Until Then


Today I will have the distinct pleasure of encountering airline security on Memorial Day under an Orange Alert. Peachy. No sleep because I worked all night.
Do my socks have holes? Oh my! all my bras have underwires. Yep, my credit sucks. Subversive books? ... I won't even bother with carry-on bags.
I remember when I used to worry about airline food. Today I worry about no fly lists and body cavity searches. Assuming I do make it on the plane, I will be heading to New Mexico to tend to my mom. My internet access will be at the mercy of ICU schedules and Public Library hours so there may be few, if any, updates for awhile.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Dennis Kucinich on the Drug War

A safe, free and just America is undermined, not bolstered, by the costly and ineffective War on Drugs. While well-intentioned, this misguided policy -- which emphasizes criminalization over treatment -- has led to increased violent crime, misdirected resources of law enforcement and restricted Constitutional liberties.

Despite billions spent yearly on the drug war, addiction is up. Our country must rethink a policy that produces many casualties, but benefits only the prison-industrial complex. Non-violent drug offenders often receive Draconian sentences, tearing apart families.

Racial bias in the enforcement of drug laws is pervasive. According to a Human Rights Watch report based on FBI statistics, blacks were arrested on drug charges at nearly five times the rate of whites. Drug use is consistent across racial and socioeconomic lines -- yet in the state of New York, for example, 94 percent of incarcerated drug offenders are Latino or African-American, mostly from poor communities.

Countries in Europe and elsewhere are turning away from failed policies. They are treating addiction as a medical problem and are seeing significant reductions in crime and violence -- with fewer young people becoming involved with addictive drugs in the first place. In our country, due to misplaced priorities and resources, only one bed exists
for every ten people who apply for drug treatment. Addiction is a medical and moral problem that should be treated by professionals, not dumped on the criminal justice system

Most Americans believe that medical marijuana should be available to help relieve the suffering of seriously ill patients, and eight states have passed laws to allow it. But the Bush administration has harassed medical marijuana patients in an effort to assert federal authority. This is another aspect of the drug war that should be ended.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Dick Cheney's weblog


posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Notes from the Underground (metaphor analysis)

Mouse: The Underground Man sees himself as this creature because of his hyperconsciousness. He likens himself to a mouse because a mouse is the antithesis of a normal man, or bull. While the bull acts on its rather simple mental reasoning, the mouse cannot act because its overly sophisticated mental processes perpetually plague it with doubt and vacillation, rendering it unable to do anything, save 'creep ignominiously back into its mousehole.'

Wall: The wall represents, the Underground Man explains, 'the laws of nature, the conclusions of natural science and mathematics.' The wall also embodies such ideas as evolution, which Dostoevsky largely equated with atheism and socialism. While the man of action readily accepts the wall and its implications, the UM (and Dostoevsky) couldn’t come to grips with the concept of the stone wall, the idea that 'two times two makes four,”'because it makes man out to be an animal -- a mere phenomenon of science, lacking the human component of free will. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Sunday Somethings


"I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons."
-- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at a hearing of the Senate's appropriations subcommittee on defense, May 14

Politics and the English Language George Orwell 1946

Red Cross denied access to PoWs
Up to 3,000 Iraqis - some of them civilians - believed to be gagged, bound, hooded and beaten at US camps close to Baghdad airport

Homeland Security Buys N.M. Town for Training
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has bought for about $5 million the small New Mexico ghost town of Playas, and plans to transform it into a terrorist response training center, officials said on Friday.

"That fucking Texas geezer"

Buoyed by Resurgence, G.O.P. Strives for an Era of Dominance
Although George W. Bush lost Michigan in 2000 and the state elected a Democratic governor last November, the national and state party officials heaping roast beef and chicken onto their plates at the local fish and game club were buoyantly predicting they would take the state in 2004.

The Senator Votes Nay Robert Byrd

A Smarter, More Efficient Defense Plan Robert Byrd
Mr. President, we are living in a time when the greatest threat to our national security is the threat of asymmetrical warfare. We learned that on September 11, 2001. We are in no danger of being outmatched militarily by any nation on earth, but as the current orange alert status reminds us, we remain vulnerable to the very real threat of terrorists.

And yet, our Department of Defense is on a track to be the instrument of a doctrine of pre-emptive attacks: ready and willing to invade and take over sovereign states that may not even pose a direct threat to our security. The name "Department of Defense" is increasingly a misnomer for a bureaucracy that is poised to undertake conquest at the drop of a hat. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Democratic hopeful Kucinich to speak in Davis on Monday

"The purpose of bringing him here is to let people hear what he has to say," Lotter said.

