around him who have proven to be unworthy of American trust. He admits to ignoring newspapers. His arrogant and ignorant stubbornness has caused the world to back off from dealing with him. (I believe they all hope for Kerry or another Democrat to win in November..and if that doesn't happen, God help us). Our soldiers are being abandoned by "coalition partners". The Wizard of Oz wouldn't have given Bush a small token of recognition of any qualities that make for someone with a semblance of a brain.

Do you remember the Charles Krauthammers, the Robert Novaks and the David Brooks of the right-side of the media aisle begging for Howard Dean to be the Democratic nominee? Do you now see the reverse psychology in that? I'd imagine they would have wanted Senator Kerry all along because he lacked the clarity of some other candidates. I hope he can learn to convince others about the importance of this election. If he's our only hope...and if he fails, so fails America.

I wish the Dems hadn't sabotaged Howard Dean. I know they did. Alas, what's done is done. Kerry won the Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania tonight. The Democrats have somehow become sure he's the one they want. I wonder how things will be different in Iraq when he's in power...it really isn't clear just yet.

Today at Linfield College in northwestern Oregon, Dennis Kucinich said:

"Americans should have a better choice than a decision whether to have a Republican or Democratic version of the war. We are being told we have to stay the course, that we can't cut and run. We are dedicated to this war despite the fact that it is wrong..."

Bottom line, there's few major differences between the two major parties when it comes to the Iraq war. On top of that, the entire country seems to be missing the Ben Franklins and the James Madisons of yesteryear. As Gore Vidal said: "Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates." At the same time, I don't believe Gore would consider Senator Kerry to be "deranged, a despot, part of an alien army who's managed to openly take everything over..." (as he does, indeed think of Bush).

Is John Edwards doing anything this November?

Disclaimer: This is not to tick off Kerry supporters. I'd certainly consider voting for him if it came to Kerry v. Bush.

After Najaf..........

U.S. troops have moved into a base in Najaf that Spanish troops are currently abandoning. What a shame.

This is where Spain's pull-out is really showing how our leader's George W. Bush's failure to get this whole thing right is going to sink our cause. (Unless he goes to the U.N. now and makes an apologetic plea for a renewed global constituency, which we know he is simply incapable of doing).

Najaf is "Revolution Central" to the Shi'ites in Iraq. There is strong anti-American sentiment..the resisting Sh'ites there see America as nothing more than Saddam's replaced occupier. Najaf is their holiest city, blood-rich with their cultural history.

Spain's abandonmemt of the base near Najaf will more than likely prove to be a grievous turning point in the battle for the Shi'ite heart and mind. There's no question that we'll be the political loser. Wars are not only won with brute force, although, after Najaf, it appears that sheer brute force may have to be arranged since America is never going to strike a familiar political chord with the average Iraqi.



In Fallujah on Monday, a mosque's minaret was destroyed during a fight between Iraqi Sunni insurgents and U.S troops.Today it is reported that the U.S. forces promise to stay away from the sensitive Shiite shrines at the heart of the Najaf.

I hope they can keep that promise, but I wonder if it truly matters anymore? A mother sees her child, who is seeking shelter from the crossfire under an Army tank, run over like a sack of rice. What cares she about the shelled minaret?

"Fanatics and Fools" Website


*Now on sale at Amazon.com*

The official website is up and running!

At Arianna's blog, she says there's everything you'd want to know about the book at the official site -- plus a petition you can sign letting John Kerry know which of the 10 issues that make up the book's "Contract for A Better America" you support the most. So visit the site, sign the petition, and help reset our nation's priorities.

You can also send a postcard!

Love and suffering

"I maintain that all sorrow comes from love of those things of which loss deprives me."

--Meister Eckhart




The source of my grief and loneliness is deep in my breast.
This is a disease no doctor can cure.
Only union with the Friend can cure it.

____________________

The heart longs for God, and seeks to find its true Beloved. If we follow our longing, if we allow ourself to be pierced by the pain of separation from the source, we will be drawn back to God.

Longing is the central core of every mystical path, as the anonymous author of the fourteenth-century mystical classic, The Cloud of Unknowing, simply states: "Your whole life must be one of longing."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Love and suffering are powerful transformative agents because they embrace the mystery of being human. Longing is love's call to "return to the root of the root of your own self," to the place within the core of our being.. where we are always whole.

We are conditioned to avoid pain, but the mystic pain of the heart is the thread that leads us; the song of the soul that uncovers us. Meister Eckhart said, "God is the sigh in the soul," and this sigh, this sorrow, is a most precious poison. How love heals us from the sufferings we inflict upon ourself is always a mystery.

Thanks to Nurihsan for the referral to the article from which I took the above statements.

