My Two Cents:

by Ron Powell

Bravery and valor on the battlefield are of no consequence if the war being fought has no just and honorable cause or purpose....There are no legitimate goals or objectives in an unjust or invalid conflict being prosecuted by force of arms and the blood of good people.

My take on the war(s) in the Middle East is simple: We shouldn't have gone in the first place and we have no business being there now...Whether the Department of Defense or the State Department agrees with him or not, the young ex-marine who resigned his diplomatic postition in protest over our continued presence in Afghanistan has it absolutely right.  We should stand with him in his brave and bold move to bring attention to the fact that what we are doing in that part of the world is just plain wrong....

In the wake of 9/11, and the notion that we are seeking to bring an international criminal and his criminal enterprise to justice, we have wasted resources and lives on a manhunt that ought to have been concluded long ago.....There is no succinct or cogent articulation of the reasons why we have been at this for as long as we have, and we should not commit another American life to a nefarious conflagration that has, at best, nebulous ideological, philosophical and political underpinnings......

If we truly believe that Bin Laden is alive and being harbored in the region, we should withdraw all of our troops and issue an ultimatum in the strongest possible terms and, failing that, anihilate all of the targets   where he may be hiding in such a way as to not risk another American life and then, completely and absolutely walk away from it all. 

Nothing good can come from continuing to work with an illegitimate government, rogue mercinaries, drug over-lords and wasting American tax dollars and American lives....I am in full and unfettered support of our troops in the Middle East.  I do not, however, accept or agree with our 'reasons' for sending them there.... 

On November 14, 1960, nearly 49 years ago, 6 year old Ruby Bridges faced hostile crowds, and had to be escorted by U.S. Marshalls , because she was the first black child to attend previously all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, Louisiana. Ruby was 6 years old. (Norman Rockwell created the painting above depicting that event.)
That morning, she had only been told by her mother that she was going to be attending a new school that day and 'had better behave.' Little did little Ruby know that she would be bombarded with jeers and even death threats; and that she would end up being the sole child in her first grade class because all the other children were kept home by their parents. All because Ruby was Black.

NOW:

A Black girl escorted to school - 2009

On January 5, 2009, nearly 49 years after Ruby attended her school, 7 year old Sasha Obama, faced cheering schoolmates as she is escorted by her Mother and U. S. Secret Service Agents to Sidwell Friends Elementary School in Washington , DC . Her Mother, the current First Lady of the United States of America, had Secret Service escort because Sasha's daddy is now the 44th President of the United States.

Can this be one of the reasons why people under forty have a different view of the world.....????

by Ron Powell

With a line drawn in the sand, and an October 1st deadline for a meeting with the UN Security Council ( United States, Russia, China, France, England) and Germany (P5+1) regarding compliance, Iran will be at the top of the news for the next week and beyond...A refresher in geography seemed to be in order.

Who is CLSA-Hong Kong,

and WTF could they

possibly want/get from

Sarah Palin?

The CLSA (Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia-Hong Kong) Investors Forum in Asia features former Republican nominee for Vice-President, Sarah Palin discussing China as well as other foreign policy subjects. This is Sarah Palin's first keynote speech outside the boundaries of North America.

Jonathan Slone, the CEO of CLSA, said that Sarah Palin was asked to speak on U.S. foreign policy, healthcare, governance, and China. The keynote speech by Palin to investors in China was closed to the media. She did acknowledge that her speech would be "different" with the media in the room.

The CLSA decided that their clients were more important than the possible media circus they would get with "media types trying to prove how stupid Sarah Palin is".    

No doubt there will most likely be a youtube video of Sarah Palin's foreign policy speech about China and other issues that will be posted not long after the speech is finished. Sarah Palin was due to speak at the forum today.       

  CLSA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Type:  Private Founded:  Hong Kong (1986) Headquarters:     Hong Kong, China Key people:   Jonathan Slone, Chairman and CEO Industry:   Diversified financials Products:  Financial services Employees:   1,350 (2009) Website:  www.clsa.com               

CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets is one of the region's largest and most highly rated independent equity brokers and financial-services groups, focused on providing broking, investment banking and asset management to corporate and institutional clients around the world.[1][2]

Founded in 1986, CLSA has its headquarters in Hong Kong and offices or representatives in 15 cities across the Asia-Pacific region, as well as New York, London, San Francisco and Dubai. CLSA is majority owned (65%) by Crédit Agricole, France's largest retail-banking group, with the remainder held by staff.

