Somebody said, "America just elected Lula president."

Not Bush's America. Watch closely as Bush and the CIA use tested tactics to try and take Lula down, to protect the profits of the multinationals. (One Doug recently observed that US and European drug companies are pushing hard to stop generic drug manufacturers in Brazil and elsewhere, to keep them from selling low-cost knock-offs of their anti-HIV/AIDS drugs, profits a higher priority than health, apparently).

Or, will the south rise again?


A Christmas Greeting
From a Northern Star-Group to a Southern, 1889-'90

by Walt Whitman

Welcome, Brazilian brother--thy ample place is ready:
A loving hand--a smile from the north--a sunny instant hail!
(Let the future care for itself, where it reveals its troubles,
impedimentas,
Ours, ours the present throe, the democratic aim, the
acceptance and the faith;)
To thee to-day our reaching arm, our turning neck--to thee
from us the expectant eye,
Thou cluster free! thou brilliant lustrous one! thou, learning
well,
The true lesson of a nation's light in the sky,
(More shining than the Cross, more than the Crown,)
The height to be superb humanity.


...Only a dream in Whitman's day, yet this Doug dares to dream it still....