Peace, Love and Sasha Grey

Call your Member of Congress, urge them to vote NO! on HR 2346

2009-06-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

No more funding for these wars! We need "Healthcare, NOT Warfare!"

Please support the truly progressive members of congress by joining the Progressive Democrats of America.

Obama, keep your promises for peace!

2009-04-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

Help Obama keep his promises for peace. Support CODEPINK in their campaign, attend, or help someone else attend the Mother's Day vigil at the White House. Watch the Rethink Afghanistan documentary and then post a comment or make a phone call to The White House comment line.

We need to redirect the funding being squandered on these wars and weaponry towards human needs. April 18 - 25 is the national week of action in support of HR 676 and the Healthcare NOT Warfare campaign!

"Prosecute, Prosecute" Eddie Joe and the Redeemers

2009-03-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

Repost this! Then call Barack Obama and tell him we need an Independent Prosecutor to examine the crimes that lead up to the war on Iraq, and the crimes committed in the conduct of the Iraq War and occupation!

White House comment line: 202-456-1111

Opposition to Agrofuels/Biomass

2009-01-21T17:23:00.000-08:00

A diverse alliance of organizations concerned with climate change, agriculture and food policy, human rights and indigenous peoples rights and biodiversity protection has issued the following statement in opposition to increased public subsidies of agrofuels (large scale industrial biofuels):

We strongly oppose the rapid and destructive expansion of agrofuels; the large-scale industrial production of transport fuels and other energy from plants (corn, sugar cane, oilseeds, trees, grasses, waste etc.). Agrofuels are a false solution and a dangerous distraction and they must be halted.

Agrofuels are a "false solution":
Many prominent voices in the United States, including President-elect Obama, have voiced support for the large-scale production of agrofuels as a central strategy for solving the problems of energy supply and global warming. A growing body of scientific evidence, however, indicates that this is a tragic misconception and that continued pursuit of agrofuels will aggravate severely rather than resolve the multiple and dire consequences of the climate, energy, food, economic and ecological crises we face. Like other dirty and dangerous technologies and devices being promoted by industry to supposedly address climate change-including "clean coal," carbon capture and storage [CCS], coal gasification, nuclear power, carbon offset markets, and ocean fertilization-agrofuels are a distracting "false solution" promoted for their potential to reap profits rather than their capacity to address problems effectively. [1]

Agrofuels worsen climate change and poverty:
A growing body of literature from all levels of society is revealing that, when all impacts are considered, agrofuels create more, not less, greenhouse gas emissions; deplete soil and water resources; drive destruction of forests and other biodiverse ecosystems; result in expanded use of genetically engineered crops, toxic pesticides, and herbicides; and consolidate corporate control over access to land. While claims are made that agrofuels will benefit the rural poor, in reality, indigenous and smallholder farmers are increasingly displaced. Industrial agriculture and the destruction of biodiversity, two leading causes of global warming, will be further facilitated by agrofuels. [2]

Next generation "cellulosic" fuels will not resolve the problems:
With recognition of the role of agrofuels in driving up food prices, there has been increasing attention to the social and ecological costs of corn and sugar cane derived ethanol. In response, there is now a massive push to develop non-food, so-called cellulosic fuels based on claims that these new feedstocks (grasses, trees, and "waste" products) will not compete with food production and can be grown on "idle and marginal" lands. The incoming Obama Administration is clearly positioning to advocate strongly on this platform. [3] Unfortunately, these claims do not hold up to scrutiny.

An enormous additional demand for trees, grasses and other plants, edible or inedible, will not avert the problem of land-use competition. Land that could be used for food crops or biodiversity conservation will be increasingly diverted into energy production. Demand for land for both agriculture and timber is already intense and escalating globally as water, soil and biodiversity dwindle and the climate becomes increasingly unstable. [4]

The scale of demand cannot be met sustainably:
Virtually all of the proposed cellulosic feedstocks (including dedicated energy crops such as perennial grasses and fast growing or genetically engineered trees, agricultural and forestry "wastes and residues", municipal wastes etc.) present serious ecological concerns on the scale required to maintain biorefinery operations and significantly contribute to U.S. energy demands. Furthermore, renewable fuels targets in the U.S. mandate the use of 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol per year, an amount that requires one third of the nations corn crop, and an additional 21 billion gallons a year of "advanced" agrofuels, the definition of which opens the possibility that demand will be met with foreign sources. The massive new demand for agrofuels is escalating deforestation and resulting in conversion of biodiverse and carbon-rich native forests and grasslands into biologically barren and carbon-poor industrial tree plantations and other crop monocultures. [5]

