All Comments (11)

What a wonderful parallel for a Democratic Government - which we have not seen, as of late! If we would only be the best Democracy we could be at home, it would do far more to interest other peoples in the democratic way. Trying to shove it down their throats with war has proven to be a disaster! Who wants a form of government that forces it's philosophy down throats with violence? Not I! How sad for Americans to be embarrassed by this war mongering in the name of America and Democracy! Shades of the Crusades!

Dear Mr Gandhi

As an Indian-Australian woman I will not speak about the US Constitution. I understand that it demands separation of religion and state. One could say that it is keeping with what Jesus said, "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God." The Sermon on the Mount makes for very bad creation of a state you know; for how is one to secure the borders of a country or protect the innocent from the criminals if there is no military, no courts and no law enforcement, merely turning the other cheek etc in accordance with the Sermon on the Mount?

I have great faith in the people of the US; no matter what may go wrong, they have a self-correcting mechanism that kicks in sooner or later. I was impressed during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, the greatest critics of the US government were the many many intellectual Americans themselves. Whichever President the people of the US choose to elect, the public will demand much of them and keep them under close watch to see if they deliver. That is the great boon of a true democracy. I'm grateful that the US, as the only super power at the moment, is a democracy and the American people will strive to keep it so.

It is my prayer that the American people will choose the president God wants for them and the world, and the president will prove his/her religion through his/her politics, and not by preaching religion. Just as your grandfather Mahatma Gandhi did.

Not every politician is a Gandhi. Someone lesser than a Gandhi would serve the purpose for which he/she is elected. Gandhis are a rare phenomenon after all and Gandhi on his part served a very important purpose at a particular time in history, showing the way how clean politics based on non-violence could be done; how even enemies could be tackled with firm love; and millions have been inspired.

As to the unfortunate incident with Christian missionaries in India you mentioned, I'm not quite sure how representative of missionary work in general that particular incident is. I'm not sure if you are aware of this, a less known part history of Christianity in Kerala: Apostle Thomas is believed to have come to Kerala in 52 AD along the trade route and converted high caste Hindus, including Nambudiri Brahmins (my Hindu ancestors being one of them). Christianity remained in Kerala for the high caste Hindu converts refused to give up their social customs and go out to preach. It wasn't until fifteen centuries later that the cofounder of the Jesuit Order, Francis Xavier came and achieved mass conversions by living among the poor and lower caste. Such a missionary attempt is fully in keeping with the way Jesus lived. As you are aware He lived among the poor and social outcastes of his day and Gandhi followed His example too.

Jesus commanded His disciples to go out into the world and preach the good news. If living a good life was sufficient, Christianity would have died out with the Apostles. Buddha went about preaching Buddhism too and Buddhist missionaries went far and wide to preach the religion. Shankarcharya went all over India to reconvert Indian Buddhists to Hinduism. How else is anyone supposed to know about a religion? Why should it be wrong to preach religion? Isn't Hinduism itself a con-federation of religions which evolved over time?

It is unfortunate that the Christian missionaries your grandfather Gandhi knew did a lousy job of preaching the good word. It must also be remembered that in your grandfather's day Christianity was viewed by the public as the religion of the rulers. The Christian missionaries in those days, in their ignorance tried to impose Western culture on Indians (which neither Apostle Thomas nor Francis Xavier did) and the Indians rejected the religion which threatened to alienate them from their culture. But that is not the way Apostle Paul and others preached Christianity. It was Paul's idea that one should adjust to the culture in which one preaches.

That is what Fr Bede Griffiths, my guru, an English Benedictine monk, tried to do - to live Christianity as any Apostle of Jesus would have done. Fr Bede integrated Hindu prayers into the Christian worship, dressed and lived like a Hindu sannyasi, tried to understand Hindu Scripture in the light of the Bible etc.

The rise of militant Hinduism in India is of grave concern to me because it goes against the priniciples for which Gandhi lived and died. I hope you may work out ways in which to tackle it right so that Hinduism retains the greatness for which it is known, namely universal acceptance of all religions.

Soja John Thaikattil
Sydney, Australia

http://famousmormons.net/ Ya Ya!

CITIZEN KANE & Follower(s), if any, Please take a Sabatical! ya Ya!

Arun Gandhi, I wish I could find someone with your grandfathers concern for all people

The Washington Post debate on Christ and Christmas is 1,900 years old

Congressional resolutions and “the war against Christmas” vs pushing once’s personal religious prejudices, is a rehash of a long history. I’m not sure where to place my now belatedly after Christmas comments. Maybe following the grandson’s of Gandhi, Arun Gandhi’s comments, or following Strarhawk’s pagan comments which were extremely unique in that she kept referring to Christ, rather than Jesus. In the past when points were made similar to hers, emphasizing secular social justice the writer would refer to Jesus not Christ. It intrigues me that she had some deep reasons for doing so, that I may be able to link to. I was unsuccessful in sighing up at her websight [ Wash-Post-editors:-note-two shorter-letters-sent-to-the-editorial-page.-“Campaign-Noise-Creates-Its-Own Truths”or-email RichardKanePA@aol.com, ]

One thing that particularly haunts me is that Jesus came to the defense of a hated Roman tax collector. No one who saw Jesus, wrote anything down, so we are doing a lot of guessing as well as believing. But there is no way anyone would think to make up the incident with the tax collector, which I will harp on later on in this posting. He also had to have stopped an execution by urging the innocent to throw the first stone, since again no reason for anyone to make up or exaggerate such an incident.

The people around him believed he had some kind of source of health care and he was trying to explain how others could get it. This isn’t a historic fact simply because science declares it to be impossible. Starting around 50 years ago we expect sunlight by flipping a swish, and more recently people to fly though the air on a TV screen. Only the animals during the last tsunamis panicked when the ocean disappeared. So all the moderators on this websight forgot to note that we no longer awe at Biblical miracles. Anyway, something about Jesus or Christ lingers, even Muslims believe they are only improving upon Jesus’s message.

The 60's was a time of reform. One 60'’s assertion that lingered that lingered was that Christmas was too commercial, leading to home drawn Christmas cards and hand-crafted presents. I wrote a Jingle to Jingle Bells. Buy buy, all the way,” “Oh what buy . . .” A think tank changed the complaint to taking Christ out of Christmas, which is far easier to make money off of then advocating refusing to buy.

Today, some believe Mike Hukabee, has gone too far in putting Christ back in Christmas, which is why this Washington Post web sight was put up. But I think he is actually, in a way, going back to the complaint against forced consumption during the Christmas season.

Anyway, Jesus stopped an execution. Which relates to a friend of mine Mumia abu-Jamal is on death row. If I want to follow Jesus or Jesus Christ, perhaps I should get my friend off of death row. Most people in Philadelphia can't stand Philadelphia being referred to as a racist city due to the Mumia trial, I’m included. This gets hyped into the lie that Philadelphians believe he is guilty. I keep tripping over working with Mumia supporters, who ostracize me for denying that racism is the issue.

Another event around me if that President Bush is being recast as the Devil Incarnate. This happened to quite a few other people including of course Adolf Hitler, who of course wasn’t all evil either. I am haunted by, “Why would Jesus befriend a hated tax collector”.

