Things I am in the dark about

Something I am not in the dark about, very aware of, extremely anxious about the people lost through the enormous cracks in this social endeavor of the Bush, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Aware also of how directly unlawful this government program is, more destructive than constructive where as the intentions are never clear, discrimination gone wild and bound to happen. Having a hand in helping multitudes is honorable, but when at the same time your hand lends to bigotry, discrimination of even one it sorta nullifies the purpose and principals and ethics that were meant to maintain freedoms through human rights, and there is where it limits those rights. Appointing a new chief whom oversees the grand oils party binding contract with the 'religious right' yet neglected and put on a back burner to war and is referred to as neglected, 'poor track record' and 'wrecked'. Leaving possibly the godless, agnostic, or even those not of such faith turn for social services if this were the only option, danger is one day it could be the only option. How for example do the participants determine eligibility, worthy Christian maybe, done your deeds, prayed to the USofA church of faith incentives. I notice some of you reading here have came from religious theme blogs and web sites, who may support government funding of church activities in communities. I say go community wild, just not with tax dollars, you can't no way in heaven or hell be fair and just when you fight over who is approved to issue the help without denying your own religious values.

New Chief Oversees a Less Visible Faith Office

The White House announced Jay F. Hein's appointment at 6:30 p.m. on a Thursday three weeks ago, the kind of timing usually reserved for news the administration wants to bury.

Hein is the new director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, the third person since 2000 who has headed President Bush's effort to help religious groups win public funding to counsel addicts, mentor prisoners' children and provide other social services. Before he took up his duties this week, the position had been vacant for more than two months.

Wonder when some peoples religion becomes criminal, however slim the chances of such a 'cult' to receive funding, possible without over sight and the door has been left open. As this sick to the extreme example, Preparing your body for God would not pass as a fundable interest, how is religious organizations that cover and protect criminals still receiving funding. You have to read the link, to get the jist.

Allot I am in the dark about. You. And when it comes to places people frequent, and I do not (and will not for more reasons than this), like wal-marts, sams. Doggie chews, big bone type synthetic maybe bio-synthetic dono. Labeled not for consumption, or intake, the dog must chew but not swallow it isn't intended or safe or something for consumption of the animal that puts this in mouth. Hum. Dogs should not ingest the preservatives, nitrates in smoked, cured animal by-products because of carcinogens. Chew bones for dummies with dogs, better get em' greenies good for your dog. I do not know or care if wal-mart stocks greenies.

Some things (see below) you may be in the dark about. I have no idea if it is censored from mainstream tv as no time to sit and watch, I sit to read. Daylight is getting shorter and the evenings with warm dry weather have me landscaping and weeding, in short spans in the heat. Good food takes effort, my cornucopia floweth over bursting in bright colors. Red tomatoes, Orange, green, yellow, red peppers of several varieties. Green (fried) tomatoes, veggy stuffed green peppers tomato slice melted cheese top and steamed green beans with sesame and flax seed flame melted butter top of onions. worth the work

Mexico's "enormous civil protest"

Violent Civil Unrest Tightens Hold on a Mexican City
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
OAXACA, Mexico, Aug. 23

[GX: The APPO protests are non-violent. Police and thugs have beaten and killed protestors. The headline implicates the APPO protests inflicting personal injuries.]

For three months, civil unrest has gripped this lovely colonial city like a hound with a rabbit, leaving two people dead, crippling the tourist industry and shuttering schools.

[GX: The logic here is that "civil unrest" has left "two people dead" again implicating the APPO in the deaths. Armed gunmen and police twice fired on non-violent protests killing the two men.]

The original cause of the strife Â? a teachers' strike for better pay Â? has become lost in the escalating violence and the revolutionary demands of the protesters, who now demand that Gov. Ulises Ruiz step down.

[GX: The teachers' demands have not been "lost." Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers purposefully suspended the demands until the Governor, Ulises Ruiz Ortiz, resigns or is ousted by the Senate.]

The teachers' union has been joined by scores of social organizations, some of them with leftist philosophies.

[GX: There are hundreds of organizations involved in the APPO.]

They have shut down highways, taken over five radio stations, burned more than a dozen buses, blocked off the city's historic square, seized government offices, destroyed the stage for an annual cultural fair and barricaded tourists in their hotels.

[GX: There have been a few protests in front of hotels, but I know of no case where the APPO targeted tourists or barricaded them in hotel.]

The state government has lost control of the center of the city, including its own offices, and is working out of improvised quarters with cellphones. Though each side has asked for federal intervention, President Vicente Fox has refused to send in troops. He has dispatched negotiators from the Interior and Labor Ministries, who have been unsuccessful in resolving the conflict.

[GX: President Fox refused to answer the APPO's call for a direct dialogue with Carlos Abascal, Minister of the Interior.]

On the national level, Mexico has been engulfed in a political crisis since the leftist presidential candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, narrowly lost the July 2 election, according to an official tally. He has accused his conservative rival, Felipe Calderón, of fraud and mounted similar protests in Mexico City, taking over the central square.

