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(Don't let the bastards wear you down)* Item: The Karl Rove/Valerie Plame Story. Double standard in all its glory. What do you think the champions of law and order, high moral values Republicans would have done if this happened during the Clinton presidency! Item: Battle for the Supreme Court. Announcement of Chief Justice Rehnquist's retirement cannot be far off. The Senate Democrats must not let their guard down after meeting with the president on July 12th. The president's wishes are known (in 1999, he publicly stated his admiration for Justices Scalia and Thomas) and he has his conservative base to appease. It would be naive to expect him to announce nominees who do not fit the mold. Overturning Roe v Wade is on the agenda. Among other targets: Family and Medical Leave Act. Item: Iraq - Death toll and platitudes. So far in July, 13 U.S. soldiers have lost their lives. Total since beginning of the war - Dead 1758 Injured 13190 "Washington is electrified with the abundant energy of buzz from a scandal -- speculation about Rove, about Bush, about Cheney's aide, Scooter Libby. Who leaked? Who may have lied? How did Novak slip the noose? But the real scandal is the ongoing mess in Iraq, the murder just the other day of innocent children (is there any other kind?) and the false notion that, somehow, taking out Hussein would make us all safer. London gives the lie to that." Richard Cohen in The Washington Post July 14, 2005. Comments Unknown — 2010-01-12 So I see your blog, I always thought it was "Nos Bastardos Carborundum," Not being knowledgable I am depending on others. So have you researched this further? or perhaps someone else sent you more info? This looks good too... "Nolo Bastardo Carborundum" (Don't let the bastards wear you down) Nathan CarpeDiemUSA@gmail.com

*Red Hibiscus It began with a large ceramic planter which I received as a gift from my kind apartment owners.The planter was meant for indoor use; it had no drainage hole. So, the first thing I did was to have a large hole drilled at the bottom. I wanted to place it outside in my front yard. Then came the hard part--what to plant in it. I decided on a flowering plant and went looking at local nurseries.The choice was not hard to make. As soon as I walked in to the aisle where they were, a red hibiscus grabbed my attention. Mind plays strange tricks. Standing in the middle of plants of different kinds I was transported to my childhood, and could clearly visualize aboriginal women who came to town on market days with baskets of produce and, often, a red hibiscus stuck in the hair. The effect of their jet black skin, shiny black hair, often rolled up in a bun, and the red flower was striking.I bought the hibiscus and planted it. It is blooming. I did not know that the flowers begin to wilt by the second day. It would not have made the slightest difference if I did.A few days later I went to a dinner given by friends. There I mentioned my new acquisition to a woman who likes to potter with flowering plants. She said "Why did you pick red; they are so common". Perhaps I should have but thought that it was not the time and place to tell her why I picked the red hibiscus.Here is a passage that might partly explain it."The places we have known before belong now only to the the little world of space on which we map them for our own convenience. None of them was ever more than a thin slice, held between the contiguous impressions that composed our life at that time; remembrance of a particular form is but regret for a particular moment; and houses, road, avenues are as fugitive, alas, as the years."---Remembrance of Things Past, Part I "Swann's Way" by Marcel Proust (1877-1922) Comments KR — 2005-07-14 Not easy reading, Proust... but always rewarding. Thank you for sharing. Wayne World — 2005-07-16 Musafir, it is always fascinating to me when a smell , or a color, or something of little significance to others, can bring me back to a place and time in my life!!!It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it really takes me to another moment in space and time .

*Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could be the dragon slayerIt would not be far from truth to say that some high level officials in the Bush White House are tossing and turning at night. Despite their efforts to stonewall and dodge it, the outing of Valerie Plame remains alive as an issue. In fact it has got legs. That is cause for concern--and fear--for some high level functionaries. Perhaps El Jefe himself has not escaped the vibrations. The specter of indictments being issued not only for breaking law (The Classified Information Protection Act of 2001) but also perjury has become real.It is to be seen what action Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald will decide to take. This guy is not like the buffoon Kenneth Starr. Kenneth Starr and his team delved into garbage cans and gleefully dished out their findings. The Starr investigation cost us more than $30 million and produced nothing beyond what the checkout counter rags had been printing for years about Bill Clinton's private life. There has not been a single leak from Mr. Fitzgerald's office after he assumed responsibility for the investigation.Are we going to see Karl Rove frogmarched in cuffs? A few days back I would have said "no way". Now the scenario has changed. That would be a good sight. Comments Wayne World — 2005-07-12 Musafir, one can only wish for such an outcome!!!However, I have seen these crafty Republicans deal with crisis before, and they just always seem to get away with everything!!!! Let's hope this is different!!!!It would be very nice to see Rove cuffed up and put under arrest!!!!I think that would signal to the American people that justice still exists in this country, and NO ONE is above it!!!!

