http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0530-01.htm

Enron Used U.S. Government to Bully Developing Nations
by Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON - Defunct energy giant Enron used the U.S. government to
coerce the World Bank and poor nations to grant concessions and resolve its
investment problems, according to documents and correspondence released by
the Treasury Department.


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"The arc of the universe is long, but it always bends toward justice." -
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fiction and the Tax Cut

Bush gets his gimmicky tax cut while a $400 child credit for millions
of low-wage families is eliminated. Are his critics suffering from outrage
exhaustion? http://www.msnbc.com/news/920140.asp


Bush's critics inside and outside his party are suffering from outrage
exhaustion. How much can Bush get away with before the public and the media
hold him accountable? If this shameful provision is not repealed, 11.9
million children, or one of every six children under 17 ,will be
shortchanged according to The Center on Budget and Priorities, an admittedly
liberal group, but whose facts are not disputed. Keep an eye on the media
and whether the networks pick up the story, first reported in Thursday's New
York Times. If the Times story resonates, Karl Rove and his tag team of
compassionate conservatives will do damage control, pledging perhaps to
correct the omission with another tax bill in the fall, which they will see
as an opportunity to push through still more cuts for upper-income voters.


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

HEY . . .Claudia is yelling that these are "Blog-larious":

While walking down the street one day a senator is tragically hit by a
truck and dies. His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at
the entrance. "Welcome to Heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle
in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around
these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the now former senator.

"Well, I'd like to but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is
have you spend one day in Hell and one in Heaven. Then you can choose
where to spend eternity."

"Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in Heaven," says the senator.

"I'm sorry but we have our rules.." And with that, St. Peter escorts him
to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to Hell. The doors open and
he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is
the club and standing in front of it are all his friends and other
politicians who had worked with him, everyone is very happy and in evening
dress.

They run to greet him, hug him, and reminisce about the good times they
had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly
game of golf and then dine on lobster and caviar. Also present is the
Devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and
telling jokes.

They are having such a good time that, before he realizes it, it is time
to go. Everyone gives him a big hug and waves while the elevator rises.
The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on Heaven where St.
Peter is waiting for him.

"Now it's time to visit Heaven." So 24 hours pass with the senator joining
a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp
and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24
hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

"Well, then, you've spent a day in Hell and another in Heaven. Now choose
your eternity."

He reflects for a minute, then the senator answers: "Well, I would never
have said it, I mean Heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be
better off in Hell."

So Saint Peter escorts him, to the elevator and he goes down, down, down
to Hell.

Now the doors of the elevator open and he is in the middle of a barren
land covered with waste and garbage. He sees all his friends, dressed in
rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags. The Devil comes
over to him and lays his arm on his neck.

"I don't understand," stammers the senator. "Yesterday I was here and
there was a golf course and club and we ate lobster and caviar and danced
and had a great time. Now all there is a wasteland full of garbage and my
friends look miserable.

The Devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning.
Today you voted for us!"

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum.

YAY!

"The world needs a new weapon, the estrogen bomb.
Imagine: You drop it on an area of violent conflict,
and men throw down their guns, hug each other,
apologize, say it was all their fault,
and then start to clean up the mess."
The Guerilla Girls
www. guerrillagirls.com




Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

US Plans Death Camp

The Courier-Mail
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au

Monday 26 May 2003

The US has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with
its own death row and execution chamber.

Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its
boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal, The Mail on Sunday
newspaper reported yesterday.
The plans were revealed by Major-General Geoffrey Miller, who is in charge
of 680 suspects from 43 countries, including two Australians.

The suspects have been held at Camp Delta on Cuba without charge for 18
months.
General Miller said building a death row was one plan. Another was to have a
permanent jail, with possibly an execution chamber.

The Mail on Sunday reported the move is seen as logical by the US, which
has been attacked worldwide for breaching the Geneva Convention on prisoners
of war since it established the camp at a naval base to hold alleged
terrorists from Afghanistan.

But it has horrified human rights groups and lawyers representing
detainees.

They see it as the clearest indication America has no intention of falling
in line with internationally recognised justice.

The US has already said detainees would be tried by tribunals, without
juries or appeals to a higher court. Detainees will be allowed only US
lawyers.

British activist Stephen Jakobi, of Fair Trials Abroad, said: "The US is
kicking and screaming against any pressure to conform with British or any
other kind of international justice."

American law professor Jonathan Turley, who has led US civil rights group
protests against the military tribunals planned to hear cases at Guantanamo
Bay, said: "It is not surprising the authorities are building a death row
because they have said they plan to try capital cases before these
tribunals.

"This camp was created to execute people. The administration has no
interest in long-term prison sentences for people it regards as hard-core
terrorists."

Britain admitted it had been kept in the dark about the plans.

A Downing St spokesman said: "The US Government is well aware of the
British Government's position on the death penalty."



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

Officers Shaken by Arrival of Child Terrorists
By David Rennie
Afgha.com

Saturday 24 May 2003

The disclosure that the United States was holding three Afghan boys under
16 as "juvenile enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay caused widespread shock.

Officers there were almost equally surprised, they said yesterday. They
discovered they had been sent a child only when doctors examining a recent
arrival noticed his physical immaturity.

The youth, whose exact age is uncertain, was separated from adult
detainees immediately. When two more youths arrived shortly afterwards a
separate juvenile camp was built in a remote house overlooking the sea.

Anxious to defuse a potential public relations disaster, officials at
Guantanamo Bay allowed access to Camp Iguana, as the new area is called.

Senior commanders were at pains to describe the special care being taken
of the unusual detainees, while stressing their status as dangerous
terrorists.

Col Adolph McQueen, head of the Joint Detention Operation Group, said: "We
have a programme designed by medical staff, they are being taught
mathematics and reading, and we have an interpreter there all the time."

The youngest of the three appears to be about 13. But Col McQueen said:
"They are juvenile enemy combatants that have a history of violence. If you
let your guard down you could get someone hurt."

Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller, the overall commander, would not be drawn on the
nature of the crimes committed by the boys, saying only that they "have both
information of value to the United States and are threats to this nation"
after being pressed into terrorist service by "despicable people".


(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)



Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum.

".., [Tom] DeLay [GOP Right Wingnut] recently revealed how he felt about
rules of general applicability. When he tried smoking a cigar in a
restaurant on federal property, the manager told him it violated federal
law. His response, according to The Washington Post, was, "I am the federal
government." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/27/opinion/27TUE4.html

I said in 2000 what Krugman says"Financial Times" is reporting in 2003. My
question is that same as Krugman's: when, when, when is the public going to
wake up? -- CDD
______________________________________

May 27, 2003
Stating the Obvious
By PAUL KRUGMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/27/opinion/27KRUG.html


The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum." So wrote the normally staid
Financial Times, traditionally the voice of solid British business opinion,
when surveying last week's tax bill. Indeed, the legislation is doubly
absurd: the gimmicks used to make an $800-billion-plus tax cut carry an
official price tag of only $320 billion are a joke, yet the cost without the
gimmicks is so large that the nation can't possibly afford it while keeping
its other promises.

But then maybe that's the point. The Financial Times suggests that "more
extreme Republicans" actually want a fiscal train wreck: "Proposing to slash
federal spending, particularly on social programs, is a tricky electoral
proposition, but a fiscal crisis offers the tantalizing prospect of forcing
such cuts through the back door."

Good for The Financial Times. It seems that stating the obvious has now,
finally, become respectable.

It's no secret that right-wing ideologues want to abolish programs Americans
take for granted. But not long ago, to suggest that the Bush
administration's policies might actually be driven by those ideologues -
that the administration was deliberately setting the country up for a fiscal
crisis in which popular social programs could be sharply cut - was to be
accused of spouting conspiracy theories.

Yet by pushing through another huge tax cut in the face of record deficits,
the administration clearly demonstrates either that it is completely
feckless, or that it actually wants a fiscal crisis. (Or maybe both.)

Here's one way to look at the situation: Although you wouldn't know it from
the rhetoric, federal taxes are already historically low as a share of
G.D.P. Once the new round of cuts takes effect, federal taxes will be lower
than their average during the Eisenhower administration. How, then, can the
government pay for Medicare and Medicaid - which didn't exist in the
1950's - and Social Security, which will become far more expensive as the
population ages? (Defense spending has fallen compared with the economy, but
not that much, and it's on the rise again.)

The answer is that it can't. The government can borrow to make up the
difference as long as investors remain in denial, unable to believe that the
world's only superpower is turning into a banana republic. But at some point
bond markets will balk - they won't lend money to a government, even that of
the United States, if that government's debt is growing faster than its
revenues and there is no plausible story about how the budget will
eventually come under control.

At that point, either taxes will go up again, or programs that have become
fundamental to the American way of life will be gutted. We can be sure that
the right will do whatever it takes to preserve the Bush tax cuts - right
now the administration is even skimping on homeland security to save a few
dollars here and there. But balancing the books without tax increases will
require deep cuts where the money is: that is, in Medicaid, Medicare and
Social Security.

The pain of these benefit cuts will fall on the middle class and the poor,
while the tax cuts overwhelmingly favor the rich. For example, the tax cut
passed last week will raise the after-tax income of most people by less than
1 percent - not nearly enough to compensate them for the loss of benefits.
But people with incomes over $1 million per year will, on average, see their
after-tax income rise 4.4 percent.

