But that is the immediate history – and those are the unlearned lessons – that will be prologue to the future that is about to unfold.
© 2001 Robert Parry is an investigative reporter who broke many of the Iran-contra stories in the 1980s for The Associated Press and Newsweek

U.S. Government Prior Knowledge Of Emergency
By Sherman H. Skolnick

AMERICA'S REICHSTAG FIRE

The most massive so-called "terrorist" attacks on U.S. soil since the Oklahoma City bombings of 1995, were known, a week ahead of time, by the American CIA. Among the foreign intelligence agencies who penetrated the plots were the French CIA and Israel's The Mossad, units of both often working with one another. Foreign intelligence sources confirm the validity of this story. And they state that they informed the U.S. secret police who absolutely failed, neglected, and outright refused to take action as to known prior specifics of which the top-level of the CIA were informed in advance.

As made known to the CIA, were the following, among other details

[1].That George Herbert Walker Bush, as President, at the close of the Persian Gulf War, 1991, arranged to bring into the U.S. some four thousand Iraqi military officers, some from intelligence units, and their families.

[2] Some 550 of these officers became residents in Lincoln, Nebraska, AND TWO THOUSAND OF THEM took up residence in Oklahoma City. In a watered down story, CBS' "60 Minutes" Program did a segment once on this about Lincoln, Nebraska but said NOTHING about the Iraqi military officers in Oklahoma City.

[3].The financial and other provisions for them and their families were arranged by the Elder Bush, and then quietly continued by Bill Clinton as President, and perpetuated by George W. Bush as White House "resident" and "occupant". The arrangements included financial subsidies, housing, and employment for the Iraqi officers.

[A brave Oklahoma City TV Reporter, Jayna Davis, on their local TV station, put on the air several stories about the Iraqi connection to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building, the bombing done with the aid of domestic dissidents as surrogates. A group bought out the TV station and silenced her. Timothy McVeigh's chief defense counsel for the murder trial, Stephen Jones, on behalf of McVeigh, filed an extra-ordinary petition in the next higher court, just prior to the murder trial. To no avail, Jones tried to force Denver U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch to compel the American CIA to disgorge records held by them showing prior U.S. knowledge of the bombing, as confirmed by other known records, some of them also in secret court records. We have a copy of the 185 page U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, petition filed by Jones and almost uniformly ignored by the American monopoly press. The petition raises the Iraqi connection.]

[4] The foreign intelligence agencies informed the American CIA that guns would be planted on-board as many as ten U.S. commercial airflights. This to be done by airplane clean-up crew members who are generally not subject to airport security provisions. These workers most likely did not know the purpose of the gun-planting.

[5] The CIA also was informed prior to the "terrorist" attacks scheduled for "911" Emergency Day [September 11], that highly skilled Iraqi pilots, among the four thousand Iraqi officers resident in the U.S., would take over the commercial flights, by retrieving the weapons concealed onboard, and then commandeering the flight deck.

[6] The Elder Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, all were in a position to know that the Iraqi officers that they provided for included some double-agents. The FBI Counter-Intelligence Division at no time was instructed to do anything about these double-agents in a position to commit mischief, murder, and mayhem, on U.S. soil.

[7] As I revealed a week prior to the "terrorist" attacks, some foreign television networks were busy preparing lengthy documentaries that would scandalize George W. Bush and other members of the Bush Family, including the Elder Bush and Jeb Bush. The subject matter included how forty million dollars in dope funds were used by the Bush Family to reportedly corrupt South Florida DEMOCRATS to abandon the recount even ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling installing George W. Bush as the "resident" and "occupant" of the White House. The dope funds came reportedly from Bush Family business partner, Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the U.S./Colombia medellin dope cartel. [Visit our website story, "Chandra Levy Affair, Part Two".] I discussed this on radio talk shows.

[8] As part of the targetting of the World Trade Center buildings, a group of surrogates for the Iraqi military officers, reportedly spent considerable time within one of the buildings, with building security officers somehow oblivious of their presence.

[9] As the CIA top officials were informed and had prior knowledge, the purpose of the "terrorist" attacks was to effectively paralyze the financial infrastructure of the U.S. Some of the most important stock and bond houses in the world, with their key people having loads of inside knowledge and hard to replace trading tricks and expertise, were located in the known-to-be-targetted twin towers of the World Trade Center, New York City. It was like blowing up the main "financial factory" and destroying their inventory. The so-called "back-up" records kept parked across the river in New Jersey, are not only inadequate but cannot help reconstruct various accounts and transactions in the works.

Financial experts tell us the "back up" records parked in New Jersey, may NOT be sufficient to re-start the American financial apparatus. Some of the experts are loudly grumbling that they should have early on seen Federal Reserve Czar Alan Greenspan on the television explaining about the financial ramifications. Of course, some suppose that Americans would panic and run out of control. So we are dealt with like little children.

