Incandescent Planet

"To taste the sweet....I face the pain": Goodnight, shining diva

2012-02-12T02:48:00.000-08:00

This is how The Voice touched me.

Passionate, joyous, and poignant.  Tingly feelings when that towering sound ripped through the speakers and flooded the car. That gorgeous woman's blinding, perfect smile whenever she'd stroll confidently across a stage.

And then there were those music videos. In Whitney's prime, they were the glittering diamonds that lit up the MTV jewel box. Of her scores of hits, there were two that enlivened me like none of the others.


This epic song hits all the right notes, lyrics exploding with pathos, on that journey that starts in childhood but will only be survived with the active ingredient of enough self-love.

"I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all....."

There has been more than enough written about Whitney's debilitating addictions to drugs and a degenerate punk. She tragically couldn't find enough of that greatest love to rescue herself from these relentless demons.

And it slowly destroyed her.  The health, then The Voice, and finally the rest of her.

But like so many legendary singers that also succumbed to self-destruction--we know the list--Houston's music will endure, a permanent place in our popular consciousness. Her story is part of that, yet another cautionary note on the horrifying perils of addiction and how no one on this earth, however rich and famous, is immune to its ravages.

Her other classic is a kind of prophetic one. Hard to watch through the tears tonight. I thought about all those moments she did celebrate in the years before her spiritual demons finally caught up with her. But thank God for the fact that Houston held on long enough to serenade us so we could bask in her ocean of triumphs.

"Give me one moment in time
When I'm more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I'm racing with destiny
Then in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity....."

Let the peace find you once again.
Thank you, Whitney.

"Extraordinarily Dangerous And Un-American" -- So What Else Is New??

2011-12-03T23:19:00.000-08:00

Outrageous. Inexcusable. Appalling. The kind of "law-making" that germinates from a police state mentality.

Is this the kind offical fascist groupthink that nearly the entire United States Senate has descended into -- and is now trying to codify??

Reports the AddictingInfo.org yesterday:

This week, the United States Senate passed S. 1867 also known as the National Defense Authorization Act including sections 1031 and 1032 which authorize the military to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens without trial or charge.

Despite national outcry over the bill which effectively suspends the Constitutional rights of those suspected of terrorist activities and would allow Americans to be incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the Senate passed the bill by an overwhelming margin of 93-7. This means that Congress could easily override the President’s threatened veto.

But this act of Congress is even more dangerous than we first thought. Included in the bill is Amendment 1068 which was offered by Republican Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire. This part of the bill undermines President Obama’s executive order that bans torture and overrides the list of permissible interrogation techniques in the US Army Field Manual.

In other words, the US military could arrest ordinary American citizens without reading them their Miranda Rights, put them in a cell at Gitmo without the benefit of an attorney, a trial, or charges of any kind, and then torture them during interrogation.

A secret list of torture techniques would be created without public knowledge.

The Occupy movement in particular could face this unconstitutional military action. Just imagine if Republicans captured the White House in 2012. Conservative media, corporations, and Republican politicians have referred to the Occupy protesters as terrorists or worse than terrorists. Just this accusation alone gives the President cause to unleash the military to round up and arrest the protesters en masse, suspend their constitutional rights, and torture them in a prison off American soil, all because they were exercising their right to protest.

This is an extraordinarily dangerous and un-American bill that would destroy the Constitution and our system of government. The judicial system would be powerless to do anything about it too.

We the people must demand that our government discard this bill permanently. It goes against everything America values and stands for. We must write, email, call, and protest our senators and representatives and the White House and call for action......Unless Americans stand up and fight this, we may one day have to rely on other countries to free us from ourselves.

Who knows, just maybe someone like Mr. Iran will approach the United Nations to introduce a sanctions motion against Uncle Sam for not only the assorted wars of aggression but his rapidly unfolding war on its own populace.

Won't be the first time.

George Galloway NEEDS To Come Over Here And Talk Some Sense Into Our American War Mongers

2011-12-02T01:08:00.000-08:00

The U.K.'s indomitable George Galloway makes absolute mincemeat out of the lies and hysteria being manufactured by U.S. & Israeli propagandists, who are hell-bent on replicating the Iraq Aggression in Iran.

It's sheer amazement that these government terrorists in Washington and Tel Aviv would even DARE to repeat their appalling crime committed in 2003 under the flagrant pretenses of rooting out "the threat of WMD's."

But even more amazing and outrageous and shocking is that the politicians are not only shameless enough to try the very same charade again--but that there are actually a number of people in the world stupid enough to fall for it twice.

Gullibility clearly is one of those commodities that has absolutely no limits on its shelf life.

Stop the madness.

Listen to Georgie.......

NY Times: "A Family’s Billions, Artfully Sheltered"

2011-11-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

It's been argued about again and again and again--yet only token efforts are done to stop the One Percenter parasites that continue their relentless feeding from our jugulars.

They're bringing this nation to absolute ruin with their cheating on the taxes for which we "mere mortals" get squeezed so mercilessly.

What is to be done with big fat greedy leeches like Ronald Lauder, then? His rap sheet is really no different from his other One Percent cronies, just maybe different high crime techniques. Lauder likes to employ those very profitable tricks such as "alternative minimum tax" and "shorting the box."

Lots of nice lucrative loopholes for Oligarch Ronnie, some of which have been so damn egregious that even his pals in Congress couldn't cover for him anymore. So they abolished a few. But obviously juuuust not quite enough to stop this bottom feeder's insatiable feeding.

Anyone still think this so-called "budget shortfall" is only related to wasteful spending on wars of aggression? Think again.
Read yesterday's devastating expose on Leech Lauder's tactics, by
David Kocieniewski of the New York Times, and see how it's done.

Then you can (A) just say "tsk, tsk, tsk" and bend over for more or (B) get mad and do something.

As he stood in the opulent marble foyer of a Fifth Avenue mansion late last month, greeting the coterie of prominent guests arriving at his private art gallery, Ronald S. Lauder was doing more than just being a gracious host.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Neue Galerie, Mr. Lauder’s museum of Austrian and German art, he exhibited many of the treasures of a personal collection valued at more than $1 billion, including works by Van Gogh, Cézanne and Matisse, and a Klimt portrait he bought five years ago for $135 million.

Lauder's pricey art acquisition (a "Klimt".) For $135 million,
it serves him well in his artful tax dodging schemes.

Yet for Mr. Lauder, an heir to the Estée Lauder fortune whose net worth is estimated at more than $3.1 billion, the evening went beyond social and cultural significance. As is often the case with his activities, just beneath the surface was a shrewd use of the United States tax code. By donating his art to his private foundation, Mr. Lauder has qualified for deductions worth tens of millions of dollars in federal income taxes over the years, savings that help defray the hundreds of millions he has spent creating one of New York City’s cultural gems.

The charitable deductions generated by Mr. Lauder — whose donations have aided causes as varied as hospitals and efforts to rebuild Jewish identity in Eastern Europe — are just one facet of a sophisticated tax strategy used to preserve a fortune that Forbes magazine says makes him the world’s 362nd wealthiest person. From offshore havens to a tax-sheltering stock deal so audacious that Congress later enacted a law forbidding the tactic, Mr. Lauder has for decades aggressively taken advantage of tax breaks that are useful only for the most affluent.

The debate over whether to reduce tax shelters and preferences for the rich is one of the most volatile in Washington and will move to the presidential campaign, now that repeated attempts in Congress to strike a grand bargain over spending cuts and an overhaul of the tax code have failed.

A handful of billionaires like Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates have joined Democrats in calling for an elimination of the breaks, saying that the current system adds to the budget deficit, contributes to the widening income gap between the richest and the rest of society, and shifts the tax burden onto small businesses and the middle class. Republicans have resisted, saying the tax increases on the wealthy would harm the economy and cost jobs.

Big Boehner and fellow Repukes....the best friends
our One Percenter tax cheats could ever have

An examination of public documents involving Mr. Lauder’s companies, investments and charities offers a glimpse of the wide array of legal options for the world’s wealthiest citizens to avoid taxes both at home and abroad.

His vast holdings — which include hundreds of millions in stock, one of the world’s largest private collections of medieval armor, homes in Washington, D.C., and on Park Avenue as well as oceanfront mansions in Palm Beach and the Hamptons — are organized in a labyrinth of trusts, limited liability corporations and holding companies, some of which his lawyers acknowledge are intended for tax purposes. The cable television network he built in Central Europe, CME Enterprises, maintains an official headquarters in the tax haven of Bermuda, where it does not operate any stations.

And earlier this year, Mr. Lauder used his stake in the family business, Estée Lauder Companies, to create a tax shelter to avoid as much as $10 million in federal income tax for years. In June, regulatory filings show, Mr. Lauder entered into a sophisticated contract to sell $72 million of stock to an investment bank in 2014 at a price of about 75 percent of its current value in exchange for cash now. The transaction, known as a variable prepaid forward, minimizes potential losses for shareholders and gives them access to cash. But because the I.R.S. does not classify this as a sale, it allows investors like Mr. Lauder to defer paying taxes for years.

It was a common tax reduction strategy for chief executives and wealthy shareholders a decade ago, but in 2006 the I.R.S. said it appeared to be an abusive tax shelter and issued tighter restrictions to regulate the practice. That ruling was enough to persuade most wealthy taxpayers to abandon the technique, according to tax lawyers and records at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Advisers to Mr. Lauder maintain that his deal “was made in compliance with published I.R.S. guidance on these types of transactions and was fully reported as required by S.E.C. rules,” said his spokesman, Gary Lewi.

The SEC--another blessing that just keeps on
giving and giving to folks like Lauder. Instead of
an eagle, maybe they ought to feature a
goose laying golden eggs into the
paws of the Oligarchs R Us

In theory, Mr. Lauder is scheduled to pay taxes on the $72 million when the shares are actually delivered in 2014. But tax experts say wealthy taxpayers can use other accounting techniques to further defer their payment.

The tax burden on the nation’s superelite has steadily declined in recent decades, according to a sliver of data released annually by the I.R.S. The effective federal income tax rate for the 400 wealthiest taxpayers, representing the top 0.000258 percent, fell from about 30 percent in 1995 to 18 percent in 2008, the most recent data available.

When Mr. Lauder ran unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for mayor of New York and released his tax return to the public, he reported paying 30 percent in total federal, state and city taxes on about $30 million in income in 1988. At the time, his net worth was estimated at nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

Mr. Lauder’s more recent tax returns remain private, and he declined to make them available for this article.

The Family Fortune

Mr. Lauder, now 67, was born into a storied American fortune. His mother, Estée Lauder, the daughter of Eastern European immigrants, began selling homemade beauty creams at a few New York City hair salons in the 1940s and built her product line into a multibillion-dollar global empire.

As the son of a fabulously wealthy fashion icon, Mr. Lauder developed aristocratic tastes — and grand aspirations — at an early age. He summered in Vienna as a boy, developing a passion for Austrian art and medieval armor. At age 13, he bought his first Schiele with money from his bar mitzvah. Mr. Lauder grew so enthralled by politics as a young man that he told friends he dreamed of becoming the first Jewish president of the United States.
After studying in Brussels and Paris and at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the family business in 1964 and served in a variety of limited roles.

While his older brother Leonard rose to become Estée Lauder’s chief executive, Ronald engaged in a variety of pursuits: becoming a major Republican fund-raiser; serving a rocky tenure as ambassador to Austria; running for mayor, an unsuccessful bid in which he spent $363 for each vote he received; and starting an assortment of business ventures in Eastern Europe, one of which went bankrupt during the technology bubble.

While the family’s wealth was created by hard work and ingenuity, it was bolstered by aggressive tax planning, a skill that has become Ronald Lauder’s specialty. When Mr. Lauder’s father, Joseph, died in 1983, family members fought the I.R.S. for more than a decade to reduce their estate tax. The dispute involved a block of shares bequeathed to the family — the estate valued it at $29 million, while the I.R.S. placed it at $89.5 million. A panel of judges ultimately decided on $50 million, a decision that saved the estate more than $20 million in taxes.

Estée Lauder Companies went public in 1995, and Ronald Lauder and his mother cashed in hundreds of millions of dollars in stock but managed to sidestep paying tens of millions in federal capital gains taxes by using a hedging technique known as shorting against the box.

Together, Mr. Lauder and his mother borrowed 13.8 million shares of company stock from relatives and sold them to the public during the offering at $26 a share. Selling borrowed shares in this way is referred to as a short position. Since the Lauders retained their own shares, the maneuver allowed them to have a neutral position in the stock, not subject to price swings. Under I.R.S. rules at the time, they avoided paying as much as $95 million in capital gains taxes that might otherwise have been due had they sold their own shares.

Such transactions allowed investors to cash in their shareholdings without paying taxes. But the Lauders’ use of the technique was so aggressive that Congress enacted a law afterward that limited the length of the tax deferral. And the Lauders eventually paid tens of millions in stock from the transaction.

Still, the family’s tax planning was effective enough that after Estée Lauder died in 2004, she passed down nearly $4 billion to her heirs, according to tax experts who studied the case and estimated that the estate was taxed at an effective rate of 16 percent — about a third of the top estate tax rate at the time.

Ronald Lauder has not been a director of the company since 2009, but he still serves as the president of its Clinique Laboratories subdivision. He also sublets a full floor of office space from Estée Lauder, on the 42nd story of the General Motors Building in Manhattan, which serves as the hub for the matrix of foundations, investment funds, partnerships and trusts used to control his businesses and personal finances.

His stake in Estée Lauder Companies, according to regulatory filings, is valued at more than $600 million. Nearly $400 million of that stock is pledged to secure various lines of credit. Many financial planners consider it imprudent for principal shareholders in a company to borrow against their stock. But it remains a popular way for wealthy taxpayers to get cash out of their holdings without selling and paying taxes.

There is a certain irony that Mr. Lauder has used $72 million worth of his Estée Lauder shares to carry out his latest state-of-the-art tax reduction tactic. These contracts emerged as a popular tool about a decade ago and were developed by accountants and tax planners after Congress closed down the loophole on the Estée Lauder public offering. The I.R.S. began cracking down on these contracts in 2008, and has pursued a prominent case against the billionaire Philip Anschutz, who used one to avoid more than $140 million in federal taxes.

Whether or not the I.R.S. agrees with Mr. Lauder’s contention that his contract is legitimate, some tax policy experts say the deal illustrates how the wealthy take advantage of the system.

“There’s real truth to the idea that the tax code for the 1 percent is different from the tax code for the 99 percent,” said Victor Fleischer, a law professor at the University of Colorado. “Any taxpayer lucky enough to have appreciated property is usually put to a choice: cash out and pay some tax, or hold the property and risk the vagaries of the market. Only the truly rich can use derivatives to get the best of both worlds — lots of cash and very little risk.”

While Mr. Lauder’s stock holdings in publicly traded companies show some of his tactics, much of his wealth is harder to examine because it is controlled by a maze of privately held trusts and companies. Court documents, S.E.C. filings and property tax records spotlight a few of the more ordinary tax breaks used by affluent people.

Significant portions of his inherited stock are held in family trusts, which reduce the ultimate estate tax. Mr. Lauder and his wife have also established their own family trusts, allowing them to bequeath their wealth to their heirs with minimal taxes.

Other trusts and partnerships control his real estate properties in Palm Beach and the Hamptons and at 740 Park Avenue, a building that was once home to John D. Rockefeller, and is known as one of the world’s wealthiest apartment buildings.

United States tax law allows taxpayers to deduct mortgage interest on one’s homes up to $1.1 million in debt. Households with more than $1 million in income claimed more than $27 billion in such deductions from 2006 to ’09, according to a report this month by Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, who said some wealthy taxpayers even deducted mortgage interest on their yachts.

One of Ronnie's several playhouses. This Palm Beach
mansion is this capitalist pig's ultimate piggy bank
that also pays off like a never-ending ATM at tax time

And there is no limit on the amount of property taxes that can be deducted from federal income. So Mr. Lauder is entitled to deduct the $400,000 he pays annually on his Palm Beach mansion as well as what he pays on his home on Park Avenue and his holdings in the Hamptons.

Mr. Lauder deducts property taxes on all of his holdings, his spokesman said. Mr. Lauder declined to say how much that reduced his federal taxes, but said he did not receive tax benefits in some years because of the alternative minimum tax and other limits.

Charity and Tax Breaks

A week before the opening at the Neue Galerie last month, Mr. Lauder appeared at another gala, 40 blocks south, at the New York Public Library, to receive the Carnegie Foundation’s Medal of Philanthropy.

The program honored people who have given profusely to charities, including Mr. Lauder’s brother Leonard and his wife, Evelyn (who died Nov. 12), whose causes include the Whitney Museum and the pink ribbon campaign for breast cancer awareness.

Jo Carole and her highly industrious hubby Ronnie,
puttin' on the philanthropic boogie dance in
public while their armies of accountants and shysters
make sure more that the lion's share of goodies
remain stuffed in their high tech mattresses

Ronald Lauder and his wife, Jo Carole, were honored for a variety of contributions: the work of their joint foundation supporting hospitals, rebuilding monuments and refurbishing American embassies around the world — more than a quarter of a billion dollars over the last five years, according to his spokesman.

The Ronald S. Lauder Foundation has donated tens of millions of dollars to rebuild Jewish communities devastated by the Holocaust and communist rule. Mr. Lauder has also given to a variety of Jewish and Israeli organizations, including the World Jewish Congress, where he has served as president since 2007. Richard Parsons, the former Time Warner chairman, presented the award, calling Mr. Lauder and his wife two of “the nation’s pre-eminent supporters of the arts and civic causes.”

