White Light Black Light

The lawsuit also alleges that the Democratic National Committee conspired to force Nader off the ballot in several states.

"The Democratic Party is going after anyone who presents a credible challenge to their monopoly over their perceived voters," Nader said in a statement. "This lawsuit was filed to help advance a free and open electoral process for all candidates and voters. Candidate rights and voter rights nourish each other for more voices, choices, and a more open and competitive democracy."

Among other things, the lawsuit alleges that the DNC tried to bankrupt Nader's campaign by suing to keep him off the ballot in 18 states. It also suggests the DNC sent Kerry supporters to crash a Nader petition drive in Portland, Ore., in June 2004, preventing him from collecting enough signatures to get on the ballot.

The lawsuit seeks "compensatory damages, punitive damages and injunctive relief to enjoin the defendants from ongoing and future violations of the law."

Nader's attorney, Bruce Afran, argued that the DNC would be terrified of having the case come to trial. He said he hoped the committee would choose to settle the case and apologize.

"This is a case designed to make sure other independent and third party candidates will not be subject to the same kind of conspiracy in the future," Afran said.

Nader received 463,653 votes in the election, or 0.38% of total votes cast.

DNC spokesman Luis Miranda declined comment on the suit, citing a policy on pending litigation.

// posted by Alice @ Wednesday, October 31, 2007 0 Comments

By Teilhard

Whether animal or human, those who we love deeply become part of us forever for a Unified Field of love and soul consciousness lies deepest within all living matter and animals, as such, are reservoirs of this love and very capable of sharing it with humans: Allen L Roland

The basic underlying and uniting force of the Universe is a psychic energy field of Love and soul consciousness (The Unified Field) which lies not only beyond time and space but also beneath our deepest fears.

This field of love can also be called source. Humans can access it only by totally surrendering to love but nature and animals are a living part of it.

There is much evidence of this animal or mammal field of love being experienced by humans such as dive master Jennifer Anderson freeing a trapped Manta Ray off the coast of Maui and the freed Manta Ray returning to her and gently touching her as if to thank her. She describes that moment as unforgettable ~ " I felt a rush of something that so overpowered me; I have yet to find the words to describe it, except a warm and loving flow of energy from her into me." A MAGIC HEART MOMENT IN MAUI / JENNIFER ANDERSON

Films like ( Killers of Eden ) reinforce what millions of people already know or deeply sense ~ that animals ( mammals in that movie ) and in particular, our pets, seem to know things and be conscious of events at a level deeper than most humans.

Rupert Sheldrake ( Dogs that know when their owners are coming home ~ and other unexplained powers of animals ) invokes the concept of morphic fields that exist beyond time and space but he can't really define what they are. I believe that Sheldrake's morphic field is the Unified Field of unconditional love and soul consciousness ~ which indeed exists beyond time and space.

He briefly mentions love in his book " Perhaps the greatest gift animals can offer is their capacity for love. Emotionally damaged adults with low self-esteem can easily believe that their animals love them unconditionally . Sheldrake goes on to explain " Some dogs seem to know when their owners are coming home. No, not when they are walking up the front steps, but when they are still in the office DECIDING to come home. Some animals know when their owners are in distress or dying, far away. Some animals know when their owners are about to have a seizure, or attempt suicide. "

This would certainly seem to demonstrate that animals exist in a state of loving consciousness that exists beyond time and space.

A state of consciousness that also exists deepest within all human beings as witness my own mother coming back to me from beyond death to let me know she loved me and that she now knew what I knew. As witness the more than 50% of Americans ( Gallup ) who have had a similar after death experience with someone they loved who passed on.

The perfect example of this loving phenomenon between animals and humans would be Keiko Okubo's heartwarming story of her beloved cat YumYum ~ who was an orange Tabby with beautiful green eyes and a spirit of fire.

