You Are My Mother and My Friend

You are my mother and my friend,
Which is unusual.
Somehow our characters must blend:
Your wisdom and my will.

I turn, and you are there for me;
I speak, you understand.
I feel cared for, but also free;
You lead but don't command.

I'm fortunate that I was born
To someone just like you;
I love you, not just as my mom,
But for what you are and do

What kind of neighbor are they?

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - More aid is on the way to cyclone-ravaged Myanmar - but so is the heavy rain. A week after Cyclone Nargis flattened low-lying villages and killed whole families at a time, the military junta finally agreed Friday to allow a U.S. cargo plane to bring in food and other supplies to the isolated country. Myanmar gave the green light after confiscating other shipments, prompting the U.N. to order a temporary freeze in shipments.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080509/D90IE0RO1.html

As they take the minerals out of this country, what does China leave for it, bereft of its monks and spirit?

Taxi to the Dark Side is an Academy Award winning 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney, and produced b Taxi to the Dark Side is an Academy Award winning 2007 documentary film directed by American filmmaker Alex Gibney, and produced by Eva Orner.

The film focuses around the controversial death in custody of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar. Dilawar was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extra judicial detention at the Bagram Air Base.

Taxi to the Dark Side also goes on to examine America's policy on torture and interrogation in general, specifically the CIA's use of torture and their research into sensory deprivation. There is description of the opposition to the use of torture from its political and military opponents, as well as the defense of such methods; the attempts by Congress to uphold the standards of the Geneva Convention forbidding torture; and the popularization of the use of torture techniques in shows such as 24.

Yesterday I was driving back from the farm. My mind wandered as I drove. I noticed crops wilting in the heat—once again we haven’t had sufficient rain from Seguin to parts west. I couldn’t help but feel for the farmers that spent time preparing ground and money on expensive fuel, fertilizer and seed. My thoughts were interrupted as a car passed me. The driver cast an angry look as he sped by and then passed another pickup, ignoring the solid yellow stripe in his lane. Luckily no one came over the hill in the opposite direction. I looked at my speedometer. 60 mph.

The cocksucker needs to slow down.

thank goodness for NASA taking aim at a 40 meter wide asteroid.

>>NEAT<< plus a petaflop computing breakthrough

Lambert doesn't like what Matt Stoller saying about how Obama ran his campaign and how he's now consolidating power. He thinks Matt's kissing Obama's boots.

What Matt is saying is simple:

Obama is taking over the party and cutting out everyone who isn't in his camp. He believes in post-partisanship (this doesn't contradict having Daschle as your bud, y'know). Money flow is going to come mostly from Obama going forward, unless he loses the election. The independents-folks like MoveOn, ActBlue, the netroots, etc... are being cut out or marginalized, whether they realize it or not (and I know that some don't.) Obama doesn't feel he really needed them (sorry MoveOn), and he isn't planning on giving them any real say or power.

I will be appearing on Virtually Speaking tonight at 9PM Eastern, in second life live, on Blog Talk Radio and podcast available later. I'll be speaking on a very simple idea: the coming Progressive Century, and why it is society, and not technology, that is going to be driving this change.

For people who have Second Life accounts - which are free and take only a few minutes to sign up for - the SLURL is In world Studios. Regular attendees in world include Jesus' General and other in world progressives. Previous guests have included McJoan of Daily Kos and Jeffery Feldman. Coming up is Darcy Burner on the 15th, Ed markey on the 22nd and Rick Perlstein, author of the just published Nixonland, on the 29. For those of you who don't kno the host Jay Ackroyd, he is a long time progressive media stalwart, with a sharp mind and a broad knowledge of politics and economics. This is sure to be an incisive discussion.

The overwhelming beauty of two phenomena of nature. A thunderstorm on the huge column
of ash that rises from the volcano Chaiten and reaches a height of 14 kilometers.
More at Link - Copyright Terra Networks Chile S.A.

  h/t Hullabaloo

This email comes from an email correspondent of mine who reads the site regularly. There are some interesting generational comments and observations here that might be the seeds of a fruitful discussion:

[War Inc. was] co-written by a very angry John Cusack. Most of the audience, which I would say was my age or older was very unconfortable with the over-the-top satire of Haliburton, US in Iraq etc. I guess it might be less uncomfortable to see if "Iraq" ever ends. Somewhere my generation's heart, boomer or no, is not prepared to confront our country'sactions as strictly driven by greed. But younger audiences at the Tribeca film festival had no problem accepting it.

I forget how much after the height of the cold war Doctor Strangelove was made and whether it was a hit as opposed to an Oscar nominee. It will be interesting to see how it does when it is released. It was made in Bulgaria by an Israeli production company.

