Careerism: the new religion

ca·reer·ism:

Two entries found in dictionary.com:

n: pursuit of professional advancement as one's chief or sole aim

and

n: the practice of advancing your career at the expense of your personal integrity

As a religion, careerism's primary postulate is "furthering one's career is the greatest good".

Careerism explains why there isn't a bigger outcry by our "leaders" (business, military, political, religious) on a lot stuff happening in our world. Why speak out unless it helps advance my career to the next rung up the career ladder?

We are indoctrinated from childhood on to be rewarded by the authority placed in charge of us, and do what that authority expects. (It is up to the us to prove how bright we are by figuring that out ... so the really, really bright ones don't even have to be told ... we absorb it through body language and pats on the head.)

What is so damaging is when some of us realize that the only way we can please the authority appointed over us, is to deny our "selves". So in a given time and place if we are not born with the explicit characteristics of the dominant group, we then have to warp our self-image in order to fit in ... if we want to fit in ... and what is a child supposed to know if they are told what the "truth" is by the all-powerful adults in their lives? Of course as a child we want to fit in and be part of the group having the most fun.

The idea that the United States of America was a place where no matter who or what we were, we could come and fit in ... and strive to achieve the potential of I AM as a human being ... was (and still is) such a powerful dream, a magnent pulling all the aspirations of creative self-realization to our shores ... the incredible creative force of life that pushes blades of grass up through asphalt ...

And now we have a bunch of emotionally stunted (anal retentive?) people like Karl Rove in positions of power ... pissing away the dream, the sense of whom and what we ought to be, in order to advance their careers and those of the people they serve.

Theirs is such a shallow existence, straight-jacketed and pruned ... yes, in every meaning of the word ... don't weep, show anger, lust, excess exuberance ... DO NOT ACT HUMAN IN ANY WAY. Stuff it, deny it, DON'T GO THERE.

Are we such cows that we can be stampeded by the smallest clap of thunder ... or such sheep that we huddle inward, fearful of the slightest danger? Have we, too, become domesticated like lap dogs? To be petted and fawned upon by gutless, lifeless caricatures of leaders?

I mean look at the two poster kids of political careerism, Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton ... McCain goes to Falwell's Liberty University to fawn in front of the very people he not too long ago decried. Clinton panders to the right-wing by supporting the criminalization of flag-burning.

General Hayden, nominated to head the CIA, is a baptised True-Believer in careerism. He even lied to Congress to protect his climb up the ladder.

Where is the integrity of the great leaders of our history? Starting with those who signed our Declaration of Independence below the words:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

Thoughts on McCain speaking at The New School

Senator McCain is the new poster boy for the new religion: careerism, defined as the postulate that furthering one's career is the greatest good. (Hilary Clinton has been the poster girl for awhile now.)

Doing what is necessary to move up another notch on the career ladder is the whadacallit? modus operandi? of this new religion which has become the invisible glue of the corporate lifestyle, constricting the movement of our political leaders as well ... anyone seeking power or wealth as the epitome of human existence. What a crock!

But I digress.

McCain has become a caricature of the hero in our society, and now wants to parlay this "political capital" into a seat in the high stakes game of presidential poker. He doesn't want to be "himself"--fulfilling the potential of his humanness which may or may not include being President--he wants (desperately, I would add) to be PRESIDENT as his ideal fulfillment of self.

When we start examining what that means, "furthering one's career as a fulfillment of self" we begin to see the damage it does to the individual. People cannot be themselves. They must always be the person those in authority will reward.

God, what a mess we are in at the top! Thank god for the young people at The New School. There is hope for a renewal of our humanity.

The Shrine of the Immaculate Evaporation

In the wake of the total disappearance of two nine-foot diameter titanium alloy engines along with the rest of the American Airlines Flight 77 Boeing 757 that crashed into the Pentagon, ministers, priests, and even rabbis (in democratically appropriate alphabetical order) are calling for the creation of The Shrine for the Immaculate Evaporation at the Pentagon. "God has created a holy place," one priest solemnly stated. "Material objects vanished into thin air."

"Events are occurring that can only be explained as acts of Almighty God," a minister said in confirmation of this holiest of events. The rabbi mentioned something about a similar place in the Tabernacle in Jerusalem.

"God is at work here. There is no other explanation," a White House spokesperson intoned.

"The maximum flame temperature increase for burning hydrocarbons (jet fuel) in air is, thus, about 1,000°C—hardly sufficient to melt steel at 1,500°C. "
http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0112/Eagar/Eagar-0112.html

Let alone a titanium alloy ...

Conspiracy theories weird people out

From truthdig.com:

U.S. Releases 9/11 Pentagon Video

Posted on May 16, 2006
Pentagon Burning on 9/11
From the BBC

The Pentagon burns after American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into it on Sept. 11, 2001.

Bowing to a Freedom of Information request, the U.S. government has released a video of American Airlines Flight 77 slamming into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. The group that made the FOIA request did so to dispel conspiracy theories.

My response:

• Comment #9643 by Hilding Lindquist on 5/16 at 6:00 pm

  I think if we get too far into conspiracy theories, we just weird people out.

  We should simply ask for an explanation of what happened to the two titanium alloy engines NINE FEET in diameter that were attached to the plane!

  I mean, MY GOD, somebody should be able to tell us what happened to them ... or explain why they aren’t asking what happened to ‘em.

  JUST TELL US WHAT HAPPENED TO THOSE TWO GOD DAMN ENGINES, FOR CHRISSAKES! Is that asking too much of our vaunted sleuths?

  Then we the people can decide where to go next ... what thread to pull on ... what questions to ask.

  But if nobody can explain what happened to those TWO GOD DAMN NINE FEET IN DIAMETER TITANIUM ALLOY ENGINES, FOR CRISSAKES ... then we got trouble, right there in River City (on the Potomac) ... and that starts with “T” which rhymes with “B” and that stands for “Bush” ... as in “the Bush Family” ... going back a ways.

  I mean, it’s a fact. The engines are missing. And no one has come up with a satsfactory reason as to why they are missing from the crash site ... a jet fuel fire isn’t hot enough to even melt ‘em let alone evaporate ‘em.

  I think we the people should keep pulling on this thread until we find out where it leads or what our pulling unravels.

  http://www.seeloosechange.com

There is a discussion of this topic going on over on Vanity Fair's online forum, V.F. Dish, at:

Loose Change...THIS FREAKED ME OUT!

Do we march to the barricades yet?

This is shaping up to be a pivotal year in our nation's history. Once again our—we the people's—right to freedom of speech will prevail. We are not cowards who huddle fearfully in silent groups on the periphery of politics. No, we jump into the fray when threatened.

Our elected leaders have been running around like a flock of frightened chickens, but that is because they are interested in advancing their careers, not in advancing our principles. I mean, what average person would have put up with the obscene bullying tactics of a Karl Rove for more than ten seconds?

You see, the political class is astounded that a person they call a "nobody" like Joe Wilson would stand up to them for pissing on his wife. They wouldn't stand up because it might hurt their career in politics. It's not strange to anyone in the real world that Wilson became angry about what they did to his wife to get back at him.

I mean, Karl Rove is an emotionally stunted bully who hides behind the power of his rich friend ... this is straight out of junior high schoolyard antics. The kids who always kissed butt to ride in the limo for graduation and get elected class officer, are now our elected leaders ... they just haven't grown up! (An aside: I believe it's because most politicians are lawyers and have never had to "work", instead using the levers of privilege and its power to get ahead.)