The Financial Times suggests this is deliberate (and I agree): "For them,"
it says of those extreme Republicans, "undermining the multilateral
international order is not enough; long-held views on income distribution
also require radical revision."

How can this be happening? Most people, even most liberals, are complacent.
They don't realize how dire the fiscal outlook really is, and they don't
read what the ideologues write. They imagine that the Bush administration,
like the Reagan administration, will modify our system only at the edges,
that it won't destroy the social safety net built up over the past 70 years.

But the people now running America aren't conservatives: they're radicals
who want to do away with the social and economic system we have, and the
fiscal crisis they are concocting may give them the excuse they need. The
Financial Times, it seems, now understands what's going on, but when will
the public wake up?


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

Claudia has contributed this list of some fantastic home remedies for some assorted ailments!

Subject: more hints from unlikely places

Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost
immediately-without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional
pain relievers.
____________________________

Did you know that Colgate toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns.
_____________________________

Before you head to he drugstore for a high-priced inhaler filled with
mysterious chemicals, try chewing on a couple of curiously strong Altoids
peppermints. They'll clear up your stuffed nose.
_____________________________

Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix 1 Tablespoon of horseradish in
1/2 cup of olive oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a
massage oil, for instant relief for aching muscles.
_____________________________

Sore Throat?? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take
1 Tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.
___________________________

Cure urinary tract infections with alka-seltzer. Just dissolve two
tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms.
Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly-even though
the product was never been advertised for this use.
________________________________

Eliminate puffiness under your eyes.....All you need is a dab of
preparation H, carefully rubbed into the skin, avoiding the eyes. The hemorrhoid
ointment acts as a vasoconstrictor, relieving the swelling instantly.
________________________________

Honey remedy for Skin Blemishes......Cover the blemish with a dab of
honey and place a band-aid over it. Honey kills the bacteria, keeps the skin
sterile, and speeds healing. It works overnight.
________________________________

Listerine therpy for toenail fungus....Get rid of unsightly toenail
fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine mouthwash. The powerful antiseptic
leaves your toenails looking healthy again.
_______________________________

Easy eyeglass protection....To prevent the screws in eyeglasses from
loosening, apply a small drop of Maybelline Crystal Clear nail polish to
the threads of the screws before tightening them.
______________________________

Coca-Cola cure for rust...Forget those expensive rust removers. Just
saturate an abrasive sponge with Coca Cola and scrub the rust stain. The
phosphoric acid in the coke is what gets the job done.
_____________________________

Cleaning liquid that doubles as bug killer....If menacing bees, wasps,
hornets, or yellow jackets get in your home and you can't find the
insecticide, try a spray of Formula 409. Insects drop to the ground
instantly.
____________________________

Smart splinter remover.....just pour a drop of Elmers Glue-all over the
splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter
sticks to the dried glue.
______________________________

Hunt's tomato paste boil cure....Cover the boil with Hunt's tomato paste
as a compress. The acids from the tomatoes soothe the pain and bring the
boil to a head.
______________________________

Balm for broken blisters.....To disinfect a broken blister, dab on a few
drops of Listerine....a powerful antiseptic. Heinz vinegar to heal
bruises...Soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and apply it to the bruise
for 1 hour. The vinegar reduces the blueness and speeds up the healing
process.
_____________________________

Kills fleas instantly. Dawn dishwashing liquid does the trick. Add a few
drops to your dog's bath and shampoo the animal thoroughly. Rinse well to
avoid skin irritations. Goodbye fleas
_____________________________

Rainy day cure for dog odor....Next time your dog comes in from the rain,
simply wipe down the animal with Bounce or any dryer sheet, instantly
making your dog smell springtime fresh.
_______________________________

Eliminate ear mites....All it takes is a few drops of wesson corn oil in
your cat's ear. Massage it in, then clean with a cotton ball. Repeat
daily for 3 days. The oil soothes the cat's skin, smothers the mites, and
accelerates healing.
_____________________________

Vaseline cure for hairballs.....To prevent troublesome hairballs, apply a
dollop of vaseline petroleum jelly to your cat's nose. The cat will lick
off the jelly, lubricating any hair in its stomach so it can pass easily
through the digestive system.
_____________________________

Quaker Oats for fast pain relief....It's not for breakfast anymore! Mix 2
cups of Quaker Oats and 1 cup of water in a bowl and warm in the
microwave for 1 minute, cool slightly, and apply the mixture to your hands for
soothing relief from arthritis pain.


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

Reality is for those lack imagination.

May 27, 2003

Krugman calls it on Bush's Freddy Kruger Economics

"But the people now running America aren't conservatives: they're radicals who want to do away with the social and economic system we have, and the fiscal crisis they are concocting may give them the excuse they need. The Financial Times, it seems, now understands what's going on, but when will the public wake up?"

"The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum." ... New York Times

Bush cartoon courtesy of Bartcop

Starcats Astrology 2003: Starcats' Table of Contents

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

".., [Tom] DeLay [GOP Right Wingnut] recently revealed how he felt about
rules of general applicability. When he tried smoking a cigar in a
restaurant on federal property, the manager told him it violated federal
law. His response, according to The Washington Post, was, "I am the federal
government." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/27/opinion/27TUE4.html

Sunday Laughs

Subject: The Potato Patch

An old man lived alone in Idaho. He wanted to spade his potato patch
so he could plant his spuds, but it was very hard work. His only son, Bubba,
who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son
and described his predicament.


Dear Bubba:

I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant
my potato patch this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a
garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you
would dig the plot for me.

Love, Dad
---------
A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Dad:

For heaven's sake, Dad, don't dig up that plot, that's where I buried
the BODIES.

Love, Bubba.
------------
At 4:00 the next morning, FBI agents and local police showed up and
dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the
old
man and left. The same day the old man received another letter from his
son.

Dear Dad:

Go ahead and plant the potatoes now. That's the best I could do under
the circumstances.

Love, Bubba

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"When it comes to shedding American blood--when it comes to wreaking havoc
on civilians, on innocent men, women and children, callous dissembling is
not acceptable. Nothing is worth that kind of lie--not oil, not revenge, not
re-election, not somebody's grand pipe dream of a democratic domino theory.
And mark my words, the calculated intimidation that we see so often of late
by the "powers that be" will only keep the loyal opposition quiet for just
so long. Because eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And
when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall. " -- Sen.
Robert Byrd --
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030609&s=byrd

This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030609&s=byrd


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'The Truth Will Emerge'
by SENATOR ROBERT C. BYRD


Senate Floor Remarks - May 21, 2003

"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again,--
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers."

Truth has a way of asserting itself despite all attempts to obscure it.
Distortion only serves to derail it for a time. No matter to what lengths we
humans may go to obfuscate facts or delude our fellows, truth has a way of
squeezing out through the cracks, eventually. But the danger is that at some
point it may no longer matter. The danger is that damage is done before the
truth is widely realized. The reality is that, sometimes, it is easier to
ignore uncomfortable facts and go along with whatever distortion is
currently in vogue.

We see a lot of this today in politics. I see a lot of it--more than I would
ever have believed--right on this Senate floor. Regarding the situation in
Iraq, it appears to this senator that the American people may have been
lured into accepting the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, in
violation of longstanding International law, under false premises. There is
ample evidence that the horrific events of September 11 have been carefully
manipulated to switch public focus from Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, who
masterminded the September 11 attacks, to Saddam Hussein, who did not. The
run-up to our invasion of Iraq featured the President and members of his
Cabinet invoking every frightening image they could conjure, from mushroom
clouds, to buried caches of germ warfare, to drones poised to deliver
germ-laden death in our major cities. We were treated to a heavy dose of
overstatement concerning Saddam Hussein's direct threat to our freedoms. The
tactic was guaranteed to provoke a sure reaction from a nation still
suffering from a combination of post-traumatic stress and justifiable anger
after the attacks of 911. It was the exploitation of fear. It was a placebo
for the anger.

Since the war's end, every subsequent revelation that has seemed to refute
the previous dire claims of the Bush Administration has been brushed aside.
Instead of addressing the contradictory evidence, the White House deftly
changes the subject. No weapons of mass destruction have yet turned up, but
we are told that they will in time. Perhaps they yet will. But our costly
and destructive bunker-busting attack on Iraq seems to have proven, in the
main, precisely the opposite of what we were told was the urgent reason to
go in. It seems also to have, for the present, verified the assertions of
Hans Blix and the inspection team he led, which President Bush and company
so derided. As Blix always said, a lot of time will be needed to find such
weapons, if they do indeed exist. Meanwhile, bin Laden is still on the loose
and Saddam Hussein has come up missing. The Administration assured the US
public and the world, over and over again, that an attack was necessary to
protect our people and the world from terrorism. It assiduously worked to
alarm the public and blur the faces of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden
until they virtually became one.

