Today’s WaPo article gives credence to the idea that Deeds is not just closing down a Prince William County campaign office but that he is effectively writing off Prince William County in favor of hoping to win big in Fairfax County and inside the Beltway.

I will note that his desire to return time and again to his home turf-where you think the votes would already be locked down-is reminiscent of a strategy that did not work well for John Chichester in 1985-go where you are comfortable.

More important, though, is that the 2009 Democratic Party nominee for Governor of Virginia is letting slip his efforts in the same county where the 2008 Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States chose to finish his campaign.

If the single Virginia county that seemed to completely absorb the Obama message is proving to be so hostile to Creigh Deeds-well, that’s a story in itself.

Baby Eater?

Just read in the Huffington Post: Cheney in 2012? Some Key GOPers aren’t Kidding

Granted – we all know that Democrats love puppies and Republicans consistently vote for Voldermort. But to think that after all the GOP has been through in the past year – they’d want Cheney to represent them is ludicrous. But apparently they haven’t been represented badly enough. After having a relatively sensible figurehead during the 2008 elections, that sensible figurehead had to choose an airhead of a running mate to drive the entire campaign crashing to the ground faster than you can say moose-stew.

After the great Democrat landslide win of 2008, the Republican party had trouble explaining why they didn’t kill baby seals for pleasure. It took them half a year (and still counting) to get any support back. It’s taking them even longer to get people to entertain the possibility that they might be in the running at all in 2012.

Why, then, in the name of all that is holy, would they elect to bring in Voldermort himself – starter of war after useless war, and master of illegal torture (and law-bending) to run for President?

Personally, I’d rather chew my arm off than see Dick Cheney on any political stage ever again.

Alison Weir | Arab News

Last week Sweden’s largest daily newspaper published an article containing shocking material: Testimony and circumstantial evidence indicating that Israelis may have been harvesting internal organs from Palestinian prisoners without consent for many years.

Worse yet, some of the information reported in the article suggests that in some instances Palestinians may have been captured with this macabre purpose in mind.

In the article, “Our sons plundered for their organs,” veteran journalist Donald Bostrom writes that Palestinians “harbor strong suspicions against Israel for seizing young men and having them serve as the country’s organ reserve – a very serious accusation, with enough question marks to motivate the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to start an investigation about possible war crimes.”

An army of Israeli officials and apologists immediately went into high gear, calling both Bostrom and the newspaper’s editors “anti-Semitic.” The Israeli foreign minister was reportedly “aghast” and termed it “a demonizing piece of blood libel.” An Israeli official called it “hate porn.”

Commentary magazine wrote that the story was “merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of European- funded and promoted anti-Israel hate.” Numerous people likened the article to the medieval “blood libel,” (widely refuted stories that Jews killed people to use their blood in religious rituals). Even some pro-Palestinian writers joined in the criticism, expressing skepticism.

The fact is, however, that substantiated evidence of public and private organ trafficking and theft, and allegations of worse, have been widely reported for many years. Given such context, the Swedish charges become far more plausible than might otherwise be the case and suggest that an investigation could well turn up significant information.

Below are a few examples of previous reports on this topic.

Israel’s very first, historic heart transplant used a heart removed from a living patient without consent or consulting his family.

In December 1968 a man named Avraham Sadegat (the New York Times seems to give his name as A Savgat) died two days after a stroke, even though his family had been told he was “doing well.”

After initially refusing to release his body, the Israeli hospital where he was being treated finally turned the man’s body over to his family. They discovered that his upper body was wrapped in bandages; an odd situation, they felt, for someone who had suffered a stroke. When they removed the bandages, they discovered that the chest cavity was stuffed with bandages, and the heart was missing. During this time, the headline-making Israeli heart transplant had occurred. After their initial shock, the man’s wife and brother began to put the two events together and demanded answers.

The hospital at first denied that Sadegat’s heart had been used in the headline-making transplant, but the family raised a media storm and eventually applied to three Cabinet ministers. Finally, weeks later and after the family had signed a document promising not to sue, the hospital admitted that Sadagat’s heart had been used. The hospital explained that it had abided by Israeli law, which allowed organs to be harvested without the family’s consent. (The United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime includes the extraction of organs in its definition of human exploitation.)

Indications that the removal of Sadagat’s heart was the actual cause of death went unaddressed.

A 1990 article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs entitled “Autopsies and Executions” by Mary Barrett reports on the grotesque killings of young Palestinians. It includes an interview with Dr. Hatem Abu Ghazalch, the former chief health official for the West Bank under Jordanian administration and director of forensic medicine and autopsies.

Barrett asks him about “the widespread anxiety over organ thefts which has gripped Gaza and the West Bank since the intifada began in December of 1987.”

He responded: “There are indications that for one reason or another, organs, especially eyes and kidneys, were removed from the bodies during the first year or year and a half. There were just too many reports by credible people for there to be nothing happening. If someone is shot in the head and comes home in a plastic bag without internal organs, what will people assume?”

In 1998 a Scot named Alisdair Sinclair died under questionable circumstances while in Israeli custody at Ben Gurion airport. His family was informed of the death and, according to a report in J Weekly, “…told they had three weeks to come up with about $4,900 to fly Sinclair’s corpse home. (Alisdair’s brother) says the Israelis seemed to be pushing a different option: Burying Sinclair in a Christian cemetery in Israel, at a cost of about $1,300.”

The family scraped up the money, brought the body home, and had an autopsy performed at the University of Glasgow. It turned out that Alisdair’s heart and a tiny throat bone were missing. At this point the British Embassy filed a complaint with Israel.

The J report states: “A heart said to be Sinclair’s was subsequently repatriated to Britain, free of charge. James wanted the (Israeli) Forensic Institute to pay for a DNA test to confirm that this heart was indeed their brother’s, but the institute’s director, Prof. Jehuda Hiss refused, citing the prohibitive cost, estimated by some sources at $1,500.”

Despite repeated requests from the British Embassy for the Israeli pathologist’s and police reports, Israeli officials refused to release either.

Palestinian journalist Khalid Amayreh reports in an article in CCUN: “In January, 2002, an Israeli Cabinet minister tacitly admitted that organs taken from the bodies of Palestinian victims might have been used for transplants in Jewish patients without the knowledge of the Palestinian victims’ families.

