One of Arizona’s most famous son’s is Barry Goldwater, a five term Senator known as “Mr. Conservative”.

Republican Senator Goldwater launched a bid for President of the United States against Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, and Goldwater was portrayed as reactionary, too right-wing and bat-shit crazy for his fights against the New Deal, unions and liberalism.

He lost the election to Johnson by one of the largest landslides in history, taking down several Republicans with him.

Goldwater was known as a ‘libertarian’ way back when, and in the 80′s when he saw the religious right’s influence with Reagan, Goldwater predicted that there would come a day when he would be labeled a “LIBERAL.”

Then there was Republican Evan Mecham, who owned a car dealership, and he won the election for governor of Arizona in 1986 and is famous for his recollections of folks calling African American children ‘pickaninny’ meant in an affectionate way.

Governor Mecham is also known for overturning the Martin Luther King Holiday and blaming working women for high divorce rates.

Governor Mecham was impeached by the voters of Arizona in April of 1988 for obstruction of justice and misuse of government funds, which he was later acquitted.

Then there was Republican Jane Hull, who bankrupted the state of Arizona with the alt-fuel fiasco, and perhaps lesser known, was that Governor Hull launched the bid of Texas Governor George Bush Jr. for President.

Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano was elected after Hull’s reign of errors, and in her first term as governor of Arizona, Governor Napolitano balanced the budget and got the state out of debt and into the black.

Governor Napolitano even managed to setup a “rainy day” fund, which has since been raided and decimated.

To be fair, midway though Governor Napolitano’s 2nd term, she did play with the numbers and credit and did leave her successor with massive debt, since no one in power saw the collapse of the housing market, which was Arizona’s main economic source.

Arizona’s State Legislature has always been Republican majority and Governor Napolitano did work with them and they would vociferously complain about her vetoes, yet she managed to get the job done.

President Obama scooped Governor Napolitano from Arizona by offering her the job as head of Homeland Security, and there were Republicans rejoicing that Janet was gone, and others saddened that she left, and others angered because she left Arizona in such dire straits.

Jan Brewer slipped into the position of Governor, as Arizona does not have a lieutenant governor, and Jan Brewer is a Republican that held the position of Secretary of State.

Governor Brewer is the fourth woman, the third consecutive woman to hold the title of governor in Arizona.

Governor Brewer, an unelected governor, has not been able to work with the Republican majority in the state’s legislature.

Following former President GW Bush’s example, the Republicans shut out the Democrats from all legislative meetings, Governor Brewer only calling on the Democrats to sign her bills when the Republican majority refused.

The Arizona Democrats refused to support the legislation, since they had no voice in forming the bills, and Governor Brewer led the Republican charge that the reason the state could not balance the budget was due to the Democrats and obstruction.

The Arizona Legislature under Governor Brewer have managed to pass some of the most liberal gun laws in the country, and once again to be fair, Vermont has similar laws.

Governor Brewer was very unpopular for being unable to work within her own Republican Party, but all that changed once Governor Brewer signed the anti-immigration SB1070 into law.

I do not need to share last night’s debate between the unelected Governor Brewer and the Democratic candidate Terry Goddard as it has gone viral on the Internet.

Due to Arizona’s ‘Clean Election Law’ voted in by voters in 1996, Governor Brewer was forced to do one debate and of course, the Republican legislature has been working hard on overturning the ‘Clean Election Law’.

Last night, the local CBS station did a story on Governor Brewer’s ties to private prisons in the state, and the money they are giving to her campaign for governor.

Governor Brewer was silent when 3 dangerous criminals escaped from a private prison in Kingman and when a woman tossed wire cutters over the fence, and then two of the escapees killed a couple from Oklahoma while they were camping New Mexico.

Governor Brewer is not happy with that expose and has pulled all her ads for governor from the local CBS channel 5 in Phoenix.

On another update of Arizona news is that the Department of Justice has issued fines against Sheriff Joe due to his non-compliance with 2 subpoenas for his records regarding a DOJ investigation into abuse of power and civil rights abuse in his jails.

I’ve researched subpoenas and what it means when a person refuses to comply and it is normal for 2 warnings to be given.

This is rare, as a sheriff’s office has never refused to cooperate with a DOJ and Grand Jury investigation since Mississippi in the 1960′s.

Isn’t it amazing that Sheriff Joe is refusing to “show his papers”?

On Saturday, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and spoke to tens of thousands of blindingly white, patriotically obese, special needs Walmart shoppers, claiming to speak for God and urging a return to the halcyon days of religious domination of our democracy which brought America such historic hits as morally justifiable slavery, the slaughter of “heathen” Native Americans, Manifest Destiny, women as second class citizens without the right to vote, prohibition and its resulting in the explosion of organized crime and teens having lots of oral and anal sex in order to honor their Promise Rings.

As a result, as Monty Python once sang, God got quite irate. So, as He is nowadays accustomed to venting his wrath, He blogged the following and asked me to post it for Him:

GOD’S BLOG – 8-31-2010

Let me begin by saying that neither Glenn Beck nor Sarah Palin speak for me. The tip offs are, I never use chalkboards, I don’t drop the last letter of “ing” words to be folksy and lastly, I usually make sense.

Being omnipresent, I couldn’t help but watch these two and their colleagues give their speeches on Saturday at the site and on the day of my dear friend’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Though I don’t see anything wrong with the way I’ve made male dogs mark territory as their own, it is a bit off putting when people use dogs as role models for that trait (wish they copied the unconditional love and loyalty stuff instead).

What can be a little frustrating about being all-knowing is that you never get to say, “What the hell is wrong with that guy?!”, you already know. I do see all living things as my children but some days, your kids can really drive you nuts, you know what I’m talking about?

