Amy Goodman - Corporations Control Political Parties

JOHN KING: I suspect, Amy Goodman, that second to Michael Steele in disappointment tonight is the left in America which found Michael Steele to be controversial and shall we say they welcomed some of the controversies he helped gin up.

AMY GOODMAN: Well I mean when you look at what's happening, the discussion of $400 million Priebus is promising to raise, I mean the discussion of what President Obama will be raising to be reelected, we're talking about something over yes, gasp, $1 billion. It's as if the parties are no longer controlled by political leaders, it's by corporations.

And this is of the gravest concern whether we're talking about you know the changing of the guard in the vice president's office, Bruce Reed, former executive director of the Deficit Commission as they take on Social Security and Medicare. We're talking about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the corporations, whether Republican, whether a Democrat. It's not really about two parties anymore. It's about the big moneyed interests in this country and that's what has to be challenged.

Mark Kelly Talks About His Wife Gabrielle Giffords

from ABC news. Mark Kelly talks about his wife Gabrielle Giffords playing with his wedding ring.

Does she recognize you?

I'm pretty sure she does and certainly today.

What convinced you?

Yesterday in particular she started playing with my wedding ring. So if I hold her hand she'll play with my wedding ring. She'll move it up and down my finger. She'll take it off. She'll put it on her own finger. She'll move it to her thumb, and then she can put it back on my finger. The reason why I know that that means she recognizes me is because she's done that before this accident. She does that all the time.

Michael Moore On Rachel Maddow 01/17/2011 Talks Gun Control

Daniel Ellsberg - The Courage We Need

from The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

The courage we need is not the courage, the fortitude, to be obedient in the service of an unjust war, to help conceal lies, to do our job by a boss who has usurped power in his acting as an outlaw government. It is the courage, at last, to face honestly the truth and the reality of what we are doing in the world, and act responsibly to change it.

Daniel Ellsberg's website

Will Jesse Kelly replace Giffords?

these are dark days people

Keith Olbermann - Violence and Threats Have No Place In Democracy

Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. We need to put the guns down. Just as importantly we need to put the gun metaphors away and permanently.

Left, right, middle - politicians and citizens - sane and insane. This morning in Arizona, this age in which this country would accept  "targeting" of political opponents and putting bullseyes over their faces and of the dangerous blurring between political rallies and gun shows, ended.

This morning in Arizona, this time of the ever-escalating, borderline-ecstatic invocation of violence in fact or in fantasy in our political discourse, closed. It is essential tonight not to demand revenge, but to demand justice; to insist not upon payback against those politicians and commentators who have so irresponsibly brought us to this time of domestic terrorism, but to work to change the minds of them and their supporters - or if those minds tonight are too closed, or if those minds tonight are too unmoved, or if those minds tonight are too triumphant, to make sure by peaceful means that those politicians and commentators and supporters have no further place in our system of government.

If Sarah Palin, whose website put and today scrubbed bullseye targets on 20 Representatives including Gabby Giffords, does not repudiate her own part in amplifying violence and violent imagery in politics, she must be dismissed from politics - she must be repudiated by the members of her own party, and if they fail to do so, each one of them must be judged to have silently defended this tactic that today proved so awfully foretelling, and they must in turn be dismissed by the responsible members of their own party.

If Jesse Kelly, whose campaign against Congresswoman Giffords included an event in which he encouraged his supporters to join him firing machine guns, does not repudiate this, and does not admit that even if it was solely indirectly, or solely coincidentally, it contributed to the black cloud of violence that has envellopped our politics, he must be repudiated by Arizona's Republican Party.

If Congressman Allen West, who during his successful campaign told his supporters that they should make his opponent afraid to come out of his home, does not repudiate those remarks and all other suggestions of violence and forced fear, he should be repudiated by his constituents and the Republican Congressional Caucus.

If Sharron Angle, who spoke of "Second Amendment solutions," does not repudiate that remark and urge her supporters to think anew of the terrible reality of what her words implied, she must be repudiated by her supporters in Nevada.

If the Tea Party leaders who took out of context a Jefferson quote about blood and tyranny and the tree of liberty do not understand - do not understand tonight, now what that really means, and these leaders do not tell their followers to abhor violence and all threat of violence, then those Tea Party leaders must be repudiated by the Republican Party.

