Wonder why I am disgusted?

These two videos sum it up pretty well.

Would Americans sign a petition to repeal the First Amendment?



How about a petition to increase inflation to 100% per year?!

A final thought before the Irish Lisbon vote

One thing has always undermined the will of the people in passing legislation they believe to be beneficial: the riders included in the legislation. It's not the issues one votes for as much as it is the terms within the legislation one does not know about.

Irish people (as well as Americans) should be well acquainted with the technique, e.g. propose peace between the Republic and Northern Ireland (who would vote NO on this?); but include other terms which the people of Ireland would not approve of if the issues were voted on separately.

The Patriot Act in the US was passed with glee by a Congress who never read it. All the nasty little caveats in that piece of legislation I do not think have yet been activated. The Treaty of Lisbon is another such manipulation of voters: give the EP more co-decision power (all would say YES), but, turn over national foreign policy and taxing to the EU; or supercede national policing function with a Brussels ordained protocol.

This is a problem in the structure of legislation in a democracy: bills should be brief and transparent enough for all to understand EXACTLY what they are voting for or against. For this reason alone, I will vote NO...to let Brussels know that the democratic approval of the people will only be given to legislation presented in a clear and understandable format.

If these means chopping monster treaties up like Lisbon into bite size pieces; then Brussels had better start figuring out how to do this.

One thing is for sure: the EU will not stand long as a political power without the support of its citizens. Denying referendums to the member states is either very foolish or suicidal. The union will not stand long as its foundation has a huge crack which Lisbon will not solve: the democratic deficit this treaty creates for all EU citizens.

All your info - now available to Gov't thru your ISP

I was quite relieved when Australia citizens managed to quash their government's proposal to make all Internet Service Providers spies for the government, ISPs Give Rudd Government Two Finger Salute. It appears that Europeans and Americans have not managed to live up to the Aussies in political fervor to protect citizen privacy rights on the internet.

So I guess we shall get what we deserve. Yes it now is legal for your ISP to keep every stroke of yourkeyboard for a year or longer. And, thanks to Mr. Sarkozy, the new team cheerleader for team USA, all data electronically held on EU citizens can be shared with the National Security Agency of the US, even if you are not a criminal, even if you are not a suspected terrorist, even if you are the re-incarnation of Mother Theresa. EU Privacy Rights to be Taken Away

OK? Well it even gets better. This effectively means that private commercial companies hold all sorts of personal data about every email, SMS or electronic communication make by every EU citizen. And in this day of grand outsourcing, who knows even in which country our data could be held.

• NSA’s Wiretapping of Americans being outsourced to Israeli Companies?!?!
• Australia: Private Intelligence Company Monitors Activists Online for Police

We are not yet sure about the security arrangements on this data to prevent its misuse, but what do we have to worry about if we have nothing to hide? I have blogged on this subject until I am sick inside of the complacency of the general population on the issue. Getting the word out is half the battle: getting people to pay attention to the seriousness of these incremental controls on every aspect of our private lives is the other half of the battle.

We must use word of mouth and tell each other about directives such as the one below if we are to be a democratically responsible citizenry. This goes for all countries...the Aussies did it. So can we. But we must start talking about it and keep on until this issue is addressed to our satisfaction. The writing is on the wall.

EU Data Retention Directive provokes
widespread condemnation

Critics speak out against law forcing ISPs
to record every email and SMS from 15 March

Ian Williams

computing.co.uk
Fri, 13 Mar 2009
Source
UK internet service providers will have to all store communication information from customers for a full year starting on 15 March, as part of the controversial EU Data Retention Directive (PDF).

Under the directive, details of every email, phone call and text message sent or received, including information such as IP address and time of use, will have to be recorded. Police and security experts will be able to request access to the information to help combat terrorism and cyber crime, but only with a court order.

Nonetheless, the move has sparked serious concerns from privacy groups, IT security firms and legal experts. Susan Hall, an ICT and media partner at law firm Cobbetts LLP, maintained that such a database is "the antithesis of what the whole internet is about". "There have been regular and well known cases when the police criminals' record database has illegally been accessed by 'insiders', using it to vet employees and do favours for friends," she said.

The directive has provoked criticism from EU member states over the cost of the operation, which is estimated at £46m over an eight-year period, as well as fears of privacy violation. "Given the numerous data breaches of late, it is hardly surprising that concern has been raised over these proposals," said Jamie Cowper, director of EMEA marketing at security firm PGP Corporation. "With public confidence about data security at an all time low, it is absolutely essential that ISPs take their obligations seriously.

If privacy violation is to be avoided, and the huge cost of this operation is to be justified, the security of the public's data must be watertight. "If the EU plans to roll out similar legislation to other sectors, they are going to have to demonstrate to the public that every step is being taken to defend their data.

If not, it is fair to say that we are just one data breach away from a major public backlash." Hall went on to ask: "The government is trying to impose liabilities on service providers, and for what? The theoretical possibility that it will stop terrorists?

"People applying for access to the database will, on the basis of what we've already seen happen with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, use a slippery slope argument: first arguing for using the information for sex offenders and other serious criminals, but ultimately using it to worry about parking tickets or whether children are entitled to be enrolled in the school they've applied to, as in the recent Poole Council case."

Hall also believes that these measures will have little discernable impact on the fight against terrorism, as the criminals involved will just find ways of bypassing the checks by using other people's unsecured Wi-Fi connections, hotspots or pay-as-you-go 3G modems. "It is also very interesting to note that the European Court of Human Rights ruled in January that a similarly sweeping DNA database, which contained genetic samples from thousands of citizens who had not been convicted of any crime, violated privacy rights," she said.

"Looking at the comments made in this recent case, the ISP database will run the UK government foul of the European Convention on Human Rights, and on this basis alone should be reconsidered. " Thus far, ISPs that have attempted to stop these laws being implemented, such as in Ireland and Slovakia, have been unsuccessful. With the deadline looming, a spokesman for the Internet Service Providers' Association claimed that most firms are prepared for the directive's implementation.

"We have made our members aware of what is required and, as far as we know, they will all be compliant," he said.