YUMYUM

My guardian of love

// posted by Alice @ Tuesday, October 30, 2007 0 Comments

The press dropped Kovel's book in August after receiving a series of threatening emails from a rightwing pro-Israel group called Stand With Us. But faced with a growing campaign led by fellow academics and civil libertarians, the board overturned its earlier decision regarding distribution of Kovel's book. Last week's key decision to continue ties with Pluto Press came in the midst of a series of events organized around what rightwing groups called "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week."

Joel Kovel is an antiwar activist and former Green Party candidate for Senate. He is the author of over ten books. "Overcoming Zionism" is his most recent book. He joins me now in the firehouse studio in New York.

• Joel Kovel, activist and author of over ten books. His latest book was temporarily dropped by University of Michigan after an initial controversy. It's called "Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine."

The press dropped Kovel's book in August after getting a series of threatening emails from a rightwing group called Stand With Us. But faced with a growing campaign led by fellow academics and civil libertarians, the board overturned its earlier decision. Last week's key decision to continue ties with Pluto Press came in the midst of a series of events organized around what rightwing groups called "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week."

Joel Kovel is an antiwar activist. He was a Green Party candidate for Senate here in New York. He is the author of over ten books, this latest, Overcoming Zionism, is his most recent -- joining us in the firehouse studio in New York. Welcome to Democracy Now!

JOEL KOVEL: Hi

AMY GOODMAN: So your book will continue to be published.

JOEL KOVEL: Yeah. More to the point, Pluto will continue to be published, because that was a huge threat. It’s a marginal firm that nonetheless publishes a tremendous amount of alternative works. And it would have been devastating had that contract had been violated.

AMY GOODMAN: And it’s the University of Michigan Ann Arbor Press --

JOEL KOVEL: That’s right.

AMY GOODMAN: -- that distributes the British Pluto Press?

JOEL KOVEL: Right. Yes, through contract. And they panicked this summer when they dropped my book. I mean, they were pressured by this Zionist watchdog team, which is really part of the same apparatus that’s putting out “Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week” and many other things. And the director just wrote me this absurd letter saying that my book was not worthy of free speech, because it was hate speech. My book was so full of hate to the state of Israel. My book was really written to open the dialogue, which is so wretched in this country on this subject.

AMY GOODMAN: I thought it was interesting that one of the people who, well, what is called blurbing the book, who recommends the book is Michel Warshawsky.

JOEL KOVEL: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: I remember him many years ago, visiting him in Israeli, who is a leading Israeli peace activist.

JOEL KOVEL: Yeah, a wonderful man. He doesn’t even necessarily agree with the conclusion, which is to have a single democratic state, but he recognizes the necessity of opening this discourse. And that’s why I wrote the book. I mean, I wanted to -- I disregarded all the taboos, that you're not supposed to talk about Israel in any depth in this country.

AMY GOODMAN: He says, Kovel is suggesting a binational Israeli-Palestinian state. It may be a challenged, but definitely should not be ignored.

JOEL KOVEL: Right. It should be challenged. What we don’t have is any kind of real debate on this subject in our country at this time. And I guess my book went too far for the watchdog, so they -- you know, they started barking and howling at the University of Michigan Press, which folded. And then that provoked a big reaction, and where we are now is that we’ve actually won quite a considerable victory in this, because as this story developed, we found that people all over the country and indeed many other parts of the world, particularly the United Kingdom, were backing us. And there were hundreds of letters sent to the University of Michigan Press. And I think it had a decisive effect. So it’s really historic, because basically these Zionist repression groups have had pretty much a free hand.

AMY GOODMAN: What do you mean by that?

JOEL KOVEL: Well, I mean there’s [inaudible] Michigan

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, there are many people who consider themselves Zionists that would not advocate the banning of your book --

JOEL KOVEL: Oh, that’s right

AMY GOODMAN: -- which it essentially comes down to.

JOEL KOVEL: Exactly, but the ones who do advocate the banning, you know, had a big effect. They got the University of Michigan Press to roll over for them.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about how -- how did people organize to push back? Who were the leaders, among them Howard Zinn?

