U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) On The Draft

" Former President Ronald Reagan eloquently expressed the moral case against the draft in the publication Human Events in 1979:

'[Conscription] rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state – not for parents, the community, the religious institutions or teachers – to decide who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where and how in our society. That assumption isn't a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea.'

... Some say the 18-year old draftee "owes it" to his (or her, since HR 163 makes women eligible for the draft) country. Hogwash! It just as easily could be argued that a 50-year-old chickenhawk, who promotes war and places innocent young people in danger, owes more to the country than the 18-year-old being denied his (or her) liberty.

... But the real sacrifice comes with conscription – forcing a small number of young vulnerable citizens to fight the wars that older men and women, who seek glory in military victory without themselves being exposed to danger, promote. The draft encourages wars with neither purpose nor moral justification, wars that too often are not even declared by the Congress.

Without conscription, unpopular wars are difficult to fight. Once the draft was undermined in the 1960s and early 1970s, the Vietnam War came to an end. But most importantly, liberty cannot be preserved by tyranny. A free society must always resort to volunteers. Tyrants think nothing of forcing men to fight and serve in wrongheaded wars. A true fight for survival and defense of America would elicit, I am sure, the assistance of every able-bodied man and woman.

This is not the case with wars of mischief far away from home, which we have experienced often in the past century.

A government that is willing to enslave some of its people can never be trusted to protect the liberties of its own citizens. I hope all my colleagues join me in standing up for individual liberty by rejecting HR 163 and all attempts to bring back the draft."

by HiddenMysteries.org

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Interrogator's defenders cite Bush

Comment: it has always come down from the top and scapegoating the troops doesn't absolve this administration.





Interrogator's defenders cite Bush

The New York Times

Saturday, February 12, 2005



WASHINGTON An interrogator under contract with the Central Intelligence Agency, charged with beating an Afghan prisoner who died the next day, is basing his defense in part on statements by President George W. Bush and other officials that called for tough action to prevent terrorist attacks and protect American lives.



Documents unsealed in the past week in federal court in Raleigh, North Carolina, show that the interrogator, David Passaro, 38, might cite top officials' written legal justifications for harsh interrogation techniques and a Congressional resolution passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon calling on the president "to use all necessary and appropriate force" to thwart further terrorism.



Passaro's lawyers contend in court filings that in passing the legislation under which their client is charged, Congress "cannot have contemplated" the use of the law to "provide grounds for criminal prosecution of a battlefield interrogation of a suspected terrorist linked to constant rocket attacks."



Thomas McNamara, Passaro's lead defense lawyer, has officially notified the government that he will pursue a "public authority defense." Such a defense involves a claim that the defendant believed, even if incorrectly, that he was acting with the authority and approval of the government.



Passaro, a former U.S. Army Special Forces soldier from North Carolina, was hired by the CIA in 2003 to capture fighters from the Taliban and Al Qaeda and question them at a base at Asadabad, in northeast Afghanistan.



He was charged in June with four counts of assault, accused of using his hands and feet and a large flashlight to beat a prisoner, Abdul Wali, over two days. Wali, who had turned himself in to the U.S. military after learning he was under suspicion of firing rockets at the base, died in his cell on June 21, 2003. Passaro is not charged in his death.





Interrogator's defenders cite Bush: printer friendly version

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Marine faces death penalty

What comment could I make? It's a combat zone, troops follow the leader and aren't permitted much discernment opportunities in carrying out the mission. Do I agree with the killings, decidedly not. I don't however, like to see the field troops take the heat that belongs further up the chain of command, say to the administration. It's their war, they initiated it and continue to remain in power, absolved of responsibility, accountability. As the leaders set the tone.................



Marine faces death penalty



By JANE SUTTON



February 12, 2005



MIAMI: A US Marine could be executed for shooting two Iraqis during a vehicle search near a weapons cache in Iraq.



Second Lieutenant Ilario G. Pantano has been charged with murdering two local men on April 15, 2004 in Baghdad.



Lt Pantano's civilian lawyer, Charles Gittens, said the 33-year-old Marine has "made it pretty clear he is not guilty".



