Outpourings / Blatherings

Looking for Work In All the Wrong Places

cat-spiracy — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:36:35 GMT

A couple of weeks ago, Saranade and I trolled the horse stable strip looking for odd jobs. I have 26 years of experience with horses, and I was hoping to score a groom/trainer gig that would not only add some dollars to the coffer but also yield free therapy. I had set my intentions to renew my lifelong relationship with my spirit animal this year, which usually costs hot steaming piles o' cash. Getting a job working with horses would be cheaper than free--I'd get paid! I love the universe's sense of humor. This weekend, Gretchen called back offering me a groom job! She runs the sharpest establishment in the canyon and has impeccable master horse trainer credentials. The icing on the cake is that Banshee used to board and train HER horse at Gretchen's and can't speak highly enough of her. I walked on clouds all weekend! Yesterday, I drove on out to interview with her and show her my stuff. It's a 30 minute drive, and I am only available while my kids are in school, which restricts me to part-time only positions. Because of my many other endeavors, especially Cat Chloe Designs, any job I take outside of the home must pack a decent financial wallop to warrant what it takes away from the rest. I was offered $6 per hour under the table?!?!?! At first, I was unfazed. I am literally desperate for cash, and if I took this, I'd get $50 cash today, right before Fool's. The smell of horses dazzles me, as does the sight and touch of their radiant bodies. My muscles rejoiced at the workout of currying six different gorgeous showhorses who all towered at least 17 hands tall. I felt pounds dropping off my hips as I marched up and down the slope leading horses to and from the turnout pen. A blissed-out grin plastered on my face, I made those wonderful noises that horsepeople make: clucking, kissing, hey!, little snuffly hello sounds, "good boy!".... If I got to do this for free, I'd be happy, and here I was earning $25. It certainly isn't a piece of cake job, and Gretchen is a hard taskmaster. I had to curry, brush, clean hooves, wash the face, boot, moisturize the tail, and tack up within 10 minutes per horse. I got down to about 15, and I was panting. Grooming horses that tall sure does make your arms tired, too. I admire and appreciate the shipshape way Gretchen runs her stable, and I was anxious to please her. I was already learning new things that I've only ever paid trainers to teach me before: ice wrapping the legs, horses on ulcer meds, new varieties of protective horse boots, pony club grooming regulations....and she was promising me riding opportunities as well, since I LOOOOVE riding the horses that scare other people with their spazzed-out antics. I excel in mellowing and comforting troubled, hurting horses who act out. We are balms to one another's souls. Well, the spell gets broken pretty fast when you are rushing back to reality on the freeway for an extra half hour's worth of precious gasoline, running on fumes with your fingers crossed, to pick up your kid from school. Returning home to the insane preparations for Fool's and my new Feral clothing line with five less hours of time and physically exhausted made me feel torn in 18 different directions. HazMatt was outraged by such a low wage offer, calling it insulting. And I suppose I could call it that too, but I choose not to take it personally and thus cannot be offended. It is what it is. But being what it is, I simply can't justify spending that much time, energy, and gas on such a low paying job, no matter how therapeutic. Plus, Gretchen needs someone full-time, six days a week and that ain't me. I had to call her back this morning and leave a message on her machine that I'm not coming today after all because I respect her time too much and I respect my own earning power too much to jack around like that. I even said that I hope that I could return as a paying client some day soon when my financial horizons improve. So, ha ha, universe, that was a good one. Thanks for the laugh. Next horse opportunity, please! Next work opportunity, please! Please, friends, I need Cat Chloe Designs and Feral to pan out. Buy burner!

A Gorgeous Spring Morning

cat-spiracy — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 19:29:01 GMT

Today-- so cool and cloudy, mockingbirds make a din on the wire, in air tinted white with the scent of orange blossoms, orange with the scent of the climbing rose. Six chickens scratch. Seven snap peas sprout. Salad greens raise their tiny heads above the soil. That fat little kitten leaping in and out, makes the cat-flap slap. Kiki is hungry for my love, gazing soulfully up at me, her piggy brown eyes large with longing. I take my daily tour: a tourist in my own back yard, flip flops on my stockinged feet. Slowly, I walk the perimeter of each border surrounded by future things to eat. Grateful at the unfurled leaf on the shaggy dull bark of the awakened grape! Joyful at the double blooms of blackberry vines sprawling up the stake! The tender herb sprigs have just barely germ'd, And the squash seedlings imperiously survey their conquered bed. I hear tour guides, but not in my head. Devic voices are not for ears; they speak in the language of plants and earth. I learn from them to unchoke that plant, Snuggle these together close, Bury nursery tomatoes up to their necks! And although that soil has a dry crust, inside it's warm and wet as a womb and mustn't be touched. The chicken condition clamors its devic tune: "Let us out, our boundless curiosity is cramped and oppressed! Give us our right to industriousness!" But the seed devas know it is best to wait. Those frail babies will grow into feasts and our garden will burgeon into a force: A force for waging Peace!

What should people do when you hide yourself away?

cat-spiracy — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 00:50:52 GMT

I haven't been answering email, phone calls, letters from friends, bill collectors, etc. Once in a while, I will actually reply to a text. For the most part, I feel like keeping mah-self to mah-self, if you know what I mean. I really, really hope that no one takes this personally. anyhow, i'm good with people in person, tee hee, what a concept! again, I don't really have an excuse for why I suck ass as a friend, but there it is. I can't wait for Fools Paradise. I can't wait to emerge from this temporary chrysalis and fan my wet wings to the beat. I can't wait to get "enhanced" and dance without equivocation. see y'all!

Call me!

cat-spiracy — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:23:29 GMT

Hey everybody, you may have noticed that I am never on Tribe anymore.....sadly, our internet was shut off. But my phone is on, and I'd love to hear from my friends out there. Please feel free to text and call me at 909-520-6969 any time. This goes for people who are interested in buying artwork as well. So sorry if I kept you hangin' with regards to that, it's kinda hard to run this business w/out the internet, but I still totally appreciate the orders I've received so far. They have kept us afloat enough to survive, and I'm ready for more! Hot steaming piles, Jeanne-Marie

Saturday, February 9, 9:00

cat-spiracy — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 03:01:53 GMT

What to do, what to do? How about some sweet burlesque for you! See my friend, "Pepper LaRue" do her wicked devil act along with a bevy of other babes (all shapes and types) in Anaheim for just 10 bucks. I'm thinking it might be fun to show up in burner garb...if ever there was a venue for that, this is it!!! Anyone in?

New Years Eve

cat-spiracy — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 03:08:44 GMT

This year, we want to keep things simple. We can't spend a lot of money or gas getting to the club scene, and we want to include our kids in this holiday. Luckily, Banshee is on the same page, and offered to open her home for a New Years Eve party. I am thrilled that HazMatt and I get to spend our 10th anniversary of meeting each other in such a wonderful way, full of comfort and joy. I am also thrilled to tell you that Rayne may be there to spin for us all and make our hips twitch uncontrollably. I hope to see as many of your friendly faces there as possible! The Irie IE beckons you to join us in a warm embrace, with danceable tunes, delicious snacks, spiritual moments, scintillating conversation, and who knows what all! Peace!

