Obama,Obama,I love you, I do...

Well, it is yet the honeymoon. Still, it has been an impressive "first days". Probably a bit of "first daze" to our new Pres. At least, this time I can call him my President. And, I can say his name without wincing. Oh. joy! He can speak English, throw long sentences and thoughts together without scripts, is literate, and likes to listen to this country's many and varied voices. I must have died and gone to heaven. Perhaps, it is just the comparison with what/who went before? Whatever, I am sooo happy he is here and representing us. Yes, I would have preferred Kucinich; but, I notice that Obama has called on him and I find that encouraging.

My biggest worry is that President Obama is too good. Every time we get what looks to be a good President, he is murdered, or suffers an "accident," is dumped on by the evil RepubliCons and discredited,forced to leave office, or some such. Please guard him well, my Goddess, as he is our best chance for the Earth and All Her Children to survive. And, we may not get another one.

STOP Sending Helpless German Shepherd Dogs to Fight Taliban

In the news (from a Care2 petition)

The United Kingdom is all set to airdrop German shepherd dogs to take on the well armed Taliban and the al-Qaeda insurgents in Afghanistan. These German Shepherds would jump from an aircraft at 25,000 feet after being parachuted in hostile terrain and would lead the assault in SAS (Special Air Service) raids to seek out Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents. With tiny cameras fixed to their heads, these magnificent canines, by putting their own life in danger, would beam live TV pictures back to the troops, warning of ambushes and showing enemy leaders locations. In fact, The SAS source admits that "The dogs will be exposed to very high levels of danger on these operations."

I am sorry but I find this unacceptable. It is bad enough that we humans are so stupid we have to keep doing this war thing, killing our own kind, age after age; to make these magnificent animals join the combat, to be injured, maimed, and killed for absolutely no reason if any note to them is disgusting and should not happen. War should not happen, but, at least, humans should keep it to their own.

Gaza

It seems there is no end to the amount of tears that can be shed for the children, all the children of the world. Yes, the US is a killer of children big time; torture, maim, kill, burn the skin off with white phosphorous, we do it all, are still doing it all. But, today the news, except here in the States, of course, is on Gaza. The net is filled with stories, YouTubes, anger and tears. It is too much to bear. I feel myself wanting to turn to the tv (oops, forgot, I threw that out) or a good book to escape. I suppose that is what much of the western world is doing...just to keep from screaming. To feel so helpless in the sight of these tragedies, to know that under the skin, we are all one and the same being, coming from the same ancient place makes it all the worse. We should not need to do this. But, we do. Mostly, it is the greedy bullies who start it and keep it going; but, we help. Everytime we turn away, we help.

Here is another YouTube offering to make you (me) think:

Hiatus Over

Took a rather large amount of time off from blogging to see if I could reclaim some energy and reason to blog. With so many bloggers, there is really little that I can say that isn't said over, and over, and over again all over the net.

That has not changed. However, I have, at least some. Going to blog for myself; and, anyone who wants to read is welcome to so do. There is a great deal that has happened since Spring. Seasons have changed, and, maybe, politics as well. The election was happily a Dem victory promising hope for change, just about anywhere you look. I would have preferred Kucinich, my main man, but, Obama will do, as long as he keeps his promises AND is flexible enough to do more than what he has promised in terms of the war.

I am certain that MoveOn, DemocracyNow, DemocraticUnderground, Center for American Progress, and all the other organizations to which I subscribe will act passionately to keep Obama and his appointees on the straight and narrow. Oh, and that darn, fool group called Congress, as well.

Here is a YouTube video by Michael Heart on the Gaza tragedy I shall put here for me to listen to (you may listen as well, if you like).

MoveOn You Tube Video,per MoveOn request

From MoveOn.org:

Endless war on the installment plan

This video makes it clear: No matter what happens in Iraq, the Bush Administration and John McCain always have the same answer: 6 more months.

They're at it again this week, asking for six more months. But six months won't change anything—except the body count and the price tag.

So please forward this video to your friends, and let's keep the pressure on to bring our troops home.

Help Spread the Word: Send This Video to Your Friends.

Elder's Meditation of the Day - April 5

"As we plunge ahead to build empires and race for supremacy we should stop and listen to [the female] song of life. For without the female there is no life."