Land use changes resulting from industrial agriculture, including widespread deforestation, are major causes of climate change. Recent research finds that old growth forests sequester far more carbon than was previously estimated, (i.e. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change underestimated carbon stocks for temperate old growth forests by two-thirds). This means that deforestation has been a much larger causal factor in global warming than initially thought, and that intact natural forests are critical for sequestering carbon. It is imperative therefore that we protect remaining forests, grasslands and other carbon-rich ecosystems. [6]

The widespread application of biotechnology for agrofuel production, including genetically engineered (GE) feedstock crops such as GE grasses and GE trees, and plans to use synthetic biology and other genetic engineering techniques to alter and construct microbes, is an unacceptable and dangerous risk. [7]

Sustainability criteria cannot address the problems with agrofuels because they are incapable of addressing many complex and often indirect ecological and social impacts. Neither can they be implemented under globally diverse ecological, social and political situations. Similar efforts to develop criteria for soy, palm oil and timber, for example, have proven vastly inadequate. Finally, these efforts are based on the fundamental and flawed assumption that such massive demands can and should be met.

Agrofuels are not a renewable energy source:
While plants do re-grow, the soils, nutrients, minerals and water they require are in limited supply. The diverse and complex ecosystems that native plants belong to are also limited and not easily regenerated. Subsidies and incentives for renewable fuels should be focused on truly renewable options, like wind and solar energy. Instead, currently in the U.S. close to three-quarters of tax credits and two-thirds of federal subsidies for renewable energy are being wrongly invested in agrofuels. [8]

Agrofuels are a disaster for people:
As governments, investors and corporations recognize the increasing demand for and profitability of land for food, fiber and now energy, we are witnessing a veritable tidal wave of land grabbing on a global scale. This is disastrous for rural and indigenous peoples who are increasingly being evicted or displaced. If tariffs currently limiting international agrofuel trade are diminished or eliminated, social and ecological damages will escalate.

Social movements around the world, including the international peasant movement, Via Campesina, call for "food and energy sovereignty." Via Campesina, along with the independent International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), a long-term independent assessment of agriculture involving over 400 scientists and diverse stakeholders, point to the key importance of a return to locally controlled, diverse, ecologically sensitive, and organic agriculture practices as vital to both addressing climate change and poverty. In demanding a halt to the insanity of agrofuel expansion, we stand in solidarity with peoples around the world who are resisting the loss and destruction of their lands, and with the wildlife and biodiversity being driven to extinction for corporate profit. [9]

Real solutions must be given a chance.
There are numerous better options for addressing climate change. These are generally proven, do not involve risky technologies, return control of resources to local inhabitants rather than profiting irresponsible corporations, and are more equitable. [10]

These include but are not limited to:
* A massive focus on improvements in energy efficiency, public transport and reduced levels of consumption within the United States (and other affluent countries);
* A rejection of industrial agribusiness and biotechnology and a return to locally adapted and community controlled diverse agricultural practices with the goal of feeding people, not automobiles, while conserving soil and water, maximizing carbon sequestration and protecting biodiversity;
* Repeal of the 36 billion gallon per year Renewable Fuel Standard biofuel target in the Energy Independence and Security Act.
* Support for indigenous land rights and community stewardship initiatives as the major focus of efforts to preserve biodiverse ecosystems and the implementation of free and prior informed consent from indigenous peoples with respect to projects proposed on their ancestral lands and territories.
* Reducing demand for forest products and aggressively protecting remaining native forests and grasslands;
* Rejection of coal and nuclear technologies, which are inherently toxic and dangerous;
* Scaling up of decentralized and unequivocally renewable and cleaner wind and solar energies;
* Leaving fossil fuels in the ground, where they cannot contribute to climate change;
* Rejection of ineffective market-based approaches that commodify the atmosphere, biodiversity, and humanity itself.

Minnesota should seek more stimulus funds creating jobs eradicating invasive species

2009-01-21T16:47:00.000-08:00

The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) page on Invasive Species says:

Natural ecosystems are under siege by many harmful species of plants, animals and diseases. The impacts of invasive species are second only to habitat destruction as a cause of global biodiversity loss. The current environmental, economic, and health costs of invasive species could exceed $US138 billion per year, more than all other natural disasters combined.

I believe the amount of money dedicated to invasive species eradication in the Obama stimulus proposal should be doubled, as the control of invasive exotics can be considered the perfect labor-intensive, shovel-ready and otherwise buzzword-compliant
1 - 2 year job creation scheme.

Removing woody invasive plants like Common Buckthorn and Russian Olive from open spaces like St. Paul city parks, Hennepin County parks, Minnesota state parks and state forests and even private property could generate significant quantities of burnable biomass for St Paul District Energy...

