Here We Go Down the Rabbit Hole

A Washington Times article published back in November, “Bush "Reclusive, Feels Betrayed", suggesting that Bush is acting strange, is alarming. In some ways it reminds me of Nixon’s teetering on the edge of psychological collapse during Watergate. Even prominent political pundits are vocally concerned and TV commentators who were previously Bush lackeys and cheerleaders are jumping on the bandwagon to declare Dubya as someone dangerously out of touch with reality.

The Times article referred to administration sources that say, ”Mr. Bush maintains daily contact with only four people: first lady Laura Bush, his mother, Barbara Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes. The sources also say that Mr. Bush has stopped talking with his father, except on family occasions.”

Just to have these stories out there points to at least some core members of Bush's administration being alarmed at his behavior. And to hear that he is seeking approval and advice from only his equally screwed-up mother and three other menopausal women is even scarier (Please don’t jump me as being anti-feminist – it’s just reality.)

This is exactly what I always thought and imagined could happen - that the US Supreme Court "installed" a Mad Hatter - the Western brand of a Kim Jong-Il. Someone drunk on power (and perhaps various substances) who talks nonsense and who is totally delusional.

We already know Barbara Bush is screwed up and out of touch. You know who I mean, the one who suggested that New Orleans Katrina victims, who lost everything including family members, are better off because they have been given new opportunities in Texas and elsewhere. Now we have to consider that this arrogant, racist bitch, Mother Bush, may be behind the curtain running this country. Shudder!

Either way, we have some people in high places that are concerned - and rightfully so. This man George W Bush is incompetent, weak-minded and desperate and he has control of an amazing amount of power as president.

There is only one way Bush can reverse his approval numbers that will continue to sink because of Iraq and the Middle East fiasco. Since his born-again relationship with God and his praying doesn't seem to be helping he’ll have to do something brash. Small short-term successes regarding economic issues or fighting AIDS in Africa won't do it - it has to be dramatic. Sitting down with Iran or throwing tons of our money at Kim Jong-Il and becoming his good buddy won't get it either.

Bush needs something like an another attack on the US so he can get out his bull horn and shout machismo threats like "they can't run, they can't hide - we'll hunt 'em down and bring ‘em to justice". He's really been good at that hasn't he? It’s his child-like impression of a western movie star. “We’ll get you Black Bart! You can’t hide from Tex Bush”, swagger, swagger, smirk.

George would welcome any diversion like a fabricated excuse to bomb Iran or an attempt by terrorists to assassinate him in which case he and his power addicted administration would expect an outpouring of patriotism and sympathy for poor little beleaguered Dubya. However they might be surprised. Americans have seen behind the curtain and they are sickened and frightened by what they have seen.

Whatever Bush does you can bet more Americans and people around the world will suffer and more will die as a result. Either way, there can be no real recovery from the Bush Era for decades to come. Bush is screwed and so are we.

It has recently been revealed that the newly appointed Secretary of Defense, Gates, is not in agreement with Bush, Cheney or Rice on what to do about Iraq and he seems somewhat helpless to control Bush on defense matters. I’ve seen Gates looking sideways at Bush with a real look of concern and fear. Republican leaders are also starting to get nervous. They recognize a somewhat psychotic idiot teetering on the edge of becoming a full blown Mad Hatter.

Hats off to Ralph Nader for helping bring us this nightmare. Please set your alarm clock for all of 2007 and again for 2008.

Here we go down the Rabbit hole.

Gary

Are Things Finally Turning Around?

Not only are Americans waking up to the insanity of the Bush presidency, they are waking up to the devastation of our environment from pollution resulting in the ill effects of global warming - thanks to Al Gore on both counts.


And below is a news report regarding rap “music” (NOT!) I’ve been waiting for – a crack in the dam so to speak. I thought it would never happen. Thank God!

Notice how the six year rap period corresponds with the Bush presidency. Coincidence??? Insanity cycle???

Perhaps this snub of rap is an indicator the American psyche is in full recovery mode (but probably not). “Crazy Americans” is not just a favorite epithet the rest of the world uses to describe us. There is a basis for proof.

Historically each decade acquires a descriptive tag as it ends, i.e. the roaring twenties, the fabulous fifties, the sexy sixties, the rocking eighties, etc. Will this decade be known as the criminally insane oughts? How about the psychopathic oughts? Any other suggestions?

It has been said the terrorist attack of 9/11 has revealed America at its best. I think the opposite.

The savvy among you will understand when I say Ralph Nader certainly deserves a lot of credit for this mess.

Rap on rap: not as hip or as hot
By Geoff Boucher and Chris Lee

Nominations were announced Thursday for the 49th annual Grammy Awards and, for the first time in six years, no rap stars made it into any of the marquee categories. The snub caps a fairly miserable year for the rap scene.
Rapon rap: not as hip or as hot

Terrorism, Suicide Bombers and Technology

Terrorism is not new. It's been practiced since the beginning of time. Planned actions against an enemy that anticipate and in fact require the death of the person or persons making the attack including the current suicide bombings are not new. Suicide bombings are typically common when one side in a violent conflict lacks the means for effective, conventional attacks, but are not limited to that condition. Our own troops have committed suicide attacks in warfare, and so have the Japanese and other nation's defenders.

During the Second World War Japanese kamikaze pilots and those who manned human guided torpedoes sank many ships during the Second World War resulting in a large loss of American life and warships. While Muslim suicide attacks are more numerous, frequent and media grabbing they are not necessarily more deadly.

Muslim terrorist organizations are also not new but they have increased in size and activity in the last century and are now being directed outside the Middle East. The mid-eastern nations have always been at war with one another, tribe against tribe and one religious sect against another, one of the most lasting and deadly being the Shiia Muslims against the Sunni.

The Sunnis and Shiias are fractionalized into disparate groups who violently disagree with one another. The Shiia for centuries have fought against the Sunni because the Shiia believe all Muslim leaders must be blood descendants of Muhammad or they are not legitimate. This disagreement resulted in the massacre of Muhammad’s grandson Hussein and family, direct descendents of Muhammad the prophet, which occurred in 680 CE. That blood fight has never been resolved. It was the Sunni faction that murdered the grandson of Muhammad and set off this war that has no end. There are a host of other internal Muslim disputes that divide these factions.

The Muslim religion as taught by the prophet Mohammed was very tolerant of other faiths, included women on an equal basis with men, and believed in peace and justice. It is the endless fighting and struggle for power within the Muslim world and the attempts at colonialism by the British and the US that have produced the Muslim militancy and terrorism that has upset our world.

It was the British whose reckless quest of empire arbitrarily drew lines demarking the present state of Iraq including the Kurds, some Turks, the Sunnis and Shiites along with other sects. Saddam Hussein, although a ruthless dictator, kept a cap on these feuding tribes and religious sects and his removal knocked the lid of the kettle allowing it to boil over.

Then there is the problem of the advance of technology. It’s current technology that allows for explosives to be strapped to suicide bombers and for the planting of radio activated Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) and this popular method of terrorism will not go away soon. This practice will grow in popularity and spread to other nations unless technology can somehow answer with a counter technology that will allow for satellite or other means of early detection of these explosives and circumvention of the detonating devices. However, that technological advance in itself would likely bode ill will for personal freedoms and public counter measures to tyranny worldwide - equivalent to disarming citizens of personal firearms here in the US. When the public is denied access to any form of weapons to defend themselves they will become even greater victims of those who control weapons technology.

No matter how you spin it, the world is in for major depression of human rights, rights to assemble, free speech, etc. Technology, long considered a salvation for the human race may well become its destruction.

Gary

Election '08 - Al Gore to the Rescue

I have never given up on Al Gore. His defeat in 2000 was maybe the best thing that ever happened for him - it tempered him and humbled him - even though it severely hurt the people of the United States and other nations. I like to think Al is much wiser than before and that he has been enlightened by the failure of policies he previously supported like free trade agreements that morphed into modified agreements with damaging results for all but corporatists and the wealthy.

Assuming he decides to run, if he hasn't learned from his mistakes and if he relies too much on the establishment Dem strategists, he will fail again as a candidate. If he doesn't modify and compromise his stand on gun control, abortion, etc., all the non-critical issues (in the large scheme of things) that hurt him in 2000 he will fail again. International issues, foreign affairs, the economy and the environment are his strong suits. National security, immigration, corruption, education and healthcare are the kitchen table items he and the rest will run on. Al Gore has a leg up and good credibility on all of these issues.

I want vindication of my total commitment and support of him since 1988. Al Gore in my estimation is the best candidate out there - providing he learned from his mistakes and providing he shakes off influence from the established, machine politicians from within the party - like Carville, the Clintons, corporate lobbyists, etc.

Al Gore has embraced Howard Dean, DFA, Moveon.org and the rest of the progressive movement so how can he return to the Washington insiders who likely will reject him in any event unless his support is so strong among progressives and the members of the party that he can't be refused?

Al Gore has become like a strong father figure to most Americans. He was right about the war, right about global warming, and right about airline security. He could star in a remake of Father Knows Best. He and Howard Dean were the ones with the most foresight and courage prior to 2004. They were anti-war when being anti-war wasn't cool. Their predictions have come true.

Americans like a good story of someone who was unfairly beaten, pushed down, but rose from the dust and came back victorious. The whole country now knows Al Gore actually won in 2000 and was cheated from his destiny - and we as a nation were cheated from ours. Al is a sentimental favorite.

