I have given up on traditional media,  whom i feel play major role in the predicament this nation is currently in. They do not feel accountable to nobody, not even the citizenry. They pledge allegiance not to the American Flag but to the Almighty dollar.

THAT said, I have made it my goal to educate, register voters and have conversations with folks not just on Obama but legislative policies. I don't try to sway anybody, just have a conversation that leads to self discovery of the fundamental failure of the executive and legislative branch  for the last 8 yrs or more.

The reason I write is just to say keep talking to anybody that will listen, keep e-mailing informative clips, keep sending youtube videos to folks, keep sending books to people and keep challenging folks. I had a breakthrough that just amazed me.

That's the theme of a long overdue campaign to reclaim the dignity of public service.

crossposted from unbossed

While I have been posting comments on youtube and other websites in relation to socialism I have begun to notice how much people despise it. Most people have a misconception  that socialism is communism. This is simply not the case.

As we see news of the possible (and increasingly likely) bailout of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae by the US Treasury, I am reminded of something that I have been writing about nuclear energy, ie that it should be financed by the State, and I'd like to extend on why I think there are fascinating similarities between the two topics, however distinct they may seem.

Everyone says that Americans aren't saving enough. Now that the housing bubble has collapsed, we blame this lack of savings on the illusion of wealth generated by the rising prices of houses. When the stock market bubble collapsed a while back, we blamed this lack of savings on the illusion of wealth generated by the rising prices of stocks. Still, people are told to save, and to invest their money for that somehow magically guaranteed 6 or 7 percent annual return on investment. Where is that return supposed to come from? If we invest in stocks, any growth is denounced as illusory. If we invest in housing, any growth is denounced as illusory. What are we supposed to invest in? Picassos? vintage lunch boxes? The current wisdom is to invest in FDIC backed CDs, but that doesn't speak well for the private sector. Is all wealth mere illusion unless it is backed by the government? Maybe we should be investing more in our government?

George Lakoff used the word "Neo-liberal" to characterize those whose political views were frozen in the mindset of the 18th century Enlightenment.  I'll give a link below to my diary on that topic.  The word comes up again in the Democratic Socialists of America's  Statement on the 2008 Presidential Election.  There are strong parallels between their uses, but DSA is even more forthright about what is wrong with Neo-liberalism.  Lakoff focuses on the failure of Neo-liberals to see the deep significance of our recent understanding of brain function on the framing of issues to arouse reflexive responses in the minds of voters while  DSA is concerned with what Neo-liberals are willing to give away to win an election.  Both are asking questions that demand answers.  Look below for DSA's position on the election and the link to my Lakoff diary.

There's a line from a Babylon 5 episode (I'm a big fan of the series) which has always stuck with me.  Several characters are discussing the political situation on Earth following the imposition of martial law.  One character says that people love it - crime is down, things are calm, peaceful.

"Yeah, the peace of the gun," replies another character.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced today that there will be no prosecutions in the cases of the HIGHLY ILLEGAL hiring & firing practices at the Department of 'Justice'. More after the break.

Check The VIDEOS OUT! WAKE UP!

IF Obama gets elected, and IF he succeeds in curbing the power of special interests while simultaneously freeing us from our polarized paralysis, and IF we somehow filter out a great deal of corporate media bullshit so that even the blue-collared worker with nothing but network television can remain authentically informed - then there is hope for the United States of America as it currently exists.

But this, I think, is our last chance.

•    An article titled "Immigrants Facing Deportation by U.S. Hospitals" appeared in the magazine section of The New York Times on Sunday.  By telling the story of Luis Alberto Jiménez, it documents the disastrous consequences that are the result of inherent failures in the American immigration and health care systems. Below is an excerpt from the article:

No matter how strong the evidence presented by the Justice Department -- and at first blush, it appears damning -- it is an ex parte presentation and will never be subject to the scrutiny and challenge of the other side.

Such evidence, even when seemingly overwhelming and conclusive, is the very sort of circumstantial argument that pegged Richard Jewell as the Atlanta bomber, that linked Oregon attorney Brandon Mayfield to the Madrid bombings, that fingered Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee as a spy, and that cast biodefense expert Steven Hatfill as the original anthrax suspect. In each of those investigations, the news media were largely complicit, conveying incriminating details of the government's case as if they were the gospel.

  The words are those of Ted Gup, a journalism professor at Case Western Reserve University and author of Nation of Secrets, and they appear today in a Washington Post op ed entitled The Anthrax Case: Solved(?) But Unresolved  I want to use the quoted words as an illustration of the broader issue of whether we can trust our government.

What Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Suskind has revealed about the Bush administration's impeachable actions in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq does not come as a huge surprise.  But there is more to read between the lines as to why it is ever so more important to fight for Democracy versus Aristocracy.

Maybe I'm nuts or unhinged or maybe I'm not. Perhaps its stress or the nerves acting up.  I need to lay off watching the news and politics.  Though something tells me I'm not gonna shake off this feeling I keep getting. Maybe some of you have felt this weird sense of dread too.

Sorry for the break from Obama, McCain, Democrat, Republican and I know this isn't really the appropriate place on the internet BUT

Usually, I spend enough time reading and trying to comprehend American Politics. However, over the last few days, I've dabbled in some fairly extreme political theory, realizing I am even stupider than I previously thought. Essentially, I have two major questions.

The phone rang and my wife took the call. Her cousin Matt was in the hospital and was expected by the Doctors to be dying soon.

He lost his battle yesterday, but the war against the VA and the U.S. Government's lack of concern for it's brave troops rages on.

Matt served in the US Army for 8 years and 9 months. Staff Sergeant, Command Section Sergeant and Stryker Vehicle Commander; and was in Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment. He was exposed to radiation and chemicals in Iraq. The V.A. repeatedly denied him care.

He leaves behind his wife and two young sons.

•    Department of Homeland Security officials have come out in support of a Center for Immigration Studies report that claims that border control measures are the cause of a decrease in immigration to the U.S.  However, the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at University of California, San Diego has rebutted those claims and determined that the border patrol apprehends fewer than half of the undocumented immigrants that come into the country through the Mexico/U.S. border.  According to The Huffington Post, the Center for Immigration Studies (an anti-immigrant advocacy group) and the Department of Homeland Security failed to consider reasons other than border control measures that explain why immigration to the U.S. would naturally decline:

Reading the latest Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo on how do do federal privatization is more than wading through and obfuscatory sea of acronyms. The language reminds me of nothing so much as a slave auction. Take, for example, the wording used to mean federal employees who will lose their jobs to private contractors - Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act workforce inventory.

Workers as inventory. Things. Who can care about the fate of mere inventory? Especially when it is all done in a FAIR way.

crossposted from unbossed