WTO says no to U.S. cotton subsidies; sides with Brazil

The WTO has issued a landmark decision denouncing U.S. cotton subsidies (which were approved democratically by our Congress). The WTO sided with a complaint from Brazil claiming that the payments unfairly boost U.S. production and exports while lowering world cotton prices. We probably won't be the number two cotton producer in the world much longer. This is the first time a country has been challenged over its domestic agricultural subsidies. This is probably just the first of more complaints to come against our nation.

Coffins: The White House has totally lost the P.R. war

Mainstream radio and news are totally against the government's policy to ban and/or censor these photos.
For only one example, see this article from Editor and Publisher.

"Americans deserve to see who is paying the ultimate price for this war."
--Virginia Pilot

"...as the United States continues a war that is -- at this moment, at least -- being waged on the pretext of freedom, the government tries to censor images of flag-draped coffins. But the censorship has failed because it defies common sense and federal law. ... These images are what they are: a sad reflection of our president's war of choice. Yes, they are sobering. That is even more justification for their prompt and public release."
--Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo

An interview with James Moore/ A letter from the family of a Soldier

At Buzzflash, there's an interview with James Moore, author of the recently-published book "Bush's War For Re-election: Iraq, The White House, And The People". On the book's back cover, Buzzflash offers its support by saying the book 'masterfully details how Bush's war for re-election has real victims: the families of soldiers who have died in Iraq and American citizens who have dared to tell the truth'.

In the Buzzflash interview, Moore states:

There are families whose lives have been ruined by the President's decision to attack Iraq. And because that was unnecessary, these families are even more shattered by it. They try and try to believe that their child died for something important, but they're struggling to do that now. And in some of the cases, these families have been split apart in the same way that the Civil War split families apart. [By politics]

I read a letter to the Editor of the Syracuse Post Standard today from the mother-in-law of a soldier in Iraq. The following is an excerpt:

How will we justify it if Jon comes back broken and mutilated - or not at all? Will we say it was worth it?

I hear so many families saying "He believed in what he was doing," and "He was fighting for freedom." I won't be believing that. I've never believed we should be killing Iraqis to set them free. Will I have to mouth those words for the rest of my life to comfort a distraught young woman whose husband paid a price he shouldn't have to pay?

My mother's heart fears the future. I pray, and hope, and honor the young men and women doing what they have to do. But I do not honor the president who keeps them in the way of harm to serve his own twisted interests.

American Political Jihad and Myths about Iraq

How many coffins have to come back to Dover before politicians acknowlege how myth and coffin have married to share an American legacy?

At Skippy the Kangaroo, I was interested to read about a recent article by Steve and Cokie Roberts titled Party purists paralyze Congress by political jihad. I especially appreciated Skippy's take on the topic.

Kevin Hayden thinks it's probably late in the day to change many Americans' false perceptions about the war in Iraq and that John Kerry may find it an exercise in futility to continue to make that an important part of his campaign. He cites Juan Cole's April 25th commentary regarding the sad fact that so many Americans still believe Saddam gave substantial support to al-Qaeda (and worse, 45% actually say that "clear evidence" has been found in Iraq to support this allegation!)

Juan Cole makes the astute observation:

Democratic party leadership has not developed an effective critique of Bush administration approaches to the 'war on terror,' and that in effect the Republicans are poaching on Democratic territory successfully in this regard.

Democrats have their work cut out for them. I don't know that I agree that Kerry should abandon attempting to dispel the myths about Iraq. If not Kerry, then who? America has bought into the myths and there's no one on the Right who will risk political damage by bringing significant truths to the light of day. This is probably nothing new in the political realm. I think we can all recall seeing a determined look-away from truth for politics' sake occur during the Viet Nam era. The question is: Didn't we learn anything from that American experience? How many coffins have to come back to Dover before politicians acknowlege how myth and coffin have married to share an American legacy?

Juan Cole contrasts Rhode Island Senator Lincoln Chafee's decided independent search for truth with the Republican Right, who keeps with the partisan line in perpetuating the myths about Iraq. He cites recent Associated Press worries that centrist Republicans like Chafee and Spector are a "dying breed." I saw Republican Senator Chris Shays (CT) speak about the U.N. Food-for Oil investigation on FOX Sunday show yesterday and I got a clear sense of a non-partisan in his search for truth. Democrats should recognize and give positive reinforcement to independent-minded Republicans whenever possible. Public speaking about great respect and value placed on idependence of the individual political mind (regardless of party line) is the only way to turn the tide of polarization and civil division in America. Hit Americans in their mass consciousness. They don't have a clue where they're being led today...and the cliff edge is fast approaching. (Which takes me back full-circle to Skippy's commentary as referred above).

I believe it would serve the Democrats well to educate Americans about the authors of myth. Grover Norquist, for all intents and purposes, is a democracy-criminal and I believe he should be exposed as often as possible as it is his Club For Growth which is strong-arming and hijacking the People's true and responsible American represention. Representation is the life-blood of American democracy. It's being poisoned without our knowlege. The debate about these unpatriotic political tactics need to be raised to mainstream media debate as often as possible.