Related articles:
Are YOU a terrorist? Better check.
Bloggers: 1 step from censorship?
Cyber Eyes, Net Cops and Pleasure Chips
Internet freedom: Heads up bloggers
Barack Obama's 'Black Widow' : The Super Spy Computer
More Evidence of Pentagon War Against the Internet
Shhhhh - Cyber censorship sleeping

“I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more Toto”

I am laughing but I guess it is not funny. Sometimes one must laugh if one is not to cry. Ever been in a bad relationship you just couldn't give up? You knew all the bad signs were there but were mesmerised by the object of your affections and just couldn't give up 'hope'. Of course, after the relationship tanked big time, you sat there and contemplated why you didn't listen to and act on all the clues that were given for years afterwards.

Ever wonder why the elite seem to survive generation after generation while the poor folk fight the same battle over and over in time? Read the above paragraph again.

The world has changed during this tornado of capitalist corruption...but I fear the road ahead is fraught with danger. Whether or not we will make it to the Emerald City will depend on our capacity for courage and wisdom. One thing is sure: Kansas is gone.

Western military forces turning inward
in anticipation of domestic unrest

Old-Thinker News
March 10, 2009
By Daniel Taylor
Source
As the growing world-wide economic crisis deepens, military forces from Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom are preparing to meet angry citizens on the street. The economic crisis - and the public outrage it is causing - is at the forefront of intelligence agencies and military forces in the western world.

Prominent trends forecaster Gerald Celente has been sounding the alarm for years, warning that riots and tax revolts are coming to America. The Pentagon, U. K. Ministry of Defense, and Canadian military apparently agree. In November of 2008 the United States Army War College released the report Known Unknowns: Unconventional "Strategic Shocks" in Defense Strategy Development. The report identifies economic collapse as a reason for the defense establishment to conduct domestic operations. The report states,

"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security. Deliberate employment of weapons of mass destruction or other catastrophic capabilities, unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency..."

The CIA and MI5 are both watching the economic situation for signs of unrest and political instability. As the Washington Post reports, the CIA has added an economic situation report to its threat assessment for the White House. A further sign that the United States government is anticipating widespread unrest comes with the domestic stationing of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 3rd Infantry Division. The Army Times reports,

"They may be called upon to help with civil unrest and crowd control or to deal with potentially horrific scenarios such as massive poisoning and chaos in response to a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or high-yield explosive, or CBRNE, attack."

Canadian military forces have been given a nearly identical domestic mission in a synchronized move with the United States. Canada's National Post reports that,

"The Canadian military has embarked on a wide-ranging plan to turn its reserve soldiers into focused units trained and equipped to respond to a nightmarish array of domestic threats, including terrorist "dirty bomb" attacks, biological agent containment, Arctic catastrophes and natural disasters."

David Bercuson, director of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary admits that contingencies exist that "...envisioned scenarios that might require a form of constabulary or policing function for reserves in civilian containment and security."

Overseas, the United Kingdom's MI5 is also anticipating widespread unrest in response to economic downturn. The Daily Express reports that the U.K. Army is "on standby" in the event of unrest during a "summer of discontent."

The United Kingdom's own Ministry of Defense foresaw middle class revolution two years ago in the 2007 The DCDC Global Strategic Trends report. "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class...," the report states. "The growing gap between themselves and a small number of highly visible super-rich individuals might fuel disillusion with meritocracy, while the growing urban under-classes are likely to pose an increasing threat to social order and stability, as the burden of acquired debt and the failure of pension provision begins to bite."

Ominously, legislation was recently introduced to Congress that would authorize “national emergency centers” on military installations that will provide “temporary housing, medical, and humanitarian assistance to individuals and families dislocated due to an emergency or major disaster." The National Emergency Centers Act can be read here.

As new taxes - like paying by mileage and carbon taxes meant to send "price signals" to consumers - are imposed and more money is demanded from debt laden citizens to save failing banks there is little doubt that resistance will grow. Just how far the bankers can go remains to be seen, but the military is ready when we've had enough.

Related urls:

Seeds of its own destruction

The End of History and the Clash of Civilizations

Death Spiral of Capitalism

Carpe Diem - The bogey man IS under the bed.

Carpe Diem People! The time is right to kick the bums out.- all of them.

Not so slowly anymore, panic is spreading across Europe and the United States as it has been globally for some time now. Being the 'developed' world has given Westerners a stay of execution as far as the effects of its ill-fated capitalistic excesses. The other shoe is about to fall tho as millions realise their jobs, homes, pensions, social benefits, health infrastructue and their lives of Riley are about to kick the bucket.

In Europe there are riots from Romania to Ireland, in Greece and Iceland: now, the people of the USA begin to wake up and realise, 'Hey, these bad things are really happening to us!? Maybe we should do something?' The excesses and abuses of power using citizen's money for private elite agenda's and keeping the people mollified with mass marketing, is finally becoming crystal clear for anyone who is looking.

Ironically, the far left and the far right are both radicalising in their focus on bringing down the current system; tho the ideological underpinnings differ, the issues of revolutionary consciousness and their practical expressions can be quite similar. Survivalists and comrades have in common the loathing of the waste of capitalism and a desire to end the current structure of capitalistic oppressions. This is always the problem with labelling political preferences; sometimes one can't tell one from the other - it seems almost any governmental/economic system or doctrine can apply its principles to the detriment of the citizenry it is designed to serve. To simplify for the 'left' or 'right' semanticists, the term 'revolutionary consciousness' will emcompass both sides.

On one thing everyone agrees, the poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer and the middle class is going bye bye. Exactly where and how the losers of the capitalist game decide to act is anyone's guess, but no crystal ball is needed to know it will be soon. Revolutionary consciousness is increasing at an accelerating rate; the people know it, and so do the Masters of the Universe.

What to do? What to do? No one has the answers to the problems we have created but, us, ourselves. Organic action based coalitions are springing up everywhere; to stop forclosures, and to protest savage budget cuts to public services, even in Ireland where the Gardai and pensioners have filled the streets of Dublin and made international news. (Let us not forget for a moment that riots in the 3rd world - which we rarely hear of - have been going on for 6-7 months....albeit for food and basic survival needs.)