If Al Gore runs, bar any major gaffes, he will win. I pick Howard Dean as my first choice for VP and Barack Obama second. However, a good choice for VP from an electoral vote and political strategy might be either Governor Richardson or Governor Brian Schweitzer, both popular Western state governors that would deliver at least two or more western state's electoral votes. John Edwards would also be acceptable in a pinch although winning over the wayward south just doesn't have real potential at this time.

Whoever of that group becomes our nominee I will support with all my effort; anything to prevent that bunch of self-serving, corrupt whores and flim-flam artists from the Republican Party from maintaining control. And that includes Gulianni, running on opportune celebrity rather than merit, and McCain. McCain has lost my respect. He is not a true maverick and although somewhat centrist, has proved he will compromise, equivocate and suck-up to anyone who he thinks will improve his chances to become the nominee.

Most candidates run for office for the wrong reasons; power, influence and wealth. Even a failed candidate for the presidency profits from a good run. They become national celebrities. Their national profile and name recognition increases dramatically, they wallow like pigs in all the media attention, they gain power and influence, they get to keep any leftover money from contributors, and they can earn a princely living thereafter from speakers fees and book sales.

Al Gore already has all these things. If he runs I believe it will be for the right reasons only; a deep and abiding patriotism, and a commitment and acceptance of the responsibility to help others and save this nation and the world from itself - if it is humanly possible.

Gary

Some Things Never Change

Most people probably don’t know (or don’t remember) that America’s beginning was not so glorious. The first colony was employees of the Virginia Company, an English corporation formed by politicians and politically connected investors that was made up of prisoners and slum dwellers from England’s jails. They were sent here to plunder and steal from the Indians. They fought amongst themselves and the company was a miserable failure at first. It took almost twelve years and the establishment of a lottery in England to finance the colony. It wasn’t until they began growing tobacco that they were sustainable and profitable.

So it was an undemocratic corporation of thieves who used gambling profits to finance the growing of the addictive drug tobacco which they introduced to Europe that marked the beginning of this nation.

Corporate thieves, gambling, drugs, looting, profiteering and corruption; some things never change.

Gary

Now and Zen - 08/27

The reason I chose Now and Zen to title these remarks is that in Zen philosophy there is no “then” – there is only “now”. If you are waiting for things to get better or waiting to reach some milepost before you act, or for a miracle to happen that will make your life bearable, you’re going to miss out on life.

Life is now! Right at this very moment, and that is the only point in your existence that you can experience. Right this second. Now!

Wayne Dyer points out that the word nowhere is made up of two words, now here. Reverse nowhere and you have here now. With practice and discipline you can go from no where to now here.

The illusion of the future is always melting into or “becoming” the moment of existence - a fleet sensation - the “now” of your life. What once was the immediate future envisioned in your mind a moment ago has just become this very nanosecond you are now experiencing. This “present moment” then quickly becomes the unalterable past. It may be a disappointment, a missed opportunity, but only if you let it.

The “wish I had done it” doesn’t matter anymore if you didn’t do it. The promise “I’ll do it next time - or next week” is not something you can guarantee or predict. Do what you feel is the right thing to do “now”, drop the past and drop the future.

The future is unknown and along with what you might reasonably anticipate, it also brings the unexpected. The only control you have is over this very moment - where the rubber meets the road to use a popular analogy – and how you process it. This moment is the point of action, the only point of reference to life you have. Even if you use your memory or the thoughts and ideas of recorded history to mold it – this moment is your experience of the life you live - moment to moment. This is your moment of being. It’s your writing on the page of life, your footprint in the sand. It’s your creation, the energy of your existence interacting with the energy of the universe. And it’s your experience, the shaping of your soul. This is your only chance to experience the sensory sensations you are blessed with. Right now at this moment.

Life has the illusion of flowing like a river but does it really? Is it just a series of moments like the individual still frames of a movie film that creates the illusion of continuity, linearity and time? Or like the alternating currents of AC electrical power does it ebb and flow as a sine wave? Is the wave peak the life experience and the trough the non-living opposite, the push pull which together gives life to all living things and to all existence?

Or does it even matter that we understand except for the fact that the here and now is the only life worth living?

If you live in the past you are avoiding the present, obsessing over what could or should have been (we’re all guilty), and if you live in an imaginary future you are putting life off and avoiding the present. Experiencing each of life’s moments to the maximum is an acquired ability that few ever achieve – the so called “enlightened beings” among us. There are degrees of ability of course, but anyone can become enlightened in a general sense.

How do you live in the moment? By just “being” completely in the moment and not somewhere else is one explanation but the ability of “just being” has many facets and challenges. Drop the self they say. Get rid of the ego. Quit filtering nature through an intellectual sieve (like what I’m doing at this moment).

Here’s an exercise or two to allow you to experience what it means to be fully in the moment.

Find a quiet place where you won’t be distracted or interrupted, a place to meditate so to speak. Now, take either hand and concentrate on it. Look at your hand carefully as you slowly move your fingers as if to grip something in the claw made by your fingers. Look carefully at how the hand operates, the beauty of it, and the intricacy. Focus on only your hand.

Think of how much like a bird of prey’s claw your hand is, how much like other animals your hand functions. Exclude all thought other than your hand and the miracle that causes it to move the way it does almost instinctively without your command. Think about how you, using your mind, can make your fingers work individually, and the wrist to turn just so and how robotic and machine-like it seems. Think about the chemicals and neuron transmitters that cause the various ligaments and muscles to interact and perform whatever it is you would like the hand to do. As you focus, become your hand, but detach yourself from it at the same time. Consider your hand a robotic extension of your mind.

If you concentrate long enough you will begin to marvel at this creation that is so critical to your existence. The hand almost looks as if it has life and powers of its own. Then drop all intellectual analysis. Allow your mind to view your hand as a separate living entity but at the same time realize your oneness with it. If you allow yourself to be completely absorbed with your hand and its miraculous abilities you will experience to some degree what it means to meditate, to be an observer and to be completely in the moment - being totally aware.

You can do this with any activity at any time.

Living in the moment means having full sensory awareness at the deepest level of what you are experiencing at that very moment.

If you are washing your face, devote your attention to it. Become an observer by becoming fully aware of washing your face, the feel of the water temperature, the feel of the soap’s lather and its fragrance, the movement of your hands. Act with intent – not robotically. Make graceful movements, smooth, not rough and vigorous. Take responsibility but let go at the same time. Totally absorb the experience. See and feel the difference of focusing your attention to an act from acting with indifference.

When you walk, be mindful of (observe) how you walk. Walk with intention but also walk with mindfulness of balance and grace. When you move your arms and hands to accomplish a task be mindful of and observe their movement, move with balance and grace like a dancer, whether you’re peeling potatoes, turning a wrench or lifting a box. Whether you’re writing a letter or driving a car. Be mindful of the experience, be totally alert and into the moment. It takes practice but if you pay attention you can do it – and then it will eventually become second nature.

Concentrate on smooth, graceful actions, as those who practice Tai Chi, not herky-jerky, overly quick, coarse and reckless movements subject to mistake and accident. But you should be able to do this without losing yourself to what is going on around you. You can walk, or drive, or operate machinery with increased awareness, with grace and with mindfulness and attention yet with detachment, and you can still remain aware of all the dangers and hazards of life. You can be the observer and still be in control.

Many of those who excel in sports have incorporated being here and now into their game. Watch Scott Rolen, third baseman for the St Louis Cardinals. Rolen is ever mindful and graceful. Even when acting quickly with snap judgment he’s graceful in his motions. In baseball parlance they say he has “smooth” hands. Watch him and you’ll see he stays completely in the game, ever attentive and “in the moment”. Being “in the zone” is another description sports people use. Unfortunately for the Cardinals their pitching staff has lost the ability to stay “in the moment”. It’s also true of most of the other players when it comes their turn to bat.

For most of us “being in the moment” has to become intentional before it can become natural. You have to be mindful to become unmindful and natural. In Zen they refer to the enlightened person as an observer, someone who observes their own behavior and actions, detached from but mindful of every action and emotional response.

Sometimes living in the here and now happens without intent – as it should and as it happened when you were an infant. All babies and little children live in the here and now. They experience life in the moment without the encumbrance and baggage of knowledge, training and conditioning that eventually kills our ability to experience life fully and at its best. Few adults have retained the ability to observe and stay focused like a small child in its first years of life. I believe this is what Jesus was referring to when he said, “Be as little children”.

When you view a beautiful sunset or majestic view and you become captured by the moment, that’s being totally in the moment. As you become slack-jawed, entranced and absorbed by the experience, that’s experiencing life as it was intended by God. By keeping your attention on being in the moment - completely, here and now - you will become more awakened to the richness of life and will enter the territory of what it means to be “one” with existence.

Who can have more? Who can be richer than that?

Be here now,

Gary

Lying – The Biggest Sin

Someone complimented me today on being honest. It’s nice to be recognized but being honest is not something that people should be rewarded for, even by just praise. I believe being honest with one another should be the first rule of conduct for all mankind and is essential to our survival as a species – it’s that important!

Without a doubt, honesty is the most important virtue that any person can aspire to and encompasses all the rest, because every virtue I can think of must have honesty and fairness as the first and foremost part. Honesty is truth; telling the truth to ourselves and to others.

