A warm and heartfelt "Eid Mubarak" to you all!

"The Sacrifice of Isaac" by Cigoli in 1607

Yes, we are all wishing one another "Happy New Year" about now (exactly now for those of you on the East Coast). But Saddam's execution and debates about its timing that are ongoing throughout the Islamic world reminded me of another celebration that Muslims commemorate at this time (at least this year since it moves back about eleven days each year) that was quite meaningful to me while I was living in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for the decade of the 90's.

The "Eid-al-Adha" is the second most important of the "Eids" celebrated by Muslims and commemorates the almost-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham (before he was stopped by an angel of the Lord) that truly commemorates the deep, wondrous love of Abraham for God in being willing to spare even his own son to give a full, effectual proof of that love.

Every day of the year, however, the Christian world remembers the deep, wondrous love of God for men in being willing also to spare his only begotten Son to prove once for all his eternal love for us and his desire that we should not perish but, through faith in Jesus his Son, obtain eternal life. (John 3:16)

With deep compassion we should at least view the Islamic Eid-al-Adha as a reminder of the revelation God gave Abraham of his salvation to come through his Son Jesus Christ ... which was foreshadowed in the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.

After all ... "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29 NIV).

Eid Mubarak to you all ... Christians, Jews, Muslims and all others!

--------------------------------------
"The Sacrifice of Isaac" by Cigoli in 1607

Cigoli's painting shown at the top of this posting depicts one of the most dramatic moments in the Old Testament (Genesis 22: 1-14), where the Lord tests Abraham's faith by asking him to sacrifice his only son Isaac. The painting shown above, "The Sacrifice of Isaac" by Cigoli, was painted in Rome.

Is this really how we wish to remember 2006 coming to an end? Through a trap door on a gallows?

No! Thanks to many conversations with my brother Richard in Connecticut over the past year, I decided not to put the grainy video of the hanging (taken with an anonymous soul's cellphone from below the gallows) on this blogsite, but the photo and brief transcript of the last moments in the "execution room" tell it all, I think.



[Saddam] Oh God.

[Voices] May God's blessings be upon Muhammad and his household.

[Voices] And may God hasten their appearance and curse their enemies.

[Voices] Moqtada [Al-Sadr]...Moqtada...Moqtada.

[Saddam] Do you consider this bravery?

[Voice] Long live Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr.

[Voice] To hell.

[Voice] Please do not. The man is being executed. Please no, I beg you to stop.

[Saddam] There is no God but Allah and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God. There is no God but Allah and I testify that Muhammad...

At this point the video stops and the sound of the trapdoors opening is heard in the background.

-------

I may be totally opposed to capital punishment, but have to admit that his execution did surely end a long and torturous era for Iraq and the world.

But the war and horrors in Iraq go on anyway ... as the band plays on.

US Military deaths in Iraq reach 3000 ... sometimes it's hard to run and laugh in the rain ...

The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq has reached 3,000 since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, an authoritative Web site tracking war deaths said on Sunday.

The milestone comes as President George W. Bush weighs options, including more troops, for the deteriorating situation in Iraq, where daily violence plagues Baghdad and much of the country and has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.
The Web site listed the death of Spec. Dustin R. Donica, 22, on December 28 as previously unreported, and said that 3,000 U.S. military personnel had now died.

Still, we must trust in God that even the death of the 3,000th young American in Bush's War does not take away the need to dance and run in the rain. Is the picture below what God wants of us?



or this?

Happy New Year to you all! May you all run in the rain and laugh during the coming year!

I seldom (almost never) post a piece of spam ... but with all that is going on worldwide, this seems an appropriate closer for 2006.

NEED WASHING??

A little girl had been shopping with her Mom in Target. She must have been 6 years old, this beautiful red haired, freckle faced image of innocence. It was pouring outside. The kind of rain that gushes over the top of rain gutters, so much in a hurry to hit the earth it has no time to flow down the spout. We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Target.

We waited, some patiently, others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day. I am always mesmerized by rainfall. I got lost in the sound and sight of the heavens washing away the dirt and dust of the world. Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child came pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.

The little voice was so sweet as it broke the hypnotic trance we were all caught in "Mom let's run through the rain," she said.

"What?" Mom asked.

"Lets run through the rain!" She repeated.

"No, honey. We'll wait until it slows down a bit," Mom replied.

This young child waited about another minute and repeated: "Mom, let's run through the rain,"

"We'll get soaked if we do," Mom said.

"No, we won't, Mom. That's not what you said this morning," the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom's arm.

This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?

"Don't you remember? When you were talking to Daddy about his cancer, you said, 'If God can get us through this, he can get us through anything!"

The entire crowd stopped dead silent. I swear you couldn't hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently. No one came or left in the next few minutes.

Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say. Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly. Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation in a young child's life. A time when innocent trust can be nurtured so that it will bloom into faith.

"Honey, you are absolutely right. Let's run through the rain. If GOD let's us get wet, well maybe we just needed washing," Mom said.

Then off they ran. We all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes, through the puddles. They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case. They got soaked. But they were followed by a few who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.

And yes, I did. I ran. I got wet. I needed washing.

Circumstances or people can take away your material possessions, they can take away your money, and they can take away your health. But no one can ever take away your precious memories...So, don't forget to make time and take the opportunities to make memories everyday. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.

I HOPE YOU STILL TAKE THE TIME TO RUN THROUGH THE RAIN.

Happy New Year!!

Focus Fusion ... see it!

Now you see what happens when the collision of the atoms occurs in "Focus Fusion" !! ... the flash is symbolic of the energy (clean and non-fossil fuel using) emitted!