JOEL KOVEL: Well, we contacted Zinn and he was most gracious and generous in letting his celebrated, illustrious name be used to bring in people to write letters on behalf of Pluto. My book was restored, but the threat to Pluto continued, and so the organization emphasized, you know, we do need an alternative press in this country. Pluto does have perhaps the largest pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist, you know, collection of books. And it’s essential that people be given access to these books. So, Zinn and other well-known people, like Richard Falk, you know, have said yes, we’re on board with this. And we have a committee forming, Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism, codz.org. And we’re planning a conference and all. But the committee leapt into action, and we were amazed at just how eloquent and, you know, basically fed up a lot of people were with being intimidated by these kinds of tactics. They just want to suppress an open discussion of this subject.

AMY GOODMAN: Joel Kovel, as a Jewish activist and scholar, talk about this issue, this idea that you are proposing, creating a single democratic state in Israel/Palestine? Of course, it’s not only you; among others, it’s Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada, and others. But explain what it is. And also, how does it relate to your own religion, to Judaism?

JOEL KOVEL: Well, to take the second part first, I grew up in a very conventional Jewish home, except for the fact that there was a lot of division on this subject, so I think from an early age I learned to take a certain distance from it and to think critically about it. And I detail in the book certain incidents of my childhood, which sort of made me somewhat estranged from what was going on. But in any event, as I grew up, I felt that the Jewish people have been, you know, very largely deprived of a real opportunity to look at what’s going on in the state of Israel, you know, because there is such a frantic effort to establish Israel as a Jewish state, as somehow the destiny of the Jewish people, are using all of the history of the oppression and the persecution that Jews have suffered over the centuries.

And I feel that the notion of Zionism, as that there is this kind of destiny of the Jewish people to have their own state, is just the wrong idea. And it’s an idea that requires signing onto imperialism. It means signing onto ethnic cleansing. It means -- despite everything that has been said about it, it means basically becoming a racist situation, where you’re oppressing an indigenous population and depriving them of their right to existence and then thinking that somehow you can go ahead and have a decent life on that basis. Now, you can’t, in my view. And I join hands with those people who feel that the time has come to basically think of Israel in the same category as South Africa, as a state that just has gone wrong and needs replacement, OK? Now, that’s a way-out idea. On the other hand, a lot of people around the world think about it, and it should be openly discussed.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting, Bishop Tutu, who was disinvited and then invited by the St. Thomas University --

JOEL KOVEL: Yes, in Minneapolis.

AMY GOODMAN: -- in Minneapolis, for making comparisons of Israel to Apartheid South Africa.

JOEL KOVEL: Yes. Well, the comparison was interesting, because Tutu and other leaders of the freedom struggle in South Africa who visited Palestine have always been asked, well, how does it compare? And he says, well, it’s not the same thing, Israel is actually worse. He actually said, Israel is a worse place than Apartheid South Africa was, because Apartheid South Africa attempted to retain the integrity of the blacks so they could work in the mines and the mills of the South African, you know, industrial system, whereas the key point about Israel is that it wants to get rid of them, transfer. It wants to get them out of there. And it wants this area to be for Jews only, you know?

AMY GOODMAN: Why not two states?

JOEL KOVEL: Well, first of all, it’s been destroyed as a practical alternative, because the nature of the occupation has completely eaten out from under any possibility of having a real Palestinian state. More fundamentally, it perpetuates the logic of the same kind of thinking that has gone on all along. I mean, I think a two-state solution, in any practical sense, that is to say that Palestinians would have a little statelet, would be basically rising Israel to the level of South Africa. South Africa had a two-state solution. There was the South African state, and there were the Bantustans. The kind of two-state solution that they’re talking about is that the state of Israel and then the bantustans, sometimes even dividing Gaza from the Occupied Territories.

AMY GOODMAN: What kind of support does a one-state solution have, either in the Occupied Territories or in Israel?

