Iraq assured Iran

Iraq assured Iran on Friday that it supports Iran's right to develop nuclear energy and will not allow Iraqi territory to be used to threaten Iran, adopting a position at odds with America's view that Iran should abandon its nuclear program.

Speaking during a visit by the Iranian foreign minister to Iraq to congratulate the new government formed a week ago, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Iraq's new government is "friendly" to Iran.

"Iraq definitely will not be a place to threaten Iran from," Zebari said at a news conference in Baghdad, with the Iranian foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, standing at his side.

Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, commemorates the men and women who have died in service for our country.

It was begun to honor Union soldiers who died during the Civil War.

After the First World War, it was expanded to include all those who died in any war.

Since 1776, the United States has lost over 650,000 to war.

378 have been killed in Afghanistan.

2,464 have been killed in Iraq.

Today is their day.

Last night we went to Providence's first Waterfire of the season.

We had friends from out of town with us and who do we bump into? The Mayor of Providence!

What a nice guy he is in person! Much more engaging than our current mayor of Cranston. Or the guy who would want to be our next mayor, Nap.

Have you seen Nap's literature? Nap's walking card that he hands out to attract voters - all it is, is a list of his education and employment - a bulleted resume. There is nothing about the city, his plans, goals - nothing. Of course I guess if you got nothing, you cannot give anything.

Also, Nap's domain name for his website is "mayornapolitano". I cannot imagine that "napolitanoformayor" was not available. The only thing it says on his website is "www.mayornapolitano.com - Coming Soon"

Does he already think he has won the race? Has he proclaimed himself mayor? He sure does act like it.

And it looks like Pisaturo quits his race for mayor. This was not at all a surprise.

Cindy Fogarty's new website is up and running.

I invite you to have a look-see!

Dear friends and neighbors,

Welcome to my campaign website. I was elected to the Cranston City Council by just a few votes in 2002, but after two years of proving myself as a hard-working and independent councilmember, I was re-elected in 2004 by a strong margin. Because I have worked relentlessly for important causes including the financial stability of our city, as well as the effort to keep Horton Elementary School open, I am well-versed in the issues that we face as a city. I am excited about this campaign season and the opportunities to meet members of the community and talk to them about what we can do together to make Cranston a stronger, more vibrant community.

I appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you on the campaign trail!

Sincerely,

Cindy Fogarty

Sunday, the 25th will be clean up day at the Brown Street Dog Park in Providence. You can come by at noon. More info can be found here at this website.

Also, the "Heart & Sole Walk for the Animals" is on June 4th, check out this website for details.

Reception Honoring Charlie Fogarty for Governor

Tuesday, May 30, 2006 6:00 to 8:00 P.M
Providence Black Repertory Company 276 Westminster Street

Suggested Contribution: $100-Sponsor $50-Host $25-Friend

Host Committee: Senator Juan Pichardo, Senator Harold Metts, former Senator Charles Walton, Representative Joseph Almeida, Representative Anastasia Williams, Representative Grace Diaz, former Representative Joseph Newsome, Councilman Luis Aponte, Councilman Ronald Allen, Tomas Alberta Avila, Sam Abiade, Abigail Mesa, Curtis Spence, Lanre Olateru-Olagbegi, Julius Kolawole, Justin Aina, Jorge Cardenas, Cara Camacho, Stephanie Ogidan Preston, Matthew Jerzyk, Ben Garcia, Stanford Cameron, Adriana Dawson, Grace Gonzales & Doris De Los Santos

RSVP by calling (401) 331-4468 or by secure on-line contribution

Last night, the Woodridge PTO invited Horton parents to their meeting.

I know that some of us are still very angry about the Horton closing.

Horton's principle had this message -

The final vote was taken at the last School Committee meeting on the resolution to close Horton School. The resolution passed with a 4-3 vote. The Horton Community, myself and the staff are deeply saddened by this decision. We realize that our school is a very special place where our students are held to high standards and nurtured at the same time. I also know that we enjoy that reputation with our Superintendent and School Committee and that this decision was not made lightly.

To that end, we continue to pursue our daily work which is to improve and increase student achievement.

At the close of this school year, student records will be sent to either Stadium School or Woodridge School. If you reside on the northern side of Park Ave. your child will attend Stadium School. If you live on the southern side of Park Ave. (the side where Horton stands) your child will attend Woodridge School. Both schools are exceptional with extremely competent teachers and strong, effective leadership. These schools are eagerly awaiting their new “Horton” friends.

