Opera Glasses and Popcorn
Boy this looks lousy and lethal to me:
A painted Hungarian military helicopter flies over the town of Szolnok. The Nato code for this Russian-made aircraft is ‘Hind” – hence the painting. [AP from the BBC]
Just a Saturday thread… 😉
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An Opera Glasses and Popcorn view of Politics and the Assembled Multitude...
Marisacat -
- Real independent observations on current events with a particular fondness for the follies of the Big Box Blahgers.
Deflates bloated egos like a champion fencer in a balloon warehouse.
- Alan Smithee
Marisacat -
"...polish on a mud wallow"
- Meteor Blades [May 24 at Mcat]
Marisacat -
"... doyenne of donkle deconstruction"
- Who is IOZ [January 2 2007]
Marisacat -
"... hardened professionals and their primary strength lies in their being completely unconflicted."
"... the primary difference is that on the level of criticizing other blogs and bloggers, they can actually do some damage."
"... Not what I look for in a liberal blog product."
- peeder - MLW, Daily Rant [3.24.07]
Democracy NOW! / Amy Goodman Electronic Intifada / General Content Press TV / Middle East News Press TV McClatchy Headlines The Real News Reuters / Politics
on one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.
If you click on La Louche the picture or the words, it leads to the Amazon PayPage, a way to ... oh let's say help with the cat can deliveries.
Thanks to all who made the very kind suggestion.
Marisacat 
It appears to be crying. Or am I projecting ?
well, thre is a tear there….
Wow. To think that someone spent a lot of time and energy painting that thing on a helicopter.
Speaking of unsettling images, this video is a festival of unattractive faces. Can’t you see mcjoan screaming “NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!”
If you haven’t seen the Robbins/Maher et. al clip, recommend it:
Robbins
The end is priceless.
sv, I really can’t sit through that sort of thing when I’m already queasy. Can’t you slap a surgeon general’s warning on it or something ? Those who’ve been advised to cut back on their intake of smarm and close-ups of incredibly bad hair should see their doctor before taking KosTube.
Granted, nobody but my friends and immediate family like looking at me, but at least I’ve figured out that once you’re over eighteen, it’s time to stop wearing pigtails for photo ops.
Well the point is that helicopter gunships, some of them, can move in close for the kill.
In the height of the invasion, I fell asleep one afternoon and dreamed of new bombs, a new sort of cluster bomb, where many small bomblets would fall to earth and nto explode, but later as children would approach, because the bomblets would throw rainbows, THEN they would epxlode.
Rather what I see with a zoo animal painted on the side of a gunship, already moving in low.
Mitm, thank you for that link to the Glen Ford article in the last thread.
Re PFF – I think it has great potential to post serious stuff that would be troll-rated out of existence on the BBBs. There are some kos defenders there already.
Peeder should invite Cindy Sheehan and others to provide updates on her candidacy. Ron Paul supporters also, and Kucinich. Maybe even the candidates themselves. Gravel too.
I see Hunter lying in the LA Times about DK not being ‘only about winning’. Lol! I would go find Kos’ own statements if it were worth the effort, but I think most people already know the truth about that statement.
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And thereisnospoon is back on the FP of MLW! Hilarious. Who really runs that blog or did I imagine MSOC’s statement on Blacksabbath’s blog that she herself would have removed him from the FP had he not resigned? Say anything seems to be their MO. Just like kos himself.
http://www.myleftwing.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=18509
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They subscribe to the rightwing theory that you just ignore ‘misteps’ and continue on no matter how badly you screw up. He has more than women to worry about as he, MissL and DK, FDL, MYDD will never recover from their blatant ignorance regarding the issue of ‘diviersity at YrlyK. Which is now all forgotten on the BBBs.
Marie, the ending of that video with Robbins, Martin, Hayes, and Maher was priceless–Robbins got in the ultimate zinger!
We were discussing people with brains who present a progressive viewpoint well on television. I wonder if Tim Robbins is interested in leaving behind the glamour of Hollywood and running for public office? Eh, most likely not. That’s the problem: if people are really bright, they don’t want to run for public office. Now let’s ask ourselves: why is that?
Ted Nugent wants Obama to suck on his gun.
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/25/7914/34361
Um. Ted. This is the post Freudian world you’re dealing with and some of us just might read something into it.
Lost in spam.
I’d rather see Obama and the rest suck lemons. It represents my feelings about the two-party system so perfectly.
About 1200 people and about 300 organizations in Newark NJ today in the 100 degree heat.
Conyers took a bit of heat_ and a lot of people chanted “impeach impeach” when he spoke. The gang at the Daily Kos might make something of it but the only ones who were genuinely rude were the LaRouchites. Everybody else just enaged in a bit of heckling.
When Amira Baraka spoke he and slammed all the white people in the crowd for dissing Conyers, said none of them understood what an anti-imperialist hero Conyers is and that it shows that the white anti-war movement is detached from black anti-imperialists.
All in all though it was the most interracial coalition I’ve ever seen. The Nation of Islam was even pushing their newspapers on white people as if they were just another Trotskyite sect. I’ve been wanting to read the “Final Call” for awhile and I’ve never had the guts to go up to Harlem to buy one so that wasn’t totally unwelcome.
Donald Payne, local Congressman, also spoke. There was a taped message from Michael Moore and about 1000 other speakers but they did the smart thing and broke the speakers up between before the march and after the march so they avoided the usual Answer pitfall of having people drift away during the endless speakers list.
To the great dismay of my progressive Democratic Daily Kos side, I noticed a giant puppet and a few Mumia signs.
But on the whole there was a prett good effort to link the lack of health care to the war and to diffuse the anti-immigrant tensions that have been getting worse after the murders of a few weeks ago.
I didn’t see many Latinos though. It was mostly white leftists and blacks but a thorough mixture of both.
Robbins was great last night.
Hayes turns my stomach. Fucker.
with all respect to Baraka, Conyers has betrayed himself, betrayed his supporters and betrayed the tradition which spawned him.
Robbins was great last night.
Hayes turns my stomach. Fucker
Actually I think they didn’t take enough time to really nail him on the 9/11/Saddam thing. They let him get his little talking point in.
And they both talked about the war as more of a fuckup than a war crime. It wasn’t a fuckup. It was the successful murder of a whole country and a million people.
But I won’t be too hard on Tim Robbins since he’s done more to end the occupation of Iraq than I ever will.
ST – had that same recollection and thought right after I hit the “say it” button. Robbins has far more natural ability for politics than Franken does (can’t imgine that he’ll be very good Sen., like Biden, he likes the sound of his own voice too much).
Plus, wouldn’t you rather see Susan on the TV than Maria? Or any other politician’s significant other for that matter. Why do Californians only elect GOP “actors?” Not even good actors much less ones with other talents (I refuse to consider body building along with steriod chomping a talent. And I still like Barry Bonds, even if he did take steroids.)
with all respect to Baraka, Conyers has betrayed himself, betrayed his supporters and betrayed the tradition which spawned him.
Conyers also said that he supported the Newark and Detroit rebellions in the 60s.