To me there is something very weird is occurring in Demon-fyng Bush. Bush’s good points such as his working well with his Texas Mexican neighbors is being condemned by most who claim to be defending Bush. So no one is defending the real George Bush. Not only does Bush want to be for immigration and both his friends and enemies won’t let him, but he also, right after 9/11 urged people not to deface Muslim businesses, humbly visited to mosque, sent an interfaith New Years greeting card his right-wing friends found offense, and worked to get Muslims involved in his faith-based annihilative.

In the summer of 2004 there was a cease-fire in Fullujah ( the locals cheered) and there was Republican talk of ending the war before the upcoming Presidential election. But a John Kerry campaign ad campaigned of terrorists hiding in Fullujah, and Bush demanded Al Sadr’s arrest. (If only Sunni’s and Shiites could know how much they now hate each other, the Sunni’s might had outed al Sadr like they later outed the blood thirsty al Qaeda leader Zarqawia.

Bush humble apologized for Abu Ghraib abuse in front of the King of Jordan. A general claimed he looked small and the King looked tall, and joined the Kerry campaign to the cheers of antiwar activists. A little praise and Guantanamo prison might be closed by now.

Hitler wanted to be an ogre or a hero depending on your politics. But the world has transformed Bush into an ogre, and there seems to be nothing he can do about it. He is all but helpless in the White House as the rest of the world forces him into the role they expect out of him.

Now the chief most public supporter of Impeachment has become Representative Robert Wexler, who has collected over 100, 000 signatures on his Impeachment petition. He earlier tried to force the President to be tougher on Iran than the President already is, and sponsored the Congressional resolution urging Congress to praise Israel’s attack on Syria Now he’s sponsoring Impeach Cheney resolutions for policies he helped format. This would be fine, if he was also apologizing for being a super hawk, www.forward.com/articles/11715/ www.njdc.org/newsdigest/detail.php?id=379/

I looked over the rules for the Washington Post web sight and noticed nothing about rules concerning length. So I am now going to paste in the three articles that got me banned from posting at Oped News (.com) after a previous comment got changed to comment hidden. The only defense of Bush that seems allowed on anti-Impeachment sights, even those who ask anti-impeachment people to explain is they are bad but not quite bad enough to Impeach. An exception is David Liftton who allows those who disagree with him to heard, www.thiscantbehappening.net/?q=node/86#comment-158/ http://tooconservative.com/?p=1737#comment-98611/ or maybe (comment-98610/)

Washington Post if you can't post the rest of my comments I hope you forward them to Starhawk and Aran Gandhi.






The way to celebrate Christmas is to try to bring peace on earth (1)

Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus didn’t like the fact that there was going to be a legal execution. He demanding that those who never committed adultery, or some similar offense, throw the first stone. No one wrote down exactly what he said. But at times he must have said something similar to, those who live by the sword die by the sword. And Jesus invented the concept of orientation being important, not just behavior, with something about lust in the heart. It is more than possible that the tremendous comfort that some people feel when they discovered or think they found Jesus was intentional on Jesus’s part, Jerusalem under occupation was quite a grim place.

He and some of the people around him believed he had some kind of source of medical care and food. Up to about 20 years ago, some called Jesus a magician. However, he kept trying to explain how he provided medical care, but we today, and those who wrote down the Bible don’t quite understand how he healed people. Some think it somehow relates to closing ones eyes and wishing real hard, or believing it so, if true, it was an extremely small part of Jesus’s abilities. Jesus didn’t insist for anyone to think that he provided health care, the way he insisted that an execution be stopped. It might be possible to believe that Jesus provided some degree of health care, without arguing with those who think Prophet Mohammad added something to Jesus’s message. There isn’t evidence that Jesus wanted people to argue about who Jesus was.

Europeans after Galileo and Darwin thought they discovered a new magic that of science, which would allow Europe to take over the world and both explain and solve every problem. We no longer think a pill, plus water, can equal a meal in the future, and now science seemed to have discovered something about most of the universe being dark energy and dark matter which we don’t understand. And with quantum theory, much of the world around us is rather than just length, width, and height, consists of time and endless other dimensions besides time. And even Darwin’s theory when reviewed with carefully math can no longer be assured to totally add up. Thus we can no longer assume that the health care, Jesus provided, was a mass hallucination.

Maybe Jesus wanted us to bring peace into our own hearts and for us to systematically try to change the people around us, to bring peace into their hearts and behavior as well, especially to try to lobby people like Bush to change their ways. Perhaps the first weeks of Cindy Sheehan’s campaign to meet with Bush and change his heart was what Jesus wanted. But now Cindy Sheehan, goes through the motions of trying to change people while she is really out to impeach and punish like everyone else.

Efforts to change Bush’s heart and policies is enclosed.

Impeachment Debate is Ruining the Progressive Agenda, (2)
Pressuring People not to Advocate Impeachment, Endangers our Freedoms

Maybe endless filibuster and gridlock is possible, but what will that accomplish? There is something destructive about wasting time on an unwinnable fight. Yet there is something undemocratic about not allowing an issue on the table for a yes or no vote. More ominously there is talk afoot that the reason Democratic politicians don’t want Impeachment is because they believe that the more Bush and Cheney mess up the better it will be for Democrats in ‘08. Thus, more than a few progressives think these dirty liberal politicians must be punished even to the point of voting for a lesser candidate.

Dennis Kusinich is an honest man. The world I’m sure is better off because this modern day Don-Quixote and bumped into it. However, Rep. Robert Wexler who is now wants to dominating the Impeachment crusade has less noble goals and ideals. He is an extreme version of Senator Joe Leiberman. Domestically he is progressive, even on kinky progressive issues, such as the rights of companion animals. But in foreign policy he is trying to force President Bush to be tougher on Iran than Bush already is. And demands that the President stop pretending evenhandedness, and openly side with Israel. He loves Armenian rights and hates Turkey. A combined Congressional Resolution demanding that the US pay restitution to Blacks and Indians as well as that Turkey acknowledge and make-amends the sins of the Ottoman Empire might be very appropriate. But singling out condemning Turkey just when tensions with Iraqi Kurds were at the boiling point approaches sabotaging US relations with Turkey, and increases tension in the region, www.forward.com/articles/11715/ /
www.njdc.org/newsdigest/detail.php?id=379

The N Y Times et all, has refused Wexler’s ad but he never tried to place an ad in the moderate Chicago Tribune, nor conservative publications. What’s happening to the money he collected? Any of it going to cash-starved efforts like some of the things Kusinich sponsors.

Trying to Impeach Cheney would be frustrating because after much filibuster and gridlock, and damaging new information, Bush would chase Cheney out of the White House across the street to the Vice President’s residence. Cheney loves to have his cake and eat it too. When it comes to the Vice President’s papers, he is suddenly a private citizen. If impeachment comes close, he will suddenly claim to have never done anything wrong, because he never had the authority to make decisions, only to give the President and legally appointed officials poor advice, and never actually did anything wrong himself, because those he made suggestions to had no obligation to listen to him. Thus, I’m sure he will claim, they not he, is responsible for what went wrong. If we would all lobby President Bush to stop allowing Federal decisions to be made informally, it would accomplish 3/4 of what impeaching Cheney would accomplish.

