Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Edwards!

Elizabeth Edwards is a beautiful person inside and out. By her actions and inspiration, she reminds us every day of Jonathan Swift's sage advice:

"May you live all the days of your life."

She shows us how it's done!





May you have the sweetest day, Mrs. Edwards.
Enjoy your birthday!

Jude

P.S. Duncan Hunter says that "Ann Coulter is a very articulate spokeswoman for the conservative view". This means he thinks that making anti-gay slurs, comparing Muslims to members of the Ku Klux Klan, advocating an assassination of President Clinton, taunting you about a lost family member, and expressing the hope that your husband Senator Edwards would be killed by terorists is an articulate way of expressing the conservative view. I hope those conservatives are all proud of Ann and Duncan Hunter.

Scooter Libby:Let Freedom Ring for Liars Who Lie for George

Knowing fairly well, because we've come to understand our President, that Scooter Libby would be pardoned before long, I'm certain that I'd have little to say that would shock you.

Do you remember my post from a couple weeks ago?

Libby: Pardon or Not, Lose-Lose For Bush
June 18, 2007

If Bush pardons Scooter Libby, it will be as if to say, "Thank you, Scooter, for doing my administration's bidding in covering up the circumstances of our outing of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who was working out there on America's side. I am not on America's side by pardoning you for participating in outright lies about the CIA agent outing. Instead I'm showing that I'm on the extreme partisans' side."

If Bush fails to pardon Libby, it will anger and alienate the 20-something percent of that new brand of Republicans who prize loyalty and protection of a President who embraces their divisive and extreme ideology over punishing those who participate in what what looks like treason or something dangerously bordering upon treason.

To a typical American, whether Republican or Democrat, who believes that intelligent patriotism still fosters a spirit that supports a healthy democracy, truth, and respect and reasonable protection for all Americans who do dangerous and important work on behalf of our national security while under cover, it looks like Bush loses.


YOUR COMMENTS BACK THEN:

- "I think that is true, Jude, but we liberals will see it that way in a stark and clear way. How will it be spun to the people in the middle? [Or has rove-run politics evacuated the middle?]"

- "Bush doesn't care about public opinion and he doesn't care about the affects of anything he does, as long as oil is in his pocket."

- "I think the politics of a Libby pardon, have less to do with winning elections than for certain higher-level White House officials to avoid conviction and prosecution themselves. It was George senior who pardoned the principals in Iran-Contra, when he himself was one of the principals in the adventure."

How is this being spun by middle-of-the-road media?

Last March, a very sympathetic (and stragely compassionate) Michael Kinsley at TIME had this to say about Scooter's choices and opinions about his expected pardon:

[Libby] had good reason to fear that if he told the truth, he might go to prison. There is a law against "outing" a covert CIA agent. That law might or might not have applied in this case. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald ultimately decided he couldn't make the charge stick, but Libby didn't know that when the FBI came calling. He gambled that lying was safer, and he lost...

....start piling up all the lies told by this Administration in advancing its war in Iraq. Rank them in importance. Where would you put Scooter Libby's unconvincing faulty memory about who told what to whom about Valerie Plame Wilson? Not very high, I think. If President Bush has a shred of humanity in him — if he has suffered even a tiny moment of doubt about this huge and tragic mess he has gotten our country into — how can he let the clock tick him out of office without pardoning a very small player in this tragedy, but the one who happened to get caught?

Kinsley has already framed Bush as a man of compassion for letting this crook off the hook.

But the biggest crooks got away with what they did to Valerie Plame without so much as one public accusation of treason from mainstream media.

I repeat, they got away with it. Libby was the tiny fish...the virtual tadpole. The big picture is the picture that counts, but because of the way mainstream media handles the issue, most people may never really make the big-picture connection.

While some understandably angry bloggers are screaming for impeachment today, the elite mainstream media, afraid for their own positions of "royalty" within the White House press corps, have, for too long, skirted the issues that would have caused the public to understand the serious nature of offense when many people within a President's administration are complicit, in any way, shape or form, in revealing the covert identity of a CIA agent. See William Rivers Pitt's "The Most Insidious of Traitors" from September 2003

So they'll cover their negligent and timid tails by making the pardon of Scooter Libby look inevitable.

I still have faith, somehow, that most people who pay attention will understand what happened here - even if MSM has nearly completely failed to tell the hardest part of the stories. A live poll at MSNBC is currently showing that 73% of repondents do not agree with Bush's decision to commute Libby's sentence. When asked by an LA Times poll, "Do you agree with Pres. Bush that 30 months in federal prison is excessive for telling a lie?", a whopping 92% of respondents currently say "NO".

