living room think tank

Watch Out for Nuclear Dust

2011-05-15T23:57:00.001-04:00

oops, you can't watch them because they are nano-particles we can ingest in our air and food. Detected in the West Coast, by a scientist Marco Kaltofen's monitoring stations, this could be a hazard throughout the Northern Hemisphere. gee, some of the produce I buy is grown in California.

Where is all that Fukushima radiation going, and why does it matter? from Fairewinds Associates on Vimeo.

Action item this video suggests: pester your congress people and safety regulators to start monitoring for small radioactive dust particles. This is different from an x-ray or a plane flight... they last for a short time. In contrast, an ingested radioactive particle can continue to emit radiation to your body for the rest of your life.
I checked on google maps, and I am sorry to say that my nearest nuke is only 23.5 miles away:

This nuke, Shearon Harris, has a terrible safety record.

" Harris has been in violation of federal fire regulations since at

least 1992, and ranks worst in the nation in at least two critical fire safety criteria. "

Zoom in, Durham, and wake up and smell the steaming potentially radioactive coffee:

The irony is that we wouldn't need the nukes if we went ahead with energy conservation and solar and wind power generation, according to NC Warn.

Radiation Danger from Japan

2011-04-03T21:45:00.000-04:00

I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop in Fukushima Daiichi, worrying about what is too frightening to tell the public, and Arnie Gundersen just dropped it for me. He is a nuclear engineer who had worked at Three Mile Island, and is clearly explaining the science of the leakage of radiation in Japan.
http://www.fairewinds.com/

Astounding Stats on how few Americans are Rich

2011-02-24T00:40:00.000-05:00

Mother Jones magazine/website has created these 11 charts that explain the gross inequality in the United States today, a big shift from how things were 30 years ago.

It's the Inequality, Stupid

Eleven charts that explain everything that's wrong with America.
In Colombia, it was obvious that the vast majority of people are poor, and a small percentage of wealthy people run the show. In America, it is far less obvious, because so many people have homes. But we work all the time to keep them. I was really shocked to see that 1% of Americans own over one third of our country's wealth, and that the next 9% of the richest people own another third, with the rest of us 90% owning the last third, and these 90% have an average income of $31,244.
So I checked the GINI index at the CIA World Factbook. The GINI index measures how evenly the GNP is distributed among the population of each country. The higher the number, the more concentrated the wealth is, in the hands of a few.

Yes, Colombia has an even more unequal income distribution than the USA. But geez, a few of the countries with a more equitable distribution than us are Cameroon, Iran, Nigeria, Kenya, Guyana, Thailand, Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Ghana, Burkina Faso...not just the obvious like Sweden and Norway.
So what income qualifies you as part of the middle class? It seems that America will soon have only the upper classes, and the working class and poverty levels left. A sure sign of a decaying economy.

In Colombia, a sugar cane cutter's house

abandoned home in Detroit, USA

back from Colombia

2011-02-06T20:51:00.001-05:00

quick suggestion: tell your congress people to vote NO to the Colombian FTA (Free Trade Agreement). Clinton and Obama and backing free trade, but this will be as bad as NAFTA.
Here is a letter from the Washington Office on Latin America to Congress with more details.
Wondering how was my trip?
I've been home nearly two weeks now, but I feel like I absorbed so much that I have had difficulty summarizing it. I nearly filled a notebook with notes. Compared to the problems and injustices that so many of the people we met are facing, any concerns of mine seem trivial. Although I feel physically safe with enough income to live in a big comfortable house, I saw a richness in spirit, and communities so tightly-knit, which I admire and even envy. The people I am closest to (including myself) spend more time at computers alone in rooms than with other people. Of course we do make many connections with friends in this cyber-world. But the contrast of spending 10 days with 12 people in close quarters, talking, listening, sharing experiences, meeting so many fine brave people, this was really different, both fun and challenging. I wished I could have rewound and edited a few things I said, but, oops, in RL we just have to blunder on.
About half the people in this photo are our Witness for Peace delegation, and the rest are Colombians who have lost family due to state violence by military, paramilitary, or police.

I can see how common dire straits can deepen a community's bonds. Also, it makes sense that life threatening situations cause trivial concerns to slip away, and bring people in close touch with what is of real value in their lives. But returning to the USA has been an adjustment. I am so busy, running from errands to half-planned tasks. So much of American lifestyle (meaning United Statesian) is filled with trivial pastimes that promise self-satisfaction..... shopping, the latest gadget, TV, movies, the prescription drug which will fill that need you didn't know you had until the ad "educated" you. Not to mention all the illegal drugs consumed by US citizens which keeps up a high demand for cocaine, of which 90% comes from Colombia.

This line of thought about consumerism and profit vs an enlightened loving healthy planet of people and all living beings co-existing in peace reminds me of the "Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream Symposium" (which I highly recommend). It seems clearer than ever to me that the USA with it's tax dollars and many powerful Americans working within trans-national corporations are perpetuating a system that is harming the planet, and directly causing misery to the majority of people on earth.

Here is a painting by Jafeth, an internationally acclaimed but humble Colombian artist, who is working to build a better world within a violence torn rural area. This painting shows planting Seeds of Corn, which is the name of a school he founded, which teaches children art, dance, ecology, theatre, and ethical values. It was so healing to meet this wonderful artist after having heard of many atrocities throughout the week.

Photo op: Susan with Jafeth :-)

So I don't want to rant on in generalities. Over the next few weeks I will try to squeeze in the time to blog about the various people we met, and places we saw.

But if you have read this far, Thank You!

Here are more pictures of Jafeth's School, community murals and the Magic Pathway to the mother nature goddess called Pachamama.

Immunizations Daily!

2011-01-07T10:31:00.003-05:00

geez, I feel like a pin cushion, and worse, these shots are expensive! Yellow fever $164, Malaria meds $134, typhoid $69, hepatitus A $80, hepatitus B $51 x 3, polio, and a few more I can't remember. I think Blue Cross will cover the polio booster, but they said they don't cover travel vaccines. That is just stupid, because it will cost Blue Cross a lot more if I came home with these diseases than to prevent them. Anyway, I have been warned to drink only bottled water and to do without ice, so with all these precautions I expect to stay healthy throughout the trip. Most of these shots give immunity for at least 5 years or more, so I guess I should become a world traveler soon!

2011-01-01T22:18:00.004-05:00

I've been walking with my backpack nearly every day to prepare for my trip to Colombia on Jan 13. Hiking in Sedona was good practice, because it is a high elevation. There are 11 interesting people going on this trip with me... a diverse spread of age range from 21 -71, and from various parts of USA. One man is a lawyer for men held in Guantanamo. Also a union rep, a journalist, an artist, a business owner, and others. I can't wait to meet them... 11 days with these 11 people would be interesting anywhere, but sharing what we learn from the people in Colombia will be amazing!

I'm grateful to all my friends and family who donated to Witness For Peace to help fund this trip.

Thank You, and Happy New year!

my trip to Colombia

2010-11-23T19:32:00.003-05:00

I am thrilled about going to Colombia this coming January on a Witness For Peace delegation.
http://witnessforpeace.org/article.php?list=type&type=111
We will meet with indigenous people and afro-colombians who are negatively affected by US trade policies.

Globalization & Immigration

2010-08-14T09:58:00.003-04:00

I was so impressed by Marisol Jiménez McGee's presentation that I asked her permission to put her whole talk on Globalization & Immigration on Youtube. She is advocacy director for El Pueblo, and a passionate speaker with an easy-to-understand analysis of a complex situation. It is 24 min long in total, but in four 6 min parts.

It's well worth the time if you want to get the big picture, right from the formation of the UN, World Bank, and IMF to the effect of the wall and militarization at the U.S./Mexican border. The event was held at my UU Fellowship, ERUUF, to raise money to send two 18-24 yr olds on a Witness For Peace expedition to Mexico.

Economic Hitman

2010-08-12T09:29:00.008-04:00

I've been thinking more about the grip that multi-national corporations have on how prosperity flows and poverty perpetuates. I googled Bill Perkins, who wrote "Confessions of an Economic Hitman". He also is active in the Awakening the Dreamer effort. In fact, they said he was one of the first to go down to Ecuador and meet with the tribal leaders there.

Here's a 2 minute cartoon narrated by Perkins, which explains the enormous dilemma in an amusing nutshell.

but what can we do, personally, to change this power dynamic?

Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream

2010-05-19T21:38:00.004-04:00

I trained as a facilitator for this workshop a few months ago, and finally had the wonderful experience of leading it with four friends on May 16. We had 17 people attend and most people stayed for the whole session and seemed to really appreciate it. Here is a video about a typical Symposium:

Awakening the Dreamer Symposium Trailer from Pachamama Alliance on Vimeo.

The main idea is to awaken people to the necessity of living in balance with nature, and with social justice for everyone. .. and also to empower them to be engaged with being part of the solution.

There's an amazing story of how the organization got started, by indigenous people in the rainforests of Ecuador in 1995. The first group they started is called the Pachamama Alliance.

Palin Quits for Alaska's Sake?

2009-07-04T13:31:00.007-04:00

Wow. If she can help more by not governing, will everyone please remember that if she makes a grab for POTUS in 2012?
Her long, rambling and inconsistent resignation speech
showcases her folksy mumbo-jumbo politco-speak. Rah rah, just keep repeating it long enough and your audience absorbs your talking points.
I watched a video of her speech, and could not detect any reason why she chose to quit before completing her first term as governor, nor any explanation why this is best for Alaska. Yet she said:

"...besides faith and family, nothing's more important to me than our beloved Alaska. Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine...
And there is such a need to build up and fight for our state and our country.
I choose to fight for it!
But I won’t do it from the Governor’s desk.

I've never believed that I, nor anyone else, needs a title to do this - to make a difference... to help people. So I choose, for my State and my family, more "freedom" to progress, all the way around... so that Alaska may progress... I will not seek re-election as Governor.

