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This is the weblog of
Raymond Powers.
Here I will be sharing what I find of import, humor, concern, inspiration and on the transformational edge
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A Quote:
Happiness is a conscious choice, not an automatic response. (Mildred Barthel)
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Raymond lives in Ojai, where the time now is:
02:30PM
Unique Readers:
Primarily
Public Domain
Everything I've written here, except my copyrighted
essays, poetry, lyrics, and music is hereby placed in the public
domain. The quotes from other people's writings, and the pictures
used might or might not be copyrighted, but are considered fair
use. Thus the license here would best be described as:
Primarily Public
Domain.
Please ask permission if there is any question in
regards to public domain usage.
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| Sunday, April 6, 2003 |  |
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 6 Apr 2003 @ 17:49
The Age
April 4 2003
Al-Jazeera's english language website is back online, after hackers disrupted its debut.
The Qatar-based TV network's homepage is among the most-searched items on the internet, even though it has been offline since its launch last week.
Created with the help of the BBC, the site is an impressive resource for news from the Gulf, its bare-bones design and authoritative tone are worlds away of major commercial broadcasters such such as CNN, CBS, ABC and Fox.
Al-Jazeera brands the site as its temporary english-language homepage, dedicated to special coverage on Iraq, obviously wary of any further disruption from hackers.
The network has been in the spotlight since the war in Iraq begun, with two of its reporters kicked out of the country this week.
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| Friday, April 4, 2003 | |
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 4 Apr 2003 @ 19:40
This appeared on Snopes and Yahoo
'TIME-TRAVELER' BUSTED FOR INSIDER TRADING
Wednesday March 19, 2003
By CHAD KULTGEN
NEW YORK -- Federal investigators have arrested an enigmatic Wall Street wiz on insider-trading charges -- and incredibly, he claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2256!
Sources at the Security and Exchange Commission confirm that 44-year-old Andrew Carlssin offered the bizarre explanation for his uncanny success in the stock market after being led off in handcuffs on January 28.
"We don't believe this guy's story -- he's either a lunatic or a pathological liar," says an SEC insider.
"But the fact is, with an initial investment of only $800, in two weeks' time he had a portfolio valued at over $350 million. Every trade he made capitalized on unexpected business developments, which simply can't be pure luck.
"The only way he could pull it off is with illegal inside information. He's going to sit in a jail cell on Rikers Island until he agrees to give up his sources."
The past year of nose-diving stock prices has left most investors crying in their beer. So when Carlssin made a flurry of 126 high-risk trades and came out the winner every time, it raised the eyebrows of Wall Street watchdogs.
"If a company's stock rose due to a merger or technological breakthrough that was supposed to be secret, Mr. Carlssin somehow knew about it in advance," says the SEC source close to the hush-hush, ongoing investigation.
When investigators hauled Carlssin in for questioning, they got more than they bargained for: A mind-boggling four-hour confession.
Carlssin declared that he had traveled back in time from over 200 years in the future, when it is common knowledge that our era experienced one of the worst stock plunges in history. Yet anyone armed with knowledge of the handful of stocks destined to go through the roof could make a fortune.
"It was just too tempting to resist," Carlssin allegedly said in his videotaped confession. "I had planned to make it look natural, you know, lose a little here and there so it doesn't look too perfect. But I just got caught in the moment."
In a bid for leniency, Carlssin has reportedly offered to divulge "historical facts" such as the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden and a cure for AIDS.
All he wants is to be allowed to return to the future in his "time craft."
However, he refuses to reveal the location of the machine or discuss how it works, supposedly out of fear the technology could "fall into the wrong hands."
Officials are quite confident the "time-traveler's" claims are bogus. Yet the SEC source admits, "No one can find any record of any Andrew Carlssin existing anywhere before December 2002."
Weekly World News will continue to follow this story as it unfolds. Keep watching for further developments. More >
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| Friday, March 28, 2003 | |
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 28 Mar 2003 @ 20:21
Experts: Northwest quake under way taking weeks, not seconds
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
©2003 Associated Press
(03-26) 13:36 PST PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) --
A widespread earthquake is taking place beneath the Northwest, slowly unleashing energy that may be equivalent to the magnitude 6.7 Nisqually quake that rocked the region two years ago, experts say.
