Black & Blue Heart

I Don't Post Here Any More

2007-02-27T12:09:00.000-08:00

Join me at the Thunder Echo Blog.
It's more fun...

Catch Me at Thunder Echo Blog

2007-02-20T16:12:00.000-08:00

Here’s a funny story. The local Seattle news, King 5, reported over the weekend that people all over Western Washington were scared and concerned about a mysterious white powder that was found on people’s cars and homes. Was it anthrax? Did terrorist fly a plane over the Puget Sound and distribute some horrible bio-weapon? Well King 5 paid a lab to analyze the mysterious substance and it turned out to be tree pollen. Pollen from pine trees.

Everyone is so worried about security these days. National Security, Homeland Security, Security Systems, Airport Security, Port Security, Social Security. Now we are even afraid of trees. TREES. Do we need a Department of Tree Security?

Let me clue everyone into a little secret: There is no such thing as security. Nothing is secure. No place, no person, no thing, no process can ever be secure.

When I think about it, I am pretty sure I don’t want security any way. A secure world would be very prison like. I want Freedom. Freedom to think. Freedom to act. Freedom to try things. Freedom to make mistakes. Freedom to learn from them. Freedom to pursue happiness.

Now I am not entirely sure that freedom actually exists either. But I would rather spend my life chasing Freedom than locking myself away in fear trying to find Security.

I was trying to keep two blogs going. Thunder Echo was all about art, music, poetry. And Black & Blue Heart was about politics and society. Well I have decided that those self imposed boxes were an attempt at security. I was trying to keep my art clean and my politics away from the people I work with. But I am going to throw those distinctions away in the name of Freedom.

From now on, I am going to post what ever I want about any topic on Thunder Echo Blog. There will still be art, poetry and music. But there will also be politics and society and philosophy. It may get messy, but it will be free. And Jay Birds want to be Free!

So I won't be posting here.
Join me at http://thunderecho.blogspot.com/

Meeting My Congressman: Rick Larsen

2007-01-16T16:18:00.000-08:00

I was invited to a Town Hall Meeting with my Congressman, Rick Larsen (D-WA), in Arlington last Saturday. So I packed up the family, my wife Evelyn and two daughters, and we braved the snow and ice to drive to the Arlington Boys and Girls Club. We had front row seats as part of an audience of about 40 people.

Rick Larsen (no relation by the way) has always been the most responsive of my three state representatives as far as answering emails and letters is concerned. (Maria Cantwell could learn a thing or two from Congressman Larsen.) But I was curious to see what he was like in person. Rep. Larsen gave a brief overview of the First 100 Hours program the Democrats have been working on since they were elected into the majority: ethics reform, exposing earmarks, returning “civility” to the House, implementing the rest of the 9/11 Commission recommendations, keeping WMD out of the hands of terrorists, raising the minimum wage, stem cell research, etc. This only took him about 20 minutes and he didn’t seem to posture and over-hype things like so many politicians do (but there weren’t any television cameras so he may not have felt the need). But he did admit that “Iraq is a cloud that hangs over everything we are trying to do.”

Then Rick started taking questions. This was the most interesting part of the meeting. People asked a lot of questions on a lot of topics. There were few weirdoes (“I’m worried about terrorists. Will you ban cell phone use on the highway?”) and a few people were there to pump their pet projects (“Will you support the right of horse owners to ride in National Parks?”), but most of the questions showed an admirable level of intellect, knowledge and concern on the part of those who attended. It was good to share concern over Iraq, the environment, and other topics with others in my community, especially when my opinions seem so “far out” to most of the people I work with and live near. For a conservative district there were a lot of liberal concerns.

The most memorable exchanges were these:

Rick said he did not think the Congress would support Bush’s troop surge.

He said that the Democrats would not try to impeach the President because “he is done in two years” and because he didn’t feel that Democrats had been elected to impeach the President. I did remind him that George Bush deserved impeachment even if he didn’t get it.

Rick felt that our concerns about military action against Iran were not founded. Several of us disagreed with him on this one and I asked why we were raiding Iran’s Consulate in Iraq, but the Congressman felt that no military strikes against Iran would happen. I hope he is right. Larsen also said that “talking to Iran and Syria about Iraq was probably a good idea.” Imagine that, wanting to talk to people instead of bombing them!

He also expressed concern that we were passing the cost of the war onto our children.

When my turn came I asked the following: I appreciate the actions the Democrats are taking so far, but my concern is a more fundamental one. When I talk to my daughters about our government, I find that I have to describe two governments: the representative democracy we are supposed to have and the money dominated government we actually have. I feel that our representatives should only be taking money from us, not from corporations and lobbyists. Would you support some kind of publicly financed campaigns?
Unfortunately Congressman Larsen was unwilling to support publicly financed campaigns. He said that it was up to the voters to judge the honesty of our representatives and to throw the bums out if they aren’t doing a good job. Not a surprising answer really coming from an incumbent congressman with all the fundraising advantages that come with it.

All in all I was encouraged by the experience. I felt like Rick Larsen was actually interested in our opinions even if they did not match exactly with his. And it was good to expose my children to part of the democratic process. In 2003 and 2004 I was disappointed in Larsen’s support of the Iraq War, but that was during a time when the majority of his constituents supported the war. Now that a majority of us in this district have made it clear that we do not support the Occupation of Iraq, it is good to see Rick Larsen shifting to represent us. I hope he can use his new seat on the Arm Forces Committee to bring our military involvement in Iraq to a close.

New Strategy in Iraq?

2007-01-11T14:58:00.000-08:00

I listened to the President’s speech on Iraq. The speech that promised to layout his new strategy for winning in Iraq. The result of months of consultation and careful deliberation. So I listened to the President’s speech to see what the new strategy would be.

I must say first off, this was probably the best speech George Bush has given in years. He sounded reasonable and he even wore a blue tie. And the best part was when he admitted that things had not gone well in Iraq and that any mistakes made were his responsibility.

But the content left me speechless. There was no new strategy. There were a few minor tactical tweaks made and apparently some fresh arm twisting of the Iraqi Prime Minister, but new strategy? No. This speech was “Stay the Course” disguised as new strategy. The only strategy being employed was one of delay—delay changing anything significantly until Mr. Bush is out of the White House and the horrible problems he created in Iraq are someone else’s responsibility to clean up.

The “surge” of new troops does not even return U.S. troop levels to what they were only 18 months ago. More troops did not make a difference then. There is no indication that more troops will make a difference now. The level of troops that military experts say would make a difference would require hundreds of thousands of new troops, not tens of thousands. We cannot muster enough troops to reach effective levels of security in Iraq.

The new plan by the Iraqi government is really the new plan that Bush has forced the Iraqi’s to endorse. So there is little evidence to suggest that Iraqi forces will change strategies or take on more responsibility. Continued U.S. troops gives the Iraqi’s a cheap and easy target to blame for everything that is wrong in Iraq, (and much of the problem is our fault) but the U.S. is not causing this religious and sectarian violence which everyone refuses to call A Civil War.

The U.S. should never have invaded Iraq. But staying is not solving the current political, religious, and racial problems. The U.S. won the war in Iraq. But we are losing the occupation of Iraq. We need to stop trying to force a military solution to these religious, sectarian, political and racial problems. We should admit our ineffectiveness, work with Iraq’s neighbors to secure the borders, and get out of the middle of the Iraqi Civil War.

When you have a bucket full of muddy water, you don’t clarify it by stirring it with a stick. You stop and wait and let the sediments fall to the bottom. You don’t calm a situation by throwing more violence into the middle of it.

There are many new strategies that could be taken in Iraq. But what President Bush proposed in his speech was not new and it was not strategic. It was pathetic and dangerous. Time will tell if the new Democratic Congress has the balls to withdraw support and authorization for Bush’s Iraqi policies. I hope they do.

Listening To: Myself

2007-01-07T14:03:00.000-08:00

Art is not what I do for a living.
But Art is what I do when I am living.
I had a few friends who went into commercial art for a living. And they all stopped producing their own art (which they loved) and began hating the commercial art they were producing for a living. Art went from being enjoyable personal expression and became hated public product. I, on the other hand, have always felt that my artistic expression was a necessary and valuable personal expression. Art is part of my practice, part of my psychology, part of my intersecting with and making sense of the wider world. So I decided years ago that I needed my art for me and that commercializing it could poison it.

So I make extremely personal and perhaps egocentric art.
And I make no real effort to publicize or commercialize my art.
Only a handful of friends and family (people who have to bump into me anyway) are exposed to what I do artistically. Some of them tolerate my art. Some of them yawn and roll their eyes. Some of them genuinely seem to like my drawings and music. But mostly, I have to admit, the audience for my art is me. And as long as I am enjoying producing and reviewing my art, I am satisfied.

But sometimes I wonder what it would be like to have a wider audience. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to make art for a living. But that would mean making an effort to market my art and myself. It could just be fear or laziness that stops me from taking that road. What if I’m not as good as I think? What if I tried really hard and failed? What if people didn’t want to pay for what I do? But then again I like making a steady salary. I like being able to produce what I want when I want, so that it feels like a genuine personal expression instead of a job.

So for reasons dark and light, I keep my art to and for myself.

But I do stick some of it up on my website (www.whatdoweknow.com) and my art blog (www.thunderecho.blogspot.com). And strangely enough a small handful of complete strangers have expressed an interest in my art, poetry and music. A few (mostly in Japan for whatever reason) have even paid cash to have Thunder Echo CDs mailed to them. And I still harbor secret fantasies of being “discovered” by some rich person who wants to pay me huge amounts of money for my art. But I know what the odds are of that happening…

So to my friends and family: Sorry but I will keep putting my stuff on the refrigerator and asking you what you think.
To the handful of anonymous fans: Thanks for being interested enough to drop me note and listening to my music.
To the Artist: Dude, you are a weird fucker, but you make me laugh. So keep making music. And keep making doodles. And keep throwing random words together. Cause you let me know I am alive.

Listening To: Stuart Davis

2006-12-18T09:51:00.000-08:00

If Ken Wilber is the philosopher king at Integral Institute, then Stuart Davis is the court jester. But don’t be fooled by Stuart’s clowning around. Beneath the antics (and very funny antics they are) is the insight of a true spiritual seeker. Like the Zen mystics of a by-gone age, Stuart will lure you in with a catchy tune and then wack you upside the head with a jarring jewel of wisdom.

Stuart Davis has over 10 studio albums; all released without major label support or shackles. You could throw Stu into the College Radio/Indy Rock category and you wouldn’t be wrong, but Davis quickly transcends typical rock stereotypes with his playful yet masterful excursions into psychology, sociology, and spirituality. Davis creates pop rock parables: they penetrate the listener at whatever level the listener is prepared to receive them at.

The latest Stuart Davis studio album is this year’s, ¿What, is a rollicking tour through several levels of the spiral of development. All of Stuart’s albums are available on his website: http://www.stuartdavis.com/. Oh, and his wife just had a baby. So help the Davises celebrate by ordering a few CD’s. His clones will pop them into the mail as soon as they get a break from filming their TV Show and touring. Enjoy.

November Wet and Wild

2006-12-04T15:07:00.000-08:00

November in Arlington started with rain and flooding and ended with snow.

For several days after Thanksgiving, the Puget Sound area got hit with snow. We had over a foot of snow at our house. Lots of trees lost branches. We had a couple of days with no power, no school, no work. So we huddled around the fireplace to stay warm and listened to the transistor radio.

Now the snow is melting. We are getting caught up at work and watching the same storm pound the Midwest. Suddenly, Christmas is just around the corner.

November was the wettest month in the Seattle area since they started keeping records 150 years ago. So hopefully December weather will be a little more normal.

It All Depends on Perspective

2006-11-17T10:58:00.000-08:00

My brother is mad at me for raving about Ken Wilber but not explaining his work. On one hand, that is like being mad at me for not trying to sing a new post-punk ballad that I have listened to and you haven’t. But on the other hand, you would expect me to say more than, “Listen to this song, Dude. It rocks!” So listen up, Dude, because this stuff rocks. But if you really want to experience it, you have to read and/or listen to Ken Wilber.

Ken Wilber has written over 20 books, of which I have only read 5 or 6 so far. Obviously, even if my understanding was as complete and as deep as Ken’s, I would need thousands of pages to discuss all the things Ken discusses. So instead of being comprehensive I will only tackle small bits of his theory.

As an English Major and lover of the power of language, I was first attracted to Ken’s use of Perspective. Ken observed that all human languages have a natural range of perspectives: First Person (I), Second Person (You), Third Person (It) and Singular and Plural versions of these (We, Its). We naturally construct sentences that incorporate all of these perspectives. Ken also explains how most of us tend to focus excessively on one of these perspectives and ignore other perspectives.

One of Ken’s driving motivations is his idea that everybody can’t be 100% wrong about everything. Or to state it more positively, everybody is right, but probably not 100% right. This is a problem most of us have faced in one way or another. Science can examine your body (an It) and tell you if you have a tumor, but Doctors can’t tell you why you feel depressed (an I experience). The scientist can study neural pathways and endorphins (Its) but never fully explain the fact of your disturbing relationships with your coworkers (a We experience).

Part of what Ken does is take truth wherever he finds it and tries to figure out which Perspective that truth is true from. My experiences inside my thoughts and feelings are true, but so are the doctor’s descriptions of my blood chemistry and X-rays. These things don’t explain each other or make the other go away, but they do correspond to each other. My emotions correspond to different endorphin levels in the brain. The It and the I are both two different perspectives on the same event. Both of these truths are part of a bigger multi perspective truth, an Integral Truth.

Ken doesn’t claim to be an expert in every field of knowledge, but what he does know he arranges within his Map of Quadrants (see the grid above), and these sometimes contradictory truths quite often make more sense and illuminate each other in surprising ways when they can illuminate the insides and outsides of each other, when individual things can be combined into richer collectives.

Try it: take any thing in your experience (a person, fact, thought, belief, organization, etc.) and place it in each of the four quadrants, take those four perspectives in relation to that thing (I, It, We, Its) and see what emerges.

Ken’s Integral Model encompasses more than just these four quadrants (there are Levels, Lines, Stages and States) but even just this one tool is worth the price of admission. With just this one dimension of the map you start to figure out riddles like why science and religion can’t talk to each other. Science is all about outside things (It and Its) and religion is all about inside experiences solitary and social (I and We). Both camps refuse to give up their truth but the tools of the other side can’t be used to verify the truths they are defending. Science can’t find god, but Religion can’t explain gravity.

Of course endlessly taking different perspectives has its own dangers and you have to watch out for the portions of each position that are not 100% true (because remember, everybody is right but nobody is 100% right). But the 4 Quadrants really do open up a lot of new territory for exploration. You still have to go out and explore the territory in person, but it is good to have a better map as you navigate.

So I hope you find this thing interesting and that we can fit it into a broader network of interesting things. Maybe I’ll tackle some other Integral topics later.

Reading Ken Wilber

2006-11-16T11:37:00.000-08:00

I remember the first Ken Wilber book I ever saw. I was prowling the stacks at the Barnes & Noble when I saw a book called, “A Brief History of Everything.” Wow! What an egotistical blowhard. Who could possible believe they could explain EVERYTHING in a couple of hundred pages? Who did this Ken Wilber guy think he was?

So I picked up the book and started reading, just to get a sample of the obvious crap that was bound to be inside. And I kept reading, and reading, and reading. Then I bought the book and took it home and read the whole thing. Ken Wilber really was attempting to describe a framework or map that helps to position EVERYTHING in relation to everything else. EVERYTHING. It was skeptical. But it was just so damned interesting. It made my brain hurt at times, but I kept on fighting my way through his theory. Ken Wilber was obviously a compulsive learner who had dipped his toes into a vast quantity of knowledge from a huge number of areas: philosophy, psychology, religion, physics, sociology, etc., etc., etc. I was impressed by his reach and intrigued by his ideas, but I had this sneaking feeling that his Integral Model was just too good to be true.

So I put the book down and kept on moving through my life. That was over six years ago. I kept living and reading and trying to make sense of everything. And I noticed a strange thing: I kept placing the things I was learning into Ken’s Integral Model and they kept fitting. Not only did things fit, the more I looked at things from the multiple perspectives of the Integral Model the more things started to make sense.

I will not even attempt to describe Ken Wilber’s Integral Model, or AQAL, or any his stuff here. Ken Wilber does a much better job explaining than I could do in a quick blog entry. But I will say that I am still reading Ken Wilber (most recently, Boomeritis and Integral Spirituality) and I am still blown away by his ability to bring seemingly contradictory realms of experience and knowledge together. And I am increasingly blown away by the circle of like minded people who have gathered around him to share and discuss their areas of expertise. It gives me hope to see so many smart and compassionate people focusing on understanding and growing and evolving so that we can reach our highest potentials.

So why this post? No reason other than to say, I really dig Ken and I think other smart people might like him too.
http://www.kenwilber.com/home/landing/index.html

Hell and High Water

2006-11-13T14:44:00.000-08:00

I have been absent from the Internet and this blog for a while.
First I lost over a week to the hell of a serious migraine headache.
Then the local rivers flooded and kept me and my family from returning to our home. Everything is fine—we did not get flooded, just our access roads got flooded. Since recovering from the migraine and regaining access to our house I have been playing catch-up at work. So there has been no time for blogging.

But the Hell and High Water have receded, and in the middle of all that Election Day came and went. Three Cheers for the voters of America! And now I have my fingers crossed, hoping that the Democrats can avoid screwing things up as badly as the Republicans did.

Active troops ask congress to end Iraqi occupation

2006-10-24T10:41:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sixty five active duty service members are officially asking Congress to end the war in Iraq -- the first time active troops have done so since U.S. invasion began in 2003.Three of the service members will hold a press conference Wednesday explaining their decision to send "Appeals for Redress" under the Military Whistleblower Protection Act to their members of Congress. Under the act, National Guard and Reservists can send communications about any subject to their member of Congress without punishment.

Like the Mafia, Only Dumber

2006-10-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

William Rivers Pitt lists a roll call of recent GOP criminals and doesn't even mention the Crime Bosses (Bush, Rummy, Chenny, Rove). I would appologise for the list being long, but that is the Republicans' fault.

Pitts post is as follows:

Josh Marshall, who runs the excellent blog Talking Points Memo, recently posted a reader's take on "The 5 Stages of Republican Scandal." As follows:
1. "I have not been informed of any investigation or that I am a target."
2. "I am cooperating fully, but this whole thing is a political ploy by the Democrats."
3. "I'm SHOCKED by the mistakes made by my subordinates."
4. "I'm deeply sorry for letting down my friends and family. I now recognize that I am an alcoholic. I will be entering rehab immediately, so I have no time for questions."
5. "Can I serve my time at Eglin Federal Penitentiary (aka Club Fed)?"

We have seen a fair amount of this already, and will soon see a lot more of it. The news media is all abuzz about Republican scandals, from Foley to Abramoff, but simply hearing about it from the television does not do the situation justice, if you'll pardon the bad pun. You have to see it all in one place to understand the depths to which the GOP has sunk.

Bear in mind, as you peruse the following roll call, that these guys are getting busted for this stuff while their party has absolute control over the House, the Senate, the White House and the Justice Department. Huffington Post columnist Stephen Elliot pegged it recently when he wrote, "The fact is if you control the Senate, the White House, and the courts, and you're still getting busted for bribery, stalking children, and money laundering, then something is really sick at the Republican core."
Indeed. Thus, without further ado and in no particular order ...

