Sometimes we just need to read a good piece of writing and one that can also give us hope. This article from a Cleveland paper is one of those.
http://www.freetimes.com/stories/15/39/fives-a-crowd
If you get a chance, please read it. I hope it is fair, because not being from Cleveland, I have not a clue as to what to make of it except that it reads hopeful regarding Dennis' chances of winning the primary on March 4th and then the election for his seat. As you all know, this is vital to the voice we have come to depend on in order to get the word out about what this intelligent man sees as both the problems and the solutions.
I think a bit more money sent his way would be helpful. I think words of support also go a long way. In addition, I think it is fair to say that no matter how you feel now that Dennis is not there in the race trying to make the candidates talk about the real issues, you can see what happens when they don't. It has become a free for all where it is only about the personal attacks and the kind of corrosive baiting and jabbing at each other. That is because we have basically a Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum to choose from. They are so similar in terms of what they stand for that they have already wasted the rare opportunity to talk about therefore what it means to have a woman as president as opposed to a black man. Would that this discussion with all of its interesting historical and intellectual and psychological importance could really take place.
When will there be this opportunity again? And yet they blow it each time. They refuse to see themselves as needing to address the one thing that makes each of their campaigns unique.
In Dennis' case, what made his unique was that he was trying to re-introduce to the American public the importance and the content of the Constitution. Would that we had really listened to him.
But no regrets. We move forward.
Strength through Peace.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Here is one of the problems
Here is one of the problems about the news today and said in his own inimitable way:
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?ml_video=81284
However, it is clear that the problem goes beyond the news business and their ways of tearing down the system of reliable reporting. While Colbert is funny and witty in this spoof of what makes the new news today, he is not wise. Wise would have been to talk about the way the news is not any longer about giving us information we need to make our own minds up but about programming us to think in certain ways. That is what made me so angry last night while watching the president give his awful speech and the poor governor of Kansas have to rebut that with her cliche rich but meaningless set of ideas.
Would that I could have watched Law and Order simultaneous with the president's address. At least loads of my inner violence could have been sublimated into finding the perp and getting him arrested and prosecuted and sent to his just reward.
No, I had to watch the president stand up there smirking away, though the tv crews must have been alerted to be on smirk patrol and hold back showing too many of them, all the while piling up a long list of further lies and innuendoes that had so little resemblance to the truth that his twin daughters appeared there together for the first time to prove to themselve, I think, that they would be right to reject this family. (This is a bit of wishful thinking.) Thinking wishfully though, what a lot of drugs and/or liquor had to have been consumed last night before that performance. Would that we could have a check of the DC water system this morning to see what its alcohol and drug levels are at. Ted Kennedy looked like his forehead was going to explode as the Bush went on about No Child Left Behind. Poor guy and now we trust him to annoint for us another one to go on to do the peoples' business when he didn't have a clue about the president and his trickery. Yikes.
But my most pointed barb is for that governor of Kansas. I hope all of you were in as much pain from listening to her as I was. This woman needs a new speechwriter. She needs someone who lives with blood running in their veins and with some sense of the historical moment in which we are living.
To call Hillary cold and this woman alive is a point worth pondering. I think perhaps she was being tested by the FDA as the next best sleeping potion. Guaranteed to make you want to just check out but permanently. That may be her drawback. Here is a party, the Democratic Party, that wants to inspire more to its ranks and they put up as its rebutter the butt of probably lots of bad but just jokes. I think all of us could have written that speech at some point in our lives and then thrown it away because we would have known just how horrible it was.
Then I think of Dennis Kucinich fighting to be back in the House of Representatives now and I am so upset and scared. I am so sad to see that the world is as evil and nasty as it is. These masters of the universe just don't want to have lots of money in their pockets, they want to have all the money in their pockets. Dennis sees this. They know he knows what they are up to and they want to shut him down.
I am frightened because this country could do something so many good things if we had a leader who understood what the world was truly about and what was needed to make it right. We need someone who has more than a winning smile and who looks good in a suit. Please help Dennis now and contribute to his Congressional race and keep one sane voice there to make this system be what it is supposed to be.
Together we can do this.
Strength through Peace.
http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/?ml_video=81284
However, it is clear that the problem goes beyond the news business and their ways of tearing down the system of reliable reporting. While Colbert is funny and witty in this spoof of what makes the new news today, he is not wise. Wise would have been to talk about the way the news is not any longer about giving us information we need to make our own minds up but about programming us to think in certain ways. That is what made me so angry last night while watching the president give his awful speech and the poor governor of Kansas have to rebut that with her cliche rich but meaningless set of ideas.