What has become painfully clear in the aftermath of war is that Iraq was no
immediate threat to the United States. Ravaged by years of sanctions, Iraq
did not even lift an airplane against us. Iraq's threatening, death-dealing
fleet of unmanned drones about which we heard so much morphed into one
prototype made of plywood and string. Their missiles proved to be outdated
and of limited range. Their army was quickly overwhelmed by our technology
and our well-trained troops. Presently our loyal military personnel continue
their mission of diligently searching for WMDs. They have so far turned up
only fertilizer, vacuum cleaners, conventional weapons and the occasional
buried swimming pool. They are misused on such a mission, and they continue
to be at grave risk. But the Bush team's extensive hype of WMDs in Iraq as
justification for a pre-emptive invasion has become more than embarrassing.
It has raised serious questions about prevarication and the reckless use of
power. Were our troops needlessly put at risk? Were countless Iraqi
civilians killed and maimed when war was not really necessary? Was the
American public deliberately misled? Was the world?

What makes me cringe even more is the continued claim that we are
"liberators." The facts don't seem to support the label we have so
euphemistically attached to ourselves. True, we have unseated a brutal,
despicable despot, but "liberation" implies the follow-up of freedom,
self-determination and a better life for the common people. In fact, if the
situation in Iraq is the result of liberation, we may have set the cause of
freedom back 200 years. Despite our high-blown claims of a better life for
the Iraqi people, water is scarce and often foul, electricity is a sometime
thing, food is in short supply, hospitals are stacked with the wounded and
maimed, historic treasures of the region and of the Iraqi people have been
looted, and nuclear material may have been disseminated to heaven knows
where, while US troops, on orders, looked on and guarded the oil supply.
Meanwhile, lucrative contracts to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure and
refurbish its oil industry are awarded to Administration cronies, without
benefit of competitive bidding, and the United States steadfastly resists
offers of UN assistance to participate. Is there any wonder that the real
motives of the US government are the subject of worldwide speculation and
mistrust?

And in what may be the most damaging development, the United States appears
to be pushing off Iraq's clamor for self-government. Jay Garner has been
summarily replaced, and it is becoming all too clear that the smiling face
of the United States as liberator is quickly assuming the scowl of an
occupier. The image of the boot on the throat has replaced the beckoning
hand of freedom. Chaos and rioting only exacerbate that image, as US
soldiers try to sustain order in a land ravaged by poverty and disease.
"Regime change" in Iraq has so far meant anarchy, curbed only by an
occupying military force and a US administrative presence that is evasive
about if and when it intends to depart. Democracy and freedom cannot be
force-fed at the point of an occupier's gun. To think otherwise is folly.

One has to stop and ponder. How could we have been so impossibly naïve? How
could we expect to easily plant a clone of US culture, values and government
in a country so riven with religious, territorial and tribal rivalries, so
suspicious of US motives and so at odds with the galloping materialism that
drives the Western-style economies? As so many warned this Administration
before it launched its misguided war on Iraq, there is evidence that our
crackdown thereis likely to convince 1,000 new bin Ladens to plan other
horrors of the type we have seen in the past several days. Instead of
damaging the terrorists, we have given them new fuel for their fury. We did
not complete our mission in Afghanistan because we were so eager to attack
Iraq. Now it appears that Al Qaeda is back with a vengeance. We have
returned to orange alert in the United States, and we may well have
destabilized the Mideast region, a region we have never fully understood.

We have alienated friends around the globe with our dissembling and our
haughty insistence on punishing former friends who may not see things quite
our way. The path of diplomacy and reason have gone out the window, to be
replaced by force, unilateralism and punishment for transgressions. I read
most recently with amazement our harsh castigation of Turkey, our longtime
friend and strategic ally. It is astonishing that our government is berating
the new Turkish government for conducting its affairs in accordance with its
own Constitution and its democratic institutions. Indeed, we may have
sparked a new international arms race as countries move ahead to develop
WMDs as a last-ditch attempt to ward off a possible pre-emptive strike from
a newly belligerent United States, which claims the right to hit where it
wants.

In fact, there is little to constrain this President. Congress, in what will
go down in history as its most unfortunate act, handed away its power to
declare war for the foreseeable future and empowered this President to wage
war at will. As if that were not bad enough, members of Congress are
reluctant to ask questions that are begging to be asked. How long will we
occupy Iraq? We have already heard disputes on the number of troops that
will be needed to retain order. What is the truth? How costly will the
occupation and rebuilding be? No one has given a straight answer. How will
we afford this long-term, massive commitment, fight terrorism at home,
address a serious crisis in domestic healthcare, afford behemoth military
spending and give away billions in tax cuts amid a deficit that has climbed
to more than $340 billion for this year alone? If the President's tax cut
passes it will be $400 billion. We cower in the shadows while false
statements proliferate. We accept soft answers and shaky explanations
because to demand the truth is hard, or unpopular, or may be politically
costly.

But I contend that through it all, the people know. The American people
unfortunately are used to political shading, spin and the usual chicanery
they hear from public officials. They patiently tolerate it up to a point.
But there is a line. It may seem to be drawn in invisible ink for a time,
but eventually it will appear in dark colors, tinged with anger. When it
comes to shedding American blood--when it comes to wreaking havoc on
civilians, on innocent men, women and children, callous dissembling is not
acceptable. Nothing is worth that kind of lie--not oil, not revenge, not
re-election, not somebody's grand pipe dream of a democratic domino theory.
And mark my words, the calculated intimidation that we see so often of late
by the "powers that be" will only keep the loyal opposition quiet for just
so long. Because eventually, like it always does, the truth will emerge. And
when it does, this house of cards, built of deceit, will fall.

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"Truth has a way of asserting itself despite all attempts to obscure it.
Distortion only serves to derail it for a time. No matter to what lengths we
humans may go to obfuscate facts or delude our fellows, truth has a way of
squeezing out through the cracks, eventually." -- Sen. Robert Byrd --
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030609&s=byrd

Nothing but the best and most pertinent new views:

Dear Friends -- Lugar was a mayor of Indianapolis when I was growing up. We
remember his sports stadium "problems." Kind of like Bush's Texas Ragners
B.S. -- CDD

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-689407,00.html
THE most senior Republican authority on foreign relations in Congress has
warned President Bush that the United States is on the brink of catastrophe
in Iraq.
Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that
Washington was in danger of creating "an incubator for terrorist cells and
activity" unless it increased the scope and cost of its reconstruction
efforts. He said that more troops, billions more dollars and a longer
commitment were needed if the US were not to throw away the peace

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"Every Memorial Day I think about what these men [WWII] did and what we owe
them. They didn't go through hell so Kenny Boy Lay could betray his
investors and workers at Enron, or for a political system built on legal
bribery. It wasn't for corporate tax havens in Bermuda, or an economic
system driven by the law of the jungle, or so a handful of media buccaneers
could turn the public airwaves into private sewers. " -- Bill Moyers --
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/05/23_moyers.html

Sorry guys . ..

Claudia asserts . . .This is another great "Arianna" editorial!

Fanatics In The White House

A White House Fluent In Language Of Fanatics

By Arianna Huffington

Maybe Karl Rove has moved his office into the "Matrix." Maybe Laurence
Fishburne is auditioning for Ari Fleischer's job. Maybe it's all just a
bad dream: "The White House Reloaded."

I've been racking my brain, trying to reconcile the ever-widening chasm
between what the White House claims to be true and what is actually
true.
After all, we know the president and his men are not stupid. And
despite the tidal wave of misinformation pouring out of their mouths, I
don't believe they are consciously lying.

The best explanation I can come up with for the growing gap between
their rhetoric and reality is that we are being governed by a gang of
out and out fanatics.

The defining trait of the fanatic -- be it a Marxist, a fascist, or,
gulp, a Wolfowitz -- is the utter refusal to allow anything as piddling
as evidence to get in the way of an unshakable belief. Bush and his
fellow fanatics are the political equivalent of those yogis who can hold
their breath and go without air for hours. Such is their mental
control, they can go without truth for, well, years. Because, in their
minds, they're always right. Oopso facto.

That pretty much sums up the White House m.o. on everything, from the
status of al-Qaeda to the condition of post-war Iraq to the magical
job-producing virtues of the latest round of tax cuts.

Who else but a fanatic would have made the outrageous claim, as the
president did last Friday, just four days after the deadly reemergence
of al-Qaeda in Riyadh, that "the United States people are more secure,
the world is going to be more peaceful"? More peaceful than what? The
West Bank?

In the weeks before the attacks in Riyadh, the president had repeatedly
maintained that "we are winning the war on terror," and that al-Qaeda
was "on the run... slowly, but surely, being decimated." So he clearly
wasn't going to let a little fact like 34 dead bodies -- the result of
three closely coordinated suicide bomb attacks -- change his mind.

He was similarly unperturbed by that troubling new report from the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, an influential and
non-partisan British think tank -- released a day after the Riyadh
bombings and three days before the president proclaimed us "more secure"
-- which found that al-Qaeda was "just as dangerous" and "even harder to
identify and neutralize" than it was prior to 9/11.

And just 4 hours after the president strapped on his trusty blinders and
delivered his rosy vision of a more peaceful world, the tranquility was
shattered by the five simultaneous suicide blasts in Casablanca. Oh
well, at least we still have the upcoming Jessica Lynch TV movie to make
us feel good about ourselves -- give or take a few last minute rewrites
by the BBC.

The president's evidence-be-damned fanaticism is equally apparent when
it comes to the state of post-war Iraq. "Life is returning to normal,"
he proclaimed just two weeks after the fall of Baghdad. "Things have
settled down inside the country."

