Town Hall Meeting

Zoom in to see all the specifics. Every state should get one of these!

AP article here on the artist and the reaction.

Thanks G for the link!

The horrific bombings and murders in Norway are abhorrent. The issues underneath the headlines are pretty upsetting too. Just some basic facts: the suspect is Andrew Breivik, he wrote a 1500 page manifesto which apparently includes anti-immigrant, pro-Christian, take-back-the-government opinions on European life. Lots of hatred toward Muslims and Marxists is in there as well. Glenn Greenwald has made very good points about several prominent newspapers first reporting the bombing was done by Muslims. Then once they found out it was a white Christian, they stopped using the term terrorism! Beyond that, some prominent news media are saying he was just copying Al Qaeda, as though they invented terrorism for crying out loud. It’s amazing to sit back and watch the prism through which current events are filtered through.

Another point that I want to add is this isn’t just a one in a million crackpot, it is an ideology that is getting more and more mainstream in Europe and America. Thankfully it’s still in the deep minority, but it is getting some credibility in the US. It’s roots are in fascism from the 20th century. It’s the superior race stuff, the corporations are our friend stuff, the hatred of anything public/government. Just a reminder, because rose colored glasses make “The West” seem holy and great, that fascism was invented by “The West.” In fact, when people now use the term “Islamic Fascism” its like a slap in the face to Muslims because they were victims of Mussolini and Hitler, especially the Northern Africa nations like Libya and Morocco.

My main point is that we all must follow the law of universality: that we must apply the rules equally to all. If politically motivated murder is not terrorism when it’s a white person, then its not terrorism when it’s anyone else. If you want to condemn all Muslims for 9/11, then you must condemn all Christians for the Norway bombings.

Chris Hedges writes another great article, this one about America’s schools and their teachers. He talks about how hedge funds have gotten really interested in schools once charter schools came about. And how hard it is to get good people to want to become teachers when they are treated so badly and paid so poorly and micromanaged every step of the way.

“Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. We spurn real teachers–those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential–and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point.”

“It is better to be at odds with the whole world than, being one, to be at odds with myself,” Socrates said.

“What brings us meaning and worth as human beings is our ability to stand up and pit ourselves against injustice and the vast, moral indifference of the universe. Once justice perishes, as Kant knew, life loses all meaning. Those who meekly obey laws and rules imposed from the outside–including religious laws–are not moral human beings. The fulfillment of an imposed law is morally neutral. The truly educated make their own wills serve the higher call of justice, empathy and reason. Socrates made the same argument when he said it is better to suffer wrong than to do wrong.”

Read the entire article here

Check out this excellent testimony and discussion about the future of newspapers held in Congress May 6, 2009. Arianna Huffington made some terrible statements in this panel, including something to the effect of “Rupert Murdoch has some great ideas about the future of newspapers.” Sigh. It sheds some light on her recent decision to put the liar/distorter/race baiter Andrew Breitbart on the front page of her famous aggregator of news, the Huffington Post. If you don’t have time to watch the whole thing, at least watch David Simon’s initial remarks which occurs between minutes 38 and 48. Simon is the creator of the all time great show “The Wire.”

The fast food chain Taco Bell was sued in federal court today for using the word beef to describe their meat when it contains other things called “binders” and “fillers.” The claim is Taco Bell does this to gain a competitive advantage over other restaurants who serve 100% beef because it’s cheaper to serve something that is, say 60% beef. The lawsuit says they shouldn’t be allowed to call it beef, but should they be allowed to sell this to the public at all?!!

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/fl-taco-bell-suit-20110124,0,6513275.story

Definitely worth watching the whole thing because it’s nice to see someone passionately speak for working people. Some points he makes…Purported concern for deficit and debt, yet willing to give $700 billion in tax breaks to top 2% of Americans over 10 years….Estate tax deal gives all the benefit to the top 0.3% of Americans….Everything America consumes is made in China, our 51st state…The debt and deficit only matter when poor people are involved, apparently…so it goes.

