View of a Millennium Crystal

Which came first the meditation crystal or the desire to meditate? Answer: The crystal. I saw this "Millennium Crystal" in a shop in Sedona, Arizona and bought it last year. Might say it's a little piece of heaven here on earth, haha.

Maybe it's been exuding cosmic impulses because I am finally studying metaphysics and transcendental meditation, two things I've always been attracted to but have never taken time to study. I can't say these studies are enjoyable right now because the course causes me to delve into my murky selfpool, but I am experiencing good things and making progress. Gotta love it!

I'm beginning to focus on more positive things in life and take positive actions. In my previous post, I bitched about the elections and the Bushites potential for badness, but also recognized that I need to do something to counterbalance the negativity and .... I signed up to be an elections poll worker! Wahoo!

Speaking of positive... I love it that John Eisenhower the son of Republican icon, President Dwight Eisenhower, publicly announced his support for John Kerry and gave his reasons why. (Link) Also, the newspaper in GWB's hometown of Crawford, Texas is endorsing Kerry! (Link)

Hmmm, there is a disturbance in the BushBorg. Bwahahahaha, not all your base is mine.

Think peace.

Republican Definition of “Fair and Free Elections”

“I saw a poll (of Iraqis) that said awww, right track, wrong track in Iraq is better than here in America.”
-President Bush, White House press conference on 9/23/04

Surprising how Bush pulls those facts out of .... thin air?

The link above gives you a text transcript of the Allawi/Bush White House Press Conference but you may wish to skip the hyperbole and view their performance on this Daily Show link to “Escape from MessOpotamia.” You skip the chatter and get right to the laughs while witnessing our fearless leader and his minion radiating Iraqi peace, love and harmony.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the “poll” was true, especially if it asked whether the national elections scheduled in Iraq for January would be as free and fair as American national elections in 2000 and 2004.

I’m sure the entire world remembers the messy maneuvering and manipulations of the 2000 election with it’s “tie” and subsequent “Florida Recount” and subsequent US Supreme Court ruling that overturned the recount and appointed George W. Bush as President. If your memory will not dredge up this historic drama, do a google search using the words, florida recount, and you’ll relive the moment with all its gory details. Pun intended.

When former President and world respected elections monitor, Jimmy Carter, goes on record with a warning that Florida is as bad if not worse now than it was in 2000, you have to pause and ponder the Republican definition of “fair and free.”

When black college students are threatened with prosecution by their county’s Republican district attorney because they used their college dorm address as their voting address, you begin to get a clearer understanding of the Republican definition of “fair and free” and note that the "Rock the Voters", especially the black ones, get the "fair and free"-lite definition. It's low on those filling civil rights and packed with tasty hype.

When the state of California joins a lawsuit filed by a voting rights advocate against Diebold for misrepresenting the accuracy and security of the e-voting machines used in the state, a person can begin to feel a little queasy about casting a ballot, especially in California. I feel even queasier after looking at Diebold campaign contribution records . The warm and fuzzy Republican campaign tag line of “fair and free” elections loses its zippiness. I get nightmares about election hijackings, figurehead governments, rows of obedient drones in grey unisex outfits standing enraptured by the spiteful ranting of officials on podiums.

I have come to the logical conclusion that any time a Republican politician says something, I have to interpret the meaning to be the opposite. So, “fair and free elections" in Iraq probably won’t be fair or free. The renown Republican dreamer and philosopher, Donald Rumsfeld, kind of confirms that interpretation.

Old Ashcroft has pretty much let the “fair and free election" cat out of the bag for us here in America as well. His persistent "terror warnings" have reached unprecedented screechiness and paranoia. I suppose some of those terror intercepts backlogged for months at the FBI have just been translated and he can only see more in the pipeline.