Actually he tried to act as a peacemaker in Detroit and to tell people to get out of the streets and go home.
But I think Baraka needs to be listened to. Blacks aren’t going to trust white leftists if they spend a lot of their time attacking the black liberal elite. Yes, Conyers needs to be criticized but the issue of black loyalty to the Democrats isnt’ something you can just dismiss out of hand.
I got a whiff of Steve Gilliard in Baraka’s speech. It was “you white people don’t understand what it’s like to be uninsured and need health care and nobody you know has been to Iraq so shut up you stupid yuppie”.
Some truth to it. Nader is horrible on race issues. And a lot of blacks don’t trust white progressives.
#7: Sabrina, Re: TINS resurrection to the frontpage of MLW.
If you look at TINS’ comments, you’ll see that he quit the site “forever” (which isn’t as long as it used to be):
http://tinyurl.com/2boypn
And note that he specifically quit in the context of being more unpopular than a needle seller at a balloon convention.
TINS does not appear to have his frontpaging abilities restored; Shanikka, his fellow conservative who agrees with TINS that women need to take “responsibility” for what men do to them whilst drunk, promoted his diary.
All is forgiven and all is forgotten. Down the memory hole.
And remember: When someone says that they’re through with you FOREVER, you reply: “So, see you in a couple of weeks?”
As to who’s “running” MyLeftWing: Hm, everybody and nobody? Depends on what day you pop in there, I suppose, and which one of MSOC’s 1001 administrators have the keys to the shop that day.
I’d have imagined that Baraka would be all for impeachment, but then again– what do I know about poetry ?
Swiped from The Distant Ocean. The Real Lesson of Vietnam.
I’d have imagined that Baraka would be all for impeachment
I’m sure he is.
Huh ?
And if Baraka is for impeachment, Conyers makes a strange bedfellow, and he just seems to me like another obstructionist a la’ Pelosi.
With good cause, I’d say. Blacks vote Democratic at the 90%+ rate–more than any other ethnic group–and get nothing for it.
The Democratic Party, as an institution, has been falling over itself for the past 25 years trying to figure out how to win without the black vote. The Hunt for the Great White Bubba has been largely fruitless, however, so the Democrats are forced to rely on the black folk time and again, but with the implicit understanding that black Americans will receive absolutely no repayment for their loyalty: no jobs programmes, no decent health care or education programmes, no urban re-development, nothing of tangible benefit to blacks. The Democrats can’t even bring themselves to get behind ending the so-called “Drug War” that is a racist attack on the black community, nor to endorse gun control (young black men are 5 times more likely to be murdered than any other group).
Where else can black people go? I’d say a new political party that attracted disgruntled white progressives who DO want to do something for black Americans, and blacks themselves, would throw a damned good fright into the Democrats. A long-overdue reckoning, I might add.
But I think that what went on in Newark today needs to go on every month in the Iraq Moratorium, that size, with that number of organizations and with well known speakers.
Have these rallies in every majority minority district with Congresssmes with safe seats. Have Michael Moore actually come instead of just sending taped messages. Have Tim Robbins come.
Newark has a very different feel from white gated Morristown or Manhattan. The security and police presence is much less intense.
Have these in Newark, Detroit, Oakland, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Madison, every place that can produce them.
Then can concentrate police and security in gated communities like Manhattan but they can’t do it everywhere at the same time.
Eventually it will get to the point where you’re marching down the Turnpike and not Broad Street and Mr. Investment Banker trying to catch his plane will have to take notice.
Huh ?
I’ve heard Nader pressed on shows like Democracy Now about the prison industrial complex or the drug war or racism and he just doesn’t seem to connect.
Maybe not horrible but he wouldn’t play well in front of an all black audience.
And if Baraka is for impeachment, Conyers makes a strange bedfellow, and he just seems to me like another obstructionist a la’ Pelosi.
Yes. I would have thought so too but this was a mostly black city in front of a half black crowd that cheered Baraka when he said lay off Conyers.
So its not something you can just dismiss. I’m not saying its right. But I am saying its there.
But don’t get me wrong. I’ve never seen a more integrated anti-war march. Seriously, when you’ve got the Nation of Islam, Military Families Speak out, and various suburban anti-war groups coming together that’s progress.
Re: Conyers–
The rumour being circulated about Conyers is that if he attempts to initiate hearings that would lead to impeachment, Pelosi will remove him as Chair of the Judiciary Committee. If so, that’s an extraordinary threat Mme. Pelosi made to a senior member of Congress.
If the rumour is true, and I were Conyers, I’d call her bluff (and that’s what it is). How the hell is Pelosi going to strip Conyers of his position without landing in a kettle of hot soup herself? I wouldn’t play games with her nor with the Constitution: I’d come right out and dare Madame Speaker to take away my committee chair if she didn’t like the way I ran things.
Oh. And there were no, zero, none, zilch, nada Ron Paul supporter in sight.
They came out in force for the anti-immigrant march in Morristown and ignore the anti-war march in Newark.
That doesn’t say good things about them in my mind.
the issue of black loyalty to the Democrats.
hmmm, well I like to quote from Malcolm’s Ballot or the Bullet. That is hwere I got my deep belief and desire for VOTING BLOCS.
Poeple need to learn the value of the ballot, of withholding it. If they bother to continue to vote, that is..
All people. Not holding my breath tho.
Sorry, Hair Club. Nader isn’t perfect but I’m not swallowing “horrible on race” without something a little more concrete than your memory of one or two radio shows. It’s easy enough to find his actual positions on the issues using google. Also, Crashing the Party has some good commentary from him regarding race and poverty.
Also, frankly the BAR/BC split shows that it’s not just White progressives who have multiple complaints about people like Conyers. I think it’s a mistake to consider this as merely a gap between Black and Whites. Ignoring schisms within communities doesn’t make them disappear. Just as ignoring race doesn’t make racism disappear.
Sorry, Hair Club. Nader isn’t perfect but I’m not swallowing “horrible on race” without something a little more concrete than your memory of one or two radio shows.
It was phrased poorly.
Let me rephrase it. He and his program don’t have wide appeal in the black community.
it’s not just whites. Glen Ford and Bruce Dixon are A LOT harder on Conyers’ betrayal than I ever could be:
Or maybe even that isn’t the way to phrase it.
How about “white leftists should expect that blacks are willing to join a rebellion against the democratic party just because it’s partly in their interests to do it.”
Shadowthief, I don’t understand that either. (#27) We all remember how they screwed McKinney out of her seniority when she returned to office, though. Presumably Conyers is not convinced that he could win a stare-down with Pelosi despite the huge opposition to Bush and the war. (And some articles I’ve seen showed Black and Black-owned media opposed to the war from Day One in greater numbers than Whites.) But there are a lot of frightened people in that party. Frightened of losing their perks and prestige. It’s a shame and a waste and I try not to think about it too much.
26
Yes but Shadowthief, my suspicion is that she has also GIVEN him things. Or not drawn attention thru the media to other things.