If Glenn Beck, who obsesses nearly as strangely as Mr. Loughner did about gold and debt and who wistfully joked about killing Michael Moore, and Bill O'Reilly, who blithely repeated "Tiller the Killer" until the phrase was burned into the minds of his viewers, do not begin their next broadcasts with solemn apologies for ever turning to the death-fantasies and the dreams of bloodlust, for ever having provided just the oxygen to those deep in madness to whom violence is an acceptable solution, then those commentators and the others must be repudiated by their viewers, and by all politicians, and by sponsors, and by the networks that employ them.

And if those of us considered to be "on the left" do not re-dedicate ourselves to our vigilance to eliminate all our own suggestions of violence - how ever inadvertent they might have been then we too deserve the repudiation of the more sober and peaceful of our politicians and our viewers and our networks.

Here, once, in a clumsy metaphor, I made such an unintended statement about the candidacy of then-Senator Clinton. It sounded as if it was a call to physical violence. It was wrong, then. It is even more wrong tonight. I apologize for it again, and I urge politicians and commentators and citizens of every political conviction to use my comment as a means to recognize the insidiousness of violent imagery, that if it can go so easily slip into the comments of one as opposed to violence as me, how easily, how pervasively, how disastrously can it slip into the already-violent or deranged mind?

For tonight we stand at one of the clichéd crossroads of American history. Even if the alleged terrorist Jared Lee Loughner was merely shooting into a political crowd because he wanted to shoot into a political crowd, even if he somehow was unaware who was in the crowd, we have nevertheless  for years been building up to a moment like this.

Assume the details are coincidence. The violence is not. The rhetoric has devolved and descended, past the ugly and past the threatening and past the fantastic and into the imminently murderous.

We will not return to the 1850s, when a pro-slavery Congressman nearly beat to death an anti-slavery Senator; when an anti-slavery madman cut to death with broadswords pro-slavery advocates.

We will not return to the 1960s, when with rationalizations of an insane desire for fame, or of hatred, or of political opposition, a President was assassinated and an ultra-Conservative would-be president was paralyzed, and a leader of peace was murdered on a balcony.
We will not.

Because tonight, what Mrs. Palin, and what Mr. Kelly, and what Congressman West, and what Ms. Angle, and what Mr. Beck, and what Mr. O'Reilly, and what you and I must understand, was that the man who fired today did not fire at a Democratic Congresswoman and her supporters
.
He was not just a mad-man incited by a thousand daily temptations by slightly less-mad-men to do things they would not rationally condone.

He fired today into our liberty and our rights to live and to agree or disagree in safety and in freedom from fear that our support or opposition will cost us our lives or our health or our sense of safety. The bullseye might just as well have been on Mrs. Palin, or Mr. Kelly, or you, or me. The wrong, the horror, would have been - could still be just as real and just as unacceptable.

At a time of such urgency and impact, we as Americans - conservative or liberal - should pour our hearts and souls into politics. We should not - none of us, not Gabby Giffords and not any Conservative - ever have to pour our blood. And every politician and commentator who hints otherwise, or worse still stays silent now, should have no place in our political system, and should be denied that place, not by violence, but by being shunned and ignored.

It is a simple pledge, it is to the point, and it is essential that every American politician and commentator and activist and partisan take it and take it now, I say it first, and freely:

Violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our Democracy, and I apologize for and repudiate any act or any thing in my past that may have even inadvertently encouraged violence. Because for whatever else each of us may be, we all are Americans.

Douchebags In Camouflage Are Not A Good Thing

Does Jesse Kelly look like a RINO (Republican In Name Only)? No, he looks like someone who would have followers that open fire into a crowd of people. He looks like the kind of person who would have been a participant in Collateral Murder. 

"Can we have another fundraiser at the target range, Jesse Kelly?" ~ Eric Fuller, Tucson shooting survivor
  

Afraid of Americans

I suspect David Bowie isn't the only one who is afraid of Americans.