Glenn claimed that his rally was about returning honor, going back to Me and less overtly, returning power in America to White Christians. That’s like urging people to come together to build and paint a majestic cross just so you can set fire to it.

Believe me, I don’t have an inferiority complex. I’m not stomping around Heaven, upset that people aren’t ruling more countries in my name. In fact, that’s exactly what would get me upset, have you seen what happens in most countries when people declare I chose them to be the leader (my lawyers did send George Bush a Cease and Desist).

Earth is for you folks to take care of and figure out how to run. I’ve totally delegated all executive decisions to all of you, I just want to be invited to the company picnics.

Glenn Beck also urged people to sublimate themselves to me, to get on their knees and make sure their children saw them doing so. I guess the best way to do that would be to get in front of the tv and pray…though I’d guess the kids would just crane their heads around to keep killing people in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

I think this could send the wrong message. First, kids may think that their parents are praying to the tv, that I am in the tv or that Tivo is God (which it is in some households).

Second, I think kids should see that strong moral beliefs are what make their parents stand up and become leaders in their own lives. Impressing subservience is like wiring a weakness into oneself or one’s kids that less principled folks than yours truly can then use to manipulate them to further unprincipled greed and lusts.

Which brings me back to Glenn Beck. He spoke of restoring honor…and did so by dishonoring one of the most honored Americans, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement he did so much for. Next time, I assume that Glenn will want to campaign on protecting endangered species by hunting them.

So, we can put aside this clearly illegitimate claim as the purpose of this rally, along with a reverence for me because love and respect and power for all races and religions is my thing. Also, despite the claims in their prospectuses and press releases, I am not a wholly owned subsidiary of FreedomWorks, Fox News or the GOP.

I just wish such wolves wouldn’t use me as their sheep’s clothing. The ironic thing is that in order to be so comfortable in using me to promote a self-serving agenda, such people would have to not believe in me (they clearly have no fear that they’ll ever have to face me for their transgressions).

So my suggestion is, the more you hear someone use me or their love of me to justify their actions and schemes that benefit themselves personally, the more of an atheist they probably are.

And BTW, some of my best friends are Atheists (I tell them that whether or not they believe in me, I believe in them and they’ll usually buy me a drink anyway, nice folks) so that’s not a bad thing but it does lend a bit of perspective to these situations.

Satan plays the same game as Glenn but as a practical joke, after a while, he always blurts out, “Just joking! I’m not really speaking for God and there is no barbecue tonight!”

Too bad Glenn doesn’t even display the decency of Satan. Still, it will be hilarious in a number of years, when Satan gets the chance to pull that on Glenn! Man, will he freak!

Had the cutest and strangest experience this morning on the way home from our walk.
It was another miserable sweaty walk this morning and there are these tiny little gnats out that we’ve never seen before.
They’re teensie-tiny black flies and they bite!
And for being so amazingly small, their bite actually causes pain!
Not bad pain, but you can feel it and it feels like a pin-prick.
Very odd.

Anyway, while on the way home we saw an elderly couple that we haven’t seen for awhile on our walks.
We’ve been walking earlier, besides being gone, except today we got a late start so saw them again and they stopped to talk.

We ran into them at the local grocer the other day, and not sure they remembered us, but I smiled and said hello and asked them if they recognized us.
I told them about us always walking our little dog in the mornings and we always wave to them.

The wife said she thought she knew who we were but her husband couldn’t remember.

He’s a real talker, and explained that he has very early onset of Alzheimer so he’s accepted that he can’t remember things very well.

He was so funny in telling us his name – Irvine with an I not an E – and it was his mother’s maiden name and it’s not an uncommon name because there’s an Irvine, California, and that has an I and not an E, too.
Very cute.

His wife is a skinny little thing and perhaps a bit younger than her husband but not by much.
She’s very animated friendly and clapped her hands and smiled broadly while thanking me for stopping to say hello in the grocery store.

So, this morning on the way home from our walk, we saw them and they were so happy to see us with our little dog and yes, now they both recognized us.
Here’s just the cutest thing and funniest part.

They pulled to the side of the road and asked if we were registered voters and we said yes, and then they asked if we would sign a petition.
They got out and while sweating our butts off and swatting at them biting teensie-tiny flies, they explained that they are working to recall one of the Pinal County councilmen for breaking all his campaign promises.

Now, if we could recall politicians for breaking their campaign promises, we’d have to recall them all, wouldn’t we?

My husband asked Irvine if the guy was a Republican and he said yes and he wants to replace him with another Republican – a Tea Party Republican because that guy lives up here and he will keep his promises.
Irvine said they need 10,000 signatures and what the hell, we signed the petition because he only had 7 signatures!

My husband made it a point that he’s all for recalling Republicans!
But they sort of ignored that, even though they did say that “they’re all crooks!”
“And if they’re not crooks when they get elected, they turn into crooks soon after”.

Irvine does talk a lot and he rambles, so you have to pay close attention but he’s a very affable person, as is his wife.
I think they are Tea Partiers, but so unlike the Tea Partiers we see on the TV or read about.
They’re not angry old white people, but they are fearful.

I think their definition of the Tea Party is not the actual Tea Party people we all know and love.

Through one of Irvine’s ramblings – and I cannot remember his wife’s name but will never forget his – but he asked us if we knew who Sylvia Brown is.

Do you know who Sylvia Brown is?

She’s a famous psychic and the only reason we know who she is is because we used to watch the Montel Williams show a few years ago and she was one of his regular guests every Wednesday and Friday, which ended up being his highest rated shows every week.