--Oren R. Lyons, Spokesman, Traditional Circle of Elders

Women are created with the ability to produce life. Women have a special tie to the Earth Mother. They have something in common. They are the source of life. The Earth Mother gives songs to the Woman to sing. These songs are about life, about beauty, about children, about love, about family, about strength, about caring, about nurturing, about forgiveness, about God. The World needs to pay attention and listen to Her. She knows.

Great Spirit, let me listen to Her songs.

Earth Hour Approaches

Made the pledge yet?
I have. No lights (or anything using electricity) for 1 hour, 8PM to 9PM, March 29.
Go to EarthHour to sign up. No money required.
No lights on the 29th.
Candles are lovely.

Wolf at my door

This is an email I sent to Sisters and Friends yesterday:

Many wonderful creatures live in my neighborhood, mostly unseen except for those moments when our lives connect. The bears in the road, the birds in the garden, the squirrel babies that fell from their nest(one died, the other I raised then let free), the Mama Moose and her babe running through my backyard, the fox stealing my chickens, and so on. But, yesterday's gift was the best yet...a wolf, eating my compost not 20 feet from me. She/he was beautiful. Small, delicate, and graceful. So alert, wary, hungry. My cat in my arms growling and fighting to be let free, I watched for 30 minutes or so until the food was gone and this gorgeous animal went on with its day. I love where I live.
The thought that there are humans who delight in slaughtering these wonderful animals, often from a helicopter or small plane so there is no danger to themselves, I find inconceivable as well as horrendous.

We must continue to fight for the lives of these creatures and all Mother's children.

In Light and Love,
GentleBreeze


This photo is not one I took and was taken from the 'net. If copyright protected, please let me know as the site did not give such info. I included the pic as it is one of the closest I could find to the animal I saw. They are almost identical. Hope to have my camera with me should such a delight occur again.
Wolves are supposed to not exist in Maine, having been wiped out decades ago by man.
However, there have been many sitings as well as true findings substantiated by DNA testing in recent years. It is believed that there was much interbreeding between the wolves and coyotes some 80 years ago and that many of the animals now seen contain mixed blood. Whatever. The animal I saw was magnificent,and, like all Mother's children, worthy of our loving protection. For the sake of the animal, the environment, and the delicate balance to which we look for survival.

And, in our interconnectedness...

...shall we all flourish or die.

From Defenders of Wildlife:

Today, the Bush/Cheney Administration is stripping these amazing animals of vital federal protections, officially opening the door to the shooting, trapping, and killing of up to 1,200 wolves.

Under existing state management plans -- plans approved by the Bush Administration -- all but 300 hundred wolves could be killed. That’s 80% of the wild wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies!

As I wrote last month, federal officials already made it easier to kill wolves while they were still protected under the Endangered Species Act. Now they’re taking the final step, and eliminating these federal protections altogether.

Idaho officials want to use aerial gunning to kill wolves in their state. Wyoming agencies have left the door open to the use of traps and poison to eliminate wolves. And officials in both states -- and Montana -- have proposed wolf hunts.

States could start the killing by the end of March.

Please make a tax-deductible emergency donation right now and help support our work to save these wolves.

Mother, it is time for the 2-leggeds to reap what they have sown.

Every thing is connected...Elder's Meditation

Elder's Meditation of the Day - February 21,2008

"Every thing or living being that exists in this world, be it trees, flowers, birds, grasses, rocks, soil of the earth, or human beings, has its unique manner of existence --its essence, its spirit that makes it what it is. That is what is meant by connectedness."
--Larry P. Aitken, CHIPPEWA

Scientists are finally realizing what the Elders have taught for thousands of years-every- thing is connected. Because everything is interconnected, whatever you do to any one thing, you do to everything. If you poison any part of the earth, the poison eventually affects everything else. If you poison the plants, the birds will eat the plants, which poisons the birds. The birds are eaten by humans which poisons the humans. The humans will have babies who could be deformed because the plants were poisoned. We must learn to live in harmony with the earth. We must learn to think good things. Every good thought is felt by everything, which causes everything to be happy.

Creator, let my thoughts only be good thoughts.

"Our safety, our liberty, depends upon preserving
the Constitution of the United States as our
Fathers made it inviolate. The people of the
United States are the rightful masters of
both Congress and the Courts, not to
overthrow the Constitution, but to
overthrow the men who pervert
the Constitution."

