Liberals Never Were Leftists

I admire Chris Hedges and the journey he appears to have taken; he sees clearly and critically the dire state of this nation and its fragile democracy, now on the brink of annihilation with no hope of return.
But I believe he misses a couple of marks in his recent piece for Truthdig, The World Liberal Opportunists Made.
First and foremost, he makes the common, but wrong equation of Liberals with The Left. However, in Hedges' defence, I don't believe he does this intentionally. So many times, in so many analyses, Liberals are rightly taken to task for their support of policies that would be roundly condemned if perpetrated by a Republican. From the 'end of Welfare as we know it', NAFTA, GATT, The World Trade Organization, and free global trade, all under Clinton to the continued torture, illegal detention and wars under Obama, and a host of other atrocities, Liberals have been silent. Hedges then goes on to cite Russell Jacoby who bemoans 'The Left's' support of the very conditions they used to condemn: the Capitalist 'market' and 'mass culture', once considered 'exploitive', now revered; intellectualism, once courageous, now considered elitist; and so on. But of course, The Left has never abandoned their position on these and many other issues; but Liberals have. Hedges expresses his concern that Liberals have failed to address the concerns of the conservative working class while at the same time he acknowledges that Liberals have sold out to the Corporate Elite. He ties that selling out to the reason working people have turned into Teabaggers. But he misses the key point of the millions, if not billions of dollars poured into the Tea Bag movement by Murdock, via his FOX conglomerate and the Koch brothers.
I understand the tactic of the corporate media to conflate Liberalism with The Left; that is a convenient way to attempt to smear a movement that resonates with people, or at least would if only the people could hear from it.
I have no doubt that Liberalism and the so-called 'Liberal class' will disappear; oh, they may be trotted out occasionally when the Elites need to whip up fear of Socialism or some other community-oriented philosophy that may emerge or quell some working class discontent over the continued theft by the wealthy of resources and other people's labor.
Hedges' frustration and anxiety is well placed. He has certainly articulated over his many columns the need for decisive action by Progressives. As I see it, this very dangerous time has great opportunity in it as well. If Progressives really did become active in fighting not against the forces of Fascism rampant in this country, but rather for a Progressive alternative in all areas of our civic life, we could indeed achieve significant democratic change. But he doesn't help the Progressive cause mixing Liberal indifference with Progressive exclusion.
I think a key difference between the dying Liberals and Progressives is they understanding of the enormous power exercised by the corporate Elite, through their corporations and control of vast wealth on the social, economic, and political life of The People (that is, the 98% of us not in that Elite club).
Blame Muslims, Mexicans, Martians, Liberals, Intellectuals, or just plain folks all you want for the woes that challenge us; it will in the end do no good. For if you eliminated all those groups you would still lose your job, your home, your health care, your kids' future. The problem is not in the stars nor in ourselves, but in the power and privilege of the wealthy, corporate Elite.

Step Right Up: The 'New' Economy is here

I’m always amused listening to the Tom Waits song, Step Right Up when he gets to the lyric that goes: “it’s new, it’s improved, it’s old-fashioned!” He speaks so eloquently yet succinctly to the absurdity of modern mass-marketing. Of course, anything that perpetuates the old is not new. And that is just as true for the economy as it is for dish soap.
Old is not new.
The Establishment Conservatives tell us that the way to create jobs is by giving working people’s tax money to the wealthy and reducing payments wealthy corporatists have to pay to do business in the state. They don’t really want to talk about a ‘new economy’; for conservatives, it seems, the old economy worked just fine, thank you very much! In any event, all one needs to know about jobs in an Establishment Conservative world is that the ‘free-market’ will take care of any job needs, and those who lose their jobs or can’t find another one don’t deserve to work anyway. And by the way, if you’re too stupid to be able to find a job, you’re not entitled to eat, have a place to live, or get medical care if you need it either, you lazy bum. Get a job!
The Establishment Liberals tell us that they will make the old economy new and improved; they’ll put those of us out of work into new, ‘green’ jobs. They want to create a ‘robust’ economy, as if we didn’t have one before. This ‘new and improved' economy, they tell us, will look a lot like the old economy. Well, they don’t want to frighten anyone with the dreaded ‘C’-word (Change). There’ll be change, but not too much. The ‘new’ economy will consist of attracting the same old corporations to the area, but these corporations will have magically become ‘Green’, sustainable, and benevolent, as if the old ones weren’t. Establishment Liberals tell us that they get it now; the ‘old’ economy wasn’t ‘environmentally sustainable’. But the new one will be. It will build efficient houses that will consume less energy. And we will build more housing developments and strip malls that are cleaner, conserve energy (or are even energy net-neutral), and we will walk everywhere we need to go.
Establishment Liberals tell us that we must retool our work force. You didn’t lose your job because your employer found lower-wage workers in China, you’re unemployed because you need to be ‘retooled’ and more resilient. We must retool, apparently our education system as well in order to make our kids ‘job ready’; so much for education.
There must, of course be infrastructure to accommodate all this ‘Green’ growth and employment opportunities. We’ll need to build more roads, sewers, traffic lights and hire more government workers to guide and maintain the growth in infrastructure (or outsource the work to contractors). Our community will grow, as will our government, and as will our taxes.
But it will be new. All those who want to work will have a job, money will flow, incomes rise, and no one will be displaced or marginalized.

Yeah, right!
For both the Establishment Conservative and Liberal, growth is the solution to all problems, social and economic. It’s just that, for Conservatives, we haven’t grown any where near or fast enough. For Liberals, we could grow more, if only we do it ‘smarter’, ‘greener’, and ‘more efficiently’.
Of course: Growth isn’t the solution; growth is the problem.


