Saturday, January 07, 2006
America's Nightmare
*Causachun coca! Wañuchun yanquis!
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Our's, Not Their's
It's our freedom, our choice, our right, our body, our mind, our life.
Im so glad someone else has noticed every time it is proven a plant can help more than a pill it become illage .Sad i know but we the usa have become a country of pills and control makes me cry and want to die seeing the truths so many refuse to see because thay are brainwashed by the goverment and many doctors about there pills.Sad we can only be healed by there drugs for rest our lifes and cant be cured in a few months or less by fresh herbs that are unpoluted but then is there any where left the polution has not touched sad when a country can polute and slowly sicken people and in stead of making people scared and stoping it thay want to become like it .What happened to keeping all things good for the generations to come ????
"Jesus w as almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings. .... If cannabis was one of the main ingredients of the ancient anointing oil _ and receiving this oil is what made Jesus the Christ and his followers Christians, then persecuting those who use cannabis could be considered anti-Christ". A link to the quoted Guadian article is here.
yeahhhhh i knew jesus was cool and just shows how so many disreguard the power in herbs and oils.O well is life under control.Who knows people may find out he was the son of god and not god also them people scare me.
Media Cleansing
Media Cleansing: Dirty Reporting—Journalism and Tragedy in Yugoslavia By Peter Brock,Los Angeles: gmbooks.com, 2005
sorry for the sort of advert buit ive bene desperatley trying to get this book, had a look on Amazon to no avail, juts out I belive, tried all the high street shops here in Birmingham, UK no lukc, Wonder if any of you guys accross the Atlanmtic have managed to aquire it -good and compelling readin as well as providing concrete damage to the US/NATO Genocide claim.
well just in case you did not know the usa and im sure other places have been known to stop a book in mid printing if its to negative or thay dont agree with it so who knows i hope you find your book.If it has been stoped wow makes me want to read it lol but then thay have been known to destroy books because thay dont want no other truth but there own and if thay can cover it up fast thay will just my thoughts.
Stop the press,s there is a book about a red fish no wait a black fish i belive on the form under black fish what a awaking story like stickewart and feverfew
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
World's Best Writing
Pinter details US foreign policy's bloody de facto conquest throughout the world and spanning US administrations from Reagan through the latest Bush, as "Low intensity conflict (which) means that thousands of people die but slower than if you dropped a bomb on them in one fell swoop. It means that you infect the heart of the country, that you establish a malignant growth and watch the gangrene bloom. When the populace has been subdued – or beaten to death – the same thing – and your own friends, the military and the great corporations, sit comfortably in power, you go before the camera and say that democracy has prevailed." Pinter characterizes this as "criminal outrage" in which the entire so called developed "international community" through profit participation and nuclear fear, is complicit in ignoring and allowing.
The invasion of Iraq is described as a "...bandit act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law..." and responsible for the "death and mutilation of thousands and thousands of innocent people". He qualifies Blair and Bush as "mass murderer(s)" and "war criminal(s)" who consider their own more than 2000 dead as no more than "an embarrassment".
Pinter, judged the world's best current composer of thought, concludes by volunteering to serve as a Bush speech writer and submits this example:
"God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden's God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam's God was bad, except he didn't have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don't chop people's heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don't you forget it."
When the god becomes many gods in humans minds and judge them selfs better than someone else and do name calling and stuff is this not because thay can not find a true resion for there hate or judgeing ways ????Judge not and ye shale not be judged what bull o wait a golden bull or was it a cow got us the 10 comandments no wait it was a calf a tiny baby made of gold???? and if all humans rules why dont some have to fallow them in peace ????Who is the judge to say wait you have no right to hudge me i did nothing or say why do you say im evil im being just like the usa im killing off all the first people as fast and as quite as i can????O well what do i know im just a plain ol missed raced human who wants peace for all humans
Pinter, yes- if only there were more like him,of late hes been geeting increasing vocal about the dealings of Dumb and Dumber (bush and Blair). here in the Uk there was some broadsheet coverage of his speech- independent. Guardian, observer, morning Star etc.. however TV and tabloid basically neglected the story. interesting he was runner up in a recent award ceremony to mark 350 years of jewry in Britain for great British Jew of all time.
Of course the Americans and Brits don't give much attention or time or space to an affair for Peace. Where is the profit and power in that? I should imagine the percentage of Americans that know this name, Harold Pinter, and have heard his speech is very small. Just the word literature is bound to throw the Americans off. Their world has narrowed too much to be bothered with what a Nobel Peace Prize winner has to say. They are headed into a new future where these things do not fit.
Friday, December 30, 2005
The Ultimate Drug Dealer
Victor González is a modern day hero. In a country like Mexico one can still benefit the poor and make a success at business at the same time. He has made the price of medicine affordable to near all here. And in a world were everything seems to cost more and more everyday this is like a miracle. This man has gone against the rules proving that one need not be bound by their limitations. If this man can make such a difference, it shows there is hope that others can do the same.
A few excerpts from the article are listed below here. It is important to realize that not all medical and the poor need go the way America is going with it. (Or without it)
González has created an alternative health-care system. His stores stock mostly older drugs that have lost their patent and can be copied cheaply in Mexico. He subsidizes about 1,900 clinics, catering to those who can't afford the US $30 or so that private clinics charge for a visit. Some 800,000 Mexicans visit his clinics every month, according to the Metropolitan Autonomous University. The clinics are run by a nonprofit group set up by González, and doctors keep the money paid for visits.
"Before we appeared on the scene, poor people in Mexico used to pray to the Virgin to get better because they couldn't afford the medicines," says González. "Now they come to us".
González recently opened 11 drugstores and clinics in Argentina and 36 in Central America, where he recruited Guatemalan Nobel peace prize winner Rigoberta Menchu to be a spokeswoman.
The youngest of five children, González worked for years at his family-owned drugstore chain, founded in 1875 by his greatgrandfather. Because he has a speech impediment and admits to abusing alcohol in the past, he says his family never expected him to amount to much.
As sales have grown he opened 1,248 stores last year alone. He erected billboards across Mexico saying multinationals were trying to block access to cheap medicine. "Say no to corruption. Say yes to helping the poor," the billboards read.
González says he's not worried about juggling the demands of a presidential campaign with a fast-growing company. "I'm a businessman in the morning, a politician in the afternoon, and a lover in the evening."
wow such a caring human bless that man and may he also have herbs that heal and not just drugs that harm one thing as thay seam to fix another
Thursday, December 29, 2005
The Sky Is Falling! - Oh, never mind.
Crazy and paranoid and sneaky as those Americans are getting maybe Mexico better welcome that Wall, it works both ways. It won't be long before the final collapse of that oppressive and out of control nation happens and when it does, all those nuts will be rushing to desert it anyway they can. Me first, out of my way.
How many times can someone call wolf is there not a story of the shepard who called wolf so much when the wolfs came no one ran to help???? so many lesions in a story if people would read with a heart of understanding and not control????
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
What The Hell Is This Doing Here?
A better question is what is it doing where it otherwise appears. Don't just look at this grotesque graphic. Read it slowly. Absorb its impact.What it is doing here is illustrating the depths to which paid whoredom will sink.
It is a Texas, USA road sign right ? Nope, it is in a school text book. Some private nut christian school ? Not christian at all but quite the contrary. It was in a public school text used nationwide. But that's illegal. The function of law is not to control those in power but protect from those who lack it. It was for young impressionable toddlers then. No, wrong again. It is directed to older teens. Well, the US has no business so blatently propagandizing their kids! It wasn't in a US book. What other country would so sell out its youth? One that wants favors, like money, military jets, protection, and a guaranteed escape route for deposed officials. Can't imagine one that would be so patronizingly ass kissing.
It is in a public school text book for 16 year old students of English language classes in America's mid east nuclear ally, the propped up military dictatorship of Pakistan!
Wow, that's bad! Not really. Teachers everywhere and officials they whore for may be stupid, but in general, students are not. One unintended result of schooling is development of instinctive built in bull shit detectors.
Think of all the almost adult Pakistani students who because of this obvious garbage now understand the real role of schools in society. Hell, that graphic will serve to move them to our side as a recruitment poster for revolution to come! We should praise those kids' Allah and thank the puppet dictator Musharraf's US paymasters for the stupidty of their money minded arrogance.
America knows no shame when it comes to brainwashing. Bush has turned being American into a religion, a Christian bloody one hunting down the enemy and destroying or converting it.
"The Leader". How disgusting. Only place that man is leading is to oppression and the end of mankind as free thinkers.
And shame again on all you high living Americans acting like you care when your government stoops to such obvious methods of evil. You created him, now the world is going to have to stop him because you are useless against your own monster of a government.
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
12/25/05 More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians, including women and children, have died in Iraq since the war was launched in March 2003.
***
My very stylish American cousin has given me some very stylish clothes for Christmas. She says I need to stay up to date. A military jacket, almost like real. All the ladies are wearing them now she says, not just the men. The military looks is very in she says.
For those of you who want to imitate the military style too, here is a site for you. Got kids? There is even one for your children Right in style, that's most important. And another, in an all time popular store , but you will see this one is sold out, they just can't keep up with the demand.
Why does killer America want to make their womens very clothes represent that which they are, war mongers and worshippers. Have they not enough violence within themselves without an outward display of it even with their fashions and fads? You think these woman, many mothers and wives, would reject that which kills their husbands and children, let alone all the other people all over the world that have died and suffered because of their military. How can they claim to be against war and violence and then approve of it by the way they dress?
You Americans look at yourselves dressed that way, and think of the statement this makes and the message it sends to the world.
Ready to go to war, wherever it may be, all part of being American.
Zatikia,
The yank uniform look from Macy's is as stupid looking as driving a military looking snob-appeal vehicle - a Hummer.
HiTekVagabond
Saturday, December 24, 2005
SEASON'S GREETINGS
I really agree with nur-al-cubicle, it's a cute nativity scene. I could not help but notice the football game on the TV and how baby Jesus is missing his halo. I also like the expression on the horse on the left's face.
Happy Holidays, Pocho.
HiTekVagabond
I suppose it is near enough Christmas now to get into it. So, a good one to all of you here, whether your into it or not.
And all this time, I have been wondering what los padres de jesusito could be watching on that tele.
I ba humbugged and have the best this time of year i ever had a day of giving being with friends and injoying life thanks for a day of giving is more important than getting wow at 41 i finly felt the gift of friends and giving a shame huh and the first year i was not asked to lie about a saint who would never have oked lieing in his name or making him famious .He was a man of giving to who needed not to who wanted in private his blessing to him self to be the unknown giver .why do humans have to change things to the point of lies ????
Friday, December 23, 2005
Heart
In a way, it is like the use of "soul" in some black communities. Most white people simply don't get it, nor are they expected to. Similarity is also noted in frequency of "corazón" in lyrics of Mexican music, which may put gringos to thinking there is a national obsession with cardiology. Many times when referring to the "movement", I've been asked, usually in an implied attack mode "What do you mean by that?". The only honest answer to one not a part if it is "You wouldn't understand".
It is fruitless trying to explain the meaning of heart to minds cemented in a heartless society. But there may be a few neighbors among them who are unusually perceptive and have feelings of such disgust with their binding status that they are ready to reach out and seek change to what they are. It is those and only those for which a suitable explanation of the meaning of "heart" might lend guidance.
I am not sure it can be perfectly put in words for it is not a thing of intellect. It would be a difficult if not impossible task for myself. The best attempt I've seen was written by yabasta. She posted it on her La Zatikia blog and it is linked here. Her words are worth reading. Rather, it would be better that they were studied and absorbed by all capable of doing so.
The best I can say to those who cannot is that they are in the wrong place.