I have given my reasons candidly and truthfully"

"candidly and truthfully?" yeah right!
After reading the entire speech, I think the reason is her concern that her legal battles are costing the Alaskan taxpayers ( and her family) too much money. This part of her incredibly long and rambling speech had been left out of the video:

Every one – all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We’ve won! But it hasn't been cheap - the State has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some two million of your dollars to respond...
Todd and I are looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills in order to set the record straight...
It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with this instead of progressing our state now...
I choose to work very hard on a path for fruitfulness and productivity. I choose not to tear down and waste precious time; but to build up this state and our country, and her industrious, generous, patriotic, free people!
I'll work for and campaign for those proud to be American, and those who are inspired by our ideals and won't deride them...

as Governor, I love my job and I love Alaska. It hurts to make this choice but I am doing what’s best for Alaska.

I think she is sincere.. a delusional pathological manipulator, but she believes her own hype. That was the problem with W. These people are dangerous, when backed by ignorant masses.
There are so many bible conservatives who adore her... I hope enough people will recognize her lack of judgement to keep her out of any future political office!
P.S.
More ethical scandals brewing. This Kos blogger says David Shuster of MSNBC may break news of criminal charges soon. See video in his post:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/4/45050/74116

Health Care Reform

2009-06-30T10:51:00.003-04:00

President Obama encouraged us to make a YouTube video with questions for him, so here goes!

I had given up blogging last year, since I was so busy... in part volunteering with the Democrats during Obama's campaign. Now that he is in office, I feel the need to rally all of Congress to support him. As he said, the goal wasn't just to get elected. It is for the real change we can make in this country together. I really want to see affordable health care for all people in this land. we need to fight against the power of greed and self interest. If a huge number of citizens speak up, I think we can do it!
The environmental legislation is even more important. If the biosphere of the planet collapses, no health care can save us!

Have you heard anything from the 200 men released from Guantanamo?

2007-05-12T22:16:00.000-04:00

Well here is an interview on "This American Life" (a radio show aired on NPR) that was produced last year, and won awards. They have re-released it with updates about a few of the many men who were mistakenly detained and tortured.
Not in the mood for something depressing?
Don't worry, it is actually funny. Ira Glass is like that.
These guys were totally innocent(big surprise), but sold by Pakistanis to collect the American bounty.
One of the guys they detained was a joke writer (for the Pashtu version of The Onion), and the other a rich Bahrainian 19 yr old who spent Spring Break in Daytona Beach with his college buddies (he attended college in Virginia- remind me not to vacation in Pakistan!)
The good news is that they were released after four years.
and there is an amusing part of the show by a bbc reporter about the origin of Habeous Corpus in the 1600's.
Go to this link http://thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Archive.aspx?year=2007#4
and choose the show called "Habeous Schmabeous"
If the link doesn't get you there just go to http://thisamericanlife.org and look in archive for 2007 shows in April.

Warmongers

2006-03-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

"A Collapsing Presidency", optimistically titled, by Paul Craig Roberts, reveals how dangerous our Warmongering administration has become. The whole article is worth a read, here's a taste:

"Neocons don’t believe in diplomacy. They believe in coercion. Neocons denigrate diplomacy as the epitome of weakness. Neocons slap down diplomacy before it can rise. The Iranians offered talks, and neocon National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley immediately slapped down the offer as "simply a device by the Iranians to try to divert pressure that they are feeling." The Bush neocons are bent on war with Iran."

If Iran is Bush's next target, will he restart a draft? We must get them out of office!
I spoke with a friend tonight who knows a contractor who is helping build tons of new barracks in Fayetteville, NC. He thinks the draft is coming. Surely that would decimate a lot of the Republican's support.
In January 2006, the North Carolina State Executive Committee of the Democratic Party (about 300 Democrats who come from all over the state) unanimously passed a resolution calling for impeachment of Bush and Cheney, and also to remove Alberto Gonzalez from office. The press was there, but they didn't report it. hmmm...
It blows my mind that Bush still has so many loyal supporters. After what he has done, I wouldn't think there would be any left at all. Ah, but the corporate media does put such an appealing spin on our cowardly cowboy.
Even Martin Luther King Jr's children succombed to the crushing pressure of the Bush administration. I heard a poignant interview of Harry Belafonte by Amy Goodman last night on Democracy Now, explaining how they first invited him to give one of the eulogies for his friend, Corretta Scott King. Then a couple days later, President Bush announced that he planned to attend the funeral. The next day the family called Harry to uninvite him, because had spoken his mind about Bush. Last January, when Belafonte was in Venezuela visiting democratically elected Hugo Chavez, he called Bush 'the greatest terrorist in the world'. Belafonte didn't want to embarrass the King family by talking about it at the time, but I'm glad he finally did come forward. It is courageous and probably dangerous to criticize our Tyrant. To hear Harry Belafonte tell it, go to http://www.democracynow.org/ and search for Belafonte, it's worth a listen. He is a loving soul.

Howard Dean Speaks at Durham Precinct Event

2006-02-02T20:23:00.000-05:00

Precinct Leaders Troy and Milo had planned a fun local event at a bar called "Satisfactions". They invited all of Durham County's Democrats to come suffer together through the State of the Union speech by you know who, and then listen to the Democratic response in a conference call with Howard Dean, Harry Reid, and Nancy Pelosi. Next thing you know, Howard Dean decides to attend!
Apparently the DNC had put out an e-mail asking if there were any interesting Precinct events happening, for Dr. Dean to drop in on. Troy (now known locally as "The Man"), replied and the rest is history. Here's Troy getting interviewed by one of the TV networks.

The day before the great event, I wrote a note to Dr. Dean, with a gift of two of my "Definition of a Democrat" t-shirts. Some of the ringleaders who were going to meet with him first, gave him the tees. They say he opened it up, read the t-shirt, and really liked it. That was exciting moment numero uno.
At Satisfactions, I volunteered at the Voter Education table which gave me a chair to stand on, so I could see him speak. What an inspirational speaker. He had solid ideas for universal healthcare, saying "36 other industrailized countries do it while balancing their budgets, and we can too." He said that in Vermont they used gov't money to insulate homes of the elderly, rather than subsidizing fuel. He said, "think of how many jobs it would create if we insulated every home and building in America!". wow, exciting moment number two, that's what I'm always saying. And he mentioned biofuels and other clean energy sources. In contrast, Bush said we need to break our addiction to oil by using "clean coal" and nukular powr. Puh-leaze!

But the third exciting moment happened two days later, and really knocked my socks off. I thought someone returned a t-shirt with no return address, and I opened it up to find this:

He was so thoughtful to mail this one back to me, signed.
More comments and photos are at durhamdemocrats.org. If you are a Durham Democrat, please browse through the site, they have just added a lot of useful info about local organizing.

The national website, Democrats.org has also posted pictures and comments at"State of the Union Watch Party Recap"

I heard they were talking about us at Daily Kos too. This guy came to North Carolina to attend, and said
"I witnessed, in North Carolina, the template for rebuilding the Democratic Party and reclaiming the country ..."
The grassroots keep getting stronger!

FEMA thwarted Local, National, and International Relief

2005-09-07T11:05:00.000-04:00

Not only did FEMA prevent the Red Cross from delivering food and water to people trapped in the Superdome and Convention centers, (see post below for details), but they have denied aid all over the place.
Andrew Sullivan has links to lots of info about FEMA and Michael Brown's incompetence, including the following:
http://femafailures.blogspot.com/
Articles exposing FEMA's failures in Los Angeles Times, USA Today, and more.
Constructive Interference
This site lists many of the relief workers and aid supplies that were refused entry to New Orleans and/or the Gulf area. FEMA also blocked civilian response, both neighbors from the region and Americans from all over the USA were turned away, even if they had boats, supplies, medical training, whatever.
But a few Duke students managed to sneak in and help:
In the Durham Herald Sun, Sept 4, 2005
Three Duke students, disgusted by the inadequate relief effort, drove to the Gulf on Friday, posed as jounalists, got past the National Guard and evacuated 7 people from downtown New Orleans in their little Hyundai.
Fire Brown Now
Spin First, Save Lives Later
FEMA Director Michael Brown's memo to Chertoff shows the focus was not on getting rescuers in there right away.
Check the local news for best coverage and photos:
The Times-Picayune http://www.nola.com
New Orleans WWL TV http://www.wwltv.com
What does this sad pic of New Orleans remind you of?

