Election

"The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast
The slow one now, will later be fast
As the present now, will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin
And the first one now, will later be last
For the times they are a-changin." - Bob Dylan

Sorry, no excuse for not posting. Mulling over all the news between then and now and it only further depresses most people. Now we must act. Readers of this blog do not need to be reminded that the electing of Obama is imperative if this country has any chance of righting itself from the almost total destruction of the constitution, the executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch of this government. We are all aware of the abuses of power, the illegal and immoral war and our continuing economic meltdown. If we have any cogent thoughts in our head, we also know that an Obama presidency will not be a panacea for all the ills that this country will face in the days and months ahead. If we are progressives, we have a list of what this president should be doing almost immediately, and we would be in close agreement. For now I have these thoughts, again nothing prescient for I'm sure these thoughts are on many peoples mind now.

I'm convinced that this is an extremely divided country. We know of the red and blue state scenario and the extreme right religious views that have a stranglehold on the future of the country, but more under the radar is the division over racism and militarism. Racism is insidious and pervasive in our country. The underlying psychosis has been with us since before any civil rights legislation and has continued up to the present. Seemingly lying dormant, it is festering like a boil about to burst. It is probably going to be one of the main reasons to vote against Obama, whatever other reasons are put forward. Racism is of course allied with ignorance, and perhaps having a president who for the last eight years cultivated a us and them mentality, it gave license for hate to ignite.

After eight years of dumbing down society by the commander of dumbness and the sycophant right wing media, we are left with a society that champions being dumb and stupid. In many parts of our country, facts are irrelevant, reality is irrelevant, history is irrelevant and lies are truths. You can't win arguments with people who don't believe in data. There is a virulent strain of anti intellectualism pulsing through the veins of many of Americans. Don't bother to discuss with them. They have already made up their "minds". White is right, drill, drill, drill and kill, kill, kill is their rallying cry.

Militarism is our sacred cow. We have heard all the shibboleths. We're fighting for freedom, for the American way of life. First it was communism, the cold war justification for continued build up and when the Soviet Union was no longer a threat, a new bogeyman had to be manufactured. Terrorism fit the bill perfectly. Justification for going to war was disseminated to the public and a feckless congress went along with the hyperbole and lies. There is an estimate that the Iraqi war will cost up to one trillion as the expense and caring for veterans will escalate in the years to come. Today it is 10 billion a month. The mostly poor and lower middle class has payed the price with more than four thousands dead and thousands injured. In our arrogance there is hardly a mention of the thousands of Iraqi deaths and injuries and displacement of the population. We now have a defense budget at four hundred and fifty billion; over half of our total budget. It is the main cause for why we don't have national health care, child care, and an education system that is equal for all extending through college. It is why our infrastructure is collapsing, why we callously ignore national disasters particularly when it doesn't affect the status quo. It is why we perpetuate a system that relies on energy that will not be sustainable in our lifetime and why we propagate a perpetual war philosophy.

So the racists and the militarists will continue to pursue their beliefs. All the rhetoric about Wall St. and the give away yet again to the monied class; the financial meltdown, the home mortgage debacle are too arcane for many to decipher so they are left with their irrational gut feelings and that's how they will turn out and vote. Theirs is a non reality belief system.

We can only hope that the numbers of these will be smaller than we anticipate. We can have no delusion as to what is at stake in this election. The fact is we will be able to choose between two front runners at this juncture. One, as we all have heard so many times, will continue the last administration's policies and perhaps ramp them up even more. It is scarier than any Halloween scare movie that Hollywood could dream up.

We have witnessed some serious malfunctioning of the Republican party in the last months, weeks and days. From choosing the most ridiculous person for a running mate for John McCain, someone who was sent over from central casting for the movie "Dumb and Dumber," to the candidate for president whose chaotic campaign is matched by its canards of smear and fear. The most disingenuous item trotted out against Obama has to be the accusation that Obama wants to spread the wealth, while the same Republican party has given 715 billion in tax breaks to U.S. citizens who made over $342,000.

To me it is a no-brainer, but then again, after what I described as the non-thinking part of America, perhaps it will take a modicum of brain matter to sort it out. Obama offers change from a too long history of the same for the few. A change that has been articulated in a calm and forthright manner. We can see the mean spiritedness and inchoate agenda put forth by the Republican party. With Obama we can witness the intelligence, perceive kindness, compassion and clarity of a vision for America that refreshingly sees what is good for the least of us will be best for the rest of us.

We must work to the last minute to get out the vote. We must be diligent in observing how our voting system is working. It is probably one of the most exciting times in any of our history of political awareness. We have a chance of being part of a turning away from the dark side and embracing a hopeful and more humane future for America. May the force be with us.


Nataie Merchant - This House Is On Fire

Quote of the Day

"I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality, there comes a time when silence is betrayal." - Martin Luther King, April 4, 1967 Riverside Church, New York City...or was it April 4th, 2008?

Nothing Has Changed

On this 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, it is good to recall the speech he gave the previous year on exactly the same date. It should give anyone pause to consider the significance his words delivered that day would cause his assassination the following year. His speech was a damning denunciation of this country's direction. Mainstream press called him a demagogue, liking him to communists leaders and proclaiming him to be unAmerican. You can't help think how prescient his words are today, as he sited a triplet of evil that was upon our country in 1967, namely, racism, economic exploitation and militarism. There surely can't be any doubt that this perniciousness is raging out of control forty years later in 2008.

It is astonishing to think how much more arrogant and mindless this country has become. Racism is alive and well. Witness the Jena6 situation in Jena, La. in which six black students who sat under a "white only" tree on their high school campus were suspended from school while white students who hung nooses from a tree were reprimanded. Witness the Sean Bell trial in New York City in which three New York City detectives are accused of killing Bell, an african american, in a barrage of 50 bullets or the New York City police shooting of unarmed black street peddler Amadou Diallo in a hail of bullets. These incidents happened in the last few years. Witness the indifference to the genocides in the Congo where 5.4 million people have died since 1998, most from preventable disease,lack of food, displacement and destroyed health care systems. Witness the current xenophobia of our country and its politicians regarding the immigration issues, installing a fence between our country and Mexico, forgetting how we Americans condemned the building of the Berlin wall by the Russians. And, of course, our current situation in Iraq and Palestine. In Iraq, U.S. soldiers learn that the way to subjugate people is to dehumanize them. This is racism. For Iraqis, the word Haji is an Arabic word for respect and someone who journeys to a sacred place as an act of religious devotion. To U.S. soldiers, Haji is a derisive term meant to degrade and dehumanize - Haji, "the niggers of Iraq", as they are called. So we have gone from "Gooks" to "Hajis" in the last forty years. As long as we can make others second class citizens we can justify their subjugation and indeed their extermination,if necessary. In Palestine the Israeli government have built a wall to keep the Palestinians out of Israeli territory that was taken by force from the Palestinians. The U.S. government has armed Israel to act as their policeman in the Middle East. The self determination of the Palestinians is of no concern to the West despite any false posturing. There are fundamentalist sects from the U. S. who make pilgrimages to Israel, ostensibly to show their support for the state of Israel, when in fact they want to believe that the Israels will see the light and become Christians and be saved at Armageddon. Whereas, the Palestinians are godless and Muslim, terrorists who must be destroyed. The Israels who support a one state solution must view these fundamentalists as arrogant and foolish pawns of the U.S. government.

