Make Democracy Money Proof

"At the end of the day, if you could deliver votes to politicians much more cheaply and effectively, in fact close to free,the problems wouldn't go away, but they'd be less severe. We may have a window of opportunity to change the system." [Sean]Parker said

Labor Day in Song

Then
The Rolling Stones, “Salt of the Earth”


Bruce Springsteen, “Youngstown”


Phil Ochs, “The Ballad of Joe Hill”


Woody Guthrie, “Union Burying Ground”


Dolly Parton, “9 to 5”


Joan Baez and Mimi Farina, “Bread and Roses”


Tennessee Ernie Ford, “Sixteen Tons”


Billy Bragg, “There is Power in a Union”


John Lennon, “Working Class Hero”


Pete Seeger, “Solidarity Forever”


Now

The Nightwatchmen "The Union Song"

Twisted

Sanders: GOP plan is 'totally absurd' (CNN)

The Truth is it seems like, the GOP tends to pick on the weak and small, we should be better than that, we can be better than that. Give encouragement to these voices for the weak and small.
contact bernie_sanders@sanders.enews.senate.gov

Saturday Morning County Court Houses March

Welcome to the plutocracy, read or watch

Watch here

I read these two words in a comment to an Opinion article on Health Care Reform

Arbitrary and nebulous, ever know the word you want to say, write, use, but can’t find the word even in your very own mind. Fumbling with words could be a stressing factor, like the stress of our daily grunge of work, or early onset Alzheimer’s that stalls our thoughts from blooming into sensible ideas. Reason happens when proper assessment of the situation in hand, reason happens then proper and good responses result in good outcomes of some pretty bad circumstances sometimes. Without reasonable reactions results of happenings may well be not good at all, like the fights that have been seen in the news during town hall meetings about health care reform. Arbitrary and nebulous, by ones choice the situation gets foggy, out of control arbitrary and nebulous actions lends to some bad results. If we could step back, twenty even fifty years and educate the arbiter, that individual would not suffer from nebulōsus.
I can remember every six months someone in HR was tasked with the duty of searching out a cheaper health insurance for our employees, to keep payroll cost and expenditures to a minimum, keeping our jobs assured for the next six months hopefully. Sometime around year 2001, that health insurance cost had to be a factor in the closing of that textile plant. Cost of an employee’s health insurance is a factor in recruiting prospective employees and maintaining a good employer employee relationship, peace and prosperity for all. So goes the quality of employee, quality of your service or product as goes the wages and benefits. No one can deny the cost of lost jobs coast to coast our nation has suffered, though like Al Gores analogy of the boiling frog syndrome, the waters temperature has yet to reach 200 degrees in our economy. Reaching a turning point that would sustain the desired economic conditions begins with each arbitrary soul it effects. Because they ultimately have to deal with the consequences of understanding the nebulous they formally suffered, before they understood. What is good for my neighbor ultimately is good for me to have my neighbor in good health, or else I myself may suffer his affliction and not be as lucky as one that doesn’t have adequate health insurance for starters. Education and changes is community birthed and raised, mass education not propaganda that makes a man making 45,000 a year think he is rich and wealthy enough that someone entitled to government funded medical care, subsidized housing, and other assistance are taking something from him, but they believe that very lie.

When a veteran, a life long steel mill worker becomes disabled they’re only entitled to the insurance we all pay for through our wages. It is insurance that I, you or them will not go without my basic (it is basic) needs if something bad happens to me that I can no longer provide these basic needs, food, housing, and medical care. A society is only as good as its worst, although some societies have hidden their worst instead of accepting fair blame for them. See online post, stories and comparisons of prison rates per populations of other industrialized countries (societies). Caring that everyone gets a fair and balanced beginning, education, healthy nutrition to grow into adulthood and sustained health care after adulthood is some would call a basic god given right, yet at the same time those very souls would rather you whom may just be down on his luck because of some huge medical cost builds attitudes and general consensus that poor folk are poor for a reason. Like a justice is served they feel it has been written so it must be so, you’re where you are for a reason, period. Don’t bother there will never be reason to that way of thinking, give it up trying, the nebuosis was arbitrary.













Wonder more

The Roving E-mails

I just felt the wind of the missing e-mails from Karl Rove to the Department of Justice, as Greg Palast describes this situation as 'The Big One' our House Judiciary Committee missed big time.

Truthout has the introduction . . .

Greg Palast | The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom Greg Palast writes: "In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Department of Justice liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One.... And the committee members didn't even know it."

The BRAD BLOG has the goods . . .

Palast Exclusive: The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom

. . . .

There's no pride in this. Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the planet --- except the USA --- only because America's news networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d'etat that chose our President in 2004.