The first thing we can do is to remove our blindfolds and take the cotton out of our ears...because this time, the bogeyman really is under the bed. Hiding under the covers will not make him go away.

The next best idea is to scream for help: the people who live nearest will be the best source of help. If no one comes, you will have to do some quick thinking...jumping out the window, baseball bat, running as fast as you can. Eventually tho, you will have to do something.

Each person who realises this is a tiny pixel in the picture of revolutionary consciousness. When enough of these pixels come together, left-right, conservative-liberal etc etc, a picture of class warfare will emerge globally; the people taking back their power from those they have trusted who have betrayed them. Here is California's bit of the puzzle and California: Laid-off Spansion employees outraged over execs' pay increases

Carpe Diem - The bogey man IS under the bed.

The California Budget and Class War

Source
By Ann Robertson
February 26, 2009
"Information Clearing House" -- On February 19, the California legislature, after weeks of wrangling, passed a special budget to address the historically high $42 billion deficit. It represents an unadulterated washout for working people who are attacked on almost every front by the Democratic Party, which controls a broad majority in the legislature. For example, public education’s $58 billion budget for K-12 (kindergarten through high school) will be slashed by $8.4 billion, even though California currently allocates less money than almost all other states to education.

The state college and university systems will be cut $163 million and $115 million respectively, resulting in many faculty and staff layoffs, despite the fact that both systems are currently turning away qualified students, due to lack of funding. Meanwhile, student tuition will be raised. Regressive taxes will be imposed, meaning that they will represent a heavier burden on working people and the poor than on the rich, including a sales tax increase from 8.5 to 9.5 percent and a vehicle license fee increase.

But while paying more, working people will receive considerably less from the state. Public transportation will be slashed while health and human services will be gouged by a $1.6 billion cut. And state employees will continue to be forced to take two days off per month, with no pay, of course. But what went unreported by The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle is that those on the other side of the class ledger – the corporations – enjoyed a startlingly different fate. According to the Los Angeles Times, “About $1 billion in corporate tax breaks – directed mostly at multi-state and multinational companies – is tucked into the proposal.”

Not only were corporate taxes not raised, they were actually reduced, thereby contributing to the deficit rather than alleviating it. And this corporate welfare comes on the heels of a steady decline in corporate taxes. In the 1980’s, 9 percent of corporate profits were taxed by the states. In 2001, it dropped to 6 percent, meaning that in that year and every year thereafter, California lost $1.34 billion in revenue (see The New York Times, July 16, 2003). Evidently The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle viewed the corporate largess concocted by California politicians in this current budget as nothing new and consequently unworthy of reporting.

The moral of this budget is clear. Corporations are well organized and consequently have successfully pressed for their own narrow interests. Lacking any social conscience, which should surprise no one, they fail to pursue the common good but remain obsessively fixated on ever-greater profits for themselves.

In order to avoid a repeat of this disaster and actually reverse this course of events, working people will need to organize themselves in order collectively to insist that society operate in the interests of the majority. This should begin with a demand that the government tax the rich – who have acquired unprecedented wealth during the past three decades – in order to fund social services. Taxing the rich and transferring wealth to working and poor people makes both sound moral and economic sense.

When inequalities in wealth are allowed to grow unchecked, the moral fabric of society is strained. Members of the same society no longer find themselves sharing common interests or goals, due to their starkly different economic positions. When working and poor people have more money in their pockets, they tend to spend it immediately, thereby stimulating the economy. The rich, with their hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars, have a substantial cushion and hence are not compelled to curtail their consumption when their taxes increase.


And many of the rich are the bankers who triggered this economic disaster. They should be required to pay for it. When working people are united, they have the power to take history into their own hands. After all, there can be no corporate profits, let alone business as usual, if workers collectively refuse to work. Now is the time to organize!

Ann Robertson is a teacher at San Francisco State University and a writer for Workers Action
( www.workerscompass.org ). She can be reached at aroberts45@aol.com

Heroes - From an ACORN grows the tree.

The news everywhere is beyond dreary. But let us focus on heroes instead, common people who expect no saviours but roll up their sleeves in commitment to help themselves and others steamrolled by the economic system. By spreading the news of these people with courage, we can inspire each other with hope. Together we are stronger.

Roseanne Barr Joins ACORN

Protest Against Foreclosures

Source
Last Thursday, I attended a rally in Watts, a small community in southern Los Angeles, sponsored by ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). The rally was held to raise awareness about the critical nature of home foreclosures in Los Angeles and to launch ACORN's Home Defender Campaign.

The campaign is designed to keep foreclosed families in their homes. ACORN implements various methods to accomplish their goal. On the one hand, you have ACORN representatives directly communicating with lenders and on the other hand you have civil disobedience - ACORN representatives and volunteers locking arms along the sidewalk to block eviction officials from entering homes slated for auction.

Despite the negative characterization ACORN received last year during the general election, ACORN has been helping moderate and low income families for more than 30 years. ACORN has over 400,000 member families organized in more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in 110 cities across the country.

Participating at the rally was comic, writer, producer, actress, and, unbeknownst to me, political activist Roseanne Barr. Below is my interview with the ACORN supporter.

Kathleen Wells: Roseanne, how did we get here? How are American citizens, all across this nation, facing unprecedented levels of home foreclosures? Who is at fault and why is this happening?
Roseanne Barr: The people at the top are to blame for their rapacious and unregulated greed. Poor people rot in jail for doing far less damage than corporate criminals at the top who are coddled after committing more far-reaching offenses.

KW: Tell us, how did you get involved with ACORN. What were some specific campaigns that you have been involved with and how do you see your role going forward?
RB: I was introduced to ACORN while I was on the road with Michael Moore during the 2004 presidential campaign.

We met with Acorn chapters in Florida, Iowa and a few other cities. My boyfriend Johnny, me and Michael Moore's whole crew helped to drive old people from the inner city to the polls in Cleveland, Ohio on a snowy, cold election day during the second election that was stolen by Bush and Cheney.

I instantly recognized the women in acorn as being the same kind of women I had been in collectives with in my younger years in Denver, Colorado. I have always been a labor activist, as was my father and his father. Even the Roseanne show was a sit-com about American Labor.