Jesse Kelly was Gabrielle Gifford's congressional opponent in the 2010 midterm elections. The congresswoman was shot in the head in Tucson on Saturday January 8, 2011 by a gunman who opened fire outside a Safeway during a political event. 
 

Sarah Palin's Crosshairs Map

Sarah Palin is an utterly irresponsible and despicable human being!

 

 ...[Sarah Palin] has the crosshairs of a gunsight over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize there's consequences to that action. ~ Congresswoman Giffords

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), said Sunday Gabrielle Giffords told him just a week and a half ago that she was worried about the potential for violence back home:

Gabby did tell me that she was concerned. She did say it's really bad out there, particularly in a district like [hers]. She was very much troubled that Sarah Palin put her in the crosshairs.

Pima County Sheriff, Clarence Dupnik from Democracy Now 01-11-2011:

In my judgment, people who are mentally unstable are very susceptible to the kind of rhetoric that’s going on in our country. And I think that we all have a responsibility to take a look at that. I think it’s sad, the state that America has become, where we have a political system that, in my judgment, is totally broken. And anger plays a large role in the things that are going on. And there are people who play to the anger in our people and who encourage it. 

On Geraldo:

                                                                       

 When you have people like Sharron Angle in Las Vegas running against Harry Reid making outrageous statements such as ‘we may need to resort to taking the 2nd amendment into certain cases’ and for people like Sarah Palin to say ‘we have people like Gabby Giffords in our crossairs’, I think those statements are totally irresponsible and they’re not without consequences and I think we may be seeing the fruit of it here. ~ Sheriff Dupnik

You Barely Hear A Peep

There's been a lot of buzz lately about the thousands of Red-Winged Blackbirds found dead in Arkansas this past weekend. Even Universe Today is taking notice in a piece from January 6, 2011 called, Aflockalypse:

5,000 blackbirds falling dead from the sky in Arkansas; tens of thousands of dead fish in Chesapeake Bay; 50-100 dead birds found strewn in lawns in Sweden; 40,000 dead crabs washed up on England’s shores; 530 penguins, numerous other seabirds, five dolphins, and three giant sea turtles dead in Brazil; 200 American Coots dead on a Texas bridge; hundreds of snapper fish dead in New Zealand. And the list keeps growing.

Were these deaths caused by humans polluting the air, land and water? Perhaps, but each year in the U.S. alone people are directly responsible for the deaths of:

38 million cows and calves, 95 million hogs, 5 million sheep and goats, 278 million turkeys, 20 million ducks, and over 7 billion chickens. Most of these animals are bred, raised and killed on enormous mechanized farms that specialize in one species and house hundreds or thousands of animals at a time. (Deep Vegetarianism, Fox 1999)

And you barely hear a peep about that!

Michael Moore On Bradley Manning

“I want people to see the truth… regardless of who they are… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.” ~ Bradley Manning

from The Rachel Maddow Show 12/21/10

Bradley Manning, the soldier who sits in Quantico tonight. This man has been in solitary confinement for seven months, seven months; and his crime is, his crime, is that he did what they said at Nuremburg we're to do. If you see something happening, especially during wartime, that is illegal, immoral, you have a responsibility as a human being to stand up and say something; and he came across, allegedly, the video of our soldiers firing from a helicopter and murdering two reporters from Reuters along with a bunch of Iraqi civilians. That is being done in my name and with my tax dollars. I want to know when that's going on, and I admire anybody who stands up and tells us that's going on. He should be rewarded, not be in prison.

Leaks don't kill people, secrets do. ~ Michael Moore

What Would Julian Do?

Q: Do you see yourself… as some sort of messianic figure?

JA: Everyone would like to be a messianic figure without dying. We are bringing some important change about what is perceived to be the rights of people who expose abuses by powerful corporations and then to resist censorship attacks after the event. We are also changing the perception of the west. 

Q: You want to change the world?

JA: Absolutely. The world has a lot of problems and they need to be reformed. And we only live once. Every person who has some ability to do something about it, if they are a person of good character, has the duty to try and fix the problems in the environment which they're in.
That is a value, that, yes, comes partly from my temperament. There is also a value that comes from my father, which is that capable, generous men don't create victims, they try and save people from becoming victims. That is what they are tasked to do. If they do not do that they are not worthy of respect or they are not capable.