The Marine Corps are yet to say if they will pursue the death penalty, Mr Gittens said.









Lt Pantano was commander of a platoon sent to search a suspected insurgent hide-out in an area south of Baghdad.



The Marines found weapons, ammunition and bomb-making material in the building, and saw two men fleeing in a sport utility vehicle.



Marines shot out the vehicle's tyres to force it to a halt, took the men into custody and ordered them to rip out the interior of the vehicle during a search for booby traps and secret compartments.



One of the men turned toward Pantano "as if to attack," and Pantano ordered them to stop immediately.



"He [Pantano] thought he was in danger and he fired and he killed them and that's what we do to terrorists who don't listen to orders. It's a combat situation – kill or be killed," Mr Gittens said.



Lt Pantano, a former New York commodities trader, feared the men may have been trying to detonate explosives remotely.



"What's he supposed to do, wait until he's standing in the inferno?" Mr Gittens said.





The Daily Telegraph | Marine faces death penalty

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Iraqi journalist and son, 3, shot dead in Basra

Rory McCarthy in Baghdad
Thursday February 10, 2005
The Guardian

Gunmen in the southern Iraqi city of Basra shot dead a correspondent working for a US-funded Arabic satellite television station yesterday, as more violence spread across the country.

....snipped

The fighting came as officials announced that the results of the January 30 elections, which were due to be announced today, would be delayed.

Since polling day, the security crisis has returned to the streets of Iraq with a number of killings and suicide bombings.

In yesterday's attack, gunmen shot dead the journalist Abdul Hussein Khazal at his home in Basra and killed his three-year-old son, Muhammad.

Guardian Unlimited|Special reports|

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Rock Island woman. Sgt Jessica Housbey, killed in Iraq, roadside bomb

A Rock Island woman was killed in Iraq Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded near the truck she was driving in the Baghdad area.



Sgt. Jessica M. Housby, 23, of the 1644 Transportation Unit of the Illinois National Guard based in Rock Falls, was part of a convoy hauling cargo from forward operating base Scania to forward operating base Stryker at the Baghdad Airport, according to the Illinois National Guard.



Scania is a convey support center about 90 miles southwest of Baghdad near the village of Nippur along the main supply route to Kuwait.



First news of her death was released by her family, through Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home, Milan.



The 1644 was mobilized for its second deployment in Iraq in August. It is a medium truck company with about 170 members.



In 1999, Ms. Housby was named top cadet of 187 cadets from eight Explorer Posts taking part in a training exercise at Fort McCoy, Wisc.



Lt. Archie Rose of the Illinois National Guard said at the time that her "hard work, enthusiasm and the responsibility" resulted in the award.



She graduated from Rock Island High School in 2000.





Quad Cities Online - Rock Island woman killed in Iraq

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Radiation antidote to be readily available ..a vitamin pill ???

Two things; 1) article acknowledges troops are more and more exposed to radiation and 2) an antidotal vitamin pill to counteract radiation! Right! Let's get out those goggles from the 1950s, used to protect against atomic explosions, and let's get under our school desks to protect us from atomic fallout.

How many casualties will we have when the radiated troops return home? And what of the radiated Iraqi people? Election and freedom and "democracy" don't serve too well against the fierce foe of radiation. My God, what has our country done!? What has this administration released on us all?

Radiation antidote to be readily available
by Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A simple vitamin pill soon may be part of the American military arsenal.
The Defense Department has joined forces with Humanetics, a Minneapolis-based nutritional-supplement manufacturer, to refine an over-the-counter, anti-radiation pill that may be ready by year's end, one source said Tuesday.
Described as a "radioprotective drug," the mystery pill is meant to be a practical, cheap antidote for millions in the event of nuclear attack.
"The chances of military or civilian personnel being exposed to dirty bombs or improvised nuclear devices have risen dramatically," said Mark H. Whitnall, director of the Radiation Casualty Management Team at the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute in Bethesda.
The Washington Times:February 10, 2005

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Most Shootings Aren't Publicized

