Docudharma - Recommended Diaries

Breaking! Teamsters Go Green: Leave Pro-Drilling Group and Now Oppose ANWR Drilling

TomP — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:13:31 GMT

This is big.

Great news for all of us who seek a Blue/Green Alliance! The Teamsters today left the ANWR coalition, a group in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Jim Hoffa has just announced that the Teamsters are pulling out of the coalition supporting drilling in ANWR and are shifting their support to efforts to build coalitions with green groups to create a sustainable energy economy around sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

"We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing-not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Hoffa told labor and environmental activists at an Oakland, Calif., summit on good jobs and clean air. "We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power."

Hoffa Rejects 'Drilling Our Way Out' of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

More, after the fold.

(also on dkos and other places)
Jim Hoffa announced the union's withdrawal from the ANWR coalition, citing the need to build a green economy that fosters the development of alternative energy sources and creates good union jobs-instead of lining the pockets of big oil tycoons.

"Our economy is in shambles. Gas is climbing to $5 a gallon. The dollar has collapsed. Inflation is on the rise. Americans are seeing their paychecks shrink. Their family health care is being slashed," Hoffa said. "Finding a long-term solution has a tremendous upside. It will be environmentally friendly and will serve as a much-needed boost to our sagging economy."
Hoffa also thanked labor's partners in the environmental movement, who are currently working to reduce emissions from port trucks. He urged the strengthening of the alliance, known as the Coalition for Clean & Safe Ports, to achieve a common goal: Good jobs and clean air.
"If we are to prosper as a nation, our future lies in a green economy," he said. "But it's up to us to help define the rules of that new green economy. A green economy means we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And it means creating good union jobs in America's growing industries."

Hoffa Rejects 'Drilling Our Way Out' of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

This is the core of the Blue/Greeen alliance that will rebuild and remake a just America:

"A green economy means we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil. And it means creating good union jobs in America's growing industries."

Both.

The Sierra Club praised the Teamnsters for this move.

"The Sierra Club and the environmental movement applaud your announcement and look forward to building a powerful movement together-a movement that helps workers, protects the environment, prevents global warming and rebuilds our economy with good, green jobs," said Greg Haegele, The Sierra Club's Director of Conservation. "We are proud to stand here today, as allies and friends of the Teamsters."

Hoffa Rejects 'Drilling Our Way Out' of Energy Crisis, Demands Long-Term Policy Solutions

Hoffa and the Teamsters are joining with Al Gore and Barack Obama in working to build a Green economy and all realize that we cannot drill our way out of this mess. We need alternative energy.

Barack Obama last week:

"For decades, Al Gore has challenged the skeptics in Washington on climate change and awakened the conscience of a nation to the urgency of this threat. I strongly agree with Vice President Gore that we cannot drill our way to energy independence, but must fast-track investments in renewable sources of energy like solar power, wind power and advanced biofuels, and those are the investments I will make as President. It's a strategy that will create millions of new jobs that pay well and cannot be outsourced, and one that will leave our children a world that is cleaner and safer."

Gore: "end our reliance on carbon-based fuels"

Al Gore last week:

We're borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that's got to change.
But if we grab hold of that common thread and pull it hard, all of these complex problems begin to unravel and we will find that we're holding the answer to all of them right in our hand.
The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels.
In my search for genuinely effective answers to the climate crisis, I have held a series of "solutions summits" with engineers, scientists, and CEOs. In those discussions, one thing has become abundantly clear: when you connect the dots, it turns out that the real solutions to the climate crisis are the very same measures needed to renew our economy and escape the trap of ever-rising energy prices. Moreover, they are also the very same solutions we need to guarantee our national security without having to go to war in the Persian Gulf.
What if we could use fuels that are not expensive, don't cause pollution and are abundantly available right here at home?

Gore: "end our reliance on carbon-based fuels"

Jim Hoffa today:

"We are not going to drill our way out of the energy problems we are facing-not here and not in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," Hoffa told labor and environmental activists at an Oakland, Calif., summit on good jobs and clean air. "We must find a long-term approach that breaks our dependence on foreign oil by investing in the development of alternate energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal power."

Working together with labor, environmentalists and Democratic candidates, we can change America and solve our energy crisis, rebuild a greeen economy with good union jobs, and address global warming.

Jim Hoffa at Yearly Kos in 2007.

We need to work with the Teanmsters and other unions to rebuild a Green America. Thank you Mr. Hoffa and all Teamsters! Solidarity!

Conflict..or ..Opportunity?

scribe — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:09:31 GMT

Why am I drawn back over here whenever what appears to be conflicts arise? Because I am absolutely fascinated by the process of human communication and always have been, more on an intuitive level, than an intellectual level. It works much better when I am an observer, not a part or participant in the group experiencing the "conflict".

Somehow, even as a kid, when listening to adults fight, the actual words they uttered sort of floated past my attention: instead, I'd be drawn to how the feelings, or how the "energies" between them seemed to dart at each other, like arrows that could
pierce..weapons that or had to be shielded against, or even shot back. I'd see that this created so much chaos and static, pretty soon no one could really hear WHAT anyone else was saying, not really, or even really discern good intent from bad intent anymore.

I started to notice that the more the people involved CARED about each other, and the shared structure built together, the more painful and upsetting it seemed to be to all concerned when "conflicts" couldn't be resolved, and threatened the shared structure or mission, and relationships that had already formed with each other. No one wants to lose a place that feels like a "home" or the "like spirits" with whom they have found some sense of "belongingess". Everyone is so alone now, in so many ways: to feel this threatened adds loads of fear, whether identified and admitted or not. Fear makes us much more vulnerable, especially when NOT acknowledged or owned.

That fear can make us more vulnerable, as tensions rise and we try even harder to be heard and understood by each other, and thus, we get much more defensive. Someone may say something the same way the alway have, for example, but suddenly it seems to have a grown a sharp point and looks like an arrow aimed at me! Twice as scary and shocking, when fired by someone we thought we knew and trusted.

If we am vulnerable, that "arrow" can pierce, and we bleed, whether the other person intended it as a lethal weapon or not. We feel attacked, and when humans feel attacked, most of us we "REACT" emotionally, if we have an investment in each other.

Many times it's a reflexive defensive response, because anger, which not always easy to deal with well, often feel safer and more protective, and in a way "stronger" than admitting the so called "weaker feelings" like hurt or pain, in the presence of a perceived "attacker"! (whether that is their intent or not.) Because by now, in close knit group in the middle of painful conflict..no one involved is able to really "hear each other" very well by now, because of the (normal!) emotional static and chaos. Misinterpretations, misunderstandings, distortion of communicative intent..become inevitable..the harder people try to hang onto each other and to the shared "mission and place."

Some folks, however, have reached a point within themselves, where they can admit openly that these things "hurt" and cause them pain, and dare to do so. Others, who still (subconsciously) view see these as "weaker" or self serving or attention getting, or in any case not useful, may misinterpret this reaction also. Round and round it goes, with the principles and involved onlookers each feeling more and more misunderstood, misinterpreted, dismissed, angry, hurt, rejected, unwanted, stressed out, frustrated, exhausted, sad,even hopeless, about being able to "save" what was precious to all.

Some know they have to leave: that this process is costing them way too much to continue. Sometimes this feels like a very real death , and we grieve it hard. It IS a death of sorts, for some of us. (I still feel sadness over having to leave the "pond", as it was once, for me. It felt like my online "home-place and family" for so long.)

I think this is ALL about learning how to be being fully human.. together.
As we ARE right now, right WHERE we each are each are right now, in our individual personal/intellectual/emotional/spiritual maturation and evolution.

I think the rise of these kinds of "Community Blogs" are one NEW way we've been given to work on this TOGETHER.

Think about it.
Until the internet, most of us who post here would never have even known the others even existed, much less have come to know each other, or to CHOOSE each other, in places like this!

Ok..so here we all come, each a still imperfect "work in process", at all different stages and ages, with ALL our similarities...AND ALL OF OUR GLORIOUS DIFFERENCES!

For me, discovering Community Blogs..signaled the FIRST TIME EVER where in time, I discovered I honestly could be...ALL OF WHO I REALLY AM, and that people DID actually exist in this world, who COULD accept me and like me ANYWAY!

(What do you think my chances WERE of being accepted here in this place full of older generation hard core ultra conservative religious fundies, being this whistle-blowing loud mouthed liberal activist oddly gendered lesbian grandmother who has a beautiful red headed three yr old grand daughter with..TWO MOMMIES? And an elder who absolutely will NOT go to church, wear polyester, dye my hair blue OR play freakin' BINGO on Fridays??!!)

Oops, back to the topic at hand. Come play some "What IF" with me? It's my favorite game.

What if..what clearly is being viewed by many good people here, here as a very disturbing "CONFLICT", that seems to be threatening this space you have all built, is really NOT A CONFLICT at all, BUT AN OPPORTUNITY that everyone invested here CHOOSE, on one level or another.

What if it's really some kind of GRADUATE SCHOOL for those who READY TO LEARN NEW WAYS to come together and STAY TOGETHER, long enough TO CREATE CHANGE?
(Because it can't BE any clearer, that we as humans, have yet to LEARN THIS!)