Right on brother! Not only do generous individuals try and save people from becoming victims, they also try and prevent nonhuman animals from being victimized by man's cruelty and/or ignorance. It's all about reducing the amount of suffering in the world, baby!

As Paul McCartney once said:

Hey Jules, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better...

and that's exactly what Julian Assange is attempting to do. He's taking a corrupt situation and trying to make it better by exposing the injustices and "fucking dishonest bullshit" (to quote the Judy Davis character in Woody Allen's Husbands and Wives) of those who hold a position of power.

To quote another movie, this one from Julian's homeland, Australia...Muriel's Wedding, "You can't stop progress." That's right, the progress of a more just and fair world through openness and transparency.

Bill C-311 Voted Down

In voting down Bill C-311 (The Climate Change Accountability Act), which sought to bring greenhouse gas emissions 25% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, the Canadian federal government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper is saying not only to the Canadian people but to the world that it is okay to pollute and destroy the environment as long as it makes money for the already obesely rich! Is this a good example to set for our children or to the rest of the world, that greed and thoughtless selfishness outweigh any moral responsibility we have to all other beings who share the planet with us now? And what of all those who will come after us? Do we not have an obligation to them to see to it that we don't leave the world in a more polluted and wretched condition than it already is in?

Idling Pickup Trucks

i was at safeway today and when i arrived, there was a man sitting in his oversized male enhancement pickup truck with it running. no, it was not cold outside especially by redneck-central edmonton standards. over 1/2 later when i came out, the man was still sitting in his truck with it running. what is the mindset of someone who first off buys such a gas guzzling monstrosity and secondly has so little regard for clean air that he would leave it idling for no reason other than pure thoughtlessness and laziness!? they might as well just have a bumper sticker (alongside their "support the troops" one and a canadian flag waving majestically in the breeze from their vehicle window as they advertise that canada means oil pollution, cutting down trees, hunting and buying disposable tim horton's coffee cups contibuting to already garbage laden streets and overflowing landfills) that says, "i don't give a shit about the environment"; and the city council in edmonton can't even trouble themselves with implementing a no idling bylaw like so many other municipalities have. even hinton, the hub of mining, has the good sense to pass such a bylaw. if these people love their polluting, cancer causing, child-killing destruction machines (there was a story a few years ago in edmonton about a man in a large pickup, who ran over a small child in a crosswalk because his truck was so big he couldn't see the child) i invite all of them, individually or in groups, to sit inside a garage with their precious truck running and breathe in the shit spewed out that everybody else has to endure outside, for oh say 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and we'll see how much they enjoy it!


unfortunately, far too many edmontonians, albertans and canadians in general act on the guiding principle that if an activity makes money, creates jobs, and stimulates the economy then that action is the morally right thing to do; completely ignoring the far more important point that an action is wrong if it causes harm to other beings who are capable of suffering! or even if a person would pause to consider the kantian categorical imperative which states, always act by that maxim through which you can at the same time (and under similar circumstances i would add) will to become a universal law, we would all live in a far more considerate and cleaner city, country and world.

Uncritical Force of Habit is Ruining Our Planet (a fractured sonnet)

accepting superstitious notions; blindly
making bad decisions based upon
some fatalistic view excusing what we
do. pretending that it isn't wrong
to hunt and kill, 'cause our genetic makeup
built into our brains the way we think;
and therefore justifying (for the sake of
greed or entertainment) every thing
we do; including war, pollution, selfish
gain and other wicked deeds. but what
if there's a kind and thoughtful act pray tell? is
this an aberration...or as much
a part of our inheritance as all those
evil things we nourish, letting grow?