I provide this unreported news to illustrate what the troops will bring home in their hearts and have to live out the rest of their lives remembering. It should not be their burden alone to carry, folks, we, as a country, share in the duplicity and we, as a country share in every killing on both sides, our troops and the Iraqi people. Next time you are comfortably getting your hair done, shopping at a mall for really important stuff, watching tv, or working hard to ignore what is really going on by filling up your days with urgent matters, maybe you might take a moment to think about your own mother, father, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, grandmother, grandfather, child and wonder .... oh please, wonder as if it were your own. The people doing the killing and maiming or being killed and maimed are real people; it's the catchy slogans and labels that are not real. We cannot be absolved by wrapping it up in picturesque language of labels like terrorists, insurgents, freedom-haters or whatever other apt labels get used to define real people.



Most Shootings Aren't Publicized

Dionee Searcey



February 7, 2005



MOSUL, Iraq - The shootings rarely make news - outside the towns where they occur. The military does not make a practice of publicizing cases of "collateral damage" unless by chance reporters are embedded with units and write about the events they witness. And no one at the Pentagon nor at the U.S. Central Command keeps a comprehensive tally of the incidents, according to senior officials in both locations, who say that all operations in general are periodically reviewed. The examples that follow are a sampling.



From April to October a unit of Arkansas infantrymen was involved in at least eight shootings at roadblocks or in convoys that ended in civilian deaths, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. In one instance, the paper reported, a driver was killed and his pregnant wife wounded; in another a girl died after being struck by bits of metal from a shot intended to disable the car engine.



In mid-November, a family driving across battle-weary Fallujah encountered a company of Marines that opened fire, wounding a 23-year-old woman and killing her mother, media accounts reported.



In Baghdad the following month, a young man drove up to an Army base with his dead mother and two siblings, said Airborne Capt. James Shaw. Americans had shot up the car, the man said, and didn't even stop. Airborne officers from the 2nd Battalion, 325th Infantry, who were not responsible for this shooting, have been working to compensate the family.



And about three weeks ago, a nervous National Guard unit rolled into Mosul for the first time after patrolling calmer outlying areas. Soldiers came under mortar attack when they stepped out to investigate a body on the street. The onslaught had just ended when a car sped toward them with a 55-gallon drum in its opened trunk. It failed to slow despite warning shots, according to a soldier who was there.



Worried the vehicle was packed with explosives, troops peppered it with bullets, killing the driver. The drum, however, was empty and the driver was not armed.



Minutes later, another vehicle swung around the corner and headed toward the scene. Soldiers immediately shot it up, too. A mother got out of the car, her hand severed by bullets. In her arms was her dead 7-year-old girl. Her young son also was injured.



"She was sitting on the curb, holding her daughter, rocking, not crying, just in shock," the soldier said.



Troops told their superiors they fired warning shots at the second vehicle, but the soldier disputed that. "The shots were into the cab" of the car, he said. "They were well-placed."





Newsday.com - My News

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Comedians Visit War Wounded at Walter Reed

We could sure use more of this kind of positive support for troop morale. The story is a "feel good" story, and while I normally look past these kinds of stories as part of the propaganda machine, this one is a real story about real humans connecting with other real humans and trying to do something humane. Notice please that Sandler encounters a young soldier missing both legs and an arm and that is only what is reported. Would mean a blast of some kind and the head injury impact and damage from a human being blasted is still unreported "news".



Comedians Visit War Wounded at Walter Reed

By Michael E. Dukes

Army News Service

February 04, 2005



WASHINGTON - If laughter is the best medicine, then dozens of recovering troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center received an extra dose Feb. 3 as funny man Adam Sandler and fellow comedy actor Rob Schneider stopped by to say hello.



During the USO-sponsored visit, the actors met with Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen recovering from wounds inflicted while the troops were serving in Iraq or Afghanistan in support of the Global War on Terrorism.



Sandler seemed at a loss for words after patients asked him what happened to his foot, as they looked down at the brace on his right foot. After a short hesitation, he smiled and said, "It's me that's supposed to ask you guys what happened." But, he then told them that he hurt it while playing basketball and said it was nothing. "I've got flat feet."



