The Ball is Rolling

We have a new website up and a plan to put presure on the press to start paying attention to what is really important.

Please visit The Press Pretends We Don't Care to find out what we are up to.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy

On June 22, 2007 George Bush declared both he and Vice President Dick Cheney above the law.

This demands a response.

I am attempting to organize a letter/email campaign with the help of Janet and Ron who comment on Crooks and Liars and everyone else is welcome. The idea is to set up a webpage where people can go and click/sign/send the following letter to every member of Congress, all the newspapers, radio and TV stations across the country. We will also be encouraging people to send letters through the US Postal service to their own representatives and local news outlets.

Here is the letter:

America was founded on the basic principle that Tyranny had no place in government. Suddenly we are faced with a President and Vice President who think the exact opposite. We, as Americans have a choice to make. We can dishonor those who founded our country. We can dishonor those who have stood on principal to defend the values of our country (many with their lives) or we can stand up and demand that the Congress start impeachment proceedings on both the President and the Vice President of the United States of America. On Friday June 22, 2007 both the President and the Vice President of the United States stated that they are not subject to the law; that somehow they are above and beyond the three branches of government. They apparently feel they exist in yet a fourth branch never mentioned in the United States Constitution. They do not specifically name it, but I think we know its name and its name is Tyranny. To all members of the Congress and the media, those who seem to wield the majority of what is left of what little power this Administration has not yet seized we urge you to respond before our nation as it was intended to be by our Founding Fathers ceases to exist entirely.

Anyone interested in helping out should contact me at xoites@gmail.com

We have found a list of all news outlets across the country, 24,000 in all for $330.00. If you feel inclined to contribute to that cost it would be appreciated. We are also looking for ideas on who else should recieve the letter, Federal judges come to mind. Any thoughts or ideas are encouraged and welcome.

Encyclopedia of Life Launched (Update)

I may not be a scientist, but I am a living organism on Earth. Today the Encylopedia of Life was launched. It promises to make the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy blush over its short commings.

Just Monday I picked up a January 2007 edition of National Geographic in a waiting room. They had fold out photographs of the Amazon Rain Forest. All I saw were vast wheat fields. We are in trouble. Perhaps this project will help us to catalouge what we have before it is lost, interest people in preserving what we have and wake us up to the danger our planet faces not just from global warming but from human expansion and developement.

We are very busy wasting our resources and energy as a species trying to smite our enemies. Meanwhile the vessel preserving our continuing existence is under assault. Even most viruses have adapted to the level of not killing their hosts. Can we?

Here is their press release:

http://www.eol.org/press_release.html

Here is an introductory movie that is two minute long about their project:

http://www.eol.org/home.html

Here is E. O. Wilson who came up with this idea originally speaking at a TED conference:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/83

TED is an amazing place with video dissertations by top scientists, activists and visionaries who have made a difference. Please check out their videos and open your mind up to the possibilities of our potential.

http://tedblog.typepad.com/#

NPR interviewed E. O. Wislon today about the Encyclopedia of Life and promises it will be up by 7:30 pm (eastern time) here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10141652

IMUS

Of all the hateful things i have heard coming out of the mouths of TV and Radio "personalities" in the last decade what Imus said was rather low on the list. It may well be who his target was, highly competative and gifted athletes and students, more than what he said. I speak from ignorance about his past because i never watched or listened to him so i do not see the pattern that others have told me they see.

When Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh say horrible things about Democrats apparently the anger is not universal as it was in this case. That is what bothers me the most. What they say is far far worse but they are protected because so many of their listeners tacitly agree and are happy someone is saying it for them so they don't have to.
Evil is perpetrated and perpetuated by cowards who hide behind the hate speech of others.

Perhaps this will never change, but getting people who spew hate out of the mainstream of our political and social discourse is paramount to getting back to a healthy society.

Removing Imus is like changing a flat tire on a car with a siezed engine.

Truth Serum Talk Show Host

“Hi, and welcome to my show. My name is very important to me and I want you to know it. That is why I will repeat it often as the show goes forward.

