Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Jeff Beck Group



Morning Dew

Jeff Beck was one of the guitarists for the Yardbirds.  Others were Eric Claption and Jimmy Page.  You might have heard of them. 🙂

The Jeff Beck Group included Beck, of course, Rod Stewart doing vocals, Ron Wood on bass, Nicky Hopkins at the keyboards, and Micky Waller on drums.



Beck’s Bolero



I Ain’t Superstitious



Somewhere over the Rainbow

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.

Weekend News Digest

Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread

From Yahoo News Top Stories

1 Did oil canals worsen Katrina’s effects?

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press Writer

47 minutes ago

IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER DELTA – Service canals dug to tap oil and natural gas dart everywhere through the black mangrove shrubs, bird rushes and golden marsh. From the air, they look like a Pac-Man maze superimposed on an estuarine landscape 10 times the size of Grand Canyon National Park.

There are 10,000 miles of these oil canals. They fed America’s thirst for energy, but helped bring its biggest delta to the brink of collapse. They also connect an overlooked set of dots in the Hurricane Katrina aftermath: The role that some say the oil industry played in the $135 billion disaster, the nation’s costliest.

The delta, formed by the accumulation of the Mississippi River’s upstream mud over thousands of years, is a shadow of what it was 100 years ago. Since the 1930s, a fifth of the 10,000-square-mile delta has turned into open water, decreasing the delta’s economic and ecologic value by as much as $15 billion a year, according to Louisiana State University studies.

2 High turnout for pivotal Serbian presidential vote

By Ellie Tzortzi, Reuters

3 minutes ago

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian voters turned out in force on Sunday for the first round of a tight presidential election that could decide the country’s future ties with the West after the expected loss of its breakaway Kosovo province.

Opinion polls gave hardline challenger Tomislav Nikolic 33 percent of the vote, versus 30 percent for pro-Western President Boris Tadic. With both short of the majority needed for outright victory, the winner would be decided in a Feb 3 run-off.

Analysts said the higher than expected turnout — 58 percent by 1:00 p.m. EST — reflected a widespread fear among liberal but politically inactive Serbs that a Nikolic win would stall reforms and complicate Serbia’s path to the European Union.

3 Stimulus plan may be ready by March: lawmaker

By Lesley Wroughton, Reuters

1 hour, 6 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A stimulus package to boost the U.S. economy and avoid a full-fledged recession could be ready by the beginning of March, a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Sunday.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said he expects Democrats and Republicans to find common ground and there was already agreement that the plan should include tax cuts.

But in an election year, details of such a package should evoke much debate, especially over the tax cuts.

4 Massive volcano exploded under Antarctic icesheet, study finds

AFP

1 hour, 1 minute ago

PARIS (AFP) – A powerful volcano erupted under the icesheet of West Antarctica around 2,000 years ago and it might still be active today, a finding that prompts questions about ice loss from the white continent, British scientists report on Sunday.

The explosive event — rated “severe” to “cataclysmic” on an international scale of volcanic force — punched a massive breach in the icesheet and spat out a plume some 12,000 metres (eight miles) into the sky, they calculate.

Most of Antarctica is seismically stable. But its western part lies on a rift in Earth’s crust that gives rise to occasional volcanism and geothermal heat, occurring on the Antarctic coastal margins.

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Recommended

5 Slower boats to China as ship owners save fuel

By Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters

Sat Jan 19, 8:22 PM ET

BERLIN (Reuters) – Oil at more than $90 a barrel is concentrating minds in the shipping industry. Higher fuel costs and mounting pressure to curb emissions are leading modern merchant fleets to rediscover the ancient power of the sail.

The world’s first commercial ship powered partly by a giant kite sets off on a maiden voyage from Bremen to Venezuela on Tuesday, in an experiment which inventor Stephan Wrage hopes can wipe 20 percent, or $1,600, from the ship’s daily fuel bill.

“We aim to prove it pays to protect the environment,” Wrage told Reuters. “Showing that ecology and economics are not contradictions motivates us all.”

From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Viewed

6 New generation of homeless vets emerges

By ERIN McCLAM, AP National Writer

Sun Jan 20, 11:16 AM ET

LEEDS, Mass. – Peter Mohan traces the path from the Iraqi battlefield to this lifeless conference room, where he sits in a kilt and a Camp Kill Yourself T-shirt and calmly describes how he became a sad cliche: a homeless veteran.

There was a happy homecoming, but then an accident – car crash, broken collarbone. And then a move east, close to his wife’s new job but away from his best friends.

And then self-destruction: He would gun his motorcycle to 100 mph and try to stand on the seat. He would wait for his wife to leave in the morning, draw the blinds and open up whatever bottle of booze was closest.

From Yahoo News World

7 US troops recall battle at Musa Qala

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

48 minutes ago

For the 600 paratroopers who air assaulted into northern Helmand province – the world’s largest opium poppy growing region – the Dec. 8 sunrise ambush was the first volley in what battalion commander Lt. Col. Brian Mennes said was almost 72 hours of continuous fighting.

On Dec. 11, after U.S. troops had closed in on Musa Qala’s outskirts, Afghan soldiers poured into town, allowing NATO and Afghan officials to say the country’s fledgling army had retaken the Taliban-held enclave, a major symbolic victory.

But American troops still stationed in Musa Qala more than a month after the battle said they in fact did the majority of the fighting, and some chafed a bit that U.S., NATO and Afghan officials downplayed their role.

8 Three killed in Kenya clashes with opposition defiant

By Tim Cocks and Nick Tattersall, Reuters

Sun Jan 20, 10:17 AM ET

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Attackers hacked three people to death with machetes in a slum in Kenya’s capital on Sunday in ethnic clashes triggered by President Mwai Kibaki’s disputed re-election last month, witnesses said.

Armed police chased away youths in Nairobi’s Huruma neighborhood, whose name means “mercy” in Swahili, and some residents started to leave with their belongings on their heads.

“I saw three people dead, killed by pangas (machetes), slashed on the head, cuts on the back and a hand chopped off,” said Samuel Oduor, 22, a freelance cameraman.

9 Mortars fired as new Somali PM arrives in Mogadishu

By Aweys Yusuf and Abdi Sheikh, Reuters

Sun Jan 20, 11:00 AM ET

MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Gunmen fired mortars at the Somali president’s house on Sunday, hours after the country’s new prime minister arrived in Mogadishu for the first time since he was sworn in last November, a presidential aide said.

“At least five mortar rounds have been fired at the president’s house, where the prime minister is now staying, but they missed,” the aide told Reuters on condition of anonymity. He did not know of any casualties.

The attack also coincided with the arrival of 440 soldiers from Burundi, only the second nation after Uganda to contribute to an African Union peacekeeping force trying to bring order to the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

10 Georgia and Russia pledge better ties at inauguration

By Margarita Antidze and Niko Mchedlishvili, Reuters

Sun Jan 20, 10:42 AM ET

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia and Russia pledged to repair their tattered relationship on Sunday after Mikhail Saakashvili was sworn in as Georgian president, the first concrete sign of an improvement.

But a few kilometers from the ceremony in a scruffy field around 80,000 people marked the inauguration with the largest protest yet against a January 5 presidential election which they say Saakashvili rigged.