I never thought I'd see the day that the Northestern Republican would be a threatened species... eaten by their own party. Democrats have a stake in reaching across party lines to defend Republicans of independent mind. Kerry recently made a public plea for improvement in the tone of civil discourse in Washington, D.C., stating:

"The high road is harder, but it leads to a better place."

I think he's onto something there. If he can develop a way to throw the truth about the Norquistian-style hijacking of American politics in the mix with a more effectively-developed critique of the Bush administration's wrong-minded approaches to the 'war on terror', he may find empowerment via truth-in-politics. What a refreshing, unwaffling idea.

Polarized



In today's Washington Post, David Von Drehle discusses just how pervasive the political split is in today's America. It is the first of three promised articles. Both Kerry and Bush reach for the center, Mr. Von Drehle claims, yet their "basic colors" show through...especially in a political system that is intent on pulling them apart with the production of perfect archetypes of Red and Blue.

Estee is gone


The beauty is left behind. She was quite a lady.
*click photo to read her story*

Robert Fisk: "Shut up. Don't criticise Israel."

[LINK]

If you or I suggest that the Palestinians are getting a raw deal under Israeli occupation, then we are "anti-Semitic"? BALONEY!

In America, the great land of free speech...the land whose very freedom and security rests upon accuracy-in truth in our foreign policy....in a post 9-11 world gone mad with strife borne of hatred in the Middle East...we will not be censored or silenced by those who would employ political psychology to protect and promote their agenda. We are not anti-Semitic. We are solution-seekers with a clear moral goal. That goal is peace and justice for all people.

What is Ariel Sharon's goal? What is the Palestinian Authority's goal? If either side aims for peace, their respective sides have certainly done an abominable job of showing it over the past 50 years. The hatred spewing from the conflict has spilled over to America. In case anyone hasn't noticed lately, the World Trade Centers are missing. If we choose to speak out about actual history and if we can seek truly peaceful solutions, we are not anti-Semitic. As a matter of fact, the solution-seekers hold the higher moral ground. Those who would finger-point and cry "Anti-Semite!" should hang their heads in moral shame.

Americans recite the words "..with liberty and justice for all..." in the Pledge of Allegiance every day. It's an ingrained American value. So shoot us already if we apply that nugget of wisdom to our ideas about fairness in the Middle East!

Incidentally, we Americans DO pledge allegiance each day...to AMERICA. We are not one and the same as the State of Israel. They are in political propinquity with the U.S....but never admitted to this American union as far as I recall. (Did I miss something?) We must act in the utmost best interests of the American people. If that must include brutal honesty about the spill-over effects of terror on our American security, then let's have at it.

Maureen Dowd on BushWorld


Kudos to Maureen for an entertaining and all-too-true tale about the alternative America "brought on" by the world o'Bush.
I'm so glad she's taken up a collection of prescient observations already made and spread throughout the blogdom.

anonyMoses
... Posted by: " title="permanent link">Dave / 3/12/2004 10:22:29 PM. | News from BushWorld. ... Thursday,
March 11, 2004. BushWorld Too Unstable for Market Strength. ...
anonymoses.blogspot.com/ 2004_03_07_anonymoses_archive.html - 72k - Cached - Similar pages

The Fallujah fight is looming


Our forces will likely soon converge upon Fallujah. There will be many deaths. We are confident that God the best technology will be on our side. We will militarily prevail. Hearts and minds don't really matter anymore. Resistance was a bloody and atrocious inconvenience to the propaganda-hopefuls.

Perhaps if we kill some of them we can get back on the road to winning the surviving hearts.

Right?



A blinding sandstorm sweeps across Fallujah, Marine commanders study maps and plan lines of attack for an approaching battle....Marines encircle the city, awaiting a president's decision...awaiting an unknown fate... a mother in the city holds her child close to her breast. In America, the television says a free society in the heart of the Middle East will begin to change the world for the better...In America, the soldier's loving wife longs to hold her man in her lonely arms once again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Afternoon Update:
At 12:40 pm, the Washington Post has reported:

Backing away from warnings that a new U.S. offensive on the city of Fallujah may be imminent, U.S. officials on Sunday announced that the occupation authority has shifted to a "political track" in an attempt to defuse the month-long crisis.

"I think we are going to show some combat patience and see if we can deliver this on a political track."
--Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt

"This is becoming exotic now."

That was Saudi Prince Bandar's bewitched reaction to Tim Russert's determined questions on this morning's Meet the Press about who gave permission to allow airplanes to fly Saudis out of the U.S. on the morning of 9-11.

Prince Bandar also expressed his disgust for the free American press (namely Newsweek) for full investigations. (Perhaps he'd love to see their heads lopped off).