KW:Elaborate on some of the things you've seen working with ACORN?

RB:I have seen that ACORN is the lobby for people who have no lobbyists. I have seen them organize and work with people in the most economically challenged corners of this country, where people are on their last leg and pushed up against the proverbial wall.

I like the people personally because they believe there can be justice and peace, and that those values are American and moral. I helped them to raise the minimum wage across the country. They are unstoppable, because God is on their side.

I also like the way a lot of these women can bake a pie, discuss economics and transform the lives of everyone they come into contact with. Women my age are a force that is getting ready to unleash itself against evil. But, the most impressive thing is that they elected Barack H. Obama through their fantastic organizing skills and knowledge.

KW: As you know the ACORN rally was held at the home of the Beard family. They have already been foreclosed upon, despite living in their home and raising their 3 children in that home, since 1985. For the past 10 years, Mrs. Beard worked as a teacher assistant and Mr. Beard has consistently worked as a cook, for 17 years. They refinanced to make repairs to their home - repairs that had been needed since before 1985. This was their first time refinancing. Their payments shot from 1,700 a month to over 3,200 a month. What does the Beard's story say to you, Roseanne?

RB: That banks and other lenders, advertisers, real estate agents all played fast and loose and made their money up front or along the way, but at the end of the process it's the working people who are out in the cold. Now there's a trend toward blaming buyers for being irresponsible. But, those buyers were often assured that rising home prices and values would always keep them ahead of their debt load. We saw commercials all day long encouraging people to borrow against their home equity. Now the bubble equity has vanished into thin air but the crippling debt remains.

KW: Will you go as far as to participate in ACORN's method of civil disobedience? You know, the part about locking arms with family members, when eviction officials arrive. You run the risk of being arrested - how, does that sit with you?

RB: I told Bon Bon and the other ladies of my age there that if they would watch my back I would watch theirs. One old woman told me in translated Spanish that she had been arrested for political reasons in her seventies (she is in her eighties now) and that the hamburgers were good in jail, and that everyone treated her like a queen, and the jailers told her they thought it was wrong to imprison old weak women. I said I will go anywhere for a good free burger. I think women in jail would like a lot of my jokes.

KW: I'm sure you've heard that California is suffering a budget crisis. I think our deficit is at 42 billion now. However, when the Governor came into office, 6 years ago, the deficit was 4 billion. What are your thoughts about that?

RB: I do not like Arnold because he hangs out with people who steal homes from widows and orphans and then they auction it off for half its value and then turn around and sell it again for a profit on the first profit, and then complain about how unfair the widows and orphans are for wanting health care and schools and hospitals. They are sociopathic pirates like in the Disney movie.

KW: Just last Thursday and ironically, the same day as the ACORN rally, the Governor, signed a package of bills, all aimed to balance the budget by the year 2010. Along with those bills, were two other bills that call on a 90 day moratorium on home foreclosures in the state. However, the Governor hasn't signed these 2 bills yet. Your thoughts?

RB: Pick up the pen punk.

EyesandEars: Home Owner Protests
Foreclosure in Tuscon, AZ

Source
This story was reported and written by Robert Temple. He is one of the HuffPost citizen journalists helping cover the on the ground effects of the foreclosure crisis. Sign up here to participate in HuffPost's new EyesandEars citizen journalism feature.

As you drive south along South Park Avenue in southern Tucson, you pass streets named for U.S. states: Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Oklahoma. A symbolic reminder of the national scope of the housing crisis.

Ana Castro lives on Kentucky Street, filled with modest homes and lined with Palm and Palo Verde trees. Located just six miles from the Davis Mountain Air Force Base, the peaceful setting is often temporarily interrupted as pairs of A-10 Thunderbolt (a.k.a. 'Warthog') fighter jets streak by on training missions.

Ana's house isn't filled with expensive frills. A modest, well kept one story, two bedroom house of about 1000 square feet, there is no cable or high speed Internet connection. Ana doesn't own a computer, and the television brings in only local channels using a rabbit ear antenna.

She has lived in this house for fifteen years, easily affording the $430 mortgage payment while making small home improvements like planting a lemon tree and installing landscaping bricks with the help of friends and neighbors.

That began to change three years ago when she refinanced with Wells Fargo. What started out as an affordable $650 per month payment for the first two years started to increase. Her monthly payment is now $1450 at an interest rate of 17.5%. With Ana's job as a Prep cook at the Universal Medical Center bringing in $10.50 per hour, she is unable to keep up with her steadily increasing house payment.

How did Ana find herself in this situation? Ana says that the bank lied to her about the terms of her loan. Before she signed the finance agreement she was insistent about the monthly payments. She wanted to make sure she could afford them. The bank assured her she qualified.

Two years later when Ana noticed her payments rising, she called Wells Fargo asking for an explanation. Each time she called she talked with someone different than the last time. What didn't change was their answer: she agreed to the terms of the loan at the time she signed the papers, and she had no choice but to make the payments.
Story continues below

Soon Ana was unable to afford the monthly payments on her home of 15 years and the bank started foreclosure proceedings. Now when she calls them they tell her she has to make a payment of $4000 before they can even begin to do anything to help her.

In addition, the foreclosure has damaged Ana's credit rating, making it impossible for her to obtain other financing options.

With no where left to turn, Ana called the Tucson ACORN office. They have been a great source of support for Ana, providing financial advice and advocating in her behalf. ACORN also has a support system of volunteers called "Home Defenders", which are a group of volunteers foreclosed families can call at any time for support.

Through it all, Ana is hopeful and determined. Although feeling the stress of her uncertain future, she gives thanks to ACORN, as well as friends and neighbors and for their support and "Prays to God every single day" to let her keep her house.

Today, ACORN is hosting a protest and press conference at Ana's house. Jorge Garza is organizing the event, and is joined by others whose homes are being foreclosed. Madeleine Troyon, Dolores Fair and Maria Jimenes are all members of, and being supported by, ACORN. They each have a unique story to tell.

