Friday, June 22, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Monday, June 18, 2012
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Saturday, June 16, 2012
move to amend
On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions.
We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.
The Supreme Court is misguided in principle, and wrong on the law. In a democracy, the people rule.
We Move to Amend.
". . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."
~Supreme Court Justice Stevens, January 2010
sign the petition at (movetoamend.org)
Friday, June 15, 2012
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Monday, June 11, 2012
what we're seeing
Fascism is one word for what we're seeing
As FDR knew, it's actually capitalism without boundaries, and it's apolitical.
Article by: BONNIE BLODGETT
It's a well-known fact that as a young man Ronald Reagan supported Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
An acquaintance of mine who happens to be a prominent politician and who knew Reagan personally says that Reagan later was "absolutely certain" that, had FDR lived to preside over postwar America, he would have "seen the light."
Reagan himself saw the light -- got his first glimmer, anyway (his full conversion to conservatism came later under the guidance of a hard-nosed labor negotiator) --while working for the Screen Actors Guild, an organization crawling with Commies. Most had joined the party to protest the fascism that had gripped Germany and was about to subjugate Europe.
Whether FDR would have flip-flopped remains an open question, but I doubt it. Roosevelt had a more nuanced understanding of economics than Reagan did. He knew that fascism is capitalism without boundaries, that both fascism and communism (with a small "c") are apolitical, and that economics trumps politics every time.
Born into wealth, FDR understood that Wall Street traders had a gambling mentality and that outwitting the feds was part of the game. In 1934, he set out to level the playing field. His Securities and Exchange Commission ushered in the longest stretch of financial stability in U.S. history.
Most Americans in the 1950s paid scant attention to any of this, thanks in part to the sense of security FDR had provided by ending the Depression and winning the war. To them Stalin was the new Hitler. After all, hadn't Stalin annexed the entire eastern bloc in a brazen, Nazi-style power grab?
Something else FDR understood, having fought with the Soviets and having sat beside their leader at Yalta, was that those countries were the spoils of a war that took 40 million Russian lives.
Fast-forward four decades. By the time Reagan imperiously commanded Gorbachev to "tear down that wall," the evil empire had already imploded. It was in its death throes. The U.S. president relished his opportunity to turn the Russian people's suffering into a live-action morality tale.
The longer the bread lines in Moscow, the more he mocked the austerity that such images displayed. To Reagan, the lesson could not have been simpler. Get out those credit cards, America, and turn up the thermostat. The Cold War's over and the good guys won.
The private sector saw an opportunity, too -- in the president's giddy enthusiasm for unfettered capitalism. On the home front, deregulation removed pesky governmental red tape and impediments to the consolidation of everything from banking to agriculture.
Americans for the most part enjoyed their spending spree. And why not? The stock market was booming. Banks were turning home ownership into a bet you never lose.
Few seemed alarmed by the S&L crisis, the tech bubble, Enron, Tyco et al. -- or even knew that President Bill Clinton, in a failed effort to soften Republican positions on other issues, repealed the Glass-Steagall Act and set the stage for the mortgage crisis by turning the financial sector into what Charles Ferguson, whose scorching critique of Wall Street, "Inside Job," won Best Documentary Film at last year's Oscars, calls "the predator elite."
Ferguson believes that a coalition of corporations and big banks has "captured and neutralized" elected officials. Campaign spending has soared by a factor of more than 300 since the late 1970s, and private-sector interests have outspent public-sector interests by "between 50 and 100 to one."
Former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley is also concerned. He spent $1.6 million to get elected in 1979. The seat Bradley held for 17 years cost his successor $65 million. And that was before super PACs. The winning candidate, a billionaire, financed his own victory.
Reckless spending at all levels of society caused the current recession, but if it weren't for Republican spin, bought and paid for by the predator elite, the average American would have long since figured out not just that housing prices don't always go up but how ill-advised were the Bush tax cuts, deregulation, and the leveraging of everything but Grandma.
They'd see that it wasn't socialism that brought Europe to the brink of bankruptcy but American-style capitalism -- real-estate deals and other high-risk ventures facilitated by something called the credit default swap that was all the more effective for its inscrutability.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is learning the hard way that inscrutability is fascism's ultimate weapon. His was the swing vote in the Citizens United case. He wrote the majority opinion granting corporations the same free-speech rights as people.
In the real world, that means unlimited spending on right-wing political causes and candidates. Kennedy insisted that along with such freedoms would come certain responsibilities: He required that all contributors identify themselves.
But economics trumps politics every time. Our democracy is now in its death throes. Enforcement has been deemed more trouble than it's worth. (bonnieblodgett.com)
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Saturday, June 9, 2012
boiling frogs
In the decade since the 9/11 attacks, Congress has been willing to do almost anything to ward off more terrorist strikes. It has given the government broad authority to hunt, hold and try suspected terrorists. Trouble is, the law is written so broadly that the government would have little difficulty applying it to virtually anyone.
The latest example is a provision in the annual defense authorization bill that would allow the U.S. military to detain anyone indefinitely without charges or trial — even U.S. citizens — if the president determines they're suspected of being terrorists or having aided terrorists.
One would hope no president would ever abuse that authority, but the Founders saw enough of a threat to protect against it constitutionally. The Fifth Amendment guarantees that "no person" can be "deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law." It is the bedrock protection Americans have always had against a rogue government. It's one of the rights that sets the U.S. apart from countries where the dictator decides what the law is. Why should it be so casually discarded? (read more)
Friday, June 8, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
how to be perfect
"How to be perfect" by Ron Padgett
get some sleep
eat an orange every morning
be friendly it will help make you happy
hope for everything...expect nothing
take care of things close to home first
straighten up your room before you save the world
then, save the world
be nice to people before they have the chance to behave badly
wear comfortable shoes
do not spend too much time with large groups of people
plan your day so you never have to rush
show your appreciation to people who do things for you
even if you have paid them...even if they do favors you don't want
after dinner wash the dishes
calm down
don't expect your children to love you so they can if they want to
don't be too self critical or too self congratulatory
don't think that progress exists...it doesn't
imagine what you would like to see happen
and then don't do anything to make it impossible
forgive your country every once in a while
if that is not possible...go to another one
if you feel tired...rest
don't be depressed about growing older
it will make you feel even older which is depressing
if you burn your finger put ice on it immediately
if you bang your finger with a hammer hold your hand in the air for twenty minutes
you'll be surprised by the curative powers of ice and gravity
do not inhale smoke...take a deep breath
do not smart off to a policeman
be good
be honest with yourself, diplomatic with others
do not go crazy a lot its a waste of time
drink plenty of water...when asked what you would like to drink say "water please"
take out the trash
love life
use exact change
when there's shooting in the street don't go near the window
(listen)
Monday, June 4, 2012
Sunday, June 3, 2012
nnnyaaaa
There are only two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
...Albert Einstein...
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
guernica
"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso.
Guernica was created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country, by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the Spanish Nationalist forces, on 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. The Spanish Republican government commissioned Picasso to create a large mural for the Spanish display at the Paris International Exposition at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris.
Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped bring the Spanish Civil War to the world's attention.
While living in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, Picasso suffered harassment from the Gestapo. One officer allegedly asked him, upon seeing a photo of Guernica in his apartment, "Did you do that?" Picasso responded, "No, you did." (read more)