His reaction when asked about a Saudi telethon raising $92 million for suicide bombers? Nothing stands still...we've come through.. we're proud of it. I'm glad he's proud. Personally, I'm appalled.

The question of religious freedom? Wahabbi the only choice? Madrassas? That's not the reality. After 9-11, we Saudis were shaken to our roots. We looked at our education system. We found 10% questionable educational material. 5% was objectionable..
He claimed the anti-West education problem's already fixed? Really?


Who's more popular in Saudi Arabia? Bush or bin Laden? For the first (telling) few seconds, Prince Bandar went stone silent.

Richard Clarke op-ed: The Wrong Debate on Terrorism

Richard Clarke examines the way we go about selecting the right lessons to learn. Clarke suggests that "partisan reaction" is destroying our ability to make the right choices.

Clarke believes that, rather than creating new organizations, we need to give the C.I.A. and F.B.I. "makeovers".

He reminds us that, even when Osama bin Laden is dead, his ideas will carry on. As in the old Beatles tune, Clarke says we won't get by without a little help from our friends. He suggests we'll need help from our Muslim friends. My first thought was: Do we have any friends left...and are they the right kind of friends? The enemy of our enemy is not usually our friend. Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were once used to assist America in her ambition.

Some Guy makes a funny

At the Comic Sherpa, see this political comic strip--"Occasional Adventures of the D.C.Kid".. I found it to be very amusing. Kudos to its creator ("Some Guy").

Forecast: American Catholic Church soon to drop in membership

It's either going to have to change or die. If the Catholic church presses this "communion" issue to the point where it becomes a kangaroo court of canon law, priests (who haven't had such a great track record themselves as of late) will find they're preaching to empty pews.

Anonymoses comments on the subject.

In truth, religions are in the service of the master, not the slave. They extract the inherent power and freedom of the person and concentrate that ill-gotten power on "the church"...only weakening the power-giving individual.

Faith is free.

Religion binds with chains that empower the master.
This is not to say "stop being religious". Rather, it is to say "beware--be aware".

The faithful individual is greatly weakened by those who would use the power of the church to make that individual the target of mistrust and prejudice amongst his fellow community-members.

Chubby Salami Chalabi doesn't believe in Bath Nazis

Chalabi says the policy of allowing former Baathists to join a new Iraqi government is akin to putting back Nazis in charge of Germany. He says it will create major problems in the transition to democracy, endanger any government put together by UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi and cause it to fall after June 30.

I know Chalabi was way off on WMDs. (I didn't say he lied, but it doesn't rule out the possibility).

He's the embezzling schlump who cried "Wolfowitz!"

Perhaps Baathification would be a mistake as he says.

How can we believe anything he says anymore?


[LINK]

SeeYaGeroge.com

A message

Anonymoses sends an important message.

I pray that Peace will come to the Middle East and to the World. But it first has to exist in your hearts, our hearts. All our hearts.

Fear not. Rather love...with all your might, and all your heart. Pray for your enemy as well.

See John Kerry give tribute to Mary McGrory

At CSPAN you can see John Kerry giving a lovely tribute to Mary McGrory in his address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors at their annual meeting.
You can also see protestors march into the room chanting for Kerry to address AIDS funding as he gives his speech.
Making a plea for improvement in the tone of civil discourse in Washington, D.C., Kerry states: "The high road is harder, but it leads to a better place." Kerry goes on to lay out a new contract for America's middle class.
Related news article here.

From Kerry's speech:

"Two hundred twenty-nine years ago, the first patriots from Massachusetts put their lives on the line at Lexington Green. Nearby, Samuel Adams -- who was not only a patriot, but at times a newspaper editor -- heard the battle shots of freedom and declared, 'What a glorious morning for America is this!'"

"For once, an editor got it right." [Kerry said this of John Adams]. "Today, with all the grim news we read each day in your newspapers, it is important to remember what a glorious morning it has been for America -- and that glorious days lie ahead. I know that every four years people who are running for president tell you that this is the most important election. Well this one is different: It's the most important election in our lifetime."

Empty Days Blog:
On the role of high ideals in Realpolitik

This morning I'm showcasing Akim's blog.

Excerpt from above-titled entry:

The actual argument for the war sounds like this: we need to create a political and military base in Iraq and forcibly put a pro-american regime in place; if this can be done with american-style democracy, that's great, it would make for grand propaganda for our pretty suspect good intentions. If not, we'll be ok with any type of regime as long as we can easily manipulate it (unlike Iran - yet Iran is no worse a dictatorship than Saudi Arabia, in case you still think USA is really after dictators).

Bush and his eager cronies actually believe their own lies when they talk of "beacon of freedom" and "liberating" some selected "oppressed Arabs" - while talking of waging war on terror "abroad not at home". In the Middle East this peculiar mental confusion is called "American freedom" - as opposed to actual freedom.