Madeleine was upbeat about the future, saying "I am so happy we have a president that is helping us." "

Dolores is hoping for broader support, telling the people gathered there "We need our community to stand with us."

Jorge Garza, who works with victims of predatory lenders every day, sums it up this way: "Banks do not deserve 20 years of someone's life just because [the banks] were greedy."

As for Ana, she expects to keep her home, and says "We will fight to the last" to do so.

ACORN sets up eviction 'crisis' teams

February 21, 2009
By Christin Nance Lazerus and John Byrne
Source
Post-Tribune staff writers
Legislative efforts are afoot in Washington, D.C., and in Indianapolis to protect homeowners and renters from foreclosure and eviction as the mortgage crisis gains momentum.

But rather than wait for help, the community group ACORN is set to launch a local eviction rapid-response team to prevent people from being thrown out of their homes.

The "Home Savers" will consist of people who can mobilize on short notice to defend homesteaders against attempts to evict them.

Eric Weathersby, director of Northwest Indiana's chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, said the group will rely on telephone calls from homeowners starting next week to determine who needs help.

As part of a national campaign, ACORN is encouraging people to refuse to move out of their homes or, in some cases, move back in. The civil disobedience campaign aims to pressure federal officials to come up with a solution to the housing crisis.

President Barack Obama announced a plan this week to stem the tide of mortgage foreclosures by earmarking $75 billion to prevent 9 million homeowners from being evicted.

He also announced a plan to double aid to mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to $400 billion to encourage them to refinance home loans.

On the state level, Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, has written a bill to force mortgage lenders to the table to try to negotiate new terms with homeowners on the brink of foreclosure.

Another bill in Indianapolis would give renters a 10-day notice of a pending foreclosure, and give them the power to void their leases if the building in which they live is about to be foreclosed on.

But Weathersby said there is currently "a breach" his group needs to fill.

"We are supportive of the president's plan, and that of Senator Tallian," Weathersby said. "In the meantime, however, we need to do what we can to keep people in their homes."

The "Home Saver" teams might engage in civil disobedience, physically blocking sheriff's police from getting to the front door of a house to serve an eviction notice, Weathersby said.

Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez has been at odds with ACORN for months on the eviction issue.

Dominguez says he must carry out court-ordered evictions, and warned ACORN not to try to prevent his officers from doing so.

Comment on this story at www.post-trib.com.

ACORN home page

The truth about central bankers and the Feds

It has taken me years to figure out exactly what a central bank is. And it hasn't been easy to understand. As a matter of fact, it tooks years just to figure out that I that I didn't understand the entire concept of the Feds, and how this establishment was actually detrimental to the people it claims to 'serve'.

Probably the best examination of central banking I have seen lately was presented in the movie Zeitgeist - the Addendum. I highly recommend viewing at least the first half of this movie for those who wish a crystal clear idea of what the Feds (and other central banks) do in plain no-nonsense language. The dangers of the concept of the Feds are expressed very well in the article below - exactly how do the people lose?

Truth, By George

By Rand Clifford
2/14/09
Source
Truth in our time has become so muddied, the first thing we need in any search for fundamental, unambiguous truth is a good working definition. Something to clutch as a certain cruciform against vampires…a touchstone to help us better navigate lies.

truth \’trüth\ n. : That which is true

Hhmmm….so precisely what is “true”?

Truth. Truth is true.
That Möbius strip leads nowhere. Could a better understanding of truth as an aide to our search for it be found by examining the opposite of truth—by examining untruth?

American life floods us with one particular very tried and true untruth: Everything our federal government tells us, either officially, or through mainstream corporate media. So, a reliable working definition of truth here could be: “Exactly what government does not tell”. Certainly they tell occasional superficial truths, but those always have tendrils merging into the massive and nearby body of deceit.

Let’s test drive the definition—not conventionally as one would with perhaps a list of lies, specific lies, that’d set us on another Möbius strip since ultimately it’s all the same, or has only one side, lies. No, let’s take a spin through authority, some entrenched establishment symbolism.

The Fed
What might evoke more bedrock images of federal government than the Federal Reserve (Fed), our central bank (which is not actually a bank, and has no reserves)? Simmering in its deep heritage of untruth…the Fed is in no way a part of the federal government, but is instead a private corporation. The Fed’s ultimate agenda orbits profit for a mostly foreign banking cartel. It is a private money making machine disguised as a part of “Government of the People, by the People and for the People”, creating “money” by simple data entry, then bleeding the people by loaning it to the government at interest. How in the name of government, in disgusting violation of the Constitution, did this happen? Rep. Ron Paul tells us. He introduced the Federal Reserve Board Abolition Act (HR 2755), in June 2007.

The Great Depression is a sinister example of the Fed’s untruth. One of their “duties” is to stabilize the money supply, but Sirens of personal accumulation dictate their “mission”. Leaked documents and defector testimony reveals their zeal over how many thousands of banks and farms they hoped to acquire for pennies on the dollar…. The Great Depression was a coup by the financial elite to seize more wealth for themselves at the expense of the working class—one of history’s more hideous refrains. Please note that before their coup of ‘29, these elite controlled only a majority of banks in the Northeast; afterward they dominated American capital from coast to coast. Ben Bernanke, the Fed’s current head, even admitted when squeezed: “Regarding the Great Depression. We did it. We’re sorry. We won’t do it again.”

Considering the Fed’s seamless legacy of untruth…one might suspect that they actually are doing it again—note how much of the current “bailout” money is being used for acquisition…banks swallowing other banks, trillions in debt passed to future taxpayers. Try explaining something like this to your child.

The Bushes
Shaking the Bushes is an unlikely way to flush out truth, but it seems a blue moon can make both Georges spontaneously stray into actual truth.. Is it a ploy to further confuse us, or merely a wrinkle in perception management?

One of George II’s most germane chucking of beans: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George I once told reporter Sarah McClendon that, “If the American people really knew what we had done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched.”

Then in 1992, when asked what Iran-Contra was really all about, George I replied that it was done for “…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.”

Talk about hitting pay dirt! In that simple nonchalance of George I, the fundamental truth underlying the foundational untruth of not only the Fed, but the federal government, corporate mainstream media—and owners of all of the above—the financial elite, is revealed.