Kucinich's bus, named Green Light, runs on a diesel engine that uses recycled vegetable oil. The bus was provided by Off the Grid consulting services and is part of an effort to create alternative fuel technology that would lessen U.S. dependence on oil from other countries -- an endeavor that Kucinich supports. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Philosophers Draw on the Film 'Matrix'

Hundreds of millions of dollars ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a hacker named Neo reached into his bookcase and pulled out a leatherbound volume with the title "Simulacra and Simulation" -- a collection of essays by the French postmodernist philosopher Jean Baudrillard. But when Neo opened it to the chapter "On Nihilism," it turned out to be just a simulacrum of a book, hollowed out to hold computer disks.
[...]
Descartes, of course, is a recurring presence in these anthologies, since, like Neo, he attempted to discover what man can be certain about, even if, as he put it, a "malicious demon of the utmost power and cunning has employed all his energies in order to deceive me." Plato is invoked as well, particularly his allegory of the cave, in which prisoners are convinced that shadows on the cave's walls are the sole reality until they are freed by philosophical inquiry and led upward into the sunlight. [more]

just how far down does the rabbit hole go? posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

IRV Capabilities in Michigan


This just came to my attention yesterday when reading The Daily Dilley.
Tom Ness sent me the following information and I hurriedly put together a few pages that will hopefully be useful in insuring that Michigan has the capabilities for Instant Runoff Voting in the future if voters decide they like the idea. Please consider writing a speedy letter to help facilitate this! Comments on Voting Equipment Upgrades for Michigan (sample letter)

Help America Vote Act (HAVA) The submission of Michigan's State Plan no later than July 1, 2003 is anticipated. At least six Advisory Committee meetings will be held in preparation for the submission of the State Plan. The public is encouraged to submit written comments/testimony at each session.

Let's Spend HAVA Millions Wisely! a plea by Tom Ness

Time is running out for Michigan citizens to speak up on how some $28-48 million dollars of federal money is to be spent on new voting machines mandated for as many as 92% of Michigan's voting precincts by Nov. 2004 as a result of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).

Passed in response to the Florida debacle in the 2000 presidential elections, HAVA provides substantial monies to most states for new voting equipment in an attempt to standardize voting procedures across the nation. As a result of HAVA, voting machines in at least 26% of Michigan's precincts MUST be replaced before the next presidential election.

[...] Michigan Focus On Reforming Elections (M-FORE) is a non-partisan citizen organization formed in December 2002, and includes many of the state's leading election reform experts. Based on their counsel and rapidly growing interest around the nation, M-FORE chose "Instant Runoff Voting" (IRV) as our first general goal.
Of course, the majority of Michigan citizens have never even heard of IRV. So if the HAVA Committee recommends voting machines for Michigan which cannot accommodate it, IRV will effectively be killed even before Michigan has a chance to consider the merits of this popular voting method. [more]

Greens Push Voting Reform
By:JACK LESSENBERRY
Special to The Oakland Press 05/18/2003

Traditionally, while minor political parties haven't had much success winning elections in America, they sometimes have pushed ideas, from votes
for women to Social Security, that have had an enormous impact.Michigan's tiny Green Party may be the latest on that path. As of now, the Greens probably couldn't win an election for dogcatcher on a liberal campus. But they have an intriguing idea to make elections more representative and more interesting - if they can just get other people to buy into it.
They call it Instant Runoff Voting - IRV for short. Here's how it would work: Voters would have the option of not just pulling the lever for one candidate, but ranking them in order of preference. If somebody won an overall majority, these "second-place" votes wouldn't be needed or counted. But if nobody has a majority, then the second-place votes would be added in to the mix. In multi-candidate elections, even third and fourth place votes might be needed.
[...]
There is little doubt that if IRV had been in effect three years ago, Al Gore would be president today.
[...]
The state is about to buy a lot of new voting equipment, thanks to HAVA - the Help America Vote Act - passed by Congress in the wake of the Florida debacle.

Michigan will get something like $48 million, state officials said, and is required to replace outdated voting equipment, such as old mechanical voting machines and Florida-style punch card ballots still used in hundreds of precincts.

Greens belatedly discovered this and are urging supporters of runoff voting to write to officials to urge equipment be purchased that will permit IRV, if and when a community wants to try it. They haven't much time, though: May 27 is cutoff day for public comment.[more]

Write to Jeanette Sawyer
Bureau of Elections
208 North Capitol
Lansing, MI 48933 (sample letter)
Also see: Center for Voting and Democracy for more information on IRV. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Is it me, or are all the blogspot blogs not working? No response for two days, except very occasionally, one will actually load. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

The Truth Will Emerge

I have respect for Senator Robert Byrd. No matter how many people I see linking to his speeches I feel no sense of redundancy by also linking because they are always powerful. He has the grace to admit he has made mistakes in the past, but has grown to overcome them and apologize for them as he aged.

by US Senator Robert Byrd
Senate Floor Remarks - May 21, 2003

"Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again, - -
The eternal years of God are hers;
But Error, wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies among his worshippers."

