31 October 2007

The 2007 WADA Questionnaire for laboratories

This post is being published (nearly) simultaneously at:

+ + + + crystelZENmud and WADAwatch + + + +

A questionnaire for the WADA-accredited laboratories was laboriously elaborated, fine-tuned and published, to request information of a public nature. It was emailed to each of the WADA-accredited labs via the email addresses that were public record via the WADA website. Nearly one hundred hours of legal-training, and evaluation-training, went in to the drafting of this document.

It also put these publicly-financed entities 'on notice' that the world was watching them, and WADA, as that organization (publicly-financed through contributions from governments and Sporting Federations) bore down on the month of November 2007: the month in which WADA would 'elect' its new President, to replace outgoing iconoclastic Dick Pound, and approve the changes that had been drafted into the WADA CODE 2003 (soon becoming WADA CODE 2007).

The Questionnaire was only eight pages long (another link to it here), and a DISCLAIMER advised the recipients (from each of the then-34 laboratories) that the Questionnaire had no (Zero) affiliation with WADA, nor was it sponsored, nor approved in advance, by WADA.

The Questionnaire was also sent to these laboratories on three separate occasions, to ensure timely attention to the important issues that were presented.

TODAY, ZENmud productions announces the results.

?

Correct!

Not one laboratory, in the interests of transparent, independent research, was capable or inclined towards revealing its institutional opinion on the issues that were raised, by crystelZENmud.

Not one laboratory went on the record, with its stated goals for improving their own performance, and that of their co-Signatory institution labs;

Not one laboratory preferred to show the world that self-evaluation and self-improvement were a part of their agenda for the WADA World Conference on Doping in Sport.

Are these laboratories perfect? If they were, cases would not be falling apart as they have from many cycling-world incidents, and many more beyond.

What were the issues that these laboratories avoided answering? Not very difficult to list them:

  1. Were labs satisfied as to WADA's ability to uphold 'universal harmonization' as found in the WADA CODE Introduction? (Question 1)
  2. Is the FUNDAMENTAL RATIONAL applicable to Athletes only, or other Signatories (such as labs), in terms of 'respect for rules and laws'? (Q 3)
  3. Should the 'presumption' provided for lab work, found in Article 3.2.1, which allows labs an advantage as to the quality of their lab work, be coupled to an Article that would offer means whereby a lab could be suspended or discredited if its work were found to be sub-standard? (Q 4)
  4. Does Article 6.4 of the WADA CODE need amplification, or should a new sub-Article of the CODE be introduced, which would create a mechanism for WADA to address Signatories' requests for investigation of a lab, upon well-founded bases for investigation of lab test results, or results management issues? (Q 5)

As author of this Questionnaire, ZENmud Central is saddened that the laboratories chose not to respond: they will receive a final chance to do so in Madrid, at the WADA World Conference on Doping in Sport.

Did ZENmud productions really anticipate voluntary disclosure of such information?

Yes! The news we receive, especially from the cycling world, is an amalgam of intrigue, testing failures and laboratory 'vacations' (read: 'work stoppages' or STRIKES)

If a change of heart possesses any of the laboratories, crystelZENmud will post results in the future: but it looks bleak at the present, for 'transparency' to reign in WADA-world.

Courage, laboratory Directors of WADA-world

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç



30 October 2007

Sarkozy wants it... Psychozizi gets it???

In regarding the various versions, in print, of the reaction of French President Nicholas Sarkozy (who's affectionately been given the ZENmud Productions' nickname of 'Narcolep Psychozizi'), it amazed us here to realize how few of those journalists wanted to include the fact that Monsieur le president had called her an 'imbecile', as he detached his microphone (click on this link for your You Tube smorgasbord of clips).

Living in the francophone part of Switzerland, I can assure you that there are fewer 'polite' insults to be receiving, than that of 'imbecile', which retains its perjorative medical origins from a certain deformity of very unfortunate children.


On a lighter note, the timing of this media-blowout has nearly eclipsed Psychozizi's quest to have the Presidential salary increased some 140%, in passing from Euros 101,488 to 240,000.

An astute French citizen's observation was:
"Will he now work 140% more??" Nowhere in that request for an increase was any hint of ALIMONY made...


For your pleasure, in ending this farcical escapade, ZENmud Productions reminds itself of a photo work it had once found, that took 'mirror images' of each side of a person's phase, in arguing that this showed the 'Jekyll and Hyde' nature of we all.