Regarding the economic exploitation that Martin Luther King cited as the second most threatening aspect of our society, we can heed the clarion warning of Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Chief of Staff for Gen. Powell and who also served 31 years in the U.S. military, when he says. "Frankly, in this country right now, we're confronting a financial and economic crisis that may surpass the one Franklin Roosevelt confronted in the 30's. The country is awash in debt." The National Debt grows $1 million a minute as millions of Americans are one paycheck or illness away from ruin. It has been estimated that the war in Iraq will cost this country three trillion dollars, most of it borrowed. Meanwhile our government negotiated "free" trade agreements with other countries that exploit their citizens as well as ours, where public costs and privatized profits are the standard operating procedures. Enormous profits are reaped by corporations at the expense of the working class. In 1980, American CEO's were paid 40 times the average worker. Today the CEO's realize 400 times more. Nearly 10% of corp. profits go to top executives. The thousands of people losing their homes because of predatory subprime mortgages and many being laid off from their jobs because of the rupturing of the U.S. economy, are of little concern to the top three CEO's in the subprime lending business whose combined take in 5 years was $460 million. This kind of corporate malfeasance, which first came to the public eye with the Enron debacle, continues in Iraq where corporations operate with immunity under no-bid contracts with no accounting for U.S. tax payer dollars. So, the economic exploitation that Martin Luther King rallied against in l967 goes on unabated both for the U.S. citizen and the exploited third world worker.

Militarism is the third onerous yoke, for again the U.S. citizen and all countries which we arrogantly dub as terrorists nations, rogue states or anyone who is not malleable to our position , are being affected. For the U.S. citizen, especially the lower classes and people of color, the only option for upward mobility is to join the military. Other options are no longer available. Higher education is realistically attainable only by the affluent and the once well-paying jobs are outsourced to foreign countries. The United States military budget has risen from 300 billion in 2001 to 700 billion in 2008. Massive increases in U.S. military spending has been one of the factors contributing to the deterioration of the U.S. economy since 2001. The human cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is now over 4000 for the U.S. and 1 million Iraqis dead. Untold numbers have sustained injuries, 10,000 U.S. soldiers have committed suicide, and thousands are coming home with P.T.S.D., post traumatic stress disorder as attested by the "Winter Soldier" account held just two weeks ago in Washington D.C. I urge readers of this blog to go to the testament of these brave men and women who now deplore the recklessness and immorality of this nation initiating this abominable crime against the Iraqi people and the soldiers who were conscripted to serve. WAR COMES HOME.org

War and militarism are perhaps the most pernicious evils that a country can contemplate and as James Madison said, "No nation could preserve it's freedom in the midst of continual warfare." In recalling Martin Luther King's admonishment of this country's direction some forty years ago, the triplets of racism, economic exploitation and militarism, we do well to heed his warnings, when he said, "A nation that spends more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." He called for a "radical revolution of values." He said we must shift from a thing oriented society to a person oriented society when machines and computers and profit motives and property rights are not more important than people. One of his closing comments was, "tomorrow may be too late."

So?

(cue evil grin)

Quote of the Day

"The revulsion against war too long ago hence will be an almost insuperable obstacle for us to overcome, and for that reason I am convinced that we must set in motion the machinery of a permanent war economy. It must be on going program and not the creation of some emergency." -Charles E. Wilson, President of General Electric, speaking before the U.S. Army Ordinance Association, July 1944

Obstructing Democray

I am back on Ignore Them, with the help of my co-writer, Paperboy, as a result of the Nevada Supreme Court ruling in favor of NBC television to block Congressman and presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich from taking part in Tuesday nights democratic presidential debate.

I was angered, outraged and disgusted, as I hope many Americans are who see this as a direct and blatant affront to our so-called democracy. How can a television station act as a private entity in determining the process by which the American people will consider a candidate for the President of the United States?

You have to ask yourself what great threat to NBC, who is owned by General Electric, did Rep. Kucinich pose that a media corporation would go so far as to file a counter suit with the Nevada Supreme Court to make sure that Rep. Kucinich was not allowed to participate in this national televised debate, which included three other democratic candidates.

Was it the fact that Rep. Kucinich, who has consistently been marginalized and discredited by the corporate media because he truly speaks for the people of this country, is a very powerful and clear articulator of what is wrong with this country and the moral direction in which it should be heading.

Is it because his legislative action and his platform has been unequivocally against this illegal and unjust war and the continued funding of the war from the beginning?

Is it because he is the only candidate who wants to immediately rescind the trade agreements, NAFTA and CAFTA that have destroyed much of middle America's economy and towns, and has wreaked havoc with the Mexican people?

As William Rivers Pitt wrote on TruthOut.org, "why would General Electric media outlets give you the facts?" General Electric had a $10 billion dollar contract with the U.S. government in the prosecution of the war in Iraq, besides being the number one champion of the nuclear industry.

All the other candidates, except perhaps Edwards, represent a centrist view that conceivably would not be a threat to the status quo. Rep. Kucinich has a plan to truly bring this country in an entirely new direction, but GE/NBC want no part of his agenda and made sure that his ideas would not be heard.

This is just a continuum of the deceit of this 2008 campaign by the corporate media to limit what the citizenry of this country should hear, and indeed it is the continuum of the utter sham of the whole election process.

The reason for Ignore Them has been to have people consider turning away from the lies and disinformation of corporate media and make a conscious effort to learn what is truly going on in this potentially magnificent country, by listening and reading alternative sources of information so that we can best come to some understanding of what moral direction should we be taking as a country. Our essays and our directions to alternative sources have never been more important and imperative. In this vein I would ask any reader of this blog to go to Democracy Now and listen to Amy Goodman's interview with Kucinich, and hear his answers to the debate questions which should have been presented to him live on MSNBC.