JOEL KOVEL: It has very small support. And I call it a strategic goal. This is to say, it’s not something that is on the horizon, but if you think in these terms, you are led to take a really constructive view towards the situation, because now you’re grounding your politics in universal human rights. You’re not grounding your politics in the aberration and the very wrong idea of a national, you know, ethnic state, which is a big mistake. And I think that that orients you in a good direction, and the overall outcome cannot help but be better, even if the result is another state for Palestinians. But you want to weaken this notion that there should be a Jewish state and that that somehow can be democratic. It can’t be.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to leave it there. When is the conference and where?

JOEL KOVEL: Well, the conference is being planned for early next year. We’re doing it in New York. We want a very high-profile conference. codz.org.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to have to leave it there. Joel Kovel, author of Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine. The book will continue to be distributed by the University of Michigan Press at Ann Arbor.

// posted by Alice @ Monday, October 29, 2007 0 Comments

by Cindy Sheehan / October 26th, 2007

“You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement.” Pete Stark (D-Ca)

“While Members of Congress are passionate about their views what Congressman Stark said during the debate was inappropriate.” Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, (D-Ca)

“But this — we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have (sic) the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” George Bush, War Criminal

I cheered inside my head when I heard, Rep. Stark unbelievably utter his words condemning the murderous acts of BushCo on the House floor and I was impressed with his candor, compassion and what I consider an appropriate amount of rage and honesty. How many of us were not thinking the same thing about the S-CHIP votes? I knew, however, that it would not be long until Pete Stark had to apologize and it happened today.

I believe that Speaker Pelosi’s comments about Rep. Stark were utterly inappropriate and out of line. I believe that when she said that impeachment was “off the table,” her remarks were not only inappropriate but also antithetical to our Constitution and directly in opposition to why the people of this country put Democrats back in power.

We may remind the Speaker of some of the things George has said: He told us that Saddam was able to reach the Eastern part of the US with drones that contained either chemical or biological weapons; that the smoking gun might come in the form of a “mushroom cloud” and that Saddam was also seeking significant amounts of “yellow cake uranium.” George and his co-criminals also told us over and over again the 9-11 was the justification for an attack on Iraq because Saddam had something to do with 9-11.

It is imperative that Ms. Pelosi be a true leader and lead the charge to impeach the liars, or at least get the hell out of the way so they can be impeached. I buried my son for no logical, moral or truthful reason for God’s sake, and she has neither the integrity or fortitude to finally say that BushCo has to be stopped before George is the instigator for Armageddon.,

Ms. Pelosi is not the only one who condemned Rep. Stark; she joined hands (again) with Republicans to do so. However, for the Republicans to say that Congressman Stark’s comment demeaned “the troops” is so patently ridiculous, it is stunningly pathetic. Our troops and their much higher paid cousins, the mercenary killers, are killing innocent Iraqis. IT IS A WAR! What do these morally bankrupt Chickenhawks think occurs in war? It would be better for everyone if “the troops” went over to play pinochle with the Iraqis, but occupied peoples have an inherent hatred of their occupiers and want them to leave their country: dead or alive. Congress wants to hide behind “the troops” by giving BushCo billions of more dollars to wage the occupation so their lobbyist buddies and campaign contributors can become richer off of the flesh and blood of those same troops that they claim to support.

BushCo has over 14 more months to sew their demented seeds of destruction all over the planet and we must all join Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Oh) in his call to remove them from office not only for their past, but for their future, illegal wars of aggression, possibly even doing the unthinkable: using a nuclear weapon. The terrorists that wear Brooks Brothers and Armani and live and work in the big white house on Pennsylvania Avenue are more dangerous to our way of life and safety than any others.

I wish Congressman Stark had not caved to the establishment elitists. George is the one that needs to apologize to each and every one of us for killing just about everything that we hold dear: our treasury, our Constitution, our standing in the international community, our ecology, our children, and for murdering our hopes and dreams for the future.