Zatikia and Pocho,
This week, we are on vacation here in Merida visiting the town and the nearby Mayan ruins and wildlife parks. We skipped going to Cancun. It's just Miami South. After spending our third day here, it's painfully obvious that the United States of North America has sold an interesting bill of goods to its people - things can make you happy. I'm sure you've heard the expression the one with the most toys wins.
When walking downtown, there are street peddlers selling various kinds of curios - hammocks, jewlery, wooden snakes, dancing chickens... But they were only being sold to tourists, the people with a need for things.
When taking the city tour here, the bus tour drives by many churches and huge opulent, lifeless mansions belonging to families of slave owners. It was interesting to note that many of the mansions were no longer privately owned, but belonged to the government, insurance companies and banks. All along the tour, there were kids sitting outside talking with their friends, sharing bicycles, just having a good time. In the downtown square, there was a huge public gathering in the main square with music and dance.
At the beginning of the tour, the driver excused himself in that he would be telling a few jokes that would not easily translate into English and asked us not to be offended if the english part of the tour was a bit shorter than the spanish. After listening to the jokes, it was clear most Americans would not get them anyway.
To me, the culmination of the city tour here was where the bus stopped at the children's park for fifteen minutes. Kids were outside playing after dinner and their parents gathered to talk and be with each other. At the park there was food and drink for sale, but interestingly enough no things for sale. I believe the point of the rest stop was to create a moment of being together.
HiTekVagabond
Good to see you've reached civilization Hitek.
Here is a joke you could have told your bus driver though he probably already heard it anyway. It was told to me by a Mexican friend after we encountered and said just two not so nice words to a gringo who complained about our dogs.
A Mexican and a US dog are crossing the border to enter the other's country. The US dog asks the Mexican "Why you come to the USA", and the response is "Well, you have nice restaurants, museums, and besides, my owners relatives work there for money to send home. Why do you want to come to Mexico?" The US dog answers "So I can bark".
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Best For All or Best For Me
I was total gringo during our first extended trip to Mexico. My head was spinning in culture shock wonder of discovering a decent society which contrasted sharply with the USA in which to that point I'd spent my life. That the amazement was pleasant and well accepted was probably because of having battled as an activist the USA's more disgusting aspects during most adult years.
I pulled our trailer off the highway for a glass of fresh pineapple juice as we left the city of Veracruz while journeying back north. The large and busy intersection was undergoing hand construction repairs by many workers. I had worked as a highway engineer for a while as a younger man. That prompted me in unrealized but typical brash gringo arrogance to say to a Mexican at the juice stand "That work would be done in no time if you had the machines we have". I felt shrunk to the size of my juice glass when he responded "If we had the machines you have, we'd have the same problems. Everyone would be out of work. Look around you".
Chinese goods are considered of higher quality here in Mexico and certainly more affordable than those of the US. Prole explained well in the Chat Room contrast between hand production in her China and USA use of machines. Machines cost less than a factory of high paid hand workers. The price of items produced remains high and more of the income flows upward to owners, stock holders, and bosses. Much of their excess income goes to purchase of other non productive ownership, ie stocks of other similar companies. Less flows to workers who would otherwise further distribute to those personally encountered. The overall social effect is that the rich who do nothing become more so and the few workers and those with whom they interact receive in sum a smaller portion of producton income.
Contrast that to China (and other nations) utilizing hand production. Pay per individual is low but there are many workers. So is the overall cost of production and that is reflected in prices. The social impact is more of the income is distributed to a broader portion of the society's people and less to bosses, owners, or stock holders who do nothing in the making of goods. The bottom line is the reverse of that of the USA in terms of who benefits.
Repercussions from movement activity had twice caused me to be out of work with no income in sight. One way or another, two children would be fed. I flirted in frustration with possibility of a pistol point convenient store jackpot. Both times I lucked into jobs on society's underside. Those kept us going and were accepted though they were ones which would be rejected by most concerned with social and legal propriety. Kids' stomachs beat propriety every time.
Coyote's blog post linked here reflects a similar job loss situation. I understand his feelings on a personal level and in empathy wish him the luck that kept a pistol out of my hands. On larger social and political levels however I cannot sympathize with the current dismay of Americans over job loss. We hear "They are sending OUR jobs over seas" with always the unspoken implication of an appended "...to THOSE kind of people". It rings as being other than THOSE kind of people should automatically grant to Americans title to whatever they want?
It is only by looking beyond selfishly drawn borders of situation and birth if there is to be fruit from efforts to increase life's quality and decrease conflict. For us to think and act otherwise is tantamount to promoting continuance of that we claim to oppose.
Live what you believe. Otherwise it is just words.
Mexico is a study in how it is done simply. And keeping it simple seems to keep the people in the equation. A gang of men instead of one. Money for many instead of the few. Americans are told this is poverty here in Mexico, but what they are usually seeing is just simple living on a balanced level. In my state of Baja California, poverty is near non existent. Americans think they can prove, with their ever handy statistics, that many are not employed here. This is because they work for themselves, not reported, or drift and live with family. As is a fact, a few, as in any society, don't do much in life, but they still have full rights to it and their place in it. Many family members share a job, working it for awhile and giving another a chance. And the majority have good jobs and keep them. I know this is right and good because I see it work. There are not hoards of homeless roaming everywhere, lines of welfare patients and those collecting money because they are not working and mental hospitals for the deranged and jails popping up everywhere.
My family makes most of its purchases in the neighborhood. We hire from the neighborhood. In turn our neighborhood backs us. This is a family neighborhood, many of the people all related. No one does without.
Supporting the type of oppression Pocho speaks of above, by converting everything that can be to machinery and using that system that thrives off of it for the few, makes you the oppressor too. In America they are taught their own needs are the ones that really count, government and people alike. As much as they complain about their government and talk about the vote and keep living the lie they are living, they are right in the middle of their problem creating it daily.
You Americans can't talk one way and live another, unless you have yourself fooled or just a common hypocrite, or more likely, your government has you brainwashed and you accept it.
I,m a me but them i guess my idea of being a me is not like most you could say im backwards because whats best for me is simple food, roof,good health ,love and happyness .I cant be happy being a me if my nebor if hungy so i give then me is happy .I cant be happy when my friend has lost a love so i go hold them then me is happy i tryed to confort them.If i have 2 coats and thay are cold and my coat will fit them i give so im happy thay are warm too.I collect beads my main weakness of greed i love to make things but then being me if someone realy loves it ill sell less that th cost of the beads or give to them makes me happy in my greed of beads.If i could heal the world with herbs i would but i cant is my major sadness i cant even heal myself so many man made polutiants and so many healing herbs =plants made illage cause thay are cheeper to heal with and a lot better for humans .My love i dont have one besides myself and cats and friends no mate to hold no lover to cry on there shoulder but is life the ones i trusted as mates long ago had no honor thay hit and had others so i knew thay where not mine but is life i guess love maybe a thing of the past and when all things have passed we will be like Mars dry windy a dead place who will visit it we are the last planit in this ara alive and we are killing it and us but have heart we have one last chance can we make it ????
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
2-0-5 [Flash]
That such antics are cast as entertainment speaks more to the anger of the rest of the world toward not their comical leaders but the people of America who in contentment find it funny.
yes it is sad we laugh at pain we laugh at killing starving harming why cant we cry and then do something about it sad i still cant find what funny about it all guess im nor american im just a plain human
Natural Capital
Businesses that sustained without using up social and natural capital would be sustainable. The program then showed how clean energy production and the increasing economic advantages of wind power. They also featured a brewery in Colorado that was wind powered and had a very low environmental impact.
Here is an article I found about it.
Part of their theory is very appealing. I see that an economy that depends on producing disposable junk is headed nowhere. Also, I like the idea of mimicking natural processes where there are no waste products. Instead of focusing on labor productivity, the focus is on how completely a natural product can be used up. They also talk about shifting from producing things to where they wear out to where items are produced to last and make the best use of resources.
Somehow, somethings still bothers me about this and I can't put my finger on it. There seems to be something fundamentally missing.
HiTekVagabond
Monday, December 19, 2005
NSA Spying on US Citizens. Why?
A handful of judges on the FISA court have authorized many requests to spy in the name of National Security. They meet in secret, with no published orders, opinions, or public record. Those spied on May never know of the intrusion. Only very few requests to this court have ever been turned down.
Why do Bush and his cronies need resort to executive orders to bypass the FISA court? Is it because they are spying on someone the court would turn down the request for?
Activists? Perhaps they are spying on people that are not tied into terrorism - just people trying to put an end to this war. For example is this why they spy on a bunch of Quakers?
Journalists? Journalists often have contacts with various shady characters so that they can get the insides to a story. These requests may get turned down due to first amendment reasons. Is this why so many of them seem to get offed?
Lawmakers? The request may have nothing to do with terrorism at all. It may just have to do with figuring out the opposition's policies and strategy. Mabe we have another watergate on our hands.
HiTekVagabond
Is this really of concern or a case of movement people tendencies toward the paranoic? I can never be personally sure of the veracity of such accounts made by other persons. People exagerate, lie, have hidden agendas, twisted movtives, and can be wrong. Perhaps some actually suffer a mental disease called paranoia.
In days of direct movement activism, persons who thought themselves more reasonable than I, would describe me as paranoid. My tendency was then, and it still is, to believe the truth of conspiracy theories connected to the assassinations of the Kennedys, King, X (Malcom Little), Fred Hampton, and others. I use the word "believe" rather than "know" because I wasn't there. I can only attest to truth of what happenned to me and what I observed first hand. The following is offered to enlighten suspicions of reasonable doubters. The time and place are the 60's and 70's in a mid sized midwestern US city.
I woke for unknown reason one morning about 3 am, got up and looked out the front window from my darkened home. A car pulled up. A man got out the passenger side and threw a rock through the front picture window. I picked up the pellet pistol kept near the door. My wife correctly objected to that that aspect of my paranoia, but threating phone calls were common. I stepped out and shot once. I doubt I hit anything. The guy jumped back in the car, and it sped away. About the same time that night a similar thing happened to two friends, also movement activists. One got a rock. The other's garage was lit on fire.
The three of us received mail the next morning, which had to have been posted the day before the acts. With glued on letters cut from a magazine, mine read something like. "Next time it will be a bullet through your head not a rock through the window." Also included was a commercially printed card stating it was from the KKK. It had a picture of rifle scope crosshairs and stated the sights are focused on the back of your neck. Together we met with the local police chief and lieutenants. They laughed. It seemed clear they were already well apprised. So much for Officer Friendly.
A friend had been the business manager of the local daily paper until he was fired when a copy of the National Guardian (a now defunct leftist weekly) was discovered in his desk. He then operated a private parking lot at the city's center. He also acted as a stringer for the local FBI Special Agent. That is, he feed them information, but it went both ways. Without hearing the rock/fire/threat story he told me persons from downstate were brought in by the FBI to administer the incident. His vehicle descrition fit.
I received a call at my office one day from the unviersity president's assistant. I was told the boss wanted me to know an attempt would be made in my department to have me fired. The president had been involved in protests for racial equality. His message concluded they'd have to get him before they got me. I heard no more about it, but years later I met and thanked the then retired president. He too quickly said he didn't recall.
A cab driver friend called from a phone booth and requested a meeting. He said he overheard the local FBI and state's attorney discussing plans to raid my home along with others and discover pot. I had none, but the cops probably did. I Never used it. The raid never took place.
In those days a room bug was simplicity in itself. One had only to unscrew a phone's mouthpiece, phone the target, and not hang up. The line remained open, bugged, and appeared dead. Many times I would attempt a phone call and find a dead line.
The line itself was also tapped. I confronted two guys on the pole installing it. They had an unmarked truck with other state license plates and said they were working on contract. The phone company denied it, and a neighbor employee informed me of the tap as did a local police officer. The job was evidently not very well done. Serveral times the police department answered my calls placed to other parties.