Spread the word.

Going it Alone

Picture of Lightning taking matters into his own hands.
Photo taken from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

Moore vs Blitzer

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 1922-2007

"Human beings will be happier - not when they cure cancer or get to Mars or eliminate racial prejudice or flush Lake Erie but when they find ways to inhabit primitive communities again. That's my utopia." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Unfinished Business

This country cannot go forward with unfinished business. The unfinished business of course, is the impeachment of President George W. Bush, and his cohorts Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. This administration must be held accountable for our country being in one of it's most shameful and horrific hours in history. The evidence is in the light of day and the good citizens of this country must see that true justice is served, if this country is supposedly a country of laws and not men.

Then and only then, can we turn to our most urgent duty to stop the funding of this war, and bring our troops home. There seems to be an urgency to get on with the business of finding a candidate who will lead America out of its darkness, as two Democratic politicians, who already have been given premature anointing by the media jockey for lead position. We should desperately hope that the people can see through banal affrontry and realize that the idea of business as usual is finished. After the Democratic sweep in Congress, the Progressive community and indeed all right minded people were shocked into indignance by the pronouncement of the newly elected Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, that impeachment was "off the table."

The American people must make it perfectly clear that there is nothing more imperative for our nation than to bring criminal proceedings against this lawless administration. Its becoming more obvious this endeavor cannot be left up to these typical anemic politicians.

We need a massive and continued form of civil disobedience, to stop this evil and criminal administration, and a wake up to any potential leaders that the American people are fed up with the status quo and its war mongering and imperialist intentions. We will need in the words of the writer Chalmers Johnson, a "renaissance of citizenship,” if we are truly to go forward as a nation.

A28
Impeach '07
March on the Pentagon

Democracy Now's Tribute to Molly Ivins

part 2
part 3

News Flash: Bird Flu Kills Two in Indonesia

I hope you are all aware of the urgent news story: Bird Flu Kills Two in Indonesia
I don't know about you, but two people in Indonesia...that spells "panic" to me.
Be sure to run out and invest in Tamiflu...the only known "cure" made by Gilead, the company Donald Rumsfeld was research chairman of from 1997 until 2001...of which his personal stock holdings are valued at 5 to 25 Million.
Two people!!! In Indonesia.!.where more people die of diarrhea than that everyday. Run for the f*cking hills and buy Tamiflu if you know whats good for you.

p.s. this 8 year cash grab by Bush and his cronies has GOT TO STOP!

Kucinich for President '08

http://kucinich.us/

October 5: No Work. No School. Protest in the Streets

taken from The World Can't Wait

YOUR GOVERNMENT, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is openly torturing people, and justifying it.

YOUR GOVERNMENT puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.

YOUR GOVERNMENT suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.

YOUR GOVERNMENT is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.

YOUR GOVERNMENT enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.

Sign the call
Listen to the radio feature on "The World Can't Wait"
Watch the introductory video

Are You Sitting Down?

"Loose Change"

Sir, No Sir!

Go see this movie.

View the trailer.

Oil Executives March On D.C.

(taken from the Onion)

"We Just Want Our Voices Heard"

WASHINGTON, DC—More than 1,000 majority shareholders and executive officers from the nation's largest oil companies gathered in the National Mall and marched to Capitol Hill Monday in a mass demonstration for petrochemical corporations' rights and, according to several of those who attended, "to let our voices be heard at last."

"We're American citizens, and we demand to be part of the national dialogue," said John S. Watson, vice president of international exploration and production for Chevron Corporation, the world's second-largest oil company. "Many people in our industry think nobody in Washington cares about us, and that our opinions don't matter. We're here today to change that."

read the rest at the Onion- America's Finest News Source

Watch Steven Colbert Rip Bush A New One

Watch the video here

Drop a Brick on Bush

Tell All the People

International Workers Day

"Si se puede," (it can be done) is the rallying cry for immigrants throughout the United States on this the 100th anniversary of International Workers Day. Facts regarding Immigrant rights in America are difficult to put a handle on, since the facts of the issue are either obfuscated or treated xenophobically. It's another issue that the "leaders" wish would go away. The immigrants themselves say they will not settle for anything less than full amnesty and dignity for the millions of undocumented workers presently in the U.S.

Some facts worth considering. Immigrants contribute 7 billion in social security per year. They earn 240 billion, report 90 billion and only are reimbursed 5 billion. Where is the other the 85 billion? They also contribute to the U.S. economy 25 billion more than they receive in healthcare.

My sentiments are with Molly Ivins, "If you want to stop illegal immigrants, stop the people who hire them -- quit punishing people who come because there are jobs." Also, "If you want to do the smart thing and look for a long-term solution, try fixing NAFTA and helping with economic development in Mexico."

Governor Schwarzenegger calls for a temporary guest-worker program and more money for Border Patrol agents, and at the same time he comments that it is ironic that the same voices who complain about the outsourcing of jobs also complain about the use of immigrant workers here in America.

External Links
-Tell President Bush: It's time for action, not just words
-Sign the Petition for a National Cesar E. Chavez Holiday

William Sloane Coffin

On April 12th, 2006, the Peace and Justice movement lost one of its most stalwart proponents when the Reverend William Sloane Coffin died in Strafford, Vermont. Rev. Coffin, an ordained Presbyterian minister, and later a minister for the United Church of Christ, was known by many as a strident champion of civil rights in the 1960's, an anti war advocate during the Viet Nam war, a strong supporter of gay rights and founder of SANE, The Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, the oldest and largest peace organization in the nation.

I had the fortunate experience of working for the organization, SANE/FREEZE, which grew out of SANE, and is now the organization, PEACE ACTION. The organization function was to get word out to the people by going door to door asking people if they were satisfied with their government spending an inordinate amount of their tax dollars on defense, while monies for education, healthcare, good jobs and environmental concerns were put on the back burner. The canvasers would also try to engage in conversation with the people the idea that we had enough nuclear weapons in our arsenal to blow up the world many times over, and that we needed their support in lobbying through SANE/FREEZE in Washington, D. C., to stop the proliferation of nuclear armaments. My experience brought me in conflict with the local police department in El Cerrito, California across the bay from San Francisco, as they stopped to question me and proceeded to search me, and then told me to put my hands on the top of the squad car. They told me to cease my activities and to leave the area. The organization had been given permission to do their work in that area, nevertheless, the area patrol felt they had their right to harass.