Unlike most of its competitors, CLSA is a research-driven agency broker.[3] It's known for its annual investor forums (particularly the calibre of its keynote speakers and the star acts at its parties), as well as its unique reports, the hallmarks of which are colourful and sometimes irreverent "cartoon" covers[4] and analysis that goes beyond the numbers and 'tells the story' (a legacy of the journalism background of its founders). It has produced a number of seminal reports, including Billion Boomers and Mr & Mrs Asia.

By Ron Powell

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. --- George Orwell                     

Quite some time ago, I read Sissela Bok's seminal work: Lying: Moral Choice in Private and Public Life (1978). The book is still in print , nearly thirty years after its initial publication. I have used it in my classes when dealing with the questions and issues of morality and ethics in professional and personal life. Its continuing broad readership pays tribute to the book's lucidity and good sense. Bok's work has no equal as a serious treatment of a central, but neglected, dimension of moral life.  

Note: Sissela Bok is the daughter of Gunnar and Alva Myrdal both Nobel Prize recipients, and the wife of Derek Bok, formerly President of Harvard University (1971-1991).

Formerly a Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University, Bok is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. 

What exactly is a lie?

A lie is a statement, believed by the liar to be false, made to another with the intention that the person be deceived by the statement. This is the definition used by Sissela Bok and it has antecedents as far back as St. Augustine. I often like to throw in curve balls like; What if the liar knows the statement to be true but wishes the person to whom the statement is made to believe it to be false? 

What's the difference between lying about the day or time you'll be able to deliver yourself to a particular location for a dinner date and lying about the day and time you'll be able to deliver goods or services to that same location?

One situation seems to involve a purely or primarily interpersonal or social arrangement and the other involves a contractual or  commercial agreement. One situation may not become the basis for a legal sanction being levied against the liar, the other provides the foundation for taking legal action against the liar.  One case involves a'harm' done to anindividual the other involves a 'harm' done to society at large.

 A good person does not lie.

It is this intuition which brings lying so naturally within the  domain of those things and behaviors which we believe to be categorically immoral or wrong. Yet many lies do little if any harm, and some lies do real good. How are we to account for this stringent judgment on lying, particularly in face of the possible trivial, if not positively beneficial, consequences of lying?

What the lie accomplishes is deception:

There are many ways, of course, to deceive without actually lying. 

Consider this scene: The Doctor enters your hospital room looking cheerful. "Have you seen the test results?" you ask. "No," the doctor says, "they'll be available tomorrow. Relax and get a good night's rest." In fact, the doctor isn't lying - the final results won't be available until tomorrow - but he is deceiving you by his manner. He already has preliminary indications of what the test results will show, and your prognosis is not good. Was he justified in assuming a deceiving manner?

What if we altered this scenario so that the doctor actually lied? Would that make his deception worse?

What makes lying wrong? What makes deception wrong, when it is wrong? 

You want to lie to someone? Well, what if you were the one being lied to? Or the one being lied about? Would taking up that perspective change your view of the lie?  

Take the example of the human resources consultant (an example Sissela Bok discusses in her book) who was proud of her method for getting reliable recommendations about job candidates. She floats lies about the candidates she's investigating to see how a recommender responds. "I hear Smith doesn't get along well with her colleagues," the headhunter offers. "I hear Jones sometimes takes credit for other people's work." By gauging recommenders' reactions to these manufactured rumors, she elicits a richer report on a candidate's character and experience, so she is convinced.

The headhunter is so proud of her method in part because she is obtuse. She never imagines herself on the receiving end of her method. She never imagines herself as somebody being lied about by a seeker of information regarding her. Were she vividly to imagine that scenario, she might come very quickly to appreciate the great potential for harm in what she was doing. She might reflect:

Suppose my boss is just about to make a choice to promote me rather than a colleague - a close call - when he gets a phone query from a headhunter dropping unflattering rumors about me. Even though my boss denies the rumors, perhaps hearing them leaves a residue of doubt in his mind, and he reverses his decision, promoting my colleague instead of me!

No one wants to be harmed by a lie. We've no reason to suppose otherwise about the consultant. Thus, we've every reason to believe she would object to being on the receiving end of her method.

I highly recommend Sissela Bok's book as it is still the foremost treatise and analysis on the social and moral dynamics of lies and lynig.

Our focus here is; do we have a right to lie under the constitution?  What are the questions and issues posed by what seems to be taking place in the contemporary media and political arena?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Are lies and liars protected under the 1st Amendment to the Constitution?

