Month: July 2006

…Economic lackeys and government minions will tell you that “greed is good” and that acting in self interest is beneficial the world over, but curiously enough, when you lay out the above line of logic, they will dismiss it as the “rants of a loser, pushing his own self-interests.” At least that’s what I have been told. I took it to mean that I was on the right track…

Click Here for More Related Commentary

Hey – that’s right. Real Money grows on trees! And you can grow more Real Money from Real Money. This doesn’t sound right does it? That’s because you should have taken the Red pill. We need to pinpoint your input/output carrier signal and transmogrify your brain.

Look, let’s start with the principles first. Suppose you decide to build a chocolate cake and you start with 5 pounds of Portland Cement. You don’t have to be Mister Wizard to see that all that follows will be bunk. All science is that way. If the fundamental, foundational assumptions are wrong then virtually everything that follows will be wrong. And so it is with money versus Real Money.

The barter system is, indisputably, humanity’s first, last, and only Natural money system. There is no other. And as such, it serves as a faithful yardstick with which we can measure the reliability of any other money system. This paper does not argue for a return to the barter system, but it is hard to deny that barter is a far simpler and more equitable system than that used by the US Federal Reserve Bank today.

Barter is what I call Real Money, because it’s … um, … real. When Smith trades Jones a bushel of wheat for a bushel of corn, economists tell us (it’s what they teach in college economics classes, no kidding !) that we have a “moneyless barter transaction”. That is such an inconceivably gross error that its hard not to view it as anything but an obvious attempt at deception.

In TRUTH, what we have in a barter transaction, is two sales and two purchases, in one concise, efficient, transparent, equitable transaction. Where is the money? The money is the corn and the wheat. In the barter system, commodities were used as money. Smith is using wheat AS money; Jones is using corn AS money. You can also use labor as money, and trade a days labor for a ton of bricks.

What we are forcibly trained to neglect is that the word “money” like the word “medicine” is a collective noun; you can use something AS medicine, just as you can use something AS money. You can use peaches AS food, AS medicine, or you can use them AS money – and you can grow more peaches from peaches. Throughout human history people have used all kinds of things AS money: seashells, rocks, beads, metals … even fancy engraved colored paper in some primitive societies . In the U.S., tobacco was used AS money for 200 years in Virginia and the leaves – until recently – decorated U.S. notes to attest to that fact (Were you wondering why the sudden need to change the layout of the dollar? This is a clue). That is to say, Virginia was happily on a successful barter system for a good long period – no problem.

Economic lackeys and government minions will tell you that “greed is good” and that acting in self interest is beneficial the world over, but curiously enough, when you lay out the above line of logic, they will dismiss it as the “rants of a loser, pushing his own self-interests.” At least that’s what I have been told. I took it to mean that I was on the right track.

One of the points that I hope to get straight here is the misguided claim by various groups and individuals around the world, that “you can’t grow money from money” and “money doesn’t grow on trees,” or they insist on a return to the gold standard. It’s clear to most that the Fed’s system functions only to the benefit of a few, but when people make such demands … well,… the Governmental Money Cabal has a good laugh and passes out the cognac and cigars. These claims are too simplistic to address. Their smugness is unjustified of course, but since the general public is so uneducated in this area, the Money Men and their system are never really challenged. And since their system is infinitely worse than the barter system — invented, as it was, over thousands of years by a bunch of inbred, criminally insane neolithic mutants — that smugness is an enormous, and even catastrophic, danger.

For a more level-headed assessment of the psychological state of the U.S. see:

• Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice
  http://psychoanalystsopposewar.org/
• Kurt Vonnegut
  http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article13659.htm   

If you are with me so far you should notice that notice a couple things become clear about the barter system: 

1) Anyone who produces a product or service is the potential creator of Real Money – it’s not the job of banks or governments to create it. Conversely people who produce no usable product or service (economists or politicians, for example) have no means to create Real Money and poverty is their lot.

2) Since Real Money is everything and anything, using gold and silver as money has a problem. Metals are PART of the system and a PART can never represent the WHOLE. When you are doing things like building space shuttles or rebuilding Moslem cities you have just nuked, you run out of gold and silver. A money system has to be larger than allowed by precious metals. If you question this then just try to figure out how much gold would be needed to pay roughly 3 billion paychecks each week. I won’t bother because I already know there is not enough gold – even at $1000 / ounce.

3) The barter system cannot collapse — has never collapsed.

4) There is such a thing as “excess money.” Notice that in the barter system, the designation of a product as “money” is ephemeral. One minute it’s money; the next minute it is NOT money; its food or medicine etc. There is such a thing as “excess money.” Nobody has ever addressed this conundrum, and I will continue that tradition here.

The system U.S. economists use today is “CREDIT;” they create money by lending it into existence (remember “monetize the debt” ?). For example – when you buy a house through a bank, the banker will hand the seller a check for the sales price, 90% of which money never existed before. It’s called “Fractional Reserve Lending” (google it!). Since most people are required to put 20% cash down on a house, banks have a virtually unlimited ability to create money from ether. There’s (obviously) a HUGE number of problems with that. Here are just a few:

1) It cripples the individual by taking money creation out of their hands and concentrating that power into the hands of a few fat vain domineering white men who then decide whether a white man, or a black man, or any minority, or a woman is “creditworthy.” Guess who always wins. (SEE: “Blacks And Hispanics Pay Higher Interest On Mortgages” June 1, 2006)

The same applies to ‘loans’ from one nation to another. Charging South American countries 26% interest for a “loan” of dollars that was simply invented by an American bank, is still not a crime in the US. Most manufacturers sell products that require time, labor and material to produce. Cars cannot be invented from nothing; groceries cannot be invented from nothing … but somehow money can . . . . and worse, . . . . exorbitant rates of interest are charged for this fictional money.

2) Credit is infinite; the world is not. Credit has its place, but to use unregulated credit as the whole of the circulating money system for a nation, can only be described as certifiably and criminally insane. Credit and Real Money are two different things and the currencies that result from them must logically be separated. For the more curious thinkers on this subject I recommend the story of John Law. The reason his scam failed was that there was, at that time, ANOTHER money system, an alternative, through which people could save themselves. Today, in what the Fed Boys consider a masterful stroke, that alternative has been utterly removed: the system “cannot” crash. (SEE: http://www.litrix.com/madraven/madne002.htm)

3) It avoids the term “fiat (issued on a whim) money” on a technicality, while maintaining all the negative traits of a fiat currency.

