Just put Posting for Peace
in your headline banner on the 4th of July and write something about
why you are against the war, or post a drawing, or a photo. Whatever peace means to you. Be creative!
She says "Please let me know if you are interested in this and I'll add your link to my post."
This seems like a great opportunity for bloggers from all possible backgrounds to show our support for the soldiers and for ending our
nation's bloody and disasterous war in Iraq. Tell our government that we've tried "Bring It On" now it's time for "Bring em' Home".If you're
interested and/or have any questions about the details, please check
with Glenda.
Getting back to Glenda's original proposal for observing the 4th of
July: The original intention of the commemoration was to memorialize
the Declaration of Independence. It's the meaning of the words penned
by Jefferson that are at the basis for our remembrance not the
bloodshed of the Revolutionary War (or any other war). It's not a
birthday party. Independence Day is a celebration of the themes
Jefferson wrote about (and the Virginia Declaration of Rights before
him):
All men have inherent rights to life, liberty, and property All power is vested in the people Government is established to benefit, not rule the people
Leadership roles should not be hereditary
Legislative and Executive Powers should be separate and distinct
The principles of free elections
Government can not suspend laws without the consent of the people
The right to trial by jury and to confront witnesses
There should be no cruel and unusual punishment
Provisions to eliminate unlawful searches of persons or personal property
Trial by jury is preferable and should be held sacred
"Freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty"
A well regulated militia is required to defend a free state
People have a right to a uniform government
Free government is preserved only by adherence to fundamental principles
The freedom to practice religion according to personal reason and conviction
There is no better day to call your government to task for their
failure to live up to these principles than on Independence Day. This
administration has taken a continued and aggressive attack on many of
these freedoms. The Declaration of Independence asserts that your
ultimate allegiance should be to Inherent Autonomy, especially when the
Central Government ignores and denies the very instruments this nation
was founded upon.
Glenda there can be no better, no more appropriate occasion to call
for peace than on Independence Day, and if anyone doesn't understand
that, then they should seek a better understanding of their national
heritage.
Simple Organic Living Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. ...Leo Tolstoy
I want to 'Tip my Hat' to B. Shilliday Left Of Center for posting this "must see" video by Woody Harrelson. I'm reposting it to include the text of the poem being narrated.
Since I was a kid I felt this need to play a role in helping Mother
Earth. At the age of 12, I wrote a 50-page report (that wasn’t supposed
to be more than 5 pages) on threatened wildlife and realized clearly
that my Mother was being continually and forcibly raped by giant
corporations intent on profit.
It’s ironic that the never-ending quest for wealth has brought such
destruction to Mother Nature because the desire for money is basically
a desire for happiness. But true happiness lies in nature we relax and
unwind and finally realize we are just on a hamster wheel. Just walking
down a tree lined street in a busy city immediately calms me. Let’s
face it peace is the key to happiness. I can’t be peaceful unless I’m
relaxed and I can’t do any of it unless I’m doing yoga, but I digress
(I used to want to change my middle name from Tracy to Tangential
because I can never follow a straight line. I prefer to get lost in
getting lost I tend to have the best experiences. But back to the
thread)
I see the ongoing destruction of all that is natural and want to make a
difference. Our mission at Voice Yourself is to connect you with
others, to share information about alternatives biodiesel, sustainable
clothing companies (i.e. hemp, organic cotton and bamboo) and to get
clean and natural cleansers into your hands and homes this is only the
beginning. Our small, extended family will spread out across the world
like good music. Thank you for contributing to the dream that we know
exists. Our time is now.
People
from all over this country and all over the world have called on Bush
to end this war in Iraq. We share this sentiment and stand in
solidarity with antiwar activists in this and other countries. We
believe that the war in Iraq is wrong and immoral. We believe that the
war in Irag weakens this country. We cry out against the innocents who
have been slaughtered and the soldiers dead and wounded.
Please
visit the other sites below to see a tour of antiwar photos. This is
the voice and the cry of those who oppose this war, those who stand
against oppression and stand for justice. Please stand with us and call
for an end NOW!
I can't recall when I've seen so many unhappy reps. And he bashed the
press too. He salted the earth after scorching it. Colbert rocks and has
Giant Brass Balls.
WASHINGTONA blistering comedy "tribute" to
President Bush by Comedy Central's faux talk show host Stephen Colbert
at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and
Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.
Earlier, the president had delivered his talk to the
2700 attendees, including many celebrities and top officials, with the
help of a Bush impersonator.
Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show
character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the
Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on
reality, "and reality has a well-known liberal bias."