Yes and No:

Yes: Political and religious speech are categorically protected, hence falsehoods, half-truths and down right lies that are promulgated within the context of such speech are also protected...So too, are the people who are responsile for the false, misleading or deceptive utterances couched in politics or religion.  This appears to be so whether the speaker intends the lie or not. 

Yes: Commercial and journalistic speech are protected for the most part. However, unlike political and religious speech and speakers which enjoy absolute protection, there are areas in which commercial speech and journalistic speech are measured or evaluated in terms of veracity and or intent regarding the queation of damage or harm to either an individual or society.  In these areas commercial and journalistic speech which is deemed intentionally deceptive and the cause of damage or harm is not protected and may result in the perpetrator being hit with a civil or criminal penalty of some kind.  

(In the law the concept of intent is critical because without showing the requisite intent, the harm or damage caused by the liar's lie may not result in the liar being subject to civil or criminal liabilty and penalties.)  

No: Interpersonal speech that results in harm or damage to another, particularly where the damage or harm caused is intended or reasonably forseeable, because it is fraudulent, libelous or uttered as part of or in the furtherance of a criminal activity, a criminal conspiracy or a criminal enterprise.

No: Speech that is intended to cause or incite violence, or riots.

No: Speech that is seditious or intended to cause rebellion against the government.

No: Speech that is intended to impede or interfere with the legitimate exercise of govermental power or authority. (Lying to the police, or falsifying a tax return, etc.)

In the instances where the speech is not protected the speaker is subject to civil or criminal liabilty and penalties when held responsible or accountable for the non-protected speech.

Where does this leave us?

The right to political or religious freedom of speech gives the speaker a constitutionally protected right to lie as long as the speech stays within the parameters of  protectd speech.

The journalist who lies without the overt intention to cause damage or harm is, for the most part, also constitutionally protected. 

As the ones being lied to, our best protection against the barage of lies we are subjected to on a daily basis, is to seek and learn the facts, and arrive at our own truths....It is not only our right but our responsibilty and civic duty as citizens.

Now, let the discussion begin..........

by Ron Powell

There are some here and elsewhere asking who were the Republicans who didn't stand or applaud the President during his speech on health care reform before the joint session of congress. My reponse is candid, honest and simple:  You would do better trying to identify the very,very few Republicans who will support efforts to reform the health care delivery/finance system...or anything else the President proposes.

I have posted and commented on the number of Republicans in congress who are racists, hate mongers, liars, birthers, deathers, tenthers, obstructionists, immoral and amoral crooks and thieves.

When you look at the videos and see the faces of those who refuse to acknowledge the veracity, validity, and legitimacy of what the President was saying, you are looking into the faces of the racist hate mongers who would sooner see the President dead than to work with him or any black man of consequence on anything meaningful, universally beneficial or constructive.....

These are the people who now know that they cannot bring him down, or box him in, or shut him up...These are the people who will resort to violence to protect their interests, and the interests they represent. The interests that have long been in control of the government and that have been out of control as relates to their complete and utter disregard for the needs and concerns of ordinary cititzens. 

These are the faces of those who are there to represent and protect the interests and concerns of the rich, the white, and the very powerful. They are the people who wish to maintain the status quo....

President Obama has manifest a level of courage the far exceeds anything that they could have possibly anticipated or imagined within the context and framework of the images and stereotypes that they have worked long and hard to develop and maintain.  These are the people who will stop at nothing to keep the 1st black president from succeeding to the point of instilling sufficient trust and confidence in American voters to win a second term.  

I have often said in my posts and comments here and elsewhere that the surest way for the President to secure a second term is to BE president in his first term.  He began to step away from campaign mode and into presidential mode last night. 

It is the moment I have been waiting to see and hear for the past eight months.  It is the moment that very nearly equals the night that we got the news that Senator Barack Obama had indeed won the election and would become the 44th President of the United States.  It is the moment that the racists and hate mongers have dreaded since the day he was inaugurated.  

This is what they fear most and why they didn't stand.  It is because they realize now, more than ever, that the country not only elected an African-American to the office of President.  The country has an African-American who has the courage, confidence, conscience and competence to stand up, speak out and BE President of the United States of America. 

I couldn't be more happy or more proud.

 The youngest of the Kennedy brothers, considered the least likely to have an impact, and in many ways the most consequential. With his passing so closely after the death of his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the Kennedy family must grieve again and again the nation must grieve with them....

After the death of President John Kennedy, LBJ picked up the banner of justice and equality and so it was that a Southerner from Texas was able to get The Civil Rights Act and The Voting Rights Act through congress. In many ways this was done in  memory of his predecessor in office, JFK........

