My Funny Valentine

My Funny Valentine
(Lorenz Hart & Richard Rodgers arr. Keith Jarrett)

Keith Jarrett (piano)
Gary Peacock (bass)
Jack DeJohnette (drums)

Live in 1996

Keith Jarrett has been a tremendous inspiration to me over the decades. Love his touch!

Keith Jarrett: Last Solo in Tokyo (1984)


Keith Jarrett & Chick Corea play Mozart

Concerto For 2 Pianos & Orchestra In E-Flat Major, K. 365 (K. 316a): III. Rondeaux: Allegro

2008 State of the Universe Address

Swami Beyondananda predicts
HEART TIMES AHEAD

Every year at this time, I am asked to make predictions, and each time I politely refuse because I don’t want to jeopardize my nonprophet status. But this year is different. With 2012 just one quantum leap year away, we humans might finally be ready for a quantum leap of our own. The message is coming in loud and clear. Time to shift or get off the pot.

In order to upshift our karma into surpassing gear, however, we must shift our awareness downward from the static of the head to the ecstatic of the heart. If we are to have an awakening instead of a wake, I predict heart times ahead.

Disheartenment in the Heartland

Heartenment, after all, is just the thing to counteract the disheartenment in the heartland. Take the economy — please! After years of untreated Deficit Inattention Disorder, the U.S. dollar is now worth less than a dollar of Monopoly money. As the most recent Greenspan report tells us, the average American family barely has enough green to span the average month. Meanwhile, trickle down economics has proved true to its name, leaving a growing class of pee-ons at the bottom.

Then there’s electile dysfunction. Instead of transparency around how votes are cast and counted, we have an apparent trance. The secret ballot has been taken to the next level, and now voting machines with secret software count the votes in secret. This is called “faith-based” vote counting. Hey, some of those new “smart” voting machines are so smart, that they don’t even need voters! This makes perfect sense because government of, by and for the people has now been efficiently transformed to government of, by and for the very, very few people. Talk about minority representation. We are now governed by a smaller minority than ever in our history!

Even when we do manage to get an election, the body politic still suffers from impotence. As we learned after the 2006 election, just because we vote for someone doesn’t mean they are going to vote for us. Instead of canceling the Iraqi Horror Picture Show, the Democratic misleadership has gone along with the same basic neocon con, only with a cosmetic makeover – sort of a wolfawitz in sheepawitz’s clothing.

Though the upwising continues, irony deficiency and truth decay still plague the body politic. Instead of forums that shine light on political issues, the media has encouraged againstums where incendiary phrases spark heated arguments. So, while red tribe Republicans and blue tribe Democrats argue whether it’s wronger to kill the born or the unborn, the born keep dying while the not-yet-born are stuck with the bill. No wonder our moral compass has gone south.

As if global warring isn’t enough to worry about, now there’s global warming. It would be sad indeed to have come this far, only to see the headline: “Human Race Ends In a Dead Heat.”


No wonder so many people are scared shiftless. The good news is, this is the State of the Universe Address and I am happy to report that the state of the Universe is copasetic – ever changing, same as always. This is particularly heartening when we realize that that universal state is also our own.

Universe Knows Best

When it comes to universal wisdom, you can’t beat the Universe. First of all, the Universe is everywhere all at once. Talk about being on top of things. Even as it keeps expanding, the Universe has it together — which means, as part of the universe, a part of us has it all together too. We are inextricably connected to the Universe. It is inescapable. Without the Universe, we’d be nowhere.

Here is more amazing news. We are all descended from the same Big Bang! When the Big Bang went boom, all of the Universe’s parts departed from one particle. And that includes us. So, we might as well proclaim it proudly. “The Big Bang is my pop. Well, I’ll be a son of a gun!”

The Big Bang is everybody’s pop, which means we are all related. If we are indeed a fractal chip off the old block, Universe-wise … then somewhere we must be as wise as the Universe. For millennia, spiritual teachers have told us to look inside for this universal wisdom. It turns out, they were right. The real spiritual pilgrimage is actually a journey of about twenty-four inches, roughly the distance from the head to the heart.

The Heart of the Matter is the Matter of the Heart

Yes, everyone is equipped to attune to universal wisdom because everyone has been given a heart. And yet, the heart seems to be the last gift we open. The most underdeveloped resource on the planet is the treasure inside our own treasured chest! Given all the craziness in the world, maybe if we invested in expanding our hearts, we’d have less need to shrink our heads.

And less of a need to be so all-consumed by consumerism. We have learned to spend so much energy pursuing happiness that we never stop to think what would happen if we actually caught it — or rather, if it caught us. With all this hot pursuit, we have left real happiness in the dust. It is sad indeed that we end up jealous that someone else’s happiness might be bigger than our own. Freud called this “happiness envy.”

As the saying goes, money can’t buy happiness, although it can buy anti-depressants. But if you are seeking more out of life than not being depressed, the key to happiness is to grow your own. Every one of us should be asking, “What good am I?” What good can I add to the greater goodness? Maybe if we had greater goodness, we’d need fewer goods. As human beings, our biggest asset is love, so now is the time to get up off our big fat assets, and practice supply-side spirituality. Because we aren’t here to earn God’s love, we are here to spend it. We are here to re-grow the Garden from the grassroots up, and have a heaven of a time doing it!

Heartland Security

Now while the solution is simple, no one said it was going to be easy. Just as the human potential movement has made great gains over the past 25 years, the inhuman potential movement has more than kept up. Everywhere I go, the little David’s I meet all ask the same question: How can we get Goliath to go lieth down? I have good news and I have other news, and they are both the same: It’s up to us. We must lead ourselves out of the bewilderness. Yes, we’ve been politically abused, so the first step is to disabuse ourselves. We must start overseeing instead of overlooking.

By overlooking what we should have been overseeing, we have become enablers for the lowest common dominator. Whether it’s called globalization or gobble-ization, it’s the same old mining operation — that’s mine, that’s mine, that’s mine. Because we’ve allowed ourselves to imagine that someday that “mine” will be ours, we have agreed to a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy with our government. We promise not to ask them what they are doing, and they promise not to tell us. That way, we can pretend to believe we are invading a country to keep the peace, when we are really there to keep the pieces.

Meanwhile, back at home, they’ve given last rites to the Bill of Rights, and newspeak has become the new spoken language of the mainstream media. Now before we just shrug and say, “Orwell, what can we do about it?” we need to see the only way to overgrow Big Brother is with bigger brotherhood — and even bigger sisterhood. Time to heal our spiritual dyslexia, and realize our natural state is sacred, not scared. The scared masculine and the scared feminine have given us the dysfunctional dance of abusers and enablers. Now we must empower the sacred masculine and sacred feminine to come together and conceive what has been inconceivable – the truly evolved human.