Thoughts?

DAWSON BELL | May 7

FREE PRESS - Mich. Supreme Court says public employees can't share health care with same-sex partners

An amendment to the state constitution approved by voters in 2004 to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman also prohibits public employers from providing health care and other benefits to the same sex partners of employees, a divided Michigan Supreme Court ruled today.

The court, on a vote of 5-2, found that language in the amendment prohibiting recognition of other unions “for any purpose” includes a ban on the extension of benefits to gay and lesbian partners of public employees. By providing benefits to same sex domestic partners, employers recognize those relationships in a way indistinguishable from the way marriage is recognized, the court found.

Patrick Gillen, a professor at Ave Maria Law School and a co-author of the amendment, said the court’s ruling was “a vindication of the will of people in enacting the marriage amendment.”

Judy Dempsey | Berlin | May 7

IHT - A pipeline that Russia and Germany intend to build under the Baltic Sea is facing so much opposition and scrutiny from governments, environmental lobbies and the European Parliament that the pipeline company, Nord Stream, has yet to obtain a single construction permit from any of the countries surrounding the sea, according to government officials in the region.

"There are serious environmental considerations that could affect the environment of the Baltic Sea," said Marcin Libicki, the Polish chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Petitions. "Ideally, we would like the project to be scaled back," he said before the committee was to meet again this week.

The committee examines petitions of European Union citizens related to issues within the bloc. Last year, Libicki said, he received petitions related to Nord Stream supported by 30,000 citizens, mainly from the Baltic States.

"There is real concern out about this pipeline," he said. "And of course there are political considerations as well. It's about Europe's growing dependence on Russia for its energy."

As Dave Neiwart points out over at FDL, the results for Hillary in North Carolina and Indiana were less than she needed, and may have destroyed her chances with the superdelegates. Her speech sounded suspiciously like a concession speech. Now anyone counting Hillary out until she formally says she's out is taking a big chance, this is the energizer bunny of candidates. But let's assume she will decide the gig's up and to throw in the towel and turn our eyes forward.

Obama has his work cut out for him. The possibility that a lot of Hillary's white working class base could turn to McCain or stay home should be a real worry for him. There's been a great deal of bitterness and anger on both sides of the fight. And, to be crass and point out the unpalatable truth, there isn't a lot in it for Hillary to back Obama in a more than pro-forma "going through the motions" fashion. If he loses, she's the presumptive nominee in 4 years, after all. If he wins, she probably has to wait 8 years, and she's not getting any younger. If she really wants to be president, well, Obama's still in the way. Now I'm not saying she won't help Obama even if such thoughts are going through her mind, no doubt she understands what another 4 years of a Republican presidency would mean. Still, there's help, and there's going all out. And there's a lot of space between the two.

So if I'm Obama; if I'm one of Obama's advisors, no matter how much I may share the view of some associated with the campaign about Hillary, I'd be thinking real hard right now about what it's going to take to bring her and Bill onboard in a big way, so that they do everything possible to really deliver the votes of their supporters.

For Bill, probably a seat on the Supremes if the opportunity comes up (and it will, if Obama is elected.) For Hillary? Probably Senate Majority leader—it's not like Harry Reid really likes the job anyway.

For our hopes of there being a Democratic President taking office in 2009 I trust that similar thoughts are going through Obama's mind. Because he's going to need all the help he can get.

Why are the presidential candidates—and so many counterterrorism experts—afraid to say that the Al Qaeda threat is overrated?

Christopher Dickey | May 6, 2008

Newsweek - Michael Sheehan is on a one-man mission to put terrorist threats into perspective, which is a place they've rarely or ever been before. Already you can see it's going to be a hard slog. Fighting the inflated menace of Osama bin Laden has become big business, generating hundreds of billions of dollars for government agencies and contractors in what one friend of mine in the Washington policy-making stratosphere calls "the counterterrorist-industrial complex."

But Sheehan's got the kind of credentials that ought to make us stop and listen. He was a U.S. Army Green Beret fighting guerrillas in Central America in the 1980s, he served on the National Security Council staff under both President George H.W. Bush and President Bill Clinton, and he held the post of ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism from 1998 to 2000.

In those days Sheehan was among that persistent, relentless and finally shrill chorus of voices trying to warn the Clinton administration that Osama bin Laden and his boys represented a horrific danger to the United States and its interests. Days after the October 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in Yemen that killed 17 American sailors, experienced analysts like Sheehan at the State Department and Richard A. Clarke at the White House were certain Al Qaeda was behind it, but there was no support for retaliation among the Clintonistas or, even less, the Pentagon.

