Life in OUR America, Volume 5, the Livyjr Files Options

[Livyjr]

Sadly, Kerry is always looking forward to fighting, not actually engaging in it.

HHHHhhhhhmmmm ....

An interesting observation, jeffmoskin ....

Certainly a thought-provoking statement, indeed ....

And this all goes to exactly what a United States Senator should be, here in OUR America ...

Which is a member of the HIGHER HOUSE in OUR two-part legislature, or law-making body ....

The more mature and seasoned HOUSE which is to balance out the impetuousness of the POPULAR ASSEMBLY ....

I have always thought ..

And always stated ....

That as a United States Senator ....

That is what John Kerry should be ....

And I think that he is finally starting to grow into that role, myself .....

And as a Senator, the nature of any "fight" that he is involved in should be one of wits and wisdom ...

Not fisticuffs ....

Nor demagoguery .......

Such as that employed by this Santorum character from down there in Pennsylvania, somewhere ....

SO ...

Some subletly ....

Or I would have it be so, anyway ....

To me, it is about INFLUENCE .....

And as a United States Senator, John Kerry certainly has much more than I do, or likely will ever have ...

And so ...

When a person like John Kerry is looking out for my interests as a small person here in OUR America, that makes a difference to me ...

Since as a United States Senator, all John Kerry really has is his voice ...

And one vote ....

NOW ....

With respect to John Forbes Kerry, the man behind the United States Senator ....

Back in 2001, I had an outrage committed against me on a public way in the Town of Poestenkill in Rensselaer County in the State of New York ....

An overt HATE CRIME ...

Where a young person came out on the road .....

And did what is called ....

"Cracking my spine" ....

Which is to say ...

Violently wrenching me sideways so as to partially dislocate my lower back ....

And he did this on videotape ...

And as the videotape rolled ...

This young man reviled me for being a disabled veteran .....

"LOOKA HIM SHAKE ..."

"RETARD ..."

"****ING RETARD ..."

And when I went to take action against this individual for this assault ...

The REPUBLICAN Rensselaer County Executive placed the protection of Rensselaer County around this man ...

Who was one of hers ....

And rather than belabor this post with more details, suffice to say, I brought the sanctioning and cover-up of this assault on myself as a disabled veteran here in OUR America to the attention of as many members of the United States Senate as I could reach by e-mail ....

And the only one I heard from ...

Was John Kerry ....

He actually had someone from his office call me at my home in New York State to inform me that he had heard my voice ....

And that he cared about my plight ....

Now ....

That did not change anything ...

So far as I know ...

And I certainly don't blame that on John Kerry .....

And so ....

[Livyjr]

Maiestas, Snuffysmith, maiestas .....

Why do we never hear of maiestas here in OUR America ...

From any members of OUR senate?

For we still have it ....

Maiestas, that is ...

And repetundae ......

And ambitus ....

We still have all of those things ...

Not as as Americans ...

BUT AS CITIZENS OF A REPUBLIC ....

And there is not a damn thing George W. Bush can do about that ...

As was made patently clear ....

By Cicero ....

By his voluntary exile ...

After he had the Catiline conspirators murdered ....

ABSENT DUE PROCESS OF THE PEOPLE'S LAW ....

Which even the highest magistrates of the Roman Republic ...

Could not contravene .....

And if they could not ...

George W. Bush sure as hell cannot too ....

For as American president, George W. Bush is imbued with NO MORE POWER OR AUTHORITY than that enjoyed by a consul of Rome .....

AND ...

OUR United States Senators ...

Should be the very first to know this ....

Since it is knowledge available to even the most common of OUR American citizens ....

At the time of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, it was well known what had come before OUR America in terms of other republics on the face of the earth throughout history ...

And so ....

It was believed by the founders that history would provide us with guidance for anything that we might encounter ...

Since in reality ...

With respect to governments ...

There is really nothing new under the sun ...

And what was forty years ago ...

Will likely be coming back ...

Right about now .....

And OUR United States Senate was supposed to be the storehouse of knowledge and wisdom .....

[Livyjr]

At the time of SULLA and then POMPEY, there was great devisiveness in Rome ...

And so ..

A firm hand was required ....

While George W. Bush came into a nation that was relatively at peace with itself ...

AND HE HAS DONE NOTHING BUT TEAR THINGS ASUNDER .....

Hey ....