“The minister, Nessim Dahan, said in response to a question by an Arab Knesset member that he couldn’t deny or confirm that organs of Palestinian youths and children killed by the Israeli Army were taken out for transplants or scientific research.

“‘I couldn’t say for sure that something like that didn’t happen.’”

Amayreh writes that the Knesset member who posed the question said that he “had received ‘credible evidence proving that Israeli doctors at the forensic institute of Abu Kabir extracted such vital organs as the heart, kidneys, and liver from the bodies of Palestinian youth and children killed by the Israeli Army in Gaza and the West Bank.”

For a number of years there were allegations that Israel’s leading pathologist was stealing body parts. In 2001 the Israeli national news service reported: “… the parents of soldier Ze’ev Buzgallo who was killed in a Golan Heights military training accident, are filing a petition with the High Court of Justice calling for the immediate suspension of Dr. Yehuda Hiss and that criminal charges be filed against him. Hiss serves as the director of the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute…. According to the parents, the body of their son was used for medical experimentation without their consent, experiments authorized by Hiss.

In 2002 the service reported: “The revelation of illegally stored body parts in the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute has prompted MK Anat Maor, chairman of the Knesset Science Committee, to demand the immediate suspension of the director, Prof. Yehuda Hiss.”

Alisdair Sinclair’s death had first alerted authorities to Hiss’ malfeasance in 1998, though nothing was done for years. The Forward reported: “In 2001, an Israeli Health Ministry investigation found that Hiss had been involved for years in taking body parts, such as legs, ovaries and testicles, without family permission during autopsies, and selling them to medical schools for use in research and training. He was appointed chief pathologist in 1988. Hiss was never charged with any crime, but in 2004 he was forced to step down from running the state morgue, following years of complaints.”

According to the Economist, a kidney racket flourished in South Africa between 2001 and 2003. “Donors were recruited in Brazil, Israel and Romania with offers of $5,000-20,000 to visit Durban and forfeit a kidney. The 109 recipients, mainly Israelis, each paid up to $120,000 for a “transplant holiday” they pretended they were relatives of the donors and that no cash changed hands.”

In 2004 a legislative commission in Brazil reported, “At least 30 Brazilians have sold their kidneys to an international human organ trafficking ring for transplants performed in South Africa, with Israel providing most of the funding.” According to an IPS report: “The recipients were mostly Israelis, who receive health insurance reimbursements of $70,000 to 80,000 for life-saving medical procedures performed abroad.”

IPS reports: The Brazilians were recruited in Brazil’s most impoverished neighborhoods and were paid $10,000 per kidney, “but as ’supply’ increased, the payments fell as low as 3,000 dollars.” The trafficking had been organized by a retired Israeli police officer, who said “he did not think he was committing a crime, given that the transaction is considered legal by his country’s government.”

The Israeli Embassy issued a statement denying any participation by the Israeli government in the illegal trade of human organs but said it did recognize that its citizens, in emergency cases, could undergo organ transplants in other countries, “in a legal manner, complying with international norms,” and with the financial support of their medical insurance. However, IPS reports that the commission chair termed the Israeli stance “at the very least ‘anti-ethical’, adding that trafficking can only take place on a major scale if there is a major source of financing, such as the Israeli health system.” He went on to state that the resources provided by the Israeli health system “were a determining factor” that allowed the network to function.

IPS goes on to report: “Nancy Scheper-Hughes, who heads the Organs Watch project at the US University of California, Berkeley, testified to the Pernambuco legislative commission that international trafficking of human organs began some 12 years ago, promoted by Zacki Shapira, former director of a hospital in Tel Aviv.

“Shapira performed more than 300 kidney transplants, sometimes accompanying his patients to other countries, such as Turkey. The recipients are very wealthy or have very good health insurance, and the ‘donors’ are very poor people from Eastern Europe, Philippines and other developing countries, said Scheper-Hughes, who specializes in medical anthropology.”

In 2007 Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper reported that two men confessed to persuading “Arabs from the Galilee and central Israel who were developmentally challenged or mentally ill to agree to have a kidney removed for payment.” They then would refuse to pay them.

The paper reported that the two were part of a criminal ring that included an Israeli surgeon. According to the indictment, the surgeon sold the kidneys he harvested for between $125,000 and $135,000. Earlier that year another Israeli newspaper, the Jerusalem Post, reported that ten members of an Israeli organ smuggling ring targeting Ukrainians had been arrested. In still another 2007 story, the Jerusalem Post reported that “Prof. Zaki Shapira, one of Israel’s leading transplant surgeons, was arrested in Turkey on Thursday on suspicion of involvement in an organ trafficking ring. According to the report, the transplants were arranged in Turkey and took place at private hospitals in Istanbul.”

In July of this year even US media reported on the arrest of Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, from Brooklyn, recently arrested by federal officials in a massive corruption sweep in New Jersey that netted mayors, government officials and a number of prominent rabbis. Bostrom opens his article with this incident. According to the federal complaint, Rosenbaum, who has close ties to Israel, said that he had been involved in the illegal sale of kidneys for 10 years. A US Attorney explained: “His business was to entice vulnerable people to give up a kidney for $10,000 which he would turn around and sell for $160,000.”

This is reportedly the first case of international organ trafficking in the US. University of California anthropologist and organ trade expert Nancy Scheper-Hughes, who informed the FBI about Rosenbaum seven years ago, says she heard reports that he had held donors at gunpoint to ensure they followed through on agreements to “donate” their organs.

Israel has an extraordinarily small number of willing organ donors. According to the Israeli news service Ynet, “the percentage of organs donated among Jews is the lowest of all the ethnic groups… In Western countries, some 30 percent of the population have organ donor cards. In Israel, in contrast, four percent of the population holds such cards.

“According to statistics from the Health Ministry’s website, in 2001, 88 Israelis died waiting for a transplant because of a lack of donor organs. In the same year, 180 Israelis were brain dead, and their organs could have been used for transplant, but only 80 of their relatives agreed to donate their organs.”

According to Ynet, the low incidence of donors is related to “religious reasons.” In 2006 there was an uproar when an Israeli hospital known for its compliance with Jewish law performed a transplant operation using an Israeli donor. The week before, “a similar incident occurred, but since the patient was not Jewish it passed silently.”