4) It guarantees that the most rapacious projects will be funded by considering profitability as the ONLY deciding factor for a loan — and thus for money creation. Given the choice between lending to a company that will cut down the entire Amazon rain forest (mucho profits) or lending to a community for a school (nil profits), it’s the school that will always lose to the profitability of the rain forest. So the deforestation MUST continue (because we HAVE to have money circulating) while schools and other civic projects will always need to be funded by money already in circulation — a permanent handicap. Since the system requires circulating money from somewhere, there must always be those onerous devastating businesses to create it.

5) The standard refrain is: “Barter is too complex and there’s no wiggle room” but that is exactly what is wrong with the credit money system: it is infinitely more complex than barter, and there is way too much wiggle room for bankers, who essentially do as they please.

6) Real Money is everything. Your house, your cows, your labor, your trees, your jewelry — all can be used as Real Money. So managing Real Money becomes a strategy: If you store gold, it will keep its value better that storing tobacco; chickens grow and multiply; gold does not,- and so on. So to use a system of credit to turn out generic one-size-fits-all notes called “money” cannot help but present problems.

And the REAL problem is that people who have credit money in the bank think they are rich when only the inverse is true; credit money is debt and offers no security whatsoever. 

There’s more, much more, but you get the gist . . . none of the benefits that can be found in the barter system can be found in today’s Credit Money because the fundamentals of the recipe is wrong. If you want a chocolate cake, then don’t start with 5 pounds of cement.

Written by J. Walter Plinge [send him email] who is a writer / researcher / monetary theorist / plumber / electrician, and a U.S. refugee living in France. He says: “20 years after I got my MFA in art, I realized I was more interested in writing.” Walter is a regular contributor to www.populistamerica.com

Call to Action: August 6-9, 2006

From Hiroshima to Yucca Mountain to the Middle East: Stop Bechtel

NO NUKES! NO WARS! NO PROFITEERS! Support Indigenous Rights!

Between August 6 and 9, the anniversaries of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, demand an end to the war in Iraq, no military attacks on Iran or North Korea, and the global abolition of nuclear weapons, starting with our own. This year, we call on groups to protest at the corporate offices of Bechtel, the world’s number-one nuclear profiteer, and at nuclear facilities everywhere. Sixty-one years after the U.S. killed tens of thousands of civilians by dropping nuclear bombs on two densely populated cities, our aim is to expose the continuing hypocrisy of the U.S. nuclear double standard and to directly confront the U.S. corporations who are perpetuating and profiting from a worldwide nuclear crisis and the war in Iraq.

August 9 has also been declared by the United Nations as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. Indigenous peoples have often borne the brunt of nuclear devastation. In the United States alone, Native Americans have seen their land stolen to build nuclear infrastructure, mined for uranium, and bombed with test weapons; the U.S. government continues to push forward with plans to store massive amounts of highly radioactive waste beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada, a site sacred to the Western Shoshone. We have an opportunity to make the connections between nuclear proliferation and attacks on indigenous rights.

WHY BECHTEL

Bechtel Corporation is a leading beneficiary of the Iraq war and corporate globalization policies. Bechtel “connects the dots” for the anti-war, anti-nuke and global justice movements. Through its 100 years of revolving-door relationships with government, Bechtel illustrates the connections between corporate profiteering and war, between nuclear power and nuclear weapons proliferation, between “free trade” and the exploitation of indigenous peoples, and between corporate power-brokers and decision-makers at the highest levels of government. Click here for more background.

More Info on what YOU can do in your area

here are two Bay Area actions at the Lawrence Livermore Labs & Bechtel Corp’s HQ:

Mark the UN International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and the anniversaries of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by demanding an end to nuclear weapons and war.

At Bechtel and Livermore nuclear weapons lab we will support the sovereignty and dignity of indigenous people around the world and call for the global abolition of nuclear weapons and the end to the war in Iraq.

Sunday, August 6, the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima:
Ritual and Nonviolent Action at Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab:

Speakers include author and media critic Norman Soloman and a Hibakusha (Hiroshima Survivor), Keiji Tsuchiya. The event will also feature the music of Francisco Herera and Ras K’Dee.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is one of the three national laboratories that act as the brain of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, which today is modernizing and developing new nuclear weapons to support U.S. wars of empire.

Wednesday, August 9, the UN International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples and the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, Bechtel HQ in SF:

Bechtel is a violator of indigenous rights, and nuclear weapons profiteer. Ceremony will be led by Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney.

Speakers include Hibakusha Keiji Tsuchiya and author Antonia Juhasz.

On the morning of the 9th there will be a Sunrise Ceremony, and in the evening a teach-in and discussion session will be held at New College

Bechtel has recently partnered with the University of California to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory, another key nuclear weapons facility, and will most likely bid for Lawrence Livermore. Bechtel is one of the top profiteers of the war in Iraq and one of the world’s top nuclear profiteers, built upon an extensive history of abusing indigenous populations for profit.

More Info

It was a tragedy that I couldn’t attend BlogHer. The conference took place a 40 minute drive away (San Jose), and I knew some people who were going. Unfortunately, I don’t drive, and I just can’t afford the transportation and hotel costs right now. I had thus reconciled myself to the fact BlogHer was out of my reach, and I planned to spend the weekend twiddling with Breakingranks.net and catching up on Jamal Dajani’s Middle East Intelligence Report.
At the very last minute, Mary Hodder, the braininess behind Dabble offered me a ride to the BlogHer reception. While I wasn’t actually registered for the conference, I got to check out this small part of it.

Just the ride to San Jose was an education. I shared a ride Sylvia Paull, who runs the Berkeley CyberSalon. I’ve lived in Berkeley since 1992, and I’ve been working and playing in “cyberspace” for almost as long,   but I’d never actually hooked into Berkeley’s vast community of bloggers, web developers, and tech entrepreneurs. I guess I’m too much of a geek to even go out and meet other geeks. 😉 Anyway, Sylvia made a special effort to invite me to all her Happenings. She’s at the top of the list of Thank You Notes I have to write today.

The BlogHer reception was a lot of fun. At first I was worried, because I didn’t see anyone I knew, but I didn’t want to hang all over Mary, either. Fortunately, I literally bumped right into Susan Getgood, an energetic marketing blogger. Since the flipside of my rage against the corporate machine is engagement with a lot of PR and marketing folk, I actually knew Susan. And since Susan is naturally gregarious, she introduced me to a few new people, most notably tsunami-blogger Evelyn Rodriguez.

I also admit to snitching some of the free wine. Hopefully BlogHer’s lawyer’s won’t come after me. 😉

Mary was staying for the conference, so I got a ride home with one of the new forces behind Our Media, Lisa Padilla. I at least knew Mary through participating in her Dabble beta and soliciting her opinions on rankism in the blogosphere. I’d never met Lisa at all, but she was extremely warm and friendly, and we found a lot to talk about.