This congress has the opportunity to pass the Edward M. Kennedy Health Care and Insurance Reform Act ( with a public option, not as a sliver, but as the center piece) in honor of the Lion, now gone, who spent a significant portion of his career on trying to repair the broken system for the benefit of the common person.........

by Ron Powell

On several occasions I have written about the matter of health care reform and have indicated in posts and comments that there can't be true reform of the healthcare system without removing profit and the profit motive from the equation.  At the moment the debate and discussions center around reduction of costs and the notion of a "public option" being the primary element in any proposal that purports to reduce the costs involved in the delivery of health care services.

It has been my contention that "costs" are the euphamism or code for profits.  In other words, I believe that if we can reduce or eliminate profits we can reduce or eliminate costs.  This is what the insurers and providers are acutely aware of and are fighting against.  They know that when the government gets involved the gravy train will come to a screeching halt.

Over the past several years the insurance companies have reaped record profits without any improvements to the system of health care. How does this happen?    It happens in any number of ways: increase of premiums, increase of deductibles, increase of co-payments, denial of coverage, cancellation of coverage and the denial of claims.  All of this is designed to enhance revenue streams while reducing or eliminating risk by reducing or eliminating the obligation to make payments within the context of the language of health insurance contracts. 

If you have health insurance my suggestion is to read it, all of it, especially the fine print .  You may discover why many of the people who have been driven into financial ruin as a result of a catastrophic illness are people who have health care insurance. 

Having a health care insurance policy is not the equivalent of having health care coverage and that is where the mother load of profits are for health care insurers.  I am a veteran so I'm covered with a government financed/controlled option and in a couple of years I will qualify for medicare as well, so I'm good to go. 

However, there are a vast number of people between the ages of 25 and 65 who are paying for health care insurance, either directly or through employer group plans, for whom the insurance companies do not intend provide coverage i.e. payment on claims.

Banks and credit card companies have been loan sharking for years.  The health care insurance companies have been engaged in a protection racket, also designed to cheat and gouge the public.  When all is said and done, reform of the way in which business is done in this country will require revisiting the notion of what is legal and what is not. 

The conservative element has had decades to undo what had been done to ensure that the public was protected from unscrupulous business practices.  The process of the systematic deregulation and removal of controls from profit-driven free market enterprises that are built on public trust and confidence must be reversed.  In order to restore sanity to the debates and discussions the 900 pound profit gorilla has to be removed from the room or it will continue to wreak havoc and nothing will get done, nothing will change and we all know  we can't afford that.

by Ron Powell

It is time for President Obama to learn to play hardball and stop acting as though there is a legitimate basis upon which to build or develop bipartisanhip or compromise.           

1.  He ought to have learned by now, that there is no bipartisanhip or compromise to be had with people who have decided to be uncooperative regardless of the nature of ANY proposal that he puts forward on health care or anything else for that matter.            

2.  He should know by now, that if he and the Democrats remove any significant element from the health care reform measures being considered, it will be the Republicans who will claim victory even as they continue to refuse to participate in the legislative process that brings a bill to the President's desk to be signed into law.           

3.  Any measure that is signed into law that does not include a public option that will signal a reduction of the runaway profits the insurers now enjoy, will be a capitulation to the insurance industry and other special interests that stand to gain from maintaining the status quo.              

4.  At this moment the Republicans have nothing to fear by resisting efforts at bi-partisanship and feel that they have nothing to gain from cooperating with the President.         

5.  The skills needed to get elected are quite different and not easily transferred....It reqiures an entirely different set of skills to govern....      

6.   Playing in the big leagues you have to learn and be willing to take bases with your spikes up.  The people around him have to step up and give him the kind of advice he needs or his administration will be in the toilet before his first year is up.......         

7.  President Obama needs to be reminded the if LBJ and Dr. King had compromised and capitulated when the Dixiecratats and conservative Republicans were determined to derail Civil Rights and Voting Rights legislation he would not be in office today....          

8.  It's time to step up and stand up, have some guts and show some backbone.  Many of the people who are being frightened into resisting change wouldn't be frightened if the President showed that he was indeed ready, willing, and able to fight with everything he has at his disposal to ensure that the health care system and health care insurance were reformed or changed for the benefit and good of the entire nation.               

   When I graduated college, the purveyors of credit cards descended on me like pigeons on popcorn in a park....When I graduated law school I was handed the keys to the credit card kingdom.........

