NY Times Endorses Clinton

The editors of the NY Times have come out in strong support of Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for President.
In its Opinion, the Times danced between Clinton and Obama, preferring her record, her "powerful intellect" and her capacity for leadership over Obama's shallow promises of change and inexperience. In its preference, Clinton was urged to change the climate of the race and muffle the hostile outbreaks of her spouse, the former President Clinton, guiding her toward a less divisive campaign trail.

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Iraq Wants More

The NY Times reports that Iraq is asking for more time (U.S there for up to another 13 years) and more equipment (the laundry list included helicopters, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and people).

The Iraqi Defense Minister's timetable far exceeds the more optimistic projections. More importantly, his timeline lets us recognize just what horrible morass Bush has engendered. It's alarming. It's infuriating. But it's not surprising. This is what happens when you make a government impotent.

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Postmodernist

That's what the results claim. here's the poop:

What is Your World View? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Postmodernist Postmodernism is the belief in complete open interpretation. You see the universe as a collection of information with varying ways of putting it together. There is no absolute truth for you; even the most hardened facts are open to interpretation. Meaning relies on context and even the language you use to describe things should be subject to analysis. Postmodernist 100% Idealist 94% Materialist 88% Cultural Creative 88% Existentialist 75% Romanticist 50% Modernist 38% Fundamentalist 0%

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NPR Radio coverage

NPR Radio is covering the NH Primary.

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Hillary in NH

CLICK PHOTOS FOR A LARGER SIZE.





At 10PM EST, Hillary Clinton was holding a three-point lead over Obama.







Photos from the NY Times.

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The Deadliest Year

The "surge" notwithstanding, 2007 was the deadliest year in Iraq.

A day-by-day chart compiled by American and Iraqi governments and news media organizations provides the details. Altogether, 2,592 were killed. Iraqi civilian deaths were too numerous to be included in the pictorial chart. The display includes deaths from the following sources: hostile fire, homemade bomb, car bomb, suicide bomb, nonhostile/accidental/suicide and source unknown. It also portrays identities of the dead (American, Coalition or Iraqi forces, police and Iraqi security foces) and number of deaths by province.

What a piece of history to hang in the school rooms.

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The idiots are at it again

Just ten days after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto,a murder that galvanized Pakistanis into grief and violent reactions, and cast immediate suspicion on that country's president for complicity in her death, U.S. President Bush is now signaling "covert CIA operations" to combat what he perceives as a resurgence of al Quaida and the Taliban in Pakistan.

Today's NY Times reports that Bush met with senior security advisers to discuss infiltration by U.S. military and intelligence operatives. There was no official statement but the article states that more aggressive measures are being considered to stabilize the Pakistani government. In other words, call in the calvary - because Musharraff is faltering. It's not enough that the U.S. has already poured billions of dollars into Musharraff's coffers. Pity that Bush's brain is telescopic and his responses always militaristic. A pity that he cannot let go of his Reaganesque crusade against the demons of world terrorism. Such a pity that he defends terrorism, oppression, injustice, stupidity and greed in his allies and yet leads an offensive against those terrorists he cannot (or will not) capture. To capture someone like bin Laden means his affair as savior of the world must end.

This is nothing but the shade of the Iraq invasion. The figures are murkier. The motives less defined. But the public will be asked to participate, as defenders of democracy, because Pakistan has nuclear power, and woe, the infidels may be astir!

Someone needs a slap - a collective jerk - something to awaken logic - to recognize fabrication. How much longer will the U.S. idly follow this idiot? How much longer will journalists, the Congress, your neighbor, abide this drumroll, Bush's ongoing call to arms and alarms?

It has begun already - hope comes with the Huckleberry - that unwinnable contestant - and the vigor of Obama, Hillary's steel. Get Bush out before he ruins the world (any further).

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Szymborska: The Century's Decline

Apropos of the new year, a poem by Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska.

THE CENTURY'S DECLINE

Our twentieth century was going to improve on the others.
It will never prove it now,
now that its years are numbered,
its gait is shaky,
its breath is short.

Too many things have happened
that weren't supposed to happen,
and what was supposed to come about
has not.

Happiness and spring, among other things,
were supposed to be getting closer.

Fear was expected to leave the mountains and the valleys.
Truth was supposed to hit home
before a lie.

A couple of problems weren't going
to come up anymore:
hunger, for example,
and war, and so forth.


There was going to be respect
for helpless people's helplessness,
trust, that kind of stuff.

Anyone who planned to enjoy the world
is now faced
with a hopeless task.

Stupidity isn't funny.
Wisdom isn't gay.
Hope
isn't that young girl anymore,
et cetera, alas.

God was finally going to believe
in a man both good and strong,
but good and strong
are still two different men.

"How should we live?" someone asked me in a letter.
I had meant to ask him
the same question.

Again, and as ever,
as may be seen above,
the most pressing questions
are naive ones.

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Musharraf's Denial

In a 90-minute speech, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf denied that the military or intelligence community within his government was involved in Benazir Bhutto's death and placed blame on Bhutto for placing herself at risk.

According to an article appearing in today's NY Times, Musharraf said he had "invited Scotland Yard to help with the investigation into Ms. Bhutto’s death to alleviate suspicions of foul play by the government, and that he did not fear what the inquiry would reveal."

However, Musharraf will not allow the investigators to speak with the four officials named by Bhutto in a letter pointing to suspicious individuals in the event of her death. According to Musharraf, the accusations made by Bhutto last October were "political and baseless."