Mr. Lauder said his life was changed 25 years ago when he visited a kindergarten in Austria and met a classroom full of Jewish children who were refugees from Russia. Still, he said he found it odd to be referred to as a philanthropist.

“I did what I wanted to do,” he said. “What I thought was right.”

A Passion for Art

In the United States, Mr. Lauder has focused on what he calls his greatest passion — art.

In 1976, at age 32, his generous donations helped him become the youngest trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He later served as chairman of the Museum of Modern Art and remains an honorary chairman. He has donated and lent artwork to an assortment of museums. Part of his collection of lavishly decorated ceremonial armor is on display at the Met, in a gallery named for him.

As all art collectors may, Mr. Lauder is entitled to deduct the full market value of artworks donated to museums. (For years, Mr. Lauder availed himself of a quirk in the tax code that allowed donors to take a deduction for donating a portion of an artwork, without actually turning over the art. That break, known as fractional donation, was eliminated in 2006.)

The tax code also allows artwork in offices to be deducted as a business expense. Unlike some wealthy collectors who are criticized for using tax breaks to underwrite private collections that offer little access to the public, Mr. Lauder is widely praised for making his artwork a community asset.

The Neue Galerie, created by Mr. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky, who died in 1996, in a mansion once owned by Cornelia Vanderbilt, offers public viewing of an exquisite collection, worth more than $200 million even before Mr. Lauder added dozens of pieces for its 10th anniversary.

Sheldon Cohen, a former I.R.S. commissioner, said that when used as intended, the tax code’s breaks for art collectors balance private interests with the public good.

“If an art collector makes significant contributions, and the public actually gets access to the works they are donating, then the major thing the collector gets is prestige and social status,” said Mr. Cohen, now a lawyer in Washington.

At times, Mr. Lauder’s efforts to enhance his art collection have coincided with tax avoidance techniques.

In 2006, three months after he agreed to pay $135 million, a record at the time, for the Klimt painting “Adele Bloch-Bauer I,” Mr. Lauder sold a $190 million stake in his broadcast network CME.
When asked about the sale, Mr. Lauder’s spokesman said the proceeds were taxable in the United States at the full capital gains rate. Even then, though, CME’s complex corporate structure — it operates in Central Europe, is organized as a Netherlands holding company, keeps its headquarters in Bermuda and routed the $190 million sale through two Cayman Island companies — allowed Mr. Lauder to minimize taxes in countries outside the United States where it does business.

Some tax reform advocates say that it is unfair that the wealthiest can subsidize their lifestyles using myriad offshore maneuvers and complex accounting strategies.

“It’s admirable when people back their charitable impulses up with donations,” said Scott Klinger, tax policy director of the group Business for Shared Prosperity. “But the tax code shouldn’t allow the wealthy the kind of loopholes that let them, essentially, force other taxpayers to underwrite donations to their pet causes.”

Oh, but then it does allow it, doesn't it Scott. And just keeps on givin' and givin' to avaricious, unscrupulous slobs like Ronald Lauder because "he can." He'll keep right on taking, as long as the public remains the nice compliant sheeple they've been.

The 99 percenters will likely keep scampering feverishly for events like the Black Friday Funfest while Ronnie & Co. will keep on smirking all the way to the offshore bank.

Choices

2011-10-16T20:01:00.000-07:00

When you wake up tomorrow, decide.......

......which one you really want to provide nourishment.......

Witnessing The D.C. Occupy Battleground, Close & Personal

2011-10-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

Demonstrators at the new Martin Luther King
Memorial in Washington keep his dream percolating

Jobs. Education. Fairness. Three of many basic human rights being increasingly stripped from the people, here and around the world.

It's no wonder that today was a global day of protests, in cities stretching from San Francisco to Athens. Here in the nation's capital, Al Sharpton spearheaded a march that took protesters all the way onto the grounds of Dr. Martin Luther King's towering memorial, set to be dedicated on Sunday by President Obama.

Will the light of justice ever get through enough to turn this crazy world around so we'll ever see a semblance of balance and equity restored, when the one percenters at long last get their blood-sucking fangs out of the rest of us?

Over at D.C.'s Freedom Plaza, where that city's "Occupy" forces are battle stationed, there were lots of signs of hope and determination that the people will prevail in this desperate struggle for survival.

Clearly one of the big ones is this business of blowing $11,000,000,000 every month to fight two wars of aggression in the Middle East (and agitating for yet another one, against Iran), while giving the elites even more welfare, is the final straw. This, and all the while demanding that we need to "sacrifice" more and more??

Unfrigging believable.

Then again, the military-industrial powers that be never let rhyme or reason intrude upon a big fat blood-soaked profit, did they. Some of the other sights in Freedom Plaza:

So many scenes that resonated with memories of past protests against "the establishment"--but this one has an altogether different feel to it. More than just a sense of fighting off corruption. This time it's for our actual survival.

Made me really ruminate today.

I proudly wore the same anti-Teabagger shirt from a year earlier when I attended commedian Jon Stewart's famed DC counter-rally protesting that lunatic Glenn Beck and his fan of right-wing crazies. This time, however, there's not a whole lot to chuckle about.

Everything seems to be at stake now. Those ravenous Wall Street hyenas are more insatiable than they've ever been. They're having millions more of us for lunch, breakfast, dinner, and getting increasingly fatter and more aggressive with each passing day.

Dr. King would have reacted to this appalling situation just as he did in that famous march on Washington nearly 50 years ago. The dream was also about making a living wage and sustaining a life with dignity and hope. Sadly, unlike the victory of winning Civil Rights, this battle continues without end and the coporate forces are hell-bent to turn just about all of us into indentured servants or outright slaves.

Doesn't matter really what profession you might be. Teachers are a choice target for the ruling class predators. But everyone is in their crosshairs, except of course their stockholders. We will continue this fight, however, because the obvious fact is that we've got nothing and everything to lose at this point.

Last year the Nation magazine referenced King's great concerns for economic justice: "In a November 1956 sermon, King presented an imaginary letter from the apostle Paul to American Christians, which stated, 'Oh America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes... God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty.'"

Those detestable Republicans recently made progress in killing a jobs creation bill, along with further gutting what was already a pitiful excuse for medical care reform. Meanwhile, corporate profits are skyrocketing as Wall Street banksters horde over $2 TRILLION in cash, refusing to invest in any of that "miracle free enterprise job creation" for the ten to twenty million unemployed Americans.

Martin, we need you now, more than ever.

Is the Right-Wing STILL Befuddled Over How And Why This "Occupy" Rebellion Is Sweeping The Country?

2011-10-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

It is just this kind of corporate parasite-coddling--being perpetrated of course not only in Michigan but everywhere--that finally unleashed the long-overdue backlash.

And what started on Wall Street has now spread to over a thousand cities across the nation. What, after all, have we got to lose? These 1 Percenters have no intention of stopping their ravenous feeding until the other 99 percent (you and me) are reduced to the status of Middle Ages serfs.

Fahget about it, oligarchy punks. Now come the days, no matter how long they take, of reckoning.

A lot of the MSM (mainstream media) like to go on about the protesters having "no agenda" other than anger. Come now, they know perfectly well what the agenda is: REFORM!
And reform of what, pray tell?

The other day, Alternet's Les Leopold provided a superb, crystal-clear 10 point assessment of "the problem" that needs fixing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize this American Rocket of ours has been hijacked by unscrupulous, rapacious, lying thieves, who are flying us right into oblivion, fast.

Read up and take action, before it's too late.

"1. Wall Street caused the crash: Unless you are suffering from financial amnesia, you should remember that it was Wall Street’s reckless gambling that did us in. It was Wall Street banks and hedge funds, not home buyers, who created the enormous demand for high-risk mortgages to pool, to securitize, and to turn into Ponzi-like gambling structures with names like CDOs, CDO squared and synthetic CDOs. It was the money-grubbing rating agencies that blessed these pieces of garbage with AAA ratings. As a result, trillions of dollars of worthless toxic assets polluted our financial system. When the bubble they induced burst, our system crashed, causing 8 million working people to lose their jobs in a matter of months due to no fault of their own. Anyone who still blames low-income home buyers, or regulations or Greece -- or anyone other than Wall Street -- should be checked for dementia.

2. The Wall Street crash directly caused the gravest unemployment crisis since the Great Depression: We’re three years into the worst jobs crisis since 1937. Upwards of 29 million people are out of work or have been forced into part-time jobs. The number of people who have been jobless for more than 26 weeks is at post-WWII record levels. And there’s no end in sight to this misery. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s representatives in Washington want us to focus on cutting public employment and public services to address the debt that Wall Street itself precipitated. WE wouldn’t have a debt crisis were it not for the bailouts, the crash, the lost jobs and the soaring cost of jobless benefits that can be laid at Wall Street’s door. (The debt was also caused by tax cuts for the rich, and the bankers certainly don’t want to talk about that.) For those diversionary debt tactics alone, Wall Street should be occupied until it pays to replace the jobs it destroyed.

3. Wall Street profited from the bailouts and remains unaccountable: Taxpayers provided trillions of dollars in cash and asset guarantees to the wealthiest bankers and hedge fund managers in the world. But nothing was extracted from them in return. Here’s one egregious example: Goldman Sachs paid $550 million in SEC fines for selling mortgage-related securities that were designed to fail so that a large hedge fund could bet against them. The securities failed as planned and the hedge fund pocketed $1 billion in profits. But after we bailed out AIG, Goldman Sachs picked up nearly $12 billion for similar bets that AIG had insured. Goldman Sachs collected 100 cents on the dollar and those dollars were ours.

4. The super-rich are getting richer: When the economy was crashing during 2008, high frequency traders in hedge funds and banks made upwards of $20 billion from the turmoil. This trading scam provided no redeeming value to our economy. Rather, it was a hidden tax on our sorrows -- a transfer of funds from the many to the few. In 2010 the top hedge fund managers “earned” over $2 million an HOUR! The top 25 hedge fund managers took in as much as 650,000 teachers. Young people have the right to question these lopsided values. All of us have the duty to do something about it.

5. The super-rich are paying lower and lower taxes: While the government pleads poverty when asked to create a massive jobs program, our financial elites use every loophole available to avoid taxes. In 1995, the 400 wealthiest families paid about 30 percent of their income in taxes (after all deductions). Today their effective rate is less than 16 percent. And for what? What did society gain from their retained wealth? Not jobs, not debt reduction, only more Wall Street gambling.

6. Financial elites pay lower taxes than their secretaries: Venture capitalists and private equity fund managers, as well as some hedge fund elites, get a fantastic tax break called “carried interest” that allows them to pay a top rate of 15 percent on their income (rather than the 35 percent top rate regular people pay). This tax break, originally designed for small business partnerships, has made the mega-rich even richer. You might be wondering why this outrageous tax break continues for billionaires. The answer is simple: these elites are pouring money into Washington to make sure that Republicans and Democrats alike keep the loophole in place. Even some liberal Democrats are parroting the line that this tax break for billionaires is good for America. So when the occupiers say they are disenfranchised, they’re right.

7. None of those who caused the crash have been prosecuted: Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire, is going to the hoosegow for insider trading. Bernie Madoff is in prison for life for his Ponzi scheme. And about 40 others have pleaded guilty to insider trading crimes. Yet none of these scoundrels, as immoral as they may be, had much to do with the financial crash. They didn’t peddle toxic mortgage-related securities. They didn’t push predatory loans. They didn’t rate garbage securities as if they were gold. None of these perps pumped up the housing bubble. Those who did are still roaming free, financially armed and dangerous.

8. Wall Street is much too big and its salaries are much too high: The financial sector is supposed to be an intermediary that turns our savings into productive investments. It’s not supposed to be a casino and it’s not supposed to dwarf the rest of the productive economy. But after years of deregulatory foolishness, it has metastasized to destructive levels. From the 1930s until the mid-1970s, financial sector employees earned the same as those in other sectors, relative to their skills and experience. That’s the way it should be. But since we embarked on the long march of financial deregulation and tax breaks for the super-rich, people working in the financial sector have seen their incomes skyrocket compared to everyone else. The bigger that gap, the more danger we face. And unless we build a massive populist uprising, it won’t change.

9. Wall Street still owns the regulators: When you put too much money in the hands of the few and when you deregulate finance, you get a financial casino. That’s what happened in the years leading up to the 1929 crash, and it happened again in 2008. During the New Deal we regulated the tar out of finance, ending their reign of speculative terror. And it worked for nearly a quarter of a century as financial crises virtually disappeared. Since financial deregulation reappeared over the last 30 years, there have been over 180 financial crises around the world. So you would think after 2008, we’d be back to reining in the bankers. But, no…our leaders are afraid to stifle “financial innovation” (See next point.) The Dodd-Frank bill is weak and getting weaker, thanks to intensive Wall Street lobbying. High government officials still believe that Wall Street can lead the nation forward. The kids are telling us that we should shut down the casinos now. Right again.

10. Financial innovation is a joke: Washington genuflects before the gods of financial innovation: the adjustable no-money down mortgages with resetting teaser rates, the synthetic collateralized debt obligations that turn garbage mortgages into AAA securities, the credit default swaps that are financial insurance policies without regulation, the nanosecond trading programs that flip millions of stocks per second while milking slower investors, and the myriad of ways to make enormous financial bets using little or none of your own money. They tremble at the thought of whispering anything that might stifle these highly profitable Wall Street inventions. They are wowed by trading measured in nanoseconds, by the alphabet soup of securities, by the dark pools of financial trading and most of all by financial billionaires and their lobbyists. But to paraphrase former fed chair Paul Volcker, the only real financial innovation in the last 25 years is the ATM machine. The rest are simply gambling games designed to enrich Wall Street's elites who pocket the winnings and pawn off the losses on us. The protesters sense the game is rigged. It is.

Does Wall Street pay or do we? In the end, it comes down to a clear-cut struggle between the few and the many. (There’s that 99 percent again.) Who is going to pay for the jobs we need? Who is going to pay for the debt that was created to bail out Wall Street and prevent another Great Depression? Wall Street wants us to pay in the form of cuts in Social Security and medical coverage, reduced wages and higher taxes (for everyone but them). In fact, they want the kids to pay by working longer before they retire (if they can ever find a job), paying higher medical costs as they grow older, and turning their Social Security accounts into Wall Street playthings no one can rely on.

At the same time financial elites are arguing for fewer regulations and lower taxes on themselves and their fellow millionaires and billionaires. Financial interests are hoping we’ll simply forget who caused what and instead focus on debt, more debt and still more debt. They’re hoping we’ll blame government, regulations and taxes, while they laugh all the way to the bank – their banks. Some of us may be old and tired and fatalistic about all this looting, and sour about the chances for change. Thank god the kids still have their wits about them—and a fighting spirit.

Get out there and join them. And if you’re too old to stay overnight (like me), visit often and urge your unions, churches and community groups to join the fray. A progressive populist uprising only works when it’s large, vocal and full of spunk.

Go occupiers, go!"

DAMN RIGHT, Les.......Enough of this running alongside the plutocrats' buggy ride, begging for handouts while they count their plunder.

As is said in financial parlance, it's now time to call in that note--and get this promised "Change We Can Believe In"!

El Charango -- Andean Musical Magic!

2011-07-02T22:37:00.000-07:00

Say "hola" to Senor Charango everyone.

This 26-inch long member of La Famila Lute hails from Peru & Bolivia. This traditional model, made from an armadillo shell, was invented in the early 18th century, though many of the contemporary ones are made from cedar or spruce wood.

It's said that when the conquistadores arrived in South America, they brought along the vihuela, the ancestor of Spain's classical guitar. Whether or not the charango is a direct descendant is unclear but there's many stories about how the traditional charango was constructed from the soundbox of armadillo.

One account has it that native musicians enjoyed the rhythm of the vihuela made but were unable to shape the wood to reproduce the sound.  So they grabbed the next best thing, a nearby armadillo. Another story is that the Spaniards refused to allow the natives to practice their ancestral music and the charango was designed as a lute that could be concealed under a poncho.

To hear this typically 10-stringed instrument is an ethereal wonder.  Yesterday I had my first encounter with the Charango, played by an expert Bolivian in the heart of downtown D.C. What a gorgeous sound experience it was.

There's even a short film, "El Charango," which expands on the history of this wondrous little guitarra.

Andean music--takes me airborne!

Taking To The Streets And Takin' It To The AIPAC Beast -- Never Surrender!

2011-05-28T12:57:00.000-07:00

They were loud. They were demanding. And all of 'em wanted justice as they showed up to deliver a clear message to this ferocious, relentless Israeli Lobby: MOVE OVER!

Last Sunday's protest against the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Convention in Washington featured activists from all across the spectrum. There was a group of orthodox Jews there, praying their hearts out that Zionism will go away and stop its assault on Judiasm.

The Palestinians were in force, reminding everyone about one of the biggest Zionist lies promoting the fantasy that their homeland was a "land without people," which explains of course why the Nakba's survivors and their descendents--more than four million in total--make up the largest group of refugees in the world.

And lots of Americans showed up to fight AIPAC too, including yours truly. This marked my first but not last time to rail in person against this grotesque,
pernicious "special interest" group that robs over $3,000,000,000 annually from our cash-strapped economy.

During our march towards the entrance to the convention center, President Obama was delivering his loyalty oath to Tel Aviv's war machine, proudly boasting about "the cooperation of our militaries to unprecedented levels" and delivering "our most advanced technology to our Israeli allies."

Nice sanitized way to put it, Barry. Our "most advanced technology"--bringing huge profits to arms dealers in the U.S. and campaign contributions to the congresswhores that send it--definitely produces significant results.