The ‘old’ economy is thankfully dead. It was a several hundred year experiment that created waste, poisoned air, soil, and water, consumerism run amok, and a predatory Capitalism that is nearing its disastrous end. We need to get off that dead horse now.
Most importantly, we cannot continue to support the failed policies of the past that have led us to the economic situation we find ourselves in: sprawl growth and development and unbounded consumerism that has brought us more residents and commercial activity, and required more infrastructure and government.
We cannot just acknowledge that environmental sustainability is a goal; we must implement the policies and incentives to make the goal a reality.
Someone once pointed out that anyone can have a vision of a grand and glorious future; that’s easy. Most anyone can claim that. What’s necessary, however is to have a vision for the present. A vision that gets us to that future we seek. For example, we can’t have vision for a future free from dependence on fossil fuel while continuing to subsidize coal and oil production today. We can’t claim to have a vision for a sustainable economy tomorrow if we continue the same policies that bring big out-of-state corporations and the latest fad business into our communities today. We will never achieve our goal of a waste free community in the future by continuing to encourage and fund trash incinerators and landfills today.
NO. Building a truly new economy means not only implementing innovative new programs and policies today, it means thinking creatively and focusing on what we want to achieve, not on maintaining existing systems of power and privilege.
A truly new economy begins with a realistic, common sense approach to measuring economic growth and well-being.
A Green Party administration will implement a Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) as an alternative to the meaningless GDP indicators in use today. A GPI will measure social and individual well-being and the economic health of the society, a much more meaningful indicator of progress than the narrow economic measurement of financial growth GDP provides.
State government can take the lead in setting the standard of excellence needed for us to transition to a waste free economy. We will make sure that any state-wide ‘Green Initiatives’ plan does not include waste incineration as a ‘renewable resource’. We will require bidders on government contracts to prepare ‘zero-impact’ transition plans and make public funding available for the analysis and implementation of cradle-to-cradle initiatives for bidders.
We need to implement a FeeBate program on major pollutants and critical non-renewable resources (like the Chesapeake Bay) to penalize waste while rewarding efficiency. A Green Party administration will assess various options so that we can implement a progressive system that taxes the ‘bads’ and not the goods.
Greens have long recognized that the short-term profit strategy of most corporations is not sustainable, either financially or environmentally in the long term. Many international investors are coming to that realization as well. An Allwine/Eidel administration will take steps to reorient and redirect state investments to bring them in line with the overall needs and necessities of a truly new economy. As part of our state bank concept we will direct state investments toward sustainable and renewable energy and set energy efficiency targets across the state property portfolio. We will articulate and publish a comprehensive ethical investment policy that will guide state investment decision-making.
Small, locally-owned businesses are the backbone and strength of every community. A state bank will ensure that investment is made in local communities to help them develop and sustain their own local businesses; cooperatives and other alternative business models will be encouraged and supported.
These are but some of the innovations necessary to truly move our state forward in a stable economical and social manner. The notion that what is needed is more building, more spending, more growth is part of an out-moded, 19th Century thinking that we can no longer afford to embrace. It might benefit the wealthy few; the developers, land speculators, and their hangers-on, but it has been a disaster for the 98% of us who must pay for the environmental and social destruction their notion of growth has created. We can no longer continue to try to recreate the destructive past of limitless growth and development, ever increasing production, consumption, and the consequent spirals of cost, stress on the environment, and depletion of our natural resources that ensue.
Change takes place whether we want it or not. there are those who will deny that it is happening and those who claim the change is only more of the same, only better. Both are wrong.
We can be dragged into the new American economic century kicking and screaming or we can be at the forefront, meeting the challenges to come head-on. Maryland can be a leader in this new economy by leaving behind the failed policies of the past and embracing the changes that lead to more stable, sustainable, vibrant, and economically secure communities. The Maryland Green Party, and its gubernatorial candidates alone support that kind of change and have the strength and knowledge to lead Maryland in that vision for the present.

Finding Progressives No Picnic

Maria Allwine and I attended the Progressive Picnic this past weekend. This was an event put on by the Montgomery County Progressive Alliance. On their website they say they are for: "...equal rights ... freedom, fairness and opportunity for all."
Sounds great doesn't it? Maria and I thought so too, so we decided to attend and meet with other like-minded legislators and citizens from around Montgomery County. I was a little suspicious seeing the guest list had only Democrats listed, but, I thought, what the heck, there aren't that many Progressive Republicans and no Greens in elected office (yet); I had thought that there must be some Progressives in Montgomery County that were not Democrats, maybe they just didn't have the name recognition of the elected officials and that's why they weren't listed.
Arriving, I found a small but enthusiastic gathering and Maria and I talked with several people. I was glad to have the chance to talk with the representatives of Peace Action Montgomery and had the opportunity to meet State Senator Jamie Raskin.
There was plenty of food, including veggie dogs and burgers; in fact, there seemed to be more vegetarian fare than of the porcine and bovine variety. A welcome change.
Then the speeches began. I must say it was refreshing, coming as I do from a very conservative Frederick County, to hear such Progressive words from each of the speakers. One Latina legislator roared that Maryland will never pass an anti-immigration law like Arizona's, to rousing applause. Others called for universal health care, a living wage, affordable housing, and aid to people with disabilities, the unemployed, and other calls for expanding social programs. It was quite the spectacle.
Jamie Raskin spoke to thunderous applause and approval as he talked about his efforts to move forward the Progressive agenda. He even, graciously acknowledged the presence of Maria and myself and talked of the Green Party as an ally in the Progressive movement.
Not all attendees shared his sentiments about the Greens; many, if not most being committed, rabid, die-hard Democrats. There was one, he may have been the organizer of the event who even brought up the 2000 election - again!
"My God", as someone commented, "That was 10 years ago!". Odd, thinking about it, that Progressives would live in the past, just like Republicans.
In talking with people after the food and speeches it became clear that there was little, if any progressivism beyond the speeches, cheering, and veggie-burgers. At base, they were just Democrats - totally committed to the Obama, O'Malley agenda for a 'better Maryland'; more jobs, more roads, more building, more businesses...well, just more. And worse than that: just more of the same. For example, there was no talk of nor support for a Single-Payer health care system, just more money for insurance companies.
Again, being in Frederick County, I wasn't used to hearing people talk about this being a 'Blue' state, let alone calling for it to become even 'bluer'! In a way they seemed to be fracturing their own party. The rhetoric, if not the actual implementation was clearly to the left of mainstream Democratic policy and thought. This may have just been a natural consequence of being in an already liberal county, but it was difficult for me to see how they could reconcile their speeches with their support for people who clearly do not share their Progressive bias.
How can you call for radical social change and support O'Malley?
The only way, it seems is by the old process of rationalization and the incremental change theory. And one gets incremental change by voting for the least-of-the-worst candidates.
The fact that one can see how poorly that theory has worked, just looking at the last 35 to 40 years does not, apparently affect its support. Like those who deny the science of Global Warming or the predatory nature of Capitalist greed, no amount of facts or data can shake the belief.
So, here is my message to the (Democratic) Progressives who might take a peek at this post:
Continue to be bold; your message, as I heard it last Saturday is mostly on target and the change you call for is most urgently needed. In fact, to a great extent, the change you call for is the same as what we Greens have been calling for since our inception.
Greens are not to be shunned, feared, ignored, or sabotaged; we should be embraced by Progressives everywhere as another voice for sane, humane, social, economic, and military policy.
Greens should not be looked at as competitors but as allies in the struggle for social and economic justice.
Greens are defined by Progressive values and our commitment to them is unwavering. Other Progressives, whether Democratic or not should support not the least-worst of their own party but the most-best of the party that best represents Progressive ideals.
Teabag partiers support the candidates that most represent their own warped views regardless of whether or not the Republican agenda is furthered.
Democrats need to take that a step further and support the most Progressive candidate in any election, even if that person is not a Democrat.
That will accomplish 2 very important goals: Democratic candidates in liberal districts will be MORE Progressive, and Greens will be elected to local, state, and national office.
In order to move this nation toward a more democratic politics we need to move elected representatives to be more Progressive so that we will get: public campaign funding, elimination of restrictions on forming political parties, and open, fair, and representative elections (IRV and Proportional Representation).
Without these changes democracy has no chance of breaking out in this country.
Only by Progressives supporting Progressives can these changes come about.
The Democrats must move beyond fracturing their own party ( as the Right has done to theirs) and embrace the change we all want to see.
We all must take the dare and vote FOR our hopes rather than against our fears.