We are in the process of planning an orientation and visit to each of these schools. The students will have an opportunity to tour their new building and learn about the routine of their new school. Once the details have been established, we will let you know the exact days and times of the visits.

Bus transportation will also be provided to both Stadium and Woodridge Schools for the next school year. The schedule and stops will be forwarded to you at the end of the summer as it is for all schools.

Please remind your child that there are many advantages to change, one of which is the opportunity to meet new friends. I also recall the adage “When one door closes, another opens”.

We have time for our celebrations and good-byes. Our charge now is to continue our daily work of teaching and learning.

Please do not hesitate to call if you have any questions or concerns.

Fondly,
Mrs. Casale

Last night, I was lucky enough to meet the founders of DailyKos and MyDD.

DailyKos is my favorite political blog on the internet.

They were there to push their book, Crashing the Gate.

Read more about it, here and here...

I just saw the Da Vinci Code movie. If you liked the book, you will like the movie. If you loved the book, you will love the movie and if you hated the book, you will hate the movie.

Most importantly, if you have not read the book then you may be a little confused with the movie.

I read the book a while ago, it was enough time to forget some the details (so the movie was still exciting and new) but not so long ago that I did not forget other details (I was not utterly confused).

There has been a lot said about the book. The book was entertaining enough to be finished quickly. The conspiricy theories were a little wild. That is to be expected when you are on a "Grail Quest" with the Knights Templar involved.

The movie itself is much like 2004's National Treasure about Templar treasure hidden away by America's founders.

I would recommend that you read the book just because people have told you not to read it. Always remember, people that start burning books end up burning people.

If this book is a little beneath your intellect but are still interested in Grail and Templar conspiricy theories, try reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum.

Scientists are studying a large, dead shark that washed up overnight on a Newport beach.

full story here

Wow! I thought that the sunken British ships were cool.

Last year, there was that whale.

What else has the wonderful Atlantic have in store for us? Pirate Treasure?

Anybody know what happened to our "Former-Democrat-New-Independent" friend over at Cranstonpolitics.blogspot.com?

The forum is no longer accepting comments, there’s no moderator e-dress, and we are worried!

If any misfortune or illness has befallen our beloved moderator, we’d like to send flowers.

Any insight is appreciated, thanks!

Famous Democratic bloggers Kos (of Daily Kos) and Jerome (of MyDD.com) will be in Providence next Monday, May 22 promoting their new book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots and the rise of People-Powered Politics.

The RI Young Democrats are hosting a presentation and a book-signing at the Brown Bookstore (244 Thayer St.) on Monday, May 22nd from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. Following this, RIYD will host the May meeting (including a greet and drink beer session) at Trinity Brewhouse in downtown Providence from 7:30pm to 9:00pm with the two authors.

Other news -

Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, will host a community dinner in Smithfield on Wednesday, May 17. at the Smithfield Senior Center. For more information call 401-490-VOTE(8683).

More news -

Elizabeth Roberts for Lieutenant Governor will host a private performance of Waiting for Godot at the Second Story Theater in Warren, Thursday, May 18. The performance will be followed by a champagne reception featuring president and artistic director Ed Shea.

Elizabeth Roberts will officially launch her campaign on Monday, May 22 at the Aspray Boathouse in historic Pawtuxet Village at 10:00 a.m. Roberts will be joined by U.S. Senator Jack Reed, Congressman James Langevin, Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty friends, family and other supporters of her campaign.

For more information call Roberts HQ's at 331-3300 or email elizabeth@elizabethroberts.org

This is way cool!

Four ships from a British fleet used during the U.S. Revolutionary War have been found off Rhode Island, and one may be the vessel 18th century explorer Captain James Cook sailed on his epic voyage to Australia, archaeologists said on Tuesday.

Researchers with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project said they believe the four ships, and two others previously discovered, are part of a 13-vessel transport fleet intentionally sunk by the British in Newport Harbor in 1778 to keep French ships from landing to aid the Americans' drive for independence.

Using historical materials and sonar, the archaeologists discovered the ships in Narragansett Bay, within a mile of Newport, Rhode Island's shoreline.

More here!

He served two terms as vice president under a popular president. He then lost the presidency in a razor-thin election. After eight years, he repackaged himself and won the race for the White House and was re-elected in a major landslide.

