WELCOME BACK?

Dear Readers,

It has been some six months since I have been able to post commentary at Clear The Mist. This has been the result of my personal battle with multiple sclerosis, recovery from last year's spinal fusion and multi-fracture ankle surgeries. Also, I have been at work, completing "MS Toolkit," an extensive book dealing with multiple sclerosis and much of the hard truth behind the as yet incurable disease.

This year, July 8 and 9, marks my recovery from that spinal fusion and the three-fracture ankle that sidelined me from the 2005 MS150 Bike Tour, a 150-mile bicycle Ride and cause that I have been deeply involved with since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1996. This year, more than 2,000 cyclists will participate as we strive to raise more than $2 million to end this disease. This looks to be the most challenging MS150 since I began raising money and awareness about MS in 1996. Only this past month have I been able to get on a bicycle and begin training. In a normal year, I’d have been on my bike in early March, enjoying the great Colorado outdoors and fending off the ravages of MS symptoms through exercise.

I ask for your most generous contributions for this cause, please! While some 400,000 Americans, and several million people worldwide, are known to be stricken by this devastating and unpredictable progressive neurological disease, and while the pharmaceutical industry is pleased to trumpet its list of treatments – which are only truly effective in about 35–40 percent of people actually using those drugs – we have a long battle ahead of us.

Allow me to lay out a few critical facts for you:

While we can set our personal politics aside when it comes to how our federal government is spending our tax dollars, spending on MS research – and on other diseases, by the way – is being reduced at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As close as it sometimes appears that we are to finding more effective treatments and identifying the actual cause for MS, 2006 NIH spending was only $110 million. In fiscal 2007, NIH spending will drop by $1 million and another $1 million in 2008. Meanwhile costs of research continue to skyrocket.

MS is far from the somewhat benign portrait that is too often painted by some folks - many of them%

GOOGLE

All I have to say is that Google will no longer be my primary search engine of choice. Google's acquiescence to the Chinese government to permit censorship of Google searches by the 100 million Chinese web surfers (and growing) is a simple sellout of democracy and freedom of information and speech for pure potential profits.

And no wonder why. As over-priced as Google stock remains, despite its admittedly phenomenal growth, its current revenue stream remains one of a pure advertising company. And some of us former and current securities analysts know what happens to advertising spending in times of severe recessions. It tanks, as might Google's still precarious revenue stream.

Google: some people may still feel envious of the enormous success and wealth of a couple of former grad students and their basket of lucky employees. Not this kid. True, Googles isn't the only search engine company that has sold out to China for profits. Add Yahoo and MSN to that list.

In the United States, it's clear that the major media, including CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, etc. long ago sold out to political shallowness for profits, denying most Americans of truth in news in exchange for profits from cheesey reality programs that pacify people's minds and intellects. We need to vote with our Internet activities and let the Googles of America know that freedom of information should be a worldwide right, not subject to censorship.

POLITICS & SPIRITUALITY

I don't often post mixings of politics and religious or spiritual thought. But I ask myself, "Why not?"

As a Sufi, I have a firm, organic belief in the marriage, the intertwining, the simplicity of both strands as being one. Perhaps other than artificial or philosophical, man-made doctrines and dogmas, there is no reason to accept that political life should not be infused with matters of the heart.

God, or what we otherwise might name as Divine Unity, the Universe, the Only Being, and by so many other names and terms, is both feminine and masculine. God is truly all-inclusive for God is, at the same time, neither feminine or masculine. So forget those childish images of God as a grey-haired bearded guy that throws down thunderbolts of punishment, as well as those of the forgiving father. We create our own thunderbolts and we produce our own climates of love and forgiveness.

Matthew Fox is a living, breathing example of what true spirituality, on an all-inclusive basis, is all about. A true contemporary and dear friend of my own Sufi teacher, Neil Douglas-Klotz, Matthew reminds us of what Jesus - or Yeshua in Jesus' own language - was all about. What his teachings held up for all of us to practice and achieve.

In the truest realm of spiritual evolution, for which all humankind was born, Jesus taught that each one of us held the "keys to the kingdom/queendom" if you will. It was up to each of us to realize God and not only live up to the highest of ideals, but to fully embody them in our daily lives. Not just on Saturdays or Sundays, not just in periodic prayers, or when life takes negative turns for us. But to live a spiritual life with each breath.

Incompatible with our complicated, western daily lives you say? That's all the more reason to organically incorporate these teachings, one person at a time. For we cannot change our neighbors, we cannot change our "environment" until we change ourselves. And isn't that what politics is all about?

Until we cease the behaviors that lead to the use of high-paid lobbyists in Congress and in state legislatures to formulate public policies, we will not be able to eliminate the legislators that take and take and take. We will not be able to eliminate the self-proclaimed kings that lead our nation - and others - to the "oblivion path" of decimating the human rights of others worldwide in the name of our own proclaimed security.

So who is Matthew Fox? And what can he tell us? Read further, please.


Who is Matthew Fox?