[10] It is a serious mistake, according to savvy American and foreign intelligence sources, to blame the Emergency all on Osama bin Laden. As readers of our website are aware, we have long pointed out that bin Laden is reportedly in the Mid-East Construction business. His reputed partners? The family of Sharon PERCY Rockefeller. She is the wife of John D. Rockefeller 4th (D., W.Va.), great grandson of the founder of the infamous Standard Oil Trust that used to bomb their own obsolete buildings to falsely blame onto their competitors. Bin Laden's so-called "secret" accounts, which the White House has said they would like to freeze, are or have been actually reportedly in the Harris Bank, Chicago, joint accounts with the family of Sharon PERCY Rockefeller.

[11] The Saudi Royal Family actually consists of some five thousand members, some of whom actually are for the U.S. and some anti-U.S. Some of them have bankrolled Iraq's war against Iran, 1980 to 1988, to destroy some oil facilities and keep the price of oil HIGH. The foreign intelligence agencies, that penetrated the plots to be carried out on U.S. soil, are aware that some of the Saudi royals are actually sympathetic to the Iraqis destroying the World Trade Center Buildings and in part, wrecking the Pentagon. [As if the American CIA did not ALREADY have their own knowledge of this.]

Whenever there is a political assassination or some other unusual violent event, what is the key question the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press ALWAYS fails to ask? WHO BENEFITS. With a scandal about to break against George W. Bush, he and his circle had an interest NOT to stop these things from happening. And to divert attention. The White House has a strong motive to silence critics and urge people TO RALLY AROUND THE PRESIDENT. Simple-minded folks, of course, often poorly informed,do not understand how the ruling classes would shed the blood of thousands if not millions of innocent people, in some instigated war, to avoid dealing with the apparent on-coming economic disasters.

In the midst of this prior-knowledge emergency, who dares now to point to the Bush Family as reputed business partners of the major kingpin, Carlos Lehder, of the U.S./Colombia medellin dope cartel? Or how huge dope money bought the Electoral College trick in Florida and corrupted the U.S. Supreme Court's "gang of five". This is America's REICHSTAG fire. Adolph Hitler burned down the German parliament and falsely blamed his enemies and had them rounded up and put in the concentration camps. Has the U.S. Constitution now been revoked?

More coming. Stay tuned.
© 2001 Sherman H. Skolnick
Since 1958, Mr.Skolnick has been a court reformer. Since 1963, founder/chairman, Citizen's Committee to Clean Up the Courts, disclosing certain instances of judicial and other bribery and political murders. Since 1991 a regular panelist, and since 1995, moderator/producer, of one-hour,weekly public access Cable TV Show, "Broadsides", Cablecast on Channel 21, 9 p.m. each Monday in Chicago.

Fawwaz is also thought to have been directly involved in the terrorist cell that perpetrated the simultaneous bombings of the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998. More than 200 people died in those attacks.
© 2001 Douglas Davis

Don't Go Overboard

Our leaders never tire of telling us that America is the wealthiest, most technologically advanced nation in the history of the world, as well as the most free. Now is the time to tell them that we can afford to protect our people and our territory without undermining our freedom.
© 2001 Joe Conason email Joe at: jconason@observer.com.

A Plan Of Terrorism Too Easily Carried Out

Meanwhile, it certainly can't hurt to keep Colin Powell in your prayers.
© 2001 Gene Lyons is a Little Rock author and recipient of the National Magazine Award.

Quotable Quote

Instead of the destroyed New York edifices, the twin towers of Peace and Justice must be built.
© 2001 Uri Avnery
Editors note: Uri Avnery heads "Gush Shalom" the hard core of the Israeli peace movement. Visit their site at Gush Shalom

NGLTF executive director Lorri L. Jean issued a statement that read, in part, "The terrible tragedy that has befallen our nation, and indeed the entire global community, is the sad byproduct of fanaticism. It has its roots in the same fanaticism that enables people like Jerry Falwell to preach hate against those who do not think, live, or love in the exact same way he does. The tragedies that have occurred this week did not occur because someone made God mad, as Mr. Falwell asserts. They occurred because of hate. It is time to move beyond a place of hate and to a place of healing. We hope that Mr. Falwell will apologize to the U.S. and world communities. Our hearts go out to the victims of this week's tragedies and their friends and family members."
© 2001 William Rivers Pitt and The Advocate

Rainbow Farms, Slavery And You!
By Ernest Stewart

I got into an interesting argument this week over Affirmative Action. You know the racist practice that gives extra points to an unqualified candidate because they are a certain color? He was for it all though he wasn’t happy with its bigotry but it was ok by him because it was better than doing nothing. I of course being a liberal asked if he was working for the RNC,i.e (divide and conquer) which he said, really pissed him off, as he was a life long Democrat. He made a lot of insulting statements about me, which I took the time to explain and refute, while he couldn’t or wouldn’t (an old Freeper trick) answer any of mine. You know you’ve won the argument when they can’t refute the truth.

