Cherokee Sage Woman

While giving their lives for personal freedoms..
They lost theirs.

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Oct29/0,4670,MilitaryBlogging,00.html

If you haven't seen the documentary 'The Ground Truth'.. please do.
It is so thought-provoking & has made me rethink how I was subconsciously thinking about today's soldiers. I have always said, 'Support the soldiers by bringing them home'.. & that is still true. What I hadn't given any thought to, was what they were bringing home w/ them.. the wounds seen & unseen.. & how little care they would be getting when they DO come home.
Please see the film & tell me what you think!

Yahoo! Alerts
Yahoo!

Saturday, October 28, 2006, 7:11 AM PDT
WASHINGTON (AP) The White House has said there are no strains in the relationship with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

~~~~~
Do I have to put out a daily bulletin that Dan & I are still madly in love?
Nope, when it's working.. you just enjoy the flow. No need to defend it's being there.
Maliki is disinfatuated w/ Georgie-porgie.

Wonkette's blog gave a good expose on how the Army is practically V-chipping our soldiers access to the internet, & also giving them a not-too-subtle hint that Big Bro is watching them!

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/iraq/stop-abusing-our-marines-210428.php

When will these buffoons be charged w/ war crimes??
~~~
WAR ON TERRORISM
Cheney calls 'water-boarding' a valuable interrogation tool
The vice president confirmed that an interrogation technique that simulates drowning and has been called 'cruel and inhumane' was used on al Qaeda suspects.

WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al Qaeda suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called ''water-boarding,'' which creates a sensation of drowning.
Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn't regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. ''It's a no-brainer for me,'' Cheney said at one point in an interview.
Cheney's comments, in a White House interview on Tuesday with a conservative radio talk show host, appeared to reflect the Bush administration's view that the president has the constitutional power to do whatever he deems necessary to fight terrorism.

And check out this one.. ;o) "Stay the Course' my a**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jq0j80UB_c

More 'waterboarding' proof:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100402005.html

and a good opinion:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/15882325.htm

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601019_after_pats_birthday/

http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/american_infant?mid=240827487

The following is authored by one of my fave cousins in Oklahoma (when I had damn well given up on anyone having any political sense from that place). He penned this is response to some GOP schlock joke about Bill Clinton's sexual antics. I thought it was quite appropo!
*****

A man takes the day off work and decides to go out golfing instead of going to fly an airplane in the national guard. Boom!
He's looking for oil in Texas, but he can't find any. So 3 days before he declares bankruptcy (against SEC rules,) he sells all of his stock for $800k to Arab businessmen. Boom!
He get's his dad's buddies to invest w/him in the Texas Rangers. The citizens of Arlington pony up $100m to renovate the stadium. He sells the Rangers, makes $1m and gets a $12m bonus from his buddies. Boom!
He's running for Gov of Texas against Ann Richards, and is losing until Karl Rove suggests she is a lesbian. Boom!
He's president of the US reading "my pet goat" to school children when an opportunity to do something his dad couldn't do falls into his lap.By lying and twisting intelligence, he is able to circumvent the UN and invade a sovereign nation. Boom!
He manages to turn a budget surplus into a debt for our grandchildren, recreates the wealth distribution structure of the 1920's (w/the top 1% now owning 40% of the wealth,)
eliminates the middle class, appoints his cronies to Fema (to quickly respond to disasters,)
EPA (to ignore their own scientists recommendations about clean air,)
FDA (to rubber stamp Rx companies and insure no-bid contracts to Medicare,)
and the FCC (to ensure that media power becomes more consolidated within the five co's that now control.) Boom!
He thinks nothing of it and is about to shoot when he hears, "Ribbit Bill & Hillary Clinton" Boom!
And his 'retard minions' send emails all over the golf course reminding people that Bill was impeached for having relations w/a consenting adult female, and that Hillary could be the first serious female contender for president in our history (although Britain, many European, and SA countries have already made this "nonsensical" leap.) Boom!
Fuck It,Tee it Up

"Whatcha doin' Daddy?'
"Jes whittlin'.."
"How come?"
"Cause it helps me think."
"Kin I whittle?"
"Nah.. the knife's too sharp. You'll cut yerself."
~~~
50 years have passed since I had that conversation with my Dad.
He has long since passed over into the Big Woods in the Sky, & I assume (& trust) that he is creating intricate woodworks never even believed possible.
And in some weird fluke of fate, I have inherited that man's dream here on earth.
I am living in the log cabin he always achingly longed for. That cabin is located on top of a mountain he only read about in Louis L'Amour books.
He once told my brother that if he could live in a cabin on top of a mountain, he would keep a bucket of stones handy.. so that he could throw them at anyone who would dare try to invade his 'nirvana'.
I find that so comical, that I'm tempted to place a galvanized bucket on the porch, with a goodly supply of Tennessee sandstones.. to represent the battle against the 'intruders' that my Dad saw as modernization.
I'll label it 'Daddy's Rocks'.

Today Dan cut me a nice green branch to begin my 1st 'walking stick'.. because I am so fond of collecting them.
They represent protection, strength, stamina, & Spirit to me.
I went to my meditation room & inside the spiritual 'shrine' I took out my Dad's little Old Timer pocket knife. I blessed that little knife & walked out to the pasture where a nice fire was glowing in the firepit.
I started whittling away at the bark of my walking stick.. wishing that I could be as prolific as my Dad when he would curl up a foot long section of shaving all in one fell swoop. But I'm a beginner, & it's all baby steps.

~~~

"Ya know what, Daddy?"
"What Sande Gaye?"
"I think if the world's leaders would whittle more.. they'd be fightin' less. It might help them think.."
"Maybe so.. but they'd probly cut themselves."

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-10-02-bloggers-courts_x.htm

Here's to the goodness that October is.. cool, crisp, clean air. The fading greens of summer & the brilliant golds & reds of the trees. Ahhhhhhhh.. I could stand a year of this!


And now the bad: Pick your demon from the list.. the list of 'shame'.

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/42348

Lastly, the 'ugly'.. the swift-boating of Murtha.