How about that Karl Rove and those "faith-based initiatives" of his, now will you ......

"States Eye Picketing at Soldiers' Funerals"

By CARRIE SPENCER GHOSE, Associated Press Writer Mon Feb 6, 3:15 PM ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio - States are rushing to limit when and where people may protest at funerals — all because of a small Kansas church whose members picket soldiers' burials, arguing that Americans are dying for a country that harbors homosexuals.

During the 1990s, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., went around picketing the funerals of AIDS victims with protest signs that read, "God Hates Fags."

But politicians began paying more attention recently when church members started showing up at the burials of soldiers and Marines killed in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Legislation is being considered in at least 14 states, and several of the bills moving quickly, with backing from legislative leaders and governors.

If they pass, the bills could set up a clash between privacy and free speech rights, and court challenges are almost certain.

"We're not proposing to silence the speech of the Westboro Baptist Church, as offensive as most of us find that," said Kansas Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, a Republican.

Instead, he said, he is trying to achieve a balance that respects "the rights of families to bury their dead in peace."

The church has about 75 members, most of them belonging to the extended family of Westboro Baptist's pastor, the Rev. Fred Phelps.

The church is an independent congregation that preaches a literal reading of the Bible.

Shirley Phelps-Roper, Phelps' daughter and an attorney for the church, said states cannot interfere with their message that the soldiers were struck down by God because they were fighting for a country that harbors homosexuals and adulterers.

Lawmakers are "trying to introduce something that will make them feel better about the holes we're punching in the facade they live under," Phelps-Roper said.

"If they pass a law that gets in our way, they will be violating the Constitution, and we will sue them for that."

Among the states considering such measures: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Some of the bills specify noisy, disruptive behavior or signs with "fighting words," as in Wisconsin.

Some bar protests within one or two hours before or after a funeral starts; others specify distances ranging from 10 car lengths to five blocks away; some include both.

Violations can bring fines of a few hundred dollars, up to 30 days in jail, or more.

Wisconsin is calling for fines of up to $10,000; one of five Oklahoma bills would set a one-year jail sentence.

Missouri's bill was named for Army Spc. Edward Lee Myers, 21, whose wife went to his funeral an hour early to try to avoid protesters.

They were already across the road, holding signs that read "God Hates Fags" and "God Made IEDs," a reference to roadside bombs.

Her 5-year-old son kept asking why "mean people" were outside, undercover agents were in the church, and she worried that angry relatives might start a fight.

"I couldn't even pay my last respects because of everything that was going on," Jean Myers said.

Legislation against funeral protests was also introduced in West Virginia last month after a small knot of protesters from Westboro Baptist demonstrated outside a memorial for the 12 men killed in the Sago Mine disaster.

The protesters held signs reading, "Thank God for Dead Miners," "God Hates Your Tears" and "Miners in Hell," arguing that the miners' deaths were a sign of God's wrath at America for tolerating gays.

"It's just inhuman for a group that says it's coming in the name of the Lord to protest a funeral," said state Delegate Jeff Eldridge, a co-sponsor of the West Virginia bill.

If such restrictions are challenged, the courts will probably look to rulings on laws governing abortion protests, constitutional scholars said.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Florida ban on peaceful picketing within 300 feet of an abortion clinic, but allowed restrictions on behavior that impedes access to a clinic.

However, the courts have allowed restrictions on picketing in front of doctors' houses, saying privacy trumps free speech.

The question is whether a church, funeral home or cemetery is considered private or public during a ceremony, said Eugene Volokh, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles.
___

On the Net:

Ohio bill: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID126_HB_484

Missouri bill: http://www.senate.mo.gov/06info/BTS_Web/Bi...nTypeR&BillID90

First Amendment Center: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org

[jeffmoskin]

And this all goes to exactly what a United States Senator should be, here in OUR America ...

Which is a member of the HIGHER HOUSE in OUR two-part legislature, or law-making body ....

The more mature and seasoned HOUSE which is to balance out the impetuousness of the POPULAR ASSEMBLY ....

I have always thought ..

And always stated ....

That as a United States Senator ....

That is what John Kerry should be ....

And I think that he is finally starting to grow into that role, myself .....

And as a Senator, the nature of any "fight" that he is involved in should be one of wits and wisdom ...

Not fisticuffs ....

Nor demagoguery .......

And I agree.