Now all we need is someone to fund the development of the hydrogen-boron plasma collider/electrifiers. I'll let you Google away on Focus Fusion to get more info; I've posted on this before and my little burst of excitement did little to electrify the blogosphere.

Go Focus Fusion, go!

"Citizen Gerald Ford" was totally against the War in Iraq ... taped interview now permitted to be played ...

We now know that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton (and very likely, Bush '41) weren't the only former presidents who thought/think that President Bush is off on a deadly tangent in his conduct of an ill-conceived invasion, an undermanned clean-up in the months after the invasion and a disastrous and interminable occupation of a sovereign country.

Who's getting the last laugh in the picture at the top left? A sardonic laugh perhaps ... or maybe he's simply laughing at one of W's famous Bushisms.

In tapes released yesterday -- and additional footage is still being released -- former president Gerald Ford, whose body is still warm, stated that he "wouldn't have gone to war" and that his former aides (Rumsfeld and Cheney) were complicit in misleading President Bush who was vulnerable (uninformed) at the time. At the time of the invasion, the President didn't even realize that there were two major branches of Islam represented in Saddam's Iraqi population. His ignorance of foreign affairs provides him some excuse, but what are the excuses of Cheney and Rumsfeld?

Bob Woodward has reported that Gerald Ford told him in July 2004 that he didn't think he would have gone to war in Iraq and that he would have looked harder at other options. Some might believe that Ford's view was probably that of a vast majority of persons over 60. Most men and women that I've known become less favorably inclined towards war as they become older -- including me!. Of course, Mr. Ford -- always a gentleman -- asked that his comments not be made public until shortly after his death.

Among other things, he (Ford) certainly must have felt responsible to an extent since two of his proteges (his foreign affairs advisor and Secretary of Defence), the above-mentioned Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, were the prime advocates of toppling Saddam Hussein ... even before 9-11.

The fact that Mr. Ford told Woodward not to publish his views until after his death, but that he could publish them before the end of the Bush administration suggests just how strongly he felt about the wrongness of the wars, I believe. It's obvious today that Ford felt so strong about the matter that he wanted his opinions known sooner (rather than later) .. but not so soon that he would become embroiled in a political squabble over the matter. His humble demeanor wouldn't permit that, I believe.

A gentleman to the end -- but the boys and girls in Iraq are dying at roughly three per day and the band plays on ...

My mother used to remind me after two events had occurred that "things always come in threes!"

One, two ... and this coming weekend ... three!

One thing that my brother, Richard from Connecticut, and I can agree on is that our mother (most beloved among all the true "ladies" on this earth and someone whom I really miss this Christmas season) used to state emphatically that "things came in threes" ... especially deaths. And this week we lost (1) a great President, (2) the "Godfather" of soul (and deep-down rock) music and (3) [likely within three days as the week comes to an end] a brutal dictator who almost seemed human during the past months as he ranted and raved in his cage "on the block" before and while he was sentenced to be hanged.

There's little more that I can say about Gerald Ford beyond what you all will be hearing on your television sets ... except that the running commentaries coming from the liberal "talking heads" on TV ... of his posthumous kick in the ass at/to GWB over the Iraq War (next posting ... probably tomorrow) will give added poignancy to the funeral services over the weekend.

As For James Brown, his music speaks for itself. My favorite was actually what most might call a combination between rhythm & blues and soul rock -- "Living in America" which I listened to during some difficult times in the late 1980s. Being that he was 73 when he died earlier this week, he reminds me now of my own mortality -- I'm in my 73rd year also.

As for Saddam Hussein, I actually feel badly for the old rascal ... even in light of the hundreds of murders he committed in his efforts to stay in power.

But the "rule of threes" is sacrosanct and die he must -- also to take with him to his grave his secret dealings with the US in decades past for weaponry which both the Iranians and Kurds saw ... highly lethal ... both loud and at times silent ... and up close.

But the world will go on and a funkier rap star than James Brown will come along, a more humble president of the US than even President Gerald Ford will emerge and (sadly) a more brutal dictator than Saddam Hussein will also surface somewhere in this vast world. Nothing remains the most or least ... or best or worst ... for very long.

That's life ... ain't it, mom?

Civil War in Iraq likely to spill over into the United States Senate

The soon-to-be Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden (shown to the left)

Senator Joseph Biden said yesterday that he would ask Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to testify during three weeks of hearings in January about the Iraq war (he might even subpoena or summon her now that the Democrats are in control). Biden, has already flatly stated that he is against the idea of increasing the level of U.S. troops in Iraq, saying the "troop surge" option will not work.

Everyone but my brother, Richard in Connecticut, believes that increasing troop levels in Iraq by some 30,000 is one of the options being considered by President Bush. Despite opposition from some senior military commanders, the option is being seriously considered, CNN News reported earlier this week.

Biden said Tuesday he strongly favors reducing the troop level, not increasing it.

Me thinks that the Civil War in Iraq may be soon spilling over into the United States Senate.

If only the number of dead American soldiers there weren't nearing 3,000 ... it might be "fun" to watch. But sadly, the hearing battleground is a very serious and somber stage for Mr. Biden and the others who will be involved. American and Iraqi lives are on the line.

Gerald Ford ... a TRUE Republican and fine American

Former President Gerald R. Ford and his wife Betty

Gerald Ford was one of my home-state heroes. He did it all, including becoming the only "unelected" President of our country ... ever. He turned down offers to play football with the Green Bay Packers and my beloved (not doing so well today) Detroit Lions; he stepped into the worst possible situation as President ... we were already "cutting-and-running" from Vietnam and the Presidency seemed to be in a shambles.

