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Yep, They really do look alike, I guess

Maybe it is because I’m a really great fan of Maxine Waters.  I really don’t know, but I was seriously disconcerted by Greta Van Susteren’s inability to distinguish between Shirley Sherrod and Maxine Waters.  Is it just me?  Am I the only one who thinks they look really different, really individual?

article & video here

I can’t help but feel that the repeated, endless attacks on blacks (Afro Americans) and Obama’s predilection to abandon them at the first sign of attack is a truly condemming comment on his Presidency.  Maybe they’ll go after Valerie Jarret next.  That would put him in quite the excrutiating predicament.

Please discuss…

Good Reason to Try Again

While the Netroots Nation 2010 conference was happening in Las Vegas last weekend, another conference, even more important IMHO, was occurring in Albany, New York.  The United National Anti-War Conference brought together a broad coalition of peace, anti-war, social justice, labor, ethnic, and other activists for the purpose of finding a new mode and presentation for our many, many righteous grievances.

From Glenn Ford to David Swanson to Noam Chomsky to Medea Benjamin, the hard core community of dissent and change gathered to explore why we have not been able to attain our goals and look for more productive roads to success.

Glenn Ford, one of my favorites, Editor of the “Black Agenda Report”, and an attendee at the conference reported on July 28th:

A renewed anti-war movement is under construction, one that breaks decisively from the Cult of Obama, demands an end to all U.S. aid to the Israeli “apartheid regime,” and calls for “immediate, total and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. troops, mercenaries and contractors from Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, and the immediate closing of all U.S. bases in those countries.”

…snip

The mission [of the nearly 600 delegates] is to rescue the anti-war movement from the rubble of its collapse with the ascent of Black Democrat Barack Obama to the presidency.

Ford goes on to name the anti-war defectors:

Leap with me beneath the fold…

Updated! Who Designed the New BP Containment Cap?

According to University of California Professor of Engineering Robert Bea, the cap being used by BP, which has, at least for now, stopped the gushing of oil into the GOM, could well be the design of an anonymous mystery plumber.

UPDATE: 7/18/10

Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse in The Great Orange and Patrick Jonsson in The Christian Science Monitor report that the anonymous plumber has come forward and identified himself.  He is Joe Caldart, a 40-ish married father of five with 3 hound dogs living in St. Francis, Kansas — just a regular blue collar guy who has made quite a contribution.  I find this to be quite wonderful!  (And please check out the Three Stooges videos downstream in comments.  I ROFLMAO-ed without stop.  Either BP should give royalties to the 3 Stooges, or the stooges should pay BP for PR (provided they donate all proceeds to the many places which deserve financial compensation).  

***end update.

________________________________________________–

Reporting in Yahoo News on Friday, June 16, Brett Michael Dykes states:

…the model of the well cap now in place didn’t exist in the earlier stages of the spill saga. But what’s more noteworthy than the timing issue is the likelihood that the device owes its origin to the same authority that any homeowner turns to in order to get a leak plugged: a professional plumber.

More below…

Breaking News : Helen Thomas resigns

Yahoo News, 14 minutes ago reported Helen Thomas resigned this morning over the flap from her I/P comments.  Many people called on Hearst to fire her.  

The update which includes comments by Ari Fleischer and a statement by Robert Gibbs at this morning’s WH briefing demonstrates the inflamatory nature of this issue.

Just shows it can happen anywhere these days, I guess.

PSALMS BEYOND THE SPEED OF LIGHT

VARIATIONS ON THE MYTH OF ZEUS AND SEMELE: POETRY FOR THE ATOMIC AGE END OF TIME

                             Part One

                            EMERALD SEA

Once, as in a dream, Zeus came to her

Quietly slumbering on her emerald isle

Thought form wholly

Holy without form

Asleep upon her emerald isle she played in dream

Invoking out of emptiness

Some image, sub-atomic, non-particulate

Evoking echo without sound

     …and to her watery bed she took

        mankind as her groom…

Just as in a dream, Zeus came to her

He too a shadow of his glimpse of her

Appearing conscious

Yet not wholly formed

Echoing the formlessness of his perfection

Awake above the teal blue sea

He sought the body for his litany

Shakti dreaming by the emerald sea

The dream in his emerald eye

     …and to his sky bound heart he took

        the maiden as his bride…

He, taking her hand in hand

Gave her hyacinths from the sun god’s land

To weave in her sea wound hair

Just as in a dream they moved

Dancing in tidepools

Gems for their eyes

They gathered anemonies from the tidal pools

     …pink, purple, lemon and orange…

With anemonies for her bridal bouquet

Eels grass for her gown

She led her sky god lover down

To the church at the bottom of the sea

          ~~~pls follow below~~~

 

Psalms Beyond the Speed of Light

Thirty years ago, I completed a book of poetry:

             


                      PSALMS BEYOND THE SPEED OF LIGHT

                  VARIATIONS ON THE MYTH OF ZEUS AND SEMELE

                         POETRY FOR THE ATOMIC AGE

As usual,  I have an excess of words.  The poetry was an expression of my belief in evolution as seen through the metaphor of Zeus and Semele, and based in human acquisition of power over life and death, the atomic power which is capable of destroying life on earth.