Freedom implies the possibility of dissent and opposition - not only to your own home-grown dictator but also to the big dictator from abroad: who intends to dictate to you your thoughts and actions and hold you forever in bond for his supposedly selfless gifts. There is nothing moral or grand about dictatorially imposed "freedom". There is little selflessness or humanitarian concern in wanting to subjugate whole nations.

The book on the Wal Mart shelf
says the man o' sin is
coming soon

George Monbiot believes that U.S. Christian fundamentalists are driving President Bush's Middle East policy. He bases this theory on the Left-Behind-ers, a group of which he includes some of the most powerful men in America such as John Ashcroft and Tom DeLay. Monbiot thinks their beliefs are bonkers, but he understands they are at the heart of American power. He also believes they're actively seeking to provoke a new world war, seeing the invasion of Iraq as a mere warm-up act.

Follow the Leader
N.Y. Times op-ed by Joshua Micah Marshall

Reaching to the Choir

In this month's American Prospect, writer Ayelish McGarvey asks:
Think all evangelicals are right-wingers? Don't believe everything you read. Just as many are politically moderate. Can Democrats win their votes? God only knows, it's worth a try.

Excerpts:

..Will secular liberals ever be willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with "Jesus people" who aren't afraid to talk about their faith?

..Open, unembarrassed professions of religiosity haven't been part of the Democratic Party's culture for some time now..

..The party won't change overnight. But the extremist ideology of this [Bush] administration -- clearly antithetical to virtually everything Jesus Christ stood for -- has created an opening among religious voters..

..The Democrats can win some votes, redefine the role that religion plays in American public life, and neutralize one of the right wing's great wedge issues -- if they choose to pursue it.." [LINK]

Toomey strikes Um-Biblical Chord

Go here to see the floppy-eared Pat Toomey call the umbilical cord an um-biblical cord. (Go to time 23:00 and listen in). A political/Freudian slip or just goofy ignorance? He does it at least three times. It's nearly as hilarious as his opportunistic claim to being politically pro-life when he's been pro-choice on public record. Forgive me for saying it, but Toomey reminds me of "Preparation-H Raymond" (as played by Brian McCann) on the Conan O'Brien show.
I hope, with Pennsylvania's Republican voters, he loses soundly to the decent Republican Arlen Specter. If the Norquists of the extreme right-wing continue to harass and attempt to unseat Northeastern/Midwestern Republican incumbents, they may see the incumbents turning Independent as they jump off the extremist bandwagon. Fine. We could use a healthy and pragmatic third choice at the polls.

"Post 1994, Republicans don't raise taxes, and the ones who do "don't get promoted."
---Grover Norquist

If you've come looking for a John Kerry Waffle House Song....

It's not here. I notice many of you are searching for it. I haven't heard it yet. Must be funny?

Faith Waits for Opportunity


Make no mistake. The Shia insurgency in Iraq is based in strong faith as well as protective nationalism. The stretch of nomenclature from "nationalists" to "terrorists"...or from "occupation" to "democracy" will only take you as far as the borders of reality.

You just can't go any further (except crazy).

In 1965, an exile from Iran came to live in Najaf. Ironically, he was directed towards Najaf by the Shah of Iran, who was apprehensive about the warm treatment that this exile received in his first abode of refuge, Turkey. This cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, would one day lead a revolution. Khomeini stayed in Najaf till October 1978, when he was thrown out of Iraq and found a home — and international publicity — in Paris. In Iraq, the elder Shia Ayatollahs had treated Khomeini with reserve if not disapproval. As Saddam expanded his power base within the Baath regime, there was little appetite for a radical activist. But Khomeini found admirers in the younger generation, including within the families of Sadr and Hakim.

Between 21 January and 8 February 1970 Khomeini delivered a series of lectures in Najaf that laid down the ideological foundations of his revolution and searched for a solution to the ‘hopelessness and impotence of the Muslim world’. He argued that while the Shias must wait for their promised Imam, they could still turn to the Quran and the Prophet’s life for guidance. The clergy would lead this battle for revival: after all, the Prophet was a political person. On the specific question of the national divide between Iraqi and Irani Shias, he offered practical advice: they should preserve their borders but unite their thoughts. Mohammad Sadr was in the forefront of Iraqi Shia support for Khomeini. A chant rose in Najaf: "Ash al Khomeini wil Sadr weddin-e lazim yantaser!" ("Long live Khomeini and Sadr, and faith will prevail!"). This was accompanied by "Kulana lak fida Khomeini!" ("We are for you to sacrifice, Khomeini!").

