First, i have to tell you that i blame all this on the God thing…

This whole GOD-like illusion emulated by the CHURCH, the CORPORATION, the GOVERNMENT, the MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (maybe all the same?): and we feel powerless because we can’t distill these things down to just a boardroom full of people in expensive suits or a group of people, just people, in a Senate Chamber. The buildings, the machinery of it all, the infrastructure deceives us into thinking these things are unknowable or impenetrable or unbeatable. That these things, like God, control our destiny and our country. But it t’ain’t true.

It’s a little like losing your dog… despite those who babble about reality and statistics (that you’ll never find your pooch), what do you do??? Print flyers. Get in the car and drive everywhere. Call the cops, the SPCA, the local dog catcher three or four or five times a day.  Even though you’re overwhelmed and aren’t sure where to start, these things do NOT stop you.

No. You do NOT accept that you’ll never see your dog again. You don’t write it off as fate or give in to God’s will or the reality of statistics. And how does any of this relate to POLITICS? I’m getting there:::::::

Take George Bush: he and all his minions act as though they have armor made by God himself and they can not be penetrated or undone. Thus the man, George Bush, became BushCo. An invisible force overwhelming our country (and kidnapping your dog).  After the 2000 coup and then again, after 9/11, we could barely find anybody to talk to. M ost, it seemed, wrapped themselves in the flag, inoculated from outside forces and realities to remain safely overfed, overdressed, and over-leveraged. They didn’t want to hear it.

Let me tell you a secret: It’s not the politicians, theocrats, or corporatists we need to change, although that would help. It’s us. We’re the big moving mass of power HERE and every day, even when we can’t see it or feel it or perceive it, we are getting stronger and they are getting weaker. Because every day, more and more of us give less and less power to politicians, religion mongers, corporatists, and naysayers. Lots of WE-the-people decided NOT to accept BushCo’s reality. We insist on putting names and faces to BushCo, revealing only people, real humans and vulnerable, as are we all.

And in smallest of ways… how many of you don’t buy SUVs? Or limited mindless buying of crap? And walk or bike instead of taking the car? How many blog, campaign, write letters, try to persuade family and friends to open their eyes? How many simply care? Just one small voice… that’s all i am… and yet i’d go toe-to-toe with Bush, Rove, or Cheney right this minute. I’d love to sit across the table from Chris Matthews and rub his face (figuratively of course) in it. It didn’t take an army to bring us to this crisis, it only took a few guys from the Middle East to take over planes and make them crash into a coupla buildings. That’s all it was, a few guys, and LOOK: it CHANGED the world… giving the bad guys the in they needed to justify taking over our world…

We too can change the world. By doing GOOD and embracing the COMMON GOOD.

Thousands and thousands and hundreds of thousands of us and millions of us. It’s going to take time. Because while we think the politicans should change at the snap of a voting lever, they don’t. And neither do we. This is a process WE ARE ALL GOING through.

We’ve had some bad days… okay, i’ll give you that. A boatload of bad days. But voting in the Dems was the easy part. The hard part is FINDING YOUR DOG… don’t give up. Keep the pressure on. Take your school board seats back from the theocrats. Get involved with Democratic politics at the local level and start a little rabble rousing::: find the core groups/decision-makers across the state and demand they look at net- and grassroots candidates for Congress. Mobilize whoever you can and hit county fairs. Go knock on doors. We can use the internet to connect these national races and each other. Maybe we can’t stop the climate change that has already happened. But we can change the way we deal with it. Take our government back and encourage a revolution of innovation, research, development, and ways of creating equitable and sustainable economies and ecosystems/environments.

It’s gonna take some time and more bad things will happen, but WE WILL GET THERE. It’s just believing that we’re gonna find our dog…

^{even if it’s when we cross that rainbow bridge}

Reposted with permission from Booman Tribune

I’ve just Read Clammyc’s diary,  This is Not Torture. First, let me say I was disgusted by what I read there. Even though I have read many similar stories before about the torture that was condoned and authorized in our names, to protect our freedoms, such descriptions never fail to make me physically ill. Beyond the sheer immorality of these acts, and their illegality under American and international law, we know that there was simply no justifiable reason for these “activities” — no ticking time bomb, no great or imminent terrorist threats that were exposed. It’s mostly been practiced on people with little or no connection to Al Qaeda.