- - Abraham Lincoln

True Costs of Shipping

According to the article in the Guardian, the true costs of shipping are much worse than previously suspected. They include not only the damage to the environment from the massive pollution they cause with oil spills and other toxic leaks, but also an immense addition to global warming, much more than most folks knew or guessed. Well, I sort of guessed.

snippet:

The true scale of climate change emissions from shipping is almost three times higher than previously believed, according to a leaked UN study seen by the Guardian.

It calculates that annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have already reached 1.12bn tonnes of CO₂, or nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of the main greenhouse gas.

The report suggests that shipping emissions - which are not taken into account by European targets for cutting global warming - will become one of the largest single sources of man made CO₂after cars, housing, agriculture and industry. By comparison, the aviation industry, which has been under heavy pressure to clean up, is responsible for about 650m tonnes of CO₂emissions a year, just over half that from shipping.

For the rest of this rather damming article, go here.

How many hints does it take till we know that too many creatures have died?

"When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn?"

Taxi To The Darkside

Looks to be an excellent documentary, one which lifts the veil on some of the many secrets this administration loves to keep from us. The theme is torture, one of my especial hatreds. Anyway, since it is a good film, up for all sorts of awards, and really should be seen by everyone, naturally, it will not be seen or heard of by many. Discovery channel is not helping, having just canceled the scheduled airing. Why? Because it is too "controversial." Bush always gets his way. Here is the link to the trailer:

Taxi To The Darkside

Re the Torture "Experiment"

Found an excellent article/argument on torture and the lovely kids who espouse its use on CommonDreams.org today. Written by Caroline Arnold and labeled "The Ticking Time Bomb Thought-Experiment," it is well worth a thorough read. I dearly love that Attorney General Mukasey is included in the experiment.

One of my favorite paragraphs goes as follows:

We need to ask ourselves why so many of us indulge in these brutal thought-experiments and engage with their underlying illogic, counterproductiveness and inhumanity. We need to understand how human weakness for bullying, hurting, power, revenge, and anger can be so easily exploited for power, profit and pleasure.

As anyone with half a brain surely realizes, waterboarding does not simulate drowning, it is drowning. Your lungs fill with water. That is drowning. I have posted, previously, a detailed article on what actually happens in waterboarding, which is a dying process, stopped just short of death when it works, or, not. Sometimes the victim has to be resuscitated. Sometimes, more than once. It is extremely painful, and, I, for one, would say anything to avoid or stop the process were it directed at me. What would you do? Hum?

You May Shoot To Kill

Every time I think I have heard the scariest news yet, I hear something scarier.
From Alternet:

FBI Deputizes Private Contractors With Extraordinary Powers, Including 'Shoot to Kill'
By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive. Posted February 8, 2008

Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does -- and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government, which alarms the ACLU. But there may be more to it than that. One business executive, who showed me his InfraGard card, told me they have permission to "shoot to kill" in the event of martial law. InfraGard is "a child of the FBI," says Michael Hershman, the chairman of the advisory board of the InfraGard National Members Alliance and CEO of the Fairfax Group, an international consulting firm.

InfraGard started in Cleveland back in 1996, when the private sector there cooperated with the FBI to investigate cyber threats.

"Then the FBI cloned it," says Phyllis Schneck, chairman of the board of directors of the InfraGard National Members Alliance, and the prime mover behind the growth of InfraGard over the last several years.

re info given to Infragard member at meeting:

"The meeting started off innocuously enough, with the speakers talking about corporate espionage," he says. "From there, it just progressed. All of a sudden we were knee deep in what was expected of us when martial law is declared. We were expected to share all our resources, but in return we'd be given specific benefits." These included, he says, the ability to travel in restricted areas and to get people out. But that's not all.

"Then they said when -- not if -- martial law is declared, it was our responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn't be prosecuted," he says.

For the rest of this frightening article, go here.

Another US & World Water Crisis Report

From Alternet, one of my daily news sources, comes this report:

How Global Warming Will Affect the Water Crisis

Posted by Tara Lohan, AlterNet at 3:50 PM on February 7, 2008.

Here's an important heads up: Things are going to get more bleak in the U.S. when it comes to available fresh water.

Here's what the UK's Telegraph had to say:

An impending crisis in America's water supply is signalled by a study that concludes more than half of the recent decline seen in the west can be linked to human activities. Scientists have been documenting significant changes in water flow in the western United States for the past 50 years. Now it has been found that to 60 percent of the changes in river flow, snow pack and winter air temperatures in the region during this period can be attributed to human-caused climate change.

