Across the Aisle

We need to take a lesson from our Republocrat brothers and sisters. They have learned how to organize themselves from the top down and the ground up. They know how to drive a wedge between comrades, and leave faction where solidarity once was.

We need to cause factions within the Two-Headed-Beast-Party. The Republican Party is right now without leadership. They are a ship adrift, with no real vision of who they are and what they represent. They are viciously fighting over whether or not Rush Limbaugh is the Leader of the Party and the vision; they are desperately grabbing for women and people of color they can haul up to vindicate their assholery. Across the spectrum of elected Republicans and talking heads, there is no cohesion and no central loyalty.

The Democrats are likewise in a precarious position. They swept through the general elections in the autumn-with the legacy of their trillion dollar bail out for Wall Street. They now have a "Recovery Plan" that, like all else they do, will be scorned, manipulated and and rendered dangerous by Republican shenanigans. The bail out was, after Republican maneuvering, laden wit porkola...much like the Recovery Act. Even though they now dominate Congress and the Executive Branch, they are quite aware of their limitations, their lack of imagination and their fear of losing power to the Republicans in 2010. They took the Congress in '06-and instead of acting on their pledges, they suspended the Constitution and began campaigning for the '08 general election. Well-the campaign never stops-and Iraq, Afghanistan, health care, unemployment-they really stand a chance of continuing to be campaign rallying points.

These two parties play ball with our lives needlessly. The power struggles they engage in, not only with each other, but with the People and with all other Parties. The way that they attacked Ralph Nader, a man who has done more for this country than any other American, was accepted on the grounds of Ralph Nader being of the Green Party-and a nut. That is their game with us, those of us who will not accept their theft of our country. If you dare stand up and speak truth, even if you have been praised and lauded for it for forty years (like Mr Nader), if you stand up and speak the same truth while running for office, you are a fool, you are the other-not to be trusted. How can anyone who sees as clearly and with such dedication to equality before the law as a Nader or a McKinney, how can they be deemed crazy. The crazy are those who continually vote for these liars and thieves. The only way you will get a parties ear is by not voting for them-by proving you will vote for those who have the cajones to stand up and speak for you.

While the Demopublicans who have run for office for the last eight years have attacked anyone outside their fold, their hypocrisy has been excused and condoned by the press and the public. Obama or Bush may collaborate with whatever corporation or organization to bar the other candidates for the Presidency from debating. They may surveil these people; intimidate and threaten; smear, slander and degrade. Their mockery for anyone who seeks to attain that office without leaving behind the People is contempt for the People themselves. They preach, they intone their Gods, yet they turn and offer nothing of the love of their Lord to their worthy opponents.

Electoral politics are not the be all, end all...but they play a big role. If we want a society where we are truly free and equal, then we must drive wedges between these Republocrats. We must find the Progressives within, and strengthen them-show them how real their dreams can be. And the minority of assholes bent on owning all of us-well they will have no choice but to form a hideous coalition, and finally bed down for the long haul. That is how we seize power-that is how we take back Congress and the Legislatures; we divide and conquer. We dispel with idiocies like the electoral college and give to ourselves a world made new.

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"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of Patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
Herman Goering

The Faith of Obama

President-Elect Obama rode a wave of change and hope-all the way to the White House. Even when he and Biden came out openly against marriage equality, they promised change and hope. The election of our first President of color and the repeal by voters of other voters' civil rights in the same election offers startling insight into America.

Obama's mantra was as effective as any of the Bushite slogans. "Change! Change!" Even as Obama pushed for the bailout of the worst crooks and thieves-the people said "change". Obama pledges to take troops out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan-escalating costly military endeavors. "Change". Now, President-Elect Obama will have Rev. Rick Warren invoke divine blessings on his first term in the Oval Office.

And who is Rick Warren? Remmber the "cone of silence" debacle at Saddleback Church? That is where you find Rev Warren-that is where you can hear him preach in support of such political measures as Proposition 8.