Yes, the government is owned by our nemesis, the financial elite. They own our free press, they own you…they own the world. The common good is as irrelevant to our owners as the future of humanity, and what they want is all they’ve ever wanted: more. Will we simply keep swallowing their effluent until the Republic is dead?

All we really need to know, something we’ve had our noses rubbed in a very long time, is that the government deals exclusively in untruth. If it ever mattered even a little, truth has been absolutely and permanently supplanted by perception management, which, when it comes to the people, is the government’s only genuine concern (in Bush jargon, one American = OFU, or “one fodder unit”). The people have been so incredibly dumbed-down chemically and socially and every possible way in between that in the breadlines and soup kitchens, major-league baseball will probably be the hottest topic…or the Superbowl, or Brittney and Brad and Jen or the latest Superhero movie….

Perpetual Sheep, Perpetual Slaughter
A very wise woman said, “You can lead sheep to enlightenment, but you can’t make them think.”

Evolution has given women special insight to survive in a world where men dominate physically, do most of the slaughtering, and blaze where humanity would be better off not going. So what has a majority of the slaughter throughout history been motivated by? “…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.” If George I spoke only two truths in his whole wretched infliction upon us, that one rules.

“…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands” drove the fraudulent presidential installation of George II, twice. Same thing for 9/11…for the absolutely mind-defying War on Terror! Oil wars, shock-and-awe, wanton slaughter of millions. War on the Biosphere, Great Depression redux, American concentration camps for Americans, American troops deployed against Americans on American streets, false flag terror, martial law. Suspension of the Constitution, death of the Republic…. Inhumanity American “leadership” has inflicted on the rest of the world for over half a century is now coming home.

Why?
“…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.”

That’s the foundational truth everything can be distilled down to, the bottom-line truth we’ve been looking for—and what an unlikely place to find it…what eerie irony. From the forked tongue of George I.

“…the continuous consolidation of money and power into higher, tighter and righter hands.”

It’s the driving force behind everything in Planning Central, the only thing that matters. And with the face of the beast exposed…if we still have time, will we ever muster the will—and especially find the leadership—to turn back toward the humane?

Rand Clifford is a writer living in Spokane, Washington, with his wife Mary Ann, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Mink.. Rand’s novels CASTLING, TIMING, VOICES OF VIRES, and PRIEST LAKE CATHEDRAL are published by StarChief Press: http://www.starchiefpress.com

Posted by thomaspainescorner on February 15, 2009

For the opposing point of view click here.

The Scorpian of Corporate Capitalism

This article will be difficult to read if one is from the United States mainstream culture. Perhaps it has too much truth for those whom it describes. The rest of the world will mostly agree with most of this poet's description of the system which destroys even those who would not read his poem. My own experiences verify the impressions of this poet for the vast majority of those I meet on the net from the States, but certainly not all.

The Frog and the Scorpian

Image by TinyPic

By Vi Ransel
2/14/09
Souce
A frog and a scorpion met on a stream bank. The scorpion asked the frog to carry him across on its back. The frog asked, “How do I know you won’t sting me?” “Because if I do, I’ll drown, too” answered the scorpion. So they set out across the stream. Halfway across, the scorpion stung the frog. As the frog started to sink, he knew they’d both die. With his last breath, he gasped to the scorpion, “Why?!” “It is my nature. And you knew I was a scorpion.”

Americans do not want the facts.
They do not want to hear how many countries
we’ve invaded for power and money
nor the number of proxy wars
financed in our name for the same.

Americans do not want to talk
about slavery, the Native Americans
or our rape of “Third World” nations
for necessities like bananas or coltan for cell phones
via the IMF, the World Bank and “free” trade.

Americans do not want to see
that compliant puppet governments
and dictators are America’s best friend,
that anywhere real democracy rears its unwelcome head
it’s put down by demonizing it and its leaders and/or killing them.
(See Mossadegh, Hamas, Allende and Hugo Chavez .)

Americans do not want to admit
that terrorism is not caused by hatred
or envy of our “freedoms”, but by our invasions,
torture, exploitation and slaughter,
or that the US sends three billion taxpayer dollars
to Israel yearly to test white phosphorus,
J-DAMS, DIMES and GBU-39s
on the captive population of Gaza.

Americans will not even try
to understand that depressions and recessions,
repetitive bubbles and Wall Street’s speculative gambling
are planned in advance by the shameless fat cats
of the plutocracy and the “Federal” banksters.

Americans will not entertain the idea
that American business uses human shields it calls “illegals”
to stave of the threat of paying a living wage
and if they ask for one the boss just calls la migra.

Americans do not want to know
that Main Street was murdered by Wal-Mart and Wall Street,
or that prisons are plantations where the process of manufacturing
is just business carried on by other means.

Americans do not want to hear
that health insurance is a middle man
designed to bleed them into medical bankruptcy,
or that credit is just debt with a fancy name
created to rob them of their homes and their property.

Americans do not want to believe
that plastic is strangling the ocean,
that petro-agriculture is poisoning their food,
that the rain forest’s been razed for cheeseburgers,
and that climate change, misnamed “global warming”,
warms the “heart” of Big Energy’s shareholders.

Americans do not want to be reminded
of the animal holocaust in “farms” that are factories,
which in addition to terror and agony
causes stroke, heart disease and obesity,
or that the runoff makes drinking water a toxic cocktail
of hormones, antibiotics and feces,
that most of the ocean’s big fish have been fished
and commercial trawlers scrape the ocean bottom lifeless,
that continual solitary driving of their personal vehicles
helps strand polar bears on the remnants of ice flows.

Americans don’t want to look at the fact
that sex, fear and envy persuade them
to buy products that kill them for profit -
alcohol, tobacco, meat and dairy, food additives,
prescription drugs, corn syrup and plastics.

Americans do not want to admit
that love, family, friendship and sexuality
are now no more than profitable commodities,
that wars, sports, TV, shopping and celebrities
are designed to keep their minds off the rape of democracy.
Americans cannot be bothered to discover the political priorities
of people they vote for in the electoral extravaganza,
to look for alternative info though newspapers, TV “news” and talk radio
are talking points and sheer propaganda,
or to acknowledge that the people who “represent” them
have not the people’s, but their own, interest in mind,
due to campaign funding’s lucrative bonanza.