I’m against it for many reasons some of which are it’s against the law i.e. the Civil Rights act of 1964 and the 14th Amendment. It chooses who will be given this boost based only on race and not on ability, which results in about 60% of those given it fail to graduate, as they weren’t ready. Those blacks who made it in on their own ability and who because of affirmative action are seen as somehow not up to par must be really pissed off over it. This means those who weren’t the right color and were kept from qualifying even though they had higher scores have been discriminated against for nothing, your tax dollars at work. Meanwhile these other minorities such as Latinos, Asians, Indians and the like who are just as discriminated against as the blacks get another slap in the face from some brain dead dean who has official state government behind him. Bigotry becomes official state policy. Makes you proud to be an American and pay taxes don’t it?

Instead of picking and choosing this weeks group I suggested to this college professor, yep he has his hands in the blood of the disenfranchised, a simple solution. It how ever won’t make you feel all warm and fuzzy about being a bigot and will force you to get off your fat American ass and go to work. Yes you’ll actually have to stop mouthing platitudes; roll up your sleeves and work like hell. It doesn’t require racism or bigotry to work, which is why I think he didn’t want to comment on it nor could he refute it. I think he was just out to get revenge on whitey and any plan that didn’t start with that as square one he really wasn’t interested in.

All you have to do is get involved. Incredibly simple, eh? Starting in preschool PARENTS and Teachers have to teach children firstly how to think, how to solve problems. If a child can’t do that, nothing else matters. You need teach no names, places and dates until this is accomplished. Nor can you leave any child behind. Although there are some children with mental problems that this is not going to address it will certainly work for 99% of the kids. Which means the 40% which haven’t grasp this square one proposition could be saved from a life of McDonalds (Would you like fries with that sir?) and pick up that PHD that we all dream about. Then you keep this up with heavy parent and teacher involvement right through High School. I guarantee that when you apply to a college you won’t need to do it standing on someone else’s body. This of course will never work in this country because it takes a lot of effort.

He tried to turn the conversation away from this; as he saw he wasn’t about to change my mind, with the question of slavery. I won’t go into that for lack of space in this editorial but I will mention that I said I was a slave to the government regardless of what the 13th amendment said on the subject i.e. because I have from time to time smoked a great deal of pot. If I can not do with myself what I will (as long as I don’t bother anyone else) then my body doesn’t belong to me but to some bureaucrat. To this I say Fuck You! Which brings us to the murders last week at the Rainbow Farms campground.

The owner Grover Crosslin and his partner Rolland Rohm were shot down in cold blood by the Michigan State Gestapo and the FBI. The local county persecutor and county sheriff had been out to get the duo for legally trying to change the pot laws in Michigan. They had concerts at the camp and teach ins gathered petitions and such. For this the above goons had Mr. Crosslins child taken away and his house and campground forfeited not for any provable instance but on the word of their own government snitches. What better way to stop dissent than to trump up some charges, make local headlines (good for reelection) and keep all the money from the farm for their own uses. That was bad enough but when the two burnt down all the buildings reducing the value of the property, in a fit of pique the authorities shot them dead when they came out. At first it was said that they aimed their weapons at the surrounding officers, then when many witnesses came forward it became they pointed their guns in the general direction of the police and finally the truth came out, they walked away and didn’t stop when told to.

I was an expert marksman when I was in the service. To get that medal I had to put 3 shot groups in a quarter sized area at a certain range. I would guess that the state trooper and FBI agent had similar training, so my question is why didn’t they just wound them if they just had to shoot them out of spite. I could have dropped them both without killing either without any problems at all. So my conclusion dear reader is they meant to kill them and thereby create another Ruby Ridge and Waco. You remember Ruby Ridge where a child was shot dead in the back and a woman holding a baby was shot dead by FBI snipers. Certainly any one with a brain would have taken David Koresh away from his compound, away from all his weapons and the children. This is however the way that great queen J Edgar Hoover taught his troops to behave and nothing has changed since his death.

Remember William C. Sullivan the one time #3 man in the FBI behind Hoover and his lover? You know the guy that was a whistle blower on all the FBI treason and such under Hoover. The guy who had a hunting accident a few days before his book, "The Bureau: My Thirty Years In Hoovers FBI" was published. He was hunting with a group of FBI agents at the time. Did that send a chill down your spine? It should have! On one hand the FBI couldn’t catch a cold ask the Uni-Bomber how effective they are. Unless of course they have you surrounded then lookout. Much like the Peruvian/CIA shoot first and ask questions later policy that killed a mother and her baby and Zeus knows what other innocents in South America.

The reason the chimp is in the White House is that this campaign to overthrow the legitimate government and make you a slave has been going on in this county for centuries. Smirky isn’t the first to be a non-elected President he is the 6th and all of them were what? That’s right Rethuglicans. Funny how that works huh? Question is MR & Mrs. America what are you going to do about it before it happens to you?

