Tag: revolution

Loose Change

Saw this in Thursday’s Boston Globe:

From Samuel Adams’s calls for revolution in the 1700s, to Frederick Douglass’s antislavery orations of the following century, to Senator John F. Kerry’s concession in the 2004 presidential race, Boston’s Faneuil Hall is one of America’s most storied public stages.

But Murphy’s most recent proposal, to substantially raise the fees for renting out Faneuil Hall’s meeting space, brought rebuke from some fellow councilors yesterday who see the brick building with its famous grasshopper watching over the city as all-but-hallowed space.

“I think it should be free,” Councilor John Tobin said. “It’s a public building. It’s the people’s building, really.”

Murphy insists he’s not looking to turn the cradle of liberty into a cash cow.

He said it costs the city much more to maintain the building than it collects in rental fees, currently capped at $150 per hour for a minimum of four hours. Murphy’s proposed ordinance, which yesterday was referred to committee, would increase the maximum charge for renting the iconic building’s Great Hall to $500 an hour.

RUThinking what IMThinking? One hundred fifty an hour? Let’s see, eight hours equals twelve hundred dollars. It was built to hold sheep. Maybe we could bring ponies.

Faneuil Hall

Faneuil Hall

Proposal for a National Strike on MayDay, 2008

The original posting is on DocuDharma, 4 Apr 2008.

This is a simple proposal to not go to work for one day. If we do it individually and on random days, it matters not at all. If we do it together on one day by the thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, it will matter. The more who join, the more it will matter. United we stand, divided we fail to get their sufficient attention.

The theme of the strike is best expressed by the immortal words of Paddy Chayefsky. As the character Howard Beale in his screenplay Network proclaimed loudly:

“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

The purpose of the strike is whatever goal each individual has in mind. Whatever it is that is making you mad as hell, be it the War in Iraq, the price of fuel, inflation, wage stagnation, the collapse of the housing market, the bailout of subprime lenders, credit reporting agencies, health insurance companies, Big Business, Big Oil, Big Government, unaffordable prescription prices, lack of access to decent health care, pollution, Global Warming, mountain-top strip mining, human rights, torture, the prison nation, the assault on the Constitution, government agencies that don’t do their job, or the corruption of our government at all levels – pick one or more, none at all, or make up your own and do not go to work or class on Thursday May 1, 2008.

Call in sick, take a vacation day, just don’t show up. Cut class. Most of all cut class. One day is all that’s being asked. Give one day to yourself. Use just one day out of your life to make whatever statement it is that you want the government and the corporate bosses to hear. Wear a T-shirt, carry a sign, gather in a public place, sleep in, go to the beach, take a hike, read a book, play with your children. Make your protest be your own issue, whatever frustrates you the most. Everyone in this country is mad at some aspect of what is being done to their lives by the impersonal manipulation and abuse of their well-being by forces beyond their control. Forces of deaf and blind institutions that have lost any sense of common humanity. Take one day back from them. Just one day. Together. All of us.

Massive, non-violent, peaceful protests get the attention of the MSM, the Government and the Corporate community. Make your voice heard by making your presence at work or school absent. One day. All of us, joined together. Just one simple little eight hour shift of one day of classes. One day to proclaim, for yourself:

“I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

(Please cross-post, link and forward this proposal as much as you can. This protest needs no organizers, no leaders, no one specific cause. If you can’t bring yourself to take just one day to make your voice heard then maybe you’ll find someone who will.)

NewsFlash!

Via Raw Story:

Iraq war protesters arrested at IRS headquarters


Police arrested more than a dozen people Wednesday morning who crossed a barricade and blocked entrances at the Internal Revenue Service building, the start of a day of protests marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

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Via Docudharma! We’re going to shut down the IRS! MARCH 19, 2008 by: OPOL

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A Revolution is Coming

This diary carries a message or two but is also a tribute.  It is not hero worship.  I am well aware of JFK’s flaws and weaknesses as a human being – you needn’t remind me.  But John F. Kennedy was also a gifted orator who inspired and uplifted us with the poetry in his soul and the power in his words – and certain of his words resonate now more than ever.

JFK-Poetry_MINE

Hey You Folks Who Don’t Read Blogs….Read This!