Would that I could have watched Law and Order simultaneous with the president's address. At least loads of my inner violence could have been sublimated into finding the perp and getting him arrested and prosecuted and sent to his just reward.
No, I had to watch the president stand up there smirking away, though the tv crews must have been alerted to be on smirk patrol and hold back showing too many of them, all the while piling up a long list of further lies and innuendoes that had so little resemblance to the truth that his twin daughters appeared there together for the first time to prove to themselve, I think, that they would be right to reject this family. (This is a bit of wishful thinking.) Thinking wishfully though, what a lot of drugs and/or liquor had to have been consumed last night before that performance. Would that we could have a check of the DC water system this morning to see what its alcohol and drug levels are at. Ted Kennedy looked like his forehead was going to explode as the Bush went on about No Child Left Behind. Poor guy and now we trust him to annoint for us another one to go on to do the peoples' business when he didn't have a clue about the president and his trickery. Yikes.
But my most pointed barb is for that governor of Kansas. I hope all of you were in as much pain from listening to her as I was. This woman needs a new speechwriter. She needs someone who lives with blood running in their veins and with some sense of the historical moment in which we are living.
To call Hillary cold and this woman alive is a point worth pondering. I think perhaps she was being tested by the FDA as the next best sleeping potion. Guaranteed to make you want to just check out but permanently. That may be her drawback. Here is a party, the Democratic Party, that wants to inspire more to its ranks and they put up as its rebutter the butt of probably lots of bad but just jokes. I think all of us could have written that speech at some point in our lives and then thrown it away because we would have known just how horrible it was.
Then I think of Dennis Kucinich fighting to be back in the House of Representatives now and I am so upset and scared. I am so sad to see that the world is as evil and nasty as it is. These masters of the universe just don't want to have lots of money in their pockets, they want to have all the money in their pockets. Dennis sees this. They know he knows what they are up to and they want to shut him down.
I am frightened because this country could do something so many good things if we had a leader who understood what the world was truly about and what was needed to make it right. We need someone who has more than a winning smile and who looks good in a suit. Please help Dennis now and contribute to his Congressional race and keep one sane voice there to make this system be what it is supposed to be.
Together we can do this.
Strength through Peace.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
It ain't over till it's over
It may seem as if the fight is over but not by a long shot. I know that Dennis' campaign began to seem like too long a shot given what he has to face in Cleveland in order to retain his seat in Congress. But for many of us who have stood with him because he made us see exactly what was possible, there is no end in sight as far as I can tell. I shall certainly be here as often as I can be dishing out the same kind of stuff I was going into before only not just in response to his and our hopes for his successful bid to be President 44. That may have to wait a bit.
However, there is some awfully good news afoot as far as I can tell. The waters are parting a bit and there are people stepping up to do their bit and to keep on moving the impeachment call further along. It is work that must be done.
If you have not yet done it, go to afterdowningstreet.org and sign on there to lend your voice and to see what all is cooking in terms of impeachment. If you live in Maine, check out the truly progressive candidate you have there, Laurie Dobson and sign on with her and help her out. If you know of other candidates who are trying to break the mold and get those who understand what the consitution means elected, then get in there and help them too.
Our lives are too short to be tied up this way. Let us clean out the mess that has been made so that when we elect a new president, whoever it is understands that we will all be watching and the crimes committed on the last watch will not be tolerated.
This is the word now. It must be gotten out there and the work is tremendous but so necessary. No good will be done until the impeachment process is completed.
Write to everyone and tell them so. Now. Today.
Strength through Peace.
However, there is some awfully good news afoot as far as I can tell. The waters are parting a bit and there are people stepping up to do their bit and to keep on moving the impeachment call further along. It is work that must be done.
If you have not yet done it, go to afterdowningstreet.org and sign on there to lend your voice and to see what all is cooking in terms of impeachment. If you live in Maine, check out the truly progressive candidate you have there, Laurie Dobson and sign on with her and help her out. If you know of other candidates who are trying to break the mold and get those who understand what the consitution means elected, then get in there and help them too.
Our lives are too short to be tied up this way. Let us clean out the mess that has been made so that when we elect a new president, whoever it is understands that we will all be watching and the crimes committed on the last watch will not be tolerated.
This is the word now. It must be gotten out there and the work is tremendous but so necessary. No good will be done until the impeachment process is completed.