Jack Abramoff: The disgraced "super-lobbyist" has been nailed for wire fraud, and is cooperating in the investigation into the bribing four Republican members of congress.

Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas): Once the most powerful man in the House of Representatives, Texas congressman DeLay now stands indicted on three counts of money laundering, charges stemming from his all-out attempt to secure a permanent Republican majority in the House. His story isn't finished; the Abramoff investigators have been sniffing around his door for months now.

Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio): Ney has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Jack Abramoff. Ney pulled #4 out of the bag of GOP excuses above, announcing that he has entered a rehab clinic for alcohol addiction.

Tony Rudy: Once the deputy chief of staff for Tom DeLay, Rudy has pleaded guilty to bribing a Republican House member, said member widely assumed to be Bob Ney. Rudy also pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Abramoff in return for favorable actions on Abramoff's behalf by his former boss.

Mike Scanlon: Another Republican lobbyist and former DeLay press secretary, Scanlon has pleaded guilty to stealing millions of dollars from Native American tribes, on whose behalf he was supposed to be lobbying Congress regarding casinos. Scanlon is also cooperating with federal investigators.

Rep. Randy Cunningham (R-Calif.): The California congressman has pleaded guilty to accepting $2.5 million in bribes, in exchange for steering federal contracts to a number of defense firms. Cunningham is currently staring down the barrel of eight years in prison.

Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.): There isn't much more to say about this fellow, who has joined Rep. Ney in the I'm-an-alcoholic-going-to-rehab club.

Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) : Long considered to be little more than the mush-mouthed front man for Tom DeLay, Speaker of the House Hastert has found himself swept up in the Foley scandal. Several fellow congressmen have said that they warned Hastert about Foley's improper behavior, but nothing was done about it until the Foley emails went public. The watchword for today is "cover-up."

I. Lewis Libby: Cheney's former chief of staff, "Scooter" Libby, has been indicted on five counts of lying to investigators regarding the outing of deep-cover CIA agent Valerie Plame.

David Safavian: Once the head of the White House Office of Federal Procurement, Safavian has been convicted of four counts of lying to investigators regarding a bribe he took from Abramoff.

Claude Allen: Formerly a domestic policy advisor to the White House, Allen was arrested for shoplifting thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from various retail stores.

Brian Doyle: Formerly the Department of Homeland Security's deputy press secretary, Doyle was arrested for attempting to seduce a 14-year-old girl over the internet.

James Tobin: Tobin, who served as the northeast field director for the Republican Senate Campaign Committee, has been convicted on two counts of conspiracy stemming from a phone-jamming scheme in New Hampshire during the 2002 midterms. Tobin made dozens of phone calls during this time to the White House political affairs office. He was sentenced to ten months in prison.

Susan Ralston: An aide to White House political advisor Karl Rove, Ralston resigned recently after her multiple meetings with Jack Abramoff became public knowledge. Ralston was also in the habit of accepting gifts, such as tickets to sporting events, from the disgraced lobbyist.

Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.): Doolittle hasn't been convicted of anything yet, but has rolled out the "not a target" line regarding the investigation into Abramoff's bribery scheme.

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont.): Like Doolittle, Burns has deployed the "not a target" line regarding the Abramoff probe. He is, however, apparently a "target" of the probe, a fact that has his staffers splitting rhetorical hairs at warp speed.

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.): Rep. Dale Kildee, the only Democrat on the House Page Board, dropped an interesting brick the other day. While commenting on a conference call between page board members regarding "other allegations" beyond those directed at Rep. Foley, Kildee said, "It was about other allegations and I'd like to leave it at that. Let me just say, not about Mr. Foley." These "other allegations" appear to be augering towards Rep. Kolbe, who took two former pages on a camping trip several years ago. A federal investigation has been opened to look into the matter.

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.): The senate majority leader is currently under investigation by the SEC for seemingly taking advantage of insider information to make a killing on stocks, the company attached to said stocks being owned by his family.

Lester Crawford: Once the Bush administration's FDA commissioner, Crawford has been charged in federal court for conflict of interest, and for making false statements related to his investments. He recently pleaded guilty to the charges.

Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.): The home of Weldon's daughter was raided by federal investigators on Monday. The investigators are looking hard at her lobbying firm, and whether her well-connected father improperly steered business her way. Weldon has pulled out #2 above, laying the whole thing off on a Democratic plot to destroy him.

Tom Noe: A four-star Republican fund-raiser in Ohio, Noe has just gone on trial for stealing millions from a fund for injured workers and spending it on himself.

Here's the best part: George W. Bush has officially declared that this is now National Character Counts Week. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.

"America's strength is found in the spirit and character of our people," reads the Bush proclamation. "During National Character Counts Week, we renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character." Someone apparently forgot to circulate the "Character Counts" memo among the ranks of the Republican Party, it seems.

At the end of it, you have to think of this crew as being like the Mafia, only a lot dumber. Think about it. The Mafia's criminal enterprises operate under heavy scrutiny from local, state and federal officials, all of whom have subpoena power, not to mention the ability to tap phones and kick down doors.

The Republican criminal enterprise that is currently unraveling in all directions, on the other hand, operated virtually free from restraint or scrutiny. They own the government, from the Oval Office to the FBI to the Capitol Dome, and yet somehow they are managing to get busted left and right.

GOP Confident They Can Steal The Vote

2006-10-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Thom Hartman just announced this story.
Read the article at the Daily KOS.

Several journalists have commented recently about the President's and Karl Rove's strange confidence that Republicans will not lose the mid-term elections, despite public polls and other evidence to the contrary.

Now we know why. The Republicans are purging the election rolls in Ohio and 3 other states--a tactic that worked well for them in Ohio and Florida in past elections. They are especially targeting university students, who tend to vote for liberal candidates (probably because their idealism hasn't been purchased, co-opted or crushed yet). They are being purged in many cases because they have been assigned new dorm rooms, which is technically a change in address.

Read the post. Find out what to do. Demand an absentee ballot.

The Neo-Cons will stop at nothing to win. Good citizens must resist this subversion of our government and constitutional rights.

This plan includes involvement by the Diebold company which has created new voter registry systems which have been installed over the last year.

The Republican De-evolution

2006-10-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

Love him or hate him you had to respect Ronald Reagan. He had big ideas. He knew how to express them. He got people excited. He launched a Republican Revolution which swept politicians like Newt Gingrich into office. But now, the heirs of Reagan are a different breed altogether. The revolutionary zeal seems to be wearing thin due to the abrasive quality of the Neo Conservative power grabs and disrespect for the conservative values that fueled the revolution.

Conservative talk radio had a lot to do with fueling the Reagan revolution, and it may be heralding the end as show host after host reaches for their favorite weapon: Blame the Democrats. Apparently Democrats are responsible for Al Qaeda, 9/11, and now the Foley scandal. But the accusations are sounding thin and the public is not responding like they used to.

As Time Magazine reports:
”On conservative commentator Laura Ingraham's show, the longest-serving Republican House Speaker in history explained why he would not resign despite a sex scandal that has produced a hail of questions about his leadership and the failure to stop one of his members from cyberstalking teenage congressional pages. "If I fold up my tent and leave," Dennis Hastert told her, "then where does that leave us? If the Democrats sweep, then we'd have no ability to fight back and get our message out."

The Republicans are hardly even pretending to have big ideas or better ethics any more; they are just desperately trying to hold on to power for power’s sake. And you can hear their fingernails screeching on the marble roofs of the Washington D.C..

I don’t want to talk about Foley and the pages. I think it is sick. And there are so many other examples of Republican corruption (election fraud, lies, WMD, Jack Abramoff, torture, habeas corpus, wire tapping, lies, lies, and more lies) that should resonate with voters. There are so many reasons for true conservatives and true people of faith to turn away in disgust from these Neo Conservatives. But those issues just seemed to roll off the conservative voters like water off a duck. They didn’t seem to penetrate. The Foley scandal seems to resonate with people. People finally seem to care about this lapse or lack of ethics.

Perhaps this signals the end of the Revolution. Perhaps conservative voters will finally see these hypocrites for the power hungry liars that they are. Or maybe the Neo Cons will once again tilt the voting machines. Maybe they will make voters afraid enough one more time. Maybe the talk radio host can screech shrilly enough to get the old dogs to roll over for their masters one more time.

But how many more times can they pull this off? Maybe the old dogs will learn a new trick. Maybe Democrats will take the house. Maybe they will clean house. Maybe…

My Heroes in the Media

2006-10-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

There are a few shining lights that have somehow survived the screeching howl that is typical media news. The brightest lights in the media these days are Bill Moyers and Heith Olbermann.

I watched Bill Moyers’ PBS Special about Jack Abramoff and the corruption of lobbyists and members of Congress. It was chilling to those of us who respect the Constitution. Catch the reruns if you can.

In a related article, Lincoln Weeps, Moyers says:
“Once upon a time the House of Representatives was known as "the people's house." No more. It belongs to K Street now. That's the address of the lobbyists who swarm all over Capitol Hill. There are 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. They spend $200 million per month wining, dining and seducing federal officials. Per month!”

Meanwhile Keith Olbermann is continuing to speak the truth to the man sitting in our White House. Keith questions how we can accept so many lies from our President and his administration in A Special Comment About Lying.
Read it Here.
Or Watch it Here.
“Mr. President, these new lies go to the heart of what it is that you truly wish to preserve.
It is not our freedom, nor our country—your actions against the Constitution give irrefutable proof of that.
You want to preserve a political party’s power. And obviously you’ll sell this country out, to do it.
These are lies about the Democrats -- piled atop lies about Iraq -- which were piled atop lies about your preparations for al Qaida.
To you, perhaps, they feel like the weight of a million centuries -- as crushing, as immovable.
They are not.
If you add more lies to them, you cannot free yourself, and us, from them.
But if you stop -- if you stop fabricating quotes, and building straw-men, and inspiring those around you to do the same -- you may yet liberate yourself and this nation.
Please, sir, do not throw this country’s principles away because your lies have made it such that you can no longer differentiate between the terrorists and the critics."

For Cheney "Free Speech" = "Assault"

2006-10-03T17:13:00.000-07:00

If you had any doubt that the Neo Cons want to dismantle the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, Read this article from the Rocky Mountain News, where Cheney has a man arrested at a shopping mall for expressing his opinion about the administrations Iraq policies:

Arrest over Cheney barb triggers lawsuit
By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News October 3, 2006

A Denver-area man filed a lawsuit today against a member of the Secret Service for causing him to be arrested after he approached Vice President Dick Cheney in Beaver Creek this summer and criticized him for his policies concerning Iraq.

Attorney David Lane said that on June 16, Steve Howards was walking his 7-year-old son to a piano practice, when he saw Cheney surrounded by a group of people in an outdoor mall area, shaking hands and posing for pictures with several people.

According to the lawsuit filed at U.S. District Court in Denver, Howards and his son walked to about two-to-three feet from where Cheney was standing, and said to the vice president, "I think your policies in Iraq are reprehensible," or words to that effect, then walked on.

Ten minutes later, according to Howards' lawsuit, he and his son were walking back through the same area, when they were approached by Secret Service agent Virgil D. "Gus" Reichle Jr., who asked Howards if he had "assaulted" the vice president. Howards denied doing so, but was nonetheless placed in handcuffs and taken to the Eagle County Jail.

The lawsuit states that the Secret Service agent instructed that Howards should be issued a summons for harassment, but that on July 6 the Eagle County District Attorney's Office dismissed all charges against Howards.
The lawsuit filed today alleges that Howards was arrested in retaliation for having exercised his First Amendment right of free speech, and that his arrest violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unlawful seizure.

Vote for Change

2006-10-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

I am not naïve enough to believe that the Democrats are pure of heart and uncompromised. But I am also not naïve enough to believe the Republicans when they pound their chests and proclaim themselves the only party that can save America from terrorists.

I smell fear. I smell fear in Washington D.C.. I smell fear in the White House. I smell fear in the Congress. I smell fear in the Senate. The Neo Conservatives who have hijacked the Republican party are afraid because there is a chance that control of the Senate and maybe the Congress might go to the Democrats.

What happens if the Democrats get control of the Senate and/or the Congress?
Maybe nothing. But maybe a little thing called Congressional Oversight. Hearings, Subpoenas, Investigations, Fact Finding, and dare I say it….Impeachment….Prison.

Will it happen? Will the Democrats gain control? Will the Democrats hold these corrupt NeoCons responsible for bankrupting our treasury, starting illegal wars, repealing the Constitution? Who knows? But I know this: If voters just go to the polls and vote business as usual, we will never get the chance to find out.

I wish we had viable third party candidates. But we don’t. So our only chance to derail this horrible run away train called the Bush Administration is to vote Democrat in this election. Then we have to hold our elected officials responsible.

So vote Democrat. And tell your candidates why you are voting Democrat: to hold the administration accountable and to restore the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Then maybe we can work to solve some real problems, like Global Warming, Heathcare, Poverty.

So suck it up Independents, Libertarians, Communists, Anarchists, Greens, and Conservatives and vote Democrats for Congress and Senate. It may be a long shot, but it is the best shot we all have.

Do Not Talk About July 10th, 2001

2006-10-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

Talk about anything, but do not talk about July 10th.
Talk about Congressman Foley and teenage pages.
Talk about Abortion and the Supreme Court.
Talk about School Shootings.
Talk about how Democrats and the media re ganging up on the President.
Talk about how Bill Clinton "melted down" on TV.
Talk about anything.

But do not talk about July 10th, 2001: the day that George Tenet, the Director of the CIA, warned Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser to the President, that an attack from al Qaeda on the U.S. was imminent.
Do not talk about how Ms. Rice did nothing.
Do not talk about how the President did nothing.
Do not talk about how the 9/11 Commission was not told of this meeting or this warning.

Talk about Michael Jackson; I hear he refused a psychological exam…

(ps: I could give you links for all of these stories, but you just have to go to Fox News.)

They deserve Real Dads, not Cardboard

2006-09-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

This article in the New York Times just makes me cry, When Soldiers Go to War, Flat Daddies Hold Their Place at Home.
"The Maine National Guard is giving life-size from-the-waist-up pictures of soldiers to the families of deployed guard members. Guard officials and families say the cutouts, known as Flat Daddies or Flat Soldiers, connect families with a relative who is thousands of miles away. The Flat Daddies are toted everywhere from soccer practice to coffee shops to weddings."

First let me say that I ache when I witness the bravery of these soldiers and their families. Our government, OUR government is asking these citizens to endure so much danger and heartache. We are asking so much from these people, and they are stepping up to the plate.

But why are they still in Iraq? Why did we go in the first place? Why are we asking these children to bond with a cardboard cutout instead of their real fathers and mothers? What happens when these soldiers die? These kids will be left with only a cardboard dad. Is that what we want?

Before we ever commit troops to battle we need to seriously consider these issues. We need to seriously consider these kids. They need their dads. Let's bring them home while we still can.
Don't vote for anyone who does not want to work to bring these brave parents home to their kids.

No Octane Suprise

2006-09-29T14:47:00.000-07:00

My Brother Ronnie was asking why his local gas prices had just gone down so fast. He also wanted to know who sets prices and how. I don't feel like writing an in-depth essay on the petroleum market, but Ronnie needs to know that prices have dropped nation wide and with the midterm elections coming up the Republicans are thanking their lucky stars that prices are coming down. One thing is clear, people are happy that gas costs less. Is this part of Carl Rove’s October Surprise? People are suspicious.

From the Washington Post:
“A Gallup poll showed 42 percent of Americans believed the Bush administration had deliberately manipulated the price of gas so that it would decrease before the November 7 midterm vote. Internet blogs are filled with skeptics questioning the relationship between Republicans and big oil.
While both the White House and market experts dismiss the conspiracy theory, Republicans are relieved the days of $3 a gallon gasoline are over, at least for now.
"It's very difficult for Democrats to use this as a campaign issue when every passing week drops the price of gas a nickel or a dime," said Ed Patru, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.”

This from WXII and the AP:
“The retail price of gasoline has plunged by 50 cents, or 17 percent, over the past month to average $2.38 a gallon nationwide, according to Energy Department statistics. That is 42.5 cents lower than a year ago, when the energy industry was still reeling from the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which damaged petroleum platforms, pipelines and refineries across the Gulf Coast.
Fimat USA oil analyst Antoine Halff said there is no doubt that "the downturn in prices is welcome news from an electoral standpoint for the ruling party." But he scoffed at the notion that the U.S. president had the power to muscle around a global market.”

So what do we know about the fall in gas prices and their connection to the election? Nothing. But the media is trying very hard to discount the suspicions of a lot of people. They analysts may be right, Bush does not have the muscle to bully the Big Oil Companies around. But the Big Oil Companies have the muscle to bully Bush around. And it is no mystery why Big Oil has enjoyed record profits ($342.4 billion) since Bush has come into office with his administration made up of ex-oil executives. So it doesn’t take much of a stretch of imagination to imagine that the Big Oil companies want the big profits to continue for a few more years.
What is clear is that 42 percent of Americans are so suspicious of the Bush Administration’s motives and actions that they believe they are capable of manipulating gas prices just to gain a few extra percentage points in a tight midterm election. It is clear that America is losing its trust of this administration and its Big Oil buddies.

P.S.: Have you noticed that diesel prices are still over $2.68? While gas has fallen over 50 cents, diesel has only come down 30 cents. Why? Who knows, but I bet more voters use gasoline instead of diesel. Oh yeah, and over 80 percent of Big Oil political contributions go to Republicans with only 20 percent go to Democrats (and most of those are on key committees). But you make up your own mind.

Waging Peace

2006-09-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

Peaceful Takeover of US Senate www.declarationofpeace.org

Offending Public Officials is Criminalized

2006-09-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

In Iraq (our purple-fingered bastion of democracy in the Middle East) it is now a criminal offence to “publicly insult” the government or public officials. Three Iraqi journalists are being tried for violating Paragraph 226 of the penal code, a law resurrected verbatim from Saddam Hussein’s penal code. The journalists face up to seven years in prison for these “crimes” against the government.

Don’t tell the Bush Administration about this new law, there is still time for Congress to slip it in before the midterm election recess, especially now that they have finished obliterating Habeas Corpus and given George immunity to prosecution for torture and illegal detentions. But I am not sure Bush needs this new law here. In the good old U. S. A. the mainstream media censors itself, and the few journalists who don’t are subject to all manner of pressure to not “publicly insult” the government.

Jeff Cohen, who worked for MSNBC, Fox News and CNN, says that:
“Since corporations' interests are aligned with the interests of conservatives, conservative opinion dominates "hopelessly imbalanced" television networks, Cohen said, adding that corporate pressure caused journalists to "utterly fail the country" leading up to the war in Iraq.

"When journalists are busy waving flags they don't have time to do their jobs - asking tough questions before sending young men and women to war."

So Bush does not need Saddam’s Paragraph 226 to keep the press in line. But the end result for Iraqi and American citizens is the same: no main stream reporting on facts that might “publicly insult” the government.

For example, the brave people at The Declaration of Peace have been conducting hundreds of nonviolent actions around the country, including taking over the Senate Office Building, but these stories don’t get mainstream media attention. The media does not want to “publicly insult” the government.

Fortunately we can still read about these Peace Actions on the Internet. So go to www.declarationofpeace.org and read the stories and look at the pictures and videos. You won’t see them on Fox News. But beware, you may be “publicly insulting” the government and subject to Paragraph 226 of Saddam’s penal code because Bush and the NeoCons are bringing “democracy” to America, just like they are bringing “democracy” to Iraq.

