$4-a-gallon gas?

Remember this?

'Peter Maer of CBS News Radio asked: "What’s your advice to the average American who is hurting now, facing the prospect of $4-a-gallon gasoline, a lot of people facing ... "

"Wait, what did you just say?" the president interrupted. "You’re predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?"

Maer responded: "A number of analysts are predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline."

Bush’s rejoinder: "Oh, yeah? That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that."'

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2004250068_bush29.html

They don't tell him anything important, or perhaps no one in the adminstration could have foreseen $4 a gallon gas. After all, this exchange was a whole three months ago, when gas was merely $3.60 or so a gallon.

Here’s some video of that press conference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIHDPd7jHjE

And an advice not to get off-guard like Pres. Bush

-------

This is is your (almost brand new) weekly open thread. Enjoy it for yourself.

Flowers come and go
Planting feet on bike petals
Rainbow greenback blues

Built for two too gay
Backside slides slicker than snot
Buff me off just once

We are also seeing the predicted flooding and unanticipated consequences, rivers changing course, lakes emptying out..

Sample of what is to come, yet people are not moving to the safe haven areas or making preparations.

It could be double this based on the Phonon calculations if not next year the following. I suspect it will be mind blowing, rivers 3 miles wide!

We also do not have long to start up domestic production capability and implement localization.

“Keep an eye out and watch 'them' all suddenly reappear to have some of u slow pokes believe they are all different..

The slow pokes are actually right, Skep is not Mr Welsh. What a gullible Dummkopf you are, Diablo. You fit right in with the people you criticize.

Keep feeling important Diablo and enjoy your handicap!

Doomsday theories have been around since the beginning of time... Oracles have predicted the world with be swallowed by locusts, pestilence, fire, water... you name it... Many people over time have equated natural disasters with god... and many of the 'predictions' of 2012 are no different. I think we really need to take a step back and analyze the situation logically... the world has always been unstable and full of plague, death, destruction and en masse. In fact, historically societies have been very violent - chopping off heads on a whim. Many peoples had developed elaborate forms of torture, some done in the name of god (such as the Inquisitions). In my belief system, god does not interfere, the source is here to provide us the means to respond to such situations. Humans are in more power of their futures than they are able to grasp, notwithstanding what nature has in store. Doomsdays scenarios are in the mind of the beholder and 2012 is no different.

The difference now is we have media that puts doomesday signs in our face. We see the dead child in the arms of the mother after a flood or earthquake. The importance of our ability to see this pain in prime time is not voyeuristic; the importance must be that we use our empathy and compassion to understand and respond with kindness to those experiencing these disasters. We interfere when we can and should, we provide tools when we can and should and ultimately we try to understand their pain and fear. As we understand others pain and fear we become more in line with the core of what is 'good' in humanity - love.

It encourages me to think that there has been a shift in consciousness about pain and suffering - it's no longer an acceptable fact of life but something to be treated as a problem and try to ameliorate.

TWG....don't be too hard on the little feller, he just can't help himself....his mama dropped him on his head!

Give me the name of that book one more time. I've not had time to go buy it, so guess i'll order it off amazon. I just moved my office, so things have been too crazy for much extra curricular activity.

By the way...the best Cigar, in my opinion, is Monte Cristo White, Churchill....try it...you might like it. It can't be any more painful than that book is gonna be!! :-)

enjoy your soccer....

:)

Thanks, skinny. Talk to you later, the game is just starting.

Portugal are 1-0 up.

You go Ronaldo!

the hat must be too perfect a fit for multiple! the troll is beside himself in a fit of anger...nursing his many ruised toes!

btw...isn't kind a sad to be watching that soccer game with such ferver on ur pitiful 12" black and white TV...the one u found in that elderly neighbor's trash bin?...eeuuhhhh!

"The Impeachment of George W. Bush" is the name of the web page. http://www.serendipity.li/impeachment.htm

Anyone read It? What do we think? Is it time to talk about this? Comment on this, publicly?

Congressman Bill Kucinich has forced an Impeachment vote, However, it appears to be stillborn, at best. Nancy Pelosi considers the move "divisive".

Perhaps more so than challenging adultery OR wiretapping and lying about it.
This time the lying led us to WAR, people. How can that be more important than adultery or wiretapping for Americans? Ask the two Presidents who have been tainted by the I-word (Bill Clinton - Richard Nixon - may he RIP).

toriare

If Dennis Kucinich has his way, George will be impeached. He is nothing if not persistent. Impeachment is a messy process. I doubt it will happen. IMO I think it is time to move on and clean up the mess. Let this be a lesson to never ever let this happen again.

