Life in OUR America, Volume 2, The Livyjr Files Options

[jeffmoskin]

Obviously, people have long memories...

Regrettably, Livyjr, they have very short memories.

1. President Bush pledged anew Friday that Osama bin Laden will be taken "dead or alive," no matter how long it takes, amid indications that the suspected terrorist may be bottled up in a rugged Afghan canyon. The president, in an Oval Office meeting with Thailand's prime minister, would not predict the timing of bin Laden's capture but said he doesn't care how the suspect is brought to justice. "I don't care, dead or alive — either way," Bush said. "It doesn't matter to me." - USA Today 12/14/2001

2. "The man (Saddam) is a threat... He's a threat because he is dealing with al Qaeda... And we're going to deal with him." GW Bush, 7 Nov 2002

3. At the annual Radio and Television News Correspondents Association dinner, George W Bush shows slides of himself searching clumsily behind furniture in the Oval Office, joking: "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere ... nope, no weapons over there ... maybe under here?" 24 Mar 2004







The beat goes on, the beat goes on.
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.
La de da de de, la de da de da.

Charleston was once the rage, uh huh.
History has turned the page, uh huh.
The miniskirt's the current thing, uh huh.
Tennybopper si our newborn king, uh huh.

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.
La de da de de, la de da de da.

The grocery store's the supermart, uh huh.
Little girls still break their hearts, uh huh.
And men still keep on marching off to war.
Electrically they keep a baseball score.

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.
La de da de de, la de da de da.

Grandmas sit in chairs and reminisce
Boys keep chasing girls to get a kiss.
The cars keep going faster all the time.
Bums still cry 'Hey buddy, have you got a dime?'

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.
La de da de de, la de da de da

[Livyjr]

The cars keep going faster all the time.

Bums still cry 'Hey buddy, have you got a dime?'

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.

Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.

La de da de de, la de da de da

Somehow, jeffmoskin, just somehow, I believe that there is a direct linkage between the "cars going faster, ALL THE TIME", and the number of bums out there at any given time, begging for that dime!

And the Beat keeps becoming more and more insistent!

DA DUM DA DUM DA DUM, on and on and on and on ...

The wardrums of George W. Bush's EMPIRE on the march!

Kind of like a scene from a recent movie where that wizard had his own army in what was the place, MORDOR?

[Livyjr]

Somehow, jeffmoskin, just somehow, I believe that there is a direct linkage between the "cars going faster, ALL THE TIME", and the number of bums out there at any given time, begging for that dime!

And the Beat keeps becoming more and more insistent!

And speaking of people who are going to be out there as bums, begging for that dime, if they can but find someone who actually has one, or knows anymore what a dime is, we have from BUSHWORLD CENTRAL:

"Corporate Pensions Going Away As Old Firms Decline, Struggle"

Marilyn Alva

Wed May 25, 7:00 PM ET

Over the last 20 years, corporate pension plans have undergone a slow but sure death.

Now, as United Airlines prepares to dump its pension obligations on the federal government in the largest default in U.S. history, it looks like the last curtain is about to fall on traditional pension programs.

Only 20% of the work force still participates in defined benefit plans -- where you get a pension check for life after you retire -- vs. about 40% in the mid-'80s.

Of the 30,000 defined benefit plans left, down from 112,000 in 1985, many are in declining, old-line industries.

In contrast, about 700,000 401(k) tax-sheltered savings plans are offered by new and old economy companies.

The government estimates that defined-benefit programs are underfunded by $450 billion.

Of that underfunding, $96 billion is at companies with junk bond ratings.

That's up from $34 billion in 2002 and $4 billion in 2000.

"The majority of plan sponsors of defined-benefit plans have underfunded pension plans at this time," said Kevin Wagner, retirement practice leader at Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

Since many of those plan sponsors are financially healthy, their funding obligations will not materially impact their business, he said.

"However, for companies in financial distress, the additional funding requirement may very well be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel's back," Wagner said.

Manufacturers and transportation firms remain those most likely to end their pension plans.

General Motors and Ford debt has recently been downgraded to junk.

Delta Airlines has said it may follow United into bankruptcy.

Watchers worry those American institutions might follow former steel giants such as Bethlehem and bygone legacy airlines such as Eastern and turn their pensions over to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.

The government insurer will take over United's nearly $10 billion underfunded pension plan.

In 2004, nearly 200 underfunded pension plans were turned over to the PBGC, the most since 1990, when it started counting.

Those moves affected 147,500 workers in 2004.

United's four pension plans hit more than 120,000.

When the PBGC takes over pension plans, benefits are often reduced due to legal limits.

Of United's underfunded $9.8 billion, just $6.6 billion is guaranteed.

Even so, the PBGC estimates it has a $23 billion deficit, including United.

It's backing Bush administration pension reforms, including hiking employers' pension insurance premiums to the agency.

Other recently introduced legislation aims to extend the time airlines can finance their underfunded pensions.

Airlines would have to freeze their pension plans and replace future benefits with 401(k)s.

Pension reform isn't likely to stop the steady decline in traditional pension plans, experts said.

In fact, higher premiums might push some employers to phase out pensions.

"From 1994 to 2004, half of the defined benefit plans terminated."

"The vast majority of those plans were well-funded," said James Klein, head of the American Benefits Council.

Those terminations don't include scores of plans frozen or closed to new hires.

Such moves can be a precursor to outright termination.

Phasing Out Pensions

Sears Holdings recently told employees it'll cease further accruals to its pension plans after Dec. 31, 2005.

Retirees won't be affected.

IBM and Motorola this year stopped offering new hires traditional pensions.

IBM had already watered down pension plans for current staff.

Avaya stopped accruals to its pension plan at the start of 2004.

"Once large employers no longer cover new hires, it's a matter of time before these plans shrink away," said Sheldon Gamzon, a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Other firms will soon follow suit, he says.

Companies are required by law to kick in money to their pension plans to make up for any shortfalls.

In a rising stock market, that wasn't a problem.

Many firms didn't even need to bolster their pension funds in the go-go '90s.

In a down market, even a healthy company might have to make up for the shortfall.

One problem pension consultants see is that companies must use unrealistic interest rates to determine future pension liabilities.

Most assume a modest 5.5% return on assets.

"Most pension plans have every reason to expect that their long-term investment return will be 8% or higher," Gamzon said, noting 60% to 70% of pension portfolios are invested in equities.

"If one substituted an 8% rate for the 5.5% rate used, most pension plans would find themselves 90% to over 100% funded," Gamzon said.

"Through the '90s, companies weren't troubled much by (accounting rules) because they were earning pension (asset) returns from 15% to 20% per year," he added.

"But now when returns are significantly below the 1990s, this is becoming a lot more painful," he said.

"We're being forced to use low interest rates that don't reflect the long-term expectations of the assets."

The defined-benefit system "is in more dire straits" than Social Security, PBGC executive director Bradley Belt has said.

While Social Security is moving toward a two-to-one worker to retiree ratio, the pension system has just one active employee for each retired or deferred-vested worker, he said.

GM has 2.5 retirees for every current worker.

Firms typically replace pensions with enhanced 401(k)s.

Avaya decided to chip in 2% of employees' salaries, even for workers who didn't put anything into a 401(k) plan.

Avaya also raised its match for workers who do.

Employers say they're offering 401(k) plans because workers job hop rather than stay with one firm.

Competition is a big factor too.

Legacy airlines face low-cost rivals without the same pension burdens.

In the 1990s, big U.S. steel companies with heavy pension obligations buckled under to global competition, including lean U.S. minimills.

Many new tech firms never offered defined benefit plans.

So big techs with old-model pensions have trimmed back to stay competitive.

"A lot of technology companies offered enhanced 401(k) plans."