While Obama crowed about the purported "values that we share" with Israel, Code Pink protesters illustrated exactly what other "values" these entail in addition to the wholesale murder of women & children.

The AIPAC conventioneers got to see the replica of Israel's "separation fence," a monstrosity constructed with American tax dollars and Caterpillar bulldozers that Zionists conveniently employ to stop suicide bombers and mutilate what's left of Palestine with insatiable landgrabs for their cancerous colonies and Jewish-only connecting roads.

Surprising, too. One would think that Obama might object to Apartheid, having witnessed its practice in South Africa and now being imposed on Palestinians with a brutal vengeance.

There was also a replica set of these colonies--which Tel Aviv's Gangster-In-Chief "Bibi" Netanyahu likes to call his "settlements in Judea & Samaria." This accompanying sign would be a bad omen for Zionism's official place in history.

Judging from the yahoo's wildly received address before his Congressional lapdogs, it doesn't appear this accomplished ethnic cleanser is worried one little bit about it. His AIPAC goons will take care of all the details. In fact, it's been reported they now have three-quarters of the membership of both the House and the Senate to sign a letter calling for an official end to public criticism of Israel, no matter what war crimes it continues committing, and to urge the U.S. to "reinforce" its relationship with Tel Aviv.

Doesn't leave a whole lot of hope for a realistic peace process, let alone a just, enduring outcome.

Wouldn't it be nice if it were left up to our consciencious D.C. police department to remove those settlements from Palestine as efficiently as they did the ones illegally errected in front of the AIPAC convention hall?

The AIPAC androids didn't look to be worried about a thing, either. In fact, they seemed to really be enjoying themselves, swaggering, smirking, and mocking the appeals for justice.

Which is exactly why this conflict goes on and on, no matter what, because there's just some that will never let go of the false notion that "might makes right," no matter what the consequences or how many people suffer as a result. As long as AIPAC thrives and maintains its stranglehold on the American government, Israel will continue committing its war crimes with impunity and without delay.

We must always hope, however, and from the hope emerges the fire to keep battling these bullies and tyrants.

When that day happens, a new Palestine will emerge. It will, as the opposite face of the replica wall revealed.

Inshallah!

Obama "Forgets" All About The Anniversary Of The Great Disaster Produced By Israel's Birth

2011-05-16T03:27:00.000-07:00

Last week Mr. "Change We Can Believe In" Obama sent his best wishes on Israel's birthday.

"Sixty-three years ago," said the president, "when Israel declared its independence, the dream of a state for the Jewish people in their historic homeland was finally realized. On that same day, the United States became the first country in the world to recognize the State of Israel. As Israelis celebrate their hard-won independence, it gives me great pleasure to extend the best wishes of the American people to the people of Israel and to honor their remarkable achievements over the past six decades."

Barry didn't quite elaborate on the "realized.....hard-won....remarkable achievements" details of all this. Never mentioned the "P" word (Palestinians) in the rest of his birthday greeting.

Nor did he ever bring up the term "al-Nakba," the catastrophe that has consumed the Palestinian nation for the past 63 years and which, by stark contrast, was very much in the news yesterday. Because yesterday, May 15, was the day in 1948 that the Zionists threw their ethnic cleansing operation ("Plan Dalet") into overdrive.

Amongst those three-quarters of a million people driven from their homeland was an 11 year-old Palestinian Christian named Audeh Rantisi, whose family would be brutally force marched from their homes in July, 1948, by Israeli gunmen.

Audeh's recollections are especially shocking--and heart-breaking:

"I cannot forget three horror-filled days in July of 1948. The pain sears my memory, and I cannot rid myself of it no matter how hard I try. First, Israeli soldiers forced thousands of Palestinians from their homes near the Mediterranean coast, even though some families had lived in the same houses for centuries. (My family had been in the town of Lydda in Palestine at least 1,600 years).

Then, without water, we stumbled into the hills and continued for three deadly days. The Jewish soldiers followed, occasionally shooting over our heads to scare us and keep us moving. Terror filled my eleven-year-old mind as I wondered what would happen. I remembered overhearing my father and his friends express alarm about recent massacres by Jewish terrorists. Would they kill us, too?

We did not know what to do, except to follow orders and stumble blindly up the rocky hills. I walked hand in hand with my grandfather, who carried our only remaining possessions-a small tin of sugar and some milk for my aunt's two-year-old son, sick with typhoid.

The horror began when Zionist soldiers deceived us into leaving our homes, then would not let us go back, driving us through a small gate just outside Lydda. I remember the scene well: thousands of frightened people being herded like cattle through the narrow opening by armed soldiers firing overhead. In front of me a cart wobbled toward the gate.

Alongside, a lady struggled, carrying her baby, pressed by the crowd. Suddenly, in the jostling of the throngs, the child fell. The mother shrieked in agony as the cart's metal-rimmed wheel ran over her baby's neck. That infant's death was the most awful sight I had ever seen.

Outside the gate the soldiers stopped us and ordered everyone to throw all valuables onto a blanket. One young man and his wife of six weeks, friends of our family, stood near me. He refused to give up his money. Almost casually, the soldier pulled up his rifle and shot the man. He fell, bleeding and dying while his bride screamed and cried.

I felt nauseated and sick, my whole body numbed by shock waves. That night I cried, too, as I tried to sleep alongside thousands on the ground. Would I ever see my home again? Would the soldiers kill my loved ones, too?

Early the next morning we heard more shots and sprang up. A bullet just missed me and killed a donkey nearby. Everybody started running as a stampede. I was terror-stricken when I lost sight of my family, and I frantically searched all day as the crowd moved along.

That second night, after the soldiers let us stop, I wandered among the masses of people, desperately searching and calling. Suddenly in the darkness I heard my father's voice. I shouted out to him. What joy was in me! I had thought I would never see him again. As he and my mother held me close, I knew I could face whatever was necessary. The next day brought more dreadful experiences.

Still branded on my memory is a small child beside the road, sucking the breast of its dead mother. Along the way I saw many stagger and fall. Others lay dead or dying in the scorching midsummer heat. Scores of pregnant women miscarried, and their babies died along the wayside.

The wife of my father's cousin became very thirsty. After a long while she said she could not continue. Soon she slumped down and was dead. Since we could not carry her we wrapped her in cloth, and after praying, just left her beside a tree. I don't know what happened to her body.

We eventually found a well, but had no way to get water. Some of the men tied a rope around my father's cousin and lowered him down, then pulled him out, and gave us water squeezed from his clothing. The few drops helped, but thirst still tormented me as I marched along in the shadeless, one-hundred plus degree heat.

We trudged nearly twenty miles up rocky hills, then down into deep valleys, then up again, gradually higher and higher. Finally we found a main road, where some Arabs met us. They took some of us in trucks to Ramallah, ten miles north of Jerusalem. I lived in a refugee tent camp for the next three and one-half years. We later learned that two Jewish families had taken over our family home in Lydda.

Those wretched days and nights in mid-July of 1948 continue as a lifelong nightmare because Zionists took away our home of many centuries. For me and a million other Palestinian Arabs, tragedy had marred our lives forever. Throughout his life my father remembered and suffered. For thirty-one years before his death in 1979, he kept the large metal key to our house in Lydda.

After more than four decades I still bear the emotional scars of the Zionist invasion....."

Yeah, clearly it would have been a rhetorical feat for Obama to have mentioned any of this in his "great pleasure" proclamation of the Israelis' "hard-won" achievement.

And the beat goes on.

Remember al-Nakba. Remember hope. Keep it alive, Palestinian brothers and sisters.

In Memorium: 63 Years Ago Today, A Village Destroyed, Nation Annihilated

2011-04-09T22:36:00.000-07:00

The Islamic soul must be broomed out of [the Land of] Israel."
--Ze've Vladimir Jabotinsky

Jabotinsky

He was one of the more pernicious Zionist figures and, not surprisingly, the first commander of one of the movement's most rabidly terrorist wings, Irgun Z'vai Leumi. But Russian-born Jabotinsky died in 1940, too early to be able to savor the triumphant "brooming" of Palestine in 1948.

Nor would he witness his doctrine's most shocking fallout take place in early April that fateful year, when his Irgunists joined another terrorist group, the Stern Gang, in brutally murdering Palestinian women and children at the village of Deir Yassin.

Thus commenced Zionism's monstrous ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

The Deir Yassin Massacre is an unmistakable symbol of Israel being steamrolled into existence over six decades ago. It was by no means the only massacre, as has been revealed in recent years when the Israeli military archives were finally opened up. The disinherited Palestinians, quite naturally, wanted back their homes and villages that the plundering new owners obliterated, like hundreds of Lidices.

1948, year of the Nakba: Palestinians families being ethnically cleansed

Is it really that hard to see why terrorizing and dispossessing the Palestinians would condition them to lash out against their persecutors?

     A vicious cycle of terror-begetting-more-terror has thus continued for over the past half-century between armed Palestinians and heavier armed Israelis. The window dressing U.S. "road map" peace plan that was pitched years ago for this bloodied sliver of land has continued to go nowhere. There's of course no escaping the reality of having to pursue a two-state solution, since Israel is a permanent, long-established fact.

     But also a fact is that the final peace accord must be truly just, not based on the current insidious scheme to relegate the Palestinians to either permanent refugee status or life in a serious of Bantustans. Half-measures that perpetuate continuing injustice against the disenfranchised Palestinians will only sustain the carnage in these killing fields.

     The war criminals running the Israeli regime continue refusing to remove those Israeli colonies ("settlements") from the mutilated 22 percent of what was Palestine (West Bank and Gaza). Moreover, as long as the Israelis continue ignoring the refugee nightmare they created in 1948, this tragedy of millions of displaced Palestinians suffering in camps will continue fanning the terrorist brush fire.

Zionist squatter camps in remaining Palestine

The proverbial insult to all this injury is the spectacle of those insufferable Israeli mouthpieces that promote revisionist drivel on this conflict's origins and subsequent chapters.

     Some commentators, for instance, have given glowingly accounts of then-Israeli Defense Minister Sharon's savage 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Amazing, considering the Orwellian-titled "Peace for Galilee" aggression resulted in an estimated 50,000 dead & wounded Lebanese and Palestinians, culminating in the Sharon-sponsored Sabra and Shatilla massacres. The ulterior motive, an Israeli attempted reordering of Lebanon's political universe, ultimately failed. One would hardly suspect foul play, however, if they believed these twisted yarns about Israel's "ethics" and "purity of arms".

     Some voices come from the Golda "There are no Palestinians" Meir mindset. Incredibly, like the fanatics that deny the Holocaust, they go as far as trying to pretend the Deir Yassin Massacre never happened.

Now that's genuine chutzpah.

Begin

Shamir

In light of the fact that an astounding 95 percent of all the English language books (162 out of 170) classify Deir Yassin as a massacre, it would be no surprise to have the deniers jerry rig their arguments with "authoritative" sources, e.g., the two capos--Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir--that ran the gangs carrying out the slaughter.  Notably, Begin and Shamir later went on to run future Israeli governments, so, no, Ariel Sharon was not the first and only terrorist to be elected prime minister.

      One of the many things that easily exposes these shameless, fraudulent claims about Deir Yassin being a mere "battle" and not a massacre is the fatality count.  There were 107 Palestinian men, women, and children left dead, and 12 more wounded. This killed-to-wounded ratio of nine to one reveals much, because it's an appalling contrast to typical ground combat-incident figures.

     This 90 percent death ratio, characteristic of systematic killing, can be placed almost squarely between two of history's other infamous massacres: just above Wounded Knee (85 percent dead) and just below My Lai (99 percent dead). And a notable third massacre falls into the very same 90 percent death ratio.

    It took place also just outside of Jerusalem, near Mt. Scopus, only four days after Deir Yassin. Arab terrorists, shouting the village's name, slaughtered a convoy of Jewish medical and military personnel, leaving 75 dead, and 6 wounded. The vicious cycle was spinning out of control. But who in their right mind would try to title this the "Battle of Mt. Scopus" and expect to be taken seriously?

The village of Deir Yassin, circa 1930's

The killed-to-wounded ratio is just for starters. Question: Was Deir Yassin a threat to the Zionists in April, 1948? How could it be, since it was faithfully honoring an agreement made with the Haganah (the Jewish community's mainstream armed force, albeit remarkably efficient ethnic cleansers) to avoid any hostilities with nearby Jewish areas, in exchange for being protected from Jewish attack? Moreover, reconnaissance conducted by both the Irgun and Stern Gang confirmed its peaceful status.

     Villagers also provided intelligence to the Haganah and had repeatedly kept Arab soldiers from infiltrating Deir Yassin. A HaganahDeir Yassin's capture that its villagers had remained "faithful allies of the western [Jerusalem] sector". Yona Ben-Sasson, the Haganah commander in Givat Shaul (Jewish Jerusalem's western suburb), later stated "there was not even one [hostile] incident between Deir Yassin and the Jews."

     So much for any of this bunk about the the village being a "threat". Why, then, would the Irgun and Stern Gang not only target Deir Yassin for capture but also carry out a massacre? Because, simply, their criminal nature was no different from any other terrorist groups, past or present--they specialized in murdering civilians, to further a goal. In pre-attack discussions, one Stern Gang proposal recommended "liquidating" the villagers "to show the Arabs what happens when the IZL [Irgun] and the Lehi [Sternists] set out together."

Irgun recruiting poster

At 4:45 a.m. on April 9, the beasts moved in from three different directions and descended upon the men, women, and children of the village.  The approaching blitzkrieg included an armored car with a loudspeaker to announce their arrival but as it turned out, the vehicle crashed into a ditch outside of town and remained stuck there.  How many Palestinians, therefore, were ever warned?

     True, villagers took up arms and returned fire for several hours, but who wouldn't defend their home and family against marauding thugs? As for the women, children, and elderly, they took shelter in their homes, in desperate hopes the Stern and Irgun terrorists would be driven off.

   It was to be a tragically forlorn hope.

     By about 7:00 a.m., the villagers' brave resistance, in combination with the dismal Irgun/Stern combat performance, brought out the full fury of the beast. "We had prisoners," recalled Irgunist Yehoshua Gorodenchik, "and before the retreat we decided to liquidate them. We also liquidated the [Arab] wounded." Ben-Zion Cohen, another Irgun killer, later confessed: "We eliminated every Arab we came across up to that point."

Palestinians of Deir Yassin, murdered by Jewish terrorists

It's more than a stretch to try to rationalize the unfolding SS-style blood bath because some villagers were supposedly faking surrender or some males disguised themselves as women. The terrorists’ goals of "liquidating" the villagers exceeded nearly all expectations.

Sure, not all the villagers were slaughtered; the Irgun/Stern killers forced some village women into being human shields, to transport their wounded. (Which brings up yet another compelling ratio: The average Israeli 1948 combat death ratio was 1 in 6. But, lo and behold, those courageous “Jewish Underground” had a ratio of 1 in 26 at Deir Yassin. Some "battle.”) The Haganah also had plenty blood on its hands, having sent in one of their units at one point to provide tactical support, despite no reports of their soldiers executing villagers – that would take place at other locales.

The testimony of those Palestinians that managed to survive is horrifying. Some villagers were shot down as they tried to escape or help injured neighbors, while others were lined up against walls and mowed down with gun fire. Haleem Eid witnessed "a man shoot a bullet into the neck of my sister Salhiyeh, who was nine months pregnant" and then brutally stab the body. Villagers continued hoping for miracle, taking refuge inside their houses and crowded into corners, only to be gunned down or blown to pieces with hand grenades by the rampaging terrorists.

The fever of the massacre began waning around mid-day. But there were still a few final touches. The Irgun/Stern gunmen decided to load the surviving villagers onto trucks and parade them around Jerusalem's Jewish quarters.

Haganah broadcaster Harry Levin recorded this final degradation, watching "three trucks driving slowly up and down King George V Avenue bearing men, women, and children, their hands above their heads, guarded by Jews armed with Sten-guns and rifles" and that one prisoner was "a young boy, a look of anguished horror bitten into his face, his arms frozen upright."

Brings to mind a devastating photo of another young boy taken captive in 1943, after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Warsaw Ghetto, 1943

But the macabre Palestinian parade ended when they were dumped somewhere in East Jerusalem to become a part of an ocean of dispossessed victims of a heinous crime. If escaping with only one's life was the sole criteria, they were the lucky ones. An earlier parade of an estimated 25 Palestinian prisoners was returned to Deir Yassin. All of them were then slaughtered by the “freedom fighters” in the town quarry.

The following day, Saturday, April 10, the ravaged village was inspected by Haganah operations officer Eliyahu Arbel, who related: "I have seen a great deal of war, but I never saw a sight like Deir Yassin," littered with "the bodies of women and children, who were murdered in cold blood."

The Haganah's Gadna youth brigade made up the final burial crew, but the carnage was so terrible that younger brigade members were sent away. In several houses, Gadna commander Zvi Ankori discovered sexually mutilated bodies. Another crew member, Shosanna Shatai, found the body of an apparently pregnant woman with a smashed-in abdomen.

International Red Cross representative Jacques de Reynier also inspected the bloodied village. At the very first house he entered, Reynier described what he saw:

"Everything had been ripped apart and torn upside down. There were bodies strewn about. They [Irgun/Stern terrorists] had done their 'cleaning up' with guns and grenades, and finished their work with knives, anyone could see that." He goes on to tell of seeing movement in the shadows, bending down, and discovering the "little foot, still warm" of a ten year-old girl, barely alive.