No, We Won't

White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs was 'frustrated' last week, so we are told. He had an issue, apparently with some Obama supporters (or perhaps they were 'former' Obama supporters) who, I guess, are not happy with Obama's policies and some of his decisions.
Maybe Gibbs was referring to people being upset with Obama's war policy; well, we're not really at war, but you know what I mean. Another $37 Billion for U. S. military contractors, Afghan warlords, CIA drone attacks on Pakistani wedding parties, and maybe a few bucks for the troops, but no end in sight.
Or maybe it's the billions in payoffs to the wealthy hedge fund managers, investment firm partners, traders, and bankers while people lose their jobs, their homes, their health care.
And speaking of health care, maybe Gibbs was upset that Obama supporters didn't like the way he sold them out to get one Republican to vote for his measly health insurance reform.
Maybe the fact that Obama did not direct his Attorney General to begin a criminal investigation into the invasion of Iraq, torture, domestic spying, and murder initiated in the previous administration; or that he continues all those policies; or that he did not condemn the US Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, or move to have those laws overturned, and in fact has continued those policies as well as others.
Mr. Gibbs decried the 'professional left'.
I've been involved in social, political, and environmental issues as a Progressive for 40 years, so I guess that could make me a 'professional'. He said, "They will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we've eliminated the Pentagon."
No we won't.
Yes, we must have a National Health Service so that everyone has the health care they need when they need it, regardless of their wealth, social, or employment status. And it's good that Gibbs sort of acknowledged that the Pentagon is a bloated, craven, greedy, and corrupt cavern of psychopaths and criminals. It should be eliminated, but we'll settle, for now for a 70% cut in it's budget.
But we won't be satisfied with just that; it's a start, but doesn't go far enough.
What about corporations? Do people really believe that a piece of paper is a person? Corporations are created by people to perform a particular community service intended for the social good. They are fictions permitted and controlled by the people. And the people have the right to limit or abolish them whenever they wish.
Without that kind of control over the wealthy and their corporate covers, we the people must forever sleep with one eye open.
FDR put it this way,“The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism – ownership of government by an individual, by a group or by any controlling private power.”
Or we can go back to that great Progressive thinker, Thomas Jefferson:
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
And what about this Corporatist economic system we have; this Predatory Capitalism? When will we change that? An economy that systematically impoverishes 1/3 of the population, that rewards the 2% at the expense of the 98%, that creates a plethora of consumer goods at the expense of the environment and all living creatures in the natural world, that seeks to un-employ the vast majority of the citizenry so that the 2% can pursue ever more wealth is not an economic system but a weapon against the peoples of the world.
And, speaking of the environment, how is it that we have allowed the few to despoil so much at the expense of so many?
The air is fouled, water polluted; the soil is devoid of life and only grows crops because of oil-based fertilizers. The fact of the interconnectedness of all life is ignored, and worse in the pursuit of wealth and comfort. Species are slaughtered to extinction and people displaced from their homes and homelands. Finite resources are ruthlessly stolen with no consideration of return or replenishment; we are told resources are limitless in a finite world.
Go figure.
And don't even start on what's wrong with the political/social system. Women, People of Color have to fight and die for the opportunity to vote, an opportunity not even identified as a right in the Constitution. The ruling elite and the corporate media erect barriers to political parties, restrict the dissemination of alternative political thought, and limit the debate on issues to a select few. Dissension, protest, and demonstrations are limited, restricted, and demonstrators assaulted, their views denigrated, and their organizations infiltrated, spied upon, and sabotaged.
In the Land of The Free, the right to vote for who you want is severely limited, alternative political parties must struggle for visibility and legitimation. The anti-democratic, winner-take-all electoral system does not even offer the pretense that all views are represented in government. If your candidate loses, you're out. The idea of democracy has been relegated to the status of 'mob rule'.

No, Robert Gibbs is wrong, dead wrong. We 'professional' Progressives are a demanding lot. We won't be satisfied until we have real, systemic change. "That's not reality" he said. Well, surprise Mr. Gibbs. It is reality, very real reality. What we're enduring now is unreal, unsustainable, and unconscionable.