I had a separate unlisted line installed, and that was apparently overlooked. I used to chuckle at hours spent by someone unknown listening to my preteen daughters' endless conversations.
I built a bug tracing reciever and used it to locate and remove bugs from homes. With one, we actually got word the police wanted their equipment back.
There were some important papers I kept secret for family reasons that had nothing to do with movement activities. They were in an envelope taped behind a locked office file drawer. Years later on leaving that office, I discovered they were gone. Someone knows more about my family than I'd like. My kids might like the papers back.
I never went to the trouble of obtaining my FBI and other agency files. Two friends did. My name was all over them. No telling what the blacked out parts were, but much of the information had been submitted by local patriotic right wing fanatics. There was no verification of any of their paranoiac garbage.
Some national church council promoted a thing where we refused to pay the special war tax imposed on phone bills. The phone company simply notified the IRS of the lacking 23 cents or so each month. I would receive and ignore IRS notes to pay the 23 cents. Each month's was separate and seemed to be from a different office. Then the 3 am phone calls demanding payment began. Next they simply took it from my bank account, the 23 cents or so at a time.
We attended an old college friends reunion party at the distant city home of an ex appartment mate. He was then chief of IRS enforcement for the midwest. I joked of the 23 cents matter. His response was to the effect they would harrass us as we harrass them and get that 23 cents back over and over and over. He knew all about my activities, job, kids, etc. We hadn't seen each other or communicated for 15 years.
A student I knew to have been involved with the likes of the goofy right wing John Birchers all of a sudden joined the movement. His first idea was we should find out where we can get guns. I watched him slip away from a demonstration to confer with nearby police.
Two ridiculously hippie costumed guys no one had seen before appeared at a meeting preparing for a demonstration to oppose a Secretary of Defense speech. They also hyped for violent activity. They had previously informed the police they were from Army Intellegence. So said a friendly cop.
There's much more, but that's enough here. I had been briefly involved with SCLC in Selma, Alabama, SNCC in Jackson, Mississippi, and extended civil rights, anti war, poverty, and union organizing in my own town. But, I was just one of many who organized and used direct action to oppose government deeds. I was not in particular any kind of charismatic leader.
Now an old man retired in Mexico, I view things moving in the same direction once more, that is while doubting they had ever stopped. The agencies that will oppose such movement have probably dirtied rather than cleaned up their act. I can only urge those who see only lawful opponents to get real, get paranoid, keep their eyes on the prize, and hold on.
Well if it dont make a lot money for corporations and we persionalize our food again we might start thinking about all thay are trying to do and have been doing to us and the animals we eat .
Sad when a goverment becomes so paranoid that thay all watch each other then go looking for patsy,s. But then it has been going on sence this country was made by force others made by sectioning them selfs off or ones not wanting to be around others.
When a goverment oks the miss use of people f.d.a for proffit and only do recalls when people start sewing or dieing on stuff thay ok but now thay start taking natural stuff used thousands of years and want millions of dollars in proof it can work when thouse who realy care for healing make a simple living .
Now to pic flowers on the side the road is illage now to plant certan plants there a drug wait till thay find out another plant can heal something ill get indangered safe and then thay will be gone .
Need to keep the corporations happy and thay means making millions for people who invest in others work and want a make proffit even if it kills the workers o well thay are just the machines who do the work breaks get another one.
Good stories of the days when trying to help America seemed the right thing to do. Times have changed and one needs to realize, America failed, and we need to finish it off before it does anymore damage.
And with America, it is always best to keep the worst in mind, since that is what they seem to specialize in.
Sunday, December 18, 2005
I LOVE THAT PIC add some shoulder lenth rainbow hair and words that make so sence and laws that change faster then a lawyer can learn them much less a plain human and you have me wow!!!!
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Walls
US, Mexican border wall must come down, says Mexican President Vicente Fox
President Vicente Fox said walls along the U.S.-Mexico border "must be demolished" because they are "discriminatory" and "against freedom." "No country that is proud of itself should build walls. It doesn't make any sense."
Mexican government speaks out again on border fence:
http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/miami/16318.html
There was a happy song titled "Don't Fence Me In" which was popular in the US during days long past. That was when singers were understood and voiced lyrics with meaning.
The cultural health of a people is always reflected in their music. Both have changed in America now toward the brash. Words, written, spoken, or sung, mean little and nothing is understood. That such mode is readily accepted and practiced by Americans is evident in their acts and communications.
It is satisfying that our Mexican music yet tends to traditional. We sing and live that which has served an older more advanced culture of understanding people for centuries longer than that encasing the confused lives and noise of our upstart frantic fenced neighbors.
Well if your fenced in you stop the freedom of others to come visit .If your fenced out how can you be free to go where your heading in a timly fashion when all the sudden you have walls to go around or over o wait thats trustpassing how can you truly be free if your fence is so big the deer cant jump but high enuff to keep out people who want to harm .
Is it the ones full of fear who are safe or the ones held out ????
Is anyone safe in this world when a child can kill in a game and laugh or see a death and think its a game ???? O wait the child is now 21.He had the freedom to learn not to care for others lifes or his own his family had a fence around there heart.
Friday, December 16, 2005
Happy Hollandaise
Even though I don't eat mammals, I wish all of you "Happy Holandaise". Yes .. I hope you enjoy your steaks with some holandaise sause. (In case you mis-heard me say Happy Holidays or something similar)
HiTekVagabond
Hollandaise ingredients: egg yolks, clarified butter, lemon juice, salt and pepper. My Christ! (just to put the guy's name in an xmas message) Not a chile among them!
No wonder the US gets the kind of presidents it does and goes off killing and conquering under pretext of oil and land but perhaps secretly in search of real foods which fuel superiority of other cultures. Unfortunately for such quest, food that warms the heart would be unrecognizable by those lacking one.
Pipian, mole, sauzas rojas and verdes, pico de gallo maybe, but we ain't going to change the world with hollandaise unless as weapon to sicken the enemy.
So, the activist says to the gringo "After the revolution, no one will have to eat hollandaise". "But, I like hollandaise" is the reply. Then, between chomps on a chile, comes a response, "After the revolution, NOBODY will like hollandaise."
O so the if are mica looses the revelotion are you saying ill be forced not to eat something i may not like or is that saying i will be dead?????I might just eat it cause i can pooy everyone wants control of humans even the ones who say thay want fairness im confussed again
The chili pepper, so represenational of Mexico. Stuff those American turkeys full of them this season, what a surprise. Culinary warfare.
And remember, its the season to be jolly, this is just another one of those representational things.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
America and free speech, they use to go together in the eyes of the world. But look now, America has revealed its true goals to the point were they can no longer falsely send out this image.
"Journalists covering conflict, unrest, corruption, and human rights abuses face a growing risk of incarceration in many countries, where governments seek to disguise their repressive acts as legitimate legal processes,"
Zatikia,
That made me think about a statistic I read the other day:
66: Journalists killed in Iraq.
63: Journalists killed during Vietnam war
That also makes me wonder about the the large number of apparent suicides among journalists/media people. Here's a few that I can think of:
- Hunter S. Thompson Counterculture writer
- Gary Webb linked CIA to crack sales
- Danny Casolaro book writer
- Andrew Gilligan Downing Street Memo
- Willard “Billy” Clarey Daily Show
How many of these were "suicided" to preserve information supremacy??
HiTekVagabond
looks like they ran out of chinese made flags
A California family is upset because their soldier son's returns to the country not draped in a flag and accompanied by color guard.
Read more.
(Little do they realize that their son was just cannon fodder for a political get rich scheme.)
Would look like we would show a pic of saving people but no wait a lot of them we killed Opppps
I still dont understand who we are realy helping over there or are thay helping us im so lost .
Now how big is the area we are help fencing in or out ????
Seems like to die a so called heroes death in america gets you your last ride in the baggage compartment. Not much of a reward for giving your life for your country. But thats the American way, cheap and easy.
its just awful how this war is being faught for corporations that sit in their corporation buildings and act all corporationy and now they are getting money off the freight too we are lucky that they don't have haliburton do the deliveries
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Another perspective on the war in Iraq
I found a website that gives a rather startling perspective on the Iraq war. When the red button comes up, click on it to start the simulation.
Fatalities for all the countries are there but one, that which concerns me most, Iraq. I weep not over the deaths of those who went to kill, no matter their collective or personal rationalizations. Every damned one of them made a choice to engage in the slaughter. Of course, omission of Iraqi deaths in the linked graphic is understandable for purposes of presentation. Resistance successes in awarding little red badges of courage to the invaders would hardly show if Iraqi deaths were included.
Yes why do thay never add the the deaths to the people whos lands WE ARE IN . and just some info thay dont get added into all the polls people read and heath info you dont get befor you are given things just think of all the depleated urinium we are leaving there and our people and there people who are being long turm harned from it and whos going to vlean it up or are thay ????
hitec thanks for the info and sad site that looks like a game of a killing spree do you get points for deaths and what is a human worth do you know who puts the price on the people's lifes that are gone and dieing ????
Pocho,
Here is a website that attempts to track the iraqi CIVILIAN death toll:
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
HiTekVagabond
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Animals
Yesterdays discussion at work was all about William's execution. The converstation went on something like this. I said "Yes the guy was a founder of the Crips street gang and yes the courts found him guilty of murdering four people during two armed robberies. But why couldn't he be given life emprisonment?" In response, I was told "The crime was so heinous that we need to make sure they never do it again." What if it was the wrong person? "It's not." "Does his life not have value? Certainly if you believe in pro-life values his life should be just as precious as the life of an unborn child." "Who cares about animals like him? I think they should exterminate them all. We would not have crime anymore. They still shoot horses don't they?"
I really never understood the apparent contradiction between "Pro-Life" and "Pro-Death Penalty" until one of my "red" colleagues at work ''explained'' it to me. By labeling the criminal as an animal, they can separate them from their personhood. The label categorizes criminals as subhuman. The label also is and has been attached to other people such as Native Americans, Germans, Japanese, Koreans, Vietnamese, and now middle easterners. It's pretty clear to me now - they claim to be the uebermensh and the rest are untermensh. And this rationale is used to justify the death penalty, torture, even war.
I have to wonder how soon until this rationale is used to eliminate non-productive drug users, prostitutes, old people, handicapped people, sick people...
...even dissentors?
Death as an answer will always lead to more death. Either you believe in killing or you don't. A nation cheers the death of what they disapprove of and condemns a death they did not approve of.
If a government teaches its people killing solves, then they will believe it and have no way to put an end to it. Such is America, founded on killing off what they did not want.
Good post HiTek, society needs to be hit hard with the horror of what they will accept.
When you stop and look at how many now a days dont even know the meat thay eat shoot some that believe others should die with such hate give them a knife and a cow or pig and say butcher this wonder if it would be as easy to eat???? What happened to forgivness and humans being able to learn and change how can people care when thay have never truly been shown care????
How many have cryed for others deaths ever killed a unborn child or say its not my life so who cares i pray thay never get charged with something with no proof but anothers words and hate for what thay stand for but then im sure if ever i felt the need to kill i would want to know all the facts not just second hand news.
But then im not one to hate just because someones with a group or race or what ever all humans deserve the right to be who thay are and not prejudged from a blind point of view i think.
Fuck you and your hummer
I found this website (www.FUH2.com) that reflects exactly how I feel about these arrogant people and their stupid looking gas guzzler poser vehicles. Notice the ultimate in arrogance on this one - the support our oops bumper sticker. These turkeys don't even care that they send kids with real hummers without armor to Iraq so that they can drive their monsterous tax deductions here at home.
I see these Hummers down here, in Mexico, carelessly driving the back roads, trying to have some back to nature experience from inside the armour and glass and luxury.