Cheney chased Colin Powell and George Tenant out of the White House, and might have been trying to chase Condoleezza Rice out as well. The best source of Cheney being hostile to Rice is an Internet publication called the Alternet that tries to be accurate. Unfortunately Joshua Holland quotes extensively from Sun Mung Moon’s Insight Magazine the shriller version of the revered’s Washington Times publication.
(3)
Moonies never liked Condoleezza and might have been putting trying to demote Ms. Rice in the Vice President’s mouth. “Dems whack Iraqi PM for not standing up for Israel” Read last paragraphs first www.alternet.org/bloggers/joshua/39513/

Cheney did what he could to get competent people fired and demoted for doing a good job, publicly claiming that the US needed a wake up call. And perhaps did far more. But as a private citizen offering bad advice, he may have never committed a legal crime. Let’s start hounding public officials who listen to this man’s advice, and when a tie vote in the Senate looms, won’t some Senator announce that he is going to change his vote, to vote the other way if Cheney votes?

Now for the questions of whether Bush is guilty of impeachable offences and whether only progressive politicians who oppose impeachment should be punished for not pushing the issue. I’m 62, and way back in junior-high debate club we took turns arguing each side of an issue. Anyone arguing “They’re awful, but not bad enough to be impeached” would be a poor debater. I never heard anyone argue that drunk driving is awful but the need to drive is more important, the same with abortion.

I totally agree with the pro-impeachment crowd on two points. The first that impeachment should be brought on the table, with a yes or no vote by every Congressional Representative, Also that the right-wing accusation that it’s subversive or treasonous to suggest impeachment is wrong and are themselves subverting our domestic traditions, not impeachment advocates.

Remember the talk of a possible one minute photo op between Cindy Sheehan and the President. Bush’s advisors might have been afraid that a one minute visit with a former Bush supporter who at that point felt her favorite President was making a tragic mistake, was too risky. I think Sheehan’s original plan of getting George Bush out the cage Cheney has placed him in is a good idea.

So I exaggerated the following “Don’t blame Bush” argument to finish what Cindy Sheehan started.

There used to be talk about the Ugly America, now we can be relieved that instead the world is mad at our evil President instead of at all Americans. However, a look at the world before Bush might be in order.

America formed bad habits in World War II, where scapegoating Japanese Americans was part of appealing to Americans with Nazi tendencies. Charles Lindbergh and other US neo-Nazi types loved Hitler and hated Trojo. Lindbergh tried to join the Air Force on the condition that he would only be assigned to fight the Germans. If Lindbergh and others had slashed tires during acute rubber shortage, Hitler might have won. Scapegoating “the Japs” was excellent war propaganda. Also the German and Japanese secret code was broken and frequently the US was slow to respond in order to keep it secret that we broke their code.

More recently we had the Reagan alliance, where Ronald Reagan wooed previously very progressive Catholics and Jews to tend to be conservative instead. Finally Bill Clinton managed to woo Gays and Women to be less concerned with poverty issues. But suddenly everything is George Bush Jr.’s fault. No Way.

Now to get formal:

VOTE ‘NO’ ON IMPEACHMENT: Don’t take Impeachment off the Table, Openly Debate and Vote Down a Very Bad Idea (4)

One thing Americans overwhelmingly agree on is that President Bush is messing up stem cell research. Bush allowed research on old stem cell lines indicating a go-slow approach to stem-cell research with a lot of moral oversight and review every step of the way, but he can't find advisors and scientists to help him. And of course researchers don’t want red tape and government bureaucrats breathing down their necks. Instead they scream that nothing is being done, while waiting until the next President takes office. Meanwhile, non-patent-able and thus less potentially profitable research on skin cells modified for transplant purposes is lagging.

Bush is good on immigration, changed toward Korea, he changed despite intrenched diplomats getting in the way, and so far hasn’t let Cheney force him into war with Iran. Bush apologized for Abu Ghraib abuse in front of the King of Jordan. But one only heard about looking small while the King looked tall, instead of encouraging Bush to do more.

Anyone remember the summer 2004 Republican talk of ending the war before the then upcoming election, the cease-fire in Fulujah? Locals cheered what they thought was the end of the war? A Kerry campaign ad complaining of terrorists hiding in Fulujah? Bush demanding Al Sadr's arrest? Too bad the Sunni's couldn’t foresee how much they now hate Shiites.

After a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, Indian and Pakistan were shooting at each other during scermishes on the Kasmire border. Marcoff made a bold move for peace by pulling Pakistani troops back away for the border. Colin Powel was very involved during that whole ordeal. And the President very alert and hands on. If they stopped nuclear war between India and Pakistan, he is our greatest President, saving more lives then he lost by his mistakes. Let’s use positive thinking and Mahatma Gandhian soul-force-nonviolence on our very haggard President? End this Greek Tragedy.
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june02/powell_5-30.html
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3611-2004Oct27.html/ (India denies Powell's claim)
www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_050215.htm (More India)

Maybe total war wouldn’t have resulted, so his blemishes may out way his assets. But President Bush definitely had something to due with stopping al Qaeda's plans in India and Pakistan, or at least the faction of Jihadists out for total war. And since they are losing there, they are getting particularly nasty such as bombing funeral precessions. Bush disappointed al Qaeda by not at first sending ground troops to Afghanistan, instead armed the Northern Alliance. He urged people not to deface Muslim business, visited a mosque, even had a holiday card that offended some of his Christian supporters. I agree with antiwar critics that Bush is giving al Qaeda the war they want in Iraq. But the bin Laden wing of the al Qaeda is trying to trick, force or inspire the entire Muslim world into fighting with the West. Bush has done on the average a fairly good job of preventing this, possibly better than many other Presidents would have done.

Again I say put impeachment on the table. Finally have a lawyer honestly defend Bush, without also pushing their own personal right-wing agenda, like no one ever has. Then for a change help the President do a good job. And if he really wants the Vice President to hold two jobs, he should only be forced to submit Cheney's nomination to be also be Secretary of State.

Let's stop trying to make those we disagree with, in some areas, do a bad job in areas where we agree with them. People of the world, please stop doing this. Let's take a new look at what Mahatma Gandhi meant by soul force.

RichardKanePA(with)aol.com

RichardKanePA@aol.com, 215-563-2866 22 S 22nd St Apt 305 Phila PA 19103



If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try, Again


MASSIVE CHANGE - Whether Impeachment in the US, (5)
or a Brand-New-Government in Cuba may end up Bad News

Bush came into office hot to trot for war or for creating massive changes in Iraq, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea. However, very unhappy changes in Iraq have ended his bellicoseness quite a bit but few are noticing.

Cuba has also been mellowing. The elder Castro, isn't the firebrand that executed his enemies early in the revolution, and his brother is even more mellow. Venezuela took over the role of backing progressive change elsewhere in the world.

However, since right-wing Cubans, unhappy with Republican anti-immigrant feelings have been part of the 2004 Democratic sweep, and have been an integral part of lobbing against a harsh immigration policy, no one has noticed that Cuba has been slowly but systematically mellowing. Efforts to affect foreign policy affect domestic policy as well. The fact that Innus depicted Attorney General Gonzales as a broken-English-speaking new immigrant, right before he insulted high-school basketball players, made his troubles worse than they otherwise would have been.

After Fidel is dead, future Cuban government leaders will be afraid to make too many reforms fearing the wreath of the Cuban people for giving in to the enemy (and even some guilt as well). But elderly Fidel could come out of retirement and make several sweeping changes while the US does some apologizing and make the best of both Cuba and the US get enhanced. It would save our democracy. Also, the US not falling into dictatorship would be good news for Cuba as well.

