The Dishpan Chronicles

A Human Patriot - Bradley Manning

2011-12-17T01:18:00.000-08:00

Thank You Graham Nash and James Raymond (David Cosby's son) for this song. If we can say it, we can sing it - if we can sing it, we can say it... and We Will!

Bradley Manning - a human hero.

Fascism in America - Then and Now

2011-04-20T17:34:00.000-07:00

Photo - William Randolph Hearst with fascist friends and business partners

Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” - Benito Mussolini (Italian dictator, 1883-1945)

Remember when George W. Bush, of America's foremost fascist family, tried to sell you his twisted form of democracy under the guise of an "Ownership Society"? Here's what was said in the 30's about ownership... " The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in essence, is fascism - ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power... Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

We not only defeated the fascists in Europe - we defeated them HERE AT HOME and must do so again!

Think of Governor Snyder of Michigan dissolving the entire political structure of a small town - all of whom were elected by the voters of that town. Think of those who inherited the Whirlpool Corporation, shipped all of the jobs overseas, and pay no tariffs on the products they export back into the States - BOYCOTT WHIRLPOOL! They are driving Governor Snyder's illegal takeover of an entire Michigan town (which used to have jobs at Whirlpool). Soon there will be a golf course and expensive homes for the corporate elites in Benton Harbor. Wow, private lakefront parcels on the beach that used to belong to the town's people. Look at the dirty work of Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who represents not the people of Wisconsin, but instead does the bidding of the Koch Brothers, who bought him body and soul. A free people in the state of Wisconsin are forbidden to be members of a Union? Chemicals in Lake Michigan anyone? The Tea party and the GOP are symbiotic FASCISTS.

The Republicans of the 1930's were directly involved with the German and Italian Fascists. General Electric pays no taxes in the USA like the rest of us do. Back in the 30's General Electric, a fascist corporation, openly supported the fascist movement in Europe and the United States. General Motors and IBM were solid fascists ideologically, provided massive financial support to Hitler and provided vehicles, and other necessary war supplies for his army. Our Dad's, granddads, and other family members faced Italian, German, and yes, even Japanese soldiers supplied by American and British corporations.

Fascists put money and power above people. The people are to be completely controlled and enslaved by the Corporate State. That's why no unions, no social security, no medical care and no jobs. The radical right wing fascists want Americans to be homeless, hungry, sick, weak, and afraid. The only jobs will be in the military which will be busy waging never ending wars for complete global control all over the planet. A grim future for our children and grandchildren.

Fascist corporations of the 30's include JP Morgan, DuPont, Colgate, Standard Oil, Chase National Bank, Goodyear Tire, Heinz Foods among many, many more. There are even more fascist corporations today with many of those above still working to end democracy.

Charles Lindbergh, aviator hero was deeply involved with fascist Germany. William Randolph Hearst used his publishing concerns to propagandize American fascism and make Germany and Hitler look good by not printing some of the news, or by heavily slanting it. Today, Rupert Murdoch carries on for Hearst. Racist Henry Ford, of Ford Motors and a radical, rabid fascist was special to Hitler who said of Ford, "He is my inspiration". Hitler kept a life-sized photo cardboard cut out of Mr. Ford in his office. All of America's corporate fascists talked peace to keep the US from going to war with their fascist cash cows in Europe and Asia

Corporatism or Fascism is chipping away at American Democracy every day. The Republicans and Tea Baggers are no longer hiding their fascist values. They are actively and purposely dismantling American laws and the rights of the American people. As Hitler rose to power in the 30's over 400 hundred years of German laws were gutted. Although the titles remained the same the content had been manipulated to reflect the values of Hitler and the Nazi Party or replaced entirely to restrict or remove the rights of German citizens. The co-opted German legal system formed the foundation of Hitler's fascist government and enabled Nazi aggression across Europe.

The actions of Governors Walker and Snyder and those of the radical conservative governors of several other states are part of a much bigger plan.

FASCISM MUST BE STOPPED.

ROOSEVELT AND AMERICAN WORKERS STOPPED THE FASCISTS BEFORE - WE MUST DO IT AGAIN!

WE CANNOT ALLOW THESE IRRESPONSIBLE, INDIFFERENT, SOCIOPATHS DESTROY DEMOCRACY AND THE ENTIRE PLANET!

Forget the Taliban over there - the Real War for "Our Freedom" is here in America.

American Democracy must be protected from the homegrown predators our midst.

..........Kitchen Window Woman..........

Veterans For Peace Chained to White House Fence

2010-12-16T10:53:00.000-08:00

Veterans For Peace has done what Americans everywhere should do...

Take it to the White House - Take it to the streets!

Obama has escalated these wars and began new ones in Pakistan and Yeman. He is NOT what he passed himself off to be during the campaign. He is every bit as much a war waging profiteer as members of the Bush Clan. Obama believes in Empire - his actions have exposed his true values. He has turned his face toward the conservative corporate power structure while showing his back to the majority of the people in this country. FACE US OBAMA!

Americans need to wake up and TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for the destruction that the armies of the corporate "We the People" have visited upon innocent, defenseless people all over the world.

The American economy is in the toilet because of the money wasted on the war machine. These wars are the Elephant in the room.

Want to save money? Want to bring down the deficit? Then...

No money for war! No tax cuts for billionaires! No money for Israel!

Take Heed - Veterans For Peace has a powerful message.
Take Action - Stop the War Machine!

Thank You to all of my Veterans For Peace sisters and brothers who took part in this action. You have done your country proud.

.......Wage Peace........
Kitchen Window Woman

FREE BRADLEY MANNING

2010-09-18T21:30:00.000-07:00

I just finished this sign which we will be taking to the FREE BRADLEY MANNING Rally in San Diego at Horton Plaza on Sunday, September 19, 2010 from 12:00 - 2:00 PM. We will be there with our fellow members of San Diego Veterans For Peace.

We teach our children to tell the truth only to have Uncle Sam via the US military demand that they lie about war crimes. The lying and covering up crimes is as CRIMINAL as the murder of innocents.

Shame on Uncle Sam. Shame on our arrogant, bloated, bullying military. It is time that the American armed forces remember that they work for 'We the People'. It is time that the American military remember their place. The direct violation of international law is unacceptable. No mission or order trumps international law or the Constitution that is the foundation of our nation.

BRADLEY MANNING is a true American Hero. We need many more like him.

BLOW YOUR WHISTLE LOUD AND CLEAR
.............Kitchen Window Woman.............

Prayer and Punishment in Public School - Re-Posted

2010-09-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

Religious hatred, driven by the fanatic Christian Right and fueled by the Neo-Conservative Zionist movement, is currently gnawing away at American Democracy like a flesh eating virus. This type of religious fervor is not new as outlined in 'Prayer and Punishment in Public School', a piece that I wrote and originally posted on April 28th, 2005, and have re-posted below.

The described events happened to me when I was in 4th grade 50 years ago. The accompanying art work is a collage that I did to visually illustrate the cruel intolerance that I experienced because I was (and still am) a non-believer.

As a deeply spiritual person, I am appalled at the rise of hate filled, control based, patriarchal monotheism in a country whose founders were wise enough to bridle would-be religious tyrants by including the Separation of Church and State in its Constitution.

.................PRAYER AND PUNISHMENT IN PUBLIC SCHOOL...............

I stood in the alcove outside the door of my fourth grade classroom with my nose touching the cold, tile wall. My classmates could see the back of my head through the small window at the top of the closed door: I could feel their disapproving eyes. Not only was I humiliated, I was angry as well. Such punishment was usually reserved for loud-mouth boys who disrupted the classroom - not for an obedient student like me.

It was 1959, I was nine years old, and attended a public elementary school in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. I would spend two hours every school day morning, in the hall outside of Mr. D's classroom, for many weeks to come. Each morning, the Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde educator, would greet his students in a soft, friendly voice only to turn into an angry, red-faced, bellowing monster as soon as the attendance was taken. Every morning, following attendance, I left my seat and went out the door to begin my punishment in the hall.

What kind of terrible crime had I, a nine year-old little girl committed, to warrant long-term banishment? I violated Mr. D's classroom church when I refused to bow my head and pray to his God.

One morning, near the beginning of the school year, Dr. Jekyll began a lesson on phonetics. He was talking about long and short vowels in syllables when quite suddenly, he shut the book, and moved to stand behind his desk. He began to pray, quietly at first. Then, while growing increasingly louder, Mr. Hyde began to form before our terrified eyes. His face flushed crimson. His eyes glazed over and began to spiral like those of a crazed cartoon character. Pacing wildly between the portraits of of Washington and Lincoln, words thundered out of his mouth and exploded damnation over our heads like battlefield artillery. Mr. D. was fighting some kind of war and had taken we children prisoner!

He continued his biblical vociferations for a fouth grade eternity. He didn't even need a bible as he had memorized most of the tome. When he finally returned to his desk, he hunched over it like a rabid animal about to fall-upon its victim, and fist-pounded a demand that we bow our heads and pray to the Almighty!

Well, I did what I usually did when confronted with Christain prayer. I didn't. I was sitting there looking at the board when he noticed that my head was not down, my hands were not folded, and I was not repeating his passionate entreaty with the other kids. Mr. D came outta his tree! He was one wrathful, fire-breathing, brimstoney, furious evangelical! I was scared to death when he stood in front of my desk and berated me for disobeying not only himself, but God!

I had NEVER disobeyed a teacher. I told him politely, that I would not pray because I did not believe in God or Jesus, and went on to explain that I would be lying if I prayed, and it would also be disrespectful to those who did believe. The raging madman pulled me from my seat by my shoulders, marched me out the door and shoved me against the wall in the alcove. Then he leaned in close to my face to make sure that my nose was touching the tile. I was to be punished every day until I decided to pray, he hissed, and then he condemmed my family and I to the burning fires of Hell for eternity.

My mother's calls to the school had no effect on my situation. However; life did improve somewhat, during my punishment, because of intervention by several concerned teachers. One spoke up so that I got to move out of the alcove by the door and was allowed to lean against the wall in the hallway with my nose facing out! Another, moved mountains, so that after several weeks of standing for two hours each day, I was allowed to sit cross-legged on the floor AND read or do school work. Yet another, arranged for a desk that I could sit at, while doing penance. Looking back, I may have been the more fortunate one: I was outside of that room where every morning Mr. D. preyed on my captive classmates.

Eventually, Mr. D., the evangelical terrorist, was made to abandon his religious lesson plans. I strongly suspect that it was because of teacher complaints. He was LOUD and could be heard in the hall and the adjacent classrooms. In my opinion, at the time, he should have been the one standing in the hall for classroom disruption!

The fall of 1960 found most of us in the fifth grade. Our new teacher was astounded to find that all of us who had been in Mr. D's room the previous year were seriously behind in reading and English. What's more, we didn't know our multiplication tables either!

Today, I am a dedicated advocate for The Separation Of Church And State and a passionate foe of Prayer in Public School. No child should suffer what I did at the hands of a religious zealot regardless of which one of the ONLY TRUE religions is being pushed.

Don't Preach - Teach Tolerance - It leads to Peace!
................... Kitchen Window Woman................

End Corporate Terrorism

2010-09-04T10:47:00.000-07:00

American Democracy is on its death bed suffering from a massive infestation of the most voracious of parasites. She lay struggling for her life while a cabal of fascists devours her constitution.

"Fascism should properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

Fascism is defined as - "any right-wing nationalist ideology or movement with an authoritarian and hierarchical structure that is fundamentally opposed to democracy and liberalism".

Please view the following video then do what you can to combat corporate terrorism. Together we can protect and heal our nation.

America's 21st Century Economic Royalists from J.M. Harrison on Vimeo.

Freedom really isn't free because it requires an informed and active citizenry to nourish, cherish, and guard it from tyrants.

End Corporate Terrorism and Tyranny.

Get out and vote against the Neo-Conservative/Tea Party FASCISTS!

...Giving up is not and option...

....Kitchen Window Woman....

Koko's Earth Control - A Timely Metaphor

2010-08-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

Name the Puppy Dog... I see this cartoon from 1934 (during Hitler's rise to power) as a metaphor for the global situation we face today. The little dog represents any one of the multitude of IRRESPONSIBLE leaders, neoconservatives, teabaggers, and CEO's who are endangering all life on this planet.

For instance... the little dog is - Glen Beck while dizzy with power, or Netanyahu starting a war against Iran because Israel is above International law, or Newt Gingrich feeling spurned because we won't accept his supposed genius , or...

Let's put all the selfish, naughty little dogs in timeout - they are not grown up enough to run the world.

War is a game created and played by disconnected children. They need become responsible adults or be forced out.

Kitchen Window Woman

The Loss of a Natural Friend

2010-04-29T15:31:00.001-07:00

Half asleep, I heard a snap and swooshing on Tuesday morning and didn't think anything of it. Probably an animal knocking about behind the house. Later on we discovered our huge 70-yr-old Aleppo pine had a split in its trunk that went clear to the ground. The set of heavy branches that lay on the ground had made up half of the tree. The other half was still standing.

Sunday I'd had a premonition. The tree told me it was going to fall. I heard it in my thoughts then saw it on the ground. I didn't listen. I put it out of my head.

Yesterday, we had tree removal contractors come out to assess and bid. The other half of the tree would probably not survive. If it did it was highly possible that it would fall on the house as it was leaning that way. The entire tree needed to be removed.

The contractors we chose arrived early this morning. The sound of chain saws and a chipper have marked this day so far. I can hardly bear to look out the window. Forget going outside to watch them cut - I don't want to cry in front of the climbing, cutting crew.

We've lived here for for 24 years so my two youngest played under the friendly pine. My oldest son discovered the owl that called its branches home for years. We collected its dropped pine cones and made holiday decorations with them. Dozens of birds ate its pine nuts, perched, or nested in its mass. Its limbs, spread over the front half of our side yard, offered us cooling shade. And most of all, everyday, it talked to me.

A wind comes down through our canyon several times a day and everyday the wind lingered to dance through the pine needles. The pine would respond in whispers. Everyday I listened. I cherished the moments its soft whispered speech came to my ear. Moments of joy. The towering pine was part of our family and it was my friend. I can't imagine a day without its voice. I will miss it so.

It is temporarily silent now. The crew are on their lunch break. I ventured a peek toward the pine tree. Its branches are all gone. Gone too, is the large half of the tree that laid upon the ground. Remaining, reaching above the roof, is the part of the trunk that leans toward the house. I imagine it will disappear soon after lunch has ended.

I haven't mentioned the beauty of the long needles on slender reaching branches that graced its silhouette against the sky. I'll never forget the raccoons that hid in its boughs during the fires.

The crew has returned. The sound of chipper and saws once more fill the silence.

The house just shook - not a quake - a giant thud. The last remaining portion of the trunk hit the earth.

Did the cutting hurt? Where does the soul of a tree go when transformed? How does one grieve for a tree friend?

The family pine has completed its cycle of life yet will continue on. Its branches have been chipped into mulch - two mountains of it. The cut logs will warm the homes of family friends and its child stands just feet away from where its main trunk stood. Of the thousands of pine cones that fell to the ground during the span that we've lived here, one seed managed to plant itself, take root, and grow.

I opened the door. Unaccustomed to the bright empty space, my eyes focused on the little one. The baby pine is about 10 feet tall and healthy. It has spent the last several years nestled under the strong limbs of its parent. It stands in the light now. Its baby candles reach toward the sky. I wonder if it has spoken yet? I will have to listen hard for its tiny voice.

The baby tree has a pine cone...

Peace,

Kitchen Window Woman

END ISRAELI APARTHEID NOW!

2010-03-02T15:17:00.000-08:00

Back in 2002 and 2003, the Bush Administration and the neocon duel citizen Israeli/Americans, who had worked their way into powerful Defense Department and cabinet positions, were successful in twisting the 9/11 attacks in New York into the illegal invasion of Iraq. This action was part of an ongoing plan to advance American Empire while growing Israel's dominance over Middle East.

The following words were spoken by at the beginning of the second American war against Iraq by one such Israeli/American, Richard Perle, Senior Adviser to then President George W. Bush.

"The greatest triumph of the Iraq War is the destruction of the evil of international law".

Why would an American Jew be so gleeful over the destruction of international law? The Nazis, who committed grievous crimes against European Jews, were tried for war crimes and sentenced to death under international law. Perhaps, it was all part of a plan to override international laws and treaties so that America and Israel could commit crimes against humanity with impunity.

This is The Sixth Annual Israeli Apartheid Week. Please view the embedded video.

I am appalled that my tax money is going to Israel. American dollars built the terrible Apartheid Wall. American dollars are used to remove Palestinians from their homes, businesses, and farms, to torture, and to finance illegal weapons that are used during Israeli land grabs and to punish civilians.

I have seen the Israeli propaganda machine at work over the years, every time a reporter questions the use of American tax dollars. The officials all answer the with the same lines... "We don't use American tax dollars against the Palestinian Terrorists, we build schools for our children, and provide for the poor Jewish immigrants from all over the world to settle. We construct new hospitals and roads, after all, we are a poor and struggling people who SURVIVED THE HOLOCAUST.

Israelis should pay for their JEWS ONLY roads and the illegal settlements on confiscated Palestinian land with their own shekels. Meanwhile, I would like to see international sanctions leveled against Israel until it recognizes the rights of the Palestinian People. Israel should also be forced to pay reparations just like the Germans were made to do, for the damage and death they have caused, and return stolen property to its rightful owners.

Americans are out of work, hungry, homeless, and suffering for lack of medical care. I want to spend my tax dollars on helping my family, friends, and neighbors. Israel does not need or deserve American money any longer. It has abused the funds and free military equipment we've provided. The Zionist State of Israel is not ENTITLED to our hard earned money!

Victims of war crimes do not have the right to use their victimization as an excuse for crimes against others.

Mr. Netanyahu... TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!

Let's help the Palestinian people just like we have helped, for over 60 years, the Jewish people.

......Tidings and Peace.....
...Kitchen Window Woman...

Real Men Don't Rape

2009-10-14T16:51:00.000-07:00

As a victim of 11 years of child abuse, a civilian rape, and a female veteran of the Vietnam era who experienced sexual harassment daily, I am very concerned about the "Culture of Rape" that has become the norm in today's all volunteer military.

That the US military has allowed 1 out of every 3 of its female troops to be raped is an ironic and disgusting fact. How ironic that this massive, aggressive force that has supposedly been deployed to "protect us here at home" cannot or will not protect the females in its own ranks. How disgusting that an atmosphere of open hostility has surrounded the majority of military rape victims who sought treatment and dared to report the crime to their chains of command. How irresponsible that the chains of command have done very little to weed out, punish, and supply mental health treatment to the rapists within their forces.

Ironic, disgusting, and irresponsible, yes, but surprising? Not at all considering the sexual crimes against women and children that run rampant across the United States. Just turn on your television news for this week's report on young women or little girls who have been kidnapped, raped, and murdered.

In everyday America...

1 in 4 girls is sexually abused before the age of 18.

1 in 6 boys is sexually abused before the age of 18.

Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children ages 17 and under. (76)

An estimated 39 million survivors of childhood sexual abuse exist in America today.

And 1 in 6 civilian women is raped or sexually assaulted during her lifetime.

American society thrives on violence. Violent sports and violent movies dominate the entertainment market while all things war make up the bulk of American exports. Is it any wonder that a country that cannot honestly and responsibly deal with sexual or anger issues has sexual violence exploding everywhere?

Although I was not raped during the time that I served in the US Army, I was sexually harassed every day. I barely escaped with my life on one occasion. Two other incidents involved myself and another female soldier (we usually went about on base in pairs for protection). We were stalked and then surrounded by packs of male soldiers who were closing in intent on gang rape. Both times it was dark and we were returning from the PX, which was not far from our barracks, at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas. The first time we talked them out of it. The second time, a male soldier who was a friend of ours, came to our assistance. There were no drugs or alcohol involved on our parts. All three of these incidents were terrifying. It is very difficult for me to write this.

During the national convention this past August, the Veterans For Peace board voted to declare October 12-16, "Military Rape Awareness Week". I have written this piece to do my part to draw attention the indifference and danger that women in the American military face from those they serve with every day.

Please check out this link and distribute it widely - http://usmvaw.com/

Civilians that think sexual violence in the military does not concern them are dangerously wrong. Every time the chain of command acts as a hierarchy of voyeuristic enablers - A RAPIST GOES FREE! What happens when that unpunished, untreated, mentally unstable rapist returns to civilian life? Will he stop? They seldom do...

Do whatever you can to discourage young women from enlisting. They will face far more danger from the enemy within their ranks than the enemy "over there".
________________________________________________

Note - I have not written for almost a year and have been out of contact for that time as well. I have been tired, called in other directions, and just couldn't. explain. I have missed everyone and have thought of you all often. I plan to write more, but not as frequently as I used to - with all my heart, KWW

VETERANS DAY 2008 - A POEM

2008-11-10T21:47:00.000-08:00

MOTHER AND SON - FROM ONE WAR TO THE NEXT

The stories told in staring eyes,
monotoned during daylight, and
screamed through haunted darkness,
bespoke unimaginable horror.

The anguish inflicted on my generation
warned of a military madness
that feeds upon the newborn.
I bore fear along with my child

Even as my womb cradled and nurtured,
I knew one day they would come.
Drawn by youth, thirsting fresh blood,
they'd come for you those Vampires of War.

Joyful colors clothed your childhood.
Your favorite: purple.
Never the small-sized uniforms that foreshadow dark future.
Cammies aren't meant for kids.

No guns for my son!
No ominous plastic noise makers
pressed to imitate authoritarian threat!
So you pretended sticks into rifles.

Mother songs lullabied hope and peace
while soldiers who'd put down their weapons
and the millions in our streets,
ended the Tonkin-induced war.

Vietnam swept G.I. Joe from toy store shelves.
But the dolly boy resurrected to
trickle down into little boy hands
via Reagan's pipe dream presidency.

You grew while I taught you to value humanity,
to share, to love, to respect.
I showed you how to step into other existences
yet they lurked. Vulture-like. Watching. Waiting,

Ready to stalk when restless and unsure,
You lost your way in school.
Adventure! Money! Manhood! A mere GED away.
You turned your head, and your life.