Bonnie

In between games, the Swiss play the Turks in a few minutes.

Sorry, Skinny, it appears pekS has been banned again and some of his comments removed, but he did write you a note saying he will smoke as much of your cigar as you burnt of his “candle in the dark” by CS.

There are miracles, at least in soccer; one would be Switzerland making it out of the group stage. If that happens, there is a ticket waiting in Basel or Zurich, along with a few parties. Peks played some of his best games on the Letzigrund, one of the very fields Euro 08 is played on today. His teammate was, and today still is his good friend, the present coach of the Swiss team.

Baby D is not a very smart fellow! He is a true believer. Just like those Muslim fanatics, all one has to do is repeat the same thing over and over and it miraculously becomes the truth. No evidence needed.

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. It is simply too painful to acknowledge even to ourselves that we've been so credulous.” -Carl Sagan

Water polo in Basel at halftime: Switzerland 1 Turkey 0

Water polo in Basel at halftime: Switzerland 1 Turkey 0

the 'smart' dude of 13 thru 15 talks of Skep...spelled backwards (Peks) and pretends he's not he...while he's glued to his TV watching two sorry ass underlings play in the rain...Swistzerland and Turkey...say which one of these pretenders were u rooting for? the Turks are very happy...sending those lowly alpers pining and packing...eekkk.. and how about them czechs....kicking some serious ass...damn.

hey flabsy...have you weighed urself lately? closing in on 400 lbs?whoahahahahahahahahahahaaha!!!!!!!........

No partying in Switzerland but a few tears into a few beers at the local pub.

Wow Diablo, what ever happened to a little class and heart. You appear to be one sick puppy.

skinny,

chewing the fat is

not too important--

choosing to stay is

You guys are lucky. can't see most of the football: way, way past my bedtime, seems to coincide with your lunch break.

Thanks TWG for the scores, saves waiting for the replays, get it off the shelf here :)

Dara

"Thanks TWG for the scores, saves waiting for the replays, get it off the shelf here :)"

If no one posts the score lines at IB, you wait for the replays your Teevee to know the results?

Did your grand daughter set www.intentblog.com as the default homepage on your browser for you?

Well, you may not be an internet illiterate but are you just a lazy old ass who cannot find the scores on the net at the click of a mouse?

John,
Tch tch.
As for IB being the homepage on mycomputer...... Isn't the pot calling the kettle black?

One can't help noticing you and yourselves are back.....ah for the good old days

Welcome back?!

Dara

Hello, Dara!

Today can be just an any old good day...

or we can call it special, and avoid

the possibility of being inconsequential.

.

The Glad Man cometh to a door near you!

Are you ready to clear this stretch?

Diablo,

Fuel is Fuel man some of us here have big gas gusslers too, a lot of people are forced into buying econimical cars because there is no way they can afford to run a 6 cylinder motor. Think about it... you could pay the mortgage on a house for what it costs to run a car in the UK.

Planes, Trains, Boats and Automobiles they all run on it.

I am pretty convinced that somewhere a renewable energy source concept exists on this planet..... such as Hydrogen fusion (I am not trying to start a conspiracy theory off here... as most conspiracy theories are just stupid) BUT... would any Government want a renewable energy source in the hands of the public?..... how many millions of billions in tax would they loss every week if they couldn't tax fuel? So if there is such a thing exists it is reasonable to assume that the powers that be might try and put a foot on it before it made its way into the public domain.

Love

Simon XX

This morning in the wee hours I dreamt of God, he led me by the hand and showed me and told me, we rode in an open carriage and he stroked my cheek.( can't stop crying now) and he, I don't understand. but my heart sobbed when I woke up, I was thrown back in to reality, I don't want reality anymore I only want GOD, I only want GOD I only want GOD

Almost home

Tammy,

He is here

and also there now.

I had a vision today while I was making a cup of tea for someone. The Vision showed me a group of people sitting in a room and one of the persons was not really there. Rather than a person being there it was a hologram of a person that was interacting perfectly with the other two men. He spoke and turned his head in the direction of each person as he acknowledged them and they him. After some time my vision switched and I was in a space with the Holographic man and this time the other two men were holograms and also the room and everything in the room was also holographic. After a few moments the man ended the conversation with the two other holograms and the entire hologram ended. When the holographic room vanished I was in a place that was totaly empty. I can't describe it in words really other than it was just completey without any content not even any colours or sound. Nothing Sensory existed there.
except the awareness of being there. I felt the ability to start another holographic expereince if I wanted to just by dreaming of anything and it would be as if it were real in a holographic world

What happened next was quite indescribable as I was aware suddenly that the world is actually like this. The Holographic nature of things is similar to what we experience all the time as reality. When I made my friend his cup of tea and sat back down in the room I realised I was in a kind of holographic projection and I have been unaware of it for years.