He attacked those in the press who claim that the
shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on
the Titanic. "This administration is soaring, not sinking," he said. "They are re-arranging the deck chairs--on the Hindenburg."
Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests
by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. He compared Bush to
Rocky Balboa in the "Rocky" movies, always getting punched in the
face -- "and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world."
Turning to the war, he declared, "I believe that the
government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by
these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."
He noted former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the crowd,
as well as " Valerie Plame." Then, pretending to be worried that he had
named her, he corrected himself, as Bush aides might do, "Uh, I mean...
Joseph Wilson's wife." He asserted that it might be okay, as prosecutor
Patrick Fitzgerald was probably not there.
Colbert also made biting cracks about missing WMDs, "photo ops" on aircraft carriers and at hurricane disasters, and Vice
President Cheney shooting people in the face. Observing
that Bush sticks to his principles, he said, "When the president
decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no
matter what happened Tuesday."
Also lampooning the press, Colbert complained that he
was "surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country,
except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides - "the
president's side and the vice president's side." He also reflected on
the good old days, when the media was still swallowing the WMD story.
Addressing the reporters, he said, "You should spend
more time with your families, write that novel you've always wanted to
write. You know, the one about the fearless reporter who stands up to
the administration. You know - fiction."
He claimed that the Secret Service name for Bush's new
press secretary is "Snow Job." Colbert closed his routine with a video
fantasy where he gets to be White House Press Secretary, complete with
a special "Gannon" button on his podium. By the end, he had to run from
Helen Thomas and her questions about why the U.S. really invaded Iraq
and killed all those people.
As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over,
the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and left
immediately.
E&P's Joe Strupp, in the crowd, observed that
quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times,
perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting--or too much
speaking "truthiness" to power.
Asked by E&P after it was over if he thought he'd
been too harsh, Colbert said, "Not at all." Was he trying to make a
point politically or just get laughs? "Just for laughs," he said. He
said he did not pull any material for being too strong, just for time
reasons.
Helen Thomas told Strupp her segment with Colbert was "just for fun."
Perhaps the best part was when they panned the audience and you could
see the stone-faced repubs. Bunnypants has never had someone punk him
like that in public. This one goes in the vault.
The Smothers Brothers must be giggling - at last justice for the
bravery of comic geniuses. You might recall that the Brothers were
cancelled after Pete Seeger sang "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy". I remember being very angry at the injustice of it all,
but tonight - justice has been served.
The silence was priceless. And Stephen just marched on, driving the
nails in further. A must-see! My favorite: "The President stands for
things. He stands on aircraft carriers. He stands on rubble. He stands
in abandoned, flooded city squares. There's no place he won't stand for
a photo op."
BAGHDAD Kidnapped U.S. reporter Jill
Carroll has been released after nearly three months in captivity, Iraq
police and the leader of the Islamic Party said Thursday. She was
reported in good condition.
She told a Washington Post reporter: "I was never hurt, ever hit...I was kept in a safe place and treated very well."
Carroll, a freelance reporter for The Christian
Science Monitor, was kidnapped on Jan. 7, in Baghdad's western Adil
neighborhood while going to interview Sunni Arab politician Adnan
al-Dulaimi. Her translator was killed in the attack about 300 yards
from al-Dulaimi's office.
"She was released this morning, she's talked to her
father and she's fine," said David Cook, Washington bureau chief of The
Christian Science Monitor.
[The news came shortly before 7 a.m., Eastern Time.
The Monitor at 7:03 a.m. posted this on its Web site: "After being held
hostage for nearly three months, Jill Carroll is free. More details
shortly."]
Police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said was handed
over to the Iraqi Islamic Party office in Amiriya, western Baghdad, by
an unknown group. She was later turned over to the Americans and was
believed to be in the heavily fortified Green Zone, he said.
Her captors, calling themselves the Revenge Brigades,
had demanded the release of all women detainees in Iraq by Feb. 26 and
said Carroll would be killed if that didn't happen. The date came and
went with no word about her welfare.
The United States Embassy in Baghdad said it could not confirm Carroll's release.
On Feb. 28, Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr said
Carroll was being held by the Islamic Army in Iraq, the insurgent group
that freed two French journalists in 2004 after four months in
captivity.
Jabr said then that he believed the 28-year-old was
still alive, although the deadline set by her captors for the U.S. to
meet their demands had expired.
She was last seen in a videotape broadcast Feb. 9 by
the private Kuwaiti television station Al-Rai. Her twin sister Katie
issued a plea for her release on Al-Arabiya television late Wednesday
night.
