Words of Power: June 2007

Friday, June 29, 2007

7 Days to 7-7-7 -- Three Ways to Turn This Long Hot Summer into A Summer of Love: Sign-On for Live Earth, See Sicko & Drink A Draught of Harry Potter

”But I haven’t got uncommon skill and power,” said Harry, before he could stop himself.
“Yes, you have,” said Dumbledore firmly. “You have a power that Voldemort has never had. You can…”
“I know!” said Harry impatiently. “I can love!” It was only with difficulty that he stopped himself adding, “Big deal!”
“Yes, Harry, you can love,” said Dumbledore, who looked as though he knew perfectly well what Harry had just refrained from saying. “Which, given everything that has happened to you, is a great amd remarkable thing. You are still too young to understand how unusual you are.”
“So, when the prophecy says that I’ll have ‘power the Dark Lord knows not,’ it just means – love?” asked Harry, feeling a little let down.
“Yes – just love,” said Dumbledore ... J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince

7 Days to 7-7-7 -- Three Ways to Turn This Long Hot Summer into A Summer of Love: Sign-On for Live Earth, See Sicko & Drink A Draught of Harry Potter Potion

By Richard Power

Those of us who wrestle, on a daily basis, with treason, disguised as national security policy, and mental illness, masquerading as a domestic agenda, must tend to our optimism and our elan vital.

In May and June 2007, Al Gore's book tour for Assault on Reason provided an energy boost in the struggle to save the USA from slipping into delusion, depravity and defeat.

"Mr. Gore takes a blowtorch to the Bush administration in his book. He argues that the free and open democratic processes that have made the United States such a special place have been undermined by the administration’s cynicism and excessive secrecy, and by its shameless and relentless exploitation of the public’s fear of terror. The Bush crowd, he said, has jettisoned logic, reason and reflective thought in favor of wishful thinking in the service of an extreme political ideology. It has turned its back on reality, with tragic results." Bob Herbert, NYT, 6-4-07

In June 2007, Michael Moore gave a second enery boost to this struggle, with high-profile media appearances, marches, rallies and teach-ins leading up to the debut of Sicko (even though Larry King bumped him for Paris Hilton).

Filmmaker Michael Moore, whose movie "Sicko" opens Friday, told CNBC that he's urging investors to dump shares of health insurers and health maintenance organizations because "people don't need a middleman between the doctor and the patient." ... Moore appeared at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan, which is next to the NYSE, along with representatives of nurses' unions from California, Massachusetts and New York, to publicly call on "individuals, pension funds, the government and other investors" to yank their holdings from publicly traded health insurers. Michael Moore, 6-29-07

(Healthcare is a basic human right, as in "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.")

In July 2007, three more cultural events offer inspiration, solace and revelry: the film version of J.K. Rowlings' fifth novel in the Harry Potter series, Order of the Phoenix, will premiere on 7-3-07; Al Gore's global, eight city Live Earth concert will occur on 7-7-07 and the release of Rowling's seventh (and final) Harry Potter novel, Deathly Hallows, on 7-21-07.

What do Al Gore's twin-barrel assault on unreason, J.K. Rowlings' mythical world of wizards, and Michael Moore's scathing expose on the USA's insane healthcare system have in common? Each offers hope, each empowers, each defies -- directly or indirectly -- those who in their own spiritual illness seek to drag humanity into an Orwellian nightmare while devastating the planetary climate that sustains all life. Each is predicated on the simple, ancient truth that all life is one, and that everything is inter-dependent and inter-connected.

The greatest magic, in Rowlings' writings, is the power of love. It is the shield of love that protects young Harry Potter from Voldemort's attacks, and it is with sword of love that Harry prevails over Voldemort (at least in the first six books).

Rowlings' books embrace the multi-dimensionality of life and the boundless depths of the creative imagination. Her work liberates the psyche and mocks those who would stifle and constrict the joy and power of the human spirit.

Her books have sold 320 million copies. I travel the world, and I have seen them read almost everywhere in almost every language.

It is going to be a long, hot summer, and it may be followed by a fierce autumn and a grim winter.

I encourage you to sign up for Live Earth, take the Live Earth Pledge, and sing and dance for the future.