Homeland Security Admits They Denied Red Cross Access to New Orleans

2005-09-05T09:39:00.000-04:00

This is killer information that should be distributed widely to media, politicians, church leaders, and everyone you know.
Both Red Cross and Homeland Security have admitted that Red Cross was not allowed into the city of New Orleans ALL WEEK.
I find it very disturbing that people died of dehydration and starvation in the Superdome "shelter", while President Bush's suggestion was "Send cash to the Red Cross". Red Cross was allowed access to the outlying more white communities where they gave out food and water.
What reason do they give for withholding food and water from 50,000 predominantly poor African Americans left in the city because they did not have cars to evacuate?
Red Cross says the reason was that their "presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city."
Kevin Cowan at the Louisianna Office of Homeland Security said they "don't want to put anyone at undue risk". I guess that reference to "anyone" must only refer to white Red Cross workers. Certainly the 20,000 people in the Superdome and the other thousands at the Convention center were put at grave risk by being held at gunpoint with no food, water, or bathroom facilities for days. Ten bodies were found in the Superdome.
So if they were afraid to put the Red Cross workers at risk, why didn't they escort them in with military back-up, or just have the National Guard drive in the darn truckloads of Red Cross food & water?
When there are disasters in other countries, the Red Cross is there right away with food and water, because other countries do not deny them access to the victims.
A few bloggers posted that they had heard on CNN and on Larry King Show, the head of Red Cross saying they weren't allowed in.
I found this news at Dailykos, which has a lot of information now about the disastrous disaster response.
See for yourself on the FAQ section of Red Cross's website:
Here is an excerpt in case they remove it from their website soon:

Disaster FAQs
Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?
Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.
The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

A DailyKos blogger called up Homeland Security to verify this statement on Red Cross's web-page. The Federal Homeland Security guy admitted it at first, but would not stand by his statement. On the Red Cross Webpage it says ""state Homeland Security department", so then he called the Communications Center for the Louisianna Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness at 225-925-7500. Lt. Kevin Cowan (Public Information Officer) confirmed that their office did prevent Red Cross from coming in! Read the text of his phone calls here.
He goes on to say

"Orj Ozeppi reports that the Salvation Army is telling people the same thing as the ARC(Red Cross): "if we help, people won't leave." So we have a discrepancy between these relief agencies and LA Homeland Security as to the reason. The relief agencies are consistent. It may be that this policy is just because it's a disaster zone, as the LA Homeland Security guy said, but this question needs to be answered. Was the decision to keep the relief agencies out made to force people to evacuate (and punish those who didn't... perhaps making a lesson of them?) by making conditions intolerable??? If not, why do these relief agencies say so? "

In fact, many aid offers have been turned down by President Bush & Homeland Security. Even Homeland Security was blocked by Bush! The Homeland Security division, "NorthCOM" in Colorado, which was supposedly coordinating the relief efforts (Surprise! This must be a stealth mission), said they did not send 9 million meals which were ready before the hurricane hit, because they were waiting for Bush's order.
A Canadian Med-vac team was denied access to the USA. They have now made a deal directly with local officials to come in by ship.
according to the Washington Post, Cuba offered med teams and supplies.
France and Germany offered med teams, tents, water purification equipment, but were initially turned down.
President George W. Bush said in a television interview that the United States could take care of itself. In contrast, Sean McCormack of the State Department said,
"Anything that can be of help to alleviate the tragic situation of the area affected by Hurricane Katrina will be accepted".
Al Gore knows a doctor at one of the hospitals in NO and lined up TWO 747 airliners to fly in and evacuate victims in order to fly critical care patients to waiting hospitals around the nation.
Homeland Security BLOCKED this from happening. Why? Because FEMA is not allowed to help PRIVATELY funded hospitals.
Those people in critical condition, in hospitals were DENIED a free and safe evacuation.
According to nola.com (the N.O. Times-Picayune website), Homeland Security has also declined the Forest Service's offer to put out the fires in New Orleans.

"The Forest Service has offered fixed plane aircraft used to fight forest fires to help extinguish blazes in New Orleans, according to two congressional sources. But the sources said the planes, which can pour large amounts of water on fires, remained grounded in Missouri Friday because the Department of Homeland Security hasn't authorized their use.
"We've been asking them to request that the planes be used, but nothing has happened," said one of the two congressional sources, both of whom asked to remain anonymous. The planes were offered by the Forest Service because of news reports that firefighters in New Orleans lacked adequate water pressure to fight a number of fires in the city."

President Bush is returning to the area to do more cheerleading and take more photo ops to shift the rising tide of public anger.
Meanwhile, our government's disaster response seems more like sabotage than aid.

Katrina Disaster Relief

2005-09-01T10:42:00.000-04:00

If you know anyone in or near the disaster area, or if you want to offer temporary housing, the following website has a well organized system of free housing offers for evacuees. It can be printed out for a wall poster to be put near pay phones, or for relief workers to bring in. I plan to see if the Red Cross knows about this effort.
http://www.katrinahome.com/
Another similar site:http://www.nola.com/forums/homesavailable/
I agree with this post at Daily Kos, that the government should get more buses in theres RIGHT AWAY by any means possible:
"You know what else I was thinking? Why didn't the government send every available bus to New Orleans to take everyone away who was stranded their. Surely a national emergency would allow the President to comandeer all the local Greyhound buses for this purpose."
Is it Wrong to Politicize a Disaster?
http://central-scrutinizer.dailykos.com/
"A lot of people are going to huff and bluster about making this disaster a political issue. Put bluntly, however, what government does and does not choose to spend money on for the essential safety of its citizens is a political issue, and a very basic one at that. The administration willfully reduced the budget for the protective levees around New Orleans to a level where even maintaining the current levee height was impossible, in order to shift that Corps money into Iraq. I'd say that's a political big deal."
Check out this article of Feb 16, 2004, in New Orleans CityBusiness:
Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

This Salon article expands on how Bush policies also failed to protect the wetlands which would have mitigated this disaster.

The Corporation

2005-07-05T12:53:00.000-04:00

Five of us *enjoyed* watching "The Corporation". It is actually a very entertaining movie, with a lot of funny soundbites from the 1950's and 60's extolling the benefits of corporate power. Michael Moore is in it, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and a very interesting CEO of a formerly polluting carpet company, named Ray Anderson, fondly referred to as "the carpet guy". This guy seems to have had an enlightenment experience, and has changed his company to help move towards an environmentally sustainable world. If people like him can change so profoundly, I think there is hope for the world. We must reach people's hearts.
I also saw "Weapons of Mass Deception", Danny Schecter's film on the Iraq War as shown through the distorting eyes of the media. Afterwards, James M made this profound comment in regard to fighting against the neo-con's takeover by manipulation of fears:
"We need to stop fighting against what we can't defeat, and embrace what can't be defeated".

For me, the top undefeatable energy is love, followed closely by truth and fairness ( a kinder word than justice).
http://www.thecorporation.com/ is an activist tool, with interactive discussion on whether to reform, regulate, or rewrite the structure of corporations. They held an online debate in which over 800 logged in, (video clips at website). They are working on an action agenda of how we can help:

What Do We Do Now?

"Whether or not you've been part of a DVD House Party and debate, or if you've just seen the film -- we really want your feedback around the issues and around the three "R's. Tell us what you think: Please fill out our online feedback form. We will be using all this information we collect to formulate a Framework for Action document around Corporate Harm Reduction and using it to fuel future campaigns. "

I'm ordering the 2 DVD set of "The Corporation", which has more interviews and action ideas.

Rasul vs. Rumsfeld

2005-05-18T21:52:00.000-04:00

Rasul v. Rumsfeld
Wow, have you heard about this? Why don't we hear this story in the mainstream media? I think I know why. Rumsfeld is GUILTY.
I read about it in this Common Dreams article released May 6. It is pertinent now, because it contains descriptions of Koran desecration that these (now-released) detainees sent to our government last fall.

My hero, Rep John Conyers is on to it though. He posted a letter on his blog page at dailykos ,which he just sent to the Whitehouse Press Secretary,Mr. Scott McClellan.
Here is a key excerpt from Conyers' letter:

"Third, the public deserves to know what precisely the White House is asserting with respect to the mistreatment of the Koran by interrogators: are such reports categorically false or are they, in the words of one publication, "manifold?" For example, a May1st New York Times report indicated that a Koran was thrown into a pile and stepped on at the Guantanamo detention facility and "[a] former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans." The incident where a Koran was allegedly thrown in a toilet was also recounted by a former detainee in a March 26, 2003 article in the Washington Post, and corroborated by another detainee in a August 4, 2003 report by the Center for Constitutional Rights. The question is: are you categorically denying that the mistreatment of the Koran occurred, or are you simply denying the Newsweek report is accurate on hyper technical grounds?" [my emphasis]

SYNOPSIS:
Rasul v. Rumsfeld represents four British citizens formerly detained at Guantánamo Bay: Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal, Rhuhel Ahmed and Jamal Al-Harith. Three of them wrote a 115-page document detailing the torture and abuse they suffered and witnessed while imprisoned at Guantánamo, and it can be downloaded from the Center for Constitutional Rights web site at www.ccr-ny.org. I read quite a bit of it and it is a fascinating and detailed personal account of life from the inside of a cell in Guantánamo.
I'll paste in a bit of it below,(not the most disgusting parts).
The beginning of the document describes their horrific journey from Afghanistan to Cuba, in freezing weather, shackled and packed into trucks, where many died, and then the cargo planes. I'm skipping that part.
Shafiq Rasul (age 27) lives in England. Before he went to Afghanistan, he worked at an electronics store, and was attending the University of Central England. The other two men who give this amazing first-hand account are now 22 years old.
Here is the the pdf file of their document, which includes paintings (oil or acrylic) of the prisoners. Worth a peek for the paintings alone.
The suit, filed last fall in conjunction with the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, seeks $10 million in damages for these detainees. It charges that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon chain of command authorized and condoned torture and other mistreatment in violation of the Alien Tort Statute, the U.S. Constitution, the Geneva Conventions and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
None of the detainees had ever been a member of any terrorist group or taken up arms against the United States.

"This is a case about torture,” said Eric Lewis, lead lawyer for the detainees. “The government tries to ignore this, but it is clear now beyond dispute that detainees were tortured at Guantánamo as part of a deliberate policy devised and implemented by Secretary Rumsfeld and senior generals. If the United States’ policy is against torture—and the President says it is—then senior officials must be held accountable."