FOX yanked Montel’s show when he started his mission of seeing Bush get out of office and that’s why we watched him because he did a fairly good job of getting the truth out.

As for Sylvia Brown, well, she was fun to listen to and entertaining and I actually liked her a lot, until she went totally nuts with talking about space aliens and that there were aliens even in Montel’s audience.

She predicted that we are near the “end of times” and that the world would end in 100 years, which is a pretty safe prediction because who’ll be around to say if she was right or not about that.

She would talk crazy about some sort of second or third level creatures from deep in the earth that come out and if you’re attuned you can catch them and even see faeries that sit on flowers.
She’s really out there about things.

But I really liked her and thought her harmless because most people who seek her out were in search of solace from the grief of losing a loved one.
She always provided comfort for distraught people that were deep in grief by telling them that the person is with God and in the light of Christ and that no one ever dies alone.
People come into the world alone, but guardian angels and keepers from the other-side help people cross over upon death.

She does not believe in hell, but said hell is on earth and that the dead walk amongst us always.

She’s harmless and comforting and she always spoke about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit and said there is no such thing as the devil, but that evil lives in man and makes earth hell for the living.

I would never buy any of her books or go see her because she does tour and I would never do that as I am a skeptic, plus she charges outrages prices to see her speak.

But, she is an uplifting, spiritual person and she may very well be a scam artist, but then so are Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and people pay good money to see them and Sylvia Brown brings people up and does good, whereby Palin and Beck are just plain EVIL, in my very humble opinion.

So, Irvine and his wife told us that they went to see Sylvia Brown when she was here in the valley and our first thought on that that we kept to ourselves was – these people are nuts.

Now, I have to share the story about another neighbor- the woman owns a horse named Bonita and just got divorced from her abusive, cheating husband – and she had contacted an animal psychic back east when she was struggling with the decision of whether or not to give her smaller horse, Sadie, away and whether or not Sadie wanted to leave and if Bonita wanted Sadie to leave.
She ended up giving Sadie to a friend who lives nearby due to that phone call.

And then there’s other neighbors who believe that Glenn Beck is some sort of truth-speaker and they buy his books and watch him religiously.

And then there’s yet another, who is a Democrat, but he listens to a right-wing religious radio station and he is against the SB1070 law and thinks Brewer will go to hell for it, but he can quote the bible and believes we are in the “end of times” and he likes Obama, but thinks that Obama is confused when it comes to religion, because he’s not sure if he’s a Christian or not.

Okay, so Irvine and his wife went to see Sylvia Brown and they said that if you paid more for admission that you could ask Sylvia a question.
They said that a woman asked Sylvia if Obama would win a second term.

Here’s where it gets strange.

Sylvia Brown, according to this elderly couple, said that no, Obama would not win a second term, because he will not even make it through his first term.

They said that she said that he will get a bit way through the second half of his first term, but then he would die.

The couple said that people gasped audibly throughout the auditorium and mayhem ensued with people wanting to know if he was going to suffer the same fate as JFK.

Sylvia Brown, according to this couple, said that the cause of his demise would be due to food poisoning and that would be the official reason for his death, but according to the couple, Sylvia implied that it wouldn’t be an accident.

Isn’t that strange?

It is strange, because if that’s true that Sylvia Brown predicted such a thing is that it’s not like the “end of times” prediction of 100 years, but something that she will be proven right on or wrong on within less than 2 years.

I’m stunned that she would dare to predict such a thing, since she has so very many loyal followers and she’s placing her reputation on the line with such a prediction.

And I pray that she is wrong.

And another thing, is that this is an elderly couple – grandparent-like – and first off, I could never imagine my mom or dad ever believing in Sylvia Brown – and secondly, wouldn’t you think that older people would be wiser?

I get it now that I just wrote that, as older people do seem to love FOX and all their pundits.

An elderly woman from my working days just loves Bill O’Reilly and the thing that really gets me about her, is that she continuously sends me these right-wing emails about Obama being a Muslim and about ignorant, anti-American Democrats and liberals, and I swear that I am so tempted to begin bombarding her email with emails from the left about the crazy right-wingers!

I just can’t bring myself to do that though, as it would be a waste of time and really, whenever I get her emails, I just delete them unless she writes me an actual email.
The thing about that though, is that she will write letters in her right-wing emails, so I miss out on a lot of her writings to me.

Does anyone else deal with these type of people?

Or do we really live in the Twilight Zone?

During last Friday’s Vox Populi, we were discussing how the GOP/Tea Party, assisted hugely by Fox, the MSM and corporations, has foisted this fraudulent series of racist and hateful “issues” on the nation and into our politics.

Pres. Obama, being a thoughtful man of reason, responds earnestly to accusations about mosques near Ground Zero, his being a secret Muslim, etc.

We arrived at a consensus that instead of this accomplishing anything, Obama’s responses merely validate and empower the GOP hate machine which is continuing to whip up more and more irrational fear and hatred against non-whites, non-Christians and any other group that can be portrayed as the evil “other”.

A legitimate concern is that such rabid, omnipresent and publicly sanctioned hate mongering is deteriorating social discourse and behavior as well as our democracy…not to mention increasing the likelihood of more terrible, hate-inspired incidents.

What Pres. Obama needs to do, in our opinion, is to bust this fraud wide open and expose the cynical greed for power behind it. Instead of playing defense in this rigged game, Obama needs to kick the board over.

We would like to see Pres. Obama make a speech from the White House to the American People, laying bare the racism and xenophobia being used to manipulate people to empower the GOP and corporate America. He needs to explain to the nation that the GOP’s blocking of everything that would help America recover from the GOP/Corporate-caused economic crash, purely for their political gain, is unAmerican.

