Hear Her Roar

Mrs. Bush Seeks to Empower African Women


By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer

Wed Jul 13, 2:39 PM ET

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania

Traveling in Africa in part to empower its often disenfranchised women,
Laura Bush said Wednesday she would not automatically vote for a woman in a field of candidates for president of the United States.

"If a woman were to run, it would be exactly the same thing I would consider in any other election — and that is who I think has the best character, whose views are similar to mine," Bush told reporters as her plane brought her here from Cape Town, South Africa.

She raised — and then quickly rejected — the idea of supporting a Democrat. "I would vote for, in most cases, the Republican," she said and then added after a pause, "Maybe I should say in all (cases)."

Her predecessor as first lady, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is likely seen as a potential Democratic candidate for 2008. Other women have also been mentioned as eventual White House hopefuls such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas.

The first lady said she has no intention of ever running herself. "I've ruled out the possibility of running for president. I actually never considered the possibility of running for president," she said.


yah, it'd be a step down for her



Mrs. Bush, accompanied by daughter Jenna, descended from their plane to a red carpet on a hot tarmac to be greeted by traditional African dancers, barefoot women with their faces painted white and huge feather headdresses, and men in white shirts and short with red sashes.

At a catholic-run organization here that provides
AIDS treatment prevention, Jenna Bush offered gifts to children orphaned by the disease, handing them pens, bookmarks, photos of the presidential dogs and spiral notebooks before she and the first lady heard their stories.

Mrs. Bush said the group, which is funded from the president's $15 billion initiative, is a perfect example for the kind of religious charity to which the president wants to funnel more money and help.

[abridged]


huh?!

ok, let's check the Scoreboard, sportsfans . . .

the leading female spokeswoman for the Repubs -- supposedly, the CONSERVATIVE element of US ideo-politics, is running around the planet yet again, hawking Empowerment for Women

now, how much of Junior's 15 BILLION $$ is going to sweet Jenna's orphaned children? . . . and how much to other "religious" purposes?

remind me, again, about the "religion" these God-quoting, pious zealots are pushing? increasingly, and very very publically, it sounds like the good ole Female Empowerment Religion -- basically, the same goddess-idolatry these chumps have been shilling for millennia

this isn't princess Hilary and the Femocrats, folks

it ain't the libberals, it ain't the Marxists, the hippies, the Communists, or any other handy pinko-types that right-wingers insist on claiming are the source of Femamerica

uh uh, baby

these are the CONSERVATIVES, for godsakes, the heart of the "patriarchy," the supposed fundamentalists -- the very element in American secular and religious life that pretends (or at least used to pretend) to oppose regression to the Goddess and matriarchy

what's that i spy across Atalanta's lap?

what be that thrashing in the blood-red sea?




LONDON (Reuters) - The earthquake that triggered December's devastating Indian Ocean tsunami caused a 1,000 km (620 mile) rupture in the sea floor, scientists said on Wednesday.


there rises the Beast from the depth, who was Tiamat and Typhon, Belial and Leviathan, and names of shrieking long before men had words for terror

and what is that roaring over the Waves?

that is the Abyss asunder

that is the shuddering of the world

that is the tsunami bearing down

that is Woman empowered, in numbers too big to ignore



I cross the Green Mountain
I sit by the stream
Heaven blazing in my head
I dreamt a monstrous dream
Something came up
Out of the sea
Swept through the land of
The rich and the free

I look into the eyes
of my merciful friend
And then I ask myself
Is this the end?
Memories linger
Sad yet sweet
and I think of the souls
in heaven who will be

Altars are burning
The flames far and wide
the foe has crossed over
from the other side
They tip their caps
from the top of the hill
You can feel them come
more brave blood to spill

Along the dim
Atlantic line
The ravaged land lasts
for miles behind
The light’s coming forward
and the streets are broad
all must yield
To the avenging God

The world is old
The world is grey
Lessons of life
Can't be learned in a day
I watch and I wait
And I listen while I stand
To the music that comes
from a far better land

Close the eyes
of our Captain
Peace may he know
His long night is done
The great leader is laid low
He was ready to fall
He was quick to defend
Killed outright he was
by his own men

It's the last day's last hour
of the last happy year
I feel that the unknown
world is so near
Pride will vanish
And glory will rot
But virtue lives
and cannot be forgot

The bells of
leavening have rung
there's blasphemy on
the end of every tongue
Let them say that I walked
in fair nature's light
And that I was loyal
to truth and to right

Serve God and be cheerful
Look upward beyond
Beyond the darkness that masks
the surprises of dawn
In the deep green grasses
of the blood-stained woods
They never dreamed of surrendering
They fell where they stood

Stars fell over Alabama
And I saw each star
You're walking in dreams
Whoever you are
Chilled as the skies
Keen as the frost
And the ground's froze hard
And the morning is lost

A letter to mother
came today
Gunshot wound to the breast
is what it did say
But he'll be better soon
He's in a hospital bed
But he'll never be better
He's already dead

I'm ten miles outside the city
And I'm lifted away
In an ancient light
That is not of day
They were calm they were blunt
We knew them all too well
We loved each other more than
we ever dared to tell

“Cross the Green Mountain” (Zimmy the Bobhead)

[Gods and Generals]