Outside Georgia’s parliament Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov joined foreign envoys and hundreds of ordinary Georgians to watch Saakashvili’s swearing-in, the highest-ranking Kremlin official to visit Tbilisi since a spy row in October 2006 which sparked a breakdown in ties.

11 Kenyan Refugees, With Hatred in Tow

By ALEXIS OKEOWO/KAMPALA AND NAIROBI, Time Magazine

53 minutes ago

More than 6,000 Kenyans have fled since last month’s disputed presidential elections erupted into violence. For more than two weeks, Kenyan towns have suffered mass riots and looting, more than 600 people have been killed and a qaurter of a million have been uprooted. The refugees bring horror stories of torched homes, murdered family members and bloodthirsty mobs. Ethnic clashes between the tribes loyal to incumbent President Mwai Kibaki, a Kikuyu, and opposition leader Raila Odinga, a Luo, have been a particularly ugly aspect of the post-poll conflict. Ugandan authorities say they have been forced to separate refugees by tribe due to simmering tensions.

From Yahoo News U.S. News

12 Analysis: Universities overproduce Ph.Ds

By JUSTIN POPE, AP Education Writer

58 minutes ago

College students are getting a raw deal, a recent New York report asserted. The problem is they’re taking too many classes from part-time, or adjunct, professors.

But that same report unwittingly revealed something about how higher education is more culpable than it likes to admit when it comes to creating the problem.

The issue is a huge one in higher education far beyond New York, with about half of the nation’s college faculty now on part-time contracts. Adjuncts are cheaper for colleges, but they often lack the time and resources for focused teaching, and research shows students’ performance suffers if they are taught by part-timers too often.

13 Carbon Disclosure Project to assess world business CO2 footprint

AFP

2 hours, 57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a consortium of 315 top institutional investors assessing industries about their CO2 emissions, announced Sunday a new partnership to extend its global initiative to companies and suppliers.

With members including Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Allianz and HSBC that manage assets of more than 41 trillion dollars, CDP since late 2007 has been working with some of the world’s largest companies to help them assess greenhouse gas emissions through their supply chains, said its CEO Paul Dickinson.

“The Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration (SCLC) is a key step towards a unified business approach to climate change,” he said on announcing the new partnership.

From Yahoo News Politics

14 GOP primary a toss-up in Florida

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer

Sun Jan 20, 11:31 AM ET

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – So close to Republican hearts, Florida is a state of bewilderment for the party now.

Its changing population, shifting political alliances and states-within-a-state diversity make it a wild card in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, and a card that matters. The state that gave new meaning to elections too close to call is playing its unpredictable self again.

Quite by design, Florida now finds itself in play after years of little impact in nomination contests.

15 GOP presidential race turns to Florida

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 20 minutes ago

MIAMI – The Republican presidential race turned to Florida on Sunday, ever more chaotic and contentious as four candidates began a 10-day sprint to win the state and momentum heading into the de facto national primary next month.

A fifth candidate, Fred Thompson, weighed the future of his bid after a disappointing third-place finish in South Carolina.

With Florida next in the nomination fight, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney wasted no time angling for the upper-hand. They heaped criticism on John McCain, the Arizona senator coming off hard-fought New Hampshire and South Carolina victories, hours before he arrived in Miami.

16 McCain says will do well in Florida

By Steve Holland

Sun Jan 20, 11:43 AM ET

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate John McCain predicted on Sunday he would do well in the Florida primary election this month after winning South Carolina and took a swipe at rival Rudy Giuliani.

McCain, buoyant after winning on Saturday in the first contest in the U.S. South as voters choose candidates for the November presidential election, said he expected to get a boost of momentum from the victory.

“I still think this is very competitive,” the Arizona senator said at a news conference.

17 US rejects Japan request over fuel use in ‘war on terror’: report

AFP

Sun Jan 20, 1:46 AM ET

TOKYO (AFP) – The United States has rejected a request by Japan that it verify Tokyo’s contribution to the US-led “war on terror” in Afghanistan is not used for military operations in Iraq, a report said Sunday.

Japan on Thursday ordered two naval ships back to the Indian Ocean after parliament forced through the resumption of the mission to provide fuel and other support to coalition forces operating in Afghanistan.

Ahead of the resumption, scheduled for mid-February, Japan and the United States are making arrangements to exchange documents on details of support later this month, according to Kyodo News service.

But Washington disagreed with Japan’s plan to include provisions that would enable Tokyo to verify what the fuel was being used for, Kyodo reported, quoting unnamed sources close to Japan-US relations.

18 NATO tensions surface amid growing pressure in Afghanistan

by Pascal Mallet, AFP

Sun Jan 20, 3:41 AM ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Tensions between NATO allies, notably with the United States, and doubts about the powers of a new UN envoy are a sign of growing pressure as the alliance struggles in Afghanistan, experts say.

A new peak was reached last week, when US Defense Secretary Robert Gates hit out at allied operations against Taliban fighters in south Afghanistan, which led to the Netherlands summoning the US ambassador for an explanation.

“The bitter criticism by Gates of the way that close US allies like Britain are conducting anti-insurgency operations is the sign of growing anger with the Europeans in Washington,” said Joseph Herontin at the RMES network of strategic studies in Brussels.

19 Iran, Pakistan to be at the heart of Rice’s Europe trip

by Sylvie Lanteaume, AFP

2 hours, 27 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice begins in Berlin on Tuesday a new tour of Europe expected to focus on the nuclear standoff with Iran and Pakistan’s political turmoil.

In Germany’s capital, Rice will meet with her counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China to discuss a proposal to impose new sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt its disputed nuclear program.

Washington and its European Union allies are pushing for a third set of United Nations sanctions against Iran for defying international demands that it stop uranium enrichment activities that they fear could be used to make a bomb.

China and Russia, which have important trade relations with the Islamic republic, have been reluctant to back any more punitive measures.

20 Republican lawmaker Hunter abandons bid for White House

AFP

51 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Republican long-shot candidate Duncan Hunter on Saturday dropped out of the race for his party’s presidential nomination after a poor showing in the Nevada caucuses, his campaign said in a statement on Saturday.

“Today we end this campaign,” the California lawmaker said in the statement.

“I ran the campaign exactly the way I wanted to, and at this point not being able to gain traction in conservative states of Nevada and South Carolina, it’s time to allow our volunteers and supporters to focus on the campaigns that remain viable,” he said.

From Yahoo News Business

21 Wall Street braces for more volatility

By MADLEN READ, AP Business Writer

1 hour, 55 minutes ago

NEW YORK – With Wall Street falling precipitously almost by the day, investors are asking what it will take to revive it. Market experts are increasingly coming to the same answer: Time.

There is no piece of economic data, no corporate earnings report, no move by the Federal Reserve and no government tax plan that will be able to soothe the market’s anxiety in the next couple weeks over the weakening economy.

That’s not to say the stock market will keep plunging the way it has been. To be sure, bargain hunters will likely see Wall Street’s recent slides as buying opportunities, particularly if encouraging news comes along like a hefty interest rate cut or better-than-expected profits at the nation’s big-name companies.