By doing so, he could short circuit this dangerous scheme and turn the focus to where it belongs, on those who would betray the people for their own pursuit of power. Instead of standing by while the GOP propaganda machine continues spewing lies and hatreds that Obama needs to keep addressing, it’s time to put the GOP back on their heels and on the defensive for their ruthless and disgusting behavior.

And a bold, confrontational speech by Pres. Obama declaring that this campaign, by the GOP and the Corporations behind them, is about placing the greed for power above what’s best for the citizens of our nation would change the conversation profoundly from the manufactured accusations and divisive distractions from reality to the true reality we’re actually living in.

Such a speech could rally the nation.This country desperately needs to reverse the polarization and come together to confront and overcome the immense challenges facing us, not allow the GOP and Fox to increase the ongoing deterioration of this Union and its future because it’s to their own financial and political benefit.

So we came up with the idea of setting up a collaboration for folks here to offer their thoughts and suggestions on what Pres. Obama could say in such a speech and also what we should say to him in a cover letter to convince him to take such action.

Once we’ve had folks weigh in on this, we’ll draft a speech and a cover letter based on the comments below and post them so people can add their names (confidentially) as signatories to endorse them (and get the word out to try to gather as many people as we can to add their names). Then we will send the letter and speech to Pres. Obama for his consideration.

So please feel free to dive right in with any suggestions, please share your thoughts on what Pres. Obama should say in an address to the nation to defuse this mercenary campaign that seeks to further tear apart our nation and instead inspire people to come together for the common good.

I recently attended my 5^th Netroots Nation Convention. I was on staff with the convention for the first two years when it was the YearlyKos Convention, then I stepped down after Chicago and have been on the advisory board ever since. I went to Austin and Pittsburgh with no responsibilities whatsoever, which was great. This year, I was asked to coordinate the Exhibit Hall with my good friend Linda Lee so I was on staff again. Having experienced the convention from the staff and attendee perspective has been quite interesting.

Being the Volunteer Coordinator for the first 2 conventions allowed me to meet and work with some of the most talented, dedicated, professional and committed individuals I’ve ever met. But it prevented me from attending any of the panels and only part of the keynotes. Being an organizer, I enjoy making an event like this run smoothly, but being removed from the actual programs doesn’t allow a clear picture of the event as a whole. Being an attendee put me on the floor and gave me a first hand view of the convention. That means I attended panels, parties, keynotes, unofficial gatherings and yes, I even went to Markos’ Daily Kos party.

So, here we are at the 5^th anniversary of the convention and I’m back in the staff room. Working behind the scenes gets me places most attendees can’t access. Like backstage after the keynote speeches, and sitting at the table in front of the stage. But it prevents me from participating in the panels or the Screening Series and I’m often too exhausted to go to the unofficial events. Although I always find the energy to humiliate myself at the Pub Quiz, (“We’re #10!”), and the AAM has sponsored some very fun events so I did take the time to continue my personal humiliation at the bowling lanes. But it is strange when Nancy Pelosi is answering questions 2 rooms away from me and I’m watching her on the live stream in the staff office. I got up close and personal with Ed Schultz and Al Franken but I missed the panel on Warming up the Cold Call which would have been helpful in my campaign work and I missed the Screening Series completely even though I’m on the Advisory Board for that as well.

So next year we’ll be in Minneapolis and my question is should I go as a worker or a player? What would you choose?

This is my first diary for Planet POV and I’m very happy to be here.

When you stay at hotels around the country, visit a bar or restaurant, find yourself in some public place where there’s a tv, you’re more than likely to see on that tv either a commercial for Dulcolax or Fox News.

The way you tell the difference is that one of these promotes the expelling of human waste and the other…hmm…let me get back to you on that.

Why is the exhibition of Fox News in public places so ubiquitous? Less than 30% of the country would describe themselves as Republicans, are there really millions more who think that the way to deal with the Republican party being repugnant is to just hide one’s membership?

Or, should one instead look to the corporations and business owners of the hotels, bars, etc. as the public purveyors of this News porn?

If one is interested in politics, it is wise to stay informed on what one’s adversaries are saying or screaming hysterically as they lean desperately on their chalkboards with tears stream down their faces. Since Fox and the Right Wing have successfully constructed a talking points pipeline, it’s actually hard to escape the piles of dead grannies, Marxist-Socialist-Muslim-Kenyan-Hitler presidents and racist black people oppressing white people.

Still, even though prolonged exposure to Fox News may be hazardous to your healthy gray cells…especially if you do as I do and keep a large wooden mallet next to your couch for smacking yourself in the head each time something especially asinine is said and agreed to by a collection of RW talking heads….it can be educational.

Today on Fox and Friends, it was once again a bone of contention and a big cause of dissatisfaction that Obama has not given every American a unicorn or at least a pretty pony. The criticisms came from every direction, Obama promised there would be no more flatulence in the world, that we’d all get super powers, he hasn’t once turned time back to get there before Lois ‘s car fell in the earthquake-caused crevice nor has he french kissed a single oil company CEO. The guy is a total failure!

I also learned that prior to January 2009, we have no idea who was president or what they did. Apparently, Al Qaeda used some kind of a Men In Black memory-wiping thingy on us, we probably had a president before Obama but in the midst of all the disasters we’ve been going through in this nation and the world, it’s probably not worth the energy to try remembering anyway. Then again, I do subscribe to the Lindsey Lohan School of Strategic Planning.