Consecrating a Place of Power and Mystery

cat-spiracy — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:53:38 GMT

I chose the location of Something Sagittarian with a purpose: to reclaim a site of great beauty and primal, metaphysical power from the shadows of my past. This is the place where my little saying of "so, _____, do these people....ACCEPT you?" originated, and I was going to shout out to the universe YES! As Banshee commented on my earlier blog: "How we laugh now when we hear that old echo "you're nothing, you're nobody" because we know from dancing with each other under the stars out in deserts with no names that we are, in fact, everything. " Whim sent me word of predicted rain, Weds. and I have to give Derek credit for nailing his prediction of flashflooding! Still, I told myself right up until the moment of that fat, black, tongue of water busting into the party zone shade structure, "A little rain, they say 1" max, it has to be ok, this thing must not be defeated!" I needed it so bad. Why was there suddenly cell service this weekend when during our reconnaisance trip, we had zil? We were able to connect with Banshee, Awno, and Madison's little convoy, and decided to brave the creek crossings and meet them at a motel in Blythe. We stashed the dj equip in the trailer, all the bed rolls in this covered wagon thingie Matt rigged up over the truck bed, and headed off. We were stunned by the transformation of the landscape, already mysterious and discombobulating by night, compounded tenfold by the solid sheets of water pelting down. We knew were the trail was because it shone as a silvery river surrounded by blackness and twisted, eerie treepeople. As water levels at creek crossings grew, we began to question the wisdom of fleeing, even though our trailer was freezing, wet, and crowded to the gills. Just then, we saw headlights and tail lights of another vehicle driving in aimless-appearing circles across the desert pavement, which looks like an enormous natural parking lot. It was Auriel! I couldn't believe my eyes as her unmistakable tall, blonde figure popped out! She was lost, and just begging the universe to send some help when we met. Matt led her out of the maze of flood waters to the main road, which had turned into a 2+ foot river, complete with tributaries and whitewater rapids. The covered wagon thingie instantly blew off, saturating all of Banshee's bedding. We plodded on, crossing our fingers at every plunge that coated the windshield with full-blown waves, petting its dashboard and cooing our truck's praises. Finally, we were on the freeway and headed to a cozy pair of motel rooms in gorgeous downtown Blythe. I can't say enough how great it was to have my best friends and favorite people in the entire world waiting for me with a righteous motel party! The kids (and wet, stinky dog lol) had their own room, while we grown ups partied for entertaining enlightenment. After all, we came prepared with our coolers etc full of treats for a party in the desert! Banshee performed the ceremonial circle, and asked for Balance from the direction of Water. It is no exageration to say that within 20 minutes, the rain had stopped completely, and the moon was visible once more. We were starting to crash out around 3:30 am when that miraculous cell coverage continued to flow, sending us calls from Saranade and Rayne--nearly out of gas, plus a car with two friends--Stuck up to the wheelwells in a sinkhole of mud. I felt absolutely horrible because in the frantic escape, I forgot who was coming when and didn't call them to warn them! Matt and Awno pulled themselves together and drove out to rescue them and bring them back to motel six, where we ladies "kept a light on for them". I tell you, there are no people on earth like burners. I hear there was dancing while they awaited their rescuers! In any case, their cheery addition to the motel party with an ice bucket denied several paying customers a goodnight's sleep, oops! As Natalie said, don't they know the desert was not available? Bright and early, they headed out to retrieve the stuck vehicle, and even though that person decided not to go on with this daunting adventure, Sara, Rayne, and Natalie headed out to our bedraggled camp on their own. Whim's family group turned up from their stay at another motel around 11. We formed the feel-good convoy of the millenium and took off for the nameless desert once more. It was a cliffhanger watching that last little SubMiata dip into creek crossings that sprayed our raised truck's windshield! I could feel everyone wondering, Are we there yet? It HAS to be around the next bend! This MUST be the last creek crossing! This place better be good. This party even had a greeters station because when we pulled up, we got piles of hugs from Sara, Rayne and Natalie. Once I showed everyone the mysteries of Maze Camp and its Sacred Circle, they were hooked. The neatest thing was that the big ironwood log I had just put on before the dam broke was STILL smoldering, and we had an instant campfire. Awno, that volcano of sensuality, took on fire feeding duty. The first thing we did was fire up the generator and turn on some MUSIC! Rayne took over and has us dancing in our tanktops under a clear blue sky! The best part of Saturday was the way people kept on coming in, ramping the energy, feeding the love. B-D and Vixxen's family rolled in next, just in time because the genny ran outta gas and they rescued the music! I couldn't believe my eyes as beloved face after face, plus new friends to be made, appeared to add the Power of this sacrament! I couldn't stop dancing. I was bowled over when Auriel, Whim, and Sara took over the stone soup, creating two of the most amazing cauldrons of goodness. Also Sway and Tuck, with their delicious thanksgiving turkey noodle soup and made-on-the-spot mashed potatoes from scratch! The teenagers made the birthday cake (brownies in cupcakes, mmm!) All this happened in a place not just washed, but SCOURED clean! Purged! And now the neutralness was filled with the pulse of love. There are so many little details I want to write about, so many priceless quotes, vignettes of experience, little acts of consideration made. There is no way to really encompass that phenomenology, it's that huge. I mean, five of us slew a dragon, after all! We seized a yule log-sized dead ironwood tree and marched it to the fire! That was one hell of a surge of energy! I had to straddle that log and ride that fire! The log eventually shot first smoke, then wildly hot flames out of its hollow end. Sunday was perfect desert blue, absolutely still and warm in the sunlight. I loved how Rayne pumped the party with its lifeblood, music, allll weekend long! Although I even got to play a micro set of my favorite songs, which rocked my former-college-radio-dj-and-missing-it soul! I loved the mellowness of Sunday, getting to know everyone, enjoying conversation, delicacies, cuddle puddles by the fire, watching the kids play and the dogs romp. Folks who wanted to went geode hunting with the rockhound who lives nearby. He came by Saturday night, and really enjoyed meeting our crowd. He said almost no one uses this campsite, and he not only didn't mind the music, he LIKED some of it! He helped out at the geode hunt, where some really cool amethysts and other crystals, geodes, and nodules were found. We were very exhausted at the end of Sunday, and taking down camp seemed daunting. But magically, all the moop disappeared by itself, and many hands stuck around to help us. Sway and Tucker stayed til the very end, making loading up so much fun, that we had to head back to Blythe and have dinner with them, hehe! Now we are thinking ahead to Pisces at their place! Tucker at one point told me I could stop thanking everyone over and over. And you know what, I couldn't, and I can't! THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO CAME TO MY BIRTHDAY PARTY! Thanks to all of you for having faith in my vision. Thanks to you, an amazing place of Power and mystery is now our, ALL of OUR, Home! I love you.