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionist, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up. … Martin Niemoeller 1892 – 1984
© 2001 Ernest Stewart

Special Report: Terrorism In The US
By Richard Dawkins
The Guardian

A guided missile corrects its trajectory as it flies, homing in, say, on the heat of a jet plane's exhaust. A great improvement on a simple ballistic shell, it still cannot discriminate particular targets. It could not zero in on a designated New York skyscraper if launched from as far away as Boston.

That is precisely what a modern "smart missile" can do. Computer miniaturisation has advanced to the point where one of today's smart missiles could be programmed with an image of the Manhattan skyline together with instructions to home in on the north tower of the World Trade Centre. Smart missiles of this sophistication are possessed by the United States, as we learned in the Gulf war, but they are economically beyond ordinary terrorists and scientifically beyond theocratic governments. Might there be a cheaper and easier alternative?

In the second world war, before electronics became cheap and miniature, the psychologist BF Skinner did some research on pigeon-guided missiles. The pigeon was to sit in a tiny cockpit, having previously been trained to peck keys in such a way as to keep a designated target in the centre of a screen. In the missile, the target would be for real.

The principle worked, although it was never put into practice by the US authorities. Even factoring in the costs of training them, pigeons are cheaper and lighter than computers of comparable effectiveness. Their feats in Skinner's boxes suggest that a pigeon, after a regimen of training with colour slides, really could guide a missile to a distinctive landmark at the southern end of Manhattan island. The pigeon has no idea that it is guiding a missile. It just keeps on pecking at those two tall rectangles on the screen, from time to time a food reward drops out of the dispenser, and this goes on until... oblivion.

Pigeons may be cheap and disposable as on-board guidance systems, but there's no escaping the cost of the missile itself. And no such missile large enough to do much damage could penetrate US air space without being intercepted. What is needed is a missile that is not recognised for what it is until too late. Something like a large civilian airliner, carrying the innocuous markings of a well-known carrier and a great deal of fuel. That's the easy part. But how do you smuggle on board the necessary guidance system? You can hardly expect the pilots to surrender the left-hand seat to a pigeon or a computer.

How about using humans as on-board guidance systems, instead of pigeons? Humans are at least as numerous as pigeons, their brains are not significantly costlier than pigeon brains, and for many tasks they are actually superior. Humans have a proven track record in taking over planes by the use of threats, which work because the legitimate pilots value their own lives and those of their passengers.

The natural assumption that the hijacker ultimately values his own life too, and will act rationally to preserve it, leads air crews and ground staff to make calculated decisions that would not work with guidance modules lacking a sense of self-preservation. If your plane is being hijacked by an armed man who, though prepared to take risks, presumably wants to go on living, there is room for bargaining. A rational pilot complies with the hijacker's wishes, gets the plane down on the ground, has hot food sent in for the passengers and leaves the negotiations to people trained to negotiate.

The problem with the human guidance system is precisely this. Unlike the pigeon version, it knows that a successful mission culminates in its own destruction. Could we develop a biological guidance system with the compliance and dispensability of a pigeon but with a man's resourcefulness and ability to infiltrate plausibly? What we need, in a nutshell, is a human who doesn't mind being blown up. He'd make the perfect on-board guidance system. But suicide enthusiasts are hard to find. Even terminal cancer patients might lose their nerve when the crash was actually looming.

Could we get some otherwise normal humans and somehow persuade them that they are not going to die as a consequence of flying a plane smack into a skyscraper? If only! Nobody is that stupid, but how about this - it's a long shot, but it just might work. Given that they are certainly going to die, couldn't we sucker them into believing that they are going to come to life again afterwards? Don't be daft! No, listen, it might work. Offer them a fast track to a Great Oasis in the Sky, cooled by everlasting fountains. Harps and wings wouldn't appeal to the sort of young men we need, so tell them there's a special martyr's reward of 72 virgin brides, guaranteed eager and exclusive.

Would they fall for it? Yes, testosterone-sodden young men too unattractive to get a woman in this world might be desperate enough to go for 72 private virgins in the next.

It's a tall story, but worth a try. You'd have to get them young, though. Feed them a complete and self-consistent background mythology to make the big lie sound plausible when it comes. Give them a holy book and make them learn it by heart. Do you know, I really think it might work. As luck would have it, we have just the thing to hand: a ready-made system of mind-control which has been honed over centuries, handed down through generations. Millions of people have been brought up in it. It is called religion and, for reasons which one day we may understand, most people fall for it (nowhere more so than America itself, though the irony passes unnoticed). Now all we need is to round up a few of these faith-heads and give them flying lessons.