So here, without further ado, are composite ZENphotos showing both sides of Nico, and George's faces (means: a normal photo is divided vertically through the nose; then the right hemisphere is duplicated, and reversed, for one aspect, and the same is done with the left hemisphere).


Enjoy them!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!!



Vive
la FRANCE...

Courage, les Presidents

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç


29 October 2007

First Annual - crystelZENmud Global Peace Prize 2007


ZENmud Productions has been casting about extensively for the awarding of the first-ever crystelZENmud Global Peace Prize (2007)... a new and prestigious prize dedicated to acknowledge the heroes of our time.

Criteria to win this prize are pure, thus simple:

1- Bringing every part of one's consciousness to the problem at hand;
2- Never acting contrarily to the attainment of that situation;
3- No recourse to violence in the pursuit of the goal;
4- Recognition as a symbol of nearly-universal proportions.

Many human beings were put onto this 2007 list; but the first in-house criteria was not to become a parrot of the Nobel Peace Award...

So Al Gore couldn't be considered after his announcement as one of the joint winners of this year's Nobel prize, with the IPCC.

Other candidates of a political or NGO-based nature were numerous, and it would not be fair to some of those, to list names that were under consideration...

But in-house lobbying was all that could be desired: novel idea, innovative reasoning, universal and instantaneous approval for this year's winner, the first ever crystelZENmud Global Peace Prize winner:

The Polar Bears: Ursus MARITIMUS


In a world supporting only 20 thousand of these beautiful, stark symbols of eternal grace and power, there are new reports of their loss of habitat in the northern Arctic regions.

In an interview at Smithsonian.com, Steven Amstrup discusses the 'prognosis' and with his final response, ends optimistically:

We looked only to the end of this century. And based on the best estimates of future sea ice, we forecast that there would still be polar bears remaining in the Canadian Arctic Islands. Humans caused the problem, and humans can fix the problem. We predict that there will be polar bears around to repopulate their territory if sea ice comes back. It's an expression of hope.


A web-page at Earth Trends monitors with a 2007 study, the status of the diminishing polar bear habitat; they present very compelling information of a rational scientific basis.

Realistic ad optimistical, crystelZENmud believes that the world, with two millennia of power-acquisition and exploitative economic short-term goals achieved with a wake of detritus, will be changed for the better if one considers the quality of the lives of those who share our Belle Planète, and gives motivation to the movements for sustainable growth of moderated human populations...

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

This first Annual crystelZENmud Global Peace Prize is, in addition dedicated to my mother Mary Louise, who walked upon this earth for 89 years of inner peace, and outer calm, and who left today, amidst pains, love and the weight of our world-gone-Bush.


Fly high above, l'esprit d'une Mère fantastique...


COURAGE, family of Humanity, for a peaceful tomorrow...

ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

26 October 2007

WADA correction for crystelZENmud links



ZENmud Central just received word (ANON: thank you very much) that the links provided to the crystelZENmud WADA Questionnaire were not functioning due to an extra "/" after the code ".html"...


Sincere apologies to those who've tried them without success: hopefully you were able to catch the error without this notice of correction.

The links are reproduced here in the text of this post:

Thank you again for enjoying this blog -

;-)

ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

25 October 2007

2008 Tour de France announced...

ZENers...

Actually, it's getting harder to say 'ZEN' and 'Tour de France' in the same sentence.


Here at ZEN Central, the epic nature of this world-class event, is paramount in the reasons why ZENmud isn't skiing in Colorado every winter, nor rafting down its glorious snowmelt-filled canyons in the summer.

One could say ZENmud lives and breathes the Tour, not in the sense of an archane dév
oté of factoids and trivia, but in that majestic sense of epic accomplishment.

But there is a new way in the Tour, which I feel distressed about. It's a license for bad labwork, and no respect for the riders who ride to the breaking point, in order to generate millions for the Tour company Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) , and their global sponsors; it's a license for ASO t
o cheat, by providing illegally-gained information on confidential A Sample testing, which they then publish in their other property, the French sporting journal 'L'Equipe'.

This conflict of interest - long-standing and vile - is under-analysed, as it is very much appreciated by the world's other sport-journalists, who don't care anything about the ethics violations by the publishers of L'Equipe. As long as the world is provided juciy doping tidbits by L'Equipe, from tight collaborations with the French Lab that is contracted to test Tour de France participants, those test results make headlines that sell newspapers.


Yet.

So here is the route, which you can
download through this link, or click on the photo
below.


Visit our other ZENmud productions blog - WADAwatch - for more information concerning the recently concluded International Conference on Doping in Cycling.