Sitting on a porch with an old Indian friend, we had to laugh. That one Hummer going by represented more money than all the cars and houses in that small village. The joke was, they had the weekend for that short lived happiness so yearned for, while these villagers had a life time of happiness, with nothing more than what they had.
Wonder if i can cover one with solar panel's and live in it ????
Its so big looks as big as my house.wow and as much as it cost i could live in over comfort for a few years and hire friends to make a guarden and other stuff to share
Sonshine,
Now this is not a bad idea... Maybe there is a way of getting the government to buy your newly formed company (wink-wink) a brand new business vehicle (wink-wink). I wonder if the SUV loophole will work for buying a camper or panel truck that could double as a home and a taco or tamale stand or something.
By putting solar panels on it for electric and hot water, your check might just go much further.
HiTekVagabond
Monday, December 12, 2005
What's Left?
I visit a lot of blogs and on some leave comments. I did not remember Gothaminage's and went there today to search through its comments. I found none by either myself or our contributors. He asks a common question. Here comes a response that has been pondered and partially repeated often in the Chat Room.
Gothaminage's site seemed in quick scan to have orientation toward what might be considered liberal democratic politics in the USA. There is an immediately noticeable difference between that and ours. We've discovered, often in surprise to new users from the USA, that there are two USA's and surrounding larger world's. One is that dreamed of by most inside USA borders, including those terming themselves "liberal". The other is the realistic one known elsewhere. Gothaminage's site reflects the former, while the nature and locale of Further Left users causes focus on the latter.
The Further Left Chat Room, followed by its Library, and then finally this Forum have been around for close to two and a half years. The count of nation hits reaching one or more of them now stands at 114. It should be no surprise that people have come to them with many differing concepts of the meaning of "left".
Extremes range on the one hand from crawling around jungles with automatic weapons and obliterating anything associated with capitalism or its attendant imperialism to casting a vote for the USA's Democratic Party on the other. Some seem believe definition of leftist hinges on what books are read or political theories ascribed. Others ignore the written word and cast definition on fields of action where doing counts more than saying.
There are those who see flying airplanes into tall buildings as "left" while others consider it eschewing all violence of any form. A lot, especially those from the USA, seem to link "left" to a spectrum spot between what they call "liberal" and "conservative" while having no idea that persons of differing cultures often hold sharply contrasting definitions of those terms or that yet others consider them irrelevant. And then there are the views of "left" held by our detractors. Those are best left unstated.
It is necessary before self characterization to realize what we are and are not. We are words on a publicly available computer screen, neither more nor less. There are no bricks for download here suitable for tossing through a Walmart window. We can talk about organizing people to move a particular direction but within this facility are unable to roam a neighborhood and knock on necessary doors to do so.
We can say we support or oppose this or that set of activities, but would not delineate beyond unverifiable words the form of that support. Even if actuated, a sincere and prudent actvist wouldn't tell of routes to send money or material to certain active forces or brag of contributing to the offing of this or that enemy. There are those who talk and those who do. Those who talk are often by nature not those who do. Those who do are often by necessity not those who talk. Our users probably include some of both stripes.
We've stirred the pot in our couple years of existance and tried to discern a concept rising to the top. Each of the Library, Chat Room, and Forum contains a consensually derived phrasing which can serve as answer to Gothaminage's question. That is:
"...The words "Further Left" are meant to indicate a process rather than position. They imply changing one's stance in order to better contribute to uniting and empowering oppressed peoples so they may strike at causes of their concerns as they see fit."
It is granted that "uniting", "empowering", and "oppressed" are open to personal interpretation. The "as they see fit" seems to bother some, especially those in safety high on the hill who count the wounded in battle below and in arrogance believe they hold answers to what should be done by other people in other situations.
I personally rank most defining the phrases "process rather than a position" and "changing one's stance". That inherits from being old enough to know what we are about was occurring long before we arrived on the scene and will continue long after we are gone. It brings realization the best we can do through this medium is encourage pushing the ball down the field toward yet unseen shifting goals while letting our hearts guide steps along the path.
That was the consensual view of our efforts here. My own personal take as drawn from experience is best described in the Further Left Library piece titled Radical Activism, An Organizing Know How.
May you take it as you wish Gothaminage and in so doing direct your efforts to making more concrete the slogan "Agitate, Antagonize, Educate, and Organize".
IM a ME Left or right walking no mater what im a me and i left the norm to learn what most dont worry about any more why our world a mess so many huh and who cares till to lates????
What's Left? A process rather than a position. To me that is the most fitting explanation. Moving towards freedom and away from oppression. It is a way of life. It is far more than the limitations of politics. One cannot come to terms with nature and balance by electing officials. Nor with themselves when they have learned to lead a life that need harm another to obtain what is thought to be needed.
I live left. And if you don't, then you cannot really say you are left. And since we all seem to need a direction to take the view from, the word left fits it well. The opposite direction than those who think they are right by their might.
If you think your going to solve the problems of your America by rearranging your politics come election time by a daring vote or non vote you cannot say you are left, your just part of it.
Gothamimage,
There are many things we can disagree on. But wanting to better that around us seems to be something we both agree on. Everyones truths need to come out in the open for all to see and decide which add to the human condition and which detract.
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Adios Richard
Richard Prior, comedian from Peoria, Illinois, just died from heart attack at 65. I knew his aunt Maxine. She was a whore house madam in nearby Bloomington, Illinois, where I was a compatriate rather than customer. Her profession kept her in the background of the community. But from there, she was a voice, one which helped organize and supported the movement. She had to send arriving customers around to the back door during our living room discussions. I never figured out if that was to protect us from being seen by them or the other way around. Her nephew helped too. He gave courage to black people by bringing racism to the surface as he led the way in telling white people what they didn't want to hear, getting away with that by doing it in such fashion they paid him for it.Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Definitions, New and Old
1. The act of rendering.
2. An interpretation of a musical score or a dramatic piece.
3. A performance of a musical or dramatic work.
4. A translation, often interpretive.
5. A surrender.
and elaborates the first as:
1. the act or result of rendering a court's judgment
2. legal extradition of a fugitive who has fled to another state
Now we have a new one serving to cover barbarity and soothe nervous fools with word play. According to script writers who arm Condoleezza Rice with American make believe, it is now to be:
"the covert capture in foreign countries and transfer of terrorism suspects without the involvement of a court"
I prefer definition 3 and think of some songs that helped render what pigs of past opposed, going so far as to make it possible for Ms. Rice to serve as America's chief in charge of international whoring.
"Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round, turn me round, turn me round. Ain't gonna let nobody turn me round. Gonna keep on a walkin, keep on a talkin, marchin up to freedom land."
My guitar remembers that one well. Condoleezza might have some relatives who do also.
May i know the name of that song ????So i can know the name to hear it. Or if you would be so kind and sing it for us with heart???I would try to download it if you would be so kind to have it with your singing on the other form in the downloads that i have downloaded 1 otherthing but this i think i would love to hear with music and singing to it like a song for the soul.
Pick and choose, which words take out the sting, which words ease the conscience, which words blur the truth. So many ways to rename what is and always will be, inhuman treatment of another. There is only one way a person should feel on that and that act is what should be seen, not the words disguising it.
The act of rendering here in Mexico means making carnitas and chicharones. Taking the fat out of the pig. Sounds like what those American pigs need to have happen to them.
Cochineros, los todos.
The name of the song is "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round". I would like to play and sing it, and it would certainly be done with heart if not musical quality. I first sang it during freedom marches in Selma, Alabama, USA in 1965 and have hardly stopped since. But you would have to come near my house to hear it repeated. The windows are open and you would experience what my neighbors endure. To record and upload it would have to wait for another day because my computer sound system is broken. There is another way which offers better voice than can I. A version of the song was posted in the Library for download last February. That practice was canceled because of storage limitations. I uploaded it again. It does not appear on the Library menus but can be heard and downloaded by clicking here.
Pocho -
The act of kidnapping someone in a foreing country and extradite them without a court, a judge, habeas corpus, documentation ... used to be called "extraordinary renditions". It seems like you don't hear about legal renditions anymore.
Other terms which come to mind are kidnap, body snatch, bundle off, capture, hijack, impress, pirate, seize, shanghai, snatch, steal, and waylay. Do you suppose Condoleezza would hold the buck by accepting 20 years to life? Or, would she pass it to accumulate with others of her boss calling for his execution? Now, if his nation were in fact a democracy respondent to wills of his people, as they seem to dream, isn't it also they to whom punishment should be shared? Perhaps sufficient sentence would be requiring each to take their chances by spending prescribed time in yet remaining tall buildings.
I was just wondering does this mean thay can now do the same thing in the usa just get who thay have charges on ?????It would be fair but who would thay want to lock up lol
Just and Fair?
Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all." -- Michael Rivero
"Most people do not have the courage to face that choice." tells of easy friends who walk out of a room when a discussion turns into a fight. This post couples well with the November 3rd one further down titled "¿Amigos?"
Monday, December 05, 2005
Word of the day: Intransigent
This is a word that Spielberg uses to describe both sides in the Arab-Israeli conflict. "The biggest enemy is not the Palestinians or the Israelis. The biggest enemy in the region is intransigence."
It might also apply to the Al-qaeda / US terror conflict. It sounds a negative word in this context where each side is unwilling to step off of their viewpoint.
However, I am wondering how this word might apply to Senator McCain where he definitely should be intransigent. No comprimises are needed for the torture amendment. Afterall, he has survived torture, Bush and his cronies have not.
HighTechVagabond
Whether a position appears extreme depends on the zero point from which the measurement is taken. That normally means a prevailing mode. That in turn depends on where one looks. I look to find it neither in the United States nor Israel. There are other places and peoples, and I prefer their directions. Flip the ruler to measure from those, and what prevails in the USA becomes the extreme. It is from that I remain intransigent. The alternative is to drift toward its opposite, compromise with what cannot be accepted.
The basis for such perception of this old man of his nation and its people will not oft be heard for there are few yet alive to declare it. We who grew to adulthood in the US during the 1930's and 40's were taught well by government, schools, media, and surrounding society to hate the racist superiority inherent to the beliefs and actions of those "good" German people who allowed and in so doing championed Hitler's barbarism. We learned to cheer resistance fighters and militaries aligned against that colossus. Those roots and defining lessons drive me to stand and oppose by any means possible the actions of the US today, intransigent though that may be considered by those oblivious to a world welcomed process of their demolition.
"Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul." That originated from Thomas Paine in what was to become the United States. It was an intransigent call to battle those who would have it become what in time they succeeded in making it.
Forget the "bad" Americans. Their positions are starkly noted. What we can do here is help clarify the extreme actions of the self professed "good" people of the US and in so doing bolster the intransigence of those who battle them and what they allow.
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Evil America Beware
America, look at yourself and what you are doing. Your nation is the greatest evil to attempt to take over mankind yet for its own sinister deeds. Masters and Slaves, and nothing in between. It is what your country always wanted and still does.
I challenge those of you who say America is good, to read this article to the end, and if you don’t finish it with an extreme feeling of disgust and an urgent need to put an end to those who create this, you have already become less than human and it is to late for you, your part of it.
Help finish off America, before it finishes off the world.
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/octubre/juev13/42carceles.html
The prison industry in the United States: big business or a new form of slavery?
BY VICKY PELAEZ (Taken from El Diario-La Prensa, New York
HUMAN rights organizations, as well as political and social ones, are condemning what they are calling a new form of inhumane exploitation in the United States, where they say a prison population of up to 2 million – mostly Black and Hispanic – are working for various industries for a pittance. For the tycoons who have invested in the prison industry, it has been like finding a pot of gold. They don’t have to worry about strikes or paying unemployment insurance, vacations or comp time. All of their workers are full-time, and never arrive late or are absent because of family problems; moreover, if they don’t like the pay of 25 cents an hour and refuse to work, they are locked up in isolation cells.
