Displaying 0 To 0 Of 0 Comments The American people have Spoken … Maybe smit – very well said. You point up another issue about the group that calls itself “progressive” or “liberal” – if they have no skin in the game, if they are not poor or ill or infirm – they tend NOT to vote even when who is picked massively affects the well being of people with problems. That’s what my students in ’80 did – they were too good to vote for Carter, and while they did not vote for Reagan, they let that happen. No amount of discussion about the wildly dangerous impact this would have on people in need could convince them to care. They weren’t poor and likely never would be. So they opted out – on the backs of those in need. That is even MORE immoral than the ‘baggers who KNOW they hate the poor and say so. Failing to right a wrong when you can is the worst kind of treachery. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 6:40 pm When progressives and liberals sit it out, then they DID decide by indecision. The Baggers and GOP who got elected because the progressives were “too good” to vote for some Dem DO represent those same worthless progressives who helped elect them. In some states over half of the voters who voted Dem in 2008 sat it out in 2010. You get what you earn. Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 6:36 pm Do NOT get me started any more than I just did. I cannot deal with these people and that lousy interpretation of Revelations ANY LONGER! » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 6:53 pm Adonai – I saw that, noticed the date, and just sighed. That is the absolutely LAST year that die-hard End Times people can justify the Second Coming/Armageddon. Just when I thought we were almost free of them (a big chunk are predicting May 21 this year for the Rapture and October 21 this year for the End so if it does not happen, it narrows the field of True Believers.) Now, here comes the astroid giving the others who pin the date at about 2000 years after the end of Christ’s life something to slaver over. God’s sign! Repent NOW! The end is near! I really hoped to hear the end of all that soon, but nooooooo. Now we have not only the Red Heifer (genetically modified by people who don’t believe in genetic modification to cure disease), the fall of Babylon (Iraq – why’d you think we went there under President Born Again?), and the hoped for rebuilding of the Temple (though that’s not going so well) – now we have a freaking meteorite. Sigh. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 6:51 pm During several discussions of DADT, marriage equality, Prop. 8 in CA and the like, I, representing a VERY progressive faith organization with over 1.5 million members, wanted people to have our resources that supported LGBT rights without reservation. Since the Religious Right is heard and the faith progressives are NOT, it seemed reasonable that HP would want people to KNOW about a huge (in mainline Protestant denominations the MAJORITY) support for marriage equality and all other rights. But noooooo. I got censored over and over and over until I finally wrote the moderator and said LET THIS IN because people NEED this information. Finally after five hours, they DID let it in, but why the hold up? I’m used to this with MSM, but at that point HP? The MSM think the RW are interesting because they’re violent, extreme and thus “sexy” reads. Those who support human equality are just (the SF Chron editor TOLD me) “boring and predictable”. No we aren’t. If nobody knows mainline churches and people of faith DO support equality, then how is that “boring” when it’s revealed? I’m freaking being STALKED by the RW Christian extremists over this and related issues – THEY don’t think we’re “boring and predictable” – they think we’re a real threat to their slavering desire to dominate the world and everyone in it. We make it impossible for them to claim faith values are homophobic, racist, anti-immigrant, anti-choice (and women in general), and pro war. We equal them in numbers in CA, so yeah – we’re NOT boring. But HP???? Shoulda thunk they’d want to let people struggling with obtaining their RIGHTS know that huge numbers of people of faith were on their side!!! We were NO on Prop. 8, NO on Parental Consent, YES on human rights, NO on bigotry of all types. But I have been censored for years on all this while the evangelicals get to post offering salvation from sins if people repent, go straight, and take Jesus into their hearts. Voices of equality, of inclusion, of unity don’t get in but bigots and religious freaks DO? Who the hell IS Arianna anyway? Progressive my ass. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 5:27 pm A Short List of Pres. Obama’s Accomplishments Hillary is deeply tied up with “The Family” – Doug Coe is her personal pastor. You REALLY want her to do ANYTHING???? She was gracious beyond belief to the widow and family of murdered abortion provider Bart Slepian – then sold out the pro-choice crowd politically. Enough already. Dig beneath the surface. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 7:56 pm Very good point! That is precisely what steps have to be taken on almost ANY issue. Begin where you CAN then move on. Thank you for this! » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 7:54 pm OK – the tax comprlmise was 16% for the rich, 84% for the working poor and middle class. See Center on Budget & Policy Priorities for that info. I’ve been in debates for months with the insurance and HMO industry – they HATE the HCR because it distinctly cuts into their profits. True of Pharma, too – they won’t show up to debate because they are so freaking venal. He has cut funding for the privatized Medicare “middlemen” – HUGE uproar from them. They are going, going, GONE from those contracts. Congress determined the abortion federal funding issue years ago; Obama did not “pander” to them in any way. I’m wildly pro-choice and have no problem with what’s going on given the Hyde Amendment’s durability. It’s not going away anytime soon – but that’s up to Congress, not Obama. I am less informed on military, but it seems to me he’s the first to STOP military expenditures on weapons that are not only too expensive but don’t work. I can’t recall the last time an American president and his Secretary of Defense STOPPED such expenditures. Obama also has stopped the pernicious Cold War practice of rushing troops into every foreign issue and has ended the practice of supporting take overs by dictators a la Honduras. When the saber rattlers claimed Nicaragua was “massing along the Honduran border” Obama paid no heed – it was a lie, and he did not use it as an excuse to intervene in Central America. His ability to stop decades old practices and to give back power to Congress that past presidents had usurped is a major step forward – and another freaking reason we needed to vote last November. He honors the separation of powers, checks and balances, does not overstep his authority, and respects the will of voters. “Pandering” to the GOP is not what’s happening – respecting the outcome of the election IS. Like it or not, the GOP majority is the AMERICAN people’s choice – he is prepared to work with them, like them or no. That’s democracy at its best. I can’t abide the House members – but they were elected. What part of democracy shall we abandon because we had so many allies who never bothered to vote? Democracy does not mean Democrat. Like it or not, what we have is the will of the voters. Obama respects that. Doesn’t mean he LIKES it. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 7:16 pm I’m a Cubs fan, too, and you still haven’t answered my question. I’m not being nasty – I honestly think no one EVER answers it because we can’t. Democracy deals with assembling votes on legislation. Everyone elected to that legislature votes. The bottom line is that if we cannot elect a solid progressive majority, we will NOT pass progressive legislation. Now ask yourself – if we were Egypt and everyone took to the streets – who has the guns. Who has the activists. Who is in ascendance in numbers. Whose voice would get heard? The Town Hall meetings ought to give you and me and all of us some real pause. I see almost NOT progressives on the streets save those of us in Palm Springs two weeks ago. I DO see the RW folks out in droves. That said – this might not be a reaaaally good time to rebel. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 3:13 pm OK – your analysis of the health plan is not very good, but I’d still like – HONESTLY – to know exactly WHAT and HOW this administration could have passed a different health bill and anything else you’re citing. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 3:09 pm No – he pulled combat troops out of Iraq which was the biggie because it’s oil AND Biblical Babylon. Trust me on the Dominionist front – getting out of Babylon threatens their End Times mantra that Bush pressed for. That’s part of the unsung story – we did not go into Iraq for JUST material gain but to fulfill that prophecy, and nothing – and I mean NOTHING – scared the bejeezus out of more than knowing THAT. We got lucky – W’s converstion is thin. Laziness and indolence outstripped his concern for his soul. He got tired of playing President and went home. Had he been a true believer I think we’d have had a declaration of martial law, and he’d still be president. You “don’t say NO to God” according to these people. Now Obama is undermining prophecy even more. THAT is what scares me – Iraq is vastly more important to the Dominionist religious right (prophecy) and their neo-con allies (oil, permanent bases that Obama has eliminated) than is Afghanistan. Obama’s work in de-escalating and leaving Iraq is deadly dangerous TO Obama because of these extremists. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 3:06 pm OK – with that I totally agree. It never should have become a war; it was an international act of criminality against human rights. But Bush handed us a war and NOT the perp – when he pulled everyone back who almost caught bin Laden, well…Don’t think I don’t think the fix was in. Even without nutty conspiracy theories (bin Laden is Bush’s lover) I would guess bin Laden was useful to keep the war machine pumping. BUT – that’s what we got handed in Jan. 2009. Now what? I agree with you. Just have not got a clue how it could work from here. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 3:00 pm Holy smokes Patsy – it’s MATH, or at least arithmetic. On a Sunday. On the Planet. You ask a lot, girlfriend. I think this is brilliant, but my befuddled mind won’t wrap around it at the moment. Is there a pop quiz? If so, I’m in a world of hurt. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 2:09 pm Hey – WASPs can shout, too, you know. And most of us are not shrinking violets with white gloves on. But we DO ask you for details – what do you think should have occurred and HOW. That needs to be said, and I’ve never seen anyone tell me HOW. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 2:06 pm I guess I’d ask what, in a democracy, you would have had happen instead. The right has been in ascendance for 40 years. So, given that, what and how would you see done that could actually be accomplished? I’ve never asked anyone this before. I’d seriously like to know. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 2:04 pm Oh wow – I agree! I think his hard stand on several issues including his honoring of Egyptian sovereignty is already problematic in terms of the RW’s capacity to do major harm to those who thwart them. In “The Family” Jeff Sharlet notes the influence – even control – that the Dominionist Christian/corporatists have over a shadow foreign policy. Some of the names of the early versions of this group figured in the attempted coup against FDR. Others today figure in John Perkins’ “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” about his career hiding under a front of a notable engineering firm but destablizing nation after nation – and watching reformers blown up by the CIA. If some people were correct that Kennedy died because he was going to pull out of Vietnam – then WHO had the power to get him killed? That is and always will be the scariest unanswered question. We again have a president who is thwarting these power hungry extremists. I fear for him every day. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 2:02 pm No one disagrees, we just are not at all sure how to end this. Why? Because some things have worked to the good. For women, this is especially critical in terms of shoving back the Taliban and protecting women from its disastrous impact. I’m not sanguine about terrorists – they won’t just “go away” and I dread a repeat of 9/11. I do think some of what happened in Egypt will help turn us away with the spread of democratic impulses into Afghanistan via its better educated populace. That just happens to be small. If we understand this was a situation created by decades of US imperalism that won’t be easily eradicated overnight, it helps a bit. NONE of this probably would have happened if Reagan had not blown off bin Laden in 1983 with his assault on Lebanon – that was bin Laden’s turning point, and it’s all Reagan’s imperialistic arrogance. Now – what do we do? I have no good answers because walking away is not a solution for the damage we have done that will be left to fester. It’s a betrayal of the people there, not just of some policy here. If someone has a solution that isn’t just giving the finger, I’d be happy to know it. Then we could embrace an alternative policy. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 1:57 pm Following the Rightwing Fashion? Marion – I’d say you may be five hours behind technically, but you’re ahead of the curve on all other fronts. I think you were the first to point out Maher’s nastiness and suspicious anti-progressive stances. So you have my thanks for your leading insights. I once, recently, totally agreed with a Republican. I’m in therapy for it, but he had a lot to say about California’s redevelopment commissions that was good from my point of view, condemning their direction of money to large corporations and not communities. A friend and I agreed that this probably means he’s not long for this political world. One other thoughtful Republican in the CA voted to raise taxes a couple of years ago, and the party mounted a swift, and while unsuccessful, effort to recall him that dogged him for months. The result – he dropped out after one 2-year term, fed up with his own party. Those kinds of losses are what is tightening the party’s ultra-conservative philosophy. Moderate GOP officials are funning scared and then simply running away. It’s scary how doctrinaire the party is. The Dems suffer their Blue Dogs as manifestations of the voters who elected them, but the GOP demands – and gets – absolute conformity. It does make them powerful. When their power is reinforced by the media sycophants – Breitbart would not “permit” dany discussion of the Sherrod affair???? And Maher agreed???? – we have propaganda machines, not media. That is truly scary! Thanks for outing Maher once again. I’m seeing fewer and fewer real progressives anywhere in print or on the air, and it’s getting downright frightening. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 8:28 am YES eileen – thank you for truly listening. It was that speech along with the State of the Union that did the remarkable work of laying out the conservative principles and then pulling them back to moral values and progressive policies. He was incredible! » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 10:26 am PocketWatch – I really like your resurrection of the “Commons”. It was a principle from the ’70s that gained much ground until Reagan placed rampant and unfettered individualism as the new holy grail. Americans who have any world history background know that one of the massive changes in Europe was the Enclosure movement that stole the Commons from the people to distribute to individuals. What we do not know is that America did the same. In Massachusetts in 1802 (a pivotal year in moving us from the entire notion of the common good to privatization) the commons were enclosed in almost every town. What we have left are the tiny parks we now CALL “commons” where you can’t walk on the grass or let your sheep graze. The true “culture war” is about whether we have a common good with resources that need protecting or whether everything is for sale to the highest bidder. The other issues – sexual ones mostly – are the sleight-of-hand distractions from this much larger issue. I’m not a socialist since for me it’s just another form of corporatism in which distant and usually ignorant people make “policy” directing the lives of those whom they do not know. I favor local – town, county, business, etc. – worker and community control, right down to ownership and management. But that’s not true of all things. In terms of the commons I very much agree that social intervention is essential. Do we pillage Yosemite to benefit a single entity, whether it’s a traditional corporation or a worker owned one? No. So some measure of socialism is essential. The problem is always to work out what IS the common good? Water, clean air – we probably agree. Health care? Maybe. Land – well, which land? It will always be in a state of discussion and flux. That said, a robust democracy should keep the discussion flowing where in America we’ve once again slammed the door on the discussion itself. When today’s GOP/TP control that discussion, we won’t have it. How it comes to pass that nobody in that segment of the population believes in the Commons just boggles my mind. I really disliked much of the Lord of the Rings film triology, but the rape of the Shire was powerful. Only a ridiculously wonky person such as I would have loved it for the inclusion of historically-accurate technology (don’t blink – you’ll miss it) and the powerful depiction of the move from care for the common good to appropriation of the commons for power and gain. Tolkien’s imagery gave illumination in one fell swoop to what had taken centuries in Europe, and later the U.S. It was a powerful image indeed. When the Tea Baggers demand “I want my country back” I am not without sympathy. But I want it back for us ALL, not just for those individuals. I want the security of the Commons to be a principle that is inviolate. I want Constitutional original intent on this issue since nowhere in that amazing document is there a single defense of private property. That is mentioned only in the “just compensation” principle under eminent domain articulated in the Fifth Amendment, and it’s not even in the Fourth. That’s it. No Constitutional guarantees to the superiority of property over people. None. Case law? Colonial law protected private property but solely as a base for economic self sufficiency, NOT as a base for riches and accumulation. Colonial law protected the debtor from the creditor so that one’s tools of the trade could not be taken. Nineteenth-century law, however, changed that set of prinicples, and case law abounds with defenses of private property – predicated as far as one can tell on no Constitutional principle. Once that sort of issue arises in this Congress it will be remarkable if the “Constitutional references” demanded by the GOP don’t suddenly revert to CASE law rather than the Constitution per se. Oh – close enough, don’t worry, I hear Boehner rationalizing.. So yes, PW – bring back the issue of the Commons, let’s discuss for whom they exist, how we collectively deal with them, and how we protect them and ourselves against their predations by the