For BP It's Just Business As Usual

The Obama administration generally, and his Minerals Management Services (MMS) department specifically have been attacked and taken a great deal of well deserved criticism for their lax handling of the permitting for BP’s deep water oil drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico . The relationship between the agency and the corporation it was supposed to regulate was ‘too cozy’ members of Congress and the President complained.
Well that’s a shock!
However, it appears that MMS did require BP to provide documentation related to the environmental impacts of an oil spill and any plan to deal with any leakage from the well.
BP’s response apparently was to indicate that the prospects of a spill were so unlikely that there was no need to speculate on environmental impacts. BP also indicated to the administration that the means to address any deep water oil leakage were well understood and in place.
Does any of that sound familiar? Well, it should.
For anyone who has looked into or taken issue with the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) developed for the expansion of Ft. Detrick’s biological weapons development facility here in Frederick that corporate response is nothing new.
When the military was asked what the environmental impact would be if one of their deadly pathogens got into the community, they responded in exactly the same way as BP; they said that they take all the safety precautions they can think of to prevent such an event or outbreak, so the environmental impact is zero.
Apparently that kind of imbecilic response is OK if you’re the military or a military contractor; the ‘government haters’ don’t seem to have any problem with that. But it’s not OK if Obama’s MMS takes the same approach. Even though, when challenged, some courts strike down these ‘non-impact’ impact statements as inadequate, the policy and the practice persists, largely because the owners of corporations and those who profit with them support it.
Obviously BP and the military don’t want us to know what the environmental impact of a spill or virus outbreak would be; just look at all the ‘bad press’ BP suffers because of this ‘accident’. So, rather than document the death, destruction, and extreme measures that would have to be taken, and the fear and concern such admissions would engender, they just lie and say there is no potential for death or environmental damage. After all, if we knew the truth, we might decide the risks weren’t worth the benefits and then how would these people continue making vast sums of money?
These schemes, where the owners of corporations write the rules and the government enacts them into laws is known in Orwellian Newspeak as ‘public-private partnerships’. It’s not surprising or unusual that the former head of MMS, Randall Luthi is now the president of the National Oceans Industries Association (NOIA). Their mission: "to secure reliable access and a favorable regulatory and economic environment for the companies that develop the nation's valuable offshore energy resources in an environmentally responsible manner." It is clear that whether a private, for-profit enterprise or an internal government project, there is only one overriding purpose: to get what they want.
The revolving door remains alive and well regardless of the doorman. This is true in all sectors of our economy and government and will not be stopped until corporations are stripped of their personhood and the political process is opened to all candidates and political parties.
Documenting and detailing the effects of human money-making activities, whether oil drilling, weapons production, or building strip malls on our environment is a good thing. Allowing those who control corporations and their associated complexes to get away with vague, misleading, or meaningless pronouncements is not.

The proposed Frederick incinerator:

This article was submitted by Ellis Burruss...

Waste TO Energy or Waste OF Energy?

The amount of energy produced by so-called WTE incinerator is considerably less than the amount saved by recycling. Here’s why:

1) Paper: Manufacturing a ton of news paper from trees takes 11,699 kilowatt hours (kwh)(1). If that ton of paper is burned, it can produce 1,875 kwh(2) of electricity to sell. That's a loss of 9,824 kwh.
Incinerating paper wastes 9,824 kwh per ton!
If that ton of paper is recycled, a new ton of paper can be made using only 6,442 kwh. That's a saving of 5,257 kwh

4) Plastics: Even plastics such as PET (soda bottles) that have a high heat content as fuel (10,250 btu/pound) produce only 2,403 kwh per ton when burned yet require 9,619 kwh/ton to make. That's another loss of 7,216 kwh/ton.
Incinerating soda bottles wastes 7,216 kwh per ton!
If that ton of plastic is recycled, a new ton of plastic can be made using only 1,222 kwh. That's a saving of 8,397 kwh.

2) Aluminum: It takes 62,512 kwh of power to manufacture a ton of aluminum. Most incinerators do not attempt to recover aluminum from the ash. Beverage cans and other thin aluminum with high surface-to-volume ratios are oxidized to ash. All of the energy invested in making the aluminum is wasted.
Incinerating aluminum cans wastes 62,512 kwh per ton!
If that ton of aluminum is recycled, a new ton can be made using only 4,865 kwh. That's a saving of 57,647 kwh.

3) Food Scraps: To work efficiently a “WTE” incinerator must have fuel with an average heat content of 5000 to 5500 btu/pound. Food scraps have a heat content of only 2600 btu/pound. They actually dilute the fuel of an incinerator.
Food scraps are another resource wasted by incineration!
Food scraps, which make up 13% of our waste, can be composted to make a valuable soil amendment, replacing fertilizers made from fossil fuels.

All the manufactured products that are used as fuel for an incinerator take a lot of energy to make. If they are recycled instead of burned, they save much, much more energy than is produced by an incinerator. Burning usable resources to make a meager amount of electricity is like burning your furniture to heat your house.


1) Figures for process energy for manufacture are from the EPA Solid Waste Management and Greenhouse Gases -- A Life-cycle Assessment of Emissions and Sinks; 3rd Edition, September 2006; Exhibit 2-4 pg 27 and Exhibit 2-6 pg. 29
2) Values for heat content are from The Energy Information Administration (DOE) Methodology for Allocating Municipal Solid Waste to Biogenic and Non-Biogenic Energy; May 2007; pg 10.
Electricity produced from stated heat content assumes a 40% thermal efficiency for a steam-cycle generating plant.


Want to help stop the Frederick incinerator? Join us! www.no-incinerator.org

Take This Country Back - But How Far?

In the, apparently, much hyped 'Mini-Super Tuesday' elections Rand Paul, son of Republican Representative and Libertarian Presidential candidate Ron Paul won his Republican primary bid for the US Senate in Kentucky.

That the election was in Kentucky was really all I needed to hear to believe that this had to be a race between the really conservative and the really, really conservative.

I was right.

Rand has the backing of the so-called Tea Baggers who believe they are a political party, The Tea Bag Party. Well actually they call themselves the Tea Party but I like my version better.

Rand Paul wants to take this country back! I like that; vague but at the same time a bit menacing; forceful sounding yet bordering on the meaningless since those who say that never give any further explanation of what they intend to take exactly.

Rand said in his victory speech at a country club where the Tea Bag Partiers have their headquarters that he wants to take the country back from special interests who use the government as a personal ATM machine.

Just who the heck was he talking about? Since he was giving his speech from a COUNTRY CLUB do you think he could have been talking about the wealthy special interests?

I bet not.

I bet he was talking about you and me; if we collect unemployment when we've been forced out of work by a predatory Capitalist system, or receive our social security when we retire from a life of wage-slavery. Or maybe he is concerned about us using the government ATM to insure we have clean water and air or safer foods and automobiles.