22 China real estate brokers face slowdown

By ELAINE KURTENBACH, AP Business Writer

1 hour, 25 minutes ago

SHANGHAI, China – After booming in recent years, China’s real estate market is finally beginning to feel the pinch from sagging demand and tighter controls.

One of China’s biggest real estate agencies, Chuanghui Real Estate, has shuttered dozens of outlets in Shanghai and other cities, leaving behind angry customers and employees, following an ill-timed expansion just as the market was peaking.

Several other agencies around the country also have closed down or scaled back.

23 Mexican housing booms despite US crisis

By THERESA BRADLEY, Associated Press Writers

1 hour, 40 minutes ago

MEXICO CITY – In her bustling corner real estate brokerage, Ana Laura Pulido is doing her best business in years, enjoying a sort of Mexican immunity from the U.S. housing crash.

“It’s a time of hope,” said Pulido, who has sold hundreds of homes to middle-income families since 1992. “The buyer today is more aware. People buy with more ease. They can plan long-term.”

Long thrashed by swings in the U.S. economy, Mexico now boasts a thriving housing sector whose record growth leads Latin America – a sign of increased economic stability and an outlet for investors looking to escape the U.S. downturn.

24 Report: Sears to reorganize into units

Associated Press

Sun Jan 20, 7:53 AM ET

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – Sears Holdings Corp. plans to reorganize into several companies in another bid to pull the ailing 121-year-old retailer out the doldrums, according to a report published Saturday.

The restructuring could create separate units to manage Sears real-estate holdings and run brands such as Diehard and Craftsman, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Edward Lampert, the hedge fund kingpin and Sears Holdings chairman, sees the move as a way to revitalize the company in the face of tough competition from companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the newspaper said, citing unnamed people familiar with the situation.

25 Siemens to get SEC graft case data in months: paper

Reuters

Sun Jan 20, 7:18 AM ET

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Siemens (SIEGn.DE) hopes to know within months exact details of a corruption case that the U.S. markets watchdog SEC has come to view as the biggest in history, Siemens Chairman Gerhard Cromme was quoted as saying.

Fresh allegations have emerged from a program that granted amnesty to company whistleblowers, forcing the German conglomerate last week to postpone a shareholder vote, set for Thursday, ratifying management’s performance.

Only Peter Loescher, who became chief executive last July, has won a clean bill of health in the probe of suspect practices, including allegations employees used slush funds to pay billions of dollars of bribes in return for contracts.

26 China is not decoupling from U.S. economy: central banker

Reuters

Sun Jan 20, 1:04 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s central bank on Sunday poured cold water on the idea that the country’s economy can decouple from the United States.

China’s exports will be badly hit if U.S. consumption weakens, Zhang Tao, deputy head of the international department of the People’s Bank of China, told a financial forum.

Figures due this week are expected to show that China’s gross domestic product grew more than 11 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007 from a year earlier, despite a deepening U.S. credit crunch.

27 Virgin to sweeten Northern Rock deal: report

Reuters

Sun Jan 20, 11:30 AM ET

LONDON/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Virgin Group will try to win over shareholders with a sweetened bid for Northern Rock on the eve of a speech by the British Chancellor to Parliament about the struggling UK bank, an unsourced Sunday Times report said.

Chancellor Alistair Darling is set to tell the House of Commons on Monday he will give bidders for Northern Rock (NRK.L)

— Virgin, investment group Olivant and an in-house proposal from its own management — two weeks to present their financing plans and their management teams, the Sunday Times said.

28 British PM, Richard Branson deny secret deal on Northern Rock

AFP

Sun Jan 20, 11:49 AM ET

NEW DELHI (AFP) – British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Sunday he was not secretly negotiating the future of troubled bank Northern Rock with Virgin boss Richard Branson, who was travelling with him in India.

Brown, speaking to reporters in New Delhi, rejected suggestions made back home that Branson’s inclusion in the prime minister’s delegation for his trip to China and India meant the pair were coming to a “cosy arrangement.”

“I can reassure people entirely that any negotiations about Northern Rock will be taking place in London,” he told a press conference, adding that all options remained on the table, including nationalisation.

29 Anti-Nokia backlash grows in Germany

by Yannick Pasquet, AFP

Sun Jan 20, 11:31 AM ET

BERLIN (AFP) – Anti-Nokia anger in Germany for closing a factory is growing with politicians publicly ditching the firm’s phones and joining calls for a national boycott in Europe’s largest economy.

The Finnish mobile phone giant said on Tuesday it plans to close the factory in Bochum in the Ruhr industrial heartland and shift production to Romania where labour costs are lower. The closure will result in 2,300 job losses.

Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck, from the left wing party in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition, attacked what he called Nokia’s “caravan capitalism.”

30 Despite ECB threats, a new interest rate hike is unlikely: analysts

by Isabelle Le Page, AFP

Sat Jan 19, 11:07 PM ET

FRANKFURT (AFP) – The European Central bank threatens to raise interest rates to parry inflation risks but its next move will probably be a cut owing to a global economic slowdown, analysts say.

Declarations by senior ECB directors known for conservative monetary stances reinforced last week the majority of economists who exclude any new monetary tightening in the 15-nation eurozone.

The president of the German central bank, Axel Weber, said Wednesday that one should not “over-dramatize” a recent inflation increase to a six-and-a-half year high of 3.1 percent.

31 India software giants wary of US slowdown

by Anil Penna, AFP

Sun Jan 20, 5:01 AM ET

BANGALORE, India (AFP) – India’s major software firms say a US economic slowdown may bring more customers seeking cost savings, but analysts warn that the once red-hot sector faces tough times in 2008.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies and Wipro, whose latest earnings were hit by a sharp gain in the rupee against the dollar and the US credit crunch, expect clients to send more work to low-cost India even as they pare overall technology budgets.

Wipro, which reported fiscal third-quarter earnings on Friday, said most clients had prepared their 2008 budgets this month and that some had cut information-technology spending.

From Yahoo News Science

32 Environmentalists fall out over anti-whaling tactics

AFP

Sat Jan 19, 10:47 PM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – A militant anti-whaling group trying to stop Japanese hunters in the icy Southern Ocean on Sunday accused rival Greenpeace of “ocean posing” after it refused to hand over the coordinates of the fleet.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said it was forced to move away from the area by Australian officials aboard a customs vessel late last week when it made a rendezvous to pick up two of its activists rescued from a Japanese whaling ship.

As a result it lost track of the fleet, its chief Paul Watson told AFP from the society’s ship the Steve Irwin.

33 Conservation group cries ‘scandal’ over French plans for fish quotas

AFP

Sun Jan 20, 10:52 AM ET

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Global conservation group WWF described as a “scandal” Sunday suggestions by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that EU fishing quotas be eased, saying the limits must if anything be toughened.

“If Mr Sarkozy’s idea is to soften the system to increase fishing opportunities, that’s a scandal,” Charles Braine, WWF’s fisheries specialist, told AFP.

Faced with complaints about quotas and the high price of diesel, Sarkozy told some 300 fishermen Saturday that he would tackle the issue when his country takes over the European Union’s rotating presidency in July.

34 EU plans to charge for pollution rights ruffle feathers

AFP

2 hours, 29 minutes ago

BRUSSELS (AFP) – EU plans to make companies pay for the right to pollute have come under fierce fire from governments and industry, warning they could force business and jobs to leave Europe.