Show Me Something Beautiful

yesterday when i arrived at work there was a lady pulling up "weeds" that were growing in the cracks from behind the building i work in. she came up to me and asked if she could have some water. i thought perhaps she was thirsty and said sure. then she said she wanted the water in order to use it with the poisonous chemicals that she and her partner were going to spray around the building in order to prevent any further growth. for one thing it will not permanently prevent them from growing again and more importantly, what is more harmful, these weeds or carcinogenic chemicals sprayed in the air and on the ground? why must such a health hazardous method be used to remove these plants. i can understand that perhaps some people do not want these weeds growing there. fine, just remove them by picking them. stop poisoning the earth! and because it was a hot day i would have had the back door open and been breathing in this toxic shit.

her partner was at the front of the lot with a gas powered leaf blower, blowing the dust off of the parking lot. not vacuuming it up, blowing it away into the street and elsewhere. how exactly is this cleaning? this is simply pushing the dirt from one area to another and making it someone else's problem to remove if they choose to do so. but the ridiculous thing about it is there is garbage on this lot for weeks on end, thrown there by thoughtless people who don't give a damn about keeping the neighborhood clean. and the vast majority of this garbage is fast food junk garbage eg tim horton's cups and hamburger wrappers...crap that's garbage for the body now it's garbage on the ground. now i will try to do my part by picking up some of the trash in front of the store but why don't these so called "cleaners" pick up the garbage on a daily or even a weekly basis, never mind the dust that's on the lot! yet the most important thing it seemed was to make sure that the dust was blown away by using a polluting, noisy gas powered blower.

then when i got into work there was a tim horton's cup of coffee in the fridge. the person who brings this in is an overweight, diabetic old man who comes in practically everyday simply to hang around a pornography store (yes that's right, i'm the manager of a pornography store) while doing a crossword puzzle. i don't mind a fella coming in and just hanging around but here's the catch...he brings in two cups of tim horton's coffee in disposable cups, in a bag, along with a tim horton's cookie...in another bag. the only person who drinks the other cup of coffee he brings in is a fat man who only works a few shifts a week, the rest of the time it get's dumped out. so now it's a waste of money as well as being just another piece of garbage. he also brings in two copies of the free daily newspaper...more garbage...so that he can do the crossword. he says "one for you and one for me" even though i have told him i do not want this paper (which is another thing that is strewn about the lot as litter). i have told this person, "please do not bring in this coffee, you are only creating unnecessary garbage". he could easily use a reusable cup and use the same bag to put his cookie in but he chooses to disregard the amount of garbage he is responsible for making and dismiss what i say as unimportant and so he brings in two disposable cups (sometimes four if he comes in twice) each day along with his two newspapers (if he wouldn't patronize this free paper, less copies would be printed and there would be less garbage because let's face it most people do not recycle it, it's easier and more convenient to just throw things away). after a month there is already a garbage bag full of just tim horton's coffee cups and bags and this is just from one man! think of the thousands of thoughtless canadians who each day buy coffee in these cups, sometimes using two so they don't burn their little fingers...yet tim horton's is committed to reducing garbage and is concerned about the environment...what public relations ROT! if tim horton's were so concerned about the environment and the amount of garbage they produce they wouldn't even offer these disposable cups to this thoughtless man and the thousands more just like him who show no concern about how much they consume and the resulting garbage they create in our throw away culture and the toll that this is taking on our world. in addition, my goodwill toward this man has been deteriorating over the years because of his not infrequent bigoted, sexist and racist comments as well as his view of nonhuman animals as mere pets or commodities to be exploited and used as we see fit in order to make a profit.

to make a long story even longer. i was already upset with the lady who was going to spray poison around the building and the man who was using a polluting leaf blower to blow dust hither and thither but when i saw the tim horton's cup of coffee left from the day before i freaked. i picked it up and hurled it against the back wall. nobody seemed to give a damn about how polluted the planet is and how personally responsible each one of us is for contributing to that by our everyday actions and the choices we make. all anyone seems to care about is how much money they can make and it doesn't matter who or how many have to suffer in order to achieve that end. everything was fucked up and ugly. i felt powerless to do anything about it and i needed out. i phoned my boss and told him i had to leave.

i had to get away from this ugliness and surround myself with something beautiful, so i drove out to the mountains about six hours away. (yes i drove a car, it pollutes, but i tried to make the most ethical choice for my budget in buying a used 2006 corolla...it gets 44 miles to the gallon on the highway.) i hiked up a mountain ridge amidst the pines and wildflowers and at the top, above the treeline, i was able to have a beautiful panoramic view of glaciers and mountains and breathe in clean air (well as clean as it's going to get these days anyway) while sitting on a jutting rock all by myself. yes, for a few fleeting moments there was beauty and i was able to enjoy some of the ever dwindling bits that still remain in the world. i thought, it's a good thing those "cleaners" aren't here otherwise they might try to poison these lovely wildflowers.