You say that you want God Tammy, But in reality that is all there ever is you see? God is not seperated from you ever. the reason why you want God is because you believe that you are some how seperate from that which is the Bright, The Divine what ever you want to define it by. This is what this holographic projection is, it is the illusion of seperateness.

No matter what else you can think of that you want.. Money, Cars, Fame, a husband or wife, Good looks- none of that compares to God realisation. Life itself is an engine filled with all of the variables to form suffering and many different forms of experience that ultimately is God realisation in itself.

Tammy,

If you think now of a person that you love very much but who are not with you right this moment. they may be a person who is living now or who is no longer living. Concentrate on that person and think about all of the things that make them the person that you love. Their personality, the way they look, how they sound and so forth.

Now ask yourself because they are gone from your sight, from your touch, from your immeadiate conception of them does that make any of the things that you love about them any less?

Are they some how less than because they are not right there with you now?

No they are not, they can't be because you love them.

so it is the same with God.

Put your hand to your heart and there is where God is, he has not gone anywhere.

love

Simon xx

dear Simon,
your post 27 is so sweet, and as I will be missing my Dad on Sunday, I also know where he is.
xo
~ Kate

hi Tammy!

Dara & Keith,
today is a good day
and tomorrow (forget what they say about friday the 13ths )
and tomorrow
and ...

glad girl smiling,
~Kate

The Path To Love as written on page 272, requested by my dearest.

" When two people have found such a basis of lasting love they are ready for the next stage on the path, which we call Ascension. Ascension is based on loves ability to expand beyond the world of limitations to the world of boundlessness. Before ascension " I " refers to a self that observes time and space without without feeling trapped by them-you have slipped through a sliver of time to find the timeless. Before ascension " you" meant someone who could be loved but never merged with. After ascension
"you" means a part of oneself who is as close as breath.
You are not carried away into "another world" This world becomes transformed into heaven of fulfillment, ever at peace , ever in love.
The process of ascension doesn't call upon anything new from inside you other than letting go and letting go until there is nothing more to let go of; ascension is the final stage in relinquishing attachment to separation "

This is what my very soul seeks Simon, this.

dear Tammy,
true love
(in Kate's o
pin
ion)
is irreplaceable
when you have found 'the one'
let go,
and then hold on
to that feeling
:)

love

Simon, that was very good, you would enjoy the book that is coming, it destroys the illusion of separation using science.

simon...when a guy starts seeing things in the room...like u say u do...i'd be concerned about his well being...maybe it's time to book a doc. appt...damn!

hey there Diablo
~ Hi ~

a first time poster
a long time fan of the tree
just saying hello

a first time poster
a long time fan of the tree
just saying hello

Hi Keith,

Well in more ways than one, it was a great day, the Gladman did come, thank you.

And Kate,

Fri the 13th is turning out even better. Great weather; cool, clouds rolling past, a lovely refreshing breeze and the sun peeking through at times - a cheery day.

Smile awhile and while you smile...:-)

Dara

#30
O kat
ion
O
pin
ion
on an
ion
in un
ion
we be :)

dear Dara,
it's wonderful to know you are not superstitious of the 13th :)
I happen to believe it brings the best of ...
everything good to celebrate!
love you ~~~ Kate

Ed,
I've got
my
ion
you
:))
~ guess who

long-time fan of the Tree,
I happen to be one
too!

the shade is always there
when I need it most

thanks, dear Keith
feel my warm hug,
~ Kate

#32 Hey there Diab, don't be fretting too much over Simon. There are times when he doesn't know his Newcastle from his elbow ;) Yet somehow it still reaches his mouth and goes on to a(e)ffect his holographic vision of pulling a pint together.

My Guinness overflows....too much lemonade!

Friday 13th is a lovely day to be alive.

Love to you all.

B

hi katie!

hi granpa ed!

cheers to an ice cold Guinness!

Diablo,

One day you might just say something that makes some sense and me and you can have a conversation. Until then it is your loss sweet cheeks.

Love

The nut case xx

Hi Veritas,

Hows it going?

Love

Simon xx

simon...simon...simon...simon....simon..simon...
simon...simon...simon...simon...simon...simon...

To heath:

If you might read this OT:

She is all set to go to Georgia Tech this Fall. Thanks for the help.

Hope you are doing great.