The policemen were doing what they felt was their job and the bidding of supposed "security apparatus," while I was trying to inform and enlist help from American citizens regarding our nuclear arsenal and the insanity of perpetuating the proliferation of yet more bombs at the expense of this country's and the rest of the world's real safety.

On April 20th, at Riverside Memorial Church in New York City, Bill Moyers gave a wonderful and sincere eulogy to Bill Coffin, as he was called by his friends. Bill Moyers ended his words by saying, "I hear his voice in my heart, don't tarry long, in mourning. ORGANIZE."

Today, when this country's madmen surrealistically contemplate a preemptive nuclear strike on Iran we cannot be silent. Can anyone possibly think of a more insane scenario for the world? William Sloane Coffin maintained his commitments to the end, opposing the war in Iraq and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. We must continue the fight and do whatever it takes to stop this government from the very imminent possibility of total destruction. There can be no more pressing engagement.

Enough of the D.C. Dems by Molly Ivins

Published in the March 2006 issue of The Progressive



Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I will not be supporting Senator Clinton because: a) she has no clear stand on the war and b) Terri Schiavo and flag-burning are not issues where you reach out to the other side and try to split the difference. You want to talk about lowering abortion rates through cooperation on sex education and contraception, fine, but don’t jack with stuff that is pure rightwing firewater.

I can’t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they can’t even see straight.

Look at their reaction to this Abramoff scandal. They’re talking about “a lobby reform package.” We don’t need a lobby reform package, you dimwits, we need full public financing of campaigns, and every single one of you who spends half your time whoring after special interest contributions knows it. The Abramoff scandal is a once in a lifetime gift—a perfect lesson on what’s wrong with the system being laid out for people to see. Run with it, don’t mess around with little patches, and fix the system.

As usual, the Democrats have forty good issues on their side and want to run on thirty-nine of them. Here are three they should stick to:

1) Iraq is making terrorism worse; it’s a breeding ground. We need to extricate ourselves as soon as possible. We are not helping the Iraqis by staying.

2) Full public financing of campaigns so as to drive the moneylenders from the halls of Washington.

3) Single-payer health insurance.

Every Democrat I talk to is appalled at the sheer gutlessness and spinelessness of the Democratic performance. The party is still cringing at the thought of being called, ooh-ooh, “unpatriotic” by a bunch of rightwingers.

Take “unpatriotic” and shove it. How dare they do this to our country? “Unpatriotic”? These people have ruined the American military! Not to mention the economy, the middle class, and our reputation in the world. Everything they touch turns to dirt, including Medicare prescription drugs and hurricane relief.

This is not a time for a candidate who will offend no one; it is time for a candidate who takes clear stands and kicks ass.

Who are these idiots talking about Warner of Virginia? Being anodyne is not sufficient qualification for being President. And if there’s nobody in Washington and we can’t find a Democratic governor, let’s run Bill Moyers, or Oprah, or some university president with ethics and charisma.

What happens now is not up to the has-beens in Washington who run this party. It is up to us. So let’s get off our butts and start building a progressive movement that can block the nomination of Hillary Clinton or any other candidate who supposedly has “all the money sewed up.”

I am tired of having the party nomination decided before the first primary vote is cast, tired of having the party beholden to the same old Establishment money.

We can raise our own money on the Internet, and we know it. Howard Dean raised $42 million, largely on the web, with a late start when he was running for President, and that ain’t chicken feed. If we double it, it gives us the lock on the nomination. So let’s go find a good candidate early and organize the shit out of our side.

Chairman Fred Hampton Way

Ald. Madeline Haithcock of Chicago has proposed renaming the street on which Fred Hampton was murdered, to "Chairman Fred Hampton Way." The head of the Chicago police union is "outraged" and plans on stopping the proposal. Chicago's Mayor Daley won't even touch the subject.

Email Ald. Haithcock and Panther Congressman Bobby Rush and let them know you support them.

More info here, here, here, and here.

Why We Need Black History Month

The news is running faster than the people can decipher it. From the allowing of a enemy of our country, the United Arab Emirates, to run the ports on the eastern seaboard, to the whitewash of the Katrina investigation in which, it was brazenly decided that "no one was to blame," and with the empty caveat that we have to do better in the future. From the news that our domestic mishandling of the public trust in the form of bribery and the criminal acts of politicians and their lobbyists to the sell out of our Health Care to the craven vultures that own our insurance and pharmaceutical companies. However, this is Black History month, and if you think that isn't relevant to all that is going on then that is why we need Black History month, and indeed the teaching of honest history to all our citizens, with all its flaws and blemishes.

Recently on CBS 60 minutes, the multimillionaire actor Morgan Freeman was interviewed and he said, "the concept of a month, dedicated to Black History is ridiculous, you're going to relegate my history to a month. I don't want a Black History month. Black History is American history." With all due respect to Morgan Freeman, he can afford to say such things not realizing perhaps unwittingly that he is playing into right wing prejudices. He naively says, regarding racism, "stop talking about it, and it will go away." He says, "There is no white history month." The reality is that there doesn't have to be a white history month because history is already presented as white history and not much else. Unfortunately, white history is presented blandly and without much room for analysis of why something happened. Most high school students groan out of boredom with much of the history that is presented to them and the way that many teachers pedantically teach. Regarding black history specifically, the history books that our young people have been weaned on, and indeed most adult's, do not give a clear and honest accounting of what has been going on with the black race since the beginning of this country. Ideally, Freeman would be right, but no way is history being taught so democratically.

In that light, how can you explain the abandonment of the black population of New Orleans during then Katrina disaster and continuing to the present, when Katrina is old news, and the former inhabitants are a fogotten diaspora across our country? People from this country, and all over the world sent in donations yet we see thousands who have been dispersed around the country trying to figure out where their next meal is coming from, and now we are hearing of many who are being evicted to go to who knows where. People have to beg the question, where did all that money go that was donated to Red Cross, United Way and the many small foundations and individual donations. It would seem there was enough monies to build at least temporary housing and enough food for all that were left behind. You would have to say, yet another scam. The goodwill of the Americans that were concerned was shanghaied, because the money and help certainly hasn't been distributed, even as this administration in Washington has absolved themselves of any blame.

So this the result of all of our great education on equality. Do you think perhaps we might not be getting the truth and the facts on how the least of us have been living for the last millennium? How do explain people calling the black people beasts when they were trying to get some food and water or mothers who were trying to get milk for their babies? How do you explain troops coming into New Orleans to subjugate the victims instead of bringing help? How do you explain a whole town denying entry to people fleeing from disaster across a bridge because of their color? Denying them by gunpoint. What in the hell must Martin Luther King be thinking of all the work and sacrifices of life and the countless beaten bodies, that was done during those civil rights years? Maybe Malcolm is saying, "I told you so." The ugly reaction to the unspeakable tragedy of Katrina speaks volumes about why there should be Black History month, since black history has always been relegated to the realm of invisibility.

