Bye Bye Charities

Electronic Frontier Foundations reports that corporations are now claiming patents on things such as "one-click" shopping.

Convio has alerted us to the fact that this will cripple philanthropic efforts and fundraising, especially over the Internet.

Imagine your local charity having to pony up licensing fees in order to conduct a telethon, make a direct mail appeal, use return address stickers or colored wristbands?

The cost would be prohibitive.

When we give to a nonprofit or charity, we want every donated dollar going toward the cause, not licensing fees for the system we use to make the donation.

But this is part of the culture and climate of greed that corporations continue to expand and impose upon us.

Americans have always been very generous when they are alerted to need. Such licensing patents would even keep us from informing each other through e-mail about causes dear to our hearts.

What's the surprise? We know corporations are drooling over the profits they could make if they can privatize and own the water on this planet.

Plus they are trademarking words and phrases right and left, virtually taking them out of our common lexicon.

If this continues, in a hundred years - mark my words - you will have to pay a licensing fee to use words in sending a letter to someone.

And, unless you are very weathy, you won't be able to afford to publish a blog.

Turd Blossom

George Bush's nickname for Karl Rove is "Turd Blossom."

How appropriate.

But it shows that Bush knows exactly the kind of crap Rove used to give Bush the blossom of power.



Bumper sticker available at: Bumper Progress.

RNC Spreads Lies To Save Rove

Former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson gave testimony on July 22nd, 2005 in hearings held by Senate and House Democrats on the national security implications of the Rove CIA leak.

One of the points he makes is that he voted for Bush because he "wanted a President who knows what the word 'is' means."

Unfortunately he is finding out that this President doesn't know the meaning of the word "leak."

To Johnson's credit, he stands up for Valerie Plame and decries the smear campaign going on against her in an attempt to save arch villain Karl Rove.

Rove belongs in a dung heap. He didn't just jeopardize Plame's life, but everyone else she worked with in her cover company.

Rove has no shame, no conscience. He's like a psychopath.

It's time to express outrage to the media via a letter writing campaign.

Rove has to go.

If Convicted, Lay Will Be Pardoned

After watching Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room and seeing the relationship between Ken Lay and George Bush, I have a prediction:

IF Ken Lay is convicted and winds up in jail, one of the last things George W. Bush will do as President is pardon him.

Remember, you read it here first.

See the Enron Film

I finally saw Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room.

Just one comment: every American owes it to himself to see this film.

I'm betting it isn't just Enron that manipulates us for profits. This is probably the tip of the iceberg. If we don't want to be saps, we better understand the lengths to which the greedy will go to get rich and watch our backs.

Rove's America: Death & Lies

"You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized."

- Emmeline Pankhurst, suffragist and social reformer.

We have been too quiet. Progressives are trying so hard to be the voice of reason, to speak in moderate tones.

We crucified Howard Dean for getting emotional, without checking into the fact that the airplay of his "screaming" was doctored so that the crowd noise was diminished in order to make him seem "out of control."

We need to unite and begin screaming, because truth and rationality and middle-of-the-road-ism are simply getting us more of the same: death & lies.

One definition of insanity is expecting that you can continue doing things the same way and get a different outcome.

We need to stop being cowards. We need to write letters, call into shows and say it:

Rove committed treason. He outed a CIA operative and risked our national security for partisan purposes.

Karl Rove is a traitor to America. He should be arrested under the Patriot Act and held without bail.

In refusing to fire Rove, Bush is a traitor to this country. He is killing America, gutting our military, wrecking our institutions, poisoning our air and water, bankrupting us, supporting thugs like Rove and creating a class and ideological war that is totally unnecessary but distracts from his destructiveness.

Bush is just not bad for America, but a disaster for America. His policies have led to more terrorism, not less. He uses 9/11 for his own political gain and has absolutely no shame.

We need to say it: Bush is a traitor to America and her values.

If we aren't heard, we need to say it louder.

If we have to scream like Rush Limbaugh to be heard, then so be it.

Because as Paul Krugman succinctly points out in his article Karl Rove's America:

"What Mr. Rove understood, long before the rest of us, is that we're not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we're living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern."

For example, read how Republican Congressman Peter King turns the facts around and says Joe Wilson and former CIA operative Valerie Plame should be shot for telling the truth about Bush's lies that got us into Iraq.

King cannot possibly believe this B.S. he's spouting. He's lying as a strategy to confuse the American people.

And what's with this violent language? He says these distinguished people, a CIA agent as well "should be shot?" These Neo-cons are sounding more like violent reactionaries every day.

Republicans have spent 40 years and billions of dollars running media campaigns to brainwash Americans into believing black is white and white is black.