What if this REQUIRES chaos, as a REVIEW of what IS NOT WORKING, (FOR EACH of us, individually) so we can see it more clearly, become more willing to LET GO OF WHAT DOESN'T WORK (individually, first!) ..so we can each, and then together, get free enough to try NEW AND DIFFERENT ways of staying together?

What if.. it's not ONLY absolutely, perfectly OK to have different perspective on things in this world..but totally ESSENTIAL that there BE these different perspectives??

What if the different perspectives ARE NOT EVEN THE PROBLEM AT ALL, and the real lesson being presented is "HOW can we LIVE TOGETHER WITH OUR DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES..AND STILL GET ON WITH THE WORK?

Wow. One hell of a tall order, for me, anyway!

It meant I had to figure out how to stop focusing on and reacting to how everyone ELSE is communicating with ME, (and how it AFFECTS ME)...and START focusing on on how I communicate with OTHERS, by listening to how it is affecting THEM, via their reactions to me!

Could I figure out a better method of communicating my AUTHENTIC intentions and meanings, in ways that WERE clearer to those I want to communicate with?

Oops, there I ran into ANOTHER internal barrier. I began to realize that I didn't always KNOW what my own authentic intentions and meanings even WERE, before I hit the comment or publish button! Much of my work was coming mostly from my head and the thoughts in it at that moment, without me even pausing to ask myself THIS ONE ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

."What IS MY AUTHENTIC INTENTION for this piece of communication I'm about to send, that is of use to the greater good of all concerned?

Once at this point in my own "internal investigation", I felt really "sobered", by seeing more fully the full scope of the responsibility I held, as a committed "Online Community Blog Member" , if I wanted to add as positive a contribution as possible,to the overall greater good of the community I wanted to be a part of, and whatever shared mission we had.

I am finding this whole business of placing the "common good of all concerned" on an equal priority basis (inside of me I mean) with "serving my own needs".. to be a fascinating challenge in all my relationships. There's no way to DO this, unless I know what the hell my OWN AUTHENTIC needs and intentions ARE, as best I can, and geezus..does this take some real time and effort and intensely HONEST COMMUNUICATION with my own "higher and lower selves!"

As an Uninvolved Observer with no horses in this race, I've read most of the comments of the past few days..and you know..I nod my head in equal understanding of ALL the perspectives shared, no matter HOW they appear to "conflict" in meaning..because I CAN SENSE THE AUTHENTIC SHARED INTENTIONS...even if you can't! Tell me if I'm wrong.

I see a bunch of very special highly intelligent people who all signed on here, to build a online place where you could join hearts, minds and spirits and to seek and find ways together,to make this world a better place for all of us. (how am I doin?)

I see communication lines getting tangled up simply because we are all merely human, and can only operate with what we know and are aware of about ourselves and about each other, at the moments of communication. I see people interpreting this as an overall "NEGATIVE" EVENT here, that could threaten the well being of this Community.

And of course it could! We've all seen these things "implode". But they did exist awhile, didn't they? Someone knew they were needed and created it and others "came" and stayed as long as they could.

That in itself..to me..is solid progress, towards learning new ways to come together in common cause for the greater global good.

Now comes the next phase for this new form of coming together.

Once we finally find each other, and get the place built,
HOW CAN STAY WE STAY TOGETHER?

That's when, I think, those truly invested in the cause (who are ready to do this) will be guided INWARD for a time, to come to see what each needs to learn about the self, that might possibly need to be seen, tweaked or changed in order for us to be ABLE to see past our own needs, fears and confusions, at least far enough to keep the common good up there where it has to be, as a priority for any authentic community to thrive.

If I am right about this, then the next question for each of us really is this.

Am I ready to enter this advanced stage of self reflection, flexibility and personal growth it will take for me to stay here and be an effective part of designing NEW WAYS TO STAY TOGETHER WITH LIKE OTHERS?, given as challenging and hard as this is clearly going to BE?!

Me, I know how much energy this takes, and I know mine is now limited, so I will probable continue this more comfy role as some sort of "Itinerant Blogger" who drops by here and there, now and then in friendly places where I feel welcome. And I do feel welcome here to share what are really ONLY my own observations and interpretations of things from my current perch in life, no more, no less. And I find what's going on here absolutely fascinating.

Support the Kucinich Impeachment Hearing on Friday

bob fertik — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:54:55 GMT

Rep. Dennis Kucinich has led the fight for impeachment since April 2007, when he defied Speaker Pelosi and courageously introduced 3 Articles of Impeachment (H.Res. 333/799) against Vice President Cheney. On June 10, Kucinich defied Speaker Pelosi again and introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment (H.Res. 1258) against President Bush.

When Pelosi refused to allow hearings on any of the 38 Articles of Impeachment, Kucinich returned to the floor of Congress to introduce one more Article of Impeachment against President Bush (H.Res. 1345).
Thanks to massive pressure from Democrats.com and our pro-impeachment allies, Speaker Pelosi finally allowed Chairman Conyers to hold a hearing this Friday. Kucinich will finally get a few minutes to argue for impeachment, along with Rep. Robert Wexler, former Rep. Liz Holtzman, and former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson. Kucinich made a video to thank us for our efforts.

H.Res. 1345 focuses on Bush's ultimate crime - invading Iraq on the basis of lies. The evidence is overwhelming that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Karl Rove, Andy Card, and other top officials deliberately manufactured those lies to "sell" an invasion whose real purpose was to gain control of Iraq's oil and establish military bases in the heart of the Middle East.

This was the agenda of the Project for a New American Century that Bush adopted after stealing the 2000 election. And it's the reason Bush and John McCain are determined to stay in Iraq forever, even though Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki supports Barack Obama's plan to remove all our troops by 2010.

When Kucinich testifies on Friday, he will naturally face hostile questions from rightwing Republicans who impeached President Clinton. But Kucinich will also face hostile questions from key Democrats who oppose impeachment.

Some of these Democrats supported the invasion of Iraq: Howard Berman (CA28), Rick Boucher (VA09), Adam Schiff (CA29), Brad Sherman (CA27), and Anthony Weiner (NY09).

But most of these Democrats oppose impeachment because they are cowering in fear of a counterattack from the White House and FOX News: John Conyers (MI14), Artur Davis (AL07), Bill Delahunt (MA10), Zoe Lofgren (CA16), Jerry Nadler (NY08), Linda Sanchez (CA39), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL20), Bobby Scott (VA03), Betty Sutton (OH13), and Mel Watt (NC12).

Only a few Judiciary Democrats understand that the Founding Fathers gave Congress the power of impeachment as the only way to stop a President from defying the Constitution and becoming a dictator, as Bush has done: Robert Wexler (FL19), Tammy Baldwin (WI02), Steve Cohen (TN09), Keith Ellison (MN05), Luis Gutierrez (IL04), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX18), Hank Johnson (GA04), and Maxine Waters (CA35).

If anti-impeachment Democrats get their way, Friday's 2-hour hearing will be the only "impeachment" hearing for this entire Congress - and then Bush will try to pardon himself and everyone else before leaving office next January, just as his father pardoned six Iran-contra criminals.

So it is crucial for all of us - now over 500,000! - to tell our Representatives today to support impeachment by cosponsoring Kucinich's H. Res. 1345:

http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/142

And if you can do more, please make free calls to every Judiciary Democrat who opposes impeachment through CauseCaller:

http://www.causecaller.com/causes.php?c=House_Judiciary_Democrats_Impeachment

Simply enter your phone number and click the "Start Calling" button. (Click "Call me back if I accidentally hang up" in case you hang up by mistake.) In a few seconds, your phone will "magically" ring and CauseCaller will say the name of the first Representative on the list. Listen carefully for the name of each Member so you can repeat the name to the receptionist - or just say "The Representative." Don't hang up between calls - let the receptionists hang up and CauseCaller will dial the next Representative.

If you want to do even more, call your favorite radio or TV talk shows and tell them how important Friday's hearings will be, and how strongly you support impeachment for whichever reasons are most important to you. Prepare your thoughts in advance so you sound informed and determined.

And if you're near Washington DC, join Veterans for Peace to lobby Congress on Thursday and hold a pro-impeachment rally on Friday:

http://www.democrats.com/node/17211

Lots more details and actions here:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34943

Through the Darkest of Nights: Testament XXVIII

Rusty1776 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:20:23 GMT

Every few days over the next several months I will be posting installments of a novel about life, death, war and politics in America since 9/11. Through the Darkest of Nights is a story of hope, reflection, determination, and redemption. It is a testament to the progressive values we all believe in, have always defended, and always will defend no matter how long this darkness lasts. But most of all, it is a search for identity and meaning in an empty world.

Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb, we did not know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? ~Thomas Wolfe

All installments are available for reading here on Docudharma's Series page, and also here on Docudharma's Fiction Page, where refuge from politicians, blogging overload, and one BushCo outrage after another can always be found.

Through the Darkest of Nights

Taking a Stand

Shannon's getting restless. So am I.

I've come to the Jefferson Memorial many times as the fifth year of this criminal presidency drags on, I've needed inspiration and always find it here. Jefferson took a stand against tyranny and injustice, he showed us how, he told us why, he's still showing us how, he's still telling us why. He knew every generation must take a stand, he knew tyranny and injustice will always have to be confronted if freedom and justice are to survive.