"So we wanted to be as attractive to newer workers as our competitors," said Avaya spokesperson Lynn Newman.

[Livyjr]

By Melissa Rogers
Originally published April 22, 2005
Baltimore Sun

I AM A CHURCHGOING, Bible-believing Baptist, but I recently learned that I'm not a Christian.

Indeed, I've not only learned that I'm not a Christian, I've also learned that I'm anti-Christian and hostile to religion.

Why?

Because I dare to disagree with a certain political and legal agenda.

That's the message that is scheduled to be preached in a Kentucky church Sunday, at an event sponsored by the Family Research Council and joined by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.

The press release for the event states that certain judicial nominees are being opposed "because they are people of faith and moral conviction."

It labels a broad range of court decisions as "liberal, anti-Christian dogma," claiming that "activist courts ... have been quietly working under the veil of the judiciary, like thieves in the night, to rob us of our Christian heritage and our religious freedoms."

In sum, the release says that "we must stop this unprecedented filibuster of people of faith."

Thus, according to supporters of this agenda, including one of the foremost leaders in Congress, anyone who has a different view of the Constitution is an advocate of "liberal, anti-Christian dogma."

Anyone who takes a contrary position on Senate rules of procedure is hostile to faith.

End of story.

It's time to tell the truth.

Just as the government always perverts the faith it promotes, politicians cheapen the religion they seek to embrace when they push partisan politics in churches.

When Jesus cast the moneychangers out of the temple, He said, "My house shall be called the house of prayer."

Houses of worship are holy places, not political precincts.

Dr. Frist is wrong to seek political advantage through this event, and his error is compounded by his tacit approval of these illegitimate claims of persecution and the smearing of others as "anti-religious" simply because they differ on certain political and legal issues.

Melissa Rogers is a visiting professor of religion and public policy at Wake Forest University Divinity School.

A press release by Bill Frist labels a broad range of court decisions as "liberal, anti-Christian dogma," claiming that "activist courts ... have been quietly working under the veil of the judiciary, like thieves in the night, to rob us of our Christian heritage and our religious freedoms."

SO!

Let's see here .....

Frist?

Who is this Frist, again?

OH!

That's right!

He's the one in OUR United States Senate from the state of Tennessee, isn't he?

And who is it he's tossing stones at, here, with this "thieves in the night to rob him of his alleged Christian heritage and religious freedoms" cant that he is spewing above here?

Some sinner out there somewhere who don't like his "politics"?

Hhhmmm!

I wonder if that could be me, although I sure do not want anything that guy has, and especially what he is calling HIS christian heritage and HIS religious freedom!

And when he is calling people in OUR America "thives in the night", maybe he should "look to home" in his own state for examples, before getting all up on his high horse about anyone or anything else, here in OUR America:

"Tenn. State Senator Resigns After Arrest"

By ROSE FRENCH, Associated Press Writer

59 minutes ago

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - State Sen. John Ford, a member of one of Tennessee's most powerful political families, has resigned after being placed under house arrest facing charges from a two-year FBI sting, the lieutenant governor said Saturday.

Ford announced his resignation in a letter Lt. Gov. John Wilder read to the Senate.

"I plan to spend the rest of my time with my family clearing my name," he wrote.

A member of the Senate for more than 30 years, Ford was arrested Thursday following the sting operation nicknamed "Tennessee Waltz."

He is charged along with four other current and former state lawmakers with taking payoffs, and he is also accused of threatening to kill a witness.

Prosecutors played a videotape Friday of Ford watching an undercover agent count out $10,000 and an audiotape of him allegedly threatening a potential witness.

His lawyer suggested the purported threat was meant as a joke.

For the sting, the FBI set up E-Cycle Management Inc., a sham recycling firm with business cards, a Web site, and a chief executive who lobbied lawmakers over wine and finger food.

"This was a major-league effort," said Neil Cohen, a former state prosecutor.

"It's not uncommon — it's ongoing all the time all over the country — but there aren't many at this level where there's this much effort and resources and time devoted to one particular sting."

The FBI even went so far as to register E-Cycle as a corporation with the Georgia Secretary of State, listing its chief executive officer as "J Carson."

E-Cycle had a storefront office in Memphis, not far from the Beale Street entertainment district.

Undercover agents, posing as executives of E-Cycle, offered lawmakers free trips to Florida and wined and dined them at a reception at a Nashville hotel in January.

"I think it's fair to say this type of thing is expensive," said George Bolds, spokesman for the FBI office in Memphis, who said he could not reveal the exact cost of the sting.

"It's kind of an extraordinary and sensitive technique used."

Ford's brother is Harold Ford, who served 11 terms in Congress.

His nephew is Rep. Harold Ford, Jr.

During his tenure in the state Senate, John Ford has lost paternity lawsuits, given a political job to a girlfriend, used campaign money for his daughter's wedding and been successfully sued for sexual harassment.

Republican Senate leader Ron Ramsey said the Ethics Committee he chairs was getting ready to file a six-count charge against Ford for violating Senate rules stemming from a separate investigation into allegations he was paid by a consulting company with financial ties to the state's Medicaid program.

"I believe we would have had the votes to remove Senator Ford from office," Ramsey said.

Sen. Tim Burchett, a Republican, said he was a little surprised by the resignation, "but I think he realized a cat only has nine lives and he's on about life 10."

Ford, Sens. Kathryn Bowers and Ward Crutchfield, and state Rep. Chris Newton were all sponsors of a bill proposed by E-Cycle that would have given the state the option of getting rid of old computer equipment by selling it to a "qualified electronic recycling company."

According to the indictments, the lawmakers and two other men took $92,000 to usher bills for E-Cycle through the Legislature.

Ford is accused of taking $55,000.

Bowers, one of the other lawmakers arrested with Ford this week, said she is not guilty and does not plan to resign.

"Everybody that knows me knows I'm a fighter," she said.

___

AP writer Matt Gouras contributed to this report.

[Livyjr]

The beat goes on, the beat goes on.
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.
La de da de de, la de da de da.

Charleston was once the rage, uh huh.
History has turned the page, uh huh.
And now it's the Tennessee Waltz;
And the FBI calls that tune!

And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.
Drums keep pounding a rhythm to the brain.
La de da de de, la de da de da.

Senator John N. Ford (D-TN 29th)

16th-term Democrat from Tennessee.

Contact Information

Web Site: www.legislature.state.tn.us/senate/members/s29.htm

E-mail: sen.john.ford@legislature.state.tn.us

7 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243-0029
Phone: (615) 741-3304
Fax: (615) 741-6851

Main District Office:
5 North 3rd St., Ste. 2000
Memphis, TN 38101
Phone: (901) 522-9226
Fax: (901) 522-9221

Background Information

Party: Democrat
Residence: Memphis
Marital Status: Married
Prev. Occupation: Business Consultant; Funeral Director
Prev. Political Exp.: Memphis City Council, 1971-80
Education: BS TN State Univ., 1964; MS Memphis State Univ., 1978
Birthdate: 05/03/1942
Birthplace: Memphis, TN
Religion: Christian

Other Information

Term: 16th
First Elected: 1974
Committees:
• Finance, Ways and Means
• General Welfare, Health and Human Resources , Chair
• Lottery Oversight
• Pensions and Insurance
• TennCare Oversight

end quotes

I wonder if this Ford now thinks that these un-elected FBI's are acting like thieves in the night to rob him of his christian heritage and religious freedoms?

Maybe he and Frist can star as a duet here, crooning to each other about how hard life is, here in OUR America, for christian soldiers such as them, and well, they can certainly sing the "blues" to each other, as well, especially about this Tennessee Waltz, which now appears to be all the rage down there in Frist's home turf, and so ......