Carroll went to the Middle East in 2002 after being laid off from a newspaper job. She had long dreamed of covering a war.
UPDATE: Podhoretz, according to Judd Legum, wrote:
It's
wonderful that she's free, but after watching someone who was a hostage
for three months say on television she was well-treated because she
wasn't beaten or killed "while being dressed in the garb of a modest
Muslim woman rather than the non-Muslim woman she actually is" I
expect there will be some Stockholm Syndrome talk in the coming days.
I guess he would have been happier if she had allowed herself to be martyred for the cause. What a moron!
Mr.
Podhoretz, she was on Iraqi TV after having been released near an
office of the Islamic Party. Could it be that she was respecting
someone's culture and not necessarily pulling a Patty Hearst? Or is
this just the muddled thinking of a numbskull who can't separate the
entire religion of Islam from terrorism from resistance...
Regardless of John Podhoretz's insensitivity, naivete and ignorance, there is photographic proof that she has been treated better than civilians (or civilians) who were taken captive by the United States.
At 40 bucks a bottle, I'm sure I'll be stocking up by the case.
It seemed like the perfect gimmick: a celebrity porn star would launch her own wine, with her alluring picture on the label.
Savanna Samson did just that. But when the wine received a score of 90
to 91 out of 100 from guru Robert Parker, the project became serious.
It turns out Samson, the star of "The New Devil in Miss Jones," has
produced an exceptional wine, becoming the toast of two industries:
wine-making and pornography.
The seriousness of the idea was lining up a respected wine maker. So
she convinced Italy's Robert Cipresso -- also a vintner to the Vatican
-- to join the project.
Samson went to Tuscany and tasted dozens of Cipresso's Italian-grown
varieties, then she selected a mix of 70 percent Cesanese, 20 percent
Sangiovese and 10 percent Montepulciano. She ordered over 400 cases.
"I knew I wanted Roberto to make my wine -- I just love his passion for wine," said Samson.
The result is Sogno Uno, a 2004 vintage of an Italian red wine packaged
under the Savanna name with a label of Samson in a see-through gown. It
was launched last month.
Parker has been called the most influential wine critic in the world,
and a score of 90 to 95 denotes "an outstanding wine of exceptional
complexity and character."
"Trust me, I didn't add any points for Ms. Samson's personal presentation," Parker wrote in his review.
Samson is one of the biggest names in pornography, having won best
actress in the Adult Video News Awards, the pornographic equivalent of
the Oscars, and another AVN Award for a scene she shared with Jenna
Jameson in last year's "The Masseuse." She has made two dozen porn
flicks.
The wine "really represents who I am," said Samson.
"There's spiciness -- the Cesanese has the naughty side of me. And yet
it's an elegant wine. I love the opera, and I'm a classically trained
ballet dancer. And there is some chocolate undertone, which I just
love. There's a little bit of sweetness. Like, 10 percent of the time
I'm sweet," she said.
She is working on a white wine -- Sogno Due -- that could be out later
this year, and also has ideas of expanding into champagne, ice wine and
grappa.
Samson, who was raised Catholic in upstate New York, said it was pure
coincidence that Cipresso also sells wines to the Vatican. She met him
through her husband, a wine merchant.
"My priest said in Mass once, 'Violence or pleasures of the flesh. What
is the greater of two evils?' I think we all know the answer. I felt
like he was saying that toward me," she said.
Still, she never had her parent's blessing for her career choice as an
adult movie star. "They were so devastated. They were terribly,
terribly upset."
But while she will continue her film career, wine-making may offer some
redemption. "I wanted to do something that my parents could be proud
of," she said.
Don Knotts, who kept generations of TV audiences laughing as
bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on ''The Andy Griffith Show'' and would-be
swinger landlord Ralph Furley on ''Three's Company,'' has died. He was
81.
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory
complications at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical
Center, said Sherwin Bash, his friend and manager.
Griffith, who
had visited Knotts in the hospital before his death, said his longtime
friend had a brilliant comedic mind and wrote some of the show's best
scenes.
''Don was a small man ... but everything else about him
was large: his mind, his expressions,'' Griffith told The Associated
Press on Saturday. ''Don was special. There's nobody like him.
''I loved him very much,'' Griffith added. ''We had a long and wonderful life together.''
Unspecified health problems had forced Knotts to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown, W.Va., in August.
The
actor's half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25
films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and
five Emmys.
The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of
the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final
year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the
top: The others are ''I Love Lucy'' and ''Seinfeld.'' The 249 episodes
have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active
network of fan clubs.
