Tecumsah's curse anybody?

I post this as it has to do with rEVOLUTION to my mind. It's distinctly about NOW. It's an awful lot better than some dreadful "channelings" I have read. Maya del Mar's site has many, many, many remarks on this chart, but no reading of current progressions.

Tell me WHY the powers that be (PTB) let this man assume office and stay there. They are privy to all this stuff, same as us. Merely to convince us they are TRULY OUT of THEIR MINDS .. so that we stay very, very afraid ...? HEY, GUYZ, it ain't working!! Some of us have a life, a mind, an intellectual and a heart ... and guess what! There are many, many of us.

But please! Have heart and spare us another bozo/bully cowby who adores "playing" Commander/Decider-in-chief. We give! We don't want the karmic lesson!

V.



George Bush Astrology – A Major Karmic Moment In the Destiny of the US
by Robert Wilkinson

Since the President is directly responsible for 1/7 of the total karma of the US, it’s useful to examine Dubya’s chart from time to time to see just how badly he’s messing up our collective karma and destiny. Right now his progressions and transits indicate he’s a miserable person in a situation of his own making, and there are major events of global importance coming, none of them good. Today we will consider the progressions, since there are several that show his life is sinking into a miserable morass of dysfunction in the immediate future through the rest of his life.

Astrologers should consider these factors, as all of them are recently separating and therefore within the “hot zone” of volatility, or are forming, showing things to come in the fairly near future. In 2005 (and therefore still in effect) his progressed Mars paralleled Jupiter while progressed Jupiter contraparalleled his natal Mars, while at the same time his progressed Venus squared Saturn and biseptiled his Sun.

These Mars-Jupiter aspects exaggerate any potential hassles, while the Venus-Saturn aspect teaches some very hard lessons about expectations and relationships involving control issues. Taken together these are fairly difficult, and tend toward overdoing things to excess with accompanying irrational and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. They’re all highly active as you read this. He of course has a choice to change his behavior, but he is guided by forces of desire mind and delusion that are out of control.

Even now there are calls in numerous State Legislatures for his impeachment, his domestic and foreign policy agendas are in shambles, the US economy is beginning to show signs of leakage and fraying at the edges, both political parties are in open revolt against his illegal and fascistic domestic spying and international torture policies, and his innermost advisors are jumping ship or under legal scrutiny and/or criminal indictment. There are more “real-world” things indicated by the progressed aspects, but from here we’ll take it back to the astrological factors at work in the chart of our Incompetent-In-Chief.

Because Venus is so unstable and depressed, it is definitely affecting his Libra stellium, and therefore his Moon, ruler of his Cancer planets. He is not doing very well at present, emotionally or socially. There is probably a very large imbalance between what he wants to see and what is presenting itself, and without a doubt he’s hassled almost every day at present. It is safe to say he probably needs to grow up and stop being so touchy, smug, proud, and inflexible. A sketch of Bush's natal chart at this link.

Another factor is his progressed Mercury moved into Virgo in Summer 2005. He was supposed to be learning discernment, but he doesn’t seem to have taken that to heart, giving his overwhelming arrogance. The second degree of Virgo is particularly difficult, if we are to believe the Sabian Symbols. Mercury began its transit of that degree in early April, and its influence will last through early 2007, promising him an ordeal and/or a “crucifixion” of some sort.

Added to the above influences, his progressed Saturn is about to conjunct Trans-Pluto, or Percephone, showing he has a rendezvous with “Divine Mother” in his near future. This will definitely change his life forever. Either he becomes a redeemer of the promise of a life-affirming planet, or he will probably wind up in the proverbial “underworld” for a period of time, never an easy thing, but necessary if we are to become people of depth rather than superficial children in adult bodies.

More news that is not good for our Incompetent-In-Chief. His progressed Moon is about to conjunct his South Node this July, usually showing a time where he needs to lay low, say little, and follow through on things rather than push. That’s not exactly what we can expect from his dysfunctional personality.

Then we find his progressed Sun is exactly semisquare Saturn at the same time his progressed Mars conjuncts his ruling Moon in September 2006. This would indicate that as the Summer progresses, Bush’s presidency and his personality are going to crash, and he’ll be prone to rash behaviors, conflict with authority figures, and fairly depressed and anxious at the same time. Emotionally rash while struggling with the load of responsibility all add up to a big mess in the very near future.

An aspect is most volatile just after an aspect is exact, so be alert to what’s up beginning August, as it won’t be pretty for Bush and his criminal agenda from that point on. The Mars/Jupiter parallel and contraparallel gave him just enough rope to hang himself, and now the world sees him being hoist on his own petard. He will be prone to radical thinking and feelings that will be difficult, perhaps even violent, so we can only hope someone is able to put a leash on what may become a reprise of Captain Queeg disintegrating in “The Caine Mutiny.”

Bush is going through perhaps the hardest and most volatile period of his entire life over the next couple of years, and I hope he learns he needs to change, becoming more emotionally mature and stable enough to handle it. As it is, expect our country also to go through an incredibly destabilizing, volatile, and revolutionary period, where a new order will challenge the willfulness of the old order.

Looking ahead to 2007, we see that Bush’s progressed Mercury is exactly semisquare Jupiter in May 2007, capped off by the slow-moving progressed Saturn exactly semisquare volatile and unpredictable Uranus in November 2007. All of these multiple difficult aspects indicate this is a major point in Dubya’s life, and as none of the aspects look particularly favorable we can deduce that the man is going to go through the dark night of his Soul, what little he seems to have functioning. And that really is more to be pitied than censured, even if he did volunteer to be the most mean-spirited, selfish, and incompetent President the United States has ever suffered.

What he's been going through here. I wrote it January 23, 2006, so examine what's been happening these past 3 months in the light of what was written. It dovetails with this article.
April 27, 2006

www.typepad.com/t/trackback/4759339

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/04/28/democracy_20.php

Democracy 2.0
Timothy Karr
April 28, 2006


Timothy Karr is campaign director for Free Press , which is coordinating the SavetheInternet.com coalition.

As of this morning, more than 1,500 blogs have taken up a new cause, posting links to SavetheInternet.com and urging their readers to call on members of Congress to stand firm in defense of Internet freedom.

And, for the first time in blogger history, the Hill is hearing it.

The cyberstorm is over “Net Neutrality,” the principle that prevents large telephone and cable companies from controlling what we do, where we go and what we watch online. As part of a vote on new telecommunications legislation on Wednesday, House Energy and Commerce Committee members defeated an amendment by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., that would have protected net neutrality by a count of 34-22.

What's remarkable about this result is the shift that occurred on Capitol Hill in the week prior to the vote. An unlikely coalition of political activists from the right and left, consumer groups, bloggers and Internet gurus banded together at SavetheInternet.com and sent more than 250,000 letters to Congress. This sparked an Internet revolt among bloggers who heaped scorn upon any member of the House who dared side with companies like AT&T and Verizon, which are spending millions of dollars in Washington to dismantle the rules that would stop their plans to control Internet content.

When it came time to vote on Markey's amendment, two Democrats on the committee switched their previous votes to favor net neutrality and several others, who had been undecided, also voted for the amendment, citing the explosion of public interest in the issue.

More elected officials on both sides of the aisle, in both the House and the Senate are now monitoring the pulse of the blogosphere as this issue spreads offline.

"We would not have turned the corner in this fight without your blogs, your voices," Congressman Markey said yesterday during a teleconference with bloggers. "We need to put every member of Congress on record on where they stand on the future of the Internet," Markey said. That momentum has shifted in Congress, he continued, "is a reflection of the rumbling in cyberspace about what's going on with this bill."

Bloggers from left, right and center, including DailyKos, BuzzMachine, Atrios, Instapundit and even actress Alyssa Milano, called on their readers to pay very close attention to this issue. They’ve urged everybody to go after any elected representative who ignores the public interest in favor of the well-heeled telephone and cable lobbyists that have swarmed Capitol Hill as representatives attempt to rewrite telecommunications law.

Undaunted by the committee defeat, Markey is now rallying colleagues on the left and the right to support the introduction of his Network Neutrality Amendment onto the full floor of the House next week.

But it's an uphill battle. For the amendment to be voted upon by all members, it has to first get past the House's gatekeepers on the Rules Committee, which Rolling Stone ’s Matt Taibbi calls , "the free world's outstanding bureaucratic abomination—a tiny, airless closet deep in the labyrinth of the Capitol where some of the very meanest people on earth spend their days cleaning democracy like a fish."

This 13-member committee (nine Republicans and four Democrats) holds the congressional agenda in its grip. If Rules votes down your amendment, your amendment is DOA. Bloggers are banding together to ensure that no member of Congress gets off the hook that easily.