But the so-called "silent" or "slow" earthquake is releasing that energy over weeks rather than in the sharp, seconds-long jolts of a typical quake. No one can feel it.
The event started Feb. 26 and seems to be sputtering to a halt far beneath northwest Washington and southwest British Columbia. The quake originated beneath the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Friday Harbor, Wash., and Victoria, British Columbia.
Recently discovered silent quakes, which can only be detected with sensitive instruments, aren't as harmless as they may seem.
Scientists say they may be adding to the tremendous pressure in an area where the brittle rocks of two tectonic plates are locked offshore.
Evidence shows that every few hundred years, the jammed plates release that stress in huge magnitude 8 or 9 earthquakes that can rattle the entire Northwest coast and generate lethal tsunamis. The last such powerful subduction-zone quake occurred about 300 years ago.
"These slow slips aren't reducing the stress on the locked zone," said Herb Dragert, a research scientist with the Geological Survey of Canada in Sidney, British Columbia. "They're actually, in little pulses, adding a tiny bit of stress to the locked zone."
About every 14 to 15 months, the slow-motion earthquakes are generated about 15 to 30 miles deep at the interface of the lower Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and the upper North American plate.
In that area, called the "slip" zone, the rocks are hotter and more flexible than in the locked zone 30 to 60 miles farther west, allowing the plates to pass each other more easily.
"What is going on for those 14 to 15 months is that things are stickier in the slip zone," Dragert said. "Then the slip happens -- the sticky portion is released -- which adds stress to the locked zone" as the North American plate shifts westward toward it.
The locked zone is causing the western edge of the normally westward-moving North American plate to compress and be shoved eastward about a half inch each year along the coast. However, each slow earthquake reverses that eastward motion, allowing the North American plate to rebound westward by about 0.08 to 0.16 inches during the course of the quake.
The earthquakes weren't detected until data was obtained from the global positioning system, or GPS, a network of 24 orbiting satellites with instruments that can measure tiny movements of ground-based stations.
Scientists have found that the silent earthquakes' signals show up on seismographs, but until recently they were overlooked because they don't look similar to the signals from regular earthquakes.
The discovery of the silent quakes provides a new tool for monitoring the fault zone that could rupture into a powerful subduction zone earthquake, an event that occurs near the coast on average about every 500 years. More >
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| Thursday, March 27, 2003 | |
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27 Mar 2003 @ 12:43
MOAWW is a fairly comprehensive website that provides streams from international news feeds.
A lot of these audio/video streams are either bogged down, or entirely down, or this site is overloaded, but a friend WAS able to watch a little Bahrain TV.
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 27 Mar 2003 @ 09:36
Help support and realize inexpensive free energy so we don't have to read articles like this one any longer.
By Mark Sherman
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal energy regulators said Wednesday that their investigation found widespread manipulation of natural gas and electricity prices and supplies in California.
Pat Wood, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said that as a result of the manipulation California would receive more than the $1.8 billion in refunds recommended by a FERC judge in December.
The exact amount is to be determined in the coming months, but FERC spokesman Kevin Cadden estimated that the total would be $3.3 billion. California is seeking $9 billion.
The FERC singled out seven subsidiaries of bankrupt Enron Corp. and five other companies for taking advantage of a dysfunctional market and reaping millions of dollars in unjust profits.
"The price gouging abounded," Commissioner William Massey said. He said he regretted that FERC did not intervene earlier to police the newly deregulated power market in California.
California Gov. Gray Davis said the ruling confirms "there was widespread market manipulation and a massive ripoff of California ratepayers. Now the question is whether the FERC commissioners will have the grit to order the remedies that are necessary."
The agency is considering placing limits on the profits of four marketers of wholesale power and banning eight gas companies from selling natural gas in California, Wood said.
The power marketers are Enron Power Marketing Inc., Enron Energy Services Inc., Reliant Energy Services Inc., and BP Energy Company.
The natural gas companies are Bridgeline Gas Marketing LLC, Citrus Trading Corp., ENA Upstream Company, Enron Canada Corp., Enron Compression Services Company, Enron Energy Services Inc., Enron MW LLC and Enron North America Corp.