rapacious “free market”. If we don’t, we should all be ready for that fat rendering plant sprouting up next door on what had been the library land and our parks turned into toxic waste dumps. At least that will happen so long as they’re “free enterprise” doncha know. The NEW enclosure movement is already underway. Stay tuned. » Posted By choicelady On February 13, 2011 @ 10:19 am Everything from “Over There” belongs “Here!” MAH – welcome. Those of us who’ve been burned at HP a couple of years ago have built a solid network of discussions and thoughts and the newer, post sell-out folks, are absolutely welcome. I will let you in on something though – and we will make sure you have another piece of pie if this rankles – most of us dislike (or worse) Maher, too. We think he’s a sell out as well. I used to like him. Now I don’t. Sometimes people get more wrapped up in their schtick than in issues, and he strikes many of us as one of them. That said, you are WELCOME to disagree – though we’ll all wrangle with you over it! This is not Mean Girls, but we’re not passive either. But it seemed only fair to warn you. Here – have some more pie. You remain an honored friend. » Posted By choicelady On February 12, 2011 @ 5:51 pm Striking back at the Chamber of Commerce and their dirty tricks squad How cool! I am pretty limited, but I’m not that free from the bonds of at least a credit union account. Wow. » Posted By choicelady On February 12, 2011 @ 8:12 pm Do we? I really see no evidence of that anywhere, any more. I know that’s been the case since at least the White House enemies list, but I have absolutely NO sense of this at all today. I’ve never seen more diversity in news content when it pertains to critiques of the government. Where I DO see the problem is in the stranglehold the corporations have on media. I see GroupThink in almost every television report, in most stories. That’s been a problem since the 70s, growing ever worse with the concentration of media ownership and the loss of news outlets. I guess I’d like to know what evidence there is of this administration strangling news? I do not see them working with corporations but of corporations bending news that tries to make this administration look bad even when they’ve done good things. So I think I’m asking for clear evidence that the administration is complicit. I just don’t see it. » Posted By choicelady On February 12, 2011 @ 8:11 pm Aerows – I get really confused about all this because YES the corporate machine is definitely trying to do us in, but so is Anonymous. My organization got seriously hacked just after the war in 2003 by what had to have been either the FBI or NSA over comments my Board members had, all internal, about FBI excesses with respect to Muslims. I won’t provide the details of The Call I got (I can’t out that person lest I become accused of outing some freaking agent), but that’s when we knew that Homeland Security was dangerous to the homeland citizens! That said – I get more grief from amateurs than I ever have from corporations and government combined. The RW Christian Dominionists may have more access to me and mine than the gubbmint and Kochs all rolled up in one. I’ve been stalked FIVE times by the RW Christians (it’s getting very old, thank you) but none of that had a thing to do with corporations or the government. The abuses of power are many – but they come from many different directions. I have NO answer at this point, but good judgement says just what YOU said – only an idiot puts confidential info on a public site. I fear this administration pretty much not at all, but yeah – corporate excess is there. So are Mean Girls and Mean Boys who simply ruin your web site, your life, your credit, for no reason other than – they can. Elisabeth Salanders live – not all do what they do for good reasons. Anyone has an idea of how you can stay in the 21st century AND keep private info private, I’d appreciate knowing it. I am fully prepared to revert to my alternate persona, The Queen of the No. 2 Pencil, but even I know how crappy it would be not to talk with y’all ever again, just to keep you and me safe. IS there an answer? Let the recommendations roll! Thank you for reminding us – Big Brother/Sister/Corporation is watching… » Posted By choicelady On February 12, 2011 @ 4:54 pm ghsts – and Khirad while I’m at it. I’m confused here. For the past week smothered in both on-the-street contact with Egyptians and vast numbers of emails from them and supportive Muslims, I’ve been pretty clear that they were pretty clear about what they wanted. I’ve also gotten huge feedback that they thought Obama did everything right at the right time. They told me they believed he honored what they wanted instead of telling them what they wanted, that he accepted their choices rather than demanding they protect US interests. So here is what I got told last night – the goal was to get out both Mubarak AND Suleiman. They