[Livyjr]

And the Beat keeps becoming more and more insistent!

DA DUM DA DUM DA DUM, on and on and on and on ...

The wardrums of George W. Bush's EMPIRE on the march!

"Newsview: Bush's Global Clout Seen Growing"

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

Sat May 28,12:49 PM ET

WASHINGTON - In the rarified club of world leaders, President Bush has taken his share of lumps.

Critics have railed against his handling of Iraq, his perceived disdain for the United Nations and what they say is a swaggering approach to foreign policy.

But Bush probably would not want to trade places with any other head of state.

Nearly all his fellow leaders of the world's big industrial democracies have stumbled.

It has left them vulnerable at home and weaker on the world stage.

The president, through it all, is riding what he sees as a strong re-election mandate to trumpet his goal of spreading democracy.

That helps explains why Bush, despite a slip in his approval rating among Americans, may find himself holding the stronger hand when he travels in early July to Scotland for the annual summit of the leaders of the eight major industrialized democracies.

"His counterparts all face ill political winds that make their domestic positions rather precarious," said Charles Kupchan, director of European studies with the Council on Foreign Relations, a private research group.

"I do think it puts Bush in an advantageous position."

It is not the best of times be a world leader:

_Britain's Tony Blair, Bush's chief ally on Iraq, did win re-election this month to a third term as prime minister.

But he prevailed by drastically reduced margins for his Labour Party, threatening his leadership abilities.

_Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, also a strong support of U.S. policy in Iraq, has seen parties in his government coalition lose in regional and local elections.

Defeats even forced his resignation, although he cobbled together a new coalition to regain power.

_German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, a vocal critic of the Iraq war, has called for national elections for this fall — a year early.

That followed his party's crushing defeat in Germany's most populous region.

The loss, he said, cost him the mandate he needs to fix Germany's struggling economy.

_French President Jacques Chirac, also a foe of U.S. policy in Iraq, is taking heat for his decision to call a referendum on the European Union's first constitution.

It's set him up for what could be a humiliating defeat.

Chirac's approval ratings have declined and he faces opposition from within his own party.

_Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin faces serious challenges and demands that he resign.

The House of Commons tied on a vote of confidence this month.

It took a vote by the parliament speaker to give Martin's minority government a one-vote victory.

Canada pledged to tighten its borders after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But Ottawa has declined to send troops to Iraq or sign on to the U.S. missile defense shield.

_Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, finds his popularity lagging after four years on the job.

It's down about half from the 80 percent he once enjoyed.

Koizumi may be in better shape than his European counterparts.

But weighing him down are tensions with North Korea and China, and public concern about expected tax cuts and pension restructuring.

_Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to consolidate power and exercise more control over regional leaders.

But his rollback of press and political freedoms and his pursuit of oil giant Yukos have drawn international condemnation and clouded Russia's business climate.

Analysts see common themes for the leaders' tough times: high unemployment and slow growth in Germany and France; social tensions associated with Muslim immigration; and a backlash against "globalization" as industries move their operations to low-wage countries.

Bush himself is having trouble on Social Security, judicial nominations and other domestic priorities.

Yet, analysts suggest, the president has had strong run internationally over the past few months — even with the continuing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He persuaded European powers to negotiate with Iran over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

He watched democratic elections and the formation of a new government in Iraq.

He successfully prodded Syria to withdraw from Lebanon.

And he is taking an active role in trying to nudge Israelis and Palestinians toward peace.

France's ambassador to the United States spoke recently of the effect of Bush's winning a second term.

"The moment President Bush was re-elected, he extended the hand of friendship and cooperation to the leaders of Europe," said Jean-David Levitte.

"Style has changed."
___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Tom Raum has covered Washington for The Associated Press since 1973, including five presidencies.

[Livyjr]

And here is an update on that "government-sponsored Viagra for convicted sex-offenders" story above:

"Feds say states can deny Viagra to sex offenders on Medicaid" 
 
By MICHAEL GORMLEY, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:37 p.m., Monday, May 23, 2005

ALBANY -- The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is now advising state officials they can deny Medicaid coverage for erectile dysfunction drugs for convicted sex offenders.

"The Medicaid program should not be paying for erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders," said Gary Karr, spokesman for the center under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Notices were to go out to states as early as Monday, 24 hours after New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi revealed 198 of New York's worst sex offenders received taxpayer-paid Viagra.

She spoke with Gov. George Pataki's staff who, like their counterparts in other states, thought they had little recourse from providing Medicaid-paid Viagra for sex offenders.

Earlier Monday, Pataki called on Washington to reverse what he called the Clinton-era's "irrational and misguided policy."

end quotes

Ah, George, I hate to burst your bubble here, but guess what?

Clinton has been gone from the Oval Office FOR FIVE YEARS NOW, and your hero, George W. Bush has been in there for those five years, and so ...... 

Why did this take FIVE YEARS for him to do anything about this, and speaking about that, why didn't you do something yourself, after 2000, when Clinton was gone, since it is pretty obvious from this above article that your own crowd knew what was going on, here in New York, with this government-sponsored Viagra for convicted sex offenders in New York State, WHERE GEORGE, YOU JUST HAPPEN TO BE THE MAN IN CHARGE OF THAT PROGRAM?

"Offenders get Medicaid-paid Rx for Viagra"

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press
Last updated: 5:26 p.m., Saturday, May 28, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 800 convicted sex offenders in 14 states got Medicaid-funded prescriptions for Viagra and other impotence drugs, according to a survey by The Associated Press.

The majority of the cases were in New York, Florida and Texas.

Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, is administered differently in every state.

Thus, while some states allowed Medicaid payments for prescriptions for the drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, other states did not.

New York, acting on a tip, was the first to uncover that Medicaid had paid for Viagra prescriptions for sex offenders.

Its report prompted the federal government, which provides states with funds for Medicaid, to order states to take steps to stop the coverage for these felons.

The states that provided registered sex offenders with subsidized impotence drugs are Florida, 218 cases; New York, 198; Texas, 191; New Jersey, 55; Virginia, 52; Missouri, 26; Kansas, 14; Ohio, 13; Michigan, seven; Maine, five; Georgia, three; Montana, three; Alabama, two; and North Dakota, one.

That comes to 788 cases.

In Virginia, the cost came to at least $3,085.

Gov. Mark R. Warner issued an emergency order barring Medicaid from continuing to pay for the drugs for these men.

Kyle Smith, a spokesman for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, put it this way:

"Do we have programs giving clubs to wife beaters or drinks for those committing DUI?"

"Weird things happen in this world, and this is one of the weirder."

In Alabama, officials said the federal government previously had mandated that states pay for erectile dysfunction drugs.

"Now that we are armed with new information from the federal government, Alabama can and will deny this coverage for registered sex offenders," Carol Herrmann, the state's Medicaid director, said last week.

Some states had relied on a 1998 letter from the Clinton administration as a basis for providing coverage, said Matt Salo, a staff member of the National Governors Association.

But that letter also said restrictions could be put in place to curb abuse.

For example, the letter said states should limit the number of refills or the quantity of pills per prescription.

That letter, sent to then-Govs. Mike Leavitt of Utah and Lawton Chiles of Florida, said Medicaid must cover all FDA-approved drugs with certain exceptions.

Those exceptions included drugs used for weight control, for cosmetic purposes or to promote fertility.

"The law is pretty clear."

"The letter in 1998 said Medicaid had to cover Viagra," said Salo, the director of the association's health and human services committee.

"I don't think there is any dispute about that."

Some states did decline to provide coverage for impotence drugs to any male.

South Dakota considers Viagra and similar drugs to be fertility drugs.

"Our rules are specific in that we do not cover agents to promote fertility or to treat impotence," said Larry Iverson, director of South Dakota's Office of Medical Services.