Circumstance, and refusing to believe the President, have gotten in the way of Bush changing his ways. In October 2004, in Fuluja, an Iraqi go-between arranged with commandeers in the field for insurgents to accept nominal Baghdad authority and the US troops pulled back, while the locals cheered what they thought was the end of the war. The US peace movement instead of joining them was hoping to cheer Bush being kicked out of office. A Kerry ad, complained of terrorists hiding in Fuluja. President Bush then demanded that Al Sadr be turned over for trial. Too bad Sunnis and Shiites couldn’t realize how much they’d hate each other today. Later, the Sunnies got so sick and tired of, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the extremely harsh al Qaeda leader that they turned his whereabouts over to the CIA. Bush responded with a peace proposal, but due to the tragic lose of life the last time they agreed to a cease-fire in Fuluja, al Jeelani demanded the release of 3,000 prisoners as a good will gesture before they would start negotiation. I was faxing Condoleezza Rice with no answer, suggesting that, due to Fuluja, the administration should stop assuming that the other side demanding a good will gesture had to mean they didn’t want peace.

Bush humbly apologized for Abu Ghraib Prison abuse in front of the King of Jordan, giving a harried moderate, temporarily much needed status in the Muslim world. Then one general announced "How small Bush looked" and joined the Kerry campaign to the cheers of the antiwar movement. Also, Republican Leader Bill Frist was going to call for bipartisan prison detention reform while he was making a grim Congressional report on the additional Abu Ghraib photos Congress privately viewed. But he was cut off the air by a news bulletin of Nick Berg being beheaded. If it wasn't for the two above incidents, perhaps the war might be over and Bush's Middle East policy might have changed as much as his policy toward North Korea has.

Not only did Nick Berg being beheaded cut off the Majority Leader Frist’s call for bipartisan detention reform, but the huge British antiwar demo near the start of the Iraq war with its floats puppetry and pageantry was an inspiration to watch until a terror incident knocked it off the air.
(6)
When news bulletin about terror bombs at the British Consulate in Turkey, and two synagogues was over, and the peace march back on the screen, it seemed strangely out of place. Later when organizing around the claim that the Iraq war had nothing to do with terrorism was expanding rapidly, bin Laden, on the Internet, demanded that Iraqis not vote. They voted any way, so everyone said, Bin Laden lost that round. But bin Laden’s immediate goal is a world at war, and so far his only loss has been in India and Pakistan.

So today everyone is focused on the possibility of Impeachment or short of that many are fixated at making Bush as powerless as possible.

In the early 40's Harry Truman, who later became President, suggested if it looks like "Hitler is winning we should support Stalin, and if Stalin is winning we should back Hitler." I think al Qaida might have a similar attitude toward both sides in the short period when the US might have no government. When Bush is gone, if we are still fighting Muslims, people will be looking around trying to find someone to blame. Clearly it will be the Jews. Perhaps al Qaeda is the only group that really knows what going on. Maybe it made strategic sense for Moussaoui to spend all his trial, charged with being the mastermind of 9/11, condemning and blaming his Jewish lawyer and urging Americans to blame the Jews. I say "no" to massive change in either Cuba or the US. Let's lobby Bush to change his ways like Cindy Sheehan tried in the first weeks or month of her protest when she was really trying to change Bush's mind.

Here in Philadelphia, there is minority representation on City Council. We get to vote for three at large city council delegates but five win. The two top vote getters who are not Democrats win as well. I don't believe the hype about Cuba being particularly cruel and oppressive. However, no opposition in the Cuban legislature has to mean that those unhappy with the way things are in Cuba don't express it politically. I wonder if the Cuban Constitution could be amended to include minority representation with five delegates to their Congress voting at large, with oversees Cubans allowed to also to vote. I wonder whether this would satisfy Miami Cubans who could go home in style without tearing up the place and making young Cubans think they are foreign invaders. (Also, in the US big states like NY could similarly change their state Constitution to elect five of their House of Representative seats at large.) Maybe also the US could agree to abolish Capital Punishment in exchange for Cuba doing likewise.

The inspiration of Communism at least to a certain extent detracts from bin Laden's appeal. Does anyone notice, there are no teenage Virginia Techs or Columbines in Latin America, thanks to the inspiration that Castro and Chavez gives, instead of negative, nihilistic, inspiration here in the US, and now sadly elsewhere such as Finland as well. The Middle East can seem hopeless to some until bin Laden offers the hope that you can destroy the enemy and everyone good going to heaven in the process. Strong leaders such as in Iran and Venezuela offer hope instead of al Qaeda’s “I ain’t going to take it any more” antics.

If Al Qaeda chooses an impeachment crisis in the US to throw its wait around, bin Laden's dream of removing unrestricted sex, drugs, booze, and democracy from the face of the earth may succeed. Though Al Qaeda may not succeed that much in totally outlawing booze.

I urge "VOTE NO" on impeachment. I call on other anti-Impeachment people to join the debate. Avoiding the issue or claiming that it’s subversive to discuss the matter won’t do.

RichardKanePA(@) aol.com, 215-563-2866 22 S 22nd St Apt 305 Phila PA 19103
Blog: Ramblings from the Hornets Nest http://ramblingsfromthehornetsnest.blogspot.com
www.opednews.com/author/author7816.html

Dear Aran Gandhi: (If this could be forwarded to Aran Gandhi’s email I would appreciate it.

Your grandfather invented soul-force which was more than non-violence. A big part of Satyagraha was trying to befriend those you were arguing with and to look out for their interest. Gandhi would never miss an opportunity to do a favor for someone he had reason to be mad at when they were down and out.

Some people the world likes to call all evil even though Hitler loved his wife, was good to his pets etc. Some like Mussolini we say got the trains to run on time, but that he did a lot more harm than good. George Bush is being declared an evil man like Hitler. He as Governor of Texas had personal Mexican friends across the border, and tried to do right by immigration. He also after 9/11 urged Americans not to deface Muslim property, or attack Muslims in the street, as a conservative President he had more clout to do this. Near my house some well connected University of Pennsylvania students severely beat up an Arab cab driver. Bush also had something to do with India and Pakistan managing to get along during a time of extreme crisis. It was good politics, mixed with real reasons for India to be mad at Colin Powell, and not to praise Musharraf, but doing so prevented President Bush from developing a positive self-image. After the terror attack on the Indian parliament, Indian and Pakistani troops were firing at each other across the Kashmiri border. Mushaffaf made a bold move by pulling Pakistani troops back away from the border. I believe this would have been impossible without both the input of Colin Powell and President Bush. The US doesn’t like to think about how close it got to vigilante justice, nor India and Pakistan before Indians realized they were doing what the terrorists want by giving in to violence. Today, there is extreme danger of those who admire suicide getting a hold of Pakistani nukes. You personally are in a unique position to praise what Bush and Musharraf did in 1992, which may allow future humans to exist instead of human mutants.

President Bush is very susceptible to outside influence both negative and positive. An opportunity for positive praise was missed but it may not be to late to provide it now.

