 Muse in the Morning |
An Opened Mind XVIII
| If you don’t ask ‘Why this?’ often enough, someone will ask, ‘Why you?’.
– Tom Hirshfield |
 Being Different
|
September 2010 archive
Sep 03 2010
Muse in the Morning
Sep 03 2010
Feinstein Continues to Insist on Wasting $ Persecuting Goofy Giggly People
As California endures another summer of pointless raids,
CA Senator Dianne Feinstein has come out against economic recovery for her struggling state, by opposing its number one cash crop.
CA Senator Dianne Feinstein has come out for wasting more money the state doesn’t have persecuting growth and use of a mild mood altering, pain relieving herb, one that is the easiest to grow of many garden plants.
CA Senator Dianne Feinstein used to be the mayor of San Francisco, but has decided to pair up with a Southern CA right winger, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, to co chair the opposition campaign to Proposition 19, Marijuana Legalization Initiative, this November.
Remember when Sheriff Lee Baca issued “Homeland Security Support Unit” photo ID cards to his top 50 campaign donors in 2006 ?
CA Senator Dianne Feinstein seems to be working very hard to get Carly Fiorina, a right wing Republican, and business vulture, as the state’s other Senator, by dragging the entire discourse to the right, which can only hurt incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer, irregardless of Boxer’s stance on the issue.
“oppose Proposition 19 – the public doesn’t need to be exposed to the dangers of pot.”
– Public Safety First, No on Prop 19
Dangers of what?
What planet are y’ all on out there in Limo- land ? I’m much more likely to get killed by a drunken driver mixing booze with Prozac, or a tweeker ! Get Real !
_____________
Sep 03 2010
xtra Feinstein Continues to Insist on Wasting $ Persecuting Goofy Giggly People
As California endures another summer of pointless raids,
CA Senator Dianne Feinstein has come out against economic recovery for her struggling state, by opposing its number one cash crop.
CA Senator Dianne Feinstein has come out for wasting more money the state doesn’t have persecuting growth and use of a mild mood altering, pain relieving herb, one that is the easiest to grow of many garden plants.
CA Senator Dianne Feinstein used to be the mayor of San Francisco, but has decided to pair up with a Southern CA right winger, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, to co chair the opposition campaign to Proposition 19, Marijuana Legalization Initiative, this November.
Remember when Sheriff Lee Baca issued “Homeland Security Support Unit” photo ID cards to his top 50 campaign donors in 2006 ?
CA Senator Dianne Feinstein seems to be working very hard to get Carly Fiorina, a right wing Republican, and business vulture, as the state’s other Senator, by dragging the entire discourse to the right, which can only hurt incumbent Senator Barbara Boxer, irregardless of Boxer’s stance on the issue.
“oppose Proposition 19 – the public doesn’t need to be exposed to the dangers of pot.”
– Public Safety First, No on Prop 19
Dangers of what?
What planet are y’ all on out there in Limo- land ? I’m much more likely to get killed by a drunken driver mixing booze with Prozac, or a tweeker ! Get Real !
_____________
Sep 03 2010
Obama’s “New Dawn” in Iraq
Phyllis Bennis is a Senior Analyst at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC, and is the author of Before and After: US Foreign Policy and the September 11 Crisis, of Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power, and of Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer.
Bennis has in the past argued for US reparations to be paid to Iraq for the years of US occupation and the destruction and damage inflicted on Iraq and the country’s peoples by the 2003 invasion and the occupation.
In an interview recorded Tuesday with Real News CEO Paul Jay, Bennis analyses Obama’s Oval Office Address on Iraq, August 31, 2010, talks about how Obama has adopted the Bush narrative about Iraq, and touches a bit on Iraq’s future and on the future of US foreign policies in the region, as well as somewhat about how those policies affect Iran and Afghanistan.
Real News Network – September 1, 2010
Transcript below
Sep 02 2010
A small parable
There once was a man who tied me to a railroad track and chuckled, evilly as he departed, that there was nothing I could do to stop him, and that a train was going to run over me in a most gruesome way.
As I lie there, thinking of my own demise, another man came, and told me that he wanted in his heart of hearts to save me from that gruesome demise, but it would only be possible for him to save me if I supported his election with a donation, because he would have to be the Sheriff in order to be authorized to cut the Offical Handcuffs the bandit used to bind me to the tracks.
“There’s a $20 in my pocket, I gasped, desperately. Take it, get elected, but for god’s sake, get back here and save me, please!
Some time passed, and it was a hot sunny day, and I realized that before the train was going to run over me and realize my intended gruesome demise, I would die of thirst and wouldn’t feel the pain of the railroad wheels cutting my frail body in three pieces.
As my vision blurred from thirst and hunger, and just as I was about to go under forever, the second man returned, with a shiny gold star on his shirt.