The Swedish article reports that ‘Israel has repeatedly been under fire for its unethical ways of dealing with organs and transplants. France was among the countries that ceased organ collaboration with Israel in the 1990s. Jerusalem Post wrote that “the rest of the European countries are expected to follow France’s example shortly.”

“Half of the kidneys transplanted to Israelis since the beginning of the 2000s have been bought illegally from Turkey, Eastern Europe or Latin America. Israeli health authorities have full knowledge of this business but do nothing to stop it. At a conference in 2003 it was shown that Israel is the only Western country with a medical profession that doesn’t condemn the illegal organ trade. The country takes no legal measures against doctors participating in the illegal business – on the contrary, chief medical officers of Israel’s big hospitals are involved in most of the illegal transplants, according to Dagens Nyheter (Dec. 5, 2003).”

To fill this need former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, then health minister of Israel, organized a big donor campaign in the summer of 1992, but while the number of donors skyrocketed, need still greatly surpassed supply.

Bostrom, who earlier wrote of all this in his 2001 book Inshallah, reports in his recent article: “While the campaign was running, young Palestinian men started to disappear from villages in the West Bank and Gaza. After five days Israeli soldiers would bring them back dead, with their bodies ripped open.

“Talk of the bodies terrified the population of the occupied territories. There were rumors of a dramatic increase of young men disappearing, with ensuing nightly funerals of autopsied bodies.”

“I was in the area at the time, working on a book. On several occasions I was approached by UN staff concerned about the developments. The persons contacting me said that organ theft definitely occurred but that they were prevented from doing anything about it. On an assignment from a broadcasting network I then traveled around interviewing a great number of Palestinian families in the West Bank and Gaza – meeting parents who told of how their sons had been deprived of organs before being killed.”

He describes the case of 19-year-old Bilal Achmed Ghanan, shot by Israeli forces invading his village. “The first shot hit him in the chest. According to villagers who witnessed the incident he was subsequently shot with one bullet in each leg. Two soldiers then ran down from the carpentry workshop and shot Bilal once in the stomach. Finally, they grabbed him by his feet and dragged him up the twenty stone steps of the workshop stair… Israeli soldiers loading the badly wounded Bilal in a jeep and driving him to the outskirts of the village, where a military helicopter waited. The boy was flown to a destination unknown to his family.”

Five days later he was returned, “dead and wrapped up in green hospital fabric.” Bostrom reports that as the body was lowered into the grave, his chest was exposed and onlookers could see that he was stitched up from his stomach to his head. Bostrom writes that this was not the first time people had seen such a thing. “The families in the West Bank and in Gaza felt that they knew exactly what had happened: “Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors,” relatives of Khaled from Nablus told me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin and the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who had all disappeared for a number of days only to return at night, dead and autopsied.”

Bostrom describes the questions that families asked: “Why are they keeping the bodies for up to five days before they let us bury them? What happened to the bodies during that time? Why are they performing autopsy, against our will, when the cause of death is obvious? Why are the bodies returned at night? Why is it done with a military escort? Why is the area closed off during the funeral? Why is the electricity interrupted?”

Israel’s answer was that all Palestinians who were killed were routinely autopsied. However, Bostrom points out that of the133 Palestinians who were killed that year, only 69 were autopsied.

He goes on to write: “We know that Israel has a great need for organs, that there is a vast and illegal trade of organs which has been running for many years now, that the authorities are aware of it and that doctors in managing positions at the big hospitals participate, as well as civil servants at various levels. We also know that young Palestinian men disappeared, that they were brought back after five days, at night, under tremendous secrecy, stitched back together after having been cut from abdomen to chin.

It’s time to bring clarity to this macabre business, to shed light on what is going on and what has taken place in the territories occupied by Israel since the Intifada began.”

In scanning through the reaction to Bostrom’s report, one is struck by the multitude of charges that his article is a new version of the old anti-Semitic “blood libel.” Given that fact, it is interesting to examine a 2007 book by Israel’s pre-eminent expert on medieval Jewish history, and what happened to him. The author is Bar-Ilan prof. (and rabbi) Ariel Toaff, son of the former chief rabbi of Rome, a religious leader so famous that an Israeli journalist writes that Toaff’s father “is to Italian Jewry as the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.” Ariel Toaff, himself, is considered “one of the greatest scholars in his field.”

In February 2007 the Israeli and Italian media were abuzz (though most of the US media somehow missed it) with news that Prof. Toaff had written a book entitled “Pasque di Sangue” (“Blood Passovers”) containing evidence that there “was a factual basis for some of the medieval blood libels against the Jews.”

Based on 35 years of research, Toaff had concluded that there were at least a few, possibly many, real incidents. In an interview with an Italian newspaper (the book was published in Italy), Toaff says: “My research shows that in the Middle Ages, a group of fundamentalist Jews did not respect the biblical prohibition and used blood for healing. It is just one group of Jews, who belonged to the communities that suffered the severest persecution during the Crusades. From this trauma came a passion for revenge that in some cases led to responses, among them ritual murder of Christian children.”

(Incidentally, an earlier book containing similar findings was published some years ago, also by an Israeli professor, Israel Shahak, of whom Noam Chomsky once wrote, “Shahak is an outstanding scholar, with remarkable insight and depth of knowledge. His work is informed and penetrating, a contribution of great value.”)

Prof. Toaff was immediately attacked from all sides, including pressure orchestrated by Anti-Defamation League Chairman Abe Foxman, but Toaff stood by his 35 years of research, announcing: “I will not give up my devotion to the truth and academic freedom even if the world crucifies me… One shouldn’t be afraid to tell the truth.”

Before long, however, under relentless public and private pressure, Toaff had recanted, withdrawn his book, and promised to give all profits that had already accrued (the book had been flying off Italian bookshelves) to Foxman’s Anti-Defamation League. A year later he published a “revised version.” Donald Bostrom’s experience seems to be a repeat of what Prof. Toaff endured: Calumny, vituperation, and defamation. Bostrom has received death threats as well, perhaps an experience that Prof. Toaff also shared.