He criticized politicians who come to us, he said with fake checks.

Huh?

I bet he means when a company like Goldman Sachs creates the biggest economic mess ever, the American people are forced to bail them out and save this rotting, stinking economy from the disintegration it deserves.

Or maybe not.

Chances are, if he's a Tea Bagger supporter, he's more concerned about the needy getting help: food, clothing, shelter, that sort of thing. He's probably more worried that politicians are signing checks to help out of work Americans find jobs and job training.

After all, it's the country club member's money those politicians are playing fast-and-loose with, Can't have that.

He says Washington is broken.

You think?

Does he mean that the Capitalist, Republican form of government we are subjects to is irredeemably corrupt and beyond reform?

Does he think that the politicians who are ensnared or enamoured of the system are themselves hopelessly corrupt and beyond help?

If not, what exactly does he mean then by Washington?

He says America is great. Well that's nice; I bet most people around the world think their country is great too. Is America really as great as Rand imagines? Have we as a people really done anything to be proud of since 911?

We have tortured, maimed, murdered, invaded, savaged peoples around the globe. We have spied on, lied to, deceived, and disappeared our own citizens.

Rand doesn't believe we need to apologize for the Industrial Revolution. If we shouldn't, who should? Has the Industrial Revolution really been that great for the trees, tigers, rivers or whales, or people? Who should be responsible for the decimated and scarred landscapes, the poverty, the fouled air and water, the dead soils and seas, the devastation? Is it really American to have no sense of responsibility for the evil one has done?

Can there really be any moral defense of Capitalism left? It - I should say the privileged elite- have proved that Capitalism is a vile, predatory system of greed and exploitation; a system that feeds on and engenders violence, hate, and corruption.

But I believe Rand Paul when he says he wants to take this country back. Indeed, he and the Neanderthals that call themselves Tea Partiers want to take this country back - back to the 19th Century where all that mattered was that you were White, Wealthy, and not a Woman.

President Obama You Scare Me Too

Dear President Obama,

I have lived under the authority of 12 presidents, and like all of them, except maybe Eisenhower, you scare me too.

You scare me because you campaigned that you would restore America's image in the eyes of the world, yet over a year into your reign and you have not moved to have Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the rest of that illegally installed cabinet arrested and put on trial for treason. There is no way on Earth that the United States can have any moral stature in the world while these sociopath murderers remain free. No American can feel safe nor even look at their own neighbor without suspicion until these old, white men pay for their crimes against the U.S. Constitution, the American people, and the world.

You scare me because you have done nothing to restore the rights that ALL people are entitled to under our Constitution; you continue the shameful policy of torture and indeterminate, secret detention, and even murder of people who's only crime is that they are foreign.

You scare me because even though you are black you stand up only for the privileged. You worked as a Community Organizer, helping people, yet now you only help those who own corporations, and primarily only those corporations 'too big to fail'.

You scare me because you grew up in a multi-cultural family and traveled the world yet you appear to have no understanding or compassion for ordinary people either at home or abroad. You should have experienced America through the clearer eyes of ordinary people yet you appear to have no insight into how the policies of this government infuriate those we bully and murder and even less desire to educate the American people so those policies can be changed.

You scare me because, like other presidents and leaders without military experience, you send our youth into war, to kill and to be killed without understanding of the terror, the sacrifice, and the irreparable harm killing does to decent people, both those who do the killing and the victims and their loved ones. You have escalated the immoral and illegal attacks on Afghanistan and continue the illegal occupation of Iraq.

You have never run a company so you should have none of the vicious, cutthroat, profit-driven motives of those who have, yet, you have abdicated economic control of the people's economy to the greedy, self-absorbed, amoral cabal of privileged elites who have no interest in the people.

You scare me because even thought the American people elected you to help lead us into a future free of globalized greed and economic destruction you have consistently refused to help cleanse our nation of the rotting, stinking corpse of Capitalism.

Instead of protecting our Constitutional rights you have continued to allow the wealthy to run our country. Rather than control corporate behavior you have resorted to begging and negotiation with them.

You scare me because even though you are a Democrat, a liberal, and NOT Bush you support the expansion of the use of coal and nuclear power to generate electricity and embrace continued oil exploration.
Another Deepwater Horizon, Mr. President?

You scare me a lot because even though you campaigned on it and overwhelmingly, the people want it, you took single-payer health care out of the equation and opted to give that money to the obscenely wealthy owners of insurance companies.

You scare me because you have not heeded the belated admission by President Clinton that NAFTA was a huge mistake that hurt the people of Haiti rather than helped them. Even with that sad admission you have not called for the United States to withdraw from the World Trade Organization.

And finally you scare me because like all Democrats, while furthering the most greedy, the most violent, and the most racist policies you paint smiley faces on the faces of the hungry, the dispossessed, the violated, and the beaten. And we cannot afford the continuation of such acts for another 4 or 8 years.

The time has come, Mr. Obama for the people to rise up and speak out for democracy, the Constitution, and liberty and justice for all.

It's The Wealthy, Stupid

Louann Livengood's story in the Frederick News Post is indeed heart rending, after all small businesses are a major part of the issues and concerns that Green Party activists are involved with every day.
Now, I don't know why Ms Livengood's unemployment insurance payment increased, but I do know some things. And her reaction concerns me on several levels.
I don know that the incredibly wealthy in this country have just reaped a tremendous profit from the economic disaster that has befallen this nation.
As a result of the greed, immorality, and deceit of the wealthy few, millions of Americans have been forced out of their employment, lost their homes, lost them ability to get medical care, and have been impoverished, or are on the brink.
These heartless thieves have taken working people's savings. This includes the meager profits of hard working small business owners like Ms Livengood.
In an effort to assist the people put out of work by greedy bankers and speculators, states make available unemployment payments to those in need.
I'm sure Ms Livengood supports assistance to those in need.
But who does she blame for her tax increase misfortune? The government.
I hope that Ms Livengood has the ability to see beyond the knee-jerk, ignorant reaction that blames the government for all the nation's problems and see the real culprit.
The wealthy.

The Sword May Be Double-edged

But there is still only one sword.

Dick Henson's Letter-To-The Editor in the Frederick News Post last Tuesday begs, pleads, SCREAMS for a response.