(This is just the very beginning of this article, it holds important truths that all need to know, so do take the time to read all of it.)
And people wonder why thouse who live here dont stand up more.Thouse who live here know in truths whats happening shoot here where i live 2 new jails going up federal ones .You Would think thay would let out the none violent people and make them pay a fine and stuff but noooooo now thay going to start putting them to work some it probly will help but most just cheep labor.That changeing laws so fast here even the most law abiding human will be breaking laws and not know it.
In days of heavy movement activity, there was a companion who made the mistake of trading a six pack of beer in exchange for a stolen package of steaks with a teen age boy who worked in a grocery store. The boy immediately told his father, who relayed it to the cops. My friend got probation.
In order that I would be protected, I wasn't told when the group distributed anti war leaflets at the high school where I was teaching. My friend held on when a far right minded teacher grabbed his leaflets and claimed he had been attacked. The friend was arrested for aggravated assault but tried for breaking probation. I testified to what really happened. The teacher and another of like politic lied. The judge was awakened from sleep to pronounce a predetermined sentence, year and a half in a maximum security prison.
Things that go around, come around, and there was an encore. I was involved in a very successful research program called Hooked On Books in which problem students could study anything they want any way they want as long as they turned in one full written page per day. One girl, who suffered from recurrent epilepsy, studied witchcraft. She was sympathetic to the movement and hated the attitudes of those two teachers. Within a month, they both died at home of unexpected heart attacks.
Maybe there is something we're missing.
Zatikia,
That was a very interesting article.
The interesting part of this whole gulag economy is that people on the outside are convinced that these people are being rehabilitated and trained to hold a job in the prison.
But the sad truth is that once the prisoner's sentences have been served, it is very difficult for them to find jobs due to background checks done by all employers these days. Often an employer that hires ex-cons will not pay a competitive rate. This all increases the likelyhood that they are back within a few months.
HiTekVagabond
Friday, December 02, 2005
How The Camel Got Its Hump
Always striding toward honesty, I should say I stole this cartoon by Steve Bell from today's Guardian. The word "IRAQ" was added to the camel so Americans might peek through characteristic vain fantasy and comprehend its intended depth of meaning.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Posted By Roastedcoyote
We just finished up an election in my small city. I helped with all the democratic canidates, we won 5 council seats and the treasurer's seat. Only two republicians got elected so it's considered a victory. In my ward a young woman, Bridget Kelly, ran for and won her first election. She is a very progressive democrat and I am excited to have been a part of her efforts.
I've been busy with IBEW union business as a new officer in my local union. I was recently appointed to be a delegate to the Central Labor Council of the Greater Cincinnati AFL-CIO. It seems to me the more I show up to different groups the more involved I get. I'm on the board of directors of my city's democratic party and up for election this month. All of this has transpired since a year ago just after the US presidential election. I got a burr up am butt and decided it was high time to get involved.
I still remain very upset concerning the Iraq War and the current direction of the United States. Most days the news is so sickening it is all one can do not to run into the street and scream. We have indeed been screaming and it's starting to show in some of the voices we have in congress. When oh when will sanity return? It almost like living one of those drunken jags that has lasted for weeks and knowing it has to end soon but not having the power to do anything about it.
Anyway, it's nice to discover your new corner on the internet, I have you bookmarked and will drop in every chance I get.
Good to see you again coyote. Seeing the change that has taken place in yourself and others is what has kept me at this. I would rather be repeating a past in streets, bars, meeting halls, and front doors as are you and still many of my companions of old than throwing alphabetic pleas to the ether. Personal circumstances have taught that one goes with and adjusts their mode not only by what was but also by what is. If it weren't for those as yourself, I might take mine as no more that a selfish way of increasing the chances of going out at least figuratively on foot. You are a example of the meaning of this system as posted at the page top in that you are not only open to change but actively attempting to cause it. The first step in that is always changing oneself. You have and are. The important thing is that you are building experiences, and there is no telling where they'll take you. Who knows?, when I am long gone maybe you'll finally also similarly be reduced to adding something to that blog of yours. I hope to see more of you before then, particularly in the chat room.
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Bush's New Bracero Program
President Bush is back on his effort to create a guest worker program to "fill jobs that Americans will not do." Rather than letting market forces adjust the terms and conditions of these jobs - hours, pay, health care, education, upward growth, etc. he proposes to flood the supply of labor with a new and expanded Bracero program.
The Bracero Program (1942-1964) was an agreement between the U.S. and Mexican governments that permitted Mexican citizens to take temporary agricultural work in the United States. When US farmworkers protested poor wages or working conditions, farm owners brought in braceros, undercutting the bargaining power of the American farmworkers.
Many of the braceros lived in poverty conditions - without adequate food, water, or shelter. Additionally, many of the barceros were forced to pay a portion of their pay to so called manditory savings programs that were never paid to them. The program was ended to prevent further abuse of braceros and US farmworkers.
Bush's Guest worker program will not only include agricultural workers, but workers from all sectors of the economy. What will make it work this time? And who will pick up the tab for the health, education and welfare of their children? Will Bush convince Vincente Fox to create a high-tech jobs program in Mexico to provide jobs for all the unemployed high tech workers desiring a better climate and lifestyle?
wow never knew that thanks and what did the goverment do with the charges to the workers sence it was closed whos pockit it go to makes me wonder
Littlebitofsonshine,
A total of $34 million was deducted from bracero earnings between 1942 and 1946; savings deductions ceased in January 1946. Several class-action suits have been filed seeking to recover the forced savings, plus interest, from the Mexican and US governments. These lawsuits were for the 35-50 millon that was never returned, plus an additional $500 billion in punitive damages.
see http://migration.ucdavis.edu/rmn/more.php?id=508_0_4_0
Sunday, November 27, 2005
HEARTS VS PASSPORTS
He would be considered a fool here in Mexico, a nation which retains the native life ethic. That is something to which America can never aspire, having murdered those who could teach it.
A quote often repeated in describing difference between Americans and Mexicans is "Americans live to work while Mexicans work to live". It is well understood by Mexicans, but the meaning usually passes over the heads of Americans.
Suppose a Mexican and an American met for the first time. The American might say "I am a doctor, engineer, bricklayer, truck driver, salesperson, etc., etc., etc..", and the Mexican, "I live in the small town of Xtlahuacan with my wife, mother, two sons, a daughter, and an uncle". The American would question "But what kind of work do you do?" The Mexican would then think "Who is this man, and why in the hell would he want to know that?"
The American defines himself in terms of how his work benefits those he considers superior. The Mexican considers no one superior and views himself a part of those near.
A Mexican friend once succinctly described the difference another way. "Mexicans have more heart." Normally lacking in that, most Americans would not understand. I learned something about myself in realizing I did.
A passport issued on basis of a first 56 years in America claims I am of it. But hearts trump passports every time. The subsequent 19 in Mexico ensure mine's final beats will tap a mariachi rythm.
To be able to leave America behind and to leave behind what one becomes there is an oppurtunity everyone should take. If you let Mexico just take you over, it is not long before that missing heart replaces itself. And speaking from decades of experience here, people with heart make life look beautiful and very very worthwhile.
Pocho,
I might add that Americans really lack a real culture of their own (other than the uniform McCulture that makes one suburb undistinguishable from any other suburp or town). In Mexico, I find that each village has its own culture. Perhaps this is why it's so important where a person is from rather than what they do.
HighTechVagabond
Ok not sure how i feel now but im american and im proud to be one im proud to be trying to make changes in a resionable way and im tired of being called ever name bad because im american when im told o not you sonshine but yet the hate and name calling continuses and all people are being ahead acountable for the things happening in the USA and not all america i guess then all people where evel happens are just as bad as there goverments and i guess thats why so much cheep slave labor is in some countrys and not all .I thanks god i have some rights even if not as many as i would like in america even if the usa goverment sucks me as a amercian who dont run away im trying to stand and make a differance dont count .Im not sure now what to think of so many things so much hate im a woman of peace not blind hate to people in a country run by a corupt goverement i rather stay and try to make changes instead of running to another country and talking about my home land lke a dog But then who am i to judge another human by what someone else does by the standers i am seeing me im evil im corupt because the usa sucks thay them standards i do also Im no more special or crule as another i guess "BE safe walk in peace allways" im sorry im tired of being hated when change is wanted but it like no mater what anyone does im evil and all in america are north ,cental and south america to bad people cant see differance in the land and the goverments it s the usa goverment not all the people and i dnt think being in usa or being born here makes all humans evil
Sonshine, you have a beautiful outlook on life and people, and any country should be called proud to have you wanting to help guide it. I listen to your pain of not wanting to be identified with the wrongs of your government and not wanting to be a target for the hate it brings on. I know you stand brave in the middle of this crisis and do all thats in you to bring about the healing of your crippled nation. For your own sake, I wish you could seperate the hate your country deserves now, from who and what you are that does not deserve it. I have seen other good and caring people like you hurting too, because they are not the evil force, just victims of their birth and love for the people and the land. But the urgent message is, Beware of America, Protect yourself, Stop them. And this message needs to be loud and clear, Look at what they have become. You are good, and your goodness connects with people all around the globe. I know your loyalties are to your country, but you are also a citizen of the world, by the rights of the way you care. How sad it really is, but America is hated. But you are not hated, you are needed, as all good people are needed regardless of country.
I too was born in America, but left part way through my teenage years, and taught it was a country that was coming to an ugly inefitable end. The world is mine and I do my good there, preferably in places that have a worthwhile future. But I understand and admire you for why you stay. You have chosen a strong path, the red one, and it makes you part of what always was. You need to care for what is yours. I have no country, just the world.
Keep up the good work Sonshine, as I know you always will
Im glad you can be of the world the goverments would wide require papers says you from here or where to bad we cant take a test and have humanity papers to be free to be who you are and to not harm the world but help heal it but till that time my papers say im a usa other in america and my prayer will all ways be for peace harmony balance in true health and the best for all not the some on anything
Friday, November 25, 2005
BUSH - A Clear and Present Danger
If BUSH does not like what you say or do... Bush makes a couple quick phone calls. This is why no network will carry pictures of dead bodies or caskets from the war. In foreign countries where he does not have political control over the news source, he simply orders a Clear and Present Danger style shut-up hit.
According to a recent article in the Daily Mirror, Bush ordered the bombing of al-Jazeera's headquarters building in Doha for reporting behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims. Yesterday, he followed-up with a gag order on publishing further details on the story.In 2001 the al-Jazeera's Kabul office was demolished by two 500-pound "smart" bombs.
On April 8, 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad office.
On April 8, 2003, more journalists, Julio Anguita Parrado and Christian Liebig were killed south of Baghdad.
On September 12, 2004, Mazen Al-Tomaizi, a Palestinian television journalist working for Saudi news channel Al-Ekhbariya and Arab satellite channel Al-Arabiya, was killed yesterday by an American missile as he was reporting live from Baghdad on deadly clashes between US forces and insurgents.
On June 24, 2005 Yasser Salihee, an Iraqi special correspondent for the news agency Knight Ridder, was asassinated by a single bullet to the head for investigating US-backed death squads in Iraq.
How many more of these were Clear and Present Danger style shut-up hits?
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
How many Clear and Present Danger style shut-up hits happen here in our country?
In a land of freedoms how could are leaders be so scared and dangerious to people of the truths .Why is it only goverment allowed to lied and kill harm others of other countrys and get away with so much evil are we the usa the east in the east because the capitial is on the east coast but what would i know im not into understanding world places but just makes me want to scream at them how could you kill so many who want to be like the usa is sapost to BEEEEEEEE how can the world allow this how can we as humans how could are military fallow such a human what have we become animals do we attack the weak to kill the maimed????just makes want to cry seeing all these truths come to LIGHT
Thursday, November 24, 2005
BASTARDS ATTEMPT KATRINA II
Their chief cowboy will be at his Texas ranch pretending to do the same. He isn't really a cowboy, but a spoiled rich kid from the eastern USA state of Connecticut. His daddy established fake residence in Texas because it does not have an income tax and profits from his CIA drug running wouldn't have to be shared with ordinary people. Little Georgie's contribution to family empire continuance was to garner votes by mimicking the accents of white Texas bigots.