Palestinian murder victims of the Irgun and Stern Gang

The total number of Palestinians massacred at Deir Yassin was for years an exaggerated figure of 254. But this didn't originate with the Arabs. No, it was made up by Irgun commander Mordechai Raanan in a post-battle press statement, who later explained: "I told the reporters that 254 were killed so that a big figure would be published, and so that Arabs would panic....across the country."

Imagine how much this success story must have inspired Slobodan Milosevic when he launched his own ethnic cleansing campaign in the 1990's Balkins. Things might very well have been different if he just had a lobby colossus like AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) manipulating our U.S. Congress like so many hand puppets.

Perhaps one day Hollywood will give actual equal time to the Palestinian people. After all, reprehensible Israeli propaganda blockbusters like "Cast A Giant Shadow" and "Exodus" only glamorize the same Zionist myths regurgitated by Israel's media minions. But a cautionary note; any challenge to their revisionist snake oil is sure to provoke the warn-out ad hominem attacks smearing critics as “anti-Semites.” At the same time, hope remains whenever some important message flows out, even in the midst of a grotesque film such as the distorted "Exodus".

There's a riveting scene just before a young Holocaust survivor (played by Sal Mineo) is inducted into the Irgun, when he's forced to retell the horrors of his experience in a Nazi death camp. He pleads with the Irgun not to have to relive it, sweating and shaking. After finishing a story that cannot help but wrench the heart, he weeps pitifully. The Irgun chief then administers the gang's seal of approval: an oath, conducted with their two hands sandwiching a gun.

The victims then became ruthless, murderous victimizers. Not convinced? Go and ask practically any of today’s four million Palestinian refugees.

Deir Yassin's legacy

The former residents of an extinct village near Jerusalem, naturally, would be a good start.

Rest In Peace, Deir Yassin.

أنت لن تكون منسية
.

Let The Call Go Forth Again: "Don't Stop Boycottin'" The ZioNazi War Criminal Regime

2011-03-29T21:50:00.000-07:00

Big brave Israeli Occupation Forces sure know their craft. Using human shields as they blitzkrieg their way through Palestine.

Brutalizing Palestinian women at their countless "check points."

Bulldoze-style ethnic cleansing of the remnants of Palestine.

Roasting Gaza's civilians with white phosphorus.

Celebrating with their "hunting trophies."

Enough already.

Turns out that just last weekend in New York City some people literally took another step to break this lethal handshake, by shaking, swaying, and belting out an appeal to end the madness. The BDS Flash Mob has done it again. Hopefully, it is one step closer to extinguishing Zionist apartheid and aggression.

Until the decisive stone hits the mark on that AIPAC Goliath lording over U.S., the Boycott/Divest/Sanction battle will rage on.

With unmistakable style & rhythm, of course!

Drifting Somewhere Between the Dark and the Aquarion Ages......

2011-03-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

Ever driven by one of those gas-guzzling SUV's and spotted a sticker reminding everyone about the "cost of freedom"? It would hardly be surprising to find one of these military wives behind the wheel. They are wearin' the buttons and seem damn proud about the noble mission of "keeping the promise" to Iraq.

What's really insidious is how this little catchphrase is exploited. We know it isn't free -- but who is it that decides how much to pay, in what ways, and where does the country pay? Moreover, what exactly are the dimensions of this "freedom"?

Increasingly it appears we are paying more and more to get less of it, and the only real beneficiaries are the profit-crazed corporations sponsoring all this foreign adventurism. In the last presidential administration, the very worst we ever had, a sitting vice president made a killing in profits for his company by helping to orchestrate the killing fields of Iraq.

Now under a supposed "change" president, the troops are once again being sent into another oily mess, Libya. As much as I sympathize with its people and their right to be rid of a monstrous dictator, the blatant reality of what propels this "humanitarian mission" is as sickening as the same real reason why the United States is still squandering $12,000,000,000 each and every month in Iraq & Afghanistan.

All this, and meantime one disgusting right-wing governor after another is telling the people of their state that "sacrifices must be made." This is too much. Too depressing to even imagine how much worse it's going to be if the national public doesn't get galvanized. It's as simple as this: Confront the corporatocrisy or continue allowing it to bring complete ruin to America and much of the rest of the planet.

Turn off that damn Fox News channel and wake up, people.

Beyond brain death, the only other end result to this Age of Stupid will be the ultimate death of us all.

Please, please wake up.

Oil, Hypocrisy, and the Beast: What will be the fate of the Libyan People?

2011-03-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

The men, women and children of Libya are desperate.

For over 40 years they've suffered in the claws of a monster. The big question: Are they any less deserving than the already liberated Tunisians and Egyptians?

Of course it's that sweet oil supply that's brought those American and European powers in to help the revolution rid the nation of sadistic, crazed dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Absolutely right. Obama and the rest of 'em sending in the missiles and war jets ARE hypocritical. Human rights had not a damn thing to do with blasting Muammar's assassins to smithereens.

Obviously if that were the case, the big powers would be out "protecting lives" in Bahrain, Yemen, Gaza, and other places where people are fighting for their lives. It's all the more vile since the U.S. govt. supplies the very weapons its "client regimes" are using to slaughter civilians and crush the freedom wave.

In spite of all this, I can't help but still be sympathetic to the Libyans' struggle and want to see them freed from this gargoyle Gadaffi, in spite of the duplicity of their self-serving rescuers.

There's more than enough evidence to show just how bad things have gotten there. One of the voices came from an unnamed (for obvious reasons) Libyan, who was interviewed just a few days ago. He is the only survivor of 25 detainees arrested after a peaceful protest on February 17 in Benghazi. He told about the horrific torture carried out by Gadaffi's gestapo, which left him crippled and confined to a wheelchair.

The full account:

Victim: They hit us on our faces, hit us with rope as we entered the center[HQ security building.]

Reporter: Where did they hit you with the rope? On your bodies?

Victim: Yes, on our bodies, where ever the blows landed. We were 26 people. Not all were youth because there was an old man with us, probably 75 years old who was also beaten up. They took us to the center for the internal security forces. They tortured us in various ways.

Reporter: What ways were that?

Victim: They would say ‘’So you are the ones causing the rebellion’’ and hit us in our genitals. They told told us they wanted to make it so we could not reproduce and create (more) ruffians like us. Afterwards, they used electric wire and electrocuted us in our genitals and then on our backs, to our spinal cords. They would turn the power on and we would begin to convulse, and fall down, unable to pick ourselves up. They proceeded to hit our legs, backs, and hands until we were dizzy.

They pulled the old man's beard fiercely with their hands. They would spit in our faces and would step on us, walking back and forth on top of us.

They then took us to the police station in ‘’Gawarsha.’’ Before going, all our bodies were bound together. Other people’s blood was all over me and mine all over them. No body part could move, only my eyes were open and not properly. The blood of others was on me to the extent that it crusted and I eventually couldn't even open my eyes.

Reporter: They put you on top of each other?

Victim: Yes, on top of each other. As they transported us place to place, we were put on top of each other.

Reporter: Even the corpses?

Victim: Yes, even the dead.

Then they started to throw urine on us. I was thirsty and thought it was water. It was torture. My lower body does not move. My left leg has no feeling left. My right leg, the slightest move of it feels like electricity which rushes to my head. From the severity of the beating my stomach is in constant pain and knots.

A lot of people are understandably outraged over the self-serving American/European motives. Concerned that these outsiders are pulling another Iraq fiasco, with oil being their one and only real interest. Furious at the cost, worried it may drag on and kill more civilians than save them. And especially livid that nothing is being done like this for the other Middle Eastern freedom fighters.

All very compelling arguments.

But in the final analysis, as with the NATO intervention in stopping the Serbian slaughter of the people of Kosovo, the desired outcome--even if it is secondary--may just be the rescue of at least one more nation struggling to free itself from a maniac.

BBC it might be, but this following report makes a pretty strong case.

Jackson's Prayer: "Wake Her Up This Time"

2011-03-04T00:14:00.000-08:00

Deep political consciousness. Lots of angst. Delivered in that unmistakeably rich voice, Jackson Browne's message resonates deeply for those that hear it.

This Rock and Roll Hall of Famer has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone. Easy to see why. One of his best ones was the 1986 masterpiece "Lives In the Balance," which tore to shreds the Big Lie that was Reaganism, exposing the suffering the Ray-Gun's military aggression was inflicting on Central America.

And, yet, here we are once again.

Message lost, lesson still unlearned. Twenty-five years later it's more of the same, the trademark grand deception that keeps our country embroiled in never-ending foreign aggression.

It's for this reason that Browne is truly one of the greatest patriots, a real one, who gives enough of a damn about our troubled condition to put the spot light on the hypocrisy and dishonesty that has caused so much pain to us, and "them."

"For America" (lyrics below) is one of the most powerful ballads he's ever done. Reveals such a deep love for his country that he goes all-out to ring the alarm, again and again, to get U.S. to snap out of it. Of course this was written a generation ago and they're still not listening in Washington.

Is it too late already to find her conscience?

"As if I really didn't understand
That I was just another part of their plan
I went off looking for the promise
Believing in the Motherland

And from the comfort of a dreamer's bed
And the safety of my own head
I went out speaking of the future
While other people fought and bled


The kid I was when I first left home
Was looking for his freedom and a life of his own
But the freedom that found wasn't quite as sweet
When the truth was known

I have prayed for America
I was made for America
It's in my blood and in my bones
By the dawn's early light
By all I know is right
We're going to reap what we have sown


As if freedom was a question of might
As if loyalty was black and white
You hear people say all the time--
"My country wrong or right"

I want to know what that's got to do
With what it takes to find out what's true
With everyone from the President on down
Trying to keep it from you


The thing I wonder about the Dads and Moms
Who send their sons to the Vietnams
Will they really think their way of life
Has been protected as the next war comes?

I have prayed for America
I was made for America
Her shining dream plays in my mind
By the rockets' red glare
A generation's blank stare
We better wake her up this time

The kid I was when I first left home
Was looking for his freedom and a life of his own
But the freedom that he found wasn't quite as sweet
When the truth was known

I have prayed for America
I was made for America
I can't let go till she comes around
Until the land of the free
Is awake and can see
Until her conscience has been found....."

What Kind Of Love Is This?

2011-02-14T01:52:00.000-08:00

Is love a concept, a feeling, or an action?

That was the question posed by psychologist Paulette Sherman, author of a book on the laws of attraction. She then proceeded to answer this with multiple definitions in what she called her "stream-of-consciousness associations."

According to Dr. Sherman, there are approximately 15 types of love, as follows:

"Infatuation - Loving feelings towards a love object that are largely based upon fantasy and idealization (instead of experience). Often when partners get to know each other, infatuation diminishes.

Romantic Love - An abiding love for a partner with whom you feel passion, attraction, caring and respect.

Eros - A passionate love usually involving sexual feelings for a love interest.

Companionate Love - Feelings of warmth towards a friend with whom you love to spend time

Unconditional Love - A type of affection and caring that is so strong that you feel it consistently, regardless of what that other person does

Conditional Love - A love that requires specific actions or conditions in order to be maintained. For example, at its extreme, a parent who gives very conditional love would only love his child when he gets straight A’s, becomes a surgeon and has two children. The love is based on outside conditions and when they do not occur, the love is withdrawn.

Puppy Love - A childish, innocent temporary crush on someone that you don’t know well.

Maternal Love - This term usually connotes love that is nurturing, accepting and protective. In actuality this love can also be given by a father etc.

Paternal Love - This term connotes love that involves guidance and some authority. Paternal love usually prepares a child to be ready for the outside world. Again, in reality this type of love is not gender specific.

Soulmate Love - This type of love is described as a love that has survived multiple life times. Not everyone believes in this concept.

Spiritual/Divine Love - This type of love recognizes the Divine light in everyone and everything. Love is given to everyone as an act of loving God.

Love of your country or patriotism - This is love for the place you live or the place that were born. It is a type of loyalty and a special feeling of belonging that you attribute to that specific geographic location.

Self-Love - This is a positive feeling that you have about who you are and what you deserve. It often is expressed by treating yourself well, respecting yourself, wanting yourself to be happy and expecting others to respect you too.

Brotherly Love - This term connotes having a feeling of love for your neighbor, because all humanity is considered to be part of a larger family of human beings.

Tough Love - This term is used to describe a love that is expressed by setting boundaries for the good of the other person. So for example, a parent may send their teenager to rehab if he is drug addicted, even if he does not want to go. They feel that this is an act of love because it stems from a desire for their son’s ultimate good and happiness."

It's been estimated that over 60 percent of all songs today revolve around the heat of love, the romantic sort but of course. The book of Corinthians has a well-known take on the subject. Always been my favorite.

Always will.

Harmless Little "Surveyor's Symbols".......So What's All The Fuss About??

2011-01-11T19:18:00.000-08:00

Sadly, the majority of pundits on both sides of America's political aisle have scrambled like good team mates to make feeble excuses for last Saturday's massacre in Arizona.

The savagery in political rhetoric that's incubated this violence, brought to us by right-wing media's talking heads, politicians, and their Teabagger hordes, has been conveniently dismissed by too many. I can understand the Republicans' desperation to have everyone pay no mind to their elephant rampaging in our room.

But progressives too?? This is just the kind of collective denial all but guaranteeing more of the same savage status quo spawning the kind of violence and oppression that makes the rest of the civilized world roll their eyes at this country.

Writer Patrick Martin bluntly sums up the problem.

All the cop out explanations from the other side, writes Martin, exposes "the political cowardice of the entire Democratic Party and liberal media establishment. They want to avoid any comprehensive exposure of a process that has been under way for more than three decades in American politics: the integration of the Republican Party with elements of an ultra-right and semi-fascist character....and hostility to democratic rights.

These right-wing elements exercise a degree of influence in American political life out of all proportion to their actual support in the population, because it serves the interests of the financial oligarchy to build them up as a means of shifting politics ever more to the right.....the Democratic Party is complicit in this process, even when the latest phase in this process―the media promotion of the Tea Party―culminates in direct violence against a Democratic Party officeholder."

The Huffington Post reported the interference being run by Sarah Palin minion Rebecca Mansour, easily the most absurd of all the fairy tales offered to explain away the ideologue burners they keep cranking up, throwing just enough itch in the trigger fingers of the fringe of their fringe crowd.

""We never, ever intended it to be gun sights" she said in an interview with talk radio host Tammy Bruce Saturday. "It was simply cross hairs like you'd see on maps." Bruce suggested that they could, in fact, be seen as "surveyor's symbols." Mansour added that "it never occurred to us that anybody would consider it violent" and called any attempts to politicize the Arizona tragedy "repulsive."

No, Rebecca, of course not. How could ANYBODY on earth look at that "SarahPAC" map and possibly mistake that "surveyor's symbol" smack on top of Democrat Gabrielle Giffords's district as a gun sight?? Nonsense. What an utterly repulsive thought indeed and, yes, insulting to the integrity of conceivably the next president of these disunited states!

Of course, it wouldn't be fair to just pick on the Mama Grizzly. No, with as much star power as Palin might have, she needs to share credit where credit is due. So many, many thank yous to dole out. I believe one of the most inspiring of our great media patriots is someone, albeit with a rather savage reputation, that would instantly fire up the kind of smile we see on Assassin Jared "Uncle Fester" Loughner's face.

Yes, there's Limbaugh and there's Beck, and O'Reilly, Hannity, Coulter and so many more. But none could really stoke a lunatic's smoldering heat into flame throwing (and bullets flying) mode quite like the inimitable network-provided voice of The Savage Nation.

Think Loughner ever had a "Michael Savage" bumper sticker on his car? Some people actually do. It's chilling to know that people listen faithfully to such a brutal, hate spewing monster, day after day after day. But this savage is only slightly less refined--like opium is to morphine--than the raving reactionary demagogues offered up on the ratings rich Fox News Network.

Yeah, these "compassionate conservatives" have bounded about like piranha caught in a barrel, chomping away with every damn evasion under the sun. It's just not fair, not the least bit logical, to assume their endless river of hate propaganda would ever nurture today's toxic, murderous political landscape.

Comedian/Commentator Bill Maher provides insight gutting these ridiculous, fishy arguments like few others can.

But even more powerful is a commentary by Truthout.org writer William Rivers Pitt, offering an appropriate measure of outrage at our right-wing riff raff. In this sad week where we'll all watch the funerals of victims that include someone's nine year-old daughter, Pitt's impassioned words fit.

Let them stick to the accountable until the day that they die. Hopefully, it won't be by the hand of a riled up political assassin.

To: Palin-lovers, Fox News" the "mainstream" media, and the Far Right, et al.

From: William Rivers Pitt

Date: Monday 10 January 2011

Re: The blood on your hands

At the time of this writing, Rep. Giffords is lying in a hospital bed in critical condition. The God you Bible-spewing frauds love to flog the rest of us with must have been in that supermarket crowd with her on Saturday, with His hand on her shoulder, because it is nothing short of a full-fledged miracle she survived at all. Doctors are actually cautiously optimistic that she will survive, though the degree to which she will ultimately recover is still sorely in doubt.

She can respond to simple commands, according to her doctors, and is marginally able to communicate. If she survives her wound, it is wretchedly certain her life will never, ever be the same.

I just thought you should know a few things about the people you helped into their graves and hospital beds this weekend.

Yes, you.

You false patriots who bring assault rifles to political rallies, you hack politicians and media personalities who lied through your stinking teeth about "death panels" and "Obama is coming for your guns" and "He isn't a citizen" and "He's a secret Muslim" and "Sharia Law is coming to America," you who spread this bastard gospel and you who swallowed it whole, I am talking to you, because this was your doing just as surely as it was the doing of the deranged damned soul who pulled the trigger. The poison you injected into our culture is deeply culpable for this carnage.