                              At a time when the industry was much less predatory and usurious, I acted like I had received an inheritance and purchased whatever, whenever....I was doing OK.  I worked two full time jobs and had plenty of income....When my wife retrned to the workforce we were a three income family of three.  We thought we had money to burn.  But what we were really burning was plastic....And you know what comes from burning plastic, noxious toxic fumes....  

As I got older and the demands of family life became more financially cumbersome, I realized that I was working to simply pay bills and nothing more...After going through a rather painful period financially , I made it my business to disengage from the credit card traps and cycles... My motto became: "If I can't pay for it in cash, I don't NEED it."

It then dawned on me that we were moving toward a cashless society and I decided that I would do all that I could to live debt free...It is inconvenient at times...But, now I owe nothing to no one for anything, anywhere......

People like me are a threat to the financial system which has created a new kind of slavery and oppression....I don't do credit cards, direct deposit, electronic transfers or any of the other number of things that remove the freedom, latitude and flexibility that cash provides the average citizen or common person....CASH IS FREEDOM in a capitalist economy....

If we allow the banks to contol our existence by removing cash from the market place, we will have given away much of what we perceive as our independence....Down the line, those who don't have accesss to the banking system, as evidenced by some form of plastic will be sigmatized, demonized and eventually criminalized.....Law enforcement agenecies have been in the practice of profiling people who make large cash purchases as either drug dealers or terrorists for some time now......

The steady march toward the criminalization of poverty has become much more pronounced and discernable in the recent economic crisis....So I am involved in a one man crusade to hold the line against the removal of cash from our midst, because I believe that cash is one of the last great equalizers in our society/economy/culture.....The other is death.....

The banks and financial institutions are looking to remove the cash as a means of oppressing and enslaving otherwise "free"  middle class people while stigmatizing, demonzing and criminalizing poor people....

Unless we take action to halt this process, it will come to pass that failure to have a credit/debit card in your possion will cause you to be denied access to the goods and services we have taken for granted in the markeplace and the use of cash will be limited to illegal, illegitimate and  black market transactions which would subject the participants to criminal prosecution and penalties such as fines and/or incarceration....

.Can you imagine the Orwellian consequences of fining poor people for being poor....or are we already there?

Let's be candid and perfectly clear on this.  Republican and right wing resistance to President Obama's plans and policies is racially motivated.

The arguments against anything that President Obama has proposed or done thus far in his administration are not based on political ideology or alternative plans or proposals.  The opposition to Obama is simple and clear, there will be no cooperation or bipartisan support for the black man in the White House.

Here is a list/summary of the opposition arguments:

1) He is not a citizen.

2) He is a socialist.

3) He is a fascist.

4) He is a not a Christian.  

 5) He is a racist.

The Republican wisdom has been to let the falsehoods run their course and when possible be supportive of people who maitain such views or positions.

The Republicans are focused and singleminded in their desire to "break him".  There has not been nor will there be any effort to support plans or proposals that can result in any real change.  Hence the Republican Party is not simply the party of "NO" but they have hitched their political futures and fortunes to being the party of the status quo...no change at all.......

The plan is simple.  If they can keep Obama from making any changes for the good of the general public, they believe that people will become less enamored of Obama and his administration and thus be more disposed to voting against Obama and the Democratic Party during the next round of elections in 2010 and then in 2012. 

The Republican Party has chosen to be the party that represents the protection and preservation of white peoples' interests while at the same time doing all that it can to promote the notion that anything that Obama does is for the benefit of and in the interests of black people, which are, they would have the less enlightened among us believe, by definition diametrically in oppsition to the interests of white people...In short the Republican party has become the party of and for racists.....Bill Maher said it best on his program ...."If you are a racist you are most likely a Republican."  AMEN Bill, AMEN.........

              There is a strong social/cultural/political link or relationship between the refusal of these stupid people to accept the documentation presented as proof of President Obama's citizenship and his right to be were he is, and the refusal of a "stupid" police officer to accept the documentation presented by Professor Gates regarding his residency and hence his right to be where he was..........

During the period in which slavery was a central element of American social, cultural, economic, and political life, a "free" black man had to produce his "manumission" papers on demand or be subject to re-enslavement by virtually any white person who challenged the fact of his freedom. Even when such papers were produced, whites would more often than not uphold the challenge and force the unfortunate "free" man back into bondage....In some states it was illegal to free a slave.

The power to deny the legitimacy, validity or legality of such documents in the possession of blacks was routinely upheld and maintained by the legal system which was little more than a reflection of the white power structure that maintained the courts for their own purposes regarding matters of race....Not unlike what occurs today, particularly in the criminal justice system.....