Will America's "fair and free elections" be cancelled before the Iraqi's elections? Should GWB's "poll" comment lead me this far afield and park me in a mean and bitter place where he might actually cancel US elections for the first time in history? He can do it. Should I apply the Republican word-decoder to the elections part of "fair and free elections?" The opposite of "elections" is depressing. Am I a hopeless paranoid? Not hopeless, never hopeless.....

We should all stay home and vote with absentee ballots this time around. That would circumvent being turned away from the polls or blown up; we wouldn't have to use the diebold hackermagnet, e-ballot; and if anyone needs to register to vote, now is the time so that they can resolve any bogus qualification claims ahead of time and receive their ballots. I don't believe this is an original idea, but it sure is a good one.

If you feel as I do that terrorists are not going to attack local polling places, another good idea would be to volunteer to help out at the polls, either as an observer or worker.

Think peace. It helps.

Raise Your Hands In The Air....

Pick Your Poison

"We are different from previous generations of conservatives. We are no longer working to preserve the status quo. We are radicals, working to overturn the present power structure of this country."
-Paul Weyrich - Free Congress Foundation

It's the end of a busy week. There are lots of things to be thankful for, especially in my personal life. My cold is almost gone. The family is healthy and not complaining. I'm learning to meditate. Got a positive resolution to a tricky financial problem without bloodshed. Enjoyed a great sunset and can even see a few stars among the brown, smog-clouds. Life is good on the home front.

Elsewhere, there were positives. No devastating hurricanes in Florida. Kerry has finally articulated a clear and convincing opposition to the Bush brigade. The local news did not include a freeway car chase today. The California legislature just passed the strictest auto emission pollution control law in the world. LAX airport security worked today when TSA workers confiscated a handgun from the carry on bag of LAPD's anti terrorism official. The movie, "End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones" had a brief, successful run this week. Just noticed that Gonzalo Rubalcaba is playing at the Catalina Bar and Grill next week, so life will continue to be good.

Now, for the bad and the ugly news. Here's the latest, and I guess Florida is getting ready for another hurricane tomorrow, so strike out the happy dance for Florida in the paragraph above. The GOP Intel bill is worrisome since it was drafted behind locked doors to keep the Dems out. The death toll in Iraq is the highest ever and hideously vicious. And so it goes. No sense perpetuating redundancy tonight.

Of all of these major activities, the most disturbing was the passage of The Pledge Protection Act which has the strange purpose of not allowing a federal court to hear any challenge to the "under God" reference in the Pledge of Allegiance. Looks like Weyrich and his followers have a victory in the making. It's clear that the moral majority is holding some elected feet to the fire and is revising the Constitution to suit its religious agenda. The the voting public is becoming alarmed and mainstream churches don't seem to like this direction either, especially if it means churches may lose their tax exemptions.

Interesting that Congress seeks to limit the authority of the Supreme Court just before an election. Maybe Bush is not confident in winning the White House, and the Republicans might be worried about their Republican majority elsewhere if Kerry wins. They have reason to worry if Teresa Kerry was able to raise one million dollars for Kerry/Edwards in one night. And, she did it in Arizona, McCain/Goldwater country. The local and state Democrats have it so well together, the Kerry campaign has decided to cancel their ad campaign there. Amazing. The spin I got from mainstream media is that Kerry couldn't win in AZ!

The Republicans definitely need to worry about the direction of the Supreme Court if Kerry is elected. Three Supremes will most likely retire in the next few years and a more aggressive and liberal court might temper the moral majority's attempt to reinvent the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Feeling Kinda Khaki....

Nothing like combining shades of black, grey, sand and khaki to capture a nice silhouette. The color shot of the Santa Monica pier didn't work. Too much mist from the ocean and a little glare from the setting sun. I could have used my macro lens, and gotten some clearer shots, but was in a hurry to get to the boardwalk and listen to the KCRW "new band" showcase.



"AM" Band - Good, Folky Rock Stuff...

I sure like the beach!

Yesterday's blog chronicled my continuing befuddlement about the 2004 Presidential Election: Why would anyone vote for Bush?

