Author: RichRandal

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

Are the citizens of the United States of America patient enough, inspired enough, cooperative enough, to depose the thugs that rule us?  Can we sacrifice our incomes, our possessions, our lives for Safety and Happiness?  Can we keep our republic?

What lessons does history hold for us regarding non-violent “revolution?”

Well, there are two good examples in the Polish Solidarity movement, and Ghandi’s Satyagraha Independence Movement.

A few common elements seem to emerge:  
    1. It takes a long time and progress is not steady.
    2. Withholding labor – strikes – is practically the only leverage that people have.
    3. Oppressive incumbents will crack down, and non-violent resistors will be jailed, hurt, and killed.
    4. Resistors need to be prepared, through training and inspiration, for maximum hardship.
    5. Effective resistance requires a coalition, which will likely splinter once it gains power.
        6. If resistance is successful, the thugs do not go away. Eternal vigilance is required.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity

Solidarity ; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union  – is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdansk Shipyards, and originally led by Lech Walesa. In the 1980s, it constituted a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church to members of the anti-communist Left.

Solidarity advocated nonviolence in its members’ activities. The survival of Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a satellite state of the USSR ruled (in practice) by a one-party Communist regime, but the whole of the Eastern bloc. It meant a break in the hard-line stance of the communist Polish United Workers’ Party, which had bloodily ended a 1970 protest with machine gun fire (killing dozens and injuring over 1,000), and the broader Soviet communist regime in the Eastern Bloc, which had quelled both the 1956 Hungarian Uprising and the 1968 Prague Spring with Soviet-led invasions. Solidarity’s influence led to the intensification and spread of anti-communist ideals and movements throughout the countries of the Eastern Bloc, weakening their communist governments.

In Poland, the Roundtable Talks between the weakened government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Walesa was elected president. This was soon followed by the dismantling of the People’s Republic of Poland, and the creation of the non-communist, democratic Third Polish Republic. These limited elections where anti-communist candidates won a striking victory sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist counterrevolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.

Solidarity’s example was in various ways repeated by opposition groups throughout the Eastern Bloc, eventually leading to the Eastern Bloc’s effectual dismantling, and contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s.

Since 1989 Solidarity has become a more traditional trade union, and had relatively little impact on the political scene of Poland in the early 1990s. A political arm was founded in 1996 as Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) would win the Polish parliamentary election, 1997, but lose the following Polish parliamentary election, 2001. Currently Solidarity has little political influence in modern Polish politics.
*    1 Roots (before 1980)
*    2 The strikes of the early 1980s (1980-1981)
*    3 Martial law (1981-1983)
*    4 Underground Solidarity (1982-1988)
*    5 The fall of the U.S.S.R. (1988-1989)
*    6 After the victory (1989-present)
*    7 Solidarity’s influence abroad

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India, and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer and perfector of Satyagraha — the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience strongly founded upon ahimsa (total non-violence), which led India to independence, and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known and addressed in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi (from Sanskrit, Mahatma: Great Soul) and as Bapu (in many Indian languages, Father).

An English-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community’s struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, Gandhi organized poor farmers and labourers in India to protest oppressive taxation and extensive discrimination, and carried it forward on the national stage to protest oppressive laws made by the British Raj. Becoming the leader of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led a nationwide campaign for the alleviation of the poor, for the liberation of Indian women, for brotherhood amongst communities of differing religions and ethnicity, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj — the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax through the 400 kilometer (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in South Africa and India.

Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. Gandhi was a student of Hindu philosophy and lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. He made his own clothes — the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with a charkha — and lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts — abstaining from food and water for long periods — for self-purification as well as a means of protest.
Gandhi was recognized as the Father of the Nation by Subhas Bose and later by the whole nation (India). October 2, his birthday, is each year commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, and is a national holiday. Gandhi’s life and teachings inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Biko and Aung San Suu Kyi and respectively the American civil rights movement and the freedom struggles in South Africa
*    1 Early life
*    2 Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893-1914)
*    3 Fighting for Indian Independence (1916-1945)
o    3.1 Champaran and Kheda
o    3.2 Non-Cooperation
o    3.3 Swaraj and the Salt Satyagraha
o    3.4 World War II and Quit India
*    4 Freedom and partition of India
*    5 Assassination
*    6 Gandhi’s principles
o    6.1 Truth
o    6.2 Nonviolence
o    6.3 Vegetarianism
o    6.4 Brahmacharya
o    6.5 Simplicity
o    6.6 Faith
*    7 Criticism
*    8 Legacy
o    8.1 Mahatma
o    8.2 Artistic depictions
o    8.3 Across the world
o    8.4 Popular Culture

What’s Your Price To Kiss Some Ass?

Maybe you have a bad job now: low pay, stupid boss, stupid clients. Or, maybe you have no job, and the tension with the family is BAD.

So, you here about this job. It utilizes your skills. But, it is clear you will have to try to pass as a Kool-Aid addict.  Maybe it’s something like a Program Manager at KBR. (Kellogg, Brown, and Root/Halliburton.)  You know, upscale grooming and wardrobe,  reactionary small talk, martinis, golf. The job is for two years.  

What’s your price?

$100K/year?  More, Less?    

I hate ass-kissing.  I gotta say in all honesty,  I’d start thinking about it at $150K/year.   AArgh – my self-esteem just exploded!!!

Cross posted from Kos:

Note: Not everyone likes the source author, Madsen.
I think part of his story deserves inverstigation by someone with the resources and gravitas to serve it up hot, maybe Hersh.

The clip below originates here:
Onlinejournal

and was picked up here:

Dailywarnews

“At the same time Enron Chairman Kenneth (“Kenny Boy”) Lay was involved in Vice President Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force secret dealings and when he was stuffing hundreds of thousands of dollars into the pockets of George W. Bush and Cheney’s political campaign, he also managed to illegally stick $206, 757 into the pockets of Saddam Hussein and his cohorts.

The Iraqi Oil-for-Food scandal also involves one of the Bush children–Dorothy “Doro” Bush Koch, sister of George W. Bush and married to Bobby Koch, reportedly a cousin in the oil industry Koch family, the owner of Koch Industries, which is also one of Bush’s largest political donors. The minority committee report indicates that Koch Industries was also a major recipient of illegal Iraqi oil and a huge source of kickbacks to Saddam Hussein.

The total sum in kickbacks from George W. Bush’s cousin-in-laws to Saddam’s bank accounts: $1,294,620.

George Galloway was correct when he called the Coleman Committee the “mother of all smoke screens.” Major political contributors and friends of Bush not only paid illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein but personally profited from sanctions-busting with Iraq. Those involved in the scheme included individuals who date back to the Reagan/Bush 41 “cluster bombs and biological and chemical weapons-for-oil” scandal of the 1980s. Galloway is correct when he stated that there is enough evidence on Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair and their neocon advisers to park them in prison cells in The Hague for an awfully long time.”

So –

Mr. Galloway pointed to this information in his recent testimony.  That testimony has dropped VERY quickly from sight, unless we can do more to keep the stories alive.

I’d also be happy to hear from anyone with information on the credibility of the orginal source here, onlinejournal.    Thanks!

Here is the membership of the Senate Committee where the “minority report” mentioned should be available: Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 199 Senate Russell Building, Washington, DC 20510 Norm Coleman Chairman (R-MN) Carl Levin Ranking Member (D-MI) Ted Stevens (R-AK) Daniel K. Akaka (D-HI) Tom Coburn (R-OK) Thomas R. Carper (D-DE) Lincoln D. Chafee (R-RI) Mark Dayton (D-MN) Robert F. Bennett (R-UT) Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) Mark Pryor (D-AR) John W. Warner (R-VA)

The “Coleman Committee” reports are at the link below:

Committees/Homeland Security/Subcommittees/Investigations/Related Files

(You have to drill in yourself…)

This week I tried an experiment that had mixed results. I am interested in what you think.