"Matthew Fox might well be the most creative, the most comprehensive, surely the most challenging religious-spiritual teacher in America. He has the scholarship, the imagination, the courage, the writing skill to fulfill this role at a time when the more official Christian theological traditions are having difficulty in establishing any vital contact with either the spiritual possibilities of the present or with their own most creative spiritual traditions of the past. Here he has given us abundant selections from the spiritual literature of the Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and the indigenous peoples of Africa and America to illuminate our understanding of Creation, the Divine, the Human experience of the Divine, and our way in to the future. Out of these sources, and with reference to discovery of an emergent universe by contemporary science, he has, it seems, created a new mythic context for leading us out of our contemporary religious and spiritual confusion into a new clarity of mind and peace of soul, by affirming rather than abandoning any of our traditional beliefs".

Thomas Berry, author of "The Great work," "The Dream of the Earth" and "The Universe Story", wrote the above as comment on Matthew Fox's new book "One River, Many Wells"

Excerpts from Dr. Fox's books, "Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet," "One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing From Global Faiths," and "Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh" are available through the links on the left.


A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

Matthew Fox is author of 26 books including "Original Blessing," "The Reinvention of Work," "Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet," "One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths," "A Spirituality Named Compassion" and his most recent "A New Reformation!." He was a member of the Dominican Order for 34 years. He holds a doctorate (received summa cum laude) in the History and Theology of Spirituality from the Institut Catholique de Paris.

Seeking to establish a pedagogy that was friendly to learning spirituality, he established an Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality that operated for seven years at Mundelein College in Chicago and twelve years at Holy Names College in Oakland. For ten of those years at Holy Names College Cardinal Ratzinger, as chief Inquisitor and head of the Congregation of Doctrine and Faith (called the Office of the Holy Inquisition until 1965), tried to shut the program down. Ratzinger silenced Fox for one year in 1988 and forced him to step down as director. Three years later he expelled Fox from the Order and then had the program terminated at Holy Names College.

Rather than disband his amazing and ecumenical faculty, Fox started his own University called University of Creation Spirituality nine years ago in Oakland, California. Its name has now changed to Wisdom University and Fox is president emeritus and a teaching professor there.

The principle objections from the Congregation of the Faith to Fox’s work were that he is a "feminist theologian;" that he calls God "Mother" (Fox has proven the medieval mystical tradition did exactly that); that he prefers “original blessing” to “original sin;” that he calls God "child"; that he associates too closely with Native Americans and people of the wikka tradition; that he does not condemn homosexuals; that he has replaced the naming of the spiritual journey as Purgation, Illumination and Union with the four paths of Creation Spirituality: The Via Positiva (joy, delight and awe); the Via Negativa (darkness, silence, suffering, letting go and letting be); the Via Creativa (creativity); and the Via Transformativa (justice, compassion, interdependence).

Matthew Fox has been renewing the ancient tradition of Creation Spirituality that was named for him by his mentor, the late Father Marie Dominic Chenu, o.p., in his studies in Paris. This tradition is feminist, welcoming of the arts and artists, wisdom centered, prophetic and caring about eco-justice and social justice and gender justice issues. Fox’s effort to reawaken the West to its own mystical tradition has included revivifying awareness of Hildegard of Bingen, Meister Eckhart and the mysticism of Thomas Aquinas as well as interacting with contemporary scientists who are also mystics.

Fox is a well received lecturer who has spoken at many professional and community gatherings on many continents and in many countries around the world. Fox’s books have received numerous awards and he is recipient of the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award of which other recipients have included the Dalai Lama, Mother Theresa and Rosa Parks. He has led a renewal of liturgical forms with “The Cosmic Mass” that mixes dance, techno and live music, dj, vj, rap and contemporary art forms with the western liturgical tradition.

Fox believes that by "reinventing work, education and worship we can bring about a non-violent revolution on our planet" and has committed himself to this vision for many years. He resides in Oakland, California.

See www.wisdomuniversity.org; www.thecosmicmass.com;
For inquiries about lectures contact: dedwards@wisdomuniversity.org. or call: 510 8354827, ext. 11.

A review of his autobiography Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest in the March 11, 1996, "Publishers Weekly" says, "This highly charged autobiography of a priestly life will stand as a lasting memorial to the difficulty of maintaining certain articles of faith and dogma at a time of shifting cultural paradigms. Fox’s portrait of himself…is likely to become a classic."


Chapter V: 95 Theses or Articles of Faith for a Christianity for the Third Millennium

Like Luther, I present 95 theses or in my case, 95 faith observations drawn from my 64 years of living and practicing religion and spirituality. I trust I am not alone in recognizing these truths. For me they represent a return to our origins, a return to the spirit and the teaching of Jesus and his prophetic ancestors, and of the Christ which was a spirit that Jesus' presence and teaching unleashed.

1. God is both Mother and Father.

2. At this time in history, God is more Mother than Father because the feminine is most missing and it is important to bring gender balance back.

3. God is always new, always young and always "in the beginning."

4. God the Punitive Father is not a God worth honoring but a false god and an idol that serves empire-builders. The notion of a punitive, all-male God, is contrary to the full nature of the Godhead who is as much female and motherly as it is masculine and fatherly.

5. "All the names we give to God come from an understanding of ourselves." (Eckhart) Thus people who worship a punitive father are themselves punitive.

6. Theism (the idea that God is 'out there' or above and beyond the universe) is false. All things are in God and God is in all things (panentheism).

7. Everyone is born a mystic and a lover who experiences the unity of things and all are called to keep this mystic or lover of life alive.

8. All are called to be prophets which is to interfere with injustice.

9. Wisdom is Love of Life (See the Book of Wisdom: "This is wisdom: to love life" and Christ in John's Gospel: "I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance.")