But during the 2004 campaign, a simple "Mr. Bush, you are a liar!" would have been sufficient.

I don't advocate violence.

I don't advocate improper or rude behavior.

But I know that an unrefuted lie soon becomes the truth.

And that is what Kerry let Bush do - - -lie lie lie.

And Kerry never called him on it.

[Livyjr]

And I agree.

But during the 2004 campaign, a simple "Mr. Bush, you are a liar!" would have been sufficient.

I don't advocate violence.

I don't advocate improper or rude behavior.

But I know that an unrefuted lie soon becomes the truth.

And that is what Kerry let Bush do - - -lie lie lie.

And Kerry never called him on it.

None of which can be denied, jeffmoskin ....

Not at all ...

And in the end ...

Maybe John Kerry just was not meant to be sitting in the White House ...

For a good senator ....

Does not automatically a president make ....

Too much politeness is what I think it was ....

A fear to be seen attacking a sitting president in a time of perceived war ....

Maybe in the end, jeffmoskin, you and I are just people's Tribunes at heart ...

And so ....

[Livyjr]

I wonder if "CON-JOB CONNIE" and those "intelligence types" in the C and I of A saw this one coming ....

"Four die in fresh cartoon protests"

By Robert Birsel

56 minutes ago

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan police shot dead four people protesting on Tuesday against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have unleashed waves of rage and soul-searching across the Muslim world and Europe.

Tens of thousands of Muslims demonstrated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa over the drawings, first published in Denmark, then Norway and then several other European countries.

Some Muslim leaders urged restraint.

In Iran, locked in a nuclear stand-off with the West, a crowd pelted the Danish embassy with petrol bombs and stones for a second day.

Protesters hurled a petrol bomb and broke windows at Norway's mission.

The 12 cartoonists whose work touched off the firestorm were reported to be in hiding, frightened, and under police guard.

Iran's best-selling newspaper launched a competition to find the best Holocaust cartoon.

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller called his Iranian counterpart "and demanded in clear terms that Iran does all it can to protect the embassy and Danish lives," a spokesman said.

Tehran has cut trade ties with Denmark.

Afghan crowds attacked a base of NATO Norwegian troops with guns and grenades and police opened fire, bringing the death toll in protests against the cartoons to nine.

F-16 warplanes flew overhead in a show of force while the Norwegians fired tear gas, rubber bullets and warning shots, managing to restore order by early evening.

After rioters set Danish missions ablaze in Syria and Lebanon at the weekend, the European Union presidency issued a strongly-worded warning to 19 countries across the Middle East that they were obliged to protect EU missions.

Iran's ambassador to Vienna said an attack on Austria's embassy in Tehran on Monday was directed at "the EU presidency" rather than Austria itself, current holder of the presidency.

FANNING FLAMES

Accusing "radicals, extremists and fanatics" of fanning the flames of Muslim wrath to "push forward their own agenda," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen repeated a call for dialogue with offended Muslims.

U.S. President George W. Bush called him to express support and solidarity, Rasmussen said.

The White House said both leaders "reiterated the importance of tolerance and respect for religions of all faith and freedom of the press."

Depicting the Prophet is prohibited by Islam.

Moderate Muslims, while condemning the cartoons, have expressed fears radicals are hijacking debate over the boundary between media freedom and religious respect.

Militants in Iraq have called for the seizure and killing of Danes and the boycott of Danish goods over the cartoons, one of which depicts Mohammad wearing a turban resembling a bomb with a burning fuse.

In London, protesters have brandished placards demanding the beheading of those who insulted Islam.

One dressed as a suicide bomber but later apologized.

Copies of a British student paper which reproduced one of the cartoons were hastily shredded and the editor suspended from a student union.

A French court however refused to order the confiscation of a magazine which planned to print the images.

"ALLIANCE OF CIVILISATIONS"

Echoing calls for calm by leaders, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: "I urge all who have authority or influence in different communities ... to engage in dialogue and build a true alliance of civilizations, founded on mutual respect."

Further protests erupted on Tuesday in Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen, Djibouti, Gaza and Azerbaijan.

At least 10,000 people marched in the Bangladeshi capital and tens of thousands turned out in Niger's capital Niamey to vent their anger.

State assembly members in mostly Muslim Kano, northern Nigeria, burned Danish flags.

Croatia became the latest country where a newspaper printed the drawings.