*As Pakistan tries to put the Mukhtar Mai episode behind, there is news that an orthodox Muslim organization in India has issued a Fatwa (religious edict) against a woman who was raped by her father-in-law."In its ruling the Darul-Uloom Deoband did not endorse the village council's order that the victim had to marry her father-in-law but said she could no longer live with her husband."She had a physical relationship with her father-in-law. It does not matter if it was consensual or forced," Mohammad Masood Madani, a cleric at Deoband, told Reuters."Where do these people emerge from--some dark holes in the ground ? What is clear is that they wield power and abuse it.The Indian Government should stop making allowances for Sharia laws. There is no justification for its position. Comments Wayne World — 2005-07-12 Musafir, this is one issue I do understand that needs change in other countries!!!People should be treated fairly and equally !!! However, I don't agree with the way our administration is going about trying to change these things !!! Putting pressure on a government is O.K. in my opinion!!Invading a country and causing unnecessary casualties is not a rational way , in my opinion. At some point, human beings need to free themselves from the bondage of religion. I believe it does some good, but the negative effects sometimes outweigh the positive ones!!!

*We are not in August but at last it is beginning to feel like summer. The days have turned warmer although the drop in temperature is quite noticeable in the evening. Walks through the woods show signs of change. The buckeyes have turned brown; wild flowers mostly gone; grassy meadows no longer look cool and green. Fire danger signs are up.I love this poem; very "Californian", if a poem could be described that way."Tahoe in August" by Robert Haas"What summer proposes is simply happiness:heat early in the morning, jaysraucuous in the pines. Frank and Ellen have a tennis gameat nine, Bill and Cheryl sleep on the deckto watch a shower of summer stars. Nick and Sharonstayed in, sat and talked the dark on,drinking tea, and Jeanne walked into the meadowin a white smock to write in her journalby a grazing horse who seemed to want her company.Some of them will swim in the afternoon.Someone will drive to the hardware store to fetchnew latches for the kitchen door. Four o'clock;the joggers jogging--it is one of them who seesdown the flowering slope the woman with her notebookin her hand beside the white horse, gesturing, her hairfrom a distance the copper color of hummingbirdsthe slant light catches on the slope: the hikersswitchback down the canyon from the waterfall;the readers are reading, Anna is about to meet Vronsky,that nice M. Swann is dining in Cambraywith the aunts, and Carrie has come to Chicago.What they want is happiness; someone to love them,children, a summer by the lake. The woman who sets asideher book blinks against the fuzzy dark,re-entering the house. Her daughter drifts downstairs;out late the night before, she has been napping,and she's cross. Her mother tells her David telephoned."He's such a dear," the mother says, "I thinkI make him nervous." The girl tosses her head as the horsehad done in the meadow while Jeanne read it in her dream."You can call him now, if you want," the mother says,"I've got to get the chicken started,I won't listen." "Did I say you would?"the girl says quickly. The mother who has been slappedthis way before and done the same herself another summeron a different lake says, "Ouch." The girl shrugssulkily. "I'm sorry." Looking down: "Somethingabout the way you said that pissed me off.""Hannibal has wandered off," the mother says,wryness in her voice, she is thinking it is August,"why don't you see if he's at the Finley's houseagain." The girl says, "God." The mother: "He lovessmall children. It's livelier for him there."The daughter, awake now, flounces out the door,which slams. It is for all of them the sound of summer.The mother she looks like stands at the counter snapping beans."From: Human Wishes, published by Ecco Press (1989)In 1995 Robert Haas was selected by the Library of Congress as Poet Laureate of the United States, the first poet from the west to be so honored. He is a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. Comments Wayne World — 2005-07-10 Thanks for the poem Musafir. Summer is definitely in effect!Although, I was confused when the daughter slapped the mother!!!I was even more confused when the mother remembers doing the same thing to her mother!!!I think I will try and slap my mother this summer ....just to see what happens!!:) Wayne World — 2005-07-10 Oh, I am so happy that your blog is back up and running!!I started to get nervous when I didn't see your blog !! You are appreciated!!! musafir — 2005-07-11 This comment has been removed by a blog administrator. musafir — 2005-07-11 Thanks. Yes, blogger has been erratic of late. Perhaps something I did wrong. The template changes for no reason that I can figure out and I see a group of meaningless (to me) codes on the screen. My knowledge of HTML is extremely limited. Not sure that I have it under control but I have learned how to retrieve. A new template might do the trick but I am reluctant to move from the one I have. When I read the poem the first time, I could think of occasions when I had been on the receiving end of such slaps. I,too, have sometimes verbally slapped people. Perhaps not always intentionally, but we do use words that hurt. Wayne World — 2005-07-12 Musafir, NOW you tell me that it was a verbal slap!!!!I am in the hospital with multiple fractures :)!!I thought it meant to literally slap your mom. Oh well....the doctors say that I should recover quite nicely in the coming months!!!!!:)!! Wayne World — 2005-07-13 Doctors now say I should be 100% by NEXT summer!!!What a wonderful time of year!!!