Write to everyone and tell them so. Now. Today.
Strength through Peace.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Question is Still the Same
And now the answers become clearer and clearer. Are you keeping up with the Sibel Edmonds case? Do you remember her? She is the FBI translator who discovered that a number, a large number in fact, of our most trusted public servants have been selling nuclear secrets to some of the countries we say we want to see disarm. I know, this is truly an Alice in Wonderland world we live in but please bear with me as I go further into the rabbit hole to extrude some of the choicest findings I have.
First, we have this woman whose case has been ignored for at least 5 years now. The Times of London has printed up some of the choicier tidbits. We have read all over the place about her and her troubles on our behalf. Then we start to see the connections between her case, the Valerie Plame Wilson case and the rising tide of illicit and unsavory details of certain persons lives come spilling out to the point that they must resign from office or find another means of employment that keeps them closer to their families.
Then we have this other piece of news today, though not news to those who have been keeping up with Congressman Kucinich. Now we know, sort of, how often the administration lied in its run up to the war in Iraq. We still don't hear anyone other than the usual suspects calling for the impeachment and maybe now we know why it is off the table. Maybe it is true as so many of us have been thinking that the only reason to keep it off the table is that people are worried about their own skins.
Perhaps as Sibel Edmonds relates, there has been lots of illegal wiretapping going on and that is why some members of Congress would rather not do anything to fire any flames of anomisity. I mean, if there were a possibility of a leaked wiretap that exposed something you really didn't want anyone to know, then what are your options but to keep lots of things off the table.
I know this all makes me sound like this huge conspiracy nut, but stop for a moment and think about the irrational behavior as we observe it and ask yourself, if I were a member of the Congress and could make history and make this administration accountable for the death and destruction that they are culpable for, wouldn't I want to make sure that happened? What would really stand in my way? Certainly not some vague notion of more important business and the threat of not enough time.
Let us ask them, for certainly there is no harm in that.
And let us ask the media who control not just the public airwaves but also some of the larger military contractors what they would have to lose if Dennis Kucinich were president?
Perhaps you have some better answers. Perhaps you too have insights into this whole mess that can straighten it out and explain to the populace why the biggest criminals on the face of the earth right now are walking around with so much power?
Please explain will be the title of my blog. Until then, please remember,
Strength through Peace.
First, we have this woman whose case has been ignored for at least 5 years now. The Times of London has printed up some of the choicier tidbits. We have read all over the place about her and her troubles on our behalf. Then we start to see the connections between her case, the Valerie Plame Wilson case and the rising tide of illicit and unsavory details of certain persons lives come spilling out to the point that they must resign from office or find another means of employment that keeps them closer to their families.
Then we have this other piece of news today, though not news to those who have been keeping up with Congressman Kucinich. Now we know, sort of, how often the administration lied in its run up to the war in Iraq. We still don't hear anyone other than the usual suspects calling for the impeachment and maybe now we know why it is off the table. Maybe it is true as so many of us have been thinking that the only reason to keep it off the table is that people are worried about their own skins.
Perhaps as Sibel Edmonds relates, there has been lots of illegal wiretapping going on and that is why some members of Congress would rather not do anything to fire any flames of anomisity. I mean, if there were a possibility of a leaked wiretap that exposed something you really didn't want anyone to know, then what are your options but to keep lots of things off the table.
I know this all makes me sound like this huge conspiracy nut, but stop for a moment and think about the irrational behavior as we observe it and ask yourself, if I were a member of the Congress and could make history and make this administration accountable for the death and destruction that they are culpable for, wouldn't I want to make sure that happened? What would really stand in my way? Certainly not some vague notion of more important business and the threat of not enough time.
Let us ask them, for certainly there is no harm in that.
And let us ask the media who control not just the public airwaves but also some of the larger military contractors what they would have to lose if Dennis Kucinich were president?
Perhaps you have some better answers. Perhaps you too have insights into this whole mess that can straighten it out and explain to the populace why the biggest criminals on the face of the earth right now are walking around with so much power?
Please explain will be the title of my blog. Until then, please remember,
Strength through Peace.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
There is so much to report on today
Leaving aside the ridiculous free-for-all that Dennis was excluded from last night and turning to more positive news, let's begin with the thought that impeachment is gaining ground. Take a look at yesterday's Common Dreams.org and you will see an article by Marjorie Cohn about it and also and even more important, there are the names and telephone numbers of all members of the House Judiciary Committee, pick up the phones and begin to call and leave a message.