If Israel is innocent of organ plundering accusations, or if its culpability is considerably less than Bostrom and others suggest, it should welcome honest investigations that would clear it of wrongdoing. Instead, the government and its advocates are working to suppress all debate and crush those whose questions and conclusions they find threatening.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rather than responding to calls for an investigation, is demanding that the Swedish government abandon its commitment to a free press and condemn the article. The Israeli press office, apparently in retaliation and to prevent additional investigation, is refusing to give press credentials to reporters from the offending newspaper.

Just as in the case of the rampage against Jenin, the attack on the USS liberty, the massacre of Gaza, the crushing of Rachel Corrie, the torture of American citizens, and a multitude of other examples, Israel is using its considerable, worldwide resources to interfere with the investigative process.

It is difficult to conclude that it has nothing to hide.

As we are engulfed in the Sturm and Drang of the 2009 Virginia elections, Congressman Frank Wolf of Va 10 continues to capably represent his constitutents. Aside from his traditional outstanding constituent service, Congressman Wolf leads the way in asking the Justice Department why it dismissed a voter intimidation legal action against the New Black Panthers for Self Defense…after judgement had already been found for the US Government.

A good description of the situation is found here and here and here and here and of course here.  Shoot, you can even see the events that kicked things off on You Tube here and here and even on a blog.

Not much question as to what happened. Men dressed in paramilitary garb holding nightsticks at the entrance to a polling place.  That is what voters encountered at on November 4, 2008, at a downtown Philadelphia polling place. Bartle Bull, a former civil rights lawyer and publisher of the left-wing Village Voice, calls “the most blatant form of voter intimidation I’ve ever seen”.  But when asked, the gentlemen in question would only say they were “security”.

DOJ filed against the group in January 2009. The Defendants chose not to contest the charges and were found guilty-as typically happens when the government files suit and you don’t show up in court. But now DOJ wants to drop the suit.

Mr. Wolf is the lead person asking AG Eric Holder to provide information to justify the DOJ decision to drop this action-an action in which they had already gotten a win in court.  To date Mr. Holder and team has declined, but the stink Mr. Wolf has raised has gotten the US Civil Rights Commission involved-seems they too want to know why this situation, which to any reasonable observer is clearly behavior meant to intimidate voters, is being hushed up and ignored by the DOJ.

Now we know AG Holder’s ethical sensitivities are dubious-remember the Marc Rich pardon he reviewed and approved to President Clinton?  Fortunately Congressman Wolf is out there working to keep DOJ on an ethical keel and demanding they justify their conduct-if they ever do.

And if you have any doubt the investigation of this decision is justified, just ask yourself what the decision would have been if it had been white militants instead of black militants offering “security”.

John McCain was on "This week . . . " this Sunday and this is what he had to say about death panels:

STEPHANOPOULOS:  The president also says that the debate has been infected by falsehoods.  And probably the most notorious one is the one made by your former running mate, Sarah Palin, who said that his bill would encourage death panels that would encourage euthanasia.  He called that an extraordinary lie and he is right about that, isn’t he?

MCCAIN:  Well, I think that what we are talking about here is do – are we going to have groups that actually advise people as these decisions are made later in life and …

STEPHANOPOULOS:  That’s not in the bill.

MCCAIN:  But – it’s been taken out, but the way that it was written made it a little bit ambiguous.  And another thing …

STEPHANOPOULOS:  I don’t think that’s correct, Senator.  The bill, all it said was that, if a patient wanted to have a Medicare consultation about end-of-life issues, they could have it at their request and the doctor would get reimbursed for it, no panel …

MCCAIN:  There was a provision in the bill that talks about a board that would decide the most effective measures to provide health care for people, OK?  Now, we had amendments, we republican have said that in no way would that affect the decisions that the patients would make and their families.  That was rejected by the Democrats and the health committee.

STEPHANOPOULOS:  But that’s not a death panel.

MCCAIN:  So what does – what does that lead to?  Doesn’t that lead to a possibility, at least opens the door to a possibility of rationing and decisions made such are made in other countries?

STEPHANOPOULOS:  Well, every single independent group that looked at it said it just wasn’t true.

Is anybody surprised that John McCain would take Sarah Palin’s side?

There is a reason that McCain tends to always support Palin no matter how crazy her claim.

If McCain calls out Palin on her dellusional, he would have to admit that he was wrong when he picked her as a running mate. He would have to admit that his team did not vet Palin. He would have to admit that he was ready to place a highly delusional woman a heartbeat away from becoming the leader of the free world. He would have to admit that he never put "Country First", rather it was always about him.

Does that surprise anyone?

Andrew Breitbart talks about the newest virus that is spreading like wild fire.

On n’est pas sorti du bois avec les amateurs qui gèrent notre bas de laine! (source)

Au 30 juin dernier, les baisses de valeur des placements immobiliers avaient atteint 4 G$. Selon la Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP), cette baisse – additionnée à celle de 1,7 G$ de placements illiquides – annule complètement le rendement de 5% que l’institution avait réalisée durant ce semestre.

C’est la première fois que la CDP divulgue à mi-parcours une partie de ses résultats. Elle a pris cette décision pour « améliorer le niveau de transparence », selon Michael Sabia.

Il est intéressant de noter que jamais, au grand jamais, pendant la campagne électorale de 2008, la CDP n’a accepté de divulguer avant la fin de l’année financière les chiffres annonçant la catastrophe de -40 G$.

Notre grand bâtisseur doit se tordre de rire…

All Pakistani politicians have one thing in common.Their love for the word ‘rigging’.Being a country where democracy is not allowed to thrive and where the corruption rate is amongst the highest in the world , rigging elections is not a rare phenomenon in Pakistan. But it is frustrating to see the way  rigging is used as an excuse to cover up failures by almost every government , democratic or quasi-democratic.Pakistan is nobody’s personal property.Politicians need to recognize the fact that they are given power to serve and not rule the country.Instead of accepting mistakes and feeling accountable to the public , our great politicians use their favourite word to justify their mistakes or SINS( more appropriately) committed during the time they remain intoxicated with power.

While surfing through different news based websites  today, I found two statements regarding rigging by members of two different parties that proved to be the biggest losers in the recent  political history of Pakistan.One of  them came from an entertaining jiyala of the people’s party Jahangir Badar who is of the view that People’s party is all set to win the next elections throughout Punjab provided that the elections are not rigged.