We need to amplify the love and light to counterbalance the darkness and fear, and that is why we need a nongovernmental Department of Heartland Security to secure the heartland and let the powers in power know in no uncertain terms, “Bigger brotherhood is watching you.”

To do that, we must migrate en masse –regardless of political or spiritual affiliation — to the land of the heart. Instead of squabbling over the differences that separate us, we must cohere around the heart-core values we share in common. That is the only way we can trade our insecurity for inner security. No matter where we stand on climate change, one thing is clear. Global heartwarming is bound to change the political climate for the better.

Whatever the problems, we have the wherewithal to address them. Now all we need is the aware-with-all. Whether you call yourself a creationist or an evolutionist, or take the simplest approach of all to the Great Unknown — not knowing — one thing is undeniable: We are all one with the same One. The story of separation, survival of the fittest, and lowest common dominator –that is the old story.

Only we have the power to close the book on the old story once and for all, by declaring: And they all lived happily ever after.

And happily ever after begins now.



© Copyright 2008 by Steve Bhaerman. All rights reserved.


I LOVE THIS GUY! :-)

Operation Desert Slaughter

Thoughts on Holocaust Memorial Day
By Felicity Arbuthnot

Global Research, January 28, 2008


It is seventeen years since America and Britain embarked on their 'Final Solution' for the population of Iraq.

The forty two day carpet bombing, enjoined by thirty two other countries, against a country of just twenty five million souls, with a youthful, conscript army, with broadly half the population under sixteen, and no air force, was just the beginning of a United Nations led, global siege of near mediaeval ferocity.

Having, as James Baker boasted they would, reduced 'Iraq to a pre-industrial age', the country was denied all normality: trade, aid, telecommunications, power, sanitation, water repairs, seeds, foods, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment.

As I write, seventeen years ago, Iraq would be entering the second week of a barbaric, near twenty four hour a day, carpet bombing, which, then, as now (lest we forget - yet again) scrupulously ignored Protocol 1, Additional to the Geneva Convention of 1977:

It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies such as irrigation works (denying them) to the civilian population or to the adverse Party ... for any motive.

The Blitzkrieg on Iraq deliberately targeted all 'indispensable to survival.'


Within twenty four hours, most was destroyed. The electricity went off within two hours, leaving patients on life support machines and vital equipment, babies in incubators, or those on oxygen to die.

Refrigerators defrosted, all medicine needing refrigeration, blood banks and vital saline solutions for the injured were destroyed. Food rotted and between the bombing and the bank closures (latter for fear of looting) replacements were scarce to unbuyable.

In Najav, seventy dialysis patients, 'old friends,' said the senior nurse in charge of the unit, died for want of electricity. The water supply was deliberately destroyed, parts denied subsequently by the pathetic, US-UK dominated Sanctions Committee - a Committee without a backbone between them - and remains lethal to this day.

This was the plan by US Central Command, it seems, all along. The destruction of Iraq's water system has been described by Professor Nagy and Stephanie Miller as: 'a slow motion holocaust.' Few could have put it better.

[See: How the US deliberately destroyed Iraq's water by Thomas J Nagy]

The telecommunications tower was also one of the earliest casualties, an elegant, soaring, structure on the edge of Baghdad's Mansur district. It lay, broken and crumpled, as did the remains of those who worked inside it. Iraq was thus cut off from the world, the extent of the bombing and atrocities largely unknown for considerable time. Iraqis throughout the world had no way of knowing if their families, friends, loves, were dead or alive. Radio and television stations across Iraq were blitzed so no warnings to populace could be given (journalists too have special protection in wars, but decision makers, seemingly are not only illiterate, but ignore legalities.)

Hospitals, health clinics, schools and kindergartens were bombed, education eradicated so totally that the stores for educational materials, in buildings separate from the schools (usually in a central distribution point some miles away) were also bombed.

Agriculture in all forms was deliberately targeted.

Chicken farms bombed, flocks of sheep and goats, broadly half of all buffalo were killed, dairy farms obliterated.

Crops, food processing factories reduced to rubble. A war crime stupendous in its immensity, for which not one murderous, genocidal, infanticidal, decision maker or pilot has stood trial.

Pharmaceutical factories were bombed, the medical syringe factory was destroyed.

And in an especially psychotic policy, the countries who were Iraq's trading partners and had built factories and installations for the country, bombed those which they had built. America's gung-ho goons whooped over bombing the Pepsi and Coca Cola factories. 'Bravery' doesn't come more deviant, sub-normal and retarded than that.

Due to the use of defoliants and napalm, half of all Iraq's trees, including the great, ancient palms, died. Remaining palms did not bear their succulent fruit for about five years.

In the tranquil, family farming settlements, amongst the palms, women and livestock alike aborted and often died.

Survivors consistently described a 'vapor' coming from the 'planes, then the horrific aftermath, affecting those living in the shelter of the palm groves or copses of trees, where dwellers settled for relative cool from Iraq's searing summers.

And, of course, in this decimation from above, which dropped more ordinance daily than was dropped daily in the second world war, five times more explosive power was dropped than on Hiroshima.

The slaughter on the Basra Road, after the ceasefire, the fleeing civilians and retreating troops, ripped to pieces, or incinerated in General Norman Schwarzkopf's 'turkey shoot.'

The weapons used were depleted uranium, which continues to irradiate Iraq and the region, the people, flora and fauna - and will continue to do so for four and a half billion years. '...protection of the natural environment against widespread, long term and severe damage' is another absolute dictate under the Geneva Convention. It proscribes absolutely '... damage to the natural environment (prejudicing) the health and survival of the population.'

Contraventions don't come bigger than condemning inestimable generations yet unborn, to death and deformity. The Nuremberg Principles are exercised by the treatment of both civilians and prisoners and the: '... murder or ill treatment ...of prisoners of war ... further, extermination ... and other inhuman acts against any civilian population.'

The 'inhuman acts' committed against the Iraqi people in 1991 constitute war crimes which, since no one was brought to justice, one can only hope haunt those responsible for all time.

The whole war, of course, was nothing else. Saddam Hussein had offered, indeed, started to retreat from Kuwait before the carnage began, but as ever, for the United States, conciliation was 'too late.' Buses, lorries, cars were also targeted throughout the forty two day massacre. Lorries carrying medicines, meat, essentials were burned, with their drivers. Western troops took their repulsive 'trophy photos', with the pathetic remains of the incinerated and dismembered.

When the (UK) Observer, to its credit, printed the picture which became the symbol of the 1991 atrocities, the Iraqi soldier, with his near melted face welded to the windscreen of his vehicle, there was an outcry.

The sensitivities of readers should not be exposed to such horrors. Maggie O'Kane, writing in the Guardian Weekly (16th December 1995) describes searingly, reality. Relatives, praying, hope against hope, that those they loved, had somehow miraculously survived the hadean inferno that was the Basra Road massacre. "On the day the war ended, at a bus station south of Baghdad, dusk was falling and the road was covered with weeping women.