The investigation also found a close link between natural gas and electricity prices. Gas is the fuel at many power plants.
After a 13-month investigation, FERC concluded "that many trading strategies employed by Enron and other companies violated the anti-gaming provisions" of marketing rules.
READ ON More >
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| Tuesday, March 25, 2003 | |
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 25 Mar 2003 @ 17:26
This is an update on my previous post about Halliburton and Cheney's ties and profiteering from the post war rebuilding.
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Iraq rebuilding contracts awarded
Halliburton, Stevedoring Services of America get government contracts for early relief work.
March 25, 2003: 10:01 AM EST
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The first contracts for rebuilding post-war Iraq have been awarded, and Vice President Dick Cheney's old employer, Halliburton Co., is one of the early winners.
The Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) unit of Halliburton (HAL: Research, Estimates), of which Cheney was CEO from 1995-2000, was awarded a contract late Monday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to put out oil fires and make emergency repairs in Iraq.
Halliburton wouldn't disclose the monetary value of the contract, under which Halliburton will put into action some of the firefighting and repair plans it detailed for the Army in a study in conducted in November.
"KBR's ... contract is limited to task orders under the contract for only those services which are necessary to support the mission in near term," Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said.
Army Corps of Engineers representatives could not be reached for comment.
The most critical part of the contract could be the "emergency repairs" portion, which could put Halliburton in prime position to handle the complete refurbishment of Iraq's long-neglected oil infrastructure.
Getting Iraq's oil fields to pre-1991 production levels will take at least 18 months and cost about $5 billion initially, with another $3 billion in annual operating expenses, according to a recent study by the James A. Baker III
Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, named for the first President Bush's Secretary of State during the first Gulf War.
Though none of the potential administrators of such a contract -- including the Defense Department, the State Department's U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations -- have claimed responsibility for handing out the job, Monday's award could mean the Defense Department will be in charge.
Halliburton said it has subcontracted the firefighting portion of the Army contract to Houston-based companies Boots & Coots International Well Control Inc. (WEL: Research, Estimates) and Wild Well Control, Inc., a private company.
Hall of Halliburton said the fires should be put out in about 240 days. Very few oil wells have been set ablaze by Iraqis so far, in contrast to the first Gulf War in 1991, when Iraqi troops retreating from Kuwait set fire to more than 700 Kuwaiti oil wells. Halliburton's KBR unit was involved in putting out the 1991 fires.
Separately, USAID late Monday awarded a $4.8 million contract to Stevedoring Services of America (SSA), a private company based in Seattle, to manage the Umm Qasr ports in southern Iraq.
Umm Qasr's ports, where U.S. and British troops have struggled for full control, are seen as critical to efforts to bring humanitarian relief to Iraqis. SSA will handle several tasks, including assessing the need for dredging and repairs to the ports and unloading and warehousing cargo.
USAID plans to issue seven other contracts, including one for $600 million for general construction work in post-war Iraq. Halliburton is among several companies reported to have put in bids for that contract. More >
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| Saturday, March 22, 2003 | |
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 22 Mar 2003 @ 18:15
This is an intriguing resource that tracks the public and national debt per day.
National Debt Clock
The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.42 billion per day
since September 30, 2002!
The estimated population of the United States is 290,743,300
so each citizen's share of this debt is $22,259.87. More >
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| Friday, March 21, 2003 | |
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 21 Mar 2003 @ 02:12
Welcome to my continuing, yet re-titled weblog Sounding Circle. This name has been with me for a couple decades, originally that of a project called The Los Angeles World Music Center and then as a series of community sound and music making explorations. Later, leading to a workshop called Singing Your Dream Awake.
In the context of this weblog, it implies the cycles, spirals and symbols of our thought, our culture, our lineage and our imagination. A palindromatic meeting in the middle outside of time.
Welcome and welcome back. I always enjoy your comments and appreciation of my posts. More >
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| Wednesday, March 19, 2003 | |
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 19 Mar 2003 @ 19:47
Arctic Oil Drilling Rejected by U.S. Senate in Close Vote Today. Our efforts made a difference!