You who worship Jesus at the top of your lungs (in defiance of Christ's own teachings on the matter of worship, by the way) helped put several churchgoers into their graves and into the hospital. You who shriek about the sanctity of marriage helped cut down a man who was about to be married. You who crow with ceaseless abandon about military service and the nobility of our fighting forces helped to critically wound the wife of a Naval aviator who fought for you in a war. You who hold September 11 as your sword and shield helped put a little girl born on that day into the ground.

You helped. Yes, damn you, you helped.

The "mainstream" media is already working overtime playing up the "Disturbed loner" angle with all their might. There is no doubt, from the available evidence, of Mr. Loughner's transformation into a disturbed individual. But here's the funny part: all the crazy crap he spewed, about the gold standard (a favorite of Glenn Beck, the master of Fox "News" fearmongering...so he can sell his gold scam to suckers) and government mind control and everything else before going on his rampage, is straight out of the Right-Wing Insanity Handbook. His personal YouTube ramblings were a mishmash of right-wing anti-government nonsense...the kind that attracts sick minds like Loughner, the kind that only reinforces their paranoia, the kind that finally pushes them over the brink and into the frenzy of violence that took place on Saturday.

The kind that the likes of you have been happily spreading by the day. He did not act alone. You were right there with him. You helped.

I'm talking to you, "mainstream" media people, who created this atmosphere of desperate rage and total paranoia out of whole cloth because of your unstoppable adoration for spectacle, and ratings, and because the companies that own your sorry asses agree with the deranged cretins you helped make so famous and powerful. It was sickeningly amusing on Sunday to watch Wolf Blitzer bluster and bluff on CNN about how the media owns no responsibility for this disaster. It was like watching a ten-year-old try to explain how a lamp got broken while he was running through the living room, but no, it wasn't him. It was, in reality, a pathetic display...but that is what you generally get whenever Wolf is on your screen.

"Mainstream" news personalities like David Gergen and John King bent over backwards warning people not to blame Sarah Palin and her ilk for this calamity. It was a sick man who did this, they said. Bollocks to that. I hate to break this to the "mainstream" media know-betters, but words matter. When people like Palin spray the airwaves with calls to violence and incantations of imminent doom, people like Loughner are listening, and prepared to act. The "mainstream" media lets it fly without any questions or rebuttal, because it's good for ratings, and here we are. Words matter. Play Russian Roulette long enough, and someone inevitably winds up dead.

Remember the run-up to the Iraq invasion, and the subsequent occupation? "WMD everywhere, al Qaeda connections to 9/11, plastic sheeting and duct tape because we're all gonna die!" was the central theme of the majority of your broadcast schedule for years...until it was all proven to be a lie. You helped the liars, you were the liars, but you knew that. You also got your spectacle, and the corporations that own you got paid a king's ransom, so everyone was happy, except the dead.

Tell me this is any different, I dare you. For the spectacle, the ratings and the pleasure of your owners, you ran names like "Sarah Palin" across the sky in lights, even after she should have faded into well-deserved obscurity, and helped this blister of right-wing rage fester until it finally burst. This was your show, and in perhaps the most wretched irony of all, I would bet all my worldly possessions that your ratings are through the roof right now. You got what you wanted. I hope you are pleased.

And yes, I'm talking to you, Sarah Palin, you unutterably disgusting fraud. You pulled it off your ridiculous website, but it's out there: you put cross-hairs - literally, cross-hairs - on Rep. Giffords, you blithered about "reloading" instead of "retreating," and you made this country more stupid and violent with every breath you took. Well, congratulations, you failure, you quitter, you inciter of mobs. You put the cross-hairs on her, and someone finally pulled the trigger. Run from it all you like, Lady MacBeth, but this blood will never be washed from your hands.

I'm talking to you, Sharron Angle, you walking punch-line, who talked about "Second Amendment remedies" being necessary if you didn't get your way on health care reform during your failed Senate campaign.

I'm talking to you, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly, and Michael Savage, and Ann Coulter, and Laura Ingraham, and to every other right-wing tripe-spewing blowhard blogger and Fox News broadcaster.

I'm talking to you, Koch Brothers. Your money to create and spread this disease was well-spent; you now have one less Democrat in the House to worry about, at least for the foreseeable future.

Congratulations, you un-American sacks of filth.

And I'm talking to each and every one of you who listened to these traitors and believed the nonsense they spewed at you for no other reason than to pick your pockets for campaign/organization contributions. I'm talking to you who wore your silly fatigues and carried your badly-spelled fact-deprived signs to protests with pistols on your hips and rifles on your shoulders. You who threw bricks through the windows of politicians you disagreed with. You who shot out the windows of Rep. Giffords' office not even a year ago.

You worked very hard to create exactly this atmosphere in America, and now it has come to be. We have entered the age of the Wrath of Fools, and we now must again exist in an America where the word "assassination" has become all too relevant.

You helped this happen. You.

You know it. I know it. Have the guts to admit it, even if only to yourselves.

I know many Republicans and conservatives, and consider them to be dear friends. The single most influential person in my life (aside from my mother) was a rock-ribbed conservative Republican, and there is no person I respected more than him. I do not count these people, and those like them, among those whom I address here. They are as sickened and repulsed by you as I am.

This is not the end of the story, but is just the beginning. The good people of the United States of America, the true patriots, have finally seen you with your media-painted masks ripped off. They have seen what comes to pass when hate, venom, ignorance and violence goes unchecked and unanswered. You have been exposed, and the fact that it took such an unimaginably horrific act for that exposure to take place only increases the fierceness with which you will be answered. You will be repudiated, not with violence, but with the scorn and rejection you so richly deserve. Spin it as you will, scramble all you like. You are found out, and you have nowhere to hide.

Oh, P.S., if anyone reading this is operating under the delusion that the overheated right-wing rhetoric that went a long way towards almost getting Rep. Giffords killed, and had a strong hand in putting six people in the ground, is some sort of new Obama-era phenomenon, well...

"I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus - living fossils - so we will never forget what these people stood for."
- Rush Limbaugh, Denver Post, 12-29-95

"Get rid of the guy. Impeach him, censure him, assassinate him."
- Rep. James Hansen (R-UT), talking about President Clinton

"We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs."
- Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX), Mother Jones, 08-95

"My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."
- Ann Coulter, New York Observer, 08-26-02

"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors."
- Ann Coulter, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, 02-26-02

"Chelsea is a Clinton. She bears the taint; and though not prosecutable in law, in custom and nature the taint cannot be ignored. All the great despotisms of the past - I'm not arguing for despotism as a principle, but they sure knew how to deal with potential trouble - recognized that the families of objectionable citizens were a continuing threat. In Stalin's penal code it was a crime to be the wife or child of an 'enemy of the people.' The Nazis used the same principle, which they called Sippenhaft, 'clan liability.' In Imperial China, enemies of the state were punished 'to the ninth degree': that is, everyone in the offender's own generation would be killed and everyone related via four generations up, to the great-great-grandparents, and four generations down, to the great-great-grandchildren, would also be killed."
- John Derbyshire, National Review, 02-15-01

I could go on, and on, and on, and on, but you get the gist.

Most Disrespectfully Yours,
William Rivers Pitt

Christina, Dorothy, John,

Phyllis, Dorwin, and Gabe.

REST IN PEACE

Any Remaining Questions On How The U.S. Government Has Blood On Its Hands?

2010-12-27T00:26:00.000-08:00

When Barack Obama ran for president, he vowed his "unwavering support" for Israel.

Congratulations, Mister President. Consistency at last.

IN MEMORIAM: SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN-FUNDED ISRAELI MASSACRE OF GAZA, DECEMBER 27, 2008 - JANUARY 18, 2009

Come On Everybody -- It's High Time We Rally 'Round The Flag With Those Fun Freedom Lovin' Americans.....And Darlene!

2010-12-23T03:53:00.000-08:00

Are you, by any chance, an Amurrrrr-i-can fur freeeedumb?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not some drooling left-wing fanatic who enjoys bashing God and nation.

But I am put off by people shamelessly mangling the definition of freedom. I'm not the slightest bit inspired by those parading around with American Exceptionalist flags, wanting to take the United States even deeper into a consumer crazed, militaristic, right-wing dystopia.

I don't want my country laying waste to other places in some mindless Nation Building Crusade that further radicalizes others while creating legions of weeping orphans and widows, as the military-industrial complex cheers and rakes in endless profits.

Anyone know Patrick Behan? He's the one in the first photo, when he was serving our country or whatever war monger may have been running the place at the time. He's currently a member of the "Americans For Freedom" (AFF) band of merry men & women.

You can find Pat and the rest of them on Facebook. That's right. Their "American Core Values" mission statement vows to "speak out in favor for Equal Opportunity, Liberty, Freedom, Capitalism (not Corporatism), Free Markets, to have the right to be honest, save, invest and work hard so we are financially independent of the Government, without the Government sponsoring income class and religious hate against our citizens.....to speak out against Progressive Socialism / Marxism in our schools, colleges and government....."

And here's their calling card, folks. I have a sneaking suspicion it may have been recycled, with some minor changes that included a previous patriotic quote from Sen. Joe McCarthy.

[Caption] With the Patriot Act firmly in place, it is time to establish the Patriot Card as part of the gold standard for society. It already exists behind the scenes. This way it is voters ID too and helps address fraud. Integrity and Character still matter.

Impressive, oh yeah. But nothing compared to AFF Warrior Behan's fire & brimstone message right under his Rambo portrait:

"A MOST NOBEL CAUSE. BUT WE NEED TO HOLD ELECTED OFFICIALS IE: CONGRESSMEN & SENATORS ACCOUNTABLE FOR TREASON WHEN THEY PROVIDE AID & COMFORT TO OUR ENEMIES DURING A TIME OF WAR WITH THEIR REMARKS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES AND THE U.S. ARMED FORCES AS A WHOLE. 60 YEARS AGO THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN HUNG FOR THEIR CRIMES. THE HARRY RIEDS-KENNEDY-MURTHA-PELOSI AND ON AND ON. AND IN COHESION WITH THE MAJOR NETWORK MEDIA, IM TALKING ABOUT THE DEMOCRAT SOCIALIST PARTY WHO UNDERMINED THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF GEORGE W. BUSH FROM THE VERY OUTSET OF THE WAR.

HIGH CRIMES & TREASON PUNISHABLE BY DEATH. AND THEY ARE GUILTY WITH OUT QUESTION OF THESE CRIMES. UNBELIEVABLY THEY HAVE NOT BEEN TRIED. BUT STILL HOLD OFFICE. THIS COUNTRIES BRANCHES NEED TO RE-INSTATE THE U.S. CONSTITUTION THEY HAVE SO BLATENTLY IGNORED AND BROKE WITH OUT END. WE HAVE A RUNAWAY OVER STEPPING THEIR CONSTITUIONAL POWERS IN ALL THREE BRANCHES OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. AND THE LONG TERM REPUBLICAN SENATORS BETTER GROW A SPINE AND HOLD THESE TRAITORS ACCOUNTABLE. OR DONT THINK FOR A SECOND WE WONT VOTE YOU OUT EITHER AND REPLACE YOU WITH ALL TEA PARTY MEMBERS. MEMBERS OF THE U.S. CONSTITUION. RET. IN THE LINE OF DUTY."

Got that rat, Patriot Pat.

If anybody can stop those traitors from "over stepping their Constituional powers," the Tea Party & Americans For Freedom can.

And Darlene McBride, too......she'll help us rescue Lady Liberty from ruin. Sing it, Darlene!

With A Rasp And A Hiss, That Snake Has Given Us Some Vicious Bites

2010-12-20T22:14:00.000-08:00

Our wildly voracious ruling class--corporations, millionaires, and the like--continue their feeding.

This rodent rampage always takes its toll. And if that weren't bad enough, consider the devastating bite from one of these creatures.

The saw-scaled viper. Never, ever turn your back on 'em. Unquestionably one of the most lethal snakes on the planet. In some regions, its bite kills more than 80 percent of its victims. This viper's venom is "hemotoxic," meaning it'll make your wound bleed like crazy while excruciating pain gallops all over your body.

So why the name "saw-scaled"? It's because of some serrated scales on its lower flanks that, when poised to strike, are dragged across each other producing a rasping sound, made all the more frightening with a loud, sinister hissing.

Too many of our politicians remind me all too much of the saw-scaled viper, but a special one that invariably harms the public and protects its rodent pals. The worse part about this is how we so often get fooled into believing that viper, which always promises to protect us from those ravenous rodents, would never turn on us who took him in.

New York Times writer William Rivers Pitt had the same feeling almost exactly a year ago today when he wrote the following:

"I've been thinking a lot lately about the old story of the Lady and the Snake. One day, so the story goes, a lady was walking down the road when she came across an injured snake. The lady picked up the snake, brought it home, and nursed it back to health. Over time, the lady and the snake became the best of friends. One day, the lady was in her garden with the snake, when the snake lunged forward suddenly and bit her in the throat. As the lady lay dying, she looked at the snake and said, 'Why did you kill me? I was your friend! I took care of you!' The snake looked at her and said, 'Lady, you knew I was a snake when you picked me up.'

This is how I'm feeling about the President of the United States these days."

Join the fast-growing club, pal. Now consider that Pitt wrote this at the end of 2009, just after Pres. "Yes We Can" Obama had shamelessly lied about sticking with us in the fight against a blood-sucking medical/industrial complex which has turned health care into a criminally negligent, profit-crazed racket.

Obama was more than willing to settle for a few pitiful crumbs and then had the audacity to hoot over the "great victory." Ah-huh. Pitt continued:

"But I really don't like getting lied to, especially after everything this country has been through, after everything that was done by millions of Americans to clean house and get this ship of state back to some semblance of stability. Obviously, a politician telling a lie is not big news - my personal theory, based on vast personal experience, is that if you've heard of a politician, odds are that person is a creep you wouldn't want to be in the same room with - but Obama's public option canard was exceptionally rank."

I can only imagine what Mr. Pitt has to say about yet another colossal Obama betrayal a year later, when he rolled over and doled out even more corporate welfare windfalls. I know how Global Research writer Larry Chin reacted to it earlier this month. With about as much joy as Pitt had over Barack's health care cut-and-run:

"Obama’s Orwellian embrace of all things corporate and politically rightward has been deliberate, forceful and consistent throughout his career; not the product of cowardice, weakness, incompetence, naïve idealism, or bad timing. This is Barack Obama, as he has always been: a servile facilitator and protector of the political establishment; an insidious capitulator and “consensus man”; a sellout who piously sits back and lets others fight (while railing against their “bickering”), and then accepts whatever deal is politically expedient -- no matter what morals or principles he violates, no matter who or what he betrays. To the pious, sanctimonious and self-serving Obama, it is wrong to be a “purist”, but good to be “impure”; a muddler. A sellout."

Double ouch.

Hmmm, can't argue with either of them. And I have little doubt there's more and more of us Obama voters now falling fast into the realm of the disillusioned and disgusted.

Which leads us back to the issue of this duplicitous saw-scaled viper.

What will he do--or not do--next? Continue to sit idly as the Palestinians are massacred and cleansed from their homeland? Make excuses while climate change ravages the earth to the point of no return? Carry on Bush's insane $12,000,000,000 a month losing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq......and perhaps gear up for a suicidal third war against Iran??

"I'm no radical," remarked Pitt, "I just believe with all my heart in the idea that is America, an idea that has been poorly served for the entirety of this thankfully dying decade, an idea that has once again been sold down the river by another lying politician. That idea deserves better, as do we all, and if the Obama administration keeps this despicable behavior up, they are going to find themselves squared off with a legion of newly-radicalized people who will wonder why they ever picked this snake up in the first place."
Yeeeeppp. That blasted snake.

Oh what the hell, people. This is Christmas week and it's a time for music and more music. How about a song to get everybody singing along?

Here's a 1968 Al Wilson classic that will fit. The melody's nothing short of mesmerizing and Wilson's vocal prowess has real, well, bite to it. As it should.

"If he were here now, I think he would have shouted so we can all hear it......"

2010-12-08T15:51:00.000-08:00

"This year would have been the 70th birthday year for John if only he was here. But people are not questioning if he is here or not. They just love him and are keeping him alive with their love. I’ve received notes from all corners of the world to let me know that they were celebrating this year to thank John for having given us so much in his forty short years on earth.

The most important gift we received from him was not words, but deeds. He believed in Truth, and had dared to speak up. We all knew that he upset certain powerful people with it. But that was John. He couldn’t have been in any other way. If he were here now, I think he would have shouted so we can all hear it. That truth was important. Because without knowing all the truth of what we did, we could not achieve world peace.

On this day, the day he was assassinated for being a truth seeker and a communicator, what I remember is the night we both cracked up drinking tea.....my memory of us is that we were a couple who laughed."

-- Eulogy from Yoko Ono
December 8, 2010

11:07 tonight, exactly thirty years ago, from an emergency room in a New York hospital, he departed. Like so many others, I remember where I was and how I got the news out on the West Coast: The shrill yet palpably sad voice of Howard Cosell, who made the shocking announcement from his booth in the final minutes of Monday Night Football.

The whole world stopped in that moment. What were we to do?

Like a big part of us had been torn right out. Pain and grief and indescribable loss.

Yet one of those days that followed in that bleak December, weeping as I was driving, a familiar song that Lennon wrote hit a nerve that I'll never, ever forget.

You know the one. About letting go.

Little by little, the grief slowly eased. And the music continued, as it has since that awful night three decades ago. Still, I sure do miss you, John.

