THOUGHT

President OBAMA
in thought

With deep powers comes authority, responsibilities, and the idea to better people's lives, or destroy, and suppress people. Power, having power asks fundamental questions that cannot be postponed in answering. In power, with power is the soul, the root, and core of individuality, collective reasoning, and integrity, or darkness. The  'who' of who we are comes out unbidden, so it behooves us to study ourselves because power and authority visits us all like the angel of death visited the Israelites, and Egyptians one dark night in Egypt centuries ago. Or it comes as light and possibility. - Gregory E. Woods 4.15.13

We stand upon what we know, and live within the scope of our vision.

TELL IT LIKE IT IS!

cartoon - Telepathic prompter

Is it the truth?
Is it fair to all concerned?

Will it build good will and better friendships?
Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

- rotary creed

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY: Syria

These Boots Are Made For Walking

by Timothy W. Higgins

Sept. 15, 2013

It's been a week where an inadvertent remark by Secretary of State John Kerry has done more for Middle East peace than his predecessor's entire tenure and Vladimir Putin is as busy as President Obama in making the case to the American people for how stability in the Syria is to be reached.

Russia and the US have apparently negotiated an agreement about dismantling the chemical weapons in Syria.  With its agreement, Syria will now become a signatory of UN prohibitions against using weapons that it never admitted that it had, and surrender them without actually admitting that it used them on its own citizens.  In return, President Obama will quietly withdraw a request for permission that he was never going to get from Congress for a response to their use; which no one wanted to look too closely at, lest they discover that some of them had come across the border from Iraq during one of the previous Administration's foreign policy escapades and have to admit that they were there in the first place.

According to statements being released by press secretaries and State Department representatives, no one need now fear that 'boots on the ground' will be required as a follow up to a never approved missile attack that was apparently designed to accomplish nothing other than blowing up $350 million of ordinance without making a regime change or inflicting a civilian casualty.  What a relief!  (What a load of crap!)

Wait a minute!  These are CHEMICAL WEAPONS whose components can only be destroyed properly by those with expert knowledge of such weaponry under the most exacting of conditions in specialized facilities through the use of tremendous heat.  Without delving too deeply into how the United States gained the singular expertise required for the destruction of such materials and the demolition of the sites that create them, I would suggest that anyone who believes that those with such proficiency are not in uniform may already be committing significant abuse where modern chemistry is concerned. 

As for their safe disposal ...  The last time I looked, the entire nation of Syria was a war zone occupied by multiple factions with no love for each other, let alone President Assad and his government.  (As for the US and its on again, off again support of regime change ... not so much.)  Now regardless of whether the agreeing parties yesterday also reached peace amongst the disparate factions involved with this conflict (they haven't) or is planning on imposing peace on the region by some means (no one's said so), someone's going to have to provide security, transport, and disposal of these materials while the fighting is still going on.  (Lest heaven forbid, they should fall into the wrong hands.)    

Regardless of what anyone in the Administration, Congress, or the Press is peddling these days; if this task is to be accomplished, a great number of US personnel are going to have to place themselves in harms way as part of this process.  Construction engineers are going to have to build a disposal facility in that part of the world.  (We probably have or had one in neighboring Iraq, but that nation's gone to hell under recent foreign policy and those facilities may no longer be operable.)  Security and transport will need to be provided from wherever the stockpiles have been most recently relocated (to protect them from our Tomahawk cruise missiles) to wherever the disposal and remission sites end up.  Ground forces will necessarily make up some part of that security if for no other reason than to protect convoys from IED's (improvised explosive devices) and suicide bombers; along with their requisite supply and logistics services.  Air cover will likewise need to be provided as part of that security, which because of the location means carrier deployment, use of Saudi air bases, or both.  Deployment of carriers will mean the further staging of a fleet of ships for support, logistics, and fleet protection.

Based on current intelligence estimates of the size of stockpiles in Syria and even assuming that the warring parties currently occupying the space allow us to proceed, it's likely that undertaking such an operation will require 'boots on the ground' for the rest of the decade at a minimum.  Up until now, the promise against such a condition is the only thing achieving bi-partisan support.  Strange that in the rush to celebrate this agreement, no one is talking about these unintended consequences of their success.  

It was Lee Hazlewood that wrote "These Boots Are Made For Walking"; that Nancy Sinatra (Frank's daughter) made famous in back in 1966.  It won't be go-go boots on the beach that we'll be talking about in 2013 and beyond however, but combat boots once again deployed to march the sand in Middle Eastern deployment. 