In a victory for the environment, the Senate voted today to remove a provision from the 2004 budget bill opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling. An amendment to remove this oil drilling provision, sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), passed by a narrow vote of 52 to 48.
Thanks to more than 25,000 Environmental Defense activists who quickly responded to our urgent action alert since Monday with e-mails, faxes and phone calls to Congress, we helped turn the tide against oil company efforts to open this precious wilderness area to oil companies.
HOW DID YOUR SENATOR VOTE?
(A "yea" vote is opposed to Arctic oil drilling. A "nay" vote supports Arctic oil drilling)
OIL DRILLING THREATS CONTINUE:
Stripping oil-drilling provisions out of the Senate's 2004 budget bill is only a temporary victory for the Arctic, unfortunately. Oil companies and drilling supporters in Congress will continue their search for new legislative vehicles for opening the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling.
Environmental Defense will also continue its fight to protect the Arctic. Be sure you will hear from us again to enlist your support in getting the message out to Congress to continue to protect the Arctic and its unique wildlife from oil companies.
WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO:
Just as we fight to safeguard the Arctic Refuge, we must also step up our efforts to reduce oil dependence and fight global warming. And you can help!
Sign the Global Warming Petition. Become a part of history:
Take the Clean Car Pledge. Tell automakers to offer cleaner car choices:
Visit our Action Center for more urgent action alerts from Environmental Defense:
For more information about oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, visit Environmental Defense online More >
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 19 Mar 2003 @ 19:16
ON THE EVE OF WAR: KUCINICH INTRODUCES
A BILL TO NULLIFY USE OF FORCE RESOLUTION
ADMINISTRATION'S CASE FOR WAR BASED ON CLAIMS THAT ARE
'UNTRUE, UNFOUNDED, DUBIOUS OR DISPROVEN'
For Immediate Release
Contact: Doug Gordon
(202) 225-5871 (w)
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
Today, as the President has forced our nation to the brink of war,Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) offered a bill, H Con Res. 101, to nullify H.J. Res. 114, the Authorization for Use of Force in Iraq.
The bill states:
"Whereas, on the eve of an unprovoked military attack by the United States against the country of Iraq, the public is learning that the Administration's rationale for commencing hostilities is based on a series of claims that are untrue, unfounded, dubious or disproven; Whereas, as a nation, the United States does not have grounds for launching a war against a country that poses no imminent or direct threat to us or our allies; Now, therefore be it resolved, That it is the Sense of the Congress that the October 10, 2002 Authorization for Use of Force in Iraq (H.J.Res 114) is
null and void."
Time and time again, the statements and accusations that this Administration has based its case for war on have been false or disproven. Despite misleading claims by the Administration, Iraq is not a nuclear threat. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed El Baradei has said that there is no evidence of resumed nuclear activates in Iraq. And,despite numerous claims by the Administration that Iraq has ties with Al-Qaeda and the potential to share weapons of mass destruction with Iraq,
its own CIA Director told Congress that this unlikely to happen.
"The President's case for war is a sham," stated Kucinich. "It is based on untrue, unfounded and disproven allegations. The Administration has repeated these untruths in order to whip sentiment to launch an unprovoked attack
against Iraq. The country has been misled and deceived." More >
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| Sunday, March 16, 2003 | |
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 16 Mar 2003 @ 09:54
Thanks to Letecia for sending me some lighthearted news for a Sunday morning.
Well, I live in a world where anything is possible, so who am I to discount these people's experience. Funny how two people can witness the same thing and for one it's the epitomy of evil (the Devil) and the other of grace (God).
Personally I would have waited a few days to see if the fish had anything more to say. Imagine being the person to hit God over the head with a club. Maybe that guy was channeling God's mother.
Carp-e Diem!
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WORD IS MADE FLESH AS GOD REVEALS HIMSELF... AS A FISH
By Edward Helmore New York
The Observer
Sunday, March 16, 2003
An obscure Jewish sect in New York has been gripped in awe by what it believes to be a mystical visitation by a 20lb carp that was heard shouting in Hebrew, in what many Jews worldwide are hailing as a modern miracle.
Many of the 7,000-member Skver sect of Hasidim in New Square, 30 miles north of Manhattan, believe God has revealed himself in fish form.