When Will This Consecrating of Fanatics Left & Right Ever Come To An End??

2010-12-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

Extremists are the bane of our existence.

Sadly enough naive people get taken in by their messages marketed by special interests, usually commercial ones craving for a buck. A Republican mouth organ network grandstands crazed Glenn Beck, reeling in ratings and fat profits.

Meanwhile left-wing directors and T-shirt companies hawk images of "heroic" communist gangsters. You've seen those flashy red shirts with the noble face of Comandante Che Guevara. Buttons, too. There was also Steven Soderbergh's "Che," a 2008 biopic that shamelessly lionized this ruthless killer.

We well know about the twisted ideology of the far right. But the far left is guilty of equally obscene promotions. It's just that they seem a bit more problematic to expose. Maybe it's the glamor of the "radical chic" making it harder to resist. The Che Worship merchandise, however, is just as repugnant as those Saint Ronnie Reagan calendars on sale at the local mall.

The biggest point about this is the simple reminder about two wrongs never making the right. In the case of Cuba, nothing justifies communism's murderous excesses and tyranny that followed the demise of murderously excessive right-wing tyrant Fulgencio Batista.

Guevara may have been a brave guerrilla fighter but the glory ended when he joyfully worked overtime as Castro's drooling, hyperactive mass executioner. Notably he was also was an amazing bumbling nitwit when it came time to mismanage the "new & improved" Cuba.

"The cult of Ernesto Che Guevara", observed Slate magazine's Paul Bermen, "is an episode in the moral callousness of our time. Che was a totalitarian. He achieved nothing but disaster....The present-day cult of Che--the t-shirts, the bars, the posters--has succeeded in obscuring this dreadful reality."

I see enduring salutes to this psychopath in places like Facebook and wonder just how many more people will be taken in. Perhaps this report by Libertarian "Reason TV" will disabuse those of the myth.

I fervently disagree with Libertarians and their crackpot notions of "functioning anarchy." But this presentation is dead-on correct, unmasking the preposterous glorification of blood-thirsty despots, Marxist or otherwise.

See if you agree.

The Joys Of "Doing Everything Possible For Those Hands".......

2010-12-07T03:14:00.000-08:00

Anyone remember those delightfully inane ads about the magical green liquid that "softens hands while you do the dishes"?

There's a video some call "seriously creepy" now sweeping cyber space that seriously reminds me of the antics of our memorable "Madge."

But in this case, she's for real. Take a peek and see what it does to your creep-out meter.

Those are some "look good naked" features, Ellen. But that's not quite all.

After seeing this, alarm bells went off. Yeah, that episode. The one with George, perhaps most hilarious of everyone in "Seinfeld."

George "I've Got Hand" Costanza now has honors.

The question: Who in fact has the truly "look good naked" hands?? You decide......

"No Way Through"--Or Getting Around--America's Complicity In Today's Destruction Of A People

2010-11-24T16:30:00.000-08:00

Stop and think for a moment: What if this were taking place in your own neighborhood?

Your child, terrified, hauled away like an animal by brutal storm troopers. Not to be seen again for weeks or months, locked up in some Israeli dungeon and subjected to torture and sexual abuse.

All because your child was a "suspect." No charges need apply, however, to keep him there. And when finally released, he's shattered. And so are you.

Or just maybe your oldest daughter has had an accident and desperately needs medical care. Here's a chilling scenario that happens every day in the American-supported illegal occupation of the West Bank. The setting here is London. But just imagine it's somewhere in Baltimore or Chicago or Denver or Los Angeles.

Could you live every day with this?

If you couldn't deal with it, American people, then WHY do you sit passively and allow $10 million of our tax dollars, daily, to fund Israel's ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians?

Stop subsidizing this!

Support the Boycott/Divestment/Sanction Movement on Israel. Put an end to the savagery.

Or do you prefer to just shrug and run off to purchase an Israeli commodity at the nearest day-after-Thanksgiving sale?

Israel: Palestinians Are "Like Drugged Cockroaches In A Bottle"

2010-11-22T00:30:00.000-08:00

Political cartoons offer up the most potent commentary on corrupt, evil phenomena in our world. This particular one really sums up the attitude of our current president, which is a sordid continuation of all the AIPAC Oval Office puppets that have preceded him.

Utterly disgraceful would be an understatement to describe the American government's policy supporting Israeli war crimes. The latest is that Obama & Congress are going to reward Tel Aviv's serial killing ethnic cleansers even more advanced weaponry, so that the war crimes may continue unabated.

I've asked this rhetorical question a thousand times and I'll go on asking it:

WHEN WILL IT ALL END??

Crusading journalist Chris Hedges provides a devastating commentary on the current status of the might-makes-right blood-letting. If you have a conscience, you'll be simmering by the end of the video.

"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle."
--Raphael Eitan
Chief of Staff, Israeli Military
New York Times, April 14, 1983

Why do these Zionist gangsters continue not only getting away with this behavior but openly brag about it?

How about another one of those choice cartoons to address that problem:

Verdict: "Real Populists Fight Corporate Power -- They Don't Hug It!"

2010-11-06T00:34:00.000-07:00

"This is our moment!" the voice-over proudly snarls in a video reminiscent of the exact same Republican claptrap that's been shoveled up before, during, and after elections.

Few, however, can match the same cartoonish punch as Mama Grizzly Sarah.

Sarah Palin PAC ad "Together" @ Yahoo! Video

Just listen to that populist roaring now that GOP, Inc. has overrun our House of Representatives!

Hold on a second. There appears to be something less than a complete consensus about all this. Famed populist activist and commentator Jim Hightower has a strikingly different perspective from Tea Queen Palin.

It seems he finds all this hooey, ehhm, unbearable:

"The tea party spoke! Loudly, powerfully and proudly.

But besides, "Throw the bums out," what did it say? And now that the party part is over and the nasty business of governing begins, what does it all add up to? What's its governing agenda? How does it make anything positive out of the disparate mish-mash of issue positions within its own rank and file?

And then there's the big one -- the huge, grotesque, democracy-choking monster that the party invited into the center of its own movement: corporate money. Throughout the election, tea partiers demurely averted their eyes from this ugly dude, for the monster was lavishing millions of corporate dollars on their candidates. But now, whether they meant to or not, they've ensconced it as the unrivaled, controlling power in the new Congress. What will they do as it asserts its selfish interests over theirs, devouring their ideals and their pretension that they are in control?

The media establishment insists on referring to the tea party as a "populist" movement -- but real populists fight corporate power, they don't hug it! The party certainly is a popular uprising, and a successful one, but there's nothing populist about it. Indeed, its leaders and candidates have vociferously opposed the populist ideals of egalitarianism, social justice, cooperative action and the common good.

"Shrink the Government" sounds good as a campaign cry, but its substance, as expressed by many of the most prominent teabag nominees and electees, is to kill Social Security, privatize Medicare and Medicaid, eliminate unemployment compensation, strip away the regulatory reforms on Wall Street's big banks, undo the EPA and the Education Department, extend the privileged tax breaks of super-wealthy hedge fund speculators, cut food stamps, do away with minimum wage, cripple unions, take away the pensions of public employees ... etc., etc.

This reduced the election to a massive, despicable blitz of TV ads consisting of lies, shameless pandering and silliness. It was America's first $4 billion election, with the likes of the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, the Chamber of Commerce, Karl Rove, Dick Armey and other designers of corporate rule secretively channeling unprecedented, unconscionable (and, I believe, unconstitutional) sums of cash directly from corporate coffers to create a House majority obligated and dedicated to them."

Sounds pretty compelling. "Rupert Murdoch....and other designers of corporate rule......" Of course, one wouldn't see any of that in Palin's little fairy tale sound bite. She's one of Murdoch's employees, after all.

We as a nation have weathered a lot worse than this. Extremists and opportunists on both sides of the aisle have run amok before. We'll survive, though, somehow, some way.

Just speak out, walk the walk, stand tough.

If you think the middle class is up against it, shudder to imagine Tea Party/GOP, Inc's attack plan against the working poor. The images in this video are riveting.

Still, like the Trouble Man, "Ain't gon' let it sweat me, baby....."

Around Us, Always, A Universe Of Stuff That These Are Made Of......

2010-11-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

Dreams. Magical wonders with manifold meaning.

They might be images passing through the mind during sleep. Possibly visions willingly indulged in while awake. Or simply people & places of surreal beauty and excellence.

Like love, though nowhere near the number, there's an abundance of songs, old and new, revolving on this theme. And often enough, songs commingle the two. For obvious reasons.

I'll bet you could call up the names of at least three or more dream ballads right now. You've sung, swayed, hummed, or perhaps shared them with an intimate someone.

One of the most sublime is the 1994 song "Dreams" by The Cranberries. The Irish band's lead vocalist Dolores O'Riordan has a stunning, ethereal voice, making this song all the more, shall we say, dreamy.

"Oh my life is changing everyday
Every possible way
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems
Never quite as it seems

I know I felt like this before
But now I’m feeling it even more
Because it came from you

Then I open up and see
The person fumbling here is me
A different way to be

I want more, impossible to ignore
Impossible to ignore
They’ll come true, impossible not to do
Impossible not to do.....

.....Now I tell you openly
You have my heart so don’t hurt me
For what I couldn’t find

Talk to me amazing mind
So understanding and so kind
You’re everything to me

Oh my life is changing everyday
Every possible way
Though my dreams, it’s never quite as it seems
’cause you’re a dream to me
Dream to me"

America The Schizophrenic -- Sane Saturday, Twisted Tuesday

2010-11-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Let us pray, people:

May tomorrow's election day bring out enough Americans--no matter how angry, scared, and fed up they are--who won't lose the sanity we restored last Saturday in Washington.

Make them realize that while the Democrats' frying pan sizzles, the Republicans' flame will incinerate us as it always has.

Open the eyes of this incensed electorate so they'll realize they've been poisoned by the GOP mouth organ all along to hand over the keys to our city to marauding Huns. Don't hand 'em over, please. There's just too much at stake.

Fear. Just say no. Again and again, loud as you can. Narrow-minded, hate-spewing bigots masquerading about in tricorn hats want you to surrender to their insanity. Transcend it.

Amen.

Someone asked recently what was on my backside--of my "Restore Sanity Rally" shirt. It was a message I delivered in the company of the 200,000 plus people flood in our nation's capital. Something strident enough to show my disgust with right-wing demagogues who try to pervert the American Dream. That includes the one voiced at the Lincoln Memorial, not by some crazed Christian Reich boss, but by an Atlanta preacher in 1963 .

There were so many, many stinging, uproarious slogans flying in all directions that day. I thought carefully and wrote one I could wear for years to come. Wanted to be sure from this day forward any and all star spangled yahoos swaggering across my path will be served notice.

There were some detractors, notably, from the far left side of the aisle. Journalist & socialist Chris Hedges was clearly not impressed and had this scathing, acid cynical take on the Big Rally:

"Politics in America has become spectacle. It is another form of show business. The crowd in Washington, well trained by television, was conditioned to play its role before the cameras. The signs —'The Rant is Too Damn High,' 'Real Patriots Can Handle a Difference of Opinion' or 'I Masturbate and I Vote'—reflected the hollowness of current political discourse and television’s perverse epistemology.

The rally spoke exclusively in the impoverished iconography and language of television. It was filled with meaningless political pieties, music and jokes. It was like any television variety program. Personalities were being sold, not political platforms. And this is what the society of spectacle is about.

The modern spectacle, as the theorist Guy Debord pointed out, is a potent tool for pacification and depoliticization. It is a “permanent opium war” which stupefies its viewers and disconnects them from the forces that control their lives. The spectacle diverts anger toward phantoms and away from the perpetrators of exploitation and injustice. It manufactures feelings of euphoria. It allows participants to confuse the spectacle itself with political action.

The celebrities from Comedy Central and the trash talk show hosts on Fox are in the same business. They are entertainers. They provide the empty, emotionally laden material that propels endless chatter back and forth on supposed left- and right-wing television programs. It is a national Punch and Judy show. But don’t be fooled. It is not politics. It is entertainment. It is spectacle.

All national debate on the airwaves is driven by the same empty gossip, the same absurd trivia, the same celebrity meltdowns and the same ridiculous posturing. It is presented with a different spin. But none of it is about ideas or truth. None of it is about being informed. It caters to emotions. It makes us confuse how we are made to feel with knowledge.

And in the end, for those who serve up this drivel, the game is about money in the form of ratings and advertising. Beck, Colbert and Stewart all serve the same masters. And it is not us."

No question about it, Mr. Hedges was decidedly unimpressed with our noble attempt at sanity. And maybe all the theatrics just made him go ape.

His points, however, are well-taken and many quite valid. The grand corporate octopus has itself wrapped neatly around all of us in just about the same iron grip as a hundred years ago. It's just that the stranglehold is so much more subtle, thanks to the sophistication of high tech thought control---ahhmm, I mean mass media.

No matter, really, which party rules, since the overall status quo remains the same. But then it still always seems to turn out so much worse for civil liberties and working class conditions whenever the "smaller government/bigger business" Republicans call the shots.

Pollsters have already called it for tomorrow and the rage over the Bush-generated misery index is gonna get us tossed from fryer to the fire.

We gave it our best, however, and got in the last word. Stewart summed it up nicely at the finish Saturday.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

Jon Stewart - Moment of Sincerity

www.comedycentral.com

Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear

The Daily Show

The Colbert Report

What Would These "Baby Eyes" have to say, Mr. Shaw?

2010-10-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

"A miracle is an event which creates faith," observed George Bernard Shaw, "That is the purpose and nature of miracles. Frauds deceive. An event which creates faith does not deceive: Therefore it is not a fraud but a miracle."

Just imagine the prose this phenomenal writer might have produced witnessing today's astonishing of fetal photography or even the ultrasound images that came along in 1957, just seven years after he died.

Would the brilliant but quirky Shaw have reacted with mixed feelings? He reportedly had a pronounced aversion to the modern medicine of his day, calling it "quackery" and condemning the smallpox vaccine as a "particularly filthy piece of witchcraft."

On the other hand, this legendary poet was quite the photography buff and it's probably safe to say he watched (maybe enjoyed, too) cartoons in his senior years. That's why this mind-boggling six minute animation is all the more intriguing.

What kind of poem would Shaw have created had he lived to witness "Genesis"?

Maybe something even more endearing than his "Baby Eyes" ballad:

"Large Baby eyes smiling joyfully at me,

Baby eyes as brown as can be.

Two deep pools most innocent and bright,

To me are symbols of sheer delight.

May I greet you every single day?

For you are sunshine on my way.

Other people see you smile so sweet,

All are happier when you they meet.

Eyes are the window to the soul,

No difficulties for you reaching your goal.

So sweet baby go on life's way,

Those Baby eyes have much to say."

Will Our Public Really Surrender Congress Again To The Reactionary RiffRaff?

2010-10-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

In just a little more than two weeks, a beleaguered country will go to the polls to decide whether the Grand Old Party Of The Plutocrats should be handed back control of Congress.

Because people are hurting so badly and the Democrats haven't been able yet to ease the pain created by Wall Street's robber barons, it's a good bet desperate, angry voters will do a throw-out-the-bums boogie.

And then we'll watch how things will be "so much better" when the legislative branch is delivered into the jaws of the Republicans.

Frying pan leap right into the fire -- THAT the idea?

How about a nice cheery review of the official "Things Republicans Believe" litany, posted anonymously on the world web -- sometime in the not too distant past? It sheds some light on the darkness that descends whenever the GOP seizes power:

 "Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime,
unless you're a
conservative radio host. Then it's an illness and
you need our prayers for
your recovery.

The United States should get out of the United
Nations, and our highest
national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions
against Iraq.

Government should relax regulation of Big Business
and Big Money but crack
down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the
pain of illness.

 "Standing Tall for America" means firing your
workers and moving their jobs
to India.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her
own body, but
multi-national corporations can make decisions
affecting all mankind without
regulation.

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of
homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise
the troops in speeches
while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

 Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless
you someday run for
governor of California as a Republican.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents
won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our
long-time allies, then
demand their cooperation and money.

HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of
the public at heart.

 Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy.
Providing health care
to all Americans is socialism.

Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk
science, but
creationism should be taught in schools.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad
guy when Bush's daddy
made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business
with him and a bad guy
when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden"
diversion.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is an
impeachable offense. A
president lying to enlist support for a war in which
thousands die is solid
defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named
in the Constitution,
which include banning gay marriages and censoring
the Internet.

The public has a right to know about Hillary's
cattle trades, but George
Bush's driving record is none of our business.

You support states' rights, which means Attorney
General John Ashcroft can
tell states what local voter initiatives they have a
right to adopt.

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital
national interest, but what
Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is
communist, but trade with
China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of
international harmony."

Adorning all this are the breath-taking

pearls of wisdom from those Republican Blathering

Heads.  One of our very favorites, of course,

is Presidential wanna-be Mama Grizzly Palin's

declaration of foreign policy expertise.

Please, dear angry voters, try to remember all these deeds and voices before you decide pulling that Republican lever on election day.

Unless, of course, you seriously think we have nothin' to lose with this greater of the two evils.

Happy Birthday, John

2010-10-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

He would have turned 70 today. Despite having lost him well before his time, his music, and the dream, endures. But the departure of this great friend is never forgotten.

Or always remembered.

"There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain......."

Anti-Israeli Bias In Our American Media?? Think Again......

2010-10-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

The journalism professor's opening remarks in the video report are not only true but extremely compelling.

Think about it. How many mainstream U.S. media groups really present a Palestinian as a suffering human being, rather than just a "unit" or some terrorist thug with face covered in Hamas green, holding AK-47 & RPG weapons?