So, what do we do? The media won’t cover this issue. Congress won’t hold impeachment hearings. McCain will likely continue the same pattern of deceit regarding the abuses at Gitmo, and at American bases in Iraq, Afghanistan and other “detention facilities” if he is elected President. He certainly won’t make it a priority to investigate the crimes of the Bush administration since he believes we are legitimately fighting the terrorists in Iraq, and he would like to fight the terrorists in Iran, too, for that matter. As for our Democratic candidates it likely won’t be a priority for them, either, unless we can raise public consciousness of the issue.

But how do we do that, Steven D (you rightly ask)? Everyone in the progressive/liberal blogosphere is already talking up a storm about these abuses (for all the good that will do). And I believe that no matter how well written, or how full of righteous anger and purpose we decry the Bush administration’s use of torture, we are unlikely to influence the public discussion about this issue unless the discussion moves onto our tee-vee screens.

And since we know the big media won’t broadcast any stories regarding torture by Americans, for fear of “bad ratings” or fear of offending the Bush administration or because they are owned by conservative nutjobs who get the kicks out of imagining brown people who talk funny being kicked and beaten and drowned, how is that ever likely to happen?

Well, the only way we ever get anything on tee-vee these days — we pay for it. In short we need to create a 527 or 501(c) organization which will produce and run tee-vee ads showing the people who were tortured, or their torturers, describing in graphic detail what was done, showing pictures of that torture (we can start with Abu Ghraib photos), and using celebrity voiceovers (I think this would be a good use of George Clooney’s talents, but I’m sure there are others who are equally qualified) to provide the narrative structure for these ads. Some appropriately somber music in the background would be nice also. I like Berber’s Adagio for Strings myself.

So, Moveon.org,, Mr. George Soros and/or other wealthy liberal bigwigs, put your money where your outrage is located, please. Because once one of these organizations is created I guarantee the same people who are donating online to the Obama and Clinton campaigns, as well as many other decent Americans who abhor the very thought of torture being carried out in our name, will add our donations to whatever you contribute as seed money. I suggest that to get the ball rolling we all email Moveon.org (especially those of us who our members) and recommend they get the ball rolling? Here’s the link to their contact page.

And if anyone knows how to reach George Clooney or your favorite celebrity, feel free to post that information as well.

Ps. I no longer have access to Daily Kos so if anyone who still does would like to reprint this diary in it’s entirety over there (or anywhere else on the net) feel free.  

As the story of a America President torturing in your name quickly fades from the ludicrously small prominence it managed to achieve, Bittergate rages on. The candidate frenzy as well. A sad testimonial on both the traditional media AND the Blogosphere. Very sad. Though it’s been said many time, many ways….our media is a collection of clueless hacks. To them it is ‘just a job’ and not a ‘sacred’ responsibility to be taken seriously.

What can we do about it? StevenD has one suggestion over at Booman Tribune. There are two other things I can think of. One, keep writing essays/diaries, to keep it visible in the blogosphere, (which I will be doing) the second is, as the title implies, Alert The Media.

There are only two responsive entities in the media right now, Olbermann  ([email protected])

and Jack Cafferty at CNN

Please e-mail them, and if you don’t know what to say, sending them the ACLU/C&L petition (included below the fold) is not a bad way to go. Oh ad pleae go sign and send it too!

Demand an independent prosecutor to investigate possible violations by the Bush administration of laws including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act, and federal assault laws.

In a stunning admission to ABC news Friday night, President Bush declared that he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details of the CIA’s use of torture. Bush reportedly told ABC, “I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.” Bush also defended the use of waterboarding – simulated drowning.

Recent reports indicate that high-level advisers including Dick Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell and George Tenet were part of the National Security Council’s “Principals Committee” that met regularly and approved the CIA’s use of “combined” “enhanced” interrogation techniques, even pushing the limits of the now infamous 2002 Justice Department “torture memo.” These top advisers reportedly signed off on how the CIA would interrogate suspects – whether they would be slapped, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning.

Join the ACLU and our friends at Crooks & Liars: Call on your members of Congress to demand an independent prosecutor to investigate possible violations by the Bush administration of laws including the War Crimes Act, the federal Anti-Torture Act and federal assault laws.

Okay, first off, shame on Hillary Clinton for wrapping herself so late in the game in the latest fashion of hard-working Americans. Shame on her for pretending she had to give a damn about the working class when she was shuffling off jobs overseas and cheerleading a bankruptcy bill for the socialized rich. And a special extra deep hearted jeer to her saying she now loves guns and God like she was George Allen.