10. God loves all of creation and science can help us more deeply penetrate and appreciate the mysteries and wisdom of God in creation. Science is no enemy of true religion.

11. Religion is not necessary but spirituality is.

12. "Jesus does not call us to a new religion but to life." (Bonhoeffer) Spirituality is living life at a depth of newness and gratitude, courage and creativity, trust and letting go, compassion and justice.

13. Spirituality and religion are not the same thing any more than education and learning, law and justice, or commerce and stewardship are the same thing.

14. Christians must distinguish between God (masculine and history, liberation and salvation) and Godhead (feminine and mystery, being and non-action).

15. Christians must distinguish between Jesus (an historical figure) and Christ (the experience of God-in-all-things).

16. Christians must distinguish between Jesus and Paul.

17. Jesus, not unlike many spiritual teachers, taught us that we are sons and daughters of God and are to act accordingly by becoming instruments of divine compassion.

18. Ecojustice is a necessity for planetary survival and human ethics and without it we are crucifying the Christ all over again in the form of destruction of forests, waters, species, air and soil.

19. Sustainability is another word for justice, for what is just is sustainable and what is unjust is not.

20. A preferential option for the poor, as found in the base community movement, is far closer to the teaching and spirit of Jesus than is a preferential option for the rich and powerful as found in, for example, Opus Dei.

21. Economic Justice requires the work of creativity to birth a system of economics that is global, respectful of the health and wealth of the earth systems and that works for all.

22. Celebration and worship are key to human community and survival and such reminders of joy deserve new forms that speak in the language of the twenty-first century.

23. Sexuality is a sacred act and a spiritual experience, a theophany (revelation of the Divine), a mystical experience. It is holy and deserves to be honored as such.

24. Creativity is both humanity's greatest gift and its most powerful weapon for evil and so it ought to be both encouraged and steered to humanity's most God-like activity which all religions agree is: Compassion.

25. There is a priesthood of all workers (all who are doing good work are midwives of grace and therefore priests) and this priesthood ought to be honored as sacred and workers should be instructed in spirituality in order to carry on their ministry effectively.

26. Empire-building is incompatible with Jesus' life and teaching and with Paul's life and teaching and with the teaching of holy religions.

27. Ideology is not theology and ideology endangers the faith because it replaces thinking with obedience, and distracts from the responsibility of theology to adapt the wisdom of the past to today's needs. Instead of theology it demands loyalty oaths to the past.

28 Loyalty is not a sufficient criterion for ecclesial office—intelligence and proven conscience is.

29. No matter how much the television media fawn over the pope and papacy because it makes good theater, the pope is not the church but has a ministry within the church. Papalolotry is a contemporary form of idolatry and must be resisted by all believers.

30. Creating a church of Sycophants is not a holy thing. Sycophants (Webster's dictionary defines them as "servile self-seeking flatterers") are not spiritual people for their only virtue is obedience. A Society of Sycophants — sycophant clergy, sycophant seminarians, sycophant bishops, sycophant cardinals, sycophant religious orders of Opus Dei, Legioneers of Christ and Communion and Liberation, and the sycophant press--do not represent in any way the teachings or the person of the historical Jesus who chose to stand up to power rather than amassing it.

31. Vows of pontifical secrecy are a certain way to corruption and cover-up in the church as in any human organization.

32. Original sin is an ultimate expression of a punitive father God and is not a Biblical teaching. But original blessing (goodness and grace) is biblical.

33. The term "original wound" better describes the separation humans experience on leaving the womb and entering the world, a world that is often unjust and unwelcoming than does the term "original sin."

34. Fascism and the compulsion to control is not the path of peace or compassion and those who practice fascism are not fitting models for sainthood. The seizing of the apparatus of canonization to canonize fascists is a stain on the church.

35. The Spirit of Jesus and other prophets calls people to simple life styles in order that "the people may live."

36. Dancing, whose root meaning in many indigenous cultures is the same as breath or spirit, is a very ancient and appropriate form in which to pray.

37. To honor the ancestors and celebrate the communion of saints does not mean putting heroes on pedestals but rather honoring them by living out lives of imagination, courage and compassion in our own time, culture and historical moment as they did in theirs.

38. A diversity of interpretation of the Jesus event and the Christ experience is altogether expected and welcomed as it was in the earliest days of the church.

39. Therefore unity of church does not mean conformity. There is unity in diversity. Coerced unity is not unity.

40. The Holy Spirit is perfectly capable of working through participatory democracy in church structures and hierarchical modes of being can indeed interfere with the work of the Spirit.

41. The body is an awe-filled sacred Temple of God and this does not mean it is untouchable but rather that all its dimensions, well named by the seven charkas, are as holy as the others.

42. Thus our connection with the earth (first chakra) is holy; and our sexuality (second chakra) is holy; and our moral outrage (third chakra) is holy; and our love that stands up to fear (fourth chakra) is holy; and our prophetic voice that speaks out is holy (fifth chakra); and our intuition and intelligence (sixth chakra) are holy; and our gifts we extend to the community of light beings and ancestors (seventh chakra) are holy.

43. The prejudice of rationalism and left-brain located in the head must be balanced by attention to the lower chakras as equal places for wisdom and truth and Spirit to act.