And just how many images, streaming videos or simple pictures, do we see of the other terrorist thugs at work--those noble fellows garbed in Israeli military green, using U.S.-funded automatic weapons and chemical WMD's to deliberately slaughter civilians at will??

Not a whole lot, as it turns out. And there's a very significant reason for that.

Amazing things happen when one party in a conflict has a well-engineered stranglehold over the hearts & minds of the key targeted audience (which the U.S. military-industrial complex tried and failed miserably in Vietnam.) They get away with murder.

Quite literally. War crimes pulled off on a grand scale, in fact.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Does it?

"American Dream" Continues Going Up In Smoke.....Cup Of Tea, Anyone?

2010-10-06T10:18:00.000-07:00

It's beyond shocking.

How about disgraceful, appalling, and unreal too.

But this little story should well serve as the flaming symbol of what ails us.

A official moment of silence, please, for all the right-wing Teabag cretins that screamed their reactionary heads off at last summer's hearings for universal public health care. That's that "diabolical socialism" our fellow industrialized nations have--Canada, Great Britain, Australia--because they give a damn enough to really protect the lives of their citizens.

Not here, it seems. And now that "compassionate conservatism" rears another of its compassionate hydra heads into another realm, the traditional socialism we've had for protection from fiery destruction.

Seems a county in Tennessee saw fit to demand a special fee to keep your house intact. And as The Mob might say, "You don't pay for protection......you pay."

The next thing will be monthly law enforcement insurance premiums. And if ya can't afford those, well, looks like your local police will just have to kick back in their patrol cars enjoying coffee and doughnuts while you're being robbed, raped, stabbed or shot by some violent criminal.

Is this where our "gloriously free enterprise" nation is sinking?

In that case, lets have the Teabaggers and the rest of the laissez faire imbeciles forever pay extra big fat monthly premiums on not just the health care they need but EVERY service, including fire, police, schools, libraries, roads, etc. The Republican Congressional dirt bags and their lobbyist masters will have five or ten times the monthly premiums, as a reward for their rabid opposition to all this Bogeyman Socialism.

And when their homes burn down to the ground, let 'em head to the nearest town hall and vent to their hearts' content.

Should be an especially cathartic moment.....

Faithful Friends, Agonizing Goodbyes

2010-09-28T03:08:00.000-07:00

"Pup"

For those of us who own and love a dog, very few things are so foreboding and so frightful as the time their bodies have worn out.

It's all too cruel, the relatively brief time our beloved companion is allowed to stay. When we have to let go, looking into his or her longing eyes as ours fill up with tears, the sensation comes from the depths of Hell. We may have done this before with other furry friends but it never, ever gets easier. You leave the vet's office, barely seeing or feeling anything while floating through grief's cold fog.

What in God's name will I do now?

The face above is the Black Lab/Springer Spaniel my daughters simply call "Pup." She came into our lives nine years ago this fall. She's still with us, yes, healthy and vibrant and equipped with a bark that can practically shatter glass (and eardrums.)

Dog lovers will understand how much more Pup is to me than just a family dog. She is one of the greatest gifts of unconditional love, devotion, and diversion. But Pup is serenity, too. Few things so calming as her nuzzling that canine head into mine. Scratching her chest as her massive paws fling themselves in the air. Hearing that soft yowl. Getting face drenched in dog slobber.

I can not and will not ponder the dreaded day when, as dog lover Mr. Kipling described it, I'll have to "give my heart to a dog to tear." But on this late night, I'm thinking of someone very close who's heart is in pieces. And so mine, too. One of the first memories I have of her Yellow Lab "Christina" was as a bursting-with-joy little puppy on a beach 14 years ago.

She loved that dog like nothing else, carefully preparing her meals, walking her religiously, taking her everywhere. When her Christina really began slowing down and had tender paws, she saw to it that she had special shoes to wear. I well understood why that dog was in so many ways her world.

But at 14, Christina's body was in the kind of pain that would not subside. She could no longer eat. So yesterday, she had to let Christina go. The little bed is now empty. As empty as the feeling she has tonight. Much, much more. My heart's in pieces and I can't see too good right now.

This poignant video is about another Yellow Lab who passed away this year, like Christina, at the age of 14. Her name was "Patsy."

Rest in sweet peace, Christina and Patsy.

I'm thinking about that saying from the Book of Revelation, that God will wipe away all our tears. Eventually.

"Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie--
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone--wherever it goes--for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-term loan is as bad as a long--
So why in--Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?"

--Rudyard Kipling

"God knows where we're heading.....make me wanna holler...."

2010-09-25T00:59:00.000-07:00

He went from a humble beginning as a Doo Wop singer to eventually be crowned "Prince of Soul."

But Marvin Gaye's greatest contribution was an album described by one music critic as " the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music, delivered by one of its finest voices".

1971's "What's Going On" helped break the mold of the Motown Sound so drastically it put Gaye on a collision course with mogul Barry Gordy, who was appalled at a concept album radiating protest over war, pollution, taxes, and poverty.

Gordy was wrong of course. And I'll never, ever forget the rainy afternoon that my always cool, conscientious sociology teacher Mr. Hamilton announced to our class he was gonna play some music with a walloping message.

We knew all too well how turbulent things were at the dawn of the '70's. But this music brought it home even harder. Searing, emotional, just like Marvin's own troubled persona.

The album's "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" and other masterpieces are far more than priceless social artifacts. They were fateful warnings about the relentless repeat of history.

Nearly 40 years later, our endless war simply relocated from a Southeast Asian jungle to Middle East deserts & mountains. Oil "wasted upon the oceans and upon our seas" moved to the Gulf. And as millions of us became jobless and homeless, a report today about some of the Wall Street executives that helped wreck the economy and then bilked us for billions more of our tax dollars--CitiGroup Corp. will be handing out record multi-million dollar bonuses this year to these enterprising execs.

Make you wanna holler again?

Me too.

While Not The "Whole Story," Israel Still Begs For Spotlight

2010-09-21T02:37:00.000-07:00

Recently I posted on my Facebook wall a commemoration to the thousands of Palestinian civilians slaughtered in Beirut one ghastly weekend 28 years ago this month.

One of my friends later pointedly said that I "wasn't giving the whole story." There have been plenty of atrocities committed, she said, by the other side--Palestinian terrorists, murdering defenseless civilians, Lebanese and Israeli alike.

And she is absolutely correct. This is a picture of what remained of a church in the Christian town of Damour, about a half hour's drive south of Beirut, after PLO terrorists had locked women and children inside, set the building on fire, and burned them alive. The date was January 20, 1976, as the second of 15 horrific years of civil war was just beginning.

These are some of the murdered children of Damour. No different or less important than those murdered children laying out in the alleys of Sabra & Shatila over six years later.

There is no moral distinction, of course, between the killing of civilians, whatever age, that are Jewish or Christian or Muslim, or any other race or religion. Some militarists like to make the disingenuous argument that murdering an entire family, or two, or ten, is "unavoidable" because their enemies deploy in civilian areas.

That means, well, sadly the families are expendable because it's for the cause. A bit like, perhaps, if you had a spouse and kids and are home one evening when a dangerous armed man forces himself inside. The SWAT team outside takes no chances, aims directly at your living room window, and fires that white phosphorus bomb right into your home. Bulls eye! And another desperado is "taken out."

Mission accomplished. Well, sort of. There is that nettlesome thing the good guys refer to as "collateral damage." And, yep, it seems that those obtrusive human shields--your spouse and three little children--have also been wiped out. And you've lost both your legs. An sadly "unavoidable" effect of fighting the good fight.

Here's a picture of the kind of "collateral damage" the Israelis regularly inflict; one of the byproducts of their "Cast Lead" adventure in Gaza less than two short years ago. Like that hypothetical gung ho SWAT team, they are the unchallenged experts at these kinds of kills.

The Damour episode was much less subtle carnage, like Sabra & Shitala. In fact, the same journalist that revealed the gruesome results at the two Palestinian camps in 1982, Robert Fisk, reported on the Damour Massacre. It went something like this:

"The attackers destroyed the buildings in the seaside village systematically and then took revenge on the remaining Christian inhabitants. The Christian cemetery was destroyed, coffins dug up, the dead robbed, vaults opened, and bodies and skeletons thrown across the graveyard.

The church was burnt and an outside wall was covered with a mural of Fatah guerrillas holding AK47 rifles. A portrait of Yasser Arafat was placed at one end. Other sources claim that the church was used as a repair garage for PLO vehicles, and also as a range for shooting-practice with targets painted on the eastern wall of the nave.

Twenty Phalangist militiamen were executed and then civilians were lined up against a wall and sprayed with machine-gun fire. None of the remaining inhabitants survived."

Estimates of the total civilian body count at Damour were about 584. Yes, less than Sabra & Shatila. But no less evil and utterly appalling.

This particular view conjures up visions of what Hell might look like. It's the largely Muslim slum district of Karantina, in East Beirut. As you can see, obviously all was not well that day in the neighborhood. It was January 18, 1976 and there was a massacre unfolding. Two days later, revenge came roaring into the little town of Damour.

The serial killers at Karantina were Lebanese Christian Militias, the same types that did all that dirty work later at Sabra & Shatilla under Israeli supervision. The Karantina Massacre resulted in the deaths of over 1,500 men, women, and children.

And, yes, this bloodletting was a spillover from "Black Saturday," a series of Beirut massacres the month before. And on and on and on it went for the next horrific 15 years.

So my friend is quite right. There's cruelty and murder and all manner of evil on both sides of war. Terrorism is a two-way street, in the Middle East or just about anywhere in the world. It's a cycle that runs like an atomic clock until either one side is completely annihilated or both antagonists can arrive at terms both equitable and lasting.

I've always condemned all forms of terrorism. But I'm especially troubled when my tax dollars are used to support it. The world's largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid--most in weapons, including hideous white phosphorus bombs--is not to Arab terrorists but instead to a regime of war criminals.

These Israeli war criminals use American weapons to attack civilians. Here they are attacking a Palestinian school in Gaza. There were other targets, too.

Some of the terrorist victims struggled to survive.

Others didn't have a prayer.

Maybe this will help you understand why Israel does get a spotlight just as bright as the burning phosphorus they use on women and children. It is OUR country that sponsors these sadistic barbarians. OUR country sponsored the same monsters that sent their extermination units into those Palestinian camps 28 years ago.

Anyone like to trade places with this mother?

Israel's blame game for the real root of all this murder and mayhem will continue on as long as the United States keeps serving as its official ATM. That's the big story here.

Enough.

Remembrance: "The Day The World Stopped Turning....."

2010-09-11T03:00:00.000-07:00

He was the first recorded victim of the horror that engulfed us nine years ago today.

Mychal Judge was, in fact, the official chaplain of the NYFD. Every year at this time they have The Father Mychal Judge Walk of Remembrance, which starts with a Mass at St. Francis Church on West 31st Street, then heads to Ground Zero, retracing Judge's final journey and praying along the way.

Every September 11 there's also a Mass in memory of this courageous man in Boston, attended by the grieving family members who lost their loved ones on this terrible day.

Five years after Judge and thousands of others were massacred by maniacs thinking they were on a mission from God, a poignant documentary celebrating Father Judge's life was released. It was called "Saint of 9/11." It's easy to see how they got the title when you hear his story. According to the New York Daily News:

"Upon hearing the news that the World Trade Center had been hit, he rushed to the site.....Judge administered last rites to some lying on the streets, then entered the lobby of the World Trade Center north tower where an emergency command post was organized. There he continued offering aid and prayers for the rescuers, the injured and dead.

When the south tower collapsed at 9:59 AM, debris went flying through the north tower lobby, killing many inside, including Judge. At the moment he was struck in the head and killed, Judge was repeatedly praying aloud, 'Jesus, please end this right now! God please end this!'

Shortly after his death, firefighters found Judge's body and carried it out of the north lobby.....Shannon Stapleton, photographer from Reuters, photographed Judge's body being carried out of the rubble by five men. It became one of the most famous images related to 9/11. The Philadelphia Weekly reports the photograph being called an American Pietà."

Today of course is one of those "where were you" memory days. To tell the truth, I recall actually better my unexpected bouts of sobbing throughout the days and weeks following the unspeakable tragedy in New York, and Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

But on this day nine years ago, I was a fifth grade teacher in a Fairfax County school that had some other teachers married to military personnel. For the rest of my life I'll never, ever forget looking into the tearful, stricken eyes of one of them.

She was a tough lady, to be sure.  But at that moment she was utterly devastated by the thought that her husband who had gone to work at the Pentagon that morning was one of the casualties.

There was still no word from our ground zero only 20 miles away. She continued weeping as I hugged her and tried to find the words.

As it turned out, he had survived and was working desperately to help the wounded.  Pulling out bodies. Finally she got the call that ended her personal nightmare. He would be coming home.

But the terror continued. There was rumor that the State Department building had been hit. No one knew what would happen next.  Sons and daughters throughout our school were by now being picked up, one by one, by frantic parents who would do whatever they could to protect their children from the menace.

Many however stayed in a lockdown with their teachers. I put on a calm face and asked my remaining children to continue working on their assignments.  Somehow was able to fend off repeated questions why one student after another was being called out of the classroom.

Then I remembered what was sitttng in my instructional mood music bin. I put it on. The "Bridge Over Troubled Water" played three times.

None of my students were among those that lost a parent that day. One of the children somewhere in the country who was one of the 3,251 that did wrote this message:

"It's time for me to go bed now
I sleep with the light on
Just in case you come home
And kiss me good night
I love you so much
I miss you Daddy...."

Beyond "Troubled Water" is an even more powerful song written by Alan Jackson in the wake of the tragedy. According to one source:

"Jackson was devastated by the events of September 11, 2001. He wanted to write a song expressing his thoughts and emotions, but he found it hard to do so for many weeks. 'I didn't want to write a patriotic song,' Jackson said. 'And I didn't want it to be vengeful, either. But I didn't want to forget about how I felt and how I knew other people felt that day.'

Finally, on the Sunday morning of October 28, 2001, he woke up at 4 a.m. with the melody, opening lines and chorus going through his mind. He hastily got out of bed, still in his underwear, and sang them into a hand-held recorder so he wouldn't forget them. Later that morning, when his wife and children had gone to Sunday school, he sat down in his study and completed the lyrics."

To all the ones who left us nine years ago, we won't forget.

The "frightening clarity" of eyes that watch the world and can't forget.....

2010-09-02T01:20:00.000-07:00

You can still catch it blasting over the airwaves nearly forty years after its release. Our inimitable "American Pie" has never lost its wondrous flavor.

Hypnotic melody and those oh-so perplexing lyrics. One musicologist has a very intriguing analysis shedding much light on just what the hell is the meaning hidden in the threads of the song.

Yet in the enormous shadow of this epic is another Don McLean masterpiece with starkly different tones & colors, quite literally.
In 1971 the song writer had read a bio about Vincent Van Gough and was so moved he composed the song "Vincent." It became a hit in 1972, the same year that "American Pie" dominated the music charts.

Throughout "Vincent" are references to those immortal landscape paintings as well as his self-portraits, the latter of which McLean thinks the troubled artist found solace.

A major aspect of this haunting ballad is the touching tribute to Van Gough himself, his rejections, and horrific personal torment brought on by severe mental illness, possibly bipolar and, later, schizophrenic depression.

According to one source:

"McLean pays tribute to van Gogh by reflecting on his lack of recognition: 'They would not listen / they did not know how / perhaps they'll listen now.' In the final chorus, McLean says 'They would not listen / They're not listening still / Perhaps they never will.' This is the story of van Gogh: unrecognised as an artist until after his death.

"The lyrics suggest that van Gogh was trying to 'set [people] free' with the message in his work. McLean feels that this message was made clear to him: 'And now I understand what you tried to say to me,' he sings. Perhaps it is this eventual understanding that inspired McLean to write the song.

"It is also thought that the song intends to portray van Gogh's tough relationship with his family. They were a wealthy family who did not accept him for his bipolar disorder ('for they could not love you') and never understood his will to help the poor. It is thought that van Gogh felt that in killing himself he would make the point to his parents. This is seen in the line 'Perhaps they'll listen now.'"

In 1890, wracked by his mental demons, Van Gough committed suicide by shooting himself. It took him two days to die. With his brother Theo at his deathbed, his reported final words were "La tristesse durera toujours" (the sadness will last forever). Van Gough was just 37 years of age. It was only after his death that he would be recognized as one of history's greatest artists whose 2,000 paintings and drawings helped establish the foundations of modern art.

And yet he sold only one painting during his short life -- in his final year on earth: "The Red Vineyard at Arles," bought by another impressionist painter, Anna Boch, for 400 Francs (equal to $1,600 today.) In 1990, "Red Vineyard" was auctioned for the staggering sum of $82,500,000.

"I experience a period of frightening clarity," said Van Gough, "in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream."

Dream indeed. Dream deferred.

Thank you, Don McLean, for helping us remember the ragged genuis in ragged clothes behind all the colors.

Edmond Burke: “Never despair, but if you do, work in despair”

2010-08-23T00:39:00.000-07:00

Over 140 years ago a French sculptor created a masterpiece that today sits sadly in the Paris Musée d'Orsay.

Jean-Joseph Perraud simply called his statue, "Despair."

It's no mystery. Look carefully at the picture. The thousand words are clear, with all the power and pain that could possibly be spoken.

Tribulation. Dejection. Anguish. Was it one of these themes perhaps haunting Perraud's soul, moving him to create this?