According to two fish-cutters at the New Square Fish Market, the carp was about to be slaughtered and made into gefilte fish for Sabbath dinner when it suddenly began shouting apocalyptic warnings in Hebrew.
Many believe the carp was channelling the troubled soul of a revered community elder who recently died; others say it was God. The only witnesses to the mystical show were Zalmen Rosen, a 57-year-old Hasid with 11 children, and his co-worker, Luis Nivelo. They say that on 28 January at 4pm
they were about to club the carp on the head when it began yelling.
Nivelo, a Gentile who does not understand Hebrew, was so shocked at the sight of a fish talking in any language that he fell over. He ran into the front of the store screaming: 'It's the Devil! The Devil is here!' Then the
shop owner heard it shouting warnings and commands too.
'It said "Tzaruch shemirah" and "Hasof bah",' he told the New York Times,'which essentially means that everyone needs to account for themselves because the end is near.'
The animated carp commanded Rosen to pray and study the Torah. Rosen tried to kill the fish but injured himself. It was finally butchered by Nivelo and sold.
However, word spread far and wide and Nivelo complains he has been plagued by phone calls from as far away as London and Israel. The story has since been amplified by repetition and some now believe the fish's outburst was a warning about the dangers of the impending war in Iraq.
Some say they fear the born-again President Bush believes he is preparing the world for the Second Coming of Christ, and war in Iraq is just the opening salvo in the battle of Armageddon.
Local resident Abraham Spitz said: 'Two men do not dream the same dream. It is very rare that God reminds people he exists in this modern world. But when he does, you cannot ignore it.'
Others in New Square discount the apocalyptic reading altogether and suggest the notion of a talking fish is as fictional as Tony Soprano's talking-fish dream in an episode of The Sopranos .
Stand-up comedians have already incorporated the carp into their comedy routines at weddings. One gefilte company has considered changing it's slogan to: 'Our fish speaks for itself.'
Still, the shouting carp corresponds with the belief of some Hasidic sects that righteous people can be reincarnated as fish. They say that Nivelo may have been selected because he is not Jewish, but a weary Nivelo told the New York Times : 'I wish I never said anything about it. I'm getting so many calls every day, I've stopped answering. Israel, London, Miami, Brooklyn. They all want to hear about the talking fish.'
A devout Christian, he still thinks the carp was the Devil. 'I don't believe any of this Jewish stuff. But I heard that fish talk.'
He's grown tired of the whole thing. 'It's just a big headache for me,' he added. 'I pull my phone out of the wall at night. I don't sleep and I've lost weight.' More >
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| Thursday, March 6, 2003 | |
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 6 Mar 2003 @ 13:10
This is an encouraging article from Common Dreams.
It was forwarded to Letecia and I by our friend Meg Eisling, owner of Gemquest and Deep Journey Tours here in Ojai, California.
Published on Tuesday, March 4, 2003 by the Boston Globe
A War Policy in Collapse
by James Carroll
WHAT A DIFFERENCE a month makes. On Feb. 5, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the Bush administration's case against Iraq with a show of authority that moved many officials and pundits out of ambivalence and into acceptance. The war came to seem inevitable, which then prompted millions of people to express their opposition in streets around the globe. Over subsequent weeks, the debate between hawks and doves took on the strident character of ideologues beating each other with fixed positions. The sputtering rage of war opponents and the grandiose abstractions of war advocates both seemed disconnected from the relentless marshaling of troops. War was coming. Further argument was fruitless. The time seemed to have arrived, finally, for a columnist to change the subject.
And then the events of last week. Within a period of a few days, the war policy of the Bush administration suddenly showed signs of incipient collapse. No one of these developments by itself marks the ultimate reversal of fortune for Bush, but taken together, they indicate that the law of ''unintended consequences,'' which famously unravels the best-laid plans of warriors, may apply this time before the war formally begins. Unraveling is underway. Consider what happened as February rolled into March:
Read On...
More >
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| Wednesday, March 5, 2003 | |
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 5 Mar 2003 @ 20:54
Jazzolog requested I post John Brady Kiesling's entire letter of resignation citing that it is a moving experience.
This appeared on the Truthout website.