Zoe Lofgren used to be very interesting, she came out almost the earliest for Dean. But I notice very very quiet about all things now. And for some months. i also read a few months ago that Nancy removed hmmm ugh. Cannot think of the name, one of the women from the CBC from a chair, a rther importatn chair on immigration. Zoe’s district is part of Silicon Valley, immigration and more importantly VISA issues are a big deal there. No news there.
Greatly increased Zoe’s power in her district.
Nobody is saying much about Conyers other than this tug of mini war.
At the moment.
…Let me rephrase it. He and his program don’t have wide appeal in the black community.
Not even this community ?
Sorry. I couldn’t resist. :p
I remember Steve Gilliard just before he died thought it was a VERY BIG DEAL that Conyers and Rangel had moved into senior positions in Congress.
I think there might be the impression that if given enough time Conyers and Rangel and people like them could get real power in Congress and start slowing down the redistribution of income upwards.
Note. I think this is wrong and I think the fact that Pelosi clamped down on Conyers proves it. But I don’t speak for the black community. Neither, of course, does Baraka but he certainly does more than I do.
oops I mean Nancy removed one person from the chair and GAVE IT to Zoe…
sorry that was not clear.
Marisacat, thanks for the reminder from Malcolm. Smart man and smart strategy–if people got together as a bloc (particularly white progressives and black Americans) and boycotted one election, what was left of the Democrats would damn well listen to that bloc on the next go around. We wouldn’t be begging THEM to listen to us; they’d be begging US to listen to THEM.
As for Ralph Nader on race, Commondreams has a 2000 article entitled “Ralph Nader’s Racial Blindspot” that may be relevant to this discussion:
Link: http://tinyurl.com/37qoga
So while Nader is progressive on so many issues, he doesn’t specifically connect them to black people–which I think is what HCFM was saying. That’s the problem with a lot of white progressives–they don’t make the connection of “This is the issue” and “Here’s how it affects YOU”.
But also, speaker after speaker after speaker (and most of them black) slammed the Democrats on welfare reform and the war on drugs.
It’s possible people are just contradictory. They understand the Democrats will screw them but will vote for Hillary anyway because they think they’ll screw them less.
It’s possible that Bush and the Republicans come off as such blatent, horrific, genocidal white supremacists (and they certainly come off that way to me) that even the corrupt inadequate complicit Democrats are better.
Who knows. I didn’t talk to everybody there. It would be interesting to really hash these things out in the open.
Let’s Face It: The Warfare State Is Part of Us
Here’s what I think’s really going on with Conyers:
If Pelosi threatened to remove Conyers from his committee chair, Conyers would have just laughed at her naivete. How, pray tell, would she do that with bringing the dogs of hell to her own doorstep?
No, what’s really happening is that Conyers doesn’t believe that impeachment can succeed, and he doesn’t want his “legacy” to include “failed attempt to impeach Vice-President Cheney and/or President Bush”.
Conyers has made this about HIM, not about US and not about the Constitution. And I’m sure he lulls himself to sleep at night by thinking, “Well, we’re tying Bush and Cheney up in knots, so impeachment’s not necessary.”
Screw Conyers and screw his legacy. I don’t believe the rumours that Pelosi has threatened to remove him, and I absolutely do not believe that Conyers couldn’t and wouldn’t call her on such a threat if he wanted to.
Conyers isn’t impeaching because he doesn’t want to. The man has made a political calculation on a matter of principle, with the result that his much-prised “legacy” is forever tarnished: The Honourable John Conyers (D-MI), who could have stopped Bush and Cheney from attacking Iran and killing tens of thousands of people simply by initiating impeachment proceedings (even if they weren’t successful!), but didn’t because he wanted to preserve his “legacy”.
Conyers is an old man, and old men can become overly reckless or overly cautious.
Frankly I see a lot of the same scheisse in
Conyers
Pete Stark
Rangel
Dingle.
Go home. Let new shits step up I AM SICK OF THEM ALL.
Throw Barney Frank there too, and Ike Skelton… and Oberstar too.
And a few others.
Is It Time to Legalize Drugs?
Since Foreign Policy has their articles behind a subscription wall, I went looking, and found the complete piece on a Cannabis forum:
Of course, the prison-industrial complex and the racists who cheer it on will make ending our obsession w/ locking people up for victimless crimes pretty hard.
Shadow, I remember that article. In the long form it’s just a wee bit more nuanced than one would gather just from that excerpt. Especially by the standards of Commnon “Dem Or Die” Dreams.
Yes but… CommonDreams (which prints plenty that is not party centric) drew that article on Nader from
Colorlines.
Iraq Vet Tower Guard Vigil in DC 8/26 – 9/1/2007
As regards race and the two-party system, an oldie but a goodie.
oopps here is the link to the long form article, rather than the current FP at Colorlines
Well, Mcat, that would explain why the full article isn’t just some idiotic screed along the lines of Nader Helps Bush Kill and Eat Black Children !! The excerpt Shadow quotes doesn’t really do it justice.
But let’s face it, by and large, Common Dreams was terrible on 3rd Party issues in 2000 and since then it’s only gotten worse. I’ve lost track of how many times some clown will go and on about how much the DP sucks, but by the final paragraph it’s always Vote Democrat or Bush Will Eat Our Children !! Or some similar shit. I’ve scarcely been over there at all in the last three years. I’m bored with the day-trippers. Always taking me half the way there. :p
Maybe I am skimming past grafs (commonDreams is one page and Colorlines is split, on two pages) but it looks to be the same article to me.
that would explain why the full article isn’t just some idiotic screed along the lines of Nader Helps Bush Kill and Eat Black Children !!
Except that is not what the article is.
Legalize, regulate and tax pot and coca. Set aside at least 80% of those tax dollars to fund drug treatment (within a Medicare for all system) and real drug education. That would mostly eliminate the use of the ugly meth drugs. Release all the non-violent, incarcerated drug users and expunge their criminal record for drugs after three years probation. (That alone would save a lot of dollars.) Sign trade agreements with those countries that produce pot (high tariffs on this would encourage domestic production), and coca – that gets rid of most of the narco-terrorists. Would reduce the smuggling “infrastructure which would make it that much harder for any terrorist thinking of using that route to get into the country (more imagined than real threat).
With that fewer people would come in contact with illegal drug peddlers and be less vulnerable to enticements to try heroin. But the crime associated with heroin use is still a blight and therefore, would dispense it through clinics for addicts (and always offer them quality treatment care). That would put a crimp in the business of trafficing in that drug.
Oh, yes, hemp might be a good cash crop to grow.
That takes care of a lot of problems without spending a penny, saving gobs on prisons and the criminal justice system (maybe they could go after more of those sex slave and child porn traders) and generating a few bucks for education and healthcare. Yeah, sure coca consumption would rise for a while but the novelty will mostly fade with time. For a country that has exalted the miracles of captalism and consumer choice, we sure don’t practice it in the one area where it flourishes in spite of all the laws and efforts to stamp it how. How dumb is that?
That would explain why the full article isn’t just some idiotic screed along the lines of Nader Helps Bush Kill and Eat Black Children !!