He stepped up to the plate though and made that wonderful speech that relieved us all. It included the words, "...our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule."

If only Mr. Bush would heed the words of his fellow Republican of long ago ...

In another speech, he said "Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. But it cannot be achieved by refighting a war that is finished as far as America is concerned." Evoking Abraham Lincoln, he said it was time to "look forward to an agenda for the future, to unify, to bind up the nation's wounds." (This was immediately after we had completely pulled out of Vietnam, another of our national tragedies prior to the current occupation/war in Iraq.)

Will Mr. Bush be capable of saying such words when we finally disengage from Iraq?

In retrospect, his pardon of Mr. Nixon was courageous. Hopefully, whoever it will be that might be given the opportunity of pardoning President Bush for his war crimes and (possibly) High Treason, I hope he will be as forgiving and courageous.

Gerald R. Ford was surely the "man for his times."

And what a sad Christmas this is turning out to be ...

Excuse me, Mr. Bush ... You can get out now ... your goals have been met!

It's providence, Mr. Bush ... Mr. Hussein (your dad's business partner some years back) will be executed imminently -- like probably tomorrow! And the number of our troops killed in Iraq has now exceeded the number of Americans who died on 9-11. What more can you ask for?

Saddam Hussein's appeal went pffft (this morning's news says) and thus, he will be executed within 30 days, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported ... citing the appeals court judge. "As from tomorrow, the sentence could be carried out at any time," Judge Arif Shaheen said today , according to the AFP article.

Mr. Hussein was found guilty on Nov. 5, following that endless trial, of crimes against humanity for his role in the killing of 148 Shiite Muslim villagers in Dujail in 1982. I wonder what will become of his trial for his role in the gassing of hundreds of Kurds using chemicals purchased from you-know-who? I actually guessed that he would not live long enough for that trial to get into full swing -- too embarrassing for many parties to the current fighting, most prominently, the United States of America who was supplying arms to Saddam Hussein back in those terrible days.

But anyway, if that isn't enough reason for Mr. Bush to remove our boys and girls from Iraq, the fact that more of them have died in Iraq now than were killed on 9-11 should convince him that we have paid those rotten criminals fighting with the Sunnis and the Shiites IN FULL for their [sic] dastardly deed five and a half or so years ago.

Four US soldiers were killed around Baghdad on Tuesday, bringing to 2,976 the number of American fatalities in Iraq since the 2003 invasion -- three more than the number killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

I think that means ... we won ... at least in the twisted logic that seems to dominate in the Cheney White House.

But, if it means bringing home our kids over there, I'm willing to agree with Cheney and his sidekick, Mr. Bush, that it's a "victory." Anything to bring them home!

This is as sad a day for America as I can imagine. Please, Mr. Bush; bring our boys and girls home NOW!!!

Forget Hillary ... forget Obama ... yes, even for a moment, forget Iraq ... the earth is going under! Global Warming is REAL !!!

It used to be a little spot just below India

Global warming is only this week sinking a tropical island -- and for the first time, it's an inhabited island that is disappearing beneath the rising seas. Rising oceans, caused by global warming, literally "disappeared" (to use a popular verbalization these days) an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. Lohachara island is/was in India's part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal. The event which is (nearly) visible in the above photo taken only a couple of hours ago marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.

Geoffrey Lean of The Independent writes, "As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities."

Eight years ago, as exclusively reported in The Independent on Sunday, the first uninhabited islands - in the Pacific atoll nation of Kiribati - vanished beneath the waves. The people of low-lying islands in Vanuatu, also in the Pacific, have been evacuated as a precaution, but the land still juts above the sea. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.

This, my blogging friends, is the beginning of the "end" as predicted by Al Gore in his marvelous movie/book/presentation, An Inconvenient Truth.

All told, more than 70,000 persons are expected to be left homeless in this tiny spot in the middle of nowhere. But for those who once lived there ... or for those still living on some of the islands where the water is still rising, it's not "nowhere" at all.

Merry Christmas from your very real friend whose initials are SGW ... Serious Global Warming!

And a very Merry Christmas to y'all !!!

Rafsahani and Khatami are the real winners in Iran's local elections from what I read ...

The photo above shows Ex-president Hashemi Rafsanjani, right, casting his ballot as another former president, Mohammad Khatami, fills in his ballot during local midterm elections at a polling station in Tehran on Friday.

An Associated Press article referred to Hashemi Rafsanjani, as an "Elder statesman" and "a mercurial cleric." Whatever he might have been or might actually be, he (Rafsanjani) seems to be playing both sides of the reformist versus the conservative movements in Iran. And, according to the AP story, he is climbing again in the political scheme of things in Iran -- particularly after local elections late last week suggested deep discontent with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's hard line.

I don't have to repeat all of the "fame" that Ahmadinejad has grabbed in the headlines by emphasizing Iran's giving the US the proverbial "finger" by continuing Iran's continuing its program of uranium enrichment (and possibly plutonium production). And his idiotic quotes on the Holocaust and other nutty comments have him on the black list of about every country in the Western World.

As for Mohammad Khatami, whom we all seemed to like, we'll just have to wait for Le Rouge et le Noir's comments to know where he (Khatami) really stands in all of this -- but he's at least seen in the photo above casting his ballot with Hashemi Rafsanjani, isn't he? They are both ex-Presidents, quite capable leaders and certainly more moderate than ...


You know who!!

Who says America's not ready for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama?

Well, I (for one) am more
than just ready!
I'm almost anxious for
2008 to be tomorrow!!!

I guess I wasn't the only one to have the worries about Obama's safety ...

What was it I was thinking about only a couple of days ago?