.....democracy is incompatible with occupation, and a mere change in nomenclature will not change reality." [LINK]

It's time our government stopped calling Iraq part of a war on terror. It's never been about weapons of mass destruction or 9-11 and we'd have to be blind not to see that we were misled abour our reasons for being there. It's always been about a strong Bush-administration desire for regime change in Iraq (Iran to follow). If President Bush doesn't speak out about this obvious slap to our trusting American faces, he will never..I repeat never be re-elected. Congress gave him their trust (when they should have known better) and he betrayed them. George Tenet was integrally complicit in the rush to war by convincing the ignorant Bush that he had a 'slam-dunk' opportunity to fool the public. All this would create a fitting scenario for immediate impeachment, but with a bitterly partisan Congress and a polarized nation, we know it will not occur.

This government of ours is broken. It pains me to see the civil division. I believe it's as bad as it was in the days leading up to the Civil War. The Right has created a trap for our nation in gathering around them a gigantic gaggle of passionate social conservatives who will cling to and cluck about social issues and ignore all other issues at our nation's peril. The Right stokes the fires of social conservatism, thus appealing to the angels of our worst (wedge) nature. The Norquistian Right uses political strong-arm tactics to try to shame our Congressmen out of their true fiscal responsibilities to the People.

Meanwhile, the Right conducts a dreaded war of lies, misleadings, and empire (at a future nation-breaking expense to taxpayers without a current appeal for economic sacrifice....the most unrealistic and insane fact of all).
Right under our noses. (And does it ever smell).

Chosen...justified


Think on these things carefully. We're in a world gone mad.
The wild garden needs your tending. The plantings are of many origins....yet they stemmed from the dark-same timeless void. Their near-miraculous blooms come and go as seasons pass. Their beauty is hidden by a pestilence which may soon render the earth barren. The harmonious aura of each respective wild planting has been brought to the world by the source of dispassionate nature and, without tending, will never exist independently. The blooms of the wild garden cannot be left to stand alone...abandoned to the fates, fires and winds.



To all interested gardeners with the tools of love and truth in hand, I'm waiting for you to join me.
Born unimpassioned, the flowers have no knowlege or care of the source by which they were thrown together. They instinctively strive... only for innocent life itself. It's our responsibility to see they shine as they were meant to shine.

To assert that God is both violent and nonviolent is to declare that God is violent. It is analogous to the person who says, "I am nonviolent but..." The "but" is the place where violence is chosen and is justified....

......Once it is believed God endorses homicidal violence, then the only question left for violent monotheism is, "when" He endorses it. Theologies, sophisticated and simple-minded, complementary and contradictory, abound that designate the "when"..........

.......Does the omniscient and omnipotent God place anyone on this planet with the right to kill another person? Can the enemy of a state, tribe, religion, economic system or person objectively be the enemy of God?.........

.......In the world of violent monotheism, regardless of the institutional or theological architecture it assumes, it is inevitable that one person's collateral damage will be another person's beloved daughter or son or spouse or parent or friend, that one person's freedom fighter will be another person's terrorist, that one person's military hero will be another person's mass murderer, that one person's God will be another person's fiend......

.....since Christians and Christian leaders think Jesus' teachings on the rejection of homicidal violence are unrealistic, fatuous, fanciful, utopian, idealist, silly, and impractical, this effectively guarantees that Christian leaders and their followers will never attempt to implement them....."

-- Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

Bandar outranks those sissies at Foggy Bottom

Regarding Bob Woodward's book about the inner sanctum of the Bush war council, Marie Cocco states:

I want more pages, but not from Woodward. Twenty-eight of them, to be exact......

....after 9/11, we learned of another part of the unspoken pact: We are supposed to avert our eyes from the Saudi nurturing of radical Islamists and the royal family's slush funds for terror. Congressional investigators wanted a hard look and wrote a chapter with their initial findings. The president says we can't see it.

Since when does the President have the uncheckable right to tell the people that they can't see or know anything about these 28 pages? Even the Saudi government long ago asked Bush to declassify the 28 pages and Bush continues to refuse. He obviously has something he needs to keep in the shadows...he can't be proud of whatever lies in those pages. Perhaps the information runs against the interests of the American people. Perhaps it shows allegiance to Saudi Arabia over the United States. After all, we now know that Bush gave his country's trusted secrets to Prince Bandar before his own cabinet members. If this is looked at too closely, I think the President will know he will be (appropriately) impeached. The 28 pages are all about CYA. America is not securely in the hands of the American citizenry where it has always been meant to belong. The President tells us he's on a God-inspired mission to spread democracy to foreign lands while democracy is made irrelevant here at home in America.

Pentagon not happy about released military coffin photos

A website published dozens of photographs of war dead arriving at the largest U.S. military mortuary, prompting the Pentagon to order an information clampdown today.

Dover Gallery here

Read here about how Tami Silicio came to lose her job.

The Condensed Bob Woodward
Slate reads Plan of Attack so you don't have to.
By Bryan Curtis

Click photo to read brief/important excerpts

Middle East: William Buckley on Dying Diplomacy


Tick-tock.. tick-tock. Mr. Buckley bets that diplomacy will die before a Palestinian community can be regenerated. You know what happens when diplomacy dies.........don't you? We may not see the exact result now, but if there's one thing we could say with certainty, it would be that it isn't going to be pretty.