He is right to be concerned about the power accruing to the Presidency; it is indeed the biggest danger Americans face. Although I am glad to see that someone recognizes this danger, it is evident that still, Mr. Henson does not yet quite get it.

I'm reminded of the quip Jon Stewart made on his The Daily Show some time prior to the last presidential election. On the show he said: Thanks to Dick Cheney, Hillary Clinton will be the most powerful President in history. Now, he may have gotten the winner of the election wrong, but he got the danger, I would say crisis, exactly right.

Democrat, Republican, it obviously doesn't matter. It makes no difference if it's W. Bush, Obama, Reagan, or Clinton, the power just seems to accumulate to the Executive; like gravity operating in reverse, the power moves upward to the 'that singular of power'.

This is not by chance; this is not one party making bad decisions, looking only to their own power and control with no thought to the future. Sure they will say that they plan for a century of Republican control of our lives or whatever, but they know that will not happen within the current political system framework.

I constantly remind you: do not assume the people in political power are stupid, don't see the big picture, are dumber than you.

They're not.

The right question to ask, is why. Why is it that everyone elected to political office operates in the same mode, works toward some common goal?

Why, Democratic or Republican, does the government get larger, spend more money, implement stricter laws, violate the Constitution more? Do they all think they will have a better chance of getting elected next time if the country is in worse shape that the year before? Is it that the party out of power thinks that by making things worse, they will get to be IN power next time?

If any of that is even remotely true then are we anything other than doomed?

But the issue could be even more sinister than that.

It could be that the people who really run things have one agenda, one unified aim, one plan for the future of not only this country but the world. It could be that that one group uses the two political parties as tools to accomplish their aim.

What we need to do is to reveal the invisible hand, to pull back the curtain, expose the truth.

You won't get that from the spokespersons for either of the two political parties.

You won't get that from Newsweek or The New York Times.

You will get that here. You will get that information from the Greens and in other places that may be even harder to find.

But finding that information is worth the effort. It's worthwhile for you to find out what others are thinking and saying.

That double-edged sword does indeed cut both ways. Unfortunately for us, both directions cut us out and cut us down.

The only way to stop that is to disarm the ones wielding the sword.

Find them.

Florida: Number One

Well, it looks like this outskirt of civilization has finally outdone California in something: killing its citizens with Tasers.

In an excellent front page article in this Sunday's St. Petersburg Times, reporter Meg Laughlin reports on the killing of Derrick Humbert by Bradenton police. They shot him with 50,000 volts of electricity because he had been riding his bike at night without lights and ran when they stopped him.

Her article reveals that the slogan of Taser International, "Taser early, Taser often" repeated in training exercises for police officers around the country. Their goal is to get it into people's mind (that's our minds) that the Taser is effective and does not cause injury.

Of course, shooting people with thousands of volts of electricity for no good reason is not isolated to Florida. We have that issue right at home in Frederick.

The concern, of course, as reported in the article, is that these exaggerations (lies actually) of Taser International in their marketing of this vicious, deadly weapon "provide the basis for local police policy".

And just what is local police policy on the use of non-lethal deadly weapons on people accused of no crime?

We don't know. The police policy manual is secret. We don't have the right to see it, read it, or comment on it.

The Department of Justice and the Police Executive Research Forum, according to the article recommended: "That a subject fleeing should not be the sole justification for police use of (a Taser)."

Is it? We don't know.

What we do know is that, as in Florida, whenever the police use deadly force, the officer is always exonerated.

What is needed is a Police Civilian Review Panel with authority, oversight, and real power to control local police forces.

In this age of police authority wildly out of control; fears of Terrorists, the outraged unemployed, and angry environmentalists, many people willingly give up their liberty to people they think will keep them safe.

Of course, the job of the police is to protect privilege, property, and the establishment. To that end, they will violate the rights of any individual, knowing that they will never be held accountable.

As long as there are people who will take from others, hurt others, we need a police force. But we must recognize that military and para-military forces (like the police) are anathema to a free society. They must be tolerated, but tightly leashed. Their job is to catch criminals; they have no part to play in reducing crime or addressing the causes of crime.

They have no right to attack people they think might be thinking of possibly committing a crime.

People must control police.

We need civilian control of the police now.

What's The Matter With Florida?

Progressives don't seem to be very angry, maybe not even angry at all. It's not like we don't have good reason to be angry; in fact a lot of very good reasons, going all the way back to Bill Clinton. Remember NAFTA, Welfare 'Reform', triangulation?

And don't even get me started about W Bush!! There's plenty there to be angry about that's for sure. How did we allow the massive vote fraud to be initiated let alone perpetuated and then sit by while one member of the Supreme Court completed a coup d'etat that installed the most anti-American leadership in the history of the United States?

We don't need to go over the long, long, hideous list of atrocities commited by that regime over it's horrendous 8 year reign. But I will anyway with some of my personal favorites: the first major terrorist attack on the United States ever; Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq; Colin Powell at the United Nations; invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq; massive domestic spying; illegal arrests and detentions; secret torture chambers and prisons hidden around the globe, our very own Gulag; more and more extreme spying on US citirezens as well as others; executions of terrorist suspects regardless of nationality.

Oh God, you and I know I could go on forever.

But let's look at some things that should really have made us Progressives really mad, made us rise up out of our rocking chairs and local coffee shops; things like: allowing ourselves to be blamed for Al Gore's loss, media consolidation, ballot access, being locked out of the political system and the social debate, increasingly corrupt electoral process.

It's not like we haven't had our chances. So many people have worked so hard, organized, run for office, spoken out. But the machine is extraordinarily powerful, its reach vast, its influence overwhelming, its malevolence boundless.

We have every right to be angry, to rage against the machine; to do battle using more than just words.

I have spent the last two months in Florda; that's right, that social backwater, that outskirt of civilization and it has been an education, let me tell you!

The anger from fear is intense across the full range that makes up the political spectrum in Florida; from the radical, right-wing Tea Baggers all the way to the moderate Republicans.

The big political fight right now is about who will be the Republican candidate for the US Senate. The contenders are Charlie Crist, the sitting Liberal governor and Marco Rubio, the True Republican. It seems Crist's sin was taking federal stimulus money - ObamaDollars. This is a state where something like 1 in 9 citizens are in foreclosure and 1 in 7 unemployed.