As part of a broad strategy for fighting climate change, the European Commission is to unveil plans on Wednesday to make companies pay for tradeable carbon emissions quotas.

The quotas are the cornerstone of the European Union’s emissions trading scheme, under which nearly 12,000 energy-intensive plants can buy or sell emissions credits, which EU governments currently hand out for free.

From Yahoo News Travel

35 Amtrak Deal With Union Averts Strike

By KAREN MAHABIR, Associated Press Writer

Fri Jan 18, 12:00 PM ET

WASHINGTON – Amtrak reached a deal with nine labor unions averting a possible strike at the end of this month, the passenger railroad announced Friday.

But people familiar with the labor agreement, speaking on condition of anonymity because the details had not been formally announced, said it adopts the recommendations of a presidential emergency board report issued Dec. 30. The board recommended Amtrak grant back wages to its workers, and the report triggered a 30-day countdown until a strike became legal.

Amtrak, which depends heavily on federal subsidies, was concerned about how it would afford the back wages, which would average nearly $13,000 per employee. The railroad had offered to give each worker a lump signing bonus of $4,500 instead of back pay.

36 New border rules may mean longer lines

By EILEEN SULLIVAN and DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press

Fri Jan 18, 10:26 AM ET

WASHINGTON – New border-crossing rules that take effect in two weeks will mean longer lines and stiffer demands for ID, including for returning Americans, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.

A driver’s license won’t be good enough to get Americans past a checkpoint at the Canadian or Mexican border, Chertoff said. That will be a surprise to many people who routinely cross the border with Canada, but Chertoff bristled at criticism that such extra security would be inconvenient. More than 800,000 people enter the U.S. through land and sea ports each day.

“It’s time to grow up and recognize that if we’re serious about this threat, we’ve got to take reasonable, measured but nevertheless determined steps to getting better security,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Picture Impressions

I have said before I get psychic impressions from pictures.  It has to be a first impression, a sort of mirror of the soul experience.  Alberto Gonzales, Leo Strauss, John Yoo gave the the absolute creeps upon seeing their photos for the very first time.

Well I have viewed a video of this guy I will not name yet.  I get no such evil impressions from.  They have destroyed him, his life and his name.

A few quotes.

“Pull the curtain on the man in the Wizard of Oz”.

“It hasn’t changed anything”.  Zapruder film of JFK.

“How to approach”. (See previous sentence)

It is dated, ancient history by todays’ “news” standards but well worth a look.

http://www.brasschecktv.com/pa…

Brasschecktv comes up as registered to godaddy.com and little else.  I don’t care as it’s far more entertaining than most “media”.

Phoenix

There are so many excellent essays here at Docudharma:

davidseth’s: Remembering Dr. King’s True Legacy

NLinStPaul’s:  A Better Way

OPOL’s:  A Gentle Reminder

Jimstaro’s: Peace History – This Past Week

are a few I read this morning.  Please check out the list on the sidebar, this weekend’s been a all-header for stories.  @;-)

I am taken with the ideas, experience and hard truths that are offered here as a matter of routine.  There aren’t often essays calling for someone else to provide “leadership;” there are however many essays about “calls” that individuals have answered and are in the process of answering. Just as in the Hero’s Journey stories of myth, only right now- real people- in real time.

I am struck with how much work is being accomplished as much as I am struck by the enormous amount of work there is yet to even begin.

So, in the spirit of encouragement, I offer a poem that I wrote (and was fortunate to see published) in 2001.  It is the story of the bird of rebirth, the Phoenix, who rises from its own ashes on the fabled Ben-Ben stone only once every 500 years.  In most myths, the bird is solitary, he/she has no leader, has no followers, has no companions.  I like to think that we all are our own Phoenix, but while our journeys are often conducted alone, we now have the opportunity to share the inspiration from our own experiences of ‘rising out of the ashes’ with other Phoenixes from not only around the country, but from around the world.  I like to think that the millions of us on our own journeys see each other, flap our wings, and know that individually together, we are changing our worlds.

In honor of your own Phoenix:

Flight

Red-feathered head –

you fly the Royal Road,

drop fire seeds

along ley lines like

jewels stolen

from Dragon.

In time of dark light

I follow you:

Find wings

of dark rain lace,

place them

over my shoulders,

fly the gentle curve of moon –

bones of your memory

now pearls.

KJ, 2001

On the frozen tundra, asking an end to war

There are no photos of this week’s Iraq Moratorium vigil in downtown Milwaukee.  The battery in the digital camera froze.

About 40 people turned out in the bitter cold, and marched with flags, banners, signs and drums past City Hall, then gathered on four corners of the main downtown intersection.

“I was feeling a little wimpy, like maybe it was too cold to come, but I decided that if 70,000 people could go to the Packers game Sunday, when it will be colder than this, I could come out here for an hour to try to stop the war,” one vigiler said.

The tundra was frozen in Hayward, a city of 2,200 in northwestern Wisconsin which has led the nation in percentage of the population turning out for Iraq Moratorium vigils.  Attendance was down from the high of 83 in December, but, as one of the organizers reports on the scene below:

 

24 determined, (and half crazy!) peace supporters braved 20 below zero windchills to stand for an hour in observance of Iraq Moratorium Day #5. We had mostly encouraging responses from motorists who seemed both delighted, and incredulous, at our presence on the street corner.

At 4:45 p.m. some folks suggested that we knock off early due to the bitterly cold winds, but a couple of hardcore skier/peace types shouted, “No! We came to stand for an hour, and for an hour we’ll stand!” We hunkered down, and at 5 p.m. sharp a great cheer went up as we headed for the warmth of vehicles that had been idling for half an hour in the parking lot. See you in February!!

That’s hard core.



Those are among the reports beginning to trickle in to the Iraq Moratorium website in the wake of Friday’s actions, numbering about 90 across the country.  Typically, many more will be posted during the coming week, many with photos and videos.

In Mountain View, California, where the weather was a bit warmer, the Raging Grannies Action League “welcomed” a new armed forces recruiting station to the neighborhood — and let the recruiters know they were invading the Grannies’ turf.  “Killing and Dying is not a career,” the Grannies said.

Iraq Moratorium #6 falls on February 15, the Third Friday of the month.  Now’s the time to start planning, and share your plans and ideas with others at IraqMoratorium.org

P.S. — Go Pack!

My Covert Media Op to Save Public Hospitals

(gotta love her moxy…   – promoted by pfiore8)

In early December, I diaried a proposed Medicaid Rules change, which, if it goes into effect in May as scheduled, will result in draconian cuts to public and teaching hospitals.  This is a non-partisan issue: the US v. the Bush Administration.  Representatives Eliot Engel (D-NY) and Sue Myrick (R-NC)  have introduced HR 3533, the Preserve Our Public and Teaching Hospitals Act into the house to block the odious rules change.  Senators Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Elizabeth Dole (R-NC)have attemtped to introduce a moratorium on the rule in the senate.

Unfortunately, the good guys have not been able to muster the votes to extend an existing moratorium on the rules change, which would spare our frayed public health care infrastructure a possibly mortal blow for at least another year.