But the attainment of this power demands a commensurate growth in consciousness (morality & awareness)to become more equal to the newly begotten physical powers.  As Einstein said, “With the splitting of the atom, everything has changed save man’s way of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”

Although atomic energy remains the most dramatic symbol and manifestation of man’s new found powers, we have learned that many of our scientific and physical advances can have a equally devastating effects on life on earth.

Like all life forms, humans are engaged in the process of evolution.  And today, the primary thrust of evolution is the evolution of consciousness.

The evolution of consciousness, of necessity, requires an increasing awareness of one’s position in life.  The most profound awareness is the recognition of one’s own mortality, of death.  A cat or a dog does not wake up in the morning thinking, “Gee, I’m going to die some day!”  But we do; this is required by our evolutionary growth.  

And therein lies both the rub and the salvation, or, more accurately, the key to evolution.

I hope you’ll follow me below the fold~~~

Oceanic Black Death

The May 16, 2010 edition of “60 Minutes” devoted 2 segments (40 minutes)to the disaster in the Gulf.  Investigative reporter Scott Pelley interviews survivor Mike Williams, who was the chief electronics technician on the project, and UCB Professor of Engineering Dr. Robert Bea, who has been a primary investigator on several similar disasters.  The evidence is damning.

Part 1:


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Part 2 and more beneath the fold:

Must see TV tonight – MLK Jr. & Obama!

Tavis Smiley has produced a special report comparing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barack Obama, focusing on their attitudes to war, empire and the consequences for society and the world.  

Smiley speaks out against what Cornell West has called “The Santa-Claus-ization” of King.  In typical goody-two-shoes, “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” fashion, the mainstream has chosen to concentrate on what it considers the good, positive King, not the one who criticized U.S. foreign policy and called the United States the “greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.”  

That was true when King said it in the sixties, one year before he was assassinated; and, sadly, it remains true today.  

The show airs on PBS tonight (8 PM Pacific, check your local time).  I’ve e-mailed the link out to my list, hoping some will hear, perhaps for the first time, King’s views on war and his contrast to Obama.

Read the Black Agenda Repost article on the program:

King and Obama.

Let’s Pretend…The Essay

Now see this:

And just think, there’s only 23 shopping days left until April Fool’s!

Progressive Democrats of America takes strong stand for Marcy Winograd

PDA takes a courageous, principled stance against typical democratic cronyism.  I offer this diary as a continuation of Tom P’s recent essay discussing Winograd, Waxman, and Harmon, and primarily as an example of real courage and standing on principle rather than compromise.  

PDA founder Tim Carpenter and the executive board members have signed a letter asking Lynn Woolsey, co-founder of the CPC and a PDA board member herself, to cancel her scheduled speaking engagement at a campaign event for Harmon.  

Tim Carpenter writes;

We have heard from many progressives, both inside and outside PDA, expressing disapproval of PDA advisory board member Lynn Woolsey’s decision to headline a fundraising event for Jane Harman this coming Saturday in Venice, California. As you probably already know, PDA has endorsed Marcy Winograd in California’s 36th Congressional District, the seat currently held by Jane Harman.

The letter follows, and there is a link for you to become a co-signer at the end of the letter:

 

There They Went Again & Again & Again…

Now crossposted at Progressive Democrats of America

In another arrogant collusion to once again deny us any possibility of what we want — real health care reform, single payer, public option — those who do what they want, but not what we want, have decided to scrap the conference committee to reconcile the Senate and House versions.  Instead, they have decided to have a secret meeting of the 3 major players, Pelosi, Reid, Obama, behind closed doors without reporters or C-Span.

This is a call to action.  We need to call congress and tell them we are furious.  Like modern day Paul Reveres, we need to ride through the countryside on our internet horses and yell from the rooftops, “The fascists are coming.  The fascists are coming.”   And we aren’t gonna take it any more.  No we aren’t.

It’s time for the Second American Revolution.  We need to let Congress know we aren’t going to take this any more.  No taxation without representation.  No mandates to force us to buy junk health insurance when we don’t have a democratic say in what is being put into law.

To the rooftops, to the tubes, to Congress, say NO!  We won’t take it any more.  The Second American Revolution is coming.  The Second American Revolution is Coming.

Follow below for more to do and a very cogent letter from PDA.

 

“End Lieberman’s Reign of Terror”

John Burton, former state Senator of California and current official in the CA dem party, has drawn up a petition to Harry Reid which is aimed at ending the abusive tactics used by Joe Lieberman to hold the Senate and the country hostage.

It involves a simple rule change, and can be done easily.

This is the text of the petition:

As a member of the Democratic caucus, Joe Lieberman enjoys a key committee chairmanship and other plum assignments and we get next to nothing in return.

Enough is enough. It’s time to end Joe Lieberman’s reign of terror and restore democracy to the Senate by changing Rule 22 and ending the filibuster.

And you can sign it here.

Short and sweet.  Take Action.

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