The cartoons have appeared in Australia, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Fiji, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United States, Ukraine and Yemen.

Iran, which has withdrawn its ambassador from Denmark, said the cartoons "launched an anti-Islamic and Islamophobic current which will be answered."

A radical Muslim group in Belgium put on its Web site a cartoon of Adolf Hitler in bed with Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who wrote a wartime diary of hiding from Nazi persecution.

Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper rejected violence:

"Violence, spreading chaos and destroying facilities ... only distorts Islam's image, especially after our enemies have tried to label us with so many accusations," it said.

Some Danish Muslims agreed. "Fire and stones are taking things too far," said Copenhagen barber Farzan Khatami.

Denmark's Jyllands-Posten daily has apologized for the cartoons, first published last September.

The Danish government has refused to do so, saying it is the paper's responsibility.

[jeffmoskin]

A religion is an inner faith in which a person believes.

Vandalism is a behavior that a civilized society must stop.

Otherwise, it is no loger civlized.

[Livyjr]

I wonder if "CON-JOB CONNIE" and those "intelligence types" in the C and I of A saw this one coming ....

"Protests Over Drawings a 'Global Crisis'"

Tue Feb 7, 11:22 AM ET

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - Denmark's Prime Minister on Tuesday called protests over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad a global crisis and appealed for calm.

"We are now facing a growing global crisis," Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

"It now is something else than the drawings in Jyllands-Posten."

The Jyllands-Posten, a Danish paper, first published the drawings that have sparked violent protests in Muslim countries worldwide.

They have since been reprinted in media around the world.

Demonstrators in Afghanistan on Tuesday clashed with NATO forces, and three protesters were killed.

"Now it has become an international political matter," he said.

"I urge calm and steadiness."

Outraged Muslim demonstrators, who have set fire to the Danish embassies in Syria and Lebanon and have held chaotic protests elsewhere, have demanded the Danish government apologize for the cartoons, which Jyllands-Posten printed in September.

But Fogh Rasmussen's statements indicated that Denmark is not contemplating changes in its strategy for responding to the spiraling tensions.

Fogh Rasmussen has insisted that Denmark's press freedom culture means the government cannot apologize for what an independent newspaper does.

The newspaper has apologized for any offense caused to Muslims but has defended its printing of the drawings as a legitimate exercise in freedom of expression.

The drawings — including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb — have touched a raw nerve in part because Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

"We appeal to Muslims around the world to look beyond the headlines and the rhetoric," Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller said alongside Fogh Rasmussen.

Earlier, the Foreign Ministry said the Danish embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, has been temporarily closed because of fears it would be stormed.

Niels Erik Andersen, Denmark's ambassador to Indonesia, said Muslims groups throughout Indonesia had been burning Danish flags and effigies of Fogh Rasmussen.

[Livyjr]

And now ...

For something ....

Completely different ...

We have ....

"Scientists find 'Lost World' in Indonesia"

By ROBIN McDOWELL, Associated Press
Last updated: 6:26 p.m., Tuesday, February 7, 2006

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Soon after scientists landed by helicopter in the mist-shrouded mountains of one of Indonesia's most remote provinces, they stumbled on a primitive egg-laying mammal that simply allowed itself to be picked up and brought to their field camp.

Describing a "Lost World" -- apparently never visited by humans -- members of the team said Tuesday they also saw large mammals that have been hunted to near-extinction elsewhere and discovered dozens of exotic new species of frogs, butterflies and palms.

"We've only scratched the surface," said Bruce Beehler, a co-leader of the monthlong trip to the Foja Mountains, an area in the eastern province of Papua with roughly 2 million acres of pristine tropical forest.

"There was not a single trail, no sign of civilization, no sign of even local communities ever having been there," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.

Two headmen from the Kwerba and Papasena tribes, the customary landowners of the mountain range, accompanied the expedition, and "they were as astounded as we were at how isolated it was," Beehler said.

"As far as they knew, neither of their clans had ever been to the area."

The December expedition was organized by U.S.-based Conservation International and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, and funded by the National Geographic Society and several other organizations.

Minutes after the small team of American, Indonesian and Australian scientists were dropped into a boggy lake bed and set up camp near the mountain range's western summit, they said they encountered a new species of bird -- a red-faced and wattled honeyeater.

