Chris is the son of Chris Sr., a Foreign Service Officer who had an
outstanding diplomatic career. His mother Eliza also had a distinguished
career in  diplomacy. Chris Jr.'s wife Katherine runs the World Affairs
Council in Washington. It's a great asset for the Democratic Party to
have  a person like Chris Jr. in the House and rising in the ranks of
the party leadership.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:        News from the campaign - Chris Van Hollen selected to chair
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in 2008 election cycle
Date:   Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:23:08 +0000
From:   Chris Van Hollen <vanhollen0189@jangomail.com>
To:     rkeeley@starpower.net



On Tuesday, December 19 Speaker-Elect Nancy Pelosi announced that Rep.
Chris Van Hollen will chair the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee (DCCC) for the 2008 election cycle. In the 2006 campaign, Rep.
Van Hollen headed the DCCC's candidate recruitment committee and
co-chaired the successful Red-to-Blue campaign. House Democrats picked
up 30 seats in the last election without loosing a single Democratic seat.
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*Van Hollen To Oversee Recruiting, Fundraising*

By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 20, 2006; B02

Congressional leaders tapped Maryland Rep. Chris Van Hollen yesterday to
be the Democrats' chief recruiter, fundraiser and protector of the House
majority for the 2008 elections, an acknowledgment of his role in
helping the party win control last month and his rising stature on
Capitol Hill.

House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Van Hollen would
succeed Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) as chairman of the Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee, a high-profile position for the
tenacious, detail-oriented lawyer and former legislative staffer, who
was first elected four years ago.
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*Editor's Picks:*

The Christian Science Monitor presents the second in its 3-part series
on the effect of Israel's Jerusalem wall on Jerusalem's Palestinian
inhabitants (1.) Salon.com looks at the new Jewish-American alliance
meant as a counterweight to AIPAC (3.) Junge Welt (Germany) interviews
Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal (5.) Agence France Presse (France)
examines the reasons for Hamas' political confidence (6.) In
BitterLemons (Israel/Palestine), former Palestinian minister of planning
Ghassan Khatib analyzes the impact of regional and international
politics on the internal Palestinian scene (7.) A Haaretz (Israel)
opinion by Uzi Benziman looks at the burying in Israel of the Peace Now
report on Israeli settlements built on Palestinian land (9.)

*R. Dajani.*

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Korsets



http://www.amfkorsets.com/

Natalia



© Keeley 2006                    Washington DC

the powerful impact of the Macedonian name on Greek society, administration, social life, culture and economy since the integration of Greek Macedonia with the Modern Greek State in 1912.

http://www.macedonian-heritage.gr/

Macedonian Heritage: An online Review of the Affairs, History and Culture of Macedonia

sam giant



http://www.woostercollective.com/sam3giant.jpg

Dark Culture Magazine

http://www.darkculture.net/

The Gothic Preservation Society

In case you missed it, Skinny Puppy have a new album coming out. Entitled "Mythmaker", the album will be released January 29, 2007.

Musicfolio writes: "perhaps their most ambitious and adventurous album: as dark, beautiful and aggressive as ever, Skinny Puppy take the listener on a roller coaster ride through their unique aural onslaught of Industrial, Techno and Noise. Now even more contemporary and relevant, over 20 years into their existenceaggression."

01. magnifishit
02. daL
03. haZe
04. pedafly
05. jaHer
06. politikiL
07. lestiduZ
08. pasturN
09. ambiantz
10. ugLi

Skinny Puppy, Mythmaker

Democratic Republic of Congo



http://www.poyi.org/63/wua/first_06.php

Pin-up Photography by Amy Rivera



http://www.amyrivera.com/gallery/Fetish/Pin-up/index.htm

Kids in Foster Care

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/20/AR2006122001789.html

Kids in Foster Care

An analysis prepared for the Family Recovery Program found that in Baltimore, about 300 children younger than 5 enter foster care each year because of an addicted parent.

The children spend an average of 3.85 years in foster care at a cost of $12,800 a year. It costs $10,000 annually to treat and support an addict.

The foster care system is designed to provide for children whose parents cannot. But some current research suggests that removing children who are already vulnerable from their families may place them at a higher risk for behavioral, psychological, developmental and academic problems.

Children, including infants, who receive insensitive or unresponsive care in the foster system may have trouble forming attachments, studies have shown. Those who live in several foster homes often have emotional difficulties.