Everywhere but here in the U.S.

2006-09-28T10:37:00.000-07:00

According to Newsweek in Europe we are losing Afghanistan. In Asia we are losing Afghanistan. In Latin America we are losing Afghanistan. Everywhere in the world (including Afghanistan) we are losing Afhanistan. But here in the United States we are more interested in Annie Leibovitz the photographer who shot the elusive Hollywood infant, Suri Cruise for Vanity Fair.

Pop culture and the people who bring it to us are more important than our complete and utter failures in Afghanistan.

Notice a pattern here? It is the same pattern followed in the Global Warming "debate". In the rest of the world there is wide spread agreement that Global Warming is real and caused by human activities. Only in America do we "debate" the existence of Global Warming. The rest of the World is debating what to do about Global Warming. They are debating what to do despite the fact that the most powerful economy and milatary in the world denys the existence of Global Warming.

Our media is owned by corporate interests.
Our governement is owned by corporate interests.
And these interests do not care about the publics' desires for peace, health and cooperation.
They only view the public as consumers and commodities.

But who cares? Tom and Katie and baby look so cute in those photos.

4 > 0

2006-09-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

Being against something
Strengthens the thing you are fighting
It defines you as opposed to that thing
What happens if that thing disappears?
Who will you be?
Being against things is a zero sum game

Being for something is much harder
But it defines you as being part of a thing
Part of a thing that you love
As long as you are for that thing
That thing and you cannot disappear
You know who you are

Being anti-war
Subtly increases war
Being active for peace
Increases the power of peace
If more energy is directed towards peace
War will naturally decrease

Let us spend the effort and the time
To discover who we are
And what we are for
For love
For peace
For compassion
For dignity
For health
For education
For saving our selves and all others

For is Greater than Zero

Dealing with Iraqi Insurgency Not In the Plan

2006-09-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

On the 5th anniversary of 9/11 crimes committed against America, President Bush tried to tie the continued Occupation of Iraq with our defense against terrorism. The President told us that:

“Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone. They will not leave us alone. They will follow us. The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.”

Despite the obvious logical flaws in this statement, namely that America is unable to defend our country without occupying Iraq, it is obvious that the President is serious about defeating this terrorist insurgency in Baghdad. He is so serious about it that he has staked our future and safety on the outcome in Baghdad.

But is the President serious about defeating the Iraqi insurgency?

Apparently not. According to Marine Maj. General Richard C. Zilmer, a senior American commander in Iraq, he has enough U.S. troops to accomplish his main mission: training Iraqi security forces:

“For what we are trying to achieve out here I think our force levels are about right," he said. Even so, he said the training of Iraqi soldiers and police had not progressed as quickly as once expected.
"Now, if that mission statement changes — if there is seen a larger role for coalition forces out here to win that insurgency fight — then that is going to change the metrics of what we need out here," he added.

Zilmer says that defeating the insurgency is not in his mission plan. Defeating these insurgents, these terrorists who will not leave us alone, who are stacking up dead bodies in the Iraqi streets every day, these radicals who will follow us home, is not part of the plan for victory in Iraq. The course we are staying in Iraq does not include defeating these people. Even though in the President’s mind “the safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad,” he has not made battling people and defeating them in the streets of Baghdad part of the mission plan.

How much more evidence do people need that this Administration is not interested in the security of this country or Iraq? How much more evidence is needed that this Administration will lie and cheat and sacrifice brave American Troops and allow tens of thousands of Iraqis to die as long as the private contract dollars keep flowing to their friends at companies like Raytheon, Halliburton, and the big oil companies?

How much more evidence do we need before we make them stop?

Looking At: Banksy

2006-09-06T16:59:00.000-07:00

I give to you Banksy's FAQ Page:

Frequently asked questions

Is graffiti art or vandalism?
That word has a lot of negative connotations and it alienates people, so no, I don't like to use the word 'art' at all.

How do you make the stencils so big?
By sticking lots of small ones together

Do you sell t-shirts?
i don't make shirts because it would feel like the painting was a guerilla marketing campaign for a fashion label.

A guide to cutting stencils

• Think from outside the box.

• Collapse the box and take a fucking sharp knife to it.

• Leave the house before you find something worth staying in for.

• It's easier to get forgiveness than permission.

• Spray the paint sparingly onto the stencil from a distance of 8 inches.

• Be aware that going on a major mission totally drunk out of your head will result in some truly spectacular artwork and at least one night in the cells.

• When explaining yourself to the Police its worth being as reasonable as possible. Graffiti writers are not real villains. I am always reminded of this by real villains who consider the idea of breaking in someplace, not stealing anything and then leaving behind a painting of your name in four foot high letters the most retarded thing they ever heard of.

• Remember crime against property is not real crime. People look at an oil painting and admire the use of brushstrokes to convey meaning. People look at a graffiti painting and admire the use of a drainpipe to gain access.

• The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Any fame is a by-product of making something that means something. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit.

President Convicted of a Felony, Media Sleeps

2006-08-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, Case Number 06-CV-10204: Hon. Anna Diggs Taylor on August 17, 2006 found the NSA and the President, George W. Bush guilty of violating the FISA laws and the Constitution by wiretapping the phones of U.S. citizens without obtaining a warrant, and the Defendants were ordered to cease these activities.
Full text of the decision is available here: http://www.aclu.org/images/nsaspying/asset_upload_file689_26477.pdf

Alright, I admit I was excited when I first read about the Court decision against the Presidents NSA warrantless wiretapping. And I calculated that it would take the mainstream media a week or so for the interns to read the blogs and mention the importance of the case to their producers and editors. But I figured the story would eventually start to get some attention, some ink, some air time, something...

Okay, I realize that the NSA and the White House will appeal the decision and that nothing final will be decided immediately. But that never stops the media from talking about important allegations against a sitting president. Remember the blue dress?

But I’m still waiting. There has been a lot of stories about a delusional guy who confessed to killing a little girl ten years ago, despite the fact that he was nowhere near the crime scene at the time and is probably just setting up an insanity plea for the child pornography charges he fled from. There are a lot of stories about New Orleans and Katrina one year later. But why nothing about the President being convicted of a felony?

In a sane universe this would be a big story. But I have been increasingly convinced that we do not inhabit a sane universe.

I have noticed an important pattern in the tactics used by the Neo Cons at the White House. They tend to attack others for things that they are guilty of. They accuse Saddam of harboring WMDs when the U.S. holds the largest stockpiles of nuclear and chemical weapons on the planet. They accuse Osama bin Laden of hating our freedoms, while working feverously to curtail American freedoms.

So when I read that Donald Rumsfeld said that he was worried that terrorist groups “are actively manipulating the media in this country” I figured I knew what Neo Con Don really meant: “The Administration is actively manipulating the media in this country.”

When somebody breaks the FISA laws, they are subject to a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than five years, or both. The law is pretty clear. You or I would go to jail if convicted of breaking these laws. But the current Administration is actively manipulating the media so that you don’t notice that the law has been broken. The current Administration is actively controlling the Congress so that no hearings or sanctions or impeachment are even possible.

So, in this insane universe, forget it. Get on with the important things, 10-year-old beauty queens, the new racially-tense season of Survivor, and the not much has changed one year after Hurricane Katrina specials, the latest celebrity to take a piss on YouTube. The President has admitted to spying on us illegally and has been convicted in court, but that’s not important. Go back to sleep...

Subscribe to This Blog

2006-08-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

I know I don't post as frequently as other Bloggers.
But I also know that there are a small number of you who seem to check in on a regular basis.
So rather than checking in only to be disapointed half the time because there are no new posts, you can now subscribe.

To Subscribe to the Black & Blue Heart Blog
and get email updates whenever something new
is posted here just enter your email address in the
form in the sidebar (to the right and down)
(no down farther than that)
(thats the one)
It's safe.
It uses the Feedblitz service (which my brother introduced me to).
It is a new and fun way to keep up with things here at BBH.

What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love & Understanding?

2006-08-09T16:46:00.000-07:00

Hello Internet. I’ve been on vacation, so I’ve been out of touch. But I still love you.
I’ve been camping with the family and the family dogs. Roasting marshmallows, getting bit by mosquitoes, fishing for bluegill, hiking in the forest are the kinds of things I have been doing. So I haven’t been reading Blogs, or watching TV, or listening to talk radio, or reading newspapers. You could say I’ve been out of touch. Or you could say that I have been in touch. In touch with older, deeper, more primal things like sun sets and moon cycles and keeping my small tribe fed and sheltered.

I had kind of hoped that when I returned from my technological exile, that when I returned to the fast-paced world of email and news updates that there would be some progress, maybe a ceasefire in Lebanon at least. But no, I have returned to find that despite the speed of modern American life, not much has changed. But then again, maybe I have changed. And maybe that is the only change I can really expect to make in this world.

I cannot upholster the whole world, but I can make new sandals for my sensitive feet. I cannot make others stop hating, but I can fill my thoughts and heart with more love and compassion. You could say that changing my insides will not change the world. And you may be right. But from where I am sitting, changing my insides changes everything.

So, Hello Internet. I’ve been on vacation, but I feel more in touch. And I still love you.

Listening To: Michael Franti

2006-07-27T09:32:00.000-07:00

Yell Fire!

When trying to limit free speech people often quote a Supreme Court opinion saying that you don’t have the right to “Shout fire in a crowded theater.” Of course what most people have forgotten is that the original said that you could not falsely shout fire, because if there was a fire one can and should shout “Fire!”

Michael Franti and Spearhead are doing just that with their new album “Yell Fire!”

This album is required listening. The beats are large, the bass is loud, the lyrics are straight ahead truth telling with an undaunted optimism. Progressives will love it. Conservatives ought to love it. I love this album. I hope you love it too.

While many Hip Hop artists limit their vision to the crime and grime of the ghetto, Franti has boldly and honestly picked up Bob Marley’s One Love banner and he waves it high in the air while still keeping his feet on the ground. And best of all he keeps your booty shaking. Get a copy or download it at eMusic (http://www.emusic.com/album/10943/10943250.html)

Life is bigger than just one decision,
Music is bigger than just one station,
Love is bigger than just one nation, (and)
God is bigger than just one religion

NeoCons Desperate for War

2006-07-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

If we were living in a sane and democratic America our government would be putting extreme pressure on Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon and Gaza. The Administration would be talking to Iran and Syria about controlling Hezbollah and Hamas. The Pentagon would be trying to stop the Iraqi civil war by giving concessions to the Sunnis and making the Shiites pretend that they like it, while making plans for an orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. And the White House would be forcefully standing between the Israelis and the Palestinians and making them move the peace process forward as if millions of lives depended on it.

But of course we do not live in a sane and democratic America. We live in an America that has been hijacked by the Neo Conservative Chicken Hawks and their Corporate and War Industry Cronies. Recently the Neo Cons have been losing ground politically and in the courts, but never underestimate the desire of these people to maintain power and manipulate the world to suit their interests, namely high oil prices, lots of defense contracts, and a population that is scared of terrorists and whipped into a patriotic fervor by war.

Apparently, the Neo Cons are operating in Israel as well as the U.S., because Israel’s actions of late can in no way be seen as a reasonable or legitimate response to recent small scale attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah. Instead Israel has used these small attacks as an excuse to launch strategic attacks with the aim of crushing Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and destroying Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel would never have launched these attacks without assurances that the United States (or at least the White House) would support them. And as long as the U.S. Administration supports Israel they will continue to attack and attack and attack. And I believe Israel is also counting on this military action to strengthen the hand of the Neo Cons in the White House. Israel is already trying to ensnare Syria and Iran into the conflict. And combine that with the occupation and civil war in Iraq and you now have one Unified Middle East War where the U.S. has no choice (in the minds of the Neo Cons and their apologists) but to stand with our ally Israel against the Arabs.

Now the United States faces a huge dilemma. The Israelis are betting that President Bush will do whatever Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld tell him to do: give Israel a clear thumbs-up, escalate the war of words with Syria and Iran, and increase our involvement in the occupation of Iraq. Israel has used war to get what they could not get politically. There will be no peace process, no talking with Hamas. There will be war, war which may soon encompass the entire Middle East and the rest of the world.

And the fact that the U.S. opened this can of worms by invading Iraq is not lost on the Israelis. They now feel free to do as they wish militarily in the region, knowing that U.S. hands are too dirty, knowing that the U.S. does not have the moral high ground to stand on. Even if we wanted to stop what the Israelis are doing, the Administration would have to admit its own wrong doing in the region.

Agents of Peace Bomb Airport

2006-07-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

Lebanon Airport receives peace-loving lesson in self defence from Israel.

President Bush when asked about the escalating violence and warfare in Gaza and Lebanon said:
“My attitude is this. There are a group of terrorists who want to stop the advance of peace. And those of us who are peace-loving must work together to help the agents of peace - Israel, President Abbas, and others - to achieve their objective.
Israel has the right to defend herself.”

So apparently the bombing of the Beirut Airport is just the peace-loving “agents of peace” from Israel thwarting those “terrorists” who want to stop the advance of peace. Who knew that waging peace was such a violent enterprise?

The “terrorists” launch missiles into civilian neighborhoods in Israel. And the “agents of peace” are busy launching attacks against civilians in Lebanon, including Beirut International Airport, 10 bridges and an electricity power station.

In the past the United States has played a big role in restraining this kind of violence in and around Israel, but George W. Bush is defending Israel’s actions as self defense. I guess the good old days when the Geneva Convention made reprisal attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure illegal are truly over. The White House has made it clear that the Geneva Convention is just a quaint relic of a past century and no longer applies in an age of perpetual war against terrorism.

As long as bombing airports can be called “self defense” and “peace-loving” we had better buckle in for a long drawn out war in the Middle East: Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and soon Syria and Iran. I’m sure the American “defense” industry will make billions of dollars providing “agents of peace” with much needed “anti-terrorist” weapons to blow each other to bits with while lawfully “defending themselves.”

Or we could call these things what they actually are: War waged with weapons of mass destruction against entire civilian populations as collective punishment. Bombs, rockets and bullets are killing people and making it impossible for them to live their lives in a peaceful and secure way. War is not peace. War is War.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

2006-07-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

Syd Barrett 1946 - 2006

Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro'
you have no word
trip, trip to a dream dragon
hide your wings in a ghost tower
sails cackling at every plate we break
cracked by scattered needles
the little minute gong
coughs and clears his throat
madam you see before you stand
hey ho, never be still
the old original favorite grand
grasshoppers green Herbarian band
and the tune they play is "In Us Confide"
so trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro'
you have no word
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Isn't it good to be lost in the wood
isn't it bad so quiet there, in the wood
meant even less to me than I thought
with a honey plough of yellow prickly seeds
clover honey pots and mystic shining feed...
well, the madcap laughed at the man on the border
hey ho, huff the Talbot
"Cheat" he cried shouting kangaroo
it's true in their tree they cried
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
The madcap laughed at the man on the border
hey ho, huff the Talbot
the winds they blew and the leaves did wag
they'll never put me in their bag
the seas will reach and always seep
so high you go, so low you creep
the wind it blows in tropical heat
the drones they throng on mossy seats
the squeaking door will always squeak
two up, two down we'll never-[lee] limit
so merrily trip forgo my side
Please leave us here
close our eyes to the octopus ride!
-- Octopus by Syd Barrett

Not So Instant Karma: SCOTUS Style

2006-07-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

John Lennon warned us that Instant Karma was gonna get us. Unfortunately Karma is not always instant, but Karma does seem to be persistent, if not instant. As we have watched the President and his Administration grab more and more power and abuse and ignore the Constitution of the United States in the name of fighting terrorism, it has been hard to imagine that Karma was going to ever catch up to these guys. What with Congress not doing its job and refusing to conduct oversight hearings into the Administrations activities, specifically the “war on terror”, their secret prisons, their new classifications of prisoners (“illegal combatants”), and their flaunting of the Geneva Conventions. Our last branch of government was the judicial, and the Supreme Court has been slanted toward the NeoConservative, Corporate-Purchased Right. So us Karma fans weren’t expecting much from the same Supreme Court that proclaimed George W President.

But hold the presses. The Supreme Court has recently told the White House that they do not have the authority to capture, imprison, try, sentence and execute people all on their own with no oversight. The Justices seem to think that the Presidents “military commissions” offer limited protections for the rights of the accused, violate the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the basic provisions of Common Article 2 of the Geneva Conventions. And this is the real kicker, apparently way back in January of 2002 several State Department lawyers sent a memo to the Justice Department and the White House warning them that the handling and treatment of prisoners planned by the Administration would be illegal and would create a backlash from US courts and overseas governments.

Newsweek got a copy of the memo. You can read about it here. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13773997/site/newsweek/)

The hard nosed NeoCons, especially in the Vice President’s office, ignored the warnings and claimed that the President has “virtually unlimited powers to defend the nation” in time of “war”, and they kept saying that Congress had given them a blank check after 911. But the Supreme Court says, NO:

“Now other antiterror programs that the president has justified by invoking the same congressional resolution might be vulnerable to serious legal challenge. Some legal scholars and current and former administration officials believe the case could undermine the secret foreign detention centers and the NSA eavesdropping program, two cornerstones of the terror war. "This is an extremely damaging decision for presidential power," says a former senior administration lawyer, who asked for anonymity owing to his intimate involvement in the legal wrangling over prisoner treatment. "And it was largely a self-inflicted wound." The bitter irony: an administration determined to expand executive power may have caused a serious contraction.” – Newsweek

Cheney’s office wants Congress to expressly give the President the powers that the Court has rejected. It will be a sad day if Congress rubberstamps illegal detentions and torture. But sources close to the White House say the ruling has them nervous.
Maybe Karma will finally catch up with this gang of thieves?

Listening to: Cloud Cult

2006-07-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

A Strange thing happened at the music store. I picked up a CD by Medeski, Martin & Wood (http://www.mmw.net/), a great acid jazz trio I have been listening to for over ten years. I went to the register and purchased my CD. Went to my car and started removing the obnoxious plastic rap that encases all CDs and noticed that my MMW album had transformed into a completely different CD. I found myself holding a CD by a band called Cloud Cult, titled “Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus.”

WTF? I huffed and started to get out of the car to go back and exchange this unwanted mystery CD for the jazz CD I had selected from the racks. Then I started looking at the cover. It displayed a quirky pen & ink drawing of a little boy on a rocking horse with an astronaut helmet on. And there were 23 tracks with intriguing titles like “Living on the Outside of your skin,” and “Transistor Radio”. Well 23 is a strange but lucky number, and If you have been exposed to (bored by) any of my music you know I have a thing for astronauts/cosmonauts and old radios.

So I finished peeling the CD and put it in my car stereo. Wow! I love this CD. Cloud Cult seems to be a projection from the mind of Craig Minowa. The songs are short, lo-fi, home recorded masterpieces with a dreamy quality. They tell the kinds of stories that roll through your head when you are just waking up but you aren’t ready to move yet. Personal and emotional yet profound and universal in nature, these songs paint the room with colors that are usually only found inside your head. The music is strange yet comfortingly familiar all at once.

I highly recommend Advice from the Happy Hippopotamus (http://www.cloudcult.com/).
I am also glad to learn that Cloud Cult has taken a non-traditional route into the record stores and their love for the environment. On their website the history of the band is laid out, detailing the trials and tribulations of these artists who want to make the world a better place.

I’m glad this CD found me and hope it finds its way into your hands as well.
NOTE: the album art above is from the band website (http://www.cloudcult.com/) and is completely different yet the same as the cover on my CD. Just another bit of weirdness connected with this mystery CD.