The last kindness of the night had nothing to do with BlogHer or blogging. Lisa dropped me off at the Millbrae BART (train) station, which was closest to her house. There I discovered, thanks to my apparent inability to read a train schedule, the last train had already left for the night.

Thus, I found myself in Millbrae at 1am. I had no cellphone, and no one to call even if I had one (nope – didn’t even get Lisa’s card before she dropped me off). I had six dollars and my pocket. I also had a credit card, but taking a cab back to Berkeley would have cost me more than spending the weekend at BlogHer. 🙁 I had exactly six dollars in my pocket.

The BART station agent was then kind enough to point out that there was a popular 24-hour restaurant, Peter’s Cafe, right beside the BART station. While I questioned whether I still had the ability to pull an all-nighter at my age, I decided to give it a shot.

Apparently the staff at Peter’s Cafe has seen this situation before, because they were all very sweet and gave me a whole pot of coffee. I just settled in with the book I had luckily brought with me to read on the train (a translation of The Peony Pavilion, if anyone is interested).

I ordered something called a “Baby Pancake”, which was really the equivalent of a whole apple pie. I was only able to eat a quarter of it the entire five hours I spent there. I recommend it as a special treat if anyone else finds themselves trapped in Millbrae.

I ultimately made it home during the wee hours of Saturday morning. I then slept most of the day, and I wasn’t really functioning on all cylinders on Sunday, either. Now I’m back  in gear, though, and ready to follow up with all the cool people I met at the BlogHer reception.

All of these people were previously strangers to me. I was able to go to the BlogHer reception not through the kindness of one person, but the kindness of many. That sort of thing really renews my faith in the human spirit.  

A twist on my front-paged post over at DailyKos. A few exclusive images from the campaign trail for the green to enjoy before anyone else. They’re at the bottom of the entry!

All spin completely aside, I’d be lying if I said anyone has the faintest idea of what will happen next Tuesday.  There is no reliable likely voter model, so you can throw all polls out the window.  That’s part of the reason you see such a big difference between the Q-Poll, Rasmussen, and internal polling by each campaign.

The only thing we have control over is our GOTV operation.  And for the next eight days, it all comes down to one thing…

Votes.
Fortunately, Senator Lieberman’s campaign has made it easy to predict their next move.  You simply take what they accuse Ned of, and assume that is part of their campaign strategy.  For their latest jedi/rovian mind trick, they are the ones literally attempting to purchase this election now.

Since July 20, Senator Lieberman has collected nearly $100,000 a day, contributed by those who profit from war, high gas prices and expensive prescription drugs.  That’s who is paying for their latest tactic: hiring 4,000 staffers (at $60 a day) who will pour into CT from out-of-state, spearheading their field operation.  

Do the math… you can afford a lot of things when you’re campaign has raised $10 million dollars so far.

The New Haven Register article this morning was telling.  Sean Smith (Joe’s campaign manager) indicated they only have 200 staff and volunteers signed up with the campaign.  That’s pretty poor when you compare it to the thousands from within CT alone who have signed up to help on our website.

<u>Contribute</u&gt
That field operation costs money, and we are turning to you one last time to not only fund, but staff our effort.  Between you and I, I would have never guess just how damn expensive running such a massive ground operation actually is.  And remember, Ned will personally match all contributions made online between now and August 8.

<u>Getitng Involved in the Field Campaign</u&gt
If you are in Connecticut, please call up one of our many field offices to get involved.  There are daily canvasses and phone banks going on from now until next Tuesday evening.  If you call ahead, the office will prepare meaningful work for your arrival.

<u>From Nearby CT</u&gt
If you are from out of the area, start to consider coming down to the CT this weekend and staying through the election.  I am working along with FDLer “Christina” to compile a handy web-page that includes local hotel listings and upcoming events taking place in the area of field offices throughout the state.

<u>Family, Friends and Neighbors</u&gt
Finally, the “Family, Friends and Neighbor” campaign.  So far, thousands of postcards have been sent — it has been a very effective tool in furthering our focus on person-to-person communication.  But we can push it even further.

We need people to forward the tool to their own family, friends and neighbors — even if you personally don’t know anyone in Connecticut.  Maybe they do?  Maybe they’ll forward it to friends that know people here?  Bottom line, the use of these two tools is critical to the campaign’s success.

1.) Send a Postcard to family, friends or neighbors inside CT (link)

2.) Invite your personal networks to use the family, friends and neighbor tool. (link)

<u>Local Field Offices</u&gt

1st Congressional District
Tina Harrington – 860 523 9238 operations@nedlamont.com

Hartford Office
1339 Albany Avenue
Hartford, CT 06112

West Hartford Office
901 Farmington Ave
West Hartford, CT 06119

2nd Congresional District
Katie Martin – 860 456 1316 fyntail@yahoo.com

New London Office
154 Hempstead St
New London, CT 06320

Willimantic Office
713 Main St
Willimantic, CT 06226

3rd Congressional District
Eddie Vale – 203 772 2405 eddie.vale@gmail.com

New Haven Office
205 Church St., Suite 501
New Haven, CT 06510

4th Congressional District
Ryan McLeod – 203 979 6094rmcleod@nedlamont.com

Norwalk Office
91 North Main St
Norwalk, CT 06854

5th Congressional District
Rachel Koteen – 860 274 4957 rkoteen@gmail.com

Watertown Office
659 Main St.
Watertown, CT 06795

In case you missed it, over the weekend the AP issued a weather forecast, for this week, next month, and the rest of your life.

The AP likes to keep it factual and punchy, if not short and sweet.  So here it is:

For the next week, much of the nation should expect more “extreme heat,” the National Weather Service predicts.

_In the month of August, most of the United States will see “above normal temperatures,” forecasters say.

_For the long-term future, the world will see more and worse killer heat waves because of global warming, scientists say.

After that, you might be inclined to look for stories about Scarlett Johansson, or American Idol (although given the above news, I can’t believe people find much comfort in the statistic the Idolateers are fond of spreading around, that more people voted for the current Idol winner than ever voted for a President of the U.S.) But some of the details might answer your questions about what’s really going on, which suggests what we really should be doing.
 
And since then, more hot news: More than 60 percent of the United States now has abnormally dry or drought conditions, stretching from Georgia to Arizona and across the north through the Dakotas, Minnesota, Montana and Wisconsin, said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

Today(Monday), power grid operators are predicting record-breaking power use in the Midwest as a result of the heat.

So what is going on? No, climatologists aren’t blaming this particular heat wave on global warming, at least not exactly.