Sasha Grey on Sasha Grey on Tyra Banks

2008-11-20T07:32:00.001-08:00

Here's a link to Sasha's YouTube profile.

Al Franken election results?

2008-11-18T22:45:00.000-08:00

Al Franken election results? Not until December. Secret histories of the neocons revealed? Everyday can be truth and reconciliation day... beats settling for dancing with the stars results!

Obama - Minneapolis election night parties

2008-11-04T06:36:00.000-08:00

This new blog lists a few Minneapolis, Minnesota Obama election night results watching parties. Look for posts about the context/meaning of the election and ideas for the transformation of Minnesota and America in the coming days. We become the change we need!

Dinner with Barack? $28,500. A GOP contributor running Barack's operations in MN? Priceless!

2008-10-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

From OpenSecrets.org - Center for Responsive Politics

POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER
EDINA,MN 55436 RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATE 6/30/07 $2,300 Ramstad, Jim (R)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER
EDINA,MN 55436 RECENT COLLEGE GRADUATE 6/30/07 $2,300 Ramstad, Jim (R)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER
EDINA,MN 55436 6/30/08 $-200 Obama, Barack (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R
EDINA,MN 55436 NOT EMPLOYED/STUDENT 5/24/07 $2,300 Obama, Barack (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R
EDINA,MN 55436 NOT EMPLOYED/STUDENT 6/16/08 $2,300 Obama, Barack (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R
EDINA,MN 55436 NOT EMPLOYED/STUDENT 6/16/08 $2,100 Obama, Barack (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R
EDINA,MN 55436 NOT EMPLOYED/STUDENT 5/24/07 $200 Obama, Barack (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R
EDINA,MN 55436 NOT EMPLOYED/STUDENT 5/23/07 $200 Obama, Barack (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R
EDINA,MN 55436 NOT EMPLOYED/STUDENT 5/24/07 $-200 Obama, Barack (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R
EDINA,MN 55436 NOT EMPLOYED/STUDENT 6/16/08 $-2,100 Obama, Barack (D)
Pohlad, Christopher R Mr
Edina,MN 55436 Not Employed/Student 6/30/08 $28,000 DNC Services Corp (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R MR
EDINA,MN 55436 STUDENT/STUDENT 6/6/08 $500 DNC Services Corp (D)
POHLAD, CHRISTOPHER R MR
EDINA,MN 55436

To be fair, I'll post my own OpenSecrets record:

SORENSEN, SOREN
BEMIDJI,MN 56601 10/1/07 $500 Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party (D)

1,000 Strong Against the Cake Eaters

2008-10-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

The other version w/ Tim Armstrong has Page Morgan in it, and Oakland, CA. This one's got the latex catsuit. I'll eventually write something about the SNAFUs with the cake eaters and the influx of probably well-intentioned kids from elite East Coast schools descending upon Minnesota as field organizers for the Obama campaign and failing to orient themselves to our party, our struggles, this landscape, etc.

For all of the talk about grassroots in the Obama campaign, there's been more insensible top-down direction from Chicago, from circles with too much money, and they've burned out a lot of good volunteers, shredded goodwill with thanklessness.

Hopefully, the people understand they have more riding on this election than the professional political class. Minnesotans will show up to vote with or without a functional GOTV operation. Self-organize on your block or precinct level. Plan on crashing the party on election night and at your next caucus opportunity. In Minneapolis, that's the spring of 2009.

The last weeks of a long campaign inevitably get weird

2008-10-26T12:23:00.000-07:00

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro..." -HST

Marching orders for Minneapolis

2008-10-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

If you are going to be volunteering on election day, here are your marching orders :)

apologies for militarized terms when referring to campaigns, but - our wars abroad are an extension of our politics and we need to use our political power in a very intentional way if we mean to create space for peace, diplomacy, sustainability, and human survival!

Cast an Absentee Ballot in Person:

From the Hennepin County Elections website:

You may vote by absentee ballot if:

• you are going to be absent from the precinct on election day
• illness or disability prevents your going to the polling place
• religious discipline or observance prohibits your attendance at the polling place
• you are an election judge in another precinct
<snip>

You may vote in person at the Hennepin County Government Center during normal office hours, on the Saturday before the election between 10:00 AM and 3:00 PM, or on the Monday before the election until 5:00 PM;

I bolded the line with the reasoning you should use when you cast your absentee ballot - you may be assigned to volunteer in another precinct by the political campaign, union, or non-profit you are working with.