Second, there is this wonderful video of an interview with Elizabeth:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1320493559993974997
For close to 30 minutes you have Elizabeth Kucinich laying out the entire program her husband would enact once he is elected president. It is a very telling video in that Elizabeth Kucinich sees no need to lambast peoples' personalities but to take to task the very structures in this government which are not working in service to the people who elected these officials. And for good measure, she continues the critique many are making of the selling out of the DLC leadership to the corporate interests that have also infected the Republican Party as well. Her voice is a refreshing retelling of what a Kucinich presidency would mean to all of us. I urge you all to watch it.
More from me later about the Congressman's reactions to the exclusion from the debates and a discussion in my own mind of why those who feel that the media are not engaged in a form of conspiracy are only fooling themselves, trying to rid themselves of the nightmare times in which we live.
And I am going back into that Common Dreams article to get the quote from one of the responders to the kind of grit that Kucinich displays by hanging in and not giving up.
Strength through Peace.
Second, there is this wonderful video of an interview with Elizabeth:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1320493559993974997
For close to 30 minutes you have Elizabeth Kucinich laying out the entire program her husband would enact once he is elected president. It is a very telling video in that Elizabeth Kucinich sees no need to lambast peoples' personalities but to take to task the very structures in this government which are not working in service to the people who elected these officials. And for good measure, she continues the critique many are making of the selling out of the DLC leadership to the corporate interests that have also infected the Republican Party as well. Her voice is a refreshing retelling of what a Kucinich presidency would mean to all of us. I urge you all to watch it.
More from me later about the Congressman's reactions to the exclusion from the debates and a discussion in my own mind of why those who feel that the media are not engaged in a form of conspiracy are only fooling themselves, trying to rid themselves of the nightmare times in which we live.
And I am going back into that Common Dreams article to get the quote from one of the responders to the kind of grit that Kucinich displays by hanging in and not giving up.
Strength through Peace.
Monday, January 21, 2008
History of War No More
Thanks to this blog's good friend, Brenda O'Connor, here is a link to a speech made by Dennis before the vote leading to war with Iraq. Read this and you too shall weep:
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2002/10/03_kucinich_vote-no.htm
I am sure when you look at this speech and how Kucinich went through the resolution point by point in order to make clear to all of us that there was no basis for voting for that war that he made it also clear to all who took the time to read the war resolution, that there was no basis for war at all.
In fact, according to my reading of it, there was never a cause to go to war with Iraq in the 1990's but that is another discussion for another time. What we do know is that within that war resolution was all the misinformation that was gathered by this administration, what amounts to a large portion of lies, used to dupe a nation into believing that Iraq was a co-sponsor of what happened on September 11, 2001, that Iraq was in pursuit of means to further inflict damage on this country and others in its own geographic region and that Iraq's willingness to do that was a clear call for the US to take on a unilateral position of punishing them, in effect, for violoating UN resolutions.
What can one say when you read this speech? How much more information and cause do you need to do two very important things: 1. Impeach the vice president and president for lying to this nation about the reasons for going to war and 2. Elect Dennis Kucinich for president.
Brendan O'Connor has made some more interesting suggestions about what can be done to put the word out about why Dennis was excluded from the debates, 4 now in total. Perhaps it would just be good if we could just get a call out to people to go to his dennis4president.com website where all the Congressman's responses can be found and where as well, it is clear from what he says that this is truly about the corporate drive to ambush anyone who dares to disagree with their goals.
Would that it were true that the whole system could be played as fair as we are promised it is. We know of voter fraud and we know of how the machines can be rigged. Yet, do we see much discussion of this in the mainstream press? Of course not, why would they want to discuss the means by which they are complicit in rigging the votes? It is not a surprise to me that they have turned this whole election cycle into a horse race. That is how they deem it should be discussed and that is how it is discussed. Just as they blame us for needing to dumb down the news, when most Americans vote against such a tactic, they blame us for needing these "better" machines to register the votes because the people in some counties in Florida in 2000 could not mark their ballots correctly.
Blame is very easy to pass around for all kinds of problems in this country and yet we seem inevitably to blame the victim no matter which way we turn. You have a say in how these things will turn out and must exercise that option every day. You must talk up Dennis Kucinich's platforms and plans. You must describe to your friends, co-workers and family why there has to be a real choice of candidates and not ones decided by the corporate powers that be whose real interests are money and power not about our lives and our ambitions as a people.