"There's a white hot firestorm on the issue on Capitol Hill," Matt Stoller said in a post at MyDD . "No one wants to see the telcos make a radical change to the Internet and screw this medium up, except, well, the telcos."

Politicians get scared when they realize the public is paying attention. As the blogosphere catches fire, momentum is shifting in Washington. Whereas before the big telephone companies and their coin-operated lobbyists were confident that Congress would simply roll over and do their bidding, today no member of Congress can vote with the telecom cartel without expecting repercussions.

The public is now watching and, with increasing frequency and volume, the message is getting through to Congress: we will not stand for any law that threatens Internet freedom.

http://www.democraticmedia.org/issues/JCnetneutrality.html

How Big Cable and Phone Companies' Plans for Broadband Threaten Democracy


By Jeff Chester
1 February 2006

[A version of this essay appeared on the Nation.com website.]
See also: The Assault on Network Neutrality: Industry White Papers Reveal Corporate Plans for the Broadband Internet



The nation's largest telephone and cable companies have a vision for the Internet's future. Verizon, AT&T (formerly SBC), Comcast, and Bell South want to create a privately run and branded "pay-as-you-go" Internet, making everything we do online a "billable," revenue-generating service. Our every cyberspace move will be tracked and stored so we can be better marketed to (a data collection system that might even rival the NSA's!). Those with the deepest pockets--think corporate special interest groups and major advertisers--will get preferred treatment. Their content will show up (and be processed) the fastest on our computer and television screens. Content seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, may be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out, say "white papers" and other documents given to the cable and phone industry.

Under the plans they are considering, all of us--from large to small content providers to individual users--will have to pay more when surfing online, streaming videos, or perhaps even sending and receiving email. Companies are mulling the imposition of new subscription plans that will limit our online experience. There will be "gold," bronze," and "silver" forms of Internet access that tightly define what they call our "level of service" (limiting how much downloading we can do, etc.)

Gone will be the more open and nondiscriminatory network of today.

To help ensure that their "vision" succeeds, the phone and cable lobbies are now engaged in a political campaign to further weaken the nation's communication policy laws. Both the Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) are considering proposals that will have a far-reaching impact on the Internet's future. They want the federal government to permit them to operate Internet and other digital communications services as "private" networks--without policy safeguards or governmental oversight. Telephone and cable companies are now using the same kind of political snake oil that helped them pass the now-infamous 1996 Telecommunications Act (ten years ago on Feb 8, 1996). They have unleashed the tried-and-true rhetoric designed to lure compromised and clueless lawmakers. Our proposals, they claim, will "empower the consumer" and lead to "innovation." But these are code words used to cloak their real goal: to turn the Internet into a turbocharged digital retail machine.

The telephone industry has been somewhat more candid than cable about its plans for the Internet. Senior phone executives have publicly discussed their plans to begin imposing a new scheme for the delivery of Internet content, especially from major Internet content companies. As Ed Whitacre, CEO of AT&T, told Business Week in November, "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"

The phone industry has been unleashing its political allies to help win it the freedom to begin imposing its broadband business model. At a conference held in December by the pro-cable and -Bell "think-tank" Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF), there was support for the idea that it is okay for phone companies to begin charging some content users more and others less. "Price discrimination," noted PFF's resident media expert Adam Thierer, "drives the market-based capitalist economy." That's "good discrimination." Not surprisingly, PFF, is funded by Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and many other media companies. (PFF is also part of the conservative State Policy Network lobbying machine. SPN groups have increasingly been working to promote Big Media interests.)

Alarm Bells
To ward off the prospect of virtual toll booths on the information highway, some new media companies and public interest groups are calling for new federal policies requiring "network neutrality" on the Internet. This group includes Amazon, Google, Free Press, Media Access Project and Consumers Union, among others. Under their proposal, broadband providers would be prohibited from discriminating against all forms of digital content. For example, phone or cable companies would not be allowed to slow down competing or undesired content.

Without a proactive intervention from the public, the values and issues that we care about--civil rights, economic justice, the environment, and fair elections--will be further threatened by the push for ever-greater corporate control. Imagine how the next presidential election would unfold, if major political advertisers, with strategic payment to Comcast, had their ads from Democratic and Republican candidates presented in a more visible and user-friendly way than the ad of a less well-funded third party candidate. Consider the media landscape if an online advertisement promoting nuclear power prominently popped up on a cable broadband homepage, while a competing message from an environmental group was relegated to the margins. It is possible that all forms of civic and noncommercial online programming would be pushed to the end of a commercial digital queue.

But such "neutrality" safeguards are inadequate to address more fundamental changes that the Bells and cable monopolies are seeking in their quest to monetize the Internet. If we permit the Internet to become a medium designed primarily to serve the interests of marketing and personal consumption rather than civic-related communications, we will face the political consequences for decades to come. Unless we push back, the "brandwashing" of America will have serious consequences for both our culture and global society.

Digital Dollars
Why are the Bells and cable now aggressively advancing such plans? It's because our media system is undergoing a major transformation with the arrival of the long-awaited "convergence" of communications technologies. What the phone and cable companies see as their potential lucrative "triple play" by providing us with video, voice and data communications, will soon be flowing into our TV's, PC's and mobile devices (such as cell phones or iPods). All of these many billions of bits will be delivered over the telephone and cable lines, whose owners have successfully lobbied the Feds so they can impose a near monopoly over the delivery of residential broadband service.

Of foremost interest to both the phone and cable companies is video programming. Like cable, phone companies are getting into the TV and media content business, offering customers television channels, on-demand videos, and games. Online advertising is also increasingly relying on Internet-intensive multimedia content (such as animation and full-motion video). Television-related content requires a great deal of Internet space (bandwidth) to travel to our homes. The phone and cable companies want to make sure their video-based content receives preferential treatment. But their control over the pipeline into our home (or mobile device) gives them the leverage to determine how the broadband medium evolves overall.

Big Media Brother Meets Deep Packet Inspection
Now being pitched and sold to cable and phone companies are technologies that enable them to have greater control over Internet "traffic." These network management products enable your phone or cable company to make individual business decisions about all the digital content coming into your home (in the vernacular of the industry, they can set "policy" or business rules that define the quality of service you will receive online). Through what is called "deep packet inspection" they know what kind of content you are accessing online, from email, to websites, to peer-to-peer downloads.

These deep packet inspection technologies are partly designed to make sure that Internet traffic doesn't become so congested it "chokes off" the delivery of timely communications. Such products have already been sold to universities and large businesses that want to manage their Internet services more economically. They are also being used to limit some peer-to-peer downloading, especially for music.

But these products are also being sold as ways companies such as Comcast and Verizon can simply grab greater control over the Internet.

For example, in a series of "white papers" Internet technology giant Cisco warns its cable customers (such as Comcast) that they "risk" allowing their broadband service to become viewed as a "low-priced bulk commodity." [See "Cisco Service Control: A Guide to Sustained Broadband Profitability" or "Deploying Premium Services Using Cisco Service Control Technology" or "Service Control: The Next Step in Networking for Cable Operators"] They are urged to use the Cisco "service control" products so they can create an unlimited number of "advanced billing schemes" for users, all designed to increase cable's "profitability." Among the added benefits, Cisco promises, is "service intelligence," including knowing (in real-time) "the identity and profile of the individual subscriber," "what the subscriber is doing," "where the subscriber resides," and "how the subscriber can use Network resources" (meaning what "service level" they are enrolled in). They will be able to "meter individual subscriber usage by application" as their online travels are "tracked" and "integrated with billing systems." Meanwhile they can begin "prioritizing" applications that bring them money, such as video games and gambling.

Cisco and others (such as Allot Communications) warn cable and phone companies about the need to "limit unprofitable peer-to-peer communications" or even ban them. Among the applications mentioned for such treatment including BitTorrent, Gnuetella, and Kazaa. One can tell a lot about the intended role of these packet-inspection products by their names: "SmartFlow," "NetEnforcer," "NetPure," "NetRedirector," and "IP Control System."

Ironically, some companies offering deep packet inspection technology claim that today's more unfettered use of the Internet is creating "a tragedy of the commons." That the public use of the Internet and "greedy" use of P2P could lead to its "overuse and eventual depletion or destruction," claims a paper from the Sandvine Corporation ["Network Neutrality: A Broadband Wild West?"]. Companies will use the excuse that such invasive technology is required to prohibit "bandwidth hogs" from using too much of the Internet to download illegal movies. Or that it's needed to protect us from new forms of "viruses" and "worms." But these are smokescreens for a power grab of major proportions.

Will Google, Amazon.com and the others fight the plans of the Bells and cable? Ultimately, they are likely to cut a deal. After all, as Cisco notes, content companies and network providers will need to "cooperate with each other to leverage their value proposition." They will be drawn by the ability of cable and phone companies to track "content usage…by subscriber," and where their online services can be "protected from piracy, metered, and appropriately valued."