Live Earth will use the global reach of music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis. Concerts will be held in great urban centers on every continent: New York, London, Johannesburg, Rio de Janiero, Shanghai, Tokyo, Sydney and Hamiburg. It will be 24x7.

If you can go to a concert, go. If you can't, you can still participate -- Live Earth will be broadcast worldwide through multiple media channels - TV, radio, Internet and wireless channels. It will be streamed live by MSN at www.LiveEarth.MSN.com. For updates on broadcast information, click here.

To sign the Live Earth Pledge, click here. (I have included the full text at the end of this post.)

To show your support, thrown your own local Live Earth party, and register the event by clicking here.

I also encourage you to

-- read Assault on Reason, inculcate Gore's brilliant framing into your own discourse with friends, families and colleagues, and then buy another copy for an open-minded friend, colleague or loved one.

-- see Sicko, bring someone along with you, and then, the next morning, call your elected representatives, in Beltwayistan, and demand that they stick their fingers down their throat, vomit out that K Street money and do what must be done, i.e., work for the passage of legislation decreeing universal, single-payer health care.

-- affirm the wildness and wonder of life by going to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and by reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

However long we live, life is short. Embrace it. Celebrate to change the world.

The 7.7.07 Live Earth Pledge:

I PLEDGE:

1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;

2. To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"

3. To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;

4. To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;

5. To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;

6. To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,

7. To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

To sign the Live Earth Pledge, click here.

SICKO, Paris Hilton, Assault on Reason, Harry Potter, Live Earth, Al Gore, Michael Moore, J.K. Rowlings, Global Warming, Climate Change, Healthcare Crisi, Magic, Richard Power, Words of Power

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Hard Rain Journal 6-29-07: Katrina, 9/11 and Iraq -- An Almost Incomprehensible Truth

Image: Hurricane Katrina

Words of Power #34: Katrina, 9/11 and Iraq -- An Almost Incomprehensible Truth

By Richard Power

Over the last 13 years, I have delivered executive briefings on global security issues and led training sessions for professionals in forty countries, I have written well over a hundred security-related articles and op-ed pieces in the print media. I have an informed opinion. And there are two important points about the Bush-Cheney regime that I want to impress upon you, the first point is that this cabal is responsible for the most sweeping and significant failure of overall security policy -- both in the USA and in the world -- in modern history; the second point is that it is willful, it is not due to incompetence, it is driven by a need to turn the USA and the world upside side, just as a cosmetic surgeon would break the bones of someone's face to re-shape into a different one. It is not inconvenient truth, it is an inexcusable truth: this massive failure was not the result of bumbling, it was the result of betrayal.

The most important set of established facts concerning the 9/11 attacks supercedes any and all of the unanswered questions about 9/11; and that set of facts is that the Bush-Cheney national insecurity team was warned repeatedly -- both from inside our own intelligence community and from the intelligence agencies of numerous friendly governments -- that Bin Laden was coming for us that summer.

The story of FBI counterterrorism expert John P. O'Neill's last year on Earth confirms the heedlessness of this cabal. O'Neill was running the Cole investigation, he quit the Bureau in frustration because the Bush-Cheney connection to the Saudi rulers was blocking his efforts. He went to work as head of security for the WTC, and died on 9/11. As Alanis M. sings, "Isn't it ironic?" (You can learn more about O'Neill from PBS Frontline's The Man Who Knew.

Further corroborative evidence of the heedlessness of the Bush-Cheney national insecurity team is available at Borders or Barnes & Nobel (or better yet, the Buzzflash store): former National Security Council official Richard A. Clarke and former CIA Director George Tenet both write of desperate attempts to get the threat from Al Qaeda moved to the top of the agenda that summer.

They looked the other way, because they were looking for an opportunity to go to war in the Middle East and Central Asia (this hope is expressed wistfully in PNAC); and they were looking for an excuse to weaken the Constitution, and in particular the Bill of Rights, in an effort to turn the US federal government into a cash cow for cronies (can you say, "Halliburton"?) and a cudgel against political enemies (ala the DoJ scandal), etc.-- in short, the strategy was to control as much of the world's oil reserves as possible and to build a one-party state at home. 9/11 gave them a leg up.