Know your precinct polling place and your precinct's boundaries:

http://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us - Minnesota Secretary of State's polling location finder

Hennepin County Wards and Precincts

Minneapolis Wards and Precincts

Send me an e-mail and let me know what you are doing on election day - I am curious!

impeccableliberalcredentials (at) gmail (dot) com

If you don't know what to do, but would like to help and you live in or are interested in Minneapolis Wards Ward 6 or Ward 7 - especially Whittier, Stevens Square, Loring Park and Wedge/Lowry Hill East neighborhoods - you are invited to:

"One Week Out" planning meeting and social
India House on Eat Street
1400 Nicollet Ave
Tuesday, Oct 28th from 8 PM to whenever

- maybe with a venue change at 10 PM to 'King and I', just like last time, but better!

W. Patrick Lang on Colin Powell

2008-10-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

W. Patrick Lang reminds us as to Colin Powell's real legacy:

Powell is someone who truly "blotted his copybook" as the Brits used to say. After a lifetime of service and achievement, Powell chose in the end to "drink the koolaid" that flowed in the bloodstream of the Bush/Cheney/neocon regime that has ruled the United States for the last eight years. He was Secretary of State at a time when his firm oppositon, and ultimately his resignation would have crippled the onrushing utopian crusade for Westernization in Iraq.

He did not choose to follow that path. Instead, he chose to believe the corrupted judgments of an intelligence community leadership that betrayed the country and the armed forces by producing nonsensical estimates designed to create support for war among an ignorant and bellicose public that hungered for revenge aganst an enemy they could not even define.

Today Powell is a hero creating a temporary bump in traffic and polls for Barack Obama, a hero to Democrats who are looking for justifications for their complacency.

It is time to turn off your TV and radios, stop with the silly blog posts, and use your accumulated vacation time to make sure we actually win this and that we are organizing our communities, not massaging our egos, fantasies, etc. THat we are not being massaged by media into forgetting why we became political in the first place.

It is time to end this war - a war that Colin Powell lied us into!

Into the Wild!

2008-10-10T07:26:00.000-07:00

Come join me. I have a quick errand in town, and then... Call me in the next 30 minutes if you want to come with.

Warning van is messy. A dirty van is a manifestation of a dirty mind...

I love you!

If I survive this trip soon I'll be starting a new blog, and an index/'secret decoder ring' for this one!

Wanna see Tammy Baldwin speak again?

2008-10-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

Give me a call after work and I'll pick you up, or be at the 331 Club at 6 PM and be ready to leave (Drinking Liberally). 612 559-9963.

The event is in Minnetrista, for Ashwin Madia from 6 - 8 PM and it will take awhile to get there, so we will arrive fashionably late.

Kucinich on the Bailout

2008-10-04T19:50:00.000-07:00

Representative Dennis Kucinich's speech Friday morning on the Bailout, as reported in The Nation:

We have come a great distance in seventy-five years; from the New Deal to the Raw Deal, from having nothing to fear but fear itself, to being afraid of everything. We traded democracy's warm heart containing the ideals of faith, fairness and frugality, for the greedy, cold calculations of the Dow Jones ticker. The New Deal saved free market capitalism with jobs and regulation; now both sink in the swamp of speculation, manipulation and capitulation.

The Golden Rule of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," is submerged by the rule of gold, "do unto others before they do unto you."

Some people will ask of this Congress, what were we thinking? Why did we give $700 billion bailout to Wall Street without fixing what caused the problem in the first place? Why did we rig the free markets for security fraudsters? Why didn't we explore alternatives to let Wall Street solve its own problems? Why didn't we have money save millions of homeowners, create millions of jobs, and a green economy? Why didn't we stop the speculators? Why wasn't there accountability? Why didn't we take time to make an intelligent decision?

Why? Why? Why?

Barter Town?

2008-10-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

The imagery of "Barter Town" in relationship to the fear of forecast economic collapse if we don't grant Secretary Paulson sweeping new powers and an ability to tap the public treasury for another $700+ Billion dollars caught my attention more than a week ago in a DailyKos diary by Larry Madill: ACTION REQUIRED: Executive Power Grab in Banking Bail Out Bill, in one of the most enticing above-the-cut lead-ins:

If you care to check my posting and comment history you will see that I have been totally in favor of a bail out rescue plan for our financial markets. I've said and will continue to say that it is a necessary evil to keep the U.S. from collapsing into a Second Depression. Sorry, I don't see pie in the blue sky alternative proposals like the government paying off everyone's mortgages as viable, nor do I think we should let the economy collapse in a heap to punish the rich (who never get punished) and then go off to live in a Barter Town world were we all grow corn on the roof. The U.S. definitely needs to do something fast to stop the erosion of the financial markets.