This ... from the Chicago Sun-Times!! The link to the article below and picture above are both from Randi Rhodes' website ... see link on side bar. Then go to Randi's link to the Chicago Sun-Times column, including several good comments on the column ... blog-like. Part of the column is shown below.

--------- Quote below ----------

Sweet column: Obama, wife fears for his safety. Says he has a "pretty good chance of winning the nomination."

Sen. Barack Obama is concerned about his personal security —telling the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Thursday that he and his wife fear there is a potential for violence — even if he does not run for president. "Being shot, obviously, that is the least-attractive option," Obama said.


The Illinois Democrat told the Sun-Times he has concluded a 2008 White House bid "would be viable" and he would have "a pretty good chance of winning the nomination."

For the first time, Obama talked about the downside of his swelling popularity, before his expected presidential announcement in January, after a vacation in his native Hawaii.

Security, Obama said, referring to his wife, is “something that is on Michelle's mind. And the minds of many of my friends. "I think it is something that will have to be addressed if I ran. You are not assigned Secret Service protection until you are effectively the nominee." Obama said he "might have to build in" his own security provisions.

"Now I will tell you, this is something, this is one of the least-attractive — not the part about being shot, obviously, that is the least-attractive option. But even just having a security apparatus around you; one of the things that I have been very proud over the last several years, is, for all the hoopla, I am not an entourage guy. ... I have been accessible, and Michelle and I have gone out of our way not to change our habits. Even if I am not to run for president, the crush of attention has created a different set of problems." Obama's family has been nervous for some time for his safety.

Whoops! Mr. Bush had better go slow in supporting the Shiite majority in Iraq ...

That's two resignations in 15 months after no change in 22 years. I'd say that when Vice president Cheney was summoned to Riyadh last month, it was for a chewing out akin to the stoning of an unfaithful Saudi wife. (It might also have been the real reason behind Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld's ouster from the pentagon too, come to think of it ...)

I remember only too well the prediction made by one of my colleagues in the Royal Saudi Air Force (a captain at the time) that when (as he incorrectly predicted) President Clinton decided to be a "hero" and take out Saddam Hussein and then establish "Democracy" in a country where the Sunnis were in the minority ... that the whole "balance of religious tolerance" (his words, not mine) would fall apart. Of course, he was wrong about President Clinton, but then who could have guessed that the worst president in the history of the US would come along after Clinton and fulfill the strange (crazy sounding to me at the time) prophesy.Prince Turki al Faisal (photo top left) who headed Saudi Arabia's foreign intelligence service for 24 years before taking the post of Ambassador to the United States -- a post vacated by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz (photo on the right) only 15 months ago after he held that job for 22 years -- resigned that lush post himself suddenly early last week (on Monday).

I spent nearly a decade in Saudi Arabia before returning to the upper northwest corner of the US in 1998 and have been watching the events of the past two years, in particular, with keen interest. It was becoming clearer and clearer to me that President Bush couldn't quite make up his mind which side in the Sunni-Shiite conflict (a.k.a. "the Iraqi Civil War") we should be supporting.

Prince Turki al-Faisal, is an avid (meaning really avid -- he was born in Mecca, for the love of Allah!) Sunni who was both upset and likely embarrassed by the recent remarks coming from the White House that "victory" in Iraq meant going after the Sunni insurgents in the Sunni Triangle" ... before President Bush suddenly awakened to the realities of Middle East politics and decided only this month to really go after folks like Al Sadr (Shiite) and maybe even dumping the third Iraqi Prime Minister (also Shiite) with whom he (Bush) was displeased anyway as the American casualties were/are climbing.

Whew! That was close. Haliburton, Kellog, Brown and Root, Chevron and half of the millionaires in Texas were hanging out on a limb for quite a while there. But his change in allegience wasn't quite quick enough to prevent Prince Turki from saying "Ma as-salaamah and Goombye!"

[Note: the oil fields in both Iraq and (yes!) the eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia are in areas largely populated by Shiites.]

It might be remembered that Prince Turki was thought to have been a "friend" to Osama bin Laden for a while and even won a judgement against a Paris magazine for accusing him of involvement in 9-11. He was also pretty pissed at Michael Moore after the release of "Fahrenheit 9-11" I personally don't think he was ever a "friend" to/of Osama bin Laden--and certainly not a part of 9-11, but merely a convenient ally and acquaintance of bin Laden ... much like many White House residents prior to Bill Clinton were with Saddam Hussein, particularly during the Iran-Iraq War.

Whether his resignation is a sign that our relationship with Saudi Arabia's Royal family is further cracking or that there might (heavens!) be a power struggle within the Saudi Royal family itself suggests that we might watch the situation in Saudi Arabia with about the same careful eye that we are watching the slim Democratic majority in the US Senate.

As of today, it seems as though nothing is stable, least of all the entire Middle East.

Whether it be an appointment (Joe Lieberman to UN) or Tim Johnson's situation, the Democrats Senate majority looks slimmer than ever ...

I call it the Lieberman-Johnson factor, but it could mean the lives and fortunes of more persons than only US Senator Tim Johnson (South Dakota, below) or US Senator Joe Lieberman (Connecticut, left).


How fragile the "voice of America" really is ... And it's not a matter of GOP shenanigans this time, simply the randomness of "life" and the laws that are in place ... and which are generally fair in every way.

Of course, the horrid misfortune that has befallen Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota is what brings the fragile nature of the Democratic majority in the US Senate to mind, but having two Independents sitting in the Democratic Caucus makes that "majority" even more fragile. Even George Bush could change the balance simply by naming Joe Lieberman to replace John Bolton as our Ambassador to the United Nations. With the Governors of both South Dakota and Connecticut being Republican, it's almost a 50-50 toss of the dice as to whether the Democrats or Republicans will control the Senate in, say, six months.