I swallow an outraged cat

cat-spiracy — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:55:30 GMT

I wrote a poem by that title about how I deal with the emotion of Anger. It claws me as I force it down, deeper and deeper into the substratum of my consciousness, where it continues to writhe and howl unabated. But my mother taught me to recite this little gem: "Pretty is kind thoughts and gentle feelings." Anger is not among the pantheon of "kind thoughts" and it is by no means a "gentle feeling". It is a blood red rush of adrenaline which narrows the field of vision. It is a fight-or-flight energizing force which destroys that which you perceive is destroying you, a force which empowers you to clear the field of antagonists or injustices. It is a force which I learned early in life to decline and to disavow because it became inextricably linked in my mind to the unjust antagonist who was my father. I spent much of my childhood in a prison called my room. The door was not physically locked, but the jailer was omnipresent in his drunken misanthropy just outside that thin panel of hollow core. I could feel his poisonous radiation thrumming throughout the house. The door would open in the wee hours of school nights and the jailer would enter and begin the round of endless interrogation and despoiling of my psyche. He never beat me. He never violated my flesh nor raped me. But when he made me to feel that I was nothing, that I didn't exist, that my every motivation was evil, I would cry tears of helplessness and rage. Despair in a pretty golden-haired girl is acceptable; rage is not. "What are you crying for--do you want me to give you something to cry about?!" Yes! I longed for that outraged cat to stop clawing at my insides. I longed for the slopes of my volcano to reflect the magma surging untamed within. The ritual of the leather belt spanking was a welcome respite from the unending barrage of words. Eventually, I learned methods of invoking that ritual of physical pain on myself. I could control the lashes. I could carve arcane symbols of this newfound control on my left wrist, even set it on fire like the inert piece of meat that it was. My super-ego assumed the chant of my father: "You're nobody, you're nothing, you're nobody, you're nothing......" and the logical conclusion of my mother's aphorism stuck: I am not pretty, kind nor gentle. I am not worthy of love. No one must discover that the core of my being is an outraged cat who will claw any who come near. The contract extracted from me at three am still hung to the refrigerator door: 4 hours of fun per week, no more. My father would occasionally spend his day constucting a diorama of fake suicide attempts. We'd come home from horseback riding and find him passed out drunk in the car with tubing taped from exhaust to window. Or there was the time he sat at the kitchen table all weekend with an empty revolver pointed to his temple, clicking and clicking and clicking. This guy was pathetic to me by the time I was a teen; his hypocrisy and phony suicides made me laugh and say I could do better. And I did: my suicide attempt at 16 put me in intensive care in a coma for 21 hours. It also tore a hole in the fabric of the universe, a black sensory deprivation tank that revealed itself as my destined "afterlife" which formed the basis of my spiritual poverty for the next 21 years. Until Banshee bent me to the earth and showed me my highest self as a horse entity of radiant white light, only a few weeks after the Burn. I gathered my trust, hope, optimism--the tattered remnants of my Faith--and leapt blindly into this white unknown. I landed unscathed at the foot of a new mountain to climb. Banshee's Tarot revealed to me the next task I must face for my centaur being to ride this new mountain's rocky slopes: Compassion. I thought I had mastered that. I thought that my empathy and maternal instinct was doing its proper work. I had devoted my life to offering the weak and wounded animals and children huge healing doses of Compassion like medicine from a never-empty bottle. At last, I could be pretty, kind, and gentle and the cat still clawing away could be denied more completely than ever before. But the Tarot reading revealed to me that unless I mastered Compassion for myself, my gifts were empty. I am supposed to open the bag and let the cat out, for only then will its clawing cease and the purring begin. Compassion for myself? What a concept! I am well-acquainted with self-pity, for it is the reverse side of the coin backed with self-loathing. Compassion is different, and innocence or perfection is not required to deserve it, Banshee tells me. I believe her. I feel compassion for the little golden-haired girl who hurt, but not for the angry, ugly one who fantasized about killing daddy with a shovel in his sleep. I am struggling to comprehend that she, too, deserves Compassion. Shut up in my room, or isolated in the castle of homeownership, the cat I swallowed still writhes. Anger feels like a death ray, I've only experienced its destructive force as my father directed it at me and I learned to introvert it and direct it to myself literally unto death! How can it be acceptable to unleash such a catastrophic force on people I love? So when people I care about do things that make me angry, I weep and hate myself. Until now. Last night, I was obliged to leave a party before I wanted to. This annoyed me since I could easily have hitched a ride home with friends later, but I knew it was my place to go home with my husband and kids. The bedroom walls of my childhood rose up like a hallucination, and the rage of entrapment rocked my guts. This was unacceptable! I covered it with coldness and compliance, but Matt is too sensitive and loving to be fooled; he knew that I've been simmering with bitchiness for a week at least. He made me talk about it. Instead of an evening of pillow talk, I ranted aimlessly about nonsense that I thought I was angry about. I hated the house and my housework looming over my head. I hated my daughter for making me have to work so hard at being a loving mother. I hated him for his sexual desires which at that moment felt like obligations to me. I hated like a hater! I spewed all this ugliness at him, and all he did was gently head off my silly roots of self loathing contained in each hating statement. Until clarity opened my eyes--I mean COMPASSION! Suddenly, I realized that I had never had Compassion for that locked-up little girl whose impotent rage made her tear holes in her own flesh. What else could she do? The adrenaline coursing through her veins demanded fight-or-flight action, it demanded physical incarnation or at least a scream of FUCK YOU DAD! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT! But the bedroom contained this rage like my insides contain that outraged cat. I wept for that angry little girl, her face twisted and ugly with rage. I cried out "It hurts! It hurts!" as Matt rocked me and added his compassion for her to my own. And nobody died from that death ray I emitted! It's really true! Saying "It's OK" is NOT just a platitude, it's a fact. I CAN be angry at people I care about, and no one will get hurt! The epiphany sends me reeling.

A Fabulous Day of Renewal

cat-spiracy — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:18:42 GMT

Yesterday was beautiful. HazMatt, the kids, and I saddled up our bicycles and rode 20 miles on the Santa Ana River Trail, all the way from San Berdoo to RiverCide. It was wonderful to finally satisfy my curiousity about this new leg of the trail. It's an easy one-way ride, since we followed the river downhill as it trundled toward its ocean destination, so even Ivan kept up with no problem. We got to go under several fun train and auto overpasses, which gave him a thrill. As we approached Riverside, the river itself began to actually look less like a storm drain and more like a natural stream surrounded by pretty cottonwoods. Midway, the sky began to sprinkle rain on us, increasing my joy as I thought of how this change in the weather would help relieve the firestorms a little. I absolutely loved the fact that all four of us rode together, joking and vying for first position on the bike path. The fact that our destination lay at Banshee's house made everything that much better! We had left the truck there Thursday night, so we knew we didn't have to turn around and ride 20 miles back uphill to San Bernardino. Instead, we just settled in for a nice visit with Banshee at her lovely and inviting home. Even though we told her not to play "hostess", that didn't stop her from creating a deliciously spicy-hot pasta dish for us. Awno even stopped by as a sort of pre-party before heading off to Bound to the Stake, one of Banshee's gorgeous skirts in hand for his sex-ay costumery. Riding bikes together gave me such a sense of renewal and positive energy flow. I loved watching my man's hot legs pump away at the pedals, my kids laughing and frolicking on their bikes, and I delighted in the wonderful freedom I felt propelling myself on a trip that normally builds freeway stress and wastes fuel. The rain washed the ashes from the sky, and the cobwebs from my heart. As I toasted at Banshee's, "Here's to family dinners!" Cheers, everyone!