Truth has a way of asserting itself despite all attempts to obscure it. Distortion only serves to derail it for a time. No matter to what lengths we humans may go to obfuscate facts or delude our fellows, truth has a way of squeezing out through the cracks, eventually.

But the danger is that at some point it may no longer matter. The danger is that damage is done before the truth is widely realized. The reality is that, sometimes, it is easier to ignore uncomfortable facts and go along with whatever distortion is currently in vogue. We see a lot of this today in politics. I see a lot of it -- more than I would ever have believed -- right on this Senate Floor. [more]

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Answer the Questions Mr. President

Throughout the buildup to the Iraq war, Dennis J. Kucinich led Congressional antiwar forces and stood firm in asking the tough questions of the Bush administration. He is still asking them. Indeed, he stands above the other presidential candidates in demanding answers.

Yesterday, Kucinich took to the House floor to again challenge the Administration's deceptions on Iraq:

"This Administration led this nation into a war based on a pretext that Iraq was an imminent threat, which it was not. The Secretary of State presented pictures to the world he said were proof. Today, despite having total control in Iraq, none of the very serious claims that the Administration made to this
Congress, to this nation, and to the world have been substantiated.

"Where are the weapons of mass destruction? Indeed, what was the basis for the war? We spend $400 billion for defense. Will we spend a minute to defend truth?
The American people gave up their health care, education and veterans benefits to pay for this war. And for what? Answer the questions, Mr.President."

To learn more about this presidential campaign for peace, justice, sustainability, equal rights and civil liberties, check out http://www.kucinich.us
To donate to his campaign go here posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Squandering Prosperity

Can Bush get away with it? Can he turn in the most dismal economic performance of any president in decades and still win re-election?

Perhaps. The economy will have to loom larger in voters' minds than the amorphous war on terrorism, in which, we can be certain, the administration will find new threats and exploit old ones. The Democrats need a candidate who stands for homeland and defense security, and—in contrast to Bush—economic security as well. And their candidate needs an economic agenda that plausibly addresses Americans' anxieties about their health care, their jobs and their children's educations. A program that merely contains economic insecurity rather than attacking it will only guarantee a second term for Bush.

Presidental Term and Jobs created per month:

Truman 1: 60,000
Truman 2: 113,000
Eisenhower 1: 58,000
Eisenhower 2: 15,000
Kennedy: 122,000
Johnson: 206,000
Nixon 1: 129,000
Nixon/Ford: 105,000
Carter: 218,000
Reagan 1: 109,000
Reagan 2: 224,000
G. Bush: 52,000
Clinton 1: 242,000
Clinton 2: 235,000
G.W. Bush: 69,000 jobs DESTROYED per month

- Since Bush signed the biggest tax cut in American history in June of 2001, more then 1.7 million jobs have been destroyed in the economy.

- Even if Bush's new tax cut does create 1 million new jobs by the end of 2004, as he claims, his presidency will still have destroyed nearly 3 million jobs.

- Bush is about to become the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a 4-year economy that destroyed jobs.

- The only two Republican presidents to fail in reelection bids were named Hoover and Bush.

Average Monthly Job Creation Since Truman:

Democrat Presidents: 171,000 jobs created per month
Republican Presidents: 78,000 jobs created per month via buzzflash and common dreams

Federal Deficit 3 Times Higher Than 2002

An economic 'menu of pain'

GOP outspends Democrats in states posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Synchronized Resignations

I'm surprised this wasn't widely linked. I ran across it Monday and decided not to link it because I thought everyone would pick it up. Nada. So here you have it...

Just a couple of hours after White House press secretary Ari Fleischer announced he was standing down, the prime minister's (Blair's) official spokesman Godric Smith revealed he too was quitting.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

More DLC Antics!


The DLC is so incredibly out of touch with the people. Read their newly released commentary.

It says in part; "Democrats who champion the mainstream values, national pride, and economic aspirations of middle-class and working people are the real soul of the Democratic Party, not activists and interest groups with narrow agendas." This is the gist of their message, but read it all.