Wisconsin officials simply ignored the directive.

The state's health and human services chief "thought the directive was ill-advised and chose to disregard it," said a department spokeswoman, Stephanie Marquis.

Tennessee took the position that the treatment of erectile dysfunction is not medically necessary.

The state has approved coverage of Viagra in five cases, not involving sex offenders, for treatment of pulmonary hypertension.

Gary Karr, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said states always have had the right to determine what treatments are medically necessary.

"Obviously there was some degree of confusion or misunderstanding from the letter the Clinton administration sent out," he said.

Many states are reviewing whether the treatment of erectile dysfunction is a medical necessity.

"I don't want to give Viagra to sex offenders, that's pretty ridiculous," said Robbie Kerr, director of South Carolina's Health and Human Services Department.

"The point to me is not that we're paying for Viagra and sex offenders may somehow get it, the point is, 'Why am I covering Viagra at all?'"

Texas now bans all Medicaid claims for impotence drugs.

"We want our Medicaid program to make the very best use of limited taxpayer dollars, and Texas taxpayers should not have to pay for these types of drugs," the state's health and human services commissioner, Albert Hawkins, said in a statement Friday.

The federal government told states this past week that they had to take steps to ensure such drugs did not go to sex offenders.

But the fallout could be much broader because Congress has proposed banning coverage of impotence drugs for all Medicaid and Medicare recipients.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said such a restriction would save $2 billion over the next decade.

Some doctors disagree with that approach.

They say drugs that allow older people or the ill to maintain a sex life encourages them to lead a healthier lifestyle.

"States that have imposed a ban on coverage of erectile dysfunction are effectively lumping thousands of victims of crippling disease in with criminals," said Dr. Richard Atkins, chief executive officer of the National Prostate Cancer Coalition.

"Viagra and similar medications are not a 'lifestyle' drug for these people."

------

On the Net:

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: http://www.cms.hhs.gov

[Livyjr]

"Tenn. State Senator Resigns After Arrest"

By ROSE FRENCH, Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - State Sen. John Ford, a member of one of Tennessee's most powerful political families, has resigned after being placed under house arrest facing charges from a two-year FBI sting, the lieutenant governor said Saturday.

Ford announced his resignation in a letter Lt. Gov. John Wilder read to the Senate.

"I plan to spend the rest of my time with my family clearing my name," he wrote.

A member of the Senate for more than 30 years, Ford was arrested Thursday following the sting operation nicknamed "Tennessee Waltz."

He is charged along with four other current and former state lawmakers with taking payoffs, and he is also accused of threatening to kill a witness.

Prosecutors played a videotape Friday of Ford watching an undercover agent count out $10,000 and an audiotape of him allegedly threatening a potential witness.

His lawyer suggested the purported threat was meant as a joke.

And from the "Tennessee Waltz" down there in what is Frist country, we zip up to the tiny town of North Greenbush in Rensselaer County in George Pataki's alleged corrupt EMPIRE State of New York, where they appear to be doing a romp called the "BONDED CONCRETE STOMP":

"Official under fire over concrete work - Democrats say they want to know how much councilman's employer has made on town jobs"

By DANIELLE T. FURFARO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, May 27, 2005

NORTH GREENBUSH -- Political opponents of Town Councilman Robert Ashe demanded that he reveal how much his employer has made on town jobs after learning the company had been supplying concrete to the water tower project.

Several times during his term, Ashe, a Republican, has promised that, because of his position with the town, Bonded Concrete would never work on town projects.

Ashe is a salesman for the company.

Company co-owner Jude Clemente also sent a letter to the town making a similar pledge because his wife is Town Attorney Linda Mandel-Clemente.

But after several people took photos of Bonded Concrete trucks at the site of the water tower construction, Ashe admitted that Bonded had been doing business with the contractor, Keller Construction.

He said he had no knowledge that Bonded was pouring the concrete until he was asked about it.

He also said that because it was Keller who has purchased the concrete, and not the town directly, he had not violated the pledge.

"We are not out there soliciting," Ashe said at Thursday night's Town Board meeting.

"The contractor has a right to buy from whoever they want," said Ashe, who has announced his intention to run for town supervisor.

A number of town Democrats said Thursday that Ashe has gone against his word and then demanded to know how much the company has made off taxpayer dollars.

"I have been here at these meetings and heard Bob and Linda disavow doing work with the town," said Democratic Councilman Richard Fennelly.

"The town owns those contracts."

"I think it is a legitimate point to contractors to divulge how much was spent."

Mandel-Clemente said that Bonded would not reveal what it has made from the town.

"If the contractor elected to work with Bonded, that is no one's business," she said.

end quotes

I wonder where the FBI is up here?

Oh, that's right!

New York State is a REPUBLICAN state, where George Pataki picks who he wants as U.S. Attorneys, and since they control the FBI .......

[Livyjr]

And from the "Tennessee Waltz" down there in what is Frist country, we zip up to the tiny town of North Greenbush in Rensselaer County in George Pataki's alleged corrupt EMPIRE State of New York, where they appear to be doing a romp called the "BONDED CONCRETE STOMP":

"Official under fire over concrete work - Democrats say they want to know how much councilman's employer has made on town jobs" 
 
By DANIELLE T. FURFARO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Friday, May 27, 2005

NORTH GREENBUSH -- Political opponents of Town Councilman Robert Ashe demanded that he reveal how much his employer has made on town jobs after learning the company had been supplying concrete to the water tower project.

Several times during his term, Ashe, a Republican, has promised that, because of his position with the town, Bonded Concrete would never work on town projects.

Ashe is a salesman for the company.

But after several people took photos of Bonded Concrete trucks at the site of the water tower construction, Ashe admitted that Bonded had been doing business with the contractor, Keller Construction.

He said he had no knowledge that Bonded was pouring the concrete until he was asked about it.

He also said that because it was Keller who has purchased the concrete, and not the town directly, he had not violated the pledge.

"We are not out there soliciting," Ashe said at Thursday night's Town Board meeting.

"The contractor has a right to buy from whoever they want," said Ashe, who has announced his intention to run for town supervisor.

Mandel-Clemente said that Bonded would not reveal what it has made from the town.

"If the contractor elected to work with Bonded, that is no one's business," she said.

"GOP picks Ashe for supervisor run - Selection quickly prompts criticism from Democrat often at odds with fellow lawmaker"

By DANIELLE T. FURFARO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Thursday, May 26, 2005

NORTH GREENBUSH -- Town Councilman Robert Ashe was chosen to run as the Republicans' town supervisor candidate, setting the stage for a bitter battle between the town's pro- and anti-development forces.

The committee also endorsed Councilman Joseph Styczynski for another run at his post, along with newcomer Lou Desso.

Former town employee Jan Liberty was endorsed for the town clerk position long held by Democrat Kathryn A. Connelly.

Ashe, who has been councilman since 2001, said he hopes to continue along the current administration's path.

"The residents of North Greenbush have been enjoying some good times due to tax cuts and youth and senior services being upgraded," said Ashe.

"It's a positive message we are giving out as leaders."

Ashe said he is working on his platform and will reveal more about it in the coming weeks.

Supervisor Paul Tazbir, who is in his fourth year in the post, announced last week that he will not run for re-election.

Democratic Councilman Richard Fennelly said he fears that cooperation within the Town Board would disintegrate further if Ashe were elected supervisor.

"He and the others have really gone out of the way to not work cooperatively at all," said Fennelly.

"It's an offense to myself, but it is more of an offense to the voters."

Fennelly and other Democrats have often assailed Ashe for what they call a variety of ethics breaches, ranging from his voting to hire Linda Mandel-Clemente, the wife of his employer at Bonded Concrete, as town attorney to the hiring of a comptroller who was not a town resident.