Digital Destiny
It was former FCC Chairman Michael Powell who permitted phone and cable giants to have greater control over broadband (with the support of then commissioner and now Chairman Kevin Martin). Powell and his GOP majority eliminated long-standing regulatory safeguards requiring phone companies to operate as non-discriminatory networks (technically known as "common carriers"). He refused to require that cable companies, when providing Internet access, also operate in a similar nondiscriminatory manner. As Stanford Professor Larry Lessig has long noted, it was government regulation of the phone lines that helped make the Internet a vibrant and diverse medium.

But now, the phone companies are lobbying Washington to kill off what's left of common carriage. They wish to operate their Internet services as "private" networks. Phone and cable companies claim that the government shouldn't play a role in broadband regulation--that it's an issue just involving a business decision by consumers. If consumers want to pay more to have content, such as a first-run movie or the evening news, delivered to their screens faster than what their neighbors can get, that's between them and their local cable and phone company, they argue

The Bell and cable companies also have a more sweeping political agenda. Both industries oppose communities having the right to create their own local Internet services (such as the offering of wireless or wi-fi networks). The phone companies (and undoubtedly cable) also want to eliminate the last vestige of local control over the electronic media--the ability of city or county government to impose some terms of service in the form of a "franchise" (such as funding and channels for public access television). The Bells also want to further reduce the ability of the FCC to oversee communications policy generally, permitting it to only "regulate" if they receive a formal complaint (primarily from corporations). They hope that both the FCC and the Congress--through a new Communications Act--will back their proposals (helped undoubtedly by big campaign contributions and revolving-door employment).

The entire structure of the electronic media in the U.S. will ultimately depend on whether we let the Bells and cable determine the country's "digital destiny." In the absence of intense opposition, it's likely most policymakers will treat this issue primarily as a "business" matter. But there's much more at stake. So before there are any policy decisions, we must first have a national debate about how the Internet is to serve the public. Among the issues are ensuring that phone and cable companies operate their Internet services in the public interest--as stewards of a vital medium for free expression. That will require fighting for common carrier safeguards. Everyone must also be given low-cost access. Privacy protections are urgently required, to prevent perpetual data eavesdropping (something made more pressing by both the Bush Administration's domestic spying programming and its request from Google, AOL and others for online information about the public's web search requests). Finally, we must guarantee that a whole host of content be exempt from any commercial fee or "pay-per-use" regime, such as political speech, civic communications, and non-commercial content. In other words, we must ensure the growth of a dynamic digital information commons.

An independent commission of public interest technology experts, funded by foundations, should also publicly examine how the phone and cable industries are making decisions about Internet architecture, to help make sure their networks operate fairly and offer all users sufficient capacity at affordable rates.

Unless they agree to a change of public policy, there should be a move for divestment from Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Bell South by responsible investment and pension funds. At the very least there should be stockholder resolutions challenging the political position taken by these companies, which have built their fortunes on vast public subsidies--whether they began as monopolies (such as the Baby Bells) or thrived because of access to streets and telephone polls (cable).

It will take the same kind of intensive opposition organized against the FCC's media ownership decision in 2003 if we are to even attempt to thwart what Verizon and others have in store for the Internet. Without such a public outcry, it is likely that many of the Democrats who rallied against further consolidation will be "tamed" by the well-funded lobbying campaigns of the powerful phone and cable industries.

Unless there is action, we will have a wonderful new medium for advertising and entertainment from Big Media companies--but a poor one for democratic discourse, alternative expression, and political dissent.



Jeff Chester is the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Digital Democracy. His book, Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy, will be published in the fall by The New Press.

See also (listed at the above url):
The Assault on Network Neutrality: Industry White Papers Reveal Corporate Plans for the Broadband Internet

Internet Under Attack: Act Now to Preserve the Public Internet

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4955418.stm


US war costs 'could hit $811bn'

The US is spending more than ever on the conflict in Iraq
The cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has soared and may now reach $811bn (£445bn), says a report by the Congressional Research Service.
It estimates that Congress has appropriated $368bn for the global war on terror, including both conflicts.

It says that if the current spending bill is approved, US war costs will reach $439bn, and it estimates that an extra $371bn may be needed by 2016.

On that basis, the two wars would cost more than the $579bn spent in Vietnam.

The future costing assumes that US troop levels will drop from the 258,000 currently engaged in all operations to 74,000 by 2010.

Budget gap

The rising cost of the war is leading to growing concerns in Congress, where attempts to control the budget deficit have been hindered by the "supplementary" requests received each year for war spending.

The CRS estimates that the US Department of Defense's annual war funding has risen from $73bn in 2004 to $120bn in 2006, with an increase of 17% this year alone.


Monthly war costs have doubled since the fall of Saddam

There have also been concerns that extra non-related appropriations are often tucked inside the war funding bill.

On Thursday Senators deleted funding for a $15m seafood promotion programme that had been tucked away in the current bill.

Earlier, Senators diverted $1.9bn in war funds to pay for increased immigration controls at US borders.

Troop levels

The cost of the war in Iraq has been increasing since US troops have become bogged down in the conflict.

The CRS says the real cost of the conflict in Iraq has risen to $8bn monthly, nearly double the cost in 2003.

It points out that it is difficult to estimate the exact cost of individual operations, such as the Iraq conflict, because the Defense Department does not break down the figures for individual operations.

And it says that the Defense Department has also minimised the cost of the war by not including other costs, including intelligence and the training of Iraqi and Afghan security forces, in its estimates.

Overall, 71% of the total war costs have been spent in Iraq, 21% in Afghanistan, and 7% on increased protection for US forces worldwide.

The main reason for the rapidly escalating costs is increased spending on ammunition, equipment and operational materials such as petrol.

Over $60bn has been spent on procurement, including improved armour, replacement of damaged vehicles, and the building of a more extensive infrastructure to support the troops on the ground.

The CRS says that "if the global war is likely to become the long war as some administration spokesman have suggested, Congress may want to consider requiring that the Department of Defense request a full year's war funds concurrently with its regular budget".

The estimates do not include the costs of reconstruction, which the US originally estimated at $56bn.

A recent report from the General Accounting Office suggested these costs would be much higher, but also said much of the money disbursed so far had been spent on security, not rebuilding.

<<>> and .... THIS <<>>

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/14406626.htm

Debt is cheating our children’s future


By Isabel Sawhill
Special to The Star

Now that we have all gone through the painful process of paying income taxes, let’s stop and think what tax-paying — and the federal fiscal environment — may be like 25 years from now.

If we think we have it bad, our children and grandchildren face potential tax and financial burdens that will be crippling if nothing is done to reduce our nation’s growing debt.

A recent AARP Bulletin, belying the stereotype of the greedy senior, put two naked toddlers on its cover and superimposed on their backs the grim headline “$156,000 in debt.” That’s the amount that every American child already owes, on behalf of his or her country, if you add our $8.3 trillion national debt, plus unfunded commitments to Medicare, Social Security and other entitlement programs.

That’s nearly three times the average household’s net worth and about four times the average American’s annual income.

And it’s all because of our fiscal profligacy — or should we say immorality?

We’re the grown-ups who should be taking care of America for future generations. Instead, we’re bequeathing a fiscal mess of biblical proportions.

This is not just an abstraction or a problem that will go away with faster economic growth, cutting government “waste,” or as one focus-group participant recently suggested, requiring the Bush daughters to spend less on designer shoes.

To put it in more personal terms, rising deficits will slow economic growth and reduce the average family’s income by $1,800 by 2014, drive up interest rates (costing the average American an additional $2,000 per year in mortgage interest), and force average taxes to rise by $7,000 by 2030 if we keep our current promises to the elderly.

Moreover, deficits have other perverse effects. As our debt grows, we will soon pay one-quarter of our taxes on interest on that debt — with that money going to our creditors, half of whom are Chinese, Japanese, Saudis and other foreigners. That, of course, is if they don’t dump our T-bills and send our financial markets tumbling.

The second perverse effect: The more we spend on entitlements and debt service, the less there is to spend on investments in the future. When people talk of cutting nondefense “discretionary spending” — i.e., everything that government does other than support the big entitlement programs and defense — they’re talking about less than one-fifth of the federal budget. Yet, it is these investments — not just in scientific research, transportation and other infrastructure or environmental protection, but also in children themselves — that are increasingly shortchanged.

The 77 million 0-to-18-year-old Americans are our future. If we don’t invest in their education, health and general well-being, we might as well say that we don’t care about their future or the future of the United States. Without the best education, health and other opportunities — which our society is more than wealthy enough to provide — America may well fall behind in global competitiveness.