The Bush-Cheney national insecurity team was warned by Middle East experts and weapons inspectors in our own intelligence community, military and diplomatic service, as well as those of friendly governments, that a) invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam Hussein would lead to the destabilization of the entire region, b) Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11, and c) the highest probability was that there were no WMD in Iraq.

Nevertheless, Iraq was invaded and occupied.

There were many opportunities to take advantage of, e.g., political advantage in the 2002 and 2004 US elections, profits for corporate cronies, privatization of Iraqi oil, the establishment of permanent bases in the region, obtaining another launching pad in the encirclement of Iran and its oil, etc.

In the warped thinking of the neo-cons, the destabilization of the region provides us with an excuse never to leave. Even stressing the US military to the breaking point advances the agenda, it underscores the neo-con conviction that our armed forces must submit to increased privatization.

The abomination of the lack of Federal response before, during and after Hurricane Katrina is just more of the same. Katrina is the third excruciating twist in the same steep downward spiral that began on 9/11.

This is not conspiracy theory, this is simply the documenting of opportunism. Disaster planning in general, and Hurricane Katrina in particular presented the Bush-Cheney cabal with another set of opportunities and Rove, et al, took advantage of them. For example, psychologically, it broke people's faith in the US government's promise to come to their rescue in times of disaster, and it plunged the psyche of the USA deeper into PTSD developed from the theft of the 2000 election and the slaughter of the innocents on 9/11. Politically, it turned a purple state into a red state, giving the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party another advantage in the fierce contest for US Senate seats and Electoral College votes.

Robert Novak openly boasts: If Rep. Bobby Jindal (R) wins the race for governor this fall — and indications are that he will — then the governor and one senator will be Republicans. Of course part of the thinking, voiced publicly by no one, is that the state’s black population in New Orleans largely disappeared with Hurricane Katrina, significantly diminishing the base vote for Landrieu. Scholars and Rogues, 6-27-07

Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) has released a report on its analysis of several thousand Department of Homeland Insecurity documents it got hold of under the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA). In the report's executive summary, CREW concludes: The fundamental question raised by these failures is why, despite longstanding anticipation of a hurricane strike on New Orleans, significant forewarning of Katrina’s strength, the potential impact on the Gulf Coast, as well as the extensive planning in the days leading up to Katrina’s landfall, was the federal response so flawed? Executive Summary, Best Laid Plans, CREW, 6-2

The country needs a serious congressional investigation of the Bush-Cheney regime's actions (and inaction) before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.

There were thousands of more deaths than the oft-cited official count (1836). Will the truth about how many impoverished African Americans actually died in this incredible betrayal of trust ever be revealed? (It is talked about openly up and down the Mississippi.)

Unfortunately, Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and he has so far blocked serious investigation on any aspect of the Katrina scandal.

Meanwhile,as we move forward into this long hot and fateful summer, I look back on 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, and the debacle of Hurricane Katrina, and wonder what will be the next twist in the steep downward spiral and when will it come? Iran? Another attack on US soil? This hurricane season? Or have we already begun to pull out of that spiral, over these last few months, as a result of genuine congressional oversight and the exercise of subpoena power?

Those of us who are patriots -- whether from left, right or center -- must hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Unlike the Bush-Cheney regime, which hopes for the worst and prepares only to take advantage of its opportunities.

To get re-enraged, read CREW's THE BEST LAID PLANS: THE STORY OF HOW THE GOVERNMENT IGNORED ITS OWN GULF COAST HURRICANE PLANS, and then watch Spike Lee's When The Levees Broke.

To channel that rage into helping Katrina survivors, go to Acorn Katrina Survivors Association.

Some Katrina-Related Posts

Words of Power #1: Truths Salvaged from Post-Katrina Debacle

Words of Power #5: Failed Leadership Invites Disaster

Hard Rain Journal 8-24-06: Updates on Darfur & Katrina, Failures of the Human Spirit

Words of Power #31: Ghosts of Christmas Past (Katrina) and Future (Iran))

CREW, Bush, Cheney, Karl Rove, John P. O'Neill, Katrina, Joe Lieberman, 9/11, Iraq, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: Mary J. Blige -- Their Life (Tribute to Katrina Victims on BET Benefit)

Hard Rain Late Night: Mary J. Blige -- Their Life (Tribute to Katrina Victims on BET Benefit)

By Richard Power

Click here for Hard Rain Late Night Music Video -- Archive

Mary J. Blige, You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Sustainability Update 6-28-07: Will You Choose Green Cities & Family Planning or Industrial Age Energy Paradigm & Dark Age Religious Dogmatism?