That person was Richard Nixon. What Nixon did in 1968, Al Gore could repeat in 2008. Like Nixon, Gore faces a nation divided by an unpopular war. And like Nixon, Gore could transform anti-war anger and general public malaise into votes. Moreover, Democrats, moderate Republicans and independents are eager for a change, and Gore could emerge as a central agent for change in 2008. More here.

Al Gore never claimed he "invented" the Internet, nor did he say anything that could reasonably be interpreted that way. That piece of propaganda comes from the same right-wing noise machine that gave us the Iraq War.

Gore currently serves as President of the American television channel Current and Chairman of Generation Investment Management, sits on the board of directors of Apple Computer, and serves as an unofficial advisor to Google's senior management. He also has a new movie coming out, "An Inconvenient Truth" - http://www.climatecrisis.net/

UPDATE - Gore May Run Again in 2008 for US President, Warns of Global Warming

By Matthew Cardinale, News Editor, Atlanta Progressive News (May 15, 2006)(APN) ATLANTA – Al Gore may be a “recovering politician,” but “You always have to worry about a relapse,” Gore told Atlanta Progressive News.

The in-person exchange with the former Vice President took place following a special screening of “An Inconvenient Truth,” here at Atlantic Station in Midtown Atlanta.
Following the screening of the absolutely breathtaking and monumental film about the grave and present threat of global warming to this planet, Atlanta Progressive News’s Editor asked the former Vice President, “Will you please, please run for President?”

We thought it might help if we asked politely.

After the crowd cheered Gore in encouragement, he told the audience, “I’m a recovering politician, on Step Nine. Thank you for your sentiment.” Things seemed a bit gloomy for a while.

But then later, after the larger crowd left the theater, APN Staff Writer Susan Keith brought the issue up again in a more private, yet informal gathering in the theater after the show. “It’s not a sentiment!” she said, while others in attendance offered their campaign support and said, stop listening to those consultants.
Then, Gore said: “Like I said, I’m a recovering politician. But you always have to worry about a relapse.”

A relapse indeed. Such language appears to have been chosen very carefully.
But the more important thing about tonight’s event is how meticulously and powerfully Mr. Gore and his production team have documented the causes, effects, and dangers of global warming for the mass American public.

The American people need to go out and see this movie in a major way.
Gore said it’s not too late to reverse the trends of global warming, but that some scientists say we might be about ten years away from that point.

It’s an inconvenient truth, but one we must, must as a global community take action upon if we are to avoid massive catastrophe, flooding, displacement, more hurricanes and storms, extinction of species, destruction of the coral reefs, and potentially unbearable warming on this planet.

“Young people can lead this change,” Gore said in his remarks. During the Civil Rights Movement, “It was young people who went to the lunch counters,” Gore said.
Global warming needs to be discussed as a moral issue, Gore said. “This is a moral issue. It should be lifted above partisan politics. Young people can have a much bigger impact than you can imagine you made up your mind to do it.”
Gore also praised independent media, especially Internet media.
“The Internet is a source of real hope,” Gore said.

“Kind of like Star Wars, there is a rebellion,” he said, “and it’s alive on the Internet.”
One of the biggest take-home points of the film is Gore’s debunking of the Republican claims that the recent increases in temperature are simply parts of cycles in nature, like the Ice Age.

The recent increases in carbon dioxide, that is, are “off the charts,” beyond anything we’ve ever seen before, and that includes 650,000 years of the Earth’s history, Gore said.

Increases in carbon dioxide have historically been correlated with increases in temperatures. Therefore, we must worry that the planet will become hotter, 5 degrees at conservative estimates, Gore said.

“It’s real; we’re causing it; the results are catastrophic; we have to start fixing it; and it’s not too late,” Gore said. Those are his main five points, he said.
The mainstream media has posed the most serious impediment to Americans and politicians understanding the scientific consensus and knowledge of global warming, Gore said.

A striking slide in the film showed that 0% of a large sample of peer-reviewed scientific studies disputed global warming or its man-made, or anthropogenic, causes. Meanwhile, 53% of media accounts portrayed global warming as a debated issue, according to one study cited in the film.

Hurricane Katrina may have also been exacerbated by the warmer ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico which are a result of global warming, the movie also showed.
“There are two symbols in the Chinese word for crisis: danger and opportunity,” Gore said.

“We probably have ten years, maybe a little less, in which to make a significant start before we cross a point of no return,” Gore said.

“Nothing else matters so much,” Gore said.