In a PPP poll in January 2010, Fox News was rated as the most trusted news network. Unfortunately, the results of an OMG poll out the following month showed that a majority found that PPP poll the least trusted results of polls that month. The following month, a BS poll showed that a majority of people don’t believe in polls and would never participate in one. The following month a FUBAR poll found that 200% of poll results are unreliable.

There’s an old saying, “History is written by the winners.” Fox News would add, “…but history is re-written by the losers.”

A federal judge today blocked many of the key provisions of the Arizona Immigration law. Score one for the Constitution and rationality.

Aside from the aspects of this law that institutionalized racism (giving BS lip service to, “We won’t racially profile while we’re racially profiling.”), this law created a huge government intrusion into Americans’ lives.

For the Repubs, yes, Mexican Americans, Arab Americans, etc. are Americans too even though they’re not Anglo Americans.

But the buzz among the MSM is less about the details and more about, “Does this hurt the Democrats in November?” “Does this hurt Obama?” So, though the MSM wants to shove every issue into the political horse race meat grinder, the judge seems to have actually considered the practical ramifications of the AZ police arresting a massive amount of people and having to verify their citizenship or else be sued by citizens for not fully enforcing the law.

The net result would be innocent Americans being detained for undetermined amounts of time though they did nothing illegal, enormous costs to the AZ taxpayers and a squandering of law enforcement resources to house and process all of the people caught up in this poorly thought out law.

Meanwhile, McCain and Kyl block any attempt at a sensible immigration law wailing “NO AMNESTY!”, along with the rest of Republicans, because it’s to their political advantage to rile up the RW who hate “ferners” and non-whites…while attacking Congress for not passing reform. As with gay marriage and abortion, they don’t want a solution, they want the issue to continue because it helps raise money for their campaigns and rally their voters to the polls.

When the SCOTUS rules in favor of corporations, the GOP heralds the judicial process. When a state’s immigration law is found to conflict with federal jurisdiction, the judicial process is corrupt.

It’s like playing Monopoly with a self-centered eight year old brat, when things go his way, it’s great. When they don’t, he knocks the pieces around or kicks the board over. He doesn’t respect the rules unless they work for him. He isn’t there to play a game, he’s there to win a game and anything that gets between him and winning is the enemy.

Just as with the RW/Rove method of calling those who complain about racism, “racists”, we continue to be spiraling down in the world of public discourse, we seem to now matter-of-factly accept that one party (and one news network) are openly racist but because they make a strong argument for why they shouldn’t be viewed for what they are, many let them off the hook.

Will open racism end when a white man is president again? Sadly, I think it may decrease when those who are racist “feel” like white people are in control again.

We can thank The Founders for not making federal judgeships elected positions, one can only imagine how much worse this nation would be with judges pandering to Tea Partiers and Birthers.

Heading out to searing Las Vegas for Netroots Nation and am hoping to provide updates of my adventures in this gathering of godless, communist, socialist, white-hating enemies of America. BTW, should I hit on 16?

Hope I don’t disappoint, so much going on I may have only fleeting moments to update this post but I promise to provide a complete report upon my return.

More soon (I hope)!

UPDATE: Friday, July 23 – 9:30pm

I’m blogging from a bowling alley in the Rio Hotel, bowling with a US Representitive Paul Hodes from the great state of New Hampshire. His very cool son was throwing some strikes and his dad unsurprisingly had a strong spin to the left.

Earlier today, I attended the California Caucus and there were many substantial folks there from such orgs as Courage Camaign, Credo, SEIU, etc., maybe 30-40 people there.

The main discussion was about which propositions on the Nov ballot in CA were the most crucial to invest time and energy on. The consensus was that they are

19 – Legalization of marijuana

23 – Defeating this prop paid for by TX oil men to increase greenhouse gas emissions back to 1990 levels (“to build jobs”…in what, the Space Ark construction industry?!)

25 – Reducing the 2/3 majority needed to pass a budget to a simple majority

26 – Defeating this prop put up by corps and the CA Chamber of Commerce, which would require a super majority of voters to approve any tax increase. Of all the props, this one would doom CA for good.

Out of all the dedicated and strong minded people there, the one who stood out most to me was the woman who explained that her husband, who had just died from cancer had after much suffering found some relief after trying medical marijuana. She expressed that getting out more personal stories like hers should be a strong tactic to make the case for undecided voters to support Prop 19. I agree, personalizing issues makes them so much easier to grasp.

So, Nancy Pelosi is having a Q&A tomorrow morning, should get at least one hour of sleep so I can get there early and hopefully ask a question.

More tomorrow!

UPDATE: Saturday, July 24, 10:03 am

Jan Schakowsky gave an intro speech this morning and already answered KQuark’s question, a Public Option bill has just been introduced in the House.

Her intro was followed by a video address to NN by Pres Obama who made the case again that his admin has made an amazing array of accomplishments and that the election is critical this year in not returning to the failed policies that put us in this terrible situation with the economy.

Pelosi explained that though she and others support the Dream Act and other immigration related bills, she feels that passing the more attractive elements of Immigration Reform independently would make comprehensive reform less likely so they really want a full package to pursue.

The Senate amendment to the Unemployment Ins extension stripped a huge array of jobs funding, including summer jobs for youth. Family values GOP? Really? And BTW, this bill was passed by the house 6 MONTHS AGO!

Talking about passing fair elections, anti-Corp election financing legislation, Pelosi again stressed Politicians do need citizens to make them do what they may even support, it really does matter and make a huge impact when people contact their reps, it really does make things happen!