Secondly, by piling up 12-figure deficits, we constrain our children’s and grandchildren’s freedom. If most public spending when they are adults is devoured by entitlements and debt service, they will be unable to make the political choices promised by a democracy on what they want to spend their tax dollars. And if their incomes fall, and their taxes and interest payments rise, that will financially constrain their historic American freedom to the “pursuit of happiness.”

Is this what we want? No one in his or her right mind would say yes, but that’s the course we’re on.

The glimmer of good news is that this is not inevitable. It’s like the future shown in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol — what might be, if nothing is done. With political leadership and public outcry, a can-do country like the United States can reform its entitlement programs, cut wasteful spending and find ways of raising new — but not onerous — revenues.

Look into your child’s or grandchild’s eyes and think of their future when you consider what our president and Congress must do.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The 77 million 0-to-18-year-old Americans are our future. If we don’t invest in their education, health and general well-being, we might as well say that we don’t care about their future or the future of the United States."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Isabel Sawhill is vice president and director of the Economic Studies Program at the Brookings Institution.

Listen to Neil Young's "Living With War"
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"We don't all have to believe what our president believes to be a patriot"
-- Neil Young



Neil Young Living With War

Listen to the new Neil Young album, then take action to bring our troops home in 2006.

Early this morning, TrueMajority began offering free streaming audio of Neil Young's new, surprise antiwar album in its entirety.

Though he wrote the defining protest anthem of the Vietnam era, Young initially supported President Bush's "war on terror." Like most of America, though,1 he says that what is happening now in Iraq is just plain wrong.

Take a listen to a powerful voice for ending the quagmire, and while you're there you can raise up your own -- TrueMajority members today are launching a push behind a new Senate amendment to get our troops out of Iraq by New Year's Day.

The amendment, introduced by Sen. Russ Feingold, says that Congress will only hand over the latest $68 billion that President Bush wants for the Iraq War if his administration gets the troops out by Dec. 31st, 2006. It would support the troops, but not the unending war.

This is a great chance to bring more people into the growing movement for sanity in Iraq. So check out the album, sign the petition, and tell your friends.

Feeling a change in the wind,

Matt Holland
Online Director, TrueMajority


"Living With War" on the TrueMajority website: http://neilyoung.truemajority.org
1 "US Support for Iraq War Down to 28%." March 16, 2006.


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Neil Young to Tour for 'Freedom of Speech,' As He Expresses It with New CD

By E&P Staff

Published: April 29, 2006 9:00 PM ET

NEW YORK For venerable rocker Neil Young it seems to be all about "free speech" these days. Son of a famed Canadian newspaper man, he announced this week that the will take part in an extensive "Freedom of Speech" tour as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young this summer.

At the same time, he released via the Web, with CD to follow, a ferocious new album that expresses free speech to the max, as he takes on the Iraq war and President Bush in full frontal fashion. It's called "Living with War," it includes a song called "Let's Impeach the President"--and it hit #3 on Amazon.com today just on pre-orders. It willl be released May 8.

The "Freedom of Speech" tour will start July 6 in, where else, Philadelphia, travel the country, and wind up back in Pittsburgh on Sept. 10.

Asked this week if he was afraid about a backlash to his CD, Young said, "I'm not in the least bit concerned. I expect it. I respect other people's opinions. That`s part of what makes the United States and Canada and all free countries great, is the fact that you can differ with your friend and you can still sit down at the same table and break bread with your friend."

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002425362

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://hyperrust.org/ All things Neil!!!

I published an article on this topic last November and many, MANY people read it. It got a fantastic reaction! But as it was about women, no one will publish a follow up about what response I got NOR will they publish anything further that I write!

Now, I can take this and get ALL bent out of shape OR I can realize that people are just still hung up in the "name" game.

The important things is to realize that no one person can create peace on their own. Not Ghandi, nor Dag Hammerskold, not Helen Caldicott nor David Dionisi or Cindy Sheehan or any other *name*. We're ALL in on this together ... Lady Broadoak


April 29, 2006

Marching for Peace, Working for Peace

by Kim Gandy, N.O.W. President


http://www.opednews.com

Remarks of NOW President

On this important day, as we prepare to march for peace, justice and democracy, I want to echo some of the voices of women -- diverse voices that have been largely absent in the media coverage of peace and justice issues.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it." And one of my favorite comics, Elayne Boosler, famously commented that, "When women are depressed they either eat or go shopping. Men invade another country." Have you noticed that when something is really funny, it's often because there's a grain of truth in it?

Around the world, women are the peacemakers in every culture, perhaps because we are thinking about the future of our children -- and the future of other women's children. We're not the ones who solve our disputes, be they small or large, with fists and guns.

That's why the National Organization for Women is marching today, joined by many thousands who care about equality, justice, democracy, and peace. Women cannot stand by while our daughters and sons are dying -- whether our own, sent across the ocean to fight, or the children of Iraqi mothers, whose hearts bleed just the same. We cannot stand by while Katrina survivors, who have endured so many broken promises from this government, continue to wait for the help every one of us would expect. And we cannot ignore the threats to our democracy that are coming from within: the voter purges, the intimidation, the dirty tricks, the riggable voting machines. And that's just the beginning.

Too many people in this country, and some of them are running our government, think "justice" means "just us" -- but if we are to be a truly great nation, we must share both the bounty and the responsibility. Most of the soldiers dying in Iraq come from families that haven't benefited one whit from the Republican giveaway to those earning $400,000 a year or more. They haven't benefited from the war economy that has enriched the oil barons and those who make their profits building tanks and bombs.

But they are dying for those profits. Many of them are the very immigrants whose hard work and sacrifice is belittled on Fox news and by CNN's Lou Dobbs every day. Many of them will never be able to go to college, and are discriminated against when they look for a job or a house. Yet they are dying, we are told, to preserve the "American dream." Well we have a different dream, but it's rarely shown on the media, or covered in the news. Why is that?

There's an African proverb that goes something like this: Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters. Looking at that a little differently, while men are running the news -- the news will continue to glorify what men are doing -- and that means warmaking and not peacemaking. Congresswoman Eddie Bernice's Johnson's words speak volumes today:

" . . . the pain is so deep and the need for healing is so great that women can not afford to be absent from the peace tables of the world -- from negotiating peace, to laying foundations that provide for feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless and providing health care for the hurting. With no intent to paint a halo on women, I still believe as a mother, that we, who are bearers of life, do not birth sons and daughters only to see them die on the battlefields of war."

That is why, when we leave today, each of us must take up this struggle for peace -- individually and collectively. It is part of our larger struggle to demand equality from those who would have us sit quietly in the shadows. We owe it to the women in Iraq, to the survivors on the Gulf Coast and across the country, and to our daughters for whom we want full equality, to raise our voices even louder after we leave New York City today.

When women's stories are told, when our perspectives are part of the debate, we will be closer to peace, justice, and democracy. And in the words of Betty Williams, when she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, "Someday they'll call a war, and nobody will come."



Kim Gandy was re-elected to her second term as President of the National Organization for Women (NOW) on July 3, 2005. She was first elected President in 2001, after serving as Executive Vice President since 1991 and National Secretary from 1987 to 1991. Detailed bio

DISCUSS AMONGST YOURSELVES!

I know what I think about pathologizing absolutely EVERYTHING!

And it isn't GOOD psychiatry that is the problem ..

although the Chinese do quite, quite well without it,

it's that they are usually to be just such very good

dispensers of SOMA.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/life_a-roy_murt_060628_mediclizing_22_disea.htm


Subject(s): Health Drugs, Health Psychiatry, Health Psychology, Health, Mental Health

April 28, 2006

Medicalizing " Disease " For Fun And Profit
by Roy Murtishaw


http://www.opednews.com

According to a set of essays published in the Public Library of Science Medicine, drug companies are systematically inventing non-existent diseases, or exaggerating minor ones, in order to sell more of their products.

The practice turns healthy people into patients, and places many of them at risk of medically induced harm.

Minor, normal problems, such as the symptoms of menopause, have been "medicalized" into treatable illnesses, and risk factors like high cholesterol are being treated as diseases in their own right. Conditions including female sexual dysfunction, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and "restless legs syndrome" have all been exaggerated and promoted by companies hoping to sell drugs.

Even ordinary shyness is often defined by drug companies as a social anxiety disorder to be treated with antidepressants.

Richard Ley, of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, pointed out that some countries, including Britain, have legal safeguards against drug industry "disease mongering." Most of the criticisms, he argued, apply primarily to countries like the United States, where drugs can be advertised directly to patients.