The truth, with which I'd armed you, once targeted,
was swiftly and effectively neutralized.
You swallowed their bait. They set the hook
and reeled your from my arms.

Fourteen years on, the PTSD hid behind your unfocused stare.
It was your guarded monotone I heard during the day.
And you who faced the dark demons brought by sleepless terror, Alone.
We could not protect you there.

Then you challenged the Vampires of War
by speaking truth to their prey
and turned numerous boys from a war-torn path
your brother among those who walked away.

And now, You've survived the battle within.
Victorious, you win it still every day,
giving each of us who love you
the freedom to finally say...

Welcome Home Son, Welcome Home.

Love you, Mom
November, 2008
___________________________________

I've been working on this poem since September. I began it after the Veterans For Peace Convention while we were visiting family in Michigan. It has taken me two months to complete after many rewrites. I was determined to finish it by Veterans Day because I am sure that it is a story oft repeated.

The story is true and is dedicated to my eldest son, a disabled veteran.

We must replace the Culture of War with a Culture of Peace.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?
KWW

Obama - Something Beautiful Happened

2008-11-05T17:30:00.000-08:00

We were nervous - not daring to breathe freely, and definitely afraid to think that we could vote an end to the eight terrible Bush/Cheney years that have taken such a toll on many of us. It was a long November 4th here in California but with the election of Barak Obama to the Presidency, it was well worth the wait.

No one in our small house was able to speak at the moment we realized that Obama was the winner. My stomach was in knots. I fought to process what was happening before my teary eyes when, like the flower in the above photo, the entire world burst into one joyously beautiful bloom.

Yesterday's election of America's first president of color was historic beyond our immediate grasp. I still tear up when I think about the African Americans, who having endured generations of slavery, Jim Crow laws, and voter intimidation, stood in line for hours to elect our nation's first black president. And when I look at the images of the Obama celebrations that took place all over the world, I am overwhelmed by love pouring from our neighbors around the globe.

Barack Obama brings with him a respect and tolerance for others that has not been seen during the neoconservative Bush Administration. He is an intelligent, well educated man who is also a skilled diplomat. The Obama Administration will not be noted for irresponsible, reckless policies for Barack Obama carefully considers what is placed before him, seeks advice as needed, and listens when it is given. I am only sorry that his remarkable grandmother, Toot, did not live to share the events surrounding the election of her grandson to the Presidency of the United States of America with the rest of the world.

We have taken the first step toward PEACE. Let's walk with Obama as we journey toward a Culture of Peace.

.......Kitchen Window Woman.......

Sarah Palin - A Madonna and Child Disconnect

2008-10-07T17:20:00.000-07:00

We've all been talking, we mothers, grandmothers, aunties, sisters, friends, and an equal number of men (who are not taken in by Sarah's teasing winks) about Sarah Palin's strange parenting behavior. Her treatment of her offspring brings to light yet more evidence that she does not possess the character, values, or skills necessary to serve as Vice President or President.

Candidate Palin's children have been used as political fashion accessories for years as their mother, a perpetual campaigner, has staircased herself toward the most demanding political office possible, the American Presidency.

Infant son, Trig Palin is a frequent political prop for his ambitious, attention-seeking mother. The roar of worshiping crowds, the lights, and the cameras at times when he should be quietly rocked to sleep is bad enough, but to expose an infant to all of the germs passed around during public mass gatherings is completely irresponsible. Trig has been handed off like a football to his mother after she has finished speaking. She holds him long enough for the cameras to acknowledge her saintly status then passes him to her 8 yr-old daughter. Why isn't her little girl home doing her homework or in her bed instead of holding her baby brother on a public stage?

Would Sarah Six-Pack's teenaged daughter have become pregnant if mom had been available to have an open, honest talk with her about her body, sexual feelings, sexual responsibility, and birth control?

Ever since George W. Bush imposed his $176 million dollar abstinence-only sex education programs on our youth, STD rates in among American teens have risen dramatically while teen pregnancy rates are double those of girls in European countries. Many of the boys and girls who have "pledged" to abstain from having intercourse until marriage keep their promises by engaging in both oral and anal sex. And those teen couples, who in the heat of youthful passion break their oaths and indulge in unprotected intercourse, end up pregnant.

Sarah Palin's pregnant 17-yr-old daughter is not alone as the pregnancy rate among American girls is 7.5%. American teenaged girls are twice as likely to become pregnant as British girls, and four times as likely to get pregnant as Swedish or French girls. Unfortunately, American teenagers are far less prone to use contraceptives.

What is even worse is that Governor Palin is pushing her daughter to marry a boy who famously posted the following comments on his My Space page, "I'm a F**king Redneck and I'm proud of it", "Ya f*** with me I'll kick (your) ass" and above all, "I don't want kids". The stats on failed teenage marriages are even worse than the STD and pregnancy rates. Teen marriages frequently involve domestic violence and abandonment. Why would any caring parent encourage their child to enter into such a dangerous partnership? It is a given that Palin's oldest daughter believes that she loves the father of her child but it is also well know that immature love is fleeting at best. The Middle Class Palins will have to buy their grandchild a nanny or its daddy may hit its mommy if it cries too much or if daddy can't go out to play...

Candidate Palin's treatment of her baby and her daughters is upsetting enough but when the fact that she lied her eldest son into harm's way is added, she emerges as an indifferent mother at best. She told her child, Pvt. 1st Class Palin, 19, who recently deployed to Iraq, and his brigade, that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Americans."

Sarah, it is well known that the Iraqi people NEVER attacked us, and that the Bush Administration lied us into an unnecessary war. Innocent Iraqis have died as well as innocent young Americans. More recently, you stated that your son is over there fighting for my right to protest here in America. Wrong, again. The Iraqi people have not threatened my right to protest or any other of my Constitutional rights but the Bush Administration has. Your son is fighting to establish American control over Iraq's oil fields. "We the People" are fighting to protect our rights here at home!

Candidate Palin must think that it looks good for her youngest children to appear on stage, her pregnant daughter to marry a jerk, her son to serve a lost cause in Iraq because she is a child-woman whose sole desire in life, is to always be the star. It is all about Sarah, all of the time, even as she worked a frenzied crowd into calling for the murder of the opposing presidential candidate, "kill him"....

It is up to we women to voice our concerns about Sarah Palin's disturbing behavior - the men would stand accused of being mean to poor little Sarah.

Peace begins with children - so cradle them in your arms and "teach your children well"...
...............................Kitchen Window Woman.................................................

Sarah - You and Joe Six-Pack Don't Understand - It is The "Constitution First" - NOT "Country First"

2008-10-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

An Angry White Man and a Self-Centered White Female - Whatta Terrifying Combo - Geez!

Let's begin with the fact that it is NOT and NEVER has been, "COUNTRY FIRST" here in The United States of America. That silly slogan heralds the Bush Administration's trillion dollar American tax-payer financed war against the nationalization of Iraqi oil fields. The oil fields in Iraq, instead of belonging to the Iraqi people, have recently been returned to the privatized control of American and European corporate interests. It has taken over thirty-five years, but congrats to Shell Oil, its lobbyists in D.C., and its overseas operations.

Most of us have known her type since we were children. Some of us learned about her by watching her operate and others grew to know her after being victims of her obsession. We are not blinded by her dazzling facade; we are instead, repulsed. She exists for audience and adoration and will do anything to advance her all consuming cause - herself. She has never been, nor will she ever be, one of us. Sarah Palin is all about Sarah Palin no less, but always wanting more.

Her addiction started in infancy as it did for generations of her sister types. Each baby daughter coo, smile, successful attempt at walking, word uttered, and first BM in the potty brings brings a guaranteed round of applause and encouragement from parents and caretakers. She's so pretty, so cute, so smart, and definitely an unprecedented, very special, one of a kind. It was during her infancy, that Sarah stopped growing emotionally. Trapped by her ever expanding need for the spotlight, she learned to focus on obtaining fix after fix of attention. During this time, her developing intellect was limited forever to the skills needed to secure her center stage position. Many seeds planted in life's garden grow and bear fruit. Unfortunately, for all of us, Sarah, like her brother, George W., were planted in the same narcissistic row where their competitive, compulsive behaviors were able to thrive unabated.

Sarah of the pageant wave. Sarah trained to dance around "gotcha questions" deemed far too expository or unimportant to address by pageant, and debate trainers alike. Her thrust is to use her vagina and breasts like a passport to garner the "our bodies, ourselves" votes. Sarah who mainlines accomplishments, and Sarah, who wants to "I am one of you" her way to the Presidency needs to learn that we sisters, mothers, and grandmothers, who have fought for freedom and our families for generations, do not seek her shallow representation. Her pretty face, sexual organs, and down-home byline do not impress us, but her selfish motives do.

Religion is a matter of choice. What we do with our bodies, how we live our lives, and which spiritual path upon which we each decide to embark, are all matters of individual choice. Sarah Palin made an individual choice. She chose to join and advance the beliefs championed by those who claim to speak for "America's only GOD". Sarah Palin chose to join the American Taliban who are the flipside of the radical Muslims in Afghanistan. The notorious Taliban share the same monotheistic religious beliefs, need for total dominance, and demand, along with the equally radical American Christian Right, that their religious rules must be obeyed by all.

Sarah is not curious about other cultures and people, does not respect those who are different from herself, nor does she concern herself with inclusiveness or tolerance. Sarah manufactures her own truths and has limited her human development by adhering to a reckless diet of competition in pursuit of legacy.

While she seeks to win her biggest race, her biggest pageant ever.... we can all see that her world view suffers from a lack of diversity. She suffers severe mental and emotional constipation. Sarah, you are not one of us. You claim America for "Joe Six-Pack" and his wife, (who is a wannabe you.) What you don't realize, Sarah, is that "Joe Six-Pack "and his long-suffering wife have determined the events of last eight years.

The "Six-Packs" voted for your counterpart, George W. Bush - TWICE! We are in an unnecessary war (which you never protested), trillions of dollars of debt, and currently a financial disaster that threatens to destroy our entire democratic nation. We cannot afford any longer to allow Joe Sixer and his spouse to determine the fate of America's future. Been there - Done that - NO MORE!

The answer does not lie in Alaska, nor in you. It lies battered and bruised in our Constitution . The slogan that was chosen by your running mate's operatives is all wrong. It is not "COUNTRY FIRST" - it is ,and always has been THE CONSTITUTION FIRST! Otherwise, you cute little dazzler you, our American Democracy will cease to exist.

SARAH PALIN - YOU EVEN LIED TO YOUR SON WHEN YOU SENT HIM OFF TO WAR IN A COUNTRY THAT NEVER RAISED A HAND AGAINST THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

You said to your child, Pvt. 1st Class Palin, 19, who recently deployed with the Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division to Iraq, and to his brigade, that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the deaths of thousands of Americans." That was a lie or a sign of pure intellectual LAZINESS on your part. Over one million two hundred thousand innocent Iraqis are dead because of people like you who were willing to kill based upon the lies of George W. Bush and his Neoconservative handlers.

You have recently stated that you would wage war against Pakistan and Russia two countries which possess real WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. I guess you must limit your reading to the unbelievable myths printed in The Star and The National Enquirer - they are known to offer large print and easy to understand, entertaining, very sensationalistic verbiage.

P.S. - PTAs at many schools across America do not have enough active volunteers. The Sarah types have driven caring, talented parents away. After all, it's all about Sarah and her sister types - all of the time.

Let's send this selfish creature back to Alaska,
...............Kitchen Window Woman.................

Democracy Massacred in Minneapolis/St. Paul

2008-09-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

Fascism - a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, supression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism. b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.

*Note - I periododically repost the Early Warning Signs of Fascism to remind everyone of what we are facing here in America. Fascism is on the march in the United States.

...............Early Warning Signs of Facism.............

1) Powerful And Continuing Nationalism

2) Disdain For Human Rights

3) Identification Of Enemies As A Unifying Cause

4) Supremacy Of The Military

5) Rampant Sexism

6) Controlled Mass Media

7) Obsession With National Security

8) Religion And Government Intertwined

9) Corporate Power Protected

10) Labor Power Supressed

11) Disdain For Intellectuals & The Arts

12) Obsession With Crime And Punishment

13) Rampant Cronyism & Corruption

14) Fraudulent Elections

My husband and I are both members of Veterans For Peace. Last week we flew to Minneapolis to attend the 23rd Annual Veterans For Peace National Convention. The theme of this year's VFP convention, my first convention ever, was 'Peace, Liberty, and Justice for All' and the focus was on the use of nonviolence to promote a culture of peace. It was a positive and enlightening experience especially in the face of the 8-year systematic assault on American Democracy by the Bush neoconservatives and the Christian Right.

THE REPUBLICANS HATE OUR FREEDOM!

As veterans we have taken an oath to "support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic". As Veterans For Peace we have pledged to use nonviolent means to do so.

Together, Republican Nationalists, neoconservative corporatists, and the Christian Right have succeeded in leveraging the most profound and dangerous threat to American Freedom ever faced by this nation. The eight dark years under the reign of George W. Bush have seen the Constitution set forth by our founding fathers red-lined and the consequent rise of American Fascism. The threat to our country is domestic. The terrorists who comprise the threat live among us. They seek to destroy not only the Constitution upon which American Democracy is based, but all of our inherent rights as well.

What happened in Minneapolis/St. Paul during the farcical 2008 Republican Convention is very telling. The FBI, Secret Service, and local law enforcement, under the questionable leadership of Ramsey Co. Sheriff, Bob Fletcher, violated the Constitutional rights of the press, and pro-peace, anti-McCain demonstrators every chance they got. Weapons (including an AR15) drawn, the Minneapolis/St. Paul law enforcement traitors excuted pre-emptive, warrantless raids on private homes against the peaceful citizens that they were sworn to protect.

Please explore this site; http://iwitnessvideo.info/

The invasive aggression by the Minnesotan army of Darth Vader look-alikes was pre-emptively excused by Bush operatives under the guise of "probable cause" and "conspiracy to commit civil disobedience". It is unfortunate that our employees in the intelligence and law enforcement communities seem to have confused Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto with the Constitution. They have crossed into the realm of "thought police".

View the RNC/ police actions in Minneapolis/St. Paul here:

Http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/1/stream

Unnecessary force was employed to confiscate computers, cameras, video cams, cell phones, printed and written materials, press cards and credentials and journalist's notes. The Bush conspirators have not only violated the freedom of the press, they have proven that they will stop at nothing to suppress the freedom of speech to advance the manufactured truths and propaganda required to move Americans toward acceptance of the fascist form of government they all support.

Please review the following Amendments:

.......... Amendment I ..........

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

.......... Admendment IV..........

The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath of affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

*Note - There were children in the private homes that were the targets of the pre-emptive home invasions. One man was asleep in his bed when yanked to his feet by the armed intruders. He was naked. He was not allowed to cover himself but was zip cuffed and told to lie face down on the floor. He remained on the floor cuffed and naked for an hour! These methods have been employed against the Iraqi people by the occupying American forces for over five years now.

The whole world is watching as the USA is bludgeoned back into the Dark Ages by Republican barbarianism. It is only those who've chosen ignorance over patriotism who do not see.

AMERICA HAS BECOME A VERY SICK COUNTRY UNDER REPUBLICAN RULE.

We must fight to save our nation with nonviolence.

................Kitchen Window Woman................

P.S. - We are on vacation in Michigan visiting family. I felt very strongly, however, that this piece needed to be written - KWW

The Abuse of HERO

2008-08-27T09:13:00.000-07:00

I'm a Hero. You're a Hero. She's a Hero. He's a Hero. Wouldn't you like to be a Hero, too?

Our brave Heroes. Our Heroic men and women. My Hero. Your Hero. They're all American Heroes.

Everybody costumed in camouflage is a Hero? Being there makes one a Hero? Getting shot down while flying an A-4 Skyhawk "tinkertoy" bomber names the pilot Hero and answers the experience requirement for the presidency? Death of any kind while in uniform guarantees Heroic status? He was a hero? She was a Hero? Fallen Heroes, sacrificial Heroes, martyrs to materialism and military mania, today's mythical media-made Heroes dominate our deeply embedded culture of war.

When did ordinary translate to Heroic? How did the everyday common doing one's job morph into Heroic feat? Here, there, everywhere, all the time Heroes... the qualifications for heroism have been Orwelled into mediocrity.

Lies have become truths. Informed, questioning citizens have been labeled traitors. Nationalist thugs have become super-patriots. Innocent Iraqis were categorized as enemies. Black became white. Peace became war. Up became down. Occupation disguised itself as democracy. Heaven became hell. Slam Dunk became quagmire. Human beings became collateral damage. Day became night. Escalate became surge. Wrong became right and Hero became a marketing tool, a muzzle that inhibits open debate, a shield to protect war profiteers, and an absurd justification to extend the illegal war against Iraq.

Hero sold America this unnecessary war as Heroic hopefuls rushed to exact revenge on innocents. Heroes actively fighting, wounded or dead were used to dissuade concerned citizens from questioning their government or demanding accountability. To voice dissent was propagandized as sullying the sacrifices of "our Heroes". Heroes, who survived America's battles, have long been hired by war manufactures to put a good face on their evil products because as everyone knows: Heroes are good. And finally, the most hideous assertion. Americans must continue to fight and die because to end the Iraq war would mean that all of our Heroes (and over one million Iraqis) have died in vain. More must kill and die for nothing rather than admit that those who died before them died in vain. No one should die for a oil leaking pack of lies!

Last century Alvin York took out five machine gun nests and captured 132 prisoners. Sgt. York, motivated to protect his wounded comrades, did all of this single-handedly. His actions were extraordinary and therefore considered heroic. A little over two decades later, a seriously wounded Lt. Audie Murphy, surrounded by enemy forces and under fire, held his position while calling in artillery fire and then ran to climb atop a burning tank to man its machine gun. Murphy had stopped a German counterattack. His actions, also extraordinary and above and beyond the call of duty, were those of a hero.

9/11 saw several hundred heroes (many of whom since have perished) commit astonishing acts of selfless courage. Today those surviving heroic firemen, policemen, medical personnel, and citizens who, after saving lives and digging through the rubble and ash of recovery work, are not only sick and unable to work but have to beg for public assistance and medical care. The 9/11 responders exploited to inspire enlistment and launch a war were then rendered "Forgotten Heroes" when they were no longer useful physically or politically. In hindsight the neglect and abandonment of the 9/11 Heroes, if nothing else, has exposed how skewed the American concept of Hero has become.

Every member of the military is an automatic HERO drooled over by a public whose conditioned responses to flags and uniforms resemble those of Pavlov's dogs. It is an unfortunate American shame that many of those whose humanity, concern, convictions, and courage lead them to take extraordinary actions above and beyond the ordinary remain unsung Heroes. Some have even been threatened or punished for telling the truth or refusing to obey wrongful orders.

Hero is even being used to shield Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, from questions about his character and competence. It is implied that to seek information about Senator McCain is somehow unpatriotic. Heroes must not be questioned even if their act of heroism is suspect. John McCain, a prisoner of war, survived. Survival is simply survival. Surviving is not Heroic.

Heroes are a dime a dozen in Bush's America. Heroism has been cheapened. Heroes are sold to the American public on the television, over the radio, and on the Internet accompanied by the tinkling of piano keys or the sad solo tone of a trumpet. Families who've suffered the loss of a loved one in one of America's numerous military ventures are given Hero to assuage their grief. He couldn't have died for nothing. She couldn't have died for oil. It comes around full circle as Hero potential is used to lure our young into the clutches of recruiters. Uncle Sam Wants YOU - to be a HERO! What better way fill the slots left emptied by those who've died.

Hero is the most effective, stealth propaganda campaign waged as yet by the Pentagon and it's partners in crime, the war profiteers. Who sees the truth when blinded by the dazzle of HERO?

Only when Johnny (and Jenny) come marching home and need care for wounds mental and physical, does the shine on Hero tarnish. Tragically, he and she become Forgotten Heroes. Those who called upon Our Brave Heroes to serve, then callously toss them atop the others of generations past, on the refuse heap of lives wasted for lost causes.

We must break this cycle of abuse.
.......Kitchen Window Woman.......
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*Note - I haven't written for a long time. I had a case of writer's block. This one has been on my mind for a while. Today we are on our way to the Veterans For Peace Convention in Minneapolis and are real excited. Then we will go on to Detroit to visit family. I will write if I have access to a computer. Hope you are all well - Peace. KWW

Memorial Day 2008

2008-05-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

Another Memorial Day. Another yearly reminder of one of the many costs of war, lest we forget. A media occasion for politicians and pundits alike to "catapult the propaganda" over the graves they, themselves, excavated and filled with the dead of yet another generation. Hours of mind-numbing oration, crocodile tears, and movies starring American's favorite pretend warrior, Marion Morrison (John Wayne), mark today's tribute to this nation's militarism. Another Memorial Day. Been there. Done that. It is time to turn the page.

Of course, we mourn those who have been taken from this life by provocateurs who dream of wealth, power, and domination. There are 365 days in a year. We remember our lost loved ones on each and every day. What we must not forget is that the war against Iraq, like its predecessor in Vietnam 40 years ago, began in a fog of falsehoods and is being fought in vain. The American people were deliberately lied to and the Iraqi people were intentionally lied about.

Our society has long been dominated by a culture that differs little from the ancient civilizations that practiced human sacrifice. The young are nurtured, harvested, and indoctrinated to obediently surrender their lives to the ruling class. Ceremonial incantations obfuscate the true purpose of the "ultimate sacrifice" that awaits. Liberty, valor, duty, perseverance, freedom, and honor are the magic words that marched two generations into wars of choice fought to advance the imperial profiteering of a ruthless corporate elite.

It is in the Temple of Greed that the pageant nears its end. There, the cold-blooded priests who claim moral high ground, circle and kill to appease the voracious appetite of their God. We are then called upon to play our parts. We are to memorialize by observing a "moment of remembrance" to honor "the fallen".

"The fallen" have been exploited continuously since the pre "Shock and Awe" soften 'em up bombing sorties over Iraq to post-surge present. A moment of truth begs observation as well.THEY DIDN'T FALL. THEY WERE PUSHED!