The next day they saw Berlepsch's Six-wired Bird of Paradise, described by hunters in the 19th century and named for the wires that extend from its head in place of a crest.

They watched in amazement as a male bird performed a courtship dance for a female, shaking the long feathers on his head, and later took the first known photograph of the bird.

The scientists said they discovered 20 frog species -- including a microhylid frog less than a half-inch long -- four new butterfly species, and at least five new types of palms.

Among their most memorable experiences were their encounters with the Long-beaked Echidna, members of the primitive egg-laying group of mammals called the Monotremes, which twice allowed themselves to be picked up and brought to the scientists' camp for observation.

Beehler attributed the lack of fear displayed by the long-snouted spine-covered Echidnas (pronounced eh-KID-na) to the fact that they probably had never come into contact with humans.

But other animals, like the Golden-mantled Tree Kangaroo, an arboreal jungle-dweller previously thought to have been hunted to near-extinction, were much more shy, he said, and quickly disappeared into the dense forest after being spotted.

Though the scientists' findings will have to be published in scientific journals and reviewed by peers before being officially classified as new species, other environmentalists said the discoveries were hardly surprising in a country renowned for its rich biodiversity.

"There are many species that have not been identified" in Indonesia, said Chairul Saleh of the World Wildlife Fund, which has made hundreds of its own discoveries in the sprawling archipelago in the last 10 years.

Papua, the scene of a decades-long separatist rebellion that has killed an estimated 100,000 people, is one of Indonesia's most remote regions geographically and politically, and access by foreigners is tightly restricted.

The scientists said they needed six permits before they could legally visit the mountains located on the western side of New Guinea island.

Stephen Richards of the South Australia Museum in Adelaide said he and other team members got a glimpse of what the island "was like 50,000 years ago, because there's been no hunting, no impact of transport or anything like that."

Because of the rich diversity in the forest, the group rarely had time to stray more than a few miles from their base camp.

Beehler, vice president of Conservation International's Melanesia Center for Biodiversity Conservation, said he hopes to return this year with other scientists.

One of the reasons for the rain forest's isolation, he said, was that only a few hundred people live in the region and game in the mountain's foothills is so abundant they have no reason to venture into the jungle's interior.

There did not appear to be any immediate conservation threat to the area, which has the status of a wildlife sanctuary, he said.

"No logging permits are given to this area, there is no transport system -- not a single road," Beehler said.

"But clearly, with time, everything is a threat."

"In the next few decades there will be strong demands, especially if you think of the timber needs of nearby countries like China and Japan."

"They will be very hungry for logs."

--------

On the Net:

Conservation International, http://www.conservation.org

[jeffmoskin]

The drawings — including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb — have touched a raw nerve in part because Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of the Prophet Muhammad for fear they could lead to idolatry.

Yeah.

Sure.

Same prohibition in 10 Commandments.

1. "Thou shalt have no graven images before me"

Didn't stop the great artists of the Renaissance.

There are strict fundy Jews who still (to this day) obey that law.

Moderation, interpretation, tolerance.

Otherwise, what good is it?

"Extremism in the pursuit of Religion is surely a vice." (with apologies to B. Goldwater)

[Snuffysmith]

None of which can be denied, jeffmoskin ....

Not at all ...

And in the end ...

Maybe John Kerry just was not meant to be sitting in the White House ...

For a good senator ....

Does not automatically a president make ....

Too much politeness is what I think it was ....

A fear to be seen attacking a sitting president in a time of perceived war ....

Maybe in the end, jeffmoskin, you and I are just people's Tribunes at heart ...

And so ....

AMEN!

[Snuffysmith]

February 8, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
Who's Hormonal? Hillary or Dick?
By MAUREEN DOWD
The Republicans succeed because they keep it simple, ruthless and mythic.

In 2000 and 2004, G.O.P. gunslingers played into the Western myth and mined images of manliness, feminizing Al Gore as a Beta Tree-Hugger, John Kerry as a Waffling War Wimp With a Hectoring Wife and John Edwards as his true bride, the Breck Girl.

Now, in the distaff version of Swift-boating, they are casting Hillary Clinton as an Angry Woman, a she-monster melding images of Medea, the Furies, harpies, a knife-wielding Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction" and a snarling Scarlett Johansson in "Match Point." (How many pregnant mistresses does Woody Allen have to kill off in movies before he feels he's reversed Dostoyevsky and proved that if the crime is worth it, there should be no punishment?)