Public Library of Science Medicine April 11, 2006; 3(4)
Times Online April 11, 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Psychiatry is the worst offender, in my opinion. ~ Roy
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A life-long friend challenged me about my comments regarding the role of psychiatry in medicalizing diseases.:

@aol.com wrote:
I think I knew that! We've got enough 'real' diseases to contend with in this life, right? But why do you comment that psychiatry is the worst offender....your previous bread-and-butter of sorts, no less?
Gail

My response follows :

Dear Gail,

Please! I am a psychologist... NOT a PSYCHIATRIST!! In fact, I despise psychiatry. My experience was psychiatrists were often incredibly poor physicians .. borne out by the fact Psychiatry attracts the absolutely worst medical students, In fact , the old saw that a psychiatrist is a "Former med student who could never learn to tolerate the sight of blood " is fairly accurate. However the situation is even worse now as psychiatry has been nearly abandoned by native-born Americans and is now filled with foreign trained doctors; many of whom barely speak English...I kid you not.

Psychiatry has always grossly over-relied upon drugs, over-prescribed them in both quantity and quality. Psychoactive drugs claim the most addiction complications of any substances excepting nicotine in America and has owned that distinction since the 1960s. Valium,Ritalin,Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, etc.are incredibly dangerous and are being prescibed by the millions willy-nilly by idiots otherwise called physicians all over this country every day. I strongly encourage your Yahooing and/or Googling the wonderful Evelyn Pringle's perceptive articles concerning these issues; many of which are found at www.opednews.com

Roy



I'm a 62 year-old disabled psychotherapist who is a proud liberal despite living amidst extreme conservatives all my life. I have also been a single father to a 36-year-old Lawrence Berkley liberal and am now a single father of a 12-year-old budding liberal.

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X wrote:
Wonderfully written. These are my exact beliefs, except that while we are in perfect alignment with the center of the Milky way and Venus and so many other alignments happening at the same time, we will also be going through the photon energy belt that is supposed to light up the world more that 7 times the brightness of the Sun. Nibiru is supposed to be coming around and some others feel that the Annunaki will be showing up through stargates or wormhole. I just get excited and impatient. Even though time is passing so much more quickly, it's still too slow for me.
Love, X

Cindi writes:

There is a Divine Plan and purpose for life! After each of us has had
many lifetimes, we are approaching graduation time (2012?) and not even
the dark forces of the Bush gang are able to stop that. A recent quote:
"At NASA they have a machine that can see into the future (probably ex
Montauk technology). They do not like what they see, they have lost
control. The dark agenda are no longer able to reincarnate on this world
because the vibration is just too high for
them. They have to go elsewhere."

The time/science of the Mayan Civilization seems to be on track.

They say that by 2012 we will have moved through the 4th dimension into the
5th, regained our 12 strands of DNA (via "re-programming from the
Supreme Intelligence" at the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way),

moved beyond duality (positive & negative) to pure light.

Thought forms are very important and affect our everyday life. We create
our reality with thought forms. If we think negative thoughts of others
this is what we attract.

If we think positive thoughts we will attract
positive people and events.
So be aware of your thoughts and eliminate the unnecessary negative or
judgmental ones.

A key truth is that there is a DIVINE PLAN. The future belongs to those
that trust in the process and are willing to go with the divine plan.
The main tool for understanding this plan is the Mayan calendar.

The truth about the Mayan calendar is really not difficult to understand.

The problem is only that we have all been conditioned by a
materialist mind that makes us look for the ultimate explanations in the
material reality rather than in the divine plan.

Needless to say, many,
especially in the West, have egos that find it difficult to accept that
they are subordinated to a divine plan that can not even potentially be
manipulated by physical means.

1.

Humanity and Planet Earth are currently going through a huge change
or shift
in consciousness and reality perception.

2.

The Mayan civilization of Central America was and is the most
advanced in relation to time-science knowledge.

Their main calendar is the most
accurate on the planet. It has never erred.

They actually have 22 calendars in total, covering
the many timing cycles in the Universe and Solar System.

Some of these calendars are yet to be revealed.

3.

The Mayan fifth world finished in 1987.

The sixth world starts in 2012.

So we are currently "between worlds".

This time is called the "Apocalypse" or revealing.

This means the real truth will be revealed.
It is also the time for us to
work through "our stuff" individually and collectively.

4.

The Mayan sixth world is actually blank.

This means it is up to us,
as co-creators, to start creating the new world and
civilization we want now.

5. The Mayans also say that by 2012-
- we will have gone beyond technology as we know it.
- we will have gone beyond time and money.
- we will have entered the fifth dimension after passing
through the fourth dimension
- Planet Earth and the Solar System will come into
galactic synchronization with the rest of the Universe.
- Our DNA will be "upgraded" (or reprogrammed) from the
center of our galaxy.

(Hunab Ku)

"Everbody on this planet is mutating.

Some are more conscious of it than others.

But everyone is doing it" -
Extraterrestrial Earth Mission.

6.

In 2012 the plane of our Solar System will line up exactly with the
plane of our Galaxy, the Milky Way.

This cycle has taken 26,000 years to complete.
Virgil Armstrong also says that two other galaxies will line up with ours at the same time.

A cosmic event!

7.

Time is actually speeding up (or collapsing). For thousands of years
the Schumann Resonance or pulse (heartbeat) of Earth has been
7.83 cycles per second.

The military have used this as a very reliable reference.
However, since 1980 this resonance has been slowly rising. I

t is now over 12 cycles per second!
This mean there is the equalivant of less than 16 hours per day instead
of the old
24 hours.

8.

During the Apocalypse or the time "between worlds" many people will
be going
through many personal changes.

The changes will be many and varied.

It is all part of what we came here to learn or experience.

Examples of change could be-
relationships coming to an end,

change of residence or location,

change of job or work,

shift in attitude or thinking etc.

9.

Remember, in any given moment we are making small and large
decisions.

Each decision is based on LOVE or FEAR.

Choose love, follow your intuition,

not intellect and follow your passion or "burning
inner desire."

Go with the flow.

10.

Thought forms are very important and affect our everyday life.

We create our reality with thought forms.

If we think negative thoughts of others this is what we attract.

If we think positive thoughts we will attract positive people
and events.

So be aware of your thoughts and eliminate the unnecessary
negative or judgmental ones.

11.

Be aware that most of the media is controlled by just a few.

Use discernment!
Look for the hidden agendas.

Why is this information being presented to you?
What is "their" real agenda?

Is it a case of problem­reaction­solution?
Do "they" create a problem so that "we" react and ask for a fix,

then "they" offer their solution?

The "solution is what "they" really wanted in the first place.

12.

Remember almost nothing happens by accident.

Almost all "events" are planned by some agency or other.

Despite this, it is

a very exciting time to be alive!

The truth shall set you free!

If you haven't seen this, it surely is making the rounds with the internet hassling ...
Reprinted from KAJAMA
Online Journal of the Psyche
April 17, 2006
http://www.kajama.com

Practical Stress Management: Seven Spiritual Solutions
Thomas Rusell
reprinted with permission

Stress is amazingly persistent, even seductive. We get used
to feeling tight and tense. Though positive thinking has
its place, unless it's backed up by practical wisdom, it
tends to get overwhelmed and fade away.

Here are seven proven ways you can get a new handle on
stress.

1. Control your REACTION with these seven simple words.

The first step is to remain alert when people try to weigh
you down with their nervous comments and attitudes.

The next step is to reply to the attempted attack: "I have
nothing to say to that." This cuts off the contagious
effect of the stressful assault. It blocks the tendency to
accept and imitate depressing words from others. Your nature
does not fall down to the level of the anxious remark, but
remains high above it.

Negative people WANT to get you involved with their defeat,
and this is a major method they use to do it. Your reply
("I have nothing to say to that") prevents them from drawing
you in as their victim.

Inner life author Vernon Howard writes, "An attitude of
defeat in another person cannot touch you unless you
carelessly accept it as yours. And there is no need at all for you
to accept it. A quiet refusal to enter the battlefield is
the perfect reply."

2. Let go of painful grudges by living in the present moment.

Hating someone is like drinking poison yourself and hoping
the offender will die from it. We shut the door on our own
development when we fail to grant others the same
opportunity for change. Therefore, it is our responsibility to
release to the providence of a higher power those who have
caused harm, while simultaneously realizing they will be held
accountable for their actions.

The secret to success without stress is to realize your
newness in the present moment many times each day. NOW is so
alive and energetic, so tangible and real, that painful
grudges cannot "live" here. Grudges can only stay around when
fueled by unaware and unproductive mental visits to the
past.

3. Observe negative thoughts with the aim of understanding
them instead of trying to suppress them.

Self-Observation is a master key to stress-free living.
Instead of claiming stressful thoughts and feelings as our
own, we can observe and understand them. This understanding
sets us free!