From ‘The News’:

LAHORE: The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Secretary General Jehangir Badar has said their party will gain majority across Punjab province including its provincial capital Lahore if elections are not rigged.

Addressing an inaugural ceremony of a book, Badar said PPP believes in true spirit of democracy including the welfare of people and their prosperity instead of conspiracies or deceptions.

I wonder what made him give such an idiotic statement.Either the poor secretary is unaware of the sentiments of the public against his party throughout the country and especially in  Punjab or he just likes making a fool out of himself .Whatever the reason for acting as an ignorant fool , he’s already working on how to cope up with the disgrace that is about to fall upon his party in the next elections.All set to loose , PPP jiyalas are working on  strategies on how to hold others responsible for their ‘great’ governance.

The next great statement has come from the leader of the lota league himself.Chaudhry Shujaat is regretting supporting the dictator who gave them a chance to stage a puppet show in the parliament for five years.The puppets who screwed the country by happily dancing on the tunes of one of the worst dictators the country has ever experienced refuse to take any blame for the sins committed during the Musharraf regime.

From the Daily Times :

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Sunday said the party admitted its mistake of supporting the National Reconciliation Ordinance. Talking to a private TV channel, Shujaat alleged that former president Pervez Musharraf was responsible for rigging the February 2008 elections….Shujaat said Musharraf should be held responsible for the Lal Masjid incident, killing of Nawab Akbar Bugti, the attempted privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills and the judicial crisis.

In other words ,the league has nothing to do with the lal masjid massacre , Bugti’s killing  or the judicial crisis.They are not to be blamed for the misadventures during the Mushrraf era in any way.They must be associated with only the good things that happened during the 5 year puppet show.For the sins committed blame the person the innocent leaguers vowed to elect for 10 years in uniform.The party is milk washed.Don’t blame them .Blame the backstabber King who rigged the elections to bring back the opponents and throw  his own party out of office.Oh what a pity!Curse be upon those who  rig elections and don’t let  great political parties like PMLQ stay in power to serve their poor countrymen.

Shujaat and co. need some rest.

Justices of the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Al Franken won the election for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Norm Coleman.

Senator-elect Al Franken and his wife, Franni, after the Minnesota Canvassing Board certified him the winner of the state's November 2008 senatorial election, June 29, 2008 - Minneapolis Star-Tribune photo

Pat Doyle wrote for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled today that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate election and said he was entitled to an election certificate that would lead to him being seated in the Senate.

“Affirmed,” wrote the Supreme Court, unanimously rejecting Republican Norm Coleman’s claims that inconsistent practices by local elections officials and wrong decisions by a lower court had denied him victory.

“Al Franken received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled [under Minnesota law] to receive the certificate of election as United States Senator from the State of Minnesota,” the court wrote.

In upholding a lower court ruling in April, the justices said Coleman had “not shown that the trial court’s findings of fact are clearly erroneous or that the court committed an error of law or abused its discretion.”

The justices also said that neither the trial court nor local elections officials violated constitutional rights to equal protection, a cornerstone of Coleman’s case and any possible federal appeal.

The ruling was a unanimous, 5-0 decision.

Congratulations, U.S. Sen. Al Franken.

Update: Coleman conceded; NPR report here.  NPR political blog here. Coleman was surprisingly gracious, considering he fought so hard for 238 days after the election.

Has anything changed since the massacre in My Lai?

By Stuart Littlewood – London

Reports of prisoner abuse at the US prison at Bagram air force base in Afghanistan come as no surprise. They are just the latest example of the world’s biggest bully behaving badly as usual.

As if that weren’t enough, I’m reading how some 83 people, mostly civilians, were killed and over 50 injured in three drone attacks within 12 hours in Lataka, South Waziristan.

The first strike killed several suspected Taliban. Later, a second drone fired three missiles into a crowd of funeral mourners.

One of the wounded commented: “If the Taliban are bombing the mosques and America is bombing the funerals, what is the difference between them? We are stuck between Taliban and US attacks and when we are killed, not only no one cries for us, but also we are dubbed militants.”

Since August 2008, over 40 US drone strikes have killed at least 410 people. US troops in neighboring Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.

The use of armed drones is a particularly cowardly form of warfare. These lethal “assets” are computer-controlled from the comfort and safety of an armchair a hundred miles away and guided by dodgy “intelligence”. Or, if the truth be known, no intelligence at all. The Israelis use them extensively in Gaza to unleash death and destruction on civilian targets by remote control. Engines for Israeli drones are believed to be supplied by a British manufacturer, although the government here pretends not to know the truth of the matter.

This trend in ’sofa slaughter’ has many variations. For example, during the 40-day siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002 the Israeli Occupation Force set up huge cranes on which were mounted robotic machine guns under video control. Eight defenders, including the bell-ringer, were murdered, some by the robotic guns and some by snipers.

The US and its allies are just as callous in their treatment of civilian prisoners. The British authorities deal with their casual killings by offering £4,500 in compensation, showing how cheaply we value the life of ‘Johnny Foreigner’. And when it comes to prisoner abuse the Israelis, whose every cruel excess the West defends, don’t even spare children, according to various reports.

Something very chilling can take hold of uniformed thugs – I won’t call them soldiers because what many of them do is not proper soldiering – in a war zone; and in the days before high-tech weaponry like drones and robotic machine guns they happily indulged their blood-lust by murdering civilians at close quarters. If you haven’t heard of the My Lai massacre, brace yourself.

In 1968, 150 men of Charlie Company, a US infantry unit, were sent on a ‘search and destroy’ mission into the South Vietnamese village of My Lai. Four hours later more than 500 civilians – unarmed women, children and old men – were dead. Charlie Company hadn’t encountered a single Viet Cong. Nevertheless the unit, led by Lt William Calley, rounded up villagers and machine-gunned them until the dead lay five-deep.

When Calley spotted a baby crawling away, he grabbed her, threw her back into the ditch, and opened fire again.

Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson, flying over the area, was so sickened by what he saw that he landed his machine to shield villagers from the troops and began rescuing survivors. He ordered his gunner to open up on any American soldiers who continued to shoot civilians.