UPDATE: Saturday, July 24, 11:02 am

Citizens United Panel – The panelists:

Marge Baker – Executive Vice President for Policy and Program at People For the American Way

Rep. Donna F. Edwards

Lisa Graves – Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy

Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen

Representative Alan Grayson

Weissman explained that The Chamber of Commerce represents now a third political party, one aligned with the GOP but a Corporate Party.

Public Citizen’s Pledge For Democracy is pursuing Congresspeople to sign a pledge to vote for a constitutional amendment to overturn CU.

Rep. Edwards spoke inspirationally, she is spearheading the legislation in the House for a Constitutional amendment and has a couple dozen co-sponsors already but here too, asks people to contact their reps to join on.

Rep. Grayson was as entertaining and on target as ever. He expressed an optimism that democracy is resilient enough to overcome the corporate takeover of our democracy but it requires a lot of activism on our part, in concert with their efforts.

He suggested that in order to get the reality of what CU means, he might need to videotape a Corp lobbyist saying, “Vote our way and we’ll spend millions for you or else we’ll spend it to defeat you.”

Graves was passionate and committed to getting Progressives to accept the legitimacy of being able to pass a Constitutional Amendment. She asked, “How hard do you think it was to imagine and pass a Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote?” The RW has been pushing a Right to Life amendment for 30 years and though it hasn’t passed, it powered legislation and worked as an organizing tool for them and this issue. We need to pursue a Constitutional Amendment.

Rep. Edwards recounted how she and others in her local community each bought five shares of a Corp, went to a shareholder’s meeting and disrupted the status up which caused that Corp to rethink and change policies.

I asked a question of the panel about working on a state by state, initiative process to attack corporate power and influence, Weissman responded affirmatively, particularly identifying public financing of elections.

UPDATE: Saturday, July 24, 12:27 pm

Panel: Building a Progressive Economic Vision

Elizabeth Warren spoke first and was greeted like the rockstar she is. She spoke of her grandmother coming to OK and living modestly until wiped out in the 1900′s but ended her life with her own home and financial security thanks to the financial reforms under FDR.

She made a rallying speech about the importance of protecting the middle class and how the consumer office created through the financial reform bill, though it can’t solve everything, can make a huge contribution to bringing back that kind of security and fairness that the middle class needs in our economy.

She said there are four things this office should do:

1. It must stand for families, making sure loans and credit cards are priced fairly, easy to understand and when the powerful can decide who will be helped or hurt, there needs to be someone at the table to ask, How will it affect American Families?

2. The financial system has to be realisticaly based with workable, viable system, for example, policies that destroy community banks.

3. The bureau has to be able to grow and change because the rules after the Great Depression worked well but ultimately failed because they didn’t change.

4. This will be the first major agency built in the digital age. It can communicate in both directions with millions of Americans the agency’s research function can have this built in to how they deal with regulations.

Three things she’s asking of us. Use our voices for economic security for middle class. Use and discuss ideas. Use your conscience.

Wrapping, we can use the tools of the Consumer Department but it will be tough.

Union leader Richard Trumka spoke powerfully about the fight for economic equality for the American People. He made many salient points and provided a slide show, the most remarkable graph showed very clearly that the biggest components of our deficit come from the Bush tax cuts and his wars. The stimulus is a tiny, tiny fraction and yet all we hear from Repubs is about the fractions that contribute. AND they want to keep the Bush tax cuts as permanent..which would make the deficit impossible to reverse.

UPDATE: Saturday, July 24, 3:25 pm

Sen. Harry Reid Q & A

He began by saying the consolidation of the media and corps especially growing since Reagan, started tipping the balance of power hugely towards them and away from us.

“I’m told that at times I get on your nerves. And there are also times when you get on my nerves,” he said jokingly as he praised the blogging and Internet community for helping to spread and expose the truth.

Lt. Dan Choi, in attendance and just discharged due to DADT, just gave Reid his West Point graduation ring. Reid first tried to give it back but the audience pressed him to keep it until the repeal of DADT is done.

Reid addressed a question many have asked (including me) about reforming the filibuster rule. He said they’ve got to change it but all that he’s done is have a study done on it and continue working on what they might be able to do…I was not alone at not being too pleased with that response. He can change the rules of the Senate by simple majority at the beginning of a session but it would enrage Repubs and no doubt inspire legal action from them. But so what? The SCOTUS can’t dictate Senate rules, the filibuster is not mentioned in the Constitution.

Reid wrapped by offering remembrances of Teddy and Sen. Byrd.

Two hours until the closing event for Netroots starring Al Franken. I guess he really is special!

UPDATE: Saturday, July 24, 6:59 pm

A group (writing this a half hour later, forgot the group’s name but will add shortly) presented a video of testimonials and first hand stories about how the MSM is ignoring the poisoning an illness being spread in the Gulf by the dispersant with which BP has flooded the gulf.

Chuck Rocha, a union leader who led the movement to unseat Blanche Lincoln, displayed the kind of fire in the belly and smarts that Dems can only applaud.

Tarryl Clark, the Dem opposing Michelle Bachman appeared after introed by an amusing Rocky type video. She was greeted very warmly and has a strong shot at taking Bachman down. If you want a big Dem victory story in Nov, helping Tarryl defeat Bachman is a very viable effort to invest in.

Linda Chavez-Thompson, a labor leader running for Lt. Gov in TX, covered many meaningful issues and knocked it out of the park, great sense of humor and incisive, showed what great folks and candidates there are in TX. She closed by saying, “I believe we can turn Texas.”

Al Franken took the stage as the Progressive star he is. He recounted how the netroots transformed politics especially through the last five years…helping to elect many Progressives…including him.

He described how the Repubs are as driven and motivated as Progressives were just about a year and a half ago when we were fighting against a permanent GOP majority.