It is simply amazing that ANYONE has kowtowed to Rove, let alone anyone with any self-respect. God, what that says about our politicians and MSM (MainStream Media) "talking heads"!

Time and again it has been up to us, we the people, to assert our commitment to preserving our unalienable rights. It is time again.

"Short of having them taken away from us, there is probably no way to fully appreciate the wonder and the glory of our rights and liberties here in the United States, including the right to privacy.

"The Constitution and the elaborate system of checks and balances were meant to protect us against the possibility of a clownish gang of small men and women amassing excessive power and behaving like tyrants or kings. But the normal safeguards have not been working since the Bush crowd came to power, starting with the hijacked presidential election in 2000."

...

"The Bushies will tell you that it is dangerous and even against the law to inquire into these nefarious activities. We just have to trust the king.

"Well, I give you fair warning. This is a road map to totalitarianism. Hallmarks of totalitarian regimes have always included an excessive reliance on secrecy, the deliberate stoking of fear in the general population, a preference for military rather than diplomatic solutions in foreign policy, the promotion of blind patriotism, the denial of human rights, the curtailment of the rule of law, hostility to a free press and the systematic invasion of the privacy of ordinary people.

"There are not enough pretty words in all the world to cover up the damage that George W. Bush has done to his country. If the United States could look at itself in a mirror, it would be both alarmed and ashamed at what it saw."

- Bob Herbert
America the Fearful
NY Times, May 15, 2006

There is something else we can toss into the political grinder. We have the interesting juxtaposing of political power between the overreaching of the Neocons on one hand and, on the other, the Conservative Christians "warning that they will withhold their support [from Republicans] in the midterm elections unless Congress does more to oppose same-sex marriage, obscenity and abortion." (See Conservative Christians Criticize Republicans, by David D. Kirkpatrick, NY Times, May 15, 2006)

Hey, let's get it on! Mix it up! We have an election this fall.

In the name of the Neocons

http://www.seeloosechange.com

I've been watching this storyline develop for a few months now ... and the part that got my attention was the missing titanium engines from the Boeing 757 that supposedly hit the Pentagon ...

This is a fact. They are missing. And no one has come up with a satsfactory reason as to why they are missing from the crash site ...

I think we the people should keep pulling on this thread until we find out where it leads or what our pulling unravels.

In the name of God

Note: Thoughts while commenting on a report by Sunsara Taylor titled,
Fear and Loathing at Philadelphia's BattleCry, on truthdig.com:

Seeing's as how we are tribal mammals ...

There are at least a couple of ways for us old farts to control the young'uns. We can be gatekeepers to the spoils of the hunt and we can be gatekeepers to sex.

So if we figure out a system where experience is worth more than energy, agility, and strength so we can be the boss and can hire, fire and promote ... and be protected while we do so ...

And if we start a religion where the people who have lost their sex-drive through old-age can get young people to feel ashamed of theirs ...

If success in a career becomes more important than fulfilling one's humanness ...

And all this gets internalized over a few thousand years so we don't have a clue as what our humanness really is ... (Like does anyone--what I should have asked is does any Northern European Caucasian male like me--really know what sexual fulfilment is for the human being? When I was growing up, men were still debating whether a woman could have an orgasm.)

C'mon folks, does anyone know what Calvin did in Geneva in the name of God? Look it up, for chrissake.

In the following "Luther" is Martin Luther, and "Calvin" is John Calvin, both historical heroes of Fundamentalist Christianity:

"And Luther and Calvin's intolerance was -- by their own admission -- the fruit of their Bible study. They agreed for instance that the Bible portrayed Jesus as concerned with how individuals could 'inherit eternal life.' Neither did Jesus deny that the laws of Moses remained in force, nor did he admit to his opponents that he had truly violated any of them. Neither did Jesus' command, 'Give to all who ask, asking nothing in return,' constitute practical advice concerning the laws and activity of a nation. So Jesus directed his teachings at individuals, not toward the setting up of laws and the governance of a state. Meanwhile, Paul taught that all rulers (whether Christian or not) were instituted by God and 'did not bear the sword in vain.' That left only the 'laws of Moses' as a list of God's most holy laws for governing a nation." (Emphasis added here.)

...

"The overthrow [in 1555] of the 'Libertines' [which was the name Calvin had given his major political opponents, though they called themselves "The Children of Geneva" -- E.T.B.] had given power to the Consistory, and offenders could now be punished with more success than formerly. Adultery, which, before Calvin's return [to Geneva], was [p. 359] punished only by an imprisonment of some days, or by a trifling fine, was now punished with death. An adulteress was drowned in the Rhone. Thus two citizens of the best families (Heinrich Philip and Jacques le Nevue) were beheaded. [p. 360]…

"There is great beauty in the earnestness with which the authority of parents is defended. In the year 1563, a young girl who had insulted her mother was kept confined, fed on bread and water, and obliged to express her repentance publicly in the church. A peasant boy who had called his mother a devil, and flung a stone at her, was publicly whipped, and suspended by his arms to a gallows as a sign that he deserved death, and was only spared on account of his youth. Another child in 1568, for having struck his parents was beheaded. A lad of sixteen, for having only threatened to strike his mother, was condemned to death; on account of his youth the sentence was softened, and he was only banished, after being publicly whipped, with a halter about his neck. [p. 361]…

"The military ordinance before alluded to declares that… the double crime of adultery should be punished with loss of life: simple adultery was to be punished with the iron-collar; witchcraft with only nineteen days' imprisonment; but the states-register names a great number of individuals who were drowned for this species of crime…"

...

"Calvin felt that he was especially elected to uphold the purity of doctrine… Many facts indeed tend to show that, at the first, any one who opposed the faith, or offended believers, or even ventured to take accused persons under his protection, exposed himself to great annoyances, complaints and processes. [p. 447]…

"Heretical speeches against religions might even place the offender's life in danger. Thus a woman, Copa of Ferrara, was sentenced in 1559 to ask mercy of God and of justice, and to be banished, with the order that she should depart within 24-hours, under pain of losing her head. This sentence was pronounced upon her because she had uttered certain heretical expressions against Calvin, and the directions of the Consistory… Some men who laughed while Calvin was preaching were put in prison for three days, and condemned to ask pardon before the Consistory. Numberless processes of this kind took place. In the two years 1558 and 1559 alone there were 414 such trials. [p. 448]"

- quoted from http://www.edwardtbabinski.us/history/death_penalty.html

And that is one small sampling out of Christianity's history. And the BattleCry folks are saying the rest of us have nothing to fear?

Two thirds of Americans accept the NSA data mining

CNN reported today:

"In a poll taken Thursday, almost two thirds of Americans said it was acceptable for the NSA to collect phone records. When asked if they would be bothered if the NSA had their phone records, Democrats and independents were more likely to be bothered than Republicans. The ABC-Washington Post poll surveyed 502 people by telephone."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/05/12/hayden.ap/index.html

We can thank our founders that we are a republic, governed by the Constitution and laws enacted in accordance with the Constitution. In that respect, I am a conservative.

"To a conservative, the goal of change is less important than the insistence that change be effected with a respect for the rule of law and traditions of society."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative

(See "Am I a progressive conservative?")