Some of the dead were mutilated by having “C Company” carved into their chests; some were disembowelled.

Official reports said the My Lai operation was a stunning combat victory, and General Westmoreland congratulated the men on their bravery.

The American people didn’t learn the truth until 18 months later … and then only because a Vietnam veteran, after hearing about the incident from friends who had served in Charlie Company, wrote a letter to his congressman and other prominent officials, including President Nixon.

An army photographer produced pictures of the carnage. Then freelance reporter Seymour Hersh managed to interview Calley and splashed the story over the front pages of American newspapers.

26 members of C Company were charged with criminal behavior but not convicted. Calley himself was eventually court-martialed and sentenced to life imprisonment. After serving just three days he was moved to a comfortable apartment under house arrest, on Nixon’s orders. He was paroled 3 years later.

Hersh said that many in Charlie Company “had given in to an easy pattern of violence” and were totally blind to the humanity of the Vietnamese people. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

My Lai was one of many atrocities committed in Korea and Vietnam. Military training in those days set out to de-humanize not only the enemy but the local civilian population as well. Army culture encouraged its so-called soldiers to think they could treat them like garbage.

Has anything changed? The conduct of the Americans and their close buddies the Israelis is remarkably similar. They are the pace-setters (though not the only practitioners) in savagery and the casual art of killing Johnny Foreigner. It is now done at arm’s length – by remote video control or at the end of a sniper’s scope-sight or by DU tank shell, or from 35,000 feet. No need to personally check the situation on the ground, or look your unarmed victim in the eye, or get your hands dirty. No need to count the bodies afterwards or clear up the shredded and vaporized remains.

Apparently these high-tech killers, their commanders and their political masters have convinced themselves that everyone they don’t like is sub-human.

I’m reminded of a blistering attack by a church minister in Oklahoma after the shock-and-awe onslaught on Iraq, the point at which he discovered that his faith had been hi-jacked by fundamentalists who claimed to speak for Jesus but whose actions were anything but Christian.

“When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral,” he said.

”When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head, you are doing something immoral.

”When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.

”When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral.

“We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us.”

- Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.

Alors que les Québécois s’apprêtaient à aller aux urnes en décembre dernier, notre bon gouvernement Charest n’a pas “regardé à la dépense” en terme de publicités gouvernementales.

En effet, La Presse Canadienne rapporte que le montant consacré à la diffusion de publicités gouvernementales dans les médias a bondi de 25% l’an dernier, atteignant 51,3 M$, pour l’excercice financier 2008-2009.

Cette hausse de 10,7 M$, durant l’année fiscale 2008-09, est la plus importante constatée depuis au moins six ans.

Notre habile grand bâtisseur a encore une fois agit sournoisement. Trop tard pour les Québécois qui, espérons-le, se souviendront…

Ramzy Baroud I Arab News

HIS room is ready; the walls have fresh paint and my kids prepared a basket of chocolates and other treats to place beside his bed. They hung a poster on his door that has been decorated with colored pens and glitter and it says “Welcome Sobhi!” I have taught them that “Sobhi” actually means the “morning light”, and that during his visit, he will not be treated as a visitor but as a brother. They have compiled a list of fun places to visit, parks, the beach and maybe a ferry ride.

Two weeks ago, my family, after months of anticipation, was scheduled to be the host family for a very special and unusual exchange program for kids from Gaza to visit the US. The child we were hosting, Sobhi, was scheduled to arrive on May 30.

My family was excited and a little nervous; I noticed my wife taking every opportunity to share the news of the arrival of our special visitor. We called Sobhi’s family from time to time, realizing that sending a child off to a foreign land to live with a strange family could be unsettling for the parents. But I think our occasional conversations were putting everyone at ease.

As time progressed, we learned more of Sobhi’s life and family in Gaza, and through the weeks, news has changed and altered. We first thought he was 11 years old, and then learned that he is actually 15. We originally thought his family lived in the town of Khan Yunis, but then learned that he is from the northern town of Beit Lahiya. We thought that he was maimed when his house was demolished in the Israeli attack of January 2009, but then learned that his leg was actually blown off his body by an Israeli tank shell when the army opened fire on his family while they were farming their land. So, day by day, we are learning more about this fine young boy’s tragedy.

Like Sobhi, increasing numbers of children forever maimed, dismembered and killed by Israel are not only somehow disregarded by the world media and therefore the world’s conscience — but to add insult to injury — they are even denied access to health care.

Sobhi is one of many Gazan children who have been taken under the wing of the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), a nonprofit, US-based organization that organizes medical exchange programs, sending injured children abroad for treatment when it is unavailable in Palestine, as well as sending medical teams to Palestine for short-term medical missions.

While I cannot express my admiration and gratefulness for the tireless work done by the staff of PCRF, in anticipation of Sobhi’s arrival, the irony fails to escape me that this innocent and unassuming son of a Gazan farmer, whose life is forever altered by a tank shell propelled by Israel and subsidized by the US, is to venture alone across the world to be the recipient of another US manufactured implement — a plastic leg. And now, as if things could get worse, even the possibility of getting Sobhi in the US seems grim.

Coming from Gaza, Sobhi must cross the Rafah border to begin his journey from Cairo. But Egypt refuses to grant Sobhi entry. It is the predicament that so many Gazans face following the January massacres: hospitals lay in ruins, medicine scarce, embargos on everything from medical equipment to medical teams that have flocked to Rafah’s border in droves from all over the world.

When Obama spoke in Cairo on June 4, the closest major city was Gaza, where children flooded the border, imploring the US leader to exert some pressure on Israel to open the border and end the blockade that has imprisoned the entire population for nearly two years. Children held banners with slogans such as, “A light of hope for Gaza children”, and “Gaza children appeal for help.” Sahar Abu Foul, a nine-year-old girl who attended the rally, said that the children in Gaza want Obama’s help “to secure a life like all other children.” But considering his rigorous schedule, Obama couldn’t pencil in a visit to the border to address this young crowd. However, just before his arrival, Congress invested further money into fortifying the border area, allocating an addition $50 million to secure the Rafah border, making Sobhi’s crossing all the more unlikely.