Update:
An earlier version of this was picked up and reprinted on the website of the

Political Commentary

Whiskey & Rye Photography

with Leasha Model
May 6, 2013

"A lot of pundits feel the Republicans may be searching for someone who doesn't exist, but you know sometimes the answer is right under your nose. Well, the Republicans ant someone who supports the wars, who will not take tax cuts from the rich, and who can appeal to a small group of Democrats.

They have that guy. His name Barack Obama!" - Jay Leno, talk show host/comedian 9/7/11

actress Janet Leigh, 1957

the epitome OF COOL

President Obama
in 2012

LOVERS

INTEGRITY

Michelle Obama in
2012

“One Of The Things That You Learn As President Is That What You Say Matters, And Your Principles Matter. And Sometimes, You’ve Got To Fight For Things That You Believe In And You Can’t Just Switch On A Dime” 

— President Barack Obama, at the Democratic National Convention in 2012

WHEN "THE DREAM" ANGERED THE SOUTH

"This image and statement is a lie and misrepresentation of facts. To analyze the scheme and the progress of the lineage preceding Dr. King and into the present requires a discipline of thought and study lazy analysis, which has become popular in American culture, the author of this poster has not mastered." - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.6.13

PROMISE KEEPERS

"Marriage brings a light to the skies, songs to poets, delight to children's lives, and promise to the next generation that life will continue!" - Gregory E. Woods

11.7.12

A NEW DAY?

UNDER A NEW PRESIDENT 2012

Reconciliation is an art form, and a tool friendships need to mend and stay connected. How it is done depends on the integrity of heart, and the color of intent. – Gregory E. Woods 11.7.12

“Unknowingly I have learned how to listen and share with others who are not of the same overstanding as I, where spiritual and religious thoughts are concerned. Because the studies I am living in, I found that instead of frowning on what others say, I relate to it by translating it through the teachings of our Ancient Ancestors, so that we are seeing, listening and helping in a balance thought.

No one can fully assist another through force, fears, anger and rudeness but one can help another through relating, understanding and the truth of divine love for Self and all others no matter their belief, color, status, sexual orientation or wealth. We cannot begin to love another until we learn to respect one another...” ~Priestess Kefa https://www.facebook.com/ForeverTeabz 

President Barack Obama hugs his family in Chicago
nov.7, 2012
by Larry Downing

Barack Obama wins election for second term as president

angelic being consoling a broken heart

Reconciliation is an art form, and a tool friendships need to mend and stay connected. How it is done depends on the integrity of heart, and the color of intent. – Gregory E. Woods

President Barack Obama handily defeated Gov. Mitt Romney and won himself a second term on Tuesday after a bitter and historically expensive race that was primarily fought in just a handful of battleground states. Obama beat Romney after nabbing almost every one of the 12 crucial battleground states.

The Romney campaign's last-ditch attempt to put blue-leaning Midwestern swing states in play failed as Obama's Midwestern firewall sent the president back to the White House for four more years. Obama picked up the swing states of New Hampshire, Michigan, New Mexico, Iowa, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Ohio. Of the swing states, Romney picked up only North Carolina. Florida is still too close to call, but even if Romney wins the state, Obama still beat him in the Electoral College vote. The popular vote will most likely be narrower than the president's decisive Electoral College victory.

In a sweeping victory speech early Wednesday morning, Obama thanked every American who voted, and vowed to work with leaders from both parties to tackle the country's challenges.

"Our economy is recovering, a decade of war is ending, a long campaign is now over," he told a crowd of cheering supporters in Chicago. "And whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you and you have made me a better president." Obama added he has "never been more hopeful about America. ... We're not as divided as our politics suggest. We remain more than a collection of blue states and red states."

In his speech, he offered clues to the policy goals of his second term, which included a deficit reduction plan that combines tax increases with spending cuts, a comprehensive overhaul of the nation's federal immigration laws and tax reform. He called on Republicans to join him in achieving those goals.

The battle for the White House between Obama and Romney divided the nation, causing, at times, bitter disputes between the parties. Obama urged his supporters to look beyond the fight of the past several months and defended the process of choosing a president.

"I know that political campaigns can sometimes seem small, even  silly," Obama said. "And that provides plenty of fodder for the cynics who tell us  that politics is nothing more than a contest of evils or the domain of  special interests. If you ever get the chance to talk to folks who  turned out to our rallies and along the rope lines of high school gyms,  or saw folks working late at campaign office or some tiny county a long way from home, you'll discover something else."