For a copy of the filing, e-mail the attorney: Paul Hughes at Baach Robinson & Lewis
Paul.Hughes@baachrobinson.com
excerpts from the document by three of the four plaintiffs:
Detention in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay
Statement of Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed
26th July 2004

1. All three men come from Tipton in West Midlands, a poor area with a small
community of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin. The school all three attended is
considered one of the worst in England. Rhuhel Ahmed and Asif Iqbal who are now
both aged 22 were friends from school, although one year apart. Neither was
brought up religiously but each was drawn towards Islam.
2. This statement jointly made by them constitutes an attempt to set out details of their treatment at the hands of UK and US military personnel and civilian authorities during the time of their detention in Kandahar in Afghanistan in late December 2001 and throughout their time in American custody in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. This statement is a composite of the experiences of all 3. They are referred to throughout by their first names for brevity.
72. They were never given prayer mats and initially they didn’t get a Koran. When the Korans were provided, they were kicked and thrown about by the guards and on occasion thrown in the buckets used for the toilets. This kept happening. When it
happened it was always said to be an accident but it was a recurrent theme.
73. Eventually the prisoners went on hunger strike because of the way that they were treated and in particular the way their religion was treated.
74. Asif says that ‘it was impossible to pray because initially we did not know the
direction to pray, but also given that we couldn’t move and the harassment
from the guards, it was simply not feasible. The behaviour of the guards
towards our religious practices as well as the Koran was also, in my view,
designed to cause us as much distress as possible. They would kick the
Koran, throw it into the toilet and generally disrespect it.’
129. Delta was placed very close to the sea and as such, the salt air would cause the
containers to rust. This meant that there was constant reconstruction work and
therefore large electric generators were running 24 hours a day. This made it
difficult to sleep. There was also constant noise from the 48 or so other men all
detained in the same “block”. An unusual, but foreseeable problem that emerged in
Delta was that the cages and the entire area around the containers were infested
with rats. These were huge “banana” rats which would climb over the containers or
around the cages. Every morning, the men would wake up to find rat droppings on
their blankets or on the floor. There were also snakes in Delta but less than Camp
X-Ray.
130. In normal circumstances such conditions would be difficult to endure. In
Guantanamo Bay however we were deliberately kept hungry the whole time.
We were constantly in a state of anxiety about our future and totally at the
mercy of the guards’.
133. Shafiq comments “while we were in Guantanamo each of us was
interrogated for hundreds and hundreds of hours by the Americans. The same
questions were repeated over and over and over again.
134. During the whole time that we were in Guantanamo, we were at a high level
of fear. When we first got there the level was sky-high. At the beginning we
were terrified that we might be killed at any minute. The guards would say to
us ‘we could kill you at any time’. They would say ‘the world doesn’t know
you’re here, nobody knows you’re here, all they know is that you’re missing
and we could kill you and no one would know’.
139. (In the first few months, they were allowed a one minute shower per week. Later
this increased to 5 minutes per week and after 7 or 8 months in Delta, they were
allowed 2 showers a week. This was still not enough because as a result of the
heat and the humidity they would be constantly sweating and feel dirty.
1. Medical – I said that I together with others were suffering with infections on
our ankles as a result of the scraping by the shackles. The officials would
tell us that we simply needed to wash our ankles with soap and water, but
this was impossible as we only had a one minute shower per week. Often,
when we were in the shower, we had barely put the soap on when they
would turn the water off and take us away.

Why the fuss?

2005-05-11T12:27:00.000-04:00

Bush holding hands with Saudi Prince Abdullah

as shown on CBS news
At "the political junkies.net" Jay Greene comments about why there isn't more fuss about this. I agree it is likely that the cons would have lambasted Clinton, had he done the same thing.
Personally I don't think there should be a fuss because men hold hands, the fuss should be over WHO he's holding hands with... leader from the country that privately condones the insurgent attacks, the country which is allowing men on their death row to go to Iraq as suicide bombers, country which has not reprimanded their 2nd top cleric for preaching in his mosque that Arabs should go to Iraq now to fight with the insurgents, country that spawned most of the 911 terrorists, including Osama bin Laden, country that doesn't allow women to vote, and only recently had any election at all.
imho our country engages in total hypocrisy in being so chummy with Saudi Arabia and dozens of other countries with the worst human rights records in the world. If they have oil to sell us or money to buy up US bonds, then we'll support them, send weapons and technological secrets, which could be used against us at a future date, whatever.
The world must laugh at how STUPID our foreign policy is. But since these policies (including our total disregard/denial of global warming) will bring down the whole planet with us, it is no laughing matter.

Letter from Congress makes news

2005-05-07T10:15:00.000-04:00

Here is a little mention on CNN about the letter concerning leaked memo. Too bad they call the London Times "a tabloid", thus casting doubt on the source.
Video in Real Media format (1 minute)

btw next Think Tank on Sunday, May 22 will be about the media. Two of our members are going to the National Conference for Media Reform in St Louis next week. Here are just a few of the many top liberal presenters: George Lakoff, Al Franken, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Jim Hightower, Robert Greenwald. The conference is sold out, so come to the Think Tank to hear about it first-hand.

Memo proves Bush faked our way into Iraq

2005-05-06T19:15:00.000-04:00

The democratic underground is a buzz with this leaked memo story, and now my hero, John Conyers, has brought it up in Congress, and gotten 88 other members of Congress to join him in questioning the President.
See their letter, complete with 88 signatures here.
John Conyers is so cool he posted the story on dailykos. He said hundreds of Progressive Democrats of America and Daily Kos readers contacted their congress people about this.
According alternet, the memo is the official minutes of a briefing by Richard Dearlove, (then head of Britain's CIA equivalent, MI-6) on July 23, 2002 to Tony Blair and a few other top officials about a meeting in Washington with Bush.
Dearlove tells Blair and the others that President Bush has decided to remove Saddam Hussein by launching a war that is to be "justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction."
"The intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy."
Here is the memo, as printed in the London Times.
I liked Ken Sanders article,
"Smoking Gun Memo appears, but where's the outrage?"
in the Dissident Voice on May 5. He mentions John Conyer's letter and the subsequent lack of interest by the media, concluding, "If only the memo had a semen stain .... "
So let's pummel congress, newspapers, and radio with questions about this!

800 anti-war rallies barely mentioned in news

2005-03-23T00:07:00.000-05:00

I am shocked anew at the lack of coverage in the MSM [Mainstream Media] of this growing anti-war movement.
The NY Times focused on a small group of 350 protesters at the U.N. This is what other newsmedia then repeat.
After returning from the powerful march experience in Fayetteville, NC, I wanted to see what happened elsewhere. To be honest, I was disappointed in the turnout in Fayetteville. It looked like about 2500 people to me, and they had been hoping for 4000- 10,000. It was supposed to be the largest national march, with national news coverage, since it was so unusual to have a Peace march co-sponsored by military families in a military town.
Before I continue with my rant on the media, I want to show & tell a bit about the march. At the pre-rally, there were a lot of Code Pink women, including their founder, Medea Benjamin. There was singing and belly-dancing for peace by my friend Betsy. Thanks to Susan M. for snapping these photos.

I have been a Picasso fan since I was a child. My Pacifist father introduced me to Picasso's monumental anti-war painting, "Guernica". So when exciting drums announced a larger than life enactment of a moving "Guernica", done with 10' tall puppets, moving with sticks and hinges, I was blown away. They also made a very large flying dove that needs five people to hold it up with long bamboo poles. Here are the characters, made by Paper Hand Puppet Intervention.

One hundred coffins had been made with cardboard and covered with flags to represent all the soldiers from North Carolina who died in Iraq. The marchers were asked to be pallbearers. This made the sadness of this war more real.

When we got to the rally site, there were pillow case sizes banners made by family and friends of the dead. Hanging beside them were banners for some of the Iraqi civilians, with their names, ages and circumstances of their death. This sight brought tears to my eyes.

Here is the stage where we heard many speakers who had been in Iraq or lost loved ones there, including Nick Berg's father. Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey spoke; she is the co-sponsor of Res 35, which calls for the President to bring the troops home at once. The Co-founders of all these groups with military ties were present:
Iraq Veterans Against the War http://www.ivaw.net/
Gold Star Families for Peace http://www.gsfp.org/
Military Families Speak Out http://www.mfso.org/
Veterans for Peace http://www.veteransforpeace.org/
and the non-military sponsors included
NC Peace and Justice Coalition http://www.ncpeacejustice.org/
Sept 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows http://www.peacefultomorrows.org
United for Peace and Justice http://www.unitedforpeace.org
CODEPINK http://www.codepinkalert.org
A real highlight for me was running into Code Pink's founding mother, Medea Benjamin. I had brought a pink tee,"What Would Durga Do?" to give her, and she loved it. Here we are with her (second from left).

For 24 hours, I believed theWashington Post, which said, "N.C. Demonstration Is Largest of 800 Held Across the U.S. to Mark 2nd Anniversary of Conflict". But then I searched the internet and found reports of 25,000 in San Francisco and 20,000 L.A. http://www.answercoalition.org

Even if that's an exaggeration, there were probably more than we had in Fayetteville. ABC TV news gave some coverage, but they featured the few counter-protesters as much as the protest. Many people who follow MSM didn't even know about any of the marches. I guess it's good to decentralize and have marches in 800 cities in all 50 states. that way at least some people will be first hand witnesses to these under-reported events.
United for Peace lists all 765 U.S. cities that held rallies, which were twice as many as last year.

Apparently, there were far bigger rallies in Europe, also on March 19, 2005. London: 45,000, Istanbul,Turkey: 15,000, Athens, Greece: 3000 according to the
Boston Globe.

I am grateful for the liberal websites and blogs who share more of the news on the ground.
Here are some nice big pictures of Seattle's march someone posted at Democratic Underground
Truthout's Chris Hume interviews the military protesters at Fayetteville march. This interview is biased to leave out the fact that the majority of the marchers present were non military. But at least it's coverage of this important and growing segment of the Peace Movement.

I guess we have to become our own media, as well as pressure the media to cover news we want to hear.