By most accounts 46% of the people who voted during the last presidential election were willing to take a shot a putting Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Presidency.  That's an awful lot of people.....

Most of those folks are mad as hell that their candidates didn't win and the Republican party is doing all that it can to ensure that they stay that way until the next election.  The Republicans are currently engaged in political obstruction and sabotage on a level rarely seen here.  It will get worse as time progresses.  The purveyors of fear are hard at work making plans to storm the citadel of the American democratic process and take back what they believe to be rightfully theirs.

They are currently desparate and are apparantly willing to try just about anything to accomplish their goal.  The 2012 election looms on the horizon as their next chance to show the world that they would stop at nothing to get it all back. 

So what about a Palin/Bachmann dog & pony show?  It would be funny if it weren't so scary or is that; it would be scary if it weren't so funny.  Impossible you say?  The Republican campaign clown show will be something to see.

Remeber, they'll try anything and stop at nothing and at least 46% of the voting public are willing to let them have it their way.........   

Exactly one year ago, on the 4th of July, 2008, Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC) sent his Argentine girlfriend an e-mail.  The exchange that ensued is the stuff of TV mini-series scripting and the like. You can't make this up any better than what's written here by the Governor and his woman.

These are the unedited e-mails between South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and his Argentine girlfriend, Maria Belen Chapur, as published Thursday, 2 July, 2009, by McClatchy's (SC) The State newspaper. The State received the e-mails anonymously in December, 2008, but was unable to confirm their authenticity until Wednesday, 1 July, 2009.

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

From: Mark Sanford

To: Maria

Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 03:09:44 +0000

Dearest,

You are glorious and I hope you really understand that. You do not need a therapist to help you figure your place in the world. You are special and unique and fabulous in a whole host of ways that are worth a much longer conversation. To be continued ...

Have been having a few email problems as I am getting email through an aircard at the farm, where access to computer world is more than tough. Please let me know if you have gotten my last two eamils (sic) so I know it is working in getting to your part of the world ...

Another glorious day outside. Hope you are doing well, and am anxious to hear about your week. Know that I miss you. Unbeleivably (sic) hard to imagine it has been a week. Please also send your mailing address as I want to send you an insignificant something next week when I am back in civilization that I think you might find interesting given our conversation.

Want to write an indepth note with some thoughts on our visit when I know you are getting these emails. Hugs and much love. M

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From: Maria

Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 4:26 PM

To: Mark Sanford

Subject: RE:

My beloved, (hope you also change the dearest ...)

I'am (sic) reading your last two mails sitting outside with a great seaview here in Ilhabela, a beautiful island near Sao Paulo. Have been thinking of you while watching the beautiful blue sea (a) great part of my day and remembering with a great smile on my face, the time we had spent together. As I told you before, you brought happiness and love to my life and (I) will take you forever in my heart. I wasn't aware till we met last week, the strong feelings I had for you, and believe me, I haven't felt this since I was in my teen ages, when afterwards I got married. I do love you, I can feel it in my heart, and although I don't know if we'll ever be able to meet again this has been the best that has happened to me in a long time You made me realized (sic) how you feel when you realy (sic) love somebody and how much you want to be beside the beloved. Last Friday I would had stayed embrassing (sic) and kissing you forever.

Don't know why you think you bore me with the description of your farm. I am an urban girl but that doesn't inhibit me from loving other things, specially if they are the ones you love. I was able to imagine the place with every single detail you wrote and had trassmitted (sic) me the love you have for your farm. It sounds to be a great and peaceful place and loved you had shared it with me.

Thanks for your beautiful words, I don't know if I do need or not therapy but I have to find my new place in this new stage of my life. Life has been very generous with me and I want to return at least a little bit of what I have been given. I have time and think helping others who haven't been as lucky as me will do me fine.

My address is (deleted by The State). It will be great finding at home once I am back, whatever you send me, I'll keep it near my bed so as to feel you nearer.

Miss you so much... love you from the deepest of my heart. Sweet kisses.

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

From:

To:

Subject: RE:

Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 01:42:46 -0400

Beloved back to you...

Got back an hour ago to civilization and am now in Columbia after what was for me a glorious break from reality down at the farm. No phones ringing and tangible evidence of a day's labors. Though I have started every day by 6 this morning woke at 4:30, I guess since my body knew it was the last day, and I went out and ran the excavator with lights until the sun came up. To me, and I suspect no one else on earth, there is something wonderful about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the background, the tranquility that comes with being in a virtual wilderness of trees and marsh, the day breaking and vibrant pink coming alive in the morning clouds -- and getting to build something with each scoop of dirt. It is admittedly weird but one of my more favorite ways of escaping the norms, constant phone calls and formalities that go with the office -- and it probably fits with my weakness in doing rather than being -- though you opened up a new chapter last week wherein I was happy and content just being. Last point worth further discussion. Afternoon projects had me outside and by days (sic) end I pretty much looked like a homeless person ... but in this case a very content one. Enough about my love of heavy equipment and woods at sunrise ...