Republicans think that men who already have nagging, bitter women in their lives will not want for president the sort of woman who gave W. a dyspeptic smile or eye-rolling appraisal during State of the Union addresses.

In "Commander in Chief," writers were careful to make Geena Davis's chief executive calm and controlled under pressure — even when her rival, played by Donald Sutherland, made an insulting menopause crack.

The hit on Hillary may seem crude and transparent. But in the void created by dormant Democrats, crouching in what Barack Obama calls "a reactive posture," crude and transparent ploys work for the Republicans. Just look at how far the Bushies' sulfurous scaremongering on terror, and cynical linkage of Saddam and Osama, have gotten them.

The gambit handcuffs Hillary: If she doesn't speak out strongly against President Bush, she's timid and girlie. If she does, she's a witch and a shrew. That plays particularly well in the South, where it would be hard for an uppity Hillary to capture many more Bubbas than the one she already has.

It's the riddle of the Sphinx that has been floating around since the selection of Geraldine Ferraro. Betty Friedan worried then that a woman seen as a threat to men would not get to the White House. But how can a woman who's not a threat to men get there?

The G.O.P. honcho Ken Mehlman kicked off the misogynistic attack on George Stephanopoulos's Sunday show. "I don't think the American people, if you look historically, elect angry candidates," he said. Referring to Hillary's recent taunts about Republicans, he added, "Whether it's the comments about the plantation or the worst administration in history, Hillary Clinton seems to have a lot of anger."

Hillary did not sound angry when she made those comments — she's learned since her tea-and-cookies outburst in the '92 campaign. A man who wants to undermine a woman's arguments can ignore the substance and simply dismiss her as unstable and shrill. It's a hoary tactic: women are more mercurial than men; they get depressed more often and pop pills more often. As a top psychiatrist once told me, women are "hormonally more complicated and biologically more vulnerable."

But as the G.O.P. tars Hillary as hysterical, it is important to note that women are affected by lunar tides only once a month, while Dick Cheney has rampaging hormones every day.

Republicans have also labeled men hysterical (from the Greek for "womb"). Howard Dean was skewered on the Scream. And when John McCain was soaring in the 2000 primaries, Bush supporters viciously whispered that his fits of temper signaled that he had come back from Vietnam with snakes in his head.

Senator McCain went over the top again this week in a letter to Senator Obama. Although Mr. McCain tried to cast his "I'm the reformer — you back off, new guy" letter as "straight talk" after an Obama dis, it was snide and bitchy, more like an angry missive of a spurned lover to an ex-boyfriend than a note from a respected senior senator to a respected junior one.

Mr. McCain could take a lesson from Condi Rice, who gets hyperarticulate and bristly when she's mad, but not bitchy. Or Oprah, whose anger at James Frey had a Mosaic dignity.

Hillary's problem isn't that she's angry. It's that she's not angry enough. From Iraq to Katrina and the assault on the Constitution, from Schiavo to Alito and N.S.A. snooping to Congressional corruption, Hillary has failed to lead in voicing outrage. She's been too busy triangulating and calculating to be good at articulating.

The Republicans can't marginalize Hillary. She has already marginalized herself.



Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

[Livyjr]

Yeah.

Sure.

Same prohibition in 10 Commandments.

1. "Thou shalt have no graven images before me"

Didn't stop the great artists of the Renaissance.

That charge of graven images was leveled against the Catholic Church as well, if I recall my history ....

[Livyjr]

February 8, 2006

Op-Ed Columnist

"Who's Hormonal? Hillary or Dick?"

By MAUREEN DOWD

From Iraq to Katrina and the assault on the Constitution, from Schiavo to Alito and N.S.A. snooping to Congressional corruption, Hillary has failed to lead in voicing outrage.

She's been too busy triangulating and calculating to be good at articulating.

The Republicans can't marginalize Hillary.

She has already marginalized herself.

Calculating ...

Now ...

There is a word that seems to fit Ms. Hillary, alright ....

It's a funny thing that she came up here to New York to be a United States Senator .....

It must have been for some reason ...

But who knows what that was ....

Outside of Hillary ....

And that makes many people distrust her ....

Sort of a reverse Carpet Bagger .....

She "carpet-bagged" herself up here as a political opportunist ...