Really? Just who is preparing his morning briefing papers? Pollyandy
Card? Little Condoleezza Sunshine? Did he bother consulting any Iraqis
about "normal life" there? Probably not. One of the keys to being a
flourishing fanatic is to surround yourself with those of a shared --
and equally deluded -- mindset.

And according to that mindset, the definition of "settling down" can be
expanded to include rampant looting, sporadic water and electrical
service, hospitals in disastrous condition, outbreaks of cholera and
dysentery, streets filled with uncollected garbage and raw sewage, half
a dozen ransacked nuclear facilities, missing barrels of radioactive
material, growing anti-American sentiment, and disparate ethnic and
religious groups arming themselves. No wonder Don Rumsfeld called the
media's reporting of all this "an overstatement." It's just another
"normal" weekend at Camp David.

And don't bother trying to make the case that everything isn't
hunky-dory in Baghdad to rabid acolytes such as Jay Garner. Like the
president, the demoted viceroy doesn't care what the facts indicate --
to him even a looted and punctured glass can be half-full. "We ought to
be beating our chests every day," he said, dismissing the notion that
any of us should feel bad about the problems besetting Iraq. "We ought
to look in a mirror and get proud. We ought to stick out our chests and
suck in our bellies and say, 'Damn, we're Americans.'" That's sure to
win us some more goodwill around the world. Hoo-rah, and pass the
Kool-Aid, General Jay!

And if you think the president is saving his fanaticism only for the
international sector, think again. His dogged devotion to selling his
latest round of tax cuts for the wealthy as a "jobs creation plan" --
despite an avalanche of evidence that it will do nothing of the sort --
proves that he can be just as fervent on the home front.

"Jobs are on the line," said Bush after the Senate passed its version of
the tax cut. "I call on Congress to resolve their differences quickly
so I can sign a bill that will help create jobs, boost take home pay and
spur economic growth." And for those with "...illionaire" as part of
their economic description, it probably will.

It obviously makes no difference to the president that 10 Nobel Prize
winning economists have condemned his tax cuts as "not the answer" to
high unemployment, or that a new Congressional Budget Office study found
that the "jobs and growth package" will actually have very little effect
on long-term growth. Not interested. Not listening. The 1.4 million
jobs the White House repeatedly says the tax cuts will create are more a
matter of a fanatic's faith than of dispassionate forecasting.

The fact is there are now 2.1 million more unemployed Americans than
when Bush took office -- the vast majority of them having lost their
jobs after the president's initial $1.3 trillion tax cut was passed in
2001.
Difficult evidence to ignore -- unless "ignore the evidence" is your
eleventh commandment.

A popular definition of insanity is: doing the same thing over and over
again while expecting a different result. Well, that seems to be the
White House theory on the power of tax cuts to produce new jobs: It
didn't work before; let's try it again.

Welcome to the D.C. Matrix.

-----

Arianna Huffington is the author of "Pigs at the Trough: How
Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining
America." For information on the book, visit
www.PigsAtTheTrough.com

Arianna's column is syndicated nationwide by Tribune Media Services.

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

Claudia astutely recommends:

Acts of Hope: Challenging Empire on the World Stage
by Rebecca Solnit
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0520-10.htm

What We Hope For

On January 18, 1915, eighteen months into the first world war, the
first terrible war in the modern sense -- slaughter by the hundreds of
thousands, poison gas, men living and dying in the open graves of trench
warfare, tanks, barbed wire, machine guns, airplanes -- Virginia Woolf wrote
in her journal, "The future is dark, which is on the whole, the best thing
the future can be, I think." Dark, she seems to say, as in inscrutable, not
as in terrible. We often mistake the one for the other. People imagine the
end of the world is nigh because the future is unimaginable. Who twenty
years ago would have pictured a world without the USSR and with the
Internet? We talk about "what we hope for" in terms of what we hope will
come to pass but we could think of it another way, as why we hope. We hope
on principle, we hope tactically and strategically, we hope because the
future is dark, we hope because it's a more powerful and more joyful way to
live. Despair presumes it knows what will happen next. But who, two decades
ago, would have imagined that the Canadian government would give a huge
swathe of the north back to its indigenous people, or that the imprisoned
Nelson Mandela would become president of a free South Africa?

Twenty-one years ago this June, a million people gathered in Central
Park to demand a nuclear freeze. They didn't get it. The movement was full
of people who believed they'd realize their goal in a few years and then go
home. Many went home disappointed or burned out. But in less than a decade,
major nuclear arms reductions were negotiated, helped along by European
antinuclear movements and the impetus they gave Gorbachev. Since then, the
issue has fallen off the map and we have lost much of what was gained. The
US never ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, and the Bush
administration is planning to resume the full-fledged nuclear testing halted
in 1991, to resume manufacture, to expand the arsenal, and perhaps even to
use it in once-proscribed ways.

It's always too soon to go home. And it's always too soon to calculate
effect. I once read an anecdote by someone in Women Strike for Peace, the
first great antinuclear movement in the United States in 1963, the one that
did contribute to a major victory: the end of aboveground nuclear testing
with its radioactive fallout that was showing up in mother's milk and baby
teeth. She told of how foolish and futile she felt standing in the rain one
morning protesting at the Kennedy White House. Years later she heard Dr.
Benjamin Spock -- one of the most high-profile activists on the issue
then -- say that the turning point for him was seeing a small group of women
standing in the rain, protesting at the White House. If they were so
passionately committed, he thought, he should give the issue more
consideration himself.

Unending Change

A lot of activists expect that for every action there is an equal and
opposite and punctual reaction, and regard the lack of one as failure. After
all, activism is often a reaction: Bush decides to invade Iraq, we create a
global peace movement in which 10 to 30 million people march on seven
continents on the same weekend. But history is shaped by the groundswells
and common dreams that single acts and moments only represent. It's a
landscape more complicated than commensurate cause and effect. Politics is a
surface in which transformation comes about as much because of pervasive
changes in the depths of the collective imagination as because of visible
acts, though both are necessary. And though huge causes sometimes have
little effect, tiny ones occasionally have huge consequences.

Some years ago, scientists attempted to create a long-range weather
forecasting program, assuming that the same initial conditions would
generate the same weather down the road. It turned out that the minutest
variations, even the undetectable things, things they could perhaps not yet
even imagine as data, could cause entirely different weather to emerge from
almost identical initial conditions. This was famously summed up as the
saying about the flap of a butterfly's wings on one continent that can
change the weather on another.

History is like weather, not like checkers. A game of checkers ends.
The weather never does. That's why you can't save anything. Saving is the
wrong word. Jesus saves and so do banks: they set things aside from the flux
of earthly change. We never did save the whales, though we might've
prevented them from becoming extinct. We will have to continue to prevent
that as long as they continue not to be extinct. Saving suggests a laying up
where neither moth nor dust doth corrupt, and this model of salvation is
perhaps why Americans are so good at crisis response and then going home to
let another crisis brew. Problems seldom go home. Most nations agree to a
ban on hunting endangered species of whale, but their oceans are compromised
in other ways. DDT is banned in the US, but exported to the third world, and
Monsanto moves on to the next atrocity.

The world gets better. It also gets worse. The time it will take you
to address this is exactly equal to your lifetime, and if you're lucky you
don't know how long that is. The future is dark. Like night. There are
probabilities and likelihoods, but there are no guarantees.

As Adam Hochschild points out, from the time the English Quakers first
took on the issue of slavery, three quarters of a century passed before it
was abolished it in Europe and America. Few if any working on the issue at
the beginning lived to see its conclusion, when what had once seemed
impossible suddenly began to look, in retrospect, inevitable. And as the law
of unintended consequences might lead you to expect, the abolition movement
also sparked the first widespread women's rights movement, which took about
the same amount of time to secure the right to vote for American women, has
achieved far more in the subsequent 83 years, and is by no means done.
Activism is not a journey to the corner store; it is a plunge into the dark.

Writers understand that action is seldom direct. You write your books.
You scatter your seeds. Rats might eat them, or they might just rot. In
California, some seeds lie dormant for decades because they only germinate
after fire. Sharon Salzberg, in her book Faith, recounts how she put
together a book of teachings by the Buddhist monk U Pandita and consigned
the project to the "minor-good-deed category." Long afterward, she found out
that when Burmese democracy movement's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was kept
isolated under house arrest by that country's dictators, the book and its
instructions in meditation "became her main source of spiritual support
during those intensely difficult years." Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman,
Walter Benjamin and Arthur Rimbaud, like Henry David Thoreau, achieved their
greatest impact long after their deaths, long after weeds had grown over the
graves of the bestsellers of their times. Gandhi's Thoreau-influenced
nonviolence was as important in the American South as it was in India, and
what transpired with Martin Luther King's sophisticated version of it has
influenced civil disobedience movements around the world. Decades after
their assassinations they are still with us.