And the route itself, interesting again as was the 2007 Tour, is passing by ZENmud Central (Geneva Canton, Suisse), as is the habit every fourth year or so...

CouragE!

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç




22 October 2007

How to divorce a President...



Citizens in the USA agonized, some ten years or so ago, whether Hillary would 'dump' Bill Clinton for his peccadillo with sweet young (and chubby) Monica Lewinski.


Citizens of France don't have to suffer through two or more years of similar, nauseating media decadence, as they are now in the know about last week's divorce: anticipated, rumoured and officially ignored. News reports ended the months of speculation and the hot rumours of the last two weeks, and that silence from Martignon, the seat of the French Government.


But this refreshing silence left questions unanswered in its wake, a phenomenon quasi-unacceptable to anyone in the States. Imagine what could have happened in the USA, if Bill Clinton's private life, private affairs, and private marital status had been treated as that.


We know that Cécélia had a lover, but we don't know what they share today; we know nothing about Nicholas' lover(s), if he were to have them or if he is truly, as is his image, 'married' to his job.


We are also aware that the Sarkozy-media alliance is as strong if not stronger than that which ties the US mainstream media (MSM) to the Bush family. The reconciliation of Monsieur and Madame Sarkozy certainly lasted long enough for him to campaign and win the presidency over another perfectly French couple, that of former Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal, and her long-time companion François Holland.


But past events in France, including the long-awaited liberation of the Bulgarian nurses (and one doctor) held in Libya for nearly five years or more, were achieved by the French Presidential Couple. Indeed, it was Cécilia, whose private interview with Libyan leader Khadafi had apparently broken the impasse and allowed their remittance into Bulgarian custody (Where they were prompty granted pardons).


Two recent media events were rather amusing to the French audiences that witnessed them, and at ZEN Central the overwhelming decision was to pass their substance to you.


More directly, President Sarkozy was interviewed, while on a visit to Portugal for the summit reunion for the purpose of approving the new European Union Treaty. Questions about his divorce diverted attention from this event, that reversed the great failure under former French president Jacques Chirac, whose support of the attempted EU Constitution, demonstrated his impotence by failing to bring the French population to support it, as also occurred in the Netherlands, in the summer of 2006.


Sarkozy's scathing response to a question or series of questions by a reporter from Le Monde, was icy-cold and denigrating, responding ad hoc that he'd presumed that questions would concern the treaty, that a paper as prestigious as Le Monde was demonstrating a curious lack of professionalism, that his position, voted into the Presidency of France, meant that he should work, and work more, and do more for the people of France, who he considered had mandated that alone, and were very little concerned with his private life. “Once bitten twice shy,” and no other reporter asked him about that during the televised conference.


The second event was truly French. On the encoded channel 'Canal Plus' (Similar to a US 'HBO' or 'Showtime', although available outside of cable networks from the purchase of a decoder), the evening news ends with a series known as 'Les Guignols' (the Puppets), which has the satiric farcical nature found in a combination of the US shows 'Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update' or the Daily Show with John Stewart. Their selection of skits skewers everyone without exception.


So Friday evening, ZEN Central tuned in specifically to see whatever coverage they may have of the divorce, and there were two elements of note.


A marionnette representing Cécilia Sarkozy was asked by the News-Anchor puppet, to please at last provide more details to the burning questions regarding how her visit to Khaddafi had turned the momentum towards that famous release of prisoners.


“Her” reply was priceless, describing in soft yet breathless detail how her trip proceeded. Minute attention offered insights that all the world awaited. How she wore a light cream Givenchy traveling ensemble in the plane, and her Louis Vuitton luggage was properly identified and moved into the official car, which brought her to her five-star hotel suite, where she could bath in a Christian Dior relaxation bubble bath. Afterwards, her Christian Lacroix pant-suit was perfect for the hot desert climate, and she... you get the picture? ;-)


Another skit revealed how a waiter was treated by the press for his refusal to answer questions about the meal served to Nicholas S., and the tone of the questions mimicked how France was uninformed about the Presidential divorce – only in France, could the comic information exceed the official information.


This all brings to light, that the Sarkozy presidency is, as much as the Bush presidency will be looked on historically, a smoke-and-mirrors relationship with the press, who've helped Monsieur le President at each step of the 'glorious' path he climbed, over the wreckage of rival UDP candidates such as former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, now under investigation for his involvement in the Clearstream scandal, as well as the media-beaten candidate Ségolène Royal, who had captured ZENattention in the late spring of 2007.