They have reapportioned our districts down to which side of the street votes Republican and Democrat and used those apportionments to swing the electoral college in their favor.

We are in their grips and they are not going to let go until enough of us are suffering to notice their lies.

The truth is, they hate America and they hate our government. They have taken it over to destroy it and our way of life. Grover Norquist has said: "We will stick a knife in government and kill it."

So the question is: How bad do we want it to get? And do we want to wait until we have no government-protected Constitutional rights of protest left?

Are we going to unite, work to get Progressives elected in the House and Senate or are we going to continue to bicker while treasonous and destructive liars destroy us?

Are we going to stand up for America? Or turn our backs?

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

- Dante Alighieri

Rove has to go. It's time for massive demonstrations, letter writing campaigns and calls to the White House and our representatives. The line has been crossed too many times.

Enough is enough.

U.S.: Gutted Like Enron

A New York Times editorial discusses White House duplicity regarding the Valerie Plume leak.

All the news yesterday and today shows that President Bush has no intention of firing Karl Rove. On the contrary, the White House is officially maintaining silence while Bush continues to express great "confidence" in Karl Rove.

To me this proves Bush knew and approved of Rove's action which compromised our national security and the life of a covert CIA agent. This President smiles and jokes with the American people while acting like a "good ole boy" you'd like to have a beer with, when all the time he's sticking one knife after another in our backs via Iraq, the deficit, social security piratization...

When is the media - all of them - going to get tough and start screwing this administration to the wall?

When is the Democratic party going to resurrect American values, unite and become a party for the people so politicians like these - without shame or conscience - can never get into office again?

Or are we really going to continue to let our once great country be a tool of liars and ideologues who are gutting our nation and our military like their friends gutted Enron?

Bush & Rove: Above The Law?

In 2003 Joseph Wilson wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times suggesting that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

We have proof now thanks to the leaked Downing Street Memo that Mr. Wilson was entirely correct.

However, to keep the truth under wraps, a message of retaliation was sent by this White House and Mr. Wilson was punished for telling the truth about what he knew.

Mr. Wilson's wife was outed as an undercover CIA agent five days later. Her identity revealed, Valerie Plame's life was not only placed in danger, but her career was ruined.

Leaking the identity of a covert CIA agent is a felony. Because of the seriousness of this leak, President Bush was pressured into saying that the person who had leaked Ms. Plane's identity would be found and brought to justice. (Much as he pledged Osama Bin Laden would be brought to justice.) Meanwhile, President Bush insisted no one in the Administration was responsible.

Now Time Magazine has turned over its notes and e-mail confirming that Karl Rove is - and was - the source of the leak.

Rove's own lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that it was Rove who spoke with the reporter who broke the story on Plame and revealed her identity.

It should be no surprise that President Bush has declined to comment. Neither has he fired Rove nor withdrawn Rove's security clearances despite the fact that Rove jeopardized the life of a CIA operative and compromised our national security.

It should come as no surprise that Rove's attorney has had the gall to say his client "did nothing wrong."

We have waited two years for what we knew but could not prove to come out: that Bush's White House punishes and stifles the press in order to lead the American public around by the nose like a blind ass.

Karl Rove must be fired. He must go to jail. But if Bush won't do it, don't be surprised.

The truth is that President Bush's White House is far worse than Nixon's White House.

Besides following in the steps of Nixon, it also appears that President Bush is following in the steps of France's President Mitterrand who directed the terrorist bombing of Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior and then denied any involvement while maintaining he would leave no stone unturned in "searching for the criminals."

Nixon was a criminal and a liar. Mitterrand was a criminal and a liar. The fact that they were Presidents is irrelevant.

The question is: Is Bush also a criminal and a liar? He says he relied on faulty intelligence to enter the war in Iraq. We can't prove otherwise - yet.

But did he know and allow Rowe to out Valerie Plame as White House strategy to silence the truth?

If he does not fire Rove and fire him soon, only one conclusion can be reached: he knew all the time, he condoned it and now he is hoping that ignoring the truth will make it go away.

Presidents and governments cannot be above the law. If Bush will not fire Rove, it is time for impeachment.

Bush led us to war on lies. He is responsible for 100,000 Iraqi deaths, over 1700 American deaths and 40,000 men and women who have suffered horrible injuries resulting in severe disabilities. Yet he has no exit strategy and doesn't want one.

Bush does nothing to secure our borders but has created a breeding ground for terrorists in Iraq. Bush is crushing us with debt and lowering our standard of living. Bush is destroying our forests, air and water by changing environmental regulations and giving lumber companies the rights to clear cut in National Parks. And he has made his White House the most secretive in our history.