At the port of Oakland, California, on April 7, several hundred peace
activists came out at dawn at dawn to picket the gates of a company shipping
arms to Iraq. The longshoreman's union had vowed not to cross our picket.
The police arrived in riot gear and, unprovoked and unthreatened, began
shooting wooden bullets and beanbags of shot at the activists. Three members
of the media, nine longshoremen, and fifty activists were injured. I saw the
bloody welts the size of half grapefruits on the backs of some of the young
men--they had been shot in the back -- and a swelling the size of an egg on
the jaw of a delicate yoga instructor. Told that way, violence won. But the
violence inspired the union dock workers to form closer alliances with
antiwar activists and underscored the connections between local and global
issues. On May 12 we picketed again, with no violence. This time, the
longshoremen acted in solidarity with the picketers and -- for the first
time in anyone's memory -- the shipping companies cancelled the work shift
rather than face the protesters. Told that way, the story continues to
unfold, and we have grown stronger. And there's a third way to tell it. The
picket stalled a lot of semi trucks. Some of the drivers were annoyed. Some
sincerely believed that the war was a humanitarian effort. Some of them --
notably a group of South Asian drivers standing around in the morning sun
looking radiant -- thought we were great. After the picket was broken up,
one immigrant driver honked in support and pulled over to ask for a peace
sign for his rig. I stepped forward to pierce holes into it so he could
bungee-cord it to the chrome grille. We talked briefly, shook hands, and he
stepped up into the cab. He was turned back at the gates --they weren't
accepting deliveries from antiwar truckers. When I saw him next he was
sitting on a curb all alone behind police lines, looking cheerful and
fearless. Who knows what will ultimately come of the spontaneous courage of
this man with a job on the line?

Victories of the New Peace Movement

It was a setup for disappointment to expect that there would be an
acknowledged cause and effect relationship between the antiwar actions and
the Bush administration. On the other hand...

a.. We will likely never know, but it seems that the Bush
administration decided against the "Shock and Awe" saturation bombing of
Baghdad because we made it clear that the cost in world opinion and civil
unrest would be too high. We millions may have saved a few thousand or a few
hundred thousand lives.

b.. The global peace movement was grossly underreported on February
15th. A million people marching in Barcelona was nice, but I also heard
about the thousands in Chapel Hill, NC, the hundred and fifty people holding
a peace vigil in the small town of Las Vegas, NM, the antiwar passion of
people in even smaller villages from Bolivia to Thailand.

c.. Activists are often portrayed as an unrepresentative, marginal
rabble, but something shifted in the media last fall. Since then, antiwar
activists have mostly been represented as a diverse, legitimate, and
representative body, a watershed victory for our representation and our
long-term prospects.

d.. Many people who had never spoken out, never marched in the
street, never joined groups, written to politicians, or donated to
campaigns, did so; countless people became political as never before. That
is, if nothing else, a vast aquifer of passion now stored up to feed the
river of change. New networks and communities and websites and listserves
and jail solidarity groups and coalitions arose.

e.. In the name of the so-called war on terror, which seems to
inculcate terror at home and enact it abroad, we have been encouraged to
fear our neighbors, each other, strangers, (particularly middle-eastern,
Arab, and Moslem people), to spy on them, to lock ourselves up, to privatize
ourselves. By living out our hope and resistance in public together with
strangers of all kinds, we overcame this catechism of fear, we trusted each
other; we forged a community that bridged all differences among the peace
loving as we demonstrated our commitment to the people of Iraq.

f.. We achieved a global movement without leaders. There were many
brilliant spokespeople, theorists and organizers, but when your fate rests
on your leader, you are only as strong, as incorruptible, and as creative as
he -- or, occasionally, she -- is. What could be more democratic than
millions of people who, via the grapevine, the Internet, and various groups
from churches to unions to direct-action affinity groups, can organize
themselves? Of course leaderless actions and movements have been organized
for the past couple of decades, but never on such a grand scale. The African
writer Laurens Van Der Post once said that no great new leaders were
emerging because it was time for us to cease to be followers. Perhaps we
have.

g.. We succeeded in doing what the anti-Vietnam War movement
infamously failed to do: to refuse the dichotomies. We were able to oppose a
war on Iraq without endorsing Saddam Hussein. We were able to oppose a war
with compassion for the troops who fought it. Most of us did not fall into
the traps that our foreign policy so often does and that earlier generations
of radicals did: the ones in which our enemy's enemy is our friend, in which
the opponent of an evil must be good, in which a nation and its figurehead,
a general and his troops, become indistinguishable. We were not against the
US and for Iraq; we were against the war, and many of us were against all
war, all weapons of mass destruction -- even ours -- and all violence,
everywhere. We are not just an antiwar movement. We are a peace movement.

h.. Questions the peace and anti-globalization movements have raised
are now mainstream, though no mainstream source will say why, or perhaps
even knows why. Activists targeted Bechtel, Halliburton, Chevron and
Lockheed Martin, among others, as war profiteers with ties to the Bush
administration. The actions worked not by shutting the places down in any
significant way but by making their operations a public question. Direct
action seldom works directly, but now the media scrutinizes those
corporations as never before. Representative Henry Waxman publicly
questioned Halliburton's ties to terrorist states the other day, and the
media is closely questioning the administration's closed-door decision to
award Halliburton, the company vice-president Cheney headed until he took
office, a $7 billion contract to administer Iraqi oil. These are
breakthroughs.

The Angel of Alternate History

American history is dialectical. What is best about it is called forth
by what is worst. The abolitionists and the underground railroad, the
feminist movement and the civil rights movement, the environmental and human
rights movements were all called into being by threats and atrocities.
There's plenty of what's worst afoot nowadays. But we need a progressive
activism that is not one of reaction but of initiation, one in which people
of good will everywhere set the agenda. We need to extend the passion the
war brought forth into preventing the next one, and toward addressing all
the forms of violence besides bombs. We need a movement that doesn't just
respond to the evils of the present but calls forth the possibilities of the
future. We need a revolution of hope. And for that we need to understand how
change works and how to count our victories.

While serving on the board of Citizen Alert, a Nevada nonprofit
environmental and antinuclear group, I once wrote a fundraising letter
modeled after "It's a Wonderful Life." Frank Capra's movie is a model for
radical history, because what the angel Clarence shows the suicidal George
Bailey is what the town would look like if he hadn't done his best for his
neighbors. This angel of alternate history shows not what happened but what
didn't, and that's what's hardest to weigh. Citizen Alert's victories were
largely those of what hadn't happened to the air, the water, the land, and
the people of Nevada. And the history of what the larger movements have
achieved is largely one of careers undestroyed, ideas uncensored, violence
and intimidation uncommitted, injustices unperpetrated, rivers unpoisoned
and undammed, bombs undropped, radiation unleaked, poisons unsprayed,
wildernesses unviolated, countryside undeveloped, resources unextracted,
species unexterminated.

I was born during the summer the Berlin Wall went up, into a country
in which there weren't even words, let alone redress, for many of the
practices that kept women and people of color from free and equal
citizenship, in which homosexuality was diagnosed as a disease and treated
as a crime, in which the ecosystem was hardly even a concept, in which
extinction and pollution were issues only a tiny minority heeded, in which
"better living through chemistry" didn't yet sound like black humor, in
which the US and USSR were on hair-trigger alert for a nuclear Armageddon,
in which most of the big questions about the culture had yet to be asked. It
was a world with more rainforest, more wild habitat, more ozone layer, and
more species; but few were defending those things then. An ecological
imagination was born and became part of the common culture only in the past
few decades, as did a broader and deeper understanding of human diversity
and human rights.

The world gets worse. It also gets better. And the future stays dark.

Nobody knows the consequences of their actions, and history is full of
small acts that changed the world in surprising ways. I was one of thousands
of activists at the Nevada Test Site in the late 1980s, an important,
forgotten history still unfolding out there where the US and UK have
exploded more than a thousand nuclear bombs, with disastrous effects on the
environment and human health, (and where the Bush Administration would like
to resume testing, thereby sabotaging the unratified Comprehensive Test Ban
Treaty). We didn't shut down our test site, but our acts inspired the Kazakh
poet Olzhas Suleimenov, on February 27, 1989, to read a manifesto instead of
poetry on live Kazakh TV -- a manifesto demanding a shutdown of the Soviet
nuclear test site in Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, and calling a meeting. Five
thousand Kazakhs gathered at the Writer's Union the next day and formed a
movement to shut down the site. They named themselves the
Nevada-Semipalatinsk Antinuclear Movement.

The Soviet Test Site was indeed shut down. Suleimenov was the
catalyst, and though we in Nevada were his inspiration, what gave him his
platform was his poetry in a country that loved poets. Perhaps Suleimenov
wrote all his poems so that one day he could stand up in front of a TV
camera and deliver not a poem but a manifesto. And perhaps Arundhati Roy
wrote a ravishing novel that catapulted her to stardom so that when she
stood up to oppose dams and destruction of the local for the benefit of the
transnational, people would notice. Or perhaps these writers opposed the
ravaging of the earth so that poetry too -- poetry in the broadest sense --
would survive in the world.

American poets became an antiwar movement themselves when Sam Hamill
declined an invitation to Laura Bush's "Poetry and the American Voice"
symposium shortly after her husband's administration announced their "Shock
and Awe" plan, and he circulated his letter of outrage. His e-mail box
filled up, he started poetsagainstthewar.org, to which about 11,000 poets
have submitted poems to date. Hamill became a major spokesperson against the
war and his website has become an organizing tool for the peace movement.

Not Left But Forward

The glum traditional left often seems intent upon finding the cloud
around every silver lining. This January, when Governor Ryan of Illinois
overturned a hundred and sixty-seven death sentences, there were left-wing
commentators who found fault with the details, carped when we should have
been pouring champagne over our heads like football champs. And joy is one
of our weapons and one of our victories. Non-activists sometimes chide us
for being joyous at demonstrations, for having fun while taking on the
serious business of the world, but in a time when alienation, isolation, and
powerlessness are among our principal afflictions, just being out in the
streets en masse is not a demand for victory: it is a victory.