Obama/Biden gleefully and proudly came out against marriage equality (but not against hospital visitations). Obama had no trouble, as the first "black" candidate of the Democratic Party standing up for hope and freedom and a united America. But his support does not travel far. After denying support to millions of Americans (who, let's face it, voted overwhelmingly for him) he invites Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation. They seem to be oblivious to the hypocrisy of such a move.

If Obama is a Constitutional scholar, I would like to hear his rationale on this one. How do you support a piece of legislation "respecting an establishment of religion" that prohibits the "free excercise there of"? Not every faith supports marriage discrimination. Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and many other faiths perform same sex marriages. The fact that a religiously motivated law can strip us of our rights and be supported by the President [Elect] is of grave concern to us all. This is not change-this is Bush policy, all over again. And how different is the support of Prop 8 and the pushing of anti-American legislation like the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, etc?

Obama's support of Warren is no different than Bush's support of the likes of Falwell and Robertson. Mixing politics and holy rollers leads only to fragmentation, inequality and fear driven policy. Bush committed himself to a strong relationship with Evangelical faiths, he committed himself to a War on "Terror" and to defending "traditional" values. If Obama is pledging to continue these Wars on "Terror", to support "traditional" values and to reach out to the Evangelical communities, where and when do We the People come into this administration's equation? If Obama is going to borrow from the Bush book on maintaining power in the US, is that not a clear indicator of the type of change Obama seeks?

If this "change"-then We are in for four more years of misery.

God Bless the Chicago Strikers

I am overjoyed to see the news that 200 laid off employees are sitting in. The continued war against the working People of America is slowly coming to a head. As the strikers said to CNN, Bank of America made the decision not to extend financing to this facility-which means no pay for the employees, no sick time, no owed vacation time and no severance. It is amazing that Bank of America can now play such a heavy hand in determining the direction of American businesses.

At the same time, the People of Iceland have led some intense actions against the Central Bank and the Police Department. After a protester was arrested in Reykjavik, thousand of Icelanders stormed the Police Station, demanding the release of the protester (who's bail was posted anonymously). A few days after surrounding the Police Station, the People of Iceland stormed the Central Bank, demanding greater accountability in the financial sector and an end to American privatization practices.

The American Way is moving too far, too fast. The push to hand all services to private corporations is wreaking havoc across Canada, the EU and well...the rest of the world. The needs of the restless many are being buried further and further by the needs of already overly wealthy aristocrats. It is not our "freedom" that we are exporting-it is our dedication to tyranny, greed and the profit of the few at the expense of the many.

It was such recklessness and greed to inspired the People of 18th century France to design and build the guillotine (and put it to use). The aims of men like Bush, and the CEO's of Wall Street and Detroit may not be evil by intent-but they are evil by design. When the needs of one's bank account and stock portfolio take precedence over the needs of one's labor force, one has indeed become part of the problem. Bush shows the same air-headed, "let them eat cake" attitude that brought down the foolhardy monarchs of Europe. His consistent lack of understanding the needs of the American People can only be considered ill informed for so long before he is seen as cold, callous and, well...evil.

The current economic crisis will be used mercilessly to union bust. Right now the Big Three are blaming Union labor for the ruin of Detroit. Somehow, agreeing to raises, health care and vacation and sick time (about 10% of the cost of a new car) is killing the automakers. Nowhere do these crooks mention their own multi-million dollar yearly bonuses, nor their own compensation costs in terms of benefits, private jets, etc. They simply point to the labor, those that produce their wealth for them, as the problem. The "great cost" of Union labor will used to justify shutting down more auto manufacturing sites, and sending them to Canada (national health care) or Mexico and points further afield (no healthcare...no regulations).

I support and admire my brothers and sisters in Chicago, Detroit, and Reykjavik. The strength of these men and women in the face of oncoming economic ruin is a soul tonic. As we descend further into the hole, I believe more and more of us will be galvanized into such actions. As the famous Industrial Workers of the World slogan goes: "An injury to one is an injury to all".

In solidarity-