If "two thirds of Americans said it was acceptable" to violate the laws of our nation and the Constitution, then we are in deep doo-doo ... and we will continue to lose our moral authority for principled leadership of the world.

Simply google: Echelon Europe NSA and you get:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=echelon+europe+NSA&btnG=Google+Search

Please read:

Europe Blows Whistle on That Great Eavesdropper, the NSA

By Simon Davies, August 4, 1999

Excerpts:

"In time, two vast systems--one designed for national security and one for law enforcement--would merge and, in the process, would cripple national control over surveillance activities.

"The scandal has found its way to Washington. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has ordered the NSA to hand over documents relating to Echelon. The NSA has for the first time in the committee's history refused, claiming attorney-client privilege.

"The standoff may well end the NSA's privileged position. Rep. Bob Barr (R-Ga.), worried by the potential breach of constitutional privacy rights, has introduced an amendment to the fiscal 2000 Intelligence Authorization Act requiring the directors of the CIA and the NSA and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to submit a report outlining the legal standards being employed within project Echelon in order to safeguard the privacy of American citizens.

"The NSA's silence has fueled the present inquiry by the Rome judiciary. The head of the inquiry, Deputy Dist. Atty. Vittorio De Cesare, intends to determine the extent to which the activities of the NSA may breach Italian law.

"Italy's privacy watchdog, Stefano Rodota, has also expressed his concern, and recently told local media, "The U.S. government [has] not replied to the requests for clarifications made explicitly by the European Parliament." Rodota has motivated his fellow privacy commissioners throughout Europe to formally investigate the Echelon system.

"These recent events have left observers contemplating two distressing facts. First, national borders have disintegrated. The NSA and its partner agencies now can intercept any communication worldwide. Second, the distinction between traditional police and security agencies has blurred. The future is without doubt a seamless, borderless, surveillance web that touches all facets of our communication."

"Simon Davies Is a Visiting Fellow in the Computer Security Research Centre in the London School of Economics and Director of the Human Rights Group, Privacy International"

"Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved"

The following comes from:

http://www.fitug.de/debate/9809/msg00322.html

FYI

Rigo


Richard Hornbeck wrote:
>
> Although awareness of the existence of Echelon (NSA interception of all
> electronic communications throughout Europe since WWII) is increasing in the
> States, its significance may not yet be widely understood in Europe. If
> anyone wants cites, or URLs explaining this "amazing feat of technology" and
> the vast privacy implications it triggers, please send your request either
> directly to myself, or to this list (whichever fits this list's e-mail
> etiquette).
>
> Richard Hornbeck
> Electronic Frontiers - Texas
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-politech@vorlon.mit.edu
> [mailto:owner-politech@vorlon.mit.edu] On Behalf Of Declan McCullagh
> Sent: Monday, September 28, 1998 7:23 AM
> To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu
> Subject: FC: European Parliament report accuses NSA of spying
>
> [Imagine that -- a spy agency actually *spying*!]
>
>                                The Baltimore Sun
>
>                   September 19, 1998, Saturday
>
>   Pg. 9A
>
>  NSA listening practices called European 'threat'; European Parliament
> report accuses agency of widespread spying
>
>  Neal Thompson, SUN STAFF
>
>    The National Security Agency has incurred the wrath of some U.S. allies
> and triggered debate about increased global eavesdropping, thanks to a new
> report that accuses the agency of spying on European citizens and
> companies.
>
>    With the help of a listening post in the moors of northern England, NSA
> for nearly a decade has been snatching Europe's electronic communications
> signals, according to a report for the European Parliament.
>
>    "Within Europe, all e-mail, telephone and fax communications are
> routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency,
> transferring all target information to Fort Meade," said the report.
>
>    'Powerful threat'
>
>    It warned that the NSA's tactics represent a "powerful threat to civil
> liberties in Europe" at a time when more communication -- and commerce --
> is conducted electronically.
>
>    A preliminary version of the report circulated overseas in recent
> months, touching off heated debate, with front-page stories in Italy,
> France, Scotland, England, Belgium and even Russia.
>
>    The NSA won't discuss the report or even admit that the listening post
> exists.
>
>    But this week, two days of debate in the European Parliament continued
> the extraordinary public disclosure of comprehensive post-Cold War spying
> by the agency. On Wednesday, the Parliament passed a resolution seeking
> more accountability from such eavesdropping arrangements and more
> assurances that they won't be misused.
>
>    "We want to make sure that somebody's watching them," said Glyn Ford, a
> British member of the European Parliament, the legislative body for the
> 15-member European Union.
>
>    Observers say this was the first time a governmental body has described
> in detail -- and then criticized -- the NSA's tactics.
>
> [...]
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
> To subscribe: send a message to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu with this text:
> subscribe politech
> More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
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None dare call it treason ... again

From USA Today, Updated 5/11/2006 12:30 AM ET

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY

"The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

"The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews."

I read this first over on truthdig.com under The Gravest Assault on Privacy in U.S. History.

What we have now known for some time is that leaders who will sanction this kind of activity will sanction anything to stay in power. "This kind of activity" is a growing list of subversive and radical acts by Neocons mirroring the Nazis. Neocons have violated the spirit and the letter of our Constitution.

We have to start by asking ourselves whether what I just wrote is the truth or is not the truth?

If it is the truth then when will we the people hold them accountable for their criminal -- no -- treasonable acts?

Some earlier posts:

The Neocons are a bunch of thugs

The Cheney/Rumsfeld Doctrine

Folks, this is fascism

The illusion of living well ...

Robert Scheer in "Hayden is the 'Perfect' Pick", truthdig.com, May 9, 2006, writes:

"This ability to accommodate totalitarian values in exchange for career advancement is viewed as a terrific asset by Negroponte, who handpicked Hayden for this new job within hours of Goss’ abrupt resignation. Negroponte, after all, is most infamous for his tenure as ambassador to Honduras during the Reagan years, when he exemplified that administration’s see-no-evil approach to monitoring the malleable military dictatorship’s human rights violations — which included everything from the army’s torture and slaughter of nuns to the regime’s arming and protecting the United States-created Contra guerrillas who were terrorizing civilians in next-door Nicaragua."

We are always wondering how some things happen as if they were choreographed yet we know there was no conspiracy as such.

It's because there are some common beliefs that are widespread enough in our economic calculations that they connect us like nodes in a lattice. Even the smallest vibration is then felt throughout, instantaneously.

One of these beliefs is that by pursuing my own self-interest, I best pursue the interest of the community of which I am a part.

(Please note, I think this is a crock ... )

This is part of the radicalization of human society by the politics of corporate power. As long as those whom I would define as "corporationists" can depend on key employees to pursue their self-interest—defined economically and socially as "their career"—they can expand corporate control over society ... which, by the way, is far from conservative principles in our historical perspective. It is a radical deviation from the founding principles of our nation.

So how does it all get choreographed without overt conspiracy? Everybody looks to the leader. "Corporationists" look for those examples that will best advance their careers within the corporate organizational structure and internalize the attributes of these examples, such as loyalty, secrecy, and obedience. We have been indoctrinated by our system of education—as one aspect of growing up—to face forward and accept the authority of the person at the head of the room. It is a wonder that any of us break off to pursue the creative possibility of our imaginations.