War? What War?

2006-06-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

I’ve always felt queasy calling our military action in Iraq a “war”. First of all because wars are supposed to be declared by Congress, and they let the President start this action. And lately what has been going on in Iraq hasn’t felt like a war.

But as usual, Thom Hartmann expresses these things much more clearly than I do. Thom says that the “War in Iraq” ended in May of 2003 when the US Military defeated the Iraqi Military. Mission Accomplished and our boys (and girls) won it.

What we have had since the end of the war is an occupation. Wars can be won or lost. But occupations only end when the occupier leaves or is violently thrown out. So there is no dishonor in planning for redeployments that will end this occupation. America did not “lose” when the occupations of Japan or Germany ended after World War II.

The words we use to describe ourselves and the world are important. 95% of those attacking U.S. forces in Iraq consider themselves to be “anti-occupation fighters.” We need to stop talking about a “war in Iraq” that does not exist. The U.S. Military is good at winning wars, but the U.S. Military is not good at occupying countries. We need to refer to this situation as accurately as possible: U.S. Military forces are occupying Iraq. And we must plan and execute an honorable end to that occupation.

We will not be able to even talk about ending the occupation as long as people continue to inaccurately label this situation as a “war”. We won the war. No we need to end the occupation. When Republicans push to portray the current Iraqi situation as a “war” they are making it psychologically difficult for Americans to talk about what needs to be done. When they vilify Democrats and others who want to end the occupation of Iraq, they say that “cowards want to cut and run’, that we want to “lose the war”. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Americans must frame this discussion accurately. The War is Over. Let’s End the Occupation of Iraq.

What do you wish you had been told?

2006-06-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

Bill Moyers in another great speech (read it here) tells the class of 2006 what he wishes he had been told as he entered the "adult" world:

"That's really what brings me here this afternoon. I did put myself in your place, and asked what I'd want a stranger from another generation to tell me if I had to sit through his speech. Well, I'd want to hear the truth: The truth is, life's a tough act, the world's a hard place, and along the way you will meet a fair share of fools, knaves and clowns--even act the fool yourself from time to time when your guard is down or you've had too much wine. I'd like to be told that I will experience separation, loss and betrayal, that I'll wonder at times where have all the flowers gone.

I would want to be told that while life includes a lot of luck, life is more than luck. It is sacrifice, study, and work; appointments kept, deadlines met, promises honored. I'd like to be told that it's okay to love your country right or wrong, but it's not right to be silent when your country is wrong. And I would like to be encouraged not to give up on the American experience. To remember that the same culture which produced the Ku Klux Klan, Tom DeLay and Abu Ghraib, also brought forth the Peace Corps, Martin Luther King and Hamilton College.

And I would like to be told that there is more to this life than I can see, earn, or learn in my time. That beyond the day-to-day spectacle are cosmic mysteries we don't understand. That in the meantime--and the meantime is where we live--we infinitesimal particles of creation carry on the miracle of loving, laughing and being here now, by giving, sharing and growing now. "

The Stolen 2004 Election

2006-06-02T15:23:00.000-07:00

Was the 2004 Election Stolen? An article in Rolling Stone by Robert F. Kennedy JR.
The real news is not that the election was stolen.
The real news is that the media, the Democrats, and the Republicans have all told us to polish our tinfoil hats for the last two years if we thought things smelled fishy.
Read this article.
People who have wanted to know, know about this stuff already, but Kennedy does an excellent job of putting it all together with reference material for the skeptics. Although I am sure no amount of scientific data will be sufficient to change the minds of the faith-based voters in this country.

Don't Worry, They Will Keep An Eye On You

2006-05-24T12:07:00.000-07:00

"The computers, high-definition screens, phones, music players and video players that are currently being sold are "defective by design". These products don't respect the user's right to make private copies of their digital media. These devices make no provision that would allow art, literature, music or film to ever fall into the public domain. Effectively, the media purchased for these devices does not belong to the user -- rather, the networking of these DRM'd devices means that as the user watches a film, reads an e-book or switches channels on their HDTV, their habits can be recorded and actions monitored. The result is that over time, DRM technology will negate, if not completely eliminate, the rights of the individual. " -- Peter Brown, FSF

"What is DRM?"Digital Rights Management" software is actually designed to impose restrictions on computer users. The use of the word "rights" in this term is propaganda, designed to lead you unawares into seeing the issue from the viewpoint of the few that impose the restrictions, while ignoring that of the many on whom the restrictions are imposed." -- Defective By Design

I'll Second That Motion

2006-05-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Just as I was getting exasperated at work again, boring my Republican coworkers with the latest reasons why our current Republican Administration is a criminal organization, just as I was beginning to believe that I was the only person in the world sick and tired of what is going on in OUR GOVERNMENT, I found the following post by Chris Cooper. I can't say it any better, so here it is:

Everybody Look What's Going Down
by Christopher Cooper

I'm getting pretty sick of trying to talk to you people.
Oh, not you personally, I suppose. I'm sure you're a thoughtful, intelligent, generous, worthwhile member of human society, a credit to yourself and your family's name, and the world is better for your being in it. For all I know, you may even read books.
I guess it's the great mass of men that frustrates my periodic forays into dialogue. These would be the same great group of putative sapiens who drove poor Henry to his cabin in Walden woods, many a monk to a mountaintop, and Henry Louis Mencken to his typewriter to the enduring delight and sustenance of lesser practitioners of his sarcastic art such as I.
So here's where I am today, and this is what I have to say and I'll deviate from my usual route by posting my complaint here boldly, not yet two hundred words into our proceedings, perhaps thus to snare one or more of those who habitually quit my longer, more layered excursions in disgust when no point has risen before their attention spans have timed out.
The National Security Administration (whatever, exactly, that is, and whomever, precisely, it answers to, and however many hundreds of millions of dollars it gets from those few of us earning under a hundred thousand dollars a year and thus paying any taxes at all) has a list of all the telephone calls you make and of all the calls you receive. This includes the messages from your mistress and from the married man you met in a sports bar in Portland one winter night to test out your feeling that you might be "bi-curious". They know about your son's calls from jail, your daughter's pregnancy and VD scares, the flurry of communications between you and the "Financial Management Expert" that led to your purchase of several embarrassing stocks, as well as the several calls just before April fifteenth in which you sought advice from anyone who would listen as to how you might turn a year's foolish investments into a dubious tax advantage.
They know, or could know, if they cared to sift through the interminable boredom of your average existence, that you suffer from varicose veins, hemorrhoids, insufficiency of erection, obesity (some connection, there, perhaps, to the limpness issue?) a chronic cough, dribbling after urination coupled with a perverse tardiness in initiating flow.
A guy in a suit or a uniform (is the NSA military, civilian, bureaucratic, or all three?), or maybe a young woman in a lab coat, (or do they outsource data management to India?) might have a list of the times you've been badgered by collection agencies. Or loan sharks. Or your father-in-law, fed up with your inability to keep a decent roof over his daughter's head or maintain a steady job.
They know, I suppose, if you've lied to the unemployment office, the IRS, your clergyman. They know that you regularly refuse contribution to human or animal welfare or environmental or peace charities, or, conversely, that you're a sucker for any pitch that comes down the pipe. They know you buy guns. They know you buy dope. They know, if they're listening, just how much of a dope you can sometimes be. We all can be. They know.
But they're only collecting data. They don't care about content, just connections. As long as you're not calling Al-Qaida, you're fine. You have nothing to hide. They're only keeping you safe. Keeping us all safe. Keeping America safe. Everything is different since 9/11. The world is a dangerous place, brimming with Haters-Of-Freedom. In the War Against Terror we have to sacrifice a few freedoms to stay free.
Early polls indicate that two out of three Americans don't object to the NSA keeping track of their phone calls, to whom, from whom, what time, how long. See the preceding paragraph for a typical list of explanations and apologies.
To which I can only cry the following. Only a list of numbers? Maybe. So what. It's still too much authority too deep into our lives. They wouldn't violate your privacy? Bullshit. The persons who've captured our country while we were skiing or golfing or watching television or standing in line at Disney World or bargain hunting at Wal Mart will violate your privacy every time they think they might thus accrue some advantage to the estates of wealth or power. If you fight it they'll put you on a midnight plane to Morocco for a conversation with some guys who know how to work a magneto, a machete, a bucket of ice water, or a Glock.
Nobody ever went wrong mistrusting concentrations of power. In this country today power has pooled in the moneyed interests (corporations, insurance companies, investment banks, oil companies, billionaires), fundamental, backward, anti-intellectual, medieval religion (every loud, idiotic, crackpot blow-hard you've ever seen on TV praising God and asking you to pass the wherewithal, not to mention your born-again president), and in the truly twisted connivers, industry-shills, money-men and soulless creeps who've turned our professional military to foul purposes. Among these are chiefly Don Rumsfeld, Condoleeza Rice and Dick Cheney. Two thirds of us are comfortable with this crowd running the country and spying on its citizens.
Nothing will come of this little essay except a couple E-mails reminding me that I wouldn't be free to write it if I lived in Iraq under the iron rule of Saddam Hussein. But at least I'll have said that I don't approve of the NSA, the CIA, the FBI, the FCC, Homeland Security or anybody else knowing one bit more about my life than necessary to extract my taxes, restrict my driving to a safe speed, and keep me from pouring used motor oil into my tributary of the Sheepscot River.
Two out of three Americans, polls show, are out to lunch, asleep at the switch, ignorant of history, and likely to be very surprised and very unhappy when the knock in the night comes for them, rather than for the Jew in the ghetto, the Arab in the city, the wetback, the uppity black, the bums in the streets, the agitators, the misfits, the problem children. It was long ago and it was far away, and for some of you it hit before your mother was born, but it was Four Dead In Ohio, and America was killing its own right here at home, and too little too late, but we once threw out a bad president and a corrupt administration. Those guys were bad. These guys are worse.
Two out of three Americans don't mind having their phone calls collected. How do they stand on having their mail read? What's next? How far will it go? How long will it last? Have we let it go to far to get it back?
Did I mention Mencken? Try him, if you haven't. He's better than TV. Better than the New York Times. He said, "I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty." Good government goes bad. Bad men corrupt good government. Even in America, Even now. Even as we sleep.
True enough, but it sounds pretty bad to say it so. Men like Mencken and those others of us who use whatever small forum we are granted to shine some reason and decency into the ignored or concealed corners of our collective lives are often dismissed as being negative while enjoying life in "The Greatest Country In The World." But Negativity, as Bob Dylan reminded us, won't always pull you through. We spit and fight and fulminate and argue and cry, cry, cry because we are fundamentally hopeful and optimistic and we hurt so much to see great promise and decency corrupted, subverted, dragged low.
Mencken will close today's thoughts:
I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie.
I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave.
And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.

What Do I Really Think?

2006-05-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve been taking a break from the TV News, the radio chatter, and the Internet Buzz.
I’ve been trying to find out what I really think.
Trying to find my own thoughts, my own questions, my own feelings.
Because when I lose myself I can only be whacked around like a ping pong ball by the opinions and prejudices of others.
But when I find myself I can withstand the onslaught of others.
Knowing my own mind is the only source of freedom I know.

Three Cheers for the Grannies!

2006-04-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

“Eighteen "grannies" who were swept up by New York City police, handcuffed and jailed for four and a half hours were acquitted today of charges that they blocked the entrance to the military recruitment center in Times Square when they tried to enlist.” – The NY Times.

The government has learned to ignore and repress youth movements, letter writing campaigns, and they can even rig election results. But they apparently don’t have balls brass and brazen enough to jail old women for protesting the war in Iraq.

More power to the Grannies, I say. Keep it up. To topple this administration and get rid of the corruption of corporate cash in Washington D.C. is going to take the efforts of many groups who do not typically see themselves as political activists. Old (and experienced) people, illegal immigrants, many unlikely groups are currently flustering the business as usual politicos. So which groups need to get involved next? Kindergarteners for Justice? Pregnant Women for Peace?

Whatever it takes. Everybody needs to take a hard look at what is going on (and not going on) in Washington D.C. and decide if this government represents you and your best hopes for the future of this country. I do not believe anymore that the question is: What will the government do? The question is: What will the people do? How much are we willing to let happen in our names?

Three Cheers for the Grannies. It is a small victory, but it is a victory all the same.

my small misery...

2006-04-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

The plumbing in my family’s old farm house died a violent death last week. The plumbers worked all day yesterday tearing out the ALL the plumbing in our house—All Of It. Today they begin the more complicated job of putting new plumbing in. We hope to have water restored by Friday, if we are lucky.

In one fell stroke our American home has become part of the undeveloped world. Thank goodness we still have electricity. We are hauling water in from the well. Heating water on the stove. Begging our neighbors to let us use their showers (Thank you Pam and Ed!!!).

Our inconvenience is just that, an inconvenience. We are fortunate enough to have good friends and neighbors. We are fortunate enough to have a clean water supply near by. We are fortunate to have the means to hire professionals who are working hard to restore our water system. In a few days our house will move back into the developed and peaceful world of modern America. Hot water will flow magically from silver faucets.

But I can’t help thinking about the people in Iraq (and other parts of the world) who are not so fortunate. When I read that many neighborhoods in Iraq have no water, or only have water for a few hours a day, I wonder how I would be feeling if I were in that situation and could not open the Yellow Pages and call a dozen companies for competitive quotes and rapid repairs. When I read about dealing with sporadic or no electrical supply, I wonder how I would cope, especially if I was faced with the prospect of an apparently never-ending foreign occupation and local violence that makes rebuilding infrastructure nearly impossible.

My small misery is just a taste of what the Iraqi people are forced to swallow every day.
I want clean water and hot baths for myself and my children. But I am sure the Iraqis want these things for themselves and their children as well.

Stop Hitting Your Brother or I Will Smack You!

2006-04-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

Remember how stupid that sentence made grownups look when we were kids? “If you don’t stop hitting your brother I will smack you into next week.” And the adult looked even dumber if they had just hit you before delivering that ultimatum.

I once had a policeman at the mall tell me and a group of my friends, “If you kids want to hang out here, you are going to have to move along.” That one didn’t make much sense either. Hmm, wait officer, what if I don’t want to be here, can I hang out some more? No? I want to be here, so I have to go? Yeah, that makes sense.

I know that adults get frustrated when the world and the children in it don’t behave. I’m officially grown up now and I have kids, I get it.. But it doesn’t take away the idiocy of trying to teach kids to be nice by threatening violence against them, or telling them to give up what they want to get what they want. I get confused just trying to explain the illogic of the situation, but let’s just press on ahead, shall we?

So I realize the Bush Administration must be frustrated when the world doesn’t react the way they want (no flowers and candy in Iraq). And I realize that frustrated and angry people say stupid things, but damn it we pay these guys to be the adults around here.

“All options are on the table,” says Mr. Bush when asked about his plans for Iran. Read that as “If you develop nukes, I am going to nuke you into next week.”

Meanwhile the “adult” in Iran is promising to “cut off the hand of the aggressor” if attacked. Read that as “I’ll do what ever the fuck I want, Old Man, even if you do kick my ass.”

Well I don’t know about the rest of you kids, but I’m feeling kind of queasy stuck here in the middle between two angry drunk adults who should know better but seem intent on starting a fight. Read that as “We would like to keep hanging out here (on planet Earth), so why don’t you guys move along. I hear Mars is a great place to have a nuclear battle—lots of room and no innocent civilians to die horrible deaths. And the place is named after the god of war, so you should feel right at home. Take your lunatic logic and your angry posturing and your ICBMs and get the heck out of here. This was a nice quiet neighborhood before you thugs moved in. Go on, bombs away, as in take your bombs and go away.”

Oh well, I don’t think these guys are listening to us. Maybe we should spray them with cold water?

Iraq 2 is spelled I R A N

2006-04-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Is it just me or does the hyperbole and just plain hype about Iran sound a lot like the hype surrounding the lead up to the Iraq invasion?

Yes, Iran is ruled by evil bastards (just like Iraq was).
Yes, Iranian oil is strategically important (just like Iraqi oil was).
Yes, Iran admits it is enriching uranium (just like Iraq did).

But the experts at the UN say that Iran is hyping its nuclear capabilities, that Iran’s newest claims are “little more than vacuous political posturing”, (just like Iraq, the UN said Iraq was disarmed but the Iraqis were posturing to maintain face at home).

The US generals say that Pentagon plans to attack Iran and possible nuke Iran are horrible plans, (just like generals complained about the plans to invade Iraq).

But the Bush Administration keeps on pumping the rhetoric that Iran is an immediate threat to US interests, a threat that must be dealt with now, (just like the claims the White House made about Iraq before the invasion).

George W. Bush says that even knowing what he knows now, he would still invade Iraq.
I am sure that four years from now he will be saying that even knowing know what we know about Iran’s real nuclear capabilities, he still would have attacked Iran.

I don’t expect the Bush Administration to act differently this time around. The Administration has proven themselves immune to the effects of experience and facts. If they have made up their minds about Iran the same way they made up their minds about Iraq, then they will act in a similar fashion.

The question isn’t really, Is George W. Bush seriously considering attacking Iran?
The question is this: What will the American People do differently this time around to stop George W. Bush from attacking yet another country?
What will we do differently? Or will we respond just like we did to the Iraqi proposition?

Will we hold our elected representatives responsible?
Will we demand verifiable proof?
Will we require a lawful declaration of war by the Congress before invading a country proactively?
Will we figure in the actual costs in lives and resources of additional military operations in the Middle East?

Or will we just complain and protest and blog (just like we did about Iraq)?

What Would MLK Do?

2006-04-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the quagmire in Iraq and the corruption here in America seem like problems too big to tackle. There is a growing opinion that we just have to wait until after the 2008 elections to solve these problems. Even President Bush has said that getting out of Iraq will the be the job of a future president. We all just need to stay the course.

During Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life time, the great quagmire was the Vietnam War. On April 4th, 1967 Dr. King made it clear where he stood on the issue of Vietnam. At a meeting of concerned clergy and laity at Riverside Church in New Your City, Martin Luther King made it clear that people of conscience, himself included, could not wait and remain silent as America conducted a war in Asia.

Read, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence”, and I think you will agree that our situation is very similar to that situation. You can almost replace the word “Vietnam” with the word “Iraq.” The entire text is available online at: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html

We cannot remain silent and wait for 2008. Many lives can be saved by our actions today.

Below are some excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech:

“I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.”

“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own government.”

‘The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.

“These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.”

“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

“The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”

McCain Snuggles Deeper into Falwell's Pockes

2006-03-29T11:52:00.000-08:00

John McCain continues to cozy up to the Fundamentalist Far Right, hoping that this group can make him president just like they did George W. Bush.

McCain will give the Commencement Message at Liberty University in May, where he will share top billing with Gary Bauer, founder of the Campaign for Working Families (CWF) a political action committee (PAC) “dedicated to electing pro-family, pro-life and pro-free enterprise candidates to federal and state offices.” CWF (www.cwfpac.com) has become on the largest PACs in Washington D.C., and Bauer has been waging a war on what he calls the “Tyranny of the Courts”, meaning that courts who uphold women’s rights, or privacy rights of homosexuals, or that “forbid the execution of convicted killers who were under the age of eighteen” are somehow “stripping power from the states,” and that the “only solution is a major change in who sits on the courts.”

While McCain may not share Bauer’s political or religious views or the views of Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell, he certainly is attracted by the millions of dollars raised by CWF and other organizations, like the Family Research Council, associated with the university.