“Céciliaaaaaaaah, tu m'as brisé le coeur – t'as secoué ma confiance quotadiennement...”

(apologies to Paul Simon...)


The actual divorce was apparently filed and decided within a 24 to 48 hour period, apparently with super-secret advance notice, zero leaks to the press and a predetermined decree. This countered speculation in certain quarters that if Nicholas didn't want the divorce, a newly-enacted French law (designed to protect outgoing President Chirac for various 'investigations' now underway) offered immunity from any civil suit, which could have included a unilateral action for divorce by Cécilia.


As it stands, apparently the couple agreed enough on their status to make the suffering and impact on the Presidency their higher concern, and a swift change of status makes the only story that of the NON-story of the Sarkozy marital discords.


Congratulations to France, for its ability to ignore sexual sideshow political smears, such as were sustained on a multi-year basis by the American Republican party, a shameful action for impeachment that created the stained, strained relationships that dominate Washington, DC, to this day.


Vive la FRANCE...


Courage, les divorcé(e)s

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç


Les Surprises d'Octobre


This post is carried simultaneously at


WADAwatch.blogspot.com
and crystelZENmud.blogspot.com

+ + + + + +


What a week we'll be witnessing, from outside closed doors...


Conclusion? A Mirror...


In the heart of France, on the 22nd and 23rd of October, the French Minister for Sport and Youth, Madame-Docteur Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, is going to be cracking heads, or hearts, as she hosts within the walls of the French Committé Olympique, a closed-door 'High Level Summit on Doping in Cycling”.


As meager as the press coverage has been, attendance is apparently limited to officials representiing: WADA, cycling's three Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia, Tour de France (owned by the group ASO), Vuelta de Espagne), the French Cycling Federation, the Agence Française du Lutte contre le Dopage (AFLD), and 'others', perhaps of European governments, the IOC, etc. Some 150 total participants should be sipping Evian or a fine Bordeaux, while discussing the ramifications of certain contrasting actions that have been digested over this last amazing year of 2007.


A snapshot of noteworthy items would have to include:

a: the ASO-instigated fight against inclusion of the UCI ProTour team UNIBET.com in the lineup of teams competing in the spring race 'Paris-Nice';


b: the revelations produced in the Floyd Landis hearings, from his allegedly positive 2006 TdF test for testosterone use, which implicated the French testing lab LNDD for its multitudinous lapses, in the application of standard international rules defining sports-doping test procedures;


c: the pre-Tour de France exclusion of Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, as a result of lingering suspicions centered on the curious Operacion Puerto affair in Spain, and its attention on the career of Dr. Fuentes;


d: the tardy (yet hope-filled) confessions of Bjarne Riis and Erik Zabel, of their EPO use in 1996, while under the Deutsche Telekom team colors;


e: the near-daily revelations, during the second and third weeks of the 2007 Tour de France, of rider's pre-Tour infractions, such as Michael Rasmussen, the Danish racer who wore the Yellow Jersey, accused of missing mandated testing procedures by the infraction of not informing the
Union Cycliste Internationale of his pre-Tour whereabouts, the properly-delayed but annoying (to Tour director Christian Prudhomme, and ASO president Patrice Clerc) announcement of German rider Patrik Sinkewitz' positive test for testosterone, another in-Tour test for blood transfusion, that was brought against Kazakh rider Alexandre Vinokourov, then another positive test, which implicated an Italian rider for a French cycling team – Cristian Moreni – and for all of these envenomed the excruciating relations between the TdF/ASO and the UCI


f: recent news that the French Agency AFLD would reinstate its own litigation against Floyd Landis, creating an unprecedented and highly suspect 'double jeopardy' situation of two sports-arbitration cases for one test at one event under one set of (UCI) rules, due to the potentially- devastating news that the next year's Tour de France may not be run under the auspices of the UCI.


+ + + + + +


So once again, this week?


Monday and Tuesday, the above-named players will be meeting for their closed-door session, in the midst of other unfolding news-items.



The biggest one on the sports-doping radar screen, come from the sour-grapes pronouncements of Jean-Pierre Lamour, who's anticipated reign as the Second 'Grand Inquisitor' of WADA (succeeding President Dick Pound of Canada) was nixed by a considerable candidate's presentation: former Australian government Minister John Fahey, whose candidature was abruptly promoted by a meeting of the WADA Executive Committee nearly a month ago.


Lamour will probably be there; whether Fahey is invited remains to be seen.