I have long watched the Clintons lie with impunity, figuring you know, that’s just what politicians do. They lie. A lot. But when another politician, say Obama this time or Perot in the 90s, finally comes up and talks to America like adults and say some inconvient truths, that’s when the liars get to lying hardcore.

Now Hillary is all about steel barrels and gunpowder, when in the 90s she lead the Million Mom March against guns.

Now Hillary is all home spun craving to appear in potato sack dresses, when she is the very product and poster child of the Baby Boomer Entitled generation and has the upper crust of lobbyists and donors carrying her train of silk and tears around.

And now Hillary is demanding to be the moral compass of the country, when she regrets every major decision she has made in the Senate, be it war or economics. When Obama said that the countryside was bitter and grasped for guns and god, he was right. Because people like Hillary, and more so Bush, has failed them, and they grab for the last few things they can believe in. The power of the gun and the glory of God.

The reason there was a mass secularization in Europe over the last 30 years is because their government was competent and put the good of the people over the good of the upper class. The people in Europe realized they did not have to look to some mythical person in the clouds for security, they could provide it themselves, either economically, politically or health-wise.

It is politicians like Hillary Rodham Clinton who have stolen this from everyday Americans. If she wants to claim the 90s as her experience, then she must also claim the massive selling out of America to foreign interest of the 90s as well. If she wants to claim her time in the White House on her resume, then she must accept responsibility for the subprime crisis created under her husband. She can’t selective claim experience, she must accept accountability for Waco, the Iraq War, the Bankruptcy Bill and countless other acts during her time of “experience” which have made the countryside bitter.

That is why Hillary is screaming like a banshee about this comment by Obama, because she and her fellow upper class cronies have created the bitter environment most of the country must deal with. Hillary knows if people start connecting the economic and political dots, it will all lead back to her in one way or another. So she must yell “Elitist!”, other wise people might notice she is what she says, and that she is attacking with her greatest weakness, her sense of entitlement.

Obama told the truth, and Hillary decided to lie about it once again. But I have to give her credit, the way she has been running this campaign, I am surprised she didn’t say Obama was “uppity.”

Because that’s the racial code word Hillary is using here, “elitist” for “uppity”, and Clinton really wishes Obama would know his place, in the back of her campaign bus, or at least under it.

Tuesday is Tax Day, which prompts people to ask: What is the government doing with my money?

Well, there’s a trillion or two or three for the Iraq war.

Not to worry, says President Bush.  The war is consuming only a “modest fraction” of the country’s wealth.

The National Priorities Project says that in 2007 the federal government spent 42.2 percent of every income tax dollar on military spending.

There’s an old cliche that figures don’t lie but liars figure.  Who you gonna believe — the guy who lied us into the war?  

Here’s how Bush does his math:

Mr. Bush said in his speech on Thursday that the Defense Department budget today represented slightly more than 4 percent of gross domestic product, compared with more than 6 percent in some years of the Reagan administration and as much as 13 percent in 1952-3, when the United States was engaged in the war in Korea.

As someone I know says, “Everything in life is ‘compared to what?'”  The New York Times explains that’s just a tad misleading:

But the war in Iraq is largely being paid for off the books, with emergency and supplemental spending rather than from the Pentagon’s operating budget, so Mr. Bush’s figures are a low estimate of the relative cost of the war, analysts have observed. And growing entitlement costs today make such comparisons with previous eras questionable.

The National Priorities Project measures it another way — using real numbers to show the impact on an American family.

It says the median income family in the US paid $2,628 in federal income taxes last year. Of that, the military got $1,109, or 42.2 per cent.  

Bush’s proposed spending for the next fiscal year includes another $139-billion for the Iraq war, and $111.6-billion in tax cuts for the richest people in the US.  

Meanwhile, weatherization help for low-income families to insulate their homes would be totally eliminated.  And public transportation would be cut to 14 per cent below when the war began five years ago.

That’s why they call it the National Priorities Project.  It’s about making choices. The Bush administration — and the Democratic Congress — have been making some bad ones.

The National Priorities Project also has info on what those federal spending priorities mean to your state or city, available here.

Tax Day protests are planned in many cities on Tuesday.  Three days later, Friday, April 18, Iraq Moratorium #8 will be observed across the country. Do something.  

( – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

Amid the Chinese government stepping up claims that the Dalai Lama wants to foment a violent uprising in Tibet – including allegations today that they discovered an arms cache in a Tibetan monestary (link: http://www.reuters.com/article… ), the Dalai Lama gave a forceful reply last Friday.