"Bob has a big credibility problem," he said.

Several times during his term, Ashe has promised that because of his and Mandel-Clemente's positions with the town, Bonded would never work on town projects.

But this week, when pressed, Ashe admitted Bonded has been pouring the concrete for the town water tower, now in construction.

Ashe claimed he didn't know it was Bonded who had the job and that they were hired by the contractor, Keller Construction.

"I've always said that we don't do a job where the town has to pay us directly," said Ashe.

"I had no knowledge the concrete was being poured."

[Livyjr]

"GOP picks Ashe for supervisor run - Selection quickly prompts criticism from Democrat often at odds with fellow lawmaker" 
 
By DANIELLE T. FURFARO, Staff writer, Albany, New York Times Union
First published: Thursday, May 26, 2005

NORTH GREENBUSH -- Town Councilman Robert Ashe was chosen to run as the Republicans' town supervisor candidate, setting the stage for a bitter battle between the town's pro- and anti-development forces.

Democratic Councilman Richard Fennelly said he fears that cooperation within the Town Board would disintegrate further if Ashe were elected supervisor.

"He and the others have really gone out of the way to not work cooperatively at all," said Fennelly.

"It's an offense to myself, but it is more of an offense to the voters."

Fennelly and other Democrats have often assailed Ashe for what they call a variety of ethics breaches, ranging from his voting to hire Linda Mandel-Clemente, the wife of his employer at Bonded Concrete, as town attorney to the hiring of a comptroller who was not a town resident.

"Bob has a big credibility problem," he said.

Several times during his term, Ashe has promised that because of his and Mandel-Clemente's positions with the town, Bonded would never work on town projects.

But this week, when pressed, Ashe admitted Bonded has been pouring the concrete for the town water tower, now in construction.

Ashe claimed he didn't know it was Bonded who had the job and that they were hired by the contractor, Keller Construction.

"I've always said that we don't do a job where the town has to pay us directly," said Ashe.

"I had no knowledge the concrete was being poured."

Ah, yes, that old shuck and jive, or as it is known in tiny North Greenbush, New York, the "Bonded Concrete Stomp"!

It always interests me how these politicians always feign ignorance when pressed about these kinds of things, WHEN IT IS THEIR JOB TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON, as OUR alleged representatives in government!

"Oh, I didn't know that!"

"I had no knowledge the concrete was being poured!"

And there is a lawyer-coached answer if there ever was one!

The slick politician up on the stand in the people's court, and he can fall back on "I had no knowledge", because it is difficult or impossible to prove that he did, unless ......

Now, certainly in a town the size of Los Angeles, California, it might be possible that some public official might not know what is going on at any given time, but when you take a town like North Greenbush, which could be nestled into a few square blocks of downtown L.A., and when you consider that this water tower project is a major project in the town that everyone is aware of, then how do you get to a situation of where this town councilman who wants to be supervisor is the only one in town who don't know nothing?

And this guy is likely to be elected as Supervisor of this town, which is a real statement in and of itself!

So, jeffmoskin, this is my next candidate for our "RACE" of the moment, and while I realize that it won't be so high a profile run as the Hahn-Villaraigosa contest, this one might be just as interesting, since this one is taking place in a fish bowl for all practical purposes, while Hahn-Villaraigosa was on a much larger stage!

In Hahn-Villaraigosa, the question in my mind had to do with the voter's apathy, or lack thereof, to allegations of corruption on the part of Hahn's crowd, and so, in my mind, that was somewhat a test of the integrity of US, the citizens who go into those voting booths on election day, and for that same reason, I am going to follow this race, as a test of east coast voters in a much smaller town.

Can people in OUR America really be so blind and/or ignorant as to be sold such transparent "bills of goods" as this guy Ashe appears to be peddling here in the Town of North Greenbush, in George Pataki's REPUBLICAN State of New York?

The question of the moment!

Stay tuned!

And the best of this holiday weekend to all of you out there!

Be safe, enjoy, and safe return back home to all of you who might be out there traveling this weekend.

[jeffmoskin]

Can people in OUR America really be so blind and/or ignorant as to be sold such transparent "bills of goods" as this guy Ashe appears to be peddling here in the Town of North Greenbush, in George Pataki's REPUBLICAN State of New York?

The question of the moment!

ABSOLUTELY!

A people that is capable of re-installing George W. Bush as president after the dismal record he set down during his first court-appointed term is capable of ANYTHING.

[Livyjr]

ABSOLUTELY!

A people that is capable of re-installing George W. Bush as president after the dismal record he set down during his first court-appointed term is capable of ANYTHING.

Well, jeffmoskin, that is quite a statement, and I find myself incapable of arguing with you, because I share your belief, and that is part of the reason that I keep coming back to this thread, so as to try and be a positive influence as to what that ANYTHING we are capable of, might in fact turn out to be!

In a tiny town like North Greenbush, New York, where the "press", such as it is, is "controlled" to some extent by the Republican MACHINE, and it is not wise to be seen looking too closely at what might be going on down at Town Hall, a guy like this Bob Ashe can pull the wool over people's eyes continuously, with impunity, because like the people in that story about the "King's new clothes", people who are scared of the power of those in elective office to harm them in their person and property will say anything, and ignore everything, just to keep retribution from visitng their house, AT ALL!

But with the power of this internet brought to bear, who can tell what might happen?

And so .....

[Livyjr]

Well, tomarrow is Memorial Day, and as for me, if the weather is nice, I'll probably go down to Albany, the state capital, and march in the parade down there, which I have been doing for quite a few years now, as I recall!

I march with a group of Viet Nam veterans when I go down there to march, and sometimes I carry the folded flag, other times, well, I just march, for it don't matter to me, one way or the other where I am in the parade, or what I am doing, so long as it casts a good reflection on us, the veterans who will be there, marching.

And so, I guess I'll have to wait and see ....

[jeffmoskin]

Well, tomarrow is Memorial Day, and as for me, if the weather is nice, I'll probably go down to Albany, the state capital, and march in the parade down there, which I have been doing for quite a few years now, as I recall!

I march with a group of Viet Nam veterans when I go down there to march, and sometimes I carry the folded flag, other times, well, I just march, for it don't matter to me, one way or the other where I am in the parade, or what I am doing, so long as it casts a good reflection on us, the veterans who will be there, marching.

And so, I guess I'll have to wait and see ....

I'll be marching with you in spirit, Livyjr.

A sh*tty war, started by sh*theads like McNamara, Taylor, Bundy. Sort of reminds me of...

the Iraq war, started by sh*theads like Wolfowitz, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.

And the beat goes on.

[Livyjr]

I'll be marching with you in spirit, Livyjr.

Nice to have you along, jeffmoskin, and spirit is what it is all about, I think, anyway!

[Livyjr]

Nice to have you along, jeffmoskin, and spirit is what it is all about, I think, anyway!

Well, as it was to turn out to be up here where I am in OUR America, it was quite a nice day when I got up this morning, and so, I got up and got dressed up one more time again in my "marching suit", which is a navy blazer and grey slacks, and I went down to town, to march in the Memorial Day Parade that they have down there, every year, or they have so far, anyway, and of that, I am glad, for to me as a disabled Viet Nam combat veteran, the thought alone of getting to march in one of these Memorial Day parades one more time, before I am gone, has become a sort of therapeutic exercise that I indulge myself in, during the cold months of the year, when one wonders if one will actually live through to see another spring bloom again, let alone get to march in one more parade, before the roll call is called up yonder, and I must be there!

And from my experience marching today, I think these Memorial Day parades are really a good therapy for all of us as a nation, and so I am writing these words while these thoughts are still fresh in my mind, so as to be able to say why that is so, from my perspective as a disabled combat veteran now grown old, here in OUR America.