Something Sagittarian

cat-spiracy — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:36:49 GMT

Hello everyone! I am beginning to plan a camping trip to celebrate us sexy Sagittarians. Banshee's bringing her sound system; she must be so cool because she, too, is a Sagittarius. We'll need people to keep us dancing! It's going to be near the Hauser Geode Beds on BLM land near Blythe. You can just go to the geode beds and dig up and keep whatever you find. This area is free camping, and you can do whatever you want. In December, it's sunny and breezy in the daytime, and at night it's really fricken' cold, which means fun times in playa coats around a big ironwood fire. HazMatt will set off some rockets, at some point I'm sure. It'll be kid-friendly with a curfew for the little ones to bunker down in their tents. I hope that all the other centaur archers and their friends out there join us. Pretty birthday gifts with big bows on top, hurray! Write back here to show your interest and help me plan which weekend is best. Please let me know what planned events are going on for these weekends, and vote for the one you'd prefer for Something Sagittarian: Nov/Dec 30,1-2 Dec 7-9 Dec 14-16 Dec 21-23 Dec 28-30 Jan 4-6 Love, Jeanne-Marie

A new name

cat-spiracy — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 20:49:30 GMT

I'll admit it, I've had a tribe name identity crisis all along. "Jeanne-Marie" is so unwieldy in print, and gets cut off anyhow. Cat Chloe is my jewelry business name, and it seemed like a nice way to give people quick directions to my website, but I don't really want to get called by it in person. But I've always called my unfettered online presence something cat-like, such as my yahoo chat identity, "catpowerpuss"...that's an oldie, back when I was rabid about Cat Power (then I saw one of her shows where she basically passed out in public. blah.). "Cat" is taken by too many who've come before me, I need something a bit more tailor-made. I thought about calling myself "Enemy of the State" full-time, but that is just too confrontational. I like my tinfoil hat to be removable. And then it dawned on me, hours after writing that last blog. Cat-Spiracy, that's me.

It's a C-O-N-Spiracy

cat-spiracy — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 17:34:33 GMT

Ok, so I took on my Enemy of the State guise on the night of the burn, and started telling everyone that the Paul Addis thing was, like 9/11, an inside job. (And then giving them a very warm and loving "Fuck the government!") It was a joke at that time, but you know what they say, jokes need a kernel of truth to be funny..... Saturday night, I was telling a new friend about it, and it became more and more clear to me that my conspiracy theory could well be the whole truth. Premises: 1. The signs leading you to the entry gate told us all that our jadedness about bm being authentic was going to be blown away. 2. Addis said in interviews that he belonged to a secret society who planned it all, and that they all took suicide pills but left him alive to take "performance artist" credit. Well, clearly there haven't been any such suicides. He was letting us know that he was in fact an approved art act. 3. Great pains were taken to have no one in the Man's pavilion. The enormous party at the trash fence was orchestrated for participant's safety. Addis' inflated ego couldn't have done this alone. It had to have been orchestrated centrally. Ordinarily, there were certain to be some kind of rangers or plainsclothes guards making certain that NO ONE could have approached the Man, in case they climbed or lit or otherwise mis-used it. 4. It occurred during the eclipse. It was making a statement that this "authentic" "guerrilla" burn would "eclipse" the scheduled, brouhaha burn. And to many, it succeeded. 5. After the guerrilla burn, the pavillion was cordoned off. It stretches the imagination that RANDOMNESS could have manifested such a successful distraction as the fence party, but couldn't have also manifested a volunteer work force to handbuild a new man out of playa-manna. Everyone was interested in helping, but somehow, the area was treated as a GRIEVOUS CRIME SCENE. 6. This crime scene was treated as a heinous act of arson and possible terrorism during bm, but somehow, oh so miraculously, Addis was let out on bail in order to save him from being treated as a third-strike-HEINOUS criminal! Somehow, the charges were getting dropped. Who was pressing them in the first place.....? hmmm i wonder....BMORG??? 7. During interviews/manifesto, Addis stated that his act was a work of art to "wake up" the bm community to their own hypocrisy. He went on to state that he thought that bm should embody the TRUE sense of "the American dream", which he apparently conceived of in terms of the 10 principles. 8. Guess what the theme of bm 2008 is? That's right, The American Dream. 9. Performance art's current medium is mass hysteria. Addis' work was highly successful in generating controversy: "lynch him", "throw the book at him", "free him". It was an artwork of epic proportions, and speaks to our current world of fantasy politics and polemic. Conclusion: Addis' guerrilla burn was one among many playa artworks approved of and facillitated by BMORG. They fooled damn near all of us. What a genius work of illusion and insight! This ends the direct feed from my tinfoil helmet. Have a nice day!

Oh the irony!

cat-spiracy — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:16:05 GMT

from http://gawker.com/news/charts-and-graphs/what-does-bill-oreilly-really-say-about-black-people-304483.php "What Does Bill O'Reilly Really Say About Black People? Fox News motormouth Bill O'Reilly is upset—he says that his recent remarks about those oh-so-well-behaved black people in Harlem were totally taken out of context! So we wondered: Well, what context were they in? Searching through the Fox transcripts, using the terms "Black, "African" and "African-American," and discarding comments about Africa (such as about Darfur or the IMF), Intern Mary itemizes the way in which Bill O'Reilly has talked about black people."