Romney conceded in Boston in a speech around 1 a.m. ET. "Like so many of you, Paul [Ryan] and I have left everything on the field. We have given our all to this campaign," Romney said. "I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes to lead your country in another direction. But the nation chose another leader." Romney congratulated the president and his campaign on their victory.

President Barack Obama hugs his family
in Chicago nov.7, 2012 by Larry Downing
see photos

The Obama victory marks an end to a years-long campaign that saw historic advertisement spending levels, countless rallies and speeches, and three much-watched debates.

 By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo! News | The Ticket 

President Barack Obama speaks of victory
2nd term by Jim Bourg

FASHION ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Not a surprise. I respect, and appreciate this man's lack of political correctness!!! So many elect to skirt around the core objection to the President's presidency. Just tell the truth. If you are pissed that a Black man has power over you so be it; say it! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 

OBAMA'S WAR RECORD

By Jack A. Smith

Global Research, October 14, 2012

When Sen. Barack Obama ran for the presidency in 2008 many wishful-thinking Democratic voters viewed him as a peace candidate because he opposed the Iraq war (but voted yes on the war budgets while in the Senate). Some others assumed his foreign/military policy would be along the lines of Presidents George H. W. Bush (whom Obama admires) or Bill Clinton. Some who identified as progressives actually thought his foreign/military policy might tilt to the left.

Instead, center rightist that he is, Obama’s foreign/military policy amounted to a virtual continuation of George W. Bush’s Global War on Terrorism under a different name. He extended Bush’s wars to Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and elsewhere while greatly expanding the war in Afghanistan, hiking the military budget, encouraging the growth of militarism in U.S. society by repeatedly heaping excessive praise on the armed forces, and tightening the military encirclement of China.

Summing up some of his military accomplishments a few months ago, Obama declared: “We’ve succeeded in defending our nation, taking the fight to our enemies, reducing the number of Americans in harm’s way, and we’ve restored America’s global leadership. That makes us safer and it makes us stronger. And that’s an achievement that every American — especially those Americans who are proud to wear the uniform of the United States Armed Forces — should take great pride in.”

Obama actually has little to show for his war policy after nearly four years. Most importantly, Afghanistan — the war he supported with enthusiasm — is predictably blowing up in his face. A symbol of the Bush-Obama 11-year Afghan folly is the recent 2,000th death of an American soldier, not at the hands of the Taliban but a U.S.-trained Afghan police officer, our supposed ally. The truth is that public opinion in Afghanistan has always overwhelmingly opposed the invasion, and rightly so. SEE MORE

Ms. Tiki posing forEbony Models

VOTE, THINK; People died for it!

Kim Kardashian full in a flowing red gown leaves her public wondering if she is pregnant.
Is she? Oh, my God!! What if she is?

Speculation is a business less an art form, more a way of making money, and corralling people into boxes to form opinions, and attitudes is the art of speculation. Centering people on their lower chakras, and focused on them benefits the Takers of our culture who need to gain at the expense of others. It seems the trend is moving the country away from the ideals espoused ad nauseam daily over the air ways to somehow sway the world away from our misdeeds, our inconsistencies, and  our policies. The chants, and the propaganda pulling people away from problem resolution into sensationalism, and private hysteria is tearing away at the fabric of adulthood with a juvenile trend towards speculating in politics instead of working, studying, and seeking the various forms of resolution to conflicts facing us as a nation.

In very plain language four years has sped by as a solution-oriented President succeeded in steering the nation away from an impending Great Depression while a significant percentage of his elected staff undermined the whole process. The choice between President Obama, and Gov. Romney running for President, fundamentally means deciding to continue with a work ethic that has gotten things done, or a cultural phenomenon steeped squarely in a racially charged tradition that spurns the authority, and authenticity of a Black man's authority, and other things including a propensity to create, and stir conflict while resisting the responsibility of jointly solving problems facing the nation because of reasons that shrink before the well-being of the country.

The inability to compromise has ruined many a relationship, businesses, and millions of marriages. Why is it acceptable in government? In this century it is more profitable in journalism to put on a show, and in the court of public opinion being in touch with the pulse of issues, and the nation, and intellectually sharp, and analytical is less a forte, and more an obstacle because it takes too long to weave together the many elements important to an issue. To the detriment of the country the average person seems tailored to be impatient with analysis. For judgement let us say we have become the product of our education.

On the other, we cannot allow liberal, freer in spirit, and creative thinkers run of the mill, so to speak. There needs to be balance, but where will it come from? The counterpart of a liberal person? - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 10.15.12

HAPPY 51st BIRTHDAY!!!!

OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY

President Bush poster in 2010

"Pity that Americans didn't keep their promises to work together, and to engage in intelligent discourse during Obama's presidency. Politics and governing is a series of relationships based upon conflict. This fundamental, but important aspect of American culture is reflected in a myriad of ways. Principally it shows itself in marriage: this condition of existence, this paradigm we treasure. Eventually it will do its inevitable job and divorce us from our myths into a self-evident reality we will not be able to live with!" - Gregory E. Woods 

REPUBLICAN SABATOGE

When Ray Lisa said, “Obama has already sold this country down river. We owe the Chinese x amount of trillions of dollars, they now own this country lock stock and barrel, and they are in the process of taking over our banks. Ask Obama to explain all of the FEMA housing prisons that are springing up around the country. What will you have left when Homeland Security comes in the night to take you and your family away! Obama is going to steal your home, your bank account, and your life! Wake up America you have no more freedoms; you sold it out when you voted Obama in! You’re not on the elite list and even if you were I would worry! Just a matter of time! We all have targets on our backs! Glad I do not live in the USA any more!” no alarms went off. Not flare went up to alert Ray, to state the obvious: seven, eight and more decades of history, political intrigue, and maneuvers took seven, eight and more decades to happen. They did not occur when Obama was elected into office.

The United States is a global power, and the people; the citizens within should be global thinkers with a global perspective and insight into a myriad of things. We shouldn’t be peddling dribble and remain engrossed in trivia, and simple-minded campaigns about, for example, the President’s birth certificate. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

TRIBUTE TO DR. KING through a life lived. . .

Halle Berry, a testament to the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

GENETICALLY ALTERED FOOD

“This frightens, and angers me as I get older. As healthy as I ate, and lived as deeply as I did in the end my health questioned me. I never expected to have bone leave me, or anything for that matter to adversely affect my health. But the arrogance of corporations, and the American belief-system is destroying the very fabric and structure of sustainable life forms for no good reason other than the acquisition of money, and power over people. Their very concept of power is juvenile, and narrow, outside of the true definition of Power, is their grasp of power!

Anyway, this process genetically altering food has forced me into another area of spiritual work I had never envisioned.” –Dawn Wolf

IS THAT NEWS?

Kate Beckinsale in 2010 wore the same dress Demi Moore wore in 2009. Is that news? In the glare of savagery, and spiritual illumination upon the planet, and the evolving consciousness of economies, families, nations, and millions of men, and women; is it news that two famous actresses wearing the same dress almost a year apart is worthy of commentary? Tea partiers are crying foul rallying around a banner of trust deficit, and the memory of President’s Clinton and Bush’s administration’s major contribution to what is profoundly wrong with the economy today, the loss of our credibility, and the money drain of wars is not their issue. History is not a tool they employ or delve into. Nor, on the other side of the political spectrum is history used as the best guide to understanding, and effective action.

Liberals, and other supporters of President Obama don’t know enough (myself included) about what is really going on in the White House, with our economy, and the nature of business that is pulling us into a hellhole. The foundation of the crisis we are in isn’t taught in schools, or universities, and American news is slightly above the tone and caliber of gossip. Our schools graduate millions of students without the prerequisite understanding of finance, and how money, and currency works. Without that knowledge we make judgments and decisions that affect our lives, the longevity of this nation, our grandchildren’s lives, and the standard of life for the globe.

In the midst of this hopeless banter some things are still available to all concerned and adult enough to probe: libraries, books, the internet, and knowledgeable people the world over who have connected the dots, done the math capable of creating a legacy of knowledge, and right action. Instead of an education for the times we live in, and an education of mind that understands money, and currency we are given unimportant things, trivia to worm through our thoughts, and enough truth to swim with misconceptions to help us vote against our best interests.

Most of us do not understand that President Obama has men responsible for the current financial crisis working within his inner circle to correct the structure they help forge. Most of us don’t understand what we give up in exchange for the comforts we treasure, and the technology we adore. Without understanding we dig our graves, we bury our ideals, we blind our eyes, rally around the cause of our problems as if they are our saviors, and we consistently vote with our emotions to our inevitable shame.

Does ignorance hold our allegiance? Is it comforting? The Apostle Paul said to study to show thyself approved unto God, but mis-education is the banner of the day for Tea Partiers, and the rest of us, on either side of the questions of survival, and existence, stand before the world as American citizens. What is our responsible as citizens of the only “super power” to the world? -Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories

Demi Moore in same dress as Kate Beckinsale !!!!