Evaluate our Think Tank

2005-03-05T15:05:00.000-05:00

I posed these questions, and Susan Michael wrote these replies.
1. What has Living-room Think Tank done for you?
It has been both fun and informative. I really love getting together with like-minded people to discuss freely what we should do about the state we are in as progressives and strategize game plans.
2. What is the purpose of this group? I feel the purpose of this group is to share ideas, formulate responses for when we encounter people outside the group and stimulate thinking. I would like to add action as a result of our thinking.
3. Do you like the format? I like the format, particularly when we write our discussion points on a poster board to be used as a basis for action.
4. What topics would you like us to discuss? I have enjoyed the topics. A topic I would like to discuss is what are good strategies for toppling this regime. Sometimes it gets so overwhelming for me. Every area I look the Bush Administration is dismantling and I don’t know where to begin. I guess I feel we need to focus on the bigger picture and where we could get the most people rallied and awakened. I think if we were to start tackling the budget crisis or the war and consider how we can bring this to the foreground that could bring more attention from more sources. I think about how Code Pink explained at the Progressive Democrats Summit in January, they were planning a rally in Fayetteville, NC along with other states and now it is a few weeks away. I am amazed at how much it has grown from January. I guess I think we need to keep the ‘frame’ large so as many people can umbrella underneath it. I would really like to think of big issues we can take on and maybe brainstorm how we can start creating a buzz around them.
Lastly, I am trying to figure out how some groups can converge into one. For it seems several of the groups I am involved with are at a similar place, they start with a lot of enthusiasm and after awhile the momentum fades. I just don’t want that to happen with this group. I feel it is too valuable and too important. The issues are looming too big over all of us and it helps to feel there is a force locally trying to do something.
5. If you have read "Don't Think of an Elephant", do you think we are learning to reframe political topics from a progressive view? I think reframing using a bigger picture is where I would like to go with it.

War in Iraq = Future Lack

2005-01-25T23:51:00.000-05:00

Reframe the war in Iraq for all its negative consequences, by connecting its full cost to our full future lacks.
Balance all the costs of this type of unjust war to all these

Future Deficits:

lack of safety from terrorism
lack of fuel*
lack of money
lack of clean environment to live in
lack of jobs, life, liberty, health.

Costs of Iraq war

the lives lost
the growing ill-will with millions of Muslims
billions $$$ spent will bring future national bankruptcy
environmental DU damage
health costs of all the injured or contaminated troops
moral danger of setting the first attack precedent (Bush says "pre-emptive strike", let's start naming it for what it really was).

In the longer term, if we keep using fossil and nuclear fuel instead of developing clean renewable sources, we risk environmental damage to the atmosphere, and radiation damage in the ground, air, and food.
*Here's the reason I say it will cost us fuel instead of gain it: Grabbing their oil is a short-term fix. When it runs out in 30-50 years, we won't have the time or the money to fix the situation fast enough. Better to start working on safe alternatives before that crisis.

We could make the world safer by putting the billions of dollars we're spending on this war into renewable energy/ conservation breakthroughs now. The USA has left a oversized footprint of environmental damage to planet Earth. For all the damage we've done, I want to start repaying that debt asap!

Spending even half the huge amount of cash in the defense and pentagon budgets could create millions of jobs here in the USA and radically improve education as we retrain and rebuild ourselves into a green nation. For example, how many jobs will it create to super insulate every single dwelling in the nation, and rebuild many to passive solar standards?
By leaving Iraq we will reduce our terrorist threat. Every day we stay compounds the threat.This situation is breeding terrorists. Many Iraqis do not want to live under American occupation. I hear it's not very pleasant over there. Although we have transferred power in name, it is obvious that we still call the shots as long as we have permanent military bases and the controlling interests in the corporations handling the reconstruction.

Instead of creating ill-will, we could build good-will by withdrawing our full presence, but helping fund reconstruction of Iraq by non-American firms, chosen by Iraqis. Remember when Bush said France and Germany couldn't bid on any contracts, and then he went one step further and gave these profitable jobs with no bid to his American buddies? Well this time I think the blackout should be on all American interests. Then we will begin getting safer as our global image changes from greedy imperialists to a caring nation.
The other key step in reducing Islamic hatred of Americans will have to be a radical shift in our Mideast Policy, to be fair and equal to both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Acting on the wrong side of justice will cost us the American Dream.

Unjust war = no more safety, no more plenty.

Senators call for a new "Truman Committee" to prevent War Profiteering

2005-01-24T17:30:00.000-05:00

Something good in congress! Spread the word.
U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (Democrat-IL), and Larry Craig (Republican-ID)introduced a bipartisan resolution on Sept 15 to create a Senate special committee for oversight of contracts awarded to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the war on terrorism. Senators Daniel Akaka (D-HI) and Mark Dayton (D-MN) are also cosponsors of the resolution.
Often described as the most successful government investigation effort in U.S. history, the Truman Committee investigated billions of dollars in wartime contracts, saved millions, and serves as a valuable model today. Today, as in the World War II years, skyrocketing costs and rapid allocations of funds have outpaced the federal government's ability to oversee and audit the use of taxpayer funds. Congress has allocated more than $166 billion for war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan, and costs will continue to rise.
The Durbin-Craig resolution will create a new Truman Committee to examine bidding, contracting, subcontracting and oversight of private contracts, and also to investigate allegations of wasteful and fraudulent practices.
I found out about this from an amusing blogger, firedoglake.
Her post at dailykos is called
War Profiteering and You: A CALL FOR ACTION
here is an excerpt:

We all know that the so-called "reconstruction effort" in Iraq has amounted to little more than a depraved carnival of corporate greed. But just how bad is it? It's bad. Really bad.
So I decided to take a closer look at the Top Ten War Profiteers (as determined by the Center for Corporate Policy) and examine how each has fared in the news of late. This is what I found. (Warning: It's ugly.)

What can you do?
1. Inform yourself about the top ten offenders in Iraq at her article
http://firedoglake.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/3/9342/72417
2.Ask your Senator to join them in co-sponsorship.
3.Write these senators a thank you note.
Their e-mail adresses are a click away at the above link.

Here's my Thank You note. perhaps too brash for the Republican. oh well.

Thank You for calling for a new "Truman Committee" to prevent War Profiteering. I think this is a good idea. I am disgusted at how the current administration has attacked Iraq without just cause, and then moved in with no-bid contracts for all of Bush's crooked cronies. Let's see... American taxpayers pay for the war, but it costs more than we can cough up, so our future generations will be saddled with debt too, meanwhile, Bectel, Halliburton, BearingPoint ,BKSH & Associates,etc. executives get even richer by overcharging for work they never complete.
STOP THEM! Thank You.

Progressive Democrat Summit Inspiring

2005-01-24T16:16:00.000-05:00

Our carpool of 6 braved the snow in DC, and returned safely with no ice or snow on the highways. What a fun and exhausting experience to gather with 500 progressives from all over the country. At our next Think Tank on Friday Feb 18, we plan to give a presentation of what we learned at the Summit, and discuss topics that came up there. I also plan to put up a webpage at the blog about the conference.
If you want to hear about what it was like right away, here are comments and ongoing discussions from other attendees at the PDA conference blog.
We heard David Cobb, the Green party's presidential candidate; Tom Hayden was inspirational; Medea Benjamin, a founder of Code Pink brimmed with good energy. Swami Beyondananda put his wisdom to rap music, and the Billionaires for Bush did some fabulous song and dance numbers.

We took notes through panel after panel after panel of intelligent, sensitive, well-informed multi-cultural speakers. Whew!
There wasn't enough smaller break-out meetings by topic, which was a little frustrating for all of us networkers. But we did have regional meetings, so I'll be filling you in on the North Carolina scoop soon. I took a blogging workshop, so I hope that our think tank blog may start reaching more people. My hope is that we can provide a suggested format to encourage other living room think tanks to start popping up.

Swami Beyondananda

Michael Moore & Hack-proof Voting

2005-01-16T14:25:00.000-05:00

Our Jan 14 meeting was fun and productive. We began by watching Michael Moore's appearances on TV last week; the Today Show, the Tonight Show, and the People's Choice Awards Show. Fahrenheit 911 won the People's Choice Award for Best Movie of the Year, and it will be entered in the Oscars race. Michael said, "I will take that as a suggestion to make more Fahrenheit 911's." He commented on the Democratic party's choice of undynamic candidates, and feels they need to find someone well-loved by the American people, like Tom Hanks, or Oprah, or at least someone who can emotionally connect to people like Clinton did.

We brainstormed on phrases to use concerning "Vote Verification". I'll link to them later, when ready. These phrases can be used in speech or on printed flyers or stickers to spread around. Essentially a soundbite with a website address, such as whatreallyhappened.com, chuckherrin.com, and/or www.airamericaradio.com. If you haven't seen these sites, take a peek.
Chuck Herrin's site is the best to recommend to Republicans, since he is one, and he is a computer expert who is actively working for a switch to all hand-counted paper ballots, nationwide. That's right--
NO MACHINES!
Apparently that's how Canada does it, and it would be the safest way to limit fraud and tampering. At first, this seemed like a pipe dream to me, but as I learned more, I am coming to think it is an issue which could rise to America's attention with a lot more grassroots publicity.

Here is a Missouri bill calling for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots, submitted last May by Mo. State Representative, Edward W. Spannaus. I don't know if this bill got killed or not, but I repeat this excerpt from his presentation, because it gives me hope to see legislation in favor of of a totally manual method. And he gives such a clear argument, which can be your talking points for why we need this manual system.

"House Bill 1744 would require 100% use of paper ballots, and would prohibit all electronic counting or tabulation of votes. Additionally, every voter would be provided with a receipt—a copy of his or her vote—to be used in the event of a challenge or contest.
I would point out at the outset, that a comprehensive study of lost votes for the past four Presidential elections (1988, 1992, 1996, and 2000) found that paper ballots had the lowest rate of error of any voting system.
This study, known as the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Report(Mar 2001), studied five general types of voting technologies: hand-counted paper ballots, lever machines, punch cards, optically scanned paper ballots, and touch-screen (DRE) machines. The study reported:

"The central finding of this investigation is that manually-counted paper ballots have the lowest average incidence of spoiled, uncounted, and unmarked ballots, followed closely by lever machines and optically scanned ballots. Punchcard methods and systems using direct recording electronic (DRE) devices had significantly higher average rates of spoiled, uncounted, and unmarked ballots than of the other systems."
...
Why Use Only Paper Ballots?
A system of paper ballots only, as envisioned by House Bill 1744, best meets the Constitutional requirements for fair elections, and provides the soundest basis for voter confidence in the electoral process.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declared that the right to vote includes the right of qualified voters within a state not simply to cast a vote, but to have their votes counted properly.