Heat waves and global warming “are very strongly” connected, said Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis branch chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. The immediate cause of the California heat wave — and other heat waves — is day-to-day weather, he said.

But what they can say is that global warming contributes to every heat wave, including this one, by changing general characteristics. For example, “what global warming has done is make the nights warmer in general and the days drier, which help turn merely uncomfortably hot days into killer heat waves, Trenberth said.”

And this is turning out to be a major lesson in what we need to do to cope with the Climate Crisis, because:

…recent studies in the past five years show that climate change is at its most dangerous during Extreme events, such as high temperatures, droughts and flooding, he said. “These (heat) events always occur. What global warming does is push it up another notch,” Trenberth said.

Which brings us to the longer term forecasts.

…the computer models show that soon, we’ll get many more — and hotter — heat waves that will leave the old Dust Bowl records of the 1930s in the dust, said Ken Kunkel, director of the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Illinois State Water Survey.

This is today’s reason for why we have to get beyond Climate Crisis denial and get to work on both aspects of it. First, fix it: when you know what’s likely to happen, you can prepare for it (even if it doesn’t happen, wouldn’t that be better that getting caught unprepared?) Scientists are telling us to prepare for worse and more frequent heat waves. We need to use what we’re learning in this one and what we’ve learned in the past to prepare for the next ones, and to fix whatever can be fixed–in public health, in energy distribution,etc–that looks like a problem.

For example, many if not most of the 150+ people who’ve died due to this month’s heat wave were elderly, living alone. The Mayor of Fresno said the realization of this has turned his entire city “into one big Neighborhood Watch.” So fixes don’t have to be high tech or expensive or even all that complicated. Though some of them are going to be, like dealing with flooding problems in places like Bombay with the more frequent and much more intense rainstorms that overwhelm the infrastructure.

While we get serious and fix it, we simultaneously need to do what we need to do to stop it–to stop even worse heating, even worse heat waves, droughts, storms, and finally a runaway shift in the earth’s climate that could make the planet unrecognizeable. We can debate the means–is the alliance announced today between England and California on trading carbon emissions going to work?  But at this point, addressing the problem is the necessary first step in responsible governance.

 Is it too late? We’re going to try to fix it anyway, so why not try to get ahead of it and do it right? As for stopping it, if it isn’t too late it soon will be, so if we are going to have any chance, we’d better get on it.

Besides, what are you going to tell your grandchildren–we thought we couldn’t stop it, so we didn’t even try?

Al Hunt, you’re a wanker. Here’s how you described Lieberman:

The 64-year-old incumbent’s considerable charm, genuine humor and independent integrity are assets in his home state as well as among political colleagues…Joe Lieberman is a thoroughly decent, intelligent, compassionate public figure with a solid, three-term record of supporting mostly liberal positions on the environment, civil rights and social issues such as abortion and gay marriage.

Here is how you described Ned Lamont:

This contest is intense, irrationally so, with Lieberman’s opponent a heretofore obscure wealthy aristocrat named Ned Lamont…

Other than family and a few friends, however, no one in Connecticut will vote for or against Ned Lamont. The question is whether you’re for or against Lieberman.

At least you didn’t call Ned a wife beater. You used your column to make a bunch of shitty arguments. Let’s start with your central claim, that Joe Lieberman is a “thouroughly decent…compassionate public figure.” Why don’t we ask Michael Shiavo about that?

Not only did Joe Lieberman support the illegal political intervention in the private and legally protected decisions of my family, he went out of his way to defend it. On national television.

So when I thought about going to Connecticut to remind voters what Joe Lieberman really thinks about family values and personal privacy, I didn’t have to think too long.

I can see why “decency” and “compassion” are not the first adjectives Michael Schiavo thinks of when he pictures Joe Lieberaman. “Indecent” and “shameless” probably are closer to the mark. And that’s a crucial factor in why Lieberman’s position on the war is so grating. It’s one thing to have advocated the invasion of Iraq before Dick Cheney ever officially did so, it’s another to say that it is going well. No other Democrat in the country has that record.

Here’s the thing, Al. The war in Iraq is an unmitigated disaster. In fact, the whole Middle East is a disaster. And it’s Joe Lieberman’s fault. It’s not just Joe Lieberman’s fault. It’s the fault of anyone that has enabled the Bush administration’s neo-conservative foreign policy. How many of those enablers have been floated as possible replacements for Donald Rumsfeld? Only Joe. Why on fuck’s earth would anyone that opposes the neo-conservative agenda vote for Joe Lieberman? And here is another thing about the debacle in the desert. It ain’t decent and it ain’t compassionate. It’s a slaughter, and the architects of the slaughter are butchers. Now anyone can make a mistake. But to look at the carnage in Iraq and say things are going well is like looking at Dunkirk and giving the British generals the Medal of Freedom. Actually, it’s worse than that. It’s like looking at Darfur and saying things are going well.

No decent and compassionate person would say the following:

There are many more cars on the streets, satellite television dishes on the roofs, and literally millions more cell phones in Iraqi hands than before. All of that says the Iraqi economy is growing. And Sunni candidates are actively campaigning for seats in the National Assembly. People are working their way toward a functioning society and economy in the midst of a very brutal, inhumane, sustained terrorist war against the civilian population and the Iraqi and American military there to protect it.

Now, Al, here’s another thing. What we just read is dishonest. And being dishonest makes you a liar. So, I have a problem with what you wrote here:

This person [Lieberman] isn’t recognizable in reading critics such as the left-wing blogs, where “liar” is one of the nicer epithets. “How can any true Democrat vote for this guy?” asks one blog of the three-term senator.

Why wouldn’t we call him a liar. He went to Iraq and came back and lied about what he saw there. So, he’s a liar and some left-wing bloggers call him a liar because he lies. He also lies about Ned Lamont, but that’s another issue and mostly about politics, not people’s lives. Here’s another thing Joe said:

I am disappointed by Democrats who are more focused on how President Bush took America into the war in Iraq almost three years ago, and by Republicans who are more worried about whether the war will bring them down in next November’s elections, than they are concerned about how we continue the progress in Iraq in the months and years ahead.

First of all, I don’t think we can continue with much more of this “progress”, Al. Any more progress and we could really be in trouble. But, how do you think it makes me feel to watch Harry Reid shut down the Senate to try to get some answers about how “President Bush too America into the war uttter disaster in Iraq”, and then have to read Joe Lieberman tell me he is disappointed about that decision?