So, there it is, the case was laid out, people chose to ignore it, including many of the people running for president today. Think with the logic of what will happen if they are allowed in office again let alone become president.
There is truly Strength through Peace.
http://www.wagingpeace.org/articles/2002/10/03_kucinich_vote-no.htm
I am sure when you look at this speech and how Kucinich went through the resolution point by point in order to make clear to all of us that there was no basis for voting for that war that he made it also clear to all who took the time to read the war resolution, that there was no basis for war at all.
In fact, according to my reading of it, there was never a cause to go to war with Iraq in the 1990's but that is another discussion for another time. What we do know is that within that war resolution was all the misinformation that was gathered by this administration, what amounts to a large portion of lies, used to dupe a nation into believing that Iraq was a co-sponsor of what happened on September 11, 2001, that Iraq was in pursuit of means to further inflict damage on this country and others in its own geographic region and that Iraq's willingness to do that was a clear call for the US to take on a unilateral position of punishing them, in effect, for violoating UN resolutions.
What can one say when you read this speech? How much more information and cause do you need to do two very important things: 1. Impeach the vice president and president for lying to this nation about the reasons for going to war and 2. Elect Dennis Kucinich for president.
Brendan O'Connor has made some more interesting suggestions about what can be done to put the word out about why Dennis was excluded from the debates, 4 now in total. Perhaps it would just be good if we could just get a call out to people to go to his dennis4president.com website where all the Congressman's responses can be found and where as well, it is clear from what he says that this is truly about the corporate drive to ambush anyone who dares to disagree with their goals.
Would that it were true that the whole system could be played as fair as we are promised it is. We know of voter fraud and we know of how the machines can be rigged. Yet, do we see much discussion of this in the mainstream press? Of course not, why would they want to discuss the means by which they are complicit in rigging the votes? It is not a surprise to me that they have turned this whole election cycle into a horse race. That is how they deem it should be discussed and that is how it is discussed. Just as they blame us for needing to dumb down the news, when most Americans vote against such a tactic, they blame us for needing these "better" machines to register the votes because the people in some counties in Florida in 2000 could not mark their ballots correctly.
Blame is very easy to pass around for all kinds of problems in this country and yet we seem inevitably to blame the victim no matter which way we turn. You have a say in how these things will turn out and must exercise that option every day. You must talk up Dennis Kucinich's platforms and plans. You must describe to your friends, co-workers and family why there has to be a real choice of candidates and not ones decided by the corporate powers that be whose real interests are money and power not about our lives and our ambitions as a people.
So, there it is, the case was laid out, people chose to ignore it, including many of the people running for president today. Think with the logic of what will happen if they are allowed in office again let alone become president.
There is truly Strength through Peace.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Here is the most important link you can read
If you vote or if you have decided not to vote. If you are a responsible person or you have just decided to try and be a responsible person, read the full interview with Dennis and see what you can do to help the campaign.
http://www.alternet.org/stories/74268/
After you have read this, send it to everyone in your address book. Tell them to sharpen their pencils because we are going to most likely have to write his name in many places.
But what a gas if the first person ever to have a write-in campaign wins the presidency of the United States and you helped that to happen.
I have never read anything that has made me as proud to be a part of this campaign as Chris Hedges' piece. He let Dennis speak and when you hear him, which of course you can do with a simple click onto YouTube and there he is, so many instances of him speaking and from so many different places.
One of my favorites is of course his interrogation of Donald Rumsfeld.
Anyway, read the linked article, read it and think what the world would be like if this man were president and then do everything you can to make him that.
Read and pass it along. Tell your friends to read it and pass it along. The revolution is going to come with a pencil sharpener.
Strength through Peace.
http://www.alternet.org/stories/74268/
After you have read this, send it to everyone in your address book. Tell them to sharpen their pencils because we are going to most likely have to write his name in many places.
But what a gas if the first person ever to have a write-in campaign wins the presidency of the United States and you helped that to happen.
I have never read anything that has made me as proud to be a part of this campaign as Chris Hedges' piece. He let Dennis speak and when you hear him, which of course you can do with a simple click onto YouTube and there he is, so many instances of him speaking and from so many different places.
One of my favorites is of course his interrogation of Donald Rumsfeld.
Anyway, read the linked article, read it and think what the world would be like if this man were president and then do everything you can to make him that.
Read and pass it along. Tell your friends to read it and pass it along. The revolution is going to come with a pencil sharpener.
Strength through Peace.
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