I have never particularly been what someone would call an activist. An informed citizen who holds ideals near and isn't afraid to voice my opinion or write to a congressperson who holds the power to represent my views, yes. More than ever, of late, my values of democracy and my civil rights have been trampled upon and I've been willing to voice my opinion with a renewed sense of urgency. I see it happening all over. People who were never passionately involved, fighting hard for the very life of our country. When I see the DLC try to thwart the democratic process by discounting political candidates they don't feel further 'their' agenda, (which is short-sighted and lame at the very least), I personally feel discounted. I used to have national pride. I hold the mainstream values of truth, tolerance, democracy, and the rights of the people. I am that (lower) middle-class working person. I am an informed voter, willing to work for the democracy I supposedly live in. I am angry!

I am now contacting the representatives in my state who have ties to the DLC and asking them to cut their ties to such a narrow, limited vision. Bob at Bob's Links and Rants has pointed to a search facility where I can find them. He's also been kind enough to have done the search for us and found that Debbie Stabenow, Governor Jennifer Granholm, and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick are among them.
posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Move Over, Right Wing Radio - the Liberals Are Coming

by Thom Hartmann
posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Chris Buhalis

Talkin' Sounds Just Like Joe McCarthy Blues
by Chris Buhalis is linked on CounterPunch as Song of the Weekend! May 17,18


click on pic for direct link to mp3

If you haven't listened yet, do it! Go to his webpage and buy it!
Hmmm....is there a Song of the Year?
You can also watch a short (9 min) video by Craig featuring Chris here.
For Ann Arbor area readers you can listen to Chris at Top of the Park Friday, June 27
He has another new song that I'm guessing he'll be playing then. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Strange Weather Lately

To be clement is to be lenient and compassionate, or, in the case of weather, perfectly heavenly. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Kucinich Scores in Iowa

I've been playing around with MoveableType. I have a long way to go until I get my template the way I want, but as a test, I posted the recent Kucinich newsletter. Kucinich Rated #1 in Iowa Debate! posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Democratic Candidates Unload on Bush

I want the DLC to listen to the people!
AFSCME is a large & politically effective union within the AFL-CIO. Nearly 1.3 million members, their early endorsement of Clinton/Gore in the 92 primary, when most industrial unions were supporting Sen. Tom Harkin, was key to Clinton's win. It appears Dennis Kucinich was the favorite.

Unlike the heated recent debate in South Carolina, the seven Democrats -- two candidates were unable to attend -- almost entirely avoided challenging each other in their joint appearance before nearly 1,000 members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, who gathered from around the country

....It was telling that when the candidates delivered their opening statements, the audience gave standing ovations only to two long-shot contenders with the most unabashedly liberal messages.
First the audience rose for Kucinich, who pledged to carry out government-funded universal health care -- and taunted Bush over the failure to find conclusive evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Moments later, the crowd also gave a standing ovation to the Rev. Al Sharpton when he echoed McEntee in chiding Bush for promising U.S. money to rebuild Iraq.

"What about the 50 states we already occupy?" Sharpton said to loud applause.

After the event, union officials said that Kucinich, Sharpton and then Gephardt received the highest ratings from a focus group of AFSCME Iowa members who watched the event while a pollster measured their reactions. Kerry appeared after testing was completed but also received an enthusiastic response. [more]

another article from Reuters
The labor crowd gave rousing ovations to Kucinich, who said he would repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement, former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, who touted equal pay for women, and civil rights activist Al Sharpton, who outlined his long-standing support for worker's rights.
"I loved what Kucinich feels in his gut and how he supports labor; I think he gained a lot of support today," Michael Arken of Portland, Oregon, said after the forum. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

InstantKarma

Reality Cheques!

a different reality cheque:
Fleischer resigning White House post posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

The Popdex Game (Beta)

Your objective : pick links that you believe will increase in popularity the most in the next 48 hours.
via S*T*A*R*E posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

My Chat with Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo Journalism Legend

by: Marty Beckerman

"You write in the new book that Bush is a bigger threat to democracy than Nixon was," I say, trying to ignore the terrible drugs coursing through my cerebellum and crippling any possibility of presenting myself as a Professional Journalist as opposed to a drooling, stoned post-adolescent fan-boy. "Those are big words coming from you."

(Go Q. & A. format! Go!)

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Business Is Toying With a Web Tool

Is there a role for wikis in the workplace?

The wiki, a quirky software technology that has been kicking around the Web since the mid-90's, is starting to gain respectability. But will the business world embrace a tool that until recently has been used mainly by techies and Internet free spirits?