I’m a Democrat, Al, as I know you are. I don’t take kindly to having ubiquitous Senators going around stepping on the leader’s message. It matters how we went to war because the war has no moral legitimacy because it was based on lies. Conscious, deliberate lies. There’s an investigation in the Intelligence Committee about it. It’s being stonewalled past the midterms. Joe likes that idea. Most Democrats don’t.

And then there is your whole take on the Clintons.

A Lieberman loss also poses a dilemma for the party’s 2008 presidential front-runner, Hillary Clinton. She supports Lieberman in the primary and says she’ll back the winner of that race in the general election. The New York Democrat is walking a delicate line between the party’s factions, assailing the Bush administration’s handling of the war while opposing a firm withdrawal schedule.

Here a clue for you, Al. Take a look at the latest Daily Kos straw poll. Hillary got beat by Feingold 38%-2%. Two percent, Al. Why do you think that is? Because she is Jewish? No, it’s because she refuses to accept reality about Iraq. Iraq is a lost cause, Al. Lieberman and his crazy friends kicked Humpty Dumpty off the wall. Hillary had a hand in that, too. Democrats have taken notice. Hillary’s problem is already here. If it gets worse after Lieberman loses, it will only because we have a new target in a blue state that just doesn’t get it.

You quote this egghead, Al:

“A Lieberman loss is very bad for Democrats; it says we are one dimension on Iraq,” says Peter Hart, a top Democratic polltaker. “Politically, Iraq should be a debate about the Bush administration. A Lieberman defeat detracts from that.”

Peter Hart is a wanker, Al. He doesn’t even make any sense. It’s hard to make the debate about the Bush administration when Joe is going on the Sean Hannity Show and Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and making Bush’s case for him. Why is that hard to understand?

Joe is a funny guy who has a nice smile, a nice family, and is progressive on many issues. His hands are also drenched in blood. He hasn’t apologized, he hasn’t called for the resignation of anyone. How can I give him any credit for protesting the Vietnam War when he abuses principled opponents of the Mess’o potamia?

You can’t advocate the invasion of another country, not care that it is justified with lies, not care that it is going badly, lie about it going well, and complain when you are criticized for it. A compassionate person would not advocate shock and awe on an innocent population. A decent person wouldn’t tolerate being lied into a war that kills tens of thousands of innocent people.

In the beltway, wars like Iraq are thought of like errant golf drives. But we can’t get a mulligan on this one. We never should have listened to people like Joe Lieberman and gone into Iraq. There are no reasons to listen to Joe now, or for six more years. It wouldn’t be a “decent, intelligent, compassionate” thing to do.

Al Hunt, you are just one more pundit permanently brainwashed by cocktail frankfurters. If you want to understand compassion then ask yourself what the following people would think of Joe Lieberman: Jesus, Buddha, Ghandi, Bishop Tutu, the Dalai Lama, the Pope, Martin Luther King, Jr. We admire those people for a reason, Al. And they don’t think starting wars for no good reason is something decent people should do. They’d all vote against Joe Lieberman…which should tell you something.

at the cash resisters of those companies that donate money to them.

Illinois residents: Call the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s office in Batavia, Illinois at 630-406-1114. Get everyone of your friends, coworkers and everyone you meet to call Speaker Hastert’s District office in Batavia, Illinois. Tell him to get congress to enact unamended legislation to increase the minimum wage to TEN DOLLARS AN HOUR or you will boycott products from Republican contributors Dell Computers, Walmart, Wendy’s, Outback Steak House, Dominos Pizza, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Eckerd, CVS and Walgreens, Curves for women health clubs, General Electric and Exxon/Mobil in his congressional district.

Call the Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert’s office in Batavia, Illinois at 630-406-1114. Get everyone of your friends, coworkers and everyone you meet to call Speaker Hastert’s District office in Batavia, Illinois. Tell him to get the repeal of HR 1/S 1 of 2003 the so called Medicare Modernization act which created Medicare Part D the meager faulty prescription drug discount with a means test in 2006 also includes a means testing of the doctors visit benefit in Medicare Part B in 2007 ( yes part B! )  and demand he get congress and the president to enact a simple prescription drug benefit of 80 percent coverage in medicare part B with no extra premiums, deductibles, means tests, no coverage gap and no late sign up penalty and also demand a roll back of the Medicare Part B premium to 78 dollars a month for 2007 or you will boycott products from Republican contributors Eckerd, CVS and Walgreens in his congressional district and in the rest of illinois.

Then call the local store or franchise of these companies and tell the manager that unless you can get the CEO of the company to get the Speaker of the house to get the legislation mentioned above enacted into law, you will never set foot in their store or franchise again or buy products from those companies again.

If the myspace group appears busy and unreachable you can still take action at

http://www.dmocrats.org

I invite you to join the Liberal Democratic Party of the United States of America

http://groups.myspace.com/liberaldemocraticpartyoftheunitedstatesofamerica

Need stamps? Click the stamp I designed. Yes it appears real postage.

 In Saturday’s diary, Being an Atheist in America, I wrote that I would be attending a talk by the president of the American Humanist Association that afternoon, and raised the issue of bigotry against Humanists, Atheists, and Freethinkers in the United States. Yesterday, in The War on Secular Humanism, I shared part of my transcript of the event. That portion focused on the way the right wing spokespeople seem to have all gotten on the same page with their terminology. I have now completed my transcript of Saturday’s event, and you can find the whole thing here. Below the jump, I will share some of what came up in the question and answer section, dealing with the Humanist groups experience in trying to get media coverage.

Question from the audience:  I asked myself driving here today, why am I going to this meeting? I’ve been a Humanist probably for 10 years, and my concern is, no one knows about this organization. If this article hadn’t appeared in the Columbus Dispatch on Friday–and I had another appointment this afternoon, but I gave that up to come here, because I’m really concerned about this organization from the standpoint, nobody knows about it! Now, we’ve got a fallout from churches that is enormous. We don’t realize how many people don’t go every Sunday, because it’s not measured. I’ve measured it in my community, and I know about where that is (but I’ve been in marketing all my life, and I can do some of those things.)

Now, how do we get the word out. Well,  why in the world, if this organization has been in business now for years,  in the Faith and Values section of the Columbus Dispatch, where your article was–why don’t we have every week have a column in there? Why isn’t somebody contributing on the local level? Because, unless you do that, this national level is all beautiful and everything–fight the big fight–but that’s not where your effectiveness of this organization is going to be.  It’s local politics that’s important, and it always has been. This is an organization that has tremendous merit, and there’s a lot of opportunity out there for recruitment.