The Iraqi survivors of the `turkey shoot' on the Basra Road were crawling home with fresh running wounds. Their women were throwing themselves at the battered minibuses and trucks, pulling, pleading, begging. "Where is he, have you seen him? Is he not with you?" Some fell to their knees on the road when they heard the news.

Others kept running from bus, to truck, to car, looking for their husbands, their sons or their lovers - the 37,000 Iraqi soldiers who would not come back. It went on all night and it was the most desperate and moving scene I have ever witnessed." There was worse. Think of the excesses of horrors the Western media has deluged its readers with over the years, those perpetrated by people of other cultures, with other features: Stalin, Pol Pot, indeed Saddam Hussein and consider this in Maggie O'Kane's article: '

When Sergeant Joe Queen returned to his home town of Bryson City North California, after the Gulf war, the first thing he saw was a huge banner draped outside Hardees Burger Restaurant, which read: `Welcome Home Joe Queen.' Joe Queen, who'd been awarded a bronze star, wanted to chill out after the war, but Bryson City wouldn't let him Joe, 19-years old, had gone straight from Desert Storm to become one of the first American troops to cross the Saudi border in an armored bulldozer. His job was to bury the Iraqis alive in their trenches and then cover over the trenches real smooth so the rest of the Big Red One, as The First Armored Mechanized Brigade is called, could come nice and easy behind him. Joe Queen doesn't know how many Iraqi troops he buried alive on the front line. But five years later, in his military base in Georgia, he remembers well how it worked:

"The sand was so soft that once the blade hits the sand it just caves in right on the sides, so we never did go back and forth. So you are traveling at five, six, seven miles an hour just moving along the trench... You don't see him. You're up there in the half hatch and you know what you got to do. You did it so much you could close your eyes and do it... I don't think they had any idea because the look on their faces as we came through the berm was just a look of shock. `While I was retreating, I saw some of the soldiers trying to surrender, but they were buried. There were two kinds of bulldozers, real ones, actual ones, and also they had tanks and they put something like a bulldozer blade in front of them. Some of the soldiers were walking towards the troops holding their arms up to surrender and the tanks moved in and killed them. They dug a hole in the ground and then they buried the soldiers and leveled it.' One survivor described the friends buried alive, who he had laughed with, eaten with ...'I really don't know how to describe it. We were friends. I ate with some of them. I talked to some of them. I cannot express how I felt at that moment..... I saw one soldier and his body was just torn apart by a bulldozer. The upper part was on one side and the lower on the other side."

I hope your nightmares and those of your colleagues haunt for all time, Joe Queen. May the specter of those for whose live burial you and your murderous colleagues were responsible, follow in all your footsteps, for all time.

These mass graves also carry the names of the leaders who ordered the decimation of Iraq in 1991, their military Commanders and soldiers, on every one of them. Ironically, the mass graves of Saddam Hussein have seemingly not materialized, just war graves and those from the uprising encouraged by the US and UK at the end of the 1991 decimation. The war, of course, never ended. The thirteen year subsequent embargo cost maybe one and a quarter million lives.

Additionally, the US and UK, bombed Iraq (illegally) until the (illegal) invasion of 2003. In 2002, they stepped up their destruction of life, limb and of entire housing projects with families within, children playing, doing homework, flocks of sheep and goats with their child shepherds.

'Approximately a year before the United States initiated Operation Southern Focus, as a change to its response strategy, by increasing the overall number of missions and selecting targets throughout the no-fly zones to disrupt the military command structure in Iraq. The weight of bombs dropped increased from none in March 2002 and 0.3 in April 2002 to between 8 and 14 tons per month in May-August, reaching a pre-war peak of 54.6 tons in September 2002.' (Wikipedia)

A recent study by the Centre for Public Integrity, has also uncovered lies of impeachable stature, leading to invasion, by the Bush Administration:

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them, or had links to al Qaeda, or both. "Bush lied with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda," the study found. That was second only to Powell’s 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.' [http://www.publicintegrity.org]

Iraq's post invasion (2003-2007) excess under-five mortality has been estimated at over one million. In Afghanistan, post invasion, at 1.9 million (2001-2007.)

For another humanitarian abomination of our time, the Israeli siege of the Gaza strip (June 2007 and ongoing) total excess death figures are elusive.

CIA figures for infant mortality, however (2004) are woeful at 23.54 per thousand births. Sweden (2007) just 2.76 per thousand births. Given Israel's withdrawal of electricity and just about all needed to sustain life since last June, some serious statistical data is needed - and relentless and absolute demands for humanity and human rights for our global neighbors in Gaza, Iraq and Afghanistan, the forgotten of Lebanon's 'Simmer Rain' decimation, by 'we the people ...'

Like Joe Queen's genocidal actions, the atrocities committed in these countries are being carried out in our name. 'Silence is complicity.' (For much more shameful complicity - since 1950 - please see Dr Gideon Polya: Body Count, an academic, key and indispensable work).


"There was no one left to kill," declared General Norman Schwarzkopf after the Basra Road bloodbath, where even the injured holding white flags, and doctors accompanying them were obliterated.

"Morally, we won," an Iraqi doctor told me shortly afterwards. Indeed. "We are the new Jews," is an oft heard, Arab refrain now.

As I write, on Holocaust Memorial Day, it is impossible not to reflect that is does not take forced labor camps, forced transport and Zyklon B to create a holocaust. When the figures of the dead in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza, reach six million, as the world stands by, will they too get their own Holocaust Memorial Day?

Will we all, regardless of color or creed, ever learn, before it is too late?

[Felicity Arbuthnot is a frequent contributor to Global Research]

Yes... "Holocaust Denial" is a Jailable Offence!

"Zündel, a respected artist who lived peacefully in Canada and then in America with his American-citizen wife, Ingrid Rimland Zundel, was jailed in 2003 and deported back to Canada after Jewish groups pressured American immigration to get him out of the United States. Canada imprisoned him under an Orwellian-type of law that declared him a danger to public order. All this simply for writing books and articles that intellectually contested some of the war crime allegations against Germany." - David Duke

Why I admire Ernst Zündel
By Curt Maynard

How could anyone admire a man that publicly admits admiration for Adolf Hitler, that openly acknowledges himself to be a "Holocaust skeptic," and who never apologizes for his political incorrectness and nonconformist views? Who could possibly approve of a man who has put his personal freedom and indeed life on the line countless times in order to do nothing more than bring the world’s attention to what he believes to be an honest, albeit alternative view of history? Who could appreciate anyone bold enough to literally carry a cross on his own back, on behalf of all the world’s Germans for no other reason than to at least partially exonerate them of the collective guilt forced upon them after the Second World War?