A Fear To Pale All Other Fears

cat-spiracy — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:41:07 GMT

I'm afraid, and my tinfoil hat isn't helping. I feel like a good German citizen in the early thirties, watching civil society erode into nightmare before their very eyes. www.informationclearinghouse.info " 'A Coup Has Occurred' By Daniel Ellsberg 09/26/07 "ICH" -- -- September 26, 2007 (Text of a speech delivered September 20, 2007) -- - - I think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that in effect will convert us into what I would call a police state. If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on full extent all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth. Will there be anything left for NSA to increase its surveillance of us? … They may be to the limit of their technical capability now, or they may not. But if they’re not now they will be after another 9/11. And I would say after the Iranian retaliation to an American attack on Iran, you will then see an increased attack on Iran – an escalation – which will be also accompanied by a total suppression of dissent in this country, including detention camps. It’s a little hard for me to distinguish the two contingencies; they could come together. Another 9/11 or an Iranian attack in which Iran’s reaction against Israel, against our shipping, against our troops in Iraq above all, possibly in this country, will justify the full panoply of measures that have been prepared now, legitimized, and to some extent written into law. … This is an unusual gang, even for Republicans. [But] I think that the successors to this regime are not likely to roll back the assault on the Constitution. They will take advantage of it, they will exploit it. Will Hillary Clinton as president decide to turn off NSA after the last five years of illegal surveillance? Will she deprive her administration her ability to protect United States citizens from possible terrorism by blinding herself and deafening herself to all that NSA can provide? I don’t think so. Unless this somehow, by a change in our political climate, of a radical change, unless this gets rolled back in the next year or two before a new administration comes in – and there’s no move to do this at this point – unless that happens I don’t see it happening under the next administration, whether Republican or Democratic. The Next Coup Let me simplify this and not just to be rhetorical: A coup has occurred. I woke up the other day realizing, coming out of sleep, that a coup has occurred. It’s not just a question that a coup lies ahead with the next 9/11. That’s the next coup, that completes the first. The last five years have seen a steady assault on every fundamental of our Constitution, … what the rest of the world looked at for the last 200 years as a model and experiment to the rest of the world – in checks and balances, limited government, Bill of Rights, individual rights protected from majority infringement by the Congress, an independent judiciary, the possibility of impeachment. There have been violations of these principles by many presidents before. Most of the specific things that Bush has done in the way of illegal surveillance and other matters were done under my boss Lyndon Johnson in the Vietnam War: the use of CIA, FBI, NSA against Americans. I could go through a list going back before this century to Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus in the Civil War, and before that the Alien and Sedition Acts in the 18th century. I think that none of those presidents were in fact what I would call quite precisely the current administration: domestic enemies of the Constitution. I think that none of these presidents with all their violations, which were impeachable had they been found out at the time and in nearly every case their violations were not found out until they were out of office so we didn’t have the exact challenge that we have today. That was true with the first term of Nixon and certainly of Johnson, Kennedy and others. They were impeachable, they weren’t found out in time, but I think it was not their intention to in the crisis situations that they felt justified their actions, to change our form of government. It is increasingly clear with each new book and each new leak that comes out, that Richard Cheney and his now chief of staff David Addington have had precisely that in mind since at least the early 70s. Not just since 1992, not since 2001, but have believed in Executive government, single-branch government under an Executive president – elected or not – with unrestrained powers. They did not believe in restraint. When I say this I’m not saying they are traitors. I don’t think they have in mind allegiance to some foreign power or have a desire to help a foreign power. I believe they have in their own minds a love of this country and what they think is best for this country – but what they think is best is directly and consciously at odds with what the Founders of this country and Constitution thought. They believe we need a different kind of government now, an Executive government essentially, rule by decree, which is what we’re getting with signing statements. Signing statements are talked about as line-item vetoes which is one [way] of describing them which are unconstitutional in themselves, but in other ways are just saying the president says “I decide what I enforce. I decide what the law is. I legislate.” It’s [the same] with the military commissions, courts that are under the entire control of the Executive Branch, essentially of the president. A concentration of legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one branch, which is precisely what the Founders meant to avert, and tried to avert and did avert to the best of their ability in the Constitution. Founders Had It Right Now I’m appealing to that as a crisis right now not just because it is a break in tradition but because I believe in my heart and from my experience that on this point the Founders had it right. It’s not just “our way of doing things” – it was a crucial perception on the corruption of power to anybody including Americans. On procedures and institutions that might possibly keep that power under control because the alternative was what we have just seen, wars like Vietnam, wars like Iraq, wars like the one coming. That brings me to the second point. This Executive Branch, under specifically Bush and Cheney, despite opposition from most of the rest of the branch, even of the cabinet, clearly intends a war against Iran which even by imperialist standards, standards in other words which were accepted not only by nearly everyone in the Executive Branch but most of the leaders in Congress. The interests of the empire, the need for hegemony, our right to control and our need to control the oil of the Middle East and many other places. That is consensual in our establishment. … But even by those standards, an attack on Iran is insane. And I say that quietly, I don’t mean it to be heard as rhetoric. Of course it’s not only aggression and a violation of international law, a supreme international crime, but it is by imperial standards, insane in terms of the consequences. Does that make it impossible? No, it obviously doesn’t, it doesn’t even make it unlikely. That is because two things come together that with the acceptance for various reasons of the Congress – Democrats and Republicans – and the public and the media, we have freed the White House – the president and the vice president – from virtually any restraint by Congress, courts, media, public, whatever. And on the other hand, the people who have this unrestrained power are crazy. Not entirely, but they have crazy beliefs. And the question is what then, what can we do about this? We are heading towards an insane operation. It is not certain. It is likely. … I want to try to be realistic myself here, to encourage us to do what we must do, what is needed to be done with the full recognition of the reality. Nothing is impossible. What I’m talking about in the way of a police state, in the way of an attack on Iran is not certain. Nothing is certain, actually. However, I think it is probable, more likely than not, that in the next 15, 16 months of this administration we will see an attack on Iran. Probably. Whatever we do. And … we will not succeed in moving Congress probably, and Congress probably will not stop the president from doing this. And that’s where we’re heading. That’s a very ugly, ugly prospect. However, I think it’s up to us to work to increase that small perhaps – anyway not large – possibility and probability to avert this within the next 15 months, aside from the effort that we have to make for the rest of our lives. Restoring the Republic Getting back the constitutional government and improving it will take a long time. And I think if we don’t get started now, it won’t be started under the next administration. Getting out of Iraq will take a long time. Averting Iran and averting a further coup in the face of a 9/11, another attack, is for right now, it can’t be put off. It will take a kind of political and moral courage of which we have seen very little… We have a really unusual concentration here and in this audience, of people who have in fact changed their lives, changed their position, lost their friends to a large extent, risked and experienced being called terrible names, “traitor,” “weak on terrorism” – names that politicians will do anything to avoid being called. How do we get more people in the government and in the public at large to change their lives now in a crisis in a critical way? How do we get Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for example? What kinds of pressures, what kinds of influences can be brought to bear to get Congress to do their jobs? It isn’t just doing their jobs. Getting them to obey their oaths of office. I took an oath many times, an oath of office as a Marine lieutenant, as an official in the Defense Department, as an official in the State Department as a Foreign Service officer. A number of times I took an oath of office which is the same oath office taken by every member of Congress and every official in the United States and every officer in the United States armed services. And that oath is not to a Commander in Chief, which is not mentioned. It is not to a fuehrer. It is not even to superior officers. The oath is precisely to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States. Now that is an oath I violated every day for years in the Defense Department without realizing it when I kept my mouth shut when I knew the public was being lied into a war as they were lied into Iraq, as they are being lied into war in Iran. I knew that I had the documents that proved it, and I did not put it out then. I was not obeying my oath which I eventually came to do. I’ve often said that Lt. Ehren Watada – who still faces trial for refusing to obey orders to deploy to Iraq which he correctly perceives to be an unconstitutional and aggressive war – is the single officer in the United States armed services who is taking seriously in upholding his oath. The president is clearly violating that oath, of course. Everybody under him who understands what is going on and there are myriad, are violating their oaths. And that’s the standard that I think we should be asking of people. Congressional Courage On the Democratic side, on the political side, I think we should be demanding of our Democratic leaders in the House and Senate – and frankly of the Republicans – that it is not their highest single absolute priority to be reelected or to maintain a Democratic majority so that Pelosi can still be Speaker of the House and Reid can be in the Senate, or to increase that majority. I’m not going to say that for politicians they should ignore that, or that they should do something else entirely, or that they should not worry about that. Of course that will be and should be a major concern of theirs, but they’re acting like it’s their sole concern. Which is business as usual. “We have a majority, let’s not lose it, let’s keep it. Let’s keep those chairmanships.” Exactly what have those chairmanships done for us to save the Constitution in the last couple of years? I am shocked by the Republicans today that I read in the Washington Post who yesterday threatened a filibuster if we … get back habeas corpus. The ruling out of habeas corpus with the help of the Democrats did not get us back to George the First it got us back to before King John 700 years ago in terms of counter-revolution. We need some way, and Ann Wright has one way, of sitting in, in Conyers office and getting arrested. Ray McGovern has been getting arrested, pushed out the other day for saying the simple words “swear him in” when it came to testimony. I think we’ve got to somehow get home to them [in Congress] that this is the time for them to uphold the oath, to preserve the Constitution, which is worth struggling for in part because it’s only with the power that the Constitution gives Congress responding to the public, only with that can we protect the world from mad men in power in the White House who intend an attack on Iran. And the current generation of American generals and others who realize that this will be a catastrophe have not shown themselves – they might be people who in their past lives risked their bodies and their lives in Vietnam or elsewhere, like [Colin] Powell, and would not risk their career or their relation with the president to the slightest degree. That has to change. And it’s the example of people like those up here who somehow brought home to our representatives that they as humans and as citizens have the power to do likewise and find in themselves the courage to protect this country and protect the world. Thank you. Daniel Ellsberg is author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers.:" What to do? I don't mind martyring myself. My life is just a petty thing to me, despite all my recent spiritual growth. If anything, the burgeoning awareness that I don't just have to reconcile myself with mortality, but with IMMORTALITY has made me all the more willing to sacrifice my own attachments...but the ultimate sacrifice is to be a parent of young children in a time of fascism. I am only at the foot of this existential mountain. Powers beyond me, please hear my cry: let my children flower in peace, not in the heinous bloodshed that looms over us like a cancer!

