January 2008 archive

Mark Twain, among his many other gifts, seems to have been something of a seer.

While perusing a collection titled The Bible According to Mark Twain (primarily devoted to excoriating the god of Abraham), I came across an unpublished piece of Twain’s, written in 1901, that seems to perfectly encapsulate the state of the nation, as we prepare to move from the reigns of George I, Clinton I, and George II, to that of Clinton II.

Twain’s text below the fold:

Dennis Kucinich, in a speech today, dropped out of the race for the Democratic Presidential nomination.  He is going to concentrate on winning re-nomination and winning his congressional seat.  

So this is Friday Night at 8.  And as our digital dictator would say “Here I Am!”

Wrote a poem and recorded it at Gabcast as well.  This one is also untitled.

Here’s the poem:

of course there’s

a big search for

a new language

for new times

maybe a kind of

esperanto of the soul

a word appears

here and there

but it is immediately

devoured  in

pacmans of

orgiastic

marketry

gibsonian wetware

epiphanies

as we merge

with our

great

machines

caravans of

digital wagons

carrying

strange new loads!

Avatars exploding

in infinite number

while wizards

laugh

over their

strange new

dominions.

And below is the gabcast thingy to click.

Last night I placed a post here with this photo and the letter that accompanied THE BUTTON, and abit more.

A little refresher, THE BUTTON and the letter to the House and Senate members:

January 24, 2008

Dear Senator,

It is with great pleasure that I am able to present you with this limited edition “I am a Bush Republican” commemorative button on the occasion of President Bush’s final State of the Union Address. It would be a shame to let this event pass without a show of solidarity among those who have stood by him and enabled his legacy to be established on so many issues.

Without your steadfast support of President Bush’s domestic, foreign and economic policies, there is no doubt America would not be in the position it is in today. Please wear this button on Monday evening to show your constituents that you support President Bush, his policies and how proud you are of your contribution to his legacy.

Sincerely,

Brad Woodhouse

President

Americans United for Change

Dear Dharmaniacs,

I hope this will ease a bit of the pain and disillusionment surrounding Kucinich’s sad, yet wise, drop-out from Presidential contention.  He certainly fought hard, but the quivering corporatists refused to give him a chance to speak his message.

Many, many people who have heard some of his message have said, “I agree with what he says, and I would vote for him if he had a chance.”  They go on to say that since he does NOT have a chance, they feel they should vote for someone who has.  They feel they  should vote for Blabbidy Blah – one of the corporate preselected “acceptable” contestants.  The media has effectively perfomed its corporate-assigned job. This is Circular Disfunctionality!  Self-Fulfilling Prophecy!  Destructive and Disastrous Democraticropolitis!      

So, to ease our frustration a little and to make a statement, I’m sending a copy of a letter I received from Independent Primary.com.  Go vote on “Tsunami Tuesday.”  I hope my hyper links work.  If not, just go to Independent Primary and figure out where to click.

I, for one, will continue to work to restore our democracy through FDR New Deal principles.  Thanks.

Dear Sydney,

Today, January 24, 2008, Dennis Kucinich announced he is dropping out of the Presidential Race.

We want your voice as an independent-minded American to be heard.

So we’re going to give you another vote in the IndependentPrimary.Com “Tsunami Tuesday” vote.

You can go now to click here and cast a new vote for your choice.

Sincerely,

Jim Mangia & Linda Curtis

IndependentPrimary.Com

PS. I know Dennis personally, and I want to extend my congratulations on a hard fought Presidential Campaign. Given his courageous stands for democracy, I think he’d want everyone to cast a ballot…

IndependentPrimary.Com and have your voice heard.

1. The New York Times reports Democrats test messages in early nationwide ads.

   A coast-to-coast onslaught of presidential campaign advertisements began rolling out this week, with Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton already spending millions on commercials in Feb. 5 nominating states on a scale more reminiscent of a general election…

   By choosing to spend several million dollars each on commercials that will run simultaneously in more than a dozen states over the next 10 days – and, in Mr. Obama’s case, on CNN and MSNBC as well – Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton are being driven by the tight nature of the race thus far and by the bunching of Democratic nominating contests in 22 states on Feb. 5…

   Even the cable networks said they were caught off guard by the decision of Mr. Obama’s campaign to take to the air nationally nearly 10 months before the November election, instead of just focusing on local advertising in states holding contests on Feb. 5.