Monsieur Lamour, apparently as cocky as was Dick Pound during the greater part of his reign, let fly a few news-IED bombs as loud as the door he slammed against his own backside. Insinuations he offered included hints that WADA was taking a 'ten year leap backward', that 'WADA was about to open the door to greater 'flexibility' through its CODE revisions, and most importantly, that he would potentially become involved in a new, European-centered anti-doping agency that would not suffer the problems inherent in WADA.



Talk about the love of a minister scorned... remembering that it was J-F Lamour himself, that was the French Minister of Sport and Youth, whose Ministry oversaw the LNDD lab during both the unseemly 'Armstrong case' and the 'Affaire Landis', and whose Ministry was both antagonistic towards the UCI investigation of the Armstrong case, AND was under suspicion during and after these, as a source of the leaks to the journal l'Equipe regarding these and other leaks of 'A Sample' test results.



Other amazing moments came out in a recent (September 18, 2007) interview in Cyclingnews.com, where Patrice Clerc was all over the game board in discussing how offended was his company, the Amaury Sport Organization (ASO), by the attitude and actions of the UCI, with whom the 'Grand Tours' have been battling all the issues surrounding the inception of the ProTour cycling concept, initiatives of the UCI (including this year's UNIBET.com French court case, their (above) exclusion from the Paris-Nice and Tour de France events, and the doping issues.



Unfortunately Monsieur Clerc has no memory, nor apparently any desire to discuss, those endless leaks of doping revelations that stem from the ASO-owned newspaper l'Equipe, the French national sporting journal. Had he been honest with himself and with Cyclingnews.com (who should themselves be hanging their heads for not asking about this issue), he might have addressed these constant leaking incidents, that undermine any Athletes' rights of privacy and process, specifically in the case where l'Equipe published its 2005 article, timed for two weeks after the end of the Tour de France, entitled 'Les Mensonges d'Armstrong', which insinuated that Lance was on EPO in 1999.



And as those leaks came from either the French Ministry (which controls the LNDD laboratory – thus whether that equates with one or two entities is a secondary thought), or WADA, both of whom are key players in the fight against doping in sport, to l'Equipe, there is ample grounds to suspect that there is a bit of 'cover-me, cover-you' corruption that belies the strident WADA message about 'harmonizing the battle against doping in sport': a foundation of the fundamental message found in the Introduction to the WADA CODE.



The practical substance of these revelations, including the great interactions with the French Ministry-sponsored conference, the AFLD second-spin Landis-doping case, the Lamour/Fahey/WADA dénouement, all creating an implosive whirlpool at the very heart, and future, of cycling itself.



But all of the outlined points, above steer us only to the early part of the week; later, on October 25th, is the usual annual announcement of next year's 2008 Tour de France route. Reading Patrice Clerc's interview, with the discussions of the impossibility of working with the UCI, mentions of national teams and other doping agencies' involvement, leaves the average cycling fan whirling and wondering if all of it is worth the price of sustained interest by the sports-consumer?



Given what you've read above, the amalgam of these events symbolizes something that is bedrock-shattering. A point not to be missed in the evolution of this week is that, unlike many other sports, cycling has had a long history of 'airing its dirty laundry' in public, with every opportunity for the sporting press to make cycling into a laughing stock, while it could be presented legitimately as the one sport that is suffering the most, while undertaking the greatest effort to clean its own ranks.



Soon, members of these entities, present at these meetings, in Paris, Madrid and elsewhere, will have an opportunity to prove their love for cycling, or their love of their own inflated and destructive egos.



Whether they choose to do, that which the world could proudly remember them for their involvement, or that for which the world would sadly remember their involvement, remains to be seen, very soon.



Thus: A MIRROR...


... is the best thing that every participant to these 'Summit' meetings could bring to the table, to remind themselves:


“I am watching my own professional actions, as is the world, for whom I work at this table.”


Courage

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç



18 October 2007

Warm Arctic Winds devastating the balance...


Back in August, ZEN Central informed on the new heated race to explore and verify any oil content under the Arctic Ocean, and your Humble Writer stated this:

Top o' the Planet to you...

Is the opening Arctic Ocean NOW available for oil exploration, extraction, exploitation and exhaustion, due to the lack of substantive global action?

Can YOU read between the lines? Can any oil company profit from the potential vast reserves, cut-off from exploitation as long as sea-ice ruled the winter waters?

Observe a NASA photo, and imagine the impossibility of putting deep-water oil platforms on ice-shields that shifted, cracked, and were impossible to work with.