Americans refuse to see
that schools don’t educate for a reason.
An educated public is 300 million dangerous threats
and schools are used to defuse these

by a pre-emptive indoctrination of children
with the wisdom of dog-eat-dog competition
which creates the divide-and-conquer infrastructure
that allows oppressors to blame their own victims.

And since kids might stumble into cooperation and empathy,
those in social programs are deemed weak and pathetic
in an effort to get the victims to agree and accept
that they’re the primary cause of the system’s effect.

The plutocracy exercises increasing dominion
via consolidation of capital at the people’s expense
concentrates it periodically, ratcheting up its intensity,
during engineered crises like wars and depressions.

The United States is no longer the home of the free and the brave
where life, liberty and happiness are pursued,
but of people living in fear of financial and physical terrorism
and co-opted by the carnival of consumerism.

It’s a cauldron of inequality, poverty and misery
where lives are lived in quiet desperation,
in free(dom of) speech zones and the pursuit of stuff
in a marked down and militarized nation.

Americans refuse to believe that they’ve accepted to live
under a system that subjugates, denigrates and infantilizes them,
and that the many creating the wealth at the bottom
are engineered as ignorant, obedient and defensive.

And as the money is funneled up to the few
the many are bought off with shiny oil-based objects -
I-pods, X boxes, PCs, plasma TVs, SUVs,
McMansions, Mickey D’s, boob jobs and botox -

strung on a charm bracelet/slave chain
of the non-negotiable American lifestyle
constructed on the ashes our foreign trade policies
have made of other people’s rights and their lives.

Americans seem not to notice
that nature has been reduced from The Source
to a package of exploitable resources,
and that citizens are relegated to being consumers
who, in turn, are eaten up by their choices

or that a not-so-invisible hand signs the legislation
that makes foreign and domestic American policy
and turns what started as participatory democracy
into a Donner Party version of economics.

Americans don’t want
to hear, to see, to speak, or to feel
anything
about what’s actually happening to them
or being done in their name,
but most of all they don’t want to
THINK
because thinking leads to
cognitive dissonance and confronting the pain
of knowing how the American lifestyle
is, and has been, maintained.

But the aversion therapy administered in schools
and cultural reinforcement thereafter
keeps them safely away from
the truth,
imprisoned like dogs
with electronic shock collars.

And besides, they’re so busy with their shopping,
which is Americans’ ultimate function,
that they don’t have the time to tune into
what that “little voice” has been trying to tell them

that this system relentlessly perpetuates itself
by means of infinite, unlimited growth,
which it carries on by any means necessary
like a parasite that strangles its host.

It has to kill the goose (that’s us)
who lays the Gross Domestic Product Golden Egg
because it’s a no-holds-barred, winner-take-all,
every man on his own for himself free-for-all
until there are no eggs left to take.

It’s not ’til they’re drowning in hubris and debt
and the system turns around and stings them
that Americans are willing to hear what they already knew -
the scorpion is corporate capitalism.

Vi Ransel is an anti-capitalist poet of exceptional caliber.

Let's dance

The world is saturated with hate everywhere: it is impossible not to breathe in the toxic fumes and become nauseous and ill, bitter and despairing, no matter where one tries to get a fresh breath of air. Many just live their lives and ignore the toxicity of hate; it is out of their control and so they focus instead on loving the next generation. They are the lucky ones; and perhaps the wise ones, and I often envy them.

I have not been so lucky. My first word was probably 'why?' and my second, 'how?' I have been the pernicious, precocious, persistent pest of every teacher who found my name on the roll. It was not my intention to torment them; I was just born passionately curious. Learning has led me on a merry but difficult chase in life; but I am grateful for even the most difficult lessons on my road. How was I to know that I would persist in asking questions which I did not want the answers to?

The questions and answers are not important now - because at the end, I see all boils down to the simple aspect of the human heart, good-willed or mean-spirited or even worse, indifferent. I see there can be no psychological, political, economic, philosophical, sociological, rational, religious or military solutions that will achieve 'peace on earth, goodwill to all': a simple smile or tear, hug or helping hand will do the job tho. Because the problem does not exist in systems; it exists in our hearts and our free will, and it is there we must touch each other if the world is going to change.

But this is not the point of my story, only background. My story is about dancing.

About a month ago, working on my computer, I left the television on in the background. Super Stars of Dance, hosted by Michael Flatley came on and I let it be for some interesting background music to my work. Countries participating are Australia, South Africa, the United States, Ireland, Argentina, Russia, India and China. The format is a competition in the group, singles and doubles categories of dance with judges from each country. Slowly, I began peeking at the TV screen...until finally I abandoned my computer altogether for the amazing energy from the dancers of these very different countries.

Since then, I have been rapt each time the next round of dancers appears weekly. Without a word, the tool of my trade, the energy of these dancers soaked every pore of my awareness. Each country thrilled me with a different experience from its own culture, its own music, its own history delivered to my heart through the beauty of their bodies in motion. I am a changed person for having experienced their gift of dance.

Videos here.

I gasped at the exquisite ballet and explosive Shaolin priests of China, the passion of the Argentine tango, the precision of dozens of Irish feet in perfect unison, the hip hop gyrations of the USA dancers, the women of India beautiful beyond belief expressing thousands of years of the Indian people and the Russians classic magic and sense of grace and humour. South African dancers awed me with both their tribal primacy and interpretive creations and the Australians - they may very well win with their choreography and energy that must have sprung from the very soil Down Under.

Through these bodies in motion, I have learned to love all these different countries just a little bit. Through them, I know of the people who are the real countries rather than the politics and rhetoric which is broadcast for global public consumption. They have touched my heart in a place I did not know was there. Because of them, there will be a little less hate in the world and a little more respect and appreciation.

I will continue to search the world for words which help me to understand our diversity and the path to our unity. I will question and marinate the information I find, packaged in language bundles and compartmentalised academic categories.