There can be no doubt that Bushco is using post Katrina New Orleans as a model for healthcare in America.  If you recall, one of the first initiatives of reconstruction was the elimination of Charity Hospital, the primary refuge of New Orleans’ poor.  I live in a very large rural state.  There are only three urban areas in our entire state.  If Bush’s proposal passes we could be eventually  left with only three to six hospitals in the state, leaving many residents without hospitals for hundreds of miles. What kind of sense does this make given that our “terrorist threat alert” never drops below orange ?

There is no chance this moratorium will succeed without public awareness.  I have been calling and emailing reporters in my state and Washington for six weeks without success. So far, the only press I have noticed is my own diary.  I have spoken several times with a reporter from McClatchy who says he will cover the topic once it becomes a crisis.  The others have not even been willing to return my calls.

I have decided to take matters into my own hands as a citizen journalist.  In early March, I am flying to DC where I will visit Time and WaPo, camcorder in tow, to ask why they are not covering this story.  A number of health officials from communities across the US will be in town pondering the impacts of the rules change at that time.  I will try to enlist a few to join me.  I will post diaries and videos informing you of my findings.

I am the Fat Lady and this is my song.  Please contact me at [email protected] if you would like to help.

A Better Way

Our local public libraries in this city are on the verge of hiring armed police officers and its not because they want them to have more reading time. These folks are scared of the young people who recently began spending more time in the libraries, primarily to get access to the internet. Our staff have been talking with folks at the libraries about alternatives to this plan, and I’m happy to tell you that the leadership is interested in hearing more.

We provided a training to some of the staff in the library across the street from us and it was well received. They report to us that after resorting to calling the cops at least once a week due to unruly behavior of kids in their library, since the training this summer, they have not called them once. They also told a wonderful story of just one of the changes they made. After the training they realized that many of the problems with young people began while they were waiting in line to get on a computer. With this information, they decided to place Sudoko puzzle books and a checkers set where kids were waiting in order to give them something to do. And, whala…problem solved.

Now maybe that’s just an interesting story in and of itself, but I think its also a metaphor about how we are making all the wrong choices in our fearful attempts to establish security in this world. Whether its a “lock ’em up” mentality to solve all social ills, a “build a wall” mentality in our immigration policy, or a “shoot ’em up” mentality in response to perceived international threats, we seem to keep playing the same old song, regardless of how ruinous the results.

The heart of the training we provided to library staff was based on research into parenting styles that breaks down approaches based on structure (demands) and responsiveness. Here’s a little summary:

Neglectful parents are neither responsive nor demanding. They do not support or encourage their child’s self-regulation, and they often fail to monitor or supervise the child’s behavior. They are uninvolved.

Permissive parents are responsive, warm, accepting, and child-centered, but non-demanding. They lack parental control.

Authoritarian parents are demanding, but not responsive. They show little trust toward their children, and their way of engagement is strictly adult-centered. These parents often fear losing control, and they discourage open communication.

Authoritative parents are demanding and responsive, controlling but not restrictive. This child-centered pattern includes high parental involvement, interest, and active participation in the child’s life; open communication; trust and acceptance; encouragement of psychological autonomy; and awareness of where children are, with whom, and what they are doing.

The librarians who went to the training realized that they were being permissive in ignoring problem behavior until it got out of control. Then, they brought in the authoritarians, or the cops, to threaten or use physical force to solve the problem. When they adopted the authoritative approach, they began to be responsive to the needs of the young people and looked for ways to solve the problem, all while being clear in their expectations about appropriate behavior.

So lets take a moment and apply these concepts to some of our current political issues. The neglectful people are not really in the game at this point. Perhaps that category can be applied to those in this country that continue to enjoy their lifestyle and keep their heads in the sand about what it is costing us in the world today.

Very often liberals are accused (rightly so in my mind) of being too permissive. There are justifiable criticisms of those who grant unqualified support to folks like Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Conservatives and libertarians also engage in a permissive style when they, like the librarians, ignore the roots of problem development and then react too late with an authoritarian show of force.

But perhaps the style that is most overwhelming in our political scene today is authoritarianism. The same type of response that says we need armed cops in libraries is what is driving our “global war on terrorism.” Its the knee-jerk thinking that a show of force will stop any kind of rebellion, no matter what the root causes. The lack of engagement in problem solving makes people think the only option is one of violence to stop the threat. And, as we are seeing in almost every sphere where it is used, ITS NOT WORKING.

The alternative is an authoritative approach – one that establishes expectations, engages in dialogue, and is responsive. So here’s something revolutionary for those folks in DC…we can say that blowing people up, whether its in NYC, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank, or Darfur is wrong. AND we can talk to people, observe the situations, learn from history, etc., and try to find solutions to the problems that are creating the violence. This does not have to be an either/or question.

As a small example, I recently wrote an essay about a man named Greg Mortenson who builds schools for kids in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Imagine the lives and money that could be saved if we truly wanted to join with the people of the Middle East and took the time to engage them over Three Cups of Tea.

And on a more grand scale, JFK expressed it so beautifully in his inaugural address.

A Gentle Reminder

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

This will probably step on a lot of toes around here but believe me, that is not my intent.  I just want to point out, to remind you as it were, that much of the passion being expended on the Presidential campaign is wasted emotion.  I want to tell you that the horse race, in which so many of you have invested so much, is really a rat race after all.  For all their happy crap none of the establishment candidates will serve our interests.

democratic-debate_MINE

Clinton has made a flat promise that the United States will “get out of Iraq” while she is president. She says she has a plan to “end the war” and “a definite timetable to bring our troops home.” On closer examination, it turns out that all these promises are so carefully hedged as to be virtually meaningless. There is no “definite timetable” to bring the troops home or end the war. She has said she “wants” to begin troop withdrawals in the first 60 days of her presidency-but has also talked about leaving a “vastly reduced residual force” in the country for “a limited period of time.”

Clinton’s pledge to “end the war” contains so much fine print that it is hardly a pledge at all, more a general aspiration. She has described several “vital U.S. national security interests” in that country, including fighting al-Qaeda, protecting the U.S. embassy, training Iraqi troops, protecting the Kurds, and countering the influence of Iran. She has refused to commit herself to pulling all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of a second presidential term.

Source

I’m not here to trash the three leading candidates, that’s been done to death, I am here to dismiss them.  All three of them voted for the Patriot Act, and none of them have called for its repeal.  Hillary and Obama have both sold out to the Military Industrial Complex pledging a larger military (for what is already the largest military machine in the world) and a continued occupation of Iraq, and Edwards says all the right things while doing all the wrong things (voted for No Child Left Behind, the Patriot Act and the Iraq War).

vote-to-authorize-war-in-Iraq_500

“My position is very clear: The time has come for decisive action to eliminate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction.  I’m a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Resolution that’s presently under consideration in the Senate.  Saddam Hussein’s regime is a grave threat to America and our allies.  We know that he has chemical and biological weapons today, that he’s used them in the past, and that he’s doing everything he can to build more.  Every day he gets closer to his long-term goal of nuclear capability.