Except that is not what the article is.
I thought that’s what I said.
I agree Maria …
too bad Americans are so damned irrational and prone to believing bullshit agitprop to make a reasonable decision about drug use.
Is coca in its unrefined (plant) form even any more dangerous than a couple of espresso shots ?
Re: Nader and the Common Dreams article.
The Common Dreams article is the opinion and analysis of one person, and is not meant to be considered the final word on the subject of Nader and his treatment (or non-treatment) of racism.
My own take on it is that Nader is not so different from many white progressives, who do not explicitly talk about racism either because they underestimate its existence or else because doing so alienates other white folks. I don’t think ANY white person really “gets it” when it comes to the issue of what it’s like to walk around with a black skin in America: the daily feeling many blacks have is that they are under siege, constantly suspect and constantly on the alert. Can you imagine living that way? Can you imagine the frustration of trying to find some white person who looks you in the eye and says, “I understand?” I can’t, not really.
I think most blacks have given up trying to communicate with whites, or are on the verge of giving up. I don’t know exactly what it will take to bridge that communication gap, but I do know this for a fact: most whites don’t really LISTEN to what black people are telling them. Again and again (and this has been my own reaction), whites fall into a defencive mode when blacks talk about racism (especially racism among white liberals): I’m not a racist! I’ve never discriminated against anyone and my hero is Dr. King or Malcolm X and so forth.
White people shutting their mouths and opening their ears when a black person tries to talk to them–an increasingly rare event–might be a good starting point. It’s not easy, because I’ve been on the receiving end of that, and the anger and frustration black Americans have pent up is frightening to behold.
DONT FUCKING TAX MY POT.
I have been raped enough over my cigarrettes. Just decrimilize. I dont want to pay $150 for a bag of dirt weed. Keep your democratic paws off my smoke.
Wow … nothing like bullshit combined w/ superstition.
msxeno – have no idea. But probably wouldn’t be a big seller. Guess we’ll have to let our pharmaceutical companies refine it. — How about a joint venture including all of them. They’re going to need a little financial help when we pass Medicare For All.
Should have included that legal age for consumers would be up to the states – eighteen for pot and twenty-one for coke would be reasonable – and the penalties for supplying to underage kids would be very stiff indeed.
well, I think Nader would argue that economic justice is a human rights issue, that corporate hegemony hurts everyone, and the poor and minorities more.
Shadow, none of that is up for debate, at least not for me.
But it seems to me that even POC who want out of the two-party trap are simply brushed aside in discussions of these issues. I hear over and over again that the Greens are “too White.” But if I post about Greens who are not White (some of whom are trying to fight the good fight in spaces like the one linked to above and Green Commons) it seems like nobody cares. I guess the rationale is that such folks are “not typical.” Well, so fucking what ? Chomsky and Silber aren’t “typical” for White Americans in their views and that’s never stopped bloggers of conscience from considering the veracity of what they have to say.
Frankly, I UNDERSTAND why most POC are still Democrats, but damned if I’m going to retreat back to that party as if it’s the answer to all the shit you describe. It’s not.
There’s no tax on pot????
No marie. Keep the governmnet out. Treat pot like an agricultural product like watermelons. Let people grow and sell as they please. It needs no government intervntion or regulation unless they want to certify it organic or something. Its something people can grow them selves in their backyard.
We dont need Monsanto in the pot business.
as if it’s the answer to all the shit you describe. It’s not.
let’s cover one thing here. This is not a DP centric site. Some here may vote big D locally or nationally. Or they may not.
Some are like me, a bat out of hell years ago… others I assume are still in the party.
This is not a DP centric site.
Revisionist – first it wouldn’t be dirt weed, although I’m sure there would be a market for different grades. Sort of like there is for alchohol. Would even be a place for the boutique growers. And even a licensing facility for home growers (like home brews) On pricing — in a legal environment, would guess that production costs would be higher than that for tobacco, but still far below the current market price. Am sure that you could get better quality, pay heavy taxes and still spend half or less than what you spend today, unless you increased you consumption.
Unfortunately the hard reality is that too many interests ON ALL SIDES are served by keeping it illegal.
uh it is not going legal.
It is my understanding that one of the lobbying groups that work to make sure it says ILLEGAL are growers and smugglers.
And frankly once the regulators got hold of it, it would go up in price and likely for shit product.
LOL and MJ is NOT my drug of choice. Just been in CA too long and been a chronic pain patient (my dr was a Republican, well tied in locally and nationally, he had run federally licensed methadone clinics in So Cal) adn worked in a criminal def firm.
Combination of informants you might say.
Actually, Ms. Xeno, I’m done with the Democratic Party. As for the Greens or any non-Establishment party, Greens must understand that blacks or other POC, as you say, are going to be very hostile and suspicious towards anybody who says “come to us and be partners in our coalition”. They’ve heard that for so many years from the Democrats, and had their trust betrayed again and again.
It’s going to be hard work to build a truly progressive political coalition in the United States because so many of the potential partners–environmentalists, feminists, civil libertarians, peace activists, racial minorities–have been burned time and again. There’s an enormous amount of fear and mistrust–which I think was the plan all along: sow the seeds of mistrust amongst the different groups that would form a progressive political coalition to make it difficult, if not impossible, to organise them.
What will it take to unite all these disparate elements? A couple of things:
The economy is going to have to get a whole hell of a lot worse AND we’ll need some open-minded, charismatic leaders who can unite people in a feeling of trust. And no, ideas are not enough; of that, I’m convinced (if they were, Nader would be President!). Feelings are important, and people have got to have that feeling they can TRUST those who say they will lead them. People trusted MLK, for example.
The Demorepublican party is arranging the first circumstance as I write these words; as to the second, I trust in American history, because this nation has always been big enough and diverse enough to bring up the right man at the right time. You think that men like FDR and MLK and RFK were accidents? I don’t. These men arose from a nation that, in the end, is too big, too complex, and too diverse to prevent their rise.
Well, I’ve just discovered that the dkosser hates rock. Oh well. Pearls, swine, blah blah blah.
The only thing that hasnt been effected by inflation is my pot. I have paid the same more or less for 25 years.
Mcat:
This is not a DP centric site.
Yes, I know. But since I never was one to shut up and quit when I’m ahead, I’d propose mentioning California Greening next time you do a list of pollination sites. Would you consider it ? They seem pretty all right to me.
There are people (not you, Mcat) who will use the problems of someone like Nader to discredit anything and anyone wanting to make that move out. Which just strikes me as infuriatingly disingenuous. Because those problems are in nearly everyone’s bones in this country. Separatism would, under those circumstances, be the move to make. NOT a move to shore up Hillary, who (to build on what Madman says) can prattle about Ebony and Ivory side by side on the piano keyboard until the cows come home, but still is a lot less evolved on the issues than Nader.
Shadow:
…Greens must understand that blacks or other POC, as you say, are going to be very hostile and suspicious towards anybody who says “come to us and be partners in our coalition”…
[beats herself over head with laptop.]