44. The central chakra, compassion, is the test of the health of all the others which are meant to serve it for "by their fruits you will know them" (Jesus).

45. "Joy is the human's noblest act." (Aquinas) Is our culture and its professions, education and religion, promoting joy?

46. The human psyche is made for the cosmos and will not be satisfied until the two are re-united and awe, the beginning of wisdom, results from this reunion.

47. The four paths named in the creation spiritual tradition more fully name the mystical/prophetic spiritual journey of Jesus and the Jewish tradition than do the three paths of purgation, illumination and union which do not derive from the Jewish and Biblical tradition.

48. Thus it can be said that God is experienced in experiences of ecstasy, joy, wonder and delight (via positiva).

49. God is experienced in darkness, chaos, nothingness, suffering, silence and in learning to let go and let be (via negativa).

50. God is experienced in acts of creativity and co-creation (via creativa).

51. All people are born creative. It is spirituality's task to encourage holy imagination for all are born in the "image and likeness" of the Creative One and "the fierce power of imagination is a gift from God." (Kaballah)

52. If you can talk you can sing; if you can walk you can dance; if you can talk you are an artist. (African proverb and Native American saying)

53. God is experienced in our struggle for justice, healing, compassion and celebration (via transformativa).

54. The Holy Spirit works through all cultures and all spiritual traditions and blows "where it wills" and is not the exclusive domain of any one tradition and
never has been.

55. God speaks today as in the past through all religions and all cultures and all faith traditions none of which is perfect and an exclusive avenue to truth but all of which can learn from each other.

56. Therefore Interfaith or Deep Ecumenism are a necessary part of spiritual praxis and awareness in our time.

57. Since the "number one obstacle to interfaith is a bad relationship with one's own faith," (the Dalai Lama) it is important that Christians know their own mystical and prophetic tradition, one that is larger than a religion of empire and its punitive father images of God.

58. The cosmos is God's holy Temple and our holy home.

59. Fourteen billion years of evolution and unfolding of the universe bespeak the intimate sacredness of all that is.

60. All that is is holy and all that is is related for all being in our universe began as one being just before the fireball erupted.

61. Interconnectivity is not only a law of physics and of nature but also forms the basis of community and of compassion. Compassion is the working out of our shared interconnectivity both as to our shared joy and our shared suffering and struggle for justice.

62. The universe does not suffer from a shortage of grace and no religious institution is to see its task as rationing grace. Grace is abundant in God's universe.

63. Creation, Incarnation and Resurrection are continuously happening on a cosmic as well as a personal scale. So too are Life, Death and Resurrection (regeneration and reincarnation) happening on a cosmic scale as well as a personal one.

64. Biophilia or Love of Life is everyone's daily task.

65. Necrophilia or love of death is to be opposed in self and society in all its forms.

66. Evil can happen through every people, every nation, every tribe, and every individual human and so vigilance and self-criticism and institutional criticism are always called for.

67. Not all who call themselves "Christian" deserve that name just as "not all who say 'Lord, Lord' shall enter the kingdom of heaven" (Jesus).

68. Pedophilia is a terrible wrong but its cover-up by hierarchy is even more despicable.

69. Loyalty and obedience are never a greater virtue than conscience and justice.

70. Jesus said nothing about condoms, birth control or homosexuality.

71. A church that is more preoccupied with sexual wrongs than with wrongs of injustice is itself sick.

72. Since homosexuality is found among 464 species and in 8 percent of any given human population, it is altogether natural for those who are born that way and is a gift from God and nature to the greater community.

73. Homophobia in any form is a serious sin against love of neighbor, a sin of ignorance of the richness and diversity of God's creation as well as a sin of exclusion.

74. Racism, Sexism and militarism are also serious sins.

75. Poverty for the many and luxury for the few is not right or sustainable.

76. Consumerism is today's version of gluttony and needs to be confronted by creating an economic system that works for all peoples and all earth's creatures.

77. Seminaries as we know them, with their excessive emphasis on left-brain work, often kill and corrupt the mystical soul of the young instead of encouraging the mysticism and prophetic consciousness that is there. They should be replaced by wisdom schools.

78. Inner work is required of us all. Therefore spiritual practices of meditation should be available to all and this helps in calming the reptilian brain. Silence or contemplation and learning to be still can and ought to be taught to all children and adults.


79. Outer work needs to flow from our inner work just as action flows from non-action and true action from being.

80. A wise test of right action is this: What is the effect of this action on people seven generations from today?

81. Another test of right action is this: Is what I am doing, is what we are doing, beautiful or not?

82. Eros, the passion for living, is a virtue that combats acedia or the lack of energy to begin new things and is also expressed as depression, cynicism or sloth (also known as "couchpotatoitis").

83. The Dark Night of the Soul descends on us all and the proper response is not addiction such as shopping, alcohol, drugs, TV, sex or religion but rather to be with the darkness and learn from it.

84. The Dark Night of the Soul is a learning place of great depth. Stillness is required.

85. Not only is there a Dark Night of the Soul but also a Dark Night of Society and a Dark Night of our Species.

86. Chaos is a friend and a teacher and an integral part or prelude to new birth. Therefore it is not to be feared or compulsively controlled.

87. Authentic science can and must be one of humanity's sources of wisdom for it is a source of sacred awe, of childlike wonder, and of truth.