For the corporationists, their belief structure is "proven" by their economic success. This gets us back to the age-old story of Esau who sold his birthright for a pot of porridge. The corporationists are selling our (and their) birthright for the illusion of living well for a generation or two by raping the world of its resources.

This is a discussion thread on Vanity Fair's forum, V.F. Dish at:
http://boards.vanityfair.com/thread.jspa?threadID=15639&tstart=0

Gauntanamo, Abu Ghraib ... Chicago

Gauntanamo, Abu Ghraib ... Chicago

Answer: Torture

Question: What do Gauntanamo, Abu Ghraib, and Chicago have in common?

Get a grip on yourself ... this scandal in Chicago has been going on a long time. The documented beginning for this particular sequence of criminal acts by Chicago police officers is 1971.

1971!!!

Quoting John Conroy, author of the book, Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture:

"[The report on the torture by the police officers] was out in 1990, when we did the story in the Chicago Reader, the first story, and we’ve done more than 100,000 words since. And I think that what's dragged on -- the reason why it's dragged on -- [...] -- is that there is no community outrage. People don't care. As in every society in which people are tortured, there's a torture book class in Chicago. It's African American men, most of them with criminal records. And they’re just beyond the pale of our compassion. We just don't care."

www.democracynow.org, Tuesday, May 9th, 2006
Chicago's Abu Ghraib: UN Committee Against Torture Hears Report on How Police Tortured Over 135 African-American Men Inside Chicago Jails

It's getting sooooooo bad it's downright embarrassing

"If the Bush administration continues to fall apart at this clip, I think we’ll be grateful for incompetence as an excuse." -Molly Ivins, The Best Little Whorehouse in Washington, truthdig.com.

Ain't THAT the truth! I mean, this is getting sooooooo bad it's downright embarrassing. And this guy Hayden has ties to the defense contractor involved in the scandals.
(See http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000581.php )

My gawd! If we were a banana republic we would be at the point where the generals start considering taking things over for the good of the country ...

I've been thinking that the "October Surprise" would be a Cheney-Rumsfeld led maneuver to stay out of prison ... now, I am beginning to think it will be a "patriotic" coup to keep the nation from becoming the laughing-stock of the planet.

Where in the world is Aaron Brown?

Anybody know where Aaron Brown is? I have followed him living in Seattle when he was on KIRO-TV and KING-TV, and then through his stints at ABS World News Now and CNN.

We need him!!!

Did you check the tpmmuckraker.com post on General Hayden?

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/000581.php

"While director of the National Security Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden contracted the services of a top executive at the company at the center of the Cunningham bribery scandal, according to two former employees of the company."

It is gonna be one helluva rocky ride between now and November 7th election ... and Anderson Cooper just doesn't have that ... intelligent sardonic gravitas of Aaron's.

The War on Contraception - NY Times Magazine

truthdig.com:

The [May 7th] N.Y. Times Magazine delivers a devastating, in-depth report on Christian conservatives who “believe that having sex without the intent to procreate is a very, very bad thing"—and on their efforts to make all forms of contraceptives much harder to obtain.

My post in response:

Having been raised a Fundmentalist Christian as a child, I have dealt with the adsurdities of "Biblical" attitudes toward sex all my life ... first because I only knew what I knew as a child, and then as I grew older because I became aware of the contradictions between those attitudes and basic biology. I resolved the contradictions by moving away from childhood religious beliefs.

Now at the end of that journey, I have written a 3-act play that deals with it, HUNTING THE ROAD KILL MOOSE. It has had favorable workshop readings in Hoboken and Montclair, New Jersey, and I am currently planning an extended dramatic presentaion workshop for it off-off-Broadway in the Village.

In the meantime I have made the play available for non-commercial education and discussion purposes on The Blog Lattice ( http://www.bloglattice.org ) at:

http://www.bloglattice.org/Hunting_the_Road_Kill_Moose-Act_I.html

Acts II & III are accessible through the header on Act I (and reciprocally in their headers).

Re: General Hayden ... Dear U.S. Senator ...

Here's the message I have been emailing US Senators:

(Note: Please feel free to cut and past and use. It is less than 400 words and 2500 characters—with spaces—as written.)

---

Dear Senator [fill in the Senator's name]:

If Air Force General Michael Hayden is named by President Bush to replace Porter Goss as head of the CIA, then General Hayden must be asked about misleading Congress.

Quoting Morton Halperin, who was Director of Policy Planning Staff at the State Department and served on the National Security Council under President Clinton:

Reference: http://thinkprogress.org/2006/01/26/hayden-broke-law/

[Start quote]

At the time of his statements, Hayden was fully aware of the presidential order to conduct warrantless domestic spying issued the previous year. But Hayden didn’t feel as though he needed to share that with Congress. Apparently, Hayden believed that he had been legally authorized to conduct the surveillance, but told Congress that he had no authority to do exactly what he was doing. The Fraud and False Statements statute (18 U.S.C. 1001) make Hayden’s misleading statements to Congress illegal.

Hayden’s fate lies with the tale of another spymaster, Nixon-era CIA Director Richard Helms.

Testifying under oath before a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1973, Richard Helms claimed that CIA was not involved in attempts to overthrow Salvador Allende of Chile:

SEN. SYMINGTON: Did you try in the Central Intelligence agency to overthrow the government of Chile?

MR. HELMS: No, sir.

SEN. SYMINGTON: Did you have any money passed to the opponents of Allende?

MR. HELMS: No, sir.

By the time Helms was called to testify again, CIA activities in Chile had become public knowledge. In 1977, Richard Helms pleaded no contest to charges of lying to Congress and served a suspended sentence.

[End quote]

The ethic carved into the marble entrance to CIA Headquarters is: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”. It mandates that CIA analysts are to “tell it like it is” without fear or favor. It is taken from the New Testament of the Bible:

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." -Jonn 8:32

Shouldn't Congress be also seeking the truth?

Sincerely,

[fill in your name]

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You can access your Senator's email message webform at:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Cheers for our side!

Am I a progressive conservative?

"To a conservative, the goal of change is less important than the insistence that change be effected with a respect for the rule of law and traditions of society."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative

"Progressivism is a political phiosophy whose adherents promote public policies that they believe would lead to positive social change."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism

I believe in developing public policies that lead to positive social change while respecting the rule of law and the traditions of our society. I also believe this is best accomplished in a form of government, such as ours, where the ultimate respository of political power rests with we the people, but checks and balances exist on the use of political power such that it never becomes absolute power.

From wikipedia.org at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_power

Arguments against absolute power

British historian philosopher Lord Acton famously said, "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton argued that the concentration of power in any one place — individual, religious, secular, et al — is harmful for all persons involved. (Note that he did not say power corrupts, the more popular version.)

William Pitt the Elder said something similar more than a century earlier. "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it." (The case of John Wilkes, speech in the House of Lords, 1770.) The entire speech can be found in Wikiquotes).

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Mother Teresa:

Do not wait for leaders, do it alone, person to person.

Mahatma Gandhi:

The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle;
pleasure without conscience; wealth without work;
knowledge without character; business without morality;
science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice.

Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi quotations from
http://www.theactivist.co.uk/Quotations.HTM

Peanuts for fuel ... pun intended

"More than a century ago, German engineer Rudolf Diesel designed an engine to burn peanut oil. The green movement and surg ing petroleum costs are reviving the concept. Actress Daryl Hannah has a veggie car. "

That's an excerpt from From a frying pan to the gas tank in today's—Saturday, May 06, 2006—New Jersey Star-Ledger written by Kevin Coughlin, Star-Ledger Staff.

There is a path out of oil addiction if we are willing to take it.

The first thing is to recognize that there are alternatives to the energy that is controlled and distributed by oligarchies.

For oil we have various natural sources including energy-rich sugar that figures into Brazil's energy independence ... as well as used cooking oil from the local fast food joint a la the reference quoted above.

For nuclear we have solar and wind and thermo a la Iceland.

I remember visiting a remote cabin on the Yukon River in Alaska—across the river and a little farther west than Ruby—where the facilities, including a complete wood-working shop with power tools, was run on a combination of wind, water, and solar energy stored in batteries.

Let me give you a hint though ... screwing in energy saving lightbulbs in 3000+ square foot homes with a three car garage is not going to put us on a sustainable path to saving the environment.

But I keep coming back to Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo#.22We_have_met_the_enemy.....22

The sky IS falling!

Bush's administration is collapsing even as we speak.

Rumsfeld was so pathetic in his lying about his lying ... WOW! layers of lies!

I mean the man who called Rummy out was 27-year CIA veteran, Ray McGovern, whose bio is that of an authentic American partiot:

"Ray’s duties at CIA included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’ Daily Brief (PDB). These, the most authoritative genres of intelligence reporting, have been the focus of press reporting on “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq and on what the president was told before 9/11. During the mid-eighties, Ray was one of the senior analysts conducting early morning briefings of the PDB one-on-one with the Vice President, the Secretaries of State and Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs."

From: http://faculty.schreiner.edu/tomwells/ray_mcgovern_bio.htm

There's more good stuff in his bio:

"The department Ray heads at the [Servant Leadership] School deals with the biblical injunction to “speak truth to power,” and this, together with his experience in intelligence analysis, accounts for his various writings and media appearances over the past year. His focus dovetails nicely with the passage carved into the marble entrance to CIA Headquarters: `You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free`—the ethic mandating that CIA analysts were to `tell it like it is` without fear or favor."

Is our nation great or what! Where else would we get a Ray McGovern? This man is a hero!

And Porter Goss ws booted from his job as Director of the CIA so quick it's a wonder he paused in the White House to talk to G.W. If that isn't strange, I don't know what is. I mean to have this occur when there is so much speculation about the tie-ins to ex-Congressman Cunningham's evolving bribery scandal ...

It's getting so bad we are going to have to start questioning G.W.'s ability to govern effectively. I mean, his administration is becoming a world-class embarrassment.

It really is caving in around him ... on him.

Yes, Henny Penny, the sky IS falling ... on President Bush.

Going cold turkey ...

So we were supposed to have cheap gas until we totally ruined the planet? (That’s for those who are complaining about the price of gas ... talk to the Scandinavians. Hell, Norway has all the oil fields it needs and then some ... and their gas in what? twice or more higher than ours even now.)

And I am no oil company appeaser ... but they are quite capable of shooting each other without any help a la their boy Cheney. I mean, $400 million retirement package at a time like this?

The madness in the shadows—accelerating the prices at the pump—is being orchestrated by the financial community, not just the oil companies. As Kevin Phillips pointed out in AMERICAN THEOCRACY, we have become a (should I add “doomed”?) Financial-Insurance-Real Estate dominated economy these days ... and the money is being bet in futures (contracts for future delivery of commoditis) on the price of oil staying up ... which means it will stay up with the rewards syphoned off into the pockets of the oligarchy ... and we the people will get none of the benefits (like public transportation or alternative dispersed energy sources) ... the big money players will continue to invest (with government guarantees) in energy sources they can control.

"All politics is local." - Tip O'Neill

So what are New Jerseyans gonna do about their high property taxes? What CAN we do?

I mean the whole situation here is so bizarre that Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland could be considered non-fiction in New Jersey.

And talk about NOT wanting to talk about the elephant in the room! We have the financial wreckage because of something called the Abbott Decision that skews state budgets into carnival mirror distortions ... and instead of anyone saying, "Wow, don't we look funny!" ... we all nod and wink as if we are the only ones in the know, and by not saying anything, no one will notice the distortion.

As I wrote on April 17th:

I believe it is time to bypass the politicians and start a citizen to citizen discussion about the governance of our great State of New Jersey.

Anyhow, I thought I would google the New Jersey Abbott Decision and start putting some of the information here periodically ... at least a couple of times a month ... like on the 2nd and the 17th.

The search string for today was: "new jersey abbott decision" in Google (I'll expand the search both as to the search string and the search "engine" in future posts.)

I found this citation:

Introduction To "Abbott" In New Jersey“Abbott” is the short-hand description of a series of New Jersey Supreme Court decisions growing out of litigation filed in 1981 in behalf of children ...
www.state.nj.us/njded/abbotts/about/ - 19k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.state.nj.us ]

Every person residing in New Jersey should be familiar with the Abbott Decision because it affects all of us in some manner. We know we are not going to get to that level of familiarity, but we can start the discussion and trust the lattice of citizen connections to spread the information.

Please keep in mind Paul Mulshine's column as you become more familiar with the issue:

" 'There are all kinds of ways that elected officials use the courts to evade responsibility,' said Schoen brod when I called him yesterday. He is the co-author of a book, 'Democracy by Decree,' that focuses on the many ways in which judges and politicians team up to win policies that neither could enact on their own.

"The story of how New Jersey first got its income tax in 1976 is a classic in this genre, said Schoen brod. The chief justice, Richard Hughes, had failed to get an in come tax passed back when he was governor in the 1960s. Once on the court, however, Hughes ordered the schools closed so that Gov. Brendan Byrne could go to the Legislature and win passage of an income tax to solve the 'crisis' his fellow Democrat had created.

" 'I'm convinced the school closing order was put there only because as a politically connected person the judge knew it would be sufficient to change enough votes,' said Scheinbrod."

- Paul Mulshine
• The governor shouldn't let the court govern

Tuesday, April 11, 2006

By the way, after today you will also find me over in the Star-Ledger's online forum chat room, Just Jersey ... my moniker is ncswede.

Colbert Link

And there is an excellent review (and "take") of the "meaning" of the MSM reaction to Colbert and his performance by Chris Durang (along with the complete script of his monologue) on www.huffingtonpost.com at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/ignoring-colbert-part-tw_b_20130.html

At the Tribeca Film Festival

Tribeca Film Festival

The War Tapes at The Tribeca Film Festival.
2006 97 min
Directed By: Deborah Scranton

Tribeca Film Festival
International Documentary Competition
World Premiere

Since Homer's time, artists have struggled with the challenge of how to describe the experience of war. Called up for service in Iraq, several members of the National Guard were given digital video cameras. This astonishing film, edited from their footage, provides an unimaginably vivid perspective on an extremely complex and troubled conflict. - Rowan Riley

The War Tapes website.

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When I Came Home at The Tribeca Film Festival.
2006 70 min
Directed By: Dan Lohaus

Tribeca Film Festival
New York, NY Documentary Feature
World Premiere

Iraq War veteran Herold Noel suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and lives out of his car in Brooklyn. Using Noel's story as a fulcrum, this doc examines the wider issue of homeless U.S. military veterans-from Vietnam to Iraq-who have to fight tooth-and-nail to receive the benefits promised to them by their government. - Nancy Schafer

When I Came Home website.