And people up here already have a gut-full of them to contend with ..

So one more is really not all that welcome ....

In terms of being "embraced" by the people, anyway, as one of theirs ...

Which Hillary definitely is not .....

I think Maureen Dowd is right ...

IF Hillary is marginalized ...

It was she who drew the lines ...

In such a public way ...

That nobody can help noticing ...

And capitalizing on that ...

If it is to their benefit ...

Such as the REPUBLCIANS are apparently doing ...

According to Ms. Dowd ....

[jeffmoskin]

That charge of graven images was leveled against the Catholic Church as well, if I recall my history ....

which is why "art" as we know it didn't really get going until the time of the Reformation.

[Livyjr]

which is why "art" as we know it didn't really get going until the time of the Reformation.

People can be really strange creatures, eh, jeffmoskin ....

The Bible says that God is in ALL things ....

And then ...

What you really have to do ...

To be a GOOD CITIZEN of somewhere or other ....

Is to start subtracting from there .....

Because people are uncomfortable with that, apparently ....

God being in all things, I mean ....

SO ....

ALL THINGS minus one ...

Because of course, God really is not here ...

ALL THINGS minus two .....

Because of course, GOD is really not over there ....

And on ...

And on ...

And on ...

Until eventually ....

God is really nowhere at all ...

Except maybe in Jerry Falwell's pocket ...

Or this DEMAGOGUE Reverend Lusk's ....

Or George W. Bush's for that matter .....

And I wonder who came up with that proscription against pictures of Mohammed the Prophet .....

BECAUSE I DON'T BELIEVE IT WAS HIM ....

[jeffmoskin]

And I wonder who came up with that proscription against pictures of Mohammed the Prophet .....

BECAUSE I DON'T BELIEVE IT WAS HIM ....

It wasn't.

There are four "Hadiths", written about 100 to 200 years after the Prophet's death, which chronicle his deeds and customs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadith

Like the Gospels, they were compiled from hand-me-down oral legends, and written to codify things that the "originator" may never in fact have said, done, or even approved of.

[Livyjr]

There are four "Hadiths", written about 100 to 200 years after the Prophet's death, which chronicle his deeds and customs.

Like the Gospels, they were compiled from hand-me-down oral legends, and written to codify things that the "originator" may never in fact have said, done, or even approved of.

And this is my view on all of this "PROPHET" business, jeffmoskin ....

That it is really pretty overblown .....

And if you like to argue, or engage in acts of violence, hanging around prophets is a good place to find fertile ground for that kind of thing ....

The American Indians had a prophet in the 1800's ....

And whatever else he might have accomplished ...

He sure managed to get a bunch of them killed in the "ghost dancing" times ....

And so ...

All the ones who made some profits off of selling bullets and stuff to kill the Indians with during the "ghost dancing" times were quite happy to have that prophet around ...

For a while, anyway ....

And the Chinese also had a prophet ....

And around the same time as Wovoka ....

The Taiping ......

Said to be one of the bloodiest periods in history, period ....

And there was the Mahdi, of course ....

Down there in the Sudan ....

And again, this was in that same period as Wovoka and the Ghost Dance ...

And the Taiping in China ...

Which I find interesting ....

SO ...

What is it with GOD and these prophets, jeffmoskin .....

That might be the question ...

GOD, being from good CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN stock, not a BUSH, of course, but liked by them, nonetheless, is really for PROFITS ....

BUT ...

Being omniscient, and all-knowing, and that kind of stuff ...

GOD knows that PROFITS do not come from nothing ...

And so ..

He or she, in his or her infinite wisdom (not as infinite as a Bush's, of course, but close) sends us a PROPHET ....

So the PROPHET can get some followers ....

So GOD's real people can then make some PROFITS killing off the PROPHET's people ....

Who are not really GOD's people at all ...

Just targets, instead ....

And fillers of body bags, of course ....

Got to have something to justify the use of those body bags, after all ....

And there is good money to be made in the manufacture and sale of body bags ...

I mean, they are a commodity ....

And so ....

Send us some more PROPHETS, God ...

They are good for the American economy ...

And let us be realistic here, folks ....

WHAT ELSE ON EARTH IS THERE REALLY, BESIDES THAT?

[Livyjr]

Too many sharp weapons among people ....

And the nation grows confused ....

Too much cunning strategy among people .....

AND STRANGE THINGS START TO HAPPEN ....