Facetious? Trivialising an unspeakable evil? That is the exact opposite of my intention, which is deadly serious and prompted by deep grief and fierce anger. I am trying to call attention to the elephant in the room that everybody is too polite - or too devout - to notice: religion, and specifically the devaluing effect that religion has on human life. I don't mean devaluing the life of others (though it can do that too), but devaluing one's own life. Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end.

If death is final, a rational agent can be expected to value his life highly and be reluctant to risk it. This makes the world a safer place, just as a plane is safer if its hijacker wants to survive. At the other extreme, if a significant number of people convince themselves, or are convinced by their priests, that a martyr's death is equivalent to pressing the hyperspace button and zooming through a wormhole to another universe, it can make the world a very dangerous place. Especially if they also believe that that other universe is a paradisical escape from the tribulations of the real world. Top it off with sincerely believed, if ludicrous and degrading to women, sexual promises, and is it any wonder that naive and frustrated young men are clamouring to be selected for suicide missions?

There is no doubt that the afterlife-obsessed suicidal brain really is a weapon of immense power and danger. It is comparable to a smart missile, and its guidance system is in many respects superior to the most sophisticated electronic brain that money can buy. Yet to a cynical government, organisation, or priesthood, it is very very cheap.

Our leaders have described the recent atrocity with the customary cliche: mindless cowardice. "Mindless" may be a suitable word for the vandalising of a telephone box. It is not helpful for understanding what hit New York on September 11. Those people were not mindless and they were certainly not cowards. On the contrary, they had sufficiently effective minds braced with an insane courage, and it would pay us mightily to understand where that courage came from.

It came from religion. Religion is also, of course, the underlying source of the divisiveness in the Middle East which motivated the use of this deadly weapon in the first place. But that is another story and not my concern here. My concern here is with the weapon itself. To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are used.
© 21001 Richard Dawkins is professor of the public understanding of science, University of Oxford, and author of The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and Unweaving the Rainbow.

Dead Letter Office

Heil Bush,

Dear Propaganda Ansager Gallagher,

Congratulations you have just been awarded the Vidkun Quisling Award for 2001. Your name will now live throughout history with such past award winners as Marcus Junius Brutus, Judas Iscariot, Benedict Arnold, Vidkun Quisling and last year's winner Volksjudge Antoni (light-fingers) Scalia.

Without your help shilling for us, spinning the truth, telling out right lies and ignoring the real news, holding onto power after our Coup D' Etat would have been impossible. With the help of our mutual friends, the other "Media Whores," you have made it possible for all of us to goose-step off to a brave new bank account.

Along with this award there will be an Iron Cross 2nd class presented by our glorious Fuhrer Herr Bush at a gala celebration in der Fuhrer Bunker (formally the White House) on 12-15-2001. We salute you Frau Gallagher! Sieg Heil!

Signed,
Deputy Fuhrer Cheney

Heil Bush

The War Prayer
By Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation

*God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!*

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said: "I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"
This thought brought to you by, "The National Candlelight Vigil © 2001" and www.GranniesAgainstGeorge.org

The American Spirit
By Tally Briggs

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times….

A Tale of Two Cities ~ Charles Dickens

I have been so tired of late; I haven’t even had the energy to write. Even before September 11th, I guess the pathetic nature of the events of the last ten months, from the theft of the election and appointistration’s funding of the Taliban, to the Arsenic in our water supply, I have just become burned out, and I feel as though I am beating my head against a wall.

It is a shame it takes a tragedy to bring people together. Perhaps that is what such insane terrorism never takes into consideration. Or perhaps they just don’t understand the nature of the Human Spirit. I’d say American Spirit, but after the generous outpouring of emotion I’ve witnessed from the farthest reaches of this globe after what will no doubt, hopefully, go down in history as the worst acts of terrorism not only on American soil, but anywhere, I know it is so much more than just American Spirit, although our spirit is formidable and unique nonetheless. I can’t help but believe that the American Spirit has somehow become part of the Global Consciousness.

I keep feeling that we are the Whos in Whoville, and someone has tried to break our spirit, only to find just the opposite has occurred. We are all closer now. America is closer, as well as the globe.

But just as we Whos are finding the good in all of the horror, the Grinches are also showing their true faces. Hate lives everywhere, even here in our house, on our shores. Attempting to turn brother against brother, American against American, the Grinches are busy spewing their poison, even on national television. From the numbers of bigoted ignorant who blame anyone of Middle Eastern decent, and don’t know that by definition the word "Islam" literally translates to the word "peace"; to religious leaders, wrongly using the mask of "Christianity" to blame their fellow citizens for the atrocities. Even those who are screaming "war" and "revenge" and would, if they had sole control of The Button, push it now, without any specific target but a geographical spot on the globe that is already a pile of poverty stricken rubble, and has been for an age.

Make no mistake; these abominations of humanity who are our neighbors, do not have the best interests of this country and its citizens in mind. They are blinded by hate, and live only through their own narrow-minded selfish ignorance. They are equal by definition, word, and deed to the terrorists themselves. Terrorism must not be tolerated, but mindless retribution is just that, mindless.