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The Event
featured on
www.aheadinnyc.com

Truth or Consequences

Frank Rich, returning to the NY Times OpEd page today with "Bush of a Thousand Days", writes,

... the [Iraq] war's failures were manifestly foretold by the [Bush] administration's arrogance and haste during the run-up.

A new defense or press secretary changes nothing. The only person who can try to save the administration from itself in Iraq is the president. He can start telling the truth in the narrow window of time he has left and initiate a candid national conversation about our inevitable exit strategy. Or he can wait for events on the ground in Iraq and political realities at home to do it for him.

There is something wrong with the picture when a self-professed born-again Christian—Bush #43—refuses to 'fess up. People who continually berate the immorality of the left on sexual orientation, a woman's right to choose, the quality of end-of-life, etc., etc., etc. ... seem to have a hard time with "the truth".

The Old Testament commands its adherents to not bear false witness. Jesus commands his followers to seek the truth.

In opposition is Jack Nicholoson's wacko character, Colonel Jessup, from A FEW GOOD MEN, "You can't handle the truth."

Had enough?!

Throw the bums out!

2006
The Year of the People

We have HAD ENOUGH!

An open letter to our elected public servants:

United States Senator Arlen Specter of Pennslyvania asks, "Where is the outrage?" I can tell you where the outrage is by quoting David Sabritt's letter to the Editor of NY Times, published today, Saturday, April 29:

"Many would agree that President Bush lacks the intellect, judgment and engagement with complex public issues that an effective administration needs in its leader. But we miss the point if we simply blame the president for being himself.

"Shame on the political machine that offered us a vacuous and mediocre candidate and marketed him (in both elections) by the manipulation of divisive symbols!

"Shame on those in both parties who lacked the courage, when it was needed, to expose this emperor's nakedness! Shame on all of us for not demanding much, much better!"

I would follow it up with a quote from former Democratic Congressman from Indiana Tim Roemer's OpEd piece, "Enough Already":

"AMERICANS have clearly had enough of the Bush administration's record: 7 in 10 say the nation is headed in the wrong direction."

We the people ARE outraged and

WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!

2006
The Year of the People

Throw the bums out!

Sincerely,
Hilding "Gus" Lindquist

On genocide

As I wrote over on Vanity Fair's forum, V.F. Dish, under the thread "Rallies Will Focus Attention On Darfur Genocide":

I am against genocide and for exposing it wherever it exists.

I was thinking of going to one of the closest Native American reservations (or an enclave of a tribe that has been denied status) and quietly reminding myself of the history of my nation.

This is not to say that what is going on in Darfur is not evil (to use our President's word), but I am afraid that the world has an ongoing example of the benefits of a ruthless policy of genocide, a policy of a people who have yet to be redeemed by remorse, confession, and repentance.

We are not followers of Jesus of the New Testament or Gandhi of our era. We are followers of Joshua of the Old Testament:

But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, [are] consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.

So the people shouted when [the priests] blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

And they utterly destroyed all that [was] in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.

- Joshua 6:19-21

(King James Version of the Old Testament, Bible;
www.blueletterbible.org)

For Jesus taught us:

Judge not, that ye be not judged.

For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam [is] in thine own eye?
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.

-Matthew 7:1-5
(King James Version of the New Testament, Bible;
www.blueletterbible.org)

Links to Vanity Fair:

Home page:
http://www.vanityfair.com/

Forum/V.F. Dish:
http://boards.vanityfair.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1

Message:
http://boards.vanityfair.com/message.jspa?messageID=16892#16892

Note: Vanity Fair's website has a great forum for sharing opinions with others ... and having them read! -ncswede

Coming Event: The October Surprise

"George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history." -Sean Wilentz, "The Worst President in History?", Rolling Stone Magazine

Are we all collectively holding our breath wondering what kind of an October surprise the bozos in the Bush Administration will come up with to keep from losing either the House or the Senate or both on November 7 ... and stay out of prison?

My god, the drumbeat of revelations about the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal, their prized pets—G.W. and Karl Rove—and the token Christian being readied to be thrown to the lions, Condi Rice ...

Starting with the full article referenced above:

The Worst President in History?, by Sean Wilentz, in Rolling Stone Magazine

A Spy Speaks Out, on 60 Minutes, CBS News:

"(CBS) When no weapons of mass destruction surfaced in Iraq, President Bush insisted that all those WMD claims before the war were the result of faulty intelligence. But a former top CIA official, Tyler Drumheller — a 26-year veteran of the agency — has decided to do something CIA officials at his level almost never do: Speak out.

"He tells correspondent Ed Bradley the real failure was not in the intelligence community but in the White House. He says he saw how the Bush administration, time and again, welcomed intelligence that fit the president's determination to go to war and turned a blind eye to intelligence that did not.

Why Iraq Was a Mistake, by Lieut. General Greg Newbold (Ret.), TIME Magazine:

"Two senior military officers are known to have challenged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the planning of the Iraq war. Army General Eric Shinseki publicly dissented and found himself marginalized. Marine Lieut. General Greg Newbold, the Pentagon's top operations officer, voiced his objections internally and then retired, in part out of opposition to the war. Here, for the first time, Newbold goes public with a full-throated critique:"

And Carl Bernstein's outspoken, courageous, and rational call for an investigation to find out the truth:

Senate Hearings on Bush, Now, by Carl Bernstein, Vanity Fair:

"In this VF.com exclusive, a Watergate veteran and Vanity Fair contributing editor calls for bipartisan hearings investigating the Bush presidency. Should Republicans on the Hill take the high road and save themselves come November?"

We the people should never outgrow the demand for the truth from our elected leaders.

Or are we a bunch of cowards? Are we going to sit back while Rummy and Cheney concoct the next plot to take over the government through fear? (What other reason can there be for keeping Rumsfled around, except his loyalty to the Neocon cabal now afraid of landing in prison if they lose the House or the Senate or both in Novemeber?)

It’s simple. We demand the truth. We call and write our elected officials at all levels and tell them, “WE WANT THE TRUTH! AND IF YOU WON’T GIVE IT TO US, WE’LL ELECT SOMEONE WHO WILL!”

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32 (King James Version of the New Testament, http://www.blueletterbible.org)

Or do we buy into the line from the Jack Nicholson's wacko character, Col. Nathan R. Jessep, in A FEW GOOD MEN, "You can't handle the truth!"?

We don't have to violate the law to honor the pledge of our founders:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." - Signers of our Declaration of Independence.

But we do have to exercise our rights as free citizens of the country that still remains the beacon of hope for a free world with liberty and justice for all. Or we could lose it all to a bunch of bozos.

My god, how did an emotionally stunted garden variety schoolyard bully (with a brain) like Karl Rove ever wind up working in our White House for our President? Is everybody at that level of politics so interested in their own selfish goals that they can be picked off like that, one by one? I just shake my head in disbelief every time I read Karl's political history.

The genius of the two is Carl Bernstein ...

Now we know, don't we? Carl Bernstein was the brains behind outing Nixon and the Watergate crooks.