Impediments to vote fraud: Any use of computers opens the door to fraud. The speed and complexity of computers creates an inherently dangerous and fraud-prone situation, because, as we have noted, only a handful of people know how votes are being counted. Citizens can never have full confidence in any such system of vote counting.

By going back to a universal paper ballot, which is hand counted, we are creating additional impediments to fraud and tampering with results. If this requires more people to count the votes than is needed when using computers, all the better. The more people involved, the more obstacles we have created to carrying out vote fraud.

Transparency and voter confidence. The objection has been raised, that a total paper-ballot system would be a slow, inefficient system for counting votes. In our view, this is a great advantage. A slow, ponderous vote-counting system, where citizens can watch their votes being counted with complete transparency, is the best way not only to prevent vote fraud and election-rigging, but to establish public confidence in the integrity of the electoral process.

There is no requirement, Constitutional or otherwise, that vote totals must be made available instantaneously for the benefit of the news media or anyone else. There is, however, a Constitutional mandate that votes be counted fairly, and that all votes be treated equally.
A 100% paper-ballot system is the best means to ensure such an outcome."

- Edward W. Spannaus

Reframe Social Security

2005-01-06T22:19:00.000-05:00

Does the wording "Ownership Society" feed the conservative frame?

Susan Carver Williams makes a good point in her perspective on the fight to protect Social Security from the Bush administration's sneaky tactics.

"I don’t know about you, but I’d rather live in a Generous and Kind Community that is strengthened by our connections than in an Ownership Society where we fight to protect what’s “ours” and expand what’s “ours” and keep others from having any of it."

I've put her analysis on how Bush & Co are cleverly marketing and framing their attack at my new page , Social Security Discussion Corner.

Please contribute to our conversation there... e-mail me or post a comment on the blog.

Here is a great succinct argument for why NOT to privatize Social Security or medicare. This is directly quoted from the Petition Site. In fact, please sign the petition there. Thanks!

Social Security is not facing an imminent crisis, and is not in danger of running out of money anytime soon. (The Social Security Administration estimates the trust fund will last until 2042; many economists estimate the fund will last much longer.) Also, privatization will cost a lot - and working families will be the ones who pay.

continued at Social Security Discussion Corner

Will lessons from history help us save the planet?

2005-01-01T16:39:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!
This January 1st Op-ed article in NY Times by Jared Diamond, "The Ends of the World as We Know Them" gives a fascinating background on ancient societies which failed or adapted and survived. I always wondered why 90% of the Mayans disappeared around 900AD. [I know... I'm weird, but I have visited there.] He also sheds light on the collapse of the Polynesian society on Easter Island three centuries ago, and the disappearance of the medieval Norse colonies on Greenland.
"When it comes to historical collapses, five groups of interacting factors have been especially important: the damage that people have inflicted on their environment; climate change; enemies; changes in friendly trading partners; and the society's political, economic and social responses to these shifts."
One of the key social responses for failure or success is insulation vs acknowledging the problem and modifying behavior.
Can we apply these lessons to our current situation? The author is hopeful.

the people’s party?

2004-12-26T13:42:00.000-05:00

This article in Mother Jones by Michael Kazin is worth the reading time.

Democrats need to start acting more like the people’s party they once were -- and less like a traveling road show that packs up after each election.
Listening to the Democratic nominees during the 2004 presidential campaign, it often seemed as if they were ashamed to belong to their own political party. In his acceptance speech, John Kerry boasted that he “broke with many in my own party” to support a balanced budget and ridiculed the idea of “Democratic values” and “Republican values.” John Edwards gave a rousing concession speech -- but didn’t even bother to invoke the party’s name.
The other side never makes that mistake...

my favorite ideas from the article are:

A reborn Democratic Party would draw ideas and energy from states and local communities, enlisting candidates and organizers who share the values and language of the people whose votes they’ll be seeking. It could sponsor comedy nights and dance parties and debates about whether one can support gay marriage and still be a good Christian; throw street festivals at which every immigrant society, sportsmen’s club, church, temple, and mosque feels welcome;

We are a backlash

2004-12-24T07:35:00.000-05:00

Jane L expressed my sentiments so clearly, I am posting her Solstice message here:

My year has been dominated by the elections. The reactionary forces in our society have changed our prevailing dialogue by hijacking our language. “Liberal” has become a dirty word, “family values” has become synonymous with repudiation of homosexuality and non-conforming lifestyles, and “terrorists” refer to anybody but ourselves. Can we claim the high ground of moral values when we initiated a preemptive and unprovoked war on another country? Where is the America that is my home? I want to live in a country where family values means providing shelter, sustenance and health care to persons in need, and where “pro-life” means giving those who are alive the option to make unfettered choices. I want to live in a country where there truly is a separation of church and state so that “science” is what is taught in our public schools. I want to live in a country where we take the threat of global warming and the fouling of our environment seriously, rather than pass legislation that abdicates these responsibilities, mislabeling it the “clear skies” act.
This has been a time of great reflection; where in losing my country I have come to realize how much I love it. It has been a time of resurgence in political activity organized by Internet and community groups. My friends and I did more work for this election, registering voters and getting out the vote, than we have done in recent history. I remember thinking in the late 1960’s that when I became old (meaning the age I am now), my generation would form the Gray Panthers. The baby-boomers would rise up and organize for social security, medical care, and social programs. Well the time is here and perhaps that is what is happening. My group of friends has started a progressive think tank, groups of democrats all over have continued to meet since the election, and liberal churches are organizing to change the direction of religious dialogue. We are a backlash, we are a movement, and we are fighting once again to make this a better world.

VOTE Integrity: Paper ballots essential!

2004-12-13T08:56:00.000-05:00

There was a small but enthusiastic turnout at the Verify Our VOTE Rally at the State Capitol, Dec 12 at noon. Jewelsong sang a few lovely songs. My favorite speaker was Republican geek, Chuck Herrin. He is a powerful voice for the essential need for paper ballots to insure vote integrity.
He shows exactly how simple it is to hack the vote at present.
He is also working hard to engage Republicans in this fight for fair elections. Most of his speech can be found at his website in his two primers for empathy between the parties. This one has some excellent tips for how to speak more productively with conservatives:
Empathy Training for Liberals: A Primer on the Conservative Mind, From the Inside of One.

I highly recommend forwarding this next piece, addressed to Conservatives, to any that you know:

Empathy Training for Compassionate Conservatives: Why the Democrats Are Still Whining About the Election (and Why Maybe We Should Be, Too)

Speakers at the Rally included:
Joyce McCloy, N.C Coalition for Verified Voting, David Allen, Black Box Voting
Chuck Herrin, Republican computer security analyst,
Cecil Bothwell, The Progressive Project and many more,
including elected officials and musicians

Voices for Verified Voting
a coalition of concerned citizens organizing to:
educate others about election irregularities, and
mobilize effective action to ensure transparent, verifiable elections

for more information:
http://www.51capitalmarch.com/
http://www.divas4democracy.net/

Operation: Red Alert

2004-12-13T08:16:00.000-05:00

Susan S. found this blogger who is doing just what someone suggested at our last Think Tank... but with a new twist...organizing a way to make short soundbite size mini-flyers that we can post around town. You can sign up to receive them by e-mail as a pdf ready to print.
Sign up here:
http://aethern.blogspot.com/2004/11/operation-red-alert.html
If you want to help write them, go to dailykos on Mondays. In fact, it's the most happening political blog around imho[in my humble opinion], so check it out any time:
http://www.dailykos.com/

Operation: Red Alert comes from an idea that surfaced on the Daily Kos diaries a few days back. Essentially, we will organize to craft messages and distribute them through an email list. The members of the list will post these messages on grocery store bulletin boards and the like. Here are some potential examples:
WASHINGTON REPUBLICANS CHANGE RULES
In the early 1990's Republicans put in a rule that said a congressional leader who's been indicted of a crime must step down. Now that Republican Tom Delay appears to be heading towards indictment, they get rid of that rule. What do Washington Republicans really stand for?

WASHINGTON REPUBLICANS SEEKING TO ERASE YOUR MORTGAGE DEDUCTION
The White House and congressional Republicans are seeking to do away with the tax deduction on your mortgage. Some tax relief, huh?

WASHINGTON REPUBLICANS WANT TO SNOOP ON YOUR TAX RETURNS
Congressional Republicans attempted to gain the power to not only gain access to any citizens tax returns, but also to make them public. Do you value your privacy? We sure do. Vote Democrat.

Solidarity better goal than unity

2004-12-10T23:02:00.000-05:00

Susan S sent me this as a great perpective for our discussion.
It's from "a gilas girl's diary" at daily kos

"Solidarity is more than compromise, and shouldn't be mistaken as such. At its core is respect: respect for people and their experiences, respect for possibility, respect for the not-yet-known. It doesn't require assimilation (which must always contain some degree of erasure) and it belies two-dimensional (black and white) thinking.

Its a concept that's not foreign to US political history, but is certainly not familiar to contemporary politics. Its also the foundation of progressive politics.
This is the kind of work that needs to be done now. Its a small place to start, but begin here, with the difference between a politics of unity and a politics of solidarity and see the different directions they each yield. Then make that part of the move to rebuild maintain and rebuild a progressive and democratic America.

Let's start by explaining why we don't want "One America", and point out that as a society and we are far more than the "Two Americas" that the populist-inclined Democrats bemoan. The power of American democracy isn't "unity" of outlook and positions, it is both the balance AND the struggle between different outlooks and positions. It is the recognition that both the majority and minority are part of the government. That democracies can only work when they have the government AND an opposition. That politics only works when there are multiple interests being struggled over and discussed."