[GX: The "official tally" is currently the subject of scrutiny by the Federal Electoral Tribunal after a legal challenge made by Lopez Obrador's coalition party.]

Though the conflict here started well before the election, it has added to the country's overall angst, feeding fears that left-wing groups will use Mr. López Obrador's movement to foment unrest, with heavy-handed counterattacks by people in power.

[GX: I do not know whose "fears" these are. In scores of interviews in Mexico City and Oaxaca, I have not heard any such fears of "left-wing groups [using] Mr. López Obrador's movement to foment unrest".]

Governor Ruiz, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which long ruled this state with a iron hand, has accused local leaders of Mr. López Obrador's party, the Party of the Democratic Revolution, of taking part in the protests, adding yet another layer of politics to the conflict.

Early on Tuesday, police officers in a convoy that had been sent to clear blocked streets opened fire on a radio station that the protesters had seized. In the gunfire, Lorenzo San Pablo Cervantes, 52, an architect who worked for the state, was killed, the police said. It is unclear whether he was a bystander or was supporting the strikers.

[GX: "In the gunfire" makes it sound like the protesters also had and used guns. This was not the case. The police fired upon unarmed protesters, killing San Pablo Cervantes.]

The protesters seized about a dozen radio stations on Monday afternoon after unidentified gunmen destroyed the broadcasting equipment of Channel 9, a public television and radio station the strikers and their allies commandeered early this month to spread their version of
events, the authorities said.

The state attorney general, Lizbeth Caña, said someone had fired at the officers from roofs near the station, starting the gunfight. But witnesses said the police had opened fire twice without provocation.

"They are the ones who brought arms, and we had nothing but rocks," said Manuel Díaz, 40, a teacher, who was keeping a tense guard on Wednesday with an ax handle outside the radio station where the shooting had occurred. "Ruiz talks out of both sides of his mouth. On
the television he calls on us to negotiate. But in the streets at night, he tries to kill us."

[GX: This quote is, in fact, representative of the sentiments I have found amongst protesters.]

On Aug. 10, Eleuterio José Jiménez Colmenares, 50, an auto mechanic and the husband of a teacher, was shot and killed during a march to support the strike as he chased youths who had thrown rocks at marchers.

Enrique Rueda Pacheco, the leader of the 70,000-member teachers' union, said the deaths, and Mr. Ruiz's use of tear gas and riot police in an attempt to dislodge the protesters from the city center on June 14, had made it impossible for the teachers to accept anything less than his resignation. Their demands for more pay are no longer the primary issue, Mr. Rueda Pacheco said.

"The fundamental problem has been the lack of interest of the state and federal governments," he said in an interview. "They bet the teachers would just go away."

Miguel Ã?ngel Concha, a spokesman for Governor Ruiz, said the state lacks the money to meet the teachers' salary demands. The teachers had asked for a pay package that would have cost $150 million, while the state's final offer in June was about $8.5 million. The teachers also
have asked for about a dozen improvements, including new books and more classrooms, for a state school system that serves hundreds of thousands of students.

Mr. Ruiz's aides acknowledged that the government made an enormous error on June 14 when it used force, angering many teachers who were used to an annual strike and a resulting pay increase. An unconfirmed rumor that a woman and two children had died in the attack because of
tear gas has become gospel among the protesters, though no bodies have been found.

Beyond the salary dispute, however, are old political rivalries. Mr. Ruiz narrowly won election over a leftist candidate in 2004, and many of the teachers and other protesters view his victory as illegitimate. They also accuse his police force of at least 35 political killings of civilians, which the government strongly denies. Finally, Mr. Ruiz vowed to end the yearly teachers' strikes that previous governors had routinely settled by granting raises.

Ms. Caña, the attorney general, charges that groups seeking to overthrow the government have infiltrated the union. "These people are saying 'Hit me, so I can denounce you for hitting me,' " she said. "They are generating instability and chaos."

On Tuesday night, demonstrators gathered in the Zócalo, the central square, to watch a documentary made by protesters on televisions they had set up. The film accuses Mr. Ruiz not only of killing scores of his political enemies, but of being a pawn for global capitalism.

Now, the once jewel-like center of Oaxaca is a mess. Protesters have stolen buses and used pickup trucks to block streets, along with rocks, barbed wire and ropes. Graffiti declaring Mr. Ruiz an assassin defaces most of the buildings. Tents and tarps shelter protesters, who burn tires and garbage at night, keeping an eye out for the police. The city's once-prosperous tourism industry is gasping for air. More than 1,000 hotel workers have been laid off, and tourists have canceled reservations well into 2007. The hotel and motel association estimates that the industry has lost $150 million in the last three months, not to mention the embarrassing cancellation of the
Guelaguetza cultural festival here.

"No one has won anything here," said Fredy Alcántara, the president of the association. "No one has come out ahead." The federal government must intervene, he said, adding, "We are desperate."

Wonder