Since Crist embraced Obama (figuatively and literally) he went from clear winner in the primary to clear loser.

Forget about the Democratic candidate in this race, he hasn't even a name or so it would seem if you read the local liberal media, The St. Pete Times.

To distinguish himself, Crist has just vetoed the so-called Teacher Tenure Bill. This was a heavily favored (by the Republican legislature) bill that tied teacher salary and retention to student performance and essentially eliminated tenure for teachers in the state.

The outrage was so great it caused major thunderstorms throughout the Gulf coast region this past weekend (at least that's what I think caused them).

But what's really fascinating is what passes for understanding of the issues and and how to fix things. As usual, even among Conservatives, there is a level of understanding as to the nature of the problems, but only buzz words and phrases when it comes to addressing those problems.

Take for example the suburban couple and their one child - hard working, 2-wage earner family that is just ekeing by. Mother lost her job but found another in the medical / social services field, dad had to take a substantial salary cut just to keep his job; they have a continuing battle with their home insurance company to get reimbursed for damage to their home from storms that occurred several years ago.

Devoted, committed, rabid Tea Baggers. They cannot discuss the issues with anyone who does not see the world through the Tea Bag lens; it is Liberals, anti-Christians, and Obama that are at the base of all ills in this country.

The retired couple are angry, at the Republicans. Even though he is retired from a mega-corporation he is bitter; his pension and company medical coverage were reduced when the company started crying poverty when the dot com bubble burst. He now likes to tell everyone how great he is treated by the doctors at the VA. They lost money in the stock market when Enron and the telecoms went broke. They decry the vast amounts of money poured into Republican and Democratic poltical campaigns and lament their own deminished financial situation even though they are probably millionaires (or close to it).

In 2000, he thought Nader made a lot a sense and wondered why he didn't run as a Democrat. He still thinks Nader makes a lot of sense, sees the problem of money in politics and the fact that money buys everything.

For both of these groups, that's where the analysis ends. The system is either corrupt or broken and change is needed. If you're the Tea Bagger only radical, right-wing demogogues can resolve the issues that plague them. If you're retired, the answer apparently, is eliminate the Income Tax.

Then along comes a 40-something with a Masters Degree in Political Science who teaches at 5 different colleges in the area.

At last I think, someone I can talk to who has the pulse of the young people, young himself, worldly, well-read.

"Did you see the interview on Democracy Now! yesterday?", I eagerly ask.

The lip curls.

"Do you at least read Mother Jones?", I try. The eyes narrow and a sneer crosses his face.
Alas, his world revolves around Time, and Newsweek, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. All else is trivial, conspiratorial, or worse, anti-Capitalist.

Is there no hope?

But, we are able to talk. He doesn't know anything about Bill Clinton stating that the economic plan for Haiti, concocted by the greatest financial minds in the world was an abject failure. I guess that little gem from the man that made NAFTA possible hadn't made it into Newsweek yet.

Let me know when it does.

He decries the rampant, uncontrolled sprawl development across his state, but doesn't understand who's at fault. Well, he does if you tell him, but then he falls back on who's running, who should get elected, as if anyone of them would make the least bit of difference.

Then he tells me that he's in favor of Open Primaries in Florida. I think he thinks, since I'm a "liberal" this is something we can agree on.

"Why?", I ask. What is so great about open primaries? Why would you want me, for example, a radical, left-wing Green voting for who your Republican candidate should be?

It seems he thinks the Party of the Republic has moved too far to the right; its been hijacked, taken over by the wacko fringe set. Open primaries will, he says, make it possible to push the party back, I guess to its Grand Old roots, the center, where it should be.
He apparently wasn't thinking about (or maybe not caring about) the fact that open primaries meant that the wacko-fringe set would be able to vote in the Democratic primaries and push that nobel bastion of liberalism more toward the center.

There's no difference now between the two parties, I said. Wouldn't such a scheme ensure that would be even more true than it is now, and not only that, but ensure it would stay that way? Shouldn't the goal of our electoral system to be to ensure fairness, and help move us toward democracy? I said my preference was that there be no primaries at all, that people should be able to vote for whoever they want. That would be democratic. His response was explosive. In fact, it was the explosion heard throughout the house.

I went on (do I have a death wish or what?). I talked about preference voting, IRV as options. He calmed a little when I mentioned Proportional Representation; he'd heard of that (thank God for Time magazine!).

The next day brought amazing news; since it was clear Crist could not win the Republican primary, he was thinking of running for the Senate as an Independent! Polls were showing that in a 3-way race, he would win, leading with 30% of the vote.

My political science friend was ecstatic; Crist would win and save the party, at least in Florida, and perhaps save the Republic as well from the ravages of the savage right.

Still hoping he could see the benefit of alternative voting systems, I asked what kind of representation is that if the person who wins has only 30% of those who voted?

That, apparently was the lsat straw for he went on a 30 minute tiraid, pacing, screaming at the top of his voice, permitting no interruption.

"It's the law", he shouted, "we have a plurality system!". Hw went on to call me a Communist, and recommended I move to China or Russia. "Cuba" someone chimed in. I was nonplussed. Where had I heard that before?

"I love my county!" he screamed. Therefore apparently, he supports the system as it was before being corrupted by all the money, mean-spiritedness, and radicals.

So, where does all that leave us Progressives? Shouldn't we be doing something? It became clear to me that the 'center', what we used to call Moderates, are lost. They see their old ways rapidly fading, as the song goes. They are afraid of change; hysterically afraid. You can see it in the way they react to Obama, health insurance 'reform', the war, deficits, the economyjust about anything in the news. Their world is changed, they understand that, forever.

To our credit, we're not angry, but energized, charged, anxious for change.

You know, Chomsky said once that there is no reason to Speak Truth To Power, Power already knows the truth, he said. What we need to do is speak Truth to the People.

We need to do that as much as we can; no matter how loudly we get yelled at.

Because I do belive that my 40-something friend is at home now, unable to get what I said out of his mind. He may hate it and me for that, but it bothers him; he's thinking that maybe, just maybe, he isn't right, that he's been wrong all along.

As we all know, self examination is hard.

And if he's not thinkng about it, then someone else will be.