You have never seen a picture of him on a horse. Falling off bicycles, yes, but a horse, no. The ranch isn't even a ranch but a pig farm purchased for photo opportunity effect. Construction of its "ranch house" was completed the day after the "election" took place. "Cowboy" Bush will be there through the weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Others will be there too and so can you. Anti war protesters were arrested yesterday for violating a new law prohibiting anyone who opposes the war from spitting or going to the toilet within a ten mile radius of the pig farm. There is another way. Enter 31.530399, -97.544391 in Google Earth's upper left search box, and you will quickly be looking down on the fake ranch house. Enlarge the image until the house fills the window and get ready to join the rest of us BASTARDS.
Bloggers Against Stupid Tyrants And Reprehensible Dictatorial Sonsobitches (BASTARDS) will conduct an experiment to determine if psycho kinesis can be used to see if there really is a god. The action will occur at exactly midnight Universal Mean Time. That is 6 pm Texas time for Americans unaware of other places and times besides those of their latest invadee. All BASTARDS will have computer screens focused on the fake ranch house at that moment and spit in unison on their computer screens.We may then see if inundated Texas bushes fare any better than the downtrodden of New Orleans.
well not that i advicate harm of anyone but that was cold so many who knew what was to happen from prez and new in charge security force let so many and many still with out seams to me a real leader who was that rich would be haveing a major turkey day with all the people who realy needed good food much less a holiday dinner to celabrate there alive.But then who am i to say anything i only do the moons seasions and such o and i love giving day i give when i want not on a day someone tells me i have to for a man maid saint holiday chanded into a day of christ birth whos a jew and thay dont even DO birthdays so humm when in rome do as the romans who was here first ???? ok now holiday historys just confuse me doggoneit o and i love the truth ty and bless you pocho why not blow on the screen im sure wind can do damage as water can and then i dont have to clean my screen so if ok ill blow in my mind a s i pray for a better world
Chilling thought, that I can spit on my screen on the Bush juntas ranch house. How close this technology brings us, and to what uses does our future put them.
Disgusting holiday, pigs eating turkeys. It is more than I want to think about on yet another beautiful morning in Mexico. But I admit to totaly enjoying your post. Thank you Pocho.
Mexico city today. They should try this in Crawfrawd
http://www.corriere.it/Media/Foto/2005/11_Novembre/24/fdg/MESSICO.jpg
Well, here it is the next day. I did my bit and the computer screen is clean. It was a nice try by us BASTARDS, but there are no news reports of flooding in CrawlForward, Texas, not even the drowning of a single bush.
Lack of news can't be chalked to censorship. We would have felt the world shake from spread of near universal cheers if it had been the case.
I guess the effort shows there is no god, or at least not a merciful one.
well maybe cause we not all bastards my mom and dad where married a bastard is someone whos parents wert acknolaged to be married and does not carry fathers name sence its a english word i think but what i know im just a unedgamacated me
I do admit imaginining what spitting and dropping a box of pennies from the point of view offered by the aerial photo would do.
But hey not so fast. Cindy Sheehan did show up about a mile from the Skull and Bones 322 pig ranch. And, she's getting loads of press for it. Maybe the Katrina II we get is figurative and not literal.
Hopefully, the other residents of Crawford would not be affected by this political storm.
Maybe there is a G_D afterall.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Falling Down Fast
Bush carried his $3,000 bike to China in order to seize the moment for a photo op, one which would show the Chinese he was a regular good old guy, just like them.Like most of his misadventures, it didn't work out that way.
Newspapers carried a photo of the venture's start in front of a sign of the olympic mascot symbol at the trail bike course. The photo provided impetus for an unintended national joke.
"Which one is the American dummy?"
Answer:
"Keep watching. He'll be the one that falls off".
Now that is what i call a great pic lol good thing he cant remember how ride a bike or is it he never road one before to bad price of bike cant stop u from falling off he should have wore training wheels .
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Haitians get it
References:
Two presidential candidates ruled out of Haitian election due to American nationality by Vario Sérant
Caribbean Net News Haiti November 10, 2005
Haiti election body bars US citizens from ballotReuters
Nov 11, 2005
Haiti's Pre-election fight goes on Heartbeat News November 14, 2005
Two Haitian-U.S. citizens barred presidential vote Tehran Times November 13, 2005
and to think the u.s.a. wont let anyone not born here much less someone who even has a cita-sin-ship here to run for presidant so who are thay the usa goverment to say who can run for office anywhere in the world and why do thay have a say any way?????WELL UNLESS THAY CHANGED SOME MORE LAWS AGAIN AND THE PEOPLE BORN OR LIVE HERE DONT UNDERSTAND YET
USA Considers Another Terror Attack
A confidential memo circulating among senior US ruling party leaders suggests creating another attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as his party and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring his party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could "validate" the President's war on terror and allow Bush to "unite the country" in a "time of national shock and sorrow." The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the next elections.
The memo circulates as disastrous election defeats have left an already dysfunctional White House in chaos, Insiders say shouting matches are commonplace and the blame game is escalating into open warfare. "This place is like a high-school football locker room after the team lost the big game," grumbles one Bush administration aide. "Everybody's pissed and pointing the finger of blame at everybody else."
Party insiders who have seen the memo admit it's a risky strategy. Some worry that such a scenario carries high risk, pointing out that an attack might suggest the President has not done enough to protect the country. "We also have to face the fact that many Americans no longer trust the President," says a longtime strategist. "That makes it harder for him to become a rallying point."
US politicians no longer talk of "victory" in Iraq but use the term "successful resolution. A successful resolution would be getting out intact and civil war not breaking out until after the midterm elections, Suggests one "Declare victory and run like hell".
"In 30 years of sampling public opinion, I've never seen such a free fall in public support," admits one party pollster. Another says "None of the old tricks work." One legislator admits the ruling party is mired in its rural (read racist) base in a country that's becoming less and less rural. "You play to your rural (read racist) base, and you pay a price," he says. "Our issues blew up in our face."
As party political strategists scramble to find a message "any message" that will ring true with voters, leaders in Congress admit privately that control of the country by right-wing extremists makes recovery all but impossible. "We've made our bed with these people," admits one "Now it's the morning after and the hangover hurts like hell."
Sad to even think its true but knowig how this goverment has worked from the beginning i believe it not much from them i dont realy besides when thay open there mouths
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
We Are The Message
Public information about early native confrontations in the eastern US spread slowly over years by mouth. Ignorant accounts of the western phase of the genocide took weeks or months to print. Early US manifest destiny adventures in Mexico, the Philippines, and Cuba shortened reporting time but little. People could read within a week what they were supposed to believe of the last century's first War To End All Wars. The next, World War II, featured make believe movie news reels lying about and glorying one side's heroes. The people of the US were treated to early television coverage during their Korean defeat, but that was so restricted, few not directly engaged realized there were so many Chinese.Rapid rapes of smaller nations since received quick mention and that's about all. Vietnam was an exception because of its length. Real credit for ending it goes to the Vietnamese in victory, but reports and films in the US of just a few of its uglier moments helped cut through and harness America's self glorifying craziness. Today's commercial media propagate pre written fairy tale chapters almost concurrent to the underlying events on which they are tagged. The times are changing by speeding communication's stop watch.
A steadily expanding crowd now grows beyond fairy tale age and knows to look elsewhere for the story. I learned a short wave antenna and radio could pierce the fictional shield when the US was in Vietnam. Voice of Havana, Radio Moscow, CBC, and BBC radio were as self serving as the CIA's Voice of America. Taken together however, one could make more informed guesses as to what was really happening. The internet is the short wave radio of today.
There are those that would try control the internet. A conference is in session at this moment in Tunisia fussing over not whether it should it controlled but rather how by who. Whatever schemes are developed will be but sneezes in the wind as wishful masters of manipulation try to determine which computers connect to which others.
The only way the internet could be controlled would be by banning computers. There is too much profit and selfish interest for that. A salesperson without a customer earns no commission. Propagandists lacking audience effectively say nothing. The sellers and the liars need the internet and see their future enhanced by the number of its users. The concern of the various competing interests is that they are no longer alone in fabricating content. They would like to expand the audience but fence the podium. It can't be done. You and I and our friends have voices too. Though we shout from backstage, more and more of the crowd is taking the stroll behind.
Anyone with but little facility can take from the Internet and add to it. Even limitation of differing language is surmounted. Though most in ruling nations absorbed in self satisfying arrogance speak only their own tongue, that self imposed wall of communicative isolation is punctured by much of rest of the world's multilingual capability. The con artists have become their own worst enemy in teaching intended marks to follow the pitch.
Wars and other abuses of power depend in large part on secrecy to insure ignorant supporting populations as well as cannon fodder. That doesn't work well anymore, and we, here and now, are one small example of the reason. What we do here adds to and spreads not only personal belief but information gathered and blended from unfettered sources the world over. Its value is much more than an outlet for political frustration. We know what papers in France and Italy report because of Nur-el Cubical's blog. The thoughts and attitudes of yabasta's Mexican neighbors are spread through her blog, forum contributions, and chat room comments. The more frequent users of our chat room express views and news gained in Argentina, China, England, Germany, India, Mexico, Romania, Thailand, and USA. We transend not only space but time through perspective of ages varying from old to young.
If those we oppose are secretive or lie, we can and will provide what it takes to expose them. Collectively, we can't be stopped. If one of us departs from this partucular chorus, others will arrive to take up the tune. If a site goes down, similar ones will rise. We are heard. We do have an effect. We are the message.
Emiliano Zapata stated "It is not only by shooting bullets in the battlefields that tyranny is overthrown, but also by hurling ideas of redemption, words of freedom and terrible anathemas against the hangmen that people bring down dictators and empires." They arranged to have Zapata killed but not his revolution for the words remained in the hearts of those who continued his dream.
So, what can you tell us today that may help the world out?
As long as the hippys help teach and the caring people the ones who tell lies will be sean so much more easer im glad the truths are coming out yeahhhhhhh world
Nothing like reading truth on Sunday morning, it always feels so good in the stillness of this day. The big They, or It, cannot silence us. And their modern technology has now given us a chance to turn one of their weapons against them. With the net we are free and freedom is a powerful force when used with truth. Our best weapons and we must use them well to win.
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Another Perspective
They are not unaware of what goes on around them and may understand it more than those closer to events.
Purepecho art is distinctive in its bright colors and often exagerated humorous topic. We recently attended an artisan exibit that hosted several tables of Purepecho figurines. One two foot tall piece in particular caused raised eyebrows and frowns from passing gringos but brought approving smiles from Mexicans. As my laughter subsided, I asked if I could return the next day and photograph it. The lady graciously granted permission in what seemed to have been her pleasurable surprise to encounter a gringo who empathized with the outlook of her people.
Pocho,
Call me sick, but I would have bought it.
Actually, I think this piece insightfully points out a large similarity in our cultures and some large differences. The Purapechos surely must of heard of the 9/11 tragedy and in turn created this artwork in order to understand it better. But in our consumeristic culture, we'll explain it away as just a foolish attempt to make a buck.
But consider this. We say we try to wipe bad events out our minds. But then we tune into the TV channel that plays the most images of 9/11 over and over again. With TV we can watch billions of images in just a short time. It has nearly replaced art where the individual creates only a single image at a time. TV is a spectator sprot that has robbed us of our ability to make art to communicate and try to understand horrible events. We as a people no longer communicate, we just watch TV. It's the TV that does the communication to us. ... or you can explain it away in that TV is attempting to make something people talk about and are interested in buying.