During a "moment of remembrance" another page was turned. It turned away from John Wayne's simulated silver screen heroism and away from both the flames of war and the ill winds that fan them. The next page focuses entirely on justice for we must remember that "our fallen" and the war dead in Iraq have been murdered by a sociopathic American leadership and its entourage of obedient groupies.

So spare the mock sentimentality, pompous rituals, and patriotic platitudes. We must strip away the camouflage that has shrouded our nation's capitol in secrecy for eight long years to expose those whose crimes against humanity demand punishment. Let us pledge to memorialize and honor "the fallen" by seeking justice for the crimes that extinguished their lives and the lives of over one million innocent Iraqi citizens. Let us pledge to investigate and bring to trial the members of the most destructive, criminal regime in America's history. The Hague is waiting.

............Wage Peace............
...Kitchen Window Woman...

Mother's Day 2008

2008-05-11T17:08:00.000-07:00

When a loved one dies a person-shaped hole remains.

When a child dies for oil, regional control, and empire - a crime-shaped hole screams for justice.

There are well over one million two hundred thousand person-shaped holes in Iraqi hearts on this, the fifth Mother's Day since the beginning of George W. Bush's illegal, military misadventure in a sovereign nation.

Mothers in Iraq have tried to protect and have tried by sheer will to encourage their seriously wounded children to survive. Iraqi mothers have cried until they had no more tears to shed - JUST LIKE AMERICAN MOTHERS WOULD DO IN THE SAME SITUATION! We are all the same.

The sun has set on Mother's Day 2008 but it has not set on the on-going slaughter in Iraq. What is worse is that yet another unnecessary war looms. Hitler's understudies, the neoconservative radicals (pretend Americans) have lobbied hard for two decades to harness American blood and money toward a military strike against Iran. Why? Insanity, obsession, greed, and power.

Over a year ago I blogged about a psychological study in which it was established that the human brain is not fully developed until about the age of twenty-five. That means, my dear pseudo patriots out there, that you have been party to encouraging and enabling CHILDREN to enter and partake in the nightmare murderfest known as WAR. Why have kids if you are going to raise them just long enough to send them off in the military to kill another woman's children? You send them off without question - why is that? You know that PATRIOTISM requires that you be an informed citizen. Why would you SACRIFICE your child and whichever children he or she kills on the word of some rich person you don't even know? What kind of parent are you?

Please, spare your children and potential children the role of child warrior and spare too, the victims of their misguided swords. DON'T LET YOUR WOMB BE USED AS A WEAPON OF WAR.

Look at the above photo. Tiny shoes define a tiny person-shaped hole where a child used to be. American sons and daughters and Iraqi mothers, fathers, and children have all died on the alter of empire

Remember the lies about WMD? Iran is next.

*Note - Photo credited to my veteran son who remembers a tiny girl in Kosovo...

.......Mother's Day 2008.......
...Kitchen Window Woman...

The Toothfairy Gets My Vote

2008-04-05T18:07:00.000-07:00

I have not been around to blog these last two weeks and have not written a piece since I took part in "Blog Against Theocracy Easter Weekend" on March 22nd. The following post is a "my dog ate my homework" explanation. It took me several days to write this as I am still not feeling up to par. I want to touch base with my fellow bloggers to let all know that I am laid up for a bit but will be back at it as soon as I am able. KWW
_______________________________________________________________

I had dental surgery on Tuesday, April 1st. The surgeon took all of my teeth out - no foolin'. My worst case dental nightmare has come to pass and however much I resemble a chipmunk, I am on the mend.

Although I have experienced new emotional lows during the last month leading to my surgery date, many of my feelings were identical to the series of negative emotions that I felt almost fifty years ago on those rare visits to the dentist. Dental equipment at present, has undergone revolutionary improvement, and everything is on computer, but the feelings of dread, fear, worry, guilt, and shame haven't changed a lick since I was a kid.

We didn't mention dental problems like loose teeth, tooth aches, or cavities. No kid wanted to throw their family into a devastating financial crisis - which is what a trip to the doctor, the need for eyeglasses, or a visit to the dentist meant back then. No kid wanted to see the panicked look in their parent's eyes that screamed, "Where (the Hell) are we going to get the money?" It was bad enough that I needed new glasses every few years so I brushed my teeth, took the fluoride tests at school, and hoped for the best.
(I don't know to whom the above photo credit should go - but thanks for the laugh!)

The best was the toothfairy! If one managed to wiggle that baby tooth out or the old string and doorknob thing worked (we all did it at least once!) there was a payoff. Yep, the fairy was sure to leave a dime under one's pillow in exchange for an outgrown tooth. Later on due to inflation she started leaving two bits! The price of a comic book or some penny candy was much easier on most mom and dads than the cost of a cavity or the braces dentists always seemed to push. I didn't know any kids rich enough to have braces!

We know that the toothfairy takes away discarded baby teeth but what happens to an adult mouthful of worn but faithful chompers? You don't have to answer... but George Washington's teeth went to the same place!

During the four days since undergoing life-altering surgical extractions in a dentist's chair I have been well cared for by family and friends. Catfish has been holding my hand, preparing liquid and soft things for me to eat, and making sure I get the pain meds on time. My aunt and my best friend have been taking turns by phone to check and to offer encouragement. Auntie sent me a cheerful "care package" with toys, some of those old-fashioned miniature wax bottles of pop, and two tubes of liquid lollipops?!? Close family friends sent flowers that were delivered today. I am fortunate and deeply appreciative of the love and care I've received. I am sure that all of this "goodness" is helping me to heal as well.

The financial view from the dental chair hasn't changed since I was a little girl except to become exponentially more expensive. Like all medical care here in the Richest Nation in the World, American dental care is a pricey form of legal extortion. The cost of the surgical extractions, temporary dentures, bone grafts, implants, and the final set of dentures that will complete my treatment forced us to take out an in office dental loan for several thousand. That we have, through my husband's place of employment, one of the better dental insurance plans available, belies the fact that before I am done, we will have to take out a second loan. I feel real bad that I am costing us so much.

The worry and guilt began to take hold well before Tuesday's operation especially since I could have saved us $550.00 if I'd been brave enough to undergo the surgery without the OPTIONAL ANESTHESIA! Yes, insurance companies consider ANESTHESIA to be an unnecessary extra. One may choose it only if they have cash in their pockets or are eligilbe for a loan! How many people are forced to endure pain because their wallets are empty? Why must money determine whether or not someone is made to endure pain? Oh, I forgot, Americans do torture.

Many Americans have no medical coverage and no dental coverage. I am lucky to have access to both care and coverage, but we are middle class, and these expenses are heavy duty. Neither of our two sons has dental coverage or access to care and one doesn't even have access to medical care. I worry about them all of the time.

I began this post by mentioning the range of emotions that have accompanied my dental nightmare. Fear, yes, I had a lot of fear and dread while anticipating the surgery, the pain, and the swelling. Now the fear and dread are centered on the temporary set of dentures ever being adjusted enough to fit and of the final set of dentures fitting. I am told all of this takes many months - it is a process. The temporaries, which were put in right away, don't fit at all - they are set at the wrong angle too far in and I can't chew. I don't want my mouth and chin line changed because the replacement teeth are structured wrong... worry and dread.

I've been told that things have improved since George Washington couldn't chew with these...

.
Shame has been a factor, too. Shame at having a reoccurring dental disease and unhealthy teeth most of my life. Shame for not having gone to the dentist many times in my life when I couldn't afford it and shame to opting NOT to have a procedure done because I could not pay for ANESTHESIA. Shame that I did not floss correctly. I have been ashamed about my teeth most of my life because they were not straight and were troublesome. My mother used to cover her mouth with her hand because of her teeth and avoided having photos taken. My husband remembers his mother melting wax from a candle to fill in painful cavities because she could not afford to go the dentist. She felt shame, too!

Lastly, I am angry but not at my situation. I'll get through this, adapt, and go on with my life. I am angry that some Americans are going without medical care because other Americans have chosen to make money from misery! Americans are stressed out of their minds for lack of care.

People in Europe are healthier, happier, and do not suffer stress anywhere near American levels. The "Quality of Life" available to the majority of Europeans is superior to that of Americans because Europe's wealth is in "caring about and for its people". Dental, eye, and medical care is available to everyone. No shame, worry, dread, and no going without or poverty induced by medical expenses.

This is a country of profit and greed where money is the only measure of value - to hell with it! Let's get the corporate monkeys off of our backs and change our attitude and our systems. We can start by taking care of one another.
- Kitchen Window Woman

Prayer and Punishment in Public School

2008-03-22T14:16:00.000-07:00

DON'T LAY YOUR TRIP ON ANYONE ELSE. That saying is from The Sixties but expresses my view of the theocrats who are attempting to replace American Democracy with their personal brand of Christianity.

How one decides to live one's life is a matter of individual choice. Theocrats would prefer to dictate to every citizen how they should think and what they should do with their lives - all under the threat of punishment. Such tyranny forms the base of organized religion and such tyranny was legislated against by America's founding fathers in the Constitution, Article VI: Senators and Representatives... shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

"Thomas Jefferson stated it thus, "History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government" and "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own."

I wrote the post below in April of '05. In it I described what happened to me at a public grade school in Michigan in 1959. No child should have to suffer such cruel public humiliation. I did the collage pictured below to depict my childhood experience as an assignment for a class on Intercultural Communication.

Link to Blog Against Theocracy here.
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~~~~~~~~~~~Prayer and Punishment in Public School~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I stood in the alcove outside the door of my fourth grade classroom with my nose touching the cold, tile wall. My classmates could see the back of my head through the small window at the top of the closed door: I could feel their disapproving eyes. Not only was I humiliated, I was angry as well. Such punishment was usually reserved for loud-mouth boys who disrupted the classroom - not for an obedient student like me.

It was 1959, I was nine years old, and attended a public elementary school in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. I would spend two hours every school day morning, in the hall outside of Mr. D's classroom, for many weeks to come. Each morning, the Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde educator, would greet his students in a soft, friendly voice only to turn into an angry, red-faced, bellowing monster as soon as the attendance was taken. Every morning, following attendance, I left my seat and went out the door to begin my punishment in the hall.

What kind of terrible crime had I, a nine year-old little girl committed, to warrant long-term banishment? I had violated Mr. D's classroom church when I refused to bow my head and pray to his God.

One morning, near the beginning of the school year, Dr. Jekyll began a lesson on phonetics. He was talking about long and short vowels in syllables when quite suddenly, he shut the book, and moved to stand behind his desk. He began to pray, quietly at first. Then, while growing increasingly agitated, Mr. Hyde began to form before our terrified eyes. His face flushed crimson. His eyes glazed over and began to spiral like those of a crazed cartoon character. Pacing wildly between the portraits of of Washington and Lincoln, words thundered out of his mouth and exploded damnation over our heads like battlefield artillery. Mr. D. was fighting some kind of war and had taken we children prisoner!

He continued his biblical vociferations for a fouth grade eternity. He didn't even need a bible as he had memorized most of the tome. When he finally returned to his desk, he hunched over it like a rabid animal about to fall-upon its victim, and fist-pounded a demand that we bow our heads and pray to the Almighty!

Well, I did what I usually did when confronted with Christain prayer. I didn't. I was sitting there looking at the board when he noticed that my head was not down, my hands were not folded, and I was not repeating his passionate entreaty with the other kids. Mr. D came outta his tree! He was one wrathful, fire-breathing, brimstoney, furious evangelical! I was scared to death when he stood in front of my desk and berated me for disobeying not only himself, but God!

I had NEVER disobeyed a teacher. I told him politely, that I would not pray because I did not believe in God or Jesus, and went on to explain that I would be lying if I prayed, and it would also be disrespectful to those who did believe. The raging madman pulled me from my seat by my shoulders, marched me out the door and shoved me against the wall in the alcove. Then he leaned in close to my face to make sure that my nose was touching the tile. I was to be punished every day until I decided to pray, he hissed, and then he condemmed my family and I to the burning fires of Hell for eternity.

My mother's calls to the school had no effect on my situation. However; life did improve somewhat, during my punishment, because of intervention by several concerned teachers. One spoke up so that I got to move out of the alcove by the door and was allowed to lean against the wall in the hallway with my nose facing out! Another, moved mountains, so that after several weeks of standing for two hours each day, I was allowed to sit cross-legged on the floor AND read or do school work. Yet another, arranged for a desk that I could sit at, while doing penance. Looking back, I may have been the more fortunate one: I was outside of that room where every morning Mr. D. preyed on my captive classmates.

Eventually, Mr. D., the evangelical terrorist, was made to abandon his religious lesson plans. I strongly suspect that it was because of teacher complaints. He was LOUD and could be heard in the hall and the adjacent classrooms. In my opinion, at the time, he should have been the one standing in the hall for classroom disruption!

The fall of 1960 found most of us in the fifth grade. Our new teacher was astounded to find that all of us who had been in Mr. D's room the previous year were seriously behind in reading and English. What's more, we didn't know our multiplication tables either!

Today, I am a dedicated advocate for The Separation Of Church And State and a passionate foe of Prayer in Public School. No child should suffer what I did at the hands of a religious zealot regardless of which one of the three Only God religions is being pushed .
_________________________________________________________________

No one is preventing those who believe in any one of the three "Only Gods" from worshiping their brand of choice. The Constitution guarantees this freedom as well as it guarantees the non-believer the right to not believe, and guarantees individuals the freedom to journey any one of the thousands of different philosophical pathways available to we humans.

It is respect that dogma lacks for it is a jealous and controlling suitor. Respect for the beliefs and non-beliefs of others is basic but the practice of proselytization replaces respect with arrogant disregard. In turn the arrogant disregard for the beliefs of others frequently escalates into organized exploitation, abuse, and murder of those who think differently. What better excuse for criminal actions than the prevailing creed.

Teach Tolerance - Respect Differences - Practice Peace

..... It's Spring! .......... Kitchen Window Woman................

"Bush's God" Damned Iraq - Five Years of American Shame

2008-03-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

God told George W. Bush to go and kill all of those people. Billy Graham's Lord bent down and apologized in W 's ear for putting all of those rich deposits of oil under the Iraqi desert. "Flush 'em out, go get 'em, and when you get 'em - torture right and proper. Destroy their homes, make sure they have no medicine, food or gas, leave no electricity, no clean water, and flood the streets with sewage. George W's personal God preached on, "Shock and Awe 'em, George, and you'll prove ta yer daddy, and the whole damn world that yer a man!

Terrorize 'em every day and hey, use those weapons of mass destruction I gave ya - they're real killers! Ya can't beat white phosphorus and that new napalm, MK77, it sticks to the skin better so it burns longer, yeah! And them kiddies jest love those liddle ole cluster bomblettes. Hell, they look jest like liddle toys! Then there's depleted uranium - my well-rounded wonder weapon. It penetrates, it burns, and it is guaranteed to pollute the land, the water, and the people. They'll be sick fer generations!

Insurgents fought with George Washington and won the Revolutionary War here in America, but we got to change the meaning of the word a bit. Iraqi patriots who are defending their country from yer army, well, they're the bad guys. Every time they fight back - even a little, put it on the news how you have suppressed the insurgency fer freedom - no matter what ya do... say its fer freedom!

Now, we got ta give them troops a hate name for them insurgents. Let's see we already used "gooks" for the slant eyes in the Nam... How's about "hajjis"? It sounds kinda Abi Baba don't it? Oh and b'fore I forget, here's a little hate ditty to wash the brains of yer troops with. Help's 'em concentrate on the killin'...

Bomb the village
Kill the people
Throw some napalm in the square
Do it on a Sunday morning
Kill them on their way to prayer
Ring the bell inside the schoolhouse
Watch the kiddies gather round
Lock and load with your 240
Mow them little motherf***rs down
. . . etc.

God's little genocide is workin' in Gaza for the Israelis, idn't it George? Those Palestinians are jest about done fer - it'll work in Iraq, too! Jest keep on bulleavin' and you'll see. One day most all Iraqi's will be dead or barely hangin' on in refugee camps. The diehards who stay in Iraq won't be able to fight because if we don't take their lives we will take their limbs. Some'll be too sick from radiation poisonin' to work, but I promise you, there will be enough able-bodied hajjis remaining ta labor in the American Occupation's Oil Fields, and fer real cheap, too!

An' never-you-mind all those anti-war protesters. Its not lyin' if I told ya ta say it. The Iraqis had nothin' to do with 9/11 but that don't make a bit a difference. Kill 'em anyway! And hey, if they try to defend themselves act as if yer the victim not them - works great for the Israelis!

Now Lucifer, he's over there in Dick Cheney's head. They're doin' a heckuva job with all them contractors, missin' tax dollars 'n all. Hosanna Halliburton! Hey, we figure b'twix the two of us we got this miserable war oil thing nailed - jest like my son.

I see them lefties have been complainin' 'bout yer natural born killer instincts. Don't you fret 'bout that - you got me and I am the best excuse you'll ever have for killin' all those folks. Don't you worry about a thing, George, I'm a livin' God. I walk with you, I talk with you, an' I'm always with you, right here inside yer head. 'N I wanna tell ya, I haven't enjoyed myself so much since I spent all that time in Hitler's head.

Hey, listen up George W. I'm good ta go so its 'bout time ta do a job on Iran - ya know the drill so... Bring It On! ...'N don't ferget ta prey.
________________________________________________________________

.................Five years of War - Five years of American Shame.............
935 LIES - OVER ONE MILLION DEAD - A TWO TRILLION DOLLAR WAR

If they have another war don't show up!
............Kitchen Window Woman........

* the "ditty" above is currently being used during the "training" (indoctrination)of our soldiers

St. Patrick's Day - The Shaughnessy Crest, Wilde, and Snakes

2008-03-17T14:16:00.000-07:00

Years ago, I embroidered the Shaughnessy crest on a shirt for my father. It was on the right front opposite the pocket. I did an additional design for him on the back of the shirt based on a combined idea of Native American shields and the hex designs of the Pennsylvania Dutch. I didn't get to grow up with my father due to divorce and distance, so I went to look for him after I was an adult.

My dad was a WWII veteran of The Battle of the Bulge and his dad, my grandfather, fought with the Canadian Black Watch in Europe during WWI. Both men were told they were fighting the war to end all wars. Both fought to serve their countries and to keep their children from having to serve as cannon fodder for the ruling class. Promises were made and promises were broken.

We relived history during the unnecessary Vietnam war, are repeating the same historical mistakes in the Iraq war for permanent occupation, and will continue the crime by an incursion into Iran. Promises were broken and are still being broken.

Today, on the American St. Patrick's Day, I honor my father and my grandfather who never supported perpetual, preemptive wars all over the globe, the hijacking of sovereign natural resources, and enslavement of occupied peoples. They fought in and suffered the worse conditions that wars waged by non-participants can pass off upon less wealthy members of their respective communities.

I had the fortune to reconnect with my father and share some years with him before he passed away several years back. I am blessed to have regained relationships with a lost sister and brother. My father's second wife was wonderful and became a valued friend. My gracious uncles welcomed me back into the family. Of the five Shaughnessy boys, two remain. I honor all of them, my cousins, and their families.

Below is the shield that I embroidered on the back of the shirt for my father. He wrote to me of spring, liked bluebirds, and roses.

________________________________________________________________________

Please enjoy the poem printed below. It packs a wallop for today's America!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sonnet To Liberty ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Not that I love thy children, whose dull eyes
See nothing save their own unlovely woe,
Whose minds know nothing, nothing care to know, -
But that the roar of thy Democracies,
Thy reigns of Terror, thy great Anarchies,
Mirror my wildest passions like the sea
And give my rage a brother -! Liberty!
For this sake only do thy dissonant cries
Delight my discreet soul, else might all kings
By bloody knout or treacherous cannonades
Rob nations of their rights inviolate
And I remain unmoved - and yet, and yet,
These Christs that die upon the barricades,
God knows it I am with them, in some things.

~ Oscar Wilde ~
______________________________________________________________________

I wrote the following story for The Dishpan Chronicles in 2004 and reposted it in '05 on St. Paddy's Day. I am usually cooking a corned beef dinner for my family on the 17th of March so don't have a lot of time to devote to politics. I like the little story that I wrote back then and have reprinted it today. I meant every word! Enjoy

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Last night I dreamed in green. Last night I dreamed about snakes. Last night an ancient Celt whispered in my ear, "they've got it all wrong, St. Patrick didn't drive the snakes from Ireland".

The story told was this........

You see, the snakes being without legs and all, could not partake when the folk did those high-steppin' dances. The snakes suffered so, for they were spirited and admired those dances.

When the Irish gathered in pubs, to toast with mugs of ale, the snakes were left to hang their heads in the brew, for they lacked the arms for hoistin'.

It got worse yet, whenever those snakes heard that song, When Irish Eyes are smilin'. Try as they might with eyes set one on one side, and the other on the other, no snake was ever known to get it's eyes together enough to smile.

'Tis as plain as day where this tragic tale is headin'. With the strength of the Irish people livin in their words, and their hearts and souls reaching to the Heavens in song, what were the snakes to do? Never were words so beautifully and enchantingly spoken as when expressed by the Irish poets. When melodies were sung, never were the voices so pure and harmonious. The snakes, inspired by such lamentations and joyous musings, opened their mouths. They expected poetry, they expected melody, yet nothing but barely audible, raspy hisses were to be heard.

No creature has ever felt such humiliation. Nor has any creature tried so hard to be what it wasn't. Not only were the serpents heartbroken, but they turned green with envy. Such torn and suffering creatures could do naught but leave Ireland forever. One dark and moonless night they slithered away. It was not the sainted Patrick who drove the snakes from Ireland....it was SHAME!

The Irish whisperer in my dream had almost finished the tale of Erin's serpents when he asked, "Do you know where the descendents of those legless, armless, smileless, voiceless creatures are now"? "No", I answered.

He went on to tell me...............

They slithered out of Ireland and crossed the sea to the new world. There, they joined creatures of a similar nature, and developed serpentine ways. There, they learned to sidewind, and they sidewinded themselves all the way to the White House. That's where the sorry serpents are today, rulin' the world from their snakepit in Washington D.C. and St. Patrick had nothing to do with it.