Even the Liberty University Public Relations Office admits that McCain has not always gotten along with the Fundamentalists:
“While Sen. McCain and Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell have had their share of political differences through the years, the two men share a common respect for each other and have become good friends in their efforts to preserve what they see as common values. This will mark his first ever appearance at Liberty University.”

Instead of pandering to Fundamentalist extremists who what to legislate away the Human Rights guaranteed all of us in the Constitution, John McCain should be fighting to protect those Human Rights. Jerry Falwell and Gary Bauer have the right as individuals to believe whatever they wish, but they do not have the right to force their beliefs onto others.

With Hillary Clinton making issues like flag burning a large part of her campaign, and John McCain blatantly courting the religious right, the 2008 Presidential Campaign shows unsettling signs of being a race for the votes of a vocal minority on the far right.

Here is a naïve idea: why don’t we find some candidates who actually care about the Constitution and Human Rights and want to defend them from bigots and extremists?

He'd Rather Switch Than Fight

2006-03-24T12:24:00.000-08:00

John McCain got so beat up by the Neo-Conservative Wing of the Republican Party that he has decided that he has no chance of becoming President unless he sells out completely and gets into bed with the devil.

As the Seattle PI reports, McCain who once stood against the influence of religious fundamentalism has now begun courting the Christian Right:
“When running against Bush in the 2000 presidential race, McCain said neither party should pander to "the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance," including "Jerry Falwell on the right." But last fall the senator met with the right-wing preacher.”

And despite the beating that the Bush Campaign put on McCain, saying that he capitulated to the Communist North Vietnamese while a prisoner of war there and that he did not support veterans, McCain is now trying to get chummy with the Bush White House. He has even gone so far as to start hiring some of Bush’s and Tom DeLay’s political operatives.

According to the Washington Times McCain has hired Terry Nelson who is named in the indictment of Tom DeLay in the Texas money laundering case:
“Terry Nelson, political director for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, was hired by McCain's Straight Talk America PAC, a move the Democratic National Committee immediately jumped on for what it sees as proof of the GOP's "culture of corruption," playing up Nelson's ties to money-laundering charges against DeLay, a Republican U.S. House of Representatives member from Texas."A reputed champion of campaign finance reform, John McCain just hired the middleman in Tom DeLay's money-laundering scheme," the DNC charged.Nelson was deputy chief of staff at the Republican National Committee in 2002 when DeLay employee Jim Ellis allegedly delivered a check to Nelson for $190,000 in corporate contributions. Texas law bars the use of corporate funds for political purposes. Funds later went to seven candidates named in the initial transaction by a non-federal RNC arm.”

So McCain’s play at being a moderate is over. His voting record exposes him as clearly far to the right. According to the Washington Post:
“Mr. McCain is happy to shower benefits on the most fortunate. He recently voted to extend tax cuts on dividends and capital gains, an action that will worsen the budget deficit while mainly benefiting people with very high incomes.”

And recently McCain’s office has said that he would have signed South Dakota’s new anti-abortion law. So he is clearly onboard with the Religious Right’s battle to take away a woman’s control over her own body. And he is willing to bankrupt the country to make the Corporate Right happy. And he is already talking tough about containing Iran.

So he has abandoned the middle and moved to the right. But will his new friends on the fringes of the right have him? That is a question that has not been answered yet.

Q & A

2006-03-22T11:34:00.000-08:00

There has been quite a bit of buzz because Helen Thomas, a veteran White House reporter who has been black listed by the current administration, finally got to ask George W. Bush a question.

The question she asked was this:
“Q: I'd like to ask you, Mr. President, your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is, why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, from your Cabinet -- your Cabinet officers, intelligence people, and so forth -- what was your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil -- quest for oil, it hasn't been Israel, or anything else. What was it?”

The President’s answer—more of the same:
“A: I think your premise -- in all due respect to your question and to you as a lifelong journalist -- is that -- I didn't want war. To assume I wanted war is just flat wrong, Helen, in all due respect –“

“My question is, WHY DID YOU REALLY WANT TO GO TO WAR?”

The amazing thing shouldn’t be that Helen Thomas asked this question.
The amazing thing shouldn’t be that any reporter asked this question.
The amazing thing is that hundreds and thousands of reporters have not asked this question repeatedly for that last five years.
The amazing thing is that the major media organizations in this country have been asleep at the wheel on this issue. (Note: My appologies to the few reporters that have been asking questions. I know you are out there. It is just depressing that I can count you on my fingers and that you don't get any serious air time.)
The amazing thing is that the American People (that's you and me folks) haven't been asking the questions ourselves, since it is obvious were are not being represented by our "elected representatives" or by the corporate news media.

Q: Every reason given has been proved false, Mr. President. So why did you really want to go to war?
A: Uh...

Q: Every reason given has been proved false, Mr./Ms. Reporter. So why haven’t you been asking the President WHY?
A: Uh...

Q: Why?
A: [insert cricket chirps here]

Passing the Torch

2006-03-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

The United States was once the leader in the struggle for human rights. It is my hope that we will be again. But as long as our government is maintaining torture camps and spying on its own citizens, I think the world must look elsewhere for inspiration and guidance in the area of human rights.

One place where human rights are still respected and advanced is at the European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR works with European Countries to maintain and further human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as: Everyone deserves rights and freedoms. The right to life. A prohibition against torture. Prohibitions against slavery and forced labor. The right to liberty and security. The right to a fair trial. The right to respect for private and family life. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Freedom of expression. Freedom of assembly and association. The right to marry. The right to effective remedy (even if your rights have been violated by your own government). And the Prohibition of discrimination.

The ECHR allows citizens of European countries to bring cases before the Court and the rulings of the court are binding on European Union Member Nations. The ECHR hears thousands of cases each year. And nations with laws found to be in violation of the Articles of Human Rights must amend their laws.

According to Ode Magazine:
www.odemagazine.com/article.php?aID=4275
"The ECHR can actually set policy for all of Europe, as happened last year in the case of British environmental activists convicted of libel in UK courts for passing out a flyer at a McDonald’s restaurant. Deciding the flyer’s assertions that McDonald’s exploits its workers and sells unhealthy food defamed the global fast-food chain, British courts ordered the activists to pay the corporation 40,000 pounds (59,000 euros; $70,000 U.S.) in damages. After years of unsuccessfully contesting the decision in the British court system, the two activists brought their case to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in February 2005 that the McLibel case, as it came to be known, violated the European human-rights treaty’s guarantees of freedom of expression and right to a fair trial. The British government was directed to pay the activists 57,000 pounds (84,000 euros; $100,000 U.S.) in compensation. But the impact of the ruling goes far beyond that. The ECHR’s judges held that British libel laws restrict people’s rights to criticize corporations. The UK government is now obliged to reform its laws, and so will any other of the 45 European nations with similar limits on free expression in their law books."

You can read about the ECHR and the Articles of Human Rights at: http://www.echr.coe.int/ECHR

I am glad that the torch of human rights has been picked up by others at a time when the United States seems to be smothering human rights in the name of fighting terrorism. I hope that America will one day take up the torch of human rights again and perhaps help to found an International Court for Human Rights.

Sometimes Things Work

2006-03-09T14:08:00.000-08:00

Sometimes Things Work

Life often throws you curveballs and sometimes it just throws rocks. Recently my mother’s ten-year struggle with cancer came to an end. There was a long, long list in the back of my mind as my mom lay dying, a list of all the things that could go wrong: She might linger in pain, my siblings might fight, my dad might collapse, the funeral home might take advantage of our grief. The list was long and realistically there were lots of things that could have gone wrong. But they didn’t go wrong.

Instead of fleeing from what was actually happening and wallowing in fear, my father and I did our human best to stay with the present moment. My mother got to see all of her children and to say farewell. She did not spend her last days in horrible pain. The drugs helped. My brothers and sisters did not fight. We were all sad to be losing Mom, but we were glad to see her resting peacefully at last after a long fight. Dad did not collapse in grief. The funeral home was fantastic. We couldn’t push the situation away, so we just quietly moved through it. And things were alright. Things worked.

So many people sacrificed and gave of their time and their love during Mom’s illness and after her death. Dad’s 24/7 care was matched only by Mom’s unending concern for all of us. Relatives and friends came from all over the country to pay their respects. And we all shared our memories, our stories, our love and our tender aching hearts. Thanks to everyone for being so wonderful.

Sometimes things work. And the fact that everything worked so well at a time when we are told that everything will fall apart says something, something I am still trying to figure out. Maybe the Big Scary Traumas in life are only big and scary as we anticipate them. Maybe the Universe does not throw things at us that we can’t handle. Maybe the present moment contains everything we need to be at peace. Maybe when our focus shifts to those around us and what they need our own ego-driven needs and desires are reduced. Maybe we all can grow up and mature. Maybe we can choose our responses to even the most horrible circumstances. Maybe there is more love and compassion in this world than we normally notice.

What I do know is that my mother gave me an incredible gift. She asked me to stay until the end, not for her but for my dad. She helped me to focus on those around me and got me out of my own ego. Mom gave me the opportunity to watch the end of this mortal life and helped me to stay with it and not run away, physically or mentally, to stay with the present moment. Mom helped me to see what is truly important in this life, and it wasn’t work or fame or money. Mom showed me that we are rich only if our lives are filled with love and attention and compassion for those around us. Mom showed me that when your heart is filled with love death is not a frightening ending, but a wondrous and joyful beginning.

Thanks Mom for showing me that sometimes things work.

"We Do Not Torture"

2006-02-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

“We do not torture” Mr. Bush told reporters on Nov 7, 2005.
So this is not torture.

“We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice,” said Bush.
So this is a terrorist being brought to justice.

“Any activity we conduct is within the law,” Bush proclaimed.
So this is a lawful act.

“We do not torture and therefore we’re working with Congress to make sure that as we go forward, we make it more possible to do our job,” Mr. Bush said.
This is the President doing his job.

These new pictures from Abu Ghraib demonstrate our President's commitment to bringing democracy to Iraq. I am sure these men appreciate having Freedom marched so forcefully through their neighborhoods and across their naked bodies.

This crap done in the name of the USA makes me sick.

A Scolding for Bush

2006-02-08T09:57:00.000-08:00

At the Coretta Scott King memorial service, Rev Joseph Lowery criticized George W Bush with the President in attendence.

Figures Not Shown To Scale

2006-02-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

I think there is a reason why the Pentagon does not track Iraqi deaths.
I think the reason is that Americans are basically decent, caring people.
I think that if Americans were fully aware of how much death and destruction our invasion and occupation of Iraq is causing, I think Americans would search for better alternatives, alternatives that do not include the deaths of soldiers, policemen, and civilians.

The New York Times has drawn a chart depicting the deaths in Iraq in January 2006. Not the whole war so far, just one month. 31 days = 800 human lives.
I am not saying that America is directly responsible for each and every one of those 800 deaths. But our part in this drama is large. We are the party most able to control our own actions.

800 in 1 month. If we laid them all end to end, that would be 15 football fields long. That is a long, long line of death. It is hard to wrap the mind around 1 month's worth of violence in Iraq. How long have we been there? How long are we going to stay?

It is time for us to shut this disaster down. Collateral Damage is not Free.

Economic Bottom Line

2006-01-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Vice President Dick Cheney is telling us that the “economy” is in great shape: 4 million jobs created in the last 2 years, unemployment under 5%, low inflation, cheap interest rates, corporate profits on the rebound, the Dow Jones over 11,000. “It is getting pretty hard for the critics to make the case that the tax cuts weren’t good for the economy,” the VP said at a Harley-Davidson plant in Kansas City. But that assessment depends on what factors are included in the philosophical equation that is the “economy”. According to what Dick Cheney and Corporate America include on their balance sheets the “economy” is booming and so are the privileges and perks of the shareholders. But if your equation for the “economy” includes things like the well being and health of ordinary Americans, the environment, and security and peace in the world, then our “economy” is in the toilet.

Those new jobs are mostly in service, temp work, restaurants, big-box retail and other low-paying work. High-paying jobs have been disappearing in every category except corporate executives.

Unemployment numbers do not include the under employed or those who have stopped looking for work in their fields.

Much of the Dow Jones numbers are propped up by the $2 Trillion Dollars the Bush Administration has moved through corporate contractors. And that money is not accounted for in the 2006 Federal Budget and has mostly been borrowed from foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile we export war to the Middle East and threaten additional military action against countries such as Syria and Iran even as Iraq slips increasingly into civil war and the death count increases, none of which makes Americans any safer from terrorism. Yet the Administration uses terrorism as an excuse at every turn to amass more power in the hands of the President while abusing Civil Rights and the Constitution.

And the Media, being owned almost exclusively by the Corporations that are profiting by this highly myopic and exclusive method of accounting for the “economy”, have turned business journalism into the same kind of soft porn that is entertainment journalism. Only corporate values are accounted for and reported on with a large dose of hero worship for those who have made their billions. Social values and moral values, the quality of life for average Americans, is ignored.

This focus on profit and loss ignores the larger questions of right and wrong. And as a result, reports on the “economy” do not accurately describe the quality of our lives. And this trend will continue until we find a way to factor human interests and environmental interests into the corporate balance sheet.

Stand and Deliver

2006-01-06T16:47:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year.
I hope it is a better one than the last.
President B*sh has thrown the Constitution in the trash and says that he will keep on abusing his powers until someone stands up and makes him stop.
Somebody call the Sheriff!
We’ve been hornswaggled.

No, We Don’t Deserve This

2005-12-15T09:55:00.000-08:00

By Evelyn Larsen

While on a long road trip for work, I stopped for lunch at a diner. As I had not brought my book with me, I picked up a magazine from the rack and started thumbing through it while waiting for my meal to arrive. It was one of those women’s magazines. I don’t recall which one, but it helped pass the time.

An article caught my eye in the “Your Health” section; it was titled “But I Never Smoked So How Could I Have Lung Cancer?” By Regina Sullivan, as told by Melba Newsome. It wasn’t the article itself that made me want to write this political blog entry, but one of the paragraphs struck me as applying to the real life situation not of lung cancer but of the political cancer we as a nation are spreading in our own country and through out the middle east, Europe and the rest of the world.

The woman in the article was diagnosed with lung cancer but had not smoked. So she was trying to promote awareness. This was her comment after she had gone through surgery and chemotherapy and had come to terms with her disease:

“In the beginning, I wanted to scream, “No I don’t smoke, and I don’t live with a smoker, and I don’t have radon in my house, and I never had contact with asbestos.” But I’ve since realized that dividing lung cancer sufferers into smokers and nonsmokers is counterproductive and promotes the notion that there are innocent and guilty victims. No one deserves this brutal, unforgiving disease. I also believe that the lack of sympathy for the 87 percent of sufferers who either smoke or have smoked has led to less funding for research for the leading cancer killer of both men and women….”

When the United States had planes hijacked and used as weapons on our own people in the World Trade Center we all said “NO, I don’t deserve this.” “I didn’t do anything to cause this to happen to me”, just like the woman in the article.

And when OUR President convinced congress to let him take our military into Iraq, because of nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, why didn’t anyone at that time ask “Why did they attack using our planes and not their WMD’s?” Who are the smoker and the non-smoker of this conflict?

Our own nation is being divided into two groups: Republicans and Democrats, smokers and nonsmokers. “This is counterproductive and promotes the notion that there are innocent and guilty victims.” As both political parties continue to in-fight, and try to point fingers at who is to blame for this disease that is ravaging the United States the bombing and shooting is still killing the truly innocent Iraqi women, children and fathers. “No one deserves this brutal, unforgiving disease.” The invasion of their homes, their country, their lives, their politics and their religion, needs to stop now. Until that happens neither they nor we will heal.

“I also believe that the lack of sympathy for the 87 percent of sufferers who either smoke or have smoked has led to less funding for research for the leading cancer killer of both men and women….” That leaves 13 percent who never smoked suffering with lung cancer. Our congress people, senators and Presidential Officers are supposed to represent ALL of their constituents. Not just the ones that agree with them. The voice of that 13 percent is not being represented.

It is my feeling that if we simply had sympathy for all 100 % of the PEOPLE of Iraq and funded the rehabilitation of the infrastructure of the country instead of the occupation and destruction, then and only then would the cancer of hate stop being the leading killer of both men and women in Iraq.

The liberals and conservatives alike are actually asking for the exact same respect as the Iraqi people, “Let me live, let us live our lives the way we want.” Some who claim to be follows of Christ say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays” claiming to be more “inclusive” or “Stay the Course” again claiming to do this for the betterment of our nation. When in reality what they are saying is, what they believe and want is more important because they manipulate the power. And yet others that are accused of being Godless say “be more accepting” or “tolerant”. Now we as individuals, a nation, and a world need to decide together that hate, death and invasion is unacceptable. And we the people need to uphold our constitution, and disavow those who choose to separate our country internally and from the rest of the world.

We need to heal this cancer that is taking over the minds of those who proclaim they work for good by doing bad. To find a cure to the disease that is encouraged by those who claim to follow Jesus and yet do not follow his teachings of peace and prosperity for all people not just the rich. This is my hope for this season of joy and new beginnings for the New Year’s Holiday and through out the years to come, that we all might not only be survivors of a horrible disease but also be the cure.

Puppies not Phosphorus

2005-12-13T09:48:00.000-08:00

Meet the newest member of the family--Biscuit the Biscotti Terrier (half Boston half Scotty). We got him for the kids. And watching the kids play with the puppy, I realized that most things worth doing are done for the kids.

If we would simply think of the kids first our lives would be simpler, more beautiful, and more full of joy. You don’t scream or use your fists when you are thinking about the kids. You don’t pollute the air or the water when you are thinking about the kids. You don’t put yourself or the country into decades of debt when you are thinking about the kids. And you don’t invade countries when you are thinking about the kids.

Amazingly enough, the kids get no official recognition in our government. They can’t vote. Yet every policy we enact impacts the children directly, our children, our neighbor’s children, and the children in other countries.

Let’s put the kids at the front of all of our personal, business and government debates, decisions and policies. And let’s see if life does not change for the better.

VICE President's Admission

2005-11-22T10:03:00.000-08:00

Dick Cheney said today, "We operated on the best available intelligence, gathered over a period of years from within a totalitarian society ruled by fear and secret police." Oooops! Freudian Slip...

First Mainstream Media Fatality Picture?

2005-11-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

Last week the New York Times published a picture of a U.S. Marine kikked in an ambush during the large scale offensive near the Syrian border in Iraq. 32 months and 2,000+ dead Americans later, this may be the first image of a U.S. military fatality to be published by the Mainstream Media.

What does that mean? Who knows. But maybe even the MSM is tiring of Administration restrictions of what can be reported from Iraq.

I definitely do not want to see any more Americans or Iraqis killed. But as long as this war is going on, we need to see what is being done. We need to confront the violence and death America has exported to Iraq. We need to decide if we support such violence.

Thanks to Bag News Notes for posting the picture.

Resistance in Action

2005-11-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

NYC, San Francisco, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Phoenix, Tuscon, Berkeley, San Diego, Ft. Lauderdale, Honolulu, Batvia, Oak Park, Amherst, Detroit, An Arbor, Kalamazoo, Minneapolis, Springfield, Boone, Greensboro, Cleveland, Columbus, Tulsa, Medford, Portland, Philadelphia, Chattanooga, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Hampton, Washington DC, Anacortes, Madison, and more….