In my town, there is a small private college. The students, and most of the faculty and staff, probably represent 50% of the Democratic votes in the County. The current D County Chair is on staff. Over the last 150 years, (old college), the people who have stayed in town, or returned, also associated with the college, have created and support a cultural-political tradition of liberalism. It is still a minority position. Only one person from this “school of thought” has been elected to community leadership.

The college itself is a very smart business. It makes good financial decisions. It builds cutting edge smart buildings. And the patriarch of local Republican Businessmen (Rich-Deceased), has left huge amounts of money to the college. However, the present electeds and appointeds avoid the campus and contact with the college leadership and students like the plague. There is a “campus bubble” that has a nearly impermeable cell wall.

My organization  Many Waters is promoting sustainability, and smart growth. So, I set up a tour of one of the smarter buildings on campus. ($150,000 saved over 20 years, as calculated by my college intern.) I invited electeds, contractors, realtors, planners, etc.  Seems like if an elected could tell voters that (he – yes, gender specific) had saved them $150,000, that would be a good thing.   There was a lot of expressed interest, and intention to attend.  Actual turnout was not very good.

When push came to shove, penetrating the bubble to learn something was just not on top of their list of things to do.

So, what do you think about reaching out to “red-state minds?”   Is it worth it?  If so, what works?

Pro sports suck.

Buncha whiny millionaires with Hummers.

OK, with that out of the way, I just want to remark on George Karl, former coach of the Milwaukee Bucks, and Seattle Sonics, named coach of the Denver Nuggets January 27th.

The Nugs were 17-25 on that date. Since then, they are 23-6, having only lost on the road, or to Phoenix (twice)- the best team in the league.

No player changes, in fact, several injuries in that time.

So, who wants a piece of George’s team in the playoffs? Right now they would be matched up with San Antonio in the first round. Guess who they crushed last night?

Anyway – since this is a Love Shack blog, for relaxing, there you go.

(By the way, spellcheck does not recognize “blog” Ha!)

I’ve submitted this to my local paper:

To The Editor;

Drought emphasizes the point: efficient use of water is a goal that most everyone would support, personally or professionally. There is still uncertainty about the carrying capacity of the underground aquifers and surface waters, so we gain margin for error if we are more efficient.

There are two things under people’s control working against efficient use of water.

The first is the water rate structure of most municipalities, Walla Walla included.  There are some provisions for base fees, but it is fair to say the rate structure is basically flat.  The millionth gallon costs you about the same as the thousandth gallon.  The city is stuck due to its rates; it is very hard to meet its financial commitments if less water flows through meters. City officials are understandably reluctant to deliver this bit of bad news. An odd dilemma: efficient water use hurts the City’s financial performance!  

This dilemma is made worse by another odd combination of facts. Food processing plants use a lot of water. Current residential growth demands are coincident with food processing plant closures. The funds to finance building out the water system are pinched by lower current use.

One possible solution would be a coordinated program that both encouraged efficient water use and re-structured rates into “tiers” much like electricity rates. The per-person use of water in this valley is relatively high.  Significant improvement is available without a lot of sacrifice.

The second problem is the State’s “relinquishment” law. Landowners and managers who have a water right must document using it, and if they do not use it all, they forever lose that part, or all, that they can not “prove.”  This outdated law is causing real harm to business and natural resources. Another odd dilemma: efficient water use carries the penalty of losing an asset!

One possible solution would be significant reform of State law, again, to encourage good management without applying a penalty.

Efficient water use starts with each person.  Please do your part, both personally, and in the process of talking with elected officials. Your great-grandkids will thank you.

R. Randal Son, President
Many Waters Community Development
Walla Walla

Human society creates “solutions” to problems that become institutionalized. When conditions change, it is hard to re-structure.