GREENS are NOT 100% WHITE !! There are Greens struggling to make the party more inclusive and to address race issues. Not all, but some.
Never mind. I think it’s time for a break. My brains hurt.
Yes, Marisa – but they are the MINORITY.
Revisionist – there are many good public policy reasons for regulations. We don’t want farmers spraying a bunch of toxic chemicals on the plants. Would prefer that industrial agriculture companies not be allowed in the business or corporate processors or marketers. Co-ops would be fine. Regulation could also be used to ban marketing in any form and in any medium. Regulation could also help the consumer to know the “proof” of what they’re buying – dirtweed, mild and primo.
Plus we do need a revenue source for drug treatment that is seriously underfunded these days. And there are going to be a lot of cokeheads in the short run. However, no more bs sin tax going into the general revenue coffers.
I’d like to see a group organised that would publicly boycott the 2008 elections–in a big way.
The way to demonstrate this public boycott would be to run an alternate slate of candidates–not on an official ballot, and the results would not have any legal consequence–in every state. Tally up millions upon millions of votes for the candidates (or issues) we want and don’t get from the Imperial Corporate War Party or whatever it is they’re calling the Democratic-Republican borg collective this week.
The boycott bloc would open its own polling places and people would have to register to NOT vote.
In Chicago, of course, people could show up and not vote as many times as they wish. It’s important to respect local tradition and customs, I think.
well when I get to another post (and I found that one exhausting, surprisingly) i had planned to go back to the original pollination post and pick up the sites you suggested in that thread and the thread the next day. And some others mentioned by other commenters.
The tough reality is that I am up for so little now. Probably barely two real posts a week. Not an easy thing to face, frankly.
But here is one thing, nader is going to get discussed. It is not the end of the world. Owen Paine of SMBIVA accused me of “nader hostility” Geesh. And Kerry is going to get discussed too. Same as I have done for years…
I find all the front runners, both parties to be close to horrifying. I found the run in -4 insulting beyond belief.
As I said not a Dem Centric site. Hardly pro anyone tho.
SSorry marie, I dont’ know what this refers to:
let people pay themselves. I pretty much think the entire treatment/recovery industry is a scam. No one has to go thru all that bullshit to quit smoking cigarettes.
Revisionist – not being a pot smoker, I’m not too familiar with the pricing. Last I heard, and this is going back 10-15 years it was $100 an ounce. In the mid-seventies it was $30-35 for high quality stuff and $40 -50 for top of the line. Can’t see any reason why good quality in a legal, regulated and taxed enviroment couldn’t beat $30.
Marisa # 67 — started typing when that was at the bottom of the thread. Must keep that in mind.
I bought mroe than an ounce as a present for friends for Xmas, about 8 years ago. Whole buds, full and they glistened. I was told it was very excellent.
I paid 125.00. It was about 5 good sized buds.
oh no marie, majority interests want to keep it illegal.
Who do you think is the minority?
Ms. Xeno:
Please don’t abuse your laptop nor your poor head. The laptop warranty doesn’t cover such acts, and unless you’re applying to be a frontpager on DailyKos, you’ll need all your brain cells fully functional.
I’m not under the illusion that all Greens are white liberal Volvo-driving granola munchers. I’m saying that many blacks and Latinos, just to take two groups, are VERY suspicious of EVERYBODY who says they want a multiracial coalition. They’ve been hearing that from the Democrats for years, and turns out Democrats want the votes but don’t want to do anything to earn them.
So merely presenting a programme of political change, or pointing to prominent POC in the Green Party, are insufficient to convince many POC that the Greens (or whatever party) is for them. If you want an analogy, think of a woman who’s lived with a neglectful husband her whole life: she may not recognise Mr. Right when he comes along (or we can reverse the genders if you like…or make them a gay couple…whatever works for you!).
If the Greens want to demonstrate that they are the party of a multiracial coalition, they need to get out front on issues of prime importance to POC, not only on the national but at the local level. Gaining the needed visibility and credibility is a monumental task, and beyond my ability to comprehend or organise, but I think that’s the general idea.
What amazes me about the Democrats is that although in 25 years they’ve never gotten a majority of the Bubba vote, they keep chasing Bubba (talk about slow learners) and don’t pay back their black supporters for their decades of loyalty (talk about being taken for granted). I’ve slowly come to realise that, too, may be part of a plan: discourage blacks from voting for ANYBODY and thereby reduce their influence in politics.
Democrats were handed the beginnings of the greatest coalition, as of 40 or so years ago.
That is my belief. they never wanted it. It is SO CLEAR that they should have gone in the direction of a worker, womens’, POC, disenfranchised etc party.
In coalition with the middle class and the marginal middle class.
But it meant constant work in the trenches, recruiting, organising, coaliotion building.
They did not want it.
Teddy Kennedy after 04 bitched that only 43% of eligible blacks in MS are registered to vote. (Manning Marable confrims that number)
Hell. But the Democrats never wanted to make the alliances, by owrking in the trenches, to build the Dem party into a living breathing current thing in the SO. they did not LOSE the so. They relinquished it.
Revisionist – tend to agree with you about drug treatment for pot – probably no reason for it. A better case can be made for treatment for other drugs – but that industry is so unregulated that it’s difficult to know how effective it is. That’s why it should be within our new medical system. That way we could evaluate the differing effectiveness of the treatment modalities. That’s the practical aspect, but
the more important aspect is the PR. The public will feel better about legalizing these drug knowing that it comes packaged with more and better drug treatment facilities and that they don’t have to pay for them. I’m okay with targetted use taxes. For example, the states and feds have been collecting gobs of money on cigarettes like forever and all we hear from them today is how much it costs the states to supply medical care for smoking related illnesses. Well, duh, use the taxes you collect — am sure those far exceed tax dollars going for smoking related medical care.
Marisa – aren’t you a nice friend.
Meant that those that profit from this prohibition — excluding those in the underground economy of it — are a minority when compared with those who think it’s all a bunch of crap, that includes liberal and libertarians. The mushy middle can go either way depending on who makes the best case and get the PR done. So far the left is doing a lousy job at it.
take my word for it, pot is not oging to be legalised.
The most that might happen is what we had under Clinton. Bong shop city… and a real loosening for “medical marijuana”.
Since I have a hard time envisioning more than a single one term and mybe two term D president, it will then be clamped down on as the parties revolve thru the door.
Marie, it suits big pharma that pot and other drugs remain on the street and not be legal.
RE Pricing —
It depends on where you are. LA, NY can be higher. And some people price higher for “quality”. I still pay around $100 for an ounce but have paid $50 for a few grams of “primo”.
The pot now is generally better quality than in the early 70’s. The big diffence now is that it doesnt have a name. In the early 80s we had Muia Wowie, Acuplucu/Columbian Gold, Scents etc. Now its just generic or Hydro.
I smoke mostly great Arkansa skunk weed.
The problem with rating quality is that its subjective. THC levels might determine it but it depends on when it was harvested and what species it is etc. An avid smoker can tell by looks and smell, is it hairy etc. The only thing they could regulate is weight by seed and stem.