Amy Birtcher, President of the Humanist Community of Central Ohio: I appreciate your comment about not knowing about our group. That’s one of the reasons we were so excited to have Mr. Lipman come this summer, so that we could sort of “use him” if you will (laughter) as a way of promoting our group as well. We have been in the community, we’ve been a chapter of AHA since 1979, and we do advertise monthly. All of our meetings, which are public, are advertised in all of the local newspapers, in the datebook columns,  on the  lists of calendar events and so forth. We also have members who actively write to the newspaper, and list the Humanist Community of Central Ohio as their affiliation.

One of the things that I would urge some of you to do, since you mentioned the lack of publicity or lack of knowledge about us, is to contact Mark Fisher. Mark Fisher (mfisher at dispatch.com) is the editor of the Faith and Values section of the Columbus Dispatch. And I have made myself known to him on a couple of different occasions, I’ve given him my contact information, I’ve expressed to him a desire to have a voice in the Faith and Values section of the newspaper, and he’s not been very responsive to that so far. If members of the community would contact him, or contact other editors or writers of in religious section, and ask for information about Humanism, and ask for there to be more focus on this aspect of our community, maybe they would be more responsive.

Melvin Lipman: Just to add to what Amy said about getting in the papers, it’s difficult. A lot of papers just don’t want to give us room. And that’s the reason I’m traveling 30 to 40 weekends a year to different locations, because, for some resaon, when a national figure comes in, they feel, maybe we’ll get the publicity. And once you get in, it’s easier to continue to get in to the papers.

Amy Birthcher: Can I make one more statement real quick? We had a press conference yesterday for Mr. Lipman, and I sent out about 29 press packets. I contacted 21 newspapers in the greater metropolitan area, I contacted the four major T.V. stations, four radio stations, and invited them to come to this press conference. No one came. (Wow.)

Melvin Lipman: I was telling Amy that the record that we’ve had on press conferences around the country is two. The average is about 1/4.

I’m not a computer geek so I don’t know what to make of this story, but it sure sounds bad:

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — “This may be the worst security flaw we have seen in touch screen voting machines,” says Open Voting Foundation president, Alan Dechert. Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside, the machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and certified version.

“Diebold has made the testing and certification process practically irrelevant,” according to Dechert. “If you have access to these machines and you want to rig an election, anything is possible with the Diebold TS — and it could be done without leaving a trace. All you need is a screwdriver.” This model does not produce a voter verified paper trail so there is no way to check if the voter’s choices are accurately reflected in the tabulation.

Open Voting Foundation is releasing 22 high-resolution close up pictures of the system. This picture, in particular, shows a “BOOT AREA CONFIGURATION” chart painted on the system board.

The most serious issue is the ability to choose between “EPROM” and “FLASH” boot configurations. Both of these memory sources are present. All of the switches in question (JP2, JP3, JP8, SW2 and SW4) are physically present on the board. It is clear that this system can ship with live boot profiles in two locations, and switching back and forth could change literally everything regarding how the machine works and counts votes. This could be done before or after the so-called “Logic And Accuracy Tests”.

A third possible profile could be field-added in minutes and selected in the “external flash” memory location, the interface for which is present on the motherboard.

This is not a minor variation from the previously documented attack point on the newer Diebold TSx. To its credit, the TSx can only contain one boot profile at a time. Diebold has ensured that it is extremely difficult to confirm what code is in a TSx (or TS) at any one time but it is at least theoretically possible to do so. But in the TS, a completely legal and certified set of files can be instantly overridden and illegal uncertified code be made dominant in the system, and then this situation can be reversed leaving the legal code dominant again in a matter of minutes.

“These findings underscore the need for open testing and certification. There is no way such a security vulnerability should be allowed. These systems should be recalled”

More is explained in DocGonzo’s diary at Daily Kos.

(Cont.)

Geeks know that this insecurity means anyone can use a common keychain “thumbdrive” to start the machine, run any software they want to mess with its data, and walk away without leaving a trace. The thumbdrive can include big complex software to juggle voting data according to formulas that make the changes hard to detect. Those thumbdrives can be networked, even over mobile phones, to run districtwide or nationwide “tweaks” that don’t raise eyebrows too much when compared with overall voting patterns, exit polls, other evidence of the actual public will.

A bad guy can walk up to a machine after the votes are collected, reboot it from their keychain, cheat the election results, shut down and walk away in a few minutes. It might even be possible to start in a few seconds, shut down any displays, walk away while the cheat software works, then just return a few minutes later to unplug and get away.

As they say in the vernacular “Holy Hard Drive, Batman!” Looks like a big smoking gun to me. What say you more computer literate types?

Election Integrity

Diebold

Election Fraud

Election Reform

Electronic Voting Machines

Computers

I am against the Israeli-Lebanese war on every count.  I have no interest in the idea of who started it.  Bush and his boisterous Bunch can claim Hezbollah the enemy, the bearers of barbaric gifts.  I see no difference between the bombs this grass-roots organized front drops and those heat-seeking missiles that Israel launches.  Many throughout the globe are blaming Israel for over-reacting, myself among these.  Others question this “truth;” they say Hezbollah, Hamas, the Syrians, and or the Lebanese are at fault.  As far as I am concerned, they too are responsible.

Nevertheless, this treatise is not meant to promote a discussion about the battles brewing in the Middle East.  My choice is to look within, at wars in America.
For me, any brutal battle on any field is troublesome.  I find what is going on in this nation disquieting.  What might we be building up to, what do we believe, and why do our actions belie our said truth?  

I believe, every human being that accepts war as an option must look at this decision.  Yes, they can rationalize, intellectualize, justify, and blame.  Still I ask, “What good does that do?”  Will our verbal prophecies bring about peace?  Will discussions of what is happening abroad end these futile feuds? Half-hearted attempts at diplomacy are that.  The leaders of this nation have no interest in changing what is; if they had, they might start at home!  I see no evidence of tranquility in America; yet we ask those in other nations to do as we do not.

I surmise if we support one war or another, then we back them all.  America is at war and I am not speaking of the war on terrorism.  Religiously we are ridiculously hypocritical.  Racially, we uphold policies that discriminate.  United States citizens profess a belief in equality; yet, they advance a society of the classes and the masses. We are duplicitous or self-deceiving.  In this exposé, I intend to discuss sanctimonious attitudes towards religion and race.

I am too overwhelmed to write great prose.  In this post, I am only going to offer headlines and short snippets from various articles.  I am asking for a dialogue, not a debate.  I disdain the idea of “I win, you lose.”  I loathe the concept of “correct,” political, or otherwise.  The intent to prove another wrong for me is wasteful.  What do we learn when our eyes and ears are closed.  I abhor when words are wielded as weapons.  I want no wars here or anywhere!

