A solution

Oil floating on the gulf like filthy witches fingers, probably stinks too, a fishy sea breeze and oil farts kinda smell. Back in Lea County NM, where I'm from, they called it the smell of money. When they made a mess there, they scooped it up and made a road out of it. Maybe we can extend I-49 out of Lafayette, LA on down to Havana, Cuba by way of the keys that ought to solve a lot of problems. A real human circulation around the Bermuda triangle down to Mexico and back up to the US of A. If everyone carries a Publix's bag full of that nasty stuff down there and brings a bag of clean sand back along with some of our money; we'll fix the gulf, immigration, off shore drilling, the banking crisis and healthcare too...(their's quite a bit of that healthy walking involved, I imagine)

Liberty requires Sanity

I am worried about the latest round of so called Town Hall debates concerning health care reform. Once again in the name of freedom and liberty, first amendment rights are being used to promote mob rule. Air headed right wing robots who answer to the commands of El Rushbo 'the EIB pill popper' and Glen 'bat shit crazy' Beck, are taking their obnoxious and clueless vitriol into the public forum. This hateful and demeaning activity largely created by the corporate political puppet masters that brought us the Florida recount fiasco has only one purpose, to stop representative government from working.

Democracy is about respectful public discourse. Reasoned debate was our founders idea of freedom of speech the right to disagree was never meant to include screaming anger. The right to assemble was never portrayed as the right to hooliganism. How can democracy survive when these basic rights are stretched to include mob rule. They can't.

This same scenario is being played out by the right to bare arms crazies. Almost weekly some twisted shooter takes his guns to schools, churches, universities, business' and gyms and unloads his automatic weapons into the bodies of innocent bystanders. The right to bare arms was never intended to mean the right to own and use advanced weapons as tools of psychotic release. Many, rightly believe the founders had militias in mind when they put this right in the Bill of rights. The NRA continues to lobby against any restriction on this right so that the crazies can buy any size, quantity and quality of weapon they want. Again a basic right is stretched to the breaking point as more guns are sold to those whose insanity ultimately leads to more bloodshed.

When our founders met in Philadelphia in 1776 they never imagined how their words could be used to tie up courts, governments and bring chaos to civilization in the form of presumed liberties.

Thomas Jefferson said, "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it."

Mohandas Gandhi said, "What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"

This mad destruction is being brought about by those zealots who forget the primary reason for liberty. Sanity must be maintained when determining whose rights come first.

Jefferson also said, "Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

Abraham Lincoln explained it best. "The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of liberty." Liberty requires sanity.

The "I" word

Impeachment. I hated the sound of the word when Bill Clinton's foolish pervisity was the basis of a right-wing folly. The trap was set and the big dog was snared with the words, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Then, "That depends on what your defination of is, is." Yes, they were lies, pejury in legal speak, but to the ordinary citizen Bill lied about a sexual encounter to protect himself. His selfish, stupid stunt put this country in the position we are in today. When impeachment is off the table, as several House and Senate leaders have declared, It's because of the travisity that came about with the Clinton impeachment.

But...when a President, Vice President and the Attorney General's, lies rise to the level of subversion of the constitution, it's time to put the "I" word back on the table...BIG TIME.

My Cat is Smarter than your P-resident

Has American Style Democracy lost it's effectiveness

I watch CSPAN and shake my head at the perverted use of Roberts Rules of order as members of the House and Senate go through the motions of legislating through a maze of arcane rule ment to hide mismanagement in plain sight.

I vote in elections knowing that the best candidates and leaders are not on the ballot because they refuse to play the party politics game and mud-pit campaigns.

I watch talking heads twist and spin current events to match their beliefs or to serve as agents of misinformation for the good of their political benefactors spouting misinformation. Telling out and out lies.

I listen to misguided proponents on both sides of an argument illustrate their lack of knowledge by framing complex issues as simple black or white opinions. I call it the "Shivo Syndromn".

I see a voting public so removed from the process of electing their representatives that they either refuse to participate of cast their votes based on their daily affiliation with co-workers, church brethren or peer groups.

I experience first hand during every election cycle how money spent equals votes garnered...just like kitchen gadgets or miracle drugs or religion. It pays to Advertise, or as PT Barnum said "There's a sucker born every minute."

These are clear examples of a system of Government we call representative democracy, a grand experiment that was born with the declaration of independence, has gone awry. Every day, year after year we see a failing buracacy. If our government were a private contractor working directly for anyone us they would have been fired long ago. If we go back in time and count the numerous failings of laws, financial ineptitude, inappropriate oversight, and down right fraud, sadly, we would need four hands just to count the major bungles. From the Viet Nam war to the savings and loan scandal to Iraq and our inability to manage energy and environmental policy our representatives and leaders have failed us time and time again.