There isnt a any real problem now with the product aside from find a good dealer.. The only spraying done is by OUR government.
The problem is because its an agricultural product that can be grown anywhere is that the govenrment can never really tax the income of the dealers. They would have to heavily regulate the product and tax consumers instead of just the income of growers and dealers. One the taxes start there will be a fed tax and a state tax and a sales tax.
The ideal situation as a comsumer would be to go to the Framers market and buy it like you cantelopes or to a nursey like you would buy plants. Anyone with a plot of land can grow it. Or in a city any old warehouse can be fitted with lights and start production. But he government wouldnt want that because there would still be the tax question. There would IMO still be strong laws and fines and jail for growers and sellers with only the consumers not having to worry about possession.
Marisa #84 – the DEMs forty years ago were shell shocked. Most of them never really understood the New Deal, only that it kept all those southern racists in the DEM camp. Half of them didn’t understand Vietnam and being so thoroughly propagandized by the Cold War were lost. Their frame of reference was that war was good for the economy. Its as if their self confidence became intertwined with the MIC. The twin blows of Korea and Vietnam and all the racists running from the party left them focused on loss and not new opportunity. They kept looking for ways to get those folks back instead of saying good riddance. And they could never get them back if all those minorities, women etc. didn’t shut up.
They never bothered to build a new and more robust coalition after LBJ specifically pointed out that the Equal Rights Amendment meant that the south was gone for a generation (that was optimistic). Worse they actively thwarted any effort to build it. They didn’t want the world to change. Didn’t want any disruption in their club. They should have all joined Strom as he headed for that exit door.
Marie also —
I have probably smoked pot nearly or every other day everyday for 25 years.
I ran out last week and I am too broke to buy any. I’ve gone cold turkey! No DTs. No need for treatment. Its more of a craving than addiction. Like I would really like some Hagaan Daz Chocolate Chocolate Chip right now too.
Internet addiction is a bigger problem inthis country than pot addiction.
you may not realize it, but if you’re not a fundie, you’re an illegal alien in the US, even if you were born here:
just woke from a short nap wherein I dreamt that I was in a lockdown in a Saudi Arabian mall with an xray technician from a university health clinic. in another scene, I was “taken away” in a fighter jet, and I asked the pilot not to torture me by doing aerial acrobatics.
so now I am awake and read this bit of hilarity from Us News & world via rawstory:
“The buzz among top Bushies is that beleaguered Attorney General Alberto Gonzales finally plans to depart and will be replaced by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Why Chertoff? Officials say he’s got fans on Capitol Hill, is untouched by the Justice prosecutor scandal, and has more experience than Gonzales did, having served as a federal judge and assistant attorney general.”
I almost went into work today to try to get accomplished what was impossible yesterday, but I’m glad I decided against it for all the on-line laughs I’ve had today.
They didn’t want the world to change. Didn’t want any disruption in their club. They should have all joined Strom as he headed for that exit door. marie
yeah but Marie that is what I said. They ran screaming from what the post war years offered. And they still are, running from it.
Teddy Kennedy threw in with Nixon and HMOs just the way he threw in with Bush and NCLB.
But WHEN THEY LOSE AN ELECTION THEY TOUGHT WAS IN THE BAG then they bitch over the black vote in MS.
Either or. But don’t bitch for what ain’t.
well we all know Chertoff is crazy. last we heard from him it was his gut talking.
And the Dems will confirm him.
so stuck.
Revisionist – price seems high to me.
We’re probably arguing taxation policy and not economics. In the current system you’re paying tax on pot indirectly. First the taxes to support the criminal justice system – and that isn’t cheap. Second in the price you pay for pot. If you could get it for a 25% of what you now pay, do you really care how much of that cost is in direct taxes? And you would also have the option to buy something better for a few dollars more. (btw one step below retail was $25/oz for A. Gold in the late seventies)
Just sell the stuff in the store — wherever fine tobacco products are sold. Might put the cocaine behind the counter in pharmacies to limit sale to adults.
Marisa – we must also do universal medical care either before or at the same time. Offering them the concession on cocaine would be an inducement to get on board — or they could just sit back and watch as their profits dwindle. Most Americans hate big Pharma; so they are not undefeatable.
Just throwing some things out there to keep in mind when the economy crashes and we have to put together a better one. That’s the time when Americans will sign on to almost anything.
‘Revisionist – from what I know and have seen, pot is less harmful than alcohol. Most people can manage to consume either or both with no problems. But some people can’t and they should have access to some form of treatment when they want it.
Marisa #64 – agree but most of them aren’t really Democrats anymore. Or have narrowed the definition so much that it’s been reduced to a few public social policies. Not exactly inspiring to the uneducated mass of voters. Sharpton had that great line in the last election about dancing with the one that brought you. Too bad he’s nothing more than an egocentric shyster.
we must also do universal medical care either before or at the same time. Offering them the concession on cocaine would be an inducement to get on board — or they could just sit back and watch as their profits dwindle. Most Americans hate big Pharma; so they are not undefeatable.
Oh Marie.
Did you read Medicare Part D? I did as I had to. Utter sell out to the insurance companies iwth soft balls to the pharmaceuticals.
Have you read the policy proposals from Massachusetts to OR on what passes for Universal health Care?
Edwards has a cute sop to the idea of extending medicare (both Geo McGovern and Dean in his earlier incarnation delineated this) but that will be whipped away in a heart beat. Krugmen acted like ti was the best thing since sliced bread and the “crime reporter” whose stuff is at Counterpunch and at CommonDreams named what professor has been shopping about the dusty old plan that Edwards glommed onto.
Total sell out to the insurance companies.
San Francisco rolled out its health care policy this month to cover the 82K uninsured. Because newsome was pushed from the left for years. But while it is a good beginning, and will help to take care of poor, uninsured, working uninsured etc… it really is a city trying to seve itself.
Marie pot is classed as a drug iwth herion, cocaine is NOT going legal. Not as long as we are hip deep in Afganistan and that is the only going business outside of higher rents in Kabul.
Under what scenario do you envision all this coming to pass?
Because Medicare Part D is over 60 fucking plans to pick from.
The ONLY good the party might ever have done ws go for Single Payer.
They never did and they never will. Insurance underwitten so called universal care is not that.
And the ONLY reason the Dems are even slightly on board with the louosy plans is that many big employers want out of medical coverage entirely.
Well marie, Sharpton is all over the cables as a representative of the Democrats.
Another reason I left. Not a think in common. Nothing.
It’s clear that the Democratic Party had a coalition in the mid-1960s with which they should have governed–well, forever.
Why did they relinquish that coalition? It was clearly a conscious decision, but who made it, and why?
I’d say that the ruling class realised about 1965 that they couldn’t beat this progressive coalition–so they needed to co-opt it and thereby destroy it so that the Republican Party could rule. Or, more importantly, the ruling class wanted the Dems co-opted and corruptly so thoroughly so that no matter which party won an election, the ruling class was not threatened.
There were some men who couldn’t be bought off, so they were killed off: MLK and Malcolm and RFK and other, lesser-known men. Thus did the ruling class preserve and consolidate their power.