Shannon's been trying to get Rachael's journals published for months, but no publisher will touch them. Books like John Dean's Worse Than Watergate and Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies have made it to publication, Fahrenheit 9/11 was seen by millions of people, but the revelations in them, as disturbing as they are, pale in comparison to what's in Rachael's journals.

Publishers are afraid to publish the bitter truth in its entirety, there's a point beyond which they will not go, there's a line they will not cross. They recoil from shattering the illusion that America is a democracy, they'll publish authors warning that the shadow of fascism is beginning to darken the highest levels of America's political, defense, and intelligence establishments, but they won't publish definitive proof that the beast itself is already here, that it's been here ever since President Eisenhower saw its approaching shadow and implored Americans to slay the beast before it slays them.

Americans are living each day in fear, that fear is just beneath the surface, it's rarely spoken of, but it's pervasive, it's far more deeply felt and more insidious than the McCarthy era fear that silenced dissent a half century ago. Fear is everywhere, it's a coast to coast mind killer, it will be a nation killer if the courage to overcome it is not summoned.

I look up at the statue of Thomas Jefferson and wonder how bad it has to get before Americans will say enough. Who will take a stand? Who will find the courage to stand up and speak out, who will overcome their fear and confront this criminal president? Who will tell the ugly truth about him and his corporate masters? Who will condemn them for what they are--fascists with American flag pins on their lapels, fascists in denial of what they are, fascists as demented and dangerous as the psychopaths who unleashed a global war a half century ago.

They control the White House, the Supreme Court, and Congress. They control the Department of Injustice and the FBI, they control the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA. They have the National Security Agency and its high tech surveillance power in their fascist hands, they have 24/7 control over the corporate media, they have an endless supply of K-Street cash, they have police with itchy taser trigger fingers and Blackwater thugs with licenses to kill. They have all the political and economic power that deceit, subversion, coercion, blackmail, and war profiteering blood money can buy.

They've locked America's soldiers into an Oil War Prison in Iraq and have thrown away the key. Anyone who dares say so is slandered as an appeaser of terrorists, they're demonized for "not supporting the troops." So very few speak out, very few dare tell the awful truth. No one will say enough, no one will take a stand, no one in Congress, no one in the media, no one in the military, they're all silent.

Moral cowardice, pretense, delusion, and selfishness have spread like a viral infection through the bloodstream of America. Most Americans decided long ago to quit caring what their government does, to quit caring about the suffering of others, to quit trying to sort out the truth from the lies. They just look out for Good Old Number One. Nothing else matters enough to pay any attention to, nothing, especially the truth.

Where is it? Where can it be heard? In rare moments when it's spoken, it can't be heard above the din of a billion TV's blaring mindless chatter, it can't be heard above the noise of distortion and deceit that never stops pulsing across the corporate airwaves of this country.

A few brave souls organize protests and speak out, but Americans have been psychologically conditioned to believe that public protests are self-indulgent and unpatriotic, that they are useless, that they are embarrassing spectacles no self-respecting citizen would take part in. Americans who know better, who understand what patriotism is, who organize and participate in protests are portrayed as wild-eyed radicals by the corporate media.

Too many Americans believe that portrayal and never question it. Millions of others see protesters as people who think they're smarter than everyone else, and react with anger and hostility. Government abuses of power that compel patriotic Americans to protest don't offend them, the protesters offend them. It makes no sense, but not much in America makes sense anymore.

Too many Americans believe whatever the government tells them to believe, they see what they're told to see, they hear what they're told to hear, they say what they're told to say. Young Americans join the military and fight whoever they're told to fight, while their families back home buy things they don't need with money they don't have. They want it. So they buy it. With plastic. Consumption is the only comfort they can find, so they consume and consume and keep consuming until they're dead and consume a six-foot-deep hole in the ground.

Until that final day of consumption, handled by a funeral home for the bargain price of only $10,000, they're just cogs in the machine, existing in their consumer homes on their consumer streets in their consumer towns, sitting in their consumer clothes on their consumer couches, watching everyone on their consumer TV's consume, watching them consume in ads, consume in sitcoms, consume in soap operas, watching them consume, consume, consume on every program on every channel. As it has been, as it is now, as it ever shall be unless a tidal wave of debt sweeps this nation away and the world says good riddance to America and its mindless materialism.

I got on the Metro and took the Yellow Line to Huntington Station in Alexandria, disgusted with this country and damn near everyone in it. For generations, tens of millions of Americans have gone to work each day, they've gone to work for ten years, for twenty years, for thirty, forty years or more, telling themselves every day that working their dead end job had some meaning. But deep down, deep down inside, they knew they had no life, they knew they were just existing, with no hope of better days ahead.

But admitting that is too painful, so they seek escape in delusion and pretense. They need delusion and pretense to get through each day, like a junkie needs a fix. They've become addicted to unreality, addicted to pretense, addicted to delusion. The government and the corporate media feed that addiction, and keep feeding it, and keep feeding it, with a never ending supply of narcotic spin, narcotic photo ops, narcotic neocon crack for the addicts. They get their fix every day, they smoke that crack with O'Reilly and Limbaugh, they smoke it with Hannity and Hume, they smoke it with the Crack House Press Corps, they smoke it with Bush and Cheney, the drug lords of unreality.

Shannon and I feel alone, we are alone, in a nation of 300 million people, only a handful of Americans are publicly protesting. We participate in the protests here in D.C., but only a few hundred people show up, sometimes a few thousand. Those protests are ignored, except by the police.

When I got home I was still restless, I can't take much more of this, someone has to do something. I heard the radio playing in our bedroom, walked down the hall, and stood in the doorway, too agitated to sit down. "When is someone going to take a stand, Shannon? A real stand? When is someone going to confront George W. Bush? When is someone going to call him out and get in his face?"

"Jericho . . ."

"Enough is enough. Someone's got to do something. Something the media can't ignore, something dramatic."

"Jericho . . ."

"Something no one's ever thought of before, something no one's ever done before, something that'll grab this country's attention. Someone's got to do that."

"Someone is, Jericho."

"I'm about ready to . . ." I finally noticed the suitcases on the bed, Shannon was packing. "What's going on . . . why are you packing? Are we going somewhere?"

"We are, as soon as we can book a flight."

"To where?"

"To Texas. A woman from California has gone to Bush's ranch, Jericho, she's demanding to see him, she says she's not going to leave until he tells her why her son was killed in Iraq." There was fire in Shannon's eyes. "She's going to take a stand, for her son, for all our soldiers, for all of us. Her name is Cindy Sheehan, she's had enough, she's going to take a stand, and we're going to take a stand with her."

Walking across Wisconsin, witnessing against war

xofferson — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 20:14:08 GMT

In some ways, much of Kathy Kelly's adult life has been a walk against war. So it was completely in character for her to be walking through Milwaukee Monday, on a 450-mile trek to St. Paul and the Republican national convention.

Kelly, (left) a high school and community college teacher, has repeatedly risked her life and her freedom as an advocate for non-violence. She is now affiliated with Voices for Creative Nonviolence, based in her hometown of Chicago, which organized Witness Against War now making its way across Wisconsin.

A three-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work , Kelly is a longtime pacifist who refuses to pay war taxes. She's served prison time for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites and for crossing the line as part of an ongoing effort to close the School of the Americas, an Army military combat training school at Fort Benning, GA.

She helped initiate Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign which brought medicine and toys to Iraq in open violation of UN/US sanctions against Iraq. Voices in the Wilderness organized 70 delegations to visit Iraq in the period between 1996 and the beginning of "Shock and Awe" warfare in 2003. Kelly has been to Iraq 24 times since January 1996, when the campaign began.

In October 2002, Voices in the Wilderness declared their intent to remain in Baghdad, alongside Iraqi civilians, throughout a war they still hoped they could prevent. Kelly and the team stayed in Baghdad throughout the bombardment and invasion and maintained a household in Baghdad until March, 2004. During 2007, she spent five months in Amman, Jordan, living amongst Iraqis who've fled their homes and are seeking resettlement.
The 450 mile Witness Against War walk is a continuation of the effort to challenge and nonviolently resist our country's continuing war in and occupation of Iraq.

The walk left Chicago on July 12 and had logged 108 miles, nearly one-fourth of the total distance, when it left Milwaukee on Monday morning, after a potluck and program at the Friends Meeting House that drew more than 100 people on Sunday night.

The core group of walkers numbered eight on Monday (it's an accordion-like group that expands and shrinks as some members drop out to take care of personal business, then drop back in). An equal number of local folks joined them for the day and the 10-mile hike from Zeidler Park in downtown Milwaukee to the Unitarian Univeralist church across the Waukesha County line in suburban, conservative Brookfield.

The group included Kelly's co-workers at Voices for Creative Nonviolence. an Iraq veteran from Minnesota, a young woman from Sweden, Helene Hedberg (with mileage sign) who met Kelly at a human rights conference, and others who were attracted to the cause and were able to make the time commitment for much or all of the walk. They are joined every day by local supporters who want the war and occupation to end; in Milwaukee that included members of Peace Action, a staff member from Casa Maria, a Catholic Worker hospitality house, and one young man who just joined us as we walked along Wisconsin Avenue. (I'm hesitant to try to name too many names, because I didn't ask everyone and took few notes. The ones I do mention I'm sure of.)

