I’ll have a Big Mac, fries, and a medium Dr. Pepper.
Custer rides again, although he’s atop a plastic motorcycle and in a McDonald’s Happy Meal box.
June 17, 2009 archive
Jun 17 2009
Custer, Rape, Genocide, & Happy Meals
Jun 17 2009
Muse in the Morning
 Muse in the Morning |
whether a thing is pleasant or unpleasant.
The love of pleasure begets grief
and the dread of pain causes fear;
he who is free from the love of pleasure
and the dread of pain knows neither grief nor fear.
–Paul Carus, Chapter XLVIII: The Dhammapda, verse 29
The Gospel of Buddha: Complied from Ancient Records
Phenomena XXIII: dreading
 Sky Ensnared
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Jun 17 2009
My Reply To An Email From President Obama
This morning I recieved an email from the President. I have gotten these from time to time ever since I made 4 donations during his campaign.
Here is the text of the most recent:
ProgressiveTokyo —
Last year, millions of Americans came together for a great purpose.
Folks like you assembled a grassroots movement that shocked the political establishment and changed the course of our nation. When Washington insiders counted us out, we put it all on the line and changed our democracy from the bottom up. But that’s not why we did it.
The pundits told us it was impossible — that the donations working people could afford and the hours volunteers could give would never loosen the vise grip of big money and powerful special interests. We proved them wrong. But as important as that was, that’s not why we did it.
Today, spiraling health care costs are pushing our families and businesses to the brink of ruin, while millions of Americans go without the care they desperately need. Fixing this broken system will be enormously difficult. But we can succeed. The chance to make fundamental change like this in people’s daily lives — that is why we did it.
The campaign to pass real health care reform in 2009 is the biggest test of our movement since the election. Once again, victory is far from certain. Our opposition will be fierce, and they have been down this road before. To prevail, we must once more build a coast-to-coast operation ready to knock on doors, deploy volunteers, get out the facts, and show the world how real change happens in America.
And just like before, I cannot do it without your support.
So I’m asking you to remember all that you gave over the last two years to get us here — all the time, resources, and faith you invested as a down payment to earn us our place at this crossroads in history. All that you’ve done has led up to this — and whether or not our country takes the next crucial step depends on what you do right now.
Will you donate whatever you can afford to support the campaign for real health care reform in 2009?
It doesn’t matter how much you can give, as long as you give what you can. Millions of families on the brink are counting on us to do just that. I know we can deliver.
Thank you, so much, for getting us this far. And thank you for standing up once again to take us the rest of the way.
Sincerely,
President Barack Obama
Jun 17 2009
Sounds of Confusion, or Progressives are Pissed Off!
It seems that five months into the Obama presidency, the natives are getting restless. It might be like being in prison for eight years, then after five months still not able to find a job or a home. Frustration. We served our time, now we want our lives back. Five months can be an eternity, or it can be a blip in the overall scheme of things.
I’m an avid blog reader with more time than most because I’m retired. I read many, over twenty, on a regular basis. All left or libertarian leaning (antiwar.com). I try to read the comments as much as possible just to get a handle on where people are coming from. Recently there has been much dissatisfaction on various issues confronting the Obama administration
The “issue driven” people seem to be equally pissed off, and many are voicing their frustration against Obama. Many are outwardly stating they have given up on the “Change” mantra and the promises Obama made. Those whose primary issue is gay rights are extremely pissed about the administrations stance on DOMA and DADT. Those who are antiwar are extremely pissed off about the continued aggression in Afghanistan and the overall hegemony of U.S. foreign policy. Those who want the public option for health insurance are extremely pissed about the watered down and seemingly inadequate options being proposed. And those who want the Bush administration investigated and prosecuted for war crimes are extremely pissed about the stonewalling and lack of any progress in seeking justice. I could go on but you should have the point.
Relative to the current discussions about the change, or lack thereof, the Obama adminstration is bringing, I haven’t gotten a handle on how the issue driven people react cross issue. Many are far left and solidly left and support progress in multiple issues. Many seem to be solidly leftist in their primary issue but centrist with all issues. Many are solidly centrist on all issues. I think that presents a problem.