Self-observation is practical spirituality at its best.
Marcus Aurelius, the ancient Roman Emperor said, "Those who do
not observe the movement of their own minds must of
necessity be unhappy."

4. Pause often and enjoy a deep breath.

People are often so tense with stressful thinking they
barely breathe!

We can do something highly beneficial and intelligent. We
can take brief breaks many times a day, even if for only 30
seconds! We can pause, take a deep breath, look around and
relax.

Suppose you feel tempted to give in to someone when you
know you should not. Instantly fall into internal relaxation.
Breathe away your tensions. Your habitually anxious and
resentful attitudes will fall away like leaves from a tree.
They will be replaced by a clear mind that reveals what is
best for you.

5. Realize you have far better things to think about!

The old way of thinking has its favorite grooves, like
negative mental film clips that pull you away from the present
moment. When you detect yourself involved in one of these
internal movies, pause and say to yourself, "There are
better things to think about." This instantly snaps the spell
and moves you to higher ground.

You'll feel much less stress and an abundance of new
vitality as you reclaim the energy once consumed by these
negative mental film clips. Suddenly wake up and come home to
yourself by enthusiastically declaring, "There are better
things to think about!"

6. Stay clear of negative zones of influence.

Our society is rampant with negative influences. They come
from so many places, like frantic people, advertising and
untruthful politics. Never forget: Unaware people want you
to vibrate on their stressful level. It is your duty, your
noble mission in life, to live in harmony with your Heart -
YOUR AUTHENTIC AND INTELLIGENT SELF. Though physically you
may be in a stressful place, once you connect with your
Heart, you have the spiritual power to stay free inwardly. No
law says you must fall under stressful zones of influence.

7. Refuse to make stressful or angry comments.

Stress spills out into the world. It is like a snowball
rolling down a hill that starts small then gathers size and
momentum. Therefore, we must stop stress in its infancy, and
the best place to do so is BEFORE it leaves the mouth.

Here's a wonderful way to dissolve stress in your life:

This insight exercise is called SELF-SURPRISE. Here's how
it works. You are about to say something angry or hurtful to
another person. The statement has left the dock - it is
traveling at the speed of light toward the mouth. Your
AWARENESS steps in and a higher choice is made; a switch is thrown
and you do not say what you were about to say. You say
something helpful and cheerful instead!

You'll instantly feel the trueness of practicing this
exercise. Anger or stress did not succeed in dictating your
speech. Your power of choice lifted you above its arrows. This
is not the practice of phony niceness. It is the
__expression of true strength and authentic self-command. It can only
occur when your awareness is active, like the presence of a
lighted lodge in the dark forest.

Conclusion:

The one supreme power that guarantees personal happiness is
personal right thinking. This "right thinking" is based on
practical wisdom. Try these seven methods, and you'll see a
huge difference in your life. You'll have LOTS of energy!

Tom Russell's work has been influenced dramatically by the
teachings of Vernon Howard, with whom he studied for twelve
years. Tom is the host of superwisdom.com and the author of
Seven Secrets to Light Up Your Essence, which reveals how
to apply spiritual principles with NowFacts for high energy
living that easily dissolves stress, anxiety and
frustration.

Channels to know and LOVE!

<<>*//A\\*<;;___;;>*//A\\*<;;___;;>*//A\\*<;;___;;>*//A\\*<>>


http://www.beyondreiki.com/articles/published_articles.html
The Brotherhood Of Light - channeled by Edna G. Frankel


NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE HEALING ARTS


Author's Note: This recent channeling before a group of holistic
lightworkers holds an important message for all readers. The
path to wholeness is difficult enough without added lessons in
discernment. We are all transitioning together, we all share similar
joys and sorrows that come with being "in body". Trust your own
intuition, follow your inner guidance, and do only what feels right
for you.

Greetings, dear ones, we are so delighted to be here amongst
you lightworkers (and readers) today! Indeed, the press of
Spirit is quite strong, as many, many beings gather to watch the
unfolding perfection of your lives. For no matter how sad it
seems, no matter how difficult it feels, each day brings a new
solution, a new answer, a new direction. Yes, look at each
problem and say, that problem is here for a reason, so that I may
learn the answer to it. That is the easiest way to get out of your
own way!

Our overriding message in this time, as we have stated
often to you dedicated practitioners, is the need to clear the
physical body of internal pressures. No matter what you have
accomplished at the spiritual, mental and emotional levels, your
bodies still need to be cleared. It is that simple, and that difficult.

Indeed, the weight of the new energies through which you are
rising makes you feel as if gravity has actually gotten hea vier.
It is the push-pull between the rising energies, which are clearer
and cleaner, and the lower energies that hold you down in
density. Why? Those low-density etheric blocks contain the
debris of everything rising to be cleared.

Yes, even the issues and illnesses you thought long healed, all
old patterns leave "physical debris" in the body which must be
flushed out. That is why some of you are suffering relapses of
illness back through your childhood years. All must be cleared
through the body's meridians! That is why we have come
forward at this time with the Circle of Grace exercise for you,
to gain mastery over your health, your energy and your lives.

The more you work on each other, the more all will benefit. Yes,
the cleaner the vessel (that's you!) the clearer the channel! It is
now time for the lightworkers to focus on their own healing.
When the masses begin to shift (or become aware that they are
shifting,) well, you will not have enough hands or time in the
day, and money will never be an issue again. Your talents will be
sorely needed!

Along with that need will come new respect and new under-
standing of your holistic modalities. You will see an opening
at the mundane societal level of allowing that which you do
to be valuable. So we say to you, dear gathering of dedicated
lightworkers, be patient and persevere! Your energetic holistic
work will get easier, it will get stronger, and the need for it will
grow.

The need for lightworkers to work on each other is also vital,
to share your information is vital, to share your love and your
support of each other is vital. Vitality is essence, essence is light,
all is light. So we ask that you seek a lightness of being. We ask
that you find humor in every moment, that you choose love and
laughter at every turn.

When you see people "in drama" coming at you, forgive them for
being in that unconscious pattern, wait until they are done and then
very gently say, "Dear one, isn't it exhausting to keep doing that?
Wouldn't you like to take a break and just sit with me awhile?"

You will find that listening is one of your best healing tools.
That means allowing the client to express where they are at all
levels, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual, without making
the conversation about you! Allowing the person to talk is very,
very important. But keep in mind that fine line between allowing
and enabling - if you see no forward progress, no resolution of
the issues and illnesses that person is carrying, no changes in
life style that reduce stress, either that person is not doing their
"homework" or the modalities you are using do not resonate for
them. Always strive for that higher perspective, and let your
actions be guided by what is best for both you and the patient's
highest good (in Divine Timing, under grace.)

Please, dear practitioners, set your egos aside from here on
in. Pride is a very low-density vibration and perspective! It
is time to gather a higher quality and level of holistic healing
information, to provide the same level of care as does your
medical community. This is no small task we are handing you!
In order to do this, you must put aside the little egos that say,
"My way is best."

Do not judge one another, for all of your varied skills are all
equally important. And for those who say, "I am the strongest,"
well, walk around them, dear ones. They will wind down soon
enough (chuckles.) It is not a question of strength, it is a question
of knowledge, a question of heart. Work from compassion, not
pity, work with a smile on your face, and allow the rest to unfold.
Detach from the outcome, dear facilitators, for that is not your
responsibility!

As you progress in your holistic career, you will find that each
patient's needs are as unique as their past and current history.
What works for one may not work for another. That is why we
urge you to see each modality as a healing tool. Pick and choose
the ones that feel right for you, and create a "tool box" for your
holistic work. Make the Circle of Grace your foundation, and
build upon it.

Yes, all modalities are compatible with the Circle of Grace release
patterns. All of the work you do, especially modalities that target
the nervous system and relieve chronic pain, will be more efficient
and effective if the person's meridians are cleared first!

We know that not all of you are active practitioners, but you can
still be of service to the Divine Plan. It doesn't matter if you are
working or retired, there are always ways for you to share your
energy, your knowledge and your love. Even if you just make a
joke and get the person at the cash register to smile back at you,
that is a moment of healing, you see. And that is the crowning
moment of your day for Spirit, when you make someone else
feel better. So many of you are empaths, you do not realize that
your very presence is healing, that your positive attitude helps to
open minds, that your kindnesses are so appreciated, that you
do have such an impact on others.

Through all of your work, we ask that you develop "compassionate
detachment." In some cases the person may have too many
blockages, and be too ill to recover. Dear lightworkers, you can
still facilitate their energetic transition in a big way. We greatly
honor those who do hospice work, it is the most difficult level of
healing work for humans to handle. In facing death comes your
biggest test of faith, and alongside, the greatest of learning and
healing.