Sorting through today's Blognews, still fixated on the CBS fact checking gaff btw, I ran into several other forum discussions which answer the question pretty well.

deviantArt's got some pretty intelligent comments... Re: Why should i vote for bush

No real missionaries for Bush here, interesting ...CIO's Sound Off Forum Re: Why Vote For Bush

I've been searching via google, hotbot, and yahoo for forums addressing the question and keep getting sites urging people to vote against Bush. Take a look.

If you scroll through the sites, about the fourth page or so, the Republicans and Conservatives archive reprints the Ed Koch speech at the RNC. I'd have to say Ed Koch probably gets it right when he says that people want a president who will not back down to terrorists.

Good enough reason. Really. Stand up to terrorists! They want to kill me and mine, and it's time to take out the garbage and kill them and theirs. Right?

I'm one of those "think peace" people so I'm a lost cause as far as supporting a government which unilaterally "takes out the garbage" whenever a rumor surfaces. That's the Bush foreign policy that Koch loves so much.

So, is Bush better at standing up to terror than Kerry? So far, Bush has proven to be ready to bankrupt the US, and soon the world if our deficit spending isn't controlled, to fight terror. I have no doubt that Kerry will fight terror also, especially with a Republican House and Senate prodding his ass. So they're even on this issue.

The big question is who is better at standing up to the right terrorist? My money's on Kerry. Bush has already shown a pig headed resistance to the truth. His stubborn miscalculations + a lot of firepower = unnecessary death.

Assuming that Kerry will be elected, if he follows the Bush formula for defeat above, he'll be gone in a NY minute.

Anyway, it's a good day to think khaki.

Three Strikes and You're Bobblehead History!

Oh those polls! The people I know are mystified that half or over half of the Americans that are polled continue to support the "boy in the bubble", the "bobblehead" president, Mr. GWB!

I have have met the bobblehead people who love the bobblehead president, and they all "feel like they can sit down and have a beer with ol GWB."

Well, we all know that GWB is drinking again according to inside sources somewhere which has raised a fluttering eyelash or two in the press corps. So it probably is possible for the ultra elite in the world to knock back a brewski with the pres. If you're not ultra elite, simply contribute $99 to the RNC, and attend one of those idol worship dinners where you pay $1,000 a plate to dine on CNR (chicken and rice) and bad wine while listening to the latest rant about anyone who isn't a white, male Christian making over 100k a year.

Anyway, they love the codger. They love it when he falls off his Segwey, or swallows a pretzel, or miscommunicates so horribly entire books are filled with his gaffs, or when he holds his crotch instead of his heart during the most recent 9/11 memorial photo op, and on and on.

They can't believe article after article written by the corrupt "liberal" press that he continues to ignore his generals on winning the war in Iraq. (Link to General Zinni interview.) Or, that he looks other way while innocent Iraqi and Afghan "detainees" are kidnapped, tortured, buggered, raped, and held hostage in a prisons under siege or in "secret" prisons around the world while the "contractors" (i.e., mercenaries) responsible are not fired but continue their "work" without any supervision. Still! (Link.)

He's not the man that allows his Vice President to campaign on the promise that if Kerry is elected, we'll all die because Kerry has a mythical connection to Saddam who has a mythical connection to Osama who is definitely connected to Bush, but that's covered in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, and "gosh hecky darn" those bobblehead loving homelanders mustn't soil their virgin eyes with the dirty, complicated facts in Mr. Moore's film. GWB says we're fighting terrorists who are against freedom and they believe it. It's simple.

They can't believe report after report from the government itself, that the tax cuts, fighting two huge wars, rewarding corporations that cut staff and move off shore to avoid taxes, and so many other illogical "economic plans" of GWB are simply bad for the country. He says "we're turning the corner" on the "recession" and they believe ol GWB. Simple.