Two television cameras, the local NBC and ABC affiliates, showed at Zeidler Park for a brief informal news conference before the walk kicked off, with a colorful bus, provided by the Anathoth community in Luck, WI. That is major media for antiwar event, as any organizer who's tried to get coverage will attest. Monday morning's daily paper carried a photo of the group with supporters who greeted them when they arrived on Sunday. But no story accompanied it, and no reporters went along for the day, although it seemed to me, as a former reporter and editor, that it would have offered enough grist for an interesting feature story or column.

To walk with them for a day is energizing. It offers a chance to walk with different people for a stretch at a time, hear some of their stories, and get an idea about what motivates them. That helps the time pass, and the walk moves at a pretty good clip of 2 to 2.5 miles an hour. Monday's walk took five hours, including a lunch stop (Subway box lunches and healthy snacks) along the road.

Paul Melling, the Iraq veteran, (pictured giving his feet a break at the end of the day) has just finished an associate degree in computer networking at a St. Cloud, MN technical college and decided to do the seven-week walk before starting a new job. He spent 14 months in Iraq as an artillery crew member, in 2004-05. Melling said he was somewhat conflicted for a time about whether to speak out on the war while others were still fighting it, but decided the best way to support those troops still in Iraq is to work to get them home.

Unfortunately, Melling was taking a break in the bus to prepare a talk he was to give that night when we encountered an Army recruiter on Blue Mound Road, who pulled across the crosswalk and confronted our small band of sign-carriers. He challenged us on whether any of us had served, so I stepped forward, wearing my Vietnam Veterans Against the War T-shirt, and assured him there were some veterans in the group. He said he was an Afghanistan vet and said what we were doing was undermining the troops. The US military is in Iraq to keep the Iraqi sects from killing each other, he said -- seemingly unaware, as we pointed out, that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died because we are there. After he threatened to break my camera if I took a photo, I put him down as unpersuadable and let others take up the debate. (I had signed a non-violence pledge in order to join the walk, and tend to be nonviolent by nature anyway, although it was tempting to take another photo and see what developed. Maybe we would have actually made the newspaper; violence seems to get covered. He apparently didn't know I had already taken the one that appears here.)

Other than that, the walk was uneventful, although the walkers got a nice reception from a group awaiting them at Marquette. All of the walkers carried signs, whch promoted some friendly horn-blowing, waves and yells of encouragement from drivers along Wisconsin Avenue, Blue Mound Road, Highway 100 and North Avenue. The Chicago crew also leafleted when there was an opportunity.

The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, a statewide coalition of local organizations, is helping coordinate the walk and find lodging and meals and arrange programs along the route.

Anyone's welcome to join the walk for a day or more if you can. There are some stretches across rural Wisconsin where there may not be any organized groups, so company and support might be especially welcome. Here's the schedule for the rest of July:

7/22 Tues 7 pm Witness Against War - The Iraqi Refugee Crisis - Waukesha. 1st Congregational Church, 100 E. Broadway. Contact: Judith Williams of the Waukesha Catholic Worker House at 262-524-8278.

7/24 Thurs 5:30 - 8:15 pm 'Witness Against War' speaks at 'Democrats of Jefferson County' Picnic - Lake Mills. Commons Park in downtown; Main and Madison. Schedule: 5:30 pm ~~a kids parade around the park, 6 pm~~ dinner, 7-8:15 speakers, including Jeff Leys of Voices for Creative Nonviolence - followed by video cast of Obama speech. Contact: Anne Johnson amjlakemills(at)yahoo.com 608.576.0498 or Ray Murawski of the Watertown peace group.

7/27 Sun 8 am - 3 pm WITNESS TO WAR WALK- Madison.- We are inviting members of the community to join VCNV, walking 8 miles from Cottage Grove into Madison. The walk will end up at Olbrich Park. (early-morning car-pools for community walkers- leaving from Olbrich Park to Cottage Grove - at 8 am) Check out (www.wnpj.org ) for a form to sign from VCNV if you are interested in participating in the walk. Contact: Joy at jsfirst@tds.net

7/27 Sun 5 - 9 pm 'Witness Against War' - Dinner and Presentation by Kathy Kelly - Madison. St. Bernard's on Atwood Ave- Everyone welcome! Raging Grannies and Will and Dot Williams sing.....and more! Contact: Joy First at jsfirst@tds.net. WNPJ is co-hosting the event today - Contact info@wnpj.org o call 608-250-9240

7/28 Mon 12 noon SPECIAL Vigil for Peace with 'Witness Against War' - Madison. In front of the Post Office on MLK Blvd. Contact: Mary Beth Schlagheck at mbspeace1@charter.net .

7/29 Tues 3:30 - 5:30 pm Witness Against War - Waunakee. At the Village Park. There will be an informal conversation and/or a talk. A welcome of the marchers by concerned residents of Waunakee and surrounding towns would be most appreciated. For further information, contact Hildegard Dorrer, 608-849-4219

7/30 Wed 3:30 - 4 pm (flexible - when the Walkers arrive) WAW Vigil with Women in Black - Sauk City. Meet on the Bridge. We gather to silently mourn ALL that is lost to war - wherever this occurs. We stand in solidarity with those throughout the world who suffer from oppression, violence, and injustice. Contact - Mary Ann Novascone at noasca@verizon.net

7/30 Wed 7 pm Spaghetti Dinner with the WAW Walkers - Sauk City. At Park Hall, 307 Polk Street. www.freecongregation.org. Bring a dish to share. Contact: Maggie McGlone at msmcglone@verizon.net or Sally Dahir at sdahir@chorus.net

And here is the map and schedule for the whole thing.

**UPDATE Meltdown? Bad Loans? Lender's REAL dirty little secret

snackdoodle — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:26:11 GMT

As most of you know who have read some of my diaries and comments, we are in Chapter 13 and in a battle with WaMu, our lender to keep our home. This has been quite the adventure and a real eye opener. When our problems with WaMu started in the fall of 2006 we were pretty sure we weren't the only ones, fact is we aren't, but we also had no idea and my guess is neither do you. Follow me below the fold for a sneak peek into Mortgage Lenders REAL dirty secret, the one that is more dangerous and pervasive than sub-prime loans.
Historically individuals enter into Chapter 13 Bankruptcy to protect an asset and in most cases this is asset is the family home. It is in every case the last best chance people have to hang on and get some breathing room. Understand too, for this to work you must demonstrate your ability to pay back what you owe in 3 or 5 years, this is not an easy way out for the totally insolvent.

Last year, 2007 there were 801,840 Chapter 13 filings, 2006 573,203, 2005 251,179, 2004 412,130 and this year to date they are up 27% over first quarter of 2007. I think it is safe to assume there is in excess of 2 million homes setting under protection of Chapter 13.

These homes represent low hanging fruit for lenders. But you say they are protected, how can this be. Most people in Chapter 13 are trying hard to make it work and work you must. Your current bills must be kept up to date, no new credit is allowed, very often the money available for emergencies is insufficient to cover additional attorney's fees or a court fight or even the cost of a forensic accountant. Lenders know this and they use it to foreclose on homes from people who aren't behind in their payments at all.

What has happened with our WaMu loan is common. COMMON which should give you all pause even if you aren't in Chapter 13 because these tactics can and are used against any home owner.

Force Place Insurance, your lender has the right to purchase home owners insurance to protect their interest if you fail to do so. This would seem reasonable, right? Well, it might be except they can also do this if you have insurance in place. They may not even tell you this has happened, even after they have taken mortgage payments to satisfy the cost of they insurance are start foreclosure proceedings against you because technically you are behind in your mortgage.

In our case it was $3600 in insurance in WaMu's name in the amount of $363,000, the replacement value of the house, to cover their interest in a $123,000 loan. Think the overage would go to us in the unfortunate event our home suffered a catastrophe? No, not a dime! The $240,000 overage would line the pockets of WaMu. This is enrichment they are not entitled to, but unfortunately while suspicious is not illegal as far as we can tell.

It was bad enough they got the insurance but they renewed it twice more. This is after numerous phone calls and the documentation being sent to them dozens of times. They went so far as to refund the original amount and then put it right back on because they renewed the policy. So we got a variety of bills from them and from their attorney in amounts from about $3,000 to as much as $14,678 all sent within a day or two of each other.

Inspection Fees Already held to be questionable in so much as they have been proven to be no inspection at all but a way for lenders to line their pockets. These fees can show up on anyone's mortgage and frequently do. Not a big deal you say, well those charges are routinely used to make you short on your payment and late.

Late Fees Your late fees are stipulated in your mortgage documents. Ours states 6% of the current payment charged out on the 16th and the first of the following month which means of you are a month late you get dinged two late fees. Ours is in the neighborhood of $78 a time. If you go past the 30 window on your payment, they can't charge you another late fee, they can charge you interest but not a late fee. Nor can they charge you a late fee on a late fee and this happens all the time. This is where inspection fees, and other odd fees come into play, the fees make your payment short so you get hit with a late fee and then possibly another. You could be losing as much as $200 a month on your payment because of this. Remember the way late fees are charged? We have had months when late fees, not late fees and extra interest on late payments, but just late fees amounted to $357.