+ + + + + +

Under the radar screen, as the world concentrates on the France v USA race to Iran, or the Russia and Caspian Alliance in resistance of that, there are articles now published that, in observing this last summer 2007, state evidence is accumulating which presages a bad turn in our most Northerly lands...


Read from any of these articles found at BBC.com

'Warm wind' hits Arctic climate
(Last Update: 18 October 2007)

The Arctic is being hit by melting ice, hotter air and dying wildlife, according to a US government report on the impact of global warming there.


Ice melt raises passage tension
(Last Update: 8 October 2007)

In another sign of potential friction in the warming Arctic, Canada has warned that it will step up patrols of the Northwest Passage.


Arctic ice island breaks in half
(Last Update: 1 October 2007)

The giant Ayles Ice Island drifting off Canada's northern shores has broken in two - far earlier than expected.



In the analysis that you can do yourself, ZENers or ZENistas should be worried; does one prefer that the Arctic melt, the caribou die (who by nature live in the cold, are adapted for that and not warmer climates?)...

B
ut! You may say, we have a better chance now of finding OIL there, and of course, that is the most important thing...

S
adly, without

Courage

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç

17 October 2007

True Patriotism... in light of the burning forest

There's false patriotism, and totally real patriotism...

How do they differ?


False patriotism supports a one-party schema through the fear-mongering that is generated by a distorted media that feeds on, and grows fat, from the fear it inseminates.

True patriotism supports the ideal of a democracy, and works to increase its own influence through a mastery of problems and solutions, acknowledging the role played in a multi-party system, and seeking to differentiate itself on the merits of its vision and goals.


In the United States of America, there is currently NO party that holds the aspirations of true patriotism:


One the Right Hand, are the Republicans, who brought us to the abyss through their raunchy anti-Clinton campaigns in the Nineties, who've brought our country to its knees, in terms of amplified debt and worldwide discredit found in the policies of its lackluster, vain President, a 'war-president' of unheralded misogyny, of unfathomed shallowness of character, of misguided interventionism...


On the Left Hand, are the Democrats, who admittedly suffer through the distortive lens of the Mainstream Media, who acquiesced to the War-Fevers that simmered under the mantras of 'Terrorism' and 'Nine-eleven', and were faced with the media-fixation on 'Osama' and other mindless wastes of your citizen-status...


A President that tells you to 'go shopping' in the days or weeks after September 11...


A President that reminds you that he is above the law with every policy choice, every turning away of the Government from its past responsibilities (childrens' insurance, VA benefits for warriors, upholding the Constitution, voting rights, and onward)...


So it is imperative
that some think about where the country is, from a


vantage point similar to a
Fire Watch Tower


One such someone, is Naomi Wolf, who wrote a truthful essay recently:

"
American Tears"

One has to be heartless, ideologically-challenged, or full of wrath, to not heed these words:


In D.C., before that, a beefy, handsome civil servant, a government department head -- probably a Republican -- confides in a lowered voice that he is scared to sign the new ID requirement for all government employees, that exposes all his most personal information to the State -- but he is scared not to sign it: "If I don't, I lose my job, my house. It's like the German National ID card," he said quietly. This morning in Denver I talked for almost an hour to a brave, much-decorated high-level military man who is not only on the watch list for his criticism of the administration -- his family is now on the list. His elderly mother is on the list. His teenage son is on the list. He has flown many dangerous combat missions over the course of his military career, but his voice cracks when he talks about the possibility that he is exposing his children to harassment. (gratitude to the Huffington post)



The greater problem, is that which Naomi points to, the edge... the abyss, from which escape from this Military-Media-fascism may no longer be possible. Naomi would that we recall Germany, in the 1930s:

"In Germany, according to historian Richard Evans, in 1931-1932, if enough Germans of conscience had begun to say No -- history would have had an entirely diferent outcome.

"If we go any further down this road the tears will be those of conservatives as well as progressives. They will be American tears."



Long ago as a child, I heard the phrase "America! Love it or Leave it"...


This last thought is precise - America does not have to be unloved, to have left it.

One can leave America, for the damage done to it by the unhealthiest of 'patriots' those false patriots that have no heart, no vision, no hopes: only their fears, which they foist on those outside THEIR party...

COURAGE, friends!!!

ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

12 October 2007

Uncle Al, the great-great-great grandchildrens' pal...

The news of the millennium... in a photo... Straight from Norway:

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2007

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize
for 2007 is to be shared, in
two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.

As hard as it is to find anyone concerned, truly concerned, about the Seventh Generation, Al stands apart in the world of politicians (and ex-politicians)...

