2.01.2003
The State of the Union quote I began entry 1.29.03 with has me wanting to talk about voting machines. Senator Charles Hagel(R-NE) was just in the news concerning his invovement with the voting machine company that tallied votes in his own districts.That link will also bring to mind " should we be concerned with the manufacturer's of the machines political affiliations?" Rebecca Mercuri, an electronic voting expert says yes. Scroll through her whole statement and examine her links. It will make you wonder if our votes count. As if the 2000 ( what an incredible resource) election didn't shake your faith already. This final link will give you great deal to consider, VoteWatch.US.
I realize that I have shared a full plate of reading today. Send links to your friends, talk with folks at work. If the U.S is going to foster Democracy in other countries, shouldn't we demand that our vote here, at home, count?
2/01/2003
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1.31.2003
The White House scared of poetry. It seems that a poetry symposium concerned with the works of Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes was cancelled for fear the poets might speak their truth, as poets are given to do. Reading about this at ByteBack led me to think about the wonderful symbolism of this. The pen mightier than the sword and all. Plus the fact that beauty will always reveal blind force and ignorance. As Martin Luther King said "Life cannot be fooled". Reminds us of what we are working towards: America's promise.
For Ferlinghetti who was to read at the cancelled event; and for you if you feel this poem is apropos...
Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.
Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."
The free?
Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.
O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!
thanks to shenna who sent me a copy of this two years ago....
1/31/2003
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A brief entry today. Thanks to Tom Paine.common sense I offer a tool from a link offered there to help analyse the State of the Union talk we heard the other night. If you read it through and explore the links offered you will be past the smoke and mirrors; the reality behind his statements on everything from the tax cut to education to attacking Iraq is laid bare.
If the President feels comfortable about misleading "We the People" to get his aims, if our elected officials, those who represent us can give him standing ovations as he misleads us; who can we trust? Surely our legislators know the realities behind his statements.
Let your Legislators know how you feel; here is the toll-free congressional switchboard: 1-800-839-5276 . Or use this tool. Disclaimer: I'm not familiar yet with the fore mentioned website, it seems very user friendly though.
I've included some more objective news sources in the sidebar to help in understanding current events.
1/31/2003
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1.30.2003
Mr Bush mentioned Iran in his State of the Union Speech. Is the U.S promoting Democracy there? Or perhaps enabling incumbent Islamic fundamentalists to keep their entrenched power? Abbas Abdi, one time student revolutionary leader at the U.S embassy siege is now a reformer- and is in jail for polling about Iranians views on U.S/Iranian relations. Here are the poll results . There also is a telling article in the Feb 10 issue of The Nation page 6; it is not available online.
It seems clear to me that where there is religious fundamentalism rather than a secular state, Democracy is at risk.
I'm not going to tell you about this quote so you will read the (rather long) article:
"As the Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." 1796...
People are people, no matter where they reside. This Eric Alterman article bears reading, especially if you have enough hindsight to remember Le Monde's September 11th headline proclaiming "We are all Americans Now".
1/30/2003
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1.29.2003
"Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations built armies and arsenals and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world.
In each case, their ambitions... had no limit."
I wish I had a better sense of who he was talking about... The election debacle is still in my mind.
Last night, after hearing The State of the Union Address (quoted above) the program and server I use to create this ongoing daily project was, for whatever reason, down. Could have been a good thing; I was, for the most part, in a state of overwhelming disbelief compounded by an actual fear for us, our country, our world. If you have been reading this daily you'll know what I mean; from hearing his spin on taxcuts that will plunge us into deeper debt to the pharmaceutical plan for the elderly that will only help people that can afford to join an HMO and leave their Medicare program (both were touched on during Mr Locke's response), the truth was forgotten as the partisans stood up and clapped, again and again . Mr Bush may not have out and out lied but he did commit the sin of ommission. Early and often as the saying goes... and the speech went. Here is some perspective .