Who could possibly admire a man that has sustained nothing but continuous persecution from society at large, who has been the victim of an ongoing smear campaigns launched more than three decades ago, who has suffered from every conceivable attack on his character, finances, family and even on his life? Who could think highly of man who despite all these things, and despite the fact that he is in prison at this very moment, not for a crime, no… no…. but because he questions certain aspects of the holocaust story?

Again, I ask, who could ever appreciate a man who for the last several decades has devoted himself to bringing forth the unpopular views of hard working academics, who were it not for Ernst Zündel, may be unknown today, and their work tossed into the sea of forgettable historiography, not based upon its undeniable merit, but based upon the fact that it didn’t sit well with mainstream and politically acceptable views?

If I were interested in apologists and hesitant stands on ambiguous issues, I’d have plenty of heroes to admire, right here in the United States. Being an academic, I could seek out other academics to idolize and/or admire, there are so many courageous examples, although I can’t think of one right now. Some of you might shout, "Hey, what about Noam Chomsky?" I’d just say, been there done that, and found the esteemed professor "sympathetic" to Ernst Zündel’s plight, "outrageous," he even exclaimed, but in the end, he felt that it wouldn’t be in anyone’s best interests, if he were to speak out too vocally on Ernst’s behalf. Academic cowardice?

What about all the gutsy journalists working for the prestigious networks and newspapers? Certainly, these bold "defenders" of truth and justice would write an article on the illegal nature in which Ernst was deported from the United States to Canada, where he was subsequently thrown quietly into a solitary confinement cell in the Toronto West detention Center, in Toronto Canada. Or how in 2005 he was quietly deported from Canada to his native Germany where he now sits more than a year later after numerous trial delays initiated by his persecutors. These brave journalists would definitely be interested in an expose on how the new terrorism laws are already being abused to silence dissent.

The idea that Mr Zündel is a threat to any nation's national Security is ridiculous. The man hasn’t committed a violent crime in his entire life and has never been convicted of a crime that wasn’t later overturned in Canada’s highest court. The brave and courageous purveyors of "fair and balanced" news haven’t written an article yet, that even approached an equitable portrayal of Mr Zündel.

Ernst Zündel’s crime is that he is politically incorrect, a nonconformist and no matter what the powers that be throw at him, he just won’t apologize and prostrate himself in feigned humility like so many of our illustrious leaders. He is dangerous only to the status quo, and they know it, that in fact is why he currently languishes in prison, not because he actually represents a danger to society.

Ernst Zündel admires Adolf Hitler, so what? Ernst Zündel doesn’t believe any Jews were gassed at Auschwitz, so what? Ernst Zündel is and has been for some time; extremely critical of Zionism and its designs on the world, by God… it is too damned bad more people aren’t behind him on this! Zündel is unafraid to do what Jim Moran didn’t have the guts to do, and that is to stand up to and challenge the State of Israel, and the undisputed influence Zionists have in the United States and Canada today.

Don’t fool yourself, this disproportionate influence is very real, Congressmen have written books about it, as have Senators. Viktor Ostrovsky, a former Mossad agent wrote a tell all book about Israeli espionage in the United States and how the Israelis could "count on" American Jews to do much of their work for them, after all it was a Jewish thing, and had nothing to do with patriotism. It is an undisputed fact that more than one hundred Israelis were detained for espionage in the United States immediately following September 11th, and inexplicably deported back to Israel before charges could filed, and more importantly before the American people were informed. It is an undisputed, empirical fact that five Israeli’s were arrested on 9-11 for filming the actual impact of the jetliners as they hit the World Trade Centers and laughing and clapping each other on the back in a congratulatory manner while filming the event. It is an absolute fact that on January 2, 2004 a Jew named Asher Karni was arrested at Denver’s International Airport for having sold [past tense] more than sixty nuclear weapon detonators to Pakistan, a country that is without a doubt the most unstable Islamic Republic in the world. Despite having committed what might be the greatest terrorist incident in modern memory, Karni remains unknown to most Americans, largely because the Jewish mainstream media has suppressed the story. Karni was sentenced to three years for selling nuclear weapon detonators to Pakistan; Zündel has yet to be tried, despite having served more than three years in prison. Go figure.

So, is it possible to admire a man like Zündel? During his infamous 1988 Holocaust Trial, a trial in which his opponents love to mention his conviction, but never mention the fact that this unjust conviction was later overturned by Canada’s highest court. Zündel apparently impressed another young man named Jürgen Neumann who had this to say about Ernst Zündel, "he is a very sincere individual. He actually seemed to believe exactly what he said… He never avoided any questions asked of him." This was what impressed Neumann at the time and impressed him during the 1988 trial. According to Neumann, Zündel asked him to do many things that a mere propagandist would never request, i.e. continue to independently research the topic. This indicated to Neumann that Zündel was sincere about the subject and that he continually attempted to widen his field of factual knowledge as any historian would. Imagine that, admiring a man that believes what he says. Certainly an odd concept in this day and age, being that we are so often exposed to a tremendous number of people more than willing to take whatever position they are told to take, or in the case of the politicians, whichever way the winds blow, as manifested by poll results. Incidentally, does anyone really trust our polls any longer?

In a recent article entitled "Why I admire David Irving," another historical revisionist current imprisoned in Austria for his views, a gentleman by the name of Nick Herbert had this to say about the "notorious" author, "I am not a professional historian and my knowledge of what went on in WW II is not extensive but for most of my life I have been trained in the methods of rational thinking and can follow an argument like a rat terrier. I recognize a good argument when I see one and have familiarized myself with most of the rhetorical counterfeits of reasoning. I consider myself an expert truth-seeker." Herbert then went on to say, "As a scientist, seeking truth is part of my profession." What Herbert was essentially saying is that Irving’s research should be examined as it has merit, the revisionist point of view must not be discounted in the name of political correctness.

An interesting detail about both Ernst Zündel and David Irving is that neither holds a degree in history, yet both men are infinitely better versed in just about every aspect of history than I am, and I hold a masters degree in history and politics. Of this, there is no doubt whatsoever. I have come to know Mr Zündel through correspondence and am literally amazed at his ability to recall the smallest details out of the thousands of texts he has read. I have been told that Mr Irving has a photographic memory, which may be true, and could explain his phenomenal ability to deliver the most rational, well-conceived and coordinated presentations I have ever heard from any historian, including my former illustrious professors.

It has become abundantly clear to me that our allegedly fair and balanced mainstream media has seriously misrepresented both Irving and Zündel. When my wife and I met Mrs Ingrid Zündel for the first time, we didn’t meet the "yellow-eyed Hun, black widow spider, virulent racist," that the media might have led us believe, no… we met one of the most intelligent, kindly and concerned women we had ever met. My family and I quickly became enamored with her, and she said, what should have been more than obvious at that point, "If only people would get to know Ernst, they would find that he is one of the kindest people in the world." In fact, that is exactly what I have found by corresponding with him, rather than relying on highly biased media reports and/or ADL [Anti-Defamation League] profiles of the man.