America's Public and Private Faces *This excerpt is from an essay by Anne Taylor Fleming who appears as a guest comentator on the NewsHour (PBS)."This is one weird country. You can't help but think that sometimes. We tolerate our own contradictions, our own, if you will, hypocrisies, certainly when it comes to sex. Adamantly churchgoing and God-believing, we can talk family values in public while watching porn in private. There are, in fact, programs just to help preachers who are self-confessed pornography addicts -- sick, sad, troubling, laughable, and I guess hopeful all at the same time."Reflections by Anne Taylor Fleming. Comments Wayne World — 2005-07-10 Musafir, thanks once again for the link. The author makes a very valid point when she states that our fascination with sex reaches to ALL people and no group can claim any moral high ground!! Even the first lady admits to watching Desperate Housewives! Although, I think it is more reality for her than she would like it to be!!!

*Among the winners is Halliburton Co. of Texas. From The Washington Post 5/7/05: "The Army has ordered nearly $5 billion in work from Halliburton Co. to provide logistics support to U.S. troops in Iraq over the next year, $1 billion above what the Army paid for similar services the previous year.The new order, which comes despite lingering questions about the company's past billing, replaces an earlier agreement that expired last June but had been extended through this spring to ensure a continuous supply of food, sanitation, laundry and other logistical services for the troops, according to Linda K. Theis, an Army spokeswoman."Vice President Cheney was CEO of Halliburton before becoming George Bush's running mate. It helps to have friends in high places.And what happened during Paul Bremer's watch?The Guardian,UK, reported that during the eight months when J. Paul Bremer was de facto ruler (head of the provisional authority) of Iraq, 8.8 billion dollars disappeared--cannot be accounted for!

The explosions in London July 7, 2005"There'll always be an England,And England shall be freeIf England means as much to youAs England means to me."---Parker and CharlesI have friends in London and other cities in England. I have walked the streets where the atrocities took place. My thoughts are with the people of England. After years of tranquility following the IRA attacks, they suffered death and destruction at the hands of a radical Islamic group.The news revived the horrors of what fanatics can do and how difficult it is to stop them.The leaders are fulfilling their roles. Giving speeches, assuring their people and vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice.What lies ahead? We don't know. But I have no doubt that the England and the British people will survive. Survive without destroying what is good about the great and vibrant nation.

Unflattering image of President Bush*The 3-day summit (July 6th to 8th) of G8 nations opened at the historic Gleneagle Hotel, Gleneagles, Perthshire (Scotland).From a report in The Guardian,UK:"Demonstrators, led by a woman with a megaphone, chanted "George Bush, we know you, daddy was a killer too," and "Can you hear us in Gleneagles?".A cartoon by Steve Bell, The Guardian,UK, 7/5/05.

Teen Pregnancy - Just Say "No", To Sex*Vice President Cheney, the Juggler "And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,That palter with us in a double sense:That keep the word of promise to our earAnd break it to our hope."---William Shakespeare (1564-1616), MacbethThe vice president emerged from his hideout to speak about gay marriage ban.The BBC reported on 7/5/05 that: "He said the issue of legalising gay unions should be settled by individual states rather than by Washington."Did I read it wrong? The next paragraph made it clear:"However, Mr Cheney said he accepted the views of Mr Bush, whose opposition to gay marriage is well publicised."So, where does the wise vice president stand on this issue? Go figure. ...