Notes about Indian and Pakistani tensions relating to George Bush.
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june02/powell_5-30.html
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3611-2004Oct27.html/ (India denies Powell's claim)
www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_050215.htm (More India)

Peace, RichardKanePA@aol.com 215-563 2866 22 South 22nd Street Apt. 305 Philadelphia PA 19103

Arun Gandhi, I wish I could find someone with your grandfathers concern for all people

The Washington Post debate on Christ and Christmas is 1,900 years old

Congressional resolutions and “the war against Christmas” vs pushing once’s personal religious prejudices, is a rehash of a long history. I’m not sure where to place my now belatedly after Christmas comments. Maybe following the grandson’s of Gandhi, Arun Gandhi’s comments, or following Strarhawk’s pagan comments which were extremely unique in that she kept referring to Christ, rather than Jesus. In the past when points were made similar to hers, emphasizing secular social justice the writer would refer to Jesus not Christ. It intrigues me that she had some deep reasons for doing so, that I may be able to link to. I was unsuccessful in sighing up at her websight [ Wash-Post-editors:-note-two shorter-letters-sent-to-the-editorial-page.-“Campaign-Noise-Creates-Its-Own Truths”or-email RichardKanePA@aol.com, ]

One thing that particularly haunts me is that Jesus came to the defense of a hated Roman tax collector. No one who saw Jesus, wrote anything down, so we are doing a lot of guessing as well as believing. But there is no way anyone would think to make up the incident with the tax collector, which I will harp on later on in this posting. He also had to have stopped an execution by urging the innocent to throw the first stone, since again no reason for anyone to make up or exaggerate such an incident.

The people around him believed he had some kind of source of health care and he was trying to explain how others could get it. This isn’t a historic fact simply because science declares it to be impossible. Starting around 50 years ago we expect sunlight by flipping a swish, and more recently people to fly though the air on a TV screen. Only the animals during the last tsunamis panicked when the ocean disappeared. So all the moderators on this websight forgot to note that we no longer awe at Biblical miracles. Anyway, something about Jesus or Christ lingers, even Muslims believe they are only improving upon Jesus’s message.

The 60's was a time of reform. One 60'’s assertion that lingered that lingered was that Christmas was too commercial, leading to home drawn Christmas cards and hand-crafted presents. I wrote a Jingle to Jingle Bells. Buy buy, all the way,” “Oh what buy . . .” A think tank changed the complaint to taking Christ out of Christmas, which is far easier to make money off of then advocating refusing to buy.

Today, some believe Mike Hukabee, has gone too far in putting Christ back in Christmas, which is why this Washington Post web sight was put up. But I think he is actually, in a way, going back to the complaint against forced consumption during the Christmas season.

Anyway, Jesus stopped an execution. Which relates to a friend of mine Mumia abu-Jamal is on death row. If I want to follow Jesus or Jesus Christ, perhaps I should get my friend off of death row. Most people in Philadelphia can't stand Philadelphia being referred to as a racist city due to the Mumia trial, I’m included. This gets hyped into the lie that Philadelphians believe he is guilty. I keep tripping over working with Mumia supporters, who ostracize me for denying that racism is the issue.

Another event around me if that President Bush is being recast as the Devil Incarnate. This happened to quite a few other people including of course Adolf Hitler, who of course wasn’t all evil either. I am haunted by, “Why would Jesus befriend a hated tax collector”.

To me there is something very weird is occurring in Demon-fyng Bush. Bush’s good points such as his working well with his Texas Mexican neighbors is being condemned by most who claim to be defending Bush. So no one is defending the real George Bush. Not only does Bush want to be for immigration and both his friends and enemies won’t let him, but he also, right after 9/11 urged people not to deface Muslim businesses, humbly visited to mosque, sent an interfaith New Years greeting card his right-wing friends found offense, and worked to get Muslims involved in his faith-based annihilative.

In the summer of 2004 there was a cease-fire in Fullujah ( the locals cheered) and there was Republican talk of ending the war before the upcoming Presidential election. But a John Kerry campaign ad campaigned of terrorists hiding in Fullujah, and Bush demanded Al Sadr’s arrest. (If only Sunni’s and Shiites could know how much they now hate each other, the Sunni’s might had outed al Sadr like they later outed the blood thirsty al Qaeda leader Zarqawia.

Bush humble apologized for Abu Ghraib abuse in front of the King of Jordan. A general claimed he looked small and the King looked tall, and joined the Kerry campaign to the cheers of antiwar activists. A little praise and Guantanamo prison might be closed by now.

Hitler wanted to be an ogre or a hero depending on your politics. But the world has transformed Bush into an ogre, and there seems to be nothing he can do about it. He is all but helpless in the White House as the rest of the world forces him into the role they expect out of him.

Now the chief most public supporter of Impeachment has become Representative Robert Wexler, who has collected over 100, 000 signatures on his Impeachment petition. He earlier tried to force the President to be tougher on Iran than the President already is, and sponsored the Congressional resolution urging Congress to praise Israel’s attack on Syria Now he’s sponsoring Impeach Cheney resolutions for policies he helped format. This would be fine, if he was also apologizing for being a super hawk, www.forward.com/articles/11715/ www.njdc.org/newsdigest/detail.php?id=379/

I looked over the rules for the Washington Post web sight and noticed nothing about rules concerning length. So I am now going to paste in the three articles that got me banned from posting at Oped News (.com) after a previous comment got changed to comment hidden. The only defense of Bush that seems allowed on anti-Impeachment sights, even those who ask anti-impeachment people to explain is they are bad but not quite bad enough to Impeach. An exception is David Liftton who allows those who disagree with him to heard, www.thiscantbehappening.net/?q=node/86#comment-158/ http://tooconservative.com/?p=1737#comment-98611/ or maybe (comment-98610/)

Washington Post if you can't post the rest of my comments I hope you forward them to Starhawk and Aran Gandhi.






The way to celebrate Christmas is to try to bring peace on earth (1)

Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus didn’t like the fact that there was going to be a legal execution. He demanding that those who never committed adultery, or some similar offense, throw the first stone. No one wrote down exactly what he said. But at times he must have said something similar to, those who live by the sword die by the sword. And Jesus invented the concept of orientation being important, not just behavior, with something about lust in the heart. It is more than possible that the tremendous comfort that some people feel when they discovered or think they found Jesus was intentional on Jesus’s part, Jerusalem under occupation was quite a grim place.

He and some of the people around him believed he had some kind of source of medical care and food. Up to about 20 years ago, some called Jesus a magician. However, he kept trying to explain how he provided medical care, but we today, and those who wrote down the Bible don’t quite understand how he healed people. Some think it somehow relates to closing ones eyes and wishing real hard, or believing it so, if true, it was an extremely small part of Jesus’s abilities. Jesus didn’t insist for anyone to think that he provided health care, the way he insisted that an execution be stopped. It might be possible to believe that Jesus provided some degree of health care, without arguing with those who think Prophet Mohammad added something to Jesus’s message. There isn’t evidence that Jesus wanted people to argue about who Jesus was.

Europeans after Galileo and Darwin thought they discovered a new magic that of science, which would allow Europe to take over the world and both explain and solve every problem. We no longer think a pill, plus water, can equal a meal in the future, and now science seemed to have discovered something about most of the universe being dark energy and dark matter which we don’t understand. And with quantum theory, much of the world around us is rather than just length, width, and height, consists of time and endless other dimensions besides time. And even Darwin’s theory when reviewed with carefully math can no longer be assured to totally add up. Thus we can no longer assume that the health care, Jesus provided, was a mass hallucination.