I don't know.  What I'm sure of is how we experience varying temperatures of despair in our lives. Sometimes it's brief, attacking early on.  Maybe it's later, where it can stay longer and sink its burning hooks right through your heart.

Tonight the summer cricket symphony outside my window is louder than usual.  I'm sinking deeper into some contemplative space, lots of churning reflections, things and places and people, some right here, and some very far away.

My mind runs all through it, a roller coaster car navigating every twist, turn, rise, and fall.  Even upside down. And the ride sometimes ends with me sitting there, feeling just like Perraud's morose friend.

It all starts, I know, with just that one root thought, germinating instantly into The Feeling. Feeling then wraps around and tosses me into mood.  Enough mood will ensure the newly created--or repeated--disposition.

The thought is key, at least that's what CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) gospel says. I'm more and more becoming a true believer, though. I think.

After some painful rumination, I received a wonderful thought from a Facebook friend that changed my direction. He had posted a clip, a very special one. Made me cry like crazy. But it was one those good cathartic cries, the kind where you are deeply reminded about what some of the important things really are.

Immediately afterwards I visited my father who was working quietly in his office. Went over and embraced him, saying softly, "Thank you for all you do, Dad." The look in my teary eyes had him wondering out loud if "all was alright," which he always says.

I couldn't speak so I just nodded, and walked away.

Tonight, faith restored.

Reverse Racism Rears Its Ugly Head

2010-08-21T04:02:00.000-07:00

Make no mistake, please. I don't like this woman one bit.

Like the rest of that herd of broadcasting right-wing "pundits," Laura Schlessinger is unbearably self-righteous and rude as hell.

I'd lose absolutely no sleep if I never saw or heard another obnoxious word from her ever again. But as we've all seen this week, one word in particular got her in a whole lot of trouble on Tuesday.

Schlessinger had scintillating "Mama Grizzly" Palin later swim to her aide, too. The Huffington Post reported last Thursday:

Sarah Palin has used Twitter to share some advice with Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the talk radio host who apologized and decided to retire from her highly-rated program after using the N-word on the air 11 times in 5 minutes.
Palin's advice: "don't retreat...reload!"

It's a breathtakingly tone-deaf bit of provocation -- even by Palin's standards.

Dr. Laura, as she's known on her radio program, quickly came under fire for her remarks of a week ago. She immediately acknowledged the mistake and soon announced that she would end the show once her contract expires later this year. She currently commands the largest audience of any woman in syndicated talk radio and overall her ratings are among the top five hosts in the nation.

Palin, once the governor of Alaska and Republican nominee for vice president in 2008, has been using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to push her messages in recent months. She fired out two messages about Dr. Laura on Wednesday night, the first reading:

"Dr.Laura:don't retreat...reload! (Steps aside bc her 1st Amend.rights ceased 2exist thx 2activists trying 2silence"isn't American,not fair")

That was quickly followed by:

"Dr.Laura=even more powerful & effective w/out the shackles, so watch out Constitutional obstructionists. And b thankful 4 her voice, America!"

I'd likely join a multitude and "b thankful" if Constitutional Law Guru Palin would kindly suffer some regular bouts of both laryngitis and arthritis so there might be some blessed relief from her insufferable blathering and tweeting. Just maybe Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, and the other neocon troglodytes might do the same.

But there's a bigger elephant here in this room and I think a whole lot of people can hear it roar even louder than "Dr. Laura's" apparent capital crime.

That's the very much whispered-about issue of REVERSE RACISM. Yeah, let's put it in upper case so we can at long last cut all the damn whispering and start talking about it.

For instance, is it any mystery, indeed, how this clever little double standard works?  Simple, really; you just need to have the correct skin pigment (tan or brown or black, etc.) and ya got an automatic license to sound out "Nigga" to other black people, be it in private or public settings.

No, I realize you've never, ever seen this REVERSE RACIST occurrence, right?

Notice the modification of this offensive word. My PC is clearly alive and kickin'.  After all, do I want to take a chance gettin' pilloried like that upstart honky girl, Dr. Laura?

One of the things she did say in her "rant" was: "If anybody without enough melanin says it, it's a horrible thing. But when black people say it, it's affectionate. It's very confusing...."

Hmmmm, confusing it is.  Take Chris Rock, as our favorite case-in-point. This wildly hilarious man will scream that "Nigga" word 100 times plus in his stand ups, then the laughs (from aggrieved black audiences) will continue all the way to one of his many favorite banks.

Oh, of course, it's cause he's a comedian, with the required skin color. Just like those "gangsta" rappers, who stick the word into their charming little raps with a vengeance.

Again, while Schlessinger IS an insensitive, meglomaniac talking head, you can bet the farm that had she looked like Oprah, or Chris Rock, it wouldn't have been The Problem it turned out to be.

And The Problem is the one called reverse racism. I experienced first hand racial hate politics as a white kid growing up in the 60's & 70's era San Francisco Bay Area, as a student in one of the most racist school systems in creation, my hometown of Berkeley, where those ever-thoughtful left-wing politicians imposed forced busing to try an instant experiment to change the racial atmosphere.

The black woman caller, "Jade," who was mistreated by her oafish host made the outrageous claim later to CNN that ONLY minority people could ever know what racism and discrimination felt like.

Not quite. My experience was five years of a "Burn, Whitey, Burn" living hell in the Berkeley Schools Unified District, perpetrated by militant administrators, teachers, and a whole lot of hostile black students.  I got heaping servings of racism, each and every nightmarish day.

Reverse racism.....that nasty ol' elephant is still rampaging around our national living room.  Go on, you can keep on looking away.

I'll conclude with this important link to some perspective from a black man who I'd enjoy sitting down to coffee with to compare notes on the pathology of both racisms.

Maybe you'd like to join us.

Balancing The Kiss Of Life's Highs And Lows

2010-08-17T23:30:00.000-07:00

"How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill?
A kiss, and all was said...."
-- Victor Hugo

The anguish of witnessing a world's endless tragedies and atrocities--refugees or floods or corruption, genocide, famine or persecution--sometimes throws me to the deepest part of a dark well.

In the throes of that moment, I know I have choices: Remain there, head hanging in swirling gloom, is one of them.

Another is just look straight up to the distant light, finding something that will renew my spirit so much that I'll fly out from that dank prison like a falcon.

We human beings are such a curious lot. One of the most simple but dramatic observations made was in a precious film called "Starman."

"He has traveled from a galaxy far beyond our own. He is 100,000 years ahead of us. He has powers we cannot comprehend. And he is about to face the one force in the universe he has yet to conquer. Love."

That was what the 1984 movie poster read. But it was a line that Jeff Bridges' extraterrestrial said just before the end that really captured something. A blog writer for Explore Science Fiction Movies.com noted:

"And when at one point toward the end of the movie he says, 'You humans are at your best when things are worst,' that is not just another sop to the audiences, a piece of ready-made Hollywood wisdom that should make us feel good about ourselves. That line comes from a creature who was shot at and hunted down, and who experienced persecution and hate at the hands of humans."

Monumental ironies all over the map. That's our fate, it seems, so much of the time, this co-existance of the most wrenching contrasts in our human condition.

Sometimes, too, it boils down to just the extremes of elation and despair. The heart-warming "VJ Day Kiss In Times Square" photo at the top of this post well illustrates the former.

  Something even more horrifying than despair shimmers in a quite different portrait showing us what happens to sisters of Palestinian boys murdered by Israeli soldiers in Gaza.

Again I feel myself plummeting to the bottom of that dark place. I ruminate, maybe weep like them for a good while. Then I grab some resolve as to what I can do in my own limited path.

But comes the time to look up to that light once more. It's still there, in the priceless vision of a kiss. Or a song.

Or perhaps both.

"In this world of extremes, we can only love too little."
                                           -- Rich Cannarella

Beneath This Twilight....."Life Starts Now"

2010-07-15T03:01:00.000-07:00

Only a dream. That's how it all started seven years ago.

The housewife woke up that summer morning with a vivid image of two young people deeply in love.  There was, however, a chilling difference to the male teen with the odd sparkling skin.

Something else strange about him. He was sensitive, yes. Yet cold to the touch and, all the while, overheated with passion. He was protective of his love, without any question.

The biggest part about the dream, most palpable and most frightening, was that underneath this Romeo's peculiar skin was an utterly inhuman, unbearable thirst for his Juliet's blood. Stephanie Meyer was so transfixed by what she saw that right after finishing the housework and tending to her three children, she sat down to the computer and began to write.  And write. And write.

“I started out just so I wouldn’t forget the story," Meyer remembers, "but I kept going. I really feel like it was a situation where I had a talent I was not using; I had buried it. And that was my kick-start. I was supposed to be doing something with this talent. It sounds a little odd to say that you were inspired to write a vampire novel.”

As it turned out, Meyer didn't start it off with a chapter one.  She instead created first what turned out to be Twilight's chapter 13 ("Confessions") in the first-person narrative of the Juliet, teenage character Bella Swan, in a semisteamy interlude in that now-famous meadow with her dangerous Romeo, 104-year-old vampire Edward Cullen.

From the prose one reviewer described as "a gripping blend of romance and horror," an excerpt:

"I sat without moving, more frightened of him than I had ever been. I'd never seen him so completely freed of that carefully cultivated facade. He'd never been less human....or more beautiful. Face ashen, eyes wide, I sat like a bird locked in the eyes of a snake.

His lovely eyes seem to glow with rash excitement. Then, as the seconds passed, they dimmed. His expression slowly folded into a mask of ancient sadness.

'Don't be afraid,' he murmured, his velvet voice unintentionally seductive.  'I promise....'  He hesitated.  'I swear not to hurt you.' He seemed more concerned with convincing himself than me.

'Don't be afraid,' he whispered again as he stepped closer, with exaggerated slowness. He sat sinuously, with deliberately unhurried movements, till our faces were on the same level, just a foot apart.

'Please forgive me,' he said formally.  'I can control myself. You caught me off guard. But I'm on my best behavior now.'

He waited, but I still couldn't speak.

'I'm not thirsty today, honestly.' He winked."

Meyer's "kick-start" ignited what would be the genesis of a literary and film phenomena sweeping the globe today.  This year the four-book Twilight saga sold over 100 million copies worldwide with translations into at least 38 languages. The latest film from the series, Eclipse, has broken box office records, combining with the earlier Twilight and New Moon to rack in a staggering $1.5 billion in worldwide revenue. It's anyone's guess what the riches from the final two films will be--derived from the fourth novel, Breaking Dawn--but no doubt they'll be nine-digit wonders.

Meyer, who has a degree in English literature, says her fantasy romance stories are "about life, not death" and "love, not lust," and that each book was inspired by some classics she had to have poured over during her studies at Brigham Young University: Twilight came from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice; New Moon, from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (big surprise!); Eclipse, based on Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights; and Breaking Dawn came from a second Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Meyer also states that Orson Scott Card and L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series influenced her writing.

According to one source:

"Other major themes of the series include choice and free will. Meyer says that the books are centered around Bella's choice to choose her life on her own, and the Cullens' choices to abstain from killing rather than follow their temptations: 'I really think that's the underlying metaphor of my vampires. It doesn't matter where you're stuck in life or what you think you have to do; you can always choose something else. There's always a different path.'

Meyer, a Mormon, acknowledges that her faith has influenced her work. In particular, she says that her characters 'tend to think more about where they came from, and where they are going, than might be typical.' Meyer also steers her work from subjects such as sex, despite the romantic nature of the novels.

Meyer says that she does not consciously intend her novels to be Mormon-influenced, or to promote the virtues of sexual abstinence and spiritual purity, but admits that her writing is shaped by her values, saying, 'I don't think my books are going to be really graphic or dark, because of who I am. There's always going to be a lot of light in my stories.'"

True enough.

Even if her detractors go on about Meyer's stories being contrived and schmaltzy, what cannot be ignored is the wild sensation created and spread like a wildfire onto the big screen. "I've been in the movie business for twenty-five years, and I've never seen anything like it!" remarked series costume designer Tish Monaghan. "Maybe it's the Internet, which has created this ocean of adoring fans -- there were fans we saw in Italy on New Moon that were recognized in Vancouver! It's hard to fathom, but there are many different factors."

Right again.

Fused into three beautifully crafted films is surely the most salient of factors: Life choices -- and their consequences. Bella's everlasting love for Edward; worth sacrificing her humanity? Or the good-hearted Cullen family's option for the high road, not feeding on humans, verses the bestial, murderous Volturi that "don't give second chances."

Intriguing was the Eclipse review by Christianity Today ("A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction"). We all know how much our fundamentalist Dudley Do-Rights adored the "demonic" Harry Potter stories & films. What, then, is their final word on this sordid tale of undead love and devotion?

The Evangelically Convicted reviewer surprisingly spared the film a hellfire & brimstone baptism. She even went as far to admit that "though the movie's view of marriage is not particularly Christian, it does hold the institution with high regard...."

Lo and behold, baby. There were even some "discussion starters" at the review's end, featuring some seriously thoughtful questions:

"1. Bella faced some tough choices that required her to hurt people she loved; did she make the right choices? Could she have handled the situation better?

2. We see multiple examples of people being manipulated by those they thought loved them. What does true love look like? How can we tell whether we really love someone, or if we're just using them because they can do something for us?

3. In her graduation speech, Jessica tells her fellow graduates, "This is the time to make mistakes." Was this good advice? Why or why not? Are there types of mistakes that are okay? How do we know?

4. Bella and Edward spend a lot of time discussing marriage. What are their reasons for and against it? Are these good reasons? What are good reasons for marriage?"

Now there's those talking points about choices & consequences. Doggone well-stated, too. Only wish the same could be said for one of the review's first comments. Note that raging indignant Believer Cherry Howell not once asked whether or not the spirit warrior Quileute wolves were God-fearing:

"People long for consuming love that will change them. This was put in us by God. This movie takes that longing and twists it. Edward is a romantic hero, who honors Bella by respecting her innocence and asks her to marry him. God intended this also. It's a shame that these virtues have to be intwined in a converted vampire saga. Did the Cullen clan read the bible? The movies are relatively clean except for some mild swear words and insertion of modern safe sex advice.

It's a shame Bella is not shone [sic] to be as virtuous as Edward. There is an interesting trend of making evil characters virtuous, i.e., Harry Potter. They are relatively clean entertainment. But there is something sinister going on here and it is directed at our children. Can blood sucking demonic vampires or worlocks [sic] display virtue? These movies are saying that the Bible and what God has told us is wrong. I think Satan has whispered in a few authors ears. There is just enough virtue in these films to deceive many."

One thing's for sure, Cherry -- there's a hell of a lot of Satanic Author fans out there now. And, yep, they're gaining strength. More Twihard websites are popping up every day including the forces of "Twilighters Anonymous," whose battle cry is "Helping Addicts Since 2008 Because We Don't Want A Cure."

They'll be able to get their next fix at the end of November, 2011 if they can stand the wait. It won't be easy, for sure, because this story has genuine pathos. Underpinning all the fantasy and action in these superbly cast & directed films is the very profound question about choices we often must make and their inevitable consequences.

There's a song, "All Yours," that comes on when the credits roll at the close of Eclipse. Contralto vocalist Emily Haines of the Canadian group "Metric" offers a stunning performance, with poignant lyrics and video (below) that could apply to God just as easily as any earthly--or unearthly--love.

Which makes it perfect.

"Other lives, always tempted to trade
Will they hate me for all the choices I made?
Will they stop when they see me again?
I can't stop now I know who I am

Now I'm all yours, I'm not afraid
You're all mine, say what they may
And all your love, I'll take to the grave
And all my life starts now

Tear me down, they can't take you out of my thoughts
Under every scar there's a battle I've lost
Will they stop when they see us again?
I can't stop now I know who I am

Now I'm all yours, I'm not afraid
You're all mine, say what they may
And all your love, I'll take to the grave
And all my life starts

I'm all yours, I'm not afraid
You're all mine, say what they may
And all your love, I'll take to the grave
And all my life starts
Starts now....." [ Click link! :]

Come On, Everybody -- Sing Along With Sarah: "DRILL, BABY, DRILL!!!"

2010-06-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

What does 1,000,000 gallons of oil a day ravaging our environment look like, as we speak?

Likely you've already had that horrific little underwater preview:

By now, the Gulf Coast is turning into one disastrous mess, for the Gulf residents, the birds, fish, plants, everything.

I just wonder at what point did Pert Palin's handlers decide to delete bouncy little "DBD!" Republican Refrain from her boiler plate road show. Or--nooooooo--she's still at it??

In any event, Demos should pray that Gov. Sarah DOES indeed get the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, so this little beauty can be shared with the voters day & night on every network and the all over the blessed blogosphere:

Thanks for sharing, Sarah, Big Oil, and our bird-brained Republican friends.

“Most people," remarked naturalist John Muir, "are on the world, not in it--having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them--undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate."

I take it back, with apologies to the birds. It's granite-brained Republican friends.

Understanding The Gaza Crisis: A Blunt, Unsparing Expose Of American-supported Israel's Nazi Tactics Eliminating Another People

2010-06-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

The facts aren't just searingly painful. The situation is outrageous, disgusting, unbearable.

The perpetrators continue running their machine on your tax dollars, Americans. Generously squeezed out of a sheep-like Congress, year after year after year, by the crushingly effective Israeli lobby, AIPAC.

The Israeli Regime just committed another act of piracy today, to maintain its Warsaw Ghetto as the world's largest open air prison. And what a hell on earth place they've transformed Gaza.

There is no reason on earth to partner up with war criminals. Have a look at this report's "plain language" and ask yourself the question:

"Who is it that's in the cast in this 'War On Terror'?"