Of course, President Bush would never do something so calculated as to name Senator Lieberman to the UN and God would never take Senator Johnson from us prematurely while the Vice president (who breaks ties in the Senate) is a representative of the Dark Side ... but then, stranger things have happened. The "magic bullet" that passed through President Kennedy on November 22, 1963 should remind us that anything is possible!

But happily, at last word, it appears that Senator Johnson is recovering from the surgery required by his brain hemorrhage on Thursday. He apparently suffered bleeding in his brain, which it turns out was from an intracerebral bleed caused by a condition he was born with called congenital arteriovenous malformation (and I had just learned to pronounce "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad"!), or AVM, his doctors said.

Still, I'd stay alert and posted to the news for the coming months.

The Republicans in the Senate may not simply roll over and play dead after all.

But for the moment, let's certainly pray that Senator Johnson recovers well and regains his his full faculties and that Mr. Bush doesn't decide to be generous and show bipartisanship by naming a Democrat to the empty post of Ambassador to the UN.

All it would take is for one Democrat to leave the Senate in a state wherein the Governor is a Republican for the 51-49 majority to become a 50-50 tie with the Vice prince of darkness (Dick Cheney) holding the tie-breaking vote. Brrr ...

Another "must read" book! ... and concerns about his safety ...

I didn't think I would or could recommend another book this year, especially after Woodward's marvelous book two months ago. But Mr. Obama has really come through in his (relatively) new book, The Audacity of Hope. He writes with a kind of freshness that made reading the book as entertaining as it was visionary.

Unfortunately, my reading of the book brought back the same feelings I had about Bobby Kennedy in 1968. I feel excited and hopeful.

Surely, nothing as terrible as what befell Bobby in 1968 could befall Barack in 2008 ... or sooner.

Could it?

Three weeks on the new job and three "once-in-a-lifetime" events!

Less than three weeks ago, during my first week at the new job on the hill, so to speak, a snowstorm forced me off of the road into a snowdrift and ditch ... and ultimately into a motel that was conveniently situated between my teaching assignment and the college for which I work. Then my second week ended with one or two (I only saw one clearly during the melee that ensued) raccoons in my bedroom in the middle of the night fighting with all seven of my cats in the same bedroom. And now endeth my third week with the worst windstorm in the history of Grays harbor County (see photo above) ... and me without electricity for up to five days according to the car radio.

This blog posting is possible only because my sister suggested that I try the library in Aberdeen (it's an hour from where I live) to check my email. I caught her on my cell phone while I was was waiting in my doctor's parking lot in Aberdeen -- I never would have thought of that on my own ... that is, of driving to the library in Aberdeen to "connect" with the world.

Oh yes ... "Hi, world!"

Sufficeth for me to state that more than a million and a half people are without power and the storm surges on the ocean were at fifty or more feet, according to the Coast Guard. That's quite a bit higher than the highest point on the little peninsula wherein lies my home in Ocean Shores, Washington.

But so that you all won't be worried about your crazy fellow blogger, although my cats and I are quite cold, we are learning to share the warmth of each others' bodies under the stack of blankets on my bed. And yes, I now have more than a half dozen battery powered lanterns from the WalMart store in Aberdeen.

Next week starts my fourth week working and teaching "on the hill." What next?

According to the experts (the polls), nobody can be president in 2008

It's a conundrum of the first order for those whose lives revolve about polls (e.g., my brother Richard from Connecticut).

Clearly, the Democrats prefer Hillary Clinton to the guy with the anagram name (something like Baramo Obamistan), but she is behind both John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in polls that pit her against either one of these Republican "front-runners." But there's a hitch. Neither John McCain (let's put the entire US Army in Baghdad) nor Mr. Giuliani (supports abortion and gay rights plus a number of other issues that make the evangelical conservatives blanch) have any chance of winning the Republican nomination.

Further, polls show that the "losers" in former elections (Gore, Dole and Kerry) can't win either so I guess we'll have to see whether a loser can beat a loser (is that an oxymoron)?

I personally think either an Al Gore - Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton - Barack Obama ticket would beat anything the Republicans can scrape up in 2008 ... especially if Mr. Bush holds steady to the course he's chosen for Iraq which is still going down the toilet in a hurry -- despite the polls that show McCain and/or Giuliani able to win the general Election, even though they have no chance of being nominated. It's a shame that GWB wrecked the Bush name. Jeb is looking better every day.

Confusing?

Well, just ask my brother about a Blue Dog Democrat ... especially an almost Bluedogger like Evan Bayh, and it will clear up some.

At least someone is having fun with "Iraqization" !!

That's the way, Rummy! Show our boys how to smile ... at least you will go home for Christmas ...

I almost didn't believe it. My brother Richard from Connecticut took his eye off the target yet once again. Rummy managed one last holiday trip to his favorite war before going hunting and enjoying "civilian life" in the USA for Christmas.

Worse yet, he urged the boys there to fight until the insurgency is won. Specifically, his words were even worse than that. He said, "We feel great urgency to protect the American people from another 9/11 or a 9/11 times two or three. At the same time, we need to have the patience to see this task through to success. The consequences of failure are unacceptable. The enemy must be defeated."

Can't he see all of what has gone wrong in Iraq? We are actually about to start withdrawing our troops from the country and turn the fighting over to Nuri al-Maliki's government even though nobody but George W. Bush, his mother and Dick Cheney's hunting dog believe that the Iraqi military can control the country. Not even Rummy is that stupid!