Oddly I think I’m more pissed off California Prop 19 (Legalize It!) failed than anything because that would have had a direct and pretty immediate positive impact on all of us by shrinking the prisons. Here is a good analysis on what happened by Glenn Greenwald who is an excellent writer and thinker.

Pundit sloth: Blaming the left
By Glenn Greenwald

Ten minutes was the absolute maximum I could endure of any one television news outlet last night without having to switch channels in the futile search for something more bearable, but almost every time I had MNSBC on, there was Lawrence O’Donnell trying to blame “the Left” and “liberalism” for the Democrats’ political woes. Alan Grayson’s loss was proof that outspoken liberalism fails. Blanche Lincoln’s loss was the fault of the Left for mounting a serious primary challenge against her. Russ Feingold’s defeat proved that voters reject liberalism in favor of conservatism, etc. etc. It sounded as though he was reading from some crusty script jointly prepared in 1995 by The New Republic, Lanny Davis and the DLC.

There are so many obvious reasons why this “analysis” is false: Grayson represents a highly conservative district that hadn’t been Democratic for decades before he won in 2008 and he made serious mistakes during the campaign; Lincoln was behind the GOP challenger by more than 20 points back in January, before Bill Halter even announced his candidacy; Feingold was far from a conventional liberal, having repeatedly opposed his own party on multiple issues, and he ran in a
state saddled with a Democratic governor who was unpopular in the extreme. Beyond that, numerous liberals who were alleged to be in serious electoral trouble kept their seats: Barney Frank, John Dingell, Rush Holt, Raul Grijalva, and many others. But there’s one glaring, steadfastly ignored fact destroying O’Donnell’s attempt — which is merely the standard pundit storyline that has been baking for months and will now be served en masse — to blame The Left and declare liberalism dead. It’s this little inconvenient fact:

Read the Rest Here

I only have this video to add, maybe this explains it all better. All you wacky liberals “HAVE MEDDLED WITH THE PRIMAL FORCES OF NATURE…AND YOU…WILL…ATONE!”

Network is such a good film, despite its not so subtle way of making Arabs seems scary. It’s funny because I can see Howard Beale (the one being yelled at) as Pelosi or Obama at the end of election day yesterday, and I can also see him as a Tea Bagger upstart like Rand Paul the day he is sworn in.

Check out Larry Lessig’s TED talk about American problems and a solution. One such example is obesity, and one of it’s main causes: the artist formerly known as high fructose corn syrup. He talks about how corruption and the flood of money in politics have directly led to the corn abundance in America. Prices of vegetables between 1997 and 2000, went up 17%, while a coke has gone down 35%! He then moves into the financial collapse and the BP oil disaster. He goes on to explain how, why, and what we can do about all of it.

He includes a quote from President Abraham Lincoln in 1864:

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

Doublespeak lives and it’s as strong as ever…

(emphasis added)
“The makers of high fructose corn syrup want to sweeten its image with a new name: corn sugar. The Corn Refiners Association applied Tuesday to the federal government for permission to use the name on food labels.”

“Renaming products has succeeded before. For example, low eurcic acid rapeseed oil became much more popular after becoming “canola oil” in 1988. Prunes tried to shed a stodgy image by becoming “dried plums” in 2000.”

“”I found (high fructose corn syrup) in things that you would never think needed it, or should have it,” said Leib, 36. “I found it in jars of pickles, in English muffins and bread. Why do we need extra sweeteners?”"

“The average American ate 35.7 pounds of high fructose corn syrup last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That’s down 21 percent from 45.4 pounds 10 years before.”

“They’re not saying this is a healthy vitamin, or health product,” he said. “They’re just trying to move away from the negative associations.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100914/ap_on_bi_ge/us_corn_syrup_image

I am a better, more informed person for having read his book A People’s History of The United States: 1492-present. My sadness is impossible to describe, America lost an important man today. Having this happen after the Haiti earthquake, the Supreme Court decision, and the Left starting to realize Obama is a conservative leader, it’s getting to be a bit much to handle. Zinn helped me see America for what it really is, and I’m not going to turn away just because it’s still ugly. I’m going to keep learning and keep fighting.