Where Does Gordon Brown Land On Iraq War?

Ian Davidson, adviser to the European Policy Centre in Brussels, [source: SF Gate] asks who Gordon Brown is - and wonders, as many of us do, where he will land on the controversial issue of the Iraq war. Will Brown continue on Blair's path and be a limpet-redux or will he be his own man and face the bitter reality to which Tony Blair would never admit - that Blair's decision to stand too close to a very naive and manipulative, hyperfocused Washington DC administration resulted in a disaster for not only Great Britain, but also for the Middle East? Blair may feel self-satisfaction in making up for his great mistake in his new task as envoy to the Middle East, but he's left Gordon Brown with a dilemma. Brown must be grateful in a public way for Blair handing him this leadership opportunity, but at the same time, he must decide what that means in terms of the future of his own leadership and the value of his own nation's trust. The eyes of the British people - and the world - are on Gordon Brown. Personally, I pray for him to make the wisest decisions for his nation's future and international reputation.

The worst part of Blair's legacy, of course, is the war in Iraq. Many people predicted, and everyone can now see, that the decision to invade was a disastrous error; that it is having catastrophic consequences, not just for Iraq but also for the Middle East generally; and that it has seriously damaged the moral standing of the United States and Britain. The most critical issue facing Brown is whether he chooses to distance himself from Blair's self-satisfied and delusional claim that the invasion of Iraq was "the right thing to do."

Britain has already reduced its forces in southern Iraq and is on course to reduce them still further as it hands over "security" to the Iraqi police and military. In reality, of course, the civil and guerrilla war under way in the rest of Iraq means that any security in the south can only be a temporary illusion. The choice facing Brown is whether to cling silently to the existing policy, in the futile hope that the problem will go away, or explicitly recognize Britain's share in the disaster.

This is partly a question of what to do now in Iraq, but it is also a question of Britain's relationship with the United States. With hindsight, it is clear that Britain's participation in the Iraq war was driven solely by Blair's determination to stick, limpet-like, to Washington.

Brown believes, and has said, that Britain must always be close friends with America, and obviously that is the right thing to believe and say. But is he prepared to make clear that there is a difference between being close friends and going into an illegal and disastrous war just to please George W. Bush?

So far, there is no indication that he will. While he has publicly regretted the errors in British intelligence about Saddam Hussein, that is merely a way of shifting the blame from the government to the intelligence services. But it was not the intelligence services that decided to go to war. It was Tony Blair, with the support of Gordon Brown.

LINK

In a recent Guardian article we see a plea for Brown to set his nation on a clearer path regarding the Iraq War:

Gordon Brown's new government has to find a form of words that acknowledges Britain's role in creating - unintentionally - the conditions for instability, civil war and mayhem. It has to find not just the will to disengage over time (such a will already exists) but the language to convince listeners that this is now the government's settled purpose. Such an approach would not extirpate the terrorist cause in Britain, but it would be a start in altering the conditions in which terrorists recruit. It would also be morally and historically right.

LINK

Brown told Parliament today Britain will set up a new National Security Council to send out "a clear message" of vigilance. Brown said the new group would regularly publish a national security strategy, setting out potential threats. The group would guarantee "at all times we will be vigilant and we will never yield," he said. [see AP report, Baltimore Sun]

Gordon Brown - Somebody You Should Know

"I believe that Gordon Brown has more passion (and knowledge) about the issues of global poverty and social justice than any other Western leader today. And I believe his leadership could make a great difference. He is somebody you should know and follow closely."


- Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners

Giuliani Blasted by Rolling Stone's Taibbi

Oh, wow - just wow. Read this Rolling Stone piece by Matt Taibbi about Rudy Giuliani titled "Giuliani: Worse Than Bush". Giuliani - the GOP candidate I call "The Bumper Sticker King" because of his sickening fear-mongering exploitation of 9/11 is worse, when it comes to good character and trustworthy attention to healthy democracy, than even I would have suspected. If what Matt Taibbi's saying has any truth to it, Giuliani's the pits beneath the pits when it comes to character. Look how Taibbi frames him:

Excerpts:

.....In his years as mayor -- and his subsequent career as a lobbyist -- Rudy jumped into bed with anyone who could afford a rubber. Saudi Arabia, Rupert Murdoch, tobacco interests, pharmaceutical companies, private prisons, Bechtel, ChevronTexaco -- Giuliani took money from them all. You could change Rudy's mind literally in the time it took to write a check. [..]