So, of course everything Bush says contains a grain of truth, he makes everything sound good, and godly and patriotic and simple. Simple is secure. Simple is godly. Simple is well behaved. Simple is standard issue. Simple is not sick, or powerless, neglected or overlooked. Simple doesn't require messing around with icky politics.

Simple is baseball. Three strikes and you're out!

Strike One: Afghanistan - we won some real estate but have not caught Osama or stopped al Queda.

Strike Two: Iraq - we are losing what little real estate we won, the death toll is rising, our money is running out along with our allies, and we're now realizing it was IRAN not IRAQ that has weapons of mass destruction!

Strike Three: US Economy - see the two strikes above which represent a slashed monetary artery that's hemorrhaging billions, add two TAX CUTS, a useless Medicare drug program, a bloated new wing of the govt called Homeland Security, and you have a perfect storm of economic disaster looming.

Bench "bush league" thinking. Bench Bush!

HOT OR NOT!

I couldn't resist posting this Monkeynaught comic. I love this site and hope more comics are coming soon.

Here's another monkey site: Monkey Hot or Not! There are some pretty crazy monkeys on this planet and it's fun to rate their hotness or notness.

Well, gotta close my windows. The neighbors dog has been barking for the past two hours and it's clear she's hungry, but the neighbors aren't home. You gotta love people who buy a dog, put it in their backyard and leave it to noisily go insane from neglect. Don't get me started!

Here's a view from my hammock! Wish you were here, hehe. 


"..,For many people alive at this time, loss is experienced as loss of meaning. In other words, life seems to lack purpose and doesn’t make sense anymore. Loss of meaning is often part of the suffering that comes with physical loss, but it can also happen to people who have gained everything the world has to offer – who have "made it" in the eyes of the world – and suddenly find that their success or possessions are empty and unfulfilling. What the world and the surrounding culture tells them is important and of value turns out to be empty and this leaves a kind of painful inner void, often accompanied by great mental confusion."

-Eckhart Tolle interviewed by Sounds True in Boulder, Colorado, USA

Here is a link to the rest of Tolle's interview.

I am realizing that I've been working around a rule I made for myself a long time ago. The rule is to avoid the "news."

Too much awareness of the injustice, cruelty, greed and lies in the world causes the painful inner void, Tolle cautions against. Too little awareness of the miracle of this moment causes mental confusion. It's time to hit the hammock, look at the sky and the clouds, count blessings, and radiate a good vibe.

Ahhhh! It's a good day today.

Everybody, Must Get Armed...


"They'll stone you and then say you are brave.
They'll stone you when you are set down in your grave.
But I would not feel so all alone,
Everybody must get stoned."
-Bob Dylan "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"


Humans have a remarkable capacity to forget pain.

I was seven or eight years old when I questioned my mother about giving birth. The details of the process were still pretty unclear in my pre sex-education mind. I knew that childbirth hurt and that the baby did not come willingly into this world but had to be pushed out of a small opening somewhere on Mom's body.

"Does it hurt to have a baby, Mom?" I asked.

"Yes, but you forget the pain, eventually," she reassured me.

My Mom gave birth to six children, all of them, except me, eight pounders plus, and she wasn't a big woman at all. I felt pretty good that she didn't resent me for causing her pain and that the memory of the pain lessened throughout the years. I also remember thinking that my Mom had a lot of courage to keep having kids and that maybe someone without as much courage as Mom, someone like me, might never forget the agony. As it turned out, the pain of child birth is awful, yet the miracle of birthing and caring for new life supersedes this consideration. Kids are worth the pain. Some things are not.

I don't know how people live with the pain after a loved one is killed. I don't support the death penalty, but I do understand why people want it. It satisfies the need to seek vengeance and it recognizes the aftermath of murder which is rage and fear. Unlike the natural pain associated with childbirth, or learning to ride a bike, skateboarding, football, rock climbing and so on, the pain caused by killing, for whatever reason, never seems to go away, except for those that die.