Further, the US has had 2,756 of its finest killed in Iraq since Baghdad fell. That means that almost 96% of our battle deaths have occurred during the failed occupation rather than during the war.

Admittedly, neither Bush not Rummy are calling it "Iraqization", but it is, just the same, the equivalent of what my generation called "Vietnamization" and yes, it will produce the same ultimate outcome ... that which was to be ... will be.

I heard a member of Congress say last week that the war was "criminal" ... and he was a staunch supporter of it.

But Rummy for one and maybe even Mr. Bush (the junior) can't see what they have done.

May God help us! When we need an FDR or a Winston Churchill ... or a Ronald Reagan or even a Bill Clinton, we instead have ... a bush (lower case "b" intended) and a smiling Rummy in Baghdad.

Good luck, Nancy Pelosi; you're going to need all of the help (from God mainly) that you can get.

But in the meanwhile, get your frigging ass home, Rummy; you are an embarrassment to our troops and a disgrace to our nation.

Qui Moto ... Hey, ain't it cute? (and it's ... coming!)

Now if one of these were to crawl through the screen in my bedroom, I might not grab a broom and baseball bat! See previous posting!

The pre-release specifications ... and a little advert too, I suppose!

• 10x more aerodynamic than the Toyota Prius (0.019 Cd)
• 1000 miles on less than $25 of fuel cost
• Advanced battery pack for longer range (60 miles per day range)
• 110 volt mid-day charging – 30 miles
• Clean city air with your own zero-emission vehicle
• Use the car pool lanes (whee! Has 70 mph “zip”)
• 2-passenger tandem seating; motorcycle privileges
• Available next summer –that is, in 2007

It's called the "Qui Moto" and made by Myers Motors ...

Price? Don't ask! (but they are selling -- pre-orders on the Qui Moto or some older body styles -- for about $25,000 plus tax)

I was led to it through an email from Cam, my "focus fusion" buddy in Seattle.

You should go to Myers Motors' web site to get a better idea of the "city car" of the future.


And yes, a variety of body styles are being built at this moment! (Not all are as cute as the one to come out next summer ...)

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf a True Profile in Courage

I don't know how many of you are following (or have followed over the years) the activities of President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan (left). He is clearly a man of both vision and courage ... or is there something I am missing, bloggers worldwide?

His latest are the proposals he has put forth to solve (finally) the "Kashmir problem" that has been a part of my worldview since I was about a teenager -- and that goes back some, let me tell you! In particular, his "offer" (if it is honest, and I think it is) to India to allow Kashmir to demilitarize in a manner that will make it no threat to Pakistan and in return ... (and this is the surprise) he will no longer demand that Kashmir move towards becoming an independent Muslim state... something that neither the Kashmiri people nor India want.

The old picture (in my mind anyway) of Musharraf playing with pistols while dangling a cigarette from his mouth is disappearing. His willingness to find a means to support the Worldwide War on Terror without allowing a civil war to break out in the Paki provinces near the Afghanistan border ... and now this! Good grief! I remember when the UN mandate on Kashmir was originally voted on (around 1948 or so) and the periodic sectarian conflicts (we called them "wars" back then) were a part of what I thought was permanent world politik. Kind of like the Cold war ... it was to be forevermore.

But despite the several attempts on his life from the fundamentalist Muslims -- mainly because of his support for the US in its attacks on al-Qaida, he is now opening up whole new avenues for Pakistan to be a leader in Middle Eastern and Asian politics.

If JFK were writing Profiles in Courage today, Pervez Musharraf would be right up in Chapter One, IMHO.

Mr. Bush ... take a lead from the words and proposals of Mr. Musharraf. Solutions are not found in bullets and bombs ... or body counts of Iraqi civilians or Americans coming home in flag-draped coffins. Sir down take a deep breath and listen to the sweet winds of peace trying to whistle through the edges around the White House windows.

And yes, may the Good Lord help in bringing about a permanent peace between Pakistan and India vis-a-vis Kashmir. Who would have guessed?

Okay ... enough with the politics; it's the @ &%$#& raccoons that have my attention today!

Aren't these little rabies-infested critters cute? Bah! Humbug!

Hillary Schmillary! If Mr. Bush can keep the local raccoons out of my bedroom in the middle of my night, I'll move to have the Constitution amended so that he might have another eight years in the White House -- or whatever it takes to allow our grandkids to fight in Iraq to maintain Exxon's stellar stock prices.

Last night, After getting an average of five hours sleep for the previous five (not four as I had predicted) nights, I was awakened to the most horrible meowing and growling sounds imaginable from my seven cats, some of which haven't ever come into the bedroom after they've finished eating their evening's soft cat food dinners. I didn't know what to make of it except that they were all obviously bothered by something worse than they had ever seen. I actually thought they were having one helluva cat fight and decided to stop this nonsense immediately.

Ralph! George, what are you doing downstairs? Patricia! Migod, not you too, Arnold? Andrew! Samantha! Rosie, what are you doing on the bed? I yelled and swung at cats trying to yank and throw them out of the room before I was even half awake. But the noise only got louder and the hissing told me that something was definitely wrong.

I flicked on the lamp I have clipped to the bed stand and could see all seven of the cats were focused on an area behind the washer and dryer in the opposite corner of my bedroom. Even the three kittens were crouched in an attack mode.

It occurred to me that the fellow who (although usually drunk as a skunk) was building the bomb shelter (my new back storage room) onto my house was planning to put a hole through the back wall to allow space for the electric conduit into that room from the fuse box in my bedroom, that something might have gotten into the room. But what? A bird maybe or ... a raccoon! I had no more thought about the possibility of a raccoon than I saw a skinny hairy paw swing out wildly at either George or Ralph who were closest to the washer and dryer.