Can we Whos, just by our own loving, nurturing, generous, and courageous natures, turn their hearts like in Dr Seuss’ magical tale? I can’t say. Most of them are so blinded by their own hate they cannot see it in themselves.

I do know this: They do not compare to the heroism I have witnessed this week. The many firefighters, police, canine units, and countless rescue personnel, from ironworkers, medics, and ordinary volunteers, to the millions across the country who are doing everything they can to help in anyway. Giving blood, funds, food, shelter, clothing, even children writing letters and drawing pictures of thanks and encouragement, the nationwide candlelight vigils and patriotism, neighbors speaking to neighbors, flags everywhere. The tireless webmasters who have struggled to keep people abreast of the events – even the media, as biased as much of it is, has risen a notch on the whore scale, broadcasting for almost 100 hours commercial free. It has been one of the biggest outpourings of love, and support I have ever witnessed not only here in America, but globally.

Today, I am still hoping for someone, like in the India quake, to miraculously be pulled from the rubble alive. I am hoping someone is checking on the pets of the many in New York City, and DC that will never make it home again to love and feed them. I am hoping that all the heroes, many who are risking their lives to help those who may still be trapped, know how much America values what they are all doing and that the Herculean effort of their labors are more important right now than any revenge might be.

I am also hoping that maybe, just maybe, the Grinches will be moved by the amazing formidable spirit of the Whos and begin to open their eyes to hate, and recognize it for the terrorism it truly is.
© 2001 Tally Briggs email Tally at: bardgal@yahoo.com

The Cartoon Corner

This edition we're proud to showcase the cartoons of Pat Oliphant

Imagine
John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
© 2001 John Lennon

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing." ... Edmund Burke

Voter March Extends Its Deepest Sympathies To The Thousands Of Innocent Victims Of The September 11th Disaster

And to their family and friends. Voter March condemns all forms of terrorism and fully supports responsible efforts to combat terrorism and improve airline security. For the Voter March information page on the September 11th Disaster, click on http://www.votermarch.org/S11.htm

There has been a lot of discussion on the Voter (and other) eGroup Boards on the September 11th Disaster at the World Trade Center and Pentagon. To accommodate those people who want an eGroup exclusively on this subject, I have started a new eGroup, September 11th Disaster. To join, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SeptemberDisaster or email to SeptemberDisaster-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

September 24th, Monday, 9:30 AM, United Nations, NYC

Voter March will hold a solidarity rally for the victims of the September 11th disaster and their families and friends. The Voter March solidarity rally will be held across from the United Nations where the General Assembly is meeting at 10:00 AM. The Voter March solidarity rally will be held at Ralph Bunche Park at First Avenue between 42nd and 43rd Streets from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm.

September 29th, Saturday and Sept. 30th, Sunday, Wash.DC

Voter March will hold a solidarity rally for the victims of the September 11th disaster and their families and friends. A Voter March candle light vigil for our fellow Americans will be held Saturday evening on the East Front Capitol Steps. Voter March has now secured a permit site for all day Saturday and Sunday at the East Front Capitol Steps directly across from the U.S. Supreme Court. Les Souci will be the Grand Marshall for the East Front Capitol steps and volunteers should email Les Souci at Souci@votermarch.org. Under the proposed permit, there will be no music, but we may have amplified sound for speakers.

LAUGH OF THE CENTURY .....

http://www.orgop.org/OR2001-WesternLdrshpRegist.pdf

The Republican Leadership Conference has scheduled Katherine Harris, secretary of State, FL as a guest speaker on Friday October 5th.

The "subjest" is VOTER FRAUD!! There is a registration form at the link above if anyone wants to attend & I assume, learn how to commit voter fraud! Did you Florida voters know that there is a special provision in the new Florida "Reform" to allow military to vote by FAX and WITHOUT BEING REGISTERED TO VOTE?!!

FOR FLORIDA VOTERS WHO ARE TIRED OF PAYING FOR KATHERINE HARRIS'S LUXURY TRIPS.....this is the info given on the hotel. There are 160 luxury guest rooms at The Resort at the Mountain. Several other lodging places are mentioned but:

Do you have any doubts as to where Katherine Harris will be staying? I would think that this is the time to write to the unhonorable Sec. of State and tell her to pay her own damn bills. She was born with more money than God and we should not have to pay for the flozzie to take luxury trips with Jebbie, Dubya, etc.

Something's rotten in Florida? Are we going to just sit idly by and do nothing?

Maggie
Pensacola, FL - My vote did not count
© 2001 G.A.G.