* By 2008, more than half of the world's current 6.7billion population will live in cities.
* By 2030, the urban population will have risen to 5 billion, 60 per cent of the world's population.
* Half of the world's urban population is currently under 25. By 2030, young people will make up the vast majority of the 5 billion urban dwellers.
* Between 2000 and 2030, Asia's urban population will increase from 1.3 billion to 2.64 billion. Africa's population will rise from 294 million to 742 million, Latin America and the Caribbean from 394 million to 609million.
* Mega-cities do not have a monopoly on population growth. More than half of the urban world lives in cities with a population of less than 500,000. Planet of the slums: UN warns urban populations set to double, Independent, 6-27-07

Sustainability Update 6-28-07: Will You Choose Green Cities & Family Planning or Industrial Age Energy Paradigm & Dark Age Religious Dogmatism

By Richard Power

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has released The State of World Population 2007: Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth, a report which highlights the projection that urban populations in Africa and Asia will increase by another 1.7 billion people over the next thirty years, i.e., a total amounting to the populations of China and the USA combined.

What are the implications of such growth? Well, it will impact the whole of the planet. In some ways, it will define this century for better and worse.

The UNFPA report calls for a "revolution in thinking." UNFPA Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid points out that the struggle to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, i.e., half poverty by 2015, will be won or lost in the planet's cities, urges "accepting the rights of poor people to live in cities and working with their creativity to tackle potential problems and generate new solutions."

It underscores the need to come to grips with our sustainability issues. It underscores the need to come to grips with over-population. It underscores the need to come to grips with both the destructive climate changes resulting from global warming and the ways in which the human footprint is aggravating and accelerating global warming.

Here are two easily grasped notions that belong together (this is Words of Power speaking now, not the UNPF, which is constrained by the politics of consensus):

We must green the cities.

We must engage in an intense family planning campaign, including both education and making safe and effective birth control available to all.

Greening the cities will mean overcoming the resistance of those who benefit from the current energy paradigms.

Launching an effective family planning campaign will mean overcoming the resistance of religious dogmatists.

I encourage you to advance these coupled notions at all levels of business, government, and everywhere within your communities.

Will you choose green cities and family planning or Industrial Age energy paradigm and Dark Age religious dogmatism?

Here is more news on the UNPF report from One World:

"What happens in the cities of Africa and Asia and other regions will shape our common future," says UNFPA Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid. "We must abandon a mindset that resists urbanization and act now to begin a concerted global effort to help cities unleash their potential to spur economic growth and solve social problems."
To take advantage of potential opportunities, governments must prepare for the coming growth. "If they wait, it will be too late," she says. "This wave of
urbanization is without precedent. The changes are too large and too fast to allow planners and policymakers simply to react: In Africa and Asia, the number of people living in cities increases by approximately 1 million, on average, each week. Leaders need to be proactive and take far-sighted action to fully exploit the opportunities that urbanization offers." ...
According to the report, city authorities and urban planners should make it a priority to provide for the shelter needs of the urban poor. They should offer the poor secure tenure on land that is outfitted with power, water and sanitation services. Those living in poor communities should have access to education and health care and should be encouraged to build their own homes. ...
Policymakers and planners need to harness the potential of cities to improve the lives of all. Three initiatives stand out:
a.. Accept the right of poor people to the city, abandoning attempts to discourage migration and prevent urban growth. City authorities should work closely with organizations of the urban poor, including women's organizations.
b.. Adopt a broad and long-term vision of the use of urban space. This means,
among other things, providing minimally serviced land for housing and planning in advance to promote sustainable land use both within cities and in the surrounding areas.
c.. Begin a concerted international effort to support strategies for the urban future. Urban Boom Needs 'Revolution in Thinking', Says UN, One World, 6-27-07

For more information on the greening of cities, go to Worldchanging.com.

For more information on family planning and reproductive rights, go to Planned Parenthood.