“My job here tonight is to misinform you. I will repeat things that are untrue as often as I can and when you get tired of that I will bring on “experts” who will say these things for me. The last thing I ever want you to do is have all the facts so you can make an informed decision. What I will do, however is bring on as many people who I can who are either convinced they are correct but are not or who know they are lying and are very, very good at lying so that they can bring you up to date on the latest misinformation available to you, the consumer.

“We will also have special guests on who will not only lie but also vilify. They will make things up about those who oppose our agenda and smear them or ask you to kill them.

“We will pretend to be a news show but in fact what we really are is a mouthpiece for strata of corporations whose profit margins and, yes, whose very existence relies on you believing that the status quo is in your best interests even though it is not.

“Occasionally we will have special reports on the War on Terror, especially about the war in Iraq from reporters in New York and Washington who will tell you what the administration said today. They will also point out that the reporters in Baghdad are very biased in their reporting and should go outside and have a cup of coffee at one of the nice cafes in Baghdad and tell people once and for all how well things are going.

“Finally, we will, from time to time, report that a convicted Republican is a Democrat or that a leading Terrorist’s name is the exact same name as a leading Democrat.

“We will do this because we care. Not about you. This is not about you. We will do this because it serves our best interests and the interests of our corporate handlers.

“If what we say and do on this show makes your eyes glaze over then we feel we have accomplished our goals.”

New Web Site Let's Us Track Congress

Finally a website that will allow us to see what congress is up to. This site allows you to track a bill from begining to end. You can ask to be notified of each and every change made to the bill and by whom. You can track what individual members of congress are working on as well as commitees. It also tracks blogs commenting on bills and Congress People. This is an unpreceidented tool that should be used by all of us so we can become more informed and stop horrible laws from being passed.

http://www.opencongress.org/

Walmart Takes Cue From Bush Doctrine

While reading and posting comments on Crooks and Liars just five minutes ago Paul posted this personal experience which makes me want to run out and slap something.

"Where do disgraced politicians go? They go to work for Wal-Mart! So let me tell you what happened to me today after passing the beautiful flower arrangements at the front entrance to Wal-Mart. After admiring the fresh flowers at a great price I walked to the back of the store with a cart to the beer & wine section. I grabbed a 12 pack and two bottles of wine, one red and one white. Now to the check out counter where I lay the items on the conveyor. Now for my surpise; I'm 55 years old. The check-out girl who is young enough to be my daughter asks to see my drivers liscense. "What?" I exclaim. "Are you joking?" No she says. It is a new policy implemented by Wal-Mart that everyone purchasing any liquor must present a valid I.D. or DL. Incredulous, I shake my head while presenting my liscense through the clear plastic holder in my wallet. She states that I must remove it and hand it to her. Unbelievable, but I did so not realizing what she was about to do. When she took the DL she didn't even look at it but instead swiped it through a card reader! What a fucking outrage! I never gave her permission to gather my personal information magnetically stored on my DL! I let her have it with "both barrels" in a tirade that brought consideable attention from those standing close by. I emphatically stated that she had no right to do that and the people standing next to me whole-heartedly agreed. I demanded the store manager's presence immediately whereupon I let her have it as well. Her pitiful excuse was that it was a new policy handed down from on high at Bentonville Corporate. What a crock of shit. I am not the only one outraged at this latest slap in the face from large corporate and government entities gathering private information about people. The FBI spies on us, traffic signals take our pictures, RFID devices in merchandise track our movements and purchases as well as credit card companies tracking and cataloging our purchases and travels. God help the people who will inhabit this Earth a 100 years from now.Paul in Galveston 03.09.07 - 9:56 pm # "

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Hasty had this to say and i have a hard time disagreeing.