-ST/AnA/Tigersco

Stewart Mott has died. All progressives should mourn him. Stewart Mott -- of the "Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust" -- has died. It's not the shock that Tim Russert's death has been: he was 70 and has had cancer for a while. But it's still incredibly sad. For the 40 years that our country has been wandering in the desert since the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, he was one of the leading prominent philanthropists in progressive politics. Think of George Soros, but with a VW Bug-driving hippie's irreverent style and sensibility.

While many of the progressives spent much of today attending to Tim Russert's death, I hope that we can take some time out to salute someone who contributed so much to keeping the progressive flame burning all these years. These were often lonely years for those on the Left. Those relative few who kept our causes financed are an important part of our story.

Here is some background on Stewart Mott.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/us/14mott.html

"Mr. Mott’s philanthropy included birth control, abortion reform, sex research, arms control, feminism, civil liberties, governmental reform, gay rights and research on extrasensory perception.

His political giving, often directed against incumbent presidents, was most visible. In 1968, he heavily bankrolled Senator Eugene McCarthy’s challenge to President Lyndon B. Johnson. Four years later, he was the biggest contributor to Senator George McGovern, the Democratic presidential nominee.

...

Mr. Mott seemed to relish poking his finger in the eye of General Motors, a company that his father, Charles Stewart Mott, helped shape as an early high executive. In the ’60s, the younger Mr. Mott drove a battered red Volkswagen with yellow flower decals when he drove at all. He lambasted G.M. at its annual meeting for not speaking out against the Vietnam War. He gave money to a neighborhood group opposing a new G.M. plant because it would involve razing 1,500 homes."

The Stewart Mott Charitable Trust is the model of what I hope any scion of a wealthy family might do with his or her inherited wealth. Here is its statement of purpose:

http://www.srmtrust.org/about.asp

"For more than thirty years the Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust has been an innovative foundation focused on small, strategic grant-making. The Trust takes pride in turning modest investments into lasting systemic change.

The Trust's philanthropic mission was originally focused on changing public policy to address the issues of nuclear armament and overpopulation. Since then, the funding interests have grown to include exposing government corruption and the protection of constitutional rights.

The Trust supports organizations active in the following four areas:

· Peace, Arms Control and Foreign Policy
· Population Issues and Reproductive Rights
· Government Reform and Public Policy
· Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Recognizing that small grants can build capacity and create fundraising leverage for new organizations, the Stewart R. Mott Charitable Trust provided initial support for many of our organizations, often before larger and more mainstream funding sources were willing to do so. Since the beginning, the Trustees and associates have chosen to continue giving sustaining support to current grantees on an annual, renewal basis."

I'm often struck by how much our culture recognizes the recent, post-web world, while letting slip away the world of not so long ago. (No wonder there are only a few here and there complaining about the failure to commemorate the RFK assassination.) Looking at Mott's Wikipedia entry, once finds almost nothing there.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_Rawlings_Mott

If you're a young aspiring historian, you could do much worse with your time today than to do a bit of research on Stewart Mott and build that page into a more fitting tribute.

I had another story on mind for today I wanted to comment upon, on Boumediene. But the passing of Stewart Mott should not go without comment today -- and I'm afraid, on a spiritually progressive blog, that it might.

Cherish your history. Stewart Mott mattered.

Dear Kate,

A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you!

Wish you a lovely day. Being on a birthday party myself today too, I will think of you and bring out a toast :)

Cheers!

Mieke

I just looked over the timezones in the world and it was already past midnight in most of USA. So the message #49 is meant to be read on saturday 14th June :)

Mieke

Diablo,

You know you said something recently on here that was really profound and yet you may not have even realised that you had.

I remember you saing that there was somebody on here that was the same person impersonating different people.

Yeah thats right.

In actual fact that is happening for everyone.

Love

Simon xx

There is a lot of talk on Intentblog today about people who have died and how we should be mourning for these people.

Actually, No.... I will not mourn for these people or for anyone who has died and that includes my closest family members.

I will rejoice in the life of Tim Russert that includes his death.

I will rejoice in the Life of Stewart Mott.

I rejoice in you and also in me.

I have not lost anything by their deaths, I am no less without them nor or they any less because they are no longer living.

Nothing is to be sad about here; this is a temporary state of being that me, you and these guys are experiencing. For the spirit a lifetime is only a millisecond within a minute of countless lifetimes.

Love every minute of the tempory state and never mourn a second that has gone.

Only by knowing this understanding profoundly will your state and the state of all things become permenant.

Permenantly fused with love and devoid of mourning.

Nothing has any authority over me to make me a mourner; absoloutly nothing.

Love

Simon xx

Very many happy returns dear Kate.
I see now why Fri 13th was significant :)
Hope you had a great day with those close to you and with whom you wanted to celebrate with.

Thanks Mieke for letting us know.