The exhibition of “people power” in the 1950s and the 1960s scared the living daylights out of the owners of America, Inc., and they have taken steps in the past 40 years to ensure that those days never happen again.
How do you beat them? Same way they were beaten in the 1950s and 1960s: organise outside the two major political parties and creature so much pressure that something’s just got to give.
Marie: That’s the time when Americans will sign on to almost anything.
My guess is that Americans will go in the opposite direction – less freedom, less choice, less openness. More authoritarianism, more conservatism, more hatred, more fear. Fear will be driving everything.
Any regime predicated on fear, and fear alone, will always fail. Sooner or later, people become inured to the horrors and become so desperate that they will
The ruling class of the United States has changed: this new lot lack the finesse of their forefathers. They weary of the pretence of allowing “the people” a voice and want to rule outright.
As I’ve long predicted, their greed–for money, for power–will be their undoing. They will overreach–they are overreaching–and the backlash will be like a bullwhip cracking back in their faces.
Well, when WordPress starts posting my comments before I’m done typing them, it’s time to pack it in for the day. The last paragraph of my comment at #102 should end:
“so desperate that they will lose their fear”.
Thanks, WordPress wankers.
they abandoned it b/c Americans are racist and classist (even though most are of a lower class than they think they are). They abandoned the public square, the shared public good, the public schools, the libraries and so many other things b/c the courts finally said what should have been obvious all along … Americans should share, and treat each other fairly, with justice, no matter their skin color or class. They Donklephants, overwhelmingly led by people beholden to resentful whites for years, just could allow that to happen.
Wp has been hiccuping for around 24 hours. They took the site down for unlanned maintenance last night for a couple hours.
Don’t think they did enough. The pages, esp the “back stage” pages are very very slow.
sigh.
Marisa: re
I have to admit, sadly, that I’ve disagreed with this idea in the past, and even more tragically, accepted the idea of the “wasted vote”. Can you imagine now if we had Lieberman as “el vice” or even as “el presidente”?
The idea that act of withholding a vote is a political act should be one of the themes of your site. Withholding the vote is not a passive act; in many parts of the world it is (or was, 20 years ago in places like Brazil ) the only possible form of political expression. Withholding the vote is not an expression of an utopian desire, but almost the exact opposite, that is the idea, that a candidate for elected office must provide a clear minimum standard of acceptability.
I agree CSTAR
withholding the vote is a political act.
Sorry to burst in with meta again, but…
MSOC has now decided that hijacking diaries is a preferable alternative to the “hard work” of banning people.
Exhibit A:
http://tinyurl.com/2mb2uj
You can’t spell “passive-aggressive” without “aggressive”.
And yes, I visit MyLeftWing for my daily dose of appalling behaviour–as if I don’t get enough doses IRL.
The Great Iraq Swindle
Big Brother Democracy – Naomi Klein
Fucking creepy.
Okay. How did I miss this last fall? Moustahces for the Majority
I wonder what they plan to grow next fall…
Miss x, thanks for the link to California Greening. Was not familiar with them … btw, I hope you’re feeling better.
Marisa,, have you heard from Tuston? Just wondering about him and hoping he’s okay.
Keir,, consider the source … lol!
Interesting diary regarding DK stats and predictable reaction from some of the loyalists. Do NOT burst their bubble, especially with facts:
I think he’s being more than fair … and many of those page views are by people who are not fans.
#109 Great link Madman. They raided the treasury and how, and have absolutely no concience about it.
Spec20 is SO banned.
Marisa — Medicare Part D has to go — wasn’t including that in my call for universal coverage.
Contrary to appearances, this country has been trending left for decades. A quick example, my very Catholic Republican aunt was told me about a church group picnic. The parish priest biked to the picnic with a male friend. Both were dressed in skimpy Speedos. My aunt suggested to the priest that they might want to put on a t-shirt. I sort of raised my eyebrows and my aunt said, “Oh, most of them are gay these days.” They are used to it. (She and mother other aunt along with their husbands took me to a dinner at the German social club. Both of their husbands had become members. When I pointed out that one of them was Polish and the other Swiss, they shrugged, well, these days they have to take what they can get. And my 65 year old uncle seemed to be the youngest of the lot.)
Not voting is a political act, but not a very effective one. Although wouldn’t claim that it’s any less effective than voting for most DEMs. Sadly, the lesser of two evils usually still gets my vote in a close race. Don’t expect much out of them except to be slightly less evil than the alternative. And yes, for those in VA it was worth voting for Webb for two reasons. At least DEMs can now hold some hearings and you never know what might pop out in one of them. Second, it took the GWB clone Allen out of the ’08 race and if not for that loss, I would have been deprived of watching the parade of the most ridiculous cast of GOP wannabe POTUS candidate assembled in my lifetime. It would have been the Allen and McCain shew and very dull. OTOH, an Allen – Hillary match-up could have left the GOP in the driver’s seat when all the walls come tumbling down.
The forces against are formidable – and I’m not optimistic – a little, highly practical dream now and again is good for the soul
Mitm, thanks for the link to that Rolling Stones article. There was a diary on DK about it, haven’t read it, but it stated the article ‘could end the war’!
Also, from Mitm on the protests being video-taped. I think the age of this kind of protest is over. What does it accomplish other than to allow them to demean and harrass tens of thousands of people while the media rarely covers them?
It would be far easier to coordinate, using the Internet, never having to be subjected to stupid Robo Cops and their abuse, a huge strike, or something that involves taking away money from them! They do not care about anything else. These protest create business, money is spent on travel etc. Why give them that? Attack them where it hurts, like we said here before, crash the stock-market as a protest. Enough people do have stock now to at least make a threat.
And my pet peeve since they refuse to provide health-care for ordinary people, take away theirs. Let them pay for it.
Revisionist, I meant to say, that Blog Maid pic is hilarious!
Marie
Part D is a recent so called benefit. And it iindicates how very fucked is our mess. As do the several policies coning forth in the past months.
Sorry I jsut don’t live in the same world. I am fixed on how very hard it will be to get out of the mess, the holes they keep digging in congress and too often at the state level.
The story you tell marie of the church group is of how people have allowed freedom into their own lives.
It is meaningless in the bigger picture of the political mess we are in.
It really is.
On the Great Iraq Swindle
While Bechtal and Parsons have pocketed a lot of money from this war, both were financially viable before then, although I suspect in the end they will find that their greed seriously damaged their core operations. KBR was in deep trouble before their guy became the Oval Office puppet master. Quick money does not translate into building a strong operation and usually the reverse is true. IMHO the long term future is probably not good for this one.
Yesterday I looked at the reports on the WTC Deutsh Bank building. What I can’t figure out is how the general contractor Bovis could be so sloppy as to work with an unqualified subcontractor. Multi-million subcontracts for a complex and technically demanding job just don’t get awarded to shell companies (John Galt Corporation — I kid you not). Can’t even understand how Galt could have purchased the necessary insurances coverages. This is in NYC – not Iraq. Something ugly has happened in the construction industry in the past several years and I don’t know what it is, and therefore, can’t project how serious or unreversible it might be.
just a thread.