Along with the many mistakes or misgivings this country has made throughout our history we must reconcile, yet again, the proverb by George Santayana that said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Racism is alive and well, raising its ugly head whenever there seems to be a choice that this country chooses between serving only the advantaged or all of its citizens.

Quoting from the book, Lies My Teacher Told Me by James Lowen, "Events and processes in American history, from the time of slavery to the present, are what explains racism. Not one textbook connects history and racism, however." Paraphrasing the same author who also wrote the damning book on racism, Sundown Towns, "the climate of race relations has improved, owning especially to the civil rights movement. But massive disparities remain, inequalities that can only be summarized. In l990 African American medium family income averaged only 57% of white family income. Money can buy many things in our society, life itself, in the form of better nutrition and health care and freedom from danger and stress. On average, African Americans have worse housing, lower scores on IQ tests and higher percentages of young men in jail." Lowen says, "The sneaking suspicion that African Americans might be inferior goes unchallenged in the hearts of many blacks and whites. It is all too easy to blame the victim and conclude that people of color are themselves responsible for being on the bottom. Without causal historical analysis, these racial disparities are impossible to explain." How mush more has the problem been exasperated exponentially under the reign of George W. Bush? To understand why Freeman gets it wrong on thinking that we are covering history well enough to not warrant Black History month, James Lowen says, "High school students have a gloomy view of the state of race relations in America today, according to a recent nationwide poll . Students of all racial backgrounds brood about the subject. Another poll reveals that for the first time in this century, young white adults have less tolerant attitudes toward black Americans than those over thirty. One reason is that the younger generation is pathetically ignorant of recent American history. Too young to have experienced or watched the civil rights movement as it happened, these young people have no understanding of the past and present workings of racism in American society. (this book was published in 1996 so the demopgraphical age is a generation older) Educators justify teaching history because it gives us perspective on the present. If there is one issue in the present to which authors should relate history they tell, the issue is racism. But as long as history makes white racism invisible in the nineteenth century, neither they nor the students who use them will be able to analyze racism intelligently in the present."

It is too bad that our bankrupt school system, particularly in the inner cities, have abdicated the disemination of much historical information to hip hop, instead of augmenting and stimulating a further historical examination of one of the most pressing problems in America. It isn't just going away, and we all lose.

IMPEACH, IMPEACH, IMPEACH!

Get used to hearing that word, because even if the media doesn't take up the call the people will have to lead, just as they did against Nixon.

If anyone has been paying attention at all they have to see the implosion of the Republican party under George W. Bush, despite the very real gains for the wealthy, Bush and his cohorts. Let there be no mistake. The Bush Adm. and the duopoly party of Republicans and Democrats have done what they have wanted to do with very little opposition. I'm sure behind closed doors they are laughing at us Americans. We are but a flea on their backs. CAFTA, the Central American Trade Agreement is one piece of legislation they pushed through without asking the American people. NAFTA was already a failure for the American worker as well as the people of Mexico, but that didn't stop our "representatives". Because of the Republicans, with the help of Dems who voted for Alito, and the Dems who gave such a weak stand against Alito and allowed him to lie or obfusicate every question asked, we now have two hardline Conservatives on the Supreme Court. The anti-torture amendment put forth by Sen. McCain has all but been gutted of any consequence. The ability of the President to spy on American citizens just because he and his attorney general say so, is such an abuse of power, alone, to warrant impeachment. The lies that led us into the debacle in Iraq, and the gutless Dems. who went along. The pharmaceutical and insurance companies have had their way with both parties.

You have to wonder what it will take. Bush's approval rating is worse than Nixon's. Bush has cut billions from health care, child-care, foster care, education, medicare, medicaid, education and veterans benefits, while giving 900 billion dollars to the top 1% of households over the next ten years. Our national debt as of Feb. 18th. is 8 trillion 248 billion 416 thousand 786 hundred and increases daily by 2.2 billion. The cost of the war is now at 241 billion. The neocons or the new "cons" in our "gov" say social programs are immoral. They say we have to attack Iraq to protect America.

The mindset is that torture has to be OK to protect America. A judicial system to benefit the corporations and the wealthy and to take away women's rights is the right thing to do. If facts or laws stand in their way, then they will go on a massive P.R. campaign to convince the American people that the Bush Adm. alone knows better and it is in the people's best interest. The prostrate press will dutifully report the charade with great seriousness. Their lies, their arrogance and criminality is beyond the pale, yet their they are!

T.C., a friend of mine, said, "it isn't Bush and his administration; it is our neighbors, family, friends and acquaintances" who still believe in the policies of this government for whatever uninformed, misinformed or just plain stupid reasons and disinterest in how they are governed. Their is an alliance in this country of the seemingly intelligent, monied but fearful class and the stupid ones who have everything to lose and nothing to gain, but W. is best for America. There obviously is a large number of them, otherwise how do you explain that the American people are not rising up in mass, demanding impeachment and also not accepting any Republican light. Hopefully people can see that candidates like Hillary Clinton are absurd and that we need a leader for all the people of this country.

Facts regarding the war in Iraq: The United States has no intention in leaving Iraq ever! Oh, they will bring some troops home and tell us that democracy and freedom and all the other bullshit is now taking place in Iraq and declare U.S. the "winner." They have built four huge bases in Iraq that are the size of small towns; one 22 miles square and have plans for a completely secure embassy costing millions to a billion in a so called green zone. These bases and embassy will be completely self sufficient and the military that is stationed there will not have any interaction with any of Iraq's. The people of Iraq can go to hell. Mission accomplished. Bush has the insanely ignorant religious right cheering him on, because these fanatics, no different than the fanatical religious of the rest of the world, with their incongruously warped minds believe a loving God, only loving to them, will deliver them up to the rapture and everyone else is going to hell.

Meanwhile, the ambition of empire will not stop with Iraq but continue on into Iran. We will be fed more lies and another P.R. campaign will be mounted condemning Iran for going ahead with their "nuclear ambition", completely denying the offer of Russia to enrich uranium for Iran to use in its nuclear power plants, thus nullifying any crisis of nuclear capability. Also, according to all intelligence including international, Iran is at the very least 10 years away from any nuclear capability. None of this will matter of course.