Love
Dara

Dear Mieke and Dara,
I woke to sun shine streaming through and the warmth this day will bring - and your happy wishes for me. Thank you
I cherish you
and the day, which holds everything I could desire,
... Friends, Family, Love,
Life!
always,
with love
~ Kate

word is simon wears a long, white robe all day, dark shades and regularly meditates in a quiet room in his London flat...he also sports a long, white pointed beard that looks like a nerdy prof......this dude is one of a kind...he's the messiah reincarnate...dang! now can we send u some quids on a platter...simon? damn!

I thought I'd post this here too.

http://www.jeffersonhour.org/

YO

Oh

Happy Birthday Kate

derek

Diablo,

Actually its a pink Robe!

White is just so last week!

Love

Simon xx

Hello, friends!

Maybe I'm being egotesticle, but I do care about my image,

and I do care about how, and in what light you see me2. So...

Lest anyone think of me as a jerk, I must tell you--

I didn't miss Kate's birthday. She got a real card from me on Friday.

.

Hello, Katie!

.

Happy Father's Day to all you father's out there!

How interesting
#34 by Veritas
First time truth teller

.

Admiring trees
Generally well rooted
Cottonwoods cut loose

Blessed be
The poplar tree
The one they picks
For match-sticks

~~Prayer to a Swan Vesta~~

2008 is competing for it's rightful place in the history books:

We had three sunny days in a row without rain, but now it's back.

What was that you promised about floods, dear Father?

Pres. Bush has a chance to make his last stand most meaningful.

The National Guard is international and currently overbooked.

A recession to boot...gas and oil prices...to Hell in a hand basket?

Are we headed for disaster? Japan quakes at the thought.

Isn't every year pretty much the same, only but changing names and places?

"Lead me not into temptation, but...but...but...how 'bout a boat?"

Two by two we walk, stroll, jump, skip and hop to the end of days, by God!

.

Do float me a line
Not my will, but Thine
Secular saviors wear flak jackets

Congratulations to Tiger Woods and Rocko Mediate for their fine play in this week's US Open Golf Tournament. Everyone should catch their 18 hole play off tomorrow for the championship.

Regards,
Stan

that czcech golie...Petr Cech...is a real goat...to let down his country like that...

those damn Turks keep kicking butts...

the Swissies win when the party is ova...too bad for them...they musta ate some real bad cheese...

and Croatia keeps putting up a tuff manly fight...good to see...

btw...have u noticed how multiple and all his many fony selves are quiet while this sorry-ass dude is glued to his 12" black & white TV? damn! soon he'll come back in full force to tell "slows" how smart he's ...eek...

the girly Poles keep losing their shirts...maybe not enuff vodka...damn!

congrats to tiger for winning the sudden death...still the best and greatest of all time!

To Richard Thomas:

Stunning Clark appearance on Morning Joe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5bYzL2y7xQ

Clark is just great at going after McCain. I have not seen anyone attack McCain like this except Clark; not Sam Nunn, not Jim Webb, not Kathleen Sebelius.

Watch this, he's a terrific VP prospect.

In two hours at Euro 08.
Will the Romanians become giant killers?

The Dutch have already qualified for the knockout stage. The Romanians can do the same with a win against the Netherlanders today. They would then eliminate the world champions of 2006, Italy, along with the runner up, France. How wonderful would that be for Romania, a country still recovering from the Chauchesco tyranny?

About the sick puppy, it still repeats the same crap in the hope it becomes the truth. Many Irish are Christians and are convinced that the other Irish, who are also Christians, got it all wrong and need to be punished, or even killed. They are unable to consider that they might be wrong.

They are the same people who criticize those other fanatics, the ones who mumble something on their knees with heads pointed toward Mecca, convincing themselves that their mumble will be the truth, if not now, once they are dead.

JC got it right when he said: “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing”.

when will u give us ur next CS quote Peks?

hi there Derek,
I had a really fun birthday, thank you so much for the good wishes (Mieke & Dara too!) love & more always to share,
~ Kate

UT, the one & only Keith me2watson,
Your card was so cute & and really made me smile. What a guy you are!
~ Nature girl, Katie

what are u doing up this time of day, katie?

hey there D!
for sure I want to toss my alarm clock - but that wasn't what woke me up so early
the sunshine coming through the windows,
definitely did
:)

Candles pole me2
I burn mine from middle out
Kate flicks two lighters

Butterfly frenzy
Melodies swing on Monarch
Slide over quivers

Trees lean to blow Bach
Wind owls chime more open
Doors to Florida

congrats to the Dutch and Italians for their convincing wins today...no heroic giant killing for the sour pekS! damn!