So the days pass. I telephone Sobhi, who speaks with such maturity and courtesy on the phone, inquiring about my health, the health of my family, and asking that God grant us lives of good health and other mercies.

His medical charts say that he is overcoming his depression and simply wants to join his father in the fields again. He has uncomplicated aspirations and a seemingly simple request; an artificial leg. His father, soft-spoken and a bit shy seems to be resigned to the unfortunate possibility of his son not coming to the US after all.

I continue to encourage him, but I myself also feel that this special and unusual exchange may have been too good to be true. Sobhi says that he hopes that he will be able to help with the olive harvest this year. But sometimes having hope in a place like Gaza becomes more of a liability than a lifeline.

— Ramzy Baroud is an author and editor of PalestineChronicle.com

When The Cooch sends out his thank you cards for his AG nomination, I hope he sends a big bouquet of roses to Bob Marshall.  While there is no empirical evidence to prove it, I have a hunch I hit things on the head in January of 2008 when I wrote (in part):

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But the real winner of Bob Marshall’s quixotic candidacy?
My State Senator; the only GOP State Senator in Fairfax County; the one, the only…the man, myth and legend known to many simply as “The Cooch”-Ken Cuccinelli…
Cuccinelli is one of Marshall’s prominent supporters, a member of his exploratory committee. There will be times when Marshall cannot attend meetings, even local mass meetings, and will need surrogate speakers to carry the flag…and who will be waiting? The Cooch!

The Cooch has the chance to travel the Commonwealth proselytizing for Marshall, and at the same time show himself to party activists in ROVA who are not familiar with him. They will have the chance to encounter Cooch for the first time not as a candidate but as a genial, effective speaker. They will be impressed with his presentation skills and with his ardor in supporting the candidate of his choice…and when time comes for his run in 2009, many months after the Marshall candidacy has been disposed with, these same party activists will remember meeting The Cooch up close and personal.

They are going to remember how well he came across. They will remember how he was the only GOP Senator in Fairfax County to win his election. They will remember the ardor and the effectiveness…and they will say, “I like him…I think I will back him for AG”.

The Bob Marshall candidacy will provide The Cooch a much smoother path to the 2009 AG nomination, and maybe…just maybe…even farther.

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Dollars to donuts that opportunity touring the state gave the Cooch a critical edge over Brownlee and Foster,  It got him out in front of convention delegates and allowed him to sharpen his style, comfort level, and campaign planning-all while campaigning for someone else-and gave likely delegates seeing him for the first time a chance to see him as an advocate and not as a candidate.

Uh, Cooch…better make that two bouquets…

Oh the humanity!

At 3:00 AM GMT, USA [Nov 5, 2008] it was confirmed: black people are in fact human beings!

The shocking news came to an undeniable head when suspected African American, Barack Hussein Obama was elected by thousands, maybe millions of American citizens to be Commander-in-Chief – many of them human beings as well, it is alleged.

The suspicion that blacks were human is age old, but dismissed as myth and fancy by some generations of other human beings of certain races and nationalities. Blacks were often mistaken for lower primates, sugar cane processing plants, cotton harvesting machines, doormats, scapegoats, door opening mechanisms and similar types of labour saving devices. It is even believed that some tried to squeeze money out of black bodies using techniques now long lost – but only a strange red liquid would be the result of the extraction process.

A Barack in the hand is worth 2 in the Bush

This shocking discovery, some time in the making, comes with its share of controversy. George W. Bush, for example, defied the belief that only white people were human by being often mistaken for a block of wood, a chimpanzee or a deli sandwich. Most often though, Bush would be mistaken for President of the United States – this famously went on for 8 straight years and indeed it seemed thousands – maybe billions of people were duped by the convincing rumour. This mass delusion led the entire nation of the United States of America to allow a very tasty looking ham on rye to take charge of the nation for several months – even leading the country into a dust up with Iraq that turned out to be a terrible misunderstanding. The ham on rye sandwich was very embarrassed and is reported to have felt quite sorry for the debacle.

At any rate, the election of Obama to the highest post in the US has left no doubt that blacks are indeed equal to their fellow men. Some still weren’t convinced and wanted to enslave a few blacks again ‘just to be sure’, but they were shot out of a cannon before they could finish the sentence. That said, there are a few earthlings who are convinced only some are human and therefore superior to others by virtue of their skill in tying shoelaces, chewing tobacco and crushing aluminium beer cans with their foreheads. While these talents are highly respected by the aristocracy of nations the world over – conventional wisdom says the world has moved on from such things and a new era has come.

VP vis-a-vis Obama

Obama’s humanity began to become apparent from a young age – his arms and legs plus his ability to read were strong evidences – but it was his distinct ability to walk upright on two legs and speak in complete sentences that really brought him over the top (something which Bush has yet to do and therefore casts his humanity into hushed question yet again).

Still we accept this finding as scientists work feverishly to document this new development. Books must be re-written, names changed, butts kicked and heads scratched. Current US Vice President and Overlord of the Land of Darksquelch (most feared region of the Nether-World) Dick Cheney, reportedly said ‘If I was human and knew what emotions were, I think I would be happy for Barack and black people everywhere…what is happy?’ Cheney then allegedly disappeared in a puff of Halliburton Stock, but not before shooting a close friend in the face. The bleeding comrade offered his sincerest apologies for being such a nuisance. Cheney is known for his sharp exchanges with Satan. He has harshly criticized the Prince of Darkness for ‘being a wuss on foreign policy’. Cheney takes on the post of Beelzebub after Obama’s inauguration.

What & who is next?

It is now taken for granted that black people everywhere can do things that normal human beings have been doing for centuries. No one quite knows how they will make the adjustment, but classes, programs and short courses will be started that blacks can attend to ‘get caught up’ with the skills. Some blacks buoyed by the news of the newfound status looked forward to ‘walking down the street’, ‘benefitting from nepotism’ and ‘going to work’. Some even found themselves lost in the dream that they someday, could finally not tick the ‘other’ box on the race section of the many equal opportunity forms that asserted it never mattered what race you were, they ‘just wanted to know so they could treat you equally once they found out you were a minority’.