A wiki -- the Hawaiian word for fast -- is similar to a Web log in that the software makes it extremely easy for anyone to publish on the Internet. But unlike a Web log, which is typically the work of a single author making diary-style entries in chronological order, a wiki is the collective work of many authors | via Dave Winer

Check out some Wiki Links just below my weblog blogroll. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Liberal Oasis Interview With Howard Dean


LiberalOasis conducted an exclusive interview with former Governor Howard Dean, in what will hopefully be the first in a series of interviews with the Democratic presidential candidates. Go read! Liberal Oasis doesn't mince questions! posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

What is America Smoking?

A Business Week review of Reefer Madness Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market

Connecting the dots on the arbitrary nature of our taboos, and the unfathomable discrepancies in our punishments, Schlosser makes a persuasive case that we're a country in the grip of a "deep psychosis." Through misplaced moralism, political expediency, or apathy, America is ruinously mishandling the underground economy. As with his Big Mac-bashing, best-selling Fast Food Nation, Schlosser doesn't so much muckrake as vivisect the shadowy, little-understood black market that, he says, accounts for about 10% of gross domestic product.
[...] Journalism schools should make required reading of the excellent endnotes in Reefer Madness. In the notes -- as in the rest of the book -- Schlosser makes a compelling case that marijuana is not the only issue over which our society has gone mad. As he might have put it: America, the hypocritical. [more] | via dazereader

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Instant-Mix Imperial Democracy. Buy One, Get One Free

Speech at Harlem, NY May 13 by Arundhati Roy

Way back in 1988, on July 3, the USS Vincennes, a missile cruiser stationed in the Persian Gulf, accidentally shot down an Iranian airliner and killed 290 civilian passengers. George Bush the First, who was at the time on his presidential campaign, was asked to comment on the incident. He said quite subtly, "I will never apologise for the United States. I don’t care what the facts are.'

I don’t care what the facts are. What a perfect maxim for the New American Empire. Perhaps a slight variation on the theme would be more apposite: The facts can be whatever we want them to be.
[more]

also see the Arundhati Roy wiki for past writings and speeches | via The Daily Dilley posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Democratic Candidate's past Voting Records

Soapbox Canyon has the goods on the voting records of the Dem hopefuls. He found some surprises. By his criteria, (which most liberals [see update] would agree with) their overall scores are as follows:

Kucinich - 89%
Gephardt - 59%
Moseley-Braun - 58%
Edwards - 44%
Graham - 39%
Lieberman - 38%
Kerry - 36%

UPDATE Robert left the following comment explaining his criteria:

After some thought, I think one of the problems is that a lot of the votes I used as criteria - NAFTA, GATT, the Communications Decency Act, various anti-crime and anti-terrorism bills with grave civil liberties implications - were things that progressives opposed but were things that the Clinton Administration was pushing for. It goes far to show the difference between a "progressive" and somebody who is merely "liberal", and also the attraction of many to Nader in 1996 and 2000. I don't know that most liberals would agree with all my criteria since I think that Democratic Party partisanship often gets in the way of principle, but most progressives would. In any case, Dennis Kucinich's voting record rocks (except on abortion), and if I were to wake up one morning in November, 2004 to hear the words "President-Elect Dennis Kucinich" and maybe "Vice President-Elect Barbara Lee" over the TV, that would totally make my decade.
We can always dream. The more pragmatic part of me agrees with Nathan Newman and others that liberals and progressives need to coalesce now around an electable candidate so we can concentrate on defeating Bush. I just don't agree that John Kerry is that candidate.

My thoughts:
While I admit that Kucinich, Braun, Sharpton, and, less so, Dean, are long shots, I'm not resigned to pragmatism just yet. I'll save that for after the primaries. I keep coming back to my image of a tug of war....when the strength is at one extreme, does the opposition pull from the center, or pull from the other extreme?
What keeps it in balance the best? If the Democrats pull from the center and the Republicans are at the extreme right, we will never find a balance.
If Kucinich, Braun, Sharpton and Dean can pull support in the early primaries they have a good chance of influencing policy. Michigan is an early primary. The interest and values of the Greens have to be acknowledged or the Dems will be forfeiting a huge part of the voting public. They are an active, informed and inspiring force that can't be discounted. They are willing to work to get Bush out, but they need to feel validated, which isn't happening right now. Kucinich is, by far, the candidate that most closely reflects my views and is continually brave enough to speak his mind. Supporting him is also supporting his views on the issues, regardless of what his chances may be.
Before the primaries is the time to dream, with 66% of voters not even being able to name a Dem hopeful, my dreams lead to a wide open field. I do think it's imperative that the Democratic Party craft a cohesive opposition right now, but discounting anyone, at this time, is not productive. The time to coalesce is after the primaries.