And now, not bothering to understand the astonishing revelation in Goodling's confessional, they are missing the real story behind the firing of the US attorneys. It's not about removing prosecutors disloyal to Bush, it's about replacing those who refused to aid the theft of the vote in 2004 with those prepared to burgle it again in 2008.

Now that they have the keys, let's see if they can put them in the right door. The clock is ticking ladies and gents...

(Ed Note: You can easily contact your Congress Members to call and/or email them this information by clicking here. Let them know they need to take action. Now. And feel free to point them towards this article, URL: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=4594)

. . . .

more at The BRAD BLOG

Free the Press!

A wonder of, begins a quest EVEn if answers to be found with no ends

Our way of life, where in we live and breast cancer

http://www.silentspring.org/sciencereview

LA Times article Common chemicals are linked to breast cancer

and

Researchers learn why tar pits are bubbly

Newsweek takes on gender issues for those with issues of those of differences and diversity, thanks for sharing this news, Curtis Via intersexulite.org.

May 21, 2007 NEWSWEEK
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18618970/site/newsweek/

ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE:
The Mystery of Gender

Rethinking Gender: What Makes Us Male or Female?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18618970/site/newsweek/
My Life as a Transgender Politician
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18660657/site/newsweek/
A NASCAR Racer On Her Sex Change
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18619862/site/newsweek/
Alexis Arquette on the Politics of Gender Change
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18615747/site/newsweek/
Journalist Christine Daniels On Her New Life
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18615905/site/newsweek/
Q&A: A Prudential VP on Her Transition
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18617786/site/newsweek/
Live Talk: Rethinking Gender
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18630323/site/newsweek/
Resources for Gender and Transgender Issues
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18629920/site/newsweek/

Culture issues in the news read the Headlines At MoJo Blog

UAE: No Melamine In Food, Please, And No Food On Melamine, Either.

via CLG News of natural wonders

Hundreds of Birds Falling from the Skies Above Florida --Smoke From Wildfires Leave Birds Dazed and Confused 13 May 2007 The clouds of smoke produced by the fire are causing hundreds of birds in Broward and Miami-Dade counties to drop out of the sky or crash into the windows of buildings. Wildlife officials say hundreds of yellow warblers have died.

Tell the Bush Administration to protect polar bears and their critical habitat (Polar Bear SOS) Polar bears are completely dependent on Arctic sea ice to survive, but 80 percent of that ice could be gone in 20 years and all of it by 2040... The Bush Administration's proposal to list the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act is a crucial first step toward ensuring a future for these magnificent Arctic creatures. Yet the administration's proposal does not designate "critical habitat" for protection, even though melting habitat from global warming is the main threat to the polar bear's survival. Send a message urging the Bush Administration to finalize the listing of the polar bear and designate its critical habitat.

Climate change to force mass migration --1bn likely to be displaced by 2050, says report --Environmental factors will exacerbate existing crisis 14 May 2007 A billion people - one in seven people on Earth today - could be forced to leave their homes over the next 50 years as the effects of climate change worsen an already serious migration crisis, a new report from Christian Aid predicts.

Who's your daddy?

It sure as hell an't Bush, nor is he my commander and chief. Lets make this a clear as water, he is commander of the Army and Navy, the military. Not the civilian population, he makes no decider[is there really such a word?] discussions for the public only the military with approval from congress. He stated "the pessimist will be defined", well define this pessimist you dumb shit .... and keep your harassing C-130's to doing the peoples business. Do you want them to know your spending their tax dollars to buzz dissident voices by flying low above their homes in the middle of nights. Do you f***ing know there are about 1000 or more of my neighbors you are putting at risk that actually believe your lies and support your efforts. Leave these innocent people alone, you do not intimidate me. Your efforts are fruitless, a waste and I am only gaining believers. Do you really want that now Mr. Bush? F***'n idiots.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/27/opinion/27wills.html

At Ease, Mr. President

Gary Wills, New York Times, 27 January 2007

[Excerpt]

The president is not the commander in chief of civilians. He is not even commander in chief of National Guard troops unless and until they are federalized. The Constitution is clear on this: "The president shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States."

When Abraham Lincoln took actions based on military considerations, he gave himself the proper title, "commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." That title is rarely — more like never — heard today. It is just "commander in chief," or even "commander in chief of the United States." This reflects the increasing militarization of our politics. The citizenry at large is now thought of as under military discipline. In wartime, it is true, people submit to the national leadership more than in peacetime. The executive branch takes actions in secret, unaccountable to the electorate, to hide its moves from the enemy and protect national secrets. Constitutional shortcuts are taken "for the duration." But those impositions are removed when normal life returns.