From the Inauguration, to Newspapers crumbling, to the Peace Prize, to Democrats. 2010 really is the Year of the Tiger!

Goodbye to 2009, Hello to 2010: Year of the Tiger

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN of Counter Punch

Once again hands are raised in stupefaction. How could they have missed him – meaning in this case Umar Abdulmutallab the Nigerian bomber on that flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. Why, his own father – one of the most powerful bankers in Africa – gave the US embassy in Lagos a warning! He was on the US master computer list of potential terrorists but never made it on to the watch list.

The Truthers reject the obvious answers – caution, bureaucratic inertia, buck-passing, turf fights – and say it was a plot. Obama joins Bush and Cheney in the big conspiracy. It won’t be long before David Griffin rushes out a book on the affair.

Personally, I’m not at all dismayed at evidence that intelligence gathering networks are flawed, that bureaucrats pass the buck. Hyper-efficiency in these matters indicates we have arrived at the perfect police state.

Of course there is room for common sense and elementary vigilance. In the case of the Virginia Tech killer there was plenty of evidence that Cho Seung-hui was a time bomb waiting to explode. Students talked about him as a possible shooter and refused to take classes with him. His essays so disturbed one of his teachers with their violent ravings that she arranged a secret signal in case she needed security during her tutorials.

And then was there was proof positive that the time bomb had exploded and the mass murder session began in the engineering building, the police state proved all too human in actual performance. The police cowered behind their cruisers until Cho Seung-hui finished off the last batch of his 32 victims, then killed himself. Then the police bravely rushed in and started sticking their guns in the faces of the traumatised students, screaming at them to freeze or be shot.

Read the rest here

Apparently some “charity” organizations have their limits! Children who are not in the U.S. legally are apparently deemed unworthy of toys. This includes the famous Salvation Army, among many others, according to a Houston Chronicle report. These charities check the “papers” before giving their help. In this time of giving, I suggest picking a charity that doesn’t discriminate. What a culture we have in the U.S!

Some toy drives check immigration status
By Jeannie Kever – Houston Chronicle

HOUSTON — They don’t claim to know who’s been naughty or nice, but some Houston charities are asking whether children are in the country legally before giving them toys.

In a year when more families than ever have asked for help, several programs providing Christmas gifts for needy children require at least one member of the household to be a U.S. citizen. Others ask for proof of income or rely on churches and schools to suggest recipients.

The Salvation Army and a charity affiliated with the Houston Fire Department are among those that consider immigration status, asking for birth certificates or Social Security cards for the children.

Read the rest here

Sing along! This song is so good and so important, its great to see Pete Seeger had a chance to sing it during the inauguration of Obama. You can see in the video George Lucas singing along! For those of you that don’t know, it was written in 1940 by Woodie Guthrie as a response to the song “God Bless America.”

Larry Lessig is an honest, very intelligent person who sees what is going on in America and is fighting to fix the major problems. He has started a project called Change Congress which wants to have public financing of elections. His point is that public financing must be addressed first because all other problems are a symptom of money ruining our democracy – whether its terrible environmental law, health care law, or regulations of Wall Street. Check out this excellent video and get started!

I was watching The News Hour with Jim Lehrer tonight to get some sane discussion and analysis of the debacle going on right now in the U.S. This quote from Politico.com’s Jeanne Cummings made my blood boil:

And I was hearing that their calls were like 99 percent to 1, you know. It was the local community bankers who were saying, “Please do this, because we’re next.” But otherwise it was very negative public response to this. And then, of course, we had some partisan petulance. I mean, it was sort of Washington at its worst. It was a really toxic mix.