Young, old, single, married, gay, strait, all races, all creeds, all people demanding an end to the illegal and immoral Bush Administration.
The Nov 2nd, 2005 Day of Resistance was a success.
Read Reports from the different cities.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” – Ghandi

Modern Fascism

2005-11-02T11:17:00.000-08:00

The man who claimed to be his nation's leader had not been elected by a majority vote.
He was a simpleton, who saw things in black-and-white terms.
He did not have the intellect to understand the subtleties of running a nation.
His course use of language and his inflammatory nationalistic rhetoric offended aristocrats, foreign leaders, and the well educated.
When extremists stuck a prestigious building he rushed to the scene and called a press conference.
He declared war not on another nation but on a tactic: terrorism.
He built detention centers for "terrorists."
He suspended constitutional guarantees of free speech, privacy, and habeous corpus.
His "Homeland Security" forces intercepted mail, wiretapped phones, imprisoned suspected terrorists without specific charges and without access to their lawyers.
Citizens who protested where fenced off in protest zones or beaten or gassed.
He argued that any international body that didn't act in the best interests of his own nation was neither relevant nor useful.
He touted his Christian faith and called for a revival of faith in his nation.
He brought the executives of the nation's largest corporations into the government.
And he invaded and annexed other countries to increase his own wealth.

Fascism must be resisted.
The German people thought they were free, even as they gave away their democracy.

Day of Resistance Gets Going

2005-11-02T09:46:00.000-08:00

Nov 2nd 2005 National Day of Resistance: No Work, No School, No Bush.

Reports are starting to come in from Resistance Demonstations across the Country:
San Francisco, Princeton, NYC, Washington DC, Seattle, Atlanta, Ohio University, Los Angeles, and more...

Democracy Now! talks about the protests: Amy Goodman said: "...protests are being organized in over 200 cities...WCW, drive out the Bush regime...in N.Y. protests began Tuesday when radio station Hot 97 refused to run a paid ad by Boots Riley from the Coup." Then she played the ad and said: "organizers are urging students to walk out of their high schools....in Seattle, student walkouts are scheduled in over two dozen schools."

More as the Day of Resistance Continues.

Declaration of Resistance

2005-11-01T14:38:00.000-08:00

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
We the People declare a National Day of Resistance, November 2, 2005.
Our government has been purchased by Corporations and no longer represents real people.
Our leaders lied and led us into an illegal war where thousands have died.
Even when their lies are exposed they express no remorse and offer no plans to remove us from this war.
We the People cannot wait for 2008 to elect a new government.
The world cannot wait.

Resist tyranny and despotism.
Nov 2nd. No work. No school. No purchases. No fascism.
Bring back government of the People, by the People, for the People.

I Want a Seat On the Bus

2005-10-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

A great American Hero, Rosa Parks, has died. When she was 42 she performed an act of informed defiance and nonviolent protest. Despite laws requiring that blacks give up their bus seats to whites, she refused to surrender her seat and was arrested, jailed and fined. Parks said of her action, “I felt I had a right to be treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment for too long.”

Parks didn’t know that her solitary act would add momentum to a movement that would result in the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act, which made racial discrimination in public facilities illegal. She didn’t know that she would one day be heralded as the “mother of the civil rights movement.” Rosa said looking back, “At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in.”

America is experiencing a similar environment of discrimination and exclusion today. Millions of Americans want a seat on the bus of democracy, but we are told that we have to give up our seats to rich individuals and corporations that have claimed our democracy and our representatives as their own. The rich and the powerful have everything on their side. They control the media. They write the laws. They flood the courts with their representatives. They choose the Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb candidates that we are expected to give our rubber stamp of approval to. And we are supposed to ignore the fact that these “candidates” either are already millionaires or quickly become millionaires by playing along when they get to Washington. Republican or Democrat doesn’t matter any longer, they are all on the payroll of these large corporations.

The capitalist elites and their corporate entities sneer when simple people like Cindy Sheehan demand their seat on the bus of democracy. After all, what can a simple citizen do against such a juggernaut of power? But Rosa Parks was just a simple woman. Martin Luther King Jr. was just a simple man. The Civil Rights Movement was made up of millions of simple citizens who resolutely resisted the tyranny of the power elite and demanded their seats on the bus of democracy.

We can do the same. The promise of democracy is a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. What we have now is a government of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich. We must resist this tyranny. We must demand our seat on the Bus of Democracy. We the People must reclaim our government.

Wednesday, November the 2nd, 2005 is the one-year anniversary of the reelection of George W. Bush, the self proclaimed CEO President who has used lies to send our sons and daughters to invade a country that was no threat to the security of America so that his constituency, the capitalist elite and the corporations, could make billions of dollars while bankrupting the U.S. Treasury and handing the tax bill to future generations of tax payers. Bush, the self proclaimed compassionate conservative, orders the dropping of cluster bombs on residential neighborhoods and says that torture is a justifiable treatment of prisoners.

Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005 can be the beginning of the new civil rights movement. Even a simple action can add momentum to a movement. Do not go to school or work next Wednesday. Do not bank or shop. Do not buy gasoline. Do not watch mainstream media. 66% of Americans say they do not approve of the Bush Administration’s war in Iraq. Imagine the message it would send if 66% of Americans did not go to Wal-Mart or report for work. Resist this government of the elite and demand a government of the People and for the People.

Demand your seat on the Bus of Democracy, everyday.
We are just people, but that is what democracy is all about, people.
People like you and me.

http://www.worldcantwait.org/
http://wcwhookup.blogspot.com/2005/10/letter-to-friend-about-nov-2nd.html

Strange Days

2005-10-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

Strange days have found us

Strange days have tracked us down

They’re going to destroy

Our casual joys

We shall go on playing

Or find a new town

Yeah!

Strange eyes fill strange rooms

Voices will signal their tired end

The hostess is grinning

Her guests sleep from sinning

Hear me talk of sin

And you know this is it

Yeah!

Strange days have found us

And through their strange hours

We linger alone

Bodies confused

Memories misused

As we run from the day

To a strange night of stone
--Jim Morrison & The Doors

Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement has died.

Then number of U.S. military dead in Iraq reaches 2,000,
just as the Iraqis announced the ratification of their new constitution making Iraq an Islamic Republic.
News of which has the U.S. military so excited that they have revived the popular Vietnam War practice of announcing “enemy body counts” to show us the impact of their counterinsurgency operations, so that there is no doubt in American minds that our troops are kicking the crap out of the enemy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/23/AR2005102301273.html

Meanwhile a triple bombing kills at least 17 in Baghdad.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/12987978.htm
But the President says the war in Iraq is not the cause of rising terrorism.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aduP_7xj9mig&refer=us
And Bush calls on us to spend more time and sacrifice more lives in Iraq and rejected calls for a U.S. pullout.

Back at the ranch, the whole White House staff is waiting for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to announce who will be indicted and for what.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1151AP_Cheneys_Role.html
Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Carl Rove, are all holding their breath, because they all know they lied us into a war and then lied to discredit the people who tried to expose the lies. The question really isn’t “are the people in the White House criminals?” The question is “will we be able to prove it in a court of law, or whether we will have to try these thugs in the court of the blogosphere?”
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20051023-104217-9679r

On the trivial side, Infinity Broadcasting thinks David Lee Roth can be just as annoying as Howard Stern.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8DF9CJO9.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db

And on the Big Brother front, those tiny dots produced by your color laser printer are really a secret code that allows the government to track down who printed what, when and on what printer.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1025-08.htm
So don’t print any color leaflets for those November 2nd, Day of Resistance demonstrations.
http://www.worldcantwait.org/

Strange Days indeed, Jim.

Don’t Take Photos to Wal-Mart

2005-10-13T13:18:00.000-07:00

Notice to the Secret Service: My name is Jay Larsen, and I approve of the above photo. I took the above photo. It is my right as an American to express my political views and I disapprove of our current President.

Fortunately, I used a digital camera and didn’t have to take my film to Wal-Mart for processing. That’s what a student in North Carolina did and it got him and his teacher a visit from the Secret Service.

The Progressive describes what happened to a senior in Selina Jarvis’ Civics and Economics class. The students were assigned to “to take photographs to illustrate their rights in the Bill of Rights.” So one of the students took a picture of George W Bush with a red thumb tack through his head with his hand making a thumb’s down sign—just like my picture above. The student was doing his assignment and illustrating the right to dissent.

But an employee at the Kitty Hawk Wal-Mart, which developed the student’s film thought the picture posed a threat and called the Kitty Hawk police, who called the Secret Service. On September 20, the Secret Service visited Currituck High, confiscated the poster with the offensive picture and interrogated the student and his teacher, Selina Jarvis. No charges have been filed.

Jarvis describes the incident as “ridiculous.” I agree.

Go Granny D

2005-10-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

Truthout.org posted a speech by Dorris "Granny D" Haddock.
An enjoyable read about the "two great and growing devisions separating us as Americans: rich versus poor, and left versus right."

She says:

"Let us indeed believe that all people are equal, but let us not assume that all political opinions are equal, for some are toxic and sociopathic and require our loving intervention. Let us intervene. Let us stand up in church gatherings, let us confront our friends. Let us use the tools of mass communication to awaken people to the lies that bind them."

Read the entire speech. I highly recommend it.

Freudian Soliloquy

2005-10-06T16:03:00.000-07:00

The President said he was going to make a “major speech”. He promised us a revealing look at the terrorists and our continuing struggle against them. Support for the Iraq War has been flagging and George needed to rally the faithful. Obviously I was not part of the President’s intended audience because I was not rallied by this morning’s oration, I was sickened.

People have often speculated about Mr. Bush’s intelligence, or lack of it. Some people think he is not very smart. But now it is apparent that George thinks the American People are dumber than he is.

There were the outright lies, like saying that “Today there are more than 80 Iraqi army battalions fighting the insurgency alongside our forces.” When General George Casey, overall commander in Iraq just testified under oath that there was “only one Iraqi army battalion now able to fight without U.S. help” down from three battalions that had that capability in June.

Then there was the rewriting of history, saying that we went to Iraq to fight Al-Qaeda. Which is a lot like saying that you went to Florida for the snowboarding.

And there was a lot of flag waving and the inevitable references to 9-11. That was nothing new.

But what really twisted my gut as I listened to the President’s speech, was the way his descriptions of the “enemy” were also apt descriptions of the Neo-Con Cabala and their Corporate Supporters who have taken power in Washington DC. George W Bush was describing himself. Here are a few examples:

“Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience must be taken very seriously, and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply.
Defeating a militant network is difficult because it thrives like a parasite on the suffering and frustration of others.
The radicals exploit local conflicts to build a culture of victimization in which someone else is always to blame and violence is always the solution.
They exploit resentful and disillusioned young men and women, recruiting them through radical mosques as the pawns of terror.
And they exploit modern technology to multiply their destructive power.”
…
“We're facing a radical ideology with unalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world.”
…
“In truth, they have endless ambitions of imperial domination and they wish to make everyone powerless except themselves.”

George W Bush believes he is describing the Terrorists, and he is. Make no mistake; I am no fan of terrorism from any source. But the President is unwittingly describing his own relationship to the free world. His is a radical ideology with unalterable objectives: to enslave whole nations and intimidate the world.

Do we want to get into a contest with terrorists, to see who can be the most brutal? To see who can instill the most fear and impose their will despite the will of the people? I say no. The question is who we want to be as a people? Who do We The People want to be? I don’t want to be a terrorist. I don’t want to bomb anyone. I don’t want to wage war. Yet these extremists, the terrorists and the Neo-Cons, are proving themselves all to willing to spread war and destruction to get what they want. They are both willing to ignore the cries of the people. These foes on both sides are the enemies of America, the enemies of Iraq, the enemies of Islam, the enemies of Christianity, and above all else the enemies of humanity.

What can we as ordinary people do about this situation? How can we stop these extremists from terrorizing the world and keeping us in fear? Well, while George W Bush was accidentally describing his own motivations and ambitions, he also accidentally told us how to resist and how to end this tyranny:

George said, “Against such an enemy there is only one effective response: We will never back down, never give in and never accept anything less than complete victory. … And whatever lies ahead in the war against this ideology, the outcome is not in doubt: Those who despise freedom and progress have condemned themselves to isolation decline and collapse.
Because free peoples believe in the future, free peoples will own the future. We didn't ask for this global struggle, but we're answering history's call with confidence and a comprehensive strategy.
Defeating a broad and adaptive network requires patience, constant pressure, and strong partners in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and beyond. …
We don't know the course of our own struggle, the course our own struggle will take, or the sacrifices that might lie ahead.
We do know, however, that the defense of freedom is worth our sacrifice. We do know the love of freedom is the mightiest force of history. And we do know the cause of freedom will once again prevail.”

For once, I couldn’t agree with you more, Mr. President. We The People will never back down, and you have condemned yourself to increasing isolation, decline and collapse. Freedom will once again prevail when We The People reclaim our democracy from you and your supporters and handlers.

This Blog Kills Fascists

2005-09-29T15:32:00.000-07:00

That is a picture of Woody Guthrie and his guitar.
Many people told Woody to sit down and shut up, to quit talking about corrupt corporations and governments, to quit singing about the trials and tribulations of the working man. Most of those people are forgotten. But not Woody.
Woody put the words, “This Machine kills fascists” on his guitar because he new that fearlessly telling (and singing) truth to power would eventually bring down power built on lies and corruption.

American history is filled with protesters, agitators, and annoying truth tellers who would not do the polite thing and just sit down and shut up: Martin Luther King Jr., Abbey Hoffman, Woody Guthrie, those guys who dumped all that tea into Boston Harbor, and many many many more. America remembers these people and honors them. We do not remember the countless millions who were polite and didn’t make a scene, who worked quietly through channels, who were civilized and allowed those more powerful than them to lie and cheat and steal.

Now I wish that I could say that the Democratic (or even the Republican) party had leaders in it who were willing to tell the truth to power, to call a lie a lie. But I don’t see that happening. No disrespect to John Conyers and the handful of politicians who do a better job than most, but as a group our elected representatives have failed us and show no signs of growing a conscience or a backbone any time soon.

So the responsibility falls to us: the normal citizens who have been so busy living our lives that we have delegated our responsibility to others. We have to stand up one person at a time and tell the truth, agitate, get in the faces of the government that does not represent us any longer. We need to make it clear that government will work for the benefit of all or we will fire these corporate cronies and elect a new government.

This will be a slow process. But we have no other choice. Keep on agitating. Keep on telling the truth. Keep on resisting the lies. Keep on marching and organizing. Keep shining light on the dark secret corners of Washington DC and we will see the cockroaches run. And once in a while we may be able to smash a roach or two.

We have these bastards out numbered. Keep on keeping on.

This Blog Kills Fascists.

Good Americans

2005-09-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

Good Americans don't lie and cheat, but criminals do.
Good Americans don't favor the rich over the poor, but criminals do.
Good Americans don't bomb neighborhoods, but criminals do.
Good Americans don't invade other countries, but criminals do.
Good Americans don't torture prisoners, but criminals do.
Good Americans don't choose war over peace, but criminals do.
Good Americans don't support criminals...

There were a lot of Good Americans marching last weekend.

It is a shame that the mainstream media ignored them or treated them like some kind of lunatic fringe. The marchers represent a majority of Americans who want our troops to withdraw from Iraq.

It is also a shame that our elected representatives did not participate. I guess it would be asking a lot for Republicans to participate, but even the Democrats do not feel it is safe to be seen as an anti-war candidate. With the notable exceptions of the only Democratic officeholders who planned to address the rally, Reps. Cynthia McKinney of Georgia and John Conyers of Michigan. Thanks you Cynthia and John. Good Americans will remember your participation.

But where were Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Russ Feingold, John Kerry, John Edwards, Ed Kennedy? The so-called Democratic leadership is still waiting for better poll numbers I guess. When will it be safe to call for a withdrawal from Iraq? When 75% of Americans call for an end to the war? 85%? 95%

My guess is they are waiting for 50% of Lobbists and Corporate Contributers to call for an end to the war.

So maybe Good Americans need new representatives.

Why We're Marching

2005-09-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

I can't say it any better than Media Benjamin:

Published on Friday, September 23, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Why We're Marching
by Medea Benjamin

On Saturday, September 24, tens of thousands of Americans from all walks of life will come together in Washington, DC to call on Congress and President Bush to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home now.
When hundreds of thousands of us marched against this war before it began, the Bush administration called us a "focus group." Now that focus group represents the majority of the American public, who in all the most recent polls are saying this war was a mistake, it's unwinnable, it makes us less safe at home and it should end.

It's time for both the White House and Congress to start listening to those of us who have been and continue to talk with our feet. Here are some of the many reasons why we will be out on the streets of Washington DC this weekend:

We're marching because we are distressed over the continued war in Iraq, an unprovoked, unnecessary war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 2,000 US soldiers. We grieve for those families who have already lost loved ones in this war, and we want to stop other families from suffering such painful losses.

We're marching because we want to hold George Bush accountable for dragging us into this war on false pretenses. The September 11 Commission officially acknowledged that Iraq was not involved in the terrorist attacks on our nation, and the U.S. military gave up its search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction because they don't exist.

We're marching because we support our troops, and we are convinced that the best way to show that support is to bring them home and fully attend to their economic, physical, and psychological needs when they return.

We're marching because we're convinced that we can't afford to continue spending over a billion dollars a week on this unwinnable war, especially in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Our tax dollars should be channeled away from war and destruction and into rebuilding the Gulf Coast, rebuilding Iraq, and investing in our nation's healthcare, schools and infrastructure.

We're marching because we're appalled by the war profiteering of companies such as Halliburton and Bechtel. We believe the Iraqis should rebuild their own country. And we want to stop the corrupt practice of awarding lucrative contracts to US companies with close government ties, as we have done in Iraq and are now repeating in the Gulf Coast.

We're marching because we want to seriously address our nation's addiction to oil. We see our ruinous policies in the Middle East and the global warming-induced fury of Hurricane Katrina as consequences of an oiligarchy that must be replaced by an economy based on conservation, efficiency and clean, renewable sources of energy.

We're marching because we fear that our government is building 14 permanent bases in Iraq. Our military bases in Saudi Arabia were one of the reasons given by Al Qaeda for the September 11 attacks. We should not provoke new attacks against us by maintaining an ongoing military presence in the Middle East.

We're marching because we're convinced that the war in Iraq is endangering our security. It is inflaming anti-American sentiment all over the world, it has turned Iraq into a terrorist training ground and it has actually increased the ranks of terrorist groups. It has also diverted attention and resources from capturing and bringing to justice those who attacked us on September 11.

We're marching because the war in Iraq is undermining the capacity of the US military. The military has been unable to reach its recruiting goals for months now, because young people don't want to be sent off to fight in a war they don't believe in. And as we have seen in the case of Hurricane Katrina, sending a significant portion of our National Guard troops and heavy equipment to Iraq has undermined our capacity to respond to emergencies here at home.

We're marching because our presence in Iraqi is not helping the Iraqis. The US troops are not providing security to Iraqis - in fact more than 200 Iraqis died in the past two weeks alone. The US troops are not preventing a civil war, but provoking the insurgency and increasing the violence. We believe the Iraqi people would have a better chance of encouraging disenfranchised Sunnis to join the government and bring peace to their beleaguered nation if the US troops withdrew.

We're marching because there are many indications that the Iraqis want us to leave. Polls taken just before the Iraqi election in January showed that a majority of both Sunnis and Shiites said U.S. forces should leave. In fact, one-third of the elected officials signed a letter calling for the withdrawal of foreign troops, and the Iraqi Sovereignty Committee of the National Assembly recently issued a report saying that Iraqi sovereignty was hampered by foreign forces and calling for a timetable for their withdrawal. And in June of this year, one million Iraqis - mostly Shiites - signed a petition calling for an end to the occupation.