“If we face down the danger, we have the opportunity to make a lot of changes,” Gore said.

“The biggest opportunity not faced by other generations is a shared moral purpose, to transcend limitations... pettiness, and bickering,” Gore said.

About the author:

Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor and a National Correspondent for Atlanta Progressive News and may be reached at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com

Syndication policy:

This article may be reprinted in full at no cost where Atlanta Progressive News is credited. http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0055.html

Last summer, we traveled to Old England. We were in London mere days after the 7/7 Bombings and the air was as charged as was New York City the days after 9/11.

While I was there, a Brazilian immigrant was shot dead by the police, mistaken for an Arab suicide bomber. This concerned me a little because I am of Cape Verde ancestory. I was stopped and searched three times within 24 hours. Stopped is a lot better than shot.

Away from London, I was able to breathe a lot easier and really enjoy myself. We traveled to Great Yarmouth and I saw the Scroby Sands Wind Farm. It was impressive and beautiful.

Here in New England, we have controversy over the Cape Cod Wind Farm project.

For me, this is a no-brainer; wind power is just smarter than drilling for oil and gas. Why is this even an argument?

For more info go here or there...

The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. -Preamble to the US Constitution

In the United States, the oath of office for the President is specified in the U.S. Constitution (Article II, Section 1):

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The oath of enlistment is administered by a commissioned officer to a person enlisting. The oath is as follows:

"I, (state your name), do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States, the governor of the state of (state) and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God."

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment IV (Ratified December 15, 1791)

"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7779.shtml

Bush claims that he is higher authority than both US law and international law. In the past, US presidents vetoed laws with which they disagreed. Bush signs the laws and ignores them.

Bush has declared himself to be the sole judge of the limits of his powers--a claim that violates Bush's oath of office to uphold the US Constitution. Bush has set aside the Bill of Rights by detaining people indefinitely without charges, by kidnapping and torturing people, and by spying on Americans without warrants. These are actions that are illegal under law as well as unconstitutional. All of these violations of law and the Constitution are serious impeachable offenses.

Yet. Congress is supine as the Bush regime exercises dictatorial powers. The exercise of these dictatorial powers by the executive is a far greater danger to American liberty than are Muslim terrorists.

Bush's apologists claim that only terrorists have anything to fear. However, unaccountable executive power is inconsistent with free societies. America is no exception. Unless Bush is impeached and turned over to the war crimes court in the Hague, Americans will never reclaim their liberties from an executive branch that has established itself as the sole judge of the limits of its powers.

- Endgame for the Constitution, http://www.wnymedia.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1408&Itemid=35

Now, for liberals who‘ve long been going against almost all of these issues to defend privacy, the news has to be disturbing. But no less so the conservatives who have fought national ID cards and gun registration for years out of fear of big government.


Now, whatever you consider yourself, friends, you should be afraid. You should be very afraid. With over 200 million Americans targeted, this domestic spying program is so widespread, it is so random, it is so far removed from focusing on al Qaeda suspects that the president was talking about today, that it's hard to imagine any intelligence program in U.S. history being so susceptible to abuse.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/05/12.html#a8261

"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it, " [Bush] said.
-- Business Week, July 30, 2001

http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=tfgHtfPKB54

It was 12 years ago this very night that I entered United States Air Force Basic Military Training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

I was 20 years old and the world at my doorstep. I had graduated EPHS in 1991 and followed that up with CCRI. Not sure where to turn after that (I could not afford URI), I headed off into the wild blue yonder.

Six weeks later, after basic, and I headed to Technical Training School at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. My career path was that of a 3C0x1, also known as, communications and computer systems operations.

My first duty station was the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In 1997, I switched over from active duty to the Rhode Island Air National Guard. I have since had the opportunities to serve in Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia, France, Key West, and many other places.

Today, I am still a proud traditional Guard member and a full time civilian employee of the US Navy at the Navy Station in Newport.

Joining the Air Force a dozen years ago was one of the best decisions of my life.

If you are interested in following this path, check out - AirForce.com, GoANG.com, or for some insider humor check out ChairForce.com

I have been away and now I have returned.

I have just completed my annual field training with the Rhode Island Air National Guard. We had an operational readiness exercise at the Air National Guard Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC) at Volk Field Air National Guard Base (ANGB), Wisconsin.

I have been "off-line" and "unplugged" from all media and news for over a week - this can sometimes be a good thing.

Lots to catch up on and there will be more to come later...