It's not long and she makes a few more good points at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/3/14456/5254

Extra Think Tank Content Pages for You

2004-12-09T16:28:00.000-05:00

I've made a place at http://equal-peace.com/ for additional content to support our ongoing discussions in the Living-Room and on the blog,
http://livingroomthinktank.blogspot.com/
If you want to post an entry to the blog, (instead of entering a comment to another
post, which you can do yourself), please e-mail your post to susan@snakeandsnake.com and I will add it to the blog. If it is long I will
post the beginning and link to your content page here.
Each person can have their own content page, and I can put the most recent entry
at the top of your page. I began with Jane N since she was the first to send me something.
Your "Corner" will be in the list of entries at the right side of the blog page. Click there and it scrolls down to that post, then click on "continued" link to find rest of your post.
Check it out!
http://equal-peace.com/thinktank/thinktank.htm

Jane N's Corner

2004-12-09T16:20:00.000-05:00

Wake Up America!!!
Wake up America
get your heads out of the sand
The Neo-cons have hijacked
and taken control of our ‘homeland’...
continued @ Jane N's Corner

“Have you recovered from the election yet?”
...
Recovered? Hello NO. There is no recovering from this election
until we recover our democracy. Until we use it as one more wake up call
to finally accept what is happening in this country and step forward to
stop it and take ourselves and our government in a fundamentally different
direction...
continued @ Jane N's Corner

January events

2004-12-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Next meeting: Jan 14.
I want to change our meeting day to the third Friday of every month, but there are two conflicts on Jan 21, so for January only I suggest we meet on the second Friday, Jan 14th. The conflicts are both fun events for progressive Democrats, which you may want to attend:
The Blue Dot Ball on Jan 21 somewhere in the Triangle, (not fully planned yet).
Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) Summit
in Washington, D.C.
January 21-23, 2005
Helping to shape the future of the Democratic Party, and the direction of our country, with progressive speakers, discussions and workshops. Together we can take back our Democracy. Some of the speakers:
Medea Benjamin
Rep. John Conyers
Gov. Howard Dean
Tom Hayden
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Rep. Barbara Lee
Marianne Williamson
Jim Zogby
More details in this flyer:
http://www.pdamerica.org/tools/events/jan_summit_2005.pdf
I just heard about this group, and I think it is a great idea. I am in full agreement with their vision and strategy:
http://pdamerica.org/vision.php

Dec 3rd Think Tank notes

2004-12-08T23:48:00.000-05:00

We had fewer attendees (10), but a stimulating discussion. We ended with watching the abridged version of "Hijacking Catastrophe". There are also some powerful interviews on this DVD with military personel who speak out against the Bush administration.
I read a part of Pericles (the blogger, not the ancient Greek) concerning moving Christianity to the left. We mostly talked about religion's influence on politics, how to explain that our progressive values are consistent with Jesus's teachings (New Testament), how Christianity was dragged to the right and how to move it back to the left, defining progressive values as moral values, etc. Kathy M. told us about a group that facilitates talks between the opposing sides, "Let's Talk America" whom we may ask for help for our February meeting. Daina has a Republican Christian fundamentalist friend who volunteered to come to our group for a discussion some time. We may be able to get a small guest panel of Christian Bush supporters who are willing to come explain their perspective and hear ours.
We talked about the White Rose group of resisters during WW II, which led to a suggestion that we put out some sort of little messages, leaflets perhaps?

Did you know that Gandhi professed "militant nonviolence?"

"You don't have to be black to quote Martin Luther King, you don't have to be Hindu to quote Mahatma Gandhi, and you don't have to be Christian to quote Jesus." -- Pericles

Books & Websites

2004-12-08T23:30:00.000-05:00

websites for improving dialog between left and right:
http://www.letstalkamerica.org/
http://www.radicalmiddle.com/
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm Sojourners Magazine
Book Suggestions
"Had Enough?- a handbook for Fighting Back" by James Carville.
This is a terrific action oriented book for how Progressives can get their sh!t together. It's humorous, but also very factual with footnotes, proving his claims that Bush was actually blocking our safety and "homeland security" every step of the way, etc. Susan B.
The following books came up in our discussion as aids to bridging the left/ right religious gap:
"Engaging the Powers" Walter Wink
"Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism" John Shelby Spong
"Understanding the Bible" John Buehrens (UU)
"God and Other Famous Liberals" Forrester Church (UU)
Video:
Kathy M suggested we watch this:
God is Not a Republican…Or a Democrat Webcast Panel Discussion Featuring Jim Wallis
a panel discussion From the Riverside church in NYC between Jim Wallis and four religious leaders about religion and politics.
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=sojomail.display&issue=041117#3
( scroll down to find the streaming video.)

npr "Fresh Air" about the Religious Right

2004-12-03T11:52:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to Dec 2 "Fresh Air." It covered in detail the methods by which the Religious Right has, over the last 25 years+, attained political power. Having some notion of their tactics and strategies cannot help but positively affect any actions we might select to take. It is about 40 minutes.

Chuck

http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=2-Dec-2004&prgId=13

link to Pericles, 10 Ideas for 2008

2004-11-30T00:03:00.000-05:00

Check out this superb list of suggestions which was elevated to the top of kos's blog.
10 Ideas for 2008
by Pericles
Mon Nov 29th, 2004

By the time a campaign starts, it's too late to put a completely new idea into the heads of a majority of the electorate -- especially a broad new theme or a major reframing of an issue voters think they already understand. At that stage, a candidate can do little more than agree or disagree with ideas that the public already knows. President Bush, for example, didn't invent the family-values theme or the strength-makes-you-safe theme or the tax-cuts-create-jobs theme. He just aligned himself with them; that's why his campaign seemed so simple.

So what ideas will liberal candidates be able to campaign on in 2008? The ones we start developing and promoting now. I have ten suggestions.
The ten ideas fall into three groups. The first three ideas are defensive: The Right has been making some dubious claims that we need to start challenging. Ideas 4-6 reclaim major ideological assets that that we have let the Right own without a fight - Christianity, globalization, and capitalism. The final four ideas align the Democratic Party with democracy and the common good...
see the 10 ideas here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/11/29/221636/33

article: The Politics of Victimization

2004-11-29T10:49:00.000-05:00

Are Democrats acting like abuse victims? and if so, what actions should we take to escape this vicious cycle?
This article by Mel Gilles (which was an e-mail forward) has such clear insights that I am posting it in its entirety.
[Mel Gilles, who has worked for many years as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse, draws some parallels between her work and the reaction of many Democrats to the election.-- Mathew Gross]

The Politics of Victimization

Watch Dan Rather apologize for not getting his facts straight, humiliated before the eyes of America, voluntarily undermining his credibility and career of over thirty years. Observe Donna Brazille squirm as she is ridiculed by Bay Buchanan, and pronounced irrelevant and nearly non-existent. Listen as Donna and Nancy Pelosi and Senator Charles Schumer take to the airwaves saying that they have to go back to the drawing board and learn from their mistakes and try to be better, more likable, more appealing, have a stronger message, speak to morality. Watch them awkwardly quote the bible, trying to speak the new language of America. Surf the blogs, and read the comments of dismayed, discombobulated, confused individuals trying to figure out what they did wrong. Hear the cacophony of voices, crying out, "Why did they beat me?"

And then ask anyone who has ever worked in a domestic violence shelter if they have heard this before.

They will tell you, every single day.

The answer is quite simple. They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence.

As victims we can't stop asking ourselves what we did wrong. We can't seem to grasp that they will keep hitting us and beating us as long as we keep sticking around and asking ourselves what we are doing to deserve the beating.

Listen to George Bush say that the will of God excuses his behavior. Listen, as he refuses to take responsibility, or express remorse, or even once, admit a mistake. Watch him strut, and tell us that he will only work with those who agree with him, and that each of us is only allowed one question (soon, it will be none at all; abusers hit hard when questioned; the press corps can tell you that). See him surround himself with only those who pledge oaths of allegiance. Hear him tell us that if we will only listen and do as he says and agree with his every utterance, all will go well for us (it won't; we will never be worthy).

And watch the Democratic Party leadership walk on eggshells, try to meet him, please him, wash the windows better, get out that spot, distance themselves from gays and civil rights. See them cry for the attention and affection and approval of the President and his followers. Watch us squirm. Watch us descend into a world of crazy-making, where logic does not work and the other side tells us we are nuts when we rely on facts. A world where, worst of all, we begin to believe we are crazy.

How to break free? Again, the answer is quite simple.

First, you must admit you are a victim. Then, you must declare the state of affairs unacceptable. Next, you must promise to protect yourself and everyone around you that is being victimized. You don't do this by responding to their demands, or becoming more like them, or engaging in logical conversation, or trying to persuade them that you are right. You also don't do this by going catatonic and resigned, by closing up your ears and eyes and covering your head and submitting to the blows, figuring its over faster and hurts less is you don't resist and fight back. Instead, you walk away. You find other folks like yourself, 56 million of them, who are hurting, broken, and beating themselves up. You tell them what you've learned, and that you aren't going to take it anymore. You stand tall, with 56 million people at your side and behind you, and you look right into the eyes of the abuser and you tell him to go to hell. Then you walk out the door, taking the kids and gays and minorities with you, and you start a new life. The new life is hard. But it's better than the abuse.

We have a mandate to be as radical and liberal and steadfast as we need to be. The progressive beliefs and social justice we stand for, our core, must not be altered. We are 56 million strong. We are building from the bottom up. We are meeting, on the net, in church basements, at work, in small groups, and right now, we are crying, because we are trying to break free and we don't know how.