Yes, there will be many transitions around you in the upcoming
years, and many trials and tribulations. But the more you see
them as lessons, the more quickly the pain will evaporate and
leave you the joy of learning. And you will get to a point where
none of it will hurt any more and none of it will matter, you see,
because the mind indeed is stronger than the matter. You will
learn that what's the matter with most people is that they don't
understand the workings of their own minds (chuckle.)

Some of you are angels, yes, walking angels spreading
sweetness and light. There are others who are on a mission,
yet others who are here to finish lessons left undone in prior
incarnations. Everyone in this space (and reading this text)
is in transition, for the earth-plane itself is merely a physical
transitional space. We will remind you that you are Eternal,
that you existed before your birth and will not cease to exist
after your death. Indeed, your death is the finest out-of-body
experience you will ever have (chuckle)!

On a more serious note, know that many deaths are specifically
planned as part of a lesson, or the culmination of lessons. Once
those lessons are lived through and assimilated, the soul is done
with that lifetime. This is especially true for children who die
young - they took on that contract before they came in. Know
that they earned twelve lifetimes for volunteering, to put it into
linear terms. They are very much honored for this by Spirit,
that they embraced a short life for the specific reason of being
the example, of being the object of the lesson for those around
them. Take heart, and be at ease, for their pain is done and their
spirit is free.

There will be many choices before you. Weigh what you need
to in terms of survival and what is good for those around you,
absolutely. That is the way, you see. Your decisions must come
from the heart, not from the mind, for the mind will keep you
trapped in duality. For those of you who are seeking to move
beyond duality, beyond the linearity, we say, dear ones, you will
still wake up in the morning and see that same face in the mirror.
The fact that you are "in body" will not change.

Yet, as your senses expand and your wisdom grows, as your
understanding of non-physical energetics increases, your face
will shine more and more, and you will attract back to you that
new higher resonance you are projecting. So have patience and
faith in yourself, no matter how many times you think, I have to
do this again, it didn't work last time, why am I doing this again?
Or, everybody's telling me it's not going to work, but I must
persevere anyway. It is truly vital to work from the heart, which
will often seem illogical to those around you.

Have faith in yourself and your own potential! Then you will
find that those around you will begin to reflect the same. That is
the Law of Attraction. Once you get through the understanding
and assimilating parts, you will naturally start to process the
final stages of your rebirth. The manifestation of all these
concepts is taking them into your bones and cells, and believing
them to the depths of your being. We speak of having full faith
in all that you feel, think, say, and do. No doubting! Be-ing
totally in your beliefs - that will propel you into "Godhood."

So speak your intent, and know that you will get what you w
ish! You are the material creators, you are the ones creating the
opportunities and avenues for your future to emerge. Look at
what you have done in the past - all that you have done in the
past has created your current reality and the current person that
you are. Look at what you do today - in your daily efforts, you
are creating your future reality.

And if you don't like what you see, change it! That is why you
are here. It is not to accumulate cars and jewelry, for those
things stay behind and others inherit them! So everything that
you buy, in your mind say, "I wonder who will end up with
this?" For nothing material is ever totally yours. What do you
take back to Spirit? The lessons you have learned, the love you
have created, the progress you have made at all levels.

The soul's true treasure is its progress toward returning,
re-immersing into God energy. Again, our definition of God is
much broader than you, in your upbringing, have been taught.
We are a totality of energy that is differentiated at the soul level,
at the monad level, at the Master level and beyond, in ever-
expanding dimensions of reality. In truth, all life is a flowing
totality of essence that is All That Is. All That Is, is truly God.
It is not a separate image or entity, it is not one force or
another, it is All.

God is all science, all sacred geometry, all philosophy, all that
which you have ever discovered, and much more. Divine essence
causes the universes to dance next to each other, which you
have not figured out yet. We find it wonderfully amusing that
your science fiction eventually becomes science fact. Each time
something is proven, it becomes assimilated by the general
population, becomes the property of specific humans, and then
is sold and doled out. We say, the higher knowledge is for all
of you. It is a shame that such specific chopping up of anything
new must be accomplished before the general public will accept
any of it.

That is another thing we are here to change. Do not let anyone
tell you how to think. Do not tell anyone how they should think.
Do not allow anyone to try and force you to worship in one way
or act in another. Always remember free will! Free will governs
all action at all levels. Expect the highest from everyone, see their
potential, and then allow them to reach it. Sometimes the lessons
you witness will not be pleasant; understand that each and every
person chooses their own way. No matter what you do or do not
do, you always return to the totality of essence of All That Is.

So, in truth, you are much more free than you realize. You
are much more powerful than you realize! You are already
complete, whole Be-ings, and being in the Now you can easily
connect with your future selves. Glean information, help, a new
foundation, see yourselves as already having achieved what you
wish and that will bring it into your Now. Intent is all. The only
limit you have is your own imagination.

W e are saying to you here, go beyond the bounds of linear
time. That is the most difficult thing to do. For you are creatures
of linear time, that is all you know, the past is behind, the present
is around, and the future is ahead. Within your duality, the past
and future are each compartmentalized, and cannot be reached.
Cosmic humor here, even in your habitual linearity, all you can
access is your current Now moment! (Chuckles.) We are merely
teaching you how to expand and augment that which you already
have.

For those of you who study Reiki, you know that the symbol
for distant healing transverses time. You can send healing into
the past or future for loved ones alive and dead, for situations
done or not done, to forgive those that have harmed you, to
ask forgiveness of those you have harmed. Once you are fully
opened to the flow of Now time, the past and future open up to
you!

Yes, you can access and affect your future - intend what you
want and drag it in with your will. We are saying, here's the
rope, here's the instructions, go hand-over-hand, that is the best
way. The more of you that line up and pull on that rope, the
faster the goal comes in! You are all singular, yet equal in power
and in effectiveness. One of the reasons this planet has been
shrouded is because of your enormous power, you see, though
you are not aware of it yet, which has many other species quite
relieved!

We speak to you lightworkers who truly desire this path, both
here tonight and reading these words. It is a solitary march, first
to survive, then to be part of a tribe, then to become an individual,
and from then to find your way back to Source. Now you are at
the stage where you are leaving the material path and embarking
on the spiritual path, and you begin to see what is truly important -
merging them both and living in balance with both. This higher
perspective will also give you a better understanding of others as
you see them struggle, trip and fall over things they have not been
able to finish.

Sometimes just picking them up and dusting them off is enough.
If you have the gift of seeing patterns and you can point out their
lessons, that is a great healing. Yes, it is very important to know
the lessons. And then you must hand it back to them and say,
"This is yours, you must do this. Nobody can do it for you." Just
as you cannot not drag someone kicking and screaming behind
you up the path, you also cannot be dragged by anyone else up the
path. Each one must find their way back Home, in their own time,
in their own way.

This is the last life for many on the Karmic wheel. You may
look at some and think, Oh, poor soul, what was he thinking,
bringing all of that in at once? You will see, here and there, a
"kitchen sink lifetime," all the lessons ignored or undone thrown
into a heap to try and get finished. We honor those as well.
Those who are on track, those who are catching up, those who
are unaware, it matters not. We honor anyone and everyone at
their level. If you carry this approach into your holistic work -
honor rather than judge, allow rather than resist, while embracing
all of it - you will see miracles abound!

If you can lend a hand to those who cannot see why things are
wrong, that is a blessing. Every time you reach out and help
someone from the heart just for the love of doing it, that is a
blessing. The more we do this (we use the collective "we" now,
for many Brothers have incarnated and sit right next to you), the
more we all help each other, the faster we will all ascend. For
as 3D rises into 4D, and 4D into 5, where do you think 5D is
going? Yes, 5 goes to 6! This is not just your personal human
ascension, dear ones. You are the fulcrum of a much larger shift.
The changes are all around you, they are much more then global,
they are much more than galactic, they are universal
(universe-all!)

All is changing, and yet All Is One, so we all rise together.

We would like to take this opportunity to say thank you. We
thank you for reading this work, for honoring our energy, and
for allowing us the opportunity to fulfill our role in the Divine
Plan. For, you see, we are the spiritual surgeons and caretakers
of humanity. It has been and always will be our greatest joy to
help you to evolve. So as we guide you, hopefully gently up the
path, we say thank you, for we are striding along right next to
you. And your doing holistic work allows us to do our spiritual
work, and for that we hold great love in our hearts for you.

We Are, Ever-Loving,
The Brotherhood Of Light

Copyright 2005 by Edna G. Frankel


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Subject: Energy Management - The Brotherhood of Light through Edna
G.Frankel

Energy Management
The Brotherhood of Light through Edna G.Frankel

April 2006 SEDONA Journal of EMERGENCE - http://www.sedonajournal.com

Authors Note: In my December 2005 Predictions article, "low-density
etheric pressure" was mistakenly written as "highdensity." My
apologies; any errors in my material I feel are due to the
limitations of the human channel. If we're in a body, we're still
learning!