LINK
I bugged out on the Newark 1200 covered in poison ivy all over except little mr. happy, soaked in the ocean, may not be able to work till its under control. Reading along, lots of great stuff throughout. ST got me thinking re leadership and How do you beat them? Same way they were beaten in the 1950s and 1960s: organise outside the two major political parties and creature so much pressure that something’s just got to give.
I sense more of a strategic withdrawal on social issues in the 50’s and 60’s while the reactionaries/ the MIC still got their Korea, Suez,the Installation of Pahlavi in Iran, their Viet Nam, the Six Day.
Opportunity has opened up economically for minorities. The opportunity to play in the game. To ride anywhere in the herd-off to work. The opportunity to change the rules of the game or shit-can the game itself is another matter….
The anti affirmative action or as RW-ers say “quotas” resonates mostly among those who have no experience WRT unspoken hiring practices. Still, it resonates among fair minded naive individuals caught in the illusion that the rules of “the game” — that the game itself is equitable. I say “equitable” intentionally as there are entire Continents full of individuals ready to remind each other that “life isn’t fair” {duh} to mutually relieve themselves of acting upon equitable alternatives.
We are in a Culture and Class Perma War, perhaps the nature of things a s Marx says, but most certainly by the determination of what Hillary says is “a vast RW conspiracy” She should know. I don’t mean to say she or a guy like Markos is in on it from jump. It is the co-option, the co-option that is perhaps the most useful weapon to come out of and be deployed by the Militaty Industrial Complex.
I think Charismatic trustworthy leaders are essential in leading an opposing coalition coupled with strategic thinking along the lines of Mao’s Protracted Peoples War or the type of community sustaining work of Hamas. Hell we had it here for a generation’s stretch when the wobblies and early unions were swapping pot luck. Speaking of pot …I actually haven’t imbibed* the Leaf of Enlightenment for 25 years . It must show in my writing. The last I can remember, you could buy a pound of Columbian for 375, and minty delicious Hawaian sinsy for 500 an lb, not that I was ever a part of a wholesale pot buying co-op, mind you….
*
im·bibe (m-bb)
v. im·bibed, im·bib·ing, im·bibes
v.tr.
1. To drink.
2. To absorb or take in as if by drinking: “The whole body . . . imbibes delight through every pore” Henry David Thoreau.
3. To receive and absorb into the mind: “Gladstone had . . . imbibed a strong prejudice against Americans” Philip Magnus.
4. Obsolete To permeate; saturate. <<<—ah, the good old days…
oh yeah the future is so bi partisanly bright.
A fresh analysis of the timeline of the life of Markos C.A. Moultisas Zúñiga (MAMZ), based on testimony he gave in his speech at the Commonwealth Club on June 2, 2006, proves that MAMZ must have been at the CIA for AT LEAST one year, and maybe TWO YEARS. Wiki: Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga
This means that after MAMZ completed the standard six-month CIA interviewing period, he must have accepted to be trained by the CIA WITH PAY in the months that followed.
This is NOT what MAMZ has told the public, and it appears that he must clearly have lied about the nature and duration of his involvement with the CIA. In his June 2, 2006 speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, MAMZ said that he began “interviewing” at the CIA in 2001.
PLEASE LISTEN TO THE AUDIOTAPE
FOR VERIFICATION.
During the Commonwealth Club speech, MAMZ ALSO said that his time at the CIA ended when he began working for Howard Dean. However, upon reviewing the historical record, it was only on 18 months later, on June 9, 2003 that MAMZ “officially” announced at DailyKos that his consulting firm, (Jerome) Armstrong/Zúñiga, had won a consulting contract with Howard Dean’s presidential campaign.
On June 9, 2003, MAMZ announced at DailyKos, “I’ve been on the road a lot the past few months ( . . . ) the bulk of it was for my new political consulting firm (alongside my partner). I spent this weekend in Burlington, VT, where we officially accepted work on behalf of presidential candidate Howard Dean” DailyKos Archives
So, count the months: Even if MAMZ began his time at the CIA on December 31, 2001, he would have to have still been there 17 months later if he turned down permanent employment at the CIA because he began to work for Howard Dean. Wiki: Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga
This analysis of the timeline is based on MAMZ’s own words. This proves that, based on MAMZ own recollection of events, he MUST have worked at the CIA for at least 18 months, including a full year AFTER he started DailyKos.
Since MAMZ started DailyKos May 22, 2002, the inescapable conclusion of this analysis of the timeline is that MAMZ was employed and training at the CIA for at least 17 to 18 months during the very same period when he was leading an ostensibly leftist anti-war blog.
It does seem to present a very serious conflict of interest and breach of the public trust to lead an anti-war blog at the same time that one is secretly working for a Government agency whose job is to investigate, infiltrate and disrupt anti-war activities.
Because the proof comes from a careful analysis of MAMZ’s own words, this is no longer in the realm of “conspiracy theories.” It is an infiltration in-fact of the anti-war movement and the Democratic Party by an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Because of censorship issues at MyLeftWing (in that we have been ordered by the owner, Maryscott OConnor, not to investigate the MAMZ/CIA facts any further at that blog, and some of us have been banned for insisting on doing so) Peeder of MyLeftWing has started a new blog – “Political Fleshfeast” – specifically for the purpose of continuing the investigation and analysis of CIA infiltration the Establishment blogosphere, blog apartheid, and other issues whose investigation leads to bannings at the Establishment blogs.
At this new blog, the blogger who first broke the story at MyLeftWing of MAMZ’s CIA involvement, Stupiddy, has been re-analyzing the biographical information provided by Markos C.A. Moulitsas Zúñiga (MAMZ).
To make this story easier for the reading public to follow, I have prepared a MS Word-based chronological timeline table of Markos C.A. Moulitsas’ life, that makes the graphic and visual case that MAMZ was probably on the CIA payroll for as long as two years, based on his own statements.
Shadowthief, (#83) you want more visibility. All I can say is that I feel an obligation to make worthwhile opinions visible where I can. That’s what I was trying to get at. It’s lousy enough that BBB’s snub these folks without me doing it to.
Mcat (#76) :
…The tough reality is that I am up for so little now. Probably barely two real posts a week. Not an easy thing to face, frankly…
Well, I hope you feel better soon regardless of how many posts you feel like putting up. Yeah, I know I have a perfectly good LJ, but about seven people on the planet read it. I just figured that a link here would get more hits than my own cranky corner of Paradise.
And of course people should discuss whomever they want. I like to think I got over my “Shut up shut up” phase on the net several years ago, with exceptions made for rare cases like Stomach Flu Boy. 😉
ms xeno
Please: feel free to link to anything you wish, on a daily basis. There is no prohibition here against USING the thread space as you wish.
Best I can tell from the traffic numbers, the threads are highly read. Because the posts, such as they are, sit entirely on the page and one need not click open a particular post to read it in full.
But people do, a third of the traffic clicks on a particular thread each day. SO they are reading the threads.