But we have not seen normal life in 66 years. The wartime discipline imposed in 1941 has never been lifted, and "the duration" has become the norm. World War II melded into the cold war, with greater secrecy than ever — more classified information, tougher security clearances. And now the cold war has modulated into the war on terrorism.

There has never been an executive branch more fetishistic about secrecy than the Bush-Cheney one. The secrecy has been used to throw a veil over detentions, "renditions," suspension of the Geneva Conventions and of habeas corpus, torture and warrantless wiretaps. We hear again the refrain so common in the other wars — If you knew what we know, you would see how justified all our actions are.

But we can never know what they know. We do not have sufficient clearance.

The glorification of the president as a war leader is registered in numerous and substantial executive aggrandizements; but it is symbolized in other ways that, while small in themselves, dispose the citizenry to accept those aggrandizements. We are reminded, for instance, of the expanded commander in chief status every time a modern president gets off the White House helicopter and returns the salute of marines.

That is an innovation that was begun by Ronald Reagan. Dwight Eisenhower, a real general, knew that the salute is for the uniform, and as president he was not wearing one. An exchange of salutes was out of order. (George Bush came as close as he could to wearing a uniform while president when he landed on the telegenic aircraft carrier in an Air Force flight jacket).

We used to take pride in civilian leadership of the military under the Constitution, a principle that George Washington embraced when he avoided military symbols at Mount Vernon. We are not led — or were not in the past — by caudillos.

Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's prescient last book, "Secrecy," traced the ever-faster-growing secrecy of our government and said that it strikes at the very essence of democracy — accountability of representatives to the people. How can the people hold their representatives to account if they are denied knowledge of what they are doing? Wartime and war analogies are embraced because these justify the secrecy. The representative is accountable to citizens. Soldiers are accountable to their officer. The dynamics are different, and to blend them is to undermine the basic principles of our Constitution.

Wonder declaring a no fly zone over my home.

Clarity

Some clarifying of some of the news you might see, flipping the coin, the other side of the story is always necessary in making good judgments of what to believe. It's just not that simple, but it should be. So here it is, the other side of the story.

VIO Venezuela Weekly News Roundup Friday September 29, 2006

Dear Colleagues,

Please see below for the weekly roundup of Venezuelan news.

***************

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: Scheduled for December 3, 2006

Opponents of President Chavez say he has is receiving unfair publicity in the lead up to the presidential election. Citing his weekly radio and television address, the opposition says he is using his presidential status to campaign for reelection. Meanwhile, opposition candidate, Zulia state Governor Manuel Rosales, has been accused of "including subliminal messages in home state public works ads backing
his candidacy" reports the Associated Press. Allegedly a sign appearing in the background of a TV ad paid for by the Zulia government reads "dare to" — Rosales' presidential campaign slogan, "Dare To Be With Manuel Rosales." Private media outlets are also campaigning for Rosales with favorable daily coverage and commentary.

THE UNITED NATIONS

Over the weekend most news focused on President Chavez' recent trip to New York where he attended the United Nations General Assembly meeting. His remarks in
front of the international body, in which he referred to Bush as the devil,
received a large amount of attention in the mainstream press. Unfortunately, as
The Nation magazine points out, the bulk of his speech, including an "innovative four-point program to renew and reform the UN" was largely ignored. President Chavez' proposal aims to democratize and lend relevance to the UN and was received with loud applause by the general assembly. While many democrats have joined republicans and the mainstream press in condemning the South American president, Senator Tom Harkin said he "can understand the frustration and anger of certain people because of George Bush's policies." In a related article early this week, the Washington Post elaborates and discusses President Chavez' lasting support within the United Nations. You can read a transcript of President Chavez' speech
view it in spanish
and english at http://www.democracyinaction.org

Reports that 7-Eleven will drop CITGO as its gasoline supplier because of President Chavez' remarks about Goerge Bush at the United Nations made national headlines mid-week. Unfortunately most characterized the announcement as political, failing to report 7-Eleven's earlier plans to launch its own brand of fuel and diversify suppliers. Some analysts believe 7-Eleven may be using the political angle to bring in more U.S. consumers, reports the Associated Press. "This has nothing to do with Chavez," said Oil Price Information Service director Tom Kloza. "They (7-Eleven) just didn't want to be tied to one supplier" and CITGO wasn't the cheapest source of fuel. CITGO CEO Felix Rodriguez said "Now they want to exploit all this for political gain, but this is a commercial relationship that is about to end on September 30 as laid out in a contract," signed months ago in July. Reuters reports that 7-Eleven later admitted the decision was made long before President Chavez called Bush a devil.