Tuesday morning we learned that the king of Jordan snubbed the president of the United States....

....If you think Jordan's King Abdullah was acting precipitately, you have lost count of diplomatic currents and crosscurrents in the recent season. Jordan's rebuff came after one week of excoriations by Egypt's Hosni Mubarak....

Turning Point
George Bush's global holy war threatens our Presidency—and perhaps the future of our nation
Village Voice/Sydney H. Schanberg

Many presidents have invoked God in speeches and policy decisions, especially during times of war when soldiers were dying for country. And most presidents have told lies of various kinds during their tenures. But I know of no president, certainly no modern president, who said he was acting in God's name while telling lies in order to prod the country into a war against an adversary that, though a vile dictatorship, was no real threat to our security—and had no significant link to the bin Laden forces that attacked us in 2001......
.......Americans take his faith seriously. Many of them, however, may not trust his presidential judgments.

Norman Solomon's plea:
Journalists should scrutinize U.S. government spin, not contribute to it.

The scene:
It's April 7 on the NewsHour (PBS). Battles are raging in close to a dozen Iraqi cities; a retired U.S. Air Force colonel refers to the American authorities' closure of a newspaper that had served as a megaphone for the anti-occupation Shiite leader Moktada al-Sadr:

Col. Sam Gardiner: "The immediate problem we have to remember is we started this ... with the aggressive policies towards Sadr that came from us, shutting down his press."

Jim Lehrer: "The reason we shut down his press is because it was calling for violence and anti-American ..."

Col. Gardiner: "Sure."

Lehrer: "I just want to get that on the record."

Norman Solomon has many questions. He investigates further. He's disappointed in what he sees as a lack of journalistic integrity in this case. The statements made on April 7th simply didn't jibe with the facts. We wonder how the public is so misled?

George Bush, Self-deluded Messiah
By David Corn, The Nation/Alternet, April 19, 2004

[President] Bush told [Bob] Woodward that he remained certain the war had been the right move because he has a "duty to free people." That is not how he had depicted his obligations before the war. Then he claimed his duty was to defend the United States. This remark – coupled with Bush's comment that "there is a higher father that I appeal to" – does make it seem that Bush believes he is on a mission from God. That might scare some, but it would not be so problematic if Bush also believed that God expects him to engage in self-examination and critical and honest discourse before mounting an action that claims thousands of lives, and if Bush took into this heart the fact that God (assuming God exists) created intellectuals, experts, skeptics and critics as well as cowboys, oil rig workers, and truck drivers (not that any of these folks cannot be fancy-pants eggheads as well). [LINK]

Christianity and Islam: Collision or convergence?

How Christians and Muslims navigate the road ahead will have profound consequences for both communities--and for the world.

--- Charles Kimball

An address given by Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury, at the Gregorian University, March 25, 2004 is HERE.

Four questions are carefully considered:

-- What are the reasons for Islam’s association with terrorism and death?
-- What challenges does Islam itself face?

-- What is Islam’s challenge to the West in general and Christianity in particular?

-- How may we move from collision to convergence in mutual understanding and respect?

If you're short on time, an article at Sojourners.com gives you an abbrerviated version with main points emphasized.

Election 2004- Listen to the warnings

The U.S. is heading for another election fiasco as election reforms fail---the Civil Rights Commission makes a plea----and Republicans publically demonstrate they don't want to hear about it?!? American citizens, if your blood is not boiling over this deliberate Republican disconnect from the concern over your right to vote, you are not paying atttention. The vitality of America’s democracy depends on the fairness and accuracy of America’s elections!

When the Commission on Civil Rights convened an expert panel in Washington this month to discuss its report, the Republican Party delegation walked out before the proceedings began, one panel participant, Rebecca Mercuri, a Harvard University voting machinery expert, said.

Bootleg-able Jesus Entertainment: Popular or Influential?

We are asked to believe that "The Passion" is an out-and-out spiritual revolution. At least, that's what People magazine says. Then again, People magazine's definition of a spiritual revolution is moving to a more original, self-expressive wardrobe.. and cutting veal out of your regular diet.

At Rawstory.com, Larry Womack writes an entertaining editorial called "Bootlegging Jesus". Like Larry, I'd initially said I wouldn't see Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion". You can see my pre-movie thoughts here. As it turned out, I went to see it. Like Larry, I'd read the Bible. I'd also studied Christianity (among other religions). I considered Gibson's movie as entertainment...if you can call it that. (The nachos suddenly didn't taste so good whilst watching the meaty/bloody scouging scene.) I wanted to see--I HAD to see.. what the fuss was all about. Jesus Christ Superstar was entertainment, too...and after seeing both, for me, Superstar was far more inspiring. (I'm not the action-movie blood-n-guts type). My point is that neither of these entertainments were part of the well from which I'd drawn my faith. The problem with "Jesus entertainment" is that people may well incorrectly base their knowledge of Jesus' life on the films, not on the Bible. Pop-religion. That's a pretty scary thought. The Bible's already confusing enough with all the contradictions found amongst the Gospels.

