Seven Days in Sunny June

God, I love this song by Jamiroquai! A few songs defined my Summer last year...this is one of them. So, as a tribute to Summer and Love, I'm posting this video on the first day of June:



Side Note: This is not the original video for the song, as the original version is not available for embedding. However, YouTubers seem to prefer this alternate version, even more than the original.

If your music library is lacking in nouveau-funk, then I recommend my favorite Jamiroquai songs, from various albums:

Seven Days in Sunny June
Love Blind
Cosmic Girl
Feels Just like it Should
Runaway
Canned Heat
Love Foolosophy
Starchild
You Give Me Something
(Don't) Give Hate A Chance

Who is Robert Zoellick?

Yesterday, Robert Zoellick was nominated by Bush, to become the President of the World Bank. It appears highly likely that the World Bank will accept Zoellick to replace the scandal-riddled, hair-lickin' Paul Wolfowitz. So who is this guy, Zoellick?

Well, yesterday, the BBC News website posted a profile of the 53-year-old, Robert Zoellick

Here are the highlights:

• Zoellick, a Harvard-trained lawyer, is described "as an enthusiastic advocate of free trade and an internationalist with a broad range of foreign contacts."

• He completed negotiations to bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization.

• Zoellick served as Deputy Chief of Staff to President George H.W. Bush (1992-3).

• He campaigned "aggressively" for G.W. Bush in 2000, and was loyal to him during his six years inside the Bush administration.

• He was U.S. Deputy Secretary of State (number two to Condoleezza Rice) from February 2005–June 2006.

• He left the U.S. State Department in June 2006, to take an executive role at the investment bank Goldman Sachs.

• Condi Rice had described him as her "alter ego," praising his "tireless work ethic" and saying his efforts had made the US "stronger and safer."

However, keenly aware that The World Bank is responsible for promoting economic development, and reducing global poverty, here's what others had to say about Robert Zoellick....

The Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance, Paul Zeitz, said that Mr. Zoellick "has been a close friend to the brand-name pharmaceutical industry."

"The bilateral trade agreements he has negotiated effectively block access to generic medication for millions of people.

"He has no significant experience in economic development in poor countries and from a public health standpoint, Zoellick is a terrible choice for World Bank President."

And Greenpeace International, citing Mr. Zoellick's role in a US legal challenge to European restrictions on biotech crops and foods, said: "Once again Bush has put loyalty ahead of merit."

And one more tid-bit, "The Adding Machine" is Bush's nickname for Zoellick.

Assessment of Democratic Leadership

One of my favorite blogs, crooksandliars.com, posted a very interesting assessment of Democratic leadership. For those of you who are still contemplating between Edwards, Obama, and Clinton, I urge you to click on this link, and have a quick read:

www.skirsch.com/politics/president/comparison.htm

"The War Prayer" by Mark Twain

This anti-war poem was written in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, and the Phillipine-American War. Under much pressure, Twain decided to wait until after his death to have this prose published, saying "None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth."

O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

Source: www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/28/155431/792

Weekend Wrap-Up

Home now (got in at midnight) from spending Memorial Day weekend in Tampa/St.Petersburg, Florida. The weather was wonderfully mild, and we had a great time with family and friends. We also had a delicious breakfast at "The Brunchery" on S. MacDill, Tampa (Palma Ceia).

Twice, we drove through heavy smoke, due to the wildfires that are burning out of control in Southern Georgia/North Florida. (Over the past few weeks, more than 740 square miles of forest have become charred in Florida and Georgia.)

For our 16-hour roundtrip journey between Atlanta and Tampa, we placed three bumper stickers on my car: "Support the Troops—End the War," "All Families Matter," and "John Edwards '08." Previously, my car only bore an HRC (Human Rights Campaign) sticker, and a "Gator Nation" (University of Florida) sticker.

My cohort, JNS, who thinks bumper stickers are "sooo tacky" (and I fully agree, except when there's an idiot in the White House, and an endless war raging on), has diplayed an "F the President" sticker on his Volvo for two and a half years now. (Sheesh, the things that King George has driven us to!)

As a blog-protest to the recent actions in Washington—which further prolong the war in Iraq, I will be posting Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" (as was posted on the Daily Kos on May, 28th, 2007).