Sooo....without further ado.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: What follows is a letter of resignation written by John Brady Kiesling, a member of Bush's Foreign Service Corps and Political Counselor to the American embassy in Greece. Kiesling has been a diplomat for twenty years, a civil servant to four Presidents. The letter below, delivered to Secretary of State Colin Powell, is quite possibly the most eloquent statement of dissent thus far put forth regarding the issue of Iraq. The New York Times story which reports on this remarkable event can be found after Kiesling's letter. - wrp
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U.S. Diplomat John Brady Kiesling
Letter of Resignation, to:
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
ATHENS | Thursday 27 February 2003
Dear Mr. Secretary:
I am writing you to submit my resignation from the Foreign Service of the United States and from my position as Political Counselor in U.S. Embassy Athens, effective March 7. I do so with a heavy heart. The baggage of my upbringing included a felt obligation to give something back to my country. Service as a U.S. diplomat was a dream job. I was paid to understand foreign languages and cultures, to seek out diplomats, politicians, scholars and journalists, and to persuade them that U.S. interests and theirs fundamentally coincided. My faith in my country and its values was the most powerful weapon in my diplomatic arsenal.
It is inevitable that during twenty years with the State Department I would become more sophisticated and cynical about the narrow and selfish bureaucratic motives that sometimes shaped our policies. Human nature is what it is, and I was rewarded and promoted for understanding human nature. But until this Administration it had been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my president I was also upholding the interests of the American people and the world. I believe it no longer.
The policies we are now asked to advance are incompatible not only with American values but also with American interests. Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America’s most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson. We have begun to dismantle the largest and most effective web of international relationships the world has ever known. Our current course will bring instability and danger, not security.
The sacrifice of global interests to domestic politics and to bureaucratic self-interest is nothing new, and it is certainly not a uniquely American problem. Still, we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam. The September 11 tragedy left us stronger than before, rallying around us a vast international coalition to cooperate for the first time in a systematic way against the threat of terrorism. But rather than take credit for those successes and build on them, this Administration has chosen to make terrorism a domestic political tool, enlisting a scattered and largely defeated Al Qaeda as its bureaucratic ally. We spread disproportionate terror and confusion in the public mind, arbitrarily linking the unrelated problems of terrorism and Iraq. The result, and perhaps the motive, is to justify a vast misallocation of shrinking public wealth to the military and to weaken the safeguards that protect American citizens from the heavy hand of government. September 11 did not do as much damage to the fabric of American society as we seem determined to so to ourselves. Is the Russia of the late Romanovs really our model, a selfish, superstitious empire thrashing toward self-destruction in the name of a doomed status quo?
We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners. Even where our aims were not in question, our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle East, and in whose image and interests. Have we indeed become blind, as Russia is blind in Chechnya, as Israel is blind in the Occupied Territories, to our own advice, that overwhelming military power is not the answer to terrorism? After the shambles of post-war Iraq joins the shambles in Grozny and Ramallah, it will be a brave foreigner who forms ranks with Micronesia to follow where we lead.
We have a coalition still, a good one. The loyalty of many of our friends is impressive, a tribute to American moral capital built up over a century. But our closest allies are persuaded less that war is justified than that it would be perilous to allow the U.S. to drift into complete solipsism. Loyalty should be reciprocal. Why does our President condone the swaggering and contemptuous approach to our friends and allies this Administration is fostering, including among its most senior officials. Has “oderint dum metuant” really become our motto?
I urge you to listen to America’s friends around the world. Even here in Greece, purported hotbed of European anti-Americanism, we have more and closer friends than the American newspaper reader can possibly imagine. Even when they complain about American arrogance, Greeks know that the world is a difficult and dangerous place, and they want a strong international system, with the U.S. and EU in close partnership. When our friends are afraid of us rather than for us, it is time to worry. And now they are afraid. Who will tell them convincingly that the United States is as it was, a beacon of liberty, security, and justice for the planet?
Mr. Secretary, I have enormous respect for your character and ability. You have preserved more international credibility for us than our policy deserves, and salvaged something positive from the excesses of an ideological and self-serving Administration. But your loyalty to the President goes too far. We are straining beyond its limits an international system we built with such toil and treasure, a web of laws, treaties, organizations, and shared values that sets limits on our foes far more effectively than it ever constrained America’s ability to defend its interests.