Where is this all going to end? 9/11 will seem be but a blip in history compared to the possible conflagration if we should attack Iran. We will set off a hornet nest of enemies some of which we didn't know we had. Reality shows will be replaced by the real deal, but there won't be any joy in the outcome. The comfortability of the American people will be shown for how intangible it really is, and perhaps we will see what other peoples of the world see every day because of our insanity.

2 Great Songs

Wasteland of the Free by Iris DeMent

Can't Make it Here Anymore by James McMurtry

New Year Resolutions

I (lightnings' nephew) was walking in downtown Chicago this morning and came across a small war protest in which they were also handing out flyers. I did not have time to stop and talk but now wish I had. Here is an excerpt from the flyer with a link to the rest of it.

"Peace On Earth" Means "No More War"

The story goes that when the nonviolent Jesus was born into abject poverty to homeless refugees on the outskirts of a brutal empire, angels appeared in the sky to impoverished shepherds singing, “Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth!” That child grew up to become, in Gandhi’s words, “the greatest nonviolent resister in the history of the world,” and was subsequently executed by the empire for his insistence on justice.

This weekend, as tens of millions of Christians across the country celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace, the U.S. wages war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Colombia and elsewhere; crushes the hungry, homeless, elderly, imprisoned and refugee; and maintains the world’s ultimate terrorist threat--its nuclear arsenal. -Fr. John Dear

read the rest here

Defining Liberal and Conservative

Websters dictionary defines the following words as:

Liberal: belonging to the people, free, generous, tolerant of views differing from one's own, favoring reform or progress as in religion, education, etc; specif. favoring political reforms tending toward democracy and personal freedom for the individual; progressive.

Instead of banding around the word liberal it would be wise to actually know the meaning of the word and ask yourself how the word liberal came to be denigrated by the far right pundits and their minions.

Conservative: conserving or tending to conserve; preservative. Tending to preserve established traditions or institutions, and to resist or oppose any change in these.

Discerning citizens should be able to understand that both philosophies have tenets that the American people hold dear and are indeed important and essential for the kind of goverernment they wish to have. We have a tremendous amount of agreement in what we believe belying the dissension and division that the radical right propagates. Generous, tolerant, conserve, preserve. Do these words have a meaning we can agree on? We should reject the panderers of false and specious disinformation.

What W Said about Wiretaps 1 Year Ago

Listen to what Georgie had to say about wiretaps and the constitution last year.

Watch the new ad from the DNC.

Redneck for Wilderness

Read a great article from the Dec.'05 issue of The Sun magazine, about Earth First! co-founder Dave Foreman on being a true conservative.

Timeline of Progressive Assasinations

I was watching the movie, J.F.K. for the second time on the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. However one would view Oliver Stone and his credibility or accuracy in telling a story, you would still have to come away from that movie knowing that the Warren Commission was a sham, and that Pres. John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a consortium of big business and our own government was complicit in carrying out his murder.

While you mull over that unfathomable act, especially if you have been brain washed throughout your educational experience, the movie unfolds to more , with Bobby Kennedy's assassination in L.A. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Two more deaths attributed to a lone assassin. During these same years Malcom X went down in Feb. l965, and his murder was dismissed in the press as having been done by jealous compatriots in the Nation of Islam. You start to think back to Gandhi. His assassination. Who was he a threat to?! You roll back up to the sixties when Che Guevara is murdered by the C.I.A operative Felix Rodriguez in Bolivia in 1967. Thomas Merton, the iconoclastic Catholic mystic, social critic and anti-war advocate, a Cistercian monk and prolific writer was found dead in a shower in Bangkok while attending a gathering of contemplatives. His death was attributed to electrocution from a faulty fan. This was the time that South East Asia was teeming with C.I.A. Fr. Merton, known for anti-war writings to the point of being forced to write under a pseudonym as dictated by his order. Fr. Merton was not a favored son of the Church, because they leaned toward the status quo.

Four students were killed by the U.S. National Guard on the campus of Kent State University, in Ohio, in the spring of 1970, during a campus wide protest against the Viet Nam war. The students were: Allison Krause, Jeff Miller, William Shroeder, who was shot in the back and Sandy Scheuer, who was shot in the neck. Charges against the National Guard was dropped by a Federal grand jury.

Black Panthers, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, gunned down while they slept, by an elite tactical unit of the Cook County State Attorney's Office, facilitated by the Chicago Police Dept. and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Fred Hampton, 21 yrs. old, described by Noam Chomsky as being the most talented and promising leaders of the Panthers, an effective organizer in the Chicago ghetto and unfortunately one of the main targets of the F.B.I. Terror Campaign, Cointelpro.

Salvador Allende is murdered in Chile in 1973, and Augusto Pinochet takes over the country in a military coup. Allende was a proponent of the redistribution of wealth in Chile during his presidency. His attempts to build a socialist society was opposed by business interests. Henry Kissenger admitted that in Sept. 1970 Pres. Richard Nixon ordered him to organize a coup against the Allende govt., while Kissenger called off the coup a month later, the C.I.A. continued to encourage a coup in Chile. On Sept.11,1973 a military coup removed Allende's govt. from power and Salvador Allende died in the fighting at the Presidential palace in Santiago. General Augusto Pinochet replaced Allende as president, and began a reign of kidnapping, torture and murdering of Chilian citizens.

John Lennon, the last of the American icons is murdered on the street in front of his house in his beloved New York city on Dec 8th. 1980. Lennon was political and forming alliances with radicals such as anti-war and civil rights advocate, Abbie Hoffman.

Also in 1980, Bishop Oscar Romero in El Salvador is murdered by rightwing paramilitary while he was celebrating mass. He was a champion of the rights of Salvadorans, and begged President Carter not to send arms to El Salvador. He said that military aid was being used to supress the people of El Salvador. His request was unheeded, and he was killed two months later.

In Dec. 1980, four American women are kidnapped in El Salvador, three Catholic nuns and one lay worker are found dead in a shallow grave two days later.

On Nov.16, 1989, six Jesuit priests, a servant and her daughter, murdered by right wing military death squads at Central America University in San Salvador. The priests were purported to be communists. These military death squads that roamed Central America in the 1980's, were trained in the state of Georgia in the United States of America, at the "School of Americas". I know they changed the name of the institution to some other euphemism, whatever. I would guess most Americans are not even aware of such an ignominious place in their country.

Now, more politicians who have 'died.' House majority leader, Hale Boggs, member of Warren Commission on the death of President Kennedy, belived that Oswald did not act alone. He went public with his doubts. The plane he was flying in disappeared in 1972.