**an aside: I was surprised with Gephardt's voting record, as with Kerry's, and I believe that, although Robert doesn't have abortion issues as criteria, you'll find that Kucinich abstained from most votes on the issue. Personally, I don't feel Lieberman is electable regardless of his name recognition.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

New Rubber Soul Newsletter 5/16




Friday May 16th, 8:00 PM Corndaddy -- ''Fresh from group rehab...it's the reluctant, triumphant return of Michigan's alt-country pinup faves. Better looking than the Bottlerockets, less controversial than the Dixie Chicks, able to leap more PBR's than a steaming locomotive. Don't miss it. These guys always play their best shows when they are at their rustiest...it's that damn practicing that screws em up everytime. Two sets, special guests? Everyone is so godamned fascinated with that new White Stripes lp cover, trying to "unlock the mystery." But take a good look at this photo below. What the hell is Jerry looking at? What is Jud's left hand up to and why is Will so happy? Is Kevin actually wearing shorts? These questions and many others will be answered when the mighty c-diddy wanders onto the stage.

The newsletter also includes links to the FCC info, per my badgering. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Site Street

via wood 's lot

Creativity and Psychedelics by Rick Strassman MD

Nietzsche and Shamanism by editor of Site Street Eric Beltz posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

I was Ready to Tell

I Was Ready To Tell

I was ready to tell
the story of my life
but the ripple of tears
and the agony of my heart
wouldn't let me

i began to stutter
saying a word here and there
and all along i felt
as tender as a crystal
ready to be shattered

in this stormy sea
we call life
all the big ships
come apart
board by board

how can i survive
riding a lonely
little boat
with no oars
and no arms

my boat did finally break
by the waves
and i broke free
as i tied myself
to a single board

though the panic is gone
i am now offended
why should i be so helpless
rising with one wave
and falling with the next

i don't know
if i am
nonexistence
while i exist
but i know for sure
when i am
i am not
but
when i am not
then i am

now how can i be
a skeptic
about the
resurrection and
coming to life again

since in this world
i have many times
like my own imagination
died and
been born again

that is why
after a long agonizing life
as a hunter
i finally let go and got
hunted down and became free
~Rumi ghazal number 1419
posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Contact the FCC Directly


Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street SW
Washington, D.C. 20554
Telephone: (888) 225-5322
Email: fccinfo@fcc.gov posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

everyone i know goes away in the end

June Carter Cash, the Grammy-winning member of one of country music's pioneering families and the wife of country giant Johnny Cash, died May 15 in a Nashville hospital of complications of heart surgery. She was 73.

"June said she knew me -- knew the kernel of me, deep inside, beneath the drugs and deceit and despair and anger and selfishness, and knew my loneliness," he wrote.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

NPR story on blogs!

I found this at s*T*a*R*e who has a link on the NPR page, as does dr. menlo and Gus! I updated the link to the archived link. I hope it sticks. The audio is 54 minutes long and worth a listen.
Cool! posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

FCC Public Record Shows Overwhelming Opposition to Relaxing Ownership Caps

"The FCC asked citizens to file comments on a broad set of questions related to media ownership, and they have in record numbers. It's hard to read these comments and find evidence that the public supports rule changes that would lead to more media consolidation," said Future of Music Coalition Executive Director Jenny Toomey.

view comments on FCC website docket # 02-277
Although Blogcritics earlier found 9360 viewable comments out of the approx 15,000 FCC say they have received on this issue, when I checked, I could find only 6293. Hmmm...
See also 9000 say no, but 3 will say yes, at Brian Flemming's weblog.
Here's the MoveOn link to file your comment if you have neglected to do it until now: http://www.moveon.org/stopthefcc/ posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Incompetence


WMDs for the Taking?

Radiation poisoning feared from Iraq looting

I have nothing more to say. Go read Hegemoney. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Don't it make ya wanna vote Green?


This is absurd!
"We are increasingly confident that President Bush can be beaten next year, but Dean is not the man to do it," Reed and From wrote. "Most Democrats aren't elitists who think they know better than everyone else."
See the DLC memo
Is this coming from elitists who think they know better than everyone else?? Are they hell-bent on alienating half their support base?