New Protests From Voter March

August 22, Wed., Voter March NY General Meeting

Voter March New York will have a general meeting at Chris Acosta's loft in Union Square at 239 Park Avenue South, Loft # 3C, (betw 19th and 20th Streets) on Wednesday, August 22nd from 7 pm to 9 pm. Key on the agenda are the upcoming actions: Scalia Protest at Hofstra law School on Sunday, September 9th and the Bush Protest at the United Nations on Monday, September 24th. There is no admission fee, but feel free to bring snacks or non-alcoholic beverages. Please RSVP to outreach@votermarch.org

September 9, Hempstead, Long Island, NY, Scalia Protest

A protest is planned at the Hofstra University School of Law on Sunday, September 9, where Antonin Scalia, one of the 5 Supreme Court Justices who stopped the hand counting of votes in Bush v. Gore, will give a keynote address at the Legal Ethics 2002 Conference. Scalia is scheduled to be a speaker from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm and at 6:00 pm there will be a banquet in honor of Justice Antonin Scalia. The banquet will be at Carlton on the Park at Eisenhower Park, near Hofstra University School of Law. Hofstra University is located in Hempstead, Long island, about 25 miles east of Manhattan, less than an hour away by train or automobile.

September 24, Monday, United Nations, New York City
Protest Bush at U.N. General Assembly

To protest Bush at his appearance and speech at the General Assembly of the United Nations. We will gather before noon at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza Park at 47th Street and First Avenue in Manhattan. Voter March has a permit pending and is inviting all pro-democracy groups to join in with this protest action. We will have a stage and sound system. For additional information, contact info@votermarch.org

For updates and additional information on all these events, see Voters March

SUPPORT THE OREGON DEMOCRATS' PROPOSAL TO IMPEACH THE FELONIOUS FIVE!

Here's what you can do to help:

1. Write your members of Congress and urge them to support the Democratic Party of Oregon's resolution.

2. Contact your local and/or state Democratic Party office urging them to also support the resolution.

3. Contribute to the Democratic Party of Oregon. We plan to continue to promote this resolution and your contribution, no matter how small, will help us in this fight for democracy. Click on Democratic Party of Oregon to send your support today!

Supreme Injustice
by STEVE COBBLE

Lest we forget--just over six months ago, the Rehnquist Court stole an election in broad daylight. In fear of the truth, the Scalia Five intervened to block all votes from being counted, an action "unprecedented" (both historically and judicially) in US history. Though the June 12 "anniversary" went unnoticed by the media, we must never forget.

Was it the worst Supreme Court decision in US history, as American University Constitutional scholar Jamin Raskin has suggested? Considering that Raskin is a staunch civil rights advocate, the very thought that he would rank Bush v. Gore lower than both the Dred Scott and Plessy rulings is instructive. Nor does Raskin stand alone in his opinion of this judicial coup.

Justice John Paul Stevens: "One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. I respectfully dissent."

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: "In sum, the Court's conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the Court's own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the Presidency of the United States. I dissent." And related is the unsigned per curiam decision of the Scalia 5, a transparent attempt to try to avoid history's scarlet letter.

Hendrik Hertzberg, former presidential speechwriter: "The election of 2000 was not stolen. It was expropriated."

David Kairys, Temple University: "We had a constitutional crisis, and it was Bush v. Gore. History will not be kind."

Suzanna Sherry, Vanderbilt University: "There is really very little way to reconcile this opinion other than that they wanted Bush to win."

Jeffrey Rosen, legal scholar: "They have...made it impossible for citizens of the United States to sustain any kind of faith in the rule of law as something larger than the self-interested political preferences of William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, and Sandra Day O'Connor."

Randall Kennedy, Harvard University: "But we should also insist that there be no confirmation for Scalia-like champions of the right-wing agenda. The Supreme Court has hurt its own reputation by wrongly intervening to ensure the victory of George W. Bush. Those who abhor what the Court did should say so and say so loudly and clearly."

Jesse Jackson and John Sweeney: "But if it comes down for justices to the 14th amendment and the promise of equal protection, one can only hope for the sake of the country that they consider how not counting all the votes mirrors too closely the habits of heart and mind that brought us slavery and segregation--the original sins of our nation that the equal protection clause sought to repair."

And, of course, Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor of Charles Manson and author of several bestselling true-crime books, in The Betrayal of America: ". . . the Court committed the unpardonable sin of being a knowing surrogate for the Republican Party instead of being an impartial arbiter of the law.... [The Court searched] mightily for a way, any way at all, to aid their choice for president, Bush, in the suppression of the truth, finally settling, in their judicial coup d'État, on the untenable argument that there was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause..."

Recent polls indicate the public's growing dissatisfaction with the results of the Scalia Five's decision. A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center and Princeton Survey Research Associates (June 13-17) showed George W. Bush's job approval rating at just 50 percent, down six points from March; the New York Times survey with CBS News (June 14-18) put the rating at 53 percent, down seven points from March. And Democracy Corps's Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll (June 11-13) found that 48 percent of likely voters think the nation is currently on the "wrong track." Perhaps most tellingly, 25 percent of voters in the Democracy Corps poll said that the phrase "not really elected President" describes Bush "very well," with another 15 percent saying that it describes him "well"--in other words, six months after the Scalia Five coup, 40 percent of likely voters still believe Bush was not really elected President.