Foreign Minister of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, returned to New York yesterday to address the United Nations Security Council and asked that it join Venezuela in requesting the United States hand over self-proclaimed terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, wanted by Venezuela after escaping from jail there many years ago. Currently Carriles is being held in the U.S. on unrelated immigration charges and the Venezuelan government's requests for extradition have been repeatedly denied. Among other criminal activities, Carriles is wanted for the bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed dozens of young Cuban athletes. ``The only way to get rid of the scourge of terrorism is to combat it in a truthful manner, however it seems as though for Mr. Bush and the U.S. government that there are good terrorists and bad terrorists,'' the foreign minister said.

INTERVENTION

Tuesday morning news centered around the inappropriate detention of Venezuela's foreign minister on Saturday as he was trying to return home from JFK airport in New York. Nicolas Maduro told Venezuelan television that he was mistreated by airport security officers while being detained for an hour and 40 minutes. His passport and plane ticket were temporarily taken away and he was verbally abused, threatened with being strip-searched, and was ordered to spread his arms and legs to be frisked, he said. Although the State Department issued an official apology US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said the incident was "Venezuelan street theatre" and denied that it ever happened. Currently the United Nations is looking into the incident and has tasked legal expert Nicolas Michel with gathering facts about the incident. "We are trying to work with both the Americans and the Venezuelans to get past this unfortunate incident as quickly as possible," said Stephanie Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

POLITICS & LAW

President Chavez stated this week that army officers responsible for abuses in a mining town in Bolivar state will be held accountable. Six people were found dead last week after the army used "excessive" force with local miners. President Chavez said he will bring the killers to justice and that the country's defense and justice ministries are investigating. ``We know at the very least there was an excessive use of firearms by a group of soldiers,'' Chavez said. ``This government isn't covering up, nor will it cover up any abuse. This is a government that respects human rights.''

In Tuesday's edition of the Miami Herald executive director of the Due Process of Law Foundation writes about article 148 of Venezuela's Penal Code. The title "Venezuelans Harshly Punished If They Insult Chávez", along with many other misleading statements, distort the actual significance of the law and the context in which it was written. To begin with the author wrongly refers to article 147 when he means to discuss article 148. The article, which appears to curtail slanderous statements against the president, is not out of the ordinary in Latin America. In fact, most Latin American nations have similar codes. It is also important to note that the author's claim that "if someone makes similar comments about him [chavez]in Venezuela, this person could be subject to criminal prosecution" is not based on actual practice. In fact, President Chavez is routinely referred to as the devil on Venezuelan television and in public gatherings by individual citizens, yet neither are prosecuted. To date no one has been prosecuted under this article. Finally, the author suggests that Chavez is no advocate of free speech because he didn't veto the law. What he fails to point out however, is that the president was stripped of the veto power long ago with the ratification of the new Constitution, when many asserted that the veto was an undemocratic instrument of presidential power. However, the president did publicly oppose the law and sent it back to the National Assembly to ammend.

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS & COOPERATION

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice discussed U.S. relations with Venezuela earlier this week in a meeting with the New York Post's editorial board. She said that President Chavez could be a destabilizing force in Latin America and that the nonaligned movement was irrelevant.

BUSINESS & ECONOMICS

The Venezuelan government's fiscal plan for 2007 is due to be released shortly. In discussing plans for the upcoming budget, President Chavez said Wednesday that he sees no need to devalue Venezuela's currency and that he wants "to march instead toward a stronger currency."

Eni, a European oil company, is seeking about $830 million in compensation for an oil field that was taken over by the Venezuelan state after the company refused to convert it into a joint venture. Currently Eni is in discussions with Venezuela's state run oil company, PDVSA, to receive a "fair value" for the Dracion field.

Newsday reports today that Houston companies aren't very concerned with President Chavez' remarks about Bush despite national press coverage to the contrary. Many companies in fact, still want to do business in Venezuela. On Thursday over 70 U.S. business executives attended a matchmaking event at the Greater Houston Partnership to learn about opportunities in Venezuela's oil industry. "There is a lot of hype and emphasis on what the president or the government has said, but in reality, the business is as good as it has ever been," said George Nassar, president of Houston-based South Am Corporation.

www.democracyinaction.org

We got to stay on our toes, like today's noon news, no mention whatsoever of the bills that passed sabotaging our own democracy. We have now an imperialist fascist government body that rules over it's populous with scrutiny.