Yeh!

The next think I saw was the bandit-like face of the raccoon hissing at my beloved cats.

I won't go into details of the next several minutes while I feverishly swatted and yanked the cats one by one, throwing them out of the bedroom away from the critter who had invaded my (and their) sanctity. Not easy, because I was in my skivvies (that's underwear for those of you not in America) and Ralph kept running back into the bedroom every time I'd toss him out. I was by that time aware of the danger of a bite or scratch to either myself or one of my kitties requiring rabies shots and all that that entails.

It was clear to me that the critter had come into my bedroom through a hole behind the washer and dryer (which turned out to be wrong and potentially dangerous) so I quickly got out of the bedroom and filled a spray bottle with liquid bleach and reentered the room armed to chase the raccoon (or raccoons -- I had no idea) out through the same hole he or she had entered from.

That was the beginning of a really serious battle inasmuch as this raccoon had no intention of backing off and tore down some plywood and a couple of two-by-fours that I had placed strategically at the time the washer and dryer were installed so as to keep the cats from getting behind these two large units. I was always nervous about the plumbing and 220 volt electricity back there hurting my cats. It was only when I thought I saw a second set of "bandit eyes" watching the fight from the closet that I knew I was fighting a losing cause -- especially in my underwear!

I retreated again from the room, locking the door with a toggle eye-lock and put some heavier clothes on to avoid being bitten or scratched. My house is in such a shambles what with the construction ongoing and the manner in which the "builder" is clearing the areas he needs to get to, that finding a pair of trousers, some shoes and a shirt wasn't all that easy. Just as was the case with our boys in Iraq, no body armor was available.

I reentered the battle, this time armed with a broom, a lantern and a large spray bottle of Clorox.

But the raccoon or raccoons wasn't/weren't there. I shined the lantern behind the washer and dryer and not only wasn't the raccoon there, neither was the "hole" through which he (or she or they) entered the room. Looking about, I finally discovered that the window was open and there was a gaping hole in the screen. Holy Christmas! No wonder the poor raccoon was fighting so hard. I was blocking his (or her) escape route with the earlier battle and the spray bottle. Interestingly, although it seems as though there may have been at least two raccoons in the room, only one was giving me the ferocious battle. The plywood "blocking gate" I had constructed three years ago was in splinters.

I quickly closed the window and sat down and breathed a sigh of relief although my heart was still pounding a mile a minute. And I thought that my new day job (inside of the innermost control fences of the institution wherein I teach) was nerve wracking!

Not sure that the raccoon had already left the room, I let the cats back in and watched while all seven, kitties included -- I kid you not! -- crept around the room from corner to corner and up and down. Ralph even jumped up on the closet shelf while George and Rosie patrolled under the bed. Watching them, I was never prouder of my seven cats.

Anyway, I did actually fall asleep after an hour or so and the help of a couple of diazapam that I keep hidden for just such occasions (legally prescribed!) and dreamt much of the ordeal completely over in a series of fragments that are still in my mind 20 hours later.

When I awoke the next morning (this morning) I surveyed the damage and it was extensive. That crazy raccoon (or the raccoons) had broken or chewed open all of the large bags of kernel-type catfood and licked clean most of the dirty dishes left behind by my "builder." [Note: When I came through the door the night before, the television was on in my bedroom was blaring and the place (which looks like a bomb hit it under ordinary circumstances anyway) was even messier and stacked higher with my books, papers, quilts, clothes, whatever to allow the "builder" to make a path through my bedroom to the back wall for the work he actually accomplished today. He also opened and forgot to close the bedroom window, which is a security risk of its own kind ... never mind the flimsy screen through which the raccoon(s) entered the place. I "talked" to him today about the situation and what I suspect he was doing lying on my bed watching TV when he finished his work for the day. And there's more that I would rather not post in a potentially worldwide blog.]

But what wasn't in a shambles before the raccoon (or raccoons) entered the scene was in a shambles this morning. The kitchen cupboards were all open as well as the drawers ... and dishes, pots, pans, unopened soup, cans, etc. were EVERYWHERE!

I wonder now just where the cats were while the raccoons (I assume two) were ransacking the place and chewing anything that was chewable in the kitchen.

I'll never know.

Apparently, the "secrecy laws" that Mr. Bush had passed shortly after he entered office in 2001 cover not just the White House documents dating back to the Reagan years, but what goes on in my house while I am asleep and dreaming uneasily of the young men (actually, men of all ages) whom I instruct during my "day job."

Well, it's back to the "Green Zone" for me ... see you in four or so days ...

The "Green Zone"

It's been something of a weird weekend with the snow and ice melting, but the icy fear that I really don't have all of the protocols firm in my mind viz-a-viz the new job not melted in the least. I've learned the codes and such to get through both the minor (outer) control and master (inner) control, but am completely at the mercy of the security protocols on the computers and servers in the classrooms.

And tomorrow, I meet three three-hour classes of roughly 18 students each. I think I have almost all of them "registered" on the servers with files and folders "ready to go," but know in my heart that I haven't the least idea how to teach subjects that I've taught dozens of times before. This is an entirely different environment and I'm at the mercy of a "system" that I neither created nor understand.

In some way, God answered my prayers a week ago by dumping snow and ice on the entire region on Monday through Wednesday which actually (in my case) gave me an extra evening's sleep in a motel (after my car skidded off the road) and an unexpected day off two days after that incident. One of my classes was "replaced" with a religious service (on prayer, would you believe) that was in the next room. I couldn't leave the institution until 9:00 pm since i didn't have codes and the "leaving protocol" learned yet and was trapped, so to speak, with a group of ... worshippers, shall we say, who taught me more about Jesus than I thought I knew.