Payments Credited Late Lenders routinely wait an extra day or two just to make you late and get that late fee. Not easy to prove, either way. We are fortunate because all our payments are wire transferred. We know down to the minute it was sent and accepted. Interesting to us it has taken as long as 144 days to post one of those payments to our account.

Missing Payments We found an excessive amount of payment that were simply missing, put in suspense (another ploy to get late fees) or charged back as a late fee itself. This is what happened with 18 payments from the Bankruptcy Trustee, they were not properly labeled and charged out as late fees, then credited back and disappeared. Each count of incorrect labeling and crediting of those payments carries a fine of up to $250,000 or 5 years in jail, or a combination of both. We are talking about a serious crime. Then there were payments made on our behalf by Douglas County, a particular $3055 payment that has spent its whole life at WaMu, 15 months in suspense, except for approximately $400 of it that has simply vanished.

Multiple Ledgers To date there have been 3 ledgers for our loan produced by WaMu, none of them agree. I do not think this is unusual, people trying to get their account straighten out find the same problem. When homes are sold or refinanced it is often very difficult to get the correct payout amount.

Sound overwhelming? It is, imagine what it is like for someone trying desperately to hang on to their home to find out the only way out of this is pay what the lender wants or pay for a forensic accountant to get out from under it. Either way it is going to be a thousand dollars or more, not the kind of ready money most people in Chapter 13 have. The Bankruptcy Court is on your side, but you still have to prove you don't owe the money or your home is allowed to be chipped out of the protection of Chapter 13 and the foreclosure proceeds. A few days after that happened we got a notice from WaMu stating they were going a head with the foreclosure, subsequently we have received several more which is harassment.

Our current battle with WaMu has been going on for 5 months, which is unusual. We fought back, something they weren't expecting. We spent the time to get the ledgers put into a readable form, to track payments and charges. That has so far saved us. Altho WaMu has managed to temporariy get the house out from under Bankruptcy protection, we have appealed and are confident it will returned. It has taken so long primarily because of continuances to gather all the documentation and make some sense of it. We were scheduled to go before the court this last Tuesday, but our attorney contact WaMu's attorney and showed him the spread sheets and some of the problems. Their attorney has now asked for a continuance until June 16th to give them time to do an internal audit of our loan. It will be interesting to see what they find, if they are willing to make adjustments to their errors, or even correct the most glaring issues. In the past lenders have taken their chances with Bankruptcy Judges and lost.

Needless to say I am absolutely against any kind of bail out that benefits the lenders. I would rather see that money used to audit all the lenders and servicers on a yearly basis. I can update this on the 16th with the results of the hearing, but after that I will not be able to share any further actions because we are suing WaMu and that suit will be filed on the 17th. We are not interested in an out of court settlement which never allows for discussion of the case or the settlement. We are willing to take it all the way, which would be back to a Bankruptcy Judge to make the determination as to penalties and damages. We want this out in the open, talked about, investigated, the lenders punished and stopped.

Here are some links you may find interesting.

If you think it can't happen to you.

Cases and Class Actions Here Here

It is widespread problem Here Here Here Here Here here

What are your rights and Here Here

****UPDATE****

I originally posted this diary May 25th. We were supposed to have our appeal heard on June 16th. Well, the 16th came and WaMu's attorney asked for another continuance until July 22nd. Apparently they can't find what they have lost. Obviously we are disappointed, hoping to have out house back under Chapter 13 protection and start the suit against WaMu in earnest. Both our attorneys tell us not to worry, the judge granted the continuance to give them enough rope to hang themselves. While this may be true, this is our home we are talking about and having to wait another 36 days seems cruel punishment, because protecting it is not a done deal until it is actually done.

We just got a rather detailed email from our Bankruptcy attorney and now we see why they are both so excited. It seems WaMu has admitted to "losing" or not crediting all the Douglas County payments. They are going to get fined and it opens the door to the stipulation agreement we entered into at the beginning of 2007 to repay certain of those Douglas County payments refused by WaMu. The Stipulation Agreement represents more than $6,000 WaMu was paid they didn't have coming to them. We paid it because we wanted to keep the house and at the time there was no way to prove what we can prove now.

In the last three or so weeks we have had the opportunity to take a closer look at the books and have found 20 violations of RESPA all having to do with the handling of the force placed insurance, that problem has still eluded them. Multiple violations of fair credit reporting. More than 100 accounting violations. 18 violations in crediting payments made by the Bankruptcy Trustee, in fact WaMu refunded the last such payment to us in a check. This is just the last 18 months and we have another 18 months or more to go. Our mortgage account is fast becoming the poster child for mortgage servicing screw ups, if it is illegal and can be done, it has been done to us dozens of times.

************Update to the update************* We are now at July 24th, 7 months into this and having been to court on the 21 to find WaMu needs another continuance for three to four weeks. My believe is they are hoping when the accounting comes we haven't saved our back house payments they won't take. How wrong they are. Either way they aren't going to get away from the fines just on this go round.

We meet with both our attorneys next week with the idea of hopefully taking the offensive. What I would like to do if possible and since we already have a judge is file the big suit now, not wait while they stall indefinitely. This is the suit that has the potential to cost them millions in fines plus significant damages to us for what they have done. I want them to know we aren't playing here and stalling is only going to make it worse for them in the long run.

I have read that WaMu has between 2 and 2.5 million mortgages they service. They are the 3rd largest mortgage lender and 9th largest credit card issuer. They have millions of bank account holders. Never think poor bookkeeping doesn't pay because that "found" money goes right to the bottom line. Just sticking their various customers $1 a month they could easily be looking at a billion dollars a year in fraud rewards. All that and they have the temerity to not just ask for a bail out, but expect one! In case you didn't know, those mortgages were made and bundled in investments, so all those folks crying about losing money on bad loans have in many cases already gotten their money back and stuck investors.

Most accounts aren't as rife with violations as ours. But certainly mistakes pay for them and there is a pattern of this kind of fraud extending thru all their banking services. We have been in contact with Senator Dodd's office and they are over joyed to be getting the information to use after the court case is settled. One of the reasons we aren't interested in an out of court settlement is this needs to go before Congress. My personal belief is they need to be prosecuted under RICO. Their officers and employees who have been a party to this need to be jailed, their person wealth seized and fined heavily. Draconian? You bet, give them what they have given their customers.

The Green Paradox

bigtwin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:07:26 GMT

I've sat down to write a followup of "The Green Desert" many times now. My apologies that my schedule has prevented me from devoting the proper time needed to organize my thoughts.

But a good thing has happened as a result of this delay - time has passed and our overgrown lawn is even more beautiful and/or unruly, depending on your point of view. Many many more flowers (and weeds) have bloomed. And most germane to the discussion, many many more honeybees have arrived.

Before I had mentioned that we had seen 3 or 4 bees, as many as we had seen from 2003 to 2007 combined. Now every day there are, I dunno, at least 50, maybe even more-it depends on the day and the time of day as well. But anyway, lots and lots of other types of insects too. Flies, butterflies & moths, lady bugs, and lots of just straight up bugs. (I hope they don't get in the house ;)

Now 50 bees here is one thing, let me tell you what else has been going on.

We got a new puppy this April, and since then we have been on the Spanagel Diet. Or rather "Exercise Plan ". We take our dog (Spanagel) on long walks over our (my parents) farm 270 acres, 70 of it woods, adjoining many square miles of public wilderness.

Out of variety sake, we decided to explore literally every hollow, creek, woods, and field feasible. The last 3 months we have covered more territory than ever before, seeing things for the first time even though I grew up on this land. And in all of our walking, we rarely see a bee, and never around a field.

In case you did not read the first essay, the fields are industrial corn and soybean fields. "Roundup Ready" meaning they have been engineered to withstand Roundup, herbicide extrordinare. Not that I don't think previous herbicides (and insecticides) didn't do their job as well, but the Roundup-GM Crop combo is something quite different.

Back to the bees. The Queen Ann's Lace, which dominates the areas around the fields, has some flies on it, but not a single bee. Queen Anne's Lace is also the dominate flowering "weed" in our yard, and it seems to be the bees' staple flower as well.

Now lets be clear and scientific (for a moment). I never made a point to look for bees before, and I walked around "out in the data" on the order of one-quarter or less than I do now. But I stand by my observations, and the conclusions that would seem obvious from this line of talk.

It was mentioned in the comments of the last essay, that Roundup was a herbicide, not an insecticide, and wouldn't affect the bees. Now one comment does not movement make, but it seems to me that many have lost sight of a basic concept: Everything is connected.

You cannot compartmentalize "herbicide" away from the rest of nature, and certainly not from something so nearly identical as "insecticide" Its not on a different channel. And neither is "water supply", "air", "mammal", "gonad", or anything else on this planet.

I'd like to make a couple more observations. I think is prevalent in our society today, and, perhaps surprisingly to some, found in equal values on both the left and right of the political spectrum, that people have no idea of the realities of farm life/history of farm life/the weather/and the truth of when you "hit the gound" (literally).

Now this lack of wisdom takes generally different forms on each side of the spectrum, but the outcome is the same--poor ideas, idiotic decisions, bad outcomes.