Sandler and Schneider both said they were impressed to see how energetic and positive the patients were. They watched in amazement when one physical therapy patient stood up from his wheelchair and took a few steps to talk to them. They were amazed because the patient was standing on two prosthetic C-legs and was missing an arm — but his mended injuries didn't stop him from slowly walking his way to see the visitors.



Sandler broke the silence and said, "Man look at you! That walker you're using looks like something a grandma would use." He shook his head, winked an eye and laughed, "But you look pretty good for a grandma," he said while putting his hand on the patient's shoulder.



After the ice-breaking comment, the smiling patient seemed to open up to Sandler and Schneider. He told them that he really like their recent movie "50 First Dates." They thanked him and talked about how much fun it was to film in Hawaii. They also discussed the young man's hometown and family.



Once the word was out that the comedians were in the hospital's physical therapy clinic, patients from the wards and throughout the hospital began showing up asking to see the visitors.



The two celebrities posed for countless photos with patients and staff. They gave patients autographed promotional photos and copies of their DVD "50 First Dates." They also handed out autographed hats and T-shirts from their upcoming movie "The Longest Yard."

Military.com

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Rumsfeld: Troop Recruiting To Increase

Translated: it means as in all abuse models, that there is not going to be a timeline for when the abuse will end. Indefinite works in abuse models, and it is usually the victims who become survivors who have to find their way out of the abuse model. Go Rumsfeld, you're on a roll, a real winning streak as Primo Abuser of the integrity of our valiant troops. And that continued slogan, "those who have already lost their lives, made the sacrifice" isn't justification for continued sacrifice. Duh, remember Vietnam, Rumsfeld..while you didn't go, you were aware from a safe place back home.





Rumsfeld: Troop Recruiting To Increase

Associated Press

February 7, 2005



WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday there is no question the U.S. military is being stretched due to fighting a long, hard war in Iraq, but insisted that a heavy emphasis on recruiting and retention should eventually ease the problem.



"It's clearly stressed, but they're performing brilliantly, they're doing a fabulous job," he said on CNN's "Late Edition" - one of several talk shows he appeared on Sunday.



Concerns over stretching the Army National Guard, Army Reserve and Marine Corps Reserve are being addressed with full force, Rumsfeld said, adding that the military is adjusting the incentives and the number of recruiters.



The issue is that the regular Army isn't organized for the 21st century as well as it should be, he said on CBS' "Face the Nation." The problem is being dealt with swiftly, he said, by increasing the size of the Army, increasing the number of combat brigades from 33 to 43 and rebalancing the active force with the reserve components so that the military has the skill sets it needs on active duty.



Of the 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq now, between 40 and 50 percent are from the Guard and Reserve. The figure is set to drop to 30 percent for the next rotation, beginning this summer, because combat-ready Guard units have been tapped out.







Rumsfeld said over and over again on the various talk shows, he didn't know when troops would start coming home.



"The president and I, and anyone would dearly love to be smart enough and wise enough to know precisely when our troops could leave," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "It would be such a relief for people to know that. It's not knowable."



When U.S. troops can pull out of Iraq is dependent upon the conditions on the ground and whether the Iraqis are capable of managing the security situation. "We're working very hard to see that they can," he said.



When asked why the United States doesn't give Iraqis benchmarks for when it will withdraw, Rumsfeld replied: "Because our country's invested a lot of lives, a lot of heartbreak. The courage of our troops and the sacrifice of those that have fallen and were wounded is important.



"And the idea that you should just arbitrarily say, this is going to happen on that date - think of it. The last administration did that in Bosnia. They said we'd be out by Christmas. Six, eight, 10 years later, not out.



"It is misleading people to think that you know something you don't know. And we know we don't know."



Military.com

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In the Desert; by Stephen Crane

In the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,

Held his heart in his hands,

And ate of it.

I said, "Is it good, friend?"

"It is bitter – bitter", he answered,

"But I like it

Because it is bitter,

And because it is my heart."