I woke up with new understanding. The Irish are lucky because they are rid of the snakes and we Americans are unlucky because our government has become a sanctuary for vipers. Isn't it strange that the Irish don't celebrate their snakeless holiday but we do? I still don't know why St. Patrick took credit for what the Irish people did just by being themselves but I wish you and yours...........A Happy St. Patrick's Day..........anyway.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?

Erin go bragh............

..........................Kitchen Window Woman

Bush's America From Dirty Water to Winter Soldier

2008-03-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

Dirty Water For Our Soldiers! Kellogg, Brown, and Root - one of Dick Cheney's pet corporations with 16 billion dollars in outstanding war contracts and $520 million in pure profit for the year 2007, cut corners from 2004 to 2006 by supplying the soldiers on military bases in Iraq with filthy, contaminated water. The "Patriotic Profiteers" of KBR, charged with supporting American troops in the overseas war zones, abused them by consistently delivering waste water in which, our weary soldiers were to bathe their bodies, and launder their uniforms.

"KBR had exposed the entire camp to water twice as contaminated as raw water from the Euphrates River. KBR was apparently taking the waste water... which should have been dumped back in the river, and using that as the non-potable water supply. such problems had been happening for more than a year... No water treatment specialist could claim that the water was fit for human use." - from the Senate testimony of Ben Carter, water purification specialist and former Halliburton employee. PROFITS FIRST - SOLDIERS LAST!

THE AMERICAN MILITARY IS EXPENDABLE IN BUSH'S CORPORATE-RUN AMERICA

The song below is dedicated to the bastards at KBR

_________________________________________________________________

March 4th, 2008 - my family and I were sickened by a report on 60 Minutes. Hundreds of uninsured and under insured Americans had driven for hours to reach Knoxville, Tennessee where Remote Area Medical or "RAM", an organization of medical volunteers, had set up a clinic and was offering a weekend of free medical care. A cross section of middle class and poor Americans with who have gone years without being able to see a doctor drove for hours, and waited hours longer in the freezing cold. These neglected citizens included patients who had been treated for heart attacks and cancer but were unable to pay for follow up care. Many who were in pain from abscessed teeth and or could not see properly put precious dollars into their gas tanks and made the journey hopes of receiving dental treatment and eye care.

RAM, orginally organized to provide medical care in remote locations in third world countries, now "does 60% of its work in urban and rural America". Not all of the thousands of sick and suffering were seen that week - far too many needing care had shown up. Those who did see the medical teams were grateful but many were also ashamed that unable to provide care for themselves and their families, they were reduced seeking charity care intended for the poor in third word countries.

AMERICANS ARE EXPENDABLE IN GEORGE W. BUSH'S CORPORATE WAR ECONOMY
________________________________________________________________

There is no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda according to a Pentagon study titled, "Saddam and Terrorism: Emerging Insights from Captured Iraqi Documents". The study, completed last year, has proven that Bush and Cheney lied America into a preemptive war against Iraq. It was to be released on the internet this week where the American public would have easy access its content - after all, we paid for it so we own it - but the Pentagon suddenly decided that it is "too politically sensitive" to be viewed online. The analysis was based on 600,000 Iraqi documents and thousands of hours of interrogations of Iraqi citizens. Gosh, that many documents make it really sensitive especially since our president kept saying things like, "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda: because there was a relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda."

The Pentagon buried the study but not entirely. "We are making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail", claimed the Joint Forces Command. So I guess one has to write a letter to the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia but that might be a bit difficult as they did not give an address. The Bush Administration and the Pentagon have deliberately created a diversion to dissuade Americans from seeking the truth about this illegal war in Iraq. None-the-less, the address can be tracked down and if one's letter of request is not conveniently "lost", interested patriots will perhaps receive the "Saddam - al-Qaeda no connection report" by snail mail.

THE TRUTH IS EXPENDABLE TO THE PRESIDENT, HIS VICE, THE PENTAGON, AND THE CORPORATE WAR MACHINE
________________________________________________________________

It is ironic that the eye witness accounts of the occupations, Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan, is taking place just days after the man noted for speaking truthfully, Admiral William J. Fallon, Commander, U.S. Central Command, resigned. Secretary of Defense Gates listed, "Fox" Fallon as "one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today", but Bush, Cheney, and the Israelis, in pursuit of expanding the U.S. war into Iran, wanted a yes man to carry out the destruction of yet another country. The admiral, unfortunately, is an intelligent, competent leader who sees the bigger picture and cares about the outcome.

Admiral Fallon who has served his country for 44 years, wanted to draw down the troops in Iraq, does not want to strike Iran, is well respected in numerous Middle Eastern countries as a listener, a negotiator, and as a strong diplomat willing to engage with others to problem solve and bring about change, had to go.

Now Bush Americans are back on track for a military strike against Iran. There will be an incident of some sort. The U.S. propaganda machine will go into high gear and a joint effort of some kind that involves the demanding, neoconservative Israelis will be launched. Iran will retaliate by striking the troops in Iraq. Many U.S. personnel will die. Bush and Cheney know this but have already written their lives off along with the lives of the Iranians they plan to kill.

ALL HUMAN LIFE IS EXPENDABLE WHEN IT LIVES IN THE PATH OF EMPIRE

Who's going to pay in blood and money for the next Bush fiasco? Don't worry. War can be fought on love alone - its a romantic experience according to the flakey, murdering presider who wouldn't tolerate Admiral Fallon. "W" delivered the following message to U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan:

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

Note - Bush was younger and not employed in the White House but did not want to have a fantastic experience in Vietnam. He buzzed his friends in an obsolete Texas Air National plane and got drunk every night. What an ASS!

Please watch or listen to the Winter Soldier testimonies this weekend. Perhaps the Iraq Veterans Against the War will have something to say about how fantastic it is to force democracy down the throats of an occupied people.
_________________________________________________________________

935 LIES - OVER ONE MILLION DEAD - A TWO TRILLION DOLLAR WAR

..................Want to Confront Danger?...........
.........STOP THE AMERICAN WAR MACHINE...........
....................Kitchen Window Woman......................

Winter Soldier - Support The Troops

2008-03-05T21:54:00.000-08:00

- Washington D.C., March 13 -16, 2008 - Iraq Veterans Against The War, inspired by the actions taken by Vietnam Veterans 37 years ago, will gather in our in our nation's capitol "to expose the truth and consequences of the War on Terror to the nation and the world". Please click on the button above for more information and a video preview.

(Note- The video preview is a beautifully accomplished, honest piece of work. Considering its subject matter it is thoughtful and respectful however, it contains some disturbing images that depict the nature of war - caution - if you are a combat vet and / or suffer PTSD)

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will involve hundreds of support staff, social workers, veteran advocates, and members of the media as well as between two to three hundred Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans who will testify in 12 different categories. The categories and expert panels will include "all things war" like racism, the killing and wounding of noncombatants, the destruction of civilian property, torture and abuse, human rights violations, the mishandling of the dead, military waste and the destruction of the environment in Iraq, sexual harassment and assault, GI and veterans issues, and more.

Veterans For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against The War have been working closely with the IVAW Winter Soldiers. Individual chapters have donated funds and raised even more by throwing house parties. San Diego's VFP Hugh Thompson Memorial Chapter 91 has been hard at work to support Chapter 21, of our local Iraq Veterans Against The War as well as the IVAW national organization.

A house party last weekend was held by a Vietnam Veteran who is a member of Veterans For Peace and the VVAW. The gathering brought together members of the peace community and many veterans including two Marines, who after fighting wars a generation apart, are both going to attend Winter Soldier 2008 in D.C. One will testify, the other will report from the event and lend support.

Once a sergeant, Kenyon Ralph, the young veteran in the above photo, is now the President of the San Diego IVAW Chapter. "Even though my enlistment is over, I still want to serve my country.... Americans need to hear the truth", Ralph told us. He served six years which included two tours in Iraq with the Marines and will soon leave to attend the second Winter Soldier . This quiet young man is going to testify along with many veterans of the current occupations who will demonstrate their patriotism "by speaking out with honor and integrity instead of blindly following failed policy. Winter Soldier is a difficult but essential service to our country."

These testimonies will not be taken lightly as our well-trained, experienced young veterans have spent months planning this, the most patriotic operation they have ever embarked upon. The Winter Soldiers of the Twenty-First Century need our support to accomplish their mission.

There are many ways to help the Winter Soldier Patriots - donate to Winter Soldier - place a Winter Soldier banner on your web page - advertise - BLOG Winter Soldier - call your local news stations, CNN, C-Span and ask if they are televising Winter Soldier - write letters to the editor - e-mail your friend and relatives - and more here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ THE HISTORY OF WINTER SOLDIER ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

- New Jersey, December 23, 1776 - General George Washington ordered that "Crisis" a pamphlet penned by Thomas Paine, be read aloud to the dispirited soldiers under his command just prior to the crossing of the Delaware River. Inspired by the following words, twenty-four hundred of Washington's Continental soldiers marched on to a Christmas victory at Trenton:

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

_______________________________________________________________________

- Detroit, Michigan, January 31 to February 2, 1971 - Vietnam Veterans Against the War held the first Winter Soldier Investigation at a Howard Johnson's Motel on a cold winter weekend. They gathered to clear "the fog of war" with a blast of truth fresh from the battlefield.

The prosecution of Lt. William Calley for the My Lai Massacre was the catalyst that inspired over one hundred battle-scarred veterans to take unprecedented public action. The Nuremberg Trial had established the principal of culpability meaning that if Lt. Calley was responsible for his actions, so too, were his superiors all the way up the chain of command. The courageous veterans testified about the reality of war, the systematic dehumanization of the Vietnamese people, and described the training and governmental policies that led to daily incidents like My Lai. The three days of painful compelling testimony proved to be an eye-opener for the American public and hastened the end of what the Vietnamese refer to as the American War.

The Winter Soldier Investigation of 1971 was filmed in its entirety and is available at Amazon. It is a riveting historical film that showcases the courage of a generation who spoke truth to power and stood the war machine down.
______________________________________________________________________

I remember the "Winter Soldier Investigation" back in 1971. Finally, I thought, Americans will learn the truth about the war in Vietnam. The entire nation would hear from our veteran soldiers what we, who were stationed at or lived on the stateside bases, heard continually. The public was blissfully ignorant to the violent and inhumane realities of war. Once people were exposed to the horror and depravity that defined the war against Vietnam, they would, I believed, unite to bring it to an end. And the bloody leeches who had profited politically and financially from the waging of war and the manufacture of its accessories, would stand revealed and reviled.

Although The Winter Soldier Investigations were largely ignored by the press at the time, many across the country, followed the three days of testimony as best they could. The testimonies succeeded in shining a light on the dark war far away in Vietnam, and had the immediate effect of humanizing once again, both the the Vietnamese people (who were referred to as gooks) and the "killing machines" that our soldiers, through training and policy, had become. I was inspired and thankful that my courageous brothers chose to serve their country "above and beyond" by speaking the truth and gifting all of us with hope.

We need our Winter Soldiers again. Please support them - KWW

935 LIES - OVER ONE MILLION DEAD - A TWO TRILLION DOLLAR WAR
...........................WE MUST LIBERATE THE TRUTH...................
...............................Kitchen Window Woman....................
...................Resident Scholar, American Patriot Institute.................

Inspired by Bertolt Brecht

2008-02-27T18:32:00.000-08:00

Recently, I wrote about a favorite old book of mine - "The Heart of Europe" - (see my previous post, "Expecting the Islamofascists" here). Every time I open its covers I go on a journey. Several years ago, I read a powerful poem that I discovered on page 719. "Yes, I Live in a Dark Age" by German poet and playwright, Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), sent me on a search for more of his poetry.

I was successful. I found more poetry by Brecht and a book of short stories. The following piece by Bertolt Brecht is my favorite of his poems. His use of clear, simple language to describe the origin and effect of war is the source of the stark but powerful impact delivered by "From a German War Primer". That war is conceived by the upper classes and feasts on those beneath is the theme throughout. I sincerely find it to be among the most heartfelt and truthful anti-war poems ever written.

You may already be familiar with Bertolt Brecht"s work. He was the wordsmith of "Three Penny Opera" who fleshed out Kurt Weill's musical score. Brecht wrote the lyrics for the most famous song to come out of "Three Penny Opera" - Mac the Knife.

Please give this incredible piece of work a read. Its message rings true for today and should be taken seriously.

________________________________________________________

From a German War Primer

AMONGST THE HIGHLY PLACED
It is considered low to talk about food.
The fact is : they have
Already eaten.

The lowly must leave this earth
Without having tasted
Any good meat.

For wondering where they come from ans
Where they are going
The fine evenings find them
Too exhausted.

They have not yet seen
The mountains and the great sea
When their time is already up.

If the lowly do not
Think about what's low
They will never rise.

THE BREAD OF THE HUNGRY HAS
ALL BEEN EATEN
Meat has become unknown. Useless
The pouring out of the people's sweat.
The laurel groves have been
lopped down.
From the chimneys of the arms factories
Rises smoke.

THE HOUSE-PAINTER SPEAKS OF
GREAT TIMES TO COME.
The forests still grow
The fields still bear
The cities still stand
The people still breathe.

ON THE CALENDAR THE DAY IS NOT
YET SHOWN
Every month, every day
Lies open. One of those days
Is going to be marked with a cross.

THE WORKERS CRY OUT FOR BREAD
The merchants cry out for markets.
The unemployed were hungry. The employed
Are hungry now.
The hands that lay folded are busy again.
The are making shells.

THOSE WHO TAKE THE MEAT FROM THE TABLE
Teach contentment.
Those for whom the contribution is destined
Demand sacrifice.
Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry
Of wonderful times to come.
Those who lead the country into the abyss
Call ruling too difficult
For ordinary men.

WHEN LEADERS SPEAK OF PEACE
The common folk know
That war is coming.
When leaders curse war
The mobilization order is already written out.

THOSE AT THE TOP SAY: PEACE
AND WAR
Are of different substance.
But their peace and their war
Are like wind and storm.

War grows from their peace
Like son from his mother
He bears
Her frightful features.

ON THE WALL WAS CHALKED:
They want war.
The man who wrote it
Has already fallen.

THOSE AT THE TOP SAY:
This way to glory.
Those down below say:
This way to the grave.

THE WAR WHICH IS COMING
Is not the first one. There were
Other wars before it.
When the last one came to an end
There were conquerors and conquered.
Among the conquered the common people
Starved. Among the conquerors
The common people starved too.

THOSE AT THE TOP SAY COMRADESHIP
Reigns in the army.
The truth of this is seen
In the cookhouse.
In their hearts should be
The selfsame courage. But
On their plates
Are two kinds of rations.

WHEN IT COMES TO MARCHING MANY DO NOT
KNOW
That their enemy is marching at their head.
The voice which gives them their orders
Is their enemy's voice and
The man who speaks of the enemy
Is the enemy himself.

IT IS NIGHT
The married couples
Lie in their beds. The young women
Will bear orphans.

GENERAL, YOUR TANK IS A POWERFUL VEHICLE
It smashes down forests and crushes a hundred men.
But it has one defect:
It needs a driver.

General, your bomber is powerful
It flies faster than a storm and carries more than an elephant.
But it has one defect:
It needs a mechanic.

General, man is very useful.
He can fly and he can kill.
But he has one defect:
He can think.
_________________________________________________________

Each time I read "War Primer" either silently or out loud, I find something else to think about. I've read it many times during the seven-year reign of Bush that we have been forced to endure. It continues to inspire me to work towards peace and against a global American Empire.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?

............Kitchen Window Woman..................

HELP - Iraq's Children are Suffering

2008-02-22T16:25:00.000-08:00

An activist friend, who is also a mother and a grandmother, recently e-mailed to inform me of UNICEF's urgent alert - the immediate need of $37 million dollars to treat sick and wounded Iraqi children. The plight of Iraq's children has been a constant concern for anti-war humanitarian activists since the war began five years ago. Despite "The Surge" being touted as a resounding success by the Bush Administration, the appalling circumstances faced daily by Iraqi children have deteriorated drastically. An entire generation of children is endangered.

America's March 19, 2003 "Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq began a never ending nightmare of terror, suffering, pain, and death for Iraqi children.

Thousands of children have died in the unnecessary, illegal war that was forced upon their country. Thousands more have been orphaned. Tens of thousands have been blinded, lost limbs, taken bullets and shrapnel, been burned, brain injured, and psychologically and emotionally traumatized. Sadly, many wounded and sick children are being abandoned by parents, who as a consequence of the war, can no longer care for them. Currently within Iraq 1.6 million homeless children need medical treatment and food.

There are the kids who are wasting away from what the Iraqis call "the white death" - Leukemia. During the First Gulf War, American and British forces pounded Iraq with 975 bombs and missiles that were coated with depleted uranium. Unfortunately, America and Britain do not clean up after themselves. The radioactive shell casings, bullets, and bomb fragments littered all over Iraq will remain active for 4.5 billion years. Incidents of leukemia in Iraq have increased over 600% since the 1990's.

Billions of dollars worth of additional radioactive bombs, missiles, and rounds have pummeled Iraq since the inception of George W. Bush's crusade to "save" the Iraqi people. Is it any wonder Iraq has developed into the location with the highest most concentrated rate of Leukemia in the world? Even worse, the fact that there are very few doctors left in Iraq to care for sick and wounded children is compounded by a severe lack of basic medical supplies, equipment, and necessaary medicines.

But that is not all. The destruction of Iraq's infrastructure by American and British forces, plus Sunni and Shi'a religious combatants alike, has left 60% of the Iraqi people without safe drinking water and seas of raw sewage in the streets. Dehydration caused by diarrhea is stalking and killing Iraq's children and they face a renewed outbreak of Cholera during the summer months of 2008.

Malnutrition is a constant for these poor, war-weary innocent victims and they can't even go to school to forget their misery. Many schools have been closed or destroyed entirely. Often the journey to reach a school is far too dangerous for children to undertake. And now, in the southern province of Qadissiyah, 275 children have been stricken with leishmanaisis, a disfiguring skin idsease that can also lead to death if it attacks internal organs.

Although billions of taxpayer dollars were designated for the repair of Iraq's infrastructure and the rebuilding of it's institutions, most has been pocketed by American contractors or skillfully diverted to finance the continuing construction of 14 enduring / permanent US military bases instead.

It is apparent that the American government has no intention of taking responsibility to relieve the suffering they have visited on the youngest victims of the on-going war and occupation. Their childhoods have been stolen. How much more can Iraqi children withstand? An entire generation of children is endangered.

It is up to us to help. Please send something if you can or help by promoting public awareness about the plight of Iraq's children. If you prefer a more established charity donate to UNICEF. I chose to contribute to a smaller organization. I mailed a modest check to Iraq Health Now whose Project Coordinator, Kathy Murphy, has managed to ship containers with medical supplies, little wheel chairs, walkers, and crutches to the hospitals in Basra. Every little bit will help - money is needed for postage as well as supplies, so even a coupla bucks will be put to use.

Note: We save pennies, pocket change, and recycle cans and bottles. These funds accumulate and are put to use for political or charitable contributions. Our unimpressive but useful financial stash has once again enabled us to help others - for that I am thankful.

If they gave a war and nobody came,
Iraq's children would be living normal lives.
...........Kitchen Window Woman..........

Expecting the Islamofascists

2008-02-17T20:16:00.000-08:00

3 for $1.00 - I couldn't resist. I began to scan the portable bookshelf that sat on the sidewalk in front of the brightly lit used book store. Immediately a thick old tome caught my eye. I took it from its place on the shelf and opened it to the table of contents when I noticed the following passage printed on the opposite page:

THIS IS A WARTIME BOOK. SIZE,
WEIGHT OF PAPER AND MARGINS HAVE
BEEN REDUCED TO CONSERVE MATE-
RIAL NECESSARY FOR THE WAR EFFORT.

I quickly located two more books to complete the $1.00 trio, paid the storekeeper, and headed home with what, in the last eight years, has become one of my most treasured books. Its amazing that something so rich was purchased for a mere 33 1/3 cents!

Since the holidays are over, I have been free to catch up on my reading. During these last two weeks I have been revisiting the book which I described above. Entitled "Heart of Europe - An anthology of Creative Writing in Europe 1920 -1940", it was edited by Klaus Mann and Herman Kesten, and published in 1943.

The 65-year-old collection is made up of essays, short stories, poems, and prose that were written during the two decades between WWI, The Great War and WWII, The Big One. Its 975 pages are divided among writers from twenty European countries who at the time reflected the psyche and suffering of the peoples who survived one war only to be swept into another.

It is said that history repeats itself but that only occurs when the lessons that history has to offer are deliberatly ignored. Whenever I open "Heart of Europe" I not only travel the continent and experience cultures other than my own, I also journey back in time to the years in which fascism developed from its inception to dominate Europe and threaten the entire globe. We should be thankful that some very brave writers chose to warn their respective fellow citizens of that rising threat. Their words still bear heeding as they ring true for today's America.

Note - Although the wars color many of the offerings in this book, the included works also cover a wide variety of writings on love, middle age, the law, everyday life at the time, and beauty as well as many other topics.

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The poem "Expecting The Barbarians" jumped off of the page of my copy of "Heart of Europe" last week after witnessing a televised speech given by John McCain. During his performance, McCain, the candidate, practically foamed at the mouth every time he spat the religiobabble phrase "ISLAMOFASCISTS" into the camera. This fearsome talking point seemed to be the theme of his tough talk harangue. Following McCain's tirade, we were treated to the dire hissings of George W. Bush who warned of (or threatened?) attack if Americans, who do not want to be spied upon, allowed FISA to lapse. The Barbarians are coming...

Penned by Greek poet C.P. Cavafy, "Expecting The Barbarians" was translated by Marguerite Yourcenar and W.H. Auden for the 1943 copy of "Heart Of Europe". I prefer their translation to the more modern translations I viewed online. It has more impact.

Give it a read and then replace the term Barbarians with Islamofascists to put its message into current political context. And Do think of our impotent Democratic Congress. Enjoy.