"Fuck Wal-Mart. Fuck Tom "the Hammer" DeLay. Fuck W. Fuck this whole shitty ass country and everything that's wrong with it. It's not even worth fighting for. We're all slaves of bankers who just watch as their bank accounts grow and sit back as they suck the lifeblood and every penny we ever earned or will ever make right out of us. America the skank! And Demoshits aren't saving us from anything. They're too afraid to lose their jobs to make a real stand.Fuck the FBI. Fuck the IRS. Fuck the NSA. Fuck the USA Patriot Act. Fuck the troops too. Fucking idiots. If you follow orders from criminals YOU ARE A CRIMINAL! Fuck Dickhead Cheney. Fuck the stupid right wing spin machine. Fuck Kaiser Permanente. Fuck McDonalds. Fuck our friends at Merck who can't wait to kill you. Fuck your lawyer. Fuck your dentist. Fuck your doctor. Especially fuck the police. Who the fuck is protecting us from the fucking pig cops? Fuck the cheap shit we buy from China. Fuck the stupid idiots that can't think their way out of a paper bag. And fuck the Cowboys. America's team my ass.We aren't a nation. We ARE a fascist corporation. Nothing more and maybe MUCH less.Hasty 03.09.07 - 10:27 pm # "

Bush's Baghdad Address

Four swore and seven implied that Iraq would bring forth on this continent, a new mushroom cloud, conceived in Baghdad, and dedicated to the proposition that all cities can be destroyed equally.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, er…I mean War on Terror testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to drill for oil on a portion of that field, as a final testament that our place on the planet is above all others and knows no boundaries when it comes to shame. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men and women, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what I said here, but it can never forget what we did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished task of raping the Middle East of its resources and to decimate its populations to the point they can never unify against us to create a coherent nation that would stand against us. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – no, they died in Iraq. This nation, under a Christian God, shall have a new birth of Capitalist ideology -- and that government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations, shall not perish from the earth.

Time to Act!

Voices for Creative Non Violence has launched a campaign called The Occupation Project: A Campaign of Sustained Nonviolent Civil Disobedience to End the Iraq War.

They are occupying congressional offices across the country in an ongoing effort to demand not only an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq but also money for humanitarian aid and reconstruction to be done, not by Haliburton et. al.; but by the Iraqi people.

Despite this little article in our Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Arrests for attempting redress of grievances have been made.

For those of you who wish to participate in this project I urge you to contact Voices for Creative Non Violence and get involved. Not everyone is willing or able to get arrested even for the very best of reasons but there are certainly other ways to support this effort. You can leaflet outside to let passersby know what is going on inside their Representative’s offices at the time of the action. There is press work to be done which often involves phone calls and hand delivery of press releases. If you have a blog write about these actions. You can go to court to support those who do get arrested.

We have all been waiting for something to do to stop this war. This is a very creative and direct way to put pressure on the people who have the ability to reign in George W. Bush. Let’s all think about what we can do to support and build on this campaign.

Lot’s of information is available at their website: http://www.vcnv.org/
The time is way past due for us all to pitch in and help end this nightmare. Every voice counts. Let’s be creative, non violent and most of all heard!

NPR Has Lost its Credibility

National Public Radio is devoting itself to diluting the meaning of the November Elections by pushing for Democratic compromise on the Republican Agenda. In a series called "Crossing the Divide," very well covered on NPR Check they trotted out every compromiser they could think of including Rush Limbaugh and Dinesh D'Souza who, among other things said in his book entittled The End of Racism: "The American slave was treated like property, which is to say, pretty well." Source Watch has much more.

You can hear his ideas about how Vietnam was a losing cause which is why we lost it and why Iraq is a winnable war which is why will win it here: Iraq Is Iraq; Vietnam Was Vietnam.
Among other things he claims Vietnam had no strategic resources. I wonder how Michellin Tire remembers it?

This is a divide I can not cross. The insidious insipid incincere manipulative racist propaganda machine that is our mainstream media serves no one.

Here is a Bill we can all support by asking our members in congess to pass: Media Ownership Reform Act (MORA).

Here is a Great Juxtaposition of Bush's Many Unjust Positions

From Brad Blog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZi9RxPW_x4&eurl=

If Bush is Looking for a New Direction

Then This Is It!