Maybe Jesus wanted us to bring peace into our own hearts and for us to systematically try to change the people around us, to bring peace into their hearts and behavior as well, especially to try to lobby people like Bush to change their ways. Perhaps the first weeks of Cindy Sheehan’s campaign to meet with Bush and change his heart was what Jesus wanted. But now Cindy Sheehan, goes through the motions of trying to change people while she is really out to impeach and punish like everyone else.

Efforts to change Bush’s heart and policies is enclosed.

Impeachment Debate is Ruining the Progressive Agenda, (2)
Pressuring People not to Advocate Impeachment, Endangers our Freedoms

Maybe endless filibuster and gridlock is possible, but what will that accomplish? There is something destructive about wasting time on an unwinnable fight. Yet there is something undemocratic about not allowing an issue on the table for a yes or no vote. More ominously there is talk afoot that the reason Democratic politicians don’t want Impeachment is because they believe that the more Bush and Cheney mess up the better it will be for Democrats in ‘08. Thus, more than a few progressives think these dirty liberal politicians must be punished even to the point of voting for a lesser candidate.

Dennis Kusinich is an honest man. The world I’m sure is better off because this modern day Don-Quixote and bumped into it. However, Rep. Robert Wexler who is now wants to dominating the Impeachment crusade has less noble goals and ideals. He is an extreme version of Senator Joe Leiberman. Domestically he is progressive, even on kinky progressive issues, such as the rights of companion animals. But in foreign policy he is trying to force President Bush to be tougher on Iran than Bush already is. And demands that the President stop pretending evenhandedness, and openly side with Israel. He loves Armenian rights and hates Turkey. A combined Congressional Resolution demanding that the US pay restitution to Blacks and Indians as well as that Turkey acknowledge and make-amends the sins of the Ottoman Empire might be very appropriate. But singling out condemning Turkey just when tensions with Iraqi Kurds were at the boiling point approaches sabotaging US relations with Turkey, and increases tension in the region, www.forward.com/articles/11715/ /
www.njdc.org/newsdigest/detail.php?id=379

The N Y Times et all, has refused Wexler’s ad but he never tried to place an ad in the moderate Chicago Tribune, nor conservative publications. What’s happening to the money he collected? Any of it going to cash-starved efforts like some of the things Kusinich sponsors.

Trying to Impeach Cheney would be frustrating because after much filibuster and gridlock, and damaging new information, Bush would chase Cheney out of the White House across the street to the Vice President’s residence. Cheney loves to have his cake and eat it too. When it comes to the Vice President’s papers, he is suddenly a private citizen. If impeachment comes close, he will suddenly claim to have never done anything wrong, because he never had the authority to make decisions, only to give the President and legally appointed officials poor advice, and never actually did anything wrong himself, because those he made suggestions to had no obligation to listen to him. Thus, I’m sure he will claim, they not he, is responsible for what went wrong. If we would all lobby President Bush to stop allowing Federal decisions to be made informally, it would accomplish 3/4 of what impeaching Cheney would accomplish.

Cheney chased Colin Powell and George Tenant out of the White House, and might have been trying to chase Condoleezza Rice out as well. The best source of Cheney being hostile to Rice is an Internet publication called the Alternet that tries to be accurate. Unfortunately Joshua Holland quotes extensively from Sun Mung Moon’s Insight Magazine the shriller version of the revered’s Washington Times publication.
(3)
Moonies never liked Condoleezza and might have been putting trying to demote Ms. Rice in the Vice President’s mouth. “Dems whack Iraqi PM for not standing up for Israel” Read last paragraphs first www.alternet.org/bloggers/joshua/39513/

Cheney did what he could to get competent people fired and demoted for doing a good job, publicly claiming that the US needed a wake up call. And perhaps did far more. But as a private citizen offering bad advice, he may have never committed a legal crime. Let’s start hounding public officials who listen to this man’s advice, and when a tie vote in the Senate looms, won’t some Senator announce that he is going to change his vote, to vote the other way if Cheney votes?

Now for the questions of whether Bush is guilty of impeachable offences and whether only progressive politicians who oppose impeachment should be punished for not pushing the issue. I’m 62, and way back in junior-high debate club we took turns arguing each side of an issue. Anyone arguing “They’re awful, but not bad enough to be impeached” would be a poor debater. I never heard anyone argue that drunk driving is awful but the need to drive is more important, the same with abortion.

I totally agree with the pro-impeachment crowd on two points. The first that impeachment should be brought on the table, with a yes or no vote by every Congressional Representative, Also that the right-wing accusation that it’s subversive or treasonous to suggest impeachment is wrong and are themselves subverting our domestic traditions, not impeachment advocates.

Remember the talk of a possible one minute photo op between Cindy Sheehan and the President. Bush’s advisors might have been afraid that a one minute visit with a former Bush supporter who at that point felt her favorite President was making a tragic mistake, was too risky. I think Sheehan’s original plan of getting George Bush out the cage Cheney has placed him in is a good idea.

So I exaggerated the following “Don’t blame Bush” argument to finish what Cindy Sheehan started.

There used to be talk about the Ugly America, now we can be relieved that instead the world is mad at our evil President instead of at all Americans. However, a look at the world before Bush might be in order.

America formed bad habits in World War II, where scapegoating Japanese Americans was part of appealing to Americans with Nazi tendencies. Charles Lindbergh and other US neo-Nazi types loved Hitler and hated Trojo. Lindbergh tried to join the Air Force on the condition that he would only be assigned to fight the Germans. If Lindbergh and others had slashed tires during acute rubber shortage, Hitler might have won. Scapegoating “the Japs” was excellent war propaganda. Also the German and Japanese secret code was broken and frequently the US was slow to respond in order to keep it secret that we broke their code.

More recently we had the Reagan alliance, where Ronald Reagan wooed previously very progressive Catholics and Jews to tend to be conservative instead. Finally Bill Clinton managed to woo Gays and Women to be less concerned with poverty issues. But suddenly everything is George Bush Jr.’s fault. No Way.

Now to get formal:

VOTE ‘NO’ ON IMPEACHMENT: Don’t take Impeachment off the Table, Openly Debate and Vote Down a Very Bad Idea (4)

One thing Americans overwhelmingly agree on is that President Bush is messing up stem cell research. Bush allowed research on old stem cell lines indicating a go-slow approach to stem-cell research with a lot of moral oversight and review every step of the way, but he can't find advisors and scientists to help him. And of course researchers don’t want red tape and government bureaucrats breathing down their necks. Instead they scream that nothing is being done, while waiting until the next President takes office. Meanwhile, non-patent-able and thus less potentially profitable research on skin cells modified for transplant purposes is lagging.

Bush is good on immigration, changed toward Korea, he changed despite intrenched diplomats getting in the way, and so far hasn’t let Cheney force him into war with Iran. Bush apologized for Abu Ghraib abuse in front of the King of Jordan. But one only heard about looking small while the King looked tall, instead of encouraging Bush to do more.

Anyone remember the summer 2004 Republican talk of ending the war before the then upcoming election, the cease-fire in Fulujah? Locals cheered what they thought was the end of the war? A Kerry campaign ad complaining of terrorists hiding in Fulujah? Bush demanding Al Sadr's arrest? Too bad the Sunni's couldn’t foresee how much they now hate Shiites.