On top of all this, we are involved, perhaps too heavily, with our local zoning board. I recently questioned a part of our code that prohibited growing crops over septic fields. Someone replied (paraphrasing) "...but we don't want food grown over poop, there'll be disease problems..." I replied that poop was natural fertilizer and a proper outcome for waste disposal. (Our tomatoes over our septic field are the best ones we have, BTW) I received a scrunched forehead and a quizzical look from the other person. I am shamed to say this person was a "progressive". Have you all seen "Idiocracy" by Mike Judge? Makes me think I'm in that movie already. My wife quite often says now, "Oh my god, its that movie..."

You might say that the answer is so simple. But its not. For all of my assertions as to others' lack of wisdom, I must say that I am an idiot, because if society crumbled today, I would be hard pressed to survive, even though I live on hundreds of acres of tillable land, that my anscestors survived on using 19th and 20th century technology, and Native Ameicans survived on for milennia before that.

My father is 86 and still farms the land doing (at least) 90 percent of the work including planting, harvesting, repairing, maintaining, heavy lifting, etc. Manual labor, at a level than most people 40 years younger. No interest in retiring. No interest in "developing" his land (for what could turn out to be a few million dollars), even though we suffer through frequent accusations that we are motivations are to "divide up farmland. We have 200 tillable acres, which only pays because we haven't "recapitalized" (buy new equipment) in many years. The combine is a 1979, the main tractor is a 1982, and so forth. For what its worth, Purdue University, the state's Ag School, calculates you need to farm 1500 acres just to break even.
Even at 200 acres, one man now farms what used (pre 1970) to be three family farms. The good news is that because of that, you, and especially I, have been allowed to go on and have the rest of our lives, concerned with important jobs like web development, virtual reality, or the next big movie. Food is something you get at restaurant, or the grocery store. We get it effortlessly, allowing our minds to think lofty philosophical or religious thoughts of how the world should be.

My wife and I have watched, aghast, as my father has cut the woods back away from the field. I came home one day early in our time back here, "I killed 500 baby trees today," when he had me do similar work. I've seen, that the crops do grow better, by a large margin, when the woods is cut back. And we've watched, in amazement, as the cutting only makes the trees grow back quicker, and they are back to be cut again, sometimes just one season later.

Which brings me to the observation that humans GREATLY understimate nature. We have a three year old maple tree in our yard that we rescued out of a field about to be plowed. It is approaching 20 feet tall (I shit you not.) Now there's a bunch of other trees that haven't grown that much, but WTF.

Now I'm not saying that Roundup is OK, but going the other way completely is not the answer either. My father lived in the time before herbides. He had standing orders that when he did not have any other jobs to do, he was to take a hoe and go out into the field. The farm was then about 80 acres. Have any of you even hoed a quarter acre garden? It sucks. Especially in July and August, but guess what, that's when the "weeds" grow the best. My father has said that when 2-4-D (1950s herbicide) came out it was like a miracle.

And then there's insects. Pestulence eating your crops, either in the field, or in the bin. Don't want to eat flour with bugs in it? Tough shit-or starve. Anyway, its better than the other family who didn't have any wheat harvest at all. What's more, there was disease. Why did people cut down their grass and make that generic lawn I have lambasted now in two essays? Because someone lost a kid (more like half the town lost a kid) from disease from insects. (Up until 1915, you had a 50-50 chance of living past age 10).

So what's the answer to all this? Right now I'm inclined to say:

Defy your local zoning board and stop mowing your lawn; don't spray any poisons on it

Practice sound methods of hygiene (the true reason for the disease, usually not the insect)

Plant a garden, no matter how small; even if it's just on your window sill

Learn about your food; teach your children where food comes from

Avoid sweeping statements like "Farmers just want to ______"

Fight the copyrighting and trademarking of seeds (a trick of the genetically-modified crop corporations).

Give careful some thought and meditation on the subject of balance and success in food production for a modern, diversified society, and how to achieve a pleasant future for the residents of the planet Earth.

I'd like to thank everyone for putting me up on the front page on my previous post. It was a nice welcome. I was drawn to here from the unique diaries and pictures by buddydharma on that other site, and thought here would be a good place to post. Click on the mandala pictures for a high-res version of them. They are public domain.--bt

Call and Response in Kafka Kountry

geomoo — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:47:35 GMT

I recently expressed a limited criticism of points made in an essay. When I began receiving responses which twisted my words or mischaracterized me, I made a decision and set up an algorithm for myself: I would keep responding so long as my words were twisted or I was left with an insult or a mischaracterization of any kind. I tried not to escalate, just defend. And I would end with anyone who stopped with a neutral remark, such as let's just drop this or this is going nowhere. From that simple position, it became clear that unless I allowed an inaccurate statement to stand, the discussion would continue to escalate indefinitely. The longer I stuck around, the higher the stakes became and the more I was demonized, until two other essays were born, apparently for little other reason than to demonize the person who would not back down. It was disorienting in the extreme to wander into two essays based on the false premise that 1) I didn't want a certain person on the site and 2) I simply refuse stubbornly to learn. Starting from that extreme misrepresentation, hundreds of words were written, many high-minded notions expressed, all kinds of brilliant theories expounded. It was truly Kafkaesque. Seeing so many people buy in and participate in what was, more than anything, a trashing of me, has been disappointing but informative.

I offer the following as a mere record. I don't expect movement, I don't expect anything to change. Please don't express sympathy for my feelings or ask me to stay. I'm not looking for that. I take responsibility for my choices, and I chose to behave in a way that has brought me to this point. I am not complaining, I am not putting anyone down, I am recording how the experience looked and felt to me. In the end, this was a lot closer to Alice's Wonderland than anything I have ever experienced. By a long shot.
C: Wise's quote seems excessive in places.
R: Wrong. It's not excessive.

C: It is excessive in criticizing watching Leave it to Beaver.
R: Wrong. I don't see where it criticizes watching Leave it to Beaver.

C: It claims that being moved by Leave it to Beaver is slapping colored people (sic) in the face and calling their concerns unworthy.
R: Wrong. It just says that Leave it to Beaver was inaccurate.

C: Here is precisely what it says word for word.
R: I think Leave it to Beaver was a cute show.

C: You may think it is cute, but the author does not.
R: Wrong. He was just saying it wasn't accurate.

C: He said it was inaccurate and also said finding it moving was a slap in the face to colored people (sic).
R: We've been debating this a long time with no movement on either side. It's time to quit.

C: I agree with most of what is said here, but here are some aspects I find troubling.
R: Wrong. I disagree with everything you have said here and here's how.

C: I made clear I was not making the claims you ascribe to me, more than once, in my original comment.
R: Is there any way in which you agree with the author?

C: I said I agree with most of what he said.
R: In what ways do you agree with the author?

C: Here is a painstakingly detailed account of everything the author side that I agree with, including parts I disagree with only in one way.
R: Okay, I'm glad you agree with those parts. I'm not going to respond to your original concerns.

C: I guess I'm asking for a little more focus on healing.
R: Wrong. Every healer alive knows there can be no healing without first having truth.

C: I'm just asking for a little more focus on healing, not that truth be ignored.
R: Wrong. There can be no healing without first having truth.

C: Yes, I'm saying to include the truth but focus more on the healing.
R: Wrong. I know you are saying to include the truth, but I'm saying to focus more on the healing.

C: It feels as though you're not responding to what I'm saying.
R: Wrong. This is just a minor disagreement and you have blown it all out of proportion.

C: Have you ever seen accusatory truth without the presence of healing lead to progress?
R: Yes, many times.

C: I seriously doubt that healing can ever occur from the presence of accusatory truth alone.
R: I had the experience of creating healing in a particular situation I was in. You could learn from it. Read this essay.

C: Surely there was healing energy present also.
R: You are wrong to respond to me in generalities. I'm speaking of a specific situation.

C: That sounds hard for you. Perhaps it was useful in some way?
R: Wrong. It was not useful in the way you say and you need to learn the reasons why.

C: I think that, instead of discussing my idea, you are dismissing its very worth. Are you really saying this?
R: Listen to this detailed experience of mine. How could your idea possibly have any worth?

C: Do you think it possible for you to acknowledge any value at all in anything I say?
R: I see no value at all in anything you say. I'm not reading all your comments. I'm not responding to your questions. Did you read my essay?

C: I feel you are not valuing my words.
R: I don't feel I'm being treated as an individual.

C: I'm sorry if I'm not treating you well. Here's is exactly where I don't feel listened to.
R: I'm not disrespecting your words, just not bothering to read them all. I am hurt that you didn't read my essay.

C: It feels insulting to have my words twisted into new meanings, then dismissed.
R: I dismiss your demand for me to agree with everything you say.

C: This feels insulting to me.
R: You're insulting me.

C: I am upset by how someone is being treated.
R: Why do you only care about the feelings of one person? You are a hypocrite.

C: I am against making someone wrong by twisting their words.
R: You are wrong to say no one has the right to use the word "wrong." And hypocritical because you are calling others wrong. Why are you the only person who counts?

C: I insist that you respond to what I say instead of making up things I said.
R: You are angry. You only care about your own feelings.

C: Yes, I am angry because you are putting words in my mouth.
R: I am angry, too, and I refuse to care about your feelings until you stop caring about the feelings of only a couple of people.