A recent University of Minnesota study followed 189 children, some of whom entered foster care. Some remained at home with neglectful or abusive families, and some had neither poor treatment nor foster care. The children in foster care appeared to have more behavioral problems than those in the other groups, and the problems persisted after they left the foster system, researchers found.

Enrique Metinides's 1979 picture of an actress who was hit by a car on Avenida Chapultepec



Enrique Metinides photographed his first dead body before he was 12. It was as if he had caught a fever, because after that he couldn’t stop. For years while he slept he kept his radio in Mexico City tuned to emergency stations so that he could be awakened by the latest news of disaster. He would often throw on his clothes and rush into the night to see yet another car wreck or fire or murder.

He found a cornucopia of gore: suicides, jumpers, accidental electrocutions and exploding gas tanks. (In that case petty thieves drove off from the pumps with the hose still inside their car.) We feel somehow we shouldn’t gawk. But how can we not? 

Enrique Metinides’s photographs are on view through Jan. 13 at Anton Kern, 532 West 20th Street, Chelsea, (212) 367-9663, antonkerngallery.com.

Enrique Metinides 


http://www.antonkerngallery.com/index.php?page=8&eid=64


Enrique Metinides

Target Iran: Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter and Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh on White House Plans for Regime Change

Thursday, December 21st, 2006

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/21/143259

The Pentagon has announced plans to move additional warships and strike aircraft into the Persian Gulf region to be within striking range of Iran. We air an in-depth discussion between two of the leading critical voices on the Bush administration’s policy in Iran: former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, author of "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change", and Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist for The New Yorker magazine. [includes rush transcript - partial]

 

---

We turn now to the latest on Iran – the New York Times is reporting the United States and Britain will soon move additional warships and strike aircraft into the Persian Gulf region to be within striking range of Iran. Senior U.S. officers told the paper that the increase in naval power should not be viewed as preparations for any offensive strike against Iran. But they acknowledged that the ability to hit Iran would be increased.

The aircraft carrier Eisenhower and its strike group entered the Persian Gulf on Dec. 11. Another aircraft carrier, the Stennis, is expected to depart for the Gulf within the next month. The military said it is also taking steps to prevent Iran from blocking oil shipments from the Gulf.

Well today on Democracy Now we present an in-depth discussion between two figures who have critical of the Bush administration’s policy on Iran. Scott Ritter is a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. He recently wrote the book "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change." Seymour Hersh is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist for The New Yorker magazine. In October, Scott Ritter and Seymour Hersh held a public conversation in New York about Scott Ritter’s new book.

• Scott Ritter. Former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq. His new book is "Target Iran: The Truth About the White House's Plans for Regime Change."

• Seymour Hersh. Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist for The New Yorker magazine.
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http://lennonfbifiles.com/

John Lennon, the FBI files

http://lennonfbifiles.com/

Thievery Corporation

Downbeat Electronica Music With a Lounge Aesthetic

Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, who make up the innovative ensemble group called Thievery Corporation, will be online Thursday, Dec. 21, at 2 p.m. ET to discusss their music, latest CD, ongoing projects and their four upcoming live, full band shows at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club.

Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.

Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, who make up the innovative ensemble group called Thievery Corporation, will be online Thursday, Dec. 21, at 2 p.m. ET to discusss their music, latest CD, ongoing projects and their four upcoming live, full band shows at Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club.

Submit your questions and comments before or during the discussion.

____________________

Sterling, Va.: Thievery Corp., has such a talent for redeveloping groove in their music by breaking down beats and reconstructing music with accents in the time signatures, would you look to step out of bossa and samba sound and try that with classic disco grooves, jazz, or rock like you did with David Byrne's dance on Vaseline? could it make an album?

Eric Hilton: I feel like we've already do this in some ways. We've remixed the Doors for instance. We have songs like Warning Shots, Lebanese Blonde and Revolution Solution, which are essentially dubbed-out rock songs.

_______________________

Zagreb, Croatia: Hi!

I`ve been at your concerts both times you were in Zagreb and they were really great shows. I only resent you that you didn`t play for more than an hour and fifteen minutes and that is much too less for a band with your repertoire. The crowd was wild and wanted to hear you play for as long as you would stay and you stayed that short. I only mean to say that that is not the way and can you answer why is it like that?

Thanks

Rob Garza: We love Zagreb! I believe the first ime, the police closed us down and we couldn't play longer. We definitely have more music and were sad we didn't get a chance to play longer. The second time it was part of a festival and the organizers tell you how long you can play. We can't wait to come back. Hopefully next time we'll be able to play longer.