But it is with a new sense of confusion that we move forward. Who will we look down upon now? Who can we blame for lowering the value of our houses? Who will we exclude from the country clubs and closed circles of elitism? Who will inexplicably devote himself to the brave hero and then die 22 minutes into the film as per our blockbuster movies? These sober questions face us at the very cusp of a new era. And those to whom this noble duty falls will join a long line of really annoyed people. But as for us blacks – oops, I mean humans…it’s onward, upward, forward!

The journey continues. I thank you! ;O)

C. Arthur Young

LE DÉLIT/Controverses | Chronique “La fleur au fusil” | 25.11.2008

Justin Trudeau l’a confié comme une fleur à Nathalie Petrowski dans La Presse du 15 novembre : il croit, « même si c’est simpliste de le dire, qu’on peut changer le monde avec un sourire ». Mais pas n’importe lequel.

Le sourire de Justin (« hérité de sa mère, Margaret ») est une arme de persuasion massive  – et je n’ai même pas besoin de vous parler du reste de l’artillerie : « ses six pieds athlétiques, ses yeux bleus océan Pacifique » et « sa crinière noire »… Quel homme ! Nathalie n’en a pas pour autant déposé les armes : « À voir l’état du monde en ce moment, Justin Trudeau va devoir sourire à s’en décrocher la mâchoire pendant cent ans s’il veut changer quoi que ce soit ».

Un VRAI sourire, qu’on se le dise, ça vous illumine une journée. C’est comme un VRAI café : ça vous réchauffe et surtout, ça vous requinque.

L’ennui, c’est qu’au Québec en ce moment, des sourires à la Justin, y’en a partout. Ce sont des sourires de politiciens. Levez les yeux et vous tomberez forcément sur un visage souriant qui veut changer le monde. Petit Jean sourit en disant : « Le pouvoir d’abord, oui ! » Super Mario sourit en disant : « Pour une économie gagnante. » Même la grande Pauline sourit en disant : «Donnez-vous le Québec»… À moins que je ne fasse erreur – oh s’cusez, j’suis tout mêlé ! Passons. De toute façon ce ne sont que des slogans. Des sourires réchauffés sur panneaux glacés. Nos partis ont beau avoir sorti la grosse quincaillerie, moi je n’y trouve rien qui requinque.

Qu’est-ce qu’ils nous servent, nos chefs ? D’un côté, on a l’« appassionato latte » de Pauline (même le nom sonne snob), de l’autre le « lait aromatisé » de Mario (qui se prend pour Obama), et au milieu le « café du jour » de Jean (franchement, boire du jus de chaussette pour entretenir mes bas de laine, c’est bof). Et en plus on nous bassine que les soldes, c’est fini : plus question d’un « deux ou trois pour le prix d’un » – merde ! En fin de compte, je préfère les décorations de Noël. Le p’tit Jésus est vraisemblablement né en pleurant, mais il a quand même changé le monde. Et puis on lui a déjà cloué le bec.

Trêve de conneries: il est où le fusil !? Le 8 décembre, j’ai comme une envie de changer le monde en tirant… la gueule. Mais c’est triste, et j’espère être le seul.

[Certains droits sont réservés]

You draw your own conclusions…

After having witnessed the 2008 “election” process, it was clear that there was indeed a combination of power working against any voice that fell out outside of the accepted talking points. Even certain ideas that are contained within the Republican platform were off-limits when it came to the presidential “debates” and such ideas were marginalized and often ridiculed. Whether it is an orchestrated stifling of dissenting opinions or merely the symptom of a closed-minded national group philosophy or both, the result is the same. The U.S. is heading one direction, regardless of the party in power: Less freedom and privacy for the individual, more government, war and economic turmoil. It will take a massive awakening in hearts and minds to change this.

President Obama reneged on his promises to reverse Bush administration secrecy policies when he allowed the US to proceed with a “state secrets” privilege in Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. As the ACLU brief points out, this claim is absurd when Jeppesen’s role in renditon flights is a matter of public record. There are public facts available to proceed with the case; the US government is trying to use the state secrets privilege to protect its contractor from a civil suit. That was not the purpose of the privilege; it is intended to prevent the release of information that would harm US national security, not immunize US officials or contractors from judicial sanctions.

The states secrets privilege is a flawed common law doctrine because, as construed by the US courts, it allows the government to prevent those harmed by US government or its contractors action from having their cases heard.  An act to reform the doctrine was proposed in 2008, but has not received much support. The act would have the courts review allegedly harmful information to determine whether the case should proceed. Why should the courts perform this role?  Because the government frequently over-reaches. in the 1953 case that upheld the state secrets privilege — Reynolds v. United States — the government argued that because a plane that crashed was testing “confidential” electronic equipment, all aspects of its operations should be considered confidential.  As the Georgetown Center on National Security Law points out, it turns out that the crash report contained no information electronic equipment. Someone in the US government lied to the courts. The case could have proceeded, but the government abused its authority. (An attempt by the widows to have the case re-opened was denied by the courts on tendentious grounds that the government officials did not lie; they merely misled the courts).

The case the Jeppesen is citing as precedent, the 1875 Totten v. United States is not a valid precedent. Totten decided was that in the case of an espionage contract — a secret agreement to spy for the US — the spy could not sue the government later because the contract itself was understood to be a secret that was not to be revealed. Totten argued that if US courts allowed US-employed spies, not US government officers but private US persons or any foreign persons, to sue for breach of contract in US courts, the US government would be unable to secretly recruit spies

Inauguration Day 2009 is one of those dates taht I believe people will recall with the “where were you when …” prompt.  I was at home, then listening to NPR on my commute (on foot and Max) and then at my desk at work, watching the event on NYTimes.com. That evening, my boyfriend and I went to the Oregon Democratic Party celebration (the dance party at a local club one, not the $100+ per plate dinner). The sight and sounds were incredible. Young and not-so-young people, dance music, live DJ. And then they stopped all and replayed the President’s inaugural speech on two large screens. Everyone listened, everyone applauded right at the natural pauses. It was elecrtifying. What a difference a crowd makes – feeling connected and experiencing other people’s reactions elicited one more wave of emotionally overwhelming thrill.

The one morsel I would like to take away from the experience is the call to action – to volunteer and to keep a strong work ethic in these trouble times. May we all remain as driven and active as the President has demonstrated to be the day after.