We're marching because we don't want to see our nation ever again engage in an unprovoked, pre-emptive war. We want our government to adhere to international law and to use force as an absolute last resort. We want to see our nation embrace the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including the obligations of the nuclear powers themselves to disarm, since this is the only way we will truly rid the world of the dangers of weapons of mass destruction.

The people in the streets this weekend will be speaking loud and clear, and reflecting the sentiments of the general public. It's too bad our government refused to listen to us before invading Iraq. It's time they start listening now.

Mad Cows Block Food Aid

2005-09-20T11:19:00.000-07:00

According to the UK paper The Mirror, tons of food aid donated by the British for Katrina evacuees has been impounded by the FDA and ruled unfit for human consumption. The reason, apparently the meat in 400,000 NATO ration packs comes from the UK. Officials may be afraid of BSE or Mad Cow disease. But we have had BSE in America and we allow the evacuees to eat American MREs. Apparently food from Spain and Italy has been held up also.

We allow US Troops in NATO to consume these ration packs. We also allow Halliburton to serve rotten food to our troops in Iraq. But it is better to destroy millions of dollars in food aid from a trusted ally rather than cut through the red tape and distribute food to evacuees who need it now.

I think the Mad Cows are in Washington DC.

2005-09-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

Waging Peace

The Buck Stops Here

2005-09-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

The Bush Administration has done a horrible job of responding to hurricane Katrina. They have let a great city and huge numbers of people languish without basic aid and comfort while they held press conferences and staged photo ops.

I want to blame Bush. He has been the worst American President of my life time.
I want to blame the Neo-Cons who have dismantled American social services and safety programs in the name of privatization and corporate profits.
I want to blame the Republicans (and others) who voted for him not once but twice.

It is your fault.
And it is mine.

Bush has made it increasingly clear that he serves the 10% of this country that own 90% of everything. Bush is an Aristocratic snob who works for the rich. I blame him.

The Neo-Cons have perpetrated this hijacking of our democracy. I blame them.

The Voters bought their hog wash and elected and reelected these criminals. I blame them.

And I let you hand our country and our democratic values over to these corporate elites. I obviously did not protest enough. I obviously did not annoy my friends and family enough with those annoying “facts” about the criminality and destructive malice this Administration has unleashed on our country. I blame me. The Buck Stops Here.

We are to Blame. This is our country and we have sold it to a gang of corporate pirates for a few trinkets. And we let them do it and we have never held them accountable.

Bush ignored the intelligence and 911 happened. And we let him get away with it.
Abu Ghraib and Camp X-ray happened. And we let them get away with it.
They lied about WMD. And we let them invade another country.
Bush took huge surplus and turned it into the biggest deficit in history. And we let them.
Bush used our National Guard overseas. And we didn’t hold him responsible.
Bush slashed the budgets for levees and flood control. And we let him do it.
Bush put FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security. And we let him do it.

And after all this looting and plundering of our country by Bush and the Neo-Cons we are not safer. We are not more secure.

We are poorer. We are at higher risk to terrorism. And our social security network has been privatized and plundered so that it only works for the rich. And we let them do it. We voted for this genius and his cronies not once but twice.

So go ahead and blame the victims of the hurricane for being poor and without a car.
Go ahead and try to blame the major of New Orleans or the Governor of Louisianna.

I think it would be better if we admit that we do not have a leader who represents Americans. And that is our fault.

We didn’t make it clear that this is our country and that our government must represent us. And if our representatives make mistakes they will be held accountable.
We made a mistake and let Bush and the Neo-Cons hijack our country.
We hired this jackass and are as much to blame as Bush.
We hired the President and he hired his team.
The team that left tens of thousands of people to die in New Orleans.

Katrina is simply Bush’s latest in a long line of failures.
How many more failures do we allow?

We are the people of the United States of America.
We are not powerless.
We deserve better.
We want better.
But to get better, we have to admit we have a problem.
And then we need to fire some incompetent employees.
And I think we know where to start.

2005-09-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Treated like criminals for using a mail truck to escape flooded New Orleans, Aug 31st.

Will We Hold Them Accountable This Time?

2005-09-06T10:51:00.000-07:00

"Governments at all levels failed," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said at the Capitol. She announced that the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee would hold hearings, adding, "It is difficult to understand the lack of preparedness and the ineffective initial response to a disaster that had been predicted for years, and for which specific, dire warnings had been given for days."

We did not hold the government or the administration accountable after the failures of 911.

We did not hold the governement or the administration accountable after no WMDs were found in Iraq.

We did not hold the government or the administration accountable after the torture camps in Iraq and Cuba.

Now in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the government and the administration have made it clear that if you are poor you do not recieve timely disaster relief.

Will we hold them accountable this time?
Or are we okay with an administration that administers only to the rich and the incorporated?

Truth = Dangerous propaganda

2005-08-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

This just in from the Associated Press:

"Releasing photos and videotapes of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison would aid al-Qaida recruitment, weaken governments in Iraq and Afghanistan and incite riots against U.S. troops, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff warned in court papers.
The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking the release of 87 photographs and four videotapes taken at the prison as part of a lawsuit it filed in October 2003.
Gen. Richard B. Myers wrote in recently unsealed court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan that it was "probable that al-Qaida and other groups will seize upon these images and videos as grist for their propaganda mill."

If we didn't want Al Qaida to use pictures of US troops torturing and abusing prisoners, Then We Shouldn't Have Tortured And Abused Them In The First Place!

Now that we have, we need to be honest about it, admit we made a mistake, say we are sorry, quit doing it and make amends. You know, those basic courtesiesies that we were all taught when we were children. But our Administration does not admit mistakeapologizeise, change their behavior or make things better. So maybe they should go have some quiet time while the rest of us learn how to play nicely with each other.

Just an idea.

NeoCons Suck!

2005-08-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

They are sucking the life blood out of America.
Leaving us Black and Blue.

Get On With It

2005-08-16T10:00:00.000-07:00

George W Bush says he can't meet with Ms. Sheehan because he needs to get on with his life. So he went bike riding for two hours, but could not spare ten minutes for a mother who lost her son in the Neo Con's war for oil.
http://www.dailystar.com/dailystar/news/88611.php
So get on with your life George. Enjoy it. Casey Sheehan and 1,800 other American soldiers cannot get on with their lives. They are dead.

Why Mr. President?

2005-08-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

I stand with Cindy Sheehan who wants an answer to her question, "What noble cause did my son die for, Mr. President?"

The President won't meet with her.
He won't address her questions.
So I stand with Cindy.

Why Mr. President?
Why did we invade a country that was no threat to us?
Why do so many Americans and Iraqis have to suffer and die?
Why can't you admit a mistake and bring our soldiers home?
Why can't you answer our questions?
Why?

FAUX NEWS in the Echo Chamber

2005-07-14T10:53:00.000-07:00

John Gibson of FOX NEWS is not only echoing the White House’s talking points about Karl Rove, he has gone all out and predicted the probable outcome of the whole Rove situation.

“I say give Karl Rove a medal, even if Bush has to fire him.”
“Why? Because Valerie Plame should have been outed by somebody. And if nobody else has the cojones to do it, I’m glad Rove did – if he did do it, and he still says he didn’t”

Got that? If Rove did it he is a hero to be awarded with a medal. If Rove didn’t do it he is innocent. The message: Rove is our hero no matter what he does.

Oh and why does Gibson think Plame should have been outed? Remember that “outing” a CIA Operative is a federal crime. But Gibson and FOX (and the White House by implication) think Plame should have been illegally “outed” because Plame “recommended [Joe Wilson] for the job of going to Niger to discover is Saddam was trying to buy nuke bomb materials.” And Gibson points out, “Wilson was opposed to the war in Iraq, opposed to Bush policy, and pointedly and loudly said so.”

So according to Gibson and FOX a crime needed to be commited against a secret CIA operative because she recommended her husband for a task that should have only been given to someone who approved of the plan to invade Iraq, supported Bush policy, and publicly supported the President and his invasion policies.

In other words, the truth of the Niger uranium situation could only be discovered by another Neo-Con moving in lock step with the White House policy of preemptive war.
When the “truth” can only be found by fanatical party members, then perhaps what the party repeatedly declares to be the “truth” is really something else.

In the profoundly circular rhetoric that passes for “fair and balanced” news on FOX, Gibson asks, “You wouldn’t send a peacenik to see if we should go to war, if we need to go to war, now would you?”

No, of course not John. We know what you would do. Since you have already decided that we need to go to war, you would send a war-mongering brute who has already had his fill of Neo-Conservative Kool Aid to ignore the facts and reach the conclusion you had already predetermined. And then we invade a country that was no threat to America. That’s what you would do. That’s what FOX NEWS would do. And that is what you and the White House have done.

Will Karl Rove get his medal? Probably. George Tennant got his Medal of Freedom after failing us on 9/11. Condi got her promotion after ignoring memos that said “Bin Laden Determined To Strike Inside US”. If Karl Rove broke enough laws, I’m sure the President will honor his contributions to the Neo-Conservative Con of America and give him that medal.

GOP Afraid To criticize Rove

2005-07-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

George W Bush called him "The Architect".
But now that it is becoming increasingly clear that Karl Rove broke the law, the Republican "leadership" is being increasingly tight lipped. Not just protecting one of their own, but perhaps afraid of what Rove and his backroom contacts can do to them.

According to Yahoo News, one of the few Republicans to speak out on the record made what might have been a Freudian slip:

"I think he should resign," said Jim Holt, a GOP state senator from Arkansas who is running for lieutenant governor. He joked, "I hope Karl Rove doesn't come gunning for me."

Liberals, Environmentalists, and other humanitarian free thinkers have been afraid of Rove and the "Administration" he Architected for years. Now the Republicans have joined us in being afraid.

Compared To What

2005-07-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

"The President, he's got his war
Folks don't know just what it's for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt they call it treason"

--Eddie Harris & Les McCann
Trying to make it real compared to what
1970

It's Not Treason When We Do It.

2005-07-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

KARL ROVE: WORSE THAN OSAMA BIN LADEN
Ted Rall
Mon Jul 4
In war collaborators are more dangerous than enemy forces, for they betray with intimate knowledge in painful detail and demoralize by their cynical example. This explains why, at the end of occupations, the newly liberated exact vengeance upon their treasonous countrymen even they allow foreign troops to conduct an orderly withdrawal.
If, as state-controlled media insists, there is such a creature as a Global War on Terrorism, our enemies are underground Islamist organizations allied with or ideologically similar to those that attacked us on 9/11. But who are the collaborators?
The right points to critics like Michael Moore, yours truly, and Ward Churchill, the Colorado professor who points out the gaping chasm between America's high-falooting rhetoric and its historical record. But these bête noires are guilty only of the all-American actions of criticism and dissent, not to mention speaking uncomfortable truths to liars and deniers. As far as we know, no one on what passes for the "left" (which would be the center-right anywhere else) has betrayed the United States in the GWOT. No anti-Bush progressive has made common cause with Al Qaeda, Hamas, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan or any other officially designated "terrorist" group. No American liberal has handed over classified information or worked to undermine the CIA.
But it now appears that Karl Rove, GOP golden boy, has done exactly that.
Last week Time magazine turned over its reporter's notes to a special prosecutor assigned to learn who told Republican columnist Bob Novak that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. The revelation, which effectively ended Plame's CIA career and may have endangered her life, followed her husband Joe Wilson's publication of a New York Times op-ed piece that embarrassed the Bush Administration by debunking its claims that Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium from Niger. Time's cowardly decision to break its promise to a confidential source has had one beneficial side effect: according to Newsweek, it indicates that Karl Rove himself made the call to Novak.
One might have expected Rove, the master White House political strategist who engineered Bush's 2000 coup d'état and post-9/11 permanent war public relations campaign, to have ordered a flunky underling to carry out this act of high treason. But as the Arab saying goes, arrogance diminishes wisdom.
Rove, whose gaping maw recently vomited forth that Democrats didn't care about 9/11, is atypically silent. He did talk to the Time reporter but "never knowingly disclosed classified information," claims his attorney. But there's circumstantial evidence to go along with Time's leaked notes. Ari Fleischer abruptly resigned as Bush's press secretary on May 16, 2003, about the same time the White House became aware of Ambassador Wilson's plans to go public. (Wilson's article appeared July 6.) Did Fleischer quit because he didn't want to act as spokesman for Rove's plan to betray CIA agent Plame? Another interesting coincidence: Novak published his Plame column on July 14, Fleischer's last day on the job.
If Newsweek's report is accurate, Karl Rove is more morally repugnant and more anti-American than Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden, after all, has no affiliation with, and therefore no presumed loyalty to, the United States. Rove, on the other hand, is a U.S. citizen and, as deputy White House chief of staff, a high-ranking official of the U.S. government sworn to uphold and defend our nation, its laws and its interests. Yet he sold out America just to get even with Joe Wilson.
Osama bin Laden, conversely, is loyal to his cause. He has never exposed an Al Qaeda agent's identity to the media.
"[Knowingly revealing Plame's name and undercover status to the media]...is a violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and is punishable by as much as ten years in prison," notes the Washington Post. Unmasking an intelligent agent during a time of war, however, surely rises to giving aid and comfort to America's enemies--treason. Treason is punishable by execution under the United States Code.
How far up the White House food chain does the rot of treason go? "Bush has always known how to keep Rove in his place," wrote Time in 2002 about a "symbiotic relationship" that dates to 1973. This isn't some rogue "plumbers" operation. Rove would never go it alone on a high-stakes action like Valerie Plame. It's a safe bet that other, higher-ranking figures in the Bush cabal--almost certainly Dick Cheney and possibly Bush himself--signed off before Rove called Novak. For the sake of national security, those involved should be removed from office at once.
Rove and his collaborators should quickly resign and face prosecution for betraying their country, but given their sense of personal entitlement impeachment is probably the best we can hope for. Congress, and all Americans, should place patriotism ahead of party loyalty.

US Admits to Torture

2005-06-28T14:55:00.000-07:00

US acknowledges torture at Guantanamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan says the UN. This according to an AFX New Report on Forbes.com.

"The acknowledgement was made in a report submitted to the UN Committee against Torture, said a member of the ten-person panel, speaking on on condition of anonymity. 'They are no longer trying to duck this and have respected their obligation to inform the UN,' the Committee member said. 'They they will have to explain themselves (to the Committee). Nothing should be kept in the dark,' he said. UN sources said this is the first time the world body has received such a frank statement on torture from US authorities. "

The Jury says: GUILTY

2005-06-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

The World Tribunal on Iraq heard testimony from 54 witnesses from around the world.
Printed versions of many of the testimonials are available on the WTI website:
http://www.worldtribunal.org

I watched the highlights on Free Speech TV and have read many of the testimonials.
The testimony include a wide range of topics including the deceit practiced by the US and UK governments, the lack of WMDs in Iraq, effects of UN sanctions, destruction of Iraqi infrastructure, devastation of the Iraqi state and society, the ecological destruction and contamination, the 100,000 dead civilians, the 60,000 being held in US custody without charges, the thousands of people that have disappeared, torture and mistreatment of prisoners, the privatization of the Iraq economy, and much much more.

The WTI jury has found that the US and UK governments conducted “a war of aggression in contravention of the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Principles”, that “Intelligence was manufactured to willfully deceive the people of the US, the UK, and their elected representatives”, that attacks on the Iraqi civilian population and infrastructure was in violation of the Geneva Conventions as well as the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, that the US and UK used “Using disproportionate force and indiscriminate weapon systems, such as cluster munitions, incendiary bombs, depleted uranium (DU), and chemical weapons,” “Failing to safeguard the lives of civilians during military activities and during the occupation period thereafter,” “Imposing punishments without charge or trial, including collective punishment, on the people of Iraq, in violation of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Geneva Conventions, and customary international law requiring due process,” “Subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the ICCPR, other treaties and covenants, and customary international law. Degrading treatment includes subjecting Iraqi soldiers and civilians to acts of racial, ethnic, religious, and gender discrimination, as well as denying Iraqi soldiers Prisoner of War status as required by the Geneva Convention”, “Willfully devastating the environment, contaminating it by depleted uranium (DU) weapons, combined with the plumes from burning oil wells, as well as huge oil spills, and destroying agricultural lands,” “Redefining torture in violation of international law, to allow use of torture and illegal detentions, including holding more than 500 people at Guantánamo Bay without charging them or allowing them any access to legal protection, and using “extraordinary renditions” to send people to torture in other countries known to commit human rights abuses and torture prisoners,” and much, much, much more.

The WTI jury recommends “1. The immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the coalition forces from Iraq; 2. That coalition governments make war reparations and pay compensation to Iraq for the humanitarian, economic, ecological, and cultural devastation they have caused by their illegal invasion and occupation; 3. That all laws, contracts, treaties, and institutions established under occupation which the Iraqi people deem inimical to their interests, should be considered null and void; 4. That the Guantanamo Bay prison and all other offshore US military prisons be closed immediately; that the names of the prisoners be disclosed, that they receive POW status, and receive due process; 5. That there be an exhaustive investigation of those responsible for crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity in Iraq, beginning with George W. Bush, President of the United States of America; Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; and other government officials from the coalition of the willing; 6. That we initiate a process of accountability to hold those morally and personally responsible for their participation in this illegal war, such as journalists who deliberately lied, corporate media outlets that promoted racial, ethnic and religious hatred, and CEOs of multinational corporations that profited from this war; 7. That people throughout the world launch actions against US and UK corporations that directly profit from this war. Examples of such corporations include Halliburton, Bechtel, Carlyle, CACI Inc., Titan Corporation, Kellog, Brown and Root (subsidiary of Halliburton), DynCorp, Boeing, ExxonMobil, Texaco, British Petroleum. The following companies have sued Iraq and received “reparation awards”: Toys R Us, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Shell, Nestlé, Pepsi, Phillip Morris, Sheraton, Mobil. Such actions may take the form of direct actions such as shutting down their offices, consumer boycotts, and pressure on shareholders to divest. 8. That soldiers exercise conscience and refuse to enlist and participate in an illegal war. Also that countries provide conscientious objectors political asylum. 9. That the international campaign for dismantling all US military bases abroad be reinforced. 10. That people around the world resist and reject any effort by any of their governments to provide material, logistical, or moral support to the occupation of Iraq.”

They even present evidence of active participation in the corporate media in spreading deliberate falsehoods and failing to adequately investigate the government’s misinformation.

I find it disturbing that American corporate media have given no coverage to the WTI proceedings. There has been plenty of coverage in other parts of the world. Run a Google or Yahoo news search, the results are telling. And the position of our corporate media in America is apparent—their silence speaks very loudly to those who take the time to sample news coverage from other countries.

US Bigger Killer Than Saddam says WTI

2005-06-25T11:18:00.000-07:00

From the Gulf Times of Qatar:

Published: Saturday, 25 June, 2005, 12:02 PM Doha Time
ISTANBUL: The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), a grouping of NGOs and intellectuals opposed to the war in Iraq, yesterday accused the United States of causing more deaths in Iraq than ousted president Saddam Hussain.

“With two wars and 13 years of criminal sanctions, the United States have been responsible for more deaths in Iraq than Saddam Hussain,” Larry Everest, a journalist, told hundreds of anti-war activists gathered in Istanbul.