   By comparison, Senator John Kerry, the Democratic nominee in 2004, did not buy advertising time on CNN until that spring, when his nomination was assured and he began focusing on November. He did not buy time on MSNBC until after the nominating convention that summer.

   And while Clinton and Obama commericials are reaching viewers, the NY Times reports that “John Edwards accused his Democratic rivals of bringing ‘New York and Chicago politics to South Carolina’ on Friday, and told voters on the day before the primary here that he is the only candidate who will represent their interests in the White House… The Edwards campaign released a new television ad on Friday, with the title ‘Grown Up’, using footage from the Democratic debate on Monday when Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama fired back at each other and Mr. Edwards intervened, calling it ‘squabbling’.”

2. The Washington Post reports Guam braces for peaceful military incursion. “The Pentagon has chosen Guam, a quirkily American place that marries the beauty of Bali with the banality of Kmart, as the prime location in the western Pacific for projecting U.S. military muscle… [and] set to become a rapid-response platform for problems ranging from pirates to terrorists to tsunamis, as well as a highly visible reminder to China that the United States is nearby and watching. To that end, U.S. Marines by the thousands and U.S. tax dollars by the billions ($13 billion at last count) are to be dispatched to Guam over the next six years, along with a major-league military kit that includes Trident submarines, a ballistic missile task force, Navy Special Operations forces and Air Force F-22 fighter jets. Nuclear-powered attack submarines and B-2 stealth bombers have already arrived, and preparations are being made to accommodate aircraft carriers.”

3. The Guardian reports that bad news that
   Amazon deforestation increases sharply. Amazon rainforest deforestation has “risen sharply. Government satellite images show that at least 1,280 sq miles (3,235 sq kilometers) of rainforest were lost between August and December last year, mainly because of soy planting and cattle ranching. Environment ministry officials believe the true figure could be as high as 2,700 sq miles (7,000 sq kilometers)… The Brazilian Amazon has been decimated by a combination of loggers, farmers and ranchers over the last 40 years. Environmentalists say as much as 20% of the rainforest has already been destroyed, mostly since the 70s. A further 40% could be lost by 2050 if that trend is not reversed, they estimate.”

   “Generous US subsidies for biofuel crops are a big factor behind the sudden deforestation. Thousands of US farmers have switched from soya to maize to produce ethanol, which has increased the world soya price and encouraged Brazilian farmers to clear forests for soya farms… 40% of the Amazon could be lost by 2050 if the trends continue.”

4. According to Spiegel, there is A new look into the center of the earth. “For years, scientists have known that continents float around on the Earth’s surface like ice bergs on the ocean. But what happens deep beneath our feet? A new theory envisions graveyards for continents and a life cycle not unlike the weather.”

   Maruyama Shigenori, a Japanese geophysicist, “is stirring things up with a new fascinating theory on the lifecycle of the Earth’s crust… Maruyama is convinced that he understands what happens deep below our feet… According to Maruyama, the key ingredient for the chemistry of the Earth’s interior is the same one that determines the weather on the surface: water. The sunken ocean plates have old seawater locked in their mineral structure — only a few parts per thousand, but enough to drastically change the characteristics of the rock.”

On January 22, 2008, Australian actor Heath Ledger died. On that very same day, the fanatical Westboro Baptist Church posted a news release chock-full of their hate-filled vitriol that announced their intention to picket the funeral.

The cult-like hate group, which claims that it is their love for all that inspires their actions (to save the souls of homosexuals), appears to have enormous resources.  They often fly on short notice to picket funerals of homosexuals, trangendered people and — most recently — they have even added soldiers to their list of targets. They claim that events like 9/11, Hurrican Katrina and all the major catastrophes and wars impacting the US today are God’s punishment to the nation.¹

It’s time to use their own fervor against them.