United Nations Population Fund, Energy Security, Environmental Security, Alternate Energy, Sustainability, Green Power, Renewable Resources, Climate Change, Agriculture, Food+Security, UNPF, Family Planning, UN Millennium Development Goals, Asia,Population, Richard Power, Words of Power

Hard Rain Late Night: John Coltrane, On Green Dolphin Street, Dusseldorf, 1960

Click here for Hard Rain Late Night Music Video -- Archive

John Coltrane, You Tube, Late Night, Music, Richard Power, Words of Power

Monday, June 25, 2007

Human Rights Update (6-26-07) -- A Victory for Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone, But What About the Child Soldiers in the Streets of the USA?

Image: Child Soldiers In Sri Lanka, Amnesty International

Human Rights Update (6-26-07) -- A Victory for Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone, But What About the Child Soldiers in the Streets of the USA?

By Richard Power

The Special Court for Sierra Leone has established an historic precedent by declaring Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu guilty of, among other crimes, enlisting children under the age of 15 as child soldiers in Sierra Leone's 11 year civil war. This is the first time an international criminal tribunal has successfully prosecuted individuals for the recruitment and use of children as soldiers.

Commonly cited statistics indicate that there are several hundred thousand child soldiers in the world at any one time.

Although probably understated, such guestimates are reasonable in regard to the number of child soldiers compelled into armed conflict between, or within, states (or would be states) around the world.

However, those commonly cited statistics are grossly misleading in another regard -- they ignore the hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of youths compelled, or lured, into gangs in the streets of the world's ghettoes, including, and especially, the mean streets of the USA's major metropolitan areas, and increasingly, their surrounding suburbs. Gangstas = Child Soldiers.

Do you remember Warren Beatty's brilliant 1998 film, Bulworth? In the midst of a spiritual awakening disguised as a nervous breakdown, Senator Jay Billington Bulworth (D-CA) finds himself in an L.A. ghetto, watching young child soldiers at work for the neighborhood drug dealer.

Bulworth turns away from suicide-by-contract-killing, and seeks redemption by rapping truth to power instead. He confronts the political establishment, the mainstream news media and the K Street lobbyists. In the end, Bulworth is assassinated.

Well, nothing meaningful has been done about campaign finance reform or media monopolization since the release of Bulworth, and nothing substantive has been done about the USA's child soldiers either.

Only one viable 2008 presidential candidate has been speaking out on the spiritual, economic, social and psychological costs of poverty in America, John Edwards. Consequently, most Americans know the price of his haircuts. And conveniently, the punditocracy thinks it unlikely he will win the nomination because of how much more corporate money has flowed into the coffers of Sens. Clinton and Obama. Now why would that be?

The problem isn't something that just exists far away in Africa, Asia and Latin America, it probably exists within a twenty to forty minute ride from your home.

In Africa, Asia and Latin America, the exploitation of children as soldiers is undertaken by those willing to meet the industrialized world's demand for natural resources -- e.g., diamonds, oil, coffee and cocoa -- at any cost.

In the USA, it is undertaken by those who traffic in heroin, cocaine, weapons, and yes, even music; and it is a by-product of racism, predatory capitalism and the economic warfare against the middle class.

The uprisings of 1965 (Watts) and 1992 (South Central) came out of nowhere, seemingly. Well, after the last seven years, we are closer to nowhere than we have even been.

While applauding the Court's verdict, and acknowledging its significance, the Child Soldiers Coalition (CSC) emphasizes how much more work there is ahead of us:

Those children who were the victims of enlistment and use, many of whom are now young adults, urgently need support. In its final report completed in 2004, the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission specifically recognized that forcibly recruited children were among those who still suffer the consequences of the war and recommended specific reparative measures for them.
The Coalition calls upon the Sierra Leone authorities, with the support of donors, to provide effective remedies to former child soldiers to ensure that their suffering is fully acknowledged and that they are provided with appropriate support and assistance. This must include restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition. It should also include psychosocial support and education, training, employment and other programs to facilitate their meaningful participation in society. Such assistance should be offered in the context of broader programs to help all war-affected children. ...
"The Special Court has set some important precedents and contributed significantly towards delivering justice to the countless victims of the civil war," said Dee Brillenburg Wurth, West Africa Project Manager to the Coalition. "However, the narrow interpretation by the Prosecutor on the 'greatest responsibility' standard applied along with the amnesty provision contained in the Lomé Peace Agreement means that many other suspects, including those who recruited and used children - will remain at large," she added.
The Coalition reminds the Sierra Leone government that it has the duty to investigate and, if there is sufficient admissible evidence, to prosecute before national courts persons suspected of enlisting or conscripting children and, if found guilty, the duty to punish them. Child Soldiers Coalition via Relief Web

Help is what the child soldiers of Sierra Leonne deserve. Help is what the child soldiers of South Central deserve.