Why is this so shocking?
Remember after 9/11 when nearly everyone bought american flag window stickers and support our troups bumperstickers for their cars? What if there were no mass production of anything? What if we lived in a land where people can laugh off catastrophes instead of launching hugely expensive wars against innocent people? What kind of art would we be producing in a peaceful society to react to an event like 9/11. I would suggest in a sane society, we would actually have art that would help us laugh off such a catastrophe and help us change the conditions that led up to that event.
If I understand these people, there will be others such as a modern windmill cutting through a nuclear power station in a Cervantes / Don Quixote depiction, or a hummer eating a gas pump.
p.s. also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pur%C3%A9pecha
Was 9/11 a tragedy, or was it, if not a victory, at least a predictive message of one yet unfolding?
Might depend on who is doing the labelling.
Excellent observations HiTek. And the meaning of this piece of artwork. To make a person think and grow and accept what is. It is to lose the battle to succumb to the horrors America, and it's imitators, constantly rejuvenates and prepetuates and glorifies. Just another form of oppression. One would do best to set their mind free and look at what is, from all sides. Expressing with art the signs of defeat of evil has always existed, and if it hits close to home, it is no less valid.
Friday, November 11, 2005
America's New Enemy
Latin Americans have spent the past few years finding their voices. Now they may have the strength to defy their northern neighbour. By John Pilger
I was dropped at Paradiso, the last middle-class area before La Vega barrio, which spills into a ravine as if by the force of gravity. Storms were forecast and people were anxious, remembering the mudslides of 1999 that took 20,000 lives. "Why are you here?" asked the man sitting opposite me in the packed jeep-bus that chugged up the hill. Like so many in Latin America, he appeared old, but wasn't. Without waiting for my answer, he listed why he supported President Hugo Chavez: schools, clinics, affordable food, "our constitution, our democracy" and "for the first time, the oil money is going to us". I asked him if he belonged to the MVR (Movement for the Fifth Republic), Chavez's party, "No, I've never been in a political party; I can only tell you how my life has been changed, as I never dreamt."
It is raw witness like this, which I have heard over and over again in Venezuela, that smashes the one-way mirror between the west and a continent that is rising. By rising, I mean the phenomenon of millions of people stirring once again, "like lions after slumber/In unvanquishable number", wrote Shelley in The Mask of Anarchy. This is not romantic; an epic is unfolding in Latin America that demands our attention beyond the stereotypes and cliches that diminish whole societies to their degree of exploitation and expendability.
To the man in the bus, and to Beatrice whose children are being immunised and taught history, art and music for the first time, and Celedonia, in her seventies, reading and writing for the first time, and Jose whose life was saved by a doctor in the middle of the night, the first doctor he had ever seen, Chavez is neither a "firebrand" nor an "autocrat" but a humanitarian and a democrat who commands almost two-thirds of the popular vote, accredited by victories in no fewer than nine elections. Compare that with the fifth of the British electorate that reinstalled an authentic autocrat in Downing Street.
Chavez and the rise of popular social movements, from Colombia down to Argentina, represent bloodless, radical change across the continent, inspired by the great independence struggles that began with Simon BolIvar, born in 1783 in Venezuela, who brought the ideas of the French Revolution to societies cowed by Spanish absolutism. BolIvar, like Che Guevara in the 1960s and Chavez today, understood the new colonial master to the north. "The USA," he said in 1819, "appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty."
At the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001, George Bush announced the latest misery in the name of liberty in the form of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) treaty. This would finally allow the United States to impose its ideological "market", neoliberalism, on all of Latin America. It was the natural successor to Bill Clinton's North American Free Trade Agreement, which has turned Mexico into a US sweatshop. Bush boasted it would be law by 2005.
On 5 November, Bush arrived at the 2005 summit in Mar del Plata, Argentina, to be told his FTAA was not even on the agenda. Among the 34 heads of state were new, uncompliant faces and behind all of them were populations no longer willing to accept US-backed business tyrannies. Never before have Latin American governments had to consult their people on pseudo agreements of this kind; but now they must.
In Bolivia, in the past five years, social movements have got rid of governments and foreign corporations alike, such as the tentacular Bechtel, which sought to impose what people call total locura capitalista - total capitalist folly - the privatising of almost everything, especially natural gas and water. Following Pinochet's Chile, Bolivia was to be a neoliberal laboratory. The poorest of the poor were charged up to two-thirds of their pittance-income even for rainwater.
Standing in the bleak, freezing, cobble-stoned streets of El Alto, 14,000 feet up in the Andes, or sitting in the breeze-block homes of former miners and campesinos driven off their land, I have had political discussions of a kind seldom ignited in Britain and the US. They are direct and eloquent. "Why are we so poor," they say, "when our country is so rich? Why do governments lie to us and represent outside powers?" They refer to 500 years of conquest as if it is a living presence, which it is, tracing a journey from the Spanish plunder of Cerro Rico, a hill of silver mined by indigenous slave labour and which underwrote the Spanish empire for three centuries. When the silver was gone, there was tin, and when the mines were privatised in the 1970s at the behest of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), tin collapsed, along with 30,000 jobs. When the coca leaf replaced it - chewing it curbs hunger - the Bolivian army, coerced by the US, began destroying the coca crops and filling the prisons.
In 2000, open rebellion burst upon the white business oligarchs and the US embassy whose fortress stands like an Andean Vatican in the centre of La Paz. There was never anything like it, because it came from the majority Indian population "to protect our indigenous soul". Naked racism against indigenous peoples all over Latin America is the Spanish legacy. They were despised or invisible, or curios for tourists: the women in their bowler hats and colourful skirts. No more. Led by visionaries such as Oscar Olivera, the women in bowler hats and colourful skirts encircled and shut down the country's second city, Cochabamba, until their water was returned to public ownership.
Every year since, people have fought a water or gas war: essentially a war against privatisation and poverty. Having driven out President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada in 2003, Bolivians voted in a referendum for real democracy. Through the social movements, they demanded a constituent assembly similar to that which founded Chavez's BolIvarian revolution in Venezuela, together with the rejection of the FTAA and all the other "free trade" agreements, the expulsion of the transnational water companies and a 50 per cent tax on the exploitation of all energy resources.
When the replacement president, Carlos Mesa, refused to implement the programme he was forced to resign. Presidential elections are scheduled for 4 December and the opposition MAS (Movement to Socialism) may well turn out the old order. The leader is an indigenous former coca farmer, Evo Morales, whom the US ambassador has likened to Osama Bin Laden. In fact, he is a social democrat who, for many of those who sealed off Cochabamba and marched down the mountain from El Alto, moderates too much.
"This is not going to be easy," Abel Mamani, the indigenous president of the El Alto Federation of Neighbourhood Associations, told me. "The elections won't be a solution even if we win. What we need to guarantee is the constituent assembly, from which we build a democracy based not on what the US wants, but on social justice." The writer Pablo Solon, son of the great political muralist Walter Solon, said: "The story of Bolivia is the story of the government behind the government. The US can create a financial crisis; but really for them it is ideological; they say they will not accept another Chavez."
The people, however, will not accept another Washington quisling. The lesson is Ecuador, where a helicopter saved Lucio Gutierrez as he fled the presidential palace in April. Having won power in alliance with the indigenous Pachakutik movement, he was the "Ecuadorian Chavez", until he drowned in a corruption scandal. For ordinary Latin Americans, corruption on high is no longer forgivable. That is one of two reasons the Workers' Party government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is barely marking time in Brazil; the other is the priority he has given to an IMF economic agenda, rather than to his own people. In Argentina, social movements saw off five pro-Washington presidents in 2001 and 2002. Across the water in Uruguay, the Frente Amplio, socialist heirs to the Tupamaros, the guerrillas of the 1970s who fought one of the CIA's most vicious terror campaigns, formed a popular government last year.
The social movements are now a decisive force in every Latin American country - even in the state of fear that is the Colombia of Alvaro Uribe Velez, Bush's most loyal vassal. Last month, an indigenous movement marched through every one of Colombia's 32 provinces demanding an end to "an evil as great as the gun": neoliberalism. All over Latin America, Hugo Chavez is the modern BolIvar. People admire his political imagination and his courage. Only he has had the guts to describe the United States as a source of terrorism and Bush as Senor Peligro (Mr Danger). He is very different from Fidel Castro, whom he respects. Venezuela is an extraordinarily open society with an unfettered opposition that is rich and still powerful. On the left, there are those who oppose the state in principle, believe its reforms have reached their limit, and want power to flow directly from the community. They say so vigorously, yet they support Chavez. A fluent young anarchist, Marcel, showed me the clinic where Cuban doctors gave his girlfriend critical emergency treatment. (In a barter arrangement, Venezuela gives Cuba oil in exchange for doctors.)
At the entrance to every barrio there is a state supermarket, where everything from staple food to washing-up liquid costs 40 per cent less than in commercial stores. Despite specious accusations that the government has instituted censorship, most of the media remains violently anti-Chavez: a large part of it in the hands of Gustavo Cisneros, Latin America's Rupert Murdoch, who backed the failed attempt to depose Chavez in April 2002. What is different is the proliferation of lively community radio stations which played a crucial part in Chavez's rescue then by calling on people to march on Caracas.
While the world looks to Iran and Syria for the next Bush attack, Venezuelans know they may well be next. On 17 March, the Washington Post reported that Feliz RodrIguez, "a former CIA operative well connected to the Bush family", had taken part in the planning of the assassination of the president of Venezuela. On 16 September, Chavez said, "I have evidence that there are plans to invade Venezuela. Furthermore, we have documentation: how many bombers will over-fly Venezuela on the day of the invasion . . . the US is carrying out manoeuvres on Curacao Island. It is called Operation Balboa." Since then, leaked internal Pentagon documents have identified Venezuela as a "post-Iraq threat" requiring "full spectrum" planning.
The old-young man in the jeep, Beatrice and her healthy children, and Celedonia with her "new esteem", are indeed a threat - the threat of an alternative, decent world that some lament is no longer possible. Well, it is, and it deserves our support.
"Only he (Chavez) has had the guts to describe the United States as a source of terrorism and Bush as Senor Peligro (Mr Danger)". A great quote from this article.
America has outlived its image of great and now should only be seen for the evil criminals they are.
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Give this guy 5!!! It can be done....
High School Student in Michigan wins write-in campaign for mayorAccording to a Detroit News article, Michael Sessions, an 18-year-old high school student, was elected mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan by a 732 to 668 margin after mounting a write-in campaign to oust the 51-year-old incumbent Mayor Doug Ingles.
Sessions was 17 and not yet qualified to get on the ballot in the spring. The day after his birthday, on Sept. 22, he registered to vote. The next day, he signed up as a write-in candidate.
He funded his race from a mere $700 he earned from a summer job. Sessions put up signs all over the town and campaigned door-to-door.
Sessions wants to attend Hillsdale College next year to study political science.
HiTekVagabond
way coolness way to go shows anyone can be it i pray he has a great team or one shows up and works with him to be the best one for the peopl ehe can be and not let greed and power corept him bless him
Frankly, I believe this guy deserves a scholarship.
I've drawn some interesting conclusions from the story:
1) Anyone can run
2) age is only a minor issue and can be overcome
3) It does not cost a lot of money to run for political office in a small town
4) Don't under-estimate the power of a write-in candidacy
5) A handshake is worth more than an empty promise
6) They don't pay mayors enough in some towns; $250 per month is not enough to keep an adult interested in the job.
7) When Michael graduates from college, he will have had four years of on-the-job training as a mayor.