So, Jeanne, of a company called POLITICO, you say the fact that congress actually responded to the will of the people was “Washington at its worst!” This is exactly what is wrong with this country since its founding. The leaders in Washington, and their surrogates that are sent out to “analyze” for we the people, have disdain for popular opinion. Alexander Hamilton referred to the American people as “the great beast.” That is why the people were not allowed to vote for their Senator until 1913! And here we find ourselves in a very serious national problem, where a democracy should let the people decide our destiny. Yet the powers that be, and their surrogates like Jeanne Cummings, the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, AEI, the Wall Street Journal, etc, etc must wrest power from the people for our own sake.

Democracy is a form of government, capitalism is a form of economics. If we vote for socialism, or for the investment banks to pay for their crimes, or for anything, then so be it. That is the will of the people. All you who want to spread democracy around the world, that is how it works. Lets start here at home, and the House rejecting this bailout was a great start.

He has said he thinks that you are rich only if you make more than $5 million per year. And if that’s not enough, he doesn’t know how many houses he owns.

I think that our representatives in Washington campaign 100% of the time now. They don’t represent we the people, they represent anyone who can come up with the most dough. And we all know the ones with the dough are about 1% of us. I think that’s why we have seen Obama move to the right since he won the Democratic nomination. The ones with the money don’t want anything to change substantially, they are fat and happy. I don’t mean to rag on Obama specifically, but I’m worried people will stop fighting for their cause, believing he will solve it for us. I think that is a huge mistake, and a very common one. The news media’s constant election coverage is a huge reason why this is. Remember that most of the campaign contributions go straight into the pockets of these giant media companies via those campaign advertisements, so they have all the reason to keep you watching. One would think that with all the coverage we would get more informed, but they focus on trivialities and the horse race…how many points is Obama up this week?!!…how could Obama throw one gutter ball on camera?!! Who gives a crap!

Here’s a cartoon that shows just how looney this campaign is.

More on Obama and where he gets his money…

“Who Owns Obama?”:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/pham150708.html

Obama Reality Check:
http://counterpunch.org/whitney07212008.html

Bush’s 3rd Term, even WSJ gushing over Obama:
http://www.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB121495450490321133.html

There may be one presidential candidate that actually will fight for you, even after an electoral victory, and that’s Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party.

Thanks Laura and G for the links!

PS: Did you notice 2 more banks quietly failed again late last Friday? I see a pattern here.

It is about 5:30pm PST, and Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich took to the floor of the House of Representatives to present 35 Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush. The House session is being televised live on C-SPAN. Check it out on your TV or watch it online here: http://www.c-span.org/

For those who may think that impeachment isn’t worth it since he will be out of office anyway in 5 months (ahem, Speaker Pelosi), I say that this is a very important thing to do, even if it comes AFTER he is out of office. The reason is we must prosecute Presidents that abuse their power in order to prevent future ones from trying to do it too. Whether it’s Obama or McCain, they will look and say “hey if Bush can break the law without consequences, why can’t I do it too?” And when it comes to Bush, he didn’t just break any law, he broke extremely serious ones like the ultimate crime of aggression by invading another country that did not attack it.

If you haven’t yet seen the Bill O’reilly insanity clip, check it out. The man makes an error and just flat out can’t admit he made a mistake and blames the teleprompter guy! Sometimes the insanity of people like him can make us laugh. Check it out here or here, or click on the image below for both the original clip and Stephen Colbert’s rendition of it.

—-Update 5.16.2008
Good ol Viacom Corporation (the conglomerate that owns Comedy Central) took off the video from YouTube already, so I updated the link.
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—-Update 3.31.2009
Added vid that seemed to last below…
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In case you needed further proof that the separation of church and state in America is not even close to enforced:

“Until 1912, mail was delivered 7 days a week. As the postal service grew in popularity and usage in the 1800s, local religious leaders were noticing a decline in Sunday morning church attendance due to local post offices doubling as gathering places. These leaders appealed to the government to intervene and close post offices on Sundays.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usps#Sunday_mail_delivery