88. When science teaches that matter is "frozen light" (physicist David Bohm) it is freeing human thought from scapegoating flesh as something evil and instead reassuring us that all things are light. This same teaching is found in the Christian Gospels (Christ is the light in all things) and in Buddhist teaching (the Buddha nature is in all things). Therefore, flesh does not sin; it is our choices that are sometimes off center.

89. The proper objects of the human heart are truth and justice (Aquinas) and all people have a right to these through healthy education and healthy government.

90. "God" is only one name for the Divine One and there are an infinite number of names for God and Godhead and still God "has no name and will never be given a name." (Eckhart)

91. Three highways into the heart are silence and love and grief.

92. The grief in the human heart needs to be attended to by rituals and practices that, when practiced, will lessen anger and allow creativity to flow anew.

93. Two highways out of the heart are creativity and acts of justice and compassion.

94. Since angels learn exclusively by intuition, when we develop our powers of intuition we can expect to meet angels along the way.

95. True intelligence includes feeling, sensitivity, beauty, the gift of nourishment and humor which is a gift of the Spirit, paradox, being its sister.

APOLOGIES

Alright. I've not posted since January 5. What's that? Almost two weeks. Sometimes you just need a break. You need to step away from the cacophony of outrage and insanity that has become public policy in the United States and recharge.

Hopefully my recharging is complete.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMERICAN IMPERIALISM

Ah yes, ever-tranquil, peace-loving American foreign policy. No, I'm not whining about the past five years' imperialistic policies of Fuhrer Bush. The one who has made an absolute mockery of his oath of office. I am talking about the past 115 years of foreign policy under both Republican and Democratic leadership, alike.

To be sure, some of the military interventions in which our government has engaged were as just and justifiable as war can ever be. World War II seems to stand out...I'm thinking as I review the remainder of the conflicts and interventions on the following list...OK, World War II. Perhaps World War I. But the just interventions on this extensive list fall of precipitously thereafter.

Oh to be sure, not all of the 101 militaristic ventures constituted full-fledged military actions such as wars. The list is seeded with the occassional assassination of a national leader, an embargo here and there, and just plain old government overthrows, inexplicably and ironically of democratically elected leaders.

Amazingly, over the past 115 years of American history, during only four - yes, that's right, four - has our government NOT been involved in some form of military intervention in some corner of the world. At least four that we know of.

49 of the 101 interventions have been in our own "backyard." Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Central and South America have been important theaters for our government's meddlings. But that does not mean that China and other parts of Asia, and the Middle East have been left ignored, mind you.

As you reflect upon this list, consider how many of the ventures you might find it troublesome to justify in the name of protecting America from unwarranted or unprovoked aggression.

1. 1890 - Argentina - Troops sent to Buenos Aires to protect business interests.

2. 1891 - Chile - Marines sent to Chile and clashed with nationalist rebels.

3. 1891 - Haiti - American troops suppress a revolt by Black workers on United States-claimed Navassa Island

4. 1893 - Hawaii - Navy sent to Hawaii to overthrow the independent kingdom - Hawaii annexed by the United States.

5. 1894 - Nicaragua - Troops occupied Bluefield's, a city on the Caribbean Sea, for a month.
   

6. 1894-95 - China - Navy, Army, and Marines landed during the Sino-Japanese War.

7. 1894-96 - Korea - Troops kept in Seoul during the war.

8. 1895 - Panama - Army, Navy, and Marines landed in the port city of Corinto.

9. 1898-1910 - Philippines - Navy and Army troops landed after the Philippines fell during the Spanish-American War; 600,000 Filipinos were killed.

10. 1898-1902 - Cuba - Troops seized Cuba in the Spanish-American War; the United States still maintains troops at Guantanamo Bay today.

11. 1898-present - Puerto Rico - Troops seized Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War and still occupy Puerto Rico today.

12. 1898 - Nicaragua - Marines landed at the port of San Juan del Sur.

13. 1899 - Samoa - Troops landed as a result over the battle for succession to the throne.

14. 1901-14 - Panama - Navy supported the revolution when Panama claimed independence from Colombia.
    

15. 1903 - Honduras - Marines landed to intervene during a revolution.

16. 1903-04 - Dominican Rep - Troops landed to protect American interests during a revolution.

17. 1904-05 - Korea - Marines landed during the Russo-Japanese War.

18. 1906-09 - Cuba - Troops landed during an election.

19. 1907 - Nicaragua - Troops landed and a protectorate was set up.

20. 1907 - Honduras - Marines landed during Honduras' war with Nicaragua.

21. 1908 - Panama - Marines sent in during Panama's election.

22. 1910 - Nicaragua - Marines landed for a second time in Bluefields and Corinto.

23. 1911 - Honduras - Troops sent in to protect American interests during Honduras' civil war.

24. 1911-41 - China - Navy and troops sent to China during continuous flare-ups.

25. 1912 - Cuba - Troops sent in to protect American interests in Havana.

26. 1912 - Panama - Marines landed during Panama's election.

27. 1912 - Honduras - Troops sent in to protect American interests.

28. 1912-33 - Nicaragua - Troops occupied Nicaragua and fought guerrillas during its 20-year civil war.

29. 1913 - Mexico - Navy evacuated Americans during revolution.

30. 1914 - Dominican Republic - Navy fought with rebels over Santo Domingo.

31. 1914-18 - Mexico - Navy and troops sent in to intervene against nationalists.