He didn’t call them the Evil Empire. He didn’t say they were members of the Axis of Evil.

He said, “we are not anti-Chinese”.

The full interview can be found at MSNBC’s website here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21…

DALAI LAMA:

In fact uh soon after crises happen.  I express now, of course the expression of uh  defeating is the freedom of expression or speech.  However, we must carry these strictly non-violence.  If people indulge violence, and violence become out of control, then my option is, my choice is, I resign.

ANN CURRY:

You resign as Dalai Lama?

DALAI LAMA:

uh, Dalai Lama I don’t know. (LAUGHTER)

ANN CURRY:

Resign as what?

DALAI LAMA:

Resign from responsibility of our struggle. As early as– ’87, ’88 I remember, is– one of my close friend, Jonathan Mirsky.  I think, London Observer, sort of correspondent.  He, at that time, ask, “If things become more violent, then what do you do?”  And I immediately responded, “If the violence become out of control uh there is no other choice except, resign.”  I told.  So, this once more I repeated this. And it makes uh  seems to some effect, some Tibetan.  Uh then (pause) then also uh I appeal Chinese community all over the world, and particularly in mainland China.  We are not anti-Chinese.  We always respect and admire this Chinese civilization and Chinese people.  And, as a Tibetan, almost 2,000 years we live side by side. Occasionally, some unfortunate event also there.  But most cases we live happily.  So, therefore, and also, as a Buddhist monk, I always consider our Chinese Buddhist brothers, sisters as a elder student of uh Buddha.  We are younger. Whenever I give some teaching to our Chinese brother, sisters, I always firstly, sharing my respect.  I’m junior, or younger student.  Or, occasionally, I also make joke.  Maybe as I knowledge is concerned, junior student may be little better. (LAUGHTER) So.  So, emotionally, also you see, they very close.  I always admire.  And then, in– as a matter of fact, some people from China– most populated nation.

ANN CURRY:

Yes.

DALAI LAMA:

So, we must respect.  We must accept that reality.  Some kind of negative feeling towards them is useless, unjust. And then, also, they, what say they, what what call they uh Olympic Game. Right from the beginning, I support that ancient nation, most public nation, now, really deserve to host for this uh world famous Olympic game.  And then after now this well, what do you want to call uh Olympic to, tore– torch.

link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24…

Admiration for the people of China. Respect for their ancient culture. This isn’t the sabre-rattling the world is accustomed to.

But if China isn’t the enemy, who – or what – is?

In order to understand that, a small background on the nonviolent mindset is in order. Most practitioners of nonviolence see problems, and indeed all facets of human existance, as inter-connected. To quote Martin Luther King, Jr.

“In a real sense, all life is interrelated. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

link: http://www.worldbeyondborders….

That mindset produces two outcomes. The first is the recognition that injustice is systemic, it does not occur in a vacuum. King saw most injustice as a combination of what he termed the Triple Evils of racism, poverty and war (or violence). Therefore, when a practioner of nonviolence sees the riots in Lhasa and subsequent crack-down, and the arrest of Hu Jia for the crime of posting essays on his blog, and when you read reports of people – including ethnic Chinese – being forceably evicted from their homes to make way for Olympic construction, and see the suppression of religion and abuses against members of Falun Gong, you look at this situation and see the common thread of systemic injustice binding these events.

Then you dig deeper and notice the lack of an independent press that can challenge the government without fear of reprisal, the censorship of information available on the internet to common citizens, and the harrassment of journalists as chronicled here by Human Rights Watch, you see one of the underlying causes of these abuses:

Chinese journalists continue to risk severe repercussions for pursuing stories that touch on officially taboo subjects or threaten powerful private interests. Miao Wei, former executive editor of Sanlian Life Weekly, confirmed in April that he had been demoted in connection with a cover story on the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Lan Chengzhang, a reporter with China Trade News, was murdered in January while investigating an illegal coalmine in Datong, Shanxi province. In mid-August five journalists, including a reporter from the party mouthpiece People’s Daily, were interviewing witnesses to the Fenghuang bridge collapse in Hunan province when plainclothes thugs interrupted the interviews and kicked and punched the journalists, who were then detained by police.  

link: http://hrw.org/englishwr2k8/do…

The Dalai Lama touched on this underlying cause later in his interview:

Now, there’s Hu Jintao uh very much emphasis– the importance of uh build harmonious society.  That is, I think, very sort of I think, very– I think, very right, according to new reality.  Now, economy, prosperity, these things are– and going well. Now, important is this get rich and poor, reduce.  And then also, the different ethnic, including Tibetan, including national, I don’t know, whatever you call, the unity, harmony is very essential.  Now, for that, they equality.  I think, the harmony, very much based on trust. Without trust, we fear.  Harmony is impossible.  A trust must develop.  For trust, more freedom, more equality.  Let them speak.  Or, Chairman Mao, see, often used to say the Communist Party, without self-criticism, and criticism from other cannot survive. Like fish without water.  Once, says Chairman Mao, only he himself not very sincerely practice these things.  But I think, these are really wonderful.