Ol' what's-his-name—Bob Woodward?—was the pretty boy with the connections and a hankering for the bright lights ... lately looking and acting like a deer caught in the head lights ... ain't it kinda strange how G.W. gets that same look?

Anyhow, read "Senate Hearings on Bush, Now" by Carl Bernstein at VANITYFAIR.com ...

Read it NOW!

New Jersey's state government is out of control financially ...

New Jersey's state government is out of control financially. The reason can best be described as "Democrats run amuck." Clearly the Republicans, a la Governor Christie Whitman (1994-2001), didn't help, but the onus is on Democratic Machine Politics.

My up front bona fides are simply that I am a registered Democrat, and have been since moving to New Jersey in September, 2002. And I believe it is up to Democrats to clean house in keeping with the age-old wisdom of removing the log from my own eye before worrying about the sliver in someone else's.

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Matthew 7:3 (KJV)

This is planned as (1.) a continuing series of posts until we have real change or I am unable to continue, and (2.) another voice in the growing chorus of New Jersey's citizens who recognize the need to change the course of our state's government.

Two recent pieces in The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest newspaper, have spurred my efforts here:

An editorial on Sunday, April 16, "It's time to rethink Abbott":

"The state must take responsibility for spending Abbott money in a way that accomplishes the goal of educating children."

And prior to that an OpEd column by Paul Mulshine on Tuesday, April 11, "The governor shouldn't let the court govern":

"The story of how New Jersey first got its income tax in 1976 is a classic in this genre, said Schoenbrod. The chief justice, Richard Hughes, had failed to get an in come tax passed back when he was governor in the 1960s. Once on the court, however, Hughes ordered the schools closed so that Gov. Brendan Byrne could go to the Legislature and win passage of an income tax to solve the "crisis" his fellow Democrat had created."

I believe it is time to bypass the politicians and start a citizen to citizen discussion about the governance of our great State of New Jersey.

From dictionary.com:

gov·er·nance n.

1. The act, process, or power of governing; government: “Regaining a sense of the state is thus an absolute priority, not only for an effective policy against... terrorism, but also for governance itself” (Moorhead Kennedy).
2. The state of being governed.

My illegal immigration "solution set"

1. Bust the employers of illegals. (Have some high-profile arrests and convictions with real sanctions including prison for repeat offenders. These violations are the stuff of sweatshops and child-labor violations.)

2. Secure our borders as much as possible.

3. Enact and enforce whatever additional fair labor laws are needed—including effective national ID in order to work, along with the right to organize as a union without the threat of deportation. (I think the trade-off between being allowed to organize and requiring an effective national ID in order to work would get us the ID we need.)

(Note: My response to those who are worried about national ID's is that passports have been around a long time. I have had one for years. And there are still so many ways to exist in the cash/barter economy below anyone's radar—if you can get along with those around you—that having a way to limit the unscrupulous sweatshop/child labor violaters is worth the trade off—in my opinion.)

4. Provide a humanitarian (but a realistically tough path to citizenship that does not simply grant amnesty) resolution for the workers already here—and who come in the future—who demonstrate a commitment over a reasonable length of time to becoming assimilated.

5. At the end of the day (some rational time period), aggressively deport those illegals who have not met the conditions for living here legally. (I believe effective implementation of 1 through 4 will reduce significantly the number we have to deal with in 5.)

Because of the results of the 1986 legislation (aka amnesty), this time we have to start with tough enforcement against employers and as much securty on our borders as possible. 1 & 2 are absolutely necessary, as well as 5 in time. 3 & 4 should be negotiated as to final resolution.

We cannot succumb to apathy

Too many are saying in their comments and posts that there is no hope. We cannot succumb to apathy.

We cannot succumb for we know that each one of us can imagine what ought to be, and we can struggle to make that oughtness the isness of our existence.

It is in this, the individual's creative awareness of possibility, that we are human. In choosing what ought to be, out of possibility, we are moral creatures. (Choosing not to choose, to simply accept what we are told, is a choice ... as soon as we are aware of what is possible.) In striving (or not striving) to make what we believe ought to be, real, we show character.

We imagine, we choose, and we strive ... positively, negatively, apathetically ... we cannot escape the responsibility of our individual humanness.

While the reasons for my choosing what ought to be, transcend my momentary self in that I consider others whom I care about as well as my future self, I choose by acting in the present. And I am the actor who acts. Even if commanded to act, I have the choice of refusing to act on command.

What the Neocons want us to believe is that if we act individually it is self-defeating, that we must line up behind a leader to have power. I would suggest to you that is also an individual choice. And that by each of us vigorously exercising our autonomy in full view of each other, we discover our collective strength in our common values as well as in the differences we bring to the human community.

The Neocons are a bunch of thugs

Initially written April 11 as comment #6883 in response to Molly Ivins report "The Daily Drip of Special Favors for Special Interests" on truthdig.com.

2006: The Year of the People aka Throw the bums out!

The Neocons use the tactics of a street gang or junior high rich kid playground bully to gain power and we let them! My god, what have we become!

Get a grip, America. The Neocons have no claim on enlightenment. They are a bunch of thugs. Look at their tactics: they reward loyalty and punish disloyalty allowing no dissent, focusing on expanding the power base. I mean they openly say, "If you deviate from the talking points, we will cream you."

There is nothing rational about what is going on in our country. I would amend Lincoln's words as follows: “Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices [AND FEARS] of the people until all wealth is aggregated in few hands and the republic is destroyed.”

We are so afraid of losing our good jobs that we, in fact, are losing our good jobs.

We are so afraid of someone we label undeserving having healthcare that we are losing our own healthcare.

We are so afraid of terrorists that we have become terrorists. (Look up the definition in the dictionary.)

The list of the negative outcomes of our fears is endless, because that is what happens when people are afraid.

We the people have exchanged our birthright of inalienable rights for all, for the porridge of material wealth. The lesson (from the Neocons' Fundamentalist Christian Bible, by the way) is that by doing so, we lose both our rights and our wealth.

You gotta read Jane Hamsher!

You gotta read this ...

Does Fred Hiatt Even Read the Washington Post?
By Jane Hamsher

Posted Sunday, April 9th, 2006 at 2:26 pm on firedoglake.com

Apartheid in the State of Israel?

Intially written on April 9 as comment #6806 in response to a Reports post by Norman Solomon, "Foreclosing a Media Debate on U.S. Policies Toward Israel", on truthdig.com.

Also, read comment #6818 by "Frank - an american Patriot".

Well, here goes!

But seeing as how I am already retired, 67, and with a chronic life-threatening illness ... I am not too worried about the backlash from the Israeli cheering section. In fact, they will probably understand that a little notoriety will merely provide welcome attention at my stage of life, get the blood flowing and prolong my existence.

I read the “working paper by professors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt that was excerpted last month in the London Review of Books.” It made a lot of sense to me and fit my take on the news from the Middle East and elsewhere during my lifetime.

Granted, I’m not a Middle East Scholar. I’m a member of the working class, born a Swedish-American farm boy in Duluth, Minnesota back before World War II and raised by a mother who firmly believed that the establishment of the State of Israel was a sign of the imminent Second Coming of Jesus.