Democracy will not spring up by itself overnight in a multi-ethnic, complicated society that’s suffered under one repressive regime after another for generations.  The Iraqi people deserve and need our help to rebuild their lives and to create a prosperous, thriving, open society.  All Iraqis, including Sunnis, Shia and Kurds, deserve to be represented.  This is not just a moral imperative.  It’s a security imperative.  It is in America’s national interest to help build an Iraq at peace with itself and its neighbors, because a democratic, tolerant and accountable Iraq will be a peaceful regional partner, and such an Iraq could serve as a model for the entire Arab world.”  

Senator John Edwards (Democrat, North Carolina)

Speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies

October 7, 2002

Source

My main point is that all of these candidates are firmly in the control of the Military Industrial Congressional Media Complex (to use the most modern terminology), and their election to the office of the Presidency (financed by said MICMC) will mean a change in style only.  There will be no change in substance.

MICC-_NEW_Media_500

It is conceivable that a significantly reduced U.S. force might remain in Iraq for a more extended period of time [if the Iraqi government fulfills a number of conditions, including disbanding militias and moving toward political reconciliation.] Such a reduced but active presence will also send a clear message to hostile countries like Iran and Syria that we intend to remain a key player in this region.

Obama, Nov 2006

Source

We will still have the ongoing illegal occupation of Iraq, a bogus war on terror, a bogus war on drugs, the highest rate of incarceration of any country in the world.  We will still spend more on bombs, bullets and missiles than all other nations combined, we will still be the largest merchant of the weapons of death and destruction, and the rich will still get richer while the poor get poorer.

It’s nothing short of pathetic that the Democrats can’t hear our cries for justice, an end to the bullshit war in Iraq, or impeachment for the criminal thugs currently being allowed to run our government and ruin our nation.  But they expect to be heard when they come to us for votes and money.  What gall these hypocritical bastards have!  And how pathetic is it that we still respond to them, as if they hadn’t just handed us the cruelest fucking of our lives?

All of these sorry rat bastards have allowed Bush and Cheney to do what they have done.  They are up to their elbows in the raping of America, the pillaging of the Treasury and the mugging of Iraq.  They have enabled Bushco at every juncture.  They are all culpable.

“They are not your friends.”

Mike Stark

If you believe a single campaign promise made by any of these hypocrites, you are hopelessly naïve and will no doubt be shocked to learn that you have been screwed (yet) again.

Exhibit A in the drive by both Obama and Edwards to “clean up” Washington is their refusal to accept “a dime” from “Washington lobbyists.” It distinguishes them clearly from their chief Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, who has raked in more than $500,000 from the lobbying industry this year, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (website is opensecrets.org) But it turns out that both Edwards and Obama have adopted a narrow definition of the word lobbyist, which raises questions about the effectiveness of their campaign.

They still take money from state lobbyists.

They make no attempt to distinguish between lobbyists for big corporations and lobbyists for small non-profits. They treat a lobbyist for Haliburton in the same way as a lobbyist for child poverty or cancer research.

They accept money from former lobbyists and future lobbyists.

As Clinton has pointed out, her rivals have no problem taking money from the people who pay the lobbyists, and give them their “marching orders.” (ABC News debate, August 19, 2007.)

They have no problem about taking money from people representing other “special interests,” e.g. trial lawyers and the hedge fund industry.

So far this year, according to Opensecrets.org, Edwards has taken more than $8 million from lawyers and law firms, some of whom employ the federally-registered lobbyists whose lucre he refuses to touch. Obama is not far behind: $7.5 million. (Clinton has taken $9.2 million.)

Obama has emphasized that he does not take money from PhRMA, the powerful lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry. On the other hand, he does not seem to mind taking money from senior employees of PhRMA members, such as Pfizer and Eli Lilly. Campaign finance records show that he has raised about $250,000 in pharmaceutical-related contributions this year. (Clinton collected $269,000.) He has also not been averse to helping out Illinois-based pharmaceutical companies with “tariff suspensions.”

Source

Whichever of the three leading candidates becomes President, I predict the day soon will come when you smack yourself on the forehead and exclaim, “I could’ve voted for Kucinich!”

“Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.”

Noam Chomsky

Impeach-Them-All

Peace History – This Past Week

Below you will find abit about the History of this Planet that makes for such a turbulent World to live in, from one of the many sites, found on the web and before that, and still, in the many history books written to supposedly help us humans remember and not repeat the failed policies and actions of the past.

These track the importance of what man does, the failures and the recognition, leading to the  actions, or lack of, of many trying to right the wrongs to bring about a better World to exist in and leave a better World for those that follow.

We Fail Miserably in the study of the past, as we repeat the wrongs, more than the rights, over and over, while creating more wrongs!

One of the reasons for this post is a day, listed below, that is just one of the many wrongs that has led us to what is happening in the most reason history to the present. I’ll point that day out at the bottom.

The little button with a BIG message


This Week in History is a collection designed to help us appreciate the fact that we are part of a rich history advocating peace and social justice. While the entries often focus on large and dramatic events there are so many smaller things done everyday to promote peace and justice.

To the real peace advocates – YOU!

This week at a glance.

Monday

Jan 14

•Treaty of Paris

•Draft found constitutional

•Rights and jobs for blacks

•Elected state rep refused his seat

•Ukraine shuns all nuclear weapons

•ELF Project protest arrests

A. Philip Randolph, president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (and widely considered de facto chief spokesperson for the African American working class) called for a march on Washington, demanding racial integration of the military and equal access to defense-industry jobs.

“On to Washington, ten thousand black Americans!” Randolph urged. He said in the fight to “stop discrimination in National Defense…While conferences have merit, they won’t get desired results by themselves.”

Tuesday

Jan 15

•Happy Birthday, Martin

A day on, not a day off

•Jeannette Rankin Brigade

•Fish-in trial

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. The son of a Baptist pastor, he followed in his father’s footsteps, then went on to lead the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and ’60s, and to speak out against the Vietnam war.

In 1955 Dr. King organized the first major protest of the civil rights movement: the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. Influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, he advocated nonviolent civil disobedience to end racial segregation. The peaceful protests he led throughout the American South were often met with violence and arrest, but King and his followers persisted.

His inspiration, leadership and eloquence helped tens of millions claim the fundamental rights of citizenship, and changed the face of a nation.

A selected bibliography on and about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Since 1986, the third Monday in January has been designated a federal holiday honoring the greatness and sacrifice of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A chronology:

April 4, 1968 Dr. King was assassinated. Shortly thereafter, U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan) introduced legislation to create a federal holiday to commemorate Dr. King’s life and work.

January, 1973 Illinois became the first state to adopt MLK Day as a state holiday.

January, 1983 Rep. Conyers’s law was passed after 15 years

January, 1986 The United States first officially observed the federal King Day holiday.

January, 1987 Arizona Governor Evan Mecham rescinded state recognition of MLK Day as his first act in office, setting off a national boycott of the state.

January, 1993 Martin Luther King Day holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.

Brief biography of Dr. King

Wednesday

Jan 16

•Joan Baez

sentenced

• Shah forced into exile

•El Salvadoran civil war ends

•Greenpeace acts for nuclear-free oceans

Faced with strikes, violent demonstrations, an army mutiny and clerical opposition to his repressive rule, the Shah of Iran, its hereditary monarch since 1941, was forced to flee the country. He had been installed in a CIA- and British-engineered 1953 coup which overthrew elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq. Mossadeq’s government had voted to nationalize Iran’s oil industry, displacing the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

The U.S. gave substantial and continuous military and intelligence support to the Shah throughout his regime. Despite having imposed martial law the previous October, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi fled the Peacock Throne for Egypt and, later, the U.S. for medical care. Following the subsequent revolutionary overthrow, an Islamist state under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was established.