“If a voter has a choice between a Republican and a Democrat who acts like a Republican, he’ll vote for the Republican every time.”
--Harry S. Truman, former U.S. President

Howard Dean's Blog has more info as does Dean's unofficial blog, and here is a Wash Times article: DLC says party needs new 'face'

The DLC Flunks Politics 101

The DLC, launched as the voice of conservative, largely southern Democrats, claims its strategy will help Democrats win in conservative states. But Democrats would fare far better by following the advice of Kevin Phillips, the architect of a Republican southern strategy that actually worked -- that of Richard Nixon. Phillips argues that the question isn't whether the Democratic Party should move left or right -- the straw man the DLC poses -- but whether the party is prepared to do battle for the vast majority against the powerful few. To do this, he argues, progressives must stop biting their tongues to protect endangered Democrats in conservative or swing districts. Instead, they should organize themselves independently to challenge the president's politics of privilege, put forth a bold agenda for change and take the gloves off against the right.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Media Nix To Blix, Kucinich and Dixie Chicks

by Norman Soloman

Hans Blix, Dennis Kucinich and the Dixie Chicks are in very different lines of work -- but they're in the same line of fire from big media for the sin of strongly challenging the president's war agenda.

[...] A few weeks before President Bush launched an undeclared war on Iraq, "liberal" Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen declared his own war on Kucinich. The main trigger for Cohen's wrath was that the member of Congress had dared to identify oil as "the strongest incentive" for the impending war.

Cohen claimed to be shocked shocked shocked. The first word of his column was "liar." From there, the Post columnist peppered his piece with references to Kucinich as an "indomitable demagogue" and a "fool" who was "repeating a lie." But Cohen would have done well to re-read a front page of his own newspaper.

As many business pages have long highlighted, it's actually quite reasonable to identify oil as key to U.S. policy toward Iraq. But such talk from a presidential candidate causes some people to become incensed. That hardly makes Kucinich a "liar." On the contrary, it simply makes him a pariah in the media realms patrolled by the likes of Richard Cohen.

[...] Similar media gendarmes are on patrol over the airwaves. The giant corporate owner of more than 1,200 radio stations, Clear Channel, syndicates talk radio host Glenn Beck to scores of stations nationwide -- and Beck is enraged about Kucinich. Days before the all-out war on Iraq began, Beck discussed spontaneous combustion and then said: "Every night I get down on my knees and pray that Dennis Kucinich will burst into flames." [more]

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Choosing the next president

By Jack Lessenberry
While I think he too, is discounting Kucinich too early, with a flimsy quip, the article itself is pretty good at outlining the urgency of getting something workable together. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

A Photography Journey through some Anasazi Sites


Anasazi, which means 'ancient stranger' or 'ancient enemy' in the Navajo language, is the name most commonly applied to the early pueblo dwellers who once lived in the Colorado Plateau or Four Corners Area.

The Hopi who are the likely descendents of the Anasazi called these predecessors the 'Hisatsinom' for 'The Ones Who Came Before.'
Anasazi Sacred Sites
The Anasazi Emergence Into the Cyber-World posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Cleveland Hero

When George F. Will [op-ed, May 6] dismissed Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) as "the only presidential candidate to have presided over the bankruptcy of a major American city," he not only was factually wrong -- Cleveland defaulted on bank loans but was not bankrupt -- he dismissed 25 years of history and much scrutiny of that event.

Cleveland-area voters keep reelecting Rep. Kucinich to Congress because they know that by defending the city-owned power company, their former mayor saved them millions on their electric bills.

Rep. Kucinich was elected Cleveland's mayor on a pledge not to sell Muny Light to a private utility. He held to that pledge. His campaign symbol in five winning elections since 1994 has been a light bulb. Further, in 1998 the Cleveland City Council commended Rep. Kucinich for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."
see more about this

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Kant and Mill in Baghdad

The question of whether the war was justified can best be understood as a conflict between the moral philosophies of Immanuel Kant and those of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill and the utilitarians. Kant argued that in order to be morally justifiable, actions had to be universalizable -- susceptible to becoming universal laws applicable to any individuals. If it is right for A to steal from B, then it will have to be right for B to steal from A, or C from D. Kant's categorical imperative assumes a moral universe of equal beings, all of whom would be subject to the same rights and prohibitions. In making moral choices, Kant contended, human beings treat one another as "ends in themselves." By contrast, the utilitarians, in their most basic form, argued that moral decisions must be judged according to whether they maximize happiness.

Kant and the utilitarians were not trying to say what should be moral but to describe the underlying logic by which we justify our actions. In this respect, each philosophy had its limitations. For instance, a utilitarian could conceivably justify enslaving another human being if it turned out to contribute to the overall sum of human happiness. A Kantian might justify pacifism as universalizable even when his country was threatened with extinction. Ultimately the two principles of moral decision making act as limits on each other: Both must be present in some form for an action to be morally justified. Decisions must respect rights, and they must not make things intolerably worse.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

You'll Eat What I Tell you to Eat!

America challenges GM crops ban, but, here at home: Concern with GM Hits Monsanto's Home Town

President Bush launched a legal challenge at the World Trade Organisation yesterday, to force Europe to accept imports of American genetically modified crops.

Greens accused the US of bowing to pressure from its powerful biotech lobby. "By trying to use the WTO to force GM foods on European consumers, the US is launching the mother of all trade wars and could bring about the institution's collapse," said Caroline Lucas.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Working Class Hero!


The Farmer! at digby's blog I won't say anymore, just read it! If, for some reason, this permalink doesn't work, go here and scroll to Working Class Hero. posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

NPR Interviews Dennis Kucinich on Morning Edition

Familiarize yourself! Excellent!
As part of NPR's series of ongoing interviews with the Democratic presidential candidates, here is the one I've been waiting for; Dennis Kucinich!
The transcript is here. The background on his candidacy is here.
At the bottom of the page are other links to check out.

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

The Damage Done to the Radio Industry


Steps to take to prevent it from happening in other media:
Commercial Radio Station Ownership Consolidation Shown to Harm Artists and the Public Says FMC Study

Musicians Against Media Monopoly

Musicians' Letter to the Federal Communications Commission on Media Deregulation

Media Ownership Rules Under Review

Read the FCC Fact Sheet

Further Media Ownership and Deregulation links and articles

Go to the FCC's website to submit a comment through the EFCS Express service. The media ownership proceeding number is 02-277.

Then go to MoveOn to submit a public comment and letters to your representatives in Congress

posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Latest CBS News Poll on Bush Performance

Bush isn't looking so hot right now. He's not scoring points with fellow Republicans either: "Several Republican lawmakers and top aides use the same word to describe their sense of the administration's attitude toward Congress: arrogance.

There's lingering irritation among members of Congress over Bush's refusal to tell them until the last minute how much money he wanted for the Iraq war. There are broader complaints about his administration's penchant for secrecy, his reluctance to invest much time lobbying and socializing with them and his pattern of sending vague principles to Capitol Hill instead of detailed legislation." [more] posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Kids (and More) 4 Kucinich!

I love it when an 11 yr old gets involved in the political process. It spawns a passion that lasts. Of course I love it even more when that 11 yr old has a passion for progressive politics, otherwise it scares the bejeezus outta me! If ideals are formed around power and material possessions, opposed to compassion and growth, I fear for the entire human experience. This young man gives me hope..

Dylan Hallsmith recalls the moment that inspired him to launch a children’s campaign in support of a Democratic presidential candidate.

It was when the candidate turned off all the lights at a peace summit at the University of Vermont last fall, and lit a candle. The candidate said the candle represented the importance of every single voice in a democracy. His message was one of peace and unity.
[...] For an 11-year-old, Hallsmith has a fairly pragmatic approach to his political support.

“I like them both,” he said. “I plan to work for whoever wins the (Democratic) nomination (for president), but for now Kucinich has my vote. For one, Kucinich knows what it’s like to be poor. He wants to give people more money for education, and wants to put people back to work.” [more] also see: Kids 4 Kucinich!

Kucinich's 'Medicare for All' Offers No Role for Private Insurers

While several Democratic presidential candidates have detailed how they would help cover the nation's 41 million uninsured, Kucinich's "Medicare for All" proposal is far more interventionist because it would eliminate the role of private health insurers altogether.

Kucinich: Is the Administration Proving it is About Oil? 5/9/2003

In the wake of news that the Bush administration is proposing a U.N. resolution "granting the United States broad control over Iraq's oil industry and revenue"(Washington Post, May 9), presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich -- ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform subcommittee on national security -- issued the following statement:

"Today's news once again raises questions about the Administration's true intentions in Iraq. For months the Administration has said the war was not about oil, but its actions tell a different story.

"If Iraqi oil is for the Iraqi people, the United Nations should manage the oil profits until a credible Iraqi government is installed. The United States should not control the Iraqi people or their resources, nor should the U.S. dictate where their resources go.

"This move by the Administration to manage Iraq's oil revenue will undermine the US's ability to reconstruct Iraq and further harm the United States's credibility in the world community."

Kucinich to Congress: We Need More Funding for AIDS, Family Planning, Health Care 5/13/2003

Testifying today on behalf of the Congressional Progressive Caucus before an appropriations subcommittee, Dennis J. Kucinich called for increased spending for AIDS, family planning and our health care infrastructure.
While the Subcommittee is certainly faced with budget difficulties, we ask that it maintain a focus on federal programs that have worked in the past to provide health care, education and workforce support. The need for these programs becomes even more critical during our current recession. [more] posted by Cyndy | link |    | |

Stop the FCC

Unless, of course, you like being bombarded with the likes of Clear Channel and FOX TV.