COURAGE, friends!!!

ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

Bienvenue Madame...


On nous dit, dans la Tribune de Genève, que notre plus chère voisine, Madame Cécilia Sarkozy, s'est exilé depuis peu, dans notre cher canton... Des clients de
La Réserve l'ont vu au spa, information confirmée par un journaliste d'un journal concurrent, par l'intermédiaire d'un employée de l'établissement.



Madame Sarkozy, soyez chaleureusement accueilli parmi nous, restez et centrez-vous dans le calme qu'on puisse trouver ici, au bord du lac, dans la Vielle Ville, et surtout n'importe où que vous en choisissez pour vous faire plaire.

Les journalistes s'entretiennent eux-mêmes, sur le sujet de ta marriage, moi pas. Ils interrogent aussi les officiels du gouvernement Sarkozian, mais voyons!

Après tes efforts pour les infirmières (et M le Docteur) bulgares en Libye, vous n'y êtes allée avec Nico? Et ceci, bien après que vous avez snobé M le président Bush, y a peu, et que j'admirais comment! Maintenant, il m'est arrivé de vous regarder, et vous garder, dans une jolie coin de mes pensées profondes, pour votre bonheure...

Encore, bienvenue, et "Encore!"

Courage,

....................crystelZENmud ;-)


10 October 2007

Don't drive through Portland with your TOPOFF...

Once upon a time, a woman decided to let herself become 'the love of my life'...

When my Life was in the States...

What are you on about, ZENmud?

;-)

Her name was Alma, and she was or is (still) a Portland girl now... happy and living far away from her SnowGod... but all of a sudden, Portland is all over the Internet, due to a coming exercise sponsored by the Homeland Security Agency... which we haven't written about since the earliest ZENdays, here's a reminder!

[SIDEBAR: that article referenced above, noted that the HomeSec webpages had some 'disinformation errors', which apparently have been corrected; if you'd read my previous article, it's history, toast, compost!]

Anyway, if Alma were a 'Net-ish woman, she'd probably be hoppin' in the convertible to get down to Laughlin or somewhere... after reading these links!

TOPOFF prepares Portland for Disaster

In a simulated sense, that is. The department's Topoff 4 security exercise will gauge how well officials react to the dropping of a radiological dispersal device, or a "dirty bomb."

Topoff 4 is set to hit the Rose City between Oct. 15 and 24.

The exercise, which will test local and federal responses to a simulated terrorism act, will draw hundreds of Department of Homeland Security observers to Portland.


OR

More than 4,000 gear up for dirty bomb exercise in Portland

Gov. Ted Kulongoski joined Portland Mayor Tom Potter in Salem today to announce that final preparations are under way for Oregon to be part of the largest anti-terrorism exercise in the nation's history later this month.

A fictional "dirty bomb" will go off in downtown Portland, crippling transportation and sending a radioactive cloud over the city, as part of the five-day Top Officials exercise -- dubbed "TOPOFF" -- starting Oct. 15. It will involve more than 50 local, state and federal agencies, and five counties.

BUT

If you like it raw and conspiratorial, chère Alma, try this one! It's a reprint of an article in The Oregonian (and MORE)...

Different shades of unthinkable


(from website (new to crystelZENmud) the Truthseeker...)

In a little over a week, the largest terror drill in US history will focus on Portland again. TOPOFF, Oct. 15-19, is designed give "Top Officials" a chance to react to a catastrophic scenario -- a "dirty nuke" terror attack uncomfortably similar to the Noble Resolve nuke attack of two months ago.

The Bush administration will be running more than one exercise -- just as it did on 9/11. Joining TOPOFF will be Vigilant Shield, which intelligence insiders believe will practice the dictatorship directive, NSPD 51. The name "Vigilant Shield" brings to mind "Vigilant Guardian," the 9/11/2001 Air Force exercise that pulled away fighter aircraft supposed to guard mainland America and sent them off to counter a simulated Russian attack in Alaska.


So is this going to be "Nine-Eleven West", in the heart of a socially liberal Democratic-leaning state very close to California?

I'm not there yet...

But it's worth reading!!!

Courage, Alma dear...

;-)

ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

The Campaign that arrives


This essay, dear ZENers, is more about History, than tomorrow.

And recent history, mind you: because the depths in which our politicians wallow, is getting beyond pathetic, nearing the horrible.