_________________________

.....As mayor, Rudy had a history of asking financially interested parties to help shape important government policies. [..]

_________________________


.....there's no question that Giuliani has made the continuation of Swift-Boating politics a linchpin of his candidacy. His political hires speak deeply to that tendency. [..]

_________________________

....Rudy tried to use the tragedy to shred election rules, pushing to postpone the inauguration of his successor so he could hog the limelight for a few more months. Then, with the dust from the World Trade Center barely settled, he went on the road as the Man With the Bullhorn, pocketing as much as $200,000 for a single speaking engagement. In 2002 he reported $8 million in speaking income; this past year it was more than $11 million. He's traveled in style, at one stop last year requesting a $47,000 flight on a private jet, five hotel rooms and a private suite with a balcony view and a king-size bed.

While the mayor himself flew out of New York on a magic carpet, thousands of cash-strapped cops, firemen and city workers involved with the cleanup at the World Trade Center were developing cancers and infections and mysterious respiratory ailments like the "WTC cough." This is the dirty little secret lurking underneath Rudy's 9/11 hero image -- the most egregious example of his willingness to shape public policy to suit his donors. [..]

_______________


......"The likelihood is that more people will eventually die from the cleanup than from the original accident," says David Worby, an attorney representing thousands of cleanup workers in a class-action lawsuit against the city. "Giuliani wears 9/11 like a badge of honor, but he screwed up so badly."

When I first spoke to Worby, he was on his way home from the funeral of a cop. "One thing about Giuliani," he told me. "He's never been to a funeral of a cleanup worker."

Indeed, Rudy has had little at all to say about the issue. About the only move he's made to address the problem was to write a letter urging Congress to pass a law capping the city's liability at $350 million.

Did Giuliani know the air at the World Trade Center was poison? Who knows -- but we do know he took over the cleanup, refusing to let more experienced federal agencies run the show. He stood on a few brick piles on the day of the bombing, then spent the next ten months making damn sure everyone worked the night shift on-site while he bonked his mistress and negotiated his gazillion-dollar move to the private sector. Meanwhile, the people who actually cleaned up the rubble got used to checking their stool for blood every morning. [..]

Don't miss this beauty from Josh Marshall. It seem sthat the Bumper Sticker King Rudy got booted off a Congressionally mandated blue-ribbon panel because "he couldn't bother to show up for the meetings." Why? Because he was too busy making his millions making his for-pay hero speeches.

Stick a fork in Rudy. He's done.

John Denver Remembered at Daily Kos

I appreciated "feduphoosier's" diary [link] about John Denver today at the Daily Kos blog, as did many more bloggers at the website. Neil Genzlinger of the New York Times may have panned a theatre production about the 70s-singer called "Almost Heaven", but while employing a tone that was decidedly elitist and condescending toward them, he didn't omit the fact that Denver had many, many fans. As a young girl, John Denver increased my awareness of the good and gracious green of the earth....not the kind of "dollar-green" that is at the center of the intense ideological focus on capitalism that has brought our environment to such dire straits. Seeing what he believed was too much of an apathetic generation of young people, John Denver believed in and worked creatively - in his time and timelessly - to promote the idea that each of us can (and should) participate as individuals to work toward the common goal of a sustainable future, appreciating and safeguarding a healthy environemnt.

"No one person has to do it all but if each one of us follow our heart and our own inclinations we will find the small things that we can do to create a sustainable future and a healthy environment."

John Denver

Libby:Pardon or not? Lose-Lose for Bush

If Bush pardons Scooter Libby, it will be as if to say, "Thank you, Scooter, for doing my administration's bidding in covering up the circumstances of our outing of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent who was working out there on America's side. I am not on America's side by pardoning you for participating in outright lies about the CIA agent outing. Instead I'm showing that I'm on the extreme partisans' side."

If Bush fails to pardon Libby, it will anger and alienate the 20-something percent of that new brand of Republicans who prize loyalty and protection of a President who embraces their divisive and extreme ideology over punishing those who participate in what what looks like treason or something dangerously bordering upon treason.

To a typical American, whether Republican or Democrat, who believes that intelligent patriotism still fosters a spirit that supports a healthy democracy, truth, and respect and reasonable protection for all Americans who do dangerous and important work on behalf of our national security while under cover, it looks like Bush loses.

Abu Ghraib:Father,Son Made To Do Sex-Acts Together

".....a father and his son forced to do acts together..."