Gifted

cat-spiracy — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:14:45 GMT

What do you do when your child is so gifted that public school doesn't know what to do with him? My son, Ivan, is just 8 years old, but he just tested at high school reading ability. He reads science textbooks for pleasure. He's taken apart three computers and can name their parts and functions. He has been soaking up facts about electricity and electrical engineering from his dad, and can recite the right-hand rule of motors. He is knowledgeable about evolution and the geology of planet earth. All this, and a tree-hugger, too. His goal in life is to invent perpetual motion vehicles powered by pollution. His test scores are pegged at the 99th percentile. He's sweet and well-behaved, sensitive and loving. We've tried to do the right thing from a social standpoint. He's attending a very nice, brand new public school here in the ghetto with the best teachers in our local district. His current 3rd grade teacher is a wonderful woman, a veteran who knows her kids well, maintains awesome classroom management, and has her heart in the right place. Ivan is on par with his peers socially and emotionally, and I like that he is integrated into a racially diverse population; to me, it's important that he is raised without cultural elitism. However, other parents haven't raised their 3rd graders to be very polite or long-attention-spanned, so very often the class as a whole-- including well-behaved Ivan--is given consequences for generally disruptive behaviors. Thanks to No Child Left Behind, Ivan is stuck with the rest of them, drilling and killing remedial studies geared only towards teaching to the test. I can see the slump of his shoulders and the beginnings of depression in his bright-eyed little face. It breaks my heart. Even though his teacher is GATE certified, the modern "inclusive" classroom model makes individualized lesson planning a Sisyphus-ian task. I don't blame her for focusing on the greater good. Ivan is so quiet and sweet, he's easy to overlook in favor of creating lessons for the seriously far-behind or misbehaved. He is lumped in with the average students, reading the ridiculously boring 3rd grade phonics-based text and doing simple arithmetic over and over and over. In an attempt to ameliorate his deteriorating positive attitude, I've volunteered to be room mother. Now come the bureaucratic hoops. I am not allowed to observe as often as I like-- MY child at the school that WE pay taxes for him to attend. Today I was told that I must fill out a form, get a TB test, and pass school police scrutiny if I am to continue to attend the final hour of each school day. This pissed me off, and I insisted that as a parent, I have the right to accompany MY child whenever and wherever he goes, and the school is risking losing their attendance funding for student with stat-raising test scores to homeschooling. This mild uproar finally bent the ear of the principal. Once I described my son's abilities, she became excited about thinking up meaningful projects that he could do. I'm glad that at least now we have her attention. Meanwhile, we are getting on a Montessori school's waiting list.......there, the whole child will be nurtured and educated according to his fantastic abilities. I am very sad to abandon the public school system. Public education is one of the great gifts of living in a free country, but there are politicians dead-set on destroying it. The way they seek to destroy it is by ham-stringing it with ludicrous legislation like the NCLB act, vouchers which funnel valuable funds to private parties and religious institutions, punishing teachers by linking professional promotion with non-longitudinal achievement studies, and by failing to employ research based pedagogy such as constructivism and multiple intelligences. However, I refuse to martyr my boy's promise on an altar of ideology.

"The Artist as Healer of the World" by Paul Levy

cat-spiracy — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:11:31 GMT

An excerpt: "Demanding more than safely sitting in the audience and passively watching, however, genuine art evokes and demands our active and engaged participation, from the very core of our being. A true work of art invites us into an intimate relationship not only with the work of art, but with ourselves as well. For the purpose of art is not to entertain us, medicate us and make us feel better, but to liberate us and reveal our intrinsic freedom. Art is therefore a unique manifestation of the divine in which we are invited to participate, a life-changing act in which IT manifests through us and we, and our world, become transformed in the process." www.AwakenInTheDream.com Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

God

cat-spiracy — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 20:02:22 GMT

This little essay by "revv" on the Bad Advice tribe is too good to miss! "First of all God and the whole universe lives in a constant state of making love to itself. So yes sometimes the masturbation can get tiresome, but God still wants to fuck everything, all the time, which would kinda make it hard for someone to feel special about it except of course it is God for God's sake.... " Makes the image of the snake eating its own tail take on a whole 'nother meaning, doesn't it?

Keeping it all in perspective

cat-spiracy — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:27:53 GMT

My best friend in the whole world (Vicci) just got out of the hospital--AGAIN. This time, it was complete kidney failure and a UTI so bad, she became totally delirious. I don't do well with mortality, and I fear that she will die at any moment. However, this lady is one tough cookie--never a negative word from her, only constant strength. I love her for the way she bats her eyes at me and says, "Wanna trade lives?" whenever I come to her in one of my bad phases. There are NO bad circumstances compared to hers, and she never lets it get her down. I've seen her out at the horse stables shoveling shit with broken ribs, riding her horse Buddy when she's got an 8mm kidney stone, braving out her ex husband's emotional blackmail/custody onslaughts, and sucking up her mom's guilt trips (the mom's always resented having had a daughter born with spinal bifida and clubfoot). For a person who was never supposed to leave her bed from birth, she's a powerhouse of willpower. Vicci is an inspiration, a fountain of wisdom, and chicken soup for my soul. She's enriched my life and the balance of the Universe with her positive energy and unflagging spirits. I love my best friend, and I hope to always live up to her love for me: today while she's alive, and that sad tomorrow when she won't be. I just wanted to send my appreciation for her amazing soul out into the world in the hopes that it will touch someone else with its white light, too. Peace and good health to all, on Tribe, in this troubled country, all over this planet, and beyond. May love and hope forever light our way. Jeanne-Marie

My door is marked for the knocking...how 'bout yours?