Missouri Dem. Representative Jerry Litton crashes 1976, the night he won the Democratic nomination for the Senate.

U.S. Senator, liberal Republican, John Heinz, a critic of the Viet Nam war, who also encouraged reconcilation with Cuba, died in a small plane crash on April 4th 1991, killing all aboard and two children playing at recess in a school yard below. He was on his way to Phildelphia to conduct the first in a series of investigation hearings to examine the telemarketing of medical equipment to Medicare beneficiaries, "Bleeding Medicare Dry: The Great Sales Scam."

Former Republican Senator John Tower, investigator of the Reagan/Bush Iran Contra scandel involving a variety of different C.I.A. criminal activities, died in a plane crash on April 5th, 1991, one day after Sen Heinz was killed. Both men had close ties to George Bush Sr. who was a former C.I.A. director in the mid 1970's. Did they have information that needed to be silenced?

Progressive Missouri Senator Mel Carnahan, died in a plane crash, three weeks before election day. He defeated unpopular John Ashcroft posthumously. John Ashcroft was then appointed Attorney General by George W.

Paul Wellstone, the most vocal Senator opponent of the Bush administration and the status quo policies of both Democrats and Republicans, strong champion of civil rights, environmental causes, hikes in minimum wage and health care reform died in a plane crash in Oct. 2002 with his wife and daughter.

Two more individuals who fought for truth and against the hypocricy of this country.

Abbie Hoffman, the most visable opponent of the Viet Nam war, U.S. policy in Central America, civil rights worker in the south. He said, "Avoid all needle drugs, the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon". "Death from suicide" at 52 in 1989.

Reporter and writer for the San Jose Mercury News, Gary Webb, died of a "self inflicted gun whot wound" in his Sacremento, Ca. home in Dec. 2004. Best known for his series in the San Jose Mercury exposing the C.I.A.'s complicity in the import of cocaine into the U.S. in the 1980's during the U.S. onslaught on the Sandinista government in Nicaragua.

Can anyone truly believe these deaths are all coincidences and happenstance in the whole scheme of things, no connection to anything? Just happened? These deaths were murders or assassinations, others have been dismissed as accidents. All of their lives bear a large common denominator. These people were all for the rights of people, egalitarian, compassionate, progressive, anti-war, anti-racist and were fightning unselfishly to right the wrongs of this society.

Sonia Sanchez, on the death of Malcom X, said, "you will regret this; you know you cannot continue to kill these people who love us and need us, we must not continue to let this happen".

The climate for killing people who dissent, the corporatization of our and other peoples lives, the lackey press and politicians is continuing. We must not slink from working harder and speaking out for justice. We must keep stepping up against the lies.

Republican Hypocrites Extrodinaire

Here's what repulicans said about Clintons' military actions in Kosovo:

"You can support the troops but not the president." Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX)

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years." Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"[The] President.... is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy." Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning...I didn't think we had done enough in the diplomatic area." Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS)

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is." Gov. George W. Bush (R-TX)

For those people who think they could rest lightly if it were Dems. in charge now, they better realize that the Dems. are 'Republican light' and that is all. Cindy Sheehan met with Hilary Clinton and ole Hillary said that Cindy was giving comfort to the enemy!!!! Hillary also called for more troops in Iraq!!!! When are we going to wake up to these charlatans? Just like the Republicans, the Dems represent the have's and we mustn't forget this. Sure they will throw a few crumbs out and tell you how they care, but the truth is there is no representative of the people. The only persons who you felt you could trust were Ralph Nader, Paul Wellstone, and Dennis Kucinich. There has to be a people's referendum to select a candidate without the poisoning verbiage of the media.

I don't know how we will pull that off, but there must be a solution, otherwise it will be business as usual in this country. It must be shown that the status quo is full of shit, and they only want to consume more and be entertained more and want more of the pie. The people who care about this planet and all its inhabitants must see the falsity of this path and fight against it with all their power. We have to speak up everywhere, against globalization, racism, nationalism, theocracy, decimation of the environment and justice truly for all.

The Chemical Weapons Have Been Found...and We're the Ones Who Used Them...

Intense documentary video from Italian State T.V., Rai.
Report from the BBC.
Report from Common Dreams.

Shipwrecked

Check out a great article in Salon magazine by Sidney Blumenthal, 'Ship Wrecked,' which starts off, "Bush has so thoroughly destroyed the Republican establishment that no one, not even his dad, can rescue him now."

The house of cards could be coming down, and it won't be coming from the spineless dems. As they did with Nixon, the Republican leaders, to save their political asses, will be walking down Pennsylvania Ave to tell Georgie to pack up and to not let the door hit him in the ass on the way out.

Less we forget the imbecilic pronoucements of the Republican stooges, from Harper's Nov. 2005, read Lewis Lapham's "Notebook" section, an article called "Slum Clearance." Here's some recent quotes he cites, starting with the lead imbecile,"W."-

"The good news is, and it's hard for some to see it now--that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house --he's lost his entire house--there's going to be a fantastic house, and I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch."

Michael Brown, dir. of the Federal Emergency Management Agency- "Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans, virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well."

Former first Lady Barbara Bush, reviewing the condition of the hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome- "What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is that they(African Americans) all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this(chuckle) is working well for them." (our very own Marie Antoinette)

GOP strategist Jack Burkman- "I understand there are 10,000 people dead. It's terrible. It's tragic. But in a democracy of 300 million people, over years and years, these things happen."

First Lady Laura Bush- "I also want to encourage anybody who affected by hurricane Corrina [sic] to make sure their children are in school."

House Majority Leader Tom Delay, bucking up the spirits of three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome- "Now tell me the truth, boys, isn't this kind of fun?"

Senator Rick Santorum (R.,Pa.)- "I mean, you have people who don't heed those warnings. There may be a need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and understand that there are consequences to not leaving."

Congressman Richard Baker (R.,La.)- "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans, he said. "We couldn't do it, but God did."

Let's remember that other dullard who inhabited the White House, Ronnie (the bad actor) Reagan, who let us know immediately of what we could expect of him when he took office- "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem".

How about ole Ronnies friend, the woman with the heart of gold, Margaret Thatcher- "Who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women; there are families? Some families make it to higher ground, others don't."

What a despicable lot, all.

Opt-Out

Get your child off their schools' military recruitment lists.
Watch this video and see the tactics used by recruiters on your children.

Kanye West is Right

What Government? Of the people?? For the people??? Which people???? Kanye West is F…..Right. What kind of society are we?