But I’ve read the newspapers all my life and I can’t escape the similarities between the modern State of Israel and the recent history of apartheid in South Africa. And whenever the issue of apartheid is brought up as a yardstick, there doesn’t seem to be a consistent rational discussion from the “Israeli” side of the issue relative to the facts. Rather there seems to be a lot of agitation and yelling of slurs at the person who has the temerity to suggest that we examine the facts. Isn’t that in itself a sure sign that argument is on target and has hit a sore spot? Why don’t those who disagree simply refute the argument?

Another big point to this little ol’ farm boy ... how come we get so excited about everyone having “the bomb” except when Israel got it?

I mean, I am sure the deterence effect of Israel having “the bomb” hasn’t escaped the notice of others in the region. I mean, the deterence effect of North Korea having “the bomb” certainly hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice.

Note: And now we want to toss the nonproliferation treaty overboard for India’s sake?

Somehow this idea of Chosen People of God (the Judaic-Christian God, by the way) having a Manifest Destiny has gone far enough. (Like watching children starve to death as we impose globalization on the world is not exactly my idea of Jesus’s message.)

The message behind the showdown in the Middle East was given by the same God (earlier phase of development?) through Joshua at Jericho:

Joshua 6:21 (King James Version) “And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword”

A religious viewpoint pumped up on the steroids of oil

Initially written on April 9 as comment #6794 in response to to a Ear to the Ground post, "Revving Up for Airstrikes on Iran?",on truthdig.com,
.

Can you hear me now (actually, Kevin Phillips)?

We are expanding the war in the Middle East (rather than, say, North Korea) because of a religious viewpoint pumped up on the steroids of oil:

G.W. is a Messianic True Believer who does not doubt the Fundamentalist Christians literal interpretation of the end times prophesied in the Bible.

He believes in the actual Second Coming of Jesus to straighten out the mess we humans create hear on earth BECAUSE we are unwilling to become born-again Christians. (The corollary view is that the ONLY way to help human beings is to first bring them to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.)

He believes in the final climatic battle between the forces of God vs. the forces of Satan aka good vs. evil in the Battle of Armageddon taking place in the Middle East.

He believes he is ordained by Almighty God (of the Judaic-Christian Bible) to lead us in these troubled end times. (... and that these ARE the end times.)

He believes he has the inherent authority in a time of war to decide what it is we need to do to protect and defend the United States of America.

He believes he cannot allow the Democrats to regain effective control of one or both of the Houses of Congress if it means that the Democrats allow our destruction by not resisting the forces of evil in the world as strongly as he does.

He has already rolled the opposition on the core values that keep us free. (The election of 2000, preemptive war, selected suspension of habeas corpus, torture, circumvention of judicial review of spying on citizens ... )

Where are the men and women who are willing to standup for our founding principles of inalienable human rights and the separation of powers in a republic? Are we going to allow this man--Bush #43--to shred our constitution?

I strongly suggest that everyone reads Kevin Phillips book, AMERICAN THEOCRACY, and get ready for a big event that allows G.W. to impose martial law and suspend habeas corpus.

Coming next: The Battle of Armageddon

Initially written on April 8 as comment #6777 in response to the Ear to the Ground post, Scott Ritter Argues That Iran Poses No Real Threat, on truthdig.com.

To put it bluntly, the Neoconservative Cheney/Bush Administration is headed toward widening the war in the Middle East. Read Seymour M. Hersh's article, "THE IRAN PLANS: Would President Bush go to war to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?", in the coming April 17 issue of The New Yorker and now available on the internet.

The reasons leading to a war with Iran are:

1. We are losing the war in Iraq.
2. The Republicans are in danger of losing one or both Houses of Congress.
3. The Executive Branch of our government has a plan to impose martial law in order to win the war for oil in Mesapotamia and avoid going to prison and the other negative outcomes (for them) of 1 & 2.

Oh yes, and the Messianic vision of George W.—including the Second Coming of Jesus and the end times Battle of Armageddon—fits a concept that is still deeply rooted in the soul of our nation, we have been Chosen by God to fulfil a Manifest Destiny .

My bets? Heavy against the Second Coming and for the Battle of Armageddon.

G.W. and the Separatiton of Powers concept

Written as comment #6729 in response to a Ear to the Ground post, "Bush Channels Nixon in Libby Scandal", on truthdig.com,
posted April 6.

Bush hasn't bought the line of the Neocons about the Imperial President, he is the puppet on the end of the line.

Under the United States of America concept of the separation of powers—written into our Constitution—we the people have assumed that the legislative branch of government—the branch theoretically closest to the people—has the power to set limits on government. This is confirmed in at least it's powers to (1.) override an executive veto and (2.) impeach and thereby remove officials of the executive branch.

The fact that Bush #43 has asserted executive power does not diminish the power of legislative branch. It is the failure of the legislative branch to push back that allows the executive branch to encroach on our freedoms.

Simply put, we need to elect a "push back" Congress. We need Representatives and Senators who understand their responsibilities to we the people who are the real rulers of this nation.

It really is quite simple. The Neocons are an elite group who believe they know what is best for the rest of us ... and that we the people cannot be trusted to choose the right path into the future.

Their use of religion affiliation in a political strategy is designed to tap the loyalty of religious peoples to an authority the religious deem anointed and appointed by God. In this construct the doctrine of adherence to God's Word (His authroity) kicks in, and the believers are exhorted to "stay the course" to receive the blessing of God ... the caveat being that if they don't get it here on earth they will be richly rewarded in Heaven.

The Neocons have consistently rewarded the loyal faithful in order to expand their political power. Think of it as a huge pyramid scheme. In their view, power is the key element. It is the struggle to gain power that is the defining human enterprise ... and if you are unwilling to use the power you have then you do not deserve to have it. And with power, you can work your will.

In terms of the Enlightenment, the Neocons are whacko! They mirror the Nazis.

Born-again Fundamentalist Christians really, really do belief that God ...

Written as comment #6462 in response to Robert Scheer's post, "Anti-Christian Conspirators Slay DeLay", on truthdig.com, April 4.

OK, folks, listen up ... by the way, I speak with a bit of experience here, having been a born-again Christian at an age when I didn't know any better (and which means I was raised a Fundamentalist Christian).

Born-again Fundamentalist Christians really, really do belief that God (a real live creature up in Heaven) is in control of the wealth distribution spigots. That means whatever they get, comes from God. (Believe me, DeLay and the folks around him must have thought they were getting closer to Heaven when all that loot started rolling in!)

Of course, for the "brethren" who ain't getting any, it's the lesson of Job. God is testing you. Stay the course and you will be richly rewarded in Heaven, if not here.

Talk about vestial virgins! Christians want gold. Wealth is the sign of God's favor. I know it is hard to believe from the outside, what with Jesus being their example and such ... but His example soothes the poor, "who we will always have with us." (Can't DO anything about those folks. They'll get theirs later.)

DeLay's faith in God (and pit bull loyality to Fundamentalist Christian Republicanism) has brought him so much success in life, he's not about to start doubting now. It's the same mentality as Bush #43's. Belief in God (and loyality to other professed believers) has turned their lives into roaring successes. DeLay from being a bug exteminator. Bush from being a drunk. They have no psychological strength to question what is now their core belief.

And they were running our nation? And we let them? And Bush still is?

If you haven't read Kevin Phillips, AMERICAN THEOCRACY, yet ... get it and read it. We the people had better get our country back before these idiots self-fulfil the prophecy of the Battle of Armageddon!