What then, is to be done?

The least we can do is know our own history, and to understand that what the Injustices did was an insult to the dreams and ideals of Lexington and Concord, Valley Forge and Jefferson and Paine, Gettsyburg and Lincoln and Douglass, Selma and King, Seneca Falls and Anthony, Delano and Chavez, Flint and Debs and Lewis. We can bear witness to injustice, in the nonviolent protest tradition of Thoreau, Gandhi, King, Havel, Robinson, Chavez.

The Scalia Five's judicial coup came down on the second Tuesday last December. So, on the second Tuesday of July, July 10, 2001, the Tuesday after the Pro-Democracy Convention in Philadelphia, the Tuesday between Independence Day and Bastille Day, the Institute for Policy Studies and friends are calling for a peaceful, nonviolent vigil at the Supreme Court building, at noon.

On July 10--and each Tuesday at noon from then on--let's gather at the scene of the crime, and bear witness to the truth. The Scalia Five won't be there; but we should be.

Bring a candle or a bell, like the Czechs a decade ago. Bring a copy of the Voters' Bill of Rights, or the US Constitution. Send an e-mail to all your friends, with your favorite quote from this list. Bring Pablo Neruda's and Marge Piercy's poems. Bring the next generation, so they will never forget. Bring your commitment to restore, rebuild, and expand American democracy. The Supreme Court cheated. Democracy lost. For now.
©2001 STEVE COBBLE

Send $100 or $1000 to The Heritage Foundation or Other Right-Wing Groups

This ultra-conservative group needs donations! Lend them a helping hand by sending them a few $100 or $1000 bills ... Confederate ones! Click here to print or download the bills. Send them to other right-wing groups as well!

And if you still want to annoy the Heritage Foundation, you can always go to their online donation form as soon as you try to leave the page, a pop-up window appears asking why you decided not to donate. Give them an explanation, but remember to be polite!

TO OUR REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS IN THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS

We, the undersigned voters, know that our cherished democracy is endangered from within by the grave and potentially fatal flaws in our voting systems exposed by the Presidential Election of 2000.

As our elected representatives, you have the duty, the opportunity, and the privilege to correct these flaws and to restore fair and honest elections throughout our nation. To this end, we charge you to construct and pass a VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS, which shall include:

Strict enforcement and extension of the Voting Rights Act to prevent the disenfranchisement of voters and require full investigation and criminal prosecution of any offenders;

Standardized, easily understandable federal election ballots

Funding to replace old and unreliable voting machines to ensure that every vote is counted fairly and accurately

Genuine campaign finance reform that bans campaign contributions from special interests

Replacement of the Electoral College with a majority-rule election, or substantial reform of the Electoral College to allow for proportional representation

Measures to increase voter participation by eliminating bureaucratic hurdles to voter registration and turnout, including language barriers, physical barriers, archaic equipment, and lack of resources

Enactment and enforcement of a VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS will restore trust in our government and encourage participation in our democratic processes. The linchpin of a democracy is the process by which we select our representatives and leaders. The right to vote is our defining right as citizens of this nation. We call upon our elected representatives to protect our Constitution from abusive exercise of government power by enacting a VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS.

We pledge our full and constant support for enactment of a VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS.

A Note of Protest:

It is likely that 50% of the U.S. population is strongly dissatisfied with the ascendancy of George W. Bush to the office of President. There are three likely reasons:
1. Bush won the election under questionable circumstances;
2. Bush has espoused a reactionary platform that places him far to the right of mainstream America;
3. Bush has demonstrated none of the intellectual attributes expected of a president.

In the interest of democracy, one could discredit election gripes (point number one) as being unfair to our longstanding electoral college process.. Also, one might disregard Bush’s agenda (point number two) because the hallmark of the United States Constitution is tolerance for divergent political and moral beliefs.

However, point number three leads to a more egregious problem, namely that a rather anonymous man, with no distinguishing ambition or vision has, by virtue of family wealth and connection, been installed as President of the United States. Even the most cursory glance at George W. Bush’s history and character builds a strong case for charges of nepotism and cronyism. Such a glaring display of favoritism, to benefit an individual with no considerable talent, runs counter to the spirit of competition and fair play that has driven the engine of American capitalism for more than two hundred years.

There is a way to tangibly and immediately raise a voice in protest of George W. Bush as President. For the remainder of his term, conscientious Americans should simply write "George W. Bush is an Idiot" on all U.S. currency that passes through their hands.

This protest has already begun. The first bills were marked and spent in San Francisco as of January 26, 2001. What is important, though, is to not only begin marking all currency (and to continue the effort throughout the Bush presidency), but to forward this memo as much as possible so as to r