For more on the international dimension of this problem, here are some resources:

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

Amnesty International - Child Soldiers

Human Rights Watch -- Child Soldiers

For more on the domestic US dimension of this problem, drive across town.

Some Related Posts

UN Millennium Goals Update 5-30-07: In the Struggle to Empower Women & Children -- Very Good News, Very Bad News, & A Dose of Reality

Hard Rain Journal 4-21-07: Human Rights Update -- In War and Poverty, Children Forsaken on a Planetary Scale

Hard Rain Journal 12-4-06: Human Rights Update -- Unless You Protect Women, Children and Indigenous Peoples, You Cannot Achieve Real Security

Words of Power #17: Harry Potter and the Night Commuters

Words of Power #3: Gangstas = Child Soldiers Without A Country

Richard Power is the founder of GS(3) Intelligence and Words of Power. His work focuses on the inter-related issues of security, sustainability and spirit, and how to overcome the challenges of terrorism, cyber crime, global warming, health emergencies, natural disasters, etc. You can reach him via e-mail: richardpower@wordsofpower.net. For more information, go to www.wordsofpower.net

Sierra Leone, Warren Beatty, Humanitarian Crisus, South Central, Watts, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Child+Soldiers+Coalition, Refugees, Child Abuse, Human Rights, Genocide, John Edwards,

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Climate Crisis Updates -- Archive

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Election Security -- Archive

Image: Diebold Voters

Election Security -- Archive

The 2000 US presidential election was stolen in Florida, the 2004 US presidential election was stolen in Ohio. And all the misery, loss and disgrace that has befallen our republic over the last seven years is the direct result of not challenging this illegitimate regime at its original installation by Supreme Injustice in Bush v. Gore.

There is no mystery or surprise in the fact that the US mainstream news media has avoided these tragic events. But it is profoundly disturbing that the Democratic Party's political establishment has chosen to ignore them.

However, although disturbing, it should not be viewed as either mysterious or surprising. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party has been seriously compromised by special interest money (and I don't mean teachers, nurses or lawyers). Ill-conceived legislation (e.g., the Holt bill) and half-hearted protests (e.g, the Party's weak-wristed response to the 2006 theft of F-13) are insufficient.

The threat is real. The nefarious schemes put in place for such information warfare have not yet been fully neutralized. The trail is there for those willing to follow it. Don't you think Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) deserve better than to be labeled "conspiracy theorists"? There is need for an aggressive congressional investigation. It would lead to revelations that would require serious criminal investigation.

(Nor is this criminality limited to the USA, it was at work in 2006 Mexican presidential election, and some say it was at work in the 2007 French election.)

Words of Power has a personal interest and a longstanding focus on election security issues. I post news and analysis on major development.

To follow the story on a day to day basis, I refer you to Mark Crispin Miller's Notes From The Underground and Brad Freidman's Brad Blog. These two sites offer remarkable detail and tremendous insight. And, of course, Greg Palast doesn't just report history in the making, he makes history.

-- Richard Power

Those in the Developed World Who Think What is Happening in Kenya is Something Distant & Peculiar to the African Continent are Living in a Dream ...

Ode to Freedom Fighters: Iranian Election Theft, Show Trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, Slow Motion Genocide in Darfur & US Chamber of Commerce's War Chest
Hard, Urgent Lessons from Kilimanjaro & the Slums of Nairobi

"Live Free or Die" has New Meaning: Stolen Elections? Not Just 2000 and 2004, But Also 2002

Steroids in Baseball? As Shocking as Gambling in Casablanca; What Would A Mitchell-Style Probe Reveal About the 2000 & 2004 Elections?