As the Truly-Pre-campaigns end, and the Pre-campaigns warm-up, ZENcentral is reminded how the 2004 campaign began, with Howard Dean making an impressive showing [Ed. note: 'ZENmud' was on the telephone list for Howard's 'Foreign Policy Advisory Group], until we all heard about "The RALLY" and "The Scream"...

And the abuse by the media of this event, the distortion that it provoked, the 'terror' instilled by the MainStreamMedia, was the 'character assassin's bullet' that US Media, and Republican Sympathizers therein, made into a specialty.

So this short post, is to refresh the collective memory of the United States, that you've seen it before, you should be used to this heinous activity by now, and ZEN hopes that You do not fall for it again...


Courage!


ç*”*”*””*ç”*”* ZENmud ”*””*ç*”*”*””*ç”

04 October 2007

"Cathy I'm lost I said ..."

".................. though I knew she was sleeping
I'm empty and aching and I don't know ... why?

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike...

They've all come, to look for America ...
All come, to look for America"

(
Simon and Garfunkel: "America", BOOKENDS, 1968)

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

If "all the world WAS America" in
John Locke's day, and if in the year of the French student revolutions, and the cacaphony of US catastrophes (MLK and RFK shot, the Chicago Seven v Chicago Police, at the Democratic Nomination Convention), Simon and Garfunkel were looking for America...

Hard to believe that 'America' has become even harder to find, in these days of Taser-interventions at University seminars, the Bush misAdministration still happily force-feeding riot-police into any political rally, still happily siphoning off the wealth in Iraq, still gloriously supporting Blackwater's Praetorian Guard status within the Green Zone...


And what difference will it make if a Democrat or Republican wins the White House in 13 months?


"Time it was, and what a time it was... it was:

A time of innocence, a time for confidences..."


(Paul Simon: BOOKENDS; Bookends, 1968)

There is a way to make the US Presidential Election different.


First, the average American, men or women together, have to decide in what interests they would cast their vote.

As I see it, those interests are three.


As a Citizen.


As a Consumer.

As a Conqueror.


IT hardly seems likely, that a vote cast as a Consumer would mirror that of a Citizen.

The American Consumer is probably happy with the falling Dollar; its weakness abroad makes Japanese TVs that were fabricated in Vietnam even cheaper than last year. His French wine (it's okay, Dad: Monsieur Sarkozy is a GOOD man (cough), not like that last guy... Saddam's buddy Jacques!) is cheaper, and if he could, his Havana cigars would be cheaper than ever.


The American Conqueror?

Well, Iran's just itchin' for a bitch-slappin', right? We're doing so well in Iraq, we might as well 'Two-for-ONE' the whole region, shove another couple thousand kilos of Depleted Uranium down their sorry throats... no?


And where, pray tell, has the American Citizen gone?

His government no longer works under the Constitution, his President has gone Imperial, with laws broken and tattered, the Constitution 'just a rag' a phrase once attributed to
John J McCloy.


I'd written once long ago, pre-crystelZENmud, that the only way to save the US government from sheer disaster would be to vote in the Primary phase of the election cycle, for the THIRD-best financed Party candidate.
No matter, whether it was a Republican or a Democrat.

Because the highest earning candidate, and the second-highest earning candidates, would be those who impressed the American Corporate Interests.

And frankly, what impresses the American Corporate Interests, is often NOT at ALL in the interests of American Citizens or American Consumers. It does parallel those interests ascribed to the American Conqueror,
or Imperialist.

In the coming years, our world will have transformed itself, from a basket of plenty for all (euphemistically speaking), to a MadMAXian world of scavenging for precious scarce resources.

Oil Wars, Water Wars: already underway.

Pessimistic? Not I - riding bikes or buses to work, living sustainably, adds happiness and subtracts frustrations.

Join us, those who live, who love this planet, and chose to simplify ourSelves.


Courage!

ç*”*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç



03 October 2007

He's on vacation...

There's a web-friend, up in Minnesota, stomping around my old vacation grounds, near Split Rock, on Lake Superior...

Split Rock is somewhere off to the left end, north shore, where the windswept waves batter the Rock that Split eons ago...

Image courtesy of our government: Earth Observatory at NASA's website. Photo cropped to focus on the biggest of the Great Lakes... 350 miles end to end... (so: +/- 564 km)

I bet Switzerland could be thrown into Lake Superior, what a fit that would be: the trace around each is very uncannily similar :-)

"RSD", ride safely, all around the world, ride where you wa--ant to, without wings, with two wheels...


Que du bonheur
, quoi!

ç*””*”*”*ç*””* ZENmud *””*ç*”*”*””*ç