Ernst is a threat to the ADL because he not only denies that there was ever a systematic plan to gas Jews during World War II, but also implicates Zionism and its appendages, like the ADL, as the exploiters of this myth, for the purposes of fleecing the world’s Gentile population and the imposition of unreasonable, and often dubious political demands, something Congressman Jim Moran was once quick to note, and even quicker to apologize for.

One must wonder if perhaps Ernst Zündel isn’t far more important than anyone ever imagined, after all, someone went to a great deal of trouble to quietly and quickly deport him from the United States to a country where they could be sure he would be effectively silenced during a period of crisis following September 11th, in the United States. In fact, Zündel, may have been one of the more vociferous whistleblowers in North America following the attack in New York, honestly pointing out undeniable, albeit uncomfortable facts, like the surreptitious deportation of more than a hundred Israeli spies from the US following the attack, as well as the extremely unpopular view that Israel was really the only entity with anything to gain from a preemptive war in Iraq. If Zündel were free today, and not under the news blackout employed to further marginalize his most rational views, he’d be unapologetically implicating Israel as the soul beneficiary of any further hostilities in Iran or Syria.

So inevitably the question arises, was Ernst Zündel ever a threat to Canada’s National Security because he was allegedly the "patriarch" of a virulent and violently racist subculture, or was he a threat because there is a great deal of merit to his arguments? The aforementioned Noam Chomsky is attributed with having once said, "If you don’t believe in freedom of expression for those you most despise, you don’t believe in freedom of expression." Such an incredibly simple idea, yet contemporary Americans can’t seem to accept its pure unadulterated logic, despite paying it lip service continuously, citing it as perhaps our most important Constitutional right.

The problem in America isn’t that we have no theoretical understanding of the importance of our Constitution; it’s in our application of the principles espoused within that document that we fail. Our government through the media propagates its agenda by providing us with its simple foundation, never its entire structure, and it reinforces this agenda by demonizing and marginalizing its opponents. Being that we are almost completely at the mercy of our television, oh come on, admit it, we tend to believe what is broadcast, and therefore we become the indoctrinated, not the educated, no matter what Fox news says, and we then reject, often out of hand dissenting views. This is known as "selective distortion," in advertising circles, and is a well-known concept throughout the entire media apparatus. In social psychology the tendency to accept what one is told, no matter whether or not it is accurate, and then reject later information is known as "belief perseverance." In either case, it reinforces what a well known cosmologist and top thinker named Stephen Hawking had to say about knowledge and that was, "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

The way in which the mainstream media has portrayed Ernst Zündel over these last several decades is absolutely erroneous. The man is not the "hate monger," he has been depicted as. Ernst Zündel is dedicated, he is honest, intelligent, even frighteningly so and has a tremendous amount of integrity. I admire Ernst Zündel, despite his views, because he himself is an admirable individual. I do not necessarily care so much that his views offend other people; I don’t have to. If they don’t like him or his views, I know for a fact; Ernst isn’t going to make them listen; he only wants to be free to speak his mind to those interested in what he has to say. Unlike the current governments of Canada, Germany and the United States, Zündel, the so-called bigot believes in freedom of expression, and has never espoused otherwise.

We must remember that it wasn’t so long ago that the powers that be were referring to James Ennes, the author of Assault on the Liberty as an "anti-Semite, a racist and a Nazi," merely for telling the world that in 1967 the Israelis intentionally attacked an American ship killing dozens and wounding nearly a hundred American sailors. The facts behind this case have been known for decades, yet, quite honestly, the same powers that seek to silence Zündel today silenced Ennes twenty some years ago in the same manner they have traditionally attacked the purveyors of truth forever, by slandering them, and going after their livelihood, reputation, family, etc… Fortunately for Ennes, Mr. Ward Boston, the military officer in charge of the USS Liberty investigation in 1967 recently came forward signing affidavits testifying to the fact that Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the attack on the USS Liberty "covered up," so that the American people, his theoretical boss, would never learn the details of what really happened. Ennes was "rehabilitated," as Zündel will one day be, but Ennes was fortunate in that his ideas didn’t land him behind bars. We can no longer afford to allow media created leper Pariah’s like Zündel, and Ennes to suffer for speaking out, when we are either too ignorant or afraid to do so ourselves.

Ernst Zündel should never have been illegally arrested and unconstitutionally deported from the United States for having an opinion that differed from others. He should not have been thrown into a solitary confinement cell, denied access to the media and simple items, like blankets, chairs, and writing material, but he was. As previously mentioned, the man has not been charged with a crime, he is being held because his ideas implicate individuals belonging to a powerful and wealthy minority within our population in the commission of crimes. Crimes that they are in fact guilty of, and know that they are guilty of, for this reason they must imprison and silence courageous and incorruptible individuals out there like Zündel, who won’t sell out the truth, no matter what these people do to silence them. Zündel had a chance to sell out but refused.

It is for all of the above reasons that I admire Ernst Zündel, a man that refuses to apologize for having an educated opinion, a man that remains willing to sacrifice everything for others, even if they do not recognize or appreciate his efforts. Ernst Zündel is an oddity in our contemporary world, a man unwilling to accept the lies that have become such common fare in our nation – he believes in what he says, and therefore he will "never surrender," and we ought to thank him for it.

Ernst Zündel on 'Truth for the Times' (Part 3)

Part 4

Part 5


Write to:
Ernst Zündel
WHYJVA Mannheim
Herzogenrieder Str. 111
68169 Mannheim
Germany

Further Research:

Official Ernst Zündel site

John Kaminski on Ernst Zündel

David Duke: Shame on Germany!

Why I Believe The Jews Are Lying About The Holocaust

Why I Don't Believe In The Holocaust

The Dark Side of The ADL

The ADL Spy Scandal

Dirk Zimmermann is a 36-year-old happily married family man who challenges Section 130 of the Criminal Code that prohibits doubting the legally-sanctioned Holocaust-Shoah narrative. He sent Germar Rudolf's 'Lectures on the Holocaust' to German public figures, then turned himself in to the police for having violated Section 130. It is a conscious act because Zimmermann demands he has a right to doubt.

PLUTO IN CAPRICORN (2008–2024)

By Stella Woods

When Pluto, planet of death, transformation and rebirth was discovered in February 1930 in the sign of Cancer, the Western world was in upheaval. The Wall Street financial crash had ruined millions of people and fascism was on the rise in Europe. Scientists were in the early stages of developing the atom bomb and people felt their very survival was under threat. The principle of Pluto is that something infinitesimally small can have an effect out of all proportion to its size.

As Pluto moves through each of the zodiac signs, it challenges the status quo in the area of life relating to that sign, ruthlessly removing outmoded beliefs, systems or institutions. On the 26th of January, 2008, Pluto moved into earth sign Capricorn after twelve years in fire sign Sagittarius and will remain there until 2024. Pluto’s transit through Sagittarius has brought us the Internet and information revolution, international terrorism, the concept of the global village and an awareness of worldwide environmental issues.

Capricorn rules business, work, government, authority and institutions. So what changes do we need to make in these areas of life over the coming decade?

The war on terrorism, drugs and immigration has provided an unprecedented opportunity for authorities to remove human rights and freedoms and impose strict controls. National security has become the new mantra - airport searches; ID checks; imprisonment without charge; deportation; travel restrictions and the list goes on. Corporations are imposing ever more unrealistic targets and working conditions on their employees. Many fear further repression and a police state.

I believe there will be a backlash and rebellion against all this control as Pluto moves through Capricorn, with people refusing to conform, leaving the system and insisting on the ethical use of power. Scandals and corruption in government and large corporations will come to light and the reputation of many of our cherished institutions will be tarnished. In fact many old forms of government and ways of doing business are likely to disappear altogether.

Those who have been in positions of power and used it wisely will have the opportunity for further success or promotion, while those who have misused power will meet their downfall. We can also expect that an international cross-cultural elite of extremely rich and powerful people will wield enormous influence, with much of this action taking place behind closed doors.

Astrologer Adrian Duncan believes the Shanghai World Financial Center, due for completion in 2008, is a quintessential symbol of the move of Pluto into Capricorn. The design of the super tower mirrors the glyph for Pluto with a circle cradled into a curved V form rising up through its 95 storeys. Duncan believes the Shanghai building also symbolizes the shift of economic power from the West to the East, with the destruction of the New York World Trade Center paving the way. The exporting of jobs from Western countries to Asia has empowered our Eastern neighbors and could easily signify the beginning of the end for life in the West, as we know it.

By the time Pluto enters Aquarius in 2023-24, humanitarian concerns will be firmly on the agenda. The doctrine of survival of the fittest will give way to a leveling process. Perhaps we could we create a better, more peaceful world over the next decade by taking personal responsibility and showing that we need fewer rules and regulations from the outside world. As long as we continue to project responsibility onto authorities, the police state will rise to the occasion to provide the discipline we unconsciously desire, keeping us in constant fear and taking away our human rights.

Tuan-Tuan dan Puan-Puan... THE MEANING OF LIFE!

I can't - or won't - argue with Esther Hicks! :-)

[Thank you, darling Zora, for putting this on my Funwall :-)]

BACK ONLINE AT LAST!

Since the afternoon of January 15th I've had no Streamyx access. Service was restored around 1 p.m. on January 21st. That's one whole week and probably a dozen phonecalls to TMNet Customer Care. Impressive.... NOT!

All systems can and occasionally do break down. However, when it comes to essential services like telecommunications, electricity and water, prolonged downtime causes unquantifiable losses and that's why a turnaround time of 24 hours must be the maximum acceptable limit. Beyond that the companies responsible need to be made financially accountable. That should speed up the maintenance and repair department a little - when their annual bonuses are on the line.

To make matters worse, whenever you call TMNet Customer Care, they invariably put you on hold for several minutes during which you're blasted with idiotic ads for TMNet ("Dedicated to bringing you the best in internet and multimedia services" - my foot!). Talk about rubbing salt into the wound...

So who's responsible for making something as vital to modern life as telecommunications a privatized monopoly business? And not just a privatized monopoly - but an almost entirely monoethnic one to boot?

Saw a great T-shirt on sale at Central Market recently. It features a bold TM logo underscored by the tagline: TAK MALU ("No Shame" in Malay). Come to think of it, TM could also stand for Tun Mahathir - the Supermamak who gave Malaysia privatized electricity, water, telephone, and medical services!

BAH! (I wanted to say NIAMAH! but Patrick Teoh has taken out a patent on that one).

A TRIBUTE TO JOE ZAWINUL

The Joe Zawinul Syndicate @ Wiener Festwochen (May 2007) featuring Senegalese bassist Alune.

Josef Erich Zawinul (7 July 1932 - 11 September 2007) was born in Landstraße, Austria, and studied classical music at the Vienna Conservatoire. At 27 he received a scholarship to study at the Berklee College of Music in the U.S. There he was advised by his teacher to go out and play professionally as he was already so accomplished a musician there was little he could learn from further academic studies.

Prominent jazz musicians with whom Zawinul has been associated include Maynard Ferguson, Wayne Shorter, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, and Jaco Pastorius. Together with Wayne Shorter, Zawinul formed the jazz fusion group Weather Report in 1970. Zawinul is widely regarded as the main thrust behind the jazz fusion movement that blurred the boundaries between pop, rock, funk and jazz. His eclectic group, the Joe Zawinul Syndicate, was a pioneer of the world music fusion sound and served as an excellent showcase for musical talents from Africa, Brazil, Cuba, and India. On August 7, 2007, Zawinul was hospitalized just one week after he concluded a 6-week European tour. About a month later one of the greatest innovators on keyboard the jazz world has known was reassigned to Eternity.

Joe Zawinul and friends celebrating his 75th birthday on stage in Lugano, Switzerland on July 7th, 2007.

The Joe Zawinul Syndicate: Allegre Correa (guitar); Linley Marthe (bass); Jorge Bezerra (percussion/voice); Paco Sery (drums); Aziz Sahmaoui (percussion/voice); Sabine Kabongo (vocal); Joe Zawinul (keyboard & vocal).

The God Question

One more from Abraham-Hicks:

Esther Hicks on "THE STREAM"

Check out the Abraham-Hicks website for more timely wisdom!

[Jerry and Esther Hicks went public in 1986 with their experience of "channeling" a source of universal knowledge and wisdom that identified itself as Abraham. As far as I'm concerned, the biblical "Abraham" was an utter nincompoop. Who else would inflict such acute confusion, fear, guilt, hostility, mutual suspicion and abject misery on so many generations of Jews, Christians, and Muslims? However, going by what I've extracted over the years from Jerry and Esther's work, THIS Abraham comes across as an entirely noble and funky entity, well worth lending an ear - or both - to. Watch the video and decide for yourself!]

PEAK OIL AND THE FEAR FACTOR

Response dated 20 November 2007 to a posting from an American friend about "Peak Oil" and a looming "Energy Crisis"...



Thanks very much for passing this info on. Allow me to comment on this highly topical issue. Since the age of 19 I've been aware of the deliberate and systematic obfuscation inflicted on humanity by various institutions - from the mass media and professional PR agencies to academia and a plethora of "experts." All of this is undoubtedly designed to disempower us through undermining our self-confidence and optimism - and it is entirely founded on manipulating the FEAR factor.

This is my take on ENERGY: quantum physicists have been studying the interchangeability of energy and matter for decades and have suggested that at the most fundamental level EVERYTHING is a dynamic fusion and fission of possibilities in a seemingly infinite electromagnetic dance. This makes fossil fuels - petroleum, uranium, coal, and so on - only a minute - indeed, inconsequential - part of a whole unexplored and unknown spectrum of potential energy sources.

Robber Baron types have called the shots from the beginning of human societies. They do so by controlling through brute force all resources, commodities, and the means of distribution (see Buckminster Fuller's astute 1973 poem, Ethics). Obviously, this sort of heavy-handed, club-footed and unjust system can only occur amongst an immature and ethically-challenged species, for whom fang-and-claw politics is the norm.

Seems to be a Catch-22 here. The genetic legacy of ruthless ambition and aggressive warlordism we have inherited from our progenitor gods, the Anunnaki - of whom so little is known and about whom almost all records have been obliterated or hidden from public view, notwithstanding the somewhat distorted cosmomythology resurrected in the mid 1970s by maverick scholars like Zecharia Sitchin - has kept humanity in an artificially prolonged Dark Age.

When you consider corporate and political leaders like Dick Cheney, Robert Mugabe, and many others of similar ilk, it's easy to understand why atrocities such as Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay - indeed, the obscene squandering of such a staggering amount of energy on warfaring rather than welfaring - can even occur. No matter how many decent folk oppose this barbaric and utterly primitive misuse of resources - and this diabolical distortion of all morphogenetic fields on the planet - nothing will change so long as a corrupt priesthood of self-serving scribes remains in control of the mass media.

What I'm saying, is that there is absolutely no "energy crisis" anywhere within the entire spectrum of existence. The "crisis" is manufactured by those who specialize in "crisis management." These are the same giant oil companies that have violently suppressed the emergence of alternative energy systems for decades. Apart from the obvious alternatives like solar, wind, thermal, and hydro - there are many hitherto unknown technologies just waiting for humanity to break free of its "demonic possession" and obsession with violence before they can be safely introduced to Earth.

The subtler forms of energy harvesting and conserving are not intended for use by a warlike species with unstable emotional bodies and infected, disintegrative egos.

You're perfectly right, my friend. We ARE all in trouble. Not because oil is running out (how many are aware that the present instability of the tectonic plates is partially caused by our reckless depletion of the Earth's body fats, her lubricants?). But because we have yet to reclaim our power and sovereignty from those who would impose external, centralized, and despotic rule on us.

For those of you open to science-fiction scenarios, this is what I envision: as each of us refocuses attention on our inner reality rather than allow our energies to be dissipated by the bad news "out there," we shall in no time find ourselves waking up from our robotic trance and emerging into full Buddha consciousness. From that fresh perspective, hitherto unimagined new options and possibilities will unfold before us like a 9D Pisgah vision! The word "crisis" will vanish from the collective memory.

Infinite Rainbow Blessings to All,
Antares
~^@^~

Kakistocracy. Learn a new word today.

Kakistocracy: Governance by a clique representing the worst elements of society, from the Greek, kakos, meaning foul, or filthy.

Hmmmmm.

Starting 2008 with a BANG!

Just passed the 40,000 mark! Thank YOU for being a vital part of my blogging pleasure, folks. Here's to another exciting, fulfilling, and AMAZING year :-)

CHEERS!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, FOLKS!

McBeach Party in China.

What happens when businessmen and politicians opt for Quantity over Quality.


DON'T BE FOOLED BY STATISTICS. MORE ISN'T ALWAYS "BETTER"!

The next few days are going to be busy for me so this a stopgap blogpost. I know there's a lot of idiocy running amok in this country - indeed, all over the planet but what else is new? Right now I won't add to the confusion and heat by shooting my mouth off in anger at the primitive way the Barisan Nazional is reacting to severe criticisms of its abysmal track record (remember, baboons calling each other monkeys is what primate politics is all about).

Friends in the know tell me they detect the evil influence of a fella named Kuranga Jaruddin (better known as KJ) in the recent jackboot antics of the "Polis Raja Di Malaysia" (to quote a wag) - and I wouldn't be surprised if that turns out to be the truth, after watching him in action during an Al Jazeera panel discussion. I saw in his eyes the same sort of demented ambition and megalomania that must have driven a young Austrian artist wannabe to a diabolical destiny as Der Führer.

Stay cool, folks. These are times of dramatic and radical transformations. Nobody knows for sure how the changes will take place and what form they will take. All that we can be sure of is that it will look nothing like Business-As-Usual - and we have few antecedents by which to measure the effects and impacts of the Quantum Jump in consciousness. This much, we know:

EVOLUTION OCCURS THROUGH EXPANDED CONSCIOUSNESS.

PUBLIC SERVANTS SERVE THE PUBLIC!

Photo courtesy of hidupku

Press Statement For Immediate Release

ALLOW FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY

The Centre for Public Policy Studies regrets the police prohibition of and use of violence on a number of recent gatherings in Kuala Lumpur.

Two weeks ago on the 10th November 2007, BERSIH, a coalition of non-Governmental organisations and political parties, organised a march to submit a memorandum calling for measures to ensure free and fair elections in the country.

More recently, on Sunday the 25th November 2007, Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) organised a rally to submit a memorandum calling for equal treatment of Indians, highlighting their socio-economic marginalisation in the country.

The Government has responded by saying that demonstrations are unnecessary, that memorandums should be handed in personally, and that any concerns can be brought up in forums through a consultative approach.

However, such forums, panels and meetings have been conducted on numerous occasions to little avail. These articulations are compiled into reports and submitted to various committees, but it is precisely inaction and non-response from the Government that has fuelled frustrations amongst those groups who have not received equal treatment.

Article 10 of the Federal Constitution guarantees that every citizen has the right to assemble peaceably. This is affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The BERSIH and HINDRAF rallies were peaceful gatherings and should not be misconstrued as otherwise.

1. The CPPS calls on the Government to recognise the rights of civil society to freedom of assembly. The right to freely assemble peacefully is one of the hallmarks of a democratic society. If we want to consider ourselves a true democracy, then the police should stop immediately its highhanded excessive use of force at dispersing peaceful crowds, including the use of tear gas and unrelenting water cannons at peaceful demonstrations and rallies.

We need to urgently review the policy and processes regarding the provision of permits for peaceful assembly as guaranteed in our Federal Constitution. If the police had given permits to assemble and march peacefully, subject, of course, to reasonable and agreed-upon terms, the unnecessary disruption and subsequent chaos would have been avoided.

2. The CPPS also urges the Government to examine the root causes of the deep sense of grievance and frustration that underlie these rallies and demonstrations . The issues being raised by civil society organisations recently are valid and should be urgently considered. The views and opinions of this large cross-section of society cannot be swept under the carpet. These expressions of frustration and anger arise from a significant proportion of the Malaysian public. These must be factored into policy-making processes, and not ignored.