C: People are trying to tell you something. Please see if you can allow some shred of credibility to their words.
R: People are trying to tell you something.

C: This look likes an old-fashioned Mexican standoff.
R: This is not an old-fashioned Mexican standoff.

C: It is crazy-making to be called nothing but wrong repeatedly by several people.
R: Will you own then that you have been the crazy one here?

C: What has happened is a complete blow-up manufactured from unfounded accusations.
R: Some people do things one way, others do them another.

For most white folks, indignation just doesn't wear well. Once affected or conjured up, it reminds one of a pudgy man, wearing a tie that may well have fit him when he was fifty pounds lighter, but which now cuts off somewhere above his navel and makes him look like an idiot. Tim Wise

Please Welcome Docudharma's New Contributing Editors

Rusty1776 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:45:03 GMT

They're not as young as they used to be, but who among us is?

Specific duties are still being finalized, but Beaver will generally focus on gender issues, with the assistance of Miss Landers, who's 98 years old but has graciously agreed to come out of retirement to enhance our understanding of gender issues, perspectives, misperceptions, and especially the impact of faulty communication, which has been known to fuck up to a fare-thee-well debates about gender and every other issue.

Beaver will only be working 9 to 5, but Miss Landers will be available 24/7 to explain every gender issue imaginable, up to and including what misogyny is and what it isn't.

Wally will actively participate in every thread, striving to ensure that no one here acts like a Big Ape. That will be his only responsibility, but if recent events are any indication, it will be a full time job.

Eddie will be the host and moderator of a new DD forum entitled, What the Fuck Are You Doing, Obama? As is the case with Wally, that will be his only responsibility, but it will also be a FULL TIME job.

New DD Tradin' Post merchandise commemorating the arrival our new Contributing Editors will be available soon . . .

Laying the groundwork

wolverine06 — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:27:43 GMT

In order to grok the future, it is necessary to understand the present and remember the past. In order to influence the future, strategies must be emplaced. This is my attempt to bring the docudharma nation to concensus of understanding.

feline wrote

Apparently, something is more important to members of Congress
Submitted by feline on July 17, 2008 - 9:57am.
than public opinion; more important than the U.S. Constitution, the treaties of the Geneva Conventions, and the Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal; more important than truth, justice, accountability, restoration of the rule of law. It's something so terribly important that the opinions of the United Nations, the International Red Cross, retired generals, veterans and enlisted military personnel, the intelligence community, imbedded journalists, victims' families, judges, constitutional and international legal scholars, psychiatrists, etc. are basically obsolete. Something is more important than our civil liberties, real national security, a stable domestic infrastructure, and diplomatic foreign policy.
Providing immunity to violators of the law and perpetrators of obstruction is more important than any of our opinions.

It is intriguing to consider what is more important to Congress.

If it is loyalty to party, then why continue to aid and abet the criminality by handing them everything they ask for: approving billions and billions more in appropriations for the occupation of Iraq when they promised they would end the war (It was priority #1) ; The military commissions act; the newest unconstitutional FISA bill; the approval of Mukaskey as Attorney General; etc?

When we elected a democratic majority house, I thought that at least we could stop losing ground. But that didn't occur. Instead we got we can't pass this and we can't pass that.....we don't have a veto proof majority. When they got a majority of both houses of Congress, the whining we hear about the inability to pass good legislation made no sense. However, the plan does make sense only if you have a majority in the House and not the Senate.

So again I ask, "If you have a majority in both houses why do you still pass bad legislation rather than no legislation?" They want a share of the power and assume that by allowing the Republicans to implode, they will win by default. But because they stuck with the same plan anyway, they are stupid. And they think we are stupider.

Well let me tell you, the neocons and the media are going to treat this Democratic President like they did Jimmy Carter. They are going to crucify him every chance they get. If you look at recent history and the lessons learned from Nixon, after Carter we got 12 years of Republican Presidents. That is what they want. They want total control from 2013 to 2025 and beyond. They will control the use and distribution of energy to set themselves up as kings.

The Olduvai Theory

The Olduvai Theory states that the life
expectancy of industrial civilization is approximately
100 years: circa 1930-2030.
Seven intervals: 1) From 1930 to 1945 e shows
irregular growth during the Great Depression and
World War II.8 2) The strong growth from 1945 to
1970 correlates with the strong growth in world oil and
natural gas production. 3) The slowing growth of e
from 1970 to 1979 reflects slackening oil production.
4) The rugged Plateau from 1979 to 2003 shows that
energy production ran neck-in-neck with population
growth. 5) The Brink from 2004 to circa 2008
represents the energy industry*s struggle to keep up
with rising demand. 6) The Olduvai Cliff from circa
2008 to 2030 correlates with a spreading epidemic of
permanent blackouts. 7) From 2030 onward society
approaches the agrarian level of existence.

The rules are changing.....back. Did you know there is a worldwide hunger crisis going on right now. How can that be when 2007 was the year humans produced the most food ever? Maybe there is something more fundamental going on.

World Energy and Population: the Basis
During the last two centuries we have known
nothing but exponential growth and in parallel
we have evolved what amounts to an
exponential-growth culture, a culture so heavily
dependent upon the continuance of exponential
growth for its stability that it is incapable of
reckoning with problems of no growth. (M. King
Hubbert, 1976, p. 84).

A population crash is coming and chaos will ensue. Rather then find solutions to the predicted coming chaos, they selfishly welcome it.

WORLD POPULATION SCENARIOS
The resource wars will run their courses, and
populations will crash. The journey back to
'natural* levels of world population will not be
a joyous one. Have policy-makers begun to
grasp the scale of the problem that confronts
them? Are they still dazzled by the contention that
rates of increase are slowing, not grasping that all
the time the numbers are mounting up?

Only there is a big hole in your plans. When the oil runs out for us, it will run out for your Army and ~~Air Force~~ Bureau of Weather Control. Also in other countries, Wind and solar power are delivering higher then expected returns. Some are already over 15% of their total national consumption from these sources alone. Looks like they might have a chance to survive.

Why the push to failure?

Johnny Venom — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:17:12 GMT

^{Cross posted on
The Economic Populist -
A Community Site for Economics Freaks and Geeks}

Failure in war can be a bad thing. Failure in business can be a personal loss, and in some instances a detriment to the economy. With the recent calamity hitting the two largest mortgage lenders, not to mention other large American business concerns, it seems to a select few that failure is indeed a viable and good option.

A gamble with very high stakes is being openly promoted by adherents to a free-market orthodoxy. These individuals, gaming on anger and the perceived loss of utility of these given enterprises, are pushing the public onto this wager.

It is a game of economic Risk, where they believe the prize is their perceived fruits of their ideology. The economy, weighed down onto it the full weight of bad decisions, is in need of help. Intervention and regulation would make rational medication to this sickness. First and foremost with the ailing giants of the home loan industry. But these free-market libertarians believe such action would not pose as the cure. A clarion call has gone out by this group. In particular, the resistance to bailing out the two mortgage giants, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Actually, bailing out any large American company, or in many cases consumers.

Let the homeowners eat cake!

Now I'm not saying that the Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") aren't deserving of scorn. To be sure, not only should their books be audited and their activities curtailed, but the upper managers need to be removed. But these free-market fanatics simply want to throw out the baby with the bathwater (or at least attempt to sell it a parachute first!).

Why does it seem to me that all Washington ever seems to talk about these days is bailouts? Bailout Freddie Mac Bailout Fannie Mae
Bailout Wall Street. Bailout homeowners. Is it possible in America today that no one is allowed to fail?
You know, Phil Gramm was right. We are a nation of whiners. No one wants to believe that failure is an option anymore. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Or learning from your mistakes? Or going through transformative difficulties that just might change your life and your behavior? But it seems like failure is off the board nowadays and that it's government's job to rescue everybody.
Whatever happened to the philosophy of Friedrich Hayek, the great free-market economist and Nobel Prize winner, who said the great thing about capitalism is the freedom to succeed beyond your wildest dreams, but that there is also the freedom to fail?
- short excerpt from "Is Failure No Longer An Option?", Larry Kudlow

What you have read above is just a small example of the tune being sung by those on the conservative and libertarian right. In the past, I have talked about Larry Kudlow, but I actually thought he could see the bigger picture. Now he has advocated that the two giants be broken up, which may not be a bad idea. Where I find fault with his ideas, is that he and his kind want to see them fail. How could they not see the damage that could happen on an aggregate scale?

Simply to break up Freddie and Fannie and the securitization of the remaining debt porfolio would not solve anything. It is sort of like the running argument about nuclear weapons and an incoming asteroid; if a nuke is launched instead of one giant problem would we be faced with a multitude of smaller catastrophic impacts? The same here, without real and proper regulation, what happens if we see a chain reaction of failures of the newer 12 "mini-fannies and baby freddies"? And making the remaining $5 trillion notional mortgage debt into packaged securities simply transfers the risk onto an already weakened financial system is asking for problems. We now know there is no uniform value for this debt, and pricing these new mortgage-backed securities would be difficult at best in the current housing environment.