Chronology of Iran in the 20th century

more about the Shah

Thursday

Jan 17

•U.S. takes control of Hawaii

•100 years of U.S. control

•Ike gives fair warning

•La Raza Unida

•Half million say no to Iraq War


In frigid temperatures, 500,000 converged on Washington, D.C. to oppose the U.S. war on Iraq – the largest U.S. peace demonstration since the Vietnam era.

Friday

Jan 18

•WWI Paris Peace Conference

•The smell of Agent Orange in the morning

•McGovern runs against Vietnam war

•U.S. refuses to face World Court


U.S. began spraying herbicides on foliage in Vietnam to eliminate jungle canopy cover for Viet Cong guerrillas (a policy known as “territory denial”). The U.S. dropped more than 20 million gallons of such defoliants, sparking charges the United States was violating international treaties against using chemical weapons. Many of the herbicides, particularly Agent Orange, manufactured by Dow Chemical, Monsanto and others, were later found to cause birth defects and otherwise rare forms of cancer in humans.

Agent Orange: An Ongoing Atrocity

Saturday

Jan 19

•Julian Bond refused his seat

•March against 1st Gulf war


The Georgia State House of Representatives refused to seat black state representative Julian Bond despite his election the previous November.

Their stated objection was his endorsement of a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee statement accusing the United States of violating international law in Vietnam.

In December 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Bond’s exclusion unconstitutional, and Bond was finally sworn in the following month.

Sunday

Jan 20

•ACLU founded

•” Final Solution”

•Bush II inauguration protest


Nazi Party and German government officials arrived at what they called the “final solution to the Jewish question in Europe.”

They developed plans for the coordinated and systematic extermination of all Europe’s Jews during a meeting at a villa near Lake Wannsee in Berlin. Notes of the meeting recorded by Adolf Eichmann used vague terms such as “transportation to the east” or “evacuation to the east” (nach dem Osten abgeshoben). But at his trial for genocide Eichmann testified of the meeting that “the discussion covered killing, elimination, and annihilation.”

More on the Wannsee conference

You can look at the list above and find many comparisons to things happening today, or in the recent past.

I won’t give the History of what led up to this day, January 16 1979, I leave it to you, if you don’t know, to research on your own. But scroll back up and find out more about our failed policies concerning the installation of our wants into anothers country, taking down a Democratically Elected leader, and Installing the Shah of Iran!

While you research the Shah, or before, you may want to view this video of our Good Friend, Saddam, Thanks For The Memories. This was put together by Eric, over at Bush Flash, it now seems so long ago, directly after our Illegal Invasion of an Innocent Country, well before the YouTubes though. Oh you can research the information Eric put together as well, it’s History.

You also should study more about the Mujahadeen and their fight against the Illegal Invasion, by the Soviets, into Afganistan. As the U.S. were their major Arms Dealer of Weapons of Mass Destruction helping them Defeat the Soviet invasion, the invasion and bloody war helping in the final collapse of that union, and what the U.S. promised but never delivered once the Soviets left.

Many should also Study the complete History of the Whole Region, especially as to how these Nation States came about to their present forms!

History repeats and repeats and repeats……………., only the names change, lessons never learned, as the few try to better the past players!

Remembering Dr. King’s True Legacy

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Photobucket

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King recognized the importance and validity of direct action as a tactic in his Letter from the Birmingham Jail:

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent-resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half-truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, we must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.

In honor of Dr. King and in light of the past 7 years and the horrendous list of illegal, unconstitutional acts by the Government, a list that I will not bother to recount here, I think it’s time for us to reconsider the role that direct action can now play in restoring America to its most Democratic, humane, and decent principles.

Creating of constructive, nonviolent tension even in the face of threats of extremist violence is Dr. King’s true legacy.  My hope is that in honor of his birth we will find the courage to do as he would have.

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

(Young) Rascals



It’s a Beautiful Morning



People Got to Be Free



I’ve Been Lonely Too Long



Good Lovin

Please do not recommend a Pony Party when you see one.  There will be another along in a few hours.

Docudharma Times Sunday January 20

This Thread is Open: Never to be foreclosed

Sunday’s Headlines: Overseas Investors Buy U.S. Holdings at a Record Pace: Caucus training prepares participants to spread the love: Violence fear over Islam film: China hushes up Olympic deaths: Tijuana’s new chief knows the cartel’s killers are after him: Ex-child soldier’s literary bestseller is ‘factually flawed’

McCain Beats Huckabee in S. Carolina; Clinton and Romney Win in Nevada

Florida Now Looms as Key GOP Primary

Sunday, January 20, 2008; Page A01

COLUMBIA, S.C., Jan. 19 — Sen. John McCain conquered the South Carolina Republican primary Saturday, giving his once-embattled presidential campaign another significant boost and helping to wipe away bitter memories of his defeat here eight years ago.

McCain (Ariz.) opened his victory speech in Charleston by alluding to that loss. “It took us a while, but what’s eight years among friends?” he said, a big smile crossing his face.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, looking for a victory in the first Southern primary of the 2008 nomination battle, finished second to McCain, but not getting a victory in this conservative state is a blow to his underdog hopes of winning the GOP nomination.

Just one more year! Good riddance to George W Bush

But what kind of mess will the next president inherit, exactly 12 months from today? By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

Arabia is the land of illusion and desert mirages. And as he jetted last week from kingdom to sheikdom, to be regaled with feasts and falcons, jewels and ornamental swords, George Bush might have imagined that all was well with his presidency. But this, his longest and most ambitious trip to the Middle East, will surely be remembered – if it is remembered at all – as a gaudy, irrelevant footnote to a presidency that has long since failed.

Today is a sombre milestone, marking the start of the last of Mr Bush’s eight years in the White House. This being a leap year, exactly 366 days remain until 20 January 2009, when his successor will be sworn into office. It is a time when incumbents look to their legacies. And for this President the view could scarcely be bleaker.

USA

Overseas Investors Buy U.S. Holdings at a Record Pace

Last May, a Saudi Arabian conglomerate bought a Massachusetts plastics maker. In November, a French company established a new factory in Adrian, Mich., adding 189 automotive jobs to an area accustomed to layoffs. In December, a British company bought a New Jersey maker of cough syrup.

For much of the world, the United States is now on sale at discount prices. With credit tight, unemployment growing and worries mounting about a potential recession, American business and government leaders are courting foreign money to keep the economy growing. Foreign investors are buying aggressively, taking advantage of American duress and a weak dollar to snap up what many see as bargains, while making inroads to the world’s largest market.

Caucus training prepares participants to spread the love

By BRAD WONG

P-I REPORTER

Seattle-area supporters of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid sat patiently at an Aerospace Machinists lodge Saturday, listening and learning about helping the senator win the state’s Democratic caucus on Feb. 9.