While I was getting exhausted with one project after another at Coosaw work week, you were basking (I'm certain gloriously) on the beach..

Sounds great, hope to hear more about what sounds a great spot.

Will now finally get some sleep and write you a longer note with a few more profound thoughts tomorrow or Wednesday. In the meantime I send my love and hope you know I am thinking of you.. M

P.S. I do not want to raise expectations, when I say I will send something insignificant I promise I will do as I say! It wont (sic) be worthy of bedside placement ... was just going to find the movie the Holiday as we had spoken of it last Thursday. Its music was pleasant and made me think of you -- its mood and the notion of a holiday (wrapped up in our case over two days) certainly fit as well ... (though our visit in some ways for me was as well less of a holiday than it was uncovering and realization of some things and feelings that again are worth longer conversation)

Had also hoped to find the cd of a song that played as I was flying home and also20made (sic) me think of you. Who knows if I can find the music ... so all you may be stuck with is a long released movie -- and if you put it by your bed I really be worried! Love you, good night and kisses back to you ...

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From: Maria

Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 8:14 PM

To: Mark Sanford

Subject: RE:

My love,

I decided to rent a car and went by myself to the other side of the Island where it is located one of the best hotels. It's name is DPNY Hotel and I find it quite interesting. I had lunch there in a restaurant on the beach with great seaview. I sat under a palm and ate a mixed green salad with grilled abacaxi (pineapple) and honey. in the afternoon I sunbathe and read on the beach. I ve started here "The age of turbulence" from Alan Greenspan which I highly recomend (sic) you. At five I left back to the small town had a coffee with pao de queijo (cheese bread which is something tipycal (sic) from Brazl (sic) and it's delicious) read some magazines, walked around and finally back to meu Pousada that is hotel.

In the Island is taking place the sailing week and Rolex competition and this was the reason for choosing the place and also why luckily I am most of the time by my own. It may sound bad but it's how I feel it. As I told you I shouldn't have done this trip but I would have felt worst if I wouldn't have come because it was too over the date, he is a very nice guy, great heart ... but unfortunately I am not in love with him ... You are my love ... something hard to believe even for myself as it's also a kind of impossible love, not only because of distance but situation.

Sometimes you don't choose things, they just happen ... I can't redirect my feelings and I am very happy with mine towards you. Hope you have had a good day, guess with much work.

Send you all my love and goodnight kisses. Sweet dreams from down south. I'll dream with you.

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From: Mark Sanford

To: Maria

Subject: RE:

Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 00:24:54 -0400

Sweetest,

It was indeed a long day. I am most jealous of your salad under the palm tree.

Three thoughts in one note now that I have a moment. One the travel schedule is about to get real busy (and this distresses me for the way it may well make it more difficult to get your notes over the next few weeks), two unfortunately all the feelings you describe are mutual, and three where do we go from here?

One, tomorrow leave at 5 am for New York and meetings. Will think about you on its streets and wish I was going to be there later in the month when you are there. Tomorrow night back to Philadelphia for the start of the National Governor's Conference through the weekend. Back to Columbia for Tuesday and then on Wednesday, as I think I had told you, taking the family to China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Thailand and then back through Hong Kong on world wind tour. Few days home then to Bahamas for 5 days on a friends boat for the last break of the summer. The following weekend have been asked to spend it out in Aspen, Colorado with McCain -- which has kicked up the whole VP talk all over again in the press back home.