32. 1914-34 - Haiti - Troops occupied Haiti after a revolution and occupied Haiti for 19 years.

33. 1916-24 - Dominican Republic - Marines occupied the Dominican Republic for eight years.

34. 1917-33 - Cuba - Troops landed and occupied Cuba for 16 years; Cuba became an economic protectorate.

35. 1917-18 - World War I - Navy and Army sent to Europe to fight the Axis powers.

36. 1918-22 - Russia - Navy and troops sent to eastern Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution; Army made five landings.

37. 1919 - Honduras - Marines sent during Honduras' national elections.

38. 1920 - Guatemala - Troops occupied Guatemala for two weeks during a union strike.

39. 1922 - Turkey - Troops fought nationalists in Smyrna.

40. 1922-27 - China - Navy and Army troops deployed during a nationalist revolt.

41. 1924-25 - Honduras - Troops landed twice during a national election.

42. 1925 - Panama - Troops sent in to put down a general strike.

43. 1927-34 - China - Marines sent in and stationed for seven years throughout China.

44. 1932 - El Salvador - Naval warships deployed during the FMLN revolt under Marti.

45. 1941-45 - World War II - Military fought the Axis powers: Japan, Germany, and Italy.

46. 1946 - Yugoslavia - Navy deployed off the coast of Yugoslavia in response to the downing of an American plane.

47. 1947 - Uruguay - Bombers deployed as a show of military force.

48. 1947-49 - Greece - United States operations insured a victory for the far right in national "elections."

49. 1948 - Germany - Military deployed in response to the Berlin blockade; the Berlin airlift lasts 444 days.

50. 1948-54 - Philippines - The CIA directed a civil war against the Filipino Huk revolt.

51. 1950 - Puerto Rico - Military helped crush an independence rebellion in Ponce.

52. 1951-53 - Korean War - Military sent in during the war.

53. 1953 - Iran - The CIA orchestrated the overthrow of democratically elected Mossadegh and restored the Shah to power.

54. 1954 - Vietnam - The United States offered weapons to the French in the battle against Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh.

55. 1954 - Guatemala - The CIA overthrew the democratically elected Arbenz and placed Colonel Armas in power.

56. 1956 - Egypt - Marines deployed to evacuate foreigners after Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal.

57. 1958 - Lebanon - Navy supported an Army occupation of Lebanon during its civil war.

58. 1958 - Panama - Troops landed after Panamanians demonstrations threatened the Canal Zone.

59. 1950s-75 - Vietnam - Vietnam War.

60. 1961 - Cuba - The CIA-directed Bay of Pigs invasions failed to overthrow the Castro government.

61. 1962 - Cuba - The Navy quarantines Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

62. 1962 - Laos - Military occupied Laos during its civil war against the Pathet Lao guerrillas.

63. 1964 - Panama - Troops sent in and Panamanians shot while protesting the United States presence in the Canal Zone.

64. 1965 - Indonesia - The CIA orchestrated a military coup.

65. 1965-66 - Dominican Republic - Troops deployed during a national election.

66. 1966-67 - Guatemala - Green Berets sent in.

67. 1969-75 - Cambodia - Military sent in after the Vietnam War expanded into Cambodia.

68. 1970 - Oman - Marines landed to direct a possible invasion into Iran.

69. 1971-75 - Laos - America carpet-bomb the countryside during Laos' civil war.

70. 1973 - Chile - The CIA orchestrated a coup, killing President Allende who had been popularly elected. The CIA helped to establish a military regime under General Pinochet.

71. 1975 - Cambodia - Twenty-eight Americans killed in an effort to retrieve the crew of the Ayaquez, which had been seized.

72. 1976-92 - Angola - The CIA backed South African rebels fighting against Marxist Angola.

73. 1980 - Iran - Americans aborted a rescue attempt to liberate 52 hostages seized in the Teheran embassy.

74. 1981 - Libya - American fighters shoot down two Libyan fighters.

75. 1981-92 - El Salvador - The CIA, troops, and advisers aid in El Salvador's war against the FMLN.

76. 1981-90 - Nicaragua - The CIA and NSC directed the Contra War against the Sandinistas.

77. 1982-84 - Lebanon - Marines occupied Beirut during Lebanon's civil war; 241 were killed in the American barracks and Reagan "redeployed" the troops to the Mediterranean.

78. 1983-89 - Honduras - Troops sent in to build bases near the Honduran border.

79. 1983-84 - Grenada - American invasion overthrew the Maurice Bishop government.

80. 1984 - Iran - American fighters shot down two Iranian planes over the Persian Gulf.

81. 1986 - Libya - American fighters hit targets in and around the capital city of Tripoli.

82. 1986 - Bolivia - The Army assisted government troops on raids of cocaine areas.

83. 1987-88 - Iran - The United States intervened on the side of Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War.

84. 1989 - Libya - Navy shot down two more Libyan jets.

85. 1989 - Virgin Islands - Troops landed during unrest among Virgin Island peoples.

86. 1989 - Philippines - Air Force provided air cover for government during coup.

87. 1989-90 - Panama - 27,000 Americans landed in overthrow of President Noriega; over 2,000 Panama civilians were killed.

88. 1990 - Liberia - Troops entered Liberia to evacuate foreigners during civil war.

89. 1990-91 - Saudi Arabia - American troops sent to Saudi Arabia, which was a staging area in the war against Iraq.