- Stephen Crane, 'In The Desert'



t r u t h o u t

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Advice Military Gives to Wives of deployed....Say What?

Families Ask Why

Newsweek ( JUL. 28)



The women wives of officers with the Third Infantry Division on duty in Baghdad listened impatiently to the speeches at a "redeployment meeting" at the base. They all had the same question when is my husband coming home? But the Army had other messages. Here's some of the advice they received: Don't have too much beer in the fridge; he's in no shape to get drunk. Put away the sexy negligee; he probably won't be in the mood. Don't have a list of chores waiting; he will be physically and emotionally spent. "I found it a little galling," says Jennifer Veale, married to a Black Hawk helicopter pilot. "They micromanage our husbands' lives; why do they have to micromanage ours as well?" One more piece of advice: don't get your hopes up. A few days after the meeting in May, the homecoming was postponed, and later postponed again; the Third ID is now scheduled to return in September. And a final thing: if you're unhappy, keep it to yourself.



Military Headlines

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Purple Heart, Wounded Kentucky Soldier Flees To Canada

Wounded Kentucky Soldier Flees To Canada



A soldier from Lexington wounded in Iraq says he fled to Canada rather than return to his Army unit.



Darrell Anderson knows he might be allowed to stay in Canada, but he may never be able to return home again to see his parents or his four-year-old daughter, who now lives with her mother.



Anderson, who says he's in Toronto, also knows that he could be turned away by the Canadian government, possibly to face prison for desertion in the United States.



Anderson fled north of the border when his holiday leave ended three weeks ago.



He's hoping the Canadian government will grant him refuge because he's disillusioned by the war.



Anderson joined the U.S. Army in January 2003 to get money for college and to serve his country.



He went to Iraq a year later with the Army's First Armored Division. Anderson was wounded by a roadside bomb in April. He received the Purple Heart.





WKYT 27 NEWSFIRST & WYMT Mountain News - Wounded Kentucky Soldier Flees To Canada

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Rising to the morning routine, simple pleasures

It is one of those crisp winter days this morning. We wake up, immediately turn on our respective computers, catch up on what's new or better said, more of the same, and as the sun comes up, we are drawn like a magnet to beginning the day. Husband goes about the business of morning preparations to go to work. I, on the other hand, mentally lay out the plans for my day. I send him off in our usual morning routine. What that looks like is stepping out on the porch into the bracing chill, calling for our dog Jake, to make sure he is around and not off chasing an adventure somewhere in the neighborhood, and locating our cat, Lance.

Jake, as usual, comes trotting out of where-ever he chose to sleep for the night, sometimes on the porch, sometimes outside. Lance is either inside, curled up someplace or outside and ready to come in. I give Jake his morning "treat" and he waits patiently, wagging his tail. He knows the routine...Daddy will go get in the truck and Mommy will give the dog a bone.

Our little entourage then waves Daddy off as he heads down the street and I take in the morning sights. I take a look at the sunrise to see what kind of day we will have, look over to the bay water to see what color it is this morning and how the water is moving or not moving. I look to the neighbors' houses to see who is up and about, who has left for the day. I check to make sure the cat has food in his dish and then am reminded to remember whether I fed the two beta fish last night. I often forget to remember to feed those two, as it's hard to have a relationship with a couple of fish swimming in vases. The two beta fish and the cat are inheritances, acquired when my daughter's family was finally able to move to Germany.

So quietly my own day begins. Which is exactly the way I like it to be, for the most part. I used to be part of that morning preparations to get ready for work and remember well that "morning rush" which I rarely enjoyed. The hair, the grooming, the make-up, choosing the clothes, putting on what I called the "uniform" constricting the flow to focus on the taskings as set forth by employer/employment. Rushing to the car, checking the time, flying down the road so we wouldn't be "late" and then arriving, stepping into the office, and that whole aura of 9 + hours and this place owns me.