Our founders never believed democracy would spawn a class of citizens known as public servants. If they had envisioned this occupation they would have interrupted the title as it sounds. Unpaid patriots serving the public. The creators of our democracy saw a representative government of farmers, businessmen, scholars and citizens giving their time and energy for the good of all of their constituents. Representatives with self imposed term limits, without financial links serving an electorate to the best of their ability.

With the advent of commercial politics came the era of distrust and apathy. If history had recorded the first time an elected official deceived, defrauded of overstepped the boundaries of his position it surely would have noted a shift in
voter turnout. Conversely if "Mr. Smith goes to Washington" was a model of democracy our elections would be a celebration of liberty instead of a boon for TV stations and newspaper advertising.

Today the few voters are herded into the polling booth with used-car-selling tactics to elect a representative who becomes a tool of the lobbyist who advocates the position and ideas of the highest bidder. Corporate America has bought our government. Professional politicians with political consultants and polling data have turned our elections into advertising campaigns. Voters have diminished to a point that a mere ten percent of the population decides who will act as the corporate lobbyist spokesman. Political parties have become the special interest and corporate bank of democracy. Democracy as we knew it, as it was envisioned is gone.

Can our forefathers version of representative democracy be restored? Yes it can by institute a few important reforms and one major public responsibility.

1. Out-law professional politicians. Term limits are necessary.
2. Out-law Corporate and special interest contributions. Public financing is the
only way to eliminate the buying of professional politicians.
3. Out-law commercial paid lobbyist. Any one can lobby their representative as long
as they are not paid to do it.
4. Eliminate Senate and House rules that burdens or hides the actual legislative
process. Make all hearings public. Eliminate party politization during
proceedings.
5. The right to vote should be a responsibility not a right. Mandate
Voting.

An open letter to Presidential apologist

It's bad enough that brain dead freepers can always find a tidbit of silver lining in the vast Bush cloud that covers our country. The revisionist lies, ditto-head brain washing and conservative cocktails that keep half of America in a dark corner of non-reality is absurd at best. When the press/media ascribe to the same misorientation mission that leads us further from truth and liberty, our country is irrevocably diminished and the shining light of democracy is forever dimmed.

This separate reality of neo-con noncomposmentis didn't occur overnight. It has taken more than a decade of targeted misinformation and malicious hate mining to garner the army of supporters that follow the lamebrains that lead corporate news organizations to the precipice of dissolution of the First Amendment.

In Denver v. FCC (1996), [1], the Court stated that “this Court, in different contexts, has consistently held that the Government may directly regulate speech . . .”, even though the text of the 1791 First Amendment states clearly that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . .".

Although the courts may play a more magnanamous role in the future, intimidated greed is the driving force that directs corporate media's blind dedication to this adminestration. During the Reagan years, Christian fundementalist and other right wing groups were created from the pulpits and microphones of ultra-conservative propaganda machines, AKA Jerry Falwell, Rush Limbaugh and the many political profiteers that followed. When Bush I lost his reelection bid to Bill Clinton a new era of deciet was born to seek retribution on anyone that opposed the neocon false premise that America could control, shape and profit from the middle east struggle.

The Universe sings.

The Universe sings. I hear it when I leave my ears and my mind open to its faint but resounding
tones that seem to resonate through a cosmic cord that links all of nature.

In my youth I heard it sing songs of joy and wonder, energetic, wistful little tunes that made the
leaves on the trees dance to the beat of a magic drum that softly carried the melody of enchantment. As a young man in the sixties the tenor and beat changed to one of fear and trepidation as some of my friends received draft notices. Later a death dirge filled the air as daily war casualty reports included the names of those friends and relatives.

The low humming of anxiety followed me as I rode on a bus to El Paso, Texas for my induction physical. When I failed the Army’s “Fit-to-serve” standards a compelling crescendo of relief mixed with an ominous guilt refrain filled my being as long as Viet Nam continued to take the lives of young soldiers. When the war was over, a somber spirit in the dry New Mexico wind sang a tune of mourning and liberation for those lost and those saved.

Today when the musical instruments of my soul should be playing proud stanzas of accomplishment and mature recollections. As my children’s children grow to become a legacy of my symphony of life, those old songs of apprehension fill the air. How could a world with so much to offer brought about by a civilization with so much to give, be taken back to a time when foolishness and recklessness created meaningless war.

Once again the Universe sings songs of dispute and demagoguery of defeat and despair as a consortium of ignorance leads us like demonic drum majors marching their band to hell.

I don’t know what cosmic songs the youth of this world are hearing today. I feel confident their internal music is a tangled mixture of fear mixed with hope in weird percussions of failure and misunderstanding brought about by malicious misinformation.

I can only pray to the Gods that strum cords of harmony on harps of peace that a new song is emerging and that the Universe will once again sing a chorus of Joy to the world before I no longer hear the music.