We can be in a suburban bank one afternoon, cashing a check and wind up shot with an AK47 armor piercing bullet and we can most likely die like these North Hollywood citizens and police did on March 1, 1997. Businesses and homes in the surrounding area were hit with gunfire and people died just walking from one room to the next. Starting on Monday, September 13, 2004, the Assault Weapons Ban will be lifted and the AK47s used in this robbery will go on sale, again. A shootout like this can happen again. It can happen in anyone's neighborhood. Survivors and families of dead loved ones can't forget the pain and loss.

We can be one of the students or a teacher going to lunch one day, and be hit by a "full metal jacket" bullet fired by a TEC9,that pierces your heart and then pierces the lung of the person behind you. Living in an upscale suburb like Columbine, Colorado will not guarantee protection from a killing spree and a smoking hole in your chest. Starting on Monday, September 13, 2004, it can happen again. It can happen in anyone's neighborhood. Survivors and families of dead loved ones still can't forget the pain and loss.

The only people who have forgotten the pain and loss are the NRA and the gun manufacturers and dealers who are celebrating a stunning victory in its war against this ban. Our elected officials in Congress did not even bother to debate the issue for fear of becoming a lobbying target of the NRA-ILA like those on their "hit list."

While neglecting to debate this important public health and safety issue, Congress did debate and decide to fund SB 2634, the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, a suicide prevention measure which would fund $82 million for suicide prevention programs. It's a component of the President's mental health committee recommendation that advocates mandatory mental health screenings in grade schools. I hope it will also fund grief counselors, just in case someone gets their hands on another TEC 9 and decides to kill a few students or suburbanites while exercising their "right to bear arms."

Are We Crazy?


Any President who supports the insane notion that respectable hunters need AK 47s and Uzis to "hunt" Elk is seriously deluded. Haven't the gun runners made enough money on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq? Business has been so good for these misery merchants that the USA is running out of bullets and is buying more from Israel (Link).

I guess greed is a mental illness that has debilitated our House of Representatives and maybe these people should be screened for hostile, anti social, suicidal tendencies before running for any government office. Why should grade schoolers and pregnant women in America be the only ones subjected to mandatory mental health screenings and put on impulse control medications for the rest of their lives?

Many of our politicians and paid elected officials are becoming more insane than the handful of high schoolers who occasionally massacre their school mates and teachers, or the postal workers who rampage against their bosses, or the home-grown terrorists who blow up federal buildings. Why?

They are allowing the assault weapons ban to sunset next Monday, and according to Senator Dianne Feinstein it's because the NRA will not endorse Bush for president unless the ban is lifted (Link). Most Americans don't own guns (Link). They don't like guns. They don't want to fear that their next door neighbor, or the guy in the cubicle next to them or the frustrated driver on Interstate 5 might have an Uzi handy to help them vent their rage. Most Americans are tired of hearing about the carnage caused by crazies shooting up the place and most Americans think the sane thing to do is to get rid of the frickin things.

Bush seems to be genuinely worried about the mental health of our nation, yet he sits by and allows the assault weapons ban to expire! No wonder America's collective conscious is mired in anger, fear and loathing. The Bush administration talks up these issues while actively promoting catastrophe. Why else would any person concerned about terrorism allow assault weapons to be sold, and sold by such nice people who truly care about the health and safety of our citizens (Link). Right! If American's are getting crazier we have the Bush administration to thank.

Wake up politicians. Children are scared shitless to go to school because they might get shot! Wake up Mom and Dad NRA members. Fear of being shot to death makes little Johnny and Mary antisocial. Wake up Republicans who control the votes in the House of Representatives, your children are becoming maladjusted trying to find the truth in your commitment to fighting “terror.”

What a truly insane world in which to live. Urge your representatives to continue the ban on assault weapons in America. It's the first real step to eliminating terror from our streets, right here and right now.

