Author's posts
Sep 19 2008
Let’s Help Don Siegelman!
For the past two days, Don Siegelman been working in DC and meeting with Members of Congress, trying to build support to get the Karl Rove contempt citation up for a vote and trying to count votes for final passage.
Sep 07 2008
It’s About McCain!
With both thanks and apologies to Glen Greenwald and Brave New Films, a video mashup I hope you will enjoy.
And remember boys and girls, it’s not about Palin…
Sep 02 2008
This is my story – I hope that it finds you
Note #1: This is a highly personal diary but it touches on some important issues like education, prison reform, the drug war, the death penalty, war and peace, and man’s inhumanity to man. To the extent that it is self-indulgent, I beg your forgiveness.
Note #2: I’ve been reluctant to post this for both personal and political reasons. The personal will become obvious as you read, the political being all that’s going on right now such as the police state bullshit in MN, the repub convention and their ‘oh we’re so serious about governance’ choice of Palin for VeePee. But it occurs to me that there’s always going to be a lot going on, so I probably should just post it now that it’s not quite ready.
Part I – Words Are Like Poison
I believe that we all have a story to tell…here’s mine.
I wrote about growing up as an Army brat in An American Tale.
Life as a military dependent was a fascinating way to grow up and contributed much to the formation of my personal point of view. I would take nothing for the value I have derived from my interactions with other cultures. It taught me that deep connections are often made between profoundly different people, suggesting what has become a theme in my life – that we are all more alike than we are different.
Aug 14 2008
Straight Out of Georgia
No, the other one.
For tonight’s entertainment I present two acts from the state of Georgia, the poet Randall Allen Shields and the band R.E.M.
It’s Hard at the Bottom
There is too much that we ignore,
Important things,
Like children,
And the young,
And the old,
And the sick,
And the poor,
And our prisoners,
And each other.We don’t do enough to protect our children.
We don’t do enough to help each other.
We don’t do enough to save our planet.
We don’t do enough to save ourselves.We care way too much about all the wrong things.
We despise the peasants, and worship the kings.
We spit on the angels, and lionize demons,
As the righteous among us are dragged away screamin’.It’s all upside down,
But smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em,
’cause Lord have mercy!
It’s hard at the bottom.Randall Allen Shields
Aug 11 2008
Wise Up and Rise Up – or Kiss It All Goodbye
I find myself, on some level, torn between my highly strained faith in American democracy and a perception that it no longer exists. I applaud and encourage political activism and cherish the activists that I know, but for all their heroism, commitment and hard work, I see us sliding steadily backwards. This has been my observation for the past 40 years. We progressives have faced unremitting defeat at the hands of the ultra-conservative ‘system’, which clearly serves our super-wealthy overlords – not us.
Aug 05 2008
DE-AL: Standing Up for America (with possum)
Like many of you, I came to blogging as a way of fighting back. Before I found this avenue through which I could channel my dissent, I felt powerless to do anything about the outrages being visited upon our nation and virtually all the rest of the world by our own intractable and illegitimate government.
People often question what good it does to rant into the ether. We hear it all the time right here. ‘Preaching to the choir dude.’ But time has proven that we in the blogosphere are a force to be reckoned with. The pols and the pundits would be ignoring us otherwise…just like they used to.
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Mahatma Gandhi
Jul 29 2008
Watch for the Steal
On the day before leaving for Netroots Nation, I voted for Jim Martin for U.S. Senate in the July 15 General Primary Election here in Georgia.
At the polling place I was the only voter but there were a dozen or so poll workers. After voting (on one of those damned Diebold machines) I asked if I’d get a receipt. In lieu of one I was given a cute little sticker with a graphic of a Georgia Peach with ‘I’m a Georgia Voter’ printed on it. I laughed and said that makes me feel better…there were some chuckles.
I said I wanted a receipt for my vote. This is what they gave me.
Jul 27 2008
NN08 – Part III – Good Germans
If you haven’t seen them you might want to check out Parts I and II. NN08 – Part I – Old Friends/New Friends has lots of pictures of kossacks and Netroots Nation, but I particularly recommend NN08 – Part II – Where’s our goddam impeachment Nancy?
Jul 25 2008
NN08 – Part II – Where’s our goddam impeachment Nancy?
Note to my good friends at Docudharma: This diary and the criticism it contains is not aimed at you but at the GOS. I post it here for your amusement and out of respect for my brother buhdydharma and for all of you here at DD. Peace.
The fact that we welcomed Nancy Pelosi to Netroots Nation, purportedly a gathering of leftists and progressives, has to make you wonder. For the most part we sat there with our thumbs up our asses, drooling like idiots and lapping up the ‘respect’ we were shown by the mere presence of this illustrious traitor to everything I thought we stood for.
Jul 24 2008
NN08 – Part I – Old Friends/New Friends
NN08 was everything I hoped it would be and considerably more. I saw many old friends from last year, met face-to-face many old friends whom I had not met before and made many new ones as well. There is something totally amazing about meeting an online friend in meat space for the first time. In the Paradise restaurant on 6th Street in Austin on the first night of the conference I witnessed it happen five times back-to-back one right after another. It was pure magic.
Jul 15 2008
Mitakuye Oyasin – All My Relations
Contemplating the upcoming trip to Austin has me thinking about the Native Americans and how I have always drawn such inspiration from them. They make frequent appearances in my art both for their beauty and for their symbolic power. They mean many things to me but to boil it down I would say they represent the natural human, living in harmony with the environment, and, more regrettably, man’s inhumanity to man.