cat-spiracy — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:46:26 GMT

I copied all of the following from http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6377 . I think we all need to be aware. Bush Executive Order: Criminalizing the Antiwar Movement by Prof. Michel Chossudovsky Global Research, July 20, 2007 Email this article to a friend Print this article The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of whoever opposes the US led war. A presidential Executive Order issued on July 17th, repeals with the stroke of a pen the right to dissent and to oppose the Pentagon's military agenda in Iraq. The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of "certain persons" who oppose the US led war in Iraq: "I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people." In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act. The Executive Order criminalizes the antiwar movement. It is intended to "blocking property" of US citizens and organizations actively involved in the peace movement. It allows the Department of Defense to interfere in financial affairs and instruct the Treasury to "block the property" and/or confiscate/ freeze the assets of "Certain Persons" involved in antiwar activities. It targets those "Certain Persons" in America, including civil society organizatioins, who oppose the Bush Administration's "peace and stability" program in Iraq, characterized, in plain English, by an illegal occupation and the continued killing of innocent civilians. The Executive Order also targets those "Certain Persons" who are "undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction", or who, again in plain English, are opposed to the confiscation and privatization of Iraq's oil resources, on behalf of the Anglo-American oil giants. The order is also intended for anybody who opposes Bush's program of "political reform in Iraq", in other words, who questions the legitimacy of an Iraqi "government" installed by the occupation forces. Moreover, those persons or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), who provide bona fide humanitarian aid to Iraqi civilians, and who are not approved by the US Military or its lackeys in the US sponsored Iraqi puppet government are also liable to have their financial assets confiscated. The executive order violates the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution. It repeals one of the fundamental tenets of US democracy, which is the right to free expression and dissent. The order has not been the object of discussion in the US Congress. Sofar, it has not been addressed by the US antiwar movement, in terms of a formal statement. Apart from a bland Associated Press wire report, which presents the executive order as "an authority to use financial sanctions", there has been no media coverage or commentary of a presidential decision which strikes at the heart of the US Constitution.. Broader implications The criminalization of the State is when the sitting President and Vice President use and abuse their authority through executive orders, presidential directives or otherwise to define "who are the criminals" when in fact they they are the criminals. This latest executive order criminalizes the peace movement. It must be viewed in relation to various pieces of "anti-terrorist" legislation, the gamut of presidential and national security directives, etc., which are ultimately geared towards repealing constitutional government and installing martial law in the event of a "national emergency". The war criminals in high office are intent upon repressing all forms of dissent which question the legitimacy of the war in Iraq. The executive order combined with the existing anti-terrorist legislation is eventually intended to be used against the anti-war and civil rights movements. It can be used to seize the assets of antiwar groups in America as well as block the property and activities of non-governmental humanitarian organizations providing relief in Iraq, seizing the assets of alternative media involved in reporting the truth regarding the US-led war, etc. In May 2007, Bush issued a major presidential National Security Directive (National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/HSPD 20), which would suspend constitutional government and instate broad dictatorial powers under martial law in the case of a "Catastrophic Emergency" (e.g. Second 9/11 terrorist attack). On July 11, 2007 the CIA published its "National Intelligence Estimate" which pointed to an imminent Al Qaeda attack on America, a second 9/11 which, according to the terms of NSPD 51, would immediately be followed by the suspension of constitutional government and the instatement of martial law under the authority of the president and the vice-president. (For further details, see Michel Chossudovsky, Bush Directive for a "Catastrophic Emergency" in America: Building a Justification for Waging War on Iran? June 2007) NSPD 51 grants unprecedented powers to the Presidency and the Department of Homeland Security, overriding the foundations of Constitutional government. It allows the sitting president to declare a “national emergency” without Congressional approval. The implementation of NSPD 51 would lead to the de facto closing down of the Legislature and the militarization of justice and law enforcement. "The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government...." Were NSPD 51 to be invoked, Vice President Dick Cheney, who constitutes the real power behind the Executive, would essentially assume de facto dictatorial powers, circumventing both the US Congress and the Judiciary, while continuing to use President George W. Bush as a proxy figurehead. NSPD 51, while bypassing the Constitution, nonetheless, envisages very precise procedures which guarantee the powers of Vice President Dick Cheney in relation to "Continuity of Goverment" functions under Martial Law: "This directive shall be implemented in a manner that is consistent with, and facilitates effective implementation of, provisions of the Constitution concerning succession to the Presidency or the exercise of its powers, and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (3 U.S.C. 19), with consultation of the Vice President and, as appropriate, others involved. Heads of executive departments and agencies shall ensure that appropriate support is available to the Vice President and others involved as necessary to be prepared at all times to implement those provisions." (NSPD 51, op cit.) The executive order to confiscate the assets of antiwar/peace activists is broadly consistent with NSPD 51. It could be triggered even in the absence of a "Catastrophic emergency" as envisaged under NSPD 51. It repeals democracy. It goes one step further in "criminalizing" all forms of opposition and dissent. to the US led war and "Homeland Security" agenda. ANNEX TEXT OF THE EXECUTIVE ORDER July 17, 2007 Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as amended (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.)(NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people, it is in the interests of the United States to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, and expanded in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004. I hereby order: Section 1. (a) Except to the extent provided in section 203(b)(1), (3), and (4) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(1), (3), and (4)), or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the date of this order, all property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in: any person determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, (i) to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of: (A) threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq; or (B) undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people; (ii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order; or (iii) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order. (b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section include, but are not limited to, (i) the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order, and (ii) the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person. Sec. 2. (a) Any transaction by a United States person or within the United States that evades or avoids, has the purpose of evading or avoiding, or attempts to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited. (b) Any conspiracy formed to violate any of the prohibitions set forth in this order is prohibited. Sec. 3. For purposes of this order: (a) the term "person" means an individual or entity; (b) the term "entity" means a partnership, association, trust, joint venture, corporation, group, subgroup, or other organization; and (c) the term "United States person" means any United States citizen, permanent resident alien, entity organized under the laws of the United States or any jurisdiction within the United States (including foreign branches), or any person in the United States. Sec. 4. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order. Sec. 5. For those persons whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order who might have a constitutional presence in the United States, I find that, because of the ability to transfer funds or other assets instantaneously, prior notice to such persons of measures to be taken pursuant to this order would render these measures ineffectual. I therefore determine that for these measures to be effective in addressing the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, there need be no prior notice of a listing or determination made pursuant to section 1(a) of this order. Sec. 6. The Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, is hereby authorized to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this order. The Secretary of the Treasury may redelegate any of these functions to other officers and agencies of the United States Government, consistent with applicable law. All agencies of the United States Government are hereby directed to take all appropriate measures within their authority to carry out the provisions of this order and, where appropriate, to advise the Secretary of the Treasury in a timely manner of the measures taken. Sec. 7. Nothing in this order is intended to affect the continued effectiveness of any rules, regulations, orders, licenses, or other forms of administrative action issued, taken, or continued in effect heretofore or hereafter under 31 C.F.R. chapter V, except as expressly terminated, modified, or suspended by or pursuant to this order. Sec. 8. This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right, benefit, or privilege, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, instrumentalities, or entities, its officers or employees, or any other person. GEORGE W. BUSH THE WHITE HOUSE, July 17, 2007. Below is the text of the Message to the Congress of the United States Regarding International Emergency Economic Powers Act [There has been no response by the US congress or commentary by individual Senators or Representatives.] Office of the Press Secretary July 17, 2007 Message to the Congress of the United States Regarding International Emergency Economic Powers Act White House News Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, as amended (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.)(IEEPA), I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people. I issued this order to take additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 of May 22, 2003, and expanded in Executive Order 13315 of August 28, 2003, and relied upon for additional steps taken in Executive Order 13350 of July 29, 2004, and Executive Order 13364 of November 29, 2004. In these previous Executive Orders, I ordered various measures to address the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by obstacles to the orderly reconstruction of Iraq, the restoration and maintenance of peace and security in that country, and the development of political, administrative, and economic institutions in Iraq. My new order takes additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315 by blocking the property and interests in property of persons determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people. The order further authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, to designate for blocking those persons determined to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, logistical, or technical support for, or goods or services in support of, such an act or acts of violence or any person designated pursuant to this order, or to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order. I delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense, the authority to take such actions, including the promulgation of rules and regulations, and to employ all powers granted to the President by IEEPA as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of my order. I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued. GEORGE W. BUSH The White House, July 17, 2007. Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international best America’s "War on Terrorism" Second Edition, Global Research, 2005. He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization.