The Bottom Line of the Iraq Study Group

Privatizing the Oil.

5. The Oil Sector
Since the success of the oil sector is critical to the success of the Iraqi economy, the United
States must do what it can to help Iraq maximize its capability.
Iraq, a country with promising oil potential, could restore oil production from existing
fields to 3.0 to 3.5 million barrels a day over a three- to five-year period, depending on evolving
conditions in key reservoirs. Even if Iraq were at peace tomorrow, oil production would decline
unless current problems in the oil sector were addressed.
Short Term
RECOMMENDATION 62:
• As soon as possible, the U.S. government should provide technical assistance to the Iraqi
government to prepare a draft oil law that defines the rights of regional and local governments
and creates a fiscal and legal framework for investment. Legal clarity is essential to attract -
investment.
• The U.S. government should encourage the Iraqi government to accelerate contracting for the
comprehensive well work-overs in the southern fields needed to increase production, but the
United States should no longer fund such infrastructure projects.
• The U.S. military should work with the Iraqi military and with private security forces to
protect oil infrastructure and contractors. Protective measures could include a program to
improve pipeline security by paying local tribes solely on the basis of throughput (rather than
fixed amounts).
• Metering should be implemented at both ends of the supply line. This step would
immediately improve accountability in the oil sector.
• In conjunction with the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. government should press Iraq
to continue reducing subsidies in the energy sector, instead of providing grant assistance.
Until Iraqis pay market prices for oil products, drastic fuel shortages will remain.
Long Term
Expanding oil production in Iraq over the long term will require creating corporate structures,
establishing management systems, and installing competent managers to plan and oversee an
ambitious list of major oil-field investment projects.
To improve oil-sector performance, the Study Group puts forward the following
recommendations.
RECOMMENDATION 63:
• The United States should encourage investment in Iraq’s oil sector by the international
community and by international energy companies.
• The United States should assist Iraqi leaders to reorganize the national oil industry as a
commercial enterprise, in order to enhance efficiency, transparency, and accountability.
• To combat corruption, the U.S. government should urge the Iraqi government to post all oil
contracts, volumes, and prices on the Web so that Iraqis and outside observers can track
exports and export revenues.
• The United States should support the World Bank’s efforts to ensure that best practices are
used in contracting. This support involves providing Iraqi officials with contracting templates
and training them in contracting, auditing, and reviewing audits.
• The United States should provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Oil for enhancing
maintenance, improving the payments process, managing cash flows, contracting and
auditing, and updating professional training programs for management and technical
personnel.

What Grand Jury Might Talk About

Elizabeth de la Vega wrote this fictional account into a Grand Jury's investigation into the lies leading us to war. The account may be fictional but the facts are not.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=143920

Deloris' Punch Line

It was rumored that Robert Allen Parker had been a professor of mathematics. It might be true. It might not. I know that he was an older man who always carried a higher calculus book in his arm and was always making notes in it. He was a gentle guy and we had a special relationship. He was very concerned about two things above all: Nuclear Weapons and Gambling Casinos. I was never sure which had priority.

His mental illness took the form of repetitive statements which I came to believe were used more as a shield. His most famous segway was, “As a gentleman and a scholar…” and then go into what ever point he might be trying to make. He had a pension and he kept a room but at the end of every month he would ask Mary Ellen (who was in charge of the community’s finances) for a short term loan. He did not ask directly, he would say his leg was feeling kind of rough. He always paid it back and he always had to borrow it back at the end of the next month.

The first time I realized he was a lot more together than he would even admit to himself was the time his landlord tried to evict him. He took his landlord to court and won. But living on a fixed income meant he needed to eat at the soup kitchen (this one was in D.C.) and he had to rely on people who he knew cared.

A lot of what he said was rambling but I felt it was a psychological smoke screen. At one point I showed him some of my artwork and it impressed him so much that he turned to me and we had a rational conversation that lasted for about five minutes before he slipped back into his defensive rambling.