This quiet and leisurely way to start the day is a contrast which I still relish and savor. As the sun finishes it's rise, I now know the tone of the weather for the day. I decide if I will open the blinds and curtains or let it remain awakening time a bit longer. Today it is sunshine, and light streams in, so the blinds and curtains are opened. We get a fair amount of rainy days here and sometimes I like to open the blinds where I sit at the computer to watch the rain fall and listen to it hitting the metal roof.

Lance isn't sure what he wants to do, and Jake has a strange gift to attend to outside. I closed up the porch last night, meaning to keep him in only long enough to eat his food, since he likes to share it with all the neighborhood dogs, and forgot to open the porch door last night before going to sleep. Jake then was rather locked in then last night, not his usual routine. So I know he could not have brought that hooved deer leg into the yard, yet there it is this morning. Where did it come from? Which dog brought it and now, of course, Jake is seriously interested.

Meantime the birds are busy on the metal roof making a racket and doing whatever they do on the roof. I take Lance outside to do his bird-monitoring thing and he is busy now prowling on the deck railing trying to keep up with the movement of the birds. And I thought I'd just blog about how our mornings begin. I'm so weary of blogging my other blogs and the war and the politics which have highjacked my daily life simple wonders in my own consuming focus to try to influence getting our troops home, thus hopefully ending some of the carnage and destruction that go on daily in Iraq. See how those thoughts creep in even as I write to the simple pleasures of my morning wake-up routine.Well time to start the day..............

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Rising to the morning routines, simple pleasures.

It is one of those crisp winter days this morning. We wake up, immediately turn on our respective computers, catch up on what's new or better said, more of the same, and as the sun comes up, we are drawn like a magnet to beginning the day. Husband goes about the business of morning preparations to go to work. I, on the other hand, mentally lay out the plans for my day. I send him off in our usual morning routine. What that looks like is stepping out on the porch into the bracing chill, calling for our dog Jake, to make sure he is around and not off chasing an adventure somewhere in the neighborhood, and locating our cat, Lance.



Jake, as usual, comes trotting out of where-ever he chose to sleep for the night, sometimes on the porch, sometimes outside. Lance is either inside, curled up someplace or outside and ready to come in. I give Jake his morning "treat" and he waits patiently, wagging his tail. He knows the routine...Daddy will go get in the truck and Mommy will give the dog a bone.



Our little entourage then waves Daddy off as he heads down the street and I take in the morning sights. I take a look at the sunrise to see what kind of day we will have, look over to the bay water to see what color it is this morning and how the water is moving or not moving. I look to the neighbors' houses to see who is up and about, who has left for the day. I check to make sure the cat has food in his dish and then am reminded to remember whether I fed the two beta fish last night. I often forget to remember to feed those two, as it's hard to have a relationship with a couple of fish swimming in vases. The two beta fish and the cat are inheritances, acquired when my daughter's family was finally able to move to Germany.



So quietly my own day begins. Which is exactly the way I like it to be, for the most part. I used to be part of that morning preparations to get ready for work and remember well that "morning rush" which I rarely enjoyed. The hair, the grooming, the make-up, choosing the clothes, putting on what I called the "uniform" constricting the flow to focus on the taskings as set forth by employer/employment. Rushing to the car, checking the time, flying down the road so we wouldn't be "late" and then arriving, stepping into the office, and that whole aura of 9 + hours and this place owns me.



This quiet and leisurely way to start the day is a contrast which I still relish and savor. As the sun finishes it's rise, I now know the tone of the weather for the day. I decide if I will open the blinds and curtains or let it remain awakening time a bit longer. Today it is sunshine, and light streams in, so the blinds and curtains are opened. We get a fair amount of rainy days here and sometimes I like to open the blinds where I sit at the computer to watch the rain fall and listen to it hitting the metal roof.



Lance isn't sure what he wants to do, and Jake has a strange gift to attend to outside. I closed up the porch last night, meaning to keep him in only long enough to eat his food, since he likes to share it with all the neighborhood dogs, and forgot to open the porch door last night before going to sleep. Jake then was rather locked in then last night, not his usual routine. So I know he could not have brought that hooved deer leg into the yard, yet there it is this morning. Where did it come from? Which dog brought it and now, of course, Jake is seriously interested.