There is no doubt that blogs are the most egalitarian form of mass communication ever to come down the pike. The only thing even close to comparable was when printing presses became practical and cheap enough for one person to own and operate. And we know what happened then…

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The work of Tom Paine and his fellow pamphleteers can easily be said to have changed the world. By distributing revolutionary thoughts and ideas to a country full of rebellious souls starved for them. Starved for change…starved for a change from monarchy and despotism. Starved for a new kind of freedom.  

Friday Night at 8: Brittney!

If it isn’t sex, it’s women in trouble, honest!

I get frustrated at work sometimes … my fellow secretaries, although quite intelligent and good women, are not interested in politics and when they do take time from their busy lives, they are more interested in reading about sex, relationships, Brittney Spears, Paris Hilton, and for a while there Whitney Houston was a big topic.  Oh … and now we also have Amy Winehouse.

What’s so compelling about these conversations?  What is so fascinating about reading and then talking about celebrity women in trouble?

This isn’t a new phenomenon, of course.  But our lamestream media (h/t lasthorseman) has market tested these kinds of stories to a fine edge … and thus we will see a Brittney Spears story take precedence over the fact that America commits torture.

Read a book once by Norman Spinrad called Little Heroes about, among other things. the music industry.

In Spinrad’s not too distant future, a Los Angeles based monolithic music corporation called MUZAK has pretty much taken control of commercial music.

Muzak’s employee pool is made up of creative music-and-visual tech wizards coopted into the corporation so they won’t be competition –“voxbox” players who can reproduce any kind of sound or voice, image engineers, etc.

They also have hired masses of market testers.

The corporate heads (or “the pinheads upstairs” as Spinrad’s character, Gloriana O’Toole, calls ’em) decided with glee that they should create a completely artificial rock star and thus rid themselves of their pain in the ass human ones who cost so much money and are so ill behaved and arrogant.

It’s a great book, and I recommend it to anyone.

Clinton Obama and McCain ALL Show Up in Seattle in One 24 Hour Period

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Clinton at the Pier, Seattle 8:30 PM Feb. 7, 2008 – 5000 people
Obama at Key Arena, Seattle 11:00 AM Feb. 8, 2008 – 17,000+ inside (capacity), 3,000 -10000 (outside)
McCain at Westin Hotel, 5 PM Feb. 8, 2008 – unknown

Trying to make their last impressions before our caucus 1:00 PM Feb. 9, 2008

My son went to Obama – said it was all lit up electronically like at a Sonics game with the camera panning around at people dancing to music, doing the wave, etc. & they showed it on four-sided big screen that hangs from the ceiling. He said there were an amazing number of young people but all ages too, lots of minorities, and so many who took off work for it. He had friends who took the day off and couldn’t even get in.

Obama said he is looking forward to a debate with the presumptive Republican presidential candidate John McCain. “I think it will be fun.”

The emails are starting to come in:

I recall going to the Cow Palace in San Francisco to see JFK during the campaign and they shut the doors after 20,000 jammed the old barn. That’s when I knew something special was happening.

and

Suzy and I drove over to Key Arena to hear Obama!! Went past the Pacific Science Center and saw A LINE OF FOLKS ALL THE WAY FROM THE KEY ARENA past the PACIFIC SCIENCE CENTER and down to the STREET! Finally got parked, walked 5 blocks upto the THE KEY. The MOB was 15,000 capacity inside [no we didn’t get inside!] and another 10,000 folks outside. Lots of announcements about keeping FIRE EXITS clear!!! Amazing !!

PS -Hillary got 5,000 at Pier 30 last night! GO OBAMA!!!

Music REVOLUTION!!!

cross posted at Dailykos.com

Just thinking about the amount of change that our country needs to return to an actual Democracy is extremely taxing mentally, spiritually and emotionally.

As I have read these diaries I have almost decided to stop even bothering with politics or believing in social change.  It seems that we are stuck in a society that feeds upon human blood, takes advantage of the poor, and begins war out of a desire for quick profit for the rich, while keeping it out of the eyes of a media dazed public…AND NOBODY CARES. 

DailyKos must make this information from this website available to the world.  Some have taken to the streets in D.C.  Others make documentaries, post things on our car windows, houses and etc. 

These things will attract more attention, however, we need a complete revolution of conciousness if change is to occur.

In the hope that seeds of vast change will blossom before we are screwed 30 years from now with even more war, death, poverty, overpopulation; I suggest the soothing, meditative qualities of music to bring us back to the present challenge.

So music lovers of DKOS:  What songs are most enlightening to you right now as you seek change?

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