3. At the same time, it would be useful for the Government to meet the leaders of these rallies and find out more about their grievances, taking action to resolve outstanding problems that have adversely affected sections of the Malaysian society. New approaches are urgently needed to ensure greater national unity, peace, stability and progress.

Tan Sri Dato' (Dr.) Ramon V. Navaratnam
Chairman,
Centre for Public Policy Studies
26th November 2007
Kuala Lumpur

For more information, please contact Ms. Tricia Yeoh or call 03-20932820.


Batu Caves, early hours of 25 November 2007. Photos from IndianOnline.com

Impeachment: If not now, when?

Lawmakers need to stand up for the Constitution and support impeachment

By LINDA BOYD
GUEST COLUMNIST
seattlepi.com

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. - Article II, Section 4

On Nov. 6, Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney on the floor of the House of Representatives. For one shining moment the will of the majority of Americans and the promise of this nation's founders were truly represented.

The detailed charges were solemnly read from the House podium and televised on C-Span. House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer made a motion to table the bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lobbied hard for votes to table.

In a stunning turnaround, House Republicans changed strategy and voted decisively to prevent tabling the impeachment resolution.

Pelosi was defied by 85 Democratic members who voted against tabling the impeachment resolution. This includes John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and six committee members. The resolution was quickly voted back to the Judiciary Committee, where it is not resting quietly.

Judiciary Committee member Bob Wexler wrote, "The American people are served well with a legitimate and thorough impeachment inquiry. I will urge the Judiciary Committee to schedule impeachment hearings immediately and not let this issue languish as it has over the last six months. Only through hearings can we begin to correct the abuses of Dick Cheney and the Bush administration."

Impeachment is squarely on the table, and momentum is building. A year ago, almost no elected official breathed the word impeachment. Now impeachment has hit the House floor, and our electeds have gone on record. Millions of Americans are demanding an end to executive abuse of power.

After six years of state of emergency, the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, continual war and occupations, our Constitution is deeply in crisis. Americans are in danger of losing our system of government and civil rights if they do not roll back the Bush administration's assault on the rule of law.

Allowing Cheney and George W. Bush to finish their terms without being impeached means future presidents are free to copy their lawless behavior. Of course many important issues deserve the attention of Congress. But the Constitution is the foundation of our democracy, not just an issue. Without the Constitution, we have nothing.

Polls show that 74 percent of Democrats and the majority of American adults support impeaching Cheney. "Never in our history have the high crimes and misdemeanors been so flagrant, and the people of our country know it," writes local author Richard Behan.

Kucinich has targeted Cheney first, but investigations will implicate the president as well. For the first time in the history of the Gallup Poll, 50 percent of respondents say they "strongly disapprove" of the president. Richard Nixon had reached the previous high, 48 percent, just before an impeachment inquiry was launched in 1974. With these numbers, why aren't Bush and Cheney gone already?

The vice president is accused of:

# purposely manipulating intelligence to fabricate a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in order to justify an attack on Iraq;

# deceiving Congress about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida;

# threatening aggression against the Republic of Iran, absent any real threat to the United States.

These violations of the Constitution and international treaty are just the tip of the iceberg. More articles of impeachment can be added at any time, and ample evidence to convict is on the public record. Representatives need to introduce articles regarding:

# illegal war, in violation of both international treaty and the Constitution;

# widespread domestic wiretapping in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a felony. Bush already has admitted to this;

# condoning torture in violation of federal laws and international treaties;

# rescinding habeas corpus, the cornerstone of Western law since the Magna Carta;

# obstruction of justice regarding U.S. attorney firings;

# subversion of the Constitution, abuse of signing statements and rescinding habeas corpus.

It's astounding that our representatives to Congress carry on with business as usual knowing that Americans lack habeas corpus and a working code of law. I want my representative, Dave Reichert, to block the doors of the House until habeas is restored as a basic human right in this nation!

In light of Bush's steady drumbeat for war with Iran, Kucinich said he will consider an impeachment resolution against him.

"Impeachment may well be the only remedy which remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran," he says.

"The most conservative principle of the Founding Fathers was distrust of unchecked power. Centuries of experience substantiated that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Constitution embraced a separation of powers to keep the legislative, executive and judicial branches in equilibrium," Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and associate deputy attorney general in the Reagan administration, said in the October 2006 edition of Washington Monthly.

If Congress were serious about oversight, there already would be dozens of bills and resolutions calling for impeachment of Bush and Cheney. The "Unitary Executive Theory" violates the principle of balance of power in the Constitution. The president cites this "unitary" power in hundreds of signing statements that say he can ignore laws passed by Congress.

The First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments are all now subject to the caprice of government officials. The Military Commissions Act allows U.S. citizens to be detained without due process if they are declared enemy combatants. Without our permission, this country has become an exporter of torture.

Congress has failed to provide oversight and exercise its authority to rein in a criminal administration. Only swift action on impeachment can redeem it now. The people have done the heavy work of bringing impeachment forward. Representatives need only ask if the allegations are serious enough to warrant investigations.

George Bush and Dick Cheney promote an imperial presidency. They assert that the executive is the most powerful branch of government, undermining the judiciary and Congress in violation of the Constitution's bedrock principle of shared power among three co-equal branches. This subverts the very nature of our system of government.

"This is an attempt by the president to have the final word on his own constitutional powers, which eliminates the checks and balances that keep the country a democracy. ... That's a big problem because that's essentially a dictatorship," Fein said.

Washington For Impeachment and Citizens to Impeach Bush and Cheney are working to inform the public, collect signatures to petitions, provide forums, and lobby representatives. Washington was the second state to sponsor a bill for impeachment in the state Legislature.

Washington State Democratic organizations have passed resolutions in 11 Democratic legislative districts, five counties and the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. Jay Inslee, D-Bainbridge Island, has received impeachment resolutions from almost every legislative district within his congressional district. When will he represent the will of his constituents and honor his oath to protect the Constitution?

The national movement to impeach is a non-partisan effort to restore the Constitution and the rule of law. People across the political spectrum can unite to preserve the Constitution and civil liberties given to us by the founders. Impeachment is the peaceful, orderly, constitutionally prescribed way to rid ourselves of a lawless administration.

The issue is not about removing Bush and Cheney as much as it is about preserving the Constitution and redeeming the office of the executive. The Constitution is the contract of governance between the people and the government. What happens when major portions of the contract are violated?

Congress has failed to call the president and vice president to account, so citizens must turn up the heat. Members of Congress who fail to demand investigations are covering for criminals. Every elected official has sworn an oath to "support and protect the Constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic." Anything less than impeachment and a full repudiation of the Bush administration's crimes and violations of the law is a dereliction of duty and a betrayal of the public trust.

If we want our democracy back, we need to roll up our sleeves and get to work to clean out the House.


Linda Boyd is director of Washington For Impeachment, www.washingtonforimpeachment.org. Citizens to Impeach Bush and Cheney, in Olympia: www.citizensimpeach.org