Go to Original

Blackwater Shooting Highlights a US, Iraq Culture Clash
By Borzou Daragahi and Raheem Salman
The Los Angeles Times

Sunday 04 May 2008

Relatives of those killed in September by US contractors are insulted by the compensation offers. In their justice system, an apology comes first.

Baghdad - He refused to take the Americans' blood money.

Report: Post-War Suicides May Exceed Combat Deaths
By: Steve Benen @ 5:30 AM - PDT

Bloomberg reported this week on yet another devastating and deadly aspect of the war in Iraq: the U.S. troops, burdened with post-traumatic stress, who commit suicide.

Gareth Porter | Washington | May 7, 2008

Asia Times Online - WASHINGTON - Three weeks after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, former US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld established an official military objective of not only removing the Saddam Hussein regime by force but overturning the regime in Iran, as well as in Syria and four other countries in the Middle East, according to a document quoted extensively in then-under secretary of defense for policy Douglas Feith's recently published account of the Iraq war decisions.

Feith's account further indicates that this aggressive aim of remaking the map of the Middle East by military force and the threat of force was supported explicitly by the country's top military leaders.

as it turns out, I was academically denied an A average by .9 of a mark. My overall average for the year was 79.1%. Not too shabby for a 65-year-old person but have to admit being disappointed not to achieve an A in my final year.

I need to step back several years to when I started my BA in 1970 at Huron College, affiliate of University of Western Ontario. I entered University as an adult student by taking three grade 13 credits, two in English and one in History, then writing an University qualification examination that I managed to pass. In 1970 started my first year--extremely difficult to adapt to being back in school, but by the end of the year was managing A's and B's in all my courses and selected Psychology as my Major.

It's early to count a crop done, but we have a good start. Recent pictures from the farm, after the break.

I am at best a casual fan of thoroughbred racing. If there is sufficient buzz for more than one horse coming into the Kentucky Derby, I will watch the race. If the overwhelming favorite prevails, I'll skip the remaining two legs of the Triple Crown, because I know the field will have been winnowed considerably.

Today's running of the Kentucky Derby was not one of interest. A field of twenty - a sure indication of mediocrity - took the post approximately ten minutes late following hours of televised workout clips and inane interviews, much like the hype of Stupor Bowl Sunday.

BBC - The first legalised home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, but a ban remains on internet access.

This is the latest in a series of restrictions on daily life which President Raul Castro has lifted in recent weeks.

Crowds formed at the Carlos III shopping centre in Havana, though most had come just to look.

The desktop computers cost almost $800 (£400), in a country where the average wage is under $20 (£10) a month.

But some Cubans do have access to extra income, much of it from money sent by relatives living abroad.

This morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed what we already knew: for most people, this is a recession. There are enough numbers out to confirm that, under the old rules from the NBER, the decline in incomes, personal wealth and employment would be enough to offset the meager growth in inflation driven growth. However, under the Bush friendly rules promulgated ad hoc as a way of declaring the 2001 recession prematurely over, we are not in recession. The best way to put it is "life is hard, out there, for you people."

This means I need to talk about things like the Gini co-efficient, meso-inflation and assorted other things they won't tell you from the ordinary business press. It also means that if we take the Commerce Department and the NBER at their word, the news is not better, but worse. What's worse than a recession? Not having one when it should happen, and creating a greater imbalance for when it will happen later.

But let's slice some turkey first.

The lead story in April was the raid on the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Texas. The story was that a woman (in this case a sixteen year old girl), called the authorities and claimed that she was being held against her will and was being forced to have sex with older men. The details from that point on are a little bit confusing. The truth is that this entire saga is, and continues to be, so confusing that the mainstream media has seemingly dropped it.

At the time of the first news reports, I received a call from a colleague in Texas. He stated at the time that he believed that the entire story was a hoax. He went on to say that he believed that there was no phone call from this “mystery woman” because she didn’t exist. That wasn’t all, he went on to say that the warrant wasn’t legal, and that the government had broken the law by allowing members of another religion to take custody of the church members (remember the buses with “First Baptist Church” on the sides?) and illegally searching the FLDS compound.

May 1

BBC -
Deborah Jean Palfrey, the US woman recently convicted for her role as the head of a Washington DC escort agency, has committed suicide, police say.

Ms Palfrey, often referred to as "the DC Madam", was found hanged in a shed next to her mother's house in Florida.

She was convicted on 15 April of running a prostitution ring, money laundering and mail fraud.

The case became famous because of the prominent officials - including Senator David Vitter - who had used the agency.

Or did she get suicided?

Mazda Forced to Design A 'Disassembly' Line After Odd Sea Disaster - JOEL MILLMAN
WSJ