Most economists are proclaiming that we are heading into a recession. Overall housing prices will depreciate in such an environment. Purchasers of this debt will want some sort of guarantee, and thus we could be back to having the government make some sort of promise. Assuming that these purchasers aren't foreigners banking on commodity-backed sources like petrodollars, then these buyers themselves will need access to credit. The Federal Reserve, assuming they drink this kool-aid of "risk transfer", will have to extend the borrowing window to companies like Goldman Sachs and others, this will batter the US dollar as an excess of liquidity is introduced.

Lastly, institutional investors themselves, assuming they hold onto their fiduciary responsibilities, will attempt to offset. If one believes that the credit derivatives market is large now, wait until this goes through! If the government attempts to clamp down on the over the counter market like swaps, then the action will simply be moved overseas. This is why you haven't seen much regulation introduced in petroleum trading, as it is very easy to transfer such activity beyond American jurisdictions.

It's more than just a simple bailout, it's about societal stability.

Perhaps my perspective is tainted from the fact that I believe in what I call "managed capitalism." I've never thought that laissez-fair capitalism to be appropriate in this day and age, what Milton Friedman preached as his idea of "freedom," simply cannot be applied to our society. This may sound like an anathema to many (and no doubt I'll get the hate mail), but we have many dependencies ranging from the disabled to infrastructure needs to veterans. The only way to utilize a system in which people like Larry Kudlow and Ron Paul advocate would be to cut loose these dependencies.

You see the current debate over Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or even General Motors is a much larger philosophical one as it an economic one. Joseph Schumpeter (and others like Frederich Nietzsche) touted a concept known as "creative destruction." Basically, one form of goods or services is done away with one that is more improved. The horse and carriage industry was wiped out by the automobile one. This was sound and practical in the early era of industrial economics, though it did cost workers their jobs. But as we progressed into a more advanced stage the costs get higher and higher, in many cases beyond the money issue. Stability and order (note, I'm not talking in the same sense that one hears from fascist ramblings) for a middle class to sustain their families and in the end Democracy, must be made paramount.

GM and beyond

There are many, including myself, who are upset with General Motors and the possibility of a buy out. The company knew that the SUV party would not last forever. And not just General Motors, but Ford and Chrysler, both for decades have not had their act together. If, as management often claimed, they were doing the right thing, then why has companies like Toyota eaten their lunch? It's almost justifiable to oppose any assistance to these companies.

Saying this, one needs to a bigger picture. There is a smart progressive way and the stupid conservative way in doing this. The latter could be seen in Japan for over a decade in the form of "zombie companies." Legal entities that by all accounting standards should have declared bankruptcy and be liquidated but by some action by a banking group or government were kept alive. Mimicking this is not in our best interest.

So why save GM or Ford? Why not let "market forces" do their voodoo and allow these companies disappear? After all, as many in the bubble would say, a "better" one will arise from the ashes; probably by some young entrepreneur or a private equity group. To which I say fat chance! If starting up an auto group and successfully competing against any giant were easy, then Tucker in the late 40s would be around, and newer companies like Zenn and others would have mopped the floor with the Big Three.

The fact remains, given the inherent costs, starting up an auto companies is significantly cost prohibitive. And to build one in short order to replace the jobs and economic loss from the vaporization of the Big Three, is almost borderline fantasy. I say borderline, because there is only one sure way to make that a reality, and it is something conservatives and the current Republican Party would never do. That is subsidization of these start ups either monetarily or other means.

I highly recommend everyone pick up Prof. Ha-Joon Chang's "Bad Samaritans," it goes into detail how the Asian Tigers built up their industries. I'll give you a hint, it wasn't free and fair trade! These countries knew it was in their national best interest to have a strong manufacturing base, and the government did just about everything it could to promote domestic industries for home markets and export. The US government, despite claims to such, have abandoned such an agenda decades ago.

The loss of industry means the loss of knowledge. Engineering skills soon go untaught because students don't feel their is a future in such knowledge. And it isn't just the high end high tech stuff either, we are losing such time honored skilled craftsmen like glass blowers and such. Short of the development of a whole new industry, jobs in blue-collar (and increasingly white-collar) work is becoming a zero-sum game. Wage arbitrage is probably the best example of this.

A loss of an industrial pillar weakens the nation as a whole, making us more dependent on a foreign source for a good. It's really a national security issue, as we have established a fragile web, symbolized in Just-In-Time this or that. We have transferred onto ourselves risk in return for a supposed discount to the price future goods (and in the case of the investor class) and return on equity. Unfortunately, these folks haven't taken in all the variables!

Should every wager be backed by the taxpayer?

Ultimately, we all end up paying for any buyout the state initiates. The question becomes then, what are the limits of our generosity? The probability of a given sector of the financial industry imploding and granting assistance has risen tremendously. One need only look at specific cases like Long-Term Capital Management (LTCM) which saw itself self-destruct in 2000. The government feared that a run on equities as the hedge fund try to bail itself out. Soon intervention was had, and we warded off a potential stock market crash.

There have been several other similar cases since then. Each time, either the state or a group of institutional investors came in. But none of these incidents can mirror the possible calamity that would befell one of the large hedge funds or blue-chip company or government-backed entity. Be it the size of the enterprise or their portfolio, what we have now has grown so exponentially, that failure would be a fatal systematic shock. But we return to the question at hand, should we aid and bail a business concern in crisis, particularly one whose nature is that of speculation?

Until we set about reform in the market system, particularly in the spot and derivatives field, we are call to heed such a bail out. I should note that this is not entirely an American problem. There have been similar situations all over the world. It is within our grasp to set limits to speculation. Repealing many of the deregulation legislation here and abroad must be promoted. For example, raise the margin requirements and lower the position limits on many futures contracts. You don't need to outlaw speculation, it does serve its purposes. But it needs to be monitored and regulated. Not moving towards such an agenda is simply granting permission for the ramped abuse of these financial products.

Lastly, as a society who looks forward to retirement, we need to decouple the financial welfare of that outlook with that of speculation. Capital gains on 401Ks and other such investment retirement vehicles is also often met with capital losses. Retirees demand a safe and dependable income. Gaming the market as the sole means of achieving a semblance of comfortable living is an open invitation to disaster.

A religion by any other name

The free-marketeers have been playing semantics for a long time, tying the words "freedom" with "free market." Profit is deemed to be ecumenical whose only moral or legal objections should only be found by the taste of the market. Freedom's political connotations are merged with an economic perspective. Allow anyone to set up any enterprise. Should such activities born harm to a community, then said community will not assert monetary benefit to such an establishment. Eventually, it is believed by these folks, that the "bad company" will be replaced by a "good company." Thus salvation comes in the knowledge that the system will heal itself in time, like paper cut on a finger. Government is there only to set a basic set of rules and essentially become a night watchman state. Intervention, they believe, will only halt the repair or maintain the pain. They talk of civil liberties, but ultimately this is come to be an auxiliary for the liberty to pursue profit. And in this religion, salvation don't come cheap!

Uncertainty has often been placated by possibility with these folks, often the latter being a new privately-produced answer. Hence their bravado in speaking out in the allowance of failure in an entity. If A goes, need not worry because a person (or market) will come up with B. But it is this very prognostication that they fall back on, that is also in this author's opinion, one of their greatest weakness. For what happens if some private entity or person doesn't come up with B?

Real News: Iran and the US: Beyond the War of Rhetoric

Edger — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:43:07 GMT

SAHIMI:There is also no question in my mind that at the bottom the issue is that, as you pointed out, both the United States and Israel do not want Iran to become a major regional power. But Iran is already a major regional power: its enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq have been eliminated; it is on the verge of having complete uranium enrichment technology; it's making $100 billion a year from exporting its oil; it has a dynamic population of 75 million, two-thirds of whom are below the age of thirty; it has a very highly dynamic and educated population, as a matter of fact, and it is sitting in the most strategic area of the world [inaudible] on the shores of Persian Gulf, where 70 percent of all the oil produced by Middle East passes through Strait of Hormuz that is controlled by Iran. So Iran is already a major regional power.
...
Iran is not Iraq. Iranian nationalism is extremely strong. If Iran is attacked by the United States and/or Israel, Iran will respond and retaliate in a very dramatic fashion. Unlike what some neocons recently said, like Patrick Clawson and people like him, Iran has full capability for retaliation. And if Iran does retaliate-and I believe it will retaliate if it is attacked-then the whole region will be engulfed in war and blood, and will spread to the rest of the world. This is not what we want. As peaceful people, this is what we want: what we want is to keep that region away from the confrontation between Iran, Israel, and the United States. And the only way to do that is not to threaten Iran, but rather to negotiate with Iran; the way to do it is not to threaten militarily or impose sanctions on Iran, rather to negotiate with Iran. I think Iranian leaders, as bad as they might be internally, are interested in negotiating and reaching a solution with the United States and through the United States with Israel. And I think we should take that path and try to reach an agreement in Iran.

Muhammad Sahimi is the NIOC Chair in petroleum engineering and professor of chemical engineering & materials science at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In addition to his scientific research, which has resulted in over 270 published papers and five books, Muhammad has written extensively on Iran's political development and its nuclear program. In particular, Muhammad has concentrated on the legal and technical aspects of the dispute between Iran and the Western powers regarding Iran's nuclear energy program. He is a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an organization dedicated to making the public aware of the dangers of weapons of mass destruction, as well as polluting the environment.