BUT, as NPR's Adam Davidson points out in his new Planet Money Blog, this bill also appears to constitute the greatest transfer of political power from the Congressional to the Executives Branches ... Possibly ever.

I don't fear barter town, and yet I am not a serious proponent of it. I think our economic uncertainty could be dealt with by real leadership but the party in power wants to milk our fears for a last attempt to bankrupt civil society. I find it somewhat hilarious, but even more sad, that so many Americans are reacting to the fear of an economic meltdown as if were a threat to their physical being. Hopefully that physical fear will result in a new consciousness of the physical economy, and less reliance on hope, magical thinking, and blind trust placed on economic advisers, retirement planners, marketers of financial abstractions like derivatives and hedge funds.

Absent real leadership, we had better prepare for Barter Town, because it is coming sooner or later.

I have seen Barter Town, and been prepared for it most of my life. My father survived growing up in the Great Depression and wandering in the Himalayan foothills of Burma after his plane went down in WWII, and he passed on some knowledge that was the fruit of his experience in times and places where self-sufficiency or affability/social graces were the difference between real survival and real death. I saw various degrees of Barter town after the Asian Economic Crisis in 1997-1998 and again after the tsunami, in Aceh. I have seen currency lose and regain all value, and the value of gasoline exceed the value of human life. No, I don't propose we seek barter town to punish the rich and the profligate risk takers in the big banks and insurance firms. I do propose that if we increase the public debt by another $700 Billion to $1 trillion we do it by spending on real physical infrastructure, creating green jobs and energy independence, a distributed and resilient power grid that will not be metered by the literal or philosophical descendants of T. Boone Pickens, Richard Cheney, or that madman in "There Will Be Blood" (I drink your milkshake!)

Alternative Viewpoint: What are we waiting for?

2008-10-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hello, blogosphere, my name is Susan and I recently met Soren at a fundraising event for Congressman Keith Ellison, one of the "Yes" votes for the Economic Rescue Package voted down in the house earlier this week. I just had a somewhat heated discussion with Soren in which he asserted that an economic meltdown is just what this country needs to snap us out of our current consumerist-driven catatonic state. I thought this somewhat callous and so I am posting this response in Soren's blog space, which he has generously agreed to share with me for the purpose.

I have read Congressman Ellison's defense of his vote on the "Bailout" package (don't think that the irony inherent in the extreme right and extreme left using the same loaded terminology to describe this measure is lost on me) and have accepted his vote as one of good faith, reflecting his understanding of the current economic situation, however flawed that may be, which I share. His stance was published in the Star Tribune Op Ed section, and can be read here: Keith Ellison's OpEd on the Bailout Package

There are several other Op-Ed columns in the Star Trib saying essentially the same thing: the bailout package, while far from ideal, was a good short-term measure to prevent economic collapse, despite being so unpalatable and so unpopular (I think the numbers showed a 75% disapproval rating from the voters). Ellison's vote and subsequent defense of it could be interpreted as an act of moral courage if it weren't so deplored by those on the left, right and center of the political spectrum. I would argue that if one were to look at this issue with a critical rather than a reactive and fearful eye the rescue package would seem less abominable. Indeed, it is nothing more or less than triage to a system that has been allowed to weaken as its regulations decay.

Soren has asserted that the whole damn system is a reflection of a perverted collective imagination, a fever-dream that has no real manifestation in reality. I again would counter with the reflection that people's homes, jobs and financial well-being, while perhaps not necessary for their survival (homeless people somehow manage to stay alive, after all) are nonetheless not something that should be discounted as frivolities that distract us on our path to Nirvana. People come home from work where they have spent all day earning "imaginary" money to pay their "fictional" mortgage so that their bosses portfolios gain a couple of points of "fabricated" value; people's lives revolve around the "lie" that is our collective economy but that does not mean that the economy does not affect people's health and well-being.

Mainstream society is against any sort of tax money going to protect the interests of Wall Street on principal because they have taken up the cry of both the right and the left: don't use our hard-earned tax money to interfere with the market just so that the very rich get off scott-free for screwing us over. In principal, I would have to agree but what mainstream society doesn't understand is that their day-to-day life is reliant upon the financial solvency of these banking Goliaths and however satisfying it would be to see them fall, they take us with them when they do. Soren may be looking forward to Bartertown but middle America sure as hell isn't.