But it's Sunday night again and I am facing another of those crazy schedules (will be getting home at 10:00 pm and awakening to the alarm each morning at 5:00 am), plus new 'students" to meet and teach.

I need your prayers again as I prepare to enter the "Green Zone" in another 10 hours or so. And no, I haven't had a chance to talk with my brother Richard from Connecticut this weekend.

He helps. He makes me laugh.

Main question at this point: Will Hillary run for reelection in 2012?

Hillary has begun her reelection campaign six years ahead of time, but you never know how the Republican minorities in Congress will affect her priorities for America

Hillary is indeed beginning the process that will put her on the ballot against ... who" Jeb Bush? Rudy? Tom deLay? Actually, she's only hiring "advance" persons to explore whether she should "explore" the possibilities or not. Evan Bayh (my brother Richard from Connecticut has been touting him since at least a year ago) has gone one step further and formed the exploratory committee, but the season is young, so they say.

My personal choice would be either Al Gore or Hillary Clinton with Barack Obama as a running mate. Both teams (Gore-Obama or Clinton-Obama) could beat any Republicans today IMHO.

If the Iraq Study Team comes up with a winning combination for what's happening in Baghdad, I'd think about allowing the elderly to be represented and suggest that the Republicans nominate George H. W. Bush. He could then show his son how the job is handled by professionals.

My brother Richard from Connecticut dropped "Rummy Watch" a tad early, me thinks!

Yeh, I guess my sweet brother from Connecticut felt as though his "watch" (as in "watch Rumsfeld") was over. But now it is revealed that the man of the hour is Donald Rumsfeld (left) who correctly realized that Bush's policies were bunk and that the Democrats were right (although still "leftist") all the time. And he wrote a memo only a couple of days after Mr. Bush was interviewing his replacement (unbeknownst to Rummy, of course) to prove it.

Basically, his memo suggested that Bush's policies in Iraq weren't working and that it was time he (GWB) took a good hard look at what the Democrats (and Rummy ... in the memo) were suggesting. Redeploy in the manner suggested by Jack Murtha (and Rummy), draw down our forces in Iraq in the manner suggested by Howard Dean (and Rummy) with an eye to working with the rest of the world in the manner suggested by Nancy Pelosi (and Rummy) ... and then declare "victory."

Actually, his memo suggested couching his change in course in such a way that it was to only be a "trial" and thus, eliminate the possibility that, if things went wrong, it wouldn't be a total loss. And that, my blogging friends, is "victory" as seen and written in a memo only released today by Mr. Rumsfeld.

He even suggested that the US use some of Saddam Hussen's ideas, paying off opposition clerics, for example, to hold the country (and the oil cartel's interests) in one piece.

And no, the memo leaves no doubt that Rummy didn't suspect -- even in the least -- that his job in the Pentagon was already -- or soon to be -- toast. He wrote the memo only a day or two before the Midterm Elections.

Richard: you took your eye off the ball and "Rummy Watch" disappeared a mite too early.

Well ... GWB is finally seeing the light!

Maybe we will still be able to protect the Red, White and Blue Zone (formerly called, the Green Zone) with continuous helicopter coverage

It seems as though the "light" didn't come about until the entire world was against him, but the bulb in GWB's brain is slowly brightening.

Yes, the Bush administration is taking another look at its efforts to unite Iraq's sectarian and political factions. In fact, its "new look" seems to be permitting thought of ... gasp ... horrors ... dividing Iraq into three equal (not really equal, of course) pieces. In a belated attempt to manage at least minimal options in Iraq no matter what happens, it appears that the United States will try a "not-so-United States" as regards Iraq (or whatever the three states will call themselves) for the future.

For simplicity, we'll call them Kurdistan, Suntannistan and Shittystan and hope that the Shits don't exterminates the Suntans in the process of division. Meanwhile, the sectarian violence continues with any hope of the Shits letting the Suntans into the light of partial "control" of the melee becoming dimmer than the bulb (until possibly now) in Bush's brain.

And as for Iran and Iraq -- well, the State Department seems to be "leaking" word that it will continue to oppose their involvement despite their obvious involvement. Hmmm ... did that make sense?

Thus we have the leaders of the internal White House review presenting their incomplete conclusions to Bush two weeks early and before the Iraq Study Group presents theirs. The "White House" analysts represent the views of senior officials at the State Department, White House National Security Council, Pentagon and other agencies under GWB's thumb.

The White House group's work is somewhat along the lines of a congressionally chartered bipartisan commission whose recommendations are due next week. That commission, known as the Iraq Study Group, will recommend engaging Iran and Syria as part of a larger group and perhaps one-on-one, which will allow for a tug-a-war over the next few weeks.

The Iraq Study Group, headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., will also recommend phasing the mission of U.S. troops in Iraq from combat to training and supporting Iraqi units. However, the report due Wednesday sets no timetable, according to officials familiar with the group's deliberations.

Watch for our troops to begin to leave as early as 90 days from now independent of what the two "study" groups come up with and watch for Rumsfeld to spend more time hunting pheasants with Dick Cheney as Iraq devolves into threee Iraqs and the saudis and Kuwaitis shake in their boots ... seeing the Shittystan-Iranian-Syrian-Lebanese (Shiite) crescent forming to the north of them.

One of my colleagues in Saudi Arabia predicted in 1996 that Bill Clinton would try to be a hero and take down Saddam Hussein and cause exactlty what is happening. He was right and wrong ... right about our taking out Saddam, but wrong about who (which president) would be the "hero."