Much later I went up and lived in Boston for a couple of years but came down often to visit. Every time I did he would ask me to inquire about a chair for him at Harvard.

Now we get to Deloris. Deloris was mentally ill. I just did not realize how much.

It is 1978[I must correct this error. It was 1979.]and I was running an overnight shelter for women in D.C. with five other people. The five of us lived in the same house. In case you are wondering, two men and three women. But Deloris had to live there as well. She was just unable to be out there alone and survive. I walked in the door one day and she was at the top of the stairs.

“Deloris does not like you but Stacy thinks you are cool. Cynthia could not care less but Sylvia wants to see you dead.”

This was quite the conversation and I was not even participating. After a while she went into one of the women’s rooms and I went looking for some mental floss.

The problem with the overnight shelter was this: we had forced the District of Columbia to open it (more on that in another chapter) and they wanted us out. So what did they do? They sold the land the building was on to the Canadian Government so they could build an embassy on it in 1984 on the condition that they tear the building down immediately.

Neat, huh?

We had fifty homeless women staying each night. They evicted us. What could we do? We could have called it a day. We could have gone off and pursued careers as bankers or drug peddlers or fashion models but no. We decided to have the women move in with us. In our four bedroom two story rental. No problem.

You have to understand some things here. Homeless people have to carry everything they own. Women in general (having observed my mom) keep everything. We had a basement which was shortly filled to the brim with bags of clothing, personal keepsakes and in some cases out and out worthless things found on the street.

Oh, but I was talking about Deloris. Deloris had been living with us and had had relative privacy. Now she was sharing a very crowded house with fifty other women who were literally sleeping in each other’s laps.

Solution? Burn down the house. And that is exactly what she did.

Thankfully she did it in broad daylight.

No one was hurt. She just went down into the basement and set the bags on fire. All of them.

So at first we ended up in a Catholic grade school for about a week. The problem was we interfered with their bingo games so we had to go.

The landlord of the house we burned down found us a large first floor apartment and let us move in. (I would tell you his name but it might jeopardize his chances of being canonized.) It had two very large rooms and two small rooms. We made bunk beds with lumber. I slept on the back porch and our most remarkably crazy resident who I may talk about later moved under the back porch with her imaginary friend.

Very cozy. Thankfully it was summer. Of course someone screamed to high heaven about the fire codes (makes sense considering our recent history) so the fire department came and inspected. They decided that if the back porch had steps leading down to the ground (considering there were three other existing exits leading out of the apartment) that it would pass code. Then they went ahead and built the steps for us.

Nice guys if you ask me

It just so happens that this apartment was a mere block down the alley from our soup kitchen. We were in the 600 block of M Street N.W. and the soup kitchen was in the 600 block of L Street N.W.

But I was talking about Deloris. Yes she is still here. But someone had a brilliant idea. They did not consult me they just sort of went ahead and did it. They put her on a bus and sent her to her mother’s house in Connecticut. That worked really great until we got the phone call. Apparently Deloris’ mom knew her daughter. The conversation between Deloris and whoever answered the phone may have looked entirely normal on this end. On the other end it involved a State Trooper standing outside Deloris’ mother’s house with Deloris and her mom’s telephone while her mother was safely barricaded inside the house. We sent up money so she could get back on the bus.

Sometime later Deloris walked up and punched me right in the face. A real round house. What some people would call a sucker punch. I gently put her on the floor and told her while sitting on top of her that if she ever did that again I would punch her back. Then I let her up and she scrambled away.

The next day Robert Allen Parker happened to stop by and was on his way to the soup kitchen as was I. We walked down the alley together and Robert was half conversing and half rambling in the way he did. He always gave being coherent an honest shot with me but I could tell it was hard.

Deloris was following two steps behind me. At the end of the alley she confronted Robert while pointing at me. She was livid and stuttering, “He! He..He threw me on the gound and sat on top of me!”

Robert was visibly startled, “Why did you do that, Michael?”

“Because she punched me in the face.”

Deloris was flabbergasted, “You…Your…You’re not supposed to tell him that!”