And if this parade that I marched in today was not therapy for a nation, I think it certainly was for the "community", and that is where it always has to start, doesn't it?

First with us, then with OUR community, and then with OUR nation!

And it does have to start someplace, the healing that is, after war is done, and the veterans come "home" once again, and so a parade is as good a place as any for that to start, and then continue, year after year, as it has been doing with me, anyway, since I got back to here in January 1970, to what were some quite bad years for OUR America, what with Kent State and all of that business now better left forgotton, out of sight, and therefore, out of mind!

And maybe in the end, these parades on this one day, year after year, give us veterans a much better "recipe" or "method" than any other "non-integrative" therapy so as to gradually keep re-integrating ourselves back into this society that we left all those years ago, to go off to war, and for many of us, to never ever be the same again, and that just is a fact!

The "parade" as a place of healing, before we are all gone to our final resting places, with things undone, and words left unsaid that cause hurts of days gone by to continue to fester, and here I am talking specifically about the "hurts" of the Viet Nam times, although we are now back into another cycle, where once again, it is all happening all over again, the hatreds, the divisiveness, the misery, just as it was back then, when I came back to this place, and wondered, quite truthfully, where in the HELL I had landed when I got off that plane which was supposed to have brought me back home, but instead, had left me stranded in a place totally foreign and alien to me, which was OUR America on the day that I got back!

As a Viet Nam veteran, I suppose it is something that I am marching at all, because for a number of years, here in OUR America, Viet Nam veterans were unwelcome at these types of gatherings, and that unwelcomeness was palpable, tangible, and very uncomfortable, and so it was to be, for quite awhile, actually, at least up here where I am, and that was not a good thing for OUR America at all, or so I thought anyway, and so, one day, I decided to go down to town as a veteran in my "uniform" and simply march in one of these parades, as a unit of one!

Who is to say you can't after all, when it is a public parade on a day that is supposed to be related somehow or other with veterans and the sacrifices some have made, with their lives, so that others of us could have parades in their honor?

And so, that is what I did!

And in the course of doing that, well, I have learned much, is all that I can say!

One of the things I have learned is something about "coming back home" after having been away in a war, and that "something" I learned is that YOU yourself are the one who really has to do that, get yourself "back to home", and if you got Viet Nam on your mind all the time when you are here, then you are not "home" at all; to the contrary, you are lost and getting more and more so, each minute that you allow that "condition" to endure!

So what is this thing of marching in a parade, in a small town, or a big city for that matter?

Well, after all these years of doing that, marching, all I know is what it means to me, and that is that, but since today was Memorial Day, and since I did march today, and since I have been at this thought process for over thirty years now, I became moved this afternoon to record my thoughts on the subject, for whatever they are worth!

As for me, today, what I was thinking about as I marched is how nice it is to see all those people who turn out for the parade, families, or just individuals, and to feel the connection between them, and myself, that exists on some higher plane, I would say, than intellectual reasoning, and so is hard to define with words, but when experienced in the way that I experienced it today while marching on Memorial Day, it is quite tangible, and real, nonetheless.

Today, as I marched, my job was to carry the folded American Flag, which is what I really like to do, if that honor is accorded to me, as it was today, by my peers, I suppose they would be, in my marching group, which is all Viet Nam veterans like myself!

SO!

Today, I was not a person marching, rather, I was a symbol of something, and as I was marching along, carrying that folded flag, I realized the power that is associated with that symbol, which is the same American Flag that is maligned so much these days, just as it was during the Viet Nam times so long ago, now.

And what made me realize this "power" today IS that tangible connection between me carrying the flag, and those people on the side of the road who are seeing that symbol, and so, are having their thoughts of the next moment shaped by that image that they are seeing right then, which is me, an old man now, in a suit, carrying a flag, marching by, down the road, as if that flag were a precious thing, to be guarded with my very life, if needed!

All of a sudden, the FLAG becomes more than a piece of cloth folded up in the outstretched hand of a Viet Nam veteran, it becomes a living thing, BECAUSE the hand that holds that flag is itself a living thing, with a mind behind it, and the eyes of the assembled crowd that look upon that hand and flag are also living, and connected to human minds, human consciousness, and so, the very manner in which I carry myself as I carry that flag shapes the image OF WHAT OUR AMERICA REALLY CAN BE that is formed in the minds of all of these fellow Americans that are watching that folded flag in my outstretched hand, as I go marching by, AND THAT IS WHAT I LEARNED TODAY, after almost sixty years of living on this earth of OURS, which is just how connected we all can be, if only we can set our minds to trying to be so!

I am a veteran, and I am an American, and I do believe in what that flag represents, WHICH IS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US - or none at all, and when I personally am marching with that flag IN MY HAND, that is my message to all who are there watching, WE ARE ALL ONE, and I am you!

Yes, America, that is right!

We are all one!

ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE, FOR ALL!

That is the message that my mind is transmitting to all of the candid world, anyway, when that folded American Flag IS in my hand on Memorial Day, as I go marching by; and who can stop me from thinking that, or acting as if that were true, 24/7, as I go marching by?

And that answer is no one can, no one at all, but myself!

It can only cease to be true when I cease to think that way, and so ......

Now it is this afternoon, and the bands are all gone home, and the marchers dispersed, and my suit on its way to the cleaners tomarrow, and then to be put away until the next parade for me, which is Flag Day, on the 12th of June, I believe that is, BUT ....

The good feelings that I gained in that parade today still fill me, and to be truthful, as an older American, I am savoring them!

Today, for a short time, at least, we all were one, and when one can feel the power for goodness inherent in that relationship, it makes one want to seek it all that much harder, and so, to me, that is why these parades are such good therapy, for all of us, not only in OUR America, but in all the world, as well!

A parade not to honor war, not to honor killing, not to honor barbarity and brutality, but to honor life, instead, and the possibilities for good that it contains!

When I march in my suit with that flag in my hand, that is my message, and when it is a parade for veterans, who can stop me from making that display?

And that answer of course, is only GOD can, and why on earth would he or she want to do that, since that is where the message comes from in the first place, which is the same Divine Providence that was right there as OUR companion on the day this nation was born!

And so ......

[Livyjr]

...... and here I am talking specifically about the "hurts" of the Viet Nam times, although we are now back into another cycle, where once again, it is all happening all over again, the hatreds, the divisiveness, the misery, just as it was back then, when I came back to this place, and wondered, quite truthfully, where in the HELL I had landed when I got off that plane which was supposed to have brought me back home, but instead, had left me stranded in a place totally foreign and alien to me, which was OUR America on the day that I got back!

And I bet there are a lot of people in Iraq, right now, wondering just where in the HELL it is that they are these days, as well, and with good reason, from the looks of this "news":

"Iraq minister warns of fuel, power hikes"

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:25 p.m., Sunday, May 29, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraqi government may decrease subsidies for fuel and electricity, despite a severe shortage of both in the country, the electricity minister said Sunday as he warned Iraqis to prepare for more blackouts this summer.

Mihsen Shalash said the government was unable to generate power for everyone, and blamed the shortages on acts of sabotage and lack of fuel for power plants.

"We do have real problem and an electricity crisis and we can't supply power 100 percent this summer" Shalash said.

"We can't perform miracles."

The government has continued Saddam Hussein's practice of subsidizing gasoline and electricity keeping the price at the pump for a gallon of gasoline at a paltry 6 cents.

Before the U.S.-led invasion, residents of Baghdad had about 20 hours of electricity a day.

Today, they get about 10, usually broken into two-hour chunks.

There are also frequent fuel and drinking water shortages, and only 37 percent of the population has a working sewage system.

