Challenge the Establishment

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Dismalcrats and Corupliklans

The GLH Blog reminds us of Cindy Sheehan, the on-going wars, the status of the peace movement and the entrenched establishment. We're reminded of how Cindy Sheehan has been shunned by

liberals too tethered to the Democrats [who] are ignoring her or resenting her for speaking out against politicians, like President Obama, who go against the values and policies supported by grassroots Democrats.

After lamenting the way outspoken progressives are mistreated by calculating Democratic Party bloggers and others, he points out what a lot of people know, both liberal and conservative, because they are living it:

Meanwhile, the brunt of suffering under the healthcare system and the crap economy is being inflicted on the middle class and the poor. The rich are doing fabulously well. The Democratic politicians are doing precious little [to] change this.

The Dismalcrats and Corupliklans are driving the principled people from both parties. Tea party aside, I'm becoming convinced that principled people on the Left & Right are joining forces, by necessity, to challenge establishment corruption of our democratic institutions. It's already happening:

Among other things lately, I've been working on a series of audio podcasts about the Left & Right joining forces. Check'em out on "GDAE Podcast":

Part 1: (20-min abridged) Part 1: 20-min abridged podcast

Part 2: Part 2: 30-min podcast

Podcatching:

I know it's an out-moded term, "podcatching," but it captures the essence of "subscribing" to a podcast. But, there are many ways to "catch" podcast. Check out How to Subscribe to a Podcast if you're curious.

Source:

Godless Liberal Homo Blog: Cindy Sheehan Asks: Where Have All The Peaceniks Gone?

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Financial Underhaul

The Yahoo! News headline "Bank stocks soar on financial regulation agreement" pretty much says it all. We are a corporate state. Reclaiming the power of the people over the corporate state is the next major multi-generational struggle on par with overcoming slavery, child labor standards and women's suffrage.

"They come out of this big-time winners," Bob Froehlich, senior managing director at Hartford Financial Services, said of financial companies. "Two years later, people will look back and say 'My gosh, nothing really changed.'"

Democrats in charge... Republicans in charge... "My gosh, there's really no difference."

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Revoke BP's Corporate Charter

Surely you've heard about British Petroleum's track record from the British colonial days through a litany of felony crimes. Being a "corporation" a privilege, not a right.

By now you also know about corporations being defined as "persons" by a corrupt robber baron era US Supreme Court. So, if a person is a serial felon, including negligent homicide, they "go away," usually to prison. They can no long do business, or anything else in society for that matter.

It's time to seriously consider taking the corporate privilege away from BP. And, in these days of internet activism, there is a Facebook campaign to revoke BP America's corporate charter.

Details here: http://bit.ly/9djBTb

Join the "Revoke BP's corporate charter" (facebook) group .

Sources:

The Punk Patriot.

Friday, June 4, 2010

More on the Left & Right Joining Forces

The following are talking points that I recently used when calling in to the radio show "WakeUp AM" on Portsmouth, NH Community Radio.

Fostering people on the left and right to work together on common interests....

It's a strategy of recognizing the power in numbers that is within grasp of "principled" people on the Left and on the right to challenge the power of the minority establishment to bring about a more perfect democracy.

This is NOT about political party politics, creating a third party, or seeking more "bi-partisanship" in Washington, which we know is hopeless. This is about populist-level advocacy, a true grass-roots demand for the ideals of democracy, ideal that are common to principled people the left and the right.

Tea Party is generally NOT where you find these principled people; they too often follow the lead of corporate-funded groups like American for Prosperity. They too often parrot the message of "government is bad," rather than the message of "Make the 'government of the people' work FOR the people" and not for the get-rich-quick crowd of Wall Street, and so-called "corporate America," with their corporate headquarters located off-shore in the Bahamas showing no allegiance to the Country.

There are exceptions in the Tea Party, of course, like the woman interviewed at a tea party rally who said she feels the government should help the less fortunate and not to cut the salaries of teachers.

There is common ground on Important subjects like protection of our privacy and civil liberties in general, solving the "too big to fail" problem that leads to tax payer bailouts of banks and insurance corporations... concerns about the excessive power of the Federal Reserve and the fiat money banking system in general... concerns about politicians and regulatory agencies that are effectively controlled by lobbyists who steer policies and campaign money while making big bucks as Washington lobbyists.

We can cite real examples of this union between populist left & right working:

- the 2003 push back against the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, attempting to allow more consolidation of media ownership among the monolithic corporations.

- the recent Senate unanimous vote for Bernie Sanders' amendment to audit the Federal Reserve Bank.

- And recently, on your last show, you mentioned the conservative bloggers, military guys I think, who are supporting the repeal of don't ask, don't tell policies regarding gays in the military.

So, this isn't simply strategic theory...

Monday, May 31, 2010

GDAE Podcast - Episode 31

Second in a series.... (See link to abridged Part I below)

Common Interests on the Left & Right - Part II

Left & Right Populists Working Together: to fix our flawed democracy

What is a "principled" conservative: Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone magazine has some thoughts

Audit the Fed: Bernie Sanders leads the Left & Right to push for Senate Unanimous vote on Amendment to "audit the Fed."

Bush war-crimes-Prosecution: Law Professor Francis Boyle describes the complaint he filed in January 2010 with the International Criminal Court

MUSIC: Yankee Network, out of Baltimore, "6 at 65".

Play Episode 31 from this page:

Click to Download Episode 31.

Listen to Part I in the series, Episode 30, (20-minute abridged version):

Monday, May 24, 2010

Wikipedia and Unprincipled Right

We all know some people on the "right" who we might call "principled." They hold to a value and apply it consistently, regardless of Party politics pressure. Maybe it's you, or a relative, a friend, co-workers or even someone in the corporate media. Ron Paul, a US Congressman, is a classic, if not extreme, example... and there are other less notable examples.

There is Walter B. Jones, a US congress member made famous for coining the phrase "freedom fries" as an insult to the French for not getting on board quickly with the Iraq war. He now regrets saying that.

Joness represents an area of North Carolina that has a sizable military population. His about-face reflects an undercurrent of honest feelings in the military communities. Walter Jones is now a vocal critic of the Iraq war.

The other conservative faction is the "unprincipled" right... they represent a different color in the "conservative" spectrum. We know them too: The Republican water-carriers and self-promoters like Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Bill Kristol, and Rush Limbaugh, who admits he carries water for the Republicans:

On the November 8 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh claimed to "feel liberated" by Democratic victories in the House and Senate on November 7 because he is "no longer going to have to carry the water for people who I don't think deserve having their water carried."

But this is all a long-winded way of being able to say that the vocal unprincipled right is misdirecting the conservative base when they tell the base not to use Wikipedia. We all know it can have significant flaws on a particular subject, but the majority of the time, it answers your question or directs you to the answer. Adding "wiki" to your search can be a powerful information tool that gives you an information-access advantage. Conservatives who dismiss Wikipedia might just be giving themselves a handicap.

Oxford Dictionary editors

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

What do you call it?

"What do you call it,"

asks Miss Petowker

"when lords ... beat policmen, and play at coaches with other people's money, and all that sort of thing?... Ah! aristocratic."

From Charles Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, originally published as a serial from 1838 to 1839.