Franken also said the GOP is trying to spin the success of Dems as a fluke. “I know that people are frustrated. I’m not satisfied with where we are.” He explained that there are more Progressive Senators than before but not enough to pass the agenda we want. “But you can’t check out now.”

He said that while Dems are grumbling about what hasn’t been done, Repubs are planning on killing what has been accomplished.

Franken warned about corporations, how easy it is for them to be evil of they want to. “And your rights are being taken away, one 5-4 Supreme Court decision at a time.”

Net neutrality is the biggest 1st Amendment issue of our times, he said. By monopolizing usage of the Internet, the flow of information and netroots strength could be controlled by corps in a way unimagined now.

Corporate domination of the Internet could mean there may not be new YouTubes or Twitters unless they give ownership to the corps owning the means of distribution…that is, the Internet.

“if we don’t rise to this challenge, no one else will.”

“We have to fight back..but we also have to take credit for our progress.”

Netroots Nation 2011 will take place in MInneapolis, MN.

Thanks so much to my fellow Planeteers for all of your interest and comments. I have been reading all your comments, I will have replies and more to add when I return!

Cheers!

In this shocking, unedited video, Andrew Breitbart proudly announces to an audience that he was on crack cocaine during the birth of his children, is in rehab, has sexual problems, is a narcissist and in the end confesses, “I’m kind of a fraud.”

Should he be forced to resign?

Please spread this video around, the people have a right to know the truth…but send them this link anyway!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYigEUvG3Bo

This Thursday, the premiere annual Progressive convention, Netroots Nation begins. I’m pleased to say that I will be attending, representin’ PlanetPOV and our community.

All the top Progressive sites, organizations and blogs will be there, many seminars, panels and events, culminating in the closing night keynote speech by Sen. Al Franken.

EDIT – FYI, here is a partial list of speakers attending:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Al Franken, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Elizabeth Warren, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Ed Schultz, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Ben Cardin, Sen. Tom Udall, Rep. Alan Grayson, Van Jones and more.

Also, I’m fortunate to have been selected to be a panelist at one event and will do my best not to use phrases like “refudiate”.

I plan on blogging updates at The Planet while I’m attending, there’s so much going on there, I hope to find moments here and there to do so. Here’s a link to the Netroots Nation site, check it out and you’ll see what I mean: Netroots Nation

We’ve created some buttons to hand out for the occasion and to promote PlanetPOV:

Connected to this, any contributions folks here might be able to donate to help defer some of the expenses for The Planet attending Netroots Nation would be greatly appreciated. As a small token of appreciation, anyone who donates at least $10 will receive the button pictured above.

To make a contribution, all you need to do is click on the “Donate” button in the Paypal widget in the sidebar at the right of the page and it will take you to The Planet’s donation page at PayPal.

Attending Netroots Nation should be very productive for The Planet, its community, its networking with other groups and sites and moving forward with others on the principles and agendas that we share.

Looking forward to it and sharing it all with my fellow Planeteers!

The Boston Globe just reported today on a study at the University of Michigan that examined how people, especially those who are wrong about what they believe to be true, respond to being presented with the facts:

Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs.

Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/11/how_facts_backfire/

Now, I don’t think this comes as any great surprise to anyone who has a Republican for a relative, it is nice to confirm clinically what we’ve learned from our Thanksgiving Day experiences. At first, others may discount it as partisan to assert that those on the right are far more frequently and substantially guilty of such willful ignorance. Considering there’s a popular news channel devoted to fortifying and implanting ignorance, that alone would be a strong argument but here is another telling section of the article:

On its own, this might not be a problem: People ignorant of the facts could simply choose not to vote. But instead, it appears that misinformed people often have some of the strongest political opinions. A striking recent example was a study done in the year 2000, led by James Kuklinski of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He led an influential experiment in which more than 1,000 Illinois residents were asked questions about welfare — the percentage of the federal budget spent on welfare, the number of people enrolled in the program, the percentage of enrollees who are black, and the average payout.

More than half indicated that they were confident that their answers were correct — but in fact only 3 percent of the people got more than half of the questions right. Perhaps more disturbingly, the ones who were the most confident they were right were by and large the ones who knew the least about the topic. (Most of these participants expressed views that suggested a strong antiwelfare bias.)

So,  like a mobius strip of idiocy, the more ignorant one is, the more convicted they are of the things that make them ignorant. The more combatively partisan people are, the more their existing untrue views are supported by “news” sources and the ramblings of politicians, the less likely it is that the ignorant will accept truths that don’t confirm their existing beliefs, in fact, they’ll just dig their heels into their ignorance deeper.

The insecurity that accompanies ignorance is powerful, I think that such people have an inkling they may not be as well informed on things but for the sake of their ego (over their self-interest and what’s best for their family),  they don’t want to feel like they’re stupid so they will clutch onto the falsehoods they believe more desperately when challenged. This is very childish behavior but there are many emotionally immature Americans out there who NEED to be right more than they need to know the truth.

So, it becomes a conundrum, the more you try to correct an untruth someone believes, the harder that person embraces the untruth. I’ve tried an approach that has only worked marginally but better than just presenting facts to such folks. When there is a legit opportunity for me to say, “maybe I’m wrong” or “I was wrong about that”, the example is set that one can be confident and unashamed of seeking truth over “being right”. One can then say, “Come on, I admitted when I was mistaken and I didn’t have a heart attack, you can do the same if the truth matters to you more than feeling right.”

I do think that humor also emerges as a better tool for trying to get the truth across to people who are so vested in untruths.