Hard Rain Journal 9-19-07: Your Name is Andrew Meyer & You Are Under Arrest

Election Security Update 7-31-07: If We Had Not Been Ridiculed 7 Years Ago, Hundreds of Thousands of Lives & A Trillion Dollars Could Have Been Saved

Hard Rain Journal 3-25-07: DoJ Purge Update: Four Blockbusters that Have Not Hit -- YET

Hard Rain Journal (9-22-06): Election Security Update -- In MX, Lopez Obrador Will Be Sworn In First; In US, RFK, Jr. Asks Will 2006 Be Hacked?

Hard Rain Journal 8-23-06: Struggle for Sanctity & integrity of Electoral Process Rages on in Both US & Mexico

Hard Rain Journal 8-9-06: Lamont & McKinney Stories Underscore the Importance of Lopez Obrador's Struggle

Hard Rain Journal 7-30-06: Struggle for Fair Elections, North & South of the Rio Grande

Hard Rain Journal 7-18-06: Update on Disputed Mexican Presidential Election

Hard Rain Journal 7-15-06 Weekend Edition: Updates on US Election Fraud, Treason as a Tort Case, & "Once-Boastful President...Reduced to Pathetic Bleats"

GS(3) Thunderbolt 7-10-06: Will the Disputed Mexican Election Lead to Insurrection? Lessons for Mexico from the US, and Lessons for the US from Mexico

GS(3) Thunderbolt 7-7-06: Mexican Presidential Election Still in Doubt

GS(3) Thunderbolt 7-3-06: Greg Palast on the Case in the Mexican Presidential Election

Hard Rain Journal 6-28-06: NYU Law School's Brennan Center Reports E-Voting Software Attacks are a Real Danger

Words of Power #22: Election Fraud As Information Warfare, And A National Security Issue

Thursday, June 21, 2007

GS(3) Thunderbolt 6-21-07: Another Way to Celebrate the Solstice

Danish Meteorological Institute

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
3:3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
3:4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
3:5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
3:6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
3:7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
3:8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
3:9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?
Ecclesiastes, Bible (King James)

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The great wheel is turning. In Tallinn, Kyoto and Calgary, it is the Summer Solstice. In Perth, Capetown and Quito, it is the Winter Solstice. Either way, and in all directions, it is a celebration and an affirmation of life on this beautiful blue-green world.

If you have already made a donation to Words of Power, I am grateful, and it was very helpful. If you have not, please consider doing so.

Words of Power offers a uniquely global, 21st Century perspective on a range of issues concerning security, sustainability and spirit, with particular focus climate change, green power, counterterrorism, human rights, the UN Millennium Goals, and the health of democratic institutions (including the Fourth Estate).

The US mainstream news media failed the nation on the war in Iraq, and on climate change, and on the threat to our very form of government. Over these last few hard years, the alternative news media, citizen journalism, and the Blogosphere, have provided a vital resource both for US citizens trying to understand the world better, and for those concerned friends throughout the world trying to understand what has gone wrong in the USA.

There is more proof everyday that sites such as Words of Power are making a profound difference. So far this week, Morton Kondracke has called the progressive Blogosphere a "pox," and Fred Thompson has called it "Anti-American." It will get worse as the influence of the Blogosophere increases. Such epithets should be worn as badges of honor.

Words of Power is approaching its second anniversary on-line. Traffic and e-mail subscriptions (free) are growing exponentially. Some important and heavily-traffic sites are linking to our content. I am adding new features all the time.

Words of Power is, and will remain free, and available to everyone. But your donations will allow us to grow the site, in the following ways:

1) Go truly 24x7
2) Deliver Words of Power Podcasts on a weekly basis
3) Expand the content to include Arts and Literature
4) Conduct more in-depth interviews, and attend important conferences

You can donate (no, it is not tax-deductible) with Visa or Master Card via Paypal on the Words of Power site, or if you are more comfortable off-line, you can snail mail your check to Richard Power, 182 Howard St. #135, San Francisco, California, 94105.

And don't be concerned about perpetual fund-raisers, I will only reach out to you four times a year -- on the Solstices and the Equinoxes.

All the Best,

Richard Power
GS(3) Intelligence & Words of Power
http://www.wordsofpower.net
http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

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Campaign '08 -- Archive

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