When I was seventeen and in the Air Force I often visited the base library. One of the books I stumbled across was “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne”. Although unfamiliar to most people, Montaigne should be included as one of the most significant writers in all of history. It has been suggested that all the great writers and great thinkers since Montaigne, including Sir Francis Bacon who many believe was the mysterious William Shakespeare, were directly influenced and inspired by Montaigne.

Montaigne wrote about himself; his observations and his experience during his life. His collection of essays included those on friendship, on dying, on cruelty, on repentance on smells, on wearing clothes, education of children, sexual attraction and a host of other interesting and entertaining observations.

In particular, Montaigne wrote something that struck a chord in me, something that reverberated in my mind and left a lasting impression. In his essay “On Lying”, Montaigne wrote, “Verily, lying is an ill and detestable vice. Nothing makes us men, and no other means keeps us bound one to another, but our word; knew we but the horror and weight of it, we would with fire and sword pursue and hate the same, and more justly than any other crime.”

Think about that. He attributes horror to lying and suggests lying should be dealt with more justly than any other crime. Who can say otherwise?

I believe being honest is the most significant quality any human can cultivate. Honesty encompasses all of the other virtues including telling truth as we know it, etc. When you think about it one can see that all dishonest and evil acts begin with a lie. Greed motivated dishonesty is man's biggest sin and one we should all try to avoid at any cost.

Wars and the atrocities that accompany them all begin with lies. Murder and vile acts all begin with lies. All corruption in business and government is based upon lies. Environmental destruction and global warming is a result of lies. Our prisons are full of people who resorted to lies and dishonesty early on in their lives.

Lies and liars create most of life’s suffering and tragedies, yet in our culture we embrace and teach dishonesty, we teach our children to lie. We lie to them about too many things as they are growing up. We lie to them about how children are conceived, about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny, but at the same time we teach them to always tell the truth and punish them for lying to us. We tell them they should always be honest then turn around and cheat and lie in our dealings with others, which even a child can easily detect. Our companies lie to consumers about their products and our elected representatives lie to the citizens about their true intent and whose interests they serve. Stockbrokers lie to investors and mortgage lenders and realtors lie to home buyers, vehicle dealers lie to buyers, and on and on.

We worship corporations, commerce and production over human rights. Consumer fraud and corporate crime is not only protected, it’s celebrated. We even have a caveat, “caveat emptor”, let the buyer beware, which puts the responsibility of a fair transaction on to the buyer instead of establishing and enforcing laws to protect the consumer. Corporations that are guilty of bilking customers and stealing from the taxpayers are infrequently prosecuted and when they are found guilty, they pay some inconsequential fine and rarely go to jail.

To pretend to be honest when we are not is a lie. We lie to our family and our neighbors. We lie to get ahead, to acquire wealth and power, and we delude ourselves by rationalizing our dishonesty and by lying to ourselves that our lies and dishonesties are somehow justified.

Montaigne wrote: “God preserve me from being an honest man according to the criterion that I daily see every man apply to himself – to his own advantage! “ Then he quotes Seneca, “What were once vices have now become customs”.

We would do well to reflect on Montaigne’s words and consider lying as the most horrific crime of all – one that forms the bedrock of all of the world’s ills.

“It is no slight pleasure to feel oneself preserved from the contagion of so corrupt an age, and to say to oneself, ‘A man might look into my very soul, and yet he would not find me guilty of anyone’s affliction or ruin, or of revenge or envy, or of offending against the public laws, or of innovation or disturbance, or of failing to keep my word. And whatever the licence of the age may permit or suggest to any man, I have never laid my hands on any (other persons) goods or put my fingers into his purse. I have lived only on what is my own, in war as in peace, and have never used another man’s labour without paying him.’ These testimonies of a good conscience are pleasant; and such a natural pleasure is very beneficial to us; it is the only payment that can never fail.” ~ Montaigne

Go and do thou likewise.

Gary

Joe Liberman's Lying Eyes

I saw something today in a picture of Joe Lieberman that tells me a lot about Joe. If you’ll notice, Joe is not looking at the people in the photograph with him. He isn’t connecting with them and he’s aloof. He’s out of touch. Joe probably feels it’s below him to have to associate with these lowly peasants but it’s the price he has to pay to stay in power and to keep the door open for financial gain.

It’s not the first time I’ve seen this behavior from Lieberman. Someone took my picture shaking hands with Lieberman at the 2000 Democratic Convention. In the picture Joe is not looking at me either and he didn’t look at me during our brief conversation but looked past me. Looked around and over my shoulder but no eye contact.

This behavior is common to most politicians and celebrities who could give a rat’s ass for the average person’s opinions or concerns. They lie when say they have only your interests at heart. They are only interested in people with money and influence. That’s when their eyes brighten and when they give their full attention, when they see an opportunity to gain more money and power.

Joe Lieberman keeps exposing the reasons why thinking Democrats want to remove him and others of his ilk from office. Joe is out of touch, arrogant, and acts more often in the best interests of his corporate sponsors and the DC power grid rather than in the interests of those everyday Americans he claims to represent. Also, far be it from me to mention Joe in the same sentence with Israel’s interests for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic.

The quickest way to be labeled unpatriotic by Joe and others is to “criticize the president during a time of war”. The quickest way to be labeled un-Christian and a liberal heathen is to criticize evangelical right-wing Christians. The quickest way to be labeled anti-Semitic is to criticize Israel or any Jewish person and their motives.

Fear is the tool of choice for those who live to control and manipulate others to their advantage. Most average Americans have become conditioned and are afraid of expressing their true opinions – the same as people who live under the rule of ruthless dictators. They fear the powerful will destroy them if they speak out.

In a last ditch effort to save his gravy train Joe is trying to scare voters with the idea that choosing Ned Lamont over him will play right into Republican’s hands. He lamented that he had not “clarified” his criticism of the war and the White House earlier, but he also argued that Republicans were “salivating” over the possibility that Democrats would pick an antiwar liberal instead of Mr. Lieberman.

“They are anxious to say the left wing is taking over, the anti-security wing,” Mr. Lieberman said of Republicans.”

Bullshit!

First of all, Lieberman understands the “they” all too well. He identifies himself as one of them by using the “L” word as derogatory. Republicans use “liberal” and “left-wing” as labels, as dirty words to describe the majority of Americans who want change. When the Lieberman website crashed yesterday he blamed “liberal bloggers”.

We’ve seen this reverse Brer Rabbit ploy used before by the political powerbrokers. Karl Rove, the Republicans, and even establishment Democrats used it to scare voters away from Howard Dean in 2004, saying that Rove’s biggest wet dream was to have Howard Dean as the candidate to challenge Bush. Instead Rove actually feared Dean and was salivating for John Kerry – and it worked - they got him. It’s tactics taken straight from Sun Tzu’s Art of War. If you want to avoid what you fear most just lie and convince your opponent that it’s what you want more than anything. Geez, how stupid can people get?

And all of a sudden Joe is saying that he felt a “heavy personal responsibility” for the war, wanted to bring troops home “as fast as anyone,” and valued Americans’ “right to disagree” with the president and himself over Iraq. All of a sudden Joe is one of us.

Joe is even so desperate he’s invoking images of Clinton calling himself the “Connecticut’s comeback kid”

And don’t forget, when Al Gore chose Lieberman for his running mate in 2000, Joe showed his appreciation and confidence in Al by retaining his senate seat as a fallback.

As David Sirota points out, even if Lamont doesn’t win, the progressives have significantly changed the political environment. If Lamont just comes close it will send shivers down the spineless backs of the establishment politicians in both parties and will put fear in the corporate pirates that have seized the reins of our country.

What Would Al Gore Do?

How do you think Al Gore would advise Lopez Obrador, the populist presidential candidate in Mexico that “lost” the recent presidential election by a very narrow half percentage point margin to Felipe Calderón, the corporate candidate and the choice of outgoing president Vincente Fox and the Bush administration to run Mexico’s government?

Would Gore tell Lopez to stand down and to concede defeat in the interest of keeping peace, that an aggressive challenge to the election results might result in civil unrest, violence and a weakened democracy?

Would he tell Obrador that he should concede in a gentlemanly fashion? Would he advise him that, until the next election his country can withstand four more years of rule by free trading corporate handmaidens? Those same lapdogs to the ministers of wealth and power who view invasions of other countries and toppling democratically elected leaders as a proper action to insure economic progress and to make sure access to natural resources, avoidance of environmental protection laws and cheap labor is not thwarted by those who favor sharing the wealth and the needs of the poor and the working class?

In an eerily similar scenario to the 2000 election which Gore “lost” the electoral vote to Bush by an even much smaller margin, Obrador’s lawyers failed to get a ruling allowing for a full recount of the votes approved by the courts because of a technical error when they filed their challenge. The courts seized this error to prevent a full recount. As a result there will only be a partial recount. Only 9% of the ballots will be recounted.

You would think, in the interests of democracy and producing a fair and just election, the courts would want nothing less than an accurate count so there is no question of which candidate is the rightful winner. You would think. But then you would be wrong if the courts rendering the decision were made up of those judges appointed by the previous corporatist president and “free trader”, Vincente Fox.

In the United States, Mexico, and other countries in this hemisphere and around the world, corporate profiteers armed with huge fortunes have gained control of the governments, the courts, and the voting process. Democracy has been undermined and the process subverted to assure that only those who support the corporate regimes can win.