“Here,” he said, lowering a bottle to my face and splashing it with clear, cold water out of a canteen. I slurped eagerly at the wet salvation. “I also brought some food,” he said. “Slowly, slowly,” he admonished me as my teeth gnashed at the sandwich he held up to my face, as my hands were tied to my sides and I could only move my fingers a millimeter or two. “You are going to need your strength”.
“Thank God!” I yelled. “Now, untie me, and we can both get out of here before the train arrives or the Evil Man returns!”
Sep 02 2010
Actually, Yes – I Do Want the Republicans to Win
We’ve tried plan B. That was the elite blogger pipe dream about electing better Democrats. That plan failed because there is no criteria for determining, especially in this Vaudeville act we call American elections, who is really better.
When it is the system itself that corrupts, it really doesn’t matter who you elect. Does it?
So plan B has failed. Got that? It failed. It will continue to fail. No criteria. No money to compete with those who purchase our politicians daily. No money or system to organize a counter-offensive to those who buy our politicians.
Did you read the New Yorker piece on the Koch brothers? The part about them alone spending more than 100 million dollars to shape American politics? That’s just two people. There are thousands of them. Not all on their scale of course. But the money is ridiculous.
We are not going to buy our government back. We can’t afford it.
So before we talk about plan C, can we at least have the fortitude to admit that plan B has failed? That we cannot elect “better Democrats” because even if they are saints, the system will not allow their sainthood?
One of the super big arguments the Democratic loyalists love to spit out is that Republicans are so much worse. To that I say prove it.
We just had two big election that changed parties and what do we have to show for it?
The only thing that has substantially changed with Obama and the Democratic Congress is the label. It’s as though they removed the Pepsi label and just stuck on a Coke label. It’s still, fundamentally, the exact same carbonated syrup beverage.
Yes, I know there are some issues that the Dems are clearly better on. But those issues never have anything to do with money. Supporting civil rights doesn’t hurt Goldman Sachs’ bottom line. Does it?
Sep 02 2010
The Week in Editorial Cartoons – Of Kings and Wingnut Clowns, with Special Comment
Crossposted at Daily Kos and The Stars Hollow Gazette
|
|
|
|
When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I’m just like, “Oh shut up” I’m so sick of them because they’re always complaining. — Glenn Beck
~~~~~~~~~~~
Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny. He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives. He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy. — Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sep 02 2010
THE LONGEST WALK 3 (Reversing Diabetes)(Updated Route & Edited)
(Printed with permission)
THE LONGEST WALK 3 (Reversing Diabetes) Feb 14 – July 8, 2011In less than 6 months we will embark on another historic journey — an event so great and much needed for all of America!
This is a 5,000+ mile Walk Across America to bring awareness of the devastating effects of diabetes and how it can be reversed by changing our entire diet and lifestyle! This disease is at epidemic levels across America, and throughout Indian Country.
We will hold community talks along the way about reversing diabetes, and heart disease. We will be advocating for major changes in our eating habits, while promoting beneficial exercise programs. Our goal will be to REVERSE DIABETES AND RAISE THE CONSCIOUS OF AMERICA THAT WE MUST HALT THE WORST DIET IN THE WORLD! Along both routes we will be launching a CLEAN UP MOTHER EARTH campaign, picking up trash along both routes!!
Sep 02 2010
DREAM Now Letters to Barack Obama: Saad Nabeel
Originally posted on Citizen Orange.
The “DREAM Now Series: Letters to Barack Obama” is a social media campaign that launched Monday, July 19, to underscore the urgent need to pass the DREAM Act. The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, S. 729, would help tens of thousands of young people, American in all but paperwork, to earn legal status, provided they graduate from U.S. high schools, have good moral character, and complete either two years of college or military service. With broader comprehensive immigration reform stuck in partisan gridlock, the time is now for the White House and Congress to step up and pass the DREAM Act!
Dear Mr. President,
My name is Saad Nabeel and I am writing to you from Bangladesh. Prior to my arrival in this nation, I lived in the United States for 15 years. My parents brought me to America at age three. It is the only home I know. I used to attend the University of Texas at Arlington with a full scholarship in Electrical Engineering. Through no fault of my own I was forced to leave my home, friends, possessions, and most importantly, my education behind.
November 3rd 2009 is a day I will never forget. My mother called me and told me that my father had been detained by ICE and that we needed to leave immediately to Canada to seek refugee status. Being an only child, I had to take care of my mother and go with her.
Sep 02 2010
Another Oil Rig Explosion in the Gulf
According to CNN:
An oil rig has exploded 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana, with 12 people overboard and one missing, the Coast Guard said Thursday morning.
Rescue attempts are underway for at least 12 people, Coast Guard spokesman John Edwards told CNN. 13 people were on board the rig total, Edwards said, noting 12 have been accounted for, but one person was missing.
The accident took place 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana on the Vermilion Oil rig 380, which is owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy.
The Coast Guard has multiple helicopters, an airplane and several Coast Guard cutters en route. It’s unknown if there are any injuries.
Ach.