Dr Tim Barnett of the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues conclude that for the inhabitants, from Seattle to Los Angeles, the results "are not good news" and call for immediate action to secure future supplies.

The report came from the journal, Science, and it also said there would be shifts in water supply worldwide. That's the funny thing about climate change. The winners would likely be "Eurasia, Alaska, Canada, and some tropical regions," with more water. Losers, where there would be substantial decline in water availabity, would be "southern Europe, the Middle East, southern Africa and southwestern North America."

For the rest of the article, go to the above link.

Not a surprise, I would say, to those of us following the global warming/world water supply situation. Still, it is another piece of news for the USA and the world to digest. It also helps to explain to me why Maine has become the new England(or Oregon),with milder wet weather dominating the daily weather scene yet again this winter. Keeps getting weirder every day, every season, every year.

Way to go, Vermont!

Maybe I should move there? Just love those independent, brave, and zesty Vermonters.
From Alternet:
Vermont Town Heavily Backs Proposal to Issue Arrest Warrants for Bush, Cheney
Posted by Adam Howard, AlterNet at 9:10 AM on February 6, 2008.

Since Pelosi, Reid and the other Democratic leaders in Congress appear to be too afraid to hold Bush and Cheney responsible for their numerous crimes, the Vermont town of Brattleboro has taken matters into its own hands:

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - The tone has changed in e-mails this Vermont town has been receiving on its proposal to issue warrants for the arrests of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Now, more people are supporting the resolution.

Brattleboro's town offices have been flooded with 7,000 e-mails since its selectboard voted Jan. 25 to include the item on its Town Meeting Day agenda.

For the rest of the article, go to the above link.
Would it not be wonderful if all the states, or, at least, a majority of the states, were to follow in kind? We could say "goodbye" and "good riddance" to the 2 biggest crooks/scoundrels in the world.

Urgent Alert re Polar Bears

From World Wildlife Conservation Action Network, this:

In only three days, on February 6, the Department of the Interior plans to move ahead with leasing nearly 30 million acres in Alaska's pristine Chukchi Sea for oil and gas activities.
Together, the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas support an estimated one-fifth of the world's polar bear population. The polar bear's existence is already threatened by the impact of climate change-induced loss of sea ice. Its chances for survival will be greatly diminished if much of its remaining critical habitat is turned into a vast oil and gas field. The Chukchi Sea lease must be halted until protective measures are in place for the polar bear.

Go to this site and TAKE ACTION! This must be done immediately.

Do it for the bears, do it for Mother, do it for survival.

Low numbers for Salmon run

San Francisco Chronicle
Salmon arriving in record low numbers
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Central Valley fall run of chinook salmon apparently has collapsed, portending sharp fishing restrictions and rising prices for consumers while providing further evidence that the state's water demands are causing widespread ecological damage.

The bad news for commercial and sport fishermen and the salmon-consuming public surfaced Tuesday when a fisheries-management group warned that the numbers of the bay's biggest wild salmon run had plummeted to near record lows.

In April, the Pacific Fishery Management Council will set restrictions on the salmon season, which typically starts in May. A shortage could drive up the price of West Coast wild salmon. The council's leaders said the news is troubling because normally healthy runs of Central Valley chinook salmon are heavily relied upon by fishermen. Runs on the other river systems historically have been smaller.

"The low returns are particularly distressing since this stock has consistently been the healthy 'workhorse' for salmon fisheries off California and most of Oregon," the council's executive director, Donald McIsaac, said in a statement Tuesday."

Rest of article here.


And so it goes. Poor fish, poor humans, poor Mother.

Now Who Do I Vote For?!

With my two favorites, Kucinich and Edwards, gone from the race, I no longer feel like voting at all. I was looking forward to the primary in my state being the first in years in which I could vote for someone (Kucinich) I really wanted to have become Pres, rather than the lesser of two evils. Well, much as I would love a woman in the WH, Hillary will never get my vote. Two much of a Repug for my taste. And, Obama? Never could see what all the hooplah was about. Yeah, he speaks well; so what. He is a kid who projects well. No experience and much too malleable in this stage of the game.
As important as the primaries are and as important as it is to get a Dem into the WH asap, I will be voting for a Dem I really do not want, once again. And, yes, I will go vote, even if it is half-heartedly.