But there's an increasing gap between this new movement with its
capacity for joy and the old figureheads. Their grumpiness is often the
grumpiness of perfectionists who hold that anything less than total victory
is failure, a premise that makes it easy to give up at the start or to
disparage the victories that are possible. This is earth. It will never be
heaven. There will always be cruelty, always be violence, always be
destruction. There is tremendous devastation now. In the time it takes you
to read this, acres of rainforest will vanish, a species will go extinct,
women will be raped, men shot, and far too many children will die of easily
preventable causes. We cannot eliminate all devastation for all time, but we
can reduce it, outlaw it, undermine its source and foundation: these are
victories.

Nearly everyone felt, after September 11, 2001, along with grief and
fear, a huge upwelling of idealism, of openness, of a readiness to question
and to learn, a sense of being connected and a desire to live our lives for
something more, even if it wasn't familiar, safe, or easy. Nothing could
have been more threatening to the current administration, and they have done
everything they can to repress it.

But that desire is still out there. It's the force behind a huge new
movement we don't even have a name for yet, a movement that's not a left
opposed to a right, but perhaps a below against above, little against big,
local and decentralized against consolidated. If we could throw out the old
definitions, we could recognize where the new alliances lie; and those
alliances -- of small farmers, of factory workers, of environmentalists, of
the poor, of the indigenous, of the just, of the farseeing -- could be
extraordinarily powerful against the forces of corporate profit and
institutional violence. Left and right are terms for where the radicals and
conservatives sat in the French National Assembly after the French
Revolution. We're not in that world anymore, let alone that seating
arrangement. We're in one that for all its ruins and poisons and legacies is
utterly new. Anti-globalization activists say, "Another world is possible."
It is not only possible, it is inevitable; and we need to participate in
shaping it.

I'm hopeful, partly because we don't know what is going to happen in
that dark future and we might as well live according to our principles as
long as we're here. Hope, the opposite of fear, lets us do that. Imagine the
world as a lifeboat: the corporations and the current administration are
smashing holes in it as fast (or faster) than the rest of us can bail or
patch the leaks. But it's important to take account of the bailers as well
as the smashers and to write epics in the present tense rather than elegies
in the past tense. That's part of what floats this boat. And if it sinks, we
all sink, so why not bail? Why not row? The reckless Bush Administration
seems to be generating what US administrations have so long held back: a
world in which the old order is shattered and anything is possible.

Zapatista spokesman Subcommandante Marcos adds, "History written by
Power taught us that we had lost.... We did not believe what Power taught
us. We skipped class when they taught conformity and idiocy. We failed
modernity. We are united by the imagination, by creativity, by tomorrow. In
the past we not only met defeat but also found a desire for justice and the
dream of being better. We left skepticism hanging from the hook of big
capital and discovered that we could believe, that it was worth believing,
that we should believe -- in ourselves. Health to you, and don't forget that
flowers, like hope, are harvested."

And they grow in the dark. "I believe," adds Thoreau, "in the forest,
and the meadow, and the night in which the corn grows."

Rebecca Solnit is a regular columnist for Orion magazine and the
author, most recently, of RIVER OF SHADOWS: Eadweard Muybridge and the
Technological Wild West. Acts of Hope first appeared on OrionOnline.org, the
website of Orion magazine. The article can be viewed in its original
illustrated format at http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/Patriotism/index_Solnit.html

Copyright 2003 Orion Society


Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"The essence of mind is empty, spacious and pure from the beginning, like
the open, blue sky." -- Dalai Lama. It looks like George W. Bush got one out
of three anyway. -- Claudia D. Dikinis

Claudia once again WOWS us with this observation:

http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/03/05/21_palast.html

BUZZFLASH: Let's switch gears and talk about Iraq. Your book, "The Best
Democracy Money Can Buy" could be the title of the campaign by U.S. and
British firms to win contracts to "rebuild Iraq." Halliburton, Dick Cheney's
former company before leaving as CEO to become the Vice President, was
granted lucrative contracts without even bidding against other firms. It
seems we're witnessing kickbacks to firms that contributed heavily to George
W. Bush's presidential campaign. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is
fighting for British firms to get in on their piece of the pie. Instead of
"rebuilding Iraq" are we witnessing the outright fleecing of Iraq by
corporate power and greed?

PALAST: You're too kind. It's far worse than you portray it. I've received a
copy of a 101 page document from inside the US State Department which lays
out the plan for reshaping Iraq as an Anglo-American Disneyland, free of
rules, regulations or corporate taxes . . . and shorn of it's oil. ("Mass
privatization" is planned; i.e., post-war fire-sale sell-offs.) By the way,
let me credit the Wall Street Journal for first uncovering this . . . but,
except for their first article, no US paper or -- heaven forbid -- US
television network, has looked into the horrid, greed-soaked details. Stay
tuned to my site and reports for details.

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

"The essence of mind is empty, spacious and pure from the beginning, like
the open, blue sky." -- Dalai Lama. It looks like George W. Bush got one out
of three anyway. -- Claudia D. Dikinis

OK . . .here is a new post.

When Lying Pays Off:
The Fabrications of the Neo-Cons

"A little advice for the neo-cons and your nurturers. Every day you are creating more and more enemies within the United States and abroad. Governments, non-governmental organizations, political parties and social movements, labor unions and business interests, and religious organizations and student groups are talking to each other and are realizing they have a common purpose. That purpose is to drive the neo-con threat away from the power centers of the world. They are beginning to understand intermeshing dependencies and are connecting the dots: Enron, Hollinger, UNOCAL, Halliburton, Carlyle Group, Trireme, L-3, SAIC, etc. Your aggressive policies are upsetting the global balance of power, destroying economies, threatening international trade, and first and foremost, killing innocent people. Like the Nazis in Nuremberg, you will, one day, face an accounting for your crimes. As with the Nazis who stood in the docket in Nuremberg, few, if anyone, will be in the mood to grant you clemency or mercy." Wayne Marsden

Bush cartoon courtesy of Bruce Yurgil at Bartcop

Claudia just buzzed me, lol:

BUZZFLASH REPORT Sunday May 11, 2003 at 1:18:53 PM
http://www.buzzflash.com


Did Karl Rove Stuff Socks Down the Front of Bush's Pants Before He Got On
THAT Plane?
May 12, 2003

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY

It will be interesting to find out how much George's Campaign Photo Shoot,
with his "top gun" on display, will cost us? The picture was hilarious and
when I found out that "women think he's hot" I laughed even harder. I
decided perhaps I was too old and wasn't looking at it the right way. So, I
asked my daughter if she thought George Bush was hot and she laughed, "he's
an old guy and looks like a monkey." She looked at the picture and said
"what's wrong with his pants, he looks disgusting?"

"The other guy's pants don't look like that." I decided perhaps at 27 she
was too young and she doesn't like George anyway.

I asked my son, who likes George and believes this administration will save
him from all the monsters under his bed (he's 23) I asked him to look at the
picture, and he said "you just don't like Bush's policies so nothing he does
will suit you." He grabbed the picture and said "what does he have in his
pants, looks like golf balls, they shouldn't have let him go out looking
like that. So, he looks stupid, it's only one picture."

I went to my older daughter and son (in their 30's) and received pretty much
the type of responses. I've gone around my circle of friends and
acquaintances and still haven't found anyone who thinks he's hot. I wondered
where the survey was taken and felt sorry for the Soccer Moms who have
pretty much very little in their lives.

Do we know if he had socks or golf balls stuffed down his pants, and who put
them there Karl, "the brain" of George Bush?

>From a BuzzFlash Reader

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY

Another BuzzFlash Reader Speculates on Bush's Artificially Enhanced Crotch:

It wasn't socks or golf balls.

The former "fighter pilot" was too stupid to release his parachute harness
crotch straps as soon as he was on the deck.

Why am I not surprised?

>From personal experience I can tell you that it is VERY uncomfortable, if
not painful, to walk around that way.

Claudia D. Dikinis
http://starcats.com
Political & Personal Astrology for a New Millennium

". . . Americans have an obsession with prizes and lists, as though one
could count on them as a way of identifying worth and integrity, but the
main purpose most of them serve is juicing-up products." -- John Chuckman,
http://www.onlinejournal.com

Now here is a weird story that is food for thought, lol:

Dozens of women want Bronze Age hunter's babies

Dozens of women have asked to be made pregnant by a prehistoric iceman who died 5,000 years ago.

The body of "Otzi the Iceman" was discovered by hikers in 1991 as ice melted in the Schnalstal glacier, high in the Italian Alps.

Alex Susanna, director of the Bozen Museum where his body is exhibited, says requests have been received by many women wanting to have Otzi's babies.

He told Austrian broadcasting company ORF that all of the requests had been turned down, not least because Otzi's penis had decayed away.

Otzi was found half emerged from the ice and his body was first thought to be that of a modern climber. Closer examination showed he was still wearing goatskin leggings and a grass cape.

His copper-headed axe and a quiver full of arrows were found nearby and radio-carbon dating showed the body was more than 5,000 years old.