90. 1991 - Kuwait - Troops sent into Kuwait to turn back Saddam Hussein.

91. 1992-94 - Somalia - Troops occupied Somalia during civil war.

92. 1993-95 - Bosnia - Air Force jets bombed "no-fly zone" during civil war in Yugoslavia.

93. 1994-96 - Haiti - American troops and Navy provided a blockade against Haiti's military government. The CIA restored President Aristide to power.

94. 1996-97 - Zaire - Marines sent into Rwanda Hutus' refugee camps in the area where the Congo revolution began.

95. 1997 - Albania - Troops deployed during evacuation of foreigners.

96. 1998 - Sudan - American missiles destroyed a pharmaceutical complex where alleged nerve gas components were manufactured.

97. 1998 - Afghanistan - Missiles launched towards alleged terrorist training camps.

98. 1999 - Yugoslavia - Bombings and missile attacks carried out by the United States in conjunction with NATO in the 11 week war against Milosevic.

99. 1998-2001 - Iraq - Missiles launched into Baghdad and other large Iraq cities for four days. American jets enforced "no-fly zone" and continued to hit Iraqi targets.

100. 2001 - present - invasion/occupation of Afghanistan in response to 9/11 terrorist attacks.
101. 2003 - present - invasion/occupation of Iraq in response to...????
     

THE FIRST LIE

THE FIRST PREDICTOR: December 18, 2000

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." - President-elect George W. Bush

THE FIRST LIE: January 20, 2001

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." - President George W. Bush

LIES: April 20, 2004

"...there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution." - President George W. Bush

LIES: December 19, 2005

"We use FISA still -- you're referring to the FISA court in your question -- of course, we use FISAs. But FISA is for long-term monitoring. What is needed in order to protect the American people is the ability to move quickly to detect.

Now, having suggested this idea, I then, obviously, went to the question, is it legal to do so? I am -- I swore to uphold the laws. Do I have the legal authority to do this? And the answer is, absolutely. As I mentioned in my remarks, the legal authority is derived from the Constitution, as well as the authorization of force by the United States Congress." - President George W. Bush

CHARITABLE CONFUSION

Let's talk about charity in the United States. And let's talk about poverty. What better way to begin the new year, right?

After all, we are so obsessed with Iraq War worries, Bush's infringements of constitutional freedoms, his ongoing threats to Social Security, and the Christian Right's bizarre form of spirituality, that we too often forget that there are poor Americans.

So let's begin with data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

• At the end of 2004, just a hair under 37 million Americans were counted as poor. This is nearly 5.5 million people higher than when Bush took office four years earlier.
• When Clinton took office, 38 million Americans were counted among the poor. By the time he left office, the number of poor in America had declined by nearly 6.5 million. So in just five years, Bush has nearly undone all of Clinton's eight years of progress in reducing poverty in America.

By the way? Bush's most recent Republican predecessors didn't fair too well on the "reducing poverty in America" front either.

• Under the Reagan/Bush 41 presidencies, 8.74 million more Americans found themselves among the poor.

Makes you wonder why President Bush believes that our economy is humming along just fine, doesn't it? Clearly it's the blindness of his tax cuts for the wealthy, not to mention corporate profits or an improved stock market, all of which are clearly targeted towards the poor amongst us.

So what is poverty you ask? The U.S. Census Bureau defined poverty in 2004 as follows (annual income):

• One person - $9,645
• Two persons - $12,334
• Family of four - $19,307

Granted. Putting life in perspective, when you understand that billions of people on planet Earth barely survive on $2.00 or less per day - that would be $730. or less per year - poor Americans just seem to be living the good life. My oh my, shouldn't they all be greatful! I think we all know that the comparison does not hold true.


This all brings me back to charity.

The poor in America are not faced with issues such as sending their children to community colleges rather than Princetons, or settling for the cheap seats at the local opera. Poor Americans deal with choices like prescription drugs vs. food, hot dogs vs. hamburger, shoes vs. newspapers, heat vs. everything else. Real choices!

While the Bush administration has been busy slashing entitlement programs such as Medicaid, child care, student loans, and food stamps in order to pay for more tax cuts for the wealthy, he continues to believe that charity is the solution to poverty. Bush believes that faith-based inititiatives should care for the needy and lift people out of poverty, all 38 million of them.

One of the problems that I see with "charity" in the United States is the way in which it is subsidized and "encouraged" by government tax policy. There is no difference in tax definition between tax incentives for giving to your local PBS station or the Metropolitan Opera as opposed to your local food bank or women's shelter or non-profit child care service.

Human services organizations are treated equally with orchestras and art museums. What's wrong with this picture?

According to Giving USA, of the $248.52 billion in total charitable giving in 2004, human service organizations received just $19.14 billion or a paltry 7.7 percent!

This is not to suggest that we should wipe out tax incentives for charitable giving to museums and the like. But what has happened to, yes I'm going to say it, core Christian values? Where is the giving to community and nationwide human service organizations? Hmmm?

At the heart of this issue lies the depth of our generosity to those among us that are in need. There are Americans that live each day in grinding poverty. And increasing affluence among the wealthiest Americans only serves to exacerbate their plight by driving prices ever higher.