Where is the money going to come from to fill out Mr Bush's grocery list of spending? Like page torn from Mr Reagan's presidency, again I saw "Tax and Spend" combined with great communication skills; you know; the going on about evil and American righteousness and force - a posture well suited to influencing folks who ask no questions, who believe the little bit of evening news that they take in. People, like us, who believe in America and its promise, but they believe unquestioningly in the present administration as well as in the media. A quote from Rupert Murdoch "The truth is that authoritarian countries can work." (the Murdoch link is germane, and not very long)
About N. Korea Hmmmmm....
Nukes at home..
Norman Schwartzkopf - another American with questions ( long, but please read...)
It is up to us, we people who like Stormin' Norman S have questions. Patriotism is loving your country enough to look deeply into what it is doing in your name, and why.
"Once again, we are called to defend the safety of our people, and the hopes of all mankind. And we accept this responsibility." Yessir, Mr President. That's what this blog is about, it is that sort of tool.
Thank you Mr Locke for throwing out some actual figures out about the tax cut. And mentioning the airport screener issue and the medicare for older folks facts.
1/29/2003
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1.28.2003
To be ready for this evening you should check out Byte Back for important Locke background information pre his rebuttal to Mr Bush's 'hard sell'. There is also an entry, more an op-ed piece on Bush/Chavez. Good reading. The State of the Union stuff doesn't kick off till 9, so you should have time to go to The Watch to round out your knowledge of Venezuela, Chavez, and gain a useful resorce for 'news' analysis.
1/28/2003
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1.27.2003
This quote is from "Toxic Sludge is Good for You" by Rampton and Stauber of PRWatch:
"In Unreliable Sources, authors Martin Lee and Norman Solomon noted that "when a research team from the communications department of the University of Massachusetts surveyed public opinion and correlated it with knowledge of basic facts about US policy in the region, they drew some sobering conclusions: The more television people watched, the fewer facts they knew; and the less people knew in terms of basic facts, the more likely they were to back the Bush administration."
They are refering to Bush 1's Gulf War. Read this link to see the quote in context while getting the inside story of the Kuwaiti babies that were supposedly killed by Iraqi soldiers in the '91 War. I've heard this supposed atrocity mentioned recently; I hope you will read about the truth of the matter.
Are you Familiar with the Office of Global Communications? How about its short lived precursor the Office of Strategic Influence ? Pretty scary, eh? You might ask why America would need PR to sell its image, we were told the September 11 tragedy was caused by foreign envy of our freedom, our wealth. Freedom and wealth need no spin, anyone knows that. Hmmm.
This needs spin. War in general needs spin.
It is good we are thinkers, people who take time to inquire. What this experiment in "by the people for the people" is all about.
Postscript: Lest the U.S Saddam connection is forgotten. This RealAudio link is about 11 minutes long and concerns the relationship between Saddam Hussein and the U.S Government. It is oftentimes glossed over in the corporate news that the majority of us are exposed to. This link is from 1.24.00. Saddam is a violent tyrant from all accounts, but at one point, he was our Tyrant. Obviously not friend cuz we sold his opponent, Iran, arms as well. Go figure. Link offered because I heard the Rush Limbaugh Show today: if his show is representitive of the level of knowledge the average Joe or Joanne has about Iraq, there is a LOT of disinformation floating around out there.
And tomarrow: The State of the Union...
1/27/2003
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1.26.2003
http://www.takebackthemedia.com/rushbusted.html Tired of Rush Limbaugh's inaccurate and just plain hateful daily tirades? Of hearing him fill the heads heads of listeners nationwide with non-reality based anti-democratic blather from his talk radio podium?- take a few moments and tell his sponsors how you feel. Intelligent informed discourse is the mainstay, ideally, of our political system; lies, fabrication of "facts" and mean spirited innuendo do no service to the listener.
Now this friends, is Democracy in Action!
Drop me a line about their reactions.
peace,
m
1/26/2003
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