Story filed: 10:26 Thursday 24th April 2003

ABC 2004:The Invisible Democratic Primary Ratings

What a hoot!

1. Richard Gephardt 2.75 3.05 (2)

2. Al Gore 3.05 2.6 (1)

2. John Kerry 3.10 2.95 (2)*

4. John Edwards 3.15 3.2 (4)

5. Tom Daschle 4.35 4.2 (5)

6. Joseph Lieberman 4.75 4.7 (6)

7. Howard Dean 6.20 6.55 (7)

8. Al Sharpton 7.75 7.75 (8 )

IT'S THE FEROCITY, STUPID

Thu May 8, 7:01 PM ET

By Ted Rall

How Democrats Can Beat Bush in 2004


Ted Rall


NEW YORK--Michael S. Dukakis served with honor in the U.S. Army for two years. Three decades later, he was ridiculed for riding in a tank while wearing a helmet and a goofy grin. George W. Bush, a simian-faced draft dodger, hitches a ride to an aircraft carrier decked out in full "Top Gun" regalia and CNN calls dubs him our "warrior president."


Life isn't fair to the Democrats. No matter how much they suck up to corporate CEOs, they can't compete for contributions with Republicans who invite their backers to write legislation. Most registered voters are Democrats, but too many are disloyal swing voters and apathetic no-shows to assure victory. And even when Dems do win the most votes, cheating Republicans bully their way into office.


As things stand, Dems seem poised to get their collective ass kicked in '04. While unified Republicans aren't even bothering to hold presidential primaries next year, nine small-time Democrats are vying for the chance to take on a ruthless incumbent with bottomless pockets. Democratic frontrunners include Joe Lieberman (news - web sites), a wet-lipped whiner, right-wing even by Republican standards; John Kerry, a wild-eyed, helmet-haired war waffler doomed to Dukakian disaster in November; and John Edwards, a rich southerner capable of beating Bush if DNC insiders could see past his dark trial lawyer past. But it's still early. Hard as it is to believe now, one of these guys could win. After all, Bill Clinton (news - web sites) emerged from a similar clutch--the "seven dwarves"--in 1992.


Here's how.


Post-attack America is feeling mean. We've used our pain as justification to kill thousands of Afghans and Iraqis, but we still haven't touched the bastards who hit us on 9/11. The recession has killed off millions of jobs, and no one seriously believes that Bush's tax cuts will bring them back any time soon. Liberals watch with dismay as the Bush Administration guts social programs, environmental laws and civil liberties; conservatives beat on lefties for expressing disunity during a time of crisis. And Americans of all political flavors feel besieged in a world where most view us as ignorant and bellicose. Kinder and gentler this ain't. The only way Democrats can appeal to a divided and anxious electorate is by playing mean.


Politics isn't a tea party--it's a bar brawl. The standard Democratic strategy of politely giving the Republicans what they want in the hope that it will later blow up in their faces usually fails; voters blame both parties when disaster strikes. This time around, the Bushies have done Democrats a big favor by marginalizing them. Calling Tom Daschle a traitor was as much a low-water mark as "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" was for McCarthyism. Democrats didn't fight back then. Next year is payback time.


In theory Democrats should be able to beat Bush on the economy, but they won't. Like Bush, President Reagan ran up staggering deficits during his first term. He likewise refused to create jobs or to stimulate the economy during a deepening recession. But thanks to the pageantry of incumbency and a few sound bytes, he won a landslide reelection over the decent but dull Walter Mondale.


Democrats should beat Bush on his wars, but they won't. Few Americans are aware that Bush gave up on Afghanistan (news - web sites) a few months after the U.S. invasion or that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are doing great--and those who know the truth don't like to think about it. We've transformed Iraq (news - web sites) from the Arab world's most secular state to a hotbed of revolutionary Islamism. What matters to most voters, however, is that Bushus Caesar led our armies to victory against two adversaries in under a month each. Who cares that neither nation had an air force? People frazzled by the looming specter of terrorism want to think they're winning. "Sure, Bush is a prick," a liberal friend tells me. "But he's our prick."


The lesson: besieged Americans want to be led by ass-kicking meanies, not mild-mannered milquetoast moderates.


Democratic leaders ought to select their nominee in a smoke-filled room, call off the expensive and divisive primary process and order all other comers to stand down. Forget the union rallies, the badges and the buttons--whoever wins the nomination should invest every dime he can raise on the cruelest TV attack ads this country has ever seen.


Go after Bush's ultimate Achilles' heel: run countless loops of the inarticulate Resident's clashes with the English language. "Too dumb to talk," a sinister voiceover reads. "Too stupid to trust." Use time-proven Republican methods, like name-calling: Extremist. Out of touch. Tax and spender. Hates workers. Racist. Homophobe. Corrupt CEO coddler. Idiot. Drunk. Cut to the post-pretzel-incident photo: "America needs a sober president."


Forget ideas--voters respond to the personal stuff. Dwell on the two years Bush went AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. "Brave Americans gave their lives in Vietnam," a 30-second spot should intone as the camera pans over names of the fallen on the black wall in Washington. "Rich kid George W. Bush deserted. This coward snorted coke and drove drunk while other kids died." Who doubts that if Gore had played up Bush's DUI arrest, he would have picked up an extra 500 votes in Florida?


The stolen 2000 election shouldn't become a clarion call for pity votes--Americans hate sore losers--but presented as straightforward evidence of Bush's poor character. Contrast images of Gore's graceful concession speech with shots of the screaming young hoodlums dispatched by Karl Rove to intimidate Florida election officials. Remind, remind, remind: "I know I can beat George Bush," Lieberman said on May 4th. "Why? Because Al Gore (news - web sites) and I already did it." That's the snotty attitude Democrats need in order to prevail in 2004.


(Ted Rall is the author of "Gas War: The Truth Behind the American Occupation of Afghanistan," an analysis of the underreported Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline project and the real motivations behind the war on terrorism. Ordering information is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.)

I bet what he's said here resonates with so many people like us who have been shunted aside by the Bushoviks.


So What Am I To Do?

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY

by Bob

Buzz,

I'm 53 years old and I've never in my lifetime seen anything even approaching what is happening now. I own a television but I rarely use it anymore because of all the crappy programming, the right-wing garbage, and the propaganda that passes these days for news coverage. I own a radio, but rarely turn it on because the air waves are saturated with right wing (and often religious) programs broadcast by people I think must have rabies. I dropped my local paper because it was so right wing and vacuous, it was an embarrassment to the community (not that the community appeared particularly embarrassed, of course).

Now it appears probable that the FCC will approve proposals to further deregulate the media. This means that the problem will only get worse. I would be hard pressed to identify anything more un-American than this.

It would be a mistake to assume these developments have no effect on consumers. As much as I would like to believe that people can think critically for themselves, they usually don't, particularly when fed "current events" in an easy to digest and entertaining form...even though it's dishonest and the press doesn't ask the questions that need to be asked. Critical thought requires some effort, after all.

I have been accused of being a communist, a traitor, and a disloyal American by people who have been deluded by the garbage they are being fed. When I asked them to be more specific, I was told I should support the president during a time of war. When I ask them whether they thought the war in Iraq was justified, they all responded that it was because of what happened on September 11, 2001. When I countered that there was no evidence that Iraq had anything to do with 9-11, I was essentially called a liar. What more proof is necessary to show that the media have not been serving the public interest when this sort of misinformation is allowed to persist?

The traditional role of the media has been to serve as a force to keep the government honest. Now, however, they are clearly serving as the government's advocate. Theoretically, this alone should be enough to stop further deregulation of the media, but it won't.

I am not optimistic in the slightest about the upcoming presidential campaign. I don't think this country has yet passed through the "deep valley" it needs to find itself in before people start to wake up and begin demanding change (that is, if they still can). The Democrats will have to swim against the tide of a hostile press, a misled (and frequently indifferent) public, an opponent funded by many wealthy supporters with deep pockets, and their own inexplicable and deplorable cowardice.

I'll vote in the next election as I always do, and I'll vote for a Democrat as long as the candidate isn't just Republican-lite, but I see no reason to be optimistic that the ideals I cherish will be restored anytime soon.

Bob

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY

Another gem from Claudia:

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/042803_vatican.html

[Wayne Madsen, Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist and former
intelligence officer with the National Security Agency drops some big
bombshells in George W. Bush's spiritual back yard. This highly respected
journalistic veteran quotes sources closest to the Vatican as saying that
Pope John Paul II suspects that the Bush administration had foreknowledge of
the 9-11 attacks. He also points out the obvious: Bush behavior and attitude
are anything but Christian. - MCR]

Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult

Concerns Raised by the Vatican

by WAYNE MADSEN

(The following story was originally published by CounterPunch -
www.counterpunch.org -
on April 22, 2003.
Reprinted with permission from the author)

APRIL 28, 2003, 1700 hrs PDT (FTW) -- George W. Bush proclaims himself a
born-again Christian. However, Bush and fellow self-anointed neo-Christians
like House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, John Ashcroft, and sports arena Book
of Revelations carnival hawker Franklin Graham appear to wallow in a
"Christian" blood lust cult when it comes to practicing the teachings of the
founder of Christianity. This cultist form of Christianity, with its
emphasis on death rather than life, is also worrying the leaders of
mainstream Christian religions, particularly the Pope.