Founded in 2003, the WTI is modelled on the 1960s Russell Tribunal, created by the British philosopher Bertrand Russell to denounce the war in Vietnam. It has held about 20 sessions so far in different locations around the world.

World Tribunal on Iraq

2005-06-22T10:50:00.000-07:00

The World Tribunal on Iraq http://www.worldtribunal.org
is holding its final sessions in Istanbul. This is the culmination of 2 years of investigation documenting violations of international law and human rights by the United States and its allies before, during and after the invasion of Iraq.

Coverage will be broadcast on Free Speech TV June 24 - 28th.
It will also be streamed via the Internet at http://www.deepdishtv.org

"The World Tribunal on Iraq is collecting a definitive body of evidence on the illegality of the invasion and occupation that will be indispensable to the global anti-war movement, to conscientious objectors, and to students of history for years to come. Americans who oppose the war have a duty to support and participate in this crucial international effort to stand up to U.S. government lawlessness and impunity." -- Naomi Klein

Republicans Bury Gun in the Closet

2005-06-21T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Republicans can bury the gun in a closet, but it is still smoking.

Congressman John Conyers held a hearing to learn more about the Downing Street Memos last week. The Republican leadership did everything they could to keep the hearing from taking place: They refused to let Conyers have a hearing room, forcing them to meet in a basement storeroom. And then they called a large number of votes during the time the hearing was taking place.

Here is a message from Mr. Conyers, who drafted a letter to the President asking for a response and clarification from the White House about the Downing Street Memos:

"On Thursday, I led a hearing about the Downing Street Minutes to receive testimony from former Ambassador Joe Wilson, 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern, constitutional lawyer John Bonifaz, and Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq.
Despite desperate attempts by Republicans to disrupt the proceedings, 32 Members of Congress attended this hearing. We were forced to use a cramped room in the basement of the Capitol little bigger than a closet, even though plenty of larger hearing rooms were available. The Republican Leadership also scheduled votes for nearly two straight hours in an unprecedented attempt to limit the ability of Democratic Members of Congress to participate in this hearing.
Thanks to your help, and the more than 560,000 individuals who signed this letter, the mainstream media felt compelled to cover this event. The room was packed with television cameras and there was significant coverage in national newspapers and radio networks. After the hearing I hand delivered the list of signatures along with a letter to the president signed by 122 Members of Congress demanding answers, and led a rally outside the White House.
We still have much more to do to make President Bush answer the questions raised by the Downing Street Minutes. Much work remains for us to bring this issue to the attention of all Americans."

You can go to http://johnconyers.com to learn more about what Congressman Conyers is doing to get answers about this issue.

Much is at stake here.

Smoking Gun II

2005-06-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

This picture represents the extent of the Free Press in America.
The UK, on the other hand, still publishes articles critical of their government.
London’s Sunday Times published the text of another Top Secret UK Memo dated July 21, 2002 (two days prior to the date on the Downing Street Memo).
Read it: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1648758_1,00.html
And the original Downing Street Memo at: http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memo.html

Again it is noted that evidence for Weapons of Mass Destruction are “thin” and that “desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action.”

"U.S. views of international law vary from that of the U.K. and the international community. Regime change per se is not a proper basis for military action under international law...Legal bases for an invasion of Iraq are in principle conceivable...but would be difficult to establish because of, for example, the tests of immediacy and proportionality. "

"US military planning unambiguously takes as its objective the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime, followed by elimination if Iraqi WMD. It is however, by no means certain, in the view of UK officials, that one would necessarily follow from the other. Even if regime change is a necessary condition for controlling Iraqi WMD, it is certainly not a sufficient one. "

Even though the British felt that the US plan was insufficient to result in a stable Iraq, and even though the legalities of military action were not being observed, the UK felt it had to go along, that Austrailia “would be likely to participate on the same basis as the UK” and that Russia and China might stay out of the way “if sufficient attention were paid to their legal and economic concerns.” (That means keep paying them.) But the British bottom line was that “In practice, much of the international community would find it difficult to stand in the way of the determined course of the US hegemon.”

The Determined Course of the US Hegemon. Sounds like the subtitle to a book about the Bush Administration. Bush’s War On Terror: The Determined Course of the US Hegemon. Of course George W Bush probably has never used the word hegemon or hegemony in a complete sentence, so let me disassemble it for you:
Hegemon, n. One that exercises hegemony.
Hegemony, n, The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others.

In other words, the British couldn’t legally justify invading Iraq, but they would go along and so would many other countries because the US is a big bully and will use their power to get what they want.

If somebody on the Congressional Judiciary Committee does not call for an investigation then there is something seriously wrong with our government. They will attempt to impeach a sitting president for lying about a blow job, but they won’t investigate a president for lying about his reasons and timing for going to war.

Fair and Balanced Clubbing of the Left

2005-06-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

Scott Norvell is London bureau chief for Fox News, you know that "Fair and Balanced" organization that pretend to present the news. Fox has long protested that allegations of being a right wing public relations organization were unfair and unbalanced, despite the fact that anyone watching the Fox News Network knows who they are batting for with in five minutes. Well Scott forgot to preach the "Fair and Balanced" creed when he talked to the Wall Street Journal Europe on May 20:

"Even we at Fox News manage to get some lefties on the air occasionally, and often let them finish their sentences before we club them to death and feed the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly. And those who hate us can take solace in the fact that they aren't subsidizing Bill's bombast; we payers of the BBC license fee don't enjoy that peace of mind.
Fox News is, after all, a private channel and our presenters are quite open about where they stand on particular stories. That's our appeal. People watch us because they know what they are getting. The Beeb's institutionalized leftism would be easier to tolerate if the corporation was a little more honest about it."

Even though the pen is mightier than the sword, Fox as opted to use clubs. So it is okay to be completely biased and unbalanced as long as your company is privately funded, but if your organization receives any public money--like the BBC or PBS or NPR--then actual fairness and actual balance are required. I guess all those tax breaks and special FCC licenses received due to millions of dollars worth of lobbying in Washington DC don't count as receiving public money.

Oh well, at least the continual beating that the Left takes from Fox will be easier to tolerate now that Fox is being a little more honest about how they treat liberals.

Thanks to Timothy Noah at Slate for passing this one on to us. You can read his article HERE.

I also find it interesting that while Fox is being more honest about their conservative bias, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting--who was appointed by George W Bush--has stepped up his attacks on the liberal bias of PBS and specifically Bill Moyers. In fact, Tomlinson paid a consultant $10,000 to monitor Moyers' show on PBS, Now, and watch for liberal bias. Then he refused to make the consultant's report public even though it was paid for with tax payer dollars. You know that public funding that Fox is so concerned about. He probably pulled the report because it found that PBS coverage is more balanced than most other news sources. PBS seems left biased only if you take right leaning clubs like Fox News as the self-professed "Fair and Balanced" center of the news spectrum.

Meanwhile, PBS which receives only 15% of its money from taxpayers, denies Tomlinsons allegations.

Also, Bill Moyers gave a great speech about PBS recently to the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis, Mo, where he said, "A free press is one where it's OK to state the conclusion you're led to by the evidence. " You should read the transcript.

I wish more of the press were interested in evidence and logical conclusions rather than clubbing people who disagree with them to death and feeding the scraps to Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly. But at least I can take solace in the fact that I am subsidizing Bill O'Reilly's bombast through FCC concessions and tax breaks to the "news" broadcasters.

WMD WTF W?

2005-06-01T14:45:00.000-07:00

Smoking Gun? Maybe.
I'm sure the administration will use every distraction possible to keep people from paying attention to what the British knew before the war in Iraq. What did the British know?

Well the British Government knew that President Bush had already made up his mind to go to war in Iraq in July of 2002 even though in March of 2002 he was still saying that "We are doing everything we can to avoid war." And the British Government was concerned that there was no legal justification for an invasion of Iraq. And the head of UK's foreign intelligence (SIS) said that the US didn't have a strong case for war, "But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".

And now you can, and should, read all about it in The Downing Street Memo.

When will somebody in the Bush administration step forward and admit that they lied about WMD, about connections between Iraq and 911, and they did everything they could to justify an unprovoked military invasion of a country that posed no threat to the United States?

Strive to Stay Alive

2005-05-26T16:23:00.000-07:00

Strive to stay alive
While the Robots dance
Left and Right
Down the slippery slope

Freedom of the Press...

2005-05-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

…to back down whenever the White House cries foul.

Much has been made lately of Newsweek retracting a story about treatment of prisoners at the hands of American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, including mistreatment of the Koran. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7693014/site/newsweek

What doesn’t get talked about much is that Newsweek’s report was not the first published report of desecration of the Koran by American interrogators.
The Washington Post mentioned it on 3/26/2003: http://home.btclick.com/caab/Guantanamo.htm
The BBC mentioned it 5/2/2005:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4505403.stm
The New York Times mentioned it 5/1/2005: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0501-02.htm

Not to mention the fact that no one in the White House complained about the Newsweek article when it first came out. No mention of it was made by anyone at the White House for two weeks. And then only after the protests in Afghanistan embarrassed the Pentagon and the White House was any complaint made. And even then General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff said that the Newsweek article was not the cause of the troubles in Afghanistan. “He believes that the protests had stemmed from the country’s reconciliation process,” according to The Ledger: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050517/ZNYT03/505170408

But none of that matters. Nor does it matter that much of the Newsweek article IS TRUE as are many of the other independent reports coming out of American run detention centers in Cuba, Afghanistan and Iraq. The fact that Americans now routinely torture people without due process or access to representation is not the issue. The fact that this torture has been described independently by numerous sources is not the issue. The White House wants to blame the media for foreign reaction to the Administration’s cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners and Newsweek is playing along. What next? Do the news agencies need to clear all their stories with the administration first? As if the Bush Administration does not distort the facts to fit their corporate agendas.

How about a little good old fashioned freedom of the press for a change?

I Like Ike

2005-05-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are...Texas oil millionaires and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, November 8, 1954

I guess things haven't changed all that much in the last 50 years.
Except that now the Texas oil millionaires and the Republicans think they can do away with Social Security and labor laws and still stay in power.

The Neo-Conservatives seem to be saying, "We will do what we want to increase our corporate fortunes, and we will keep on doing it until somebody stops us."
Well, I think the American People, just might be the ones to stop them.
We should takes Ike's advice and make sure these guys are not heard from again.

My Invisible Friend is Ruining the Party

2005-05-10T11:50:00.000-07:00

What if I told you I had an imaginary friend?
You might say I was a little too old for such nonsense.
What if I told you that my imaginary friend was rich and powerful?
You can’t meet my friend, he is imaginary after all, but he can write you a check, a big check. And getting paid is always good. Right?
What if I told you my imaginary friend was more important and powerful than you or me or our children?
Now my imaginary friend is no longer a cute quirk of an over active imagination. Now my imaginary friend is becoming obnoxious and you don’t want to play anymore.
What if your boss told you to clean out your desk because my imaginary friend was sending your job to China? Or your elected officials changed the laws to make imaginary friends more important than real people like you and me and our children?
You pissed off yet?
I am.

People have been dreaming up these imaginary friends for a long time, they are called corporations. And in return for protecting their “real” friends from financial risk, these corporations have gained a huge amount of real world control. Most of us work for corporations. We all get our news and entertainment from corporations. And our government passes laws written by corporations for corporations. In fact, it has become a given that corporations are more powerful and have more rights than you and me.

BUT HAVE YOU EVER MET A CORPORATION?

Hello Miss, I’d like to speak to Mr. Coca-Cola please?
What? He’s not in his office. He doesn’t have an office?
Can I talk to General Motors then?
No? When do you expect them in? Never? But you work for them don’t you? Yes, but when was the last time you saw them?

Think about it.
If corporations are really just imaginary friends, then why do all us “real people” all do what they say?
That’s kind of immature don’t you think?

Somehow, we need to connect with the “real people” who own and run these imaginary corporations and get them to take control and responsibility.
Somehow, we need to get corporate money and influence out of “our government” and get the government to control the corporations.

More ranting and raving to come in the near future.
But it will be my ranting and raving, not the whispering of some invisible friend whose only reason for existing is to acquire profits.
In the mean time, watch “Orwell Rolls In His Grave” http://www.orwellrollsinhisgrave.com/ which describes how a handful of invisible corporations have complet

Filibuster This

2005-04-26T16:16:00.000-07:00

A lot of political infighting is taking place around the issue of the filibuster, the ability of a Congressman or Senator to continue debating an issue when others would like to call for a vote. Filibusters are often used by the minority party to slow or block nominations and other actions that they do not have enough votes to block.

Republican leaders in the congress claim that Democrats have used the filibuster in some extreme way that has never been done before. This is a lie. Media Matters for America reports that:

"In fact, while Democratic senators used the filibuster to block 10 of Bush's 229 first-term judicial nominees, the Republican-controlled Senate prevented approximately 60 Clinton nominees from even receiving a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, much less a vote on the Senate floor. And while Senate Republicans under Clinton strictly enforced a "blue slip" rule -- which allows one home-state senator to prevent a nomination from moving forward -- they greatly relaxed this rule under Bush to circumvent Democrats' objections to several nominees."

Republicans are threatening to change the Senate rule that allows filibusters. Democrats are fighting back saying that eliminating the filibuster is wrong and perhaps even unconstitutional. This is a lie also. US Constitution, Section 5, Clause 2 states, in its entirety:
“Clause 2: Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.”

So what is the big deal? If the Republicans want to change the rules of the Senate, they just have to put it up for a vote in the Senate. They have that right. Interestingly enough, the Democrats could filibuster the rule change. But more interestingly, there is an existing rule that allows Senators to end a filibuster; all they need is 60 votes to close the debate then the filibuster is ended and a vote can be taken. So the filibuster is not the evil thing the Republicans seem to be saying it is and the Democrats aren’t abusing it the way they are accused of doing. And the American People (remember them) don’t think getting rid of the filibuster is a good idea: 66% polled oppose changing the filibuster rules.

So what is really going on? The Neo-Cons want control of the Judiciary as well as the other two branches of the Federal Government. They want to load the courts with Neo-Con judges without the publicity and attention that a filibuster would draw. It’s not about the filibuster. It’s not about “activist judges”. And it’s definitely not about “a judicial attack on faith”. It is a grab for power for power’s sake. And we the people need to let our elected representatives know that we will not allow them to make false claims and use diversionary tactics to make changes to government that we the governed do not want.

If the President’s appointees are well qualified and capable of performing their duties and upholding the Constitution, then they should have no fear of putting them before our elected representatives. They should not be afraid of public scrutiny. And the Republicans should have no problem convincing a handful of Democrats to end the debate and vote yes or no. But of course if the appointees are not qualified, if the administration is afraid of public scrutiny, and if their arguments are not persuasive, then maybe the Neo-Cons need a different strategy. Oh yeah! They do have a different strategy. They want to get rid of the filibuster while telling lies and trying to distract their supporters.

Let's Be Reasonable!!!

2005-04-19T15:03:00.000-07:00

“Death To All Fanatics!” is a fun slogan to scream at protests.
But the irony is usually lost on people and I don’t really want lots of people to die.
But there does seem to be a lot of fanatics out there screaming, protesting, taking action, raising money, getting elected, etc. etc. etc.

Just speaking from personal experience (what other kind is there?), I don’t know very many fanatics, left, right or any other direction. I do believe I have met one or two truly fanatical people, but the clear majority of people I have met personally seem to be of the non-fanatical type. You know, regular people. My own quick non-scientific survey of all the people I know personally has resulted in the following numbers: Fanatics 5% The Rest Of Us 95%.

So why is it that politics and the media seem to be dominated by fanatics?
Maybe politics and the media are fanatic breeding grounds where fanatics meet and mate and produce little fanatics. Maybe politics and the media are safe havens where fanatics can get away from all us boring, regular people and pursue their extreme pastimes without all that peer pressure to calm down. Or maybe fanatics don’t trust the rest of us to conduct the business of politics and the media in a way that is pleasing to fanatics, so they are staging a coup. Or, most disturbing of all, maybe all us regular folks secretly enjoy having all those fanatics ranting and raving in public where we can watch them and enjoy the show without having to do anything crazy ourselves.

Either way, I think it is fundamentally undemocratic to allow such a small percentage of the population to represent the rest of us. I think the silent majority needs to wake up and demand some real representation. The politicians and the media need to become more reasonable or they need to get out of our policies and out of our news and information. Of course this would mean that these people would no longer be fanatics. And it means that we would have to loose our addiction to watching and listening to fanatics all the time. Think we can do it? Could we really live without these raving lunatics and their extreme positions? It means we might have to pay more attention. It means we might need to learn things and be aware of facts. It means we might have to be empathetic and learn to compromise. But I am ready to try.

Let’s Be Reasonable!!!!

Hug a Progressive

2005-04-13T15:30:00.000-07:00

Demanding fair and equal treatment for all people regardless of their race, class, profession, religion, age, etc. etc. etc. has always been appealing to me. And it may be a cliché, but some of my best friends are liberals. Apparently half the voters in America are progressives.

As a progressive myself, I have always felt that progressive participation in government has traditionally kept the cruelest of the conservatives in check. And I have personally found that the majority of progressives and conservatives are capable of intelligent discussion and honest compromise that honors the inherent worth and dignity of everyone involved.

Progressives have pushed forward some of the most heroic changes in our laws and our perceptions. Any list of progressive victories must include Civil Rights, workplace safety, clean air and water, fair labor laws, and much more. Many social privileges and rights that we take for granted here at the turn of the century exist only because some brave progressives fought the established attitudes and laws of their time. And I think many of us began to believe that things would keep on progressing.

But the political and social pendulum has swung away from progressive issues. The corporate consolidation of the press has meant that exposing corruption in business and government is harder to do. And while we took our progressive gains for granted, some conservative pundits and politicians made a career out of mocking liberals and manipulating the fear of change many conservatives were feeling. And at the same time corporate money was buying the press and the political right, they were buying the political left as well. Democrat and Republican politicians have both gotten rich by selling their representation to corporate interests instead of standing by the people who elected them. And while the progressives were used to fighting fat-cat Republicans, they did not notice that the Democrats had all gotten fat too.

So please hug a progressive. Even though we have had the emotional outlet of screaming at the Neo-Cons and the multi-national corporations and the military-industrial complex, we have been betrayed by our political leaders as well. Progressives are just beginning to see how their best ideals have been used as a shield to conceal the true violence being done to the world, to the constitution, to the environment… The hard truth is that the very Progressive voters who gave power to the Democrats have been used, abused and raped by those they trusted. The Democratic leadership has constantly caved in and rubber stamped the worst actions of the Neo-Cons. And progressive voters have enabled and empowered this cowardly treatment.

Please hug a progressive. We are still angry and in denial. But we are getting ready to move on and build a new life. Progressives may have been more vocal and had more public temper tantrums than conservatives, but that is cold consolation. Our leaders went along with the lies and abuse. We had high hopes that Democrats would stand up to the Neo-Cons, but they didn’t. Hug a progressive because they feel bad—they tried and failed and they wonder if they did everything they could.

Hug a Progressive. Let them know that Conservatives care about them. Let them know that Conservatives are genuinely interested in life, liberty and freedom. I hope that Conservatives are looking forward to having honest debates with honest Progressives once again. I hope that Conservatives look forward to building a more honest and compassionate America where every citizen is afforded rights, dignity and opportunity.

Hug a Progressive. They have become trapped in a bad relationship, and they have been treated badly. When Progressives return to their core values, they will begin to heal.

------XXXOOO-----
True Majority
http://www.truemajority.org/