On Fathers Day, I read this [Raw Story link] disgusting truth about what we did in the name of America at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

General Antonio Taguba, who was appointed to lead the inquiry into Abu Ghraib abuses in January 2004, has accused senior army commanders of involvement in the torture methods that shocked Americans and the world. He says that was convinced that former defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lied under oath to a Congressional committee about when and how much he knew of the scandal. The White House knew, although they deny it to our astonished faces.

I honored my father yesterday, and I cried for the day America lost her honor and moral superiority. I bemoaned the existence of men in the highest ranks of our government who covered up the fact that it was happening.

I witnessed the attempt to impeach a sitting President for lying about sex.

I've now witnessed an attempt, at a level within our government yet to be determined but going higher up as we learn more, to cover up lies about military, with the U.S. government's silent approval, forcing fathers and sons to "do" sex-acts (and worse things to others) in a war-prison miles from our sight.

Marcus Aurelius wrote, in The Meditations, that from his grandfather he learned good morals and, from the reputation and remembrance of his own father, modesty and a manly character. From his mother, piety and beneficence and abstinence not from only evil deeds, but even from evil thoughts.

Our government has failed Marcus Aurelius' test of morality. They've failed the test of temperance, of justice, and of rationally decent humanity. Perhaps Mr. Bush's government believes that this material breach of human rights will disappear in the substance of the overall nature of the whole - we're told, arguably, that we're a nation at war for the very existence of our way of life.

Will the memory of our nation's military representatives forcing a young man and his father to do sex acts disappear into the universal reason?

Only if it leaves our collective consciousness anytime soon.

Americans tend to have a very short attention span. Their moral education is diluted by hundreds of thousands of images coming at them each day.

We need leaders who will not allow such a murder of America's good reputation in the hopes and wagers that Americans will forget the great harm we've done.

We need to punish those highest in the halls of U.S. government who looked the other way or worse, who presided over a policy that would have allowed such things to happen.

Ruth Bell Graham Lived Halfway in Heaven

Ruth Bell Graham
1920-2007



"I am so grateful to the Lord that he gave me Ruth, and especially for these last few years we’ve had in the mountains together. We’ve rekindled the romance of our youth, and my love for her continued to grow deeper every day. I will miss her terribly and look forward even more to the day I can join her in heaven."

- Reverend Billy Graham



Read at Ruth's funeral, her favorite Bible passage:
Romans 8:24-39



_______________________________



I'm saddened today to learn of the passing of Ruth Bell Graham, wife of Reverend Billy Graham and beloved mother to their five children, grandmother to 19 grandchildren, and great-grandmother eight great-grandchildren. She died at the age of 87 on June 14 at her home at Little Piney Cove in Montreat, N.C. The Voice of America reports that in a statement, Billy Graham said Ruth was his life partner, and that he felt the two of them were called by God to work as a team. Reverend Graham said that his wife was such an integral part of his ministry that his work would not have been possible without her support.






Ruth Bell was the daughter of a missionary surgeon in China. Fellow students at Wheaton College in Illinois, Ruth and Billy Graham married the same year that he graduated in 1943.




A brief biography from UNCTV:

Ruth McCue Bell began her life in Qingjiang, China, the daughter of medical missionaries. In China she and her sister, Rosa, witnessed war tragedies daily. Ruth developed an acuity for animals and babies and tried to save several young animals and birds from starvation. Once she found a sickly baby abandoned in a ditch, as "imperfect" babies often were in that region. Although her father tried to revive the baby, he did not succeed.

Ruth developed a strong belief in God from a very young age and vowed never to marry. In 1932, she attended school in Pyeng Yang and was terribly homesick. Her journal writing and poetry, which she had started as a young child, began to adopt a sad and lonely tone, mirroring her feelings. While she was lonely, however, she developed a sense of independence and self-assuredness that would prove invaluable as she matured.

Although Ruth felt that God was calling her to be a missionary overseas, as she progressed through college she softened her vow that she would never marry. She dated several men and rejected a few marriage proposals. Billy Graham, however, fascinated her and she was instantly drawn to his spirit and dedication to God. Three months after they had met, Billy asked her to marry him, just before leaving for a mission trip. On August 13, 1943, two years after his marriage proposal and about a year and a half after Ruth returned to Wheaton College, Billy and Ruth were married.

Besides raising their five children in Billy's frequent absence, Ruth designed their home in Montreat, NC. Often ignoring Billy's requests when he was at home, Ruth supervised the workmen and found many of the building materials herself while the house was being built.

Whether she was accompanying her husband on a crusade or talking to someone over lunch, Ruth ministered to people in her own way. In her younger days, she worried that she did not meet people's expectations of the wife of a famed evangelist. However, letters and verbal feedback reassured her that she was making a difference.