Reaping the rewards of creativity

cat-spiracy — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 22:16:34 GMT

I've been making tons of stuff lately, and finally scanned a number of them to share with you. The ceramic pieces are from a class that I'm taking, in a medium I find challenging. There are a few 3-D pieces that I can't scan to show to you, but I feel pretty happy with how they turned out. I can't wait to see the bristling bead rack all fired and done! I glazed the last of them today. I'm very excited about the moody-eyed pieces. These "Mirage" beads are slick, high quality and heavy. They change color rapidly, and the color is highly saturated. I have nearly used the entire string up! It's addictive to weave that herringbone aura around them. The stretchy-bracelet thing is new territory for me. I really like the way the eyes lay smoothly on the back of the wrist, one size fits most, and they are so easy to put on! The necklace is only the first of many to come, with progressively more fanciful copper weavings.... It's been so long since I've bothered to scan anything...I've been at a standstill in that regard. But I haven't been idle! I really enjoy the Sea Star that I made out of gifted items from my online friend, Carol. I wear it quite often. Ma Cherie was inspired by my sister in law, who loves the combo of pinks and browns. It's light and delicate right at the notch of the neck. And April Showers came together a couple of months ago, but I am showing it for the first time now. The pic of Corey's bracelet that started this copper-working madness may be blurry, but you get the idea. Then followed the hammered copper bangles....and I can't wait to show you the copper chokers I'm in the middle of! See this stuff in person at Anne Marie's Ladies' Spa Day, 6/9. Tons of love, Jeanne-Marie

It's the cat's....

cat-spiracy — Sat, 12 May 2007 20:29:07 GMT

A friend sent me this funny mother's day story "We had this great 10 year-old cat named Jack who just recently died. Jack was a great cat and the kids would carry him around and sit on him and nothing ever bothered him. He used to hang out and nap all day long on this mat in our bathroom. Well we had 3 kids and at the time of this story they were 4 years, 3 years and 1 year old. The middle child is Eli. Eli really loves Chap Stick. LOVES it. He kept asking to use my Chap Stick and then losing it, so finally one day I showed him where in the bathroom I keep my Chap Stick and explained how he could use it whenever he wanted to - but he needed to put it right back in the drawer when he was done. Last year on Mother's Day, we were having the typical rush around and try to get ready for Church with everyone crying and carrying on. My two boys are fighting over the toy in the cereal box. I'm trying to nurse my little one at the same time I am putting on my make-up. Everything is a mess and everyone has long forgotten that this is a wonderful day to honor the amazing job of motherhood. Well, we finally have the older one and the baby loaded in the car and I am looking for Eli. I have searched everywhere and I finally round the corner to go into the bathroom. And there was Eli. He was applying my Chap Stick very carefully to Jack's . . . rear end. Eli looked right into my eyes and said, "Chapped." Now if you have a cat, you know that he is right--their little butts do look pretty chapped. And, frankly, Jack didn't seem to mind. The only question to really ask at that point was whether it was the FIRST time Eli had done that to the cat's behind or the hundredth. And THAT is my favorite Mother's Day moment ever because it reminds us that no matter how hard we try to civilize these glorious little creatures, there will always be that day when you realize they've been using your Chap Stick on the cat's ass."

Artist's Block Breakthru!

cat-spiracy — Sat, 12 May 2007 00:26:09 GMT

It's been so hard to get back into the swing of making jewelry since the store closed down and costuming has taken precedence. But working on this copper bracelet for Corey has really changed all that. First, I stayed up all night sketching designs and tinkering with the metals to see how I could construct the Celtic knotwork without getting kinks in the wire. That led to making two side pieces with a sterling oval in the center, but the linking mechanism was flimsy and awkward. Frustrated, I took it apart and began to rework it. I laid it on a ribbon of pounded copper tubing, and Voila! Inspiration! It's going to be one hell of a piece. Not wanting to mar the progress i'd made on Corey's bracelet band, I set up a second ribbon for a trial run. I punched alternating holes on both edges all the way around. I stitched it into a bangle circlet with fine copper wire, and started lacing the edges with beaded scallops. The clean lines and sparkle of glass against the rich copper tone thrilled me to the core--a third one had to be started immediately! This one wanted to be a dancer's fringed cuff. I punched holes only on one edge, punched the tab, and closed the circlet. I added 1.5" fringe in scarlet glass tipped with Ruby AB Swarovski crystals. The fringe is twisted to make a wirey bristle of stamen-like drops flaring at the wrist. Now my mind is going crazy with ideas: ropey or spiky beadwork going down the center, draped leaf fringe, Swarovski flower buttons stitched on, subtle multi-metal edging--and chokers, chokers, chokers! I know what *I'M* going to be doing all weekend! It feels good to be creative again! Peace to all, Jeanne-Marie

Truly chilling

cat-spiracy — Thu, 03 May 2007 22:12:05 GMT

I just watched the video of the police onslaught in MacArthur Park on http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/03/1357234 . It looks like a video of some other country, some third world dictatorship. Not Los Angeles, California, USA. By Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984): When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist. When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat. When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist. When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out. You can replace those categories with anything. This time around, it's immigrants rallying for their human rights and the journalists who cover such events. A critical line is being drawn in the fabric of our civilization. It's a line drawn between violence vs. peace. The silence of oppression vs. speaking truth to power. We always wonder what happened to "the good Germans" during WWII...well, they were the same as you and me. They had families at stake, jobs, everything to lose. They were trying to scrape by in the Depression. It was to much to ask, to be politically active; then too dangerous, then a guaranteed death sentence. What to do? It is a paltry thing, kind of a pathetic thing, to post stuff on a blog. I could have made it my business to be there and put my own ribcage on the line. But here I am, in my comfortable home, placating myself by "at least making sure that people KNOW that it happened, that it can't be disappeared." What to do........

Police Brutality in Los Angeles Yesterday

cat-spiracy — Thu, 03 May 2007 00:27:04 GMT

I was driving home from having a nice lunch with Matt when I switched on KPFK radio. It was a special program allowing eyewitnesses from yesterday's May Day rally for immigrant rights to speak about what they experienced during the protest. One woman described watching a 70 year old lady being knocked down by cops. Another person told of an elderly man having his knees bashed in by cops with batons. Everyone spoke of a peaceful crowd including mothers with babies, grandparents, and others, enjoying a multicultural festival atmosphere in the park--suddenly descended upon by police in riot gear shooting rubber bullets indiscriminantly into the crowd. A major news outlet camerawoman was knocked down by cops. Tear gas was deployed. People were herded by menacing cops revving their motorcycles as if to let them know they'd be run over. One person reported the cops running over a fallen protestor with his bicycle. Protestors were herded into the park-- then the police opened up on the entire crowd in the park, and chased into neighborhoods where cops continued to pursue and inflict violence onto them. I found a few news items upon googling "police may day los angeles". The best coverage seems to be coming out of Indymedia and KPFK radio news. I hope everyone gets the facts on this and helps raise consciousness on this matter. Write to your local news source, because odds are, they haven't covered this shocking and awful story.