The Time Has Come.

We, Progressives, Greens, will continue to work for the change that we know must made in order for us all to live.

We aren't working for some grand and glorious future. We see what needs to be done today.

We will speak and act on THAT vision.

Property Rights Will Be At Risk

C. Paul Smith former Frederick City Alderman and Republican had a letter in today's Frederick News Post that requires comment. The letter reads in part:

The commissioners' plan to downzone properties around municipalities would sharply cut the values of these properties and would be a "taking" of property values that owners are powerless to stop. The front-page News-Post article of April 3 reports on one of dozens of properties that would be stripped of significant value by the proposed comprehensive plan.

The entire text of the letter is here.

This is my response which I've submitted to the Post:

Are we sick of Conservatives yet? How many times do we have to hear the same tired arguments from them about Property Rights, zoning, and “Takings”?
There is a basic belief at work in these arguments that needs to be put out of our misery once and for all: that giving more and more money to rich people is always a good thing.
Many have been conditioned to believe that people gain wealth by some type of free-market magic (or, in rare circumstances hard work). Only the taking away of wealth is done by man.
Nonsense.
Government zones land, including private property. We hear no bleating when agricultural land is ‘up-zoned’ to residential. In fact, if it’s our property we feel entitled to the new zoning.
Gandhi had a term for that kind of thing: Wealth Without Work
We never hear calls of ‘givings’ and demands for the property owner pay the community for their new, undeserved wealth.
In fact, we’re told that the new zoning, and the ensuing hundreds (or thousands) of new homes and strip malls will benefit the community.
No, at long last we are able to see past the greedy, Conservative mantra of ‘gimme gimme gimme’ and ‘more, more, more’.
Decades of the false idea that ‘I can do what I want with my property’ has brought us to the sorry state we are in.
At long last we clearly see that property decisions affect us all; we live in a community.

As I tried to bring out in my response, this issue is more than just about zoning and property; it's about community and how we think our economy should work.

I did a brief search for background information and found a good explanation of Takings at the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute.

These issues go to the core of assumptions that are no longer questioned and must be if we are to make the essential changes necessary to live in civilized society.

At PublicEye.org you can read an excellent analysis of Takings and Private Property rights.

Elections are coming here in Frederick County in a few months and there will be tremendous pressure to attack social and community movements under the guise of 'rebuilding the economy' and 'creating jobs'.

Now is the best chance we've had in a long time to not only question the basic assumptions that drive Capitalism, but attack them and move away from a predatory, destructive economic system.

How The Corporations Broke Ralph Nader And America, Too

Ralph Nader’s descent from being one of the most respected and powerful men in the country to being a pariah illustrates the totality of the corporate coup.

Read this fascinating and disturbing articles by Chris Hedges. The link is below.

And please see my earlier post about Michael Moore's attack on Nader on Democracy Now!.
This is part of what Michael Parenti calls Coincidence Theory I think.

Read the Hedges article

A Society Consumed By Locusts

Youth In The Age of Moral and Political Plagues:

"As the recent health care debate has made clear, the decades-long conservative campaign against the alleged abuses of 'big government' is far from over. In the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan insisted that government was the problem not the solution, he unleashed what was to become a neoliberal juggernaut against both the welfare state and the concept of the public good."

See the entire Truthout article here

A Message To Progressives

The comments made by Michael Moore during his interview with Amy Goodman on the March 23, 2010 edition of Democracy Now! cannot be allowed to stand without comment.


You can watch and read the entire interview here.



In this interview Moore makes the argument that left-oriented people (presumedly including Progressives) need to stick with the Democratic Party as the only hope for effecting systemic social change.

Apparently Moore believes that only Democrats will be able to overthrow Capitalism and lead the nation into the glorious Liberal future.

Right!

He says in the interview that Ralph Nader is somone who likes only the sound of his own voice and belittles him as out of touch with "the grassroots or the people." He ridicules Nader's runs for the presidency and quips, "What has that ever gotten us?".

Now Ralph Nader is not a Green of course, but he has spent what, the last 40 years of his life working for, advocating for, and implementing programs and policies that have saved millions of lives and had an impact on millions more? He has spent his life speaking out about the essential, basic issues of our lives: corporate fraud, waste, and abuse and for systemic, fundamental electoral and social reform.

He was and is a great man not only with understanding of the issues of our lives but in touch with the people.

But Moore unbelievably persists, "the game is rigged in America when it comes to third parties." he says. Therefore, it's a waste of time to be involved with them and the only option is to work within the One-Party system. The best way to effect change, he tells us is to join the Democratic Party and work within it to drive it to the left.

Where have we heard that before?

Right, we hear it over and over from liberal Democrats like Dennis Kucinich, who by the way is funded by the Democrats to run for president every 4 years just to draw left-leaning voters to the Democrats.

He takes principled stands on war, military occupations, health care ... until it comes to a vote.

Bloggers, talking heads, Daily Kos all say the same thing: want change? Vote Democrat.

Progressives know better however and we need to let everyone know that we know. We don't fall for the line. We didn't fall for False Hope in 1992 nor in 2009.

Progressives - Greens need to speak forcefully and publically when liberal lies are spread.

Greens will continue to fight and advocate for universal, single-payer health care.

Greens will continue to speak out against illegal, immoral wars and military occupations and for Peace.

Greens will continue to speak out against torture, Patriot Acts, and all assaults on our rights and liberty.

Moore says the game is rigged against us, that we can't win, that we shouldn't try, that we should just give up.

That we should just shut up!

Does he really believe Democrats will deliver us from the scourges of Capitalism?

He doesn't understand; the game is rigged against him as well.

It's clear that Moore and the people like him have an agenda; the Democrat agenda, to make sure we remain marginalized within a corrupt political system.

We must counter the plans of the anti-democratic corporate party at every turn; object to, and refute every False Claim and False Hope.

Every time.

As Greens we will continue to work for fair, open, publically financed campaigns. We will fight for equal recognition as a force in the political arena. And we will advocate for fair, democratic representation through the implementation of IRV, Rank Choice voting, and Proportional Representation voting systems.

Michael Moore does not speak for Progressives in this country nor offer any viable alternative or possibility for change.

The lie of the False Hope of Liberalism must be constantly and consistently exposed.

The time has come.

Spread the word.