trusted neither man or the ruling class. They do not have the same relationship to the military that other nations have – it has NOT been an agent of repression (that was Mubarak’s police who were) but still, as with any group controlling large weaponry, it’s not wholly trusted either. But they believe the military is on their side. For now. They have said it will take a year to get parties formed, to begin to find candidates, for constitutional revisions, etc. They are prepared to invest the time, let the military run the machinery of government until then, AND they believe the miliary WILL accept the votes of the people. I am not Egyptian. This is not my call. I have to trust the people – crying for finally achieving the success after decades of work – and trust that they will either shape a democracy or resist whatever threatens it. I saw an interesting blurb yesterday by a TP member who snorted – “Millions in Egypt is a democratic revolution but millions at tea party rallies in the Capitol is not?” Well, of course, respondents said they’d had only 87,000 – but everyone missed his point. He ADMITTED that they wanted to overthrow a DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED administration. That is night and day from what Mubarak was. He admitted the goal was treason. Wow. And now, snarkily, Maher wants us to have a revolution, too. Oh? I don’t. I want us to have a massive protest against CORPORATE domination and against the elected officials who support that – but overthrow a democratically elected president and administration? No. I want none of the pseudo-progressives’ (who never do a lick of work to create change)whiny BS. For my Egyptian American friends, whose lives have been utterly transformed by this, our whiny complaints are those of children. In fact the Egyptian kids last night were more knowledgable and engaged than MAher or the constant whiners. They know what secret police really ARE. They have friends and family who have disappeared, or reappeared only – not who they once were. So if we’re going to confront the corporate menace in American politics, we need people more like the Egyptians and vastly less like Maher. The enemy is clear, and it’s not Obama. It’s not our differently inclined neighbors. It’s not someone who doesn’t fit a narrow view of being politically correct. The enemy is a small class of people and their elected lapdogs who have nothing less than absolute control of America in mind. They say they want “to get back before Roosevelt” only they mean Teddy, not Franklin. And they MEAN it. So if we DO wish to emulate the Egyptians, Mr. Maher, we all need to focus on the REAL enemy as they did – not the snarky scattershot at everyone who pisses you off but a focused target of who has the real power, who is the real threat. If we can do that, maybe we will make change. But we have to know who the real threats are, not just rip off jokes at who’s handy. » Posted By choicelady On February 12, 2011 @ 5:44 pm WATCH LIVE: Mubarak Resigns! Egyptians Celebrate! You miss my point – wages and salaries ARE handouts. Without the right to have say over the job, then you’re just as commodity. Money alone cannot motivate. Authority over your work and being part of the decision making operation is the way to CARE about what you do every day. » Posted By choicelady On February 11, 2011 @ 11:14 am Apparently Suleiman is out, too. We live in a corpse only so long as we are silent. I have reason to know that the voices of ordinary people are powerful – that is what I do daily: helping people mobilize around justice issues. Their success rates are astonishing. When we lose all, it’s because we’ve risked nothing. When we speak out – on the street or in communication with our elected officials – things change, usually for the better. We have forgotten how powerful we are. Only the TP folks seem to know that – and we need to relearn how to engage democracy for what WE want. Can’t just leave it to baggers! » Posted By choicelady On February 11, 2011 @ 11:12 am Hey Patsy – THAT is whom he resembles – I’ve been straining the brain trying to figure it out. Thanks! How funny! » Posted By choicelady On February 11, 2011 @ 11:08 am Yes – they gave it to the Irish Peace People back in the days of the IRA-UDC uprisings. It did have identifiable leaders though, and this does not. Might make it hard to know whom to invite = where would you put the millions? Who would get the medal? Logistics are a bitch. » Posted By choicelady On February 11, 2011 @ 11:07 am Twinkies and Rolling Rock together?????? Eeeuuuuwww. I do remember Bishop Sheen. Creeped me out. And the TV evangelists do so in their own way. I saw a hairsprayed, bejeweled, manicured haute coture evangelist one time – very creepy. And you should have seen the women!!! » Posted By choicelady On February 11, 2011 @ 11:04 amComments Posted By choicelady
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