Most Important Must Reads

Published on September 28, 2006 by TruthDig

Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006)
With a smug stroke of his pen, President Bush is set to wipe out a safeguard against illegal imprisonment that has endured as a cornerstone of legal justice since the Magna Carta.
by Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas - Oh dear. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. In Illinois’ Sixth Congressional District, long represented by Henry Hyde, Republican candidate Peter Roskam accused his Democratic opponent, Tammy Duckworth, of planning to “cut and run” on Iraq.

Duckworth is a former Army major and chopper pilot who lost both legs in Iraq after her helicopter got hit by an RPG. “I just could not believe he would say that to me,” said Duckworth, who walks on artificial legs and uses a cane. Every election cycle produces some wincers, but how do you apologize for that one?

Terrorism and the Republican Way
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t Perspective

[snip]

"Yeah, Iraq is fueling extremism but we've been at war with Islamojihadofascistoist extremism since 1979. So, therefore, this isn't new." This was an astonishingly facile sidestep, one that requires a dose of Republican history to frame the issue properly.

And stop by shakespears sister and read this article an editorial from their local news paper, and be sure you do not miss the post on Trent Lott's comments, about "those people".

Wonder if I have ever seen an islamojihadofascistoist extremismist ever before? Lott said they all look the same. How would I know? :)

Skulls and Bones

9500-year-old skulls found in Syria




Maybe one day there will be peace, to find more, 9500 years sorta blows the whole plan now don't it.

Like the sound of heart beat soothes the soul, the truth soothes the mind.

Maybe 'they' would like to stifle the truth. If this is true which it very well maybe, alone with other archaeological finds, it adds to life another question. A life full of hidden, lost, buried knowledge over time. Society rise to civility in trusted hands, time after time the trust has been given to the emotional and not the reasonable. Of whom it is safe to give that of trust.

Most Americans want people living in fear of bombs to know, we did not elect this elite sob x-drunk frat boy and we do not agree with their actions. America has done wrong to this world, in a very bad way. Up to 200,000 innocent civilians dead in Iraq through the invasion. Up to 100 a day now die, most found gagged and bound with wounds from torture. Maybe they do not do it behind prison walls anymore. Our evangelistic leaders have profited from Iraqi blood and organ sales. The military train soldiers to believe they are blessed to do this, almost as your suicide bombers are blessed with heavenly rewards. It is as if they wash their minds of conscience, and fill their heart with hate. In George's name they go, to kill, to torture, to rape and pilfer, what a shame.

A collective unreasonable bunch they are. Capitalist bedding the righteous, filtering monies, using phone banks to charge like multitudes when that just be a few. They fool not only you, when for years built their imagined grandiose selves as gods each day a little grander so as most do not even notice.

We grow from seed, and swear we are made of goldsmiths best so as to sparkle in the sunshine just to weather, dry and die.


Woe Wonder

Takes me back, looking back

Stories told me from returning soldiers that served during Kwati in '91, were stories of loads of cash. Buildings, warehouses full of bundles of US greenbacks.

Chaney told Tim Russert, a peculiar thing to justify this illegal war, Sadam would had been setting on huge amounts of cash~" near where he reminded us the misuse of the sanctions. ....

Just telling, as obvious as it is, they push the lies up front but if you listen close .... maybe they justify the lies with particles of the truth. "What part you don't understand here?" ~Chaney grawl .... Lies, lie, more lies. War is peace, what should we understand other than that is just what Chaney is saying.

Have to give credit where due. He does justify the stay in Iraq, very well, as it is due the people of Iraq a stable society. But how can that be possible now, we have to become financier to another face to police Iraq.

Because our American face has become the oppressors in Iraq, and any oppressors are non-democratic but fascist.

Morning notes, remind us who is really telling the recent past tonight on abc, and takes me back to Arundhati Roy's "War is Peace".

People rarely win wars, governments rarely lose them. People get killed. Governments moult and regroup, hydra-headed. They first use flags to shrink-wrap peoples' minds and suffocate real thought, and then as ceremonial shrouds to cloak the mangled corpses of the willing dead.

President George Bush said, "We're a peaceful nation." America's favourite ambassador, Tony Blair, (who also holds the portfolio of Prime Minister of the UK), echoed him: "We're a peaceful people." So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is Peace.

Back to October 29th in the year 2001.(no registry required, sum) ... Now September 10th 2006 we do know, indeed that war there is peace here so war is indeed peace. We get it, we got it then, more get it now .... "what don't you get?".

Wonder

New Links

Rational thought, logic and real are other words that might describe why real, logical rational people like me really would rather not have a label of Atheist. It is no more than saying to us we are real logical and rational people.

An Atheist Manifesto

and

Why Religious Law is Not the Law of the Land



Not touching Rove Novak or this Harlow but plenty if you search the blogs, both left and right side of the political sphere, yet.