But I will never again question art as part of the solution to decrease hate between people. In fact art reaches all hearts without the words we so often argue over; it unites us in places of the heart, the real battleground of humanity's future. I can understand now what Gilad Atzmon has been saying about music.

So I invite all of my analytical rational truth seekers to participate in another path to reach our goal, goodwill among countries and toward all people. Between our labours of reason, our fears, despair, and hope, in the now, heart to heart with the pleasure of all our beings for the ecstasy of flowing together in peace and unity, let's dance.

Check out the pix on the website here.

The hand has been dealt - Lucid comments

Now the Obama administration has to show its cards

on Russia, Pakistan, China and Iran.

By Mike Moran - GlobalPost Columnist
February 8, 2009 11:33 ET
Source
NEW YORK — In the early weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency, the players have been invited to the table and dealt their hands.

The president has made his choices for the cabinet and other top posts, subject to the approval of the U.S. Senate. It’s been a messy but necessary process that will continue for months. With the exception of the CIA director designate Leon Panetta, the Obama foreign policy team now sits firmly in place.

(In Munich Feb. 7, Vice President Joseph Biden pledged a departure from the Bush administration's foreign policy.)

Former Sen. George Mitchell has been appointed as special envoy in the Middle East and former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke has responsibility for Afghanistan and Pakistan. Both of these experienced players will now move to jump-start vital conversations that had fallen by the wayside in the Bush years. Similar moves could be afoot for the on-again, off-again North Korea nuclear talks, and the president’s oft-referenced intention to extend a hand to Iran.

Regardless of whether the president chooses to run policy on these other prickly topics with “special envoys” or through the State Department bureaucracy, these four crises — Israel-Palestine, Afghanistan-Pakistan, North Korea, and Iran — represent the four corners of the diplomatic box America finds itself trapped within.

As in no other moment in American history, progress in any of them leaves the United States heavily reliant on other countries. Multilateralism is no longer a policy choice: It’s a fact of life.

This turn of events has many smart people talking of “grand bargains,” and rightfully so. In each of these conflicts, an outside power now exercises as much or more influence over events than the United States.

Take the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gone are the days when a presidential envoy’s most urgent task was getting the Israelis and Palestinians to agree to compromise on territorial and political issues.

Those problems — the status of Jerusalem, the demand for Palestinian right of return, what to do with Jewish settlements — all still exist.

But unlike the 1990s, other players now have a seat at the table. The EU and the Russians form part of the “Quartet” that sponsors talks. Turkey, Israel’s closest Muslim ally, has of late actively tried to seal a deal that would return the Golan Heights to Syria in exchange for a genuine peace treaty with Israel.

But the real unpredictable player at the table here is Iran.

Invited or not, Iran, by virtue of its influence over Hezbollah and Hamas, its alliance with Syria, and its nascent nuclear capabilities, holds a de-facto veto over regional agreements. Add its ability to stir trouble in Iraq, and Iran looms as a pivotal factor in any Arab-Israeli peace
settlement.

Similarly, in any talks with Iran that may develop, the notion that lifting U.N. economic sanctions and opening full diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic will necessarily entice Iran to foreswear nuclear weapons is slightly naïve. Iran launched a satellite into space last week in spite of years of economic sanctions, and for all the talk of “worried mullahs”
as low oil prices put additional pressure on the Iranian economy, it is important to understand that mullahs don’t think like us.

Indeed, the western consumerism that these “enticements” would bring could be more fearsome for the clerics than the economic benefits.

At the end of the day, the United States will be forced to rely on someone with leverage over Iran.

That country is Russia. Moscow has been part of the talks aimed at preventing Iran from going nuclear, but also has built the Iranians a nuclear reactor and would like to contract for more.

Russian firms do more business in Iran than those of any other nation, and each country has found the other an occasionally useful ally, if only as a way to force the Americans to understand the consequences of ignoring their interests. No deal that prevents Iran from fielding nuclear weapons can happen without Moscow. Period.

Russia made a similar point with regard to Afghanistan this week, essentially paying $2.1 billion to Kyrgyzstan in exchange for delivering an eviction notice to the United States, which had been using a Kyrgyz airbase to supply the war effort.

But in Afghanistan, Russia’s influence is literally on the margins. The Europeans' NATO forces play their part, too, and are indispensible to Obama’s current plan for a troop surge. But seven-and-a-half long years after 9/11, the key player here is the same it was on Sept. 11, 2001: Pakistan.

The relationship with the fractured, opaque Pakistani state has broken down profoundly. Its army tires of doing what it sees as “America’s bidding,” though the billions of dollars in economic and military largesse which has flowed in since 9/11 have helped modernize a military that had begun to fall hopelessly behind its traditional foe, India.

The civilian government is undermined by the airstrikes conducted inside Pakistani territory, and even if it privately has no love for the targets of those Hellfire missiles, it can’t help but be infuriated by the civilian casualties and the appearance of powerlessness they imply. And as
India’s foreign minister noted Thursday, Pakistan’s intelligence services continue to train and provide support to the Taliban and terrorists directed at India.

The dilemma is one Americans of a certain generation will remember: Just as South Vietnam could never be secured against the Viet Cong as long as Cambodia and Laos served as safe havens, neither can Afghanistan be secured without Pakistan gaining control over its territory. Pakistan, here, is the indispensable nation.

The situation is similar in the Far East. There, over the past decade, talks under the “Six Party” rubric have involved North Korea in negotiations with the United States, China, Russia, South Korea, and Japan.

No one is under any illusion that Russia, Japan, or even South Korea itself can do much to forge an agreement that would convince the North Koreans to dismantle their nuclear arsenal. For years, the Six Party structure was little more than a way for the U.S. and North Korea to talk without having diplomatic relations.

Now, however, the picture is vastly more complicated.

Since the testing of its own nuclear weapon in 2006, North Korea appears less impressed by carrots or sticks. In fact, in this conflict, China now calls the tune. Only China, which supplies most of North Korea’s energy and is the North’s only true commercial partner, has any leverage over North Korea.

Iran, Russia, Pakistan, China are the cards that are showing on the table. You, Mr. President, are the croupier. And it’s time for the House to play its hand.