Volunteer Jim Kainber advised them to use reason, passion and humor to sway supporters of other candidates to their side.”Treat it like you’re cruising for a date in your single days,” he joked.

With the state’s precinct-level caucus approaching, Democrats and Republicans gathered this weekend to review party caucus rules and chart plans to catapult their candidates to victory.

The delegates selected Feb. 9 proceed to larger caucus meetings in the state and eventually to the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

Europe

Violence fear over Islam film

Counter-terrorism alert as a Dutch right-winger launches a movie that will denounce the Koran

The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician who has threatened to broadcast images of the Koran being torn up and otherwise desecrated.

Cabinet ministers and officials, fearing a repetition of the crisis sparked by the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper two years ago, have held a series of crisis meetings and ordered counter-terrorist services to draw up security plans. Dutch nationals overseas have been asked to register with their embassies and local mayors in the Netherlands have been put on standby.

Rip off Monsieur Oliver? Moi? Non, says French chef

He tackles school dinners and has a restaurant called Fifteenth. But Cyril Lignac is no fan of Jamie’s ‘nosh’

Cyril Lignac became a celebrity chef in France by making a TV series in which he trained young, disadvantaged people to be chefs, then he tackled the issue of school food. He also has a restaurant called Le Quinzième, or Fifteenth. Sound familiar?

Mr Lignac, 30, agrees that he owes Jamie Oliver “a great deal”. Strange, then, that he has got into a row over remarks that appear to show disdain for the cheeky British chef whose TV formats he has copied. Recently he was quoted as dismissing Mr Oliver, two years his senior, as a “young bloke who makes nosh [tambouille]”. Unlike the Englishman, he implied, he was a “master chef”, trained in the great French gastronomic tradition.

But, in an interview, Mr Lignac denied the slights attributed to him by a French gastronomic website. “I never said that Jamie Oliver was ‘just a young bloke who makes nosh’,” he said. “Never.”

Asia

China hushes up Olympic deaths

At least 10 workers have been killed while working on the Olympic stadium but, in a rush to complete the project, Chinese officials have denied the deaths

CHINA has systematically covered up the accidental deaths of at least 10 workers, and perhaps many more, in a rush to construct the futuristic “bird’s nest” stadium in Beijing for this summer’s Olympic Games.

The estimates are drawn from dozens of interviews conducted over six months, under a guarantee of anonymity, with employees from the huge building site in a northern district of the capital.

Witnesses have told The Sunday Times of seeing workers plummet to their deaths from the perilous heights of the stadium, which was designed by a consortium including Arup, the British engineering firm, and Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architects.

Al-Qa’ida sent me to kill Bhutto, says teenager

A teenage suspect arrested in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas has told police that he was a member of a team sent by an al-Qa’ida-linked militant leader to kill the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto last month.

Aitezaz Shah, 15, had confessed to investigators he had been part of a five-man squad deployed on 27 December in Rawalpindi, where Ms Bhutto was killed, a senior intelligence official said. Shah said the killers were dispatched by Baitullah Mehsud, a militant leader from the South Waziristan region with strong ties to al-Qa’ida and an alliance with the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. Shortly after Ms Bhutto’s assassination, President Pervez Musharraf’s government said it had intercepted a phone call in which Mehsud congratulated the perpetrators. A spokesman for the leader denied the claim.

Latin America

Tijuana’s new chief knows the cartel’s killers are after him

They’ve already shot up his house and gunned down three cops. He urges citizens to stand with him.

TIJUANA — The bullet holes pockmarking the walls of his home were just three days old when Alberto Capella Ibarra took over the police force of this violence-plagued city.

Twenty gunmen dressed in black had swarmed his yard in the middle of the night, and he’d fought them off, firing an automatic rifle.

Taking office Dec. 1 as the city’s secretary for public security, Capella, a longtime activist, declared war on organized crime and challenged citizens to join him in the battle.

Even he had no idea it would get so bloody.

Seventeen people were killed last week as organized crime struck back. Last Monday night and Tuesday morning, heavily armed men killed three of Capella’s senior police officers, shooting one at his home along with his wife and two daughters.

Chavez warns banks on farm lending

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez threatened on Saturday to take control of banks that fail to meet state-imposed loaning requirements designed to benefit Venezuela’s farmers.

Chavez, who says he is leading Venezuela toward “21st century socialism,” accused many private banks of neglecting laws requiring them to set aside nearly a third of all loans for agriculture, mortgages and small businesses at favorable rates.

“The law must be applied,” Chavez said during a televised meeting with farmers. Any bank that doesn’t comply with these lending requirements “should be seized.”

Middle East

Hezbollah’s leader claims to have Israeli bodies

Comments in rare public appearance appear aimed at prisoner exchange

BEIRUT, Lebanon – Hezbollah’s reclusive leader claimed Saturday the militant group had the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon during the 2006 war, saying the dead were left behind “in our villages and fields.”

Sheik Hassan Nasrallah’s graphic description appeared aimed at pressuring Israel to accept a prisoner exchange. Israel is thought to be holding at least seven Lebanese prisoners while Hezbollah has two Israeli soldiers it captured in July 2006, triggering the war.

Iraqi Shiite festival escapes bloodshed

BAGHDAD – Hundreds of thousands of Shiite Muslims clambered aboard buses or began trekking homeward on foot Saturday at the end of Ashoura, a 10-day ritual to cleanse the spirit and scourge the body in honor of their founding saint.

The high holy days in Karbala passed absent the slaughter of pilgrims witnessed in the years since the U.S.-led invasion nearly half a decade ago, but militants did assault gatherings of Ashoura worshippers elsewhere.

Fearing a spectacular attack on the masses of self-flagellating faithful who marched on the shrines in Karbala, Iraqi authorities flooded the city with 30,000 police and soldiers. Soviet-made tanks guarded approach roads.

Africa

CHRONOLOGY-Kenya in crisis after disputed elections

Jan 19 (Reuters) – Five people hiding in a refugee camp in Kenya’s Rift Valley were killed on Saturday by opposition supporters in the latest flare-up of violence in one of the regions worst hit by ethnic killings.

Kenya’s opposition has said it will resume protests next week over a disputed election, just having finished three days of demonstrations in which at least 23 died.

Here is a chronology of the crisis:

Dec. 27 – Voters elect a new president and parliament. Most opinion polls put Kibaki’s opposition rival Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement in the lead.

Dec. 30 – The Electoral Commission of Kenya declares Kibaki winner of the election and he is hurriedly sworn in.

Ex-child soldier’s literary bestseller is ‘factually flawed’

The dates don’t add up, say critics of acclaimed book by orphaned survivor of Sierra Leone’s war

Barbara McMahon in Sydney

Sunday January 20, 2008

The Observer

He is a former child soldier whose account of being a cocaine-addicted killer forced to fight in Sierra Leone’s civil war was a literary sensation.

More than 600,000 people have bought Ishmael Beah’s memoir A Long Way Gone, which received rave reviews from authors such as William Boyd and Sebastian Junger, was marketed in Starbucks and which was number three in Time magazine’s top 10 non-fiction books last year.

Now an Australian newspaper suggests there may be serious flaws in the young man’s account of his life as a teenage killing machine, forced to become part of a government corps of boy soldiers before being rescued by Unicef, the UN’s children’s agency.

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