One only has to check out Bush's record as Governor of Texas to see his own
preference for death over life. During his tenure as Governor, Bush presided
over a record setting 152 executions, including the 1998 execution of fellow
born-again Christian Karla Faye Tucker, a convicted murderer who later led a
prison ministry. Forty of Bush's executions were carried out in 2000, the
year the Bush presidential campaign was spotlighting their candidate's
strong law enforcement record. The Washington Post's Richard Cohen reported
in October 2000 that one of the execution chamber's "tie-down team" members,
Fred Allen, had to prepare so many people for lethal injections during 2000,
he quit his job in disgust.

Bush mocked Tucker's appeal for clemency. In an interview with Talk
magazine, Bush imitated Tucker's appeal for him to spare her life - pursing
his lips, squinting his eyes, and in a squeaky voice saying, "Please don't
kill me." That went too far for former GOP presidential candidate Gary
Bauer, himself an evangelical Christian. "I think it is nothing short of
unbelievable that the governor of a major state running for president
thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to put to death," said
Bauer.

A former Texas Department of Public Safety officer, a devout Roman Catholic,
told this reporter that evidence to the contrary, Bush was more than happy
to ignore DNA data and documented cases of prosecutorial misconduct to send
innocent people to the Huntsville, Texas lethal injection chamber. He said
the number of executed mentally retarded, African Americans, and those who
committed capital crimes as minors was proof that Bush was insensitive and a
"phony Christian." When faced with similar problems in Illinois, Governor
George Ryan, a Republican, commuted the death sentences of his state's death
row inmates and released others after discovering they were wrongfully
convicted. Yet the Republican Party is pillorying Ryan and John Ashcroft's
Justice Department continues to investigate the former Governor for
political malfeasance as if Bush and Ashcroft are without sin in such
matters. Hypocrisy certainly rules in the Republican Party.

Bush's blood lust has been extended across the globe. He has given the CIA
authority to assassinate those deemed a threat to U.S. national interests.
Bush has virtually suspended Executive Orders 11905 (Gerald Ford), 12306
(Jimmy Carter), and 12333 (Ronald Reagan) which prohibit the assassination
of foreign leaders. Bush's determination to kill Saddam Hussein, his family,
and his top leaders with precision-guided missiles and tactical nuclear
weapon-like Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB) bombs is yet another
indication of Bush's disregard for his Republican and Democratic
predecessors. It now appears that in his zeal to kill Hussein, innocent
civilian patrons of a Baghdad restaurant were killed by one of Bush's
precision Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). Like it or not, Saddam
Hussein was recognized by over 100 nations as the leader of Iraq -- a member
state of the United Nations. Hussein, like North Korea' Kim Jong Il, Syria's
Bashir Assad, and Iran's Mohammed Khatami, are covered by Executive Order
12333, which the Bush mouthpieces claim is still in effect. Bush's
"Christian" blood cult sees no other option than death for those who become
his enemies. This doctrine is found no place in Christian theology.

Bush has not once prayed for the innocent civilians who died as a result of
the U.S. attack on Iraq. He constantly "embeds" himself with the military at
Goebbels-like speech fests and makes constant references to God when he
refers to America's "victory" in Iraq, as if God endorses his sordid killing
spree. He makes no mention of the children, women, and old men killed by
America's "precision-guided" missiles and bombs and trigger-happy U.S.
troops. In fact, Bush revels in indiscriminate blood letting. Since he never
experienced such killing in Southeast Asia, when he was AWOL from his Texas
Air National Guard unit, Bush just does not seem to understand the horror of
a parent watching one's children having their heads and limbs blown off in a
sudden blast of shrapnel or children witnessing their parents burning to
death with their own body fat nurturing the flames.

Bush and his advisers, previously warned that Iraq's ancient artifacts and
collection of historical documents and books were in danger of being looted
or destroyed, instead, sat back while the Baghdad and Mosul museums and
Baghdad Library were ransacked and destroyed. Cult leaders have historically
attempted to destroy history in order to invent their own. The Soviets tried
to obliterate Russia's Orthodox traditions, turning a number of churches
into warehouses and animal barns. Cambodia's Pol Pot tried to wipe out
Buddhism's famed Angkor Wat shrine in an attempt to stamp out his country's
Buddhist history. In March 2001, while they were negotiating with the Bush
administration on a natural gas pipeline, Afghanistan's Taliban blew up two
massive 1600-year old Buddhas in Bamiyan. The Bush administration, itself
run by fanatic religious cultists, barely made a fuss about the loss of the
relics. It would not be the first time the cultists within the Bush
administration ignored the pillaging of history's treasures.

The ransacking of Iraq's historical treasures is explainable when one
considers what the blood cult Christians really think about Islam. Franklin
Graham, the heir to the empire built up by his anti-Semitic father, Billy
Graham, has decided being anti-Muslim is far more financially rewarding than
being anti-Jewish. Billy Graham, history notes from the Nixon tapes,
complained about the Jewish stranglehold on the media and Jews being
responsible for pornography.

Franklin Graham continues to enjoy his father's unfettered and questionable
access to the White House. But in the case of Bush, the younger Graham has a
fanatic adherent. Graham has called Islam a "very evil and wicked" religion.
He then announces he wants to go to Iraq. Graham obviously sees an
opportunity to convert Muslims and unrepentant Eastern Christians, who owe
their allegiance to Roman and Greek prelates, to his perverted form of blood
cult Christianity. Graham says he is ready to send his Samaritan's Purse
missionaries into Iraq to provide assistance. Muslims and mainstream
Christians are wary that Graham wants to exchange food, water, and medicine
for the baptism of Iraqis into his intolerant brand of Christianity. In the
last Gulf War, Graham could not get away with his chicanery. The Desert
Storm Commander, General Norman Schwarzkopf, stopped dead in the tracks
Graham's plan to send 30,000 Arabic language Bibles to U.S. troops in Saudi
Arabia. Today's Pentagon shows no such compunction to put a rein on Graham.
It invited him to give a Good Friday sermon at the Pentagon to the
consternation of the Defense Department's Muslim employees. To make matters
worse, under Bush's "Faith Based Initiative," Graham's Samaritan's Purse
stands to receive U.S. government funds for its proselytizing efforts in
Iraq, something that should be an affront to every American taxpayer.

Bush's self-proclaimed adherence to Christianity (during one of the
presidential debates he said Jesus Christ was his favorite "philosopher")
and his constant reference to a new international structure bypassing the
United Nations system and long-standing international treaties are worrying
the top leadership of the Roman Catholic Church. Well-informed sources close
to the Vatican report that Pope John Paul II is growing increasingly
concerned about Bush's ultimate intentions. The Pope has had experience with
Bush's death fetish. Bush ignored the Pope's plea to spare the life of Karla
Faye Tucker. To show that he was similarly ignorant of the world's
mainstream religions, Bush also rejected an appeal to spare Tucker from the
World Council of Churches - an organization that represents over 350 of the
world's Protestant and Orthodox Churches. It did not matter that Bush's own
Methodist Church and his parents' Episcopal Church are members of the World
Council.

Bush's blood lust, his repeated commitment to Christian beliefs, and his
constant references to "evil doers," in the eyes of many devout Catholic
leaders, bear all the hallmarks of the one warned about in the Book of
Revelations - the anti-Christ. People close to the Pope claim that amid
these concerns, the Pontiff wishes he was younger and in better health to
confront the possibility that Bush may represent the person prophesized in
Revelations. John Paul II has always believed the world was on the precipice
of the final confrontation between Good and Evil as foretold in the New
Testament. Before he became Pope, Karol Cardinal Wojtyla said, "We are now
standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has
gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or
wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now
facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of
the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel." The Pope, who grew up facing the evils
of Hitler and Stalin, knows evil when he sees it. Although we can all
endlessly argue over the Pope's effectiveness in curtailing abuses within
his Church, his accomplishments external to Catholicism are impressive.

According to journalists close to the Vatican, the Pope and his closest
advisers are also concerned that the ultimate acts of evil - the September
11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon - were known in
advance by senior Bush administration officials. By permitting the attacks
to take their course, there is a perception within the Roman Catholic Church
hierarchy that a coup d'etat was implemented, one that gave Bush and his
leadership near-dictatorial powers to carry out their agenda.

The Pope worked tirelessly to convince leaders of nations on the UN Security
Council to oppose Bush's war resolution on Iraq. Vatican sources claim they
had not seen the Pope more animated and determined since he fell ill to
Parkinson's Disease. In the end, the Pope did convince the leaders of
Mexico, Chile, Cameroon, and Guinea to oppose the U.S. resolution. If one
were to believe in the Book of Revelations, as the Pope fervently does, he
can seek solace in scoring a symbolic victory against the Bush
administration. Whether Bush represents a dangerous right-wing ideologue who
couples his political fanaticism with a neo-Christian blood cult (as I
believe) or he is either the anti-Christ or heralds one, the Pope should
know he has fought the good battle and has gained the respect and admiration
of many non-Catholics around the world.

-- Wayne Madsen is a Washington-based investigative journalist and former
naval officer assigned to the National Security Agency. He testified before
Cynthia McKinney's hearing on the genocide in the DRC in May 2001 and has
worked with Bob Barr on privacy legislation in the past. He wrote the
introduction to Forbidden Truth. Madsen can be reached at:
WMadsen777@aol.com