Feingold voted against the bailout

2008-10-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

Senator Feingold on his no vote for the Bailout Bill:

I will oppose the Wall Street bailout plan because though well intentioned, and certainly much improved over the administration’s original proposal, it remains deeply flawed. It fails to offset the cost of the plan, leaving taxpayers to bear the burden of serious lapses of judgment by private financial institutions, their regulators, and the enablers in Washington who paved the way for this catastrophe by removing the safeguards that had protected consumers and the economy since the great depression. The bailout legislation also fails to reform the flawed regulatory structure that permitted this crisis to arise in the first place. And it doesn’t do enough to address the root cause of the credit market collapse, namely the housing crisis. Taxpayers deserve a plan that puts their concerns ahead of those who got us into this mess.

The Senate passed the bill and it is time to call your member of the U.S. House of Representatives and urge them not to bail out Wall Street speculators, but to genuinely stimulate the physical economy by investing in a new, green economy that will create jobs in the rust belt, in rural America, and end the round-trip trading schemes of the Enron failures that Wall Street foists on us year after year.

David Swanson on AfterDowning Street encourages you to call today: SAY NO AT 202-224-3121

Senator Bernie Sanders on the bailout

2008-09-21T08:24:00.000-07:00

Excerpt reposted from the website of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders - Op-Ed: Billions for Bailouts! Who Pays? -- 09/19/2008:

While the middle class collapses, the richest people in this country have made out like bandits and have not had it so good since the 1920s. The top 0.1 percent now earn more money than the bottom 50 percent of Americans, and the top 1 percent own more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. The wealthiest 400 people in our country saw their wealth increase by $670 billion while Bush has been president. In the midst of all of this, Bush lowered taxes on the very rich so that they are paying lower income tax rates than teachers, police officers or nurses.

Now, having mismanaged the economy for eight years as well as having lied about our situation by continually insisting, “The fundamentals of our economy are strong,” the Bush administration, six weeks before an election, wants the middle class of this country to spend many hundreds of billions on a bailout. The wealthiest people, who have benefited from Bush’s policies and are in the best position to pay, are being asked for no sacrifice at all. This is absurd. This is the most extreme example that I can recall of socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor.

In my view, we need to go forward in addressing this financial crisis by insisting on four basic principles:

(1) The people who can best afford to pay and the people who have benefited most from Bush’s economic policies are the people who should provide the funds for the bailout. It would be immoral to ask the middle class, the people whose standard of living has declined under Bush, to pay for this bailout while the rich, once again, avoid their responsibilities. Further, if the government is going to save companies from bankruptcy, the taxpayers of this country should be rewarded for assuming the risk by sharing in the gains that result from this government bailout.

Specifically, to pay for the bailout, which is estimated to cost up to $1 trillion, the government should:

a) Impose a five-year, 10 percent surtax on income over $1 million a year for couples and over $500,000 for single taxpayers. That would raise more than $300 billion in revenue;

b) Ensure that assets purchased from banks are realistically discounted so companies are not rewarded for their risky behavior and taxpayers can recover the amount they paid for them; and

c) Require that taxpayers receive equity stakes in the bailed-out companies so that the assumption of risk is rewarded when companies’ stock goes up.

(2) There must be a major economic recovery package which puts Americans to work at decent wages. Among many other areas, we can create millions of jobs rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure and moving our country from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energy. Further, we must protect working families from the difficult times they are experiencing. We must ensure that every child has health insurance and that every American has access to quality health and dental care, that families can send their children to college, that seniors are not allowed to go without heat in the winter, and that no American goes to bed hungry.

(3) Legislation must be passed which undoes the damage caused by excessive de-regulation. That means reinstalling the regulatory firewalls that were ripped down in 1999. That means re-regulating the energy markets so that we never again see the rampant speculation in oil that helped drive up prices. That means regulating or abolishing various financial instruments that have created the enormous shadow banking system that is at the heart of the collapse of AIG and the financial services meltdown.

(4) We must end the danger posed by companies that are “too big too fail,” that is, companies whose failure would cause systemic harm to the U.S. economy. If a company is too big to fail, it is too big to exist. We need to determine which companies fall in this category and then break them up. Right now, for example, the Bank of America, the nation’s largest depository institution, has absorbed Countrywide, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, and Merrill Lynch, the nation’s largest brokerage house. We should not be trying to solve the current financial crisis by creating even larger, more powerful institutions. Their failure could cause even more harm to the entire economy.

Rachel Maddow on Drill Baby Drill

2008-09-17T06:52:00.000-07:00

Rachel Maddow vs. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) on the Democratic bill that expands offshore petroleum exploration...

Drill Now or Impeach Now?

2008-09-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

A diary on Daily Kos by Meteor Blades discusses the Energy Plans to be considered by Congress in the coming days. A key piece of of information:

An unknown number of Republicans don't think even the House compromise package goes far enough on drilling. They would prefer to let the 27-year-old moratorium on most off-shore drilling expire on September 30. If it does, oil and gas drilling could theoretically occur as close as three miles off shore anywhere companies are willing to bid on a federal lease.