As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts
carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after
shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight
gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.
His favorite episodes, he said, were ''The Pickle Story,'' where
Aunt Bee makes pickles no one can eat, and ''Barney and the Choir,''
where no one can stop him from singing.
''I can't sing. It makes
me sad that I can't sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but
I'm just not talented in that way,'' he lamented. ''It's one of my
weaknesses.''
In recent years, he said he had no plans to retire, traveling with
theater productions and appearing in print and TV ads for Kodiak
pressure treated wood.
The world laughed at Knotts, but it also laughed with him. He
treasured his comedic roles and could point to only one role that
wasn't funny, a brief stint on the daytime drama ''Search for
Tomorrow.''
''That's the only serious thing I've done. I don't miss that,'' Knotts said.
CorruptoCo Blogfest: Corporate Angel Network: A Real Angel In The Skies
Next week many bloggers will devote space to "Corporation Appreciation Week". A week where we temporarily turn the lights on in the roach-infested world of Corruptco. Before the week begins I wanted spotlight one of the best Corporate activities I know about, so this is a salute to one of the good guys that deserves a White Hat and much respect.
Corporate Angel Network is
the only charitable organization in the USA whose sole mission is
to ease the emotional stress, physical discomfort and financial burden
of travel for cancer patients by arranging free flights to treatment
centers, using the empty seats on corporate aircraft flying on routine
business.
Based in White Plains, NY, Corporate Angel Network occupies an office
donated by the Westchester County Airport. 50 part-time volunteers
and five paid staff work with patients, physicians, corporations,
flight departments and leading treatment facilities to arrange 1,200
flights a year.
Eligibility to participate in our program is open to all cancer patients,
bone marrow donors, and bone marrow recipients who are ambulatory
and not in need of medical support while traveling. Eligibility is
not based on financial need, and patients may travel as often as necessary.
Thanks to the generous cooperation of 500 of America’s top corporations,
including 56 of the top 100 in the Fortune 500, Corporate Angel Network
has coordinated more than 17,000 flights since it’s founding
in 1981. The program offers an obvious and meaningful benefit to cancer
patients along with the opportunity for companies with corporate aircraft
to provide a wonderful community service by merging business activities
with social responsibility.
In 1981, three people shared the dream of using empty seats on corporate
aircraft to transport cancer patients to treatment centers nationwide.
Leonard M. Greene, founder and president of Safe Flight Instrument
Corporation, Priscilla H. Blum, a licensed commercial pilot, and Jay
N. Weinberg, then owner of a Mt. Vernon, NY Avis Car Rental franchise
together developed the idea of asking corporations to accept these
patients as guest passengers.
As cancer survivors, Blum and Weinberg knew how expensive and grueling
transportation is for cancer patients who must fly long distances
for specialized treatment. Greene too had firsthand experience, having
lost his wife to cancer. He contributed his foundation, funds, business
expertise, and aviation contacts to the effort.
On December 22, 1981, Greene, a pilot, personally flew the first Corporate
Angel Network flight, bringing a patient home to Detroit for Christmas
from treatment in New York City. From that day forward, Corporate
Angel Network literally soared. One by one, corporations across America
were asked to participate and one by one, they joined.
Since its inception, Corporate Angel Network has received numerous
awards in recognition of its service to cancer patients, including
the highest volunteer award from the President of the United States,
The Volunteer Action Award. The organization has coordinated more
than 17,000 regularly scheduled corporate flights with cancer patients
aboard and attracted into its network 500 corporate participants,
56 of them in the top 100 of the Fortune 500.
Corporate Angel Network welcomes support in the form of cash, bequests,
and donation of airline tickets. Contributions come from grateful
patients for whom we have arranged free flights, from their relatives
and friends, from enthusiastic individuals who want to ensure that
our program is available to all who need it, from Corporations, and
from foundations.
We also need volunteers. Individuals in the vicinity of Corporate
Angel Network's White Plains, NY offices can volunteer to enter corporate
flight schedules into the secure database, schedule flights for patients,
write thank you letters to corporations and contributors, help arrange
ground transportation, research and contact new corporations, solicit
pro bono advertising, and help with reception and telephones. Volunteers
work with patients and their families, corporate flight schedulers,
pilots, secretaries, dispatchers, mechanics, fixed-based operations
(FBOs), doctors and nurses, social workers, and private car operators.