Automated electronic voting machines, that are produced, managed and manipulated by the same corporate powers that own the elected officials, make it easier to make elections look close regardless of the actual vote. Courts of corporate-picked judges can protect against an accurate vote count and make any election final as we saw here in 2000 and again in 2004.

Okay, maybe Obrador’s wrong and Calderon won the election fairly, but if that’s the case, shouldn’t Calderon want it to be clear he has a mandate regardless of how thin?

There is only one thing for Obrador to do and that is to press the courts for a total recount and demand it be done under fair and unbiased supervision. "If they refuse to open all the polling stations and count all the votes, it is complete proof that we won the presidential election," he said. Because the margin was so small, Obrador and his supporters should settle for nothing less than a full recount. If they are refused then I say they should take a lesson from what happened here in the United States. To avoid complete corporate takeover he should force the country into civil unrest and anarchy if that is what is necessary to restore this fledgling democracy.

Gore’s fateful decision to stand down and not challenge Bush is a clear example of what Mexico can expect. If Obrador bows to the enemies of freedom and democracy in the interest of maintaining peace the evil empire will only gain more power and lead his country further back down the path to becoming an authoritarian police state as it once was not too many years ago.

If denied a fair and just full recount he should tell his supporters what Al Gore should have told his supporters but failed to. He should tell them unless we get a full and fair recount “the revolution starts now!”

Now and Zen

Have you ever considered that life is a paradox? Existence is bi-polar in that it has opposites that allow for each to exist. Life itself is the opposite of? – death of course. Without death there could be no life. Darkness – Light. Extreme darkness, extreme light and degrees between. Sweet – sour, love –hate, they all exist in tandem – together. You can’t have one without the other. It is the completeness we call existence.

Osho points out that language is linear, that rules of language put things in a line, one following the other. And it makes thought linear, therefore logic becomes linear, but existence is not linear, existence is simultaneous. Love and hate, light and dark, exist together. They are two sides of the same coin, not much separates one from the other. But in language you can’t say the room was full of light and the room was dark as well.

If you go into a dark room at night and turn the light on where does the dark go? It’s still there. The only thing that’s changed is your ability to see. If you close your eyes during the daytime, where does the light go? It’s still there. Light and absence of light, day and night exist simultaneously.

Zen is paradoxical. Zen thought allows things to exist simultaneously and allows opposites to trade places. Do by not doing is a Zen concept.

Example: Some say Al Gore is running for president. Al Gore says he is not. He’s not purposefully doing any of the things required to become a candidate. But as a result of Al Gore’s quest to inform the world of global warming and stimulate a response from the public, Gore is becoming more electable, All the elements that must be there for a candidate to be successful are falling in to place. Is Al Gore running by not running?

To Be or Not To Be?

Osho goes on to discuss having versus being. That man is constantly trying to enrich his life by accumulating more, by getting more property, more wealth, more power, more knowledge. The mind, the head thinks by having more it will become more, but having can never be transformed into being. Being is accomplished by dropping all desire, just being in the moment, the here and now. In that moment of isness, of just being, says Osho, all is available, all benediction, all blessings, all wonder, all beauty, all bliss.

The recent tribulation of Mel Gibson is an example of attempting to have more as a means to contentment and bliss. Mel’s life is anything but as a result of his quest for more wealth, more power, more things. I’m sure Mel is living hell at the moment, a paradox of love and hate in his mind. What has wealth and power wrought? A poisoned mind? It’s not his drinking, it’s not the alcohol that’s to blame, it’s what his mind has done to his life. One can drink alcohol and be blissful. If the 0.12 blood alcohol content was accurate, Mel was too drunk to legally drive but not excessively drunk, not on alcohol. But maybe drunk with power or stressed out from his obsession to have more in an effort to “be” more.

Mel can be faulted for riding the wave of Christian evangelical fanaticism that’s sweeping our nation by introducing the movie “Passion of the Christ” as a crass opportunity to accumulate more wealth, but the result is not harmonious with Jesus’ message of love and just being in the here and now.

Jesus lived in the here and now and the here and now is the kingdom Jesus spoke of. Consider the lilies of the field, and the birds, and the flowers, God provides and has not forsaken them he reminds us. Why be anxious about tomorrow? Live in the present. Be here now.

The majority of the Christian leadership has twisted and contorted Jesus’ message to mean the prosperity of having more things, of getting more wealth and power as a reward and blessing for following Jesus. That God wants you to have much more than he provides for the birds (impossible, birds are complete) and build up treasures while you are here. That’s not what Jesus taught. We know what he thought about the chances of a wealthy person to find paradise and we know what he thought of the powerful.

Jesus taught about “being” not “having”. When will Christians wake up and “see” what Jesus meant when he warned of those who come in his name?

One last note: Did you see the video clips of Israeli school children writing messages of hate on the warheads and bombs to be dropped on the Lebanese people? And then did you see the video of the dead Lebanese children? Do the Israelis also show those children the videos of those dead children and do the children cheer and clap? That’s how sick western civilization has become. When adult leaders of a nation teach their children to hate and make war how can they call themselves civilized? How can they call themselves God’s people or God’s chosen?

At least Harry Truman was sad and remorseful when he ordered the atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan. At least Dwight Eisenhower was sickened by war. How can our current president laugh and joke, act smug and make arrogant remarks as he orders invasions and as any of this takes place? What has happened to Christianity and to our nation? Talk about paradox. This is insanity.


Gary

God Bless America

Politicians, those who think they are patriots above all others, those who parade their religious convictions for all to see and those who want the public's favor are always invoking "God bless America" at every opportunity. That blessing is so routinely thrown around it's become a joke.

Furthermore, I believe it's what you do personally that makes you worthy of God's blessings, not what this nation's government or any other does as a nation or as a group of people.

God didn't say go ye forth and invade all nations, steal your neighbor's resources and take up arms against them. God didn't command us to rule the earth, subdue and oppress those with whom we philosophically disagree, wreak destruction and havoc upon their lands without regard for collateral damage that kills and maims.

Jesus didn't say gather up much wealth at the expense of your fellow men, take advantage of those you deem less worthy, punish them by withholding your hand unless they can pay, and extract from the earth all you are able with no regard for its welfare, for as surely as our father has anointed the wealthy and the powerful as his chosen people and has provided this earthly paradise for our wanton desires, he will provide a replacement once we have destroyed this one.

In truth, God blesses those who love his creation and are good stewards of this earth. God blesses those who love one another and lives in harmony and peace with all mankind and all God's creatures. Those who value their relationship with God above all else are those who God blesses. Wealth and power is no evidence of favor with God. Where the Hell did that come from? Ruthless dictators throughout history commanded great wealth and power. Is that what God's about?

God's blessings are often not recognizable by greedy commercial standards.

A won war is not a blessing. The killing and maiming of our fellows is not rewarded with God's favor. God does not bestow blessings by way of military might and the power to occupy other nations, or by way of Hummers and BMW's, great mansions and wealth, or by power and control over others. God does not reward baseball players with home runs or stolen bases, does not bless a company's bottom line, does not keep an airliner safe at 20,000 feet in the air, and does not keep it from raining on the day you scheduled a picnic.

I believe God blesses each individual spiritually. God does not bless entire nations, not ethnic or religious groups. God does not bless cities or sports teams and does not decide which airliner crashes. God did not grant you a promotion and is not holding a set of lottery numbers just for you. God has no favorites.

Instead of waving a flag of power, defiance and aggression and robotically repeating, God Bless America, we should all be praying, "God protect us from ourselves, lead us from this darkness and teach us to live rightly in peace and harmony with all others and in the pure light of your love. "

Gary

Large North American Country For Sale - Cheap!

Are you aware that America is being sold right out from under us and no one is protesting? Here's just one recent example.

Our tax dollars, yours and mine, have been used since the beginning of our nation to build ports, highways and bridges so we the citizens of this nation can move freely about, engage in commerce and conduct our affairs. This "infrastructure" as it's called was built and paid for by Americans. We own it!

Or - we thought we did.

You recall the recent deal to sell our sea ports to a company owned by the Arab state of Dubai? There was a public outcry that effectively stopped that sale but there is no public outcry over the more recent deals taking place.

You've probably heard very little about the deal that recently took place when an Australian-Spanish partnership paid $3.8 billion to lease the Indiana Toll Road. In addition an Australian company bought a 99-year lease on Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway, and Texas officials decided to let a Spanish-American partnership build and run a toll road from Austin to Seguin for 50 years.

I also heard of a deal in the works to "lease" (they are calling all these deals "leases" to lighten the political impact) a public transportation system in Chicago and there are other deals being arranged without public knowledge or approval.

Key infrastructure now being operated as toll roads and toll bridges, built and paid for and owned by American taxpayers, are being sold by our elected representatives to foreign investment firms. Those politicians arranging these sales claim it's because a private firm can maintain and operate this infrastructure more efficiently and profitably. That's bullshit!

I'm sick and tired of the idea that private companies can do the job more efficiently than big government bureaucracies being used as an excuse for selling off America's social systems, our government and our infrastructure to private investors. If our government and our politicians weren't so corrupt, any government facility or service could be managed and run, not only as cheaply, but more cheaply and more efficiently than any private firm. It's not rocket science and when no open-ended profit requirement is there, I defy anyone to argue that it's not a fact. The only thing that is required is good, intelligent, common sense management and that key element that is so lacking in the majority of people we elect to office - honesty!