There is infinite opportunity for theater here where no resolution gives the Big Oil servants in Congress everything they want - an end to the off-shore drilling moratorium and no requirement to invest new federal oil revenue into renewable energy.

As soon as it becomes clear that this is their goal and the faux drama of the "Rebel Congress" seeking votes on energy plans hits peak pitch, maybe we should change the subject and quickly impeach somebody.

If you missed it, here is a fragment from the Washington Post article on the sex and drugs scandal in George W. Bush's Department of the Interior:

The report from Inspector General Earl E. Devaney contains fresh allegations about the practices at the beleaguered royalty-in-kind program of Interior's Minerals Management Service, which last year collected more than $4 billion worth of oil and natural gas from companies given contracts to tap energy on federal and Indian lands and offshore. The revelations come as Congress is set to consider opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and areas off the coast of Florida for drilling.

The royalty-in-kind program, based near Denver, allows energy companies to pay the government in oil and gas, rather than cash, for the privilege of drilling on government land. It has been the subject of multiple investigations since 2006 by the Interior Department's secretary, its inspector general, the Justice Department and Congress for alleged mismanagement and conflicts of interest.

In the report released yesterday, investigators said they "discovered a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" in which employees accepted gratuities "with prodigious frequency." The report cited one e-mail from a Shell Pipeline representative asking a woman in the royalty office to attend "tailgating festivities" at a Houston Texans football game: "You're invited . . . have you and the girls meet at my place at 6am for bubble baths and final prep. Just kidding."

Besides Shell, the energy company employees mentioned in the report worked for Chevron, Hess and Gary-Williams Energy. The social outings detailed in the report included alcohol-, cocaine- and marijuana-filled parties where certain employees of the Minerals Management Service were nicknamed the "MMS Chicks" by the energy employees. The companies paid for federal workers to attend football and baseball games, PGA Tour events, Colorado ski trips, paintball outings and "treasure hunts," investigators found.

Democrats who have opposed expanded drilling seized on the report as fodder for the debate. "This all shows the oil industry holds shocking sway over the administration and even key federal employees," said Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who supports more exploration offshore but not in Alaska. "This is why we must not allow Big Oil's agenda to be jammed through Congress."

We need to conserve energy, not expand drilling and deepen our dependence on petroleum. We also need an impeachment inquiry!

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RNC protest poetry

2008-09-10T13:05:00.000-07:00

I mentioned this in a previous post about the Coldsnap Cabaret benefit for RNC arrestee legal defense

Ruth's poem:

I've been looking for a cause
in strangers' bedrooms
the backrooms of dimly lit bars
and at every bus stop between here and the Mall of America

so far I've only found hoarse voices scratching at daylight
a few dirty coins
and my own broken heart

I've never been much of an activist
primarily believing in getting enough rest
and eating healthy
because even I know you can't fight if you're tired and hungry

So I've watched the events of this week with a lot of curiosity
I stayed up past 11
I started smoking again

It all began for me when I meant to go to a party last Friday night
and ended up outside this building
trying to avoid the glare of cameras and the gaze of the police line
and watching as much of the story as possible
emanate from the faces of people who hoped their country was better than this
hoped, but knowing better as
we watched the state's true colors surface

I went home and fell asleep reading what only can be described as chick lit
the kind of book where no one puts a gun in the face of a five year old
I ended up dreaming of shots fired
even though we had heard none
because we all know what sound a weapon makes
when it is only drawn

I felt edgy all weekend in a way I never had before
that kind of feeling when every layer of skin is screaming
something here is wrong

so I marched
and I chanted
and I started to believe that when we said
whose streets
our streets
that it included me

And then, the shit really started going down

and I thought
these protesters don't look like heroes
they just look like roadkill
the riot police don't look like they're protecting anyone
they just look like robots

what is the point of this?

because despite everything I do not believe that people are bad
or that ideas are bad
I believe it is actions that make us evil

but if you put a gun in the face of a child
you might as well put a gun in his hand
and you don't get to choose whose side he's on

I feel like I've got to choose whose side I'm on
and the police made it easier when they surrounded me in full riot gear
while I was riding my pink bicycle
First, they called me a liar
then they ran my I.D
looking me up and down like I'm some threat to national security
while they were the ones hiding in the bushes

No justice
No peace
whose streets...?