Regardless of where they live, volunteers are needed to locate companies
with aircraft that could become Corporate Angels, and to find ground
transportation, lodging and other support services in key cities,
such as Boston, Houston, Seattle, and Raleigh-Durham, where the majority
of our patients are treated.
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- As in past
years, labor attorney Eve Marie Stocker plans to fly from Virginia to
New Orleans for Mardi Gras, ride costumed on a float with her mother in
the all-female Krewe of Iris parade and catch up with family and
friends.
This year, however, she says the mission takes on a serious note:
New Orleans, venturing into an uncertain Mardi Gras season after
Hurricane Katrina, needs a successful celebration to get its sputtering
economy started -- and give its storm-shocked residents a break.
"Mardi
Gras is a compass," said Stocker, a former New Orleans resident. "This
is what's normal for the city, and everyone needs a little bit of
normalcy."
Mardi Gras, which always holds a bit of mystery for outsiders with its
fun, frolic and debauchery, is a mystery itself this year for New
Orleans, where an estimated two-thirds of its half-million, pre-Katrina
populace remains elsewhere.
Any infusion of cash will be welcome in a city that saw most of its
tax base washed away by Katrina on August 29 and the ensuing flooding
after levees broke. Basic services, such as police protection and
firefighting, are being held together with a $120 million federal loan
that will provide funding only until spring.
The city is not only ready, says Mary Herczog, author of Frommer's New Orleans and a part-time resident, this will be an amazing year to be there.
"This is a city that has gone through cataclysm,
and its citizens are desperately ready to let off some steam," says
Herczog, who expects a cathartic, once-in-a-lifetime experience for
locals and visitors alike on this 150th anniversary of the event. "This
is going to be a Mardi Gras for the ages."
The celebration, Feb. 18-28, just six months
after Hurricane Katrina devastated a wide area of the city, will
include just eight days of parades instead of the usual two weeks to
keep costs down for the cash-strapped city. And parade routes have been
shortened. But most of the parading krewes that have rolled in past
years are returning. And tourism leaders, who see the event as a sort
of coming-out party for the city, say the tourist districts are ready.
"When you get downtown, it's almost like Katrina
didn't touch it," says Marriott's Mark Sanders, who oversees the
company's 14 hotels in the city. "There's still a lot of
misunderstanding, and (Mardi Gras) is a chance to really let people
know that we're open."
Though the storm dealt areas such as the Lower
Ninth Ward an apocalyptic blow, it largely spared the French Quarter
and the Garden District, the city's key tourism areas. And major
attractions, such as the National D-Day Museum and Café du Monde, long
ago reopened. Harrah's casino just announced it'll reopen Feb. 17, in
time for Mardi Gras.
Foodies will find almost all the big-name
eateries, such as K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, Galatoire's and Emeril's,
back in action (exceptions include Commander's Palace). And most
tourist-area hotels are open. (Of Marriott's 14, only the Ritz-Carlton
remains closed.)
The problem for revelers will be getting a room
on peak days of the festival. Though the first wave of relief workers
has begun leaving the city, it's being replaced by a crowd from local
companies such as Harrah's that are restarting operations, Sanders
says.
As of Wednesday, three Marriotts in the city
still had openings for Feb. 24, starting at $229 a room. The chain was
sold out on Feb. 25 and had only one hotel opening on Feb. 26 (the New
Orleans Marriott, for $249).
Getting to the city is less of a problem, even a
bargain, as airlines ramp up flights. Last week, Southwest said it
would add 36 round-trip flights over Mardi Gras. This week, American
Airlines sold non-stops to New Orleans from New York and other East
Coast cities over Mardi Gras for $163 round trip.
More significant are the thousands of
men and women who have decided that no place in the world is quite like
New Orleans. They are rebuilding, a brick, a board, a shingle at a
time, remaking their own small piece of the city that knows better than
any other what life truly is.
Throughout
its history, New Orleans has battled poverty, sweltering heat,
epidemics and disease, fits of racism, rule by invading armies,
slavery, floods from the river, and hurricanes from the sea. In every
case, New Orleans has chosen its own unique way to put joy above
melancholy and has birthed much of what is now most prized in American
culture.
We love New
Orleans. When we read the scolding of pinched-faced editorialists
chiding us for planning to celebrate Mardi Gras six months after
Katrina, we shake our heads: they don’t get it. Mardi Gras is our
affirmation, the entire city saying, “We’re alive, we’re back, and we
ain’t leaving.” To all those people, who have sacrificed a piece of
their own lives to help us in our time of need: thank you. Laissez les
bons temps rouler.
WASHINGTON 
BAGHDAD 