These corporate owned and corporate worshipping elected representatives fearlessly and unashamedly admit that one big reason a private firm is so eager to lease this infrastructure is that a private firm can raise tolls without deferring to public pressure, that a private company effectively depoliticizes the tolling decision. To describe this in more easily understood terms, if a state's legislators decide to raise tolls on bridges and toll roads, there is a public outcry and a political fallout. They can avoid this by selling our roads and our bridges, that we built and paid for, to private companies that don't have to answer to the public.

Who is profiting here and who is getting screwed? Who ends up paying more to use their own roads and bridges? And not paying this increased amount to our own government to be used for the benefit of our own citizens, but paying this increased use fee to a foreign company - and in addition these profits are leaving the country instead of being pumped back into our economy.

These politicians are selling these "leases" of our roads and bridges for immediate cash on the barrel head that they claim will be used to fund other public projects like road repairs and other infrastructure without raising taxes. Again, Bullshit! Who knows whose pocket that money will eventually end up in?

These repairs should have been paid for with tax revenues - the same excessive revenues that are being stolen and siphoned off by the industrial war complex, the defense contractors, oil companies and other pirates that are criminally ripping off this country and it's citizens while the majority of us stand stupidly by and argue with each other over gay marriage, flag burning and prayers in schools among other equally stupid issues I won't elaborate on here. These divisive, relatively inconsequential, socially low impact issues are effectively being used to engage and distract us while our pockets are being picked and our country sold to the highest bidder.

Can't you see it??? They want us divided as Republicans and Democrats! They know exactly how to cause us to fight with one another. If we drop this folly, come together and turn our attention on what is really happening in this country we would see the truth.

Americans are the biggest fools of all. Maybe we don't deserve the country our forefathers entrusted to us. Maybe we deserve to have it sold off piece by piece while we argue over a woman's right to choose. One thing is certain, if we don't wake up and take this country back from the corrupt madmen now in charge - we are most certainly doomed.

The money that is being stolen is money that is being borrowed in our name from China and other nations that now hold the note on America. You and your children and our children's children are the ones who must honor that promissory note, not those who are selling our country down the tubes.

They're taking the money and running, laughing all the way to the Swiss banks.

Gary

Donna Brazile and Establishment Democrats Nervous?

Donna Brazile, on today's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, threw down the gauntlet to progressive Democrats regarding the primary challenge to Joe Lieberman's senatorial seat by Ned Lamont. Brazile said she unequivocally supports Joe Lieberman who she called "a good Democrat". Even George Will put in a word for Lieberman. What gives?

Progressive Democrats are apparently being warned that they should not challenge the power in the party - and apparently that includes challenging their representative pundits that live the good life regurgitating the message as glorified spokespersons for the powerful in both parties.

The pundits on This Week, Donna Brazile, George Will and Peter Beinart, all said they thought Lieberman would prevail, but at the same time they admitted that other Democratic Senators who have been supportive of the war effort are watching this race carefully. It was George Will, I think, who cautioned progressives that their support of a candidate should not be about just one issue, the war, even though as most progressive's know, in Lieberman's case it's about a lot more than that one issue.

One thing seems obvious, all the Democratic Party leadership are nervous about this challenge by the netroots, the voice of the people, the progressive element that is gaining unprecedented power. What makes them nervous about average citizens gaining a voice? What makes them nervous about Democracy actually working as it's supposed to?

What is George Will's interest in seeing that Lieberman retains his seat? After all, George is not a Democrat. Could it be he sees Lieberman as a ally of the right? And what is Donna Brazile's interest? Could it be she, as Al Gore's pseudo-quasi, campaign manager in 2000, had something to do with the misguided selection of Lieberman as Gore's running mate and feels threatened by the idea that voters think Lieberman is a lackey for corporations and the powerful?

Could it be the pundits feel that they are the only qualified voice of the people? That they make the decisions and tell us what to think and who to vote for - they and the establishment members of the two major parties?

Could it be they fear their power to control is being threatened - that they will no longer be influential or needed if the citizenry begins thinking for themselves? Do they feel their means of earning a six-figure income by forcing their opinions on the rest of us is possibly in jeopardy?

Yesterday a baseball sports announcer commented that in the baseball world of the past it was once the norm for baseball players to find a way to get along with and meet the demands of the team manager but now it is reversed. Managers in a large way have to meet the demands of the players. After all the players are the team, not the managers. In the same way, the members of the Democratic Party are the Party, not the leadership.

God forbid that members of the Democratic Party rise up and take control of the party away from the corrupt, corporate controlled elitist establishment who serve only themselves.

God forbid that in a Democracy the people's voice be heard.

God forbid that in a Democracy the people have a say in the way their nation is governed and the law of our constitution be honored..

God forbid that in a Democracy the people rule and not the powerful - that in a true republic and a true democracy the people are the power and those elected to serve them listen and respond to them - not attempt to usurp the people's power and rule over them as authoritarians and dictators.

Gary

Challenging Incumbent Democrats

I agree that we progressives need to unite with rank and file Democrats and take our party back, however, in every case it is better to have a Republican Lite Democrat hold the seat than hand the seat to a lock step, loyal-to-the-fuehrer, Republican candidate as distasteful as the incumbent Democrat might be.

But it is never wrong to challenge members of our own party and campaign for an agenda that the majority can support. In almost every case it is better to challenge from within the party. Challenging as a third party, independent candidate carries risk. If their is a strong major party challenger and a third party candidate reaches enough momentum the third party candidate can siphon off enough votes to throw the election to the major party challenger.

So, it is important that any challenger know when to pull in their horns and free up their supporters when it becomes obvious their continued effort would hand the seat to the evil empire. Nader is a prime example of what can happen "when keeping it real goes wrong" as Dave Chappell has pointed out.

On the other hand, Ned Lamont in Connecticut is a good example of when enough is enough and a full out challenge to Joe Lieberman, an established Republican Lite Democrat, is the only recourse. But in Ned's case he is challenging in the Democratic primary which was the right choice and is proving much more effective than a third party challenge.

There comes a point when accepting someone who claims to be a Democrat but who spreads the propaganda, does the bidding and sings the praises of the opposing party and it's corporate masters is no longer conscionable. Lieberman was a Republican Lite weasel when Al Gore selected him for a running mate in 2000 and it didn't help Al Gore's candidacy at all. In fact it very likely hurt Gore. In addition to Joe's weasel status, let's face it, there are many so-called Christians, both Democrat and Republican who would never vote for a Jewish candidate, call it anti-Semitic or whatever you choose, it's a fact.

One of the reasons Lieberman was chosen is because the sexually hung-up, religious fundamentalist hypocrite jumped in bed with the Republicans and openly condemned Clinton for getting a little head on the side. The fact that Monica Lewinsky felt a patriotic need to serve her president must have really disturbed Lieberman psychologically. If he was so titillated about it he should have just kept his mouth shut and asked Hadassah to open hers.

It was apparently thought by the idiots in charge of advising Gore (I heard it was Karenna's choice) that choosing Lieberman would help distance Gore from Clinton's evil act and the ire of the hypocritical, fellatio envious Christians who condemned Clinton. It was a colossal mistake added to a pile of others like not aggressively defanging the gun control issue and making the environment an additional centerpiece of his campaign.

But in Ned Lamont's challenge http://www.blogger.com/ there is a momentum that cannot be denied. It has become a cause c`el`ebre for the progressives. Moveon.org, David Sirota, Markos the Greek and every high profile progressive out there wants to insure the only future for Lieberman is as a whoring lobbyist for insurance and big pharmaceuticals.

This challenge is being carefully and nervously watched by all the hill Democrats whose loyalty is to their membership in the DC Order of Perpetual Reelection and Corporate Servitude. They can't believe the party peasants are not heeling to, are acting rebellious and are threatening to make their own choices. Where's the respect for corrupt elitist power? Where's the fawning and acquiescence to the incompetent party leadership?

Those frustrated progressives who point out that we can't assemble more than 20 people locally to voice dissent have a valid concern. Where's the passion?

I guess it takes a major asshole like Lieberman to stir it up.

Gary

Those Crazy Americans

I recently learned of a distant relative who led a somewhat checkered life, often in trouble with the law, taking advantage of relatives by bleeding them for money, always with a promise to pay them back but never doing it. A deadbeat who was always scamming people and never paying his bills, he was lazy and irresponsible. He bounced from job to job, married and divorced at least twice he fathered a number of children. A drain on society and government social systems, he has caused pain and suffering to his family and those whose paths he crossed. Having served jail time himself, I learned that he has one son who has been in prison and another who is now in prison and will be there "for a long, long time", I have no idea what for. I don't know about his other four children but one can only imagine. It is well known that there is a cycle of anti-social behavior that is spawned and spreads from one generation to another, the offspring of succeeding generations locked in a cycle that repeats and worsens as it is concentrated by other participants who add their own anti-social genetic makeup to the web.

This man I refer to above apparently hates blacks, Mexicans and essentially all foreigners, and is now is growing old, claims to have a fatal disease, is poor and without friends and blames others for his misery. He considers himself a patriotic American and supports George W Bush.