Shalash said the Iraqi government had agreed with neighboring Turkey to increase the electricity coming into Iraq and the amount of water flowing down the Euphrates River for a power plant at Haditha, northwest of Baghdad.

Iraqi government spokesman Laith Kuba also acknowledged that Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari would lift part of the current government's subsidy on fuel and electricity.

Kuba didn't say when or by how much the government fuel prices would increase and neither he nor Shalash provided any further details on the plans, including how much they expected budget revenues to increase.

"The current prices of gasoline and kerosene are close to free," Kuba told reporters.

He said the government would continue to subsidize fuel sold to families and people with limited incomes, without elaborating.

Similar subsidies will continue on electricity bills, he added.

Iraq had one of the region's best infrastructures, health and education systems in the 1970s, but conditions deteriorated rapidly after Saddam became president in 1979.

Expectations were high that things would improve after the invasion, but instead they deteriorate because of the insurgency and the inability of the U.S.-led authorities to rebuild the country's aging infrastructure.

[jeffmoskin]

Well, as it was to turn out to be up here where I am in OUR America, it was quite a nice day when I got up this morning, and so, I got up and got dressed up one more time again in my "marching suit", which is a navy blazer and grey slacks, and I went down to town, to march in the Memorial Day Parade that they have down there, every year, or they have so far, anyway, and of that, I am glad, for to me as a disabled Viet Nam combat veteran, the thought alone of getting to march in one of these Memorial Day parades one more time, before I am gone, has become a sort of therapeutic exercise that I indulge myself in, during the cold months of the year, when one wonders if one will actually live through to see another spring bloom again, let alone get to march in one more parade, before the roll call is called up yonder, and I must be there!

And from my experience marching today, I think these Memorial Day parades are really a good therapy for all of us as a nation, and so I am writing these words while these thoughts are still fresh in my mind, so as to be able to say why that is so, from my perspective as a disabled combat veteran now grown old, here in OUR America.

And if this parade that I marched in today was not therapy for a nation, I think it certainly was for the "community", and that is where it always has to start, doesn't it?

First with us, then with OUR community, and then with OUR nation!

And it does have to start someplace, the healing that is, after war is done, and the veterans come "home" once again, and so a parade is as good a place as any for that to start, and then continue, year after year, as it has been doing with me, anyway, since I got back to here in January 1970, to what were some quite bad years for OUR America, what with Kent State and all of that business now better left forgotton, out of sight, and therefore, out of mind!

And maybe in the end, these parades on this one day, year after year, give us veterans a much better "recipe" or "method" than any other "non-integrative" therapy so as to gradually keep re-integrating ourselves back into this society that we left all those years ago, to go off to war, and for many of us, to never ever be the same again, and that just is a fact!

The "parade" as a place of healing, before we are all gone to our final resting places, with things undone, and words left unsaid that cause hurts of days gone by to continue to fester, and here I am talking specifically about the "hurts" of the Viet Nam times, although we are now back into another cycle, where once again, it is all happening all over again, the hatreds, the divisiveness, the misery, just as it was back then, when I came back to this place, and wondered, quite truthfully, where in the HELL I had landed when I got off that plane which was supposed to have brought me back home, but instead, had left me stranded in a place totally foreign and alien to me, which was OUR America on the day that I got back!

As a Viet Nam veteran, I suppose it is something that I am marching at all, because for a number of years, here in OUR America, Viet Nam veterans were unwelcome at these types of gatherings, and that unwelcomeness was palpable, tangible, and very uncomfortable, and so it was to be, for quite awhile, actually, at least up here where I am, and that was not a good thing for OUR America at all, or so I thought anyway, and so, one day, I decided to go down to town as a veteran in my "uniform" and simply march in one of these parades, as a unit of one!

Who is to say you can't after all, when it is a public parade on a day that is supposed to be related somehow or other with veterans and the sacrifices some have made, with their lives, so that others of us could have parades in their honor?

And so, that is what I did!

And in the course of doing that, well, I have learned much, is all that I can say!

One of the things I have learned is something about "coming back home" after having been away in a war, and that "something" I learned is that YOU yourself are the one who really has to do that, get yourself "back to home", and if you got Viet Nam on your mind all the time when you are here, then you are not "home" at all; to the contrary, you are lost and getting more and more so, each minute that you allow that "condition" to endure!

So what is this thing of marching in a parade, in a small town, or a big city for that matter?

Well, after all these years of doing that, marching, all I know is what it means to me, and that is that, but since today was Memorial Day, and since I did march today, and since I have been at this thought process for over thirty years now, I became moved this afternoon to record my thoughts on the subject, for whatever they are worth!

As for me, today, what I was thinking about as I marched is how nice it is to see all those people who turn out for the parade, families, or just individuals, and to feel the connection between them, and myself, that exists on some higher plane, I would say, than intellectual reasoning, and so is hard to define with words, but when experienced in the way that I experienced it today while marching on Memorial Day, it is quite tangible, and real, nonetheless.

Today, as I marched, my job was to carry the folded American Flag, which is what I really like to do, if that honor is accorded to me, as it was today, by my peers, I suppose they would be, in my marching group, which is all Viet Nam veterans like myself!

SO!

Today, I was not a person marching, rather, I was a symbol of something, and as I was marching along, carrying that folded flag, I realized the power that is associated with that symbol, which is the same American Flag that is maligned so much these days, just as it was during the Viet Nam times so long ago, now.

And what made me realize this "power" today IS that tangible connection between me carrying the flag, and those people on the side of the road who are seeing that symbol, and so, are having their thoughts of the next moment shaped by that image that they are seeing right then, which is me, an old man now, in a suit, carrying a flag, marching by, down the road, as if that flag were a precious thing, to be guarded with my very life, if needed!

All of a sudden, the FLAG becomes more than a piece of cloth folded up in the outstretched hand of a Viet Nam veteran, it becomes a living thing, BECAUSE the hand that holds that flag is itself a living thing, with a mind behind it, and the eyes of the assembled crowd that look upon that hand and flag are also living, and connected to human minds, human consciousness, and so, the very manner in which I carry myself as I carry that flag shapes the image OF WHAT OUR AMERICA REALLY CAN BE that is formed in the minds of all of these fellow Americans that are watching that folded flag in my outstretched hand, as I go marching by, AND THAT IS WHAT I LEARNED TODAY, after almost sixty years of living on this earth of OURS, which is just how connected we all can be, if only we can set our minds to trying to be so!

I am a veteran, and I am an American, and I do believe in what that flag represents, WHICH IS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US - or none at all, and when I personally am marching with that flag IN MY HAND, that is my message to all who are there watching, WE ARE ALL ONE, and I am you!

Yes, America, that is right!

We are all one!

ONE NATION, INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY, AND JUSTICE, FOR ALL!

That is the message that my mind is transmitting to all of the candid world, anyway, when that folded American Flag IS in my hand on Memorial Day, as I go marching by; and who can stop me from thinking that, or acting as if that were true, 24/7, as I go marching by?

And that answer is no one can, no one at all, but myself!

It can only cease to be true when I cease to think that way, and so ......

Now it is this afternoon, and the bands are all gone home, and the marchers dispersed, and my suit on its way to the cleaners tomarrow, and then to be put away until the next parade for me, which is Flag Day, on the 12th of June, I believe that is, BUT ....

The good feelings that I gained in that parade today still fill me, and to be truthful, as an older American, I am savoring them!

Today, for a short time, at least, we all were one, and when one can feel the power for goodness inherent in that relationship, it makes one want to seek it all that much harder, and so, to me, that is why these parades are such good therapy, for all of us, not only in OUR America, but in all the world, as well!

A parade not to honor war, not to honor killing, not to honor barbarity and brutality, but to honor life, instead, and the possibilities for good that it contains!