Ruth was by no means a conventional "preacher's wife." She rode on a motorcycle during one of Billy's crusades, and whipped a sign from a man's hand during an antiwar demonstration, nearly getting arrested. In 1974, six years before she would return to visit her hometown of Qingjiang, Ruth fell 15 feet from a wire that she had rigged from the roof for the children to swing from, severely damaging her spinal cord and suffering from a concussion. Although her resulting injuries may have slowed her physical movements, she continued to travel with her husband for years and resumed many of her activities.

When asked by a reporter what Ruth called her husband, she said called him "Bill," musing "How in the world can you call a grown man, who is 6'-2 'Billy'?"

When Reverend Graham was asked by the same reporter:

"So many people turn to you for advice; to whom do you turn for advice? Is it Ruth?"

Reverend Graham said:

"Yes, I would say she's my greatest confidante..and helped me on my sermons. She's a great student of the Bible."

In 1997, Ruth had nearly died from more than one dangerous bout with spinal meningitis from which she'd recovered. A reporter asked Reverend Graham about their marriage and about Ruth's health:

Q: What is the secret to your enduring marriage?

Reverend Graham: Whew. Oh, you'd have to ask [Ruth], she's here. (Laughs) It's her. I mean she's been a marvelous person to be able to stay here, raise five children, 19 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. She's been the one that 's done the work and kept up with them and talked with them and loved them, taught them the Scriptures and so forth. She let me travel all over the world preaching the gospel. I think if there is any secret in our marriage it's Ruth. There's very few women that I've ever known like her. She was born and reared in China; she went to school in North Korea..

Q: Did your wife's illness earlier this year test your faith at all or strengthen it?

It [didn't test] my faith because I knew she was going to be all right whether she lived or died, because she lives half-way in Heaven anyway.

_____________________

My thoughts and prayers are with the Graham family today.

There is a lovely obituary and dedication (with photos) to her here.

One Of Mrs. Graham's Favorite hymns..

In Tenderness He Sought Me
by W. Spencer Walton


In tenderness He sought me,
Weary and sick with sin;
And on His shoulders brought me
Back to His fold again.
While angels in His presence sang
Until the courts of Heaven rang.

Oh, the love that sought me!
Oh, the blood that bought me!
Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold,
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold.

He washed the bleeding sin wounds,
And poured in oil and wine;
He whispered to assure me,
“I’ve found thee, thou art Mine”;
I never heard a sweeter voice;
It made my aching heart rejoice!

He pointed to the nail prints,
For me His blood was shed,
A mocking crown so thorny
Was placed upon His head;
I wondered what He saw in me,
To suffer such deep agony.

I’m sitting in His presence,
The sunshine of His face,
While with adoring wonder
His blessings I retrace.
It seems as if eternal days
Are far too short to sound His praise.

So while the hours are passing,
All now is perfect rest,
I’m waiting for the morning,
The brightest and the best,
When He will call us to His side,
To be with Him, His spotless bride.

Oh, the love that sought me!
Oh, the blood that bought me!
Oh, the grace that brought me to the fold,
Wondrous grace that brought me to the fold.

Camillus Memorial Day Parade 2007

Camillus Veterans



BSA Troop 407 of Camillus carries the United States flag.



Father Joseph Champlin, who never misses the 5k running race that precedes the parade.









Memorial Day T-Shirt



Francis Ezzo is a Korean War veteran from Camillus.



BSA Troop 407 of Camillus [St Josephs Church]









A Gold Star mother graces the Camillus Memorial Day parade with her presence.



A fire truck from Fairmount toots its horn for the kiddies.




Carol Baldwin of Camillus is mother of acting brothers Alec, William, Stephen, and Daniel. Mrs. Baldwin rides in the parade (with other family members) for Breast Cancer research.




Onondaga County Executive Nick Pirro waves to the crowd.







Camillus Erie Canal volunteers care about Aqueduct Restoration.







Camillus Democrats making their way down the parade route.



A soldier proudly shows us his patriotism.




Mom helps the kids pick out a toy or two.



Dan Maffei is running for U.S. Congress [NY-25] in the 2008 elections.



Civil War era soldiers march in the Camillus parade.

































Former Camillus Mayor and U.S. Navy veteran Ed Fletcher announces a Memorial Day essay winner.



The award-winning West Genesee Wildcat Band prepares to play their final Memorial Day 2007 song, Battle Hymn of the Republic.



Don't forget Beach Days for Breast Cancer June 30th at Veterans Memorial Park at Gillie Lake.