Like any good twelve-step program, weaning ourselves away from those systems that propagate injustice means acknowledging the problems exist, and that cannot be done in an environment where public discussion of these problems is taboo, forcing them into the whispered world of rumor and gossip. A society can only solve its problems when clear facts about these problems are available, otherwise it will continue flailing in the dark, unable to find any way forward.

Now, Americans, fellow Westerners, let’s not pat ourselves on the back. With all of our openness human rights abuses still occur in our democratic society, most notably in Iraq and Gitmo. We also – through our business practices – bolster these same human rights abuses occuring in China right now. We have not been the leaders in demanding workers protections and environmental protections in our trade agreements, and even when demanded we have been lax in enforcing these parts of our trade agreements. As this report from Human Rights Watch clearly states:

Finally, the examples presented here indicate that many companies have not yet ascribed to business standards addressing human rights or disregard codes of conduct or company commitments to social responsibility, where they exist. Taken together with the rest of the analysis in this report, the clear conclusion is that existing efforts to address the impacts of business activities on human rights are insufficient.

link: http://hrw.org/reports/2008/bh…

Our country’s stubborn refusal to allow any regulation of business by a supranational body just aids and abets the human rights abuses arising from poor business practices. And let’s be clear, as Americans we benefit from all of this by cheaper consumer goods.

And all of that American money flowing back into the Chinese government underwrites the genocide in Darfur.

It is time for us to put our money where our mouths are.

But I digress.

All of this illustrates the second outcome of a nonviolent mindset. Again, quoting Dr. King:

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

We must speak out against injustice as it occurs. We must seize the time when events allow us to demand that the injustice end, so a true peace – a true harmony – can be achieved.

The situation in Tibet is a symptom of a larger problem. And it isn’t just a problem of the Chinese government, it is also a problem of American foreign and economic policy.

Many of us who are speaking out against the injustices in Tibet don’t just want a Free Tibet. We want a Free US. A Free Europe. A Free World. This isn’t about separating Tibet from China, this is about a true peace, a true harmony, existing both inside Tibet and China, and having that harmony reverberate across the countries of the world.

Please keep all sides of this conflict in your thoughts, prayers and meditations.

UPDATE  The International Federation of Jounalists is traveling to China to try to intervene on behalf of members of the press having the freedom to report on the events happening in Tibet and China:

“In the last few weeks, the political heat has been turned up over Tibet and the Olympics and journalists have found themselves in the crossfire,” said Aidan White, general secretary and leader of the 10-member mission.

“Our aim will be to take journalists out of the firing line and help them to do their job without interference.”

The group said in a statement that some foreign journalists “have found themselves threatened in the wake of Chinese anger over foreign media coverage of disturbances in Tibet and the Olympic torch rally.”

“Our aim will be to get China to deliver on its promises of ending repression of journalists in the country and to open itself to independent media coverage around the Games.”

The IFJ said its mission will discuss with the Beijing Olympic Committee how to ensure journalists can be protected and exercise the right to report without interference during the Games.

link: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap…

An April Day

When the warm sun, that brings

Seed-time and harvest, has returned again,

‘T is sweet to visit the still wood, where springs

The first flower of the plain.

I love the season well,

When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,

Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell

The coming-on of storms.

From the earth’s loosened mould

The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;

Though stricken to the heart with winter’s cold,

The drooping tree revives.

The softly-warbled song

Comes from the pleasant woods, and colored wings

Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along

The forest openings.

When the bright sunset fills

The silver woods with light, the green slope throws

Its shadows in the hollows of the hills,

And wide the upland glows.

And when the eve is born,

In the blue lake the sky, o’er-reaching far,

Is hollowed out and the moon dips her horn,

And twinkles many a star.

Inverted in the tide

Stand the gray rocks, and trembling shadows throw,

And the fair trees look over, side by side,

And see themselves below.

Sweet April! many a thought

Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed;

Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought,

Life’s golden fruit is shed.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow