Joan Walsh's post at Salon.com on Saturday, July 11th is about The Attorney General of The US of A finally holding some folks to account for the torture of detainees in the "war on terror". Even though there is clear evidence that people high in the Bush/Cheney committed serious crimes in the sanctioning of Torture, it seems clear that none of them will ever be prosecuted or even investigated formally. These guys trashed our Constitution and hardly anyone is aware of it or even gives a damn. Please take the time to read this post and some of the accompanying letters.
Glen Greenwald's post at Salon on Monday, July 13th is a clear recap and analysis of how Goldman, Sachs harvested BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars, and is now reaping record profits by engaging in the same unregulated and risky practices that caused the financial meltdown in the first place. To anyone who has been paying attention it should come as no surprise that these guys not only own your government, they own you and your future. Who cares? Please read Glen's post. Just click his name in the sidebar.
There is a great video clip at this link: http://www.wimp.com/manpower/ This is a man speaking truth to power (for all the good it did). What I find interesting is that this man is not an angry congressman or senator, or even an outraged American citizen. He is a former politician from anther country. He is however clearly angry.
"I'm Mad As Hell, And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore" has been trivialized into a joke. The only people who are angry with our government are the rightwing nutjobs who think the the second amendment is in peril, or that people of color and abortionists are responsible for all our ills.
Where is the anger of eloquent Americans. Like the bumper sticker says: "If you're not outraged you're not paying attention". I blame it on the TeeVee. Television is the most popular medium in the nation, and it is probably the major source of news and misinformation for most Americans. The so-called journalists of TeeVee are not about to shit in their own nest by saying anything controversial about the public figures their corporate masters have bought and paid for (with the possible exception of Bill Moyers, who is seen by far too few viewers). The talking heads and their puppetmasters all seem to agree "Everything is fine." Well I got News for ya - EVERYTHING IS NOT FINE!
The world's economy is in awful shape and our government's solution is to give more money to people who already have way too much.
Our Constitution has been violated, obviously and consistently, and those who have sworn to uphold it refuse, with ho-hum hypocrisy to do so .
Not mad yet? So go to OpenCongress.org and see what your representatives in Washington are up to. If you don't like what they're doing tell 'em so! (This site makes it easy to find email links to Senators and representatives.) Go to whitehouse.gov and give Obama a little advice. Email your lacal paper and vent a little rage. Tell everybody you know to do the same. Get a little outrage out there. Who knows maybe we can rouse the sheeple before every last one of us is sacrificed on the alter of greed.
I've only scratched the surface of what I intended to say in this post, but I am too tired and angry to go on just now.
Thanks for stopping by.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Three Emails, Two Replies.
On Sunday evening I sent emails to the congressman from my district, John Salazar, and to the two Senators from Colorado, Michael Bennet and Mark Udall. The emails were all pretty much the same; I urged them all to work for and vote for a strong public option in the health care reform package. Mr. Salazar's office responded almost immediately with a confirmation em about his newsletter (which I had signed up for at the same time that I emailed him), but no reply to my email. I'm O K with that. The third district in Colorado takes up a huge area on both sides of the divide (literally and figuratively). He has offices in Grand Junction (a city that named itself when the Colorado River was known as the Grand River),Pueblo, Alamosa, and my nearest town -Durango (the third, not the fourth). Look on a map and you'll see what I mean. As near as I can tell John is an upfront guy who tends to put rural interests first, because rural is what he is and what he does. Like most good rural people he doesn,t try to make a lot of useless noise.
Anyways, what I want to tell you about is the responses I got from my two Senators. The first response, which came in Tuesday around 5pm really had nothing much to say. The first sentence thanked for my message regarding the public option. Then this: "As I travel across Colorado, there is a strong feeling all over the state that the status quo is not working. Coloradoans are deeply interested in finding a solution to our health care crisis." Then some blather about "almost 800,000" Coloradoans currently uninsured, and businesses dropping coverage for their workers. Followed by this non sequitor: "Colorado leads the nation in entrepreneurship and innovation and we cannot allow health care costs to be such a burden on our businesses."
Then comes stuff abot ending rising costs, keeping ones current doctor and better access. Just before the close comes the kicker: "and they want these changes accomplished in a fiscally responsible way." and being open to any and all options. Finally he concludes with this: "I view this issue with a sense of urgency and moral obligation and will keep your concerns in mind as I continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate to address this crisis." These are weasel words Mr Bennet should be proud of as a first term appointee. (He is replacing Ken Salazar ((John's brother)) who is now serving in the Obama cabinet) He will keep my concerns in mind. Great! He will work with his colleagues in the Senate to address, not resolve but address the crisis. But where does he stand on the public option? Who can tell? Weasel words seem to be the main currency in Washington.
Now here is what I think happened. When you go to contact your senator to tell him your views, you fill out some contact information and the you are asked to choose a "topic" from a dropdown menu and then enter a "subject" in a subject box and then write your message in the comment box. So what I figure is that his office computer gets an email with the topic "health care", the subject "the public option" and it reads the message as nonexistent. The computer just fires back a message thanking you for your comments about "subject" and a short letter with a bunch of weasel words about "topic".
Mr. Bennet, correct me if I'm wrong but I think I'm pretty close to the mark on this.
The response I got from Mark Udall's office was a lot more straightforward. In a nutshell:
I get a lot of email. I'm a busy guy. Go to my website and read my position on this issue.
So I went to his website, read his position on health care reform, and decided that even though he did not say that he was going to vote for the public option it sure looks like he's leaning that way. Not so many weasel words. (Or maybe they were weaselier and more subtle, but I don't think so.)
Todays Music:
One Night in Paris by Diana Krall
Today's Fiction:
Diary of a Whimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Today's Quote:
You can help your self baby,
all you gotta do is try sometime;
then you won't have to go round baby,
worryin' other people's minds.
Jimmy Reed
Anyways, what I want to tell you about is the responses I got from my two Senators. The first response, which came in Tuesday around 5pm really had nothing much to say. The first sentence thanked for my message regarding the public option. Then this: "As I travel across Colorado, there is a strong feeling all over the state that the status quo is not working. Coloradoans are deeply interested in finding a solution to our health care crisis." Then some blather about "almost 800,000" Coloradoans currently uninsured, and businesses dropping coverage for their workers. Followed by this non sequitor: "Colorado leads the nation in entrepreneurship and innovation and we cannot allow health care costs to be such a burden on our businesses."
Then comes stuff abot ending rising costs, keeping ones current doctor and better access. Just before the close comes the kicker: "and they want these changes accomplished in a fiscally responsible way." and being open to any and all options. Finally he concludes with this: "I view this issue with a sense of urgency and moral obligation and will keep your concerns in mind as I continue to work with my colleagues in the Senate to address this crisis." These are weasel words Mr Bennet should be proud of as a first term appointee. (He is replacing Ken Salazar ((John's brother)) who is now serving in the Obama cabinet) He will keep my concerns in mind. Great! He will work with his colleagues in the Senate to address, not resolve but address the crisis. But where does he stand on the public option? Who can tell? Weasel words seem to be the main currency in Washington.
Now here is what I think happened. When you go to contact your senator to tell him your views, you fill out some contact information and the you are asked to choose a "topic" from a dropdown menu and then enter a "subject" in a subject box and then write your message in the comment box. So what I figure is that his office computer gets an email with the topic "health care", the subject "the public option" and it reads the message as nonexistent. The computer just fires back a message thanking you for your comments about "subject" and a short letter with a bunch of weasel words about "topic".
Mr. Bennet, correct me if I'm wrong but I think I'm pretty close to the mark on this.
The response I got from Mark Udall's office was a lot more straightforward. In a nutshell:
I get a lot of email. I'm a busy guy. Go to my website and read my position on this issue.
So I went to his website, read his position on health care reform, and decided that even though he did not say that he was going to vote for the public option it sure looks like he's leaning that way. Not so many weasel words. (Or maybe they were weaselier and more subtle, but I don't think so.)
Todays Music:
One Night in Paris by Diana Krall
Today's Fiction:
Diary of a Whimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Today's Quote:
You can help your self baby,
all you gotta do is try sometime;
then you won't have to go round baby,
worryin' other people's minds.
Jimmy Reed
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Happy Independece Day
I didn't get to writing the promised post yesterday. I was being bemused, bewitched, and bemildred by the Sarah Palin resignation, among other things. (apologies to Walt Kelly)
I have been all over the web trying to figure out what gives with the Palin speech and just
can't seem to make sense of it. Voices cry from the opposite loft: "You should talk!". I know,
I know. But I'm a blogger not a politician. You would think that anyone who is at all qualified to be a governor of the great big state of Alaska could speak for eight and a half minutes without going all over the place, contradicting herself, and throwing mixed metaphors around like birdfeed.
The best attempt at unraveling Palin's wild riff that I could find is Geoffrey Dunn's post at the Huffington Post. It's definitely worth reading. Joan Walsh at Salon.com caught the tenor of the speech perfectly: "...a stunning example of a bizarre public meltdown..."
If McCain had won the election, would she now be resigning because of "a full court press right now on the national level picking apart a good point guard"? The Rightwingnuts just keep getting weider and weirder.
Yes, today is Independence Day. Read the Declaration. Read the first ten amendments to the Constitution (The Bill of Rights). Think about what a bunch of blow hard wimps we have running our country today, compared to the courageous, idealistic men who founded it and who were willing to work together to make it succeed. Our leaders today are for the most part small-minded and selfish, but the citizens are generally upfront and generous. There may be hope for us to restore our principles.
Today's Music Pick:
Listen to that most American of bands: The Greatful Dead.
Quote of the day:
"The power of religion and the fascination of psychology are that they try to explain character. What gives men standards of responsibility, called honor? What is it that, in extremity, forces some men to betray those standards in the hope of escaping death, and what forces other men to hold by them, let death come? Why does danger paralyze the will and intelligence of some men, and why does it vitalize the will and make purposive the intelligence of others? Why when death must be faced, do some personalities disintegrate whereas others abide by the qualities of resolution, fortitude, and courage which have persuaded the human race that it has dignity?"
Bernard DeVoto - The Year of Decision 1846
Footnote: Bemused, Bewitched, and Bemildred wre the names of the three bats in Waly Kelly's Pogo comic strip.
I have been all over the web trying to figure out what gives with the Palin speech and just
can't seem to make sense of it. Voices cry from the opposite loft: "You should talk!". I know,
I know. But I'm a blogger not a politician. You would think that anyone who is at all qualified to be a governor of the great big state of Alaska could speak for eight and a half minutes without going all over the place, contradicting herself, and throwing mixed metaphors around like birdfeed.
The best attempt at unraveling Palin's wild riff that I could find is Geoffrey Dunn's post at the Huffington Post. It's definitely worth reading. Joan Walsh at Salon.com caught the tenor of the speech perfectly: "...a stunning example of a bizarre public meltdown..."
If McCain had won the election, would she now be resigning because of "a full court press right now on the national level picking apart a good point guard"? The Rightwingnuts just keep getting weider and weirder.
Yes, today is Independence Day. Read the Declaration. Read the first ten amendments to the Constitution (The Bill of Rights). Think about what a bunch of blow hard wimps we have running our country today, compared to the courageous, idealistic men who founded it and who were willing to work together to make it succeed. Our leaders today are for the most part small-minded and selfish, but the citizens are generally upfront and generous. There may be hope for us to restore our principles.
Today's Music Pick:
Listen to that most American of bands: The Greatful Dead.
Quote of the day:
"The power of religion and the fascination of psychology are that they try to explain character. What gives men standards of responsibility, called honor? What is it that, in extremity, forces some men to betray those standards in the hope of escaping death, and what forces other men to hold by them, let death come? Why does danger paralyze the will and intelligence of some men, and why does it vitalize the will and make purposive the intelligence of others? Why when death must be faced, do some personalities disintegrate whereas others abide by the qualities of resolution, fortitude, and courage which have persuaded the human race that it has dignity?"
Bernard DeVoto - The Year of Decision 1846
Footnote: Bemused, Bewitched, and Bemildred wre the names of the three bats in Waly Kelly's Pogo comic strip.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
No posts lately
I've been kind of busy makin' jewelry, CDs, and beauty in our public schools by stripping and waxing the floors. That sentence makes no sense ; but I think you get the gist.
Long post coming on Friday. I've got that day off, so I'll bore you all with stories of my favorite hallucinations. (just kidding about the boredom)
Long post coming on Friday. I've got that day off, so I'll bore you all with stories of my favorite hallucinations. (just kidding about the boredom)
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