There are other irresponsible people I know of who have their stories. They are all equally bigoted and quick to blame others for their troubles. Most have a history of financial problems, wildly spending themselves into debt, addicted to instant gratification, they always have someone they blame for their predicament. Some have fallen victim to drugs, some the illegal kind and some the legally prescribed kind that they lean on and pass around to each other like candy.

Some of these are quick to declare themselves victims of one disease or another and keep switching doctors until they find one willing to treat them for whatever disease they can imagine the symptoms for and claim they obviously have. To these people they believe there must be pills available that will correct all their problems and make their lives happy and fulfilling if the doctors will only prescribe them and they take enough of them. They never consider it might be personal choices causing their problems. They don't seem to understand the concept of taking responsiblity for their actions.

When confronted with their irresponsible and sometimes criminal behavior they claim they couldn't help themselves, that they are bi-polar (the designer term for yesterday's manic depressive) or some other psychological illness as an excuse they think should let them off the hook for anti-social or illegal behavior - which is the equivalent to the catch-all absolvent, "the devil made me do it".

They are quick to ask for pills and are always looking for an outside fix to an internal problem. They are also quick to blame others for their behavior as if they have no control over themselves.

Many of these people are also severely overweight from gorging themselves on unhealthy food and driving up the likelihood of health problems at an early age. Some rely heavily on alcohol getting drunk every evening or binge drinking every other day or so. Not all, but a lot of these people are also heavy smokers.

I had a gay cousin who drank a six pack of beer every afternoon/evening before going to bed half drunk. Also a heavy smoker (two packs a day), after years of this behavior he apparently couldn't understand why he developed severe health problems and became miserably ill and debilitated. After suffering escalating health problems for two or three years he died at age 66, angry, depressed, feeling cheated and resentful of others who had so far escaped his fate.

Although I am a liberal progressive and was one of his few close friends who accepted him and loved him, he was unexplainably a big George Bush supporter. He was gay, was not wealthy, relied solely on Social Security and Medicare, and did not benefit in anyway from his support of Bush - yet he apparently held nothing but disdain for all other liberal Democrats - except for me and my wife. Go figure that one!

I'm not sure how to explain this but in almost every case, the people I refer to above as examples represent real people I know of and, as in the case of my cousin, are people who are avid supporters of George Bush and the Republican Party.

Yes, these same people, who all have low income and lean on social programs like Medicare and Medicaid for their healthcare and their drugs, are big Bush supporters. Bush, who proposes to end these programs or limit their effectiveness.

These people who typically have nothing but social security income for support when they can no longer work, throw their support to the man and the political party who would do away with the Social Security program because it's an unfair burden on the wealthy.

These same people who so frequently relied on the bankruptcy court to erase their reckless and irresponsible debt, worship and give their loyal support to the man and the party who changed the law to make it nearly impossible to file bankruptcy no matter what the cause.

And those like my cousin who are gay yet give their allegiance and respect to a president and a party who denounce gays as a threat to society, as sexual perverts, and who want to limit their participation in our society and refuse them equal rights under the law. That confounds me.

These are all apparently proud Americans who are so confused they are siding with and supporting the very people who hold them in disdain, who are denouncing them, limiting their rights and have targeted them for oppression.

No wonder other cultures refer to us as "those crazy Americans."

Thomas Jefferson's Prayer

“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

This was Jefferson's greatest fear for the survival of the nation he helped to create and dearly loved. If Jefferson were alive today he would be appalled at how corporations have seized control of our government and our elected representatives of both major political parties. He would be severely shaken at how the corporations are not only breaking our laws at will but how our laws are being rewritten to serve corporations at the expense and suffering of the people, our environment and our democracy.

Needless to emphasize, Jefferson would hold our present corporate controlled government as reprehensible and a dire threat to our nation's survival. He would be one of this nation's most outspoken critics. How hypocritical of those in power to pretend to honor our nation's founders while destroying the foundations of their most sacred beliefs and their hope for our nation's continued survival.
Our corporate controlled government is at war with the very concept of a free republic, one with a democratic form of government, the very foundation upon which this nation was formed. Free democratic expression is antithetic to the corporate model which strives for complete freedom from any regulation and total domination and control over the corporate workforce and it's production.

When a government is taken over by corporatists it is shaped to become a corporation and is dictated by corporations. Corporatists loudly proclaim their disdain for government and would "like to shrink it to a size it can be drowned in a bathtub", to quote one of their most avidly subsidized lobbyists, Grover Norquist, who parades behind the mask of one who represents the working class. Corporatists like Norquist believe in privatizing every aspect of government services claiming it will save costs and offer more efficient service. But what it really represents to them is profit and power.

Corporate control of government and the goal of expanding opportunities and maximizing profits is a direct cause of our nation interfering in other countries political affairs and going to war. War means huge profits for the right corporations - usually the largest and most greedy. In every case the common people in the effected countries suffer greatly while the corporate class, the most wealthy and influential, profit. The common folks get death, imprisonment and suffering while the corporations and those who cooperate with them share the profits and the spoils.

Greed and the quest for profit and power spawn corruption. Always has, always will. Corporations are corrupt by nature. Anyone who has worked as a corporate officer or in corporate management knows this. Corporate influence and control of government breeds corruption of government. The death of democracy under these conditions is a certainty if corporate dominance is allowed to continue. In order for a free republic and democratic government to survive, corporations must be closely regulated by the nation's government. Corporations cannot control the government. How difficult is that to understand?

In a free republic the government is meant to be a servant of the people - not corporations. And the people are not to be servants of the government - or corporations. The nation was formed for the benefit of the people - not for the sole benefit of corporations.

Elected representatives are supposed to be representatives of the people - not representatives of the government. And the government is supposed to represent the people - not corporations.
Corporations cannot survive as models of democracy and neither can democracies survive as models of a corporation. Governments of free societies cannot become privatized without becoming fascist corporate states.

Without an outcry from individuals like me and you, without public demand for reforms in our election process which allows corporate control and the obscene and criminal influence of corporate lobbyists, we are doomed to lose our free republic status and our democracy. Plain and simple. We will be Enronned and Exonned out of existence. We will be Tysonized and Wal-marted into corporate and class servitude, total slaves of the corporate state.

Jefferson understood this. He saw the dangers of "our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength".

In the face of repression a nation's people are often distressed by the perceived limits of their power as individuals to the point of not being able to perceive it at all. They give up and acquiesce to those in power out of fear of punishment or further repression. They quietly hope things will somehow turn out right, or that God will intervene or that others will fight on their behalf.

What should you do?

Political activism can be a source of inspiration in what it reveals about us, not only from our personal efforts but in what we may discover about related efforts by others with whom we link or cooperate. There is nothing more patriotic than fighting to defend your country, not as a military invader in some political war in a foreign country where you are not wanted.and where the war is simply to further corporate empire and political gain, but to defend your country on your own soil against those who would take us over and subjugate us to their control.

That's where we're at.

To stand up for your country and your fellow countrymen as a personal choice and fight for freedom against those who would repress and control us and those who would steal our nation's future and that of our children's is the highest patriotic act of all.

One you should be willing to die for.

Is Karl Rove more worried about Al Gore than about Hillary Clinton?

There is no question there is a groundswell of chatter and excitement surrounding Al Gore and the possibility of Gore becoming the Democratic nominee in 2008. It's growing stronger every day despite Al Gore's insistence he would not put himself through it again.

Most of us out here still smart from the fact that democracy was severely wounded the day the Republican dominated US Supreme Court rushed to appoint George W Bush over the actual winner of the 2000 election. The Republicans, George W Bush and the media all know who won that election, but they could care less about justice, the constitution and the health of our democracy. They place their self interests above the national interests. To them, like George W Bush allegedly said, our constitution "is just a God damned piece of paper."

Who calls these people Americans? And who calls that #*@!**##! (and I mean that literally) our president?

There is a lot of chatter out there that suggests as long as the Democratic Party puts up a viable candidate the Presidency is theirs. But, to be successful, it has to be a candidate that the Democratic voters, those 50 plus million that voted for Gore in 2000, can get excited about. It has to be a candidate that most represents the mood of the average American regarding the core issues and the current war. After Bush, it has to be someone who represents a real change of direction, not a warmed over version of policies the Bush administration has pursued. It has to be someone who is not handpicked by the entrenched DC party machine who have failed us so miserably over the last six years. It has to be someone chosen by the people - who are best represented by the progressive movement within the party.

That person is not Hillary Clinton, or any of the other current candidates that were for the war before they were against it. It can't be someone who cuddles up to Bush and his administration in the name of cooperative bipartisan spirit. The kiss of death for the Democratic Party and perhaps for this nation would be to nominate a Republican Lite candidate that is trying to woo Republican voters. American voters want change. They want someone who speaks truth to power and does not mince words. They want someone who is a visionary and can point this nation and the world in the right direction regarding issues that are critical to the survival of the planet, of this nation and of our people.

That person has to be Al Gore!

Karl Rove knew in 2004 the candidate he most didn't want to see challenge him, it was Howard Dean. Rove would declare I hope it's Howard Dean because it's my wet dream, but that was a political ploy, a reverse psychology Brer Rabbit ploy, "Please, don't throw me in that thar briar patch." Al Gore knew this as well.

Gore through all his support behind Howard Dean. By doing so Gore also went directly up against the Washington Democratic establishment that had turned their back on him after 2000. But that's not why he did it. He did it because Dean most represented how Gore stood on the issues like Dean's opposition to the war and he felt Dean had the best chance to defeat Bush. That's why he through his full support behind Dean's campaign.