What I don’t see criticized, at least not significantly, is the premise that the manner in how we are governed is inordinately influenced by corporate interests, Wall Street, the Military Industrial Complex, etc., and the lobbies and money that flows through the beltway. It appears this is an area where most people can agree. And that has nothing to do with Obama. This is a system put in place decades ago and has been developed into a veritible immovable juggernaut.
I don’t think most of us on the left are criticizing Obama personally about the seeming lack of change so far. Most of us are seeing this as the best chance at changing the system we’ve had since JFK and that Obama can’t because the system won’t allow it. Many are misdirecting their frustration at Obama. That is wrong in my opinion. We should be directing our frustration at the Congress and Senate, who are the front line of those who are bought. Attack the front line and stop the influence of special interests.
That said, we should be pissed. Not at Obama, actually I am thankful for Obama and all I want is good so I would never wish against him. But it should be clear now that special interests control our government. If Obama can’t do it, you have to know that. That’s the battle in my opinion
Jun 17 2009
Congress: Call? Write? March around the Capitol? Here’s MORE choices
IS THERE SOMETHING YOUR GOVERNMENT IS DOING THAT HAS YOU TOTALLY OUTRAGED?
Is it inertia about healthcare reform? Funding for endless needless war? Letting criminals go unprosecuted? Torture? Corporate welfare?
There’s nothing wrong with sending email, paper mail, and faxes to your Congress Critters. Nothing wrong with calling and calling again. IF YOU HAVEN’T DONE THESE THINGS, THEN DO THEM TODAY.
And after you’ve done these, are you getting the results you want? Or are you getting boilerplate reply letters that don’t even address your questions and concerns, or, “Thank you for calling Senator Heavybotham’s office, and have a nice day”?
Jun 17 2009
Begging for hope: The new power.
Jun 17 2009
Law Enforcement or Lawless Thuggery?
From the AP, we learn about two men who were arrested in a drug sting in New York City. The problem? The two men arrested committed no crime and the officers who falsified the report and prompted the arrest were, themselves, arrested.
A case of a few bad apples? Not anymore…
Jun 17 2009
The Night that I met Allen Ginsberg 20090616
Dr. Whitehead, Dean of the English Department in the Colleges of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas swung a pretty big stick in his heyday there. He was able to get important persons of letters to come and give free (well, at least to the public) readings of their material. Notable amongst them were Ken Kesey and Allen Ginsberg. Mrs. Translator and I went to both of those.
The fliers had been distributed around town for a week or two. They were pretty much generic, essentially saying “Famous poet to give reading at the U of A on such and such date at 8:00 PM”. Well, Mrs. Translator and I decided to go, as we try to be cultured individuals and I was very familiar with Allen from reading.
Jun 17 2009
A Teach-able Moment for The Left
The Dawning Age of Obama as a Potentially Teach-able Moment for The Left
by Paul Street, May 30, 2009
Five Key Lessons Beyond the Gnashing of Radical Teeth
LEGITIMATE LEFT ANGER
There has been a lot of left-wing teeth-gnashing over the policies of the United States’ fake-progressive president Barack Obama. Left-progressives’ anger with the Obama administration is understandable given the new White House’s actions to (for example):
* Significantly expand the reach and intensity of imperial violence (replete with the mass slaughter of civilians and the related escalation of targeted assassinations) in South Asia.
* Promote a notorious assassin and death-squad leader (Lt. General Stanley A McChrystal – former chief of the military’s special Joint Special Operations Command) to the position of Commander of U.S. Forces in the newly merged “Af-Pak” war theater. [1]
* Sustain the criminal occupation of Iraq beneath rhetoric of withdrawal. [2]
* Increase “defense” (empire) spending, consistent with the following statement in a report issued by the leading Wall Street investment firm Morgan Stanley one day after Obama’s presidential election victory: “As we understand it, Obama has been advised and agrees that there is no peace dividend.”[3]
* Revive military commissions.
* Continue the practice of renditions.
* Maintain secret prisons for persons “held on a short-term, transitory basis.”
* Continue the unspeakable torture of prisoners by an “extrajudicial terror squad” (Jeremy Scahill’s description of the Pentagon’s sadistic “Immediate Reaction Force” in Cuba) at Guantanamo Bay. [4]
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