You can analyze the Census Bureau data on poverty in many ways, in greater detail. You can even make arguments for improvements within the data. But the bottom line cannot be manipulated for political ends. More Americans are living in poverty under this president, many more. And you cannot blame recessions or terrorists for their plight. You CAN blame failed Republican economic and social policies.

9/11 LOAN SCANDAL - SHAME!

As Paul Harvey says, "And now for the rest of the story."

This morning, the Washington Post reported that many, if not MOST, businesses that received low interest, government-backed loans that were earmarked to help businesses after the 9/11 terrorist attacks were never adversely affected by 9/11. They were unqualified to receive the billions of taxpayer-funded loans.

The program in question, the Supplementary Terrorist Activity Relief (STAR) program, was operated by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

Among some of the findings by the SBA's inspector general:

• The inspector general concluded that only nine loan recipients in the 59 cases sampled appeared to be qualified for disaster loans.
• Lenders who handed out billions of dollars in loans failed - 85 percent of the time - to document that recipients were actually hurt by the terrorism attacks and therefore eligible for the aid under the law, the report found.
• Only two of 42 borrowers interviewed were aware they had obtained a STAR loan.
• In cases where eligibility could not be established, 25 of 34 borrowers interviewed said they were not adversely affected by the terrorist attacks.
• Thirty-six of 42 borrowers questioned said they were not asked, or could not recall if they were asked, about the impact of the attacks on their businesses.

In September 2005, the Associated Press also reported problems with the STAR program. The AP found that terrorism recovery loans went to a South Dakota radio station, a Virgin Islands perfume shop, a Utah dog boutique and more than 100 Dunkin' Donuts and Subway sandwich shops in various locations.

And this appeared to be at a time when businesses that were at New York's Ground Zero apparently couldn't get any assistance.

The Washington Post also reported that "SBA Administrator Hector Barreto put the best face on the findings, saying the audit did not find that loan recipients were unqualified for the program, although he did note that lender documentation could have been better."

Could have been better? This is Bush administration speak for "Here, here's billions of dollars of low-interest loans, folks. Sure, 9/11 had no effect on your business, but hey. It's only the Middle Class' tax money. Have fun."

THE REST OF THE STORY

But let's connect some more dots, shall we? The following is from the November 29, 2002 Washington Business Journal:

SBA lenders see STAR loans as short-term 7(a) solution

Kent Hoover

The president of the National Association of Government Guaranteed Lenders (NAGGL) urges SBA lenders to steer businesses into a special Sept. 11-related loan program to make up for the shortfall in the Small Business Administration's flagship 7(a) loan program.

The SBA has been forced to cut the size of the 7(a) program in half because of an increase in the subsidy rate for the government-guaranteed loans. Because it has less money to lend, the agency has reduced the maximum size of 7(a) loans from $2 million to $500,000.

The loans are a popular source of financing for start-ups and early-stage businesses, who often cannot find long-term loans with low monthly payments elsewhere.

Efforts to reduce the subsidy rate failed when the House adjourned Nov. 22 without taking up a Senate-passed bill that would have directed the SBA to recalculate this year's subsidy rate using a new econometric model scheduled to be put in place next fiscal year.

The legislation also would have given the 7(a) program any money left over from the Supplemental Terrorist Activity Relief program, which expires Jan. 10. This program provides reduced-fee loans to small businesses adversely affected by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but not eligible for SBA disaster loans.

Through Oct. 31, only $2.1 billion of the $4.5 billion authorized for STAR had been used.

Tony Wilkinson, who heads the trade association for SBA lenders, says small businesses should be encouraged to use the STAR program for every size of loan, not just loans above the 7(a) program's $500,000 cap.

"We must assume that the STAR funds will be on a 'use or lose' basis, and so we must spend the STAR money while it is available, and not use 7(a) appropriations," he wrote SBA lenders. "Otherwise, money may not be available late in FY 2003, even if we get the econometric model implemented for the current fiscal year."

The SBA, meanwhile, is encouraging borrowers to use its 504 program, which provides financing for real estate, machinery and equipment needs. The maximum size of these loans remains $2 million.

SBA lenders and small-business lobbyists will renew their push for changing the 7(a) program's subsidy rate when Congress returns in January.

HMMMM...From NAGGL's web site: "Over its history, NAGGL has grown the SBA lending industry, America's small business sector, and its own membership rolls by employing forward-thinking leadership on key issues. Whether enabling streamlined loan programs with greater lender autonomy, spearheading key secondary market improvements, or saving SBA programs from annihilation, NAGGL has helped the 7(a) program flourish --burgeoning from a $1 billion program in 1984 to a greater than $12 billion program today."

I have found no evidence of any Republican/Bush plot to subvert SBA processes here. Rather, Bush has a solid track record of battling against expansion of SBA programs. BUT clearly NAGGL is in the business of assisting banks and businesses with profiting from SBA loan programs. That's just what they've been doing since their founding in 1984.

But I can't help but wonder to what extent this Stillwater, Oklahoma-based organization may have over-reached in encouraging banks and businesses to take "full" advantage of the STAR loan program with the justification of "Hey we can't just leave this taxpayer money on the table if New York and D.C. businesses don't need it. We might as well relieve them thar taxpayers of the already appropriated money." - Those are my words, by the way.

Don't you get a whiff of loan fraud here? Like not being entirely truthful in the loan application process? Well how else would you explain a Utah dog boutique receiving a loan through a 9/11-specific government loan program?