Today...

A car-driven suicide-bomb blast has leveled a Saudi Arabian security building.

If it's up to Sen. Chuck Hagel, Uncle Sam will be calling on your boys and girls (or you) to report to duty soon.

At least 68 people (I assume they're Iraqis) are believed to have died and many more been injured in co-ordinated suicide attacks on four police buildings in the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Benjamin Duncan discusses Bush, Kerry, and the politics of religion.
Luis Lugo of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life says:

He [Kerry] cannot sound so religious that he turns off the section of the Democratic Party that is secular."

Bush does not have to worry about appearing too religious to his conservative base.

"Bush does not have that challenge, because on his side there is not a large swath of seculars."

Surprise! Puppet misleader-extraordinaire Ahmad ("we are heroes in error") Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress has announced his own nephew, Salim Chalabi, as his choice for the general director of the tribunal to try Saddam Hussein. Right. I'm sure that will win more hearts and minds.

Bernard Weiner/Crisis Papers: Shallow Throat to Dems:
"Time to Go for the Jugular!"

WOW! Who woulda thunk it, already?: A top Pentagon official told lawmakers Wednesday the Iraqi military operation ''is going to cost us more money'' than anticipated. The conservative tune is a cool $700 million.

The imminently dangerous Saddam 'still thinks he's president'. Bush will probably 'still think he's president' on November 3rd as the little yellow bus bound for Crawford warms up for the long trip from Washington D.C.

Daniel Ellsberg: Iraq a new Vietnam-The veteran of the Pentagon Papers-era Defense Department says the U.S. should withdraw its troops.

BloggerCon: Jay Rosen on Journalism and Weblogging / Jeff Sharlet on Religion and Blogging

At the recent BloggerCon (which I was unfortunately unable to attend due to unforeseen circumstances), there was a discussion on a topic titled "What is Journalism....And What Can Weblogs Do About It?" led by Jay Rosen.
The prelude to the discussion is at Jay's PRESSthink site. Link here.

For all who are interested, the Blogger Con Feedster collection of post-con blog entries is HERE.

There's also a more directly-related list at liloia.com.

Jay McCarthy has some comments about the "What is Journalism And What Can Weblogs Do About It?" discussion.

Jeff Sharlet of The Revealer led a BloggerCon discussion on Religion and Blogging. (See: "Do you believe in blog?"I surely wish I'd been there for this discussion.
Commentaries deposited at the Little Green Footballs blog came up in the Blogger Con discussion. Jeff says:

Little Green Footballs, the 33rd most popular blog out there according to Technorati, have other ideas. LGF, as it's known, was a subject at this past Saturday's Bloggercon religion session. A commentator noted that religion blogging can lead to a perverse kind of "common ground" when it brings several different types of believers -- Protestants, Catholics, and Jews at LGF -- together in hatred of an "enemy," defined here as pretty much all Muslims, worldwide.

"I would be more than happy to see a Spanish Inquisition targetted at mohammedans alone....to the last devil worshipping one," writes one commentator. "Poor poor muslims," writes another. "What kind of country would look down on a holy people such as the muslims who worship an evil religion founded by violent pedophile?"

These guys could really use a pig roast.

I agree that through the use of the blog, we are capable of creating a deeper understanding of what I like to call "folk-faith". It's faith as we truly live it in the face of human joy and tragedy.

A topic I would like to have discussed: How does one explain a near 50-50 split in political ideology in today's American Catholic faith? Take a look at Sojourner magazine and at the bloggers who speak of social justice issues through the Catholic filter of literary figures such as Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Walker Percy, Henri Nouwen, Daniel Berrigan, Ronald Rolheiser, Msgr. Joseph Champlin? How many mainstream religion-journalists write with the faithfires that have fueled these Catholic Americans? I believe that the writers who, although challenged by the toughest worldy challenges, burned with a faith borne of strong experiential individuality which nearly consumed them in spirit are all too rare. My favorite blog-reads are the folks who are equally consumed by the passion that leads them to creating a better world now in loving preparation for the next. Why are most of today's mainstream religion-writings often pop-shallow, fright-producing, guilt-heightening, or deadening in their effects on the reader? Why do so many of today's religion-followers choose to exist in prejudgement of those who do not share their group-mentality? Is faith not that which illuminates the earth-dark path to man's individual soul....is faith not what separates him from the pack animals? Are we too afraid of loneliness? Of death? As bloggers write more and more on these topics, will the folk-face (no--that's not a dirty word ;) of our attitude toward religion change? Will we...could we change the face of mainstream religious journalism?