When I replace Nancy Pelosi as the Representative from California’s 8th district, I will fight for the lives, security and prosperity of, not only my constituents, but for all the human beings in the world. If BushCo is still in office, God forbid, when I am sworn in, I will do everything in my power to hold them accountable for their crimes against humanity and I will never, ever apologize for telling the truth.

To Contact Cindy: CindyforCongress.org To contribute to the campaign, or sign up for email alerts: Dede@CindyforCongress.org To volunteer for the campaign: Dianne@CindyforCongress.org For media or scheduling requests: Tiffany@CindyforCongress.org

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Bush's war of terror on 04/04/04. She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and The Camp Casey Peace Institute. Read other articles by Cindy.

// posted by Alice @ Saturday, October 27, 2007 0 Comments

A series of works which transcribe front pages of international daily newspapers into alchemical drawings. These works redeploy the languages and intentions of alchemy: the transformation of materials and essences and the revealed understanding of the world as a text, as a realm of powers and correspondences which, if properly understood, will allow man to take on transformative power.

ALCHEMY/The Guardian 22nd February 2007	ALCHEMY/Washington Square News Vol 84, Issue 34, 2007	ALCHEMY/The Jewish Telegraph 4th May 2007
ALCHEMY/Financial Times 19th April 2007	ALCHEMY/The Sun 19th April 2007	ALCHEMY/The Guardian 19th April 2007
ALCHEMY/Asian Enquirer Feb/Mar 2007	ALCHEMY/Die Welt 12th February 2007	ALCHEMY/The Guardian 3rd February 2007
ALCHEMY/The Guardian 4th July 2006	ALCHEMY/International Herald Tribune 3-4 February 2007	ALCHEMY/Le Monde 11-12 February 2007
ALCHEMY/The New York Times 5th March 2007	ALCHEMY/The Star Gazette(Turkish) 19th January 2007	ALCHEMY/Süddeutsche Zeitung 19th February 2007
ALCHEMY/The Sun 9th February 2007	ALCHEMY/The Observer 13th August 2006	ALCHEMY/La Repubblica 5th April 2007
ALCHEMY/San Jose Mercury 5th March 2007	ALCHEMY/The Wall Street Journal 24th February 2007	ALCHEMY/New Nation 14th May 2007
ALCHEMY/Le Monde 12th May 2007	ALCHEMY/The Guardian 1st June 2007	ALCHEMY/The Independent 13th May 2007
ALCHEMY/Islamische Zeitung June 2007	ALCHEMY/La Stampa 5th June 2007	ALCHEMY/The Guardian 5th June 2007
ALCHEMY/Daily Star 26th May 2007	ALCHEMY/The New York Times 7th March 2007	ALCHEMY/Daily Express 4th July 2007
ALCHEMY/The Times 27th June 2007	ALCHEMY/USA Today 17th July 2007	ALCHEMY/The Sun 18th July 2007
ALCHEMY/The Guardian 27th June 2007	ALCHEMY/The Times 27th June 2007	ALCHEMY/The Sun 27th June 2007
ALCHEMY/Evening Standard 28th June 2007	ALCHEMY/The Independent 28th June 2007	ALCHEMY/Daily Sport 28th June 2007
ALCHEMY/The London Paper 28th June 2007	ALCHEMY/Financial Times 27th June 2007	ALCHEMY/Daily Star 28th June 2007
ALCHEMY/TheDaily Telegraph 28th June 2007	ALCHEMY/The Sun 2nd July 2007	ALCHEMY/The Times 7th August 2007
ALCHEMY/TheDaily Telegraph 11th July 2007	ALCHEMY/The Guardian 10th August 2007
'...wonderful, an excellent series showing no signs of compromise, it's energetic and tensely suspenseful, profoundly sinister and completely unnerving.' Christoph Tannert, Berlin 2007

// posted by Alice @ Friday, October 26, 2007 0 Comments