After a terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001, Indian and Pakistan were shooting at each other during scermishes on the Kasmire border. Marcoff made a bold move for peace by pulling Pakistani troops back away for the border. Colin Powel was very involved during that whole ordeal. And the President very alert and hands on. If they stopped nuclear war between India and Pakistan, he is our greatest President, saving more lives then he lost by his mistakes. Let’s use positive thinking and Mahatma Gandhian soul-force-nonviolence on our very haggard President? End this Greek Tragedy.
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june02/powell_5-30.html
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3611-2004Oct27.html/ (India denies Powell's claim)
www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_050215.htm (More India)

Maybe total war wouldn’t have resulted, so his blemishes may out way his assets. But President Bush definitely had something to due with stopping al Qaeda's plans in India and Pakistan, or at least the faction of Jihadists out for total war. And since they are losing there, they are getting particularly nasty such as bombing funeral precessions. Bush disappointed al Qaeda by not at first sending ground troops to Afghanistan, instead armed the Northern Alliance. He urged people not to deface Muslim business, visited a mosque, even had a holiday card that offended some of his Christian supporters. I agree with antiwar critics that Bush is giving al Qaeda the war they want in Iraq. But the bin Laden wing of the al Qaeda is trying to trick, force or inspire the entire Muslim world into fighting with the West. Bush has done on the average a fairly good job of preventing this, possibly better than many other Presidents would have done.

Again I say put impeachment on the table. Finally have a lawyer honestly defend Bush, without also pushing their own personal right-wing agenda, like no one ever has. Then for a change help the President do a good job. And if he really wants the Vice President to hold two jobs, he should only be forced to submit Cheney's nomination to be also be Secretary of State.

Let's stop trying to make those we disagree with, in some areas, do a bad job in areas where we agree with them. People of the world, please stop doing this. Let's take a new look at what Mahatma Gandhi meant by soul force.

RichardKanePA(with)aol.com

RichardKanePA@aol.com, 215-563-2866 22 S 22nd St Apt 305 Phila PA 19103



If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try, Again


MASSIVE CHANGE - Whether Impeachment in the US, (5)
or a Brand-New-Government in Cuba may end up Bad News

Bush came into office hot to trot for war or for creating massive changes in Iraq, Cuba, Iran, and North Korea. However, very unhappy changes in Iraq have ended his bellicoseness quite a bit but few are noticing.

Cuba has also been mellowing. The elder Castro, isn't the firebrand that executed his enemies early in the revolution, and his brother is even more mellow. Venezuela took over the role of backing progressive change elsewhere in the world.

However, since right-wing Cubans, unhappy with Republican anti-immigrant feelings have been part of the 2004 Democratic sweep, and have been an integral part of lobbing against a harsh immigration policy, no one has noticed that Cuba has been slowly but systematically mellowing. Efforts to affect foreign policy affect domestic policy as well. The fact that Innus depicted Attorney General Gonzales as a broken-English-speaking new immigrant, right before he insulted high-school basketball players, made his troubles worse than they otherwise would have been.

After Fidel is dead, future Cuban government leaders will be afraid to make too many reforms fearing the wreath of the Cuban people for giving in to the enemy (and even some guilt as well). But elderly Fidel could come out of retirement and make several sweeping changes while the US does some apologizing and make the best of both Cuba and the US get enhanced. It would save our democracy. Also, the US not falling into dictatorship would be good news for Cuba as well.

Circumstance, and refusing to believe the President, have gotten in the way of Bush changing his ways. In October 2004, in Fuluja, an Iraqi go-between arranged with commandeers in the field for insurgents to accept nominal Baghdad authority and the US troops pulled back, while the locals cheered what they thought was the end of the war. The US peace movement instead of joining them was hoping to cheer Bush being kicked out of office. A Kerry ad, complained of terrorists hiding in Fuluja. President Bush then demanded that Al Sadr be turned over for trial. Too bad Sunnis and Shiites couldn’t realize how much they’d hate each other today. Later, the Sunnies got so sick and tired of, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the extremely harsh al Qaeda leader that they turned his whereabouts over to the CIA. Bush responded with a peace proposal, but due to the tragic lose of life the last time they agreed to a cease-fire in Fuluja, al Jeelani demanded the release of 3,000 prisoners as a good will gesture before they would start negotiation. I was faxing Condoleezza Rice with no answer, suggesting that, due to Fuluja, the administration should stop assuming that the other side demanding a good will gesture had to mean they didn’t want peace.

Bush humbly apologized for Abu Ghraib Prison abuse in front of the King of Jordan, giving a harried moderate, temporarily much needed status in the Muslim world. Then one general announced "How small Bush looked" and joined the Kerry campaign to the cheers of the antiwar movement. Also, Republican Leader Bill Frist was going to call for bipartisan prison detention reform while he was making a grim Congressional report on the additional Abu Ghraib photos Congress privately viewed. But he was cut off the air by a news bulletin of Nick Berg being beheaded. If it wasn't for the two above incidents, perhaps the war might be over and Bush's Middle East policy might have changed as much as his policy toward North Korea has.

Not only did Nick Berg being beheaded cut off the Majority Leader Frist’s call for bipartisan detention reform, but the huge British antiwar demo near the start of the Iraq war with its floats puppetry and pageantry was an inspiration to watch until a terror incident knocked it off the air.
(6)
When news bulletin about terror bombs at the British Consulate in Turkey, and two synagogues was over, and the peace march back on the screen, it seemed strangely out of place. Later when organizing around the claim that the Iraq war had nothing to do with terrorism was expanding rapidly, bin Laden, on the Internet, demanded that Iraqis not vote. They voted any way, so everyone said, Bin Laden lost that round. But bin Laden’s immediate goal is a world at war, and so far his only loss has been in India and Pakistan.

So today everyone is focused on the possibility of Impeachment or short of that many are fixated at making Bush as powerless as possible.

In the early 40's Harry Truman, who later became President, suggested if it looks like "Hitler is winning we should support Stalin, and if Stalin is winning we should back Hitler." I think al Qaida might have a similar attitude toward both sides in the short period when the US might have no government. When Bush is gone, if we are still fighting Muslims, people will be looking around trying to find someone to blame. Clearly it will be the Jews. Perhaps al Qaeda is the only group that really knows what going on. Maybe it made strategic sense for Moussaoui to spend all his trial, charged with being the mastermind of 9/11, condemning and blaming his Jewish lawyer and urging Americans to blame the Jews. I say "no" to massive change in either Cuba or the US. Let's lobby Bush to change his ways like Cindy Sheehan tried in the first weeks or month of her protest when she was really trying to change Bush's mind.

Here in Philadelphia, there is minority representation on City Council. We get to vote for three at large city council delegates but five win. The two top vote getters who are not Democrats win as well. I don't believe the hype about Cuba being particularly cruel and oppressive. However, no opposition in the Cuban legislature has to mean that those unhappy with the way things are in Cuba don't express it politically. I wonder if the Cuban Constitution could be amended to include minority representation with five delegates to their Congress voting at large, with oversees Cubans allowed to also to vote. I wonder whether this would satisfy Miami Cubans who could go home in style without tearing up the place and making young Cubans think they are foreign invaders. (Also, in the US big states like NY could similarly change their state Constitution to elect five of their House of Representative seats at large.) Maybe also the US could agree to abolish Capital Punishment in exchange for Cuba doing likewise.