I wondered standing on the curb with a cigarette
watching yesterdays crowd become surrounded
while so many voices point out that this doesn't look like America
say they didn't think they'd ever see this our city
and the real cynics reply
get used it

I smash my smoke on the street like it's the state
wondering if the cops will turn their attention on me for littering
but the way things are looking
it doesn't matter
they are thinking
what's one more cigarette butt in the gutter
while in some countries they fill mass graves
like a chain smoker fills ashtrays

I'm trying not to make things worse

Some day, that will be us

and if you can believe it, I'm still not sure if I'm an activist

because I've been around enough to know that being secretly in love with an anarchist
does not make you one

still, I've narrowed down some causes that I think I could get behind
like picking up every penny i see on the ground until they're worth something and then taking us all out to dinner

my cause is to show up to work on time and sober
so i can teach little kids how to treat each other better

my cause is to take responsibility for every different place i wake up in
and to not keep love like a secret

my cause is to be honest about how these things do not necessarily constitute direct action or result in real change

but my cause is believe that these are direct action and real change

my cause is to keep one foot in reality while the power structure attempts destroy it
to keep my other foot
in the street.

If you cannot cross the border - stick around, overthrow the New World Order

2008-09-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

Friday night I attended the Coldsnap Cabaret Benefit for RNC Arrestees, which was billed as "Fabulous, sexy, and still family-friendly!". It was the first time I visited the Convergence Space, a site raided by Ramsey Co. Sheriff Bob Fletcher on Friday August 29th, and it was the most wonderful night of theatrical and musical entertainment I have experienced in a long time. It reminded me a lot of who I am and who I used to be. I wished from the moment the show began that I had someone to share it with - someone who once appreciated how I appear to be larger than life, someone I sat through so many lesser political events with, someone I wanted to tell my whole story to - someone I imagine needed to hear the call of the opening act, sung by a 7 year old named Nara:

What good is sitting alone in your room?
Come hear the music play.
Life is a Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.

Put down the knitting,
The book and the broom.
Time for a holiday.
Life is Cabaret, old chum,
Come to the Cabaret.

Come taste the wine,
Come hear the band.
Come blow your horn,
Start celebrating;
Right this way,
Your table's waiting

The event was MC'ed by a beautiful, bearded lady named "Jessie Sparkles", a lady Jesus in a tiara and combat boots, which seemed cosmically significant to me because the person I miss so much today is the person I have mythologized as "Lady Jesus" in part because of her name. I could have fallen in love with Jessie Sparkles though, or did for the rest of that evening.

A 70 year old poet named "Diamond Dave" followed, then an amazing poet by the name of Ruth Kohtz (the blond in the pic in this page), whose lines included:

looking for a cause in others' bedrooms...
I stayed up past eleven, I started smoking.

I am still not sure I am an activist, because I know being secretly in love with an anarchist does not make you one...

my cause is showing up to work sober

Stop being secretly in love! Seriously! Life is too short. If you still love me, call!

The Dapper Cadavers played an old Townes Van Zandt tune:

At some point Jessie Sparkles told a joke:

Why do anarchists drink only herbal tea?

Because property is theft!

And then Fanny Smack of Bench Press Burlesque performed a misfit striptease, waking up to an alarm clock ringing, slipping out of sweet pajamas and getting dressed up into a full black bicycle punk/anarchist uniform complete with petzl headlamp, while punctuating her progress with stockings and zippers with poses and pouts, then finally dancing about the room brandishing the components of a molotov cocktail. Before the RNC I would have found this alarming, an incitement to riot, afterwards, it seemed more like good natured satire of the media treatment and pervasive, out of control rumors.

An aging Vegas Showgirl performed hits from the DNC related anarchist gatherings, including a piece with a line that hits too close to home:

"If you cannot cross the border - stick around, overthrow the New World Order"

And the Nancy Drew Crew finished with one bad song I have heard on the Current, and one I hadn't heard but really liked, College, Inc. Education should be free!

The fundraiser raise more than $534 for Coldsnap Legal Collective and their work on behalf of the RNC arrestees. If you were arrested, contact them and attend one of their arrestee meetings. If you took photos or videos of the protests, Coldsnap lawyers may need them. There is another fundraiser at the Convergence Space tonight (Sunday, September 7th) a dinner for $10-15.

Dan Rather on the need for independent media

2008-09-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

...so-called "political debates" where the one thing that is sure not to happen is genuine debates, and where the questions that the public really cares about seldom if ever seem to get asked...

...international coverage that leaves the American public ignorant of the world outside our borders, unaware of its complexities and the ways that U.S. interests are bound with those of other nations - does the American news audience know, for one example - that the concern among foreign policy elites in this country over the situation in Georgia has everything to do with major gas and oil pipelines constructed there with U.S. backing against Russian protests?