- Lao Tze, Tao Te Ching

[Livyjr]

Too much cunning strategy among people .....

AND STRANGE THINGS START TO HAPPEN ....

Like George W. Bush being elected president of the United States of America .....

Not once ...

But twice ....

And then having the gall to attribute that to the goodness of God towards the REPUBLICAN PARTY ...

Of America ...

And the world ....

"Cartoon Protesters Direct Anger at U.S."

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press Writer

2 hours, 19 minutes ago

QALAT, Afghanistan - Police killed four people Wednesday as Afghans enraged over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad marched on a U.S. military base in a volatile southern province, directing their anger not against Europe but America.

The U.S. base was targeted because the United States "is the leader of Europe and the leading infidel in the world," said Sher Mohammed, a 40-year-old farmer who suffered a gunshot wound while taking part in the demonstration in the city of Qalat.

"They are all the enemy of Islam."

"They are occupiers in our country and must be driven out," Mohammed said.

Wednesday's violence began when hundreds of protesters tried to storm the U.S. base, said Ghulam Nabi Malakhail, a provincial police chief.

When warning shots failed to deter them, police shot into the crowd, killing four and wounding 11, he said.

Flying rocks injured eight police and one Afghan soldier, he said.

Two Pakistanis arrested for allegedly firing at police were being questioned to see whether they were linked to al-Qaida, Malakhail said.

Some officials accuse al-Qaida of inciting three days of bloody riots across Afghanistan that have left 11 dead.

Protesters also burned three fuel tankers waiting to deliver gasoline to the base, said Malakhail.

He said U.S. troops fired warning shots into the air.

U.S. military spokesman Col. James Yonts said the American forces fired flares above the crowd, but he said it was not clear whether they fired their weapons.

Muslims around the world have demonstrated over the images — including one depicting the prophet wearing a turban shaped as a bomb — printed in Western media.

Islam is interpreted to forbid any illustrations of the prophet.

In Baghdad, Iraq's top Shiite political leader criticized attacks on foreign embassies by Muslims.

"We value and appreciate peaceful Islamic protests," said Abdul Aziz al-Hakim.

"But we are against the idea of attacking embassies and other official sites."

In the West Bank, about 300 Palestinians overpowered a Palestinian police detail and attacked an international observer mission in the city of Hebron.

Sixty members of the mission were inside, said Gunhild Forselv, spokeswoman for the Temporary International Presence in Hebron.

A few protesters forced their way in, where unarmed observers waved clubs in an attempt to drive them off.

Police reinforcements eventually restored order.

Muslims also demonstrated in Indian-controlled Kashmir, Bangladesh, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in Turkey.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran and Syria of instigating protests in their countries, and President Bush called upon governments to stop the violence and protect the lives of diplomats overseas.

The United States and other countries were looking into whether extremist groups may be inciting protesters to riot, said Yonts, the U.S. spokesman in Afghanistan.

Iranian vice president Isfandiar Rahim Mashaee rejected Rice's assertion that Iran was inflaming Muslim anger over the cartoons.

"That is 100 percent a lie," Mashaee said in Jakarta, Indonesia.

"It is without attribution."

Zahor Afghan, editor for Erada, Afghanistan's most respected newspaper, said the riots in his country have surprised him.

"No media in Afghanistan has published or broadcast pictures of these cartoons."

"The radio has been reporting on it, but there are definitely people using this to incite violence against the presence of foreigners in Afghanistan," he said.

Afghans who rioted Wednesday said they heard about the cartoons on the radio but none questioned had seen printed versions.

"The radio is talking about them all the time."

"Everybody heard about them this way," said 28-year-old shopkeeper Ramatullah, who uses only name.

Wednesday's riot erupted despite an appeal from Afghanistan's top Islamic organization, the Ulama Council, for an end to the violence.

"Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence."

"This must stop," senior cleric Mohammed Usman told The Associated Press.

"We condemn the cartoons but this does not justify violence."

"These rioters are defaming the name of Islam."

In France, President Jacques Chirac asked media to avoid offending religious beliefs as another French newspaper reprinted the caricatures.

The satirical French weekly Charlie-Hebdo also printed a new drawing under the headline "Muhammad Overwhelmed by the Fundamentalists" that showed the prophet with his head in his hands, remarking, "It's hard to be loved by idiots."