The Virus Of Patriotism - a sonnet

it seems the only real way to be
apart from those who putrefy the world
is understanding everyone who sees
the milk of human kindness being curdled.
you want that i should wave a silly flag
for god and country singing 'tis of thee.
with guns and ammo blazing they will brag;
their heroes make another child bleed.
so wear your ribbon on your pickup truck.
pollute the air, defile the land and sea.
destroy the planet just to make a buck.
not in the name of freedom but for greed.
the patriotic virus shows its face,
as it brings down the "mighty" human race.

If It Weren't For You

if it weren't for you

the world would be a much better place

we could all be proud of the human race

and enjoy a walk in the rain

if it weren't for you

the air would be cleaner all the time

we'd all have what we need even if we didn't have a dime

and avoid living life for gain

the land would belong to everyone

no animals would be our slaves

we'd all stop to consider everybody who would be harmed

by the choices we make

if it weren't for you

we'd be happy getting out of bed each day

stand up to injustice and not be afraid

to show that love is the way

the land would belong to everyone

no animals would be our slaves

we'd all stop to consider everybody who would be harmed

by the choices we make

It's Real Hard to be Free When You are Bought and Sold in the Marketplace

You know, this used to be a hell of a good country. I can't understand what's gone wrong with it.

Man everybody got chicken, that's what happened man. Hey we can't even get into a second-rate hotel, I mean, a second-rate motel, you dig? They think we'd cut their throat. They're scared.

They're not scared of you. They're scared of what you represent to them.

All we represent to them is somebody who needs a haircut.

Oh, no. What you represent to them...is freedom.

What the hell's wrong with freedom man, that's what it's all about.

Oh yeah, that's right. That's what it's all about. But talking about it and being it that's two different things. It's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Don't tell anybody that they're not
free, because they'll get busy killing and maiming to prove to you that they are. They're going to talk to you and talk to you and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's going to scare them.

Well, it don't make them running scared.

No, it makes them dangerous

it doesn't have to be this way

there is a holocaust going on all around us
but we are too wrapped up in conveniences
to care
or even be aware of it

how many animals are used as we please
to serve our whims and 'needs'
how many vehicles pumping poison into the air
and into our bodies

go to work and make money
spend it on luxuries
to make your neighbor envious
to make him covetous of what you've got
and what the others do not

we in the opulent west
accept fast food and car advertisements
as a natural way of life

it doesn't have to be this way
it is so because we've made it
we must stop the madness of property
the lunacy of profit
of ripping others off
capitalism is not fair exchange

there really is only one arrangement
for all people to live in harmony
with one another and the rest of the living world
giving
caring, sharing
believing the truth of concern
for all sentient beings
of existing while causing the least amount of harm

we are creatures capable of guilt
of reflecting upon our actions
perhaps the universe is moral
i don't know
but i know i am
and you are

stop justifying your cruelty
it need not be
that way
today or tomorrow
the dream is this
the larvae and the leopard
the disciple and the shepherd
shall exist together
not in conflict but in unity

it could be if we want it
if we all woke up and got it
it's all really very simple
and the solution is this

what do we need
we can do without this
we can live without that
if one being who is capable of suffering
is suffering
we must lavish attention
with real love and devotion

no one is an outsider
in a closed universe
no one need feel unloved
in a field of blue grama grass
underneath white puffy cumulus clouds
breathing in the unpolluted air

all observances are no longer observed
unquestioned traditions are wholly absurd
that one looks like australia
and that one looks like europe
the whole world is above us
no longer in fear
she is in love with us

it's a vision that could be
it's a way of life that should be
that would be
if we weren't so greedy

some folks live above us
and some of them live below
some people read the tao te ching
but others take longer to know

some people look for love
at the bottom of a bottle of gin
some people find their path
on the road that never lets 'em in

it doesn't have to be this way