Meantime the birds are busy on the metal roof making a racket and doing whatever they do on the roof. I take Lance outside to do his bird-monitoring thing and he is busy now prowling on the deck railing trying to keep up with the movement of the birds. And I thought I'd just blog about how our mornings begin. I'm so weary of blogging my other blogs and the war and the politics which have highjacked my daily life simple wonders in my own consuming focus to try to influence getting our troops home, thus hopefully ending some of the carnage and destruction that go on daily in Iraq. See how those thoughts creep in even as I write to the simple pleasures of my morning wake-up routine.



Well time to start the day..............

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Morning meditation on Our Life on Willapa Bay

It is one of those crisp winter days this morning.

We wake up, immediately turn on our respective computers, catch up on what's new or better said, more of the same, and as the sun comes up, we are drawn like a magnet to beginning the day. Husband goes about the business of morning preparations to go to work.

I, on the other hand, mentally lay out the plans for my day. I send him off in our usual morning routine. What that looks like is stepping out on the porch into the bracing chill, calling for our dog Jake, to make sure he is around and not off chasing an adventure somewhere in the neighborhood, and locating our cat, Lance.

Jake, as usual, comes trotting out of where-ever he chose to sleep for the night, sometimes on the porch, sometimes outside. Lance is either inside, curled up someplace or outside and ready to come in.

I give Jake his morning "treat" and he waits patiently, wagging his tail. He knows the routine...Daddy will go get in the truck and Mommy will give the dog a bone.

Our little entourage then waves Daddy off as he heads down the street and I take in the morning sights.

I take a look at the sunrise to see what kind of day we will have, look over to the bay water to see what color it is this morning and how the water is moving or not moving. I look to the neighbors' houses to see who is up and about, who has left for the day. I check to make sure the cat has food in his dish and then am reminded to remember whether I fed the two beta fish last night. I often forget to remember to feed those two, as it's hard to have a relationship with a couple of fish swimming in vases. The two beta fish and the cat are inheritances, acquired when my daughter's family was finally able to move to Germany.

So quietly my own day begins. Which is exactly the way I like it to be, for the most part.

I used to be part of that morning preparations to get ready for work and remember well that "morning rush" which I rarely enjoyed. The hair, the grooming, the make-up, choosing the clothes, putting on what I called the "uniform" constricting the flow to focus on the taskings as set forth by employer/employment. Rushing to the car, checking the time, flying down the road so we wouldn't be "late" and then arriving, stepping into the office, and that whole aura of 9 + hours and this place owns me.

This quiet and leisurely way to start the day is a contrast which I still relish and savor. As the sun finishes it's rise, I now know the tone of the weather for the day. I decide if I will open the blinds and curtains or let it remain awakening time a bit longer. Today it is sunshine, and light streams in, so the blinds and curtains are opened. We get a fair amount of rainy days here and sometimes I like to open the blinds where I sit at the computer to watch the rain fall and listen to it hitting the metal roof.

Lance isn't sure what he wants to do, and Jake has a strange gift to attend to outside. I closed up the porch last night, meaning to keep him in only long enough to eat his food, since he likes to share it with all the neighborhood dogs, and forgot to open the porch door last night before going to sleep.

Jake then was rather locked in then last night, not his usual routine. So I know he could not have brought that hooved deer leg into the yard, yet there it is this morning. Where did it come from? Which dog brought it and now, of course, Jake is seriously interested.

Meantime the birds are busy on the metal roof making a racket and doing whatever they do on the roof. I take Lance outside to do his bird-monitoring thing and he is busy now prowling on the deck railing trying to keep up with the movement of the birds.

And I thought I'd just blog about how our mornings begin. I'm so weary of blogging my other blogs and the war and the politics which have highjacked my daily life simple wonders in my own consuming focus to try to influence getting our troops home, thus hopefully ending some of the carnage and destruction that go on daily in Iraq.

See how those thoughts creep in even as I write to the simple pleasures of my morning wake-up routine.

Well time to start the day..............

written by Lietta Ruger

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