A must read "The Law Required it" at MSNBC

Have you ever read the book 1984 by George Orwell? It was written in 1949. For it to be written so much in the past, it is our wake up call to be read NOW.

With more information coming out all the time about how the US Administration under the Bush Presidency has 'fumbled' the ball I found this article at MSNBC very enlightening. I'm sharing it here.
To quote from the MSNBC site : "Former Justice Department lawyer Jack Goldsmith explains why he fought the White House’s aggressive legal maneuvers in the fight against terror."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20659806/site/newsweek/

There is a lot of apathy in the United States about voting. Few do it. Responsibly if you don't vote, you don't really have a whole lot of excuse for griping about whats going wrong. Now I say that because before the past few elections, in my earlier years, I was as well apathetic about government and did not vote. I as well felt I didn't have a right to gripe since I did not do so, even though I did not like what was going on in previous administrations (like Iran/Contra).
I have learned as I have aged to step up to the bat and take an active role in keeping myself informed. We are doomed to repeat our mistakes if we do not remember our History. For that I am assured. That is on every level. Personal and Government.
I feel it is every Americans personal responsibility to be informed about what is going on in their government and not to 'just take for granted' that our government is going to 'do what is right' for us. When I was in school I well remember discussions in History classes on issues of 'propaganda' but it was NEVER discussed in any way that reflected that the US ever 'used it' itself. I have learned as an adult that propaganda is used by ALL GOVERNMENTS, media, lobbyists, etc. Government uses media to get its messages out to the masses. That does NOT assure TRUTH in its message! It reminds me of several movies that have came out over the years about people being led by propaganda virtually the 'walking asleep'. We have had the fine ability to open our mouths and question authority since this country was founded. We do NOT want to lose that unalienable right set forth in the Bill of Rights.
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My personal views on what has been happening in our Government and the upcoming elections in 2008.
Personally an Independent voter, as well as is my husband, we look to Candidates who possess the history of voting and ideology that as closely relates to our own core values as is possible. There is no 'perfect' candidate out there who agrees with what we value other than Dennis Kucinich which we feel sadly does not have much of a chance of being elected simply because he is not a 'media darling', tied to big corps or lobbyists like the others in various degrees.
One thing is for sure, Health care, Poverty levels in OUR own country, Food and product safety issues, The UNENDING War in Iraq (DESPITE THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WHO WANT OUR SOLDIERS HOME), Securing our Borders & immigration, Securing and protecting the Bill of Rights to not ERODE further under any other administration and so much more need refocus and positive attention in a New Administration and Congress.
It is important that we all take note of our local elections as well as State and National to get the final results we wish. We have to become United again in this country and stop allowing Big Media, Corporations and even RELIGION and POLITICAL parties to cause us to 'hate our neighbor'.

My point I guess today is, I wish more people would do research, not be spoon fed every detail of their news from television, mass media and would dig deeper to find the heart of the truth of these difficult matters before us before our Rights, Freedoms and our very lives are forever changed by Big Brother overstepping its bounds.

Do you want a United North America? Canada, Mexico and the United States government officials have been meeting to accomplish this goal for many years now. Are you aware of that?
See Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_american_union

NAFTA SUPERHIGHWAY: This idea was put into place without congressional approval and is taking place without Americans being asked or consenting. Read more about this here:
http://http//www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst103006.htm

The Red Heads Pixelated Thoughts: "an alter ego"


Ta Da~
~First post on a new blog, how intimidating is that! This is my 'alter ego' web blog for my pixelated creations, digital scrapbooking and more. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a complicated, creative creature. I have a lot of diverse interests. That in and of itself is going to come out in this blog, and in my creations.

Eventually, in the next few days hopefully, you'll be offered as gifts, some of the hard work I have been busy creating. You see, digiscrap is my newest infatuation. After years of playing with trial versions of Jasc paint shop pro, I finally got Corel PSP XI for my 45th birthday present. Now THAT was an awesome present~.
I have been playing with its features, learning new things ever since. I bought a scanner and I have a digital camera. I've been busy transferring what I guess you'd call 'hybrid' designs to digi.

My creations are a blend of handdrawn, scanned, and digital photos. For the creative process, I have been keeping scraps of paper with ideas for creations as they come to me, stuffed in a notebook. Sometimes that hits me right when I am ready to go to sleep. I thought of a really good idea last night and was too tired to write it down and was kicking myself in the BEEhind all morning trying to remember what the idea was! SO, I really need to put pen and paper by the bed for those late night thoughts. Thankfully, I remembered the idea late this afternoon, it was for a phrase to make a sticker out of.


More thoughts on my pixelated idea process:

Get a great graphics program. I use Corel PSP XI. There are several out there. I know Adobe PS is popular but expensive. In my opinion, you can't go wrong downloading a free trial of PSP anytime it is available. It is a great way to get a taste for digital graphic manipulations. Everyone pretty much starts out fixing their photos and then jumps into other areas.Keep fresh batteries in your digital camera and a package of extras handy for those spur of the moment photo revelations.

Get a good pad of Sketchbook paper and Le Plume brand pens. They are great~ They have a brush tip at one end and a fine tip at the other and come in fabulous colors. Great for creating doodles, scrolls, leaf designs and so much more.

Next a good set of Watercolor pencils, you can achieve so much with these with regarding to blended colors. Don't forget to use your imagination~

Grab everything you have been using for regular scrapbooking and look at it in a new way~! Look at whats around you. I take photos of everything~. I am looking for textures, colors, shapes, and I think about how it can be 'changed' to be something totally different looking after it has been put through the processes of the digital manipulations. It's like working with clay really. You take your lump and make it something unexpected.

Color and the lack of it can say loads~.One of the things I love to do is to take a photo and put it through all the processes of hyping color and stripping it away to minimums. Highlighting shadows, minimizing flaws, giving glow to areas you never noticed before. These are all possible with graphics programs and can really change your photos into spectacular results that you had to rely upon professional photographers before. Now all this is available to the home user at minimal cost



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POLITICAL RANT
the red heads viewpoint on newest political issues

Scooter Libby gets sentence commuted. Karl Rove has still not had to answer for what he has done. A. Gonzales is still at the Justice Dept.
What is WRONG with our Upper Government sense of justice? Why am I surprised after all these years. Trust me, not surprise, it's disgust.
I will be GLAD to see a new election. Can't come too soon. I still cannot believe that Clinton can be brought up on impeachment for his lie, but this administration gets by with far, far worse.At this point I don't know who I'd vote for. I don't know that any of the candidates from either party have the core values I believe in.

Color me disillusioned.

bitchy sigh.........

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