I ask only that you read, reflect, and state/share your beliefs.  I crave a caring community and hope that in seeing the errors of our own ways we might choose to empathize with all others.  I yearn for communities where people accept one another, honor the differences, learn from other cultures, and co-habit in harmony.  However, this is not what I see.  I observe people posturing, stating that they are working towards peace.  Please, pray tell, where, how, and when?

Intentionally, I offer no articles on the combat across the sea.  I want Americans to look into the mirror and see what exists daily in this nation.  Peruse as you might.  Ponder if you wish.  Conclude as you choose.  I will share my deduction.  This is America, a land supposedly founded on the principle that all men are created equal.  I do not see this conviction applied.  I see only rampant racism and religious bigotry.  I observe intolerance everywhere, here, in the “United” States of America!

* Gibson apologizes for driving drunk, ranting at police, By Sandy Cohen.  The Associated Press. Sunday, July 30, 2006

The Sheriff’s Department has refused to release either Gibson’s mug shot or the report of the arresting officer, Deputy James Mee.  According to Mee’s report, Gibson berated and threatened the deputy in an expletive-filled tirade.

“The Passion of the Christ” director also made anti-Semitic remarks, according to the Web site. Mee’s report, according to the Web site, quotes Gibson as saying, among other things, “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”

The report of Gibson’s outburst struck some people who were already wary of what they saw as anti-Semitic overtones of “The Passion of the Christ” and who believe he has failed to disassociate himself clearly enough from remarks by his father denying the Holocaust.

In this country, we are shocked that a man made more famous by exploiting Christianity and promoting and anti-Semitic sentiments might be drunk with anger.  We cannot imagine that such a soul would blurt out his hatred of Jews.  Yet, has he not chosen to do so successfully for years?  Did he not make millions for denigrating a race, a religion, or an ethnicity?  He did, and with the blessing of the American people.  God was truly on Mel’s side, or so he and his adoring public thought.

Gibson found his calling; in his mind he was preaching from the bible.  Yet, he created contrary to peace.  I think this hypocritical stance is evident throughout the United States.  Our President states God is speaking through him.  Would God, or Christ choice to condemn others to death?  Would the divine censure or convict a group of people or even an individual?  Would Jesus cast the first stone and incite mass murder?  Might the Lord, our God see evil on every corner and terrorize the masses?  I think not, though I wonder.

I suppose if Jesus was an American, he may not be as he was.  Just as other US, citizens, Christ may have become acculturated.  Living among the apathetic sheep, he may have forgotten what it means to walk in peace and to show love to all men equally.  

I invite you to read on, to ponder the truth and ways of your fellow citizens.  Are these people truly hoping for harmony worldwide or in their local communities?  Do they treat their neighbors as they would wish to be treated?  Oh, if only . . .

* Is Racism Behind Treatment of Haitians? By Pauline Arrillaga. Associated Press National Writer.  Los Angeles Times.  July 29, 2006

The question they kept coming back to: Why?  Why, they asked, are Haitian immigrants singled out by the U.S. government for unequal treatment? On this day, earlier in the year, the topic was temporary protected status, a designation the federal government can grant to foreigners allowing them to remain part time in the United States because of political unrest or environmental disasters at home.

Central Americans have repeatedly been granted protected status following hurricanes and earthquakes in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. Immigrants from Burundi, Liberia, Somalia and Sudan also enjoy such protections.

But Haitians have never obtained relief, despite decades of political turmoil, kidnappings and killings, and tribulations from tropical storms.

“Why aren’t Haitians good enough for the same basic protections?” demanded Steve Forester, of the group Haitian Women of Miami.

I ask as well, why are Haitians considered “not good enough?”  Why do we speak of equality and then not grant it?  American policies baffle me.

Only recently, Congress chose to reinstate the Voters Rights Act.  King George Bush II signed it into law.  Each thought them selves benevolent.  I see no goodwill in bestowing rights towards native-born Black citizens.  I observe only this comparison; Black is Black.  It seems to me that Americans can and will find a way to belittle those of dark color.  According to many United States citizens, once of African American heritage, always considered an African.  Is that term synonymous with subhuman?  I think not, though policy seems to belie my beliefs.

* Families Challenging Religious Influence in Delaware Schools, By Neela Banerjee.  New York Times. July 29, 2006

For years, she and her daughter, Samantha, listened to Christian prayers at public school potlucks, award dinners and parent-teacher group meetings, she said. But at Samantha’s high school graduation in June 2004, a minister’s prayer proclaiming Jesus as the only way to the truth nudged Mrs. Dobrich to act.

“It was as if no matter how much hard work, no matter how good a person you are, the only way you’ll ever be anything is through Jesus Christ,” Mrs. Dobrich said. “He said those words, and I saw Sam’s head snap and her start looking around, like, `Where’s my mom? Where’s my mom?’ And all I wanted to do was run up and take her in my arms.”

After the graduation, Mrs. Dobrich asked the Indian River district school board to consider prayers that were more generic and, she said, less exclusionary. As news of her request spread, many local Christians saw it as an effort to limit their free exercise of religion, residents said. Anger spilled on to talk radio, in letters to the editor and at school board meetings attended by hundreds of people carrying signs praising Jesus.

“What people here are saying is, `Stop interfering with our traditions, stop interfering with our faith and leave our country the way we knew it to be,’ ” said Dan Gaffney, a host at WGMD, a talk radio station in Rehoboth, and a supporter of prayer in the school district.

After receiving several threats, Mrs. Dobrich took her son, Alex, to Wilmington in the fall of 2004, planning to stay until the controversy blew over.  It never has.

The clamor does not calm for it is not as a noise that begins and then ends.  The argument lingers in the air as it has for centuries.  In America, nine of the thirteen original colonies discriminated against those that did not subscribe to the official religion.  Judaism was not considered “correct” centuries ago.  It is no more correct in Delaware and other places today.  Mrs. Dobrich may wish to wait for the storm to pass; however, the wait is likely to be a very long one.

* Shattering Glass Ceilings, By McCoy, Frank. Black Enterprise.  September 1995. Volume 26, Issue  2

The bipartisan Glass Ceiling Commission report on corporate American’s dismal record of advancing minorities to management and decision-making positions includes multiple example of the biased policies many – but not all – white corporate officers employ to support their exclusionary and racist decisions.

Black people get promotions white men deserve. Affirmative action hurts white men more than it helps black men or women.

The above falsehoods and other not-so-little white (male) lies were gutted recently by two studies that focused on minorities in the workplace.