_______________________

Producer DJs
Thursday, December 21, 2006; 2:00 PM

Thievery loves greece the most!

Washington, D.C.: Which was your favorite of all the shows you have ever played?

Rob Garza: Athens Greece to 8,000 people in an ancient amphitheatre overlooking Athens. The audience we're going mental. It was really a gig I'll never forget. I think that is the largest audience we played to that wasn't a festival.

Between 2003 and 2005, 1,662 murders were committed in New York

http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20060428_HOMICIDE_MAP.html

 murder locations in New York City.

beat the devil

This article can be found on the web at
  *http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070101/cockburn*

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

  *beat the devil* /by/ Alexander Cockburn


      _War: Voters Said No, Congress Said Yes_

  [from the January 1, 2007 issue]

  First let's yield the floor to a Republican, Senator Gordon Smith of
  Oregon, who recently proclaimed, "We have no business being a
  policeman in someone else's civil war. I welcome the Iraq Study
  Group's report, but if we are ultimately going to retreat, I would
  rather do it sooner than later." Not cut and walk. Cut and run.

  Now let's go to a Democrat, Representative Silvestre Reyes of Texas,
  Pelosi's pick as head of the House Intelligence Committee. The
  freshly anointed Reyes told /Newsweek/, "We're not going to have
  stability in Iraq until we eliminate those militias, those private
  armies. We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in
  Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq...I would say
  20,000 to 30,000--for the specific purpose of making sure those
  militias are dismantled, working in concert with the Iraqi military."

 

 International Herald Tribune <http://www.iht.com>
Reiterating the keys to peace
Jimmy Carter
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, December 20, 2006

ATLANTA

My book "Palestine Peace Not Apartheid" was published last month,
expressing my assessment of circumstances in the occupied territories
and prescribing a course of action that offers a path to permanent peace
for Israel and its neighbors. My knowledge of the subject is based on
visits to the area during the past 33 years, my detailed study and
involvement in peace talks as president, and my leadership role in
monitoring the Palestinian elections of 1996, 2005 and 2006.

Some major points in the book are:

Multiple deaths of innocent civilians have occurred on both sides, and
this violence and all terrorism must cease.

For 39 years, Israel has occupied Palestinian land, and has confiscated
and colonized hundreds of choice sites.

Often excluded from their former homes, land and places of worship,
protesting Palestinians have been severely dominated and oppressed.
There is forced segregation between Israeli settlers and Palestine's
citizens, with a complex pass system required for Arabs to traverse
Israel's multiple checkpoints.

An enormous wall snakes through populated areas of what is left of the
West Bank, constructed on wide swaths of bulldozed trees and property of
Arab families, obviously designed to acquire more territory and to
protect the Israeli colonies already built. (Hamas declared a unilateral
cease-fire in August 2004 as its candidates sought local and then
national offices, which they claim is the reason for reductions in
casualties to Israeli citizens.)

Combined with this wall, Israeli control of the Jordan River Valley will
completely enclose Palestinians in their shrunken and divided territory.
Gaza is surrounded by a similar barrier with only two openings,
controlled by Israel. Crowded citizens have no free access to the
outside world by air, sea, or land.

The Palestinian people are now being deprived of the necessities of life
by economic restrictions imposed on them by Israel and the United States
because 42 percent voted for Hamas candidates in this year's election.
Teachers, nurses, policemen, firemen, and other employees cannot be
paid, and the UN has reported food supplies in Gaza equivalent to those
among the poorest families in sub-Sahara Africa, with half the families
surviving on one meal a day.
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muzac

http://www.popboks.com/media/ESG_-_Dance.mp3

http://ia300232.us.archive.org/0/items/Y_Pants_Off_the_Hook/YPants_Offthehook.mp3link.mp3

http://perso.orange.fr/lombric/mp3/The%20Upsetters%20-%20Dracula.mp3

Dracula

The Upsetters... Dracula (.mp3 audio 02:53).

Off The Hook

Y Pants... Off The Hook (.mp3 audio 02:18, 99 Records 99-03, 1980). Unique cover of the Rolling Stones tune.

Dance

ESG... Dance (.mp3 audio 04:32, 99-10, 1982). Vintage minimalist funk from the South Bronx and 99 Records. Boost it. Also... The 99 Records Story by JD Twitch (Discopia Issue #3).

Natalia



© Keeley 2006    Washington DC

Natalia



© Keeley 2006                        Washington DC