Greetings, dear ones, from the Brotherhood of Light. We focus this
material for you in the linear time frame of April 2006, though
whenever it is that you see this text will be the perfect Now moment
for this message to come to you. For you lightworkers who have built
a strong foundation of future cocreation, this year will be a busy
one. Yes, as awareness grows, so will your workload. Bless the flow!

ACKNOWLEDGE WHAT IS MAKING YOU UNHAPPY AND CLEAR IT

The best way to keep up with the increasing intensity of life is to
pace yourselves, to balance work with enough rest so that you do not
develop chronic energy depletion. The higher the energies go, the
more effort it will take to get things done. Yes, can you feel
yourselves expending energy whenever you focus on something?
Resting, repolarizing and replenishing your energetic systems will
help you to attain and maintain a healthy level of function, no
matter what may be going on around you. We are speaking here, dear
ones, of energy management, of care and maintenance of the aura.

We ask you to simply learn to relax. Learn to live simply; learn to
live in compassion. Learn to roll with what is happening around you
instead of getting into a frenzy over details. You will find that
being in that higher frame of mind does not require a "pulling up"
of your energy but rather a releasing of all tension in your gut,
releasing old ways of thinking that now fit you like an ill-made
suit. Do you see the difference? In taking responsibility for your
life and for all that you have created, you release the crushing
despair of victimhood and the fruitless search for someone or
something on which to pin the blame. When you face and acknowledge
what is making you unhappy, there is a surge of relief in the body
that helps to clear away those old fears.

Once you have taken that biggest step, your next decision is how to
resolve each unhappy aspect of your life. Step by step, children, is
how you learned to walk, yes? [Chuckles.] And step by step is how
you will grow, taking all these complex concepts and realizing that
they are based upon the simplest of things. Common sense, taking
care of yourself, balancing work and play and embracing whatever
form of daily practice speaks to your body, emotions, mind and soul�
yes, the PEMS levels are what we always come back to, since those
compose the "expansion framework" that you must grow into. Clearing
and balancing all of your body's layers are crucial to vibrational
ascension. Realizing that you are indeed an eternal, energetic being
with a temporary physical core is your very first step, your first
and most important belief to blend into your awareness of who you
are.

YOUR BELIEF SYSTEMS ARE YOUR SPRINGBOARD FOR MATERIAL CREATION

Dear ones, as we said earlier, your belief systems are your
springboard for material creation. What you believe is what you
bring in! If you see yourself as small, incomplete or lesser than,
how can you also see yourself as divine? If you, deep down, believe
that you are separate from Spirit, how can you achieve oneness? You
cannot, until you change your beliefs. Then all of your other
energetic layers will respond, and once you process that expanded
belief energetically, your physical chemistry will change. Yes,
remember when we said that the aura clears from the outside in?
First your spiritual layer must change and expand into the belief
that you carry God's vibration within you. Then your mind must
process the belief logically so that it makes sense to your
conscious awareness. Then you must emotionally embrace that new
belief and plant it in your heart to make it your new comfort zone.
Finally, your physical body will begin to show the changes, as your
auric "healing into a higher awareness" is always mirrored by your
physical core.

In prior material, we explained how your body speaks to you through
illness and injury. Foot, leg and hip traumas are the body's way of
expressing that you are having issues with forward motion in your
life. Neck problems speak to not seeing both sides of a situation.
Shoulder, arm and hand issues reflect your inability to reach for or
grasp that which you want to bring into your life. Now, does it not
make sense that as you clear and cleanse all of your energetic
layers, your physical core will begin to reflect that too?

APPLY THE LAW OF BALANCE AT ALL LEVELS

Dear ones, your powers are blocked by your fears. Your only
limitation is your own imagination. How can you heal limiting belief
structures that are impeding your physical healing? Start
daydreaming your future into materialization! Stop dreaming that you
are someone else doing something else somewhere else�that is a pure
waste of energy. Would you throw money out the window? Of course
not! So why expend your precious physical energy in creating mental
scenarios that are way off your path? The pace of manifestation is
increasing, so watch where you are putting your focus. Be aware of
how you are spending your energy! The universal law to apply here is
the law of balance. Indeed, the ultimate goal of all life is to
maintain a harmonious balance. Start looking to the universal laws,
see what you are attracting, see how to balance cause and effect,
take responsibility for what you have created and get busy
manifesting what you require and desire! But with the power of
manifestation comes great responsibility. Master, are you master of
your mind? Are you in charge of your emotions? Do you see through
the eyes of God and find all forms of life beautiful? Are you
harmless?

Yes, these attributes are created with patience, perseverance and a
positive attitude, dear ones. It is a day-by-day, momentby-moment
restructuring of your thought patterns, your emotional responses and
your physical actions. You have a saying: "Think before you speak."
We will expand this to: "Think, then feel before you speak." And
please, between the feel and the speak, self-edit! See if what you
are about to say is positive or negative, supportive or judgmental.
Learning to be harmless is really the maintenance of your karmic
balance�once you have cleared enough etheric baggage at the PEMS
levels, it is important not to create new negative karma!

Balancing at all levels includes the karmic level, which lies buried
beneath the current and chronic layers of your Circle of Grace (COG)
release. The third and most difficult level is the entwined genetic
heritage of your reincarnation history and the ways in which each of
your bodies died. In other words, at the DNA level, you are clearing
away all old, inherited limiting beliefs as well as the trauma
pattern to your body blueprint
that records all of your physical lives and deaths. So if you have
been diligently doing COG sessions and are asking yourself, "Am I a
bottomless pit or what? When does all this goop stop flowing?" then
you are probably clearing across the lines of time or, as you
say, "seven generations back and seven generations forward." We say,
get a bit more un-linear! [Chuckles.] And don't give up, because all
time is Now and all of your ancestors across all time thank you for
your efforts. Once you clear enough fear out of your bodies, this
accomplishment will indeed ripple through the tapestry of time!

So focus first on clearing the current stress and strain, which is
the topmost layer of etheric schmutz to be released. Remember, the
aura clears from the outside in, from new to old. Underneath the
freshest layer of blockage lies your chronic layer, where old
injuries, illnesses and trauma to your body in this life leave
etheric damage. This includes emotional and mental trauma, dear
ones, which clog up your aura in the same way your physical body
develops blocked arteries�yes, little by little!

A GLOBAL UNDERTAKING CAN ONLY HAPPEN ONE STEP AT A TIME

This is big work, dear ones, a huge global undertaking that can only
happen one step at a time, one heart at a time, until your voices
begin to blend into one common desire for all to live in harmony.
The more you create that harmony in your own space and your own
lives, the quicker it will spread. Yes, the law of attraction!

The more light comes unto the planet, the more darkness will be
exposed in every country and in every culture until those
distinctions become meaningless. Don't be disheartened by the levels
of outward chaos around you; see it as a necessary "quickening" of
drama that will bring in muchneeded change for the better, sooner
than you think possible!

So we leave you with a key concept to utilize, one that is already
within your framework of reference: "Think globally, act locally."
Yes, there is an energetic level of meaning to that phrase, do you
see it? Hold a loving space for the potential of those embroiled in
drama, without allowing that drama to negatively impact your PEMS
levels. Keep up with the news, yes; look to international sources
and form your own opinions about what is going on. Don't stay glued
to the TV for hours, though. Spend time out in nature! As dear Edgar
Cayce�one of our beloved Christ-consciousness incarnates of the
twentieth century�used to say, "After breakfast, work a while. After
lunch, rest a while. After dinner, walk a mile."

Pace yourselves, dear ones, and enjoy the journey! We are, in all
love, the Brotherhood of Light. .


The Circle of Grace Exercise

Lie down with your spine straight and arms at your sides. Place
pillows beneath your head and knees to prevent lower-back strain. Do
not cross your arms or legs, since physical pressure interrupts the
releasing flow within the meridians. It is also important to relax
the jaw muscles, for your jaw joints are the on-off switch for
meridian release. Remember to breathe in and out slowly and deeply,
pausing after each inhalation and exhalation; you can also breathe
in, breathe out and then pause. Imagine your body releasing internal
pressure from the top down on both sides, like a golden shower
inside and out. Feel the pressure flow down your arms and legs,
exiting from your hands and feet. As you release old, spent energy,
feel new, bright, light, universal energy entering through your
crown chakra, replenishing your system and feeding you at all PEMS
[physical, emotional, mental and spiritual] levels. Start with the
fully blocked pattern, and allow your body to cycle through the
various release patterns as needed. Care and maintenance of the
aura, dear ones, no one can put in a pill!