The first light was shed by the bipartisan Glass Ceiling Commission report on corporate America’s dismal record of advancing minorities to management and decision-making positions. The paper includes multiple examples of the biased policies many–but not all–white corporate officers employ to support their exclusionary and racist decisions. The commission was headed by U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

The results are stark. In 1992, white males, while making up only 43% of the total labor force at Fortune 1,000 Industrial and Fortune 500 Service companies, were 97% of the senior-level decision-making managers. By contrast, only 0.6% were black, 0.4% Latino and 0.3% Asian.

The lack of corporate status translates into lower salaries as well. Black males with professional degrees earn only 79 cents for every dollar received by white males with the same credentials. And black women take home only 60 cents per dollar.

A Commission report calls to US, though we hear nothing.  The glass is not broken.  Stereotypes are not shattered.  Status and substantial salaries are not awarded to persons of color.  Again, America is discriminating.  Our wars may be subtle.  Our means for suppression are silent; still, we kill.  We do it with “kindness.”  Constitutionally we declare, “All are created equal.”  How thoughtful we are, with our words.  Actions speak!

* OPINION: Immigration issue sparks American racism, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News.  July 19, 2006.

Perhaps the recent flare-up of the immigration issue started out more legitimately. Certainly there are serious problems with waves of hundreds of thousands of people entering any country illegally. But like the head of a monstrous snake coming out of a thorny bush, the issue has grown its own nasty viper. Immigration has become the new magnet of American racism.

It’s time to recognize this evil trend, and confront it.

From the oh-so-patriotic “Minutemen,” with their always potential overlap to vigilante violence, to the actual rise in incidents of race crime against dark-skinned Mexican and other Hispanics in recent months, the evidence is that a climate of disdain and potential race and/or ethnic hatred is being generated in North America. This is very evident in the type of language and self- definition put up by not so unconsciously race-based pundits and politicians.

Racism within the immigration issue is primarily directed at Latin American migrants coming north in search of economic opportunity. The shorthand language used has to do most of all with the sense by Anglo-Americans that the country is changing as so- called Hispanics or Latinos make up an ever-larger proportion of the minority population which, combined with blacks and Asian- Americans, now threatens to become established as the “new majority” and make the Euro-American population essentially the minority. Thus one can hear the likes of pundit and erstwhile presidential contender Pat Buchanan bemoan the fact that “we are losing our country,” shorthand in this case being that crucial “we” and all that such possessiveness implies.

Xenophobia directed at Mexicans has a long history in America. Anglo-America, after all, warred first with Spain and, later, Mexico for a century over more than a third of present-day U.S. territory. Stereotype and racial hatred, ethnic insults (Mexicans as a “mongrel race,” etc.) — apparent requirements of war — layered into the social consciousness of Anglo-Americans.

Salient points of this history not told by the conqueror were articulated in a recent New York Times essay by Tony Horwitz (“Immigration and the Curse of the Black Legend,” July 9, 2006). To be faulted for too brazenly bypassing the indigenous perspective, Horwitz recounts accurately that North America’s first European explorers and settlers were not English-speaking, but were from Spain. Horwitz: “Four of the sample questions on our naturalization test ask about Pilgrims. Nothing in the sample exam suggests that prospective citizens need know anything that occurred on this continent before the Mayflower landed in 1620.”

Xenophobia, in America?  Not possible, though extremely probable.  We see it daily.  Newspapers, periodicals, and books are filled with messages of fear.  Our leaders reinforce the idea of terror.  Yet, they are the ones repeatedly creating it.  The killing our country allows here or abroad does not horrify many American citizens.  This surprises me.  We are murdering with guns, bayonets, or bombs foreign land and we slaughter with stereotypes here.  We suppress freedom and liberty throughout the globe.  We secure laws and policies that destroy lives and spirits.  We are outraged by injustices in the Middle East.  We declare that we know how to do good governance better.  I ask, “Do we?”

Americans claim to live in peace; they believe in equinity.  If only I could find the evidence.

May we walk and talk in peace.  Please ponder . . .

• Live From…Firefight Between Israel, Hezbollah Continues.  CNN News. July 14, 2006
• Bush blames Hezbollah for Mideast violence.  USA Today. July 15, 2006
• Rice to seek ‘lasting settlement’ at U.N., By Katherine Shrader.  Associated Press. Chicago Sun-Times. July 31, 2006
• Israel responsible for Qana attack; war crimes on both sides, Turkish Press. World News. July 31, 2006
• Israel Overreacts to Hostage Situation,Inept Bush Fails to Intervene, By Lloyd Williams.  EURWeb. July 18,2006
• The Real Target of Arab Elites. The New Republic. July 21,2006
• PDF The Real Target of Arab Elites. The New Republic. July 21,2006
• American Idle, By Dan Froomkin. Special to Washington Post. Friday, July 28, 2006
• Monitoring Hate and Extremist Activity, The Intelligence Project. Southern Poverty Law Center.
• Gibson apologizes for driving drunk, ranting at police, By Sandy Cohen. Seattle Times Company. July 30, 2006
• As God Told Me …, On President Bush, Pat Robertson and Mel Gibson, By Andy Rooney. 60 Minutes. CBS News. February 22, 2004
• Anti-Semitism – U.S. Anti-Defamation League.
• Gibson personalizes ‘Passion of the Christ’, By Marco R. della Cava. USA Today. February 20, 2004
• Is Racism Behind Treatment of Haitians? By Pauline Arrillaga. Associated Press National Writer.  Los Angeles Times.  July 29, 2006
• PDF Is Racism Behind Treatment of Haitians? By Pauline Arrillaga. Associated Press National Writer.  Los Angeles Times. July 29, 2006
• National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR)
• Black Racism: The Hate Crime That Dare Not Speak It’s Name, By David Horowitz. FrontPageMagazine.com. July 16, 2002
• Voting act overshadows race debate, Democrats weigh diluting districts of black majorities, By Joseph Williams.  Boston Globe. July 31, 2006
• Families Challenging Religious Influence in Delaware Schools, By Neela Banerjee.  New York Times.July 29, 2006
• Shattering Glass Ceilings, By McCoy, Frank. Black Enterprise.  September 1995. Volume 26, Issue  2
• Glass Ceiling Commission [1991-1996] DigitalCommons. Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

* Living as Jews in Christian America, By Rabbi Daniel Lapin, President. Toward Tradition. June 10, 2005

• Bill of Rights in Action. Constitutional Rights Foundation.
• From Test Oath to the Jew Bill, By Jerry Klinger. The Struggle for Religious and Political Freedom. Jewish Magazine.
• Immigration & racism in the U.S., by Ruth Vela. Workers World Forum. December 21, 2005
• A Nation of WASPs?, By Earl Shorris. The Nation. May 13, 2004
• Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People, September 20, 2001

Betsy L. Angert Be-Think