It is a bit troubling that the insecurity of Americans keeps them ignorant by choice and that ignorance is giving aid and comfort to those who are the biggest enemies of our democracy and wreaking havoc on the lives of these very same ignorant people, namely the wealthy and corporations. I have no doubt their market research studies have taught them the same thing. Reducing education, increasing the dissemination of propaganda and distracting people into having fun instead of learning and reading would all be beneficial policies for corporations to press forward.

The dumbing down of America is also the undemocratizing of it.

The mind of a voter is a terrible thing to waste.

The Earth’s head has got to be spinning. Humans are filling its seas with oil, chemicals, waste and massive islands of pollution, the process of mining natural gas is poisoning our ground water, rainforests and old growth trees are being razed at a dizzying speed, the ozone layer is being destroyed by a never ending spewing of CO².

The Earth has gotta be thinking about humanity, “Man, what total assholes!”

Perhaps we’ve been looking at the state of our environment in the totally wrong way.  We look at the damage done by the acquisition and usage of fossil fuels and conclude that what we need to do to solve this problem is seek renewable and less polluting sources of energy. Blocking the way for this though are the people who have profited from and been bought off by those who have profited from the plundering of the Earth.

Oil was around for millions of years, it’s existence  never harmed the Earth before. Oil, coal, natural gas, etc. are not the cause of our problems, it is the people mentioned above and their companies that are. We need two things, we need to move to non-polluting renewable fuels and we need to get these enemies of doing so out of the way.

So, my proposal is that we re-engineer the ethanol process so that we can use those humans who stand in the way of progress as the organic material from which ethanol is derived. We can call it, Soylent Green Power! Or maybe just People Power!

Think of how much energy could be converted from the average, obese pro-Republican! All those dimpled calories just bursting to get out! And those slimy oil company and Wall Street execs would be an energy bonanza! We could simultaneously solve the energy, corporate and population-related issues that are endangering the planet and if anyone complains, just ask them if they liked “The Matrix” because it’s kind of like that.

Want a Tiger in your tank? Let’s add celebrities who cheat on their wives to the list! And we could give the Tea Partiers an immediate way to shrink government, turn them from obnoxiously rude into valuable crude which would reduce the population in their communities and thus reduce the number of US Representatives there! It’s a win-win!

People could list on their Driver’s Licenses whether they wanted to donate their organs or the amount of fuel they’re converted into. Sorry Dr. Kervorkian but euthanasia could be conveniently performed at your local BP station, mourners attending a wake could receive an oil change and tune up with each service, driving away with a remembrance of their loved one every time they stepped on the gas.

Gas bags like Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh could power fleets of buses in major cities for years. Take that socialism! That would be 100% American made fuel!

All of these enemies of progress and a life sustaining Earth could simply be told straight up, “Ask not what biofuels can do for you but what you can do for biofuels.”

So I’m out on my driveway washing my car last weekend, when my neighbor walks by. He is an old Chinese guy in his late 90s. I see him often, making his way to the corner and back, a distance of about 40 yards. The round trip takes him about 20 minutes. You do the math.

Anyway, I have to bite my lip not to say hello, or I will be mired in a conversation like a gulf seagull trapped in BP oil. But I can’t help myself, my southern hospitality is all mixed in with the manners my mother beat into me, and the two conspire to make the chance of me keeping my mouth shut an impossibility. So I say, “Hi, how’s your day?” I’m thinking this might lead to a “Fine, thank you” or a “Doing good, and you?” I hope for an answer that’s short and polite so that I can get back to scrubbing the bumper, but as expected, I’m not so lucky.

I call the old Chinese guy “China Man.” Well, at least in my head. I have asked him his name many times, but he always responds with a fake, easy-for-an-American-to-understand name like “Joe” or “Lee” or “Juan.” I know he’s lying, because he never uses the same name twice, plus everyone in his extended family has at one time or another told me their name was “Lee.” I know it’s not their last name, and I doubt that everyone in the house is named Lee. (If so, could you imagine the irony?)

After my brief interrogative, China Man picks up his pace and heads in my direction. He looks intent–like I have just asked the meaning of life and he has a possible solution–or perhaps he just didn’t understand and wants to come over to clarify. But I think neither is true. After he gets a little closer, I say again, “Hi, how is your day?”, emphasizing each word a little more carefully. He slows to a stop, plants his walking stick on the wet pavement, and after a pause that was either about 10 seconds or a minute, he said, “I Love America. But things are becoming clear.” “Oh?” I say. “Yes!” he replies about an hour later. “I believe…this war is not what you think.”

This is a REALLY loaded topic, so I stand still and say nothing. I know from several past “how do you do’s” that he is an ex-military man, Chinese military that is. To be specific, he didn’t play for our team during the Cold War.

So, you might think his war reference is about Iraq or Afghanistan, but don’t be so sure. He could be talking about the Vietnam war, for him Vietnam only wrapped-up last week. Or maybe he means one of the “WW” wars. This is a more likely choice, but he was around for both WW’s and now has trouble keeping them straight. “Did the Germans invade Poland, or was that before Franz Ferdinand was assassinated?” It’s hard to keep that kind of thing straight, you know. But this time China Man is on his game and says, “The thing that is most clear…is that however good intentioned you Americans are, you are wrong. And those in the world you think to be your friends most probably are not.”

Well, the next 45 minutes were a blur of international politics, some current, some relevant, some not. In the end, I think China Man had it right. Things ARE becoming clear. And more Americans agree that we just might be doing it wrong. And, I have learned the hard way several times now, that those we think to be our friends may actually not be our friends at all.

Slow-moving Joe or Lee or Juan got it right…way to go, China Man!