I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S. Administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share.
John Brady Kiesling More >
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| Tuesday, March 4, 2003 | |
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4 Mar 2003 @ 13:04
U.S. Diplomat Resigns, Protesting 'Our Fervent Pursuit of War'
By Felicity Barringer
New York Times
Thursday 27 February 2003
UNITED NATIONS - A career diplomat who has served in United States embassies from Tel Aviv to Casablanca to Yerevan resigned this week in protest against the country's policies on Iraq.
The diplomat, John Brady Kiesling, the political counselor at the United States Embassy in Athens, said in his resignation letter, "Our fervent pursuit of war with Iraq is driving us to squander the international legitimacy that has been America's most potent weapon of both offense and defense since the days of Woodrow Wilson."
Mr. Kiesling, 45, who has been a diplomat for about 20 years, said in a telephone interview tonight that he faxed the letter to Secretary of State Colin L, Powell on Monday after informing Thomas Miller, the ambassador in Athens, of his decision.
He said he had acted alone, but "I've been comforted by the expressions of support I've gotten afterward" from colleagues.
"No one has any illusions that the policy will be changed," he said. "Too much has been invested in the war."
Louis Fintor, a State Department spokesman, said he had no information on Mr. Kiesling's decision and it was department policy not to comment on personnel matters.
In his letter, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by a friend of Mr. Kiesling's, the diplomat wrote Mr. Powell: "We should ask ourselves why we have failed to persuade more of the world that a war with Iraq is necessary. We have over the past two years done too much to assert to our world partners that narrow and mercenary U.S. interests override the cherished values of our partners."
His letter continued: "Even where our aims were not in question, our consistency is at issue. The model of Afghanistan is little comfort to allies wondering on what basis we plan to rebuild the Middle East, and in whose image and interests."
It is rare but not unheard-of for a diplomat, immersed in the State Department's culture of public support for policy, regardless of private feelings, to resign with this kind of public blast. From 1992 to 1994, five State Department officials quit out of frustration with the Clinton administration's Balkans policy.
Asked if his views were widely shared among his diplomatic colleagues, Mr. Kiesling said: "No one of my colleagues is comfortable with our policy. Everyone is moving ahead with it as good and loyal. The State Department is loaded with people who want to play the team game - we have a very strong premium on loyalty." More >
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| Sunday, March 2, 2003 | |
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 2 Mar 2003 @ 19:51
This reminds me of a song lyric I wrote once.
"You can't turn back,
but you can turn back on,
you can't turn back the clock."
Letecia sent me this, as she does so many wonderful tid and tad bits.
Oddly Enough - UK Reuters
Communist theme park to open its gates
Thu Feb 27,10:18 AM ET
BERLIN (Reuters) - Hoping to capitalise on a wave of nostalgia for Communist East Germany, a Berlin company is planning to build a theme park that revives life behind the Iron Curtain in the country that disappeared nearly 13 years ago.
Massine Productions GmbH hopes to recreate a 10,000-square metre (107,600 sq ft) replica of East Germany, complete with surly border guards, rigorous customs inspections, authentic East German mark notes, and restaurants with regulation bland East German food.
"The aim isn't to make big joke out of East Germany," said Susanne Reich, a spokeswoman for the company which is expected to invest several million euros on the project, slated for the southeastern Berlin district of Koepenick.
"It was an important part of Germany's history and the period should be recreated as accurately as possible."
Nostalgia for East Germany has lingered ever since reunification in 1990. Known as "Ostalgie", a play on the German words for east and nostalgia, the spirit has given rise to scores of "GDR parties", books, songs and popular films.
A German film "Good Bye, Lenin", in which a man recreates East Germany in a 79-square-metre (850-sq-ft) flat to protect his ailing mother from the shock of reunification after she comes out of a coma, has surged to the top of the German film charts and more than a million people have been to see it.
Even though East Germany lasted just four decades, Reich insists that the project has the potential to go the distance:
"We've spoken to a number of tourist agencies in Europe and the United States, and there's been plenty of interest." More >
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