Read the full story here.

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Today's Throw

31. Hsien / Influence (Wooing)


above TUI THE JOYOUS, LAKE
below KêN KEEPING STILL, MOUNTAIN




The name of the hexagram means "universal," "general," and in a figurative sense "to influence," "to stimulate." The upper trigram is Tui, the Joyous; the lower is Kên, Keeping still. By its persistent, quiet influence, the lower, rigid trigram stimulates the upper, weak trigram, which responds to this stimulation cheerfully and joyously. Kên, the lower trigram, is the youngest son; the upper, Tui, is the youngest daughter. Thus the universal mutual attraction between the sexes is represented. In courtship, the masculine principle must seize the initiative and place itself below the feminine principle.

Just as the first part of book 1 begins with the hexagrams of heaven and earth, the foundations of all that exists, the second part begins with the hexagrams of courtship and marriage, the foundations of all social relationships.


THE JUDGMENT

Influence. Success.
Perseverance furthers.
To take a maiden to wife brings good fortune.

The weak element is above, the strong below; hence their powers attract each other, so that they unite. This brings about success, for all success depends on the effect of mutual attraction. By keeping still within while experiencing joy without, one can prevent the joy from going to excess and hold it within proper bounds. This is the meaning of the added admonition, "Perseverance furthers," for it is perseverance that makes the difference between seduction and courtship; in the latter the strong man takes a position inferior to that of the weak girl and shows consideration for her. This attraction between affinities is a general law of nature. Heaven and earth attract each other and thus all creatures come into being. Through such attraction the sage influences men's hearts, and thus the world attains peace. From the attractions they exert we can learn the nature of all beings in heaven and on earth.


THE IMAGE

A lake on the mountain:
The image of influence.
Thus the superior man encourages people to approach him
By his readiness to receive them.

A mountain with a lake on its summit is stimulated by the moisture from the lake. It has this advantage because its summit does not jut out as a peak but is sunken. The image counsels that the mind should be kept humble and free, so that it may remain receptive to good advice. People soon give up counseling a man who thinks that he knows everything better than anyone else.

THE LINES

Six at the beginning means:
The influence shows itself in the big toe.

A movement, before it is actually carried out, shows itself first in the toes. The idea of an influence is already present, but is not immediately apparent to others. As long as the intention has no visible effect, it is of no importance to the outside world and leads neither to good nor to evil.

Six in the second place means:
The influence shows itself in the calves of the legs.
Misfortune.
Tarrying brings good fortune.

In movement, the calf of the leg follows the foot; by itself it can neither go forward nor stand still. Since the movement is not self-governed, it bodes ill. One should wait quietly until one is impelled to action by a real influence. Then one remains uninjured.

Nine in the third place means:
The influence shows itself in the thighs.
Holds to that which follows it.
To continue is humiliating.

Every mood of the heart influences us to movement. What the heart desires, the thighs run after without a moment's hesitation; they hold to the heart, which they follow. In the life of man, however, acting on the spur of every caprice is wrong and if continued leads to humiliation. Three considerations suggest themselves here. First, a man should not run precipitately after all the persons whom he would like to influence, but must be able to hold back under certain circumstances. As little should he yield immediately to every whim of those in whose service he stands. Finally, where the moods of his own heart are concerned, he should never ignore the possibility of inhibition, for this is the basis of human freedom.

Nine in the fourth place means:
Perseverance brings good fortune.
Remorse disappears.
If a man is agitated in mind,
And his thoughts go hither and thither,
Only those friends
On whom he fixes his conscious thoughts
Will follow.

Here the place of the heart is reached. The impulse that springs from this source is the most important of all. It is of particular concern that this influence be constant and good; then, in spite of the danger arising from the great susceptibility of the human heart, there will be no cause for remorse. When the quiet power of a man's own character is at work, the effects produced are right. All those who are receptive to the vibrations of such a spirit will then be influenced. Influence over others should not express itself as a conscious and willed effort to manipulate them. Through practicing such conscious incitement, one becomes wrought up and is exhausted by the eternal stress and strain. Moreover, the effects produced are then limited to those on whom one's thoughts are consciously fixed.

Nine in the fifth place means:
The influence shows itself in the back of the neck.
No remorse.

The back of the neck is the most rigid part of the body. When the influence shows itself there, the will remains firm and the influence does not lead to confusion. Hence remorse does not enter into consideration here. What takes place in the depths of one's being, in the unconscious mind. It is true that if we cannot be influenced ourselves, we cannot influence the outside world.

Six at the top means:
The influence shows itself in the jaws, cheeks, and tongue.

The most superficial way of trying to influence others is through talk that has nothing real behind it. The influence produced by such mere tongue wagging must necessarily remain insignificant. Hence no indication is added regarding good or bad fortune.

Interpretation come from this site.

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New Year's haiku

Thanks to Sharon Brogan for the nudge - see a string of New Year's haiku at her blog, and add your own.

The tradition continues here with a few haiku to usher in 2008.

This chameleon day -
born in the pitch of midnight
turns yellow at dawn.

Twelve seedless grapes,
El Bochero in a glass -
Taste 2008!

Morning breezes sweep
tallow leaves from limbs-
housekeeping is done.

No more monsters here -
this house eats a bowl of sun,
and burps with content.

Feel free to add your own New Year's haiku.

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