Isn’t it ironic, that in this age of a supposed rise in “christianity,” that we allowed our fellow citizens to face this disaster on their own? They were mostly black and poor who bore the brunt of this disaster. The Federal Government allowed them to be put at risk. This didn’t happen in Florida when Jeb got his brother to be 'Johnny-on-the spot,' before the storm roared in. To deny class and color bias is to be either very stupid or a arrogant liar.

The word in people’s mouths around the country, “why did the ignorant people stay?" Where did our fellow citizens get this info? T.V.? Radio? No mention that Greyhound bus service closed on Saturday. The airport closed. People didn’t have cars nor enough money to hire someone to take them out. These were low wage earners, living day to day. So the usual disinformation and misinformation to divide us further. Aren’t these spin masters a bunch of turds posing as humans. The thought that the people should have left no matter what their circumstance is bizarre. The press and media collaborated in depicting them as beasts instead of victims. The victims soon realized they were on their own …… as it turned out, for a long time. The help coming was unofficial and by heroic and caring individuals.

When the government did, it was “Shoot to Kill” if you were out on the street after 6:00p.m. We got militarized action instead of relief operations. They were immediately called refugees. They weren’t fleeing their country. They are citizens who hadn’t given up their “fundamental rights".

Let’s not forget Barbara Bush’s comment displaying the typical blindness of the elite, saying that the people were better off in the Superdome, than where they were living. In fact, isn’t that a sad commentary to be said of the living conditions of the poor of this country. How dare her! How revolting, but we can readily see why she has raised a heinous son.

Class tension was always there, now it is bubbling up. The veil has been lifted on the hypocrisy of "American values." Let us not forget for a second the complete incompetence, disregard and lethal arrogance of this administration. There must be a people’s court to charge the guilty with genocide. We must not let this country be ruled any longer by this 2% white supremacist faction.

We must drive this current regime from power.

If You're Not Outraged...

Well is your anger over the top at the complete callousness, ineptness and disregard of our fellow Americans in New Orleans by this current moribund administration and it's moronic and villainous leader

Can anyone even entertain the idea that this president chose to play golf the first day of this untold tragedy, then fly to San Diego to spout more bullshit to our unfortunate people in uniform, while giving less than two minutes of empty words on one of the worst national disasters in our history. Finally playing guitar with some musician, and three days later flying in air force 1, on the way to Washington D.C. peeking out a window at 23,000ft at the horrendous destruction of life and property below. Vice President Cheney in Wyoming? The rest of their repulsive ilk no where to be found. News broadcasters blithely reporting that the president was cutting short his vacation, as if that would be a concern that most sane people would give a damn about. It is almost a cliche now, but never more appropriate is the bumper sticker, "IF YOU ARE NOT OUTRAGED YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION"

Read the philosophy of this web site and see if we can agree that we must ignore them, and come together with our families, neighborhoods, towns, cities and then finally we might have a legitimate concept of a United States of America.

We must, as Michael Parenti said, "develop a communatarian society that shares collective values," and reject vehemently this "dog eat dog" society that has been perpetrated on us by a vile and blaspheming leadership and their ignorant and sycophant followers."

They want a survivalist society, because as Michael Parenti again said, "They don't want some of it, they don't want most of it, they want all of it."

Ignore Them Philosophy

We awoke on November 3rd with a severe hangover, depression, anger, disgust, and the terrible thought that we were betrayed and for many of us, we wanted to flee and we could not bear to think what the future would hold for our country and for the world. Some people actually told us we should come together for the greater good. We indignantly rejected such nonsense out of hand.

You might have felt powerless against the forces of evil at this time. Well it is possible and even much more than possible to empower yourself and the greater good of this country. It is relatively simple, won't cost you any thing, actually save you large amounts of money. I'd like to borrow the line "The Revolution starts now," by the singer song writer, Steve Earl. It's painless. It's empowering. You will have your mind back. You will finally get to know your mate, your children, your neighbors and what your country should be about. It's subversive. It will take courage and some thinking, "out of the box." It will give you your life back and change our country like it has never been changed.

You unplug your T.V. Cancel you cable. You no longer buy mainstream newspapers, mainstream magazines nor listen to mainstream radio. Certainly don't reach for that pablum called "public radio" as a substitute. Please don't tell me, but the "History Channel is so good." Read "A People's History of the United States," and then try to tell me you want to watch the "history channel"!

It's that simple, and then wait not long and see something actually happen and you realize you are the most important part of this change. You ignore them, and now you discover yourself, your family, you finally take control. No more donations to political parties or individual politicians. It is obvious that they don't listen to you nor will they in the future. Democrats quit on us, except for a few brave souls-we know who they are. Look what they did to the third party bid of Ralph Nader. He spoke too much common sense. We know "common sense" isn't that common in this dumbed down society.

Very few so called leaders said no to this war, to the patriot act, to the fascist "homeland security act". We know who they are beholden to.

Churches are telling you who is saved and who isn't. How dare them! God is already in all of us, and God doesn't need donations and the only fealty God wants is to love our neighbor as ourselves. In deference to our brothers and sisters who feel no need to express an allegiance to any God, it their perogative to have their beliefs without recriminations.

By ignoring the false, the mistruths, the spurious, the imbecilic pronouncements and opinions, you will finally have time to actually listen, to read and understand and perhaps be able to form an intelligent response to the way we should live as human beings in concert with others.

Ignore them. Listen to alternative radio. Pacifica Radio, problably the oldest with the most prescient philosophy, is one. Air America Radio is another. Both of these stations are barred from many of our major radio markets and their affiliates. We know about the other crap that passes for intelligence that is ubiquitous around the nation. Their are many small stations particularly college stations that will have "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales, which is also carried on Pacifica Radio. Read, "The Nation," "Harpers," "Mother Jones," "Orion," "Utne", "The Sun," and many others. Isn't it strange that you can't purchase any of these periodicals in our airports and train stations and in most of our towns. What are they afraid of? Do you think that it might be a good idea to check it out! Alternative newspapers, support them. I want to quote an article from a writer for a newspaper, "The Arcata Eye," in Arcata, California. His name is Mike McLaren, and he wrote, "Turn off the television and read a book, write a book, paint a picture, play an instrument, sing, walk more, plant a garden, dance, run and play. Consume less. Recycle." It is our loss of our humanity that these propositions have been mocked, maligned, dismissed as spurious but we know what is right and true.
Ignore them and empower yourself and this country and show what "go along" really means.

If the millions of people who voted for change can now vote to ignore them, be assured the change will begin. Your vote will be counted.

Hejira