HiTekVagabond
So far this story shows we have a chance of making this the usa most who where sheep thought it was the whole time now can a native born silly with no schooling and a great honest fair team whos not lead by religion and junk run for presadent on a write in lol and can there team be from around the world ????
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Privacy Advocates Help Correct Wireless Passports
According to a warning on new passport applications, all new passports will have a chip embedded in them containing all the information available inside of the passport. 99% percent of the public responding earlier this year to the government's proposed rule to equip U.S. passports with required RFID chips were opposed to the idea, but the State Department finalized the rule anyway.The chip also contains small tranceiver which will enable reading devices to "ping" or interrogate the data on the chip. The government had long maintained that the passport chips to be used could be read from only 10 cm away. But at least one test showed that a reader could read a passport chip from 30 feet away. Privacy advocates said anyone with a portable reader could remotely read, or "skim," a passport holder‘s personal information from a distance. Also advocates insisted the data should be encrypted over the air to prevent snooping of personal data as its being read.
In response, the State Department says they re-designed the new passports so that the front covers and spines will include an anti-skimming material that blocks the radio waves that could pick up the data when the passport is closed. The RFID only wakes up if the data sent to the passport contains the proper key, which is derrived from the printed data in the passport. According to a recent Harold News Daily article "It will not permit tracking‘ of individuals," the State Department said in making the announcement. "It will only permit governmental authorities to know that an individual has arrived at a port of entry, which governmental authorities already know from presentation of nonelectronic passports."
RFID passports will be required by the Patriot Act for visitors from 27 countries that currently do not need a visa to enter the US. Some people still fear that if a mechanism could be found to detect a passport containing an RFID, that muggers or terrorists could target such passport holders.
HiTekVagabond
and to think with all thay do we are to realy trust that what a joke im sure you can be tracked probly by satalight
Monday, November 07, 2005
The torture they don't do
According to President Bush in a recent speech, "We do not torture". Why then do we need an exemption from the McCain Amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill? Isn't this a contradiction?? I believe we, as any other Democracy, should not be involved in torture.I believe that so called black sites should be closed, extraordinary renderings and torture flights should be discontinued. It bypasses our system of checks and balances - judicial overview, the right for people to defend themselves in a court of law, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. Furthermore, these actions only encourage our enemies to kidnap and torture our own service men.
HiTekVagabond
There are differing perspectives on who is to be designated "our enemies" and "our own servicemen". I choose the world view rather than that current in the Untied Slates.
Torture is as old as mankind and for anyone to believe that America does not, or has not, always used torture is delusional. This is what America is all about, kill and destroy for what they want, anyway they can. It was founded on this. Torture is just a part of oppression and that is what America specializes in. No one should be surprised an evil country uses the most evil of methods.
now you see my confussion when we live in a world called new in true learning we dont learn from the mistakes we keep making the same old ones and the ones befor that and o so many new ones this is a old world not a new land or thought new in true learning would work for best of all in peace a simple life in balance with new age and true age i know lets get a face lifed
Naaaaaah we don't torture...
What is really interesting is that President Bush approved forms of torture such as the water-boarding method in an executive order issued in February 2002. Bush's order, which exempted the CIA from compliance with the rules of the Geneva Conventions, was extended seven months later by an August 2002 memorandum signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee. It called for the continuation of CIA interrogation methods, including rendition, and blessed as legal methods of physical and psychological coercion that inflicted discomfort "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death".
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Bush Connected Texan runs for Haiti President
Dumarsais Mecene Simeus, a multi-millionaire from Texas and a naturalized US Citizen is running for President in the upcoming Haiti election on November 13, 2005. This is the first election since democratically-elected Jean-Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a US-lead coup d'etat in Feburary 2004.Simeus is the CEO of the $2 Billion food processing giant Simeus Foods International in Texas and the Chairman of PromoCapital, Haiti's first investment bank. He also is the Chairman of the humanitarian group RepresentAction.
A group of a bout 40 US-based Hatian business and civic leaders have urged him to to run for the Presidency. Some of his ties include the Bush family. He was a member of Jeb Bush's advisory board for Haiti and visited with Condoleeza Rice when she recently made her visit to Haiti. Simeus's campaign is entirely funded by his friends in USA, Canada, France and Germany.
Simeus was allowed to run in this election after he took this issue to the Haitian supreme court, claiming dual US and Haiti citizenship. He still faces charges to his candidacy and false candidacy claims. The US does not recognize dual citizenship.
Last week, during one of his campaign stops in Solino, a suburb of the Haitian Capital Port au Prince, he was met with an agry mob hurling rocks and chunks of concrete.
HiTekVagabond
Now that what i call being 2 faced and not allowed to be is that trision or is that slowly taking over hummm. TY for it something new to watch as the taxes moves all over
MEANS
Every activist has heard "I agree with what you seek but not how you go about it" or "What you are doing will only lead to.....". Perhaps we ought to focus less on desired ends and devote more concern to comparing possible means.
Here are some means that might be chosen.
- armed struggle
- assassination
- sabotage
- riot
- targeted violent confrontation
- non violent civil disobedience
- organize
- picketing
- marches
- vigils
- tatoo a political statement
- wear a political T-shirt
- graffitti
- boycott
- write letters to the editor
- write to government officials
- privately message those in opposition
- privately message those in agreement
- publish anonymous opinions
- donate to work of others
- vote
- pray to some god
- wish
- wait and see what happens
- party while one can
Here are some criteria that could to help guide the choice.
- which stands a better chance of getting the job done
- which would enhance the lives of the most people
- which would cause the least harm to the most people
- which entails the least risk to oneself
- which would detract least from current comfort
- which would cause popular labelling
- which would cause unpopular labelling
- which would cause loss of friends
- which would be easiest
- history and current events
Here are some other means that need to be added to the list:
Strategy
Long term direction and vision
Tactics
Short term
The good fight
New political party
Moose Party
Two Party System
Run for office
Corporate candidates
Lower fees
Media regulation
New media
New fund raising methods
Write a book
Mainstream publishers
Access to corporate shelves
Free publishing
CDs DVDs
Voting systems and method
No audits
Instant runoff
Electoral College
Local Action Groups
Networks for similar actions
Snowball Effect
Blogs
Effective communication of ideas
Cross Posts
Friday, November 04, 2005
Turtles Rabbits and Cockroaches
This picture is stolen from Nur al-Cubical's blog where she titles it "Ninja Turtle Brigade". It appears in her article on the US president's current desperate but certainly go nowhere journey to Argentina. Miguel_x98, a Buenas Aires activist, identified them in our Chat Room as professional smugglers who officially masquerade as the Argentinian coast guard. Whatever their day job, the picture recalled some lyrics whose original intent stand in contrast to what the ninja bosses might desire.
Turtle and the Rabbit had a race one day,
Rabbit thought he had it won any old way,
So he lay down and went to asleep.
Well when he woke up,
Why the turtle had him beat,
You know life is a gamble,
People come rain or shine,
You got to keep on a betting,
And you're bound to win sometime.
Related thoughts surface every time I sing La Cucaracha, the revolutionary song deriding government soldiers and sung by Pancho Villa's forces. Satirical verses were often invented on the spot in a contest of seeing who might raise the most laughter. The most common chorus is...
La cucaracha,
La cucaracha,
Ya no puede caminar,
Porque no tiene,
Porque le falta,
Marijuana que fumar.
(The cockroach,
The cockroach,
Still he cannot walk,
Because he has no,
Because he lacks,
Marijuana to smoke.)
The words conjour images of American Soldiers in obvious easily seen environmentally mismatched "camoflauge" clothing with techy crap hanging and sticking out all over them. It would be interesting if a TV producer, in vengful preparation of chucking his job after suffering a career of forced bullshit, made a swan song broadcast of what one of the cockoaches has to do just to take a leak? It is a wonder resistance fighters are effective as they are during breaks from what must otherwise be constant choking laughter. Cucaracha is a fitting name especially in light of what often happens to a cockroach?
Thursday, November 03, 2005
¿ AMIGOS ?
Absolute ill will is easy to overcome. Shallow good will is more difficult. The real enemies in the stride toward freedom are not those who openly so state. They are instead the fair weather self deemed friends whose words signal alliance but who are more devoted to comfort than justice. They are those who proclaim agreement with goals but fail to fight for means of achievement.
They claim something they call "the system" is the enemy and point fingers of culpability at others in it while ignoring their own three fingers pointing back. Their complaints are heard beyond intentionally opaque and close drawn borders as but self serving whines. To see farther than immediate personal concern requires acknowledging what is enjoyed has been and continues to be obtained through pillage and suffering.
As long as such hesitant false friends fail to act to destroy that which grants their position within the system, their words are without substance. They are the system. That makes them the enemy.
They can either join us, get out of the way, or be walked over.
Walking over them is my choice of the three listed. Give them back a little of that trampling they have been giving the world. Down here in Mexico we call it the walking revolution, taking over that country one by one, taking it back and putting it to good use. Peacefully and effectively. Good workers and good family are what America needs and they should be thankful that their southern neighbors bring that. From what I have seen of Americans they long deserve to loose their country to something better.
ALWAYS REMEMBERED ZATIKIA
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Summit of the Peoples
watching it on tv atm. the summit of the peoples seems to be massive. But i dont know if its a good thing. Is it a real debate on how to change things, or is it the way they found to keep people away from the streets, where they can really protest against this summit and the criminal bush?
TERRORISM, INNOCENCE, HEROICS
Slain farmers' families were innocent when they occupied and fenced hunting lands of the Apache Nation that had been cleared by the US army. No! They were usurping from the Apaches. Nat Turner was a terrorist when his guerrillas raided slave plantations. The owners were innocents. Laws said so, but slaves didn't write laws.
Were the mothers and children of Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Hanoi innocents and the bombers terrorists? No. The pilots were heros, and those people weren't innocent. There was a war and lives of tomorrow's heros had to be saved. Besides, the targeted people supported their country's evil. Well, at least some must have. There was a homeland to be saved by destroying another. If not, foreigners would have soon been in hero neighborhoods raping mothers and sisters. Anyhow, all that stuff was long ago and best forgotten.
Well then, let's bring it up to date and consider what has changed. Todays invaders are not now taking anything from anyone. Well, just oil. Camels can't drink it and the price of gasoline is too high. Walk? Don't be silly, I'd never get where I wanted to go and that wouldn't be fun.
Did the people working at the World Trade Center and twin towers generally support or at least not oppose actions of their ultimate employers? Did they accept benefits from the global money handlers housed there? Were they innocent? Is anyone not wearing a military uniform innocent? Are any innocent of the actions of a nation who are not effectively engaged in actions to oppose it? What if there are no means of opposition without risk to oneself? How much risk acceptance buys innocence? Does paying taxes that support that disliked decrease one's innocence?
Were the kids dancing merrily before the boom in a Jerusalem night club innocent while their brothers occupied lands of suicide bombers? Where the kids wearing the bombs innocents, heros, or terrorists when they believed they were defending their homeland and families in the only way they could?
All conflict is ugly and brutal. People are maimed and die. Land is made ruin. There is no right and no wrong. Rules for conduct of warfare and designations of terrorism, innocence, and heroics are formulated in self serving motivation by intellectuals, politicians, and military chiefs not directly risking themselves in struggle. They are ignored by direct participants. For them, there are no innocents, terrorists, or heros, just death, destruction, and attempts at survival.
The jargons of power and war have no inherent meaning and tell more about those uttering them then the intent of their use.
I have read of times a king would lead his men to battle .Some forced to go some happy to go saport him .But still he was there somewhre able to be killed like all others but now there is no honor is the art of war nore is it even a art.It has become blind killing of the scared leaders who never walk on a battle field. who kill everything thay see on a map for greed not freedom because you dont kill the ones your trying to free unless thay trying to free them from life do you?????