Two, mutual feelings. I have been specializing in staying focused on decisions and actions of the head for a long time now -- and you have my heart. You have oh so many attributes that pulls it in this direction. Do you really comprehend how beautiful your smile is? Have you been told lately how warm your eyes are and how they softly glow with the special nature of your soul. I remember Jenny, or someone close to me, once commenting that while my mom was pleasant and warm it was sad she had never accomplished anything of significance. I replied that they were wrong because she had the ultimate of all gifts -- and that was the ability to love unconditionally. The rarest of all commodities in this world is love. It is that thing that we all yearn for at some level -- to be simply loved unconditionally for nothing more than who we are -- not what we can get, give or become. There are but 50 governors in my country and outside of the top spot, this is as high as you can go in the area I have invested the last 15 years of my life -- my getting here came as no small measure because I had that foundation of love and support so critical to getting up in the morning and feeling you could give and risk because you already had a full tank of love in the emotional bank account. Since our first meeting there in a wind swept somewhat open air dance spot in Punta del Este, I felt that you had that same rare attribute. Above all else I love that inner beauty about you. That gift of yours is going to make a tremendous difference in (The State deleted sons' names) life -- and in anyone's life who is blest to be touched by yours -- you need to rest very comfortably in that fact. As I mentioned in our last visit, while I did not need love fifteen years ago -- as the battle scars of life and aging and politics have worn on this has become a real need of mine. You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that is so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificently gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curves of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of night's light -- but hey, that would be going into the sexual details we spoke of at the steakhouse at dinner -- and unlike you I would never do that!

Three and finally, while all the things above are all too true -- at the same time we are in a hopelessly -- or as you put it impossible -- or how about combine and simply say hopelessly impossible situation of love. How in the world this lightening [sic] strike snuck up on us I am still not quite sure. As I have said to you before I certainly had a special feeling about you from the first time we met, but these feelings were contained and I genuinely enjoyed our special friendship and the comparing of all too many personal notes (and yes this is true even if you did occasionally tantalize me with sexual details over the years!) -- but it was all safe. Where we are is not. I have thought about it and in some ways feel I let you down in letting these complications come into a friendship that I hope will last till death. In all my life I have lived by a code of honor and at a variety of levels know I have crossed lines I would have never imagined. I wish I could wish it away, but this soul-mate feel I alluded too is real and in that regard I sure don't want to be the person complicating your life. I looked to where I often look for advice and counsel, and in I Corinthians 13 it simply says that, " Love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful, it is not arrogant or rude, Love does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice in the wrong, but rejoices in the right, Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things". In this regard it is action that goes well beyond the emotion of today or tomorrow and in this light I want to look for ways to show love in helping you to live a better -- not more complicated life. I want to help (one of Maria's sons) with film guys that might help his career, etc. I also don't want you walking20away (sic) from some guy (I take it the younger guy you mentioned a t dinner) because of me -- and what we both have to see as an impossible situation. I better stop now least this really sound like the Thornbirds -- wherein I was always upset with Richard Chamberlain for not dropping his ambitions and running into Maggie's arms. The bottom line is two fold, my heart wants me to get on a plane tonight and to be in your loving arms -- my head is saying how do we put the Genie back in the bottle because I sure don't want to be encumbering you, or your options or your life. Put differently, given I love you, I don't want to be part of the reason you are having less than an ideal week in what sounds like a cool spot.

Lastly I also suspect I feel a little vulnerable because this is ground I have never certainly never covered before -- so if you have pearls of wisdom on how we figure all this out please let me know ... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul. I love you ... sleep tight. M

PS. I will make it a point in NY tomorrow to drop by a store and get that movie I promised to send your way ... I am encouraged to know you will not keep it beside the bed least we have tangible evidence of two pathetic figures missing each other far too much to live a few thousand miles apart!

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From: Maria

To: Mark Sanford

Subject: RE:

Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:22:29 +0000

You have not brought complication or are not bringing complication to my life, on the contrary you've fullfiled (sic) me with happiness and made me aware how you can feel when you love somebody. I can think with my head but only feel with my heart so I can't avoid it even knowing is hopelessly impossible. The guy is the one I told you ,just three years younger than me, but I am not in love and won't fall in love with time so I have to continue my way ... be alone for some time and if I am lucky enough will someday feel towards somebody, what I today feel for you. At least you made me realized it can happen.

I don't know if I did understood (sic) well about what was unsafe or not safe. Before our mails use to have other contents ... if you want to go back to that and don't write love things and so on because is not safe for you it's ok with me, i (sic) love you and by no way would do something that can harm you, so please let me know.

I don't know how we figure all this out and I am not interested in knowing. I prefer to think we'll see each other again somewhere sometime in this life and in next. Will be missing you till then... . .

Have a great trip with the ones you love ... they are the kind of trips you will never forget and for your boys will be unworthable (sic) not only because of the places they will visit but for sharing all that time with you.

Send you millions of kisses that will last till we get in touch again. best wishes from the deepest of my heart.

P.S.: I don't want to put the genius (sic) back in the bottle because I truly believe in freedom. I never gave you sexual details but now you don't need to imagine you can close your eyes and just remember. I'll do the same.

 OOPS!