Karl Rove was totally confident in how to campaign against Kerry or any of the others but not how to address Dean. Dean was a maverick. Dean had popular support. People got excited about Howard Dean.

Karl Rove and the Republicans know who they are in more danger of losing to in 2008 and it's not Hillary Clinton, or Joe Biden, or anyone else the Democrats might nominate. It's true they would not relish a Barack Obama or a Brian Schweitzer but either of those possibilities don't seem real to them at this point.

There is only one candidate that the Rove and those who control the Republican party are worried about - and that's Al Gore!

Get your Al Gore fix by reading the recent articles below.

The Comeback Kid http://newyorkmetro.com/news/politics/17065/

Gore's `No' on New Presidential Bid Isn't Final Word for Some http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=ad05GGBHtmW4&refer=us

Could Al Gore Be The Next Nixon? http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2006/05/could-al-gore-be-next-nixon.html

To Run Or Not To Run? - Inside Al Gore's Mind .. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197711,00.html

Warming to Gore - The loser of the 2000 election may yet be the winner. http://www.slate.com/id/2142698/

Has America Become a Criminal Corporate Enterprise?

In view of all the recent revelations of government and corporate corruption one has to wonder about the state of our nation and whether or not we have deluded ourselves into believing we are the great nation we claim to be. When we look closely at the history of America’s covert activity and political and military intervention into the affairs of other nations over the past sixty years it makes any thoughtful person question the truthfulness of our government’s claims and intentions.

Is the view of America held by the people of other nations accurate?

Are we nothing but a nation of corrupt profit-mongers, criminal bullies and flim-flam artists with no respect for the rights and property of other nations or the lives and welfare of their people? Like a neighborhood thug are we running a protection racket shaking down other countries with threats of economic and military punishment if they don’t cooperate? Have we, by way of American corporations, unfairly manipulated the political leadership of these nations to our advantage and at their people’s expense? Have American corporations robbed these undeveloped nations of their natural resources and economic welfare to enrich the American economy and a few powerful and wealthy corporatists? How many of the people of these nations have suffered at the hands of America as we pursue total economic and military dominance of the world all in the name of democracy and freedom while the truth hides in the shadows?

Although the average American responds that we are a Christian nation that has a history of kindness and compassion and they will cite any number of examples, most often our heroic rescues of Europe in WWI and WWII and how we are a beacon of freedom and liberty for oppressed people of all lands. They point to the economic success of South Korea, and of Japan and Germany after the war. (War is good!)

This in fact is why we are in Iraq they will point out – to free this and other mid-east nations from the clutches of dictators like Saddam Hussein, to establish a democracy and an economic paradise like here in America.

They might go on and on citing examples of America’s compassion, generous assistance to others in time of need, selfless sacrifice and bravery all testifying to the greatness that is America, but how much of this greatness has been tarnished by the criminal behavior of America’s leadership both in our government and in the corporate world? How can we continue to say we are a great nation in face of the hypocrisy and corruption of our leadership?

In fact, the distinction between our government leaders and those of the corporate world has become almost nonexistent. The government has become the corporate world’s handmaiden.

This nation’s form of government, originally formed to protect the rights, freedoms and property of individual citizens, has been completely taken over by corporations and those with no sense of national loyalty to America or any other nation. These arrogant and powerful elitists view the people of all nations as chattel, to be utilized and disposed of at will.

There is an unwritten conspiracy, a meeting of the minds that needs no plan or agreement in principal. They all aspire to the same goal of optimal power and wealth and within that desire the means are all the same dictated by the degree of control of a nation’s people, its government and its leadership and the ability to establish or circumvent the laws and rules of that nation that stand in their way.

It’s called capitalism, a good idea as long as a nation’s governing body remains free from improper influence and control by those entities practicing production and trade.

In the corporate view of the capitalist system, individuals and firms have the right to own and use wealth to earn income and to sell and purchase labor for wages with little or no government control. The function of regulating the economy is then achieved mainly through the operation of market forces where prices and profit dictate where and how resources are used and allocated.

However, a nation’s government must have enough control over a capitalistic system, control over the laws and rules of play, to protect the interests of its citizens and the national interests. If this gets out-of-hand the corporations and the wealthy investment class will run roughshod over a nation and its people and engage in criminal behavior to achieve the insatiable goals of ever growing profit, power and control.

Thomas Jefferson recognized this very early in the infancy of our nation and issued this warning to its people, “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

That “trial of strength” and “defiance to the laws of our country” Jefferson warned of is upon us and has been for some time. We as a nation failed to “crush in its birth the aristocracy of its monied corporations”. That’s a fact!

The truth is this nation has almost been completely taken over by corporations. Our democratic model of government has been replaced by a corporate model that is by nature the antithesis of democracy.

Our congressional and senate bodies have been invaded and taken over by corrupt representatives of corporations. These are representatives who only pretend to represent the people of this nation or those who voted for them. These elected positions were bought and paid for by corporations and the majority of those men and women who occupy those seats are beholden to these interests. The majority came from the corporate world, are members of the corporate fraternity, and are first loyal to the corporations who placed them there and only secondarily does a nagging conscience cause them to consider the people’s interests. After all, if they don’t please the campaign donors whose largesse was ultimately responsible for them winning their seat they won’t get repeat contributions to insure reelection. When someone gives you money there is always an expected payoff.

The majority of our courts are now governed by judges placed there by corporate and monied interests. Those who rely on the wealthy and powerful to continue in their positions and to further their financial goals are corrupt by nature, pandering to the wealthy, the influential and well connected.

Corruption and crime in high office has always been with us, in local, state and national government and in business and finance. The nature of capitalism and the opportunity for accumulating private wealth breeds corruption and tempts people to be dishonest. But, corruption seems to exist at an all-time high and is more wide spread than ever in this nation’s history, even greater than the era of the robber barons. It has “trickled down” to all levels of our society even affecting religious bodies and small businesses. It abounds in the heath care industry, in finance and the investment community.

The mortgage industry as an example has been allowed to practice criminal predatory lending and use other rip-off tactics to bilk homeowners. Stock brokers are allowed to practice unlawful insider trading while publicly traded companies pump and dump their stock on the trusting and unwary public who are encouraged to invest in America’s stock market.

What can we do about any of this?

There is hope even though all appears hopeless.

There is a groundswell of discontent rising up in this nation. There is a veil being lifted from the average person’s eyes. The fog of subterfuge that has fooled so many for so long is being burned away by the reality of corruption and lies that has grown too large to remain hidden by the complicit, fawning and pandering corporate owned media.

There is a fast growing progressive movement among the rank and file members of all political persuasions that is rejecting the dishonesty of this corrupt culture that has swept over our nation like a pandemic. Those who call themselves Republicans are breaking ranks with those who call themselves Republicans but who serve only the corporate masters. Conservatives in either political party are breaking ranks with the fanatical fundamentalist Christians who support this corporate culture of corruption and deceit.

Those who call themselves Democrats are waking up to the mass of corporate corruption and deceit within their own party and the hypocrisy of those who talk the peoples talk, but walk the corporate walk.

A good example is the swift growth of progressive organizations like Democracy for America, an off-shoot of Howard Dean’s campaign, and MoveOn.org the amazingly powerful grassroots organization that, along with DFA is taking on the reelection bid of Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman in an effort to chastise him for his support of the Bush war and other issues on the Republican corporate agenda. This is only the beginning.

David Sirota, who will appear on ”The Colbert Report” the night of June 14th,
just released a new book , Hostile Takeover – How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government – And How We Take It Back. In this revealing book Sirota unveils this pandemic of corruption issue by issue and offers a plan to take our country back from the “the aristocracy of our monied corporations” Jefferson warned us of. I encourage each of you to obtain a copy and fortify yourself with the ammunition you need to need to confront your representatives and to argue forcefully for change.

The America we have become is not the America I grew up in and is not the America I want my grandchildren to experience. This is my country and it’s yours. We have a responsibility to this country, to protect it and preserve it.

This government does not belong to corporations and it was not created for the benefit of corporations. Our country is a democratic republic – we our governed by a constitutional democratic body not a corporate style managed system which is the antithesis of a democracy. Big money and corporations have corrupted our democracy and have taken our government from us. They control our treasury and our military, our congress and our senate. Those who sell out to these interests are dabbling in treason.
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This is my country and it’s yours. It is our government, not theirs, and it is the duty of every citizen of this nation to heed the call of Abraham Lincoln to insure that this government “of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.

God, I Miss Paul Wellstone

In the New York Times today it is reported that the government subsidized giant mortgage buyer Fannie Mae must pay $444 million in a settlement over executives manipulating the books to award themselves huge bonuses and parachutes. This comes on the heels of the $125 million settlement that Freddie Mac, its smaller rival, paid regulators in 2003 after it was found to have understated earnings by about $5 billion from 2000 to 2002 to minimize large profit swings.

Investigators cataloged how Fannie Mae repeatedly “violated accounting principles” to show stable earnings and less volatility, allowing executives to show profits that didn’t exist and thereby pay themselves huge unwarranted bonuses.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are settling with the government for the crime of theft by former executives who were quietly allowed to step down and keep their loot they stole from American taxpayers?

Excuse me, isn’t stealing a crime? At what rung on the ladder of success does blue-collar felony crime become simply white collar impropriety or misdemeanor?