Counting on the Sheep

The Wolfe and the Sheep
by Aesop

"A Wolf, sorely wounded by dogs, lay recovering in his lair. Being in want of food he asked a Sheep who was passing by to fetch some water from a nearby stream. "If you will bring me drink," he said, "I will find meat myself." "No doubt, said the Sheep. "If I should bring you drink, you would make mince-meat of me."

Hypocritical speeches are easily seen through.


Old Aesop knew a thing or two about politics. He never experienced anything like the American Sheep, though. These Sheep not only bring the water to the Wolf, they also bare their necks to make it easier for the Wolf to make mince meat of them.

When will Americans do some homework and compare the Bush rhetoric with his actions. Can't we see through the speeches and recognize hard evidence that Bush is not what he seems and has not done what he was elected to do. Here's an example:

"If this were a spending contest, I would come in second. I readily admit I'm not going to grow the size of the federal government like [Gore] is." [Source: Debate transcript]

Not true! How about the bloated Department of Homeland Security? It's a multi billion dollar Frankenstein of government entities designed to put out color coded "terror" alerts. It was established as a knee jerk response to 9/11 and has served to restrict the rights of government workers and innocent Americans in the process.

The only reason why this giant barrel of Presidential pork would make any sense at all is if it incorporated the FBI and the CIA into one entity and thereby improve communication between the two intelligence groups. The 9/11 Commission Report in Section 13 identified this issue as the main reason why no action was taken on tips about the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Even before the HSD was created, groups were asking why this new department did not include the fifteen intelligence gathering government entities, including the FBI and CIA. The Bush administration had no answer and now we're looking at another CIA entity or restructure and another addition to government spending with little promise of improved cooperation and communication.

Instead of accepting the criticism and recommendations of the 9/11 Commission honestly, our current administration uses these issues as a reason to excuse their lack of judgment and spend more taxpayer dollars, give handouts to "faith based" groups, hand out more no-bid govt contracts, invade the privacy of more citizens, cut more social programs, and gain more control.

The American Sheep who ignore the obvious failure of GWB will give him and his pack of wolves another four more years to feast on our economy, debilitate our military, eviscerate our safety nets and civil rights, and destroy foreign policy. Who benefits?

The answer is obvious. America is becoming a land of the ultra wealthy and the dirt poor but Bush refuses to acknowledge this divide and glosses over the suffering of millions of Americans sliding into poverty or ending up in jail. He might well call his "ownership society" economic policy a catastrophic success along with his Iraq war. How can over 2 million people who lost their jobs, millions who have gone bankrupt and/or have lost their homes own anything? Makes no sense to anyone on that end of the spectrum, but the ultra wealthy love the opportunities these hardships represent. They get cheaper labor, scoop up foreclosed houses at rock bottom prices, and ship out the credit cards like toxic lifelines so more people owe their souls to the "company store."

It's an old Republican story with a new twist. The twist is that the Bush administration calls themselves "conservatives" while shamelessly creating the largest central government in US history. In the name of "security" this new wing of the central government seeks to spy on our grocery receipts and internet activities while it creates a list of suspect Americans barred from boarding airplanes. The list of central government population control activities is astounding and growing. I recently received an email warning that the federal government advocates and may indeed sponsor screening our children for mental illness in public schools. Apparently, such a program already exists in Illinois and concerned citizens with school age children are protesting the screenings and subsequent drugging of their children in the name of "mental health." Naturally big pharmaceutical is the main beneficiary of this intrusive program.

Republican "conservatives" supposedly ".., stand for less government, less taxes, less socialism, encouraging the citizens to be independent and to be the best that they can be rewarding individual achievement and small government." That's what Leo Hamm of Grand Rapids says in his letter blasting the Republicans who believe in this definition and oppose George Bush!

Oh, and by the way, I agree with everyone who says that George W, Laura and the twins are cute as buttons and probably some real down home folks. Indeed, they are likable people, but the Bush administration or machine is not. Send the Bush clan back to the Crawford ranch where they can do damage to sheep who know enough to run from the ax.