When I march in my suit with that flag in my hand, that is my message, and when it is a parade for veterans, who can stop me from making that display?

And that answer of course, is only GOD can, and why on earth would he or she want to do that, since that is where the message comes from in the first place, which is the same Divine Providence that was right there as OUR companion on the day this nation was born!

And so ......

You (and I in spirit) have had a very good day today.

[Livyjr]

And I bet there are a lot of people in Iraq, right now, wondering just where in the HELL it is that they are these days, as well, and with good reason, from the looks of this "news":

"Iraq minister warns of fuel, power hikes" 
 
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:25 p.m., Sunday, May 29, 2005

Before the U.S.-led invasion, residents of Baghdad had about 20 hours of electricity a day.

Today, they get about 10, usually broken into two-hour chunks.

There are also frequent fuel and drinking water shortages, and only 37 percent of the population has a working sewage system.

Iraq had one of the region's best infrastructures, health and education systems in the 1970s, but conditions deteriorated rapidly after Saddam became president in 1979.

Expectations were high that things would improve after the invasion, but instead they deteriorate because of the insurgency and the inability of the U.S.-led authorities to rebuild the country's aging infrastructure.

And speaking of the on-going ineptness and incompetence of this present incumbent's administration, and all the stife and turmoil that it is causing in this world of OURS:

"U.S. Forces Mistakenly Detain Sunni Chief"

By PAUL GARWOOD, Associated Press Writer

1 hour, 22 minutes ago

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military nearly set off a sectarian crisis Monday by mistakenly arresting the leader of Iraq's top Sunni Muslim political party, while two suicide bombers killed about 30 police, and U.S. fighter jets destroyed insurgent strongholds near Syria's border.

Northeast of Baghdad, an Iraqi military aircraft crashed Monday during a mission with four American troops and one Iraqi on board, the U.S. military said.

It was not immediately clear what their condition was or even what kind of aircraft it was.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. military in Baghdad, Sgt. Kate Neuman, said the four Americans were military personnel.

And on Memorial Day, the U.S. military said American soldier Spc. Phillip Sayles, of the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, was killed in an attack Saturday in the northern city of Mosul.

As of Monday, at least 1,657 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The arrest of Iraqi Islamic Party leader Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, his three sons and four guards did little to help efforts to entice Iraq's once-dominant Sunni community back into the political fold.

The Sunnis lost their influence following Saddam Hussein's ouster two years ago.

Many believe the Sunni fall from grace, and parallel rise to power of Iraq's majority Shiite population, is spurring the raging insurgency, driving many disenchanted Sunnis to launch attacks that have killed more than 760 people since the April 28 announcement of the Shiite-dominated new government.

Bringing Sunnis back into the political fold could soothe some tensions.

In a commitment to end the violence, Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari vowed that "Operation Lightning," the large-scale campaign that began Sunday, would rid Baghdad of militants and, in particular, suicide car bombers, the deadliest and regular weapon of choice for insurgents.

"We needed to clean up some of our problem districts and that's why Operation Lightning was launched ... to quickly come to the protection of civilians and stop the bloodshed," al-Jaafari said at a news conference.

But renewed carnage south of the capital showed the difficulty of his job.

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the mayor's office in Hillah, 60 miles south of Baghdad.

The attackers waded into a crowd of 500 policemen staging an early-morning protest of a government decision to disband their special forces unit.

Staggering the detonations by one minute and 100 yards apart to maximize the casualties, the bombers killed at least 27 policemen and wounded 118 in an attack that scattered body parts, blood and shards of glass across a wide area, said police Capt. Muthana Khalid Ali.

The Polish military, which controls the area, said about 30 Iraqis were killed.

The conflicting tolls were apparently linked to the difficulty in trying to count the dead because of all the body parts strewn around the blast site.

"I just saw a ball of fire and flying pieces of flesh."

"After that, confused policemen started firing into the air," he said.

In an apparent claim of responsibility, al-Qaida in Iraq said in an Internet statement that one of its members carried out an attack "against a group of special Iraqi forces."

The statement's authenticity could not be verified.

Militants regard Iraqi security forces as prime targets in their campaign against the U.S. military, which hinges its eventual exit from Iraq on the ability of local soldiers and police to handle the insurgency.

Violence across northern Iraq killed at least nine others, with gunmen slaying a senior Kurdish official in Kirkuk and a Sunni tribal leader in Mosul, a roadside bomb killing a civilian in Baqouba and Iraqi soldiers shooting to death six insurgents in Mosul and northern Anbar province.

U.S. warplanes and helicopters attacked insurgents near Husaybah, on the Syrian border, west of Baghdad, the military said.

"There were enemy casualties, but due to the destruction of the buildings from which they were firing, we are unable to determine the number of enemy fighters killed and wounded," military spokeswoman Lt. Blanca Binstock said.

U.S. forces have launched several offensives in western Iraq aimed at rooting out Sunni extremists crisscrossing the desert frontier with Syria to smuggle in foreign fighters and weapons.

Fears of sectarian violence have whipped across Iraq amid the latest violence, which has seen Shiite and Sunni clerics kidnapped, tortured and shot.

In recent weeks, Shiite and Sunni leaders have met to try to settle their differences, with both camps declaring their intent to work to end the violence.

But Monday's roughly 12-hour detention of Abdul-Hamid flared tensions yet again, causing Sunni leaders to condemn his arrest and accuse American authorities of trying to alienate their community.

Few details were available on why the Americans arrested the Sunni leader, but it appeared to be related to the ongoing Sunni-led insurgency and fears of a broader sectarian conflict starting up.

The U.S. military acknowledged it had made a "mistake" by detaining Abdul-Hamid.

"Following the interview, it was determined that he was detained by mistake and should be released," the military said.

"Coalition forces regret any inconvenience and acknowledge (Abdul-Hamid's) cooperation in resolving this matter."

Iraqi authorities suggested someone had planted "lies" against him in a bid to stir up "sectarian sedition."

Abdul-Hamid himself said U.S. forces questioned him about the "current situation," an apparent reference to the wave of attacks.

Following his release, Abdul-Hamid told reporters how "U.S. special forces" blew open the doors to his home "and dragged (his sons and guards) outside like sheep."

"They forced me to lay on the ground along with my sons and guards and one of the soldiers put his foot on my neck for 20 minutes," he told Al-Jazeera TV.

Soldiers later put him into a helicopter and flew him to an unknown location for more questioning, he said.

He said he did not know the whereabouts of his sons and guards.

"At the time when the Americans say they are keen on real Sunni participation, they are now arresting the head of the only Sunni party that calls for a peaceful solution and have participated in the political process," said Iraqi Islamic Party Secretary-General Ayad al-Samarei.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, expressed "surprise and discontent" over the arrest.

"This way of dealing with such a distinguished political figure is unacceptable," he said.

The country's largest Shiite political party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, condemned the arrest and demanded U.S. forces "be more accurate and not take action against political figures without legal justification."

The influential Association of Muslim Scholars and Sunni Endowment charity group, which have merged with Abdul-Hamid's party to form a powerful bloc to protect Sunni political interests, also condemned the arrests.

Abdul-Hamid's party had in recent weeks taken steps to become more involved in the political process after boycotting the Jan. 30 parliamentary elections, which were dominated by parties drawn from Iraq's majority Shiite population.

[Livyjr]

You (and I in spirit) have had a very good day today.

And the way things are going in this world of OURS right now, jeffmoskin, thank GOD for that!

Or Divine Providence!

Or if those offend, well, then thank nothing at all!

After all, in a land with LIBERTY for all, that is your perogative, as thanking divine providence for my personal blessings, such as life, for me, today, is mine!