Don’t local bank clerks who “violate accounting principles” go to jail for theft? At what corporate level or level of government must one reach to no longer be held accountable for theft? This is just more example of the morass of corruption that permeates the business world and our government.

The Federal National Mortgage Association, nicknamed Fannie Mae, and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation, nicknamed Freddie Mac, have operated since 1968 as government sponsored enterprises (GSEs). This means that, although the two companies are privately owned and operated by shareholders, they are protected financially by the support of the Federal Government. These government protections include access to a line of credit through the U.S. Treasury, exemption from state and local income taxes and exemption from SEC oversight.

Why would our government purposefully exempt this huge cash generating private enterprise, protected from insolvency by American taxpayers, from oversight?

To paraphrase Dana Carvey’s church lady from SNL, “Isn’t that convienient? And who do you think may have caused these executives to steal from American homeowners and taxpayers? Could it be . . . . . . SATAN!

Ohhhh! But never fear, retribution for these criminals is being considered. The Office of Federal Housing and Enterprise Oversight, who stepped in to correct this situation, could call for the company's former executives to return part of their pay package. Ooo-hooo! They might call for the executive crooks to return part of their theft. Maybe – maybe not.

Perhaps the courts should follow this model for local lawbreakers convicted of theft.

So, you stole fifty tires from the Goodyear tire store in Cool Springs? Well, young man, you “violated ownership principles” by taking tires that didn’t belong to you. Okay, we’re gonna let you keep, ohhh say - 30 of them - but you have to return 20 of them – and let that be a lesson to you.

David Sirota, in his bestselling new book,Hostile Takeover,exposes how our government has been taken over by corporations and the stench of corruption that links both. In today’s Baltimore Sun, Sirota addresses government and corporate corruption in an article entitled Money Plus Secrecy Equals Trouble.

“ - the problem is clear: Money mixed with secrecy is the real reason most of the pay-to-play scandals ravaging Capitol Hill are coming out of the appropriations committees. In the corporate world, it is the same thing. Recent headlines document how the CEO of UnitedHealth Group was given $1.6 billion in stock options, the CEO of Pfizer Inc. was given an $83 million pension and the CEO of ExxonMobil Corp. was granted a $400 million retirement package. The Wall Street Journal subsequently found that companies are quietly footing the bill for their executives' taxes. And USA Today reports that over the last five years, at the 60 worst-performing companies in America in terms of their market value, executives have pocketed $12 billion. All of this has raised a question from shareholders: How have these executives been able to raid company treasuries like this with such little fanfare?”

That’s a rhetorical question. It’s because our elected officials that are employed by us to oversee and regulate corporations and government spending are in on the take. They are part of the criminal culture that passes itself off as “working for the benefit of the American people”.

What are we going to do about it? Is the reason we don’t speak out that we are all part of the problem? Are too many of us “on the take” in one fashion or another? Maybe that’s why there is no public outcry and call for justice.

God, I Miss Paul Wellstone.

Al Gore and The Progressive Movement

Amidst all the speculation about whether or not Al Gore will be a candidate in 2008 are a number of clues. One of them is in the abbreviated promotional blurb on the front of the just released book by David Sirota, Hostile Takeover: "Every politically engaged citizen should read this book." ~ Al Gore.

On the back of the cover the list of praise for the book has Al Gore's comment first on the list. "Hostile Takeover makes a strong case that American democracy is under attack. Every politically engaged citizen who wants to know what challenges we face and how we can rebuild our country's democracy should read this book" - Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States.

Inside the book Sirota takes on the corrupt political establishment and pulls no punches. He exposes the flagrant lies, the perpetrators and those that profit from them - both Republicans and Democrats. In this compendium of political and corporate corruption Sirota attacks and exposes the underlying motives of legislation being sold as good for the American workers and taxpayers but in truth serves only corporations, the wealthy and the powerful. He exposes the depth of the corruption and the hypocrisy of those who twist and spin the issues in favor of corporations while hiding the truth, that their legislative action comes at the expense of the working class, low and middle income Americans, those Americans all politicians swear are their main interest. Sirota names names and among those he names and calls to task are prominent Democrats, some being considered as presidential hopefuls in 2008.

What has this got to do with Al Gore and a possible run in 2008?

Recently, while I was hyping Gore as a possible candidate, someone pointed out that Al Gore was a free trader and that it was the Clinton-Gore administration that pushed NAFTA and set the stage for CAFTA. Knowing my position on the free trade agreements and an apparent conflict in my support of Gore, they asked, "why do you think Al Gore has changed his mind?".

I'll explain.

In his book, Sirota takes on NAFTA and CAFTA and the public's opposition to these "free" trade agreements and their effect on American workers, wages, job losses, the environment, etc. My point is, I can't believe Al Gore would recommend this book if he first didn't read it, and second if he was in complete disagreement with any of the salient points, many which expose Democratic sins including those of the Clinton-Gore administration..

It is true that Gore supported NAFTA but he was in favor of agreements that were primarily "fair" trade agreements that are linked to labor and environmental standards, not what we ended up with. And, while I can't speak for Gore's position regarding free trade at this time, I'm sure he has altered his position after seeing the results of NAFTA and I arrive at that conclusion by simply looking at the progressive groups he now stands with and those that support him. I can't imagine Gore is out of sync with these groups on the issue of free trade and other progressive positions.

Besides, one of the most important characteristics of any great leader would be the intellectual ability to process new information, admit mistakes, make adjustments and change directions rather than stubbornly hold a course that was harmful to our nation and its people, and one which the majority of Americans are against. In stark contrast to the current occupant of the oval office, I believe Gore possesses that ability and much more. I feel Gore has had several come-to-the alter experiences beginning in 2000 and since. One of the first was evident in his painfully delivered, courageous and brilliant concession speech, "no matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."

Keep in mind that Al Gore gave his full support to Howard Dean in 2004 and a former Gore staffer, Roy Neel, took the helm of the Dean campaign after Trippi stepped down. Here was Dean's position on free trade at the time.

"NAFTA and the WTO only globalized the rights of multinational corporations, but they did not globalize the rights of workers. They are not going to globalize human rights, environmental rights, the right to organize. That needs to happen. And if it doesn't happen, NAFTA and the WTO simply aren't going to work. Right now, we're exporting jobs.

Globalization is here to stay whether we like it or not, but the rules for globalization are not. Both NAFTA and the WTO help large multinational corporations but ignore the needs for the people who work for them. In order to make globalization work we also have to globalize worker protection, labor rights, environmental rights and human rights. Free trade won't work under the present circumstances.

I supported NAFTA, I supported the WTO. We benefited in Vermont from trade. But in the Midwest, our manufacturing jobs are hemorrhaging. We have to go back and revise every single trade agreement that we have to include labor standards, environmental standards & human rights standards. If we don't, the trade policy that we seek to help globalize and help workers around the country & the world is going to fail."

Either Gore or Dean was exactly what we needed in 2000 and 2004, but we got neither and our country has been in a nose dive ever since, debt going through the roof, massive theft of tax dollars, jobs being eliminated and shipped offshore by corrupt corporations, political corruption on a scale never before witnessed, our constitution shredded, our freedoms trampled, stolen elections and democracy in it's death throes.

But, David Sirota is right, as he states below, there is hope and a reason for optimism. All is not lost. The progressive movement is real and is growing more power each and every day. Howard Dean showed the way in 2004 and Americans are slowly waking up to the hostile takeover of our government by those whose self-serving interests are destroying a nation.

I devoutly believe Al Gore has seen the light and is prepared to accept the mantle of the gallant knight who will lead us toward it. All we have to do is follow Gore's advice, read Sirota's book and come-to-the -alter together in our effort to save our nation.

Also, in his http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/algore2000concessionspeech.html>concession speechon December 13, 2000 , Al Gore said to all Americans but especially those who voted for him, "Some have asked whether I have any regrets and I do have one regret: that I didn't get the chance to stay and fight for the American people over the next four years, especially for those who need burdens lifted and barriers removed, especially for those who feel their voices have not been heard. I heard you and I will not forget."

I don't believe Gore has forgotten. Not for a moment.

Gary

Subscribe to Sirotablog for daily updates and progreeive commentary. http://www.davidsirota.com/

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=58F35103-C702-1D69-C3944D8C17C34CBDThe'>">2006: The Year the Progressive Movement Became a Movement

By David Sirota

There are a lot of reasons to be optimistic these days if you are a progressive. A look accross 2006's campaign landscape shows that our movement is no longer theoretical - it is very real, and increasing in power every single day. But as the Denver Post today notes in a piece about our growing movement (attached below), progressives also face stiff opposition in the form of a corrupt political Establishment desperate to preserve the status quo.

The confrontation brewing between this new movement and the Establishment is not to be downplayed - it is escalating, and it will have profound results that go far beyond just one election.The Denver Post notes that those defending the status quo are, to be sure, entrenched. "Political corruption comes in two varieties," the Post notes. "There are brazen payoffs, and then there is a kind of gooey rot: the venal abandonment of principles, spurred by the favors of corporate lobbyists and the need for campaign cash." Ultimately, "All but the toughest pols and pundits get seduced, and over time, the party establishment starts to stipulate: globalization is a blessing, free trade is sacred, billionaires need tax breaks, job loss is inevitable, workers are expendable, wages will decline, the war in Iraq is necessary."