...........................EXPECTING THE BARBARIANS............. by C.P. Cavafy

What are we all waiting for,
Gathered together like this on the public square?

The Barbarians are coming to-day.

Why this air of listlessness in the Senate House?
Why have the Senators given up legislating?

The Barbarians are coming to-day.
What good would be the good of legislating?
When they come, the Barbarians will make the law.

Why has our Emperor got out of bed so early?
What is he doing at the city gates,
With his crown on his head and such a solemn expression?

The Barbarians are coming to-day
The Emperor is waiting to receive their leader.
He has even prepared a charter
Granting him honors and titles.

Why are our two consuls and our praetors
All got up in their embroidered scarlet robes?
Why are they covered with bracelets and rings?
What are they gong to do with their precious staffs,
Wonderfully filigreed in silver and gold?

The Barbarians are coming to-day.
And such things impress Barbarians.

Then why are our famous orators not here to make speeches
And display their usual fluency?

The Barbarians are coming to-day.
And the Barbarians do not appreciate fine phrases or long speeches.

Why, now, all of a sudden, this disturbance?
How solemn everybody's face has suddenly become?
Why are the streets and the squares all emptying so quickly?
Why is everybody going home looking so blue?

Because night has fallen and the Barbarians have not come.
And some people have just got back from the frontiers
Who say that there are no more Barbarians.

And now, without the Barbarians, what is to become of us?
After all, they would have been kind of a solution.

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Islamofascist is such a scary term. When one considers that is was a Christofascist president who conspired with Judeaofascist advisors and plain old corporate fascist greedmonkeys to launch a preemptive fascist invasion, and an ongoing massively destructive war against a sovereign country and its people, it appears that the Islamofascits have some pretty terrifying close relatives.

Got to go, I've got some reading to do
..........Kitchen Window Woman..........

A Belated Valentine's Day Message

2008-02-16T02:02:00.000-08:00

I wish you all a belated Happy Valentine's Day! I hope that your February 14th was as full of love and as sweet as ours was. We had flowers, music, a special dinner, chocolates, and spent an enjoyable evening here, at home, in our wee canyon cottage.

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The photo above is of my 40-year-old solid brass peace sign. I posted an almost identical photo last year on Valentine's Day. I used these two symbols together because the heart and the peace sign are natural allies. This peace sign and I have been working for years to end America's culture of war. My peace necklace has always inspired me and I have been able to keep on keeping on because my heart is in what I do. Yep, I got "heart".

Its like the song says, "You gotta have heart!" America lost "heart" a long time ago. A century of ever rising militarism and seven years of Bush extremism plus an unnecessary war have drained the economy. Americans have been left without jobs, homes, medical care, and many of the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

Yesterday there was another mass shooting. Shootings at schools, shootings at colleges, shootings in homes, shootings in malls - shootings have become common, weekly events. Think of the ever spreading epidemic of mass shootings in America as symptomatic of a society addicted to violence and war. A nation that has "heart" does not seek solutions that depend solely on guns and bombs.

A nation that has "heart" does not neglect its elderly, its mentally ill, its homeless, its hungry, its children, or its wounded soldiers. Nor does it betray its working citizens by outsourcing their jobs overseas. A nation that has "heart" does not waste the money provided by taxing its citizens to support endless wars that destroy other nations. A nation that has heart, like a family that has heart, like a person who has heart, takes care of people and extends a weaponless hand to its neighbors. A nation that has "heart" engenders mutual trust and friendship with other nations.

"You gotta have heart". Tune out the heartless drummers pounding their drums of war and listen instead to the rhythm of life that beats within your heart. Yep, "You gotta have heart...All you really need is heart!"

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Years ago when I met my husband he asked me to sing harmony with him. Later on that evening, I found myself on the stage at the La Paloma Theater in Encinitas, CA singing harmony on "Dark as a Dungeon". We were married soon after.

One of my favorite albums of all time is Spirit, the 1968 debut album by Spirit. It is timeless and a joy every time I listen to it (I have it on CD now). Anybody else out there into Spirit?

Several days before Valentine's Day, I was looking up Spirit for my daughter when I stumbled across a website page with their available albums. That's where I found the perfect album for a Valentine's gift for my ukulele playing, guitar playing, singing spouse. So I clicked on the pictured "Spirit Live at The La Paloma" and ordered it from CD Baby. If we had known that Spirit was playing a gig at the La Paloma back in 1993 we would have been there!

Anyway, it was kind of a past revisited full circle connection kind of a gift - he liked it! And I love the garden gnome couple on the bench and the garden gnome giving a heart to his love that he got for me. We will find special places for them in our yard and garden.

We have quite a few garden gnomes - they have "heart".
...................Kitchen Window Woman................................

Hillary Doesn't Get It - WAR IS A WOMEN'S ISSUE

2008-02-04T01:30:00.000-08:00

WAR IS A WOMEN'S ISSUE. War is the number one women's issue world wide. Women and children comprise 80% of the collateral damage that results from the wars that are being waged daily all over the world. Women and their children are victims of bombs, bullets, rape and other forms of sexual violence, psychological trauma, starvation, displacement, and the damaging effects of DU-depleted uranium, the radioactive poison which is used extensively by the United States to coat its bullets, missiles and bombs.

WAR IS A WOMEN'S ISSUE. There are very few women in the world who do not suffer from the cycle of endless wars. Directly or indirectly, the fallout of armed conflict impacts or alters the lives women in every country. War is akin to the domestic violence that destroys families from the inside out. It destroys from the outside in. Just as women have worked feverishly to break the cycle of domestic violence, they must now work with equal determination to break the cycle of war.

WAR IS THE WOMAN'S ISSUE THAT HILLARY CLINTON DOESN'T GET. The woman who wants to be America's first female president has consistently supported the use of force and the continued funding, development, and use of some of the most cruel and destructive conventional weapons used in modern warfare. DU, cluster bombs, and land mines have been in the Clinton arsenal ever Bill was president, and remain there to this day, despite Hillary's sudden conversion to an "end-the-war now" candidate.

Since WAR IS A WOMEN'S ISSUE, let's look at Hillary Clinton's history as a pro-war HAWK. Most famously, back in March of 1999 when Senator Clinton was our nation's First Lady, she pressured her husband, the president, to bomb Yugoslavia. Military interventions soon became a habit for the co-presidential couple. Along with Yugoslavia, the Clintons involved US forces in the affairs of Afghanistan, Columbia, Haiti, Iraq, Somalia, the Sudan, and Iraq.

Weapons laced with Depleted Uranium were used in Kosovo and are still in use in Afghanistan and Iraq leaving all three countries contaminated with radioactive poison. Military service members and civilians have been in constant contact with the highly toxic dust. Despite an epidemic of cancers and severe birth defects in newborns, the American and British militaries continue to use DU in their various wars. Depleted Uranium has a half life of 4.5 billion years which makes it a forever killer and an invisible form of genocide.

Senator Clinton was finally forced by sick veterans to call for medical tests for our soldiers who have been exposed to DU (many vets are still waiting for testing) however, the Senator has done nothing to STOP the use of DEPLETED URANIUM, America's WMD of choice.

Senator Clinton also voted against a ban on cluster bombs and munitions. Think of a cluster bomb as a pregnant shell that delivers a litter of tiny grenades over a large area. Cluster bomblets scatter everywhere - gardens, roof tops, school yards, farm fields, markets, and under cars. It doesn't matter if the duds don't explode right away. They often remain hidden for years before being detonated by an unsuspecting civilian. Cluster explosives are very effective weapons of terror when used against civilian populations. Women and children are the primary victims. Senator Barack Obama gets it - WAR IS A WOMEN'S ISSUE. He voted in favor of the ban.

Hillary voted with the pack on October 11th, 2002 not once, but twice. First she voted against the "Multilateral Use of Force Authorization" put forth by Michigan's Democratic Senator, Carl Levin, and then she voted with the neoconservatives for the Iraq War Resolution which authorized "the decider" to start an illegal war. Hillary Clinton voted as an ambitious politician, not as woman who respects, and values the lives of others. "If I knew than what I know now" is one hell of an unacceptable excuse in the face of the massive suffering that has been caused by the illegal war against Iraq. Lately, she's been re-writing history by twisting the truth about the Iraq War Amendment.

WAR IS A WOMAN'S ISSUE but the corporateers who make up America's Military Industrial Security Complex view WAR AS A MONEY ISSUE, and so does Hillary Clinton. Is it any wonder that the weapons industry has turned away from Republican candidates to offer large sums of money to Democratic pro-war honey, Hillary? Sadly, she took blood money contributions from Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup-Grumman, General Dynamics, and Raytheon while the taxpayers continue to pay $720 million dollars a day to poison a country and kill people.

WAR IS A WOMAN'S ISSUE. Echoing George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton threatened, "Every nation has to either be with us, or against us. Those who harbor terrorists, or who finance them, are going to pay a price." She, like the current "war president", is a deliverer of ultimatums - negotiations are off the table She likes nukes, too! War brings suffering and death. Hillary just doesn't get it! War is the Anti-life.

WAR IS A WOMEN'S ISSUE because in large numbers we are the ones whose hearts break, whose family members are killed or maimed, whose homes and fields are destroyed, and whose lives are lost all due to the violent actions of others. Women bring life into the world. We are the keepers of the hearth. We love. We are nurturers. We grow children. We teach our children to respect one another, to problem solve, and to negotiate. We do not teach them to steal. We do not teach them to kill. We do not invent ways to kill other people.

Women need change. Women want change. Many women are working to make that change happen by ending militarism and the cycle of war that goes with it. It is up to us to select leaders who take into account the lives and interests of women everywhere. BARACK OBAMA GETS IT! He has worked toward change. He voted against the war that has preemptively ended over one million lives. I will cast my vote for Obama.

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*Note - I haven't slept well since George W. Bush was appointed president. I have dreaded every day during his two terms for each dawn brought more destruction and less freedom. I will not rest with Hillary in the White house. I do not trust her. She will go to war.

The time to "tear up"( if that is a ploy one uses) is before the bombs are dropped.
.......Hell No Hillary !........
...Kitchen Window Woman...

Kathleen Sebelius Delivered "Pelosi Lite" or "That was a Rebuttal?"

2008-01-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

What did you do Kathleen? What were you thinking? Your spineless attempt at rebuttal went down like flavorless, cold oatmeal. You lightly breezed over every one of George W. Bush's arrogant statements along with each and every one of his many threats and lies. We kept waiting for you to speak truth to arrogance, to stand up for the restoration of our Constitution, to honor religious freedom, to mention ending the illegal war against Iraq, or at least, to warn George W. Bush that his time as King is "short". We waited. We watched and listened. We waited for NOTHING.

You were "chosen for some reason" to deliver a counterargument but that is not what you did. The only thing memorable about your endless verbiage was that your voice and words were reminiscent of supermarket freezer music - that calming, sedative muzak they play to drug you into the safety of spending more as you shop. What a trance-inducing speech. Absolutely "zombfying"!

How tragic that the American people have been "Pelosied" yet again by the Democratic Party. Subjected to Bush's "I want my legacy" State of the Union Address, all hopes for a resounding rebuttal were dashed when Kathleen Sebelius sprinkled happy fairy dust upon the adult audience while cooing, "we're all friends now, not to worry darlings, sleep well". The inexplicable poor choice of Democratic Governor Sebelius to deliver the rebuttal to George "the Worst president ever" Bush's last formalized bit of effusive twaddle, was a slap in the face of every discerning, progressive Democratic voter in America. Who in the muddle that calls itself the Democratic Party, made this uninspired, disastrous decision?

The tepid, bland, pointless, asskissing delivered by Kathleen Sebelius was the most disappointing and conciliatory speech that Democrats have advanced thus far. It stank of sabotage. Sebelius's Chamberlain-esque appeal to the two-term "Mini Me" tyrant came off like that of a victimized female trying to sugar her abuser into less violence upon her body, "I ask that ..... I plead, I pray, I beg..... I will do what ever you want, your Hiney .....

Dorothy and her dog Toto, who also hailed from Kansas, displayed far more character and courage when they faced an adversary, than the governor who spoke this evening. How crucially disappointing that a real democrat, a real woman, and a real inhabitant of Kansas, would, as evidenced by her lackluster, passionless performance tonight, pale by comparison to two fictional characters.

* Note - I had high hopes for tonight's Democratic rebuttal because retired Congressman Lionel Van Deerlin, a respected columnist, and one of my favorites, wrote about the stunning rebuttal one could expect from Governor Sebelius, the daughter of a friend with whom he served long ago. I love reading his column because I learn so much and appreciate his knowledge of history. Perhaps, this time, he did not expect the "Pelosi Effect" or notice how many Americans consider it fashionably patriotic to surf the rising waves of fascism.

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There are women in the House and Senate and who have been elected to govern a state who are to be commended. Unfortunately, they do not seem to get as much press as Clinton, Pelosi, Sebelius, Rice, and Feinstein, etc. Could it be that they are busy doing their jobs, don't have hidden agendas, and haven't sold out?

Please, if you know of any, list the women who have been elected to office and are doing a good job in the comments. We all need to know more about them and less about those mentioned above.

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Tonight, I was compelled to write what I did
because the speech that needed to be delivered,
was stillborn.

...................Kitchen Window Woman.....................

"ENOUGH"

2008-01-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, January 27th, one day before George W. Bush's last State of the Union Address, 58 patriotic Americans gathered together on a corner in Carmel Valley, CA to mark six months of ENOUGH protests at that location. The one hour protest was followed by a lively reception given by the president of San Diego's Veterans for Peace Chapter 91 and his wife.

Both sides of the street at a very busy intersection were lined with dedicated patriots from 1:00 o'clock until 2:00 o'clock in the afternoon during which hundreds of passing cars honked or flashed peace signs in support. Then all adjourned for good company, intelligent conversation, and good food. It was wonderful!

The holiday whirlwind and several bouts of colds and flu had left my spouse and I slowed down and weary. Yesterday's events however, proved to be so positive and inspirational, that we came away energized. It was an auspicious occasion as well, considering that the sun broke through the clouds and held the predicted thunder storm at bay while we exercised our right to dissent. The protesters averted pneumonia and kept their signs dry, too!

We've all had more than ENOUGH of Bush, Cheney, and their war.

*Note to Vets - Please explore Veterans For Peace or Iraq Veterans Against The War - Join Us. We Need You!

Exercise your rights.
If you don't use 'em you may lose 'em!
...............Peace................
Kitchen Window Woman

Clinton, Pelosi, and Feinstein - Three Blind Mice

2008-01-11T16:51:00.000-08:00

If I were asked to paint my impression of the year 2007 I would render it in varying tones of gray, accent with bolts of black, and anchor the overall piece in pools of red. Gray for numbing disappointment, black for deceit and betrayal, and red for the blood shed, in this, the latest of the American wars for empire.

Central to the painting would be the three who without our determined votes would never have occupied the political offices they currently hold. Three who were to represent our deepest feminine concerns. Three who were to stand against the destructive military aggression that threatens the entire planet and hold it at bay. Three who would bring balance to a leadership given to extremism.

These three female Democrats, who held our hopes for a less violent, more progressive world in their hands at the beginning of 2007, instead turned their backs on their sister constituents. Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Diane Feinstein not only chose to don the Republican mantle but have consistently raised theirs fists in support of Bush fascism.

Three blind mice, three blind mice,

See what they've done, see what they've done

They all helped Bush take one million lives,

Then voted more funds for perpetual strife,

Did you ever see such a mess in your life
as three blind mice?

Hillary, Nancy, and Diane blinded by arrogance, wealth, power, misplaced loyalties, and blatant authoritarianism are the three blind mice of whom we speak. They have collaborated with the Bush neoconservatives against the American people, participated in the trampling of our nation's Constitution, and betrayed women and children the world over by enabling American militarism to persist unchecked.

Note - the following piece is in three parts.

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Let's examine below some of the many reasons one should not vote for a candidate based on vaginal qualifications alone.....

HILLARY CLINTON - New York Senator - Known to liberals and progressives as "Republican Lite", Hillary Clinton should NEVER be president. The only difference between H. Clinton and G.W. Bush is that she has a vagina. Their policies are identical. Vote for Hillary if you want to continue what George W. Bush began. Hillary Clinton "the more of the same candidate" and she cries on cue, too!

The first clue to her true character was that she lawyered for Walmart. When she made a political decision to remain married to her philandering husband Bill, it was another sign of her hell-bent determination to occupy the White House. Her most glaring act of treachery took place on October 11, 2002 when Senator Hillary Clinton voted yea in support of the Iraq War Resolution advanced by Washington neoconservatives.

She coulda been a contender, she coulda spoke truth to power, she shoulda been "the mouse that roared" but she cast instead a vote to bring death, dismemberment, and mental and emotional anguish to over one million innocent people.

On February 15, 2003, four months after that fateful vote, 30 million people united for peace in the streets of 40 countries worldwide to demonstrate their opposition to Bush's impending invasion of Iraq. Hillary turned a deaf ear to the largest peace demonstration in history. Over 30 million people were not mislead by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Was Hillary Clintion misled as she claims? How bright can she be if she really bought their Iraq war bullshit?

Hillary continues to support not only military preemption but the use of land mines and cluster bombs responsible for the worldwide murder and maiming of civilians (largely children). She condones unconditionally U.S. arms transfers to dictatorships whose governments have been flagged for human rights abuses. The American military industrial security complex has nothing to fear from Hillary!

Not a word has she said about America's favorite weapon of mass destruction, depleted uranium with its toxic half life of 4.5 billion years and its astounding array of cancers and birth defects. U.S. service members and the indigenous populations of Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan have been enjoying the devastating effects that follow exposure to radioactive uranium dust for many years now.

Hillary is no expert on foreign policy (see Hillary Clinton on Internati onal Law). She stands firmly against the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, international law, and the United Nations. Given these neoconservative views, it comes as no surprise that she is blindly loyal to Israel despite its hundreds of human rights violations against the Palestinian people. She continues to accept large campaign donations from AIPAC - the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (lobby). American citizens go without medical care while Israel receives 10 million American tax payer dollars each and every day! Thanks, Hillary.

While Clinton promises Americans universal health care on one hand with the other she has added to her campaign coffers with funds from the insurance and health care industries (please see Michael Moore's letter here). One wonders just what type of medical care and at what cost she has in mind for the neglected American public.

As an American Senator, Hillary voted for the Patriot Act in 2001 and then voted for its reauthorization in 2006. And let's not forget that Hillary Clinton also missed an opportunity to speak for the religious tolerance guaranteed by the Constitution when during a televised debate she spoke about her so-called faith instead of reminding the questioner and the nation that religious freedom is one of the principles upon which America was founded.

Hillary Clinton is the first of the three optically challenged female rodent democrats. She's so blind she's still playing the"terror card" Vote her a mouse trap.

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NANCY PELOSI - The first woman Speaker of the House - We were overjoyed, excited, the future held hope. We heard it, read it, and then watched as you, surrounded by children, took first the gavel, and then your oath. Do you remember that oath you swore, Nancy? In case you have forgotten the following words are those you spoke on January 4, 2007.

Do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you will take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter, so help you God?

We called one another on the phone, e-mailed, wrote about it on our blogs, and hailed our sisters in the market and the mall to share the wondrous news... the Speaker of the House was now a woman, the first ever, and a Democrat, too! Women across America were buoyant!

Our hearts began to warm and beat. We felt as if we could breathe again. Something would be done to stop the destruction and death. Children in Iraq and the young men and women in our military would once again be valued and protected. Priorities like jobs, health care, housing, and education would receive our hard earned tax dollars while the thrust for global empire would wither from financial neglect. The reign of terror in America would surely be brought to an end.

We would restore trust both within America and abroad by treating our international neighbors as we ourselves wished to be treated. To do so, it was necessary to impeach the madmen who were responsible for multiple war crimes and treason. Accountability would be insured by subjecting the criminal leaders to the full extent of prosecution under international law.

What happened Nancy? Did you misunderstand or "misunderestimate" or something? Just what didn't you understand about "support and defend the Constitution?" We have domestic enemies who have trampled our rights, lied, stolen, and murdered. Our nation is in direct danger from the criminals who occupy its two highest elected offices. Yet you chose to excuse their treachery. What mental reservations made you shirk you sworn duty and pledge your allegiance to George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney?

It is said that you are one of the richest women in America. Given your priviledged background perhaps your first loyalty is to wealth and class. How long do we have to wait for the leftovers trickle down to us? That you were removed and out of touch with your constituents became evident when you uttered those appalling words, "IMPEACHMENT IS OFF THE TABLE" over and over again.

We were stunned. However, the crushing disappointment and bitterness caused by your betrayal soon gave way to anger. You didn't listen to us. You even said that IMPEACHMENT was a waste of time. WTF??

Your voting record is equally disappointing. You voted for war in Afghanistan, for the Patriot Act, for the establishment of Homeland Security, and nay when a bill condemning the torture of prisoners in Iraq was presented. As Speaker of the House your performance has been abysmal. You have presided over a democratically controlled congress full of weak, corporate addicted, Constitution shredding, fascist wannabes and have thus, failed the American people.

You, my dear girl, bring to mind another, who decades ago, capitulated and appeased a nation into harm's way. I draw your attention to the tall man standing to the far left of Mussolini and Hitler in the above photograph - Neville Chamberlain.

Shame on you, House Mouse, numero deux ,
Our message, it seems, you've misconstrued.

IMPEACHMENT IS ON THE TABLE!

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Had I seen the photo below of the woman who asked for my vote doing a "Nixon" I would have had second thoughts - "a picture is worth a thousand words" and this photo is so telling.

DIANE FEINSTEIN - A California Senator cleverly disguised as a liberal Democrat - Another AIPAC darling, she is noted for voting not her conscience, but ISRAEL. I must apologize to my fellow citizens. I have voted for this third unseeing mouse. Sadly, I voted for her more than once. I assumed - instead of investigating. I mistook party affiliation for an indicator of similar values, and with my attention elsewhere, the candidate who shares my gender was convenient. I trusted, instead of educating myself, and to my regret, voted for her.

Over time, I began to notice that she could not be counted on to support the issues that were important to many of us whose votes had elevated her to the status of one of California's two senators.

We will all suffer a long time from the actions of this woman. She is a war monger who has also benefited personally as her husband is a war profiteer. This supposedly liberal senator voted for the Patriot Act and its extension later on, the illegal, preemptive invasion of Iraq, and to authorize spying on the American people.

Diane's most profound loyalties are to Israel, AIPAC, and the Beltway power system. Perhaps if we played the games she does and our husbands made weapons deals, we could live in houses like the one above. It is the home of Diane Feinstein and her third hubby, Richard Blum. Boy, the third one must be a charm!

Most recently, Senator Feinstein was one of only six traitorous democratic senators to vote for the installation of Michael Mukasey as the Attorney General of the United States. Despite hundreds and thousands of phone calls, petition signatures, and e-mails, Senator Feinstein D - CA, voted to confirm Mukasey, a man who refused to define WATERBOARDING as TORTURE.

As intimately violent as rape, waterboarding is a cruel, inhumane procedure justified and practiced by only the most depraved of societies and individuals. Waterboarding was used by the good Christians to save souls during the Inquisition in the 1500's. The Nazi Gestapo employed the torture method liberally during the Holocaust. The waterboarding methods favored by the Japanese Kempeitai during WWII made such an impression on American GI prisoners of war that Japanese Officer Yukio Asano was convicted for practicing torture and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. During the Vietnam War a U.S. soldier was court martialed, found guilty, and punished for waterboarding.

The above painting by a former prisoner of the Khmer Rouge depicts the waterboarding apparatis at Tuol Sleng prison in Cambodia. Such a memorable portrait of friendly persuasion.

This from Mukasey's testimony shines a light on his loyalty (and Diane Feinstein's) to the Bush Administration, "there are people who are using coercive techniques and who are being authorized to use coercive techniques, and for me to say something that is going to put their careers or freedom at risk simply because I want to be congenial - I don't think it would be responsible of me to do that."

The following statement by Michael Mukasey is even more disturbing than his foggy non-answers about torture. The emphasis is mine.

"The hidden message in the structure of the Constitution, as it were, is that the government it establishes is entitled, in the first instance at least least, to receive from its citizens the benefit of the doubt. Please remember that as you participate in this debate about where it is we are going." He thinks that there are hidden messages in the Constitution? WTF? This man is every bit as dangerous to American justice as Alberto Gonzales was!

Senator Diane Feinstein has proven, with her approval of Mukasey for the office of Attorney General, that she supports Bush's use of torture and his administration's systematic destruction of our Constitution. She has turned her back on her constituents and violated her oath of office numerous times. She cannot be trusted and is therefore, unfit to serve the American people as a Senator. Censure is far too kind.

Once again, "a picture is worth a thousand words" - the above is a Dorian Gray-styled photo of Diane Feinstein sans her political facade.

Blinded by militarism, blinded by culture, blinded by the Beltway, and blinded by injustice, this third miserable mouse, should hide her face.

These three blind broads have made it to the big time. They've crossed the threshold. Clinton, Pelosi, and Feinstein are in the back room with the good old boys. Give each of our esteemed femmes fatales a damn cigar and tell them to stick it.

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The three disappointments of 2007 have been on my mind for a while. With the holidays over, and Hillary running for president, this one just had to be the first of the new year. Unfortunately, I've had another head cold, so this has taken me well over a week to write.

Please don't vote based on gender
Investigate and comtemplate before you delegate
................Kitchen Window Woman......................

Happy Holidays Everyone!

2007-12-25T15:26:00.000-08:00

Seasons Greetings, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwaanza, Happy Hannukah, and to my European and Celtic ancestors, I hope that your Solstice was spiritual and joyful. Hindus, Buddhists, Humanists, Atheists, nonbelievers and believers of every kind, everywhere on this planet, our Earth has spun another year, and we've all woven another year of life into this universal tapestry. No one thread dominates for the fabric of life is strong with as many intertwined differences as there are interlaced similarities.

From our home to yours, from my heart to yours .........PEACE

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I have not blogged since Veteran's Day because the holiday season for me (and most women) had started. I have been a nonstop blur every since.

During this season, I have to let my passion for human rights, religious freedom, and the political fight for American Democracy simmer on the back burner as I concentrate all of my energy on my family.

Newspapers went unread and the internet was used only to shop, e-mail, and research recipes. I have been out of touch in one way yet in touch in another - an odd but necessary sort of balance.

2008 is calling so this progressive will be back at it for together we must stop the rise of Bush fascism.

Get some rest, the new year is a close week away.
................Kitchen Window Woman.................

A "Take Back America" Peace Sign - Our Family Project

2007-11-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

I've posted the story of our Peace Sign in honor of Veteran's Day, November 11th, 2007, with a special nod to my father-in-law, who retired as a "Mustang" Lt. Commander after a thirty year career in the Navy, and my father, who survived a glider ride into WWII in Europe, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and suffered the after effects of combat for the rest of his life. Both of our beloved WWII veterans are no longer with us, but I would like to note that both of these honorable men firmly supported the anti-war movement. My father-in-law disdained Bush's illegal invasion of Iraq, and my father, after fighting the Nazis in Europe, would have been sickened by the rise of private armies like Blackwater Worldwide, in his own country. My husband and I are activists because we honor our fathers who continued throughout their lives to "support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic" by questioning the government and speaking their minds.

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Catfish and I started the summer with a very definite project in mind. Although the result looks as if it could be knocked out in a day or two there were many steps involved. Sandwiched in between the weekend Stop Blackwater encampment and rally in Potrero, and the beginning of San Diego's 2007 firestorms on Sunday, October 21st, our new Take Back America, red, white, and blue peace sign was finally completed on Sunday, October 14th

Some of you may recall that last Christmas season (2006) our eldest son, a disabled vet, not only put up our regular holiday lights, but built us a giant colorful, blinking peace sign as well. It was quite a surprise. When the holiday season ended, friends and family asked me if we were going to leave the peace sign up. It was, after all, the only peace sign for miles around. It seemed to me that its bright beautiful message was shinning through the dark night and the darkness that has engulfed our country since the reign of Bush and Cheney began. We decided to keep the peace sign lights burning - until this war is ended and we bring our troops home.

Above is a photo of our original peace sign. We kept it on for many months. It was late spring when we noticed that it was deteriorating. My son had stapled several stands of multi-colored Christmas lights on an old partial sheet of plywood that had been out in the weather and set the lights on a timer. The sheet of plywood was beginning to mildew and fall apart and a strand or two of lights had burned out. There was no way it was going to endure through years of perpetual war in the Middle East as envisioned by Cheney, Bush, and their neoconservative cabal. What to do but make a new one.

Catfish and I talked it over and planned. It was decided that the lights on this peace sign would be red, white, and blue as we are both sick of war loving, profit hungry conservatives waving the colors of democracy while committing war crimes and trashing the Constitution. It was to be a Take Back America Peace Sign. The background would be blue upon which a white peace sign would be painted so that it would stand out during the day.

Our youngest son and a friend with a truck went down to town to buy a sheet of plywood which was then cut in half. My daughter and I went after the primer, the paint, brushes, and a roller tray. The four ft. square of plywood was primed and then painted with three coats of outdoor blue enamel. Next, my husband armed with a ruler and a piece of string penciled the peace sign on, masked around it and painted it white. When the paint was dry it was time for lights.

We liberated the chasing lights we had ordered from an online company from their boxes. What an intimidating tangle of lights!

My protest partner, however, was not deterred by the snarled mass of lights. He quickly came up with a system, went to work, and remained at his peace post until the project was completed.

It had taken several months from the time we began planning a new peace sign to its' completion in mid October. We worked on it, as time allowed, at a relaxed and enjoyable pace.

Finally, one week before the firestorms, it was finished, moved into position, wired to the timer, and ready to go! Come on Sunday night....we wanted to see our peace lights!

The lights came on but it was still not dark enough.

It got darker.....

And darker......

Until - Here it is! Red, white, and blue for democracy, for the Constitution, for our America!

You should see it in action. The lights chase around in a circle but at different times. It's beautiful every night!
.
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NOTE: Tomorrow we are going to march in San Diego's Veterans Day parade with Veterans For Peace and will later attend SDVFP's Arlington West in Oceanside. Then we are going to stay at our favorite place at the beach for several days. I will write when we return.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine....
.............Kitchen Window Woman................

Aftermath, Beware Blackwater Smokescreen, and Santa Anas

2007-10-29T11:31:00.001-07:00

It is being reported that mild Santa Anas are heading our way this weekend. Normally, most of us would not be alarmed by such a forecast, but under the present circumstances with three fires still burning in San Diego County, we are uneasy, jumpy, and hypervigilant. Do I unpack it all or do I leave everything stacked up and in the way but ready to go? I think I will compromise by repacking some things which can then be staged about the house and putting others away.

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The darkness before the dawn? No, it was the middle of a sunny afternoon that the first two of the following photos were taken. It was two days after the Cedar Fire of 03 ravaged Harbison Canyon. Picture #1 - an empty cold one rests on top of a destroyed restaurant table. Picture #2 - Canyon residents gathered for a meeting next to the smoldering ruins of The Canyon Inn. Picture # 3 - My husband across the street with our hose and a bucket putting out a spot fire three days after the burn. Air quality? There was none. These photos capture exactly the color of the ash-filled, still smoky air. A toxic, eerie environment.

BEWARE - Blackwater is scamming a scam behind a smokescreen in Potrero. While everyone is preoccupied with the loss of their homes or just trying to get back to normal after one hell of a stressful firestorm week, Blackwater USA is working a new angle to get at our tax dollars. Inspired by the inferno that roared through Potrero, Blackwater mercenaries want to be FIREMEN! They must be hoping that we all have smoke in our eyes to advance such an outlandish proposal. We don't. Please read the following articles:

1) "A Town Besieged: Potrero Residents Battling Blackwater Now Suffer Ravages of Wildfire" Here

2) "Blackwater's Base and the California Fires" - Here

3) "Blackwater to California: Hire Us to Put Out Your Fires" - Here

STOP BLACKWATER!!!

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The Santa Ana winds, for anyone who has never experienced them, are unique and dangerous. These seasonal winds occur from October through February. The "Devil Winds" form over the cold deserts, link up with the high pressure system over the Great Basin, race down the slopes, and tunnel through the canyons all the while heating up and gaining speed. These winds that blow and gust, hot and dry, westward across Southern California are capable of rising to hurricane velocity.

The temperature rises to beyond summer extreme and everything dries out. Lip balm and moisturizing lotions are required to survive a Santa Ana assault and anything that can be blown over or become air borne has to be battened down. Those with allergies or sinusitis suffer heightened discomfort and nose bleeds are common. During a Santa Ana the color of the sky brightens and intensifies and the air is clear. People and animals tense with an odd sort of restlessness that lasts until the "Vientos de Satan" blow out over the sea.

Fallen trees and fires aside, the most interesting trait of these winds is that they constantly change directions, lift, touch down again, and swirl. Some refer to them as the "Dancing Winds". One cannot trust their behavior. Sometimes they howl. Sometimes they swoosh but it is no gentle waltz they dance.

Someone long ago told me that the ancients believed that there are voices trapped in the Santa Ana winds. I've heard the voices twice during heavy Santa Anas. The first time 30 years ago, I was awakened to the winds blowing and what sounded like several people having a quiet discussion in the next room. When I went to the next room the murmuring moved to the room beyond. I made a cup of tea and sat up for several hours until the Santa Anas died down, and the conversation that I never could quite make out, ended. I heard them a second time 2 years later. Ever since whenever the Santa Anas blow, besides battening down and being on alert, I wonder what those who are trapped in the winds talk about and if I will hear them again.

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What if they gave a war and nobody came?
.............Kitchen Window Woman..............

Home Again and Bush's Wildfire Visits '03 and '07

2007-10-25T17:45:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your concern and encouraging messages. We came home last night after spending two nights down in the city. Harbison Canyon was spared the raging inferno this time around, at least so far...

We evacuated right after I posted the update on Monday afternoon. The winds were more powerful than we had ever experienced during the 22 years we have lived here. It was bending the China Berry trees almost in half and whipping the Pepper tree branches in all different directions. The air was filled with dust and debris, our windows were rattling, and we had to shout to be heard while we were loading the cars. It was then that the reverse 911 call came. We were urged strongly to leave on a voluntary basis. Given the wind and a fire down the road we were ready to go!

Did I mention that we no longer have a fire department in the Canyon? It burned down in the last fire. Our fire station and 50 of the 287 houses that burned have yet to be rebuilt. This is what was left of the station. We also lost two engines.

The wildfire situation here in San Diego County is as ripe with blogging material as it was in ' 03. Since I wasn't a blogger back then I'll blog about both. The politicians are on the radio and the television talking about the lessons learned and the improvements that have been put into practice since the Cedar Fire in 2003. Although there have been some improvements, I think they are busy framing their arguments to cover their asses because once this crisis is over and the ash settles, their unfilled promises will float before the public eye like a bevy of bloviating blimps.

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GO HOME BUSH!
Bush's last wildfire visit ( November of 2003) was several weeks after the flames had subsided but was just as disruptive to the recovery effort as his '07 wildfire visit today was to the fire fighting effort. Earlier this morning, while the usual flock of Bush supporters were bleating and baaing "Hail to the King" in anticipation of his hiney's stopover, the much needed fire fighting planes and helicopters were grounded. The fires were STILL BURNING and allowed to continue to burn for four hours without air cover to keep the sky clear for the president to do flyovers, speeches, and photo ops! Four hours during a wildfire is an eternity! WTF???

I am not the only Californian who wishes the Presiding Asshole would have stayed at home. We are sick to death of this president and all of the rest of the politicians with their attending entourages who have thrust themselves upon us during this difficult time.

BUSH WASN'T WELCOME HERE BACK THEN EITHER!
The school in Harbison Canyon remained closed for three weeks after the 2003 Cedar firestorm. Finally the day came for the students to return to school. Since the homes of many of the children had been destroyed in the fire, parents accompanied them to speak with the teachers and change the addresses in their children's paper work.

Minutes after their arrival, the school buzzer went off and a voice commanded that everyone remain in the classrooms with the shades drawn - the school was in lockdown. So the parents, teachers, and already traumatized children hunkered down and trembled. Several minutes later the principal explained over the intercom loudspeakers that two helicopters had landed on the playground. President Bush had come to assess the destruction in Harbison Canyon. They were then told not to look out of the windows.

Meanwhile, at our house in the canyon, my daughter and I prepared to walk down the block. We woke up that morning to the sounds of helicopters. The choppers were in the air back and forth for several hours. There were snipers on the tops of all of the hills. The secret service had ordered the two main roads in the Canyon closed so that the president's convoy of vehicles filled with his entourage could pass unmolested.

Once down the stairs that lead up the hill to our house we noticed a shiny new Mercedes parked across the street next to the burned hulk of car that had been left behind when the fire rushed through. Four or five young people dressed in power suits and ties got out of the car and noisily walked down the block in hopes of catching a glimpse of their Republican hero, George W. Bush. They either drove over the top of the hill just before it was cordoned off or they knew somebody BIG.

The fledgling suits soon disappeared from sight. They went a lot faster than we did because I use a cane. We arrived at the street corner just as a steady stream of limos, Hummers, and vans raced by at dangerous rates of speed on our narrow two lane winding road. The continual swoosh of air almost knocked us over as the VIPs blurred by. The Canyonites who lined both sides of the road shook their heads at the dangerous devil-may-care style of driving. It was dangerous for us, that is, as there are no sidewalks or curbs here. The president treats local speed limits like he does The Constitution.

We hung around for about 10 minutes and talked with neighbors who were equally unimpressed by the presidential drive-by. The driving performance was soon repeated on the return trip to the school after the President's photo op with "a carefully selected stricken family" ended. My daughter and I walked back up the road towards our house. We were just about home when we looked across the street. The Mercedes was gone. This is what we saw...

The Young Republicans had enjoyed a fast food picnic and used my neighbor's burned car as a table (not wanting to dirty their Mercedes). Then the well dressed youthful bunch (future leaders?) exhibited the indifferent lack of consideration so often displayed by their party members - they left behind their garbage for someone else to clean up! Amid so much destruction this was unthinkably rude and hurtful!

Once back at the school where the kids were still under lockdown, the Presider and his keepers boarded the helicopters and left. The snipers, secret service, drivers, limos, Hummers, and vans all disappeared as swiftly as they had come. Finally the children, staff, and parents were freed. George W. Bush DID NOT STOP TO VISIT with those kids - many of whom were fire victims. He could have done a little speech for them and let them see his helicopters. They would have been thrilled. Instead he chose to terrorize them with a lockdown!

One grandmother was so outraged she wrote a very angry letter to the White House and to the paper. Months later the children who were fire victims each got a glossy publicity photo complete with a simulated signature of the man who had no time for them. Recently Bush again turned his back on America's children by vetoing the SCHIP.
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We are all very tired probably because it has been so stressful especially after the last fire. This time we were threatened by two fires. We live between where the Harris and the Witch fires were burning. I hope all of our friends in San Diego County are OK and made it through this without loss. My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes or been injured. We will all pull together here like we did before to help those who need it. Many will need help and support for many months if not a year or two. The insurance companies do not make it easy, rebuilding is difficult, and finding an affordable place to rent in San Diego is nearly impossible.

*Note - I will answer the comment on the previous post (FIRE) tomorrow - my computer turn is over.

...........Kitchen Window Woman..........

FIRE - Here We Go Again!

2007-10-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

It was four years ago that we evacuated our home to flee the raging Cedar Fire. That fire started on a Sunday too. If the fires that started yesterday in Potrero and Romona had waited five days until October the 26th, it would have been the exact four year anniversary of the fire that burned our canyon down.

There are fires all over San Diego County - at least 8 - and the Santa Ana winds are supposed to continue through tomorrow. There are also fires all over in the Los Angeles area north of us. San Diego's Wild Animal Park is under threat, a hospital is being evacuated, and 250,000 people have fled their homes for Red Cross evacuation centers or the homes of friends or family in safer areas.

The two photos below were taken as we left just ahead of the Cedar Fire in 2003.

This is an ironic bit of Deja Vu. The same type of wind-driven fires, on just about the same day, four years later...except that these fires are even bigger and more widely spread. Over 100,000 acres have burned in less than 24 hours. At times, in certain areas the winds have reached hurricane force. Live embers and ash are raining down and the fire fighting planes are grounded because of the wind conditions. These fires are fast so one must be prepared to leave on a moments notice.

Yet right now it is relatively calm in our canyon. We can even see a little sky blue through the smokey gray but none of us trust it enough to let our guard down. We KNOW how often the wind changes direction and how quickly the flames move and consume. Needless to say all four of us have been up all night monitoring the fires on the TV and the radio - and packing. No one can sleep.

One packs important papers, jewelry, instruments, photos, clothing, medication, pets, pet food, pet meds, and small heirlooms and keepsakes if there is room. Once packed there is nothing to do but wait, watch, and wonder if you will have a home tomorrow.

Our house and belongings survived the fire in ' 03 but my friends and neighbors all lost everything. Because the insurance companies are so full of shit it has taken all of these years for life to get somewhat back to normal. Some people got royally screwed by the corporate profiteers and still haven't been able to rebuild. Now it's happening all over again.

Another irony - The rebuild of the house that burnt to the ground across the street four years ago is almost complete. As I write I can see several construction workers finishing up the roof and working on the windows.... strange considering the red flag alert.

If we have to leave we are taking the computer but will not have internet access where we will be staying so I may not be able to write for a while. If our canyon is spared this time, I will blog updates now and then ( if we still have power).

I had been working on a piece about Blackwater's impact on the environment in Potrero. I hope the eagles survived - there are three documented eagle nests in Potrero. We were just there during the encampment two weekends ago and spent time with many of the lovely, brave people who live there. Quite a few folks were injured and one died in this fire. Potrero was hit pretty hard. Let's just hope that Erik Prince of Blackwater does not see this tragic fire as an opportunity to siphon a fortune in taxpayer dollars away from the fire victims like he did during Katrina. We don't want thugs with guns and we can't afford them either!

I will say this about the environment - it is even more fragile after a fire like this and needs time to recover. The wildlife that survive are traumatized. We took care of some of our wild neighbors after the last fire. The animals do not need guns, speeding Humvees, and helicopters to add to their suffering. Also consider that Blackwater proposes to build an 18,000 sq. ft. armory to store their ammunition. Heckuva lotta ammo - Good thing it wasn't built yet. Dumb idea for a fire prone area don't ya think? Ka Boom!

Oh my gosh, this is a sequel! They just reported that "The Terminator" is on his way. Rewind! Replay! Nothing like another fire photo op. Hey, hey the Govenator is on his way - just like in ' 03!

Anyway we are calm but remain alert and ready to leave if need be. It all depends on how the wind blows...

I think I'll go wash some dishes and watch them work on the rebuild across the street. Maybe it will take my mind of off tomorrow.
.............Kitchen Window Woman............

UPDATE - I went to wash the dishes and looked out the window - the construction workers were gone! Its much smokier now so we are keeping the door shut. The wind is picking up some and doing it in gusts. Those guys left because they couldn't breathe. I'm just wondering why they were even working as through out SD county everyone has been sent home from work and all the schools are closed. Dishes are done so back to watching, waiting , and wondering and trying to keep my eyes open. KWW

Camping with Blackwater in Potrero

2007-10-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

Note: I've been a bit tired and lazy lately. I am just catching up on blogging now after all of our recent activities. This is the first of several on Blackwater to come.

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We passed a pumpkin patch as we were driving home from our weekend in Potrero, California. There they waited, bright orange and round in the afternoon sun, the future jack-o-lanterns of October, 2007. How wonderful for the children, I thought, to live where fields of pumpkins grow.

It was not that surprising to find a pumpkin patch in Potrero as it is a rural community made up of farms and ranches. Cattle and organic produce thrive on the rocky hillsides and the meadows of the lovely valley. The ancient oak trees still provide the acorns that were ground into a paste by the Kumeyaay who had populated this land for generations. Potrero in Spanish means "pasturing place".

To experience of Potrero is to experience the spiritual peace that comes when the sky meets the land, the winds dance, and all is in balance. But the peace and balance are about to be shattered and destroyed forever, by Blackwater USA

Unfortunately Potrero, the surrounding region, the State of California and American Democracy have been targeted by Blackwater, the violence worshiping, mercenary army headed by Christian extremist Erik Prince. Mr. Prince has more than our tax dollars in his sights.

We camped at the Potrero Regional Camp along with other concerned citizens who had gathered to make a stand against Blackwater USA. We had a beautiful camp site under the oaks and were overjoyed to find ourselves in the company of so many intelligent, dedicated, courageous people.

Following the Potrero Encampment various websites and blogs referred to the Stop Blackwater campers and marchers as moonbats and filthy hippies. American conservatives seem prone to name calling and abuse stereotypes with mindless zeal because they do not think for themselves. Among our fellow campers, workshop attendees, and marchers were teachers, builders, nurses, doctors, firemen, lawyers, artists, musicians, members of the clergy, veterans, business people, students, financial and insurance professionals, retired persons, mothers, children, and peace dogs. Of the hippies present, myself included, none were nor ever had been "unwashed, dirty, or filthy" as claimed online.

During the weekend we attended workshops and were able to take part in many brainstorming discussions and stimulating conversations. There are two arguments against Blackwater each one comprised of several compelling aspects. The first concerns land use and the second concentrates on the political effects on our democratic society. The vice president of Blackwater West, Brian Bonfiglio, has been busy trying frame land use objections as the only arguments against Blackwater's encroachment into California. That is why I am going to write about each of the two arguments separately. First I will post on the environmental impact. Secondly I will post about the political danger and illegality of establishing private military bases and allowing private mercenary armies like Blackwater to exist within our republic.

Our weekend of tent camping in Potrero was well worth every minute for the group of determined patriots who joined together will lead the fight against Erik Prince's personal Strum Abteilung (SA). Along with the Nisour Square murders, the end of Blackwater USA has begun.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?
................Kitchen Window Woman...................

STOP BLACKWATER # 3 - Ugly, Ugly Americans

2007-10-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

"The Ugly American", by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick was published in 1958 and became not only a bestseller and a movie, but also inspired Dwight D. Eisenhower to rethink American foreign policy. Unfortunately, America's self-serving destructive activities around the world have increased over the last 50 years culminating today in George W. Bush's illegal imperial wars in the Middle East.

America is seen by its global neighbors as a greedy, power driven nation whose disregard for human life is demonstrated again and again by its violent, bullying tactics. America, once respected and admired as an exemplary progressive society is now feared and hated. Fear and hatred are understandable considering that soldier-of-fortune organizations like Blackwater have come to represent America in the Middle East and many third world countries.

Blackwater USA, a private army of mercenaries employed and deployed to Iraq by Bush Republicans, has not only contributed to America's blackened image, but its founder CEO Erik Prince, corporate officers, and ex military contractor employees have also pulled a job on the American taxpayers.

One of the selling points of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld plan to privatize the American military was cost savings. What a myth! Blackwater and other private militias have cost middle class and working class taxpayers billions of dollars more than the cost to support our regular military forces.

The majority of Blackwater's "security specialists" are harvested from elite military units like the Navy Seals, Delta Force, and the legendary Green Beret Special Forces. Each one of these real live action figures costs the American taxpayers a small fortune for the extended, specialized training they receive. After serving their country, a number of these expensive highly trained individuals have chosen to turn their backs on their fellow citizens and the soldiers in whose ranks they once served. American taxpayers are being forced by Bush Republicans to PAY AGAIN at an exponential rate when these same members of our elite forces become private contractor traitors.

While our legitimate soldiers languish and those wounded with TBI and suffering from PTSD still go without the care promised them by George W. Bush, Blackwater hired guns pocket more than $1,000.00 per day! The average Blackwater war whore spends more on the sunglasses they hide behind than most families pay for two weeks of groceries.

Taxpayer dollars have been diverted from providing much needed protective gear for our combat troops who anchor the occupation of Iraq. Recently, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have expanded medical care for America's children but is still paying Blackwater enforcers big bucks . We cannot afford to pay the obscene salaries demanded by these professional gunslingers. The "contract killers" use our money to buy themselves the best equipment available. Commandant Erik Prince has been using his chunk of the no-bid contract profit pie to purchase armored vehicles, bombers, ships, and land on which to build his very own forts. Blackwater does not support our troops - it competes with them!

Blackwater has been in the news ever since the September 16th drive-by murders of between eleven and twenty Iraqi citizens and the wounding of many others. Is it possible that something positive has risen from the violent, heartbreakingly tragic Nisour Square killings? Now, at long last, global attention is focused on ugly American Erik Price and his Christian mercenary army.

I cried when I read how Mohassin Kadhim, a passenger in a random car, cradled her son who was missing the left side of his head after being shot by a Blackwater aggressor. Ahmed was slumped in the driver's seat with his foot wedged on the gas pedal - the car drifted forward. Adrenalin pumped Blackwater contractors opened fire on the the moving vehicle killing Dr. Mohassin Kadhim. An Iraqi Doctor, she was unable to save her son or herself when targeted by the Blackwater USA. As if their deaths weren't enough, Blackwater lobbed a grenade into the auto coffin. The resulting fire burned so hot that the body of Ahmed Haithem Mohassin burned into that of his mother. When the fire finally stopped burning witnesses mistook what remained of the young man to be the body of an infant. See what ugly, ugly Americans do?

Earlier this week on October 3rd, ugly Republican Americans appeared at the Congressional hearings held to investigate Blackwater. While the question of the very existence of private for profit armies and the continuing murder of Iraqi civilians by those privatized militias needs to be throughly explored, members of the Republican party fell all over themselves to thank Erik Prince for his crimes. The boyish Prince was attaboyed ala Bush for doing a heckuva job on the Iraqis whose unfortunate deaths, according to the good Christian Prince, are mostly due to ricocheting bullets.

It was sickening to see how indifferent the Republicans were to the Iraqi deaths. They evidently do not see Iraqi people as human beings whose lives are every bit as valuable as their own. Perhaps they are as Christian arrogant as is fundamentalist millionaire, Mr. Prince, who supports replacing American democracy with Christian theocracy. Perhaps their Christianity encourages and even condones the murder of non Christians. Just look at what Jesus did to the Native Americans

Uglier still is the American hypocrisy that considers the Sunni and Shia militias in Iraq military targets while supporting crusaders like Erik Prince, who have have been forming religious based private armies on American soil for the purpose of enforcing their personal religious beliefs on others, both here and abroad. Can you say American Taliban?

The privatization of a nation's military is also a step toward that nation becoming a fascist state. Americans who value democracy and wish to protect the freedom afforded by our Constitution must stand against Blackwater and similar militaristic organizations. It is our money that is being used to murder people in other countries and our money that will enable private militaries to turn their guns and their killer instincts against the American people.

They hate democracy. They hate our freedom. But they sure love war!
Disband them. Dissolve them. Outlaw military privatization.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?
..............Kitchen Window Woman................

Note - We are spending the weekend in Potrero near the site of Blackwater's next military compound. There we will gather more information about Blackwater's threat to America, its impact on the local environment, and take part in a Stop Blackwater march.

Peace Tree of Life and 28 Years of Marriage

2007-09-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Catfish and I are taking off for a long weekend to celebrate our 28th Anniversary. We are going to relax in Encinitas at Moonlight Beach. It will be so nice just to watch and listen to the ocean. 28 years is a long time - we have been through a lot together and still have a good time when we are able. We have several small, low key adventures planned and I am sure that we will return home refreshed and inspired. I think we are both pretty damn lucky to have one another to love and to share life with. We fit.

I mentioned some time back that I was working on a painting. It took most of July and August for me to finish it between all of the other things that were going on but the time spent was restful and enjoyable. When it was finished I had it professionally matted and framed and sent it off to my cousin for whom it was intended. You will find her art blog, "The Hillbilly Artist's Folk Art From The Mountains" listed under Visual Arts in my right hand side bar. Please pay her a visit for a look-see.

I have two of her paintings that I just love. When I tried to purchase one of them she gave it to me and just asked that I make her something someday. Months went by with no inspiration until one night during the first week of July when I dreamed a painting. "Peace Tree of Life" is pictured below first all by itself and then matted and framed. Art runs in our family and so do dreams.

Peace Tree of Life

And so I bid you adieu for now. I'll be back at my blogging post sometime next week. Peace.

What if They Gave a War and Nobody Came?
.................Kitchen Window Woman................

A MoveOn, Hell No Hillary, and Jena "Tiny Bubbles"

2007-09-27T11:07:00.000-07:00

I haven't written for a while. We've been preoccupied and are also packing for a much needed three day getaway so I decided to float by a "Tiny Bubbles" smattering of of thought blips. My Dishpan 'Tiny Bubbles' title is used with an affectionate nod to my ukulele playing husband and partner in political activism, Catfish.
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- MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action

We signed on with MoveOn several years back because we were fed up with the Democrats, the Republicans, The House, The Senate, The Court, and the President. We were tired of not being heard and of our money being wasted while Americans went without medical care and housing. Since then we have contributed money for MoveOn ads, taken part in determining which issues deserved focus and in prioritizing those issues, held candles during vigils, attended protests, taken part in political actions such as visitations to our congressman's office, signed many petitions, and written letters.

We all know that respect is never given on demand - that it must be earned. The Petraeus ad was earned by General Petraeus and well deserved given his willingness to serve as a mouth for the failed Commander-in-Chief instead of honoring his oath to "Support and Defend the Constitution." The general is known for his ambition and designs on the White house. The 'People' and many who serve under him in the military, do not trust or respect him. He has made a career by "getting over on" anyone who could be used to advance his upward climb.

Petraeus is constantly propagandized in the news as "the top general in Iraq". The real top generals were those before him who courageously spoke truth to power to the Commander-in -Chief. Unfortunately, they were replaced one after another, by a president who didn't want to listen to their expertise. Petraeus became "the top general in Iraq" by default and because he "speaks fantasy to power".

The uproar in the House and the Senate over the Betrayus ad was a ridiculous waste of time. Perhaps they at least got the message that most Americans can't stand Congress, the President, and the fair-weather General.

Then came the silly Giuliani ad calling on Hillary Clinton to apologize for MoveOn's actions. Mike Duncan, Chairman of the RNC, has it all wrong. Hillary has nothing to do with MoveOn but strangely, it was Hillary's historic pro war vote for preemptive military action against Iraq that drove my husband and I to sign on with MoveOn.org. Hillary Clinton betrayed the American people every bit as much then as General Petraeus has recently.

NOTE: MoveOn is supported by millions of regular Americans who donate what they can spare dollar by dollar. We are TAKING OUR COUNTRY BACK!
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- More About Hillary Clinton

Hillary will not get my vote. If she becomes the Democratic candidate I will write in my choice or re-register as an independent. She is ambitious, calculating, and recently has come to be known 'Republican Lite' - an apt description.

She voted to give George W. Bush the authority to launch a war against Iran knowing full well that he and his hawkish administration were up to no good. Hillary voted to protect and advance her own career - she didn't want to risk the scorn she would have been met with had she voted to save lives. Hillary Clinton is also on the take as she has been purchased by Israel's Likkud Party in the form of extensive donations from JINSA and AIPAC Israeli/American lobby groups. Hillary the hawk, will bomb Iran if Israel demands it with little regard for the human tragedy that will result.

She argues that "she didn't know then what she knows now" and would have voted against authorizing Bush to go to war given that knowledge. That is a lie. She knew, but let's stretch it a bit and say that she didn't have a clue that Bush would blunder and rush into this devastating war. Then, one can argue, if she was so gullible and easily misled, why would we want her in the White House? Also, one can argue that she must not be very bright not to have noticed all of the propaganda, political spin, and fear mongering that defined the Bush administration's framing of the preemptive strike against Iraq.

Now, Hillary claims to want to end the war. Another lie and a lie that comes too late!

No more Bush Dynasty..........No Clinton Dynasty.........HELL NO HILLARY!
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- Jena - A Community that Murders Innocent Trees

I saw all of those distressed white people on the television news. Upset because they felt that Jena was being viewed in a bad light, they defended their nice little town on camera. Perhaps they are too inside the racism to notice it. Maybe racism is the norm in Jena just like it was in all of those southern towns 40 years ago when the Civil Rights movement began.

One telling incident stands out about in the unfortunate history of the events in Jena. After the nooses were hung from the tree on campus (a despicable act of racial terrorism) the three white offenders were suspended from school for a short few days. And that was that.

The school principal viewed the noose incident as a childish prank and did nothing to follow up with the student body of Jena High. What kind of educator is so blind to have not seen the necessity of a school wide assembly to address the racially offensive actions of those boys? The occasion called for open discussions about racism, misconception, terror, suspicion, hatred, and pain as well as the promotion of understanding. The school staff should have led the students on a journey through dialog to arrive at solutions.

Instead, they chopped down the tree.

A student was attacked and beaten. Other students ended up in jail. There was a huge march on Jena. Having learned nothing because they were taught nothing, several teenagers were inspired to tie nooses on a truck and drive around town. But the tree that lived in the schoolyard and offered shade to the students is dead.

Ahmadinejad claims there are no homosexuals in Iran. The white people in Jena claim there is no racism in their town and they can prove it. They killed the tree that caused the whole damn thing, didn't they?

Jena is so misunderstood. It's such a nice little town.
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That's all for now. I'll try to post again before we leave.

What if they gave a war and nobody came?
.............Kitchen Window Woman....................

Peacock Petraeus - Golden Boy No More

2007-09-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday began the long touted Petraeus Report. There, before the House Armed Services Committee sat the heavily decorated General and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and there in the House chambers, history repeated itself over and over again. "Things are better in Iraq, violence is down, Iraqis are happy, but we need more money, more bases, and much more time opined the two Bush mouthpieces.

The only thing impressive about General Petraeus is his rack. His garish display of so many ribbons on the left side of his uniform calls to mind a commander from some banana republic. Gee Whiz, what did he do to earn that rainbow color sampler? Just how many asses did he kiss? My husband, whose Lt. Commander father served served thirty years, found Petraeus' showboating "obscene". It seemed to me that his peacocking was somehow supposed to assure Americans of his "expertise". It had the opposite effect. After all, Five-Star General Eisenhower never needed to wear all of his decorations at once.

Both Petraeus and Crocker have chosen to support the illegal, militaristic misadventure that is being passed off by the Bush Administration as foreign policy. They have chosen to perpetuate the the destruction of Iraq and the murder of her people and to advance the notion of an attack against Iran. The General blamed Iran for America's failure in Iraq every chance he got.

Many of our finest generals have resigned rather than commit war crimes under the criminal Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush. Their actions were honorable. General David Petraeus is not so honorably in command of an on-going occupation of a sovereign nation. He and Crocker are presiding over the colonization of Iraq and the up and coming oil grab. Bush and Cheney never intended to leave Iraq and its vast oil reserves.

So there they are again today, on the television wearing rose colored glasses, and babbling Bush talking points. It's awfully sad to see such a fine education as that garnered by David Petraeus being wasted on the grandiose delusions of global domination spouted by the naked emperor in the Oval Office. You are NOT serving your country gentlemen. You are serving America's war profiteers - the corporate military industrial security complex. The General seemed proud to tell us how the new Iraqi forces are being supplied with high tech weaponry by American war manufacturers. Just who is paying for these weapons? The impoverished Iraqis? The overtaxed American middle class? Either way it is a win win situation for "Guns To Go". Profits galore!

The Iraqi people do not want American troops in their country, they do not want Exxon oil men in their country, and they do not want Christian missionaries in their country. It is their country and and their lives. America has imposed long enough

The September Report is nothing but a smokescreen. It is still up to "We the People" to stop this war. Funding the War is Killing Our Troops so let's do what Military Families Speak Out asks to support our troops, "Fund a Safe and Orderly Withdrawal from Iraq and Care for Them as They Return".

*Note - how serious could they be about drawing down troops when plans are in motion to build yet another new American base in Iraq?

.....................The Petraeus Report?......................
Stick it where the sun don't shine and give me my money back!
...................Kitchen Window Woman.....................

Surprise - Bush Bubble Bobbled to Iraq

2007-09-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

Note - I haven't been blogging much this last week due to a family emergency/crisis. I am not at liberty to discuss the details on line, but it will probably be some time before things will return to normal. I may not be at my blogging post as often while the crisis is ongoing and my attention is needed.

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Photo credit - CBS News

Yesterday, he fed on Marines.

Tired, leaned against the walls, or sitting with head in hands, they waited for hours for the third coming. Finally, on stadium raisers, they stood and served their country as a stage backdrop for George W. Bush's pre-Petraeus, photo op surprise visit.

Surprise! The marines cheered for Condi Rice who entered like the "Queen of the Catwalk". Surprise! Look, it's Donald Rumsfeld's replacement. Surprise again! My gosh, how unexpected. Is it really him, the American Presider, the imperial liar, the man who has murdered one million Iraqis and soon will murder thousands of Iranians? It is! Cheer, applaud - that's an order.

The Australian reported Bush's third unannounced visit to our troops in Iraq as a "detour on his way to Australia" or maybe, Air Force One turned left because the pilot was drunk? Actually, Steven Hadley planned Bush's six hour "boots on the ground" fact-finding sojourn over a month ago.

Despite the danger of combat fatigue, an entire quarter of one day was set aside as an opportunity for the president, "to meet with his commanders on the ground, to look Prime Minister Maliki in the eye, to hear from people directly involved, to make his own assessments", and to pose for numerous snap shots with the Marines.

A prestigious entourage accompanied the American Commander-in-Chief on this, his most ambitious foray in country, to date. Secretary of State Rice, Secretary of Defense Gates, national security adviser Hadley, Iraq war adviser General Lute, and General Peter Pace, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff all descended, along with their leader, upon the Anbar Province in western Iraq. There, safely ensconced within the confines of the Al-Asad Air Base, our war weary cowboy king summoned Iraq's elected leaders to attend.

"When you stand on the ground here in Anbar and hear from the people who live here, you can see what the future of Iraq looks like", heralded Bush from his heavily fortified bubble.

Would the president's bubble pop if he were to visit actual Iraqis - the regular folks who are trying to survive the colonial democracy imposed on them by Bush neoconservatism?

Perhaps he should brave the streets of Baghdad to speak with this family. Maybe he "could look them in the eye" and explain that one million dead Iraqis is the price they must pay for a democracy they never asked for. Maybe he could help them find their loved one's body, you know, for closure. Americans insist on having closure, perhaps Iraqis need closure, too.

The Baghdad morgue is the first place to look after the river. Forget it he, won't look. He will remain cocooned in his bubble where alternative reality is piped in daily. George W. Bush, who has never looked the carnage of war in the eye, smelled blood, or vomited fear already knows "what the future of Iraq looks like" without having ever talked to every day Iraqis.

It will look like this...

And this... because Americans have built enduring megabases in Iraq. The term enduring used here employs the newly coined, propagandized Bush definition meaning "permanent or forever".

The staging of military troops as a backdrop was used quite successfully by another leader who knew what was best for everyone and sought to establish a paternalistic, hegemonic global empire. Picture scores of indoctrinated, obedient soldiers loyally hanging on every word spoken by their venerated leader (fuhrer). The reverent silence of such assembled masses of warriors is enthusiastically broken only when responses of Sieg Heil or Uh Rah are called for.

Such framing of a leader while he or she is speaking gives the psychological impression of unquestioned support, power, and dominance. Given the fact that George W. Bush's grandfather Prescott Bush and great grandfather George Herbert Walker, were staunch supporters of both Hitler and Mussolini in their fascist endeavors, it is not surprising that the current president would exploit the military in the same manner. Just what kind of future does George W. Bush envision for us all?

For more on the staging of military might and additional photos see my previous post entitled, "You and What Army", click here and scroll down to the second to last post.
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The news of Bush's surprise visit to Iraq came to me via Kyra Phillips, the pseudo patriotic newsgirl who anchors on daytime CNN. I did a double take when I heard her lead in to the Bush surprise story. Whether she wrote it herself or it was suggested by the White House, I found her reference to "the killing fields of Anbar" to be far fetched and propagandistic. Perhaps she wanted to emphasize the extreme danger to which our brave war president had exposed himself to pull off his surprise? Was she maybe trying to link Bush's references to the Cambodian "killing fields" during his Vietnam speech last month to his six hour pit stop and pep rally in Anbar? Or could it be that Kyra Phillips is so misinformed that she thinks the death toll in just one province of Iraq eclipses the 1.7 to 3 million deaths that occurred during the " Killing Fields genocide" carried out by Pol Pot and the Kymer Rouge in Cambodia during the 1970's? Me thinks she should fact check, curb her tendency to lure viewers with overly dramatic prefaces, and ignore White House talking points.
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Let's pop the boy king's bubble!
.....Kitchen Window Woman......

Morning in America - A Dishpan "Tiny Bubbles"

2007-08-24T20:35:00.000-07:00

"Tiny Bubbles" are Dishpan shorts - thought blips, or observations, named so with a strum, and a hum nod toward my Ukulele playing husband. I haven't done a Tiny Bubbles for quite a while. It is time. Any strummers out there?

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- SAN DIEGO CITIZEN ALERT - KLSD AM 1360, San Diego's ONLY Progressive Radio station is in DANGER! Clear Channel, KLSD's corporate owner, is in the process of switching San Diego's only progressive-liberal talk radio station to a sports talk format. The airwaves in "America's Finest City" are already saturated with numerous radio stations dedicated to SPORTS. America needs to hear its progressive, liberal voices if our democracy is to survive.

There will be a rally to save KNSD and Air America at 7:30 a.m. Monday, August 27th outside of Clear Channel's San Diego offices. If you live in the San Diego area please be there. Don't forget to tell your friends. Further information and map here.

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- Everyday I wake up, stumble toward that first cup of coffee, put on CNN (for lack of any better television news) and open the daily newspaper. Every day it's the same. I shake the sleep away and brace myself for the barrage. INCOMING!

I can't remember how it was before the Bush blitzkrieg. Mondays, Thursdays, birthdays, holidays, it doesn't matter, the bombardment continues. America lay in ruins with its Constitution charred beyond recognition, yet still he continues to destroy what took centuries to create.

Even the most beautiful of mornings are marred by dread. What damage will the Bush-Cheney regime inflict today. How many more will die? Which of our remaining rights will disappear? Who's going to pay for this war? When are they planning to nuke Iran? How can we stop them?

I dream of a time when the morning light illuminates a peaceful America with its democracy in tact. Then, I will take a deep breath of freedom, sip my coffee with Bushless joy, and greet the day.

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- I have added a very important link to my right sidebar under Veterans. The above logo belongs to "Courage To Resist" and the following is their mission statement;

"COURAGE TO RESIST is a group of concerned community members, veterans and military families that supports military objectors to illegal war and occupation and the policies of empire. Our People Power strategy weakens the pillars that maintain war and occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere by supporting GI resistance, counter-recruitment and draft resistance, which cuts off the supply of troops. We are autonomous from and independent of any political organization, party or group."

Some heroes march to a different, extremely difficult drum beat. We can be proud of these young people, who during this time of national shame due to a continuous, profitable war, have proven that men and women of conscience and character not only exist within the ranks of our military, but have the courage to refuse to take part in the wrong doings of the Bush Administration. Their parents, I am sure, are also very proud of the conscientious leadership exemplified by their sons and daughters.

To SUPPORT THE TROOPS please visit Courage To Resist here or use the link in my sidebar. Read how these soldiers came to their decisions and learn how you can SUPPORT GI RESISTANCE. They also have some great shirts, hats, stickers, cards and books for sale! Just click on Order Stuff in their sidebar.

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- I am determined to act every day towards ending this war and implementing the impeachment of Gonzales, Cheney, and Bush.

Yesterday, I was inspired. We purchased two red ink stamps from After Downing Street. One of the stamps says Impeach Bush the other, Impeach Cheney. I was going through a pile of mail and when I ran across two envelopes from the Democratic Party both of which contained letters soliciting funds. That did it! The gall of the Dems begging financial support when the Democratic Congress has sold us out.

One thing led to another. I got a red pen and wrote all over the enclosed forms listing the many reasons they would receive nothing from me. Then I wrote in big red letters, "NO IMPEACH, NO $, NO VOTE!" I slipped the doctored forms sans the trolled for check into the provided return envelope, and stamped Impeach Bush, and Impeach Cheney on BOTH the front and the back. I felt so good that my trusty red cane and I marched right down the front steps, across the street, shoved those envelopes into the mailbox, and raised its red flag !

The Democrats don't deserve support and they damn sure don't need money - they're all on the corporate payroll. I'm going to wait until they remember "We The People" and find the spine to honor their oaths of office...

"I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter."

The Democrats we elected to Congress, who make up the majority, have shirked their responsibilities to the American people, and broken their oaths to "Support and Defend The Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic".

George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney collectively constitute Domestic Enemy # !.

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- Put IMPEACH on your clothesline. Colorful Impeach shirts are available at After Downing Street here for only $12.95. The Impeach Bush and Impeach Cheney stamps I mentioned are available through After Downing, too. After Downing Street is also an excellent, frequently updated source of Impeachment and other political news. The ADS link is on my sidebar under Activists.

Note - The last time we had a dryer was two dozen years ago.

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WOW! Feast your eyes on this! WOW, again! It took my breath away!

A cosmic hibiscus flower greeted us this morning. It is sort of a miracle bloom. The poor plant had suffered extreme frost damage during this last winter. It appeared to be completely dead. Months after the freakish cold weather, it put out one tiny bit of green on its withered, dried stem. Today, it expressed itself in such vibrant color that it chased away the Bushshit breakfast blues!

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Resist daily - Defend Democracy - Wage Peace
................Kitchen Window Woman.......................

The American Resistance

2007-08-19T17:35:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I spent hours reading about the Resistance during WWII. It began in the spring of 1940 immediately after Hitler's fascist armies overran Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium, and France. The Resistance started when individuals, who valued their freedom and their countries over the totalitarian rule imposed by the Nazis, took action against the destructive forces that had permeated their societies. Small acts of defiance, like painting anti-German slogans on walls and billboards, knitting and sewing symbols of their respective nations into clothing, and talking back to Nazi propaganda films, signaled to others of like mind that they were neither isolated, nor alone.

Hitler's war machine would not have been able to rise from the ashes of the Great War (WWI) without abundant financial support from American and British bankers, corporations, and Fascist sympathizers. Likewise, the Hitler machine could not have been defeated without the combined efforts of the Allied troops and the Resistance. The Resistance had grown from patriotic individuals committing acts of courage to networks of thousands of activists who cleared the way for Churchill and Eisenhower to destroy German totalitarianism.

Americans today are facing an illegal war and its expansion into Iran and Syria.The Constitution is being subverted by corporatists and theocratic religious fanatics, and we are drowning in debt. The current administration has undone decades of negotiations, deterrents, and treaties to unleash both nuclear proliferation and war, and has rendered The United States of America, in seven short Bush years, the most despised nation in the world.

All across America citizens have had ENOUGH! Many have been part of the Resistance for a long time and more citizens every day are taking action to support and defend The Constitution and restore American democracy. Even dogs have had ENOUGH!

ENOUGH ! ENOUGH ! ENOUGH !

Here's what my husband (of 28 years Sept. 30th) and I did for one hour on Sunday, will be doing for one hour next Sunday, and one hour the Sunday after that and........... well, we'll be doing one hour for Peace and Impeach every Sunday!

Have you read The Constitution today?

The FIGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM is not in the Middle East - that fight is for oil and empire. The fight for our freedom, is HERE, in America.

Resist Daily - Defend Democracy - Wage Peace
..................Kitchen Window Woman....................

The Draft Headed Toward Iran

2007-08-16T15:08:00.000-07:00

I feel like a coal miner's canary.

Reinstate the draft. We need more soldiers! Our military is broken, worn to a frazzle. How can we possibly launch preemptive attacks against Iran and the newly labeled terrorists, "The Republican Guard" ?

General Lute was the one chosen to seed the draft idea so as not to tarnish golden boy, General David Petraeus. Just plant the seed in minds of Americans, stir up some discussion, reseed several weeks later, spread a thick layer of manure, wet it down, and watch it grow. Soon, because attentions spans are short, they'll be claiming the draft was always the answer to "fightin' 'em over there so's we don't have to fight 'em here", and line up to sacrifice their children in Bush's nuclear war.

The Bush propaganda machine has been busy, busy, busy! Iran has been the featured evil-doer on CNN for weeks now, FOX is foaming at the mouth in anticipation of the up and coming nuclear strikes against Iran, and eager Armegeddonists are so joyful that prerapture ejaculations have become the norm. It seems our heroes, Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney, have been working hard to end the Bush presidency with a bang.

Isn't it wonderful? Congress won't impeach the presiding bastards or cut military funds, but America has put nuclear war back on the table! The American War machine is HUNGRY for bodies and bundles of cash. What better way to feed it than to reinstate the draft and build more nukes?

The draft will insure that the poor, the working class, and the middle class are forced to sacrifice their children and other family members, while the ruling class is deferred from fighting in the wars it has created. Remember - George W. Bush was placed on the top of the Texas Air National guard list - someone else died in his place.

Now for the Nukes - America is already armed with 10,000 nuclear bombs and has spent $5 trillion on nuclear bombs since the 1940's. See here. The fusion-conscious Bush Administration is purposing to replace "last year's nukes" with a whole new arsenal. New nukes for old? How nice for the weapons industry. Currently our B52 bombers are being outfitted to deliver bunker buster nukes - to what end? Huge financial profits and a preemptive nuclear strike on Iran.

Donald Rumsfeld argued that bunker busters are mini nukes whose small size and precise underground delivery will cause very little collateral damage, if any. Please read the following...

"...bunker busters in Iran, or anywhere else for that matter, will vaporize hundreds of thousands of tons of earth, water and rock and send this radioactive soup downwind to kill and sicken whole populations. Those immediately downwind will die quickly, in hours or days. Those further downwind will take longer. The global incidences of cancers and disease will again rise markedly. The land downwind will remain contaminated and unusable for generations. If there were deep shelters, it has been postulated by the designers that the bunker busters would not penetrate deeply enough to affect them. I imagine that would initiate the attack theory of sending one nuke after another into the same hole. Picture the intensity of the radioactive disaster that would perpetrate on the area." Read entire article at Dissident here. For additional info check out the Union of Concerned Scientists - click on the Security tab at the top of the page.

A Rumsfeld Flip-Flop...
Reporter: "What are you trying to do with those bunker busters?"
Rumsfeld: "Kill people."
Reporter: "I meant what do you hope to find when you go to the place you dropped the bombs?"
Rumsfeld: "Dead people."

Yeah, Rummy, I see dead people, too. That's the problem

Here's my nightmare scenario... Cheney and the neoconservative cabal hype Iran's evil-doing to a crisis level and deploy the B52's to nuke 'em back to the stone age. The Iranians will so be thankful for the bunker buster bombing and the murder of their families, that they will swiftly return the gift to American ground forces in Iraq, and the carrier groups sitting in the Gulf. Massive American casualties will result but that is OK because the Pentagon has already written those soldiers and sailors off. They are sacrificial lambs, highly expendable, and will serve to fuel the propaganda storm that will blow across America. "Look what the inhuman Iranians have done to our troops? Our military has been depleted by heavy losses. More money! More nukes! Quick reinstate the draft! It's the only way to save our freedom!"

Let's hope the slumbering soccer moms of America wake up and take to the streets. This war is already five years old and were are about to expand it - your kids are going next - unless you stop it! Help us help you stop the perpetual Bush Wars.

The threat to American freedom is not in the Middle East. It is homegrown, occupies the White House, and is defiling the Constitution. IMPEACH! IMPEACH! IMPEACH!

Like I said, I feel like a coal miner's canary - singing the ill-wind blues.

..................Kitchen Window Woman..........

Karl Rove Skulks Back to Texas

2007-08-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

Karl Christian Rove, the Goebbels of the Bush High Command, has resigned. The renowned sociopath's claim that his resignation is due to a desire to spend more time with his family is astonishingly unoriginal. That's what they all say. In truth he's skulking back to Texas to line up a defense lawyer. He's also going to play with his dogs, take his wife to the beach, and hopes to teach college students how to use "propaganda as an instrument of aggression".

Concerned with legacy, since his own and George W. Bush's are so tightly entwined, Rove will undoubtedly rewrite recent history in glowing Goebbels fashion. Let's take a tiny peek at the reality inside the tangled mess that is the Rove and Bush legacy...

One million Iraqi people are dead and hundreds of thousands are maimed. Their country has been destroyed and will remain forever polluted by the cancer causing, birth defect causing depleted uranium, favored by the American war machine.

Thousands of U.S. and Coalition Forces have lost their lives or limbs, have suffered traumatic brain injury and/or PTSD, and untold numbers of Iraq war veterans are living in shelters, or on the streets of the country they were supposedly fighting for.

Americans are losing their homes, lack health care, bridges are falling down, and our roads are full of holes. The Communist Chinese own most of the trillions of dollars of war debt incurred by George W. Bush and his Republican minions, yet the President has resolved to give American corporations (like Halliburton) another giant tax break.

We have been lied to, cheated, robbed, tortured, killed, spied on, and raped every damn day since the Bush occupation of America began, and now we are going to have to face privatized armed militias who are loyal, not to the American people, but to whom ever fills their mercenary purses with our tax dollars.

Welcome to Bush Country where American Fascism mixed with Nixon Revivalism floated across the continent in a Reagan mist, war crimes are all the rage, and prayers are fervent.

The stark description of what has been done to America and what it has become during this, the worst presidency in the history of this nation, brings tears to many of our eyes. Perhaps, it is at this point we should thank Karl Christian Rove for his contribution to the deterioration of American democracy, the destruction of what was once a healthy, thriving middle class, the shredding of American values, the tarnishing of our international standing, and above all for the deliberate dismantling of the Constitution of the United States. It was, after all, his hand that manipulated a madman into the White House, and then joined with others to pave the path to an illegal war.

Out of a pile of human excrement, Rove created a political star and thus, the nickname "Turd Blossom" was bestowed upon his shiny, bald dome, for he is, and always has been a "Shit-Shaper". His artistic hands molded the stinking feculence from a Texas pile to a presentable public persona, and finally, into the Royal Presider. Rove fell in love with his creation and shared with the feckless, fecal man a disdain for democracy, and a total comtempt for the American people.

Mr. Rove you have not "served your country". Remember Nuremberg? During the Nuremberg Trials following WWII, "propaganda as an instrument of aggression" was prosecutable as a war crime". You, Mr. Shit-Shaper, are a vile human being and a war criminal.

The fecal man said of you, "Rove is movin' on down the road." George W. Bush went on to say, " I'll be on the road behind you here in a little bit." The road to HELL awaits you both.

Don't turn your back - Rove is a sociopath - he isn't done.

- Texas, Please keep your critters at home! No more Bushes, Roves, De Lays, Gonzoles or Miers. Is there something in your water?

..........WAGE PEACE...........
...Kitchen Window Woman...

Dick of the Depths Surfaces on Larry King

2007-08-01T19:45:00.000-07:00

The dark bulk, with its head hanging forward, let one arm dangle while the other, its hand on alert, manned the table. Ready to point and pound in that masculine Morse code so common to those who hide behind military might, its fingers, flexing in anticipation, betrayed their master. Nevertheless, when the scripted talking points were in need of authoritarian emphasis, the mano performed.

A creature of secrets and shadows, the one time drunken lineman had long ago exchanged principle for cold, calculating ambition. That is why the sudden change in his demeanor was so unexpected. Could it be the hardened Veep is a mere, harmless coquette?

The bulk cocks his head, lowers it in deference, and casts fleeting glances upward at his chosen target. He's coy. Smiling like a shy young girl, he flirts in a voice softened for effect. Words waft tactically from his lips, their sinister intent camouflaged with sweetness. Disarming little giggles punctuate each saccharine sentence. Looking back, it was a delicate delivery.

Dick's methods are manipulative, deceiving, indirect, and deadly for American Democracy.

Consider that 22,000 of our troops, our children, who have suffered Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and/or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have been misdiagnosed with Personality Disorder and mustered out of the U. S. military with no care given, and no access to future medical and mental health care. SHAME!

It is far more likely that our Vice President, who before our very eyes can switch personalities with remarkable ease, suffers from Personality Disorder.

Note - There were no available photos of coquettish Cheney, however, if you monitor his rare televised interviews, both past and future, you are sure to catch him in the act. I have seen this occur twice. The first time I witnessed Dick's flirtatious behavior, he was being interviewed along with his daughter, Mary. She not only resembles him physically, but echoed his behavior exactly - like father, like daughter. I was monitoring his behavior during this, the above described, recent interview and there he was fluttering his eye again.

I had a good time writing this!

Peace requires Impeachment!
.....Kitchen Window Woman.....

Why U.S. Troops Want Their Generals To Honor Their Oath To Defend The Constitution

2007-07-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

by Veterans For Peace

There are many kinds of betrayal in human affairs. But in the affairs of state, there is no greater act of disloyalty than to send young men and women to their deaths on the basis of fraud. No soldier should ever give a life, or take a life, for a lie.

All American ranking officers and commanders take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Their oath is a solemn obligation to the American people, especially to their own troops, to abide by the law. Our man and women in uniform place great trust in their superiors. They risk their lives in the belief that they will not be used falsley, illegally, or for ill gain.

There is not group of Americans with greater interest in the enforcement of international law than American troops themselves. Our youth pay a heavy price when their own rulers plunge them into operations beyond international law. Immediately after the Abu Ghraib scandal, the infamous, retaliatory beheadings began.

The legal status of the occupation of Iraq is not a mystery. Generals know very well that the occupation is based on lies, carried out in defiance of U. S. treaties. The Nuremberg Conventions explicitly repudiate the doctrine of pre-emptive war. The U.N. Charter, for which many of our parents and grandparents gave their lives on the battlefields of Europe, outlaws war as "an instrument of policy." Every general knows that the occupation is a "war of choice." They also know that, except for special U.N.-sanctioned interventions, defensive necessity is the sole legal basis for war. The U.S. Army Field Manual states without equivocation: "Treaties relating to the law of war have a force equal to that of laws enacted by Congress.

Many soldiers of conscience, who dared to speak openly about the immorality and illegality of the war, have been court-martialed and imprisoned. Their cases, dating back to 2004, raise serious doubts about the capacity of our soldiers to receive justice in our military courts. Five months prior to the Abu Ghraib scandal, a soft-spoken Army soldier named Camilo Mejia was visibly upset by the atrocities he observed during his tour of duty in Iraq. Repelled by the slaughter of civilians and needless deaths of American GIs (all reported in Mejia's riveting combat memoir, The Road to Ar Ramadi), Camilo gathered up his courage and made formal complaints to his superiors. Commanders refused to listen and questioned his patriotism. Eventually Mejia was sentenced to a year in prison for speaking out, for telling the truth. His trial, like subsequent trials of war resisters, was a travesty of justice. Judge Col. Gary Smith ruled that evidence of the illegality of the war was inadmissible in court, that international law is irrelevant, that a soldier's duty is to follow orders, regardless of their legality. It is a sad day in military jurisprudence when a soldier of conscience is court-martialed, not for lying, but for telling the truth; not for breaking a covenant with the military, but for upholding the rule of law in wartime.

Our military system is passing through a profound and legal crisis. A commander who knowingly orders his troops to participate in crimes against peace betrays himself and those who serve under him or her.

The time has come, it is long overdue, for American generals of conscience to break their silence.

______________________________________________________________________

The above op-ed letter is the shorter of two versions written by Veterans For Peace. The longer version "Never Give a Life, or Take a Life, For a Lie, A Call to American Generals to Respect the Rights of our Troops" can be read here.

The book "The Road to Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Sergeant Mejia"
by Camilo Mejia available here.

______________________________________________________________________

My husband and I are members of Veterans For Peace because we share and are deeply committed to the goals outlined by VFP below.

Statement of Purpose

We, having dutifully served our nation, do hereby affirm our greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace by applying the concept of engaging conflict peacefully, without violence. To this end we will work with others to:

- Increase public awareness of the total costs of war. - Restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations.

- End the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons.

- Seek justice for Veterans and victims of war.

- Abolish war as an instrument of foreign/international policy.

As members of Veterans For Peace we pledge to use non-violent means to achieve these goals. All members are trusted to act in the best interest of the group for the larger purpose of world peace.

veteransforpeace.org

......WAGE PEACE......
Kitchen Window Woman

- I felt that it was important to post this well written letter so I did so while I am working on two pieces (little old multitasking me) which I hope to post soon.

Three Heroes and Inside The Surge

2007-07-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

The morning of July 17th, I happened to catch a story on ABC News that surprised me. That "A 'Normal' Day in Baghdad" was run at all, on an American network, is highly unusual given the one-sided, pro-war propaganda that has routinely passed as journalism since the Bush occupation of the White House began.

The video shown stopped me in my tracks as not one, but two American citizens, soldiers trapped in the ongoing nightmare of illegal war and occupation in Iraq, spoke honestly and directly to the people at home. It was only later that I discovered ABC News had gotten the film from The Guardian Unlimited.

The original version, shot by British photojournalist Sean Smith, runs for 9:55 whereas ABC's version was edited down to 4:11 and voiced over by one of their reporters. Americans, long used to dogooder, happy crap stories of "our heroes" vs "the evil doers" had to be eased into viewing the truth. I thank Sean Smith for his honest record of what has unfolded since the beginning of the American war against Iraq. See his photo slide show here.

Warning! The three videos about the War in Iraq contain graphic images of combat, the injured, and the dead The soundtrack includes yelling, screaming, and gunfire. Combat veterans should be especially careful.

Sean Smith was embedded with the American 2nd. Infantry Division in Baghdad when he filmed "Inside The Surge". (9:55 minutes)

ABC's edited, voiced over version entitled, "A 'Normal' Day in Baghdad" follows. (4:11 minutes.)

ABC News: Response to "Inside the Surge". (2:01 minutes)

For further reactions to "Inside The Surge" please read A Violent 'Normal' Day in Baghdad and the hundreds of comments left by ABC viewers.

Now for my reaction...

My heart is broken for the six soldiers who died in the Bradley fighting vehicle and their families. My heart is also broken for the Iraqi taxi driver and his family.He was shot for driving. I want to put my arms around the terrified old woman, and make her some hot tea. No one should suffer as the Iraqi people are suffering. No one should suffer as our soldiers are suffering. Our troops are both victims and perpetrators in this Republican war.

I am very proud of and very thankful to Cpl. Joshua Lake and Spec. Michael Vassel for telling the truth. These two heroes courageously spoke for themselves as well as others, and by doing so, have demonstrated loyalty to the Constitution that they have sworn to uphold. I agree, Spec. Vassel, that those who created, implemented, and voted for this war should be there doing 15 month rotations with you. Theirs should have been the first boots on the ground! We need more like you who do not bow to a king.

To Cpl. Lake's mother - I have been through what you are going through. It is terrible. My son is safely home but lives with the nightmares of PTSD. I hope that your son returns to you, and is someday, able to sleep again.

Thank you, once again, Sean Smith for what you did for us, and Thank You ABC News for defying King George.

This last video has been all over the internet, but I included it here anyway, along with my two cents! Thanks to Max Blumenthal for publicly exposing the mindless next generation of Warmongering Republican Chickenhawks.

The following piece is tragic. I am appalled that this ignorant herd of sheep are college students! I am incensed at the arrogant hypocrisy displayed in this gathering of cowards. Like Bush and Cheney, they support wars they have no intention of fighting in - they just start them and stuff their pockets. If you haven't seen this yet try not to get sick.

Young Republican Chickenhawks

IMPEACH, IMPEACH, IMPEACH

......Kitchen Window Woman......
......Resident Scholar, API.........
..................PEACE.......................