The inspiration of Communism at least to a certain extent detracts from bin Laden's appeal. Does anyone notice, there are no teenage Virginia Techs or Columbines in Latin America, thanks to the inspiration that Castro and Chavez gives, instead of negative, nihilistic, inspiration here in the US, and now sadly elsewhere such as Finland as well. The Middle East can seem hopeless to some until bin Laden offers the hope that you can destroy the enemy and everyone good going to heaven in the process. Strong leaders such as in Iran and Venezuela offer hope instead of al Qaeda’s “I ain’t going to take it any more” antics.

If Al Qaeda chooses an impeachment crisis in the US to throw its wait around, bin Laden's dream of removing unrestricted sex, drugs, booze, and democracy from the face of the earth may succeed. Though Al Qaeda may not succeed that much in totally outlawing booze.

I urge "VOTE NO" on impeachment. I call on other anti-Impeachment people to join the debate. Avoiding the issue or claiming that it’s subversive to discuss the matter won’t do.

RichardKanePA(@) aol.com, 215-563-2866 22 S 22nd St Apt 305 Phila PA 19103
Blog: Ramblings from the Hornets Nest http://ramblingsfromthehornetsnest.blogspot.com
www.opednews.com/author/author7816.html

Dear Aran Gandhi: (If this could be forwarded to Aran Gandhi’s email I would appreciate it.

Your grandfather invented soul-force which was more than non-violence. A big part of Satyagraha was trying to befriend those you were arguing with and to look out for their interest. Gandhi would never miss an opportunity to do a favor for someone he had reason to be mad at when they were down and out.

Some people the world likes to call all evil even though Hitler loved his wife, was good to his pets etc. Some like Mussolini we say got the trains to run on time, but that he did a lot more harm than good. George Bush is being declared an evil man like Hitler. He as Governor of Texas had personal Mexican friends across the border, and tried to do right by immigration. He also after 9/11 urged Americans not to deface Muslim property, or attack Muslims in the street, as a conservative President he had more clout to do this. Near my house some well connected University of Pennsylvania students severely beat up an Arab cab driver. Bush also had something to do with India and Pakistan managing to get along during a time of extreme crisis. It was good politics, mixed with real reasons for India to be mad at Colin Powell, and not to praise Musharraf, but doing so prevented President Bush from developing a positive self-image. After the terror attack on the Indian parliament, Indian and Pakistani troops were firing at each other across the Kashmiri border. Mushaffaf made a bold move by pulling Pakistani troops back away from the border. I believe this would have been impossible without both the input of Colin Powell and President Bush. The US doesn’t like to think about how close it got to vigilante justice, nor India and Pakistan before Indians realized they were doing what the terrorists want by giving in to violence. Today, there is extreme danger of those who admire suicide getting a hold of Pakistani nukes. You personally are in a unique position to praise what Bush and Musharraf did in 1992, which may allow future humans to exist instead of human mutants.

President Bush is very susceptible to outside influence both negative and positive. An opportunity for positive praise was missed but it may not be to late to provide it now.

Notes about Indian and Pakistani tensions relating to George Bush.
www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/asia/jan-june02/powell_5-30.html
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3611-2004Oct27.html/ (India denies Powell's claim)
www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_050215.htm (More India)

Peace, RichardKanePA@aol.com 215-563 2866 22 South 22nd Street Apt. 305 Philadelphia PA 19103

"The day you stop talking about how good Christianity is and start living it, everyone will want to become a Christian."

Straight to the heart of the matter.

"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven."

Mohandas K. Gandhi's life was far more exemplary of Christianity than most persons claiming to be Christian, including myself. He and Jesus had much of value in common: non-violence, concern for the poor and disenfranchised, and a zeal for his God, inter alia. Neither simply talked the talk; each walked the walk and paid the price with his life.

Perhaps in time lunatics will begin to kill in the name of Gandhi even as they now kill in the name of Jesus Christ.

Were politicians to live according to the principles and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi or Jesus Christ, it would be pointless to ask whether or not they were religious or what beliefs they held. But then, they probably wouldn't be politicians.

I was with you right up to the frightening last sentence: "put the Sermon on the Mount where it belongs: front and center of our Constitution."

The ideals of Christianity are no better expressed than in the injunction to "love thy neighbor as thyself." However, since freedom of conscience is at the core of human dignity, a just government manifests this ideal via the following three principals: freedom of religion, equality under the law, and democracy. In other words, Christian ideals (human ideals, actually, expressed here from the Christian tradition) imply SECULAR government.

A president that singlemindedly governed from these ideals, not only domestically but (especially) globally, would be a great president. We have no such possibility in this election, although Dennis Kucinich seems like he would at least try to govern this way.

Arun Gandhi,

Your essay cut to the heart of what is wrong with religion in politics here in America. I have saved your grandfather's observation in my list of favorite quotations.

Mr. Gandhi has zoomed to the core of what's wrong with American political candidates proclaiming their fidelity to the Bible and the Christian religion--and then labeling as "secularists" any who question their motives and actions. The reaction of many of us who hear those proclamations of religious belief is NOT, "Boy. I am going to attack this person for being religious and for being a Christian." Our reaction, rather, is "Being a faithful follower of the teaching of Jesus Christ is fine. But what has that go to do with you?"

Without going into a lot of abstract thought, does anyone not understand why I would have asked that question in regard to any of the following "Christians" running for office:
Jim Bakker
Tammy Fay Bakker
Jimmy Swaggart
Ron Haggard
Senator Craig (of bathroom cubicle fame)
Senator Vitter (of brothel fame)
Newt Gingrich
Rudy Giuliani
Senator John McCain
Ralph Reed

No one mocks the above for being Christians. We mock them for being caught with their pants down; for having their hands in the till; for running scam operations; for being homosexual hypocrites; for being up to their eyeballs in Washington insider corruption; for destroying families for no other purpose than turning in their current wife on a younger and prettier model.

It's been obvious for a long time that Republicans have forgotten one simple truth: God did not give us the 10 Commandments to post on the school house wall and place in stone on every courthouse lawn. God gave us the 10 Commandments to live by. You don't serve God by having the 10 Commandments publicly displayed for you and others to read over and over again. You serve God by reading the 10 Commandments once and then living by them all the days of your life.

Republicans, however, are caught in a death spiral. The more they shout for hypocritical public displays of religious commitment, the less Christian and moral they become--which leads them to shout even more for hypocritical public displays, etc. What's sad for Republicans but great for the United States is that most Americans now see through this hypocrisy and are saying, "enough!"

Your column jumped out at me, and I had the following revelation:

religion is given too much importance in the USA.

By that, I mean that when we evaluate a person's suitability for public office, we Americans treat religion as if it sits alone on the right side of our scales with everything else piled up on the left side. We look for balance, but that balance is skewed to giving undue weight to a person's belief in the supernatural.

I can think of much better balances, even if we keep the lopsided model above. Surely, the scales would be better balanced if the right side of the scales were occupied solely by integrity, or intelligence, or experience with religion placed somewhere in the mix with "everything else" on the left.

But, that ain't gonna happen this time around, is it?