Any battered woman in America, any oppressed person around the globe who has defied her oppressor will tell you this: There is nothing wrong with you. You are in good company. You are safe. You are not alone. You are strong. You must change only one thing: stop responding to the abuser. Don't let him dictate the terms or frame the debate (he'll win, not because he's right, but because force works). Sure, we can build a better grassroots campaign, cultivate and raise up better leaders, reform the election system to make it failproof, stick to our message, learn from the strategy of the other side. But we absolutely must dispense with the notion that we are weak, godless, cowardly, disorganized, crazy, too liberal, naive, amoral, "loose", irrelevant, outmoded, stupid and soon to be extinct. We have the mandate of the world to back us, and the legacy of oppressed people throughout history.

Even if you do everything right, they'll hit you anyway. Look at the poor souls who voted for this nonsense. They are working for six dollars an hour if they are working at all, their children are dying overseas and suffering from lack of health care and a depleted environment and a shoddy education. And they don't even know they are being hit.

Mel Gilles at 07:31 PM on November 07, 2004

article: THE URBAN ARCHIPELAGO

2004-11-27T13:51:00.000-05:00

Complete article at
http://www.thestranger.com/2004-11-11/feature.html
If you are interested in gaining support for Democrats by examining and promoting urban issues, please read this article and then COMMENT on it for us, please! It makes a very good case that the future of our party depends on city voters...we need to acknowlege that and appeal to them. The author does rant about stupid rednecks, suggesting we don't bother to appeal to rural voters at all, but the analysis of where Progresssive Values intersect with Urban Values seems very important for us to explore.

article: "The Covert Kingdom"

2004-11-27T13:16:00.000-05:00

This is a scary article by Joe Bageant, which Mig suggested we read. It is about the Christian Right: how they think, and how strong their network is. He says they command 40% of the voters. I hope that's too high an estimate. Lakoff suggests there are a lot of more moderate Christian swing voters, who might come back to Dems if we frame our values better. Complete article is at http://www.counterpunch.org/bageant05252004.html

excerpts: "just because millions of Christians appear to be dangerously
nuts, does not mean they are marginal."
"There now stretches a network of dozens of campuses across the nation, each with its strange cultish atmosphere of smiling Christian pod people, most of them clones of Jerry Fallwell's Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. But how many outsiders know the depth and specificity of political indoctrination in these schools? For example, Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia, a college
exclusively for Christian home-schoolers, offers programs in strategic government intelligence, legal training and foreign policy, all with a strict, Bible based "Christian worldview." Patrick Henry is so heavily funded by the Christian right it can offer classes below cost.

In the Bush administration, seven percent of all internships are handed out to Patrick Henry students, along with many others distributed among similar religious rightist colleges. The Bush administration also recruits from the faculties of these schools, i.e. the appointments of right-wing Christian activist Kay Coles James, former dean of the Pat Robertson School of government, as director of the U.S. office of personnel. What better position than the personnel office from which to recruit more fundamentalists? "...

MoveOn Party & more think tanks

2004-11-22T14:10:00.000-05:00

The MoveOn Party at Oola Latte last Sunday was attended by about 100 people! It was well organized by Lanya and quite a few group leaders. Several folks from our group were there. First we watched the Lakoff video and practiced applying progressive values to issues we are concerned about. Next we did a role play of a Cross-Fire show, with 3 conservatives vs 3 liberals. The audience easily noticed that the people playing conservatives had an easier time spouting their philosophy than the bona fide liberals did. I stuck my neck out as one of the liberals, and have come up with some more wording for arguing about the Iraq war after a night's rest. (the old "I wish I had said such and such" dilemma). I put those ideas in another post.
We had a conference call with MoveOn staff member, Eli, at a party in NY. Everyone at all the parties voted on which issues we think MoveOn should tackle next. The big winners were to develop a clear progressive message, and some type of voter reform/ voter verification. I'm sure you will get more details from MoveOn.
I mentioned our Living-room Think Tank, and recommended that others form similar groups. It is my hope that we can share topics and tips with other groups. With practice I'm sure we can improve our ability to communicate the sense behind our positions, and give each other the encouragement we desperately need to continue working for positive change.

Arguing our position: the war in Iraq

2004-11-22T10:25:00.000-05:00

fairness, responsibility, justice, freedom, strength, compassion
War in Iraq:
America must set a good example for the rest of the world.
We must walk our talk.
A responsible nation does not attack another without just cause.
First strike attacks will not lead to a safer world.
Invading another country to forcibly topple their government and then replace it with the system of the invader's choice is not fair.
Freedom cannot be installed and maintained by force. That negates the very definition of freedom.

Remember the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
This principle is understood by people throughout the world and stated in all major religions, including Islam. For most of our nation's history, we have had a military policy of defense and supporting other countries when they were defending themselves from outside attack.
Now we have set an example that pre-emptive war can be justified, with the dubious example of our attack in Iraq. We set another example by using nuclear bunker-buster missiles, breaking the long planetwide moritorium on use of nuclear weapons.

Wouldn't we be outraged if another country dealt us a pre-emtive strike, because they had a poorly confirmed suspicion that we were planning to harm them? What if they wanted to impose their form of government on us by force, to make them feel safer? Would we accept it if they told us it was for our own good? What if they claimed they were following our example?

We know Saddam was a terrible dictator. We knew that when he gassed the Kurds and we did nothing to help the Kurds defend themselves because at that time Saddam seemed useful to us. Where was our compassion for the Iraqi people then?

The United Nations sanctions and inspections successfully prevented Saddam from building weapons of mass destruction. We know that now, but President Bush refused to believe it because it didn't support his mission of "nation building". So he instructed the CIA to dig deeper and find intelligence to support his suspicion. He needed a rationale to take down Saddam, a key part of the long term Wolfowitz plan.

The U.N. had also monitored and contained the hazardous materials which were stolen after our invasion. We only protected the Ministry of Oil and left the rest of the country's infrastructure unprotected. So much damage was done that now Halliburton has a really big contract to repair it all. But the missing hazardous materials are probably in the hands of terrorists.

Our country's actions have not made the world a safer place.
In fact it has made Americans more of a target now than before the war.

Comments Invited on Living Room Think Tanks

2004-11-19T14:25:00.000-05:00

There are MoveOn sponsored brainstorming parties happening this Sunday, Nov 21. I'm attending the one at Ooh-La-Latte, where they will show the same George Lakoff DVD we saw. I plan to suggest that other people start monthly meeting groups like we did. If you plan to attend one of these meetings, please take notes of any good ideas to share with our group on Dec 3. You need to sign up before attending @ http://action.moveonpac.org/future/
Please share your thoughts on how this local think tank group can be most effective. Has it given you any new or helpful perspective? Do you have suggestions for topics we can discuss, view, or do?
I think I have successfully changed the setting on this blog so anyone can post comments. If you want your name to appear, then you need to sign up at blogger.com. Click on "comments" to see what others have said.

notes from our 11/12/04 Think Tank discussion

2004-11-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

Here are the notes made on the flip chart from our 11/12/04 Think Tank discussion.
Followed by some morning after brainstorming by Susan and Vance.
Everyone should be able to vote in a reasonable amount of time and verify that their vote was counted.
What has worked in the past to bring about change? The Vietnam photo of child running, burning.
Reframe Bush as a weak leader.
Next meeting, suggested viewing "Bringing Down the Dictator" (film)
Our Values
basic goodness
honesty
community
fairness
security ( or protection )
diversity
equal opportunity
equality
responsibility
compassion
openness
prolife ( military? )
pro "the troops" life ( show pictures of our maimed troops )
for life
value life
Ideas for large photo posters
America in Iraq
baby killer = You know who
Iraqi babies
This is what collateral damage looks like ( photo )
The Liberation of Iraq
This is a surgical strike
This is an insurgent ( hurt child )
Iraqi infrastructure decimated
How censored is your News?
"computerized voting" sounds less reliable than "electronic voting"
"Voting doesn't matter - what matters is who counts the vote" - Joseph Stalin
Democracy Now (recommended satellite dish channel)
Amy Goodman
Free Speech TV

Vance and Susan brainstorming Saturday morning after 1st meeting
S Study the right - how can we expect conservatives to understand our POV if we aren't willing to try to understand theirs?
What changes minds?
V Every time we think of some issue or program we care about, try to identify its underlying value.
Why is this so important to me? Can I boil it down to one word or a phrase?
S Make a website - left-wingthinktank.org ?
or yahoo group to manage e-mail, or set up a discussion at a free blog site.
V ( based on one of Paramahansa Yogananda's suggestions for encouraging world peace )
Learn about and emphasize the best qualities of each country ( of each culture, of each religion )
and seek to rid ourselves of the worst qualities of each.
What would our country ( or a person ) look like if we cultivated the best qualities of each ( liberals and conservatives ),
and eliminated the negative qualities.
Value Education - "The Value Tales"
a series of children's books that teach values ( many of the same that most religions teach ) based on heroes and heroines
in history. For example, one Value Tale is of Abraham Lincoln and the value of honesty.
This type of value education, free from religious jargon could be used in public schools, and hopefully gain support from both conservatives
and progressives. ( a compromise to the wish of the Christian Right to have religious principles taught in school, and to the
desire of progressives to maintain separation of church and state )
Envision a future where good values are taught while freedom of religion is maintained.
PROMOTION OF OUR VIEWS
Express our views with effective framing, without resorting to denigrating the people to whom we are appealing.
S Research and Study
book discussion group - have a suggested book each month, or a subgroup of readers who present a topic to the larger group.
Action Groups
For those who can't stand waiting to do a project - engage in projects that promote progressive values, using means that express
those values ( for example, avoid name-calling, demonizing or dehumanizing your opponents ).
In fact, seek to think outside of the US / THEM box. Find a way to present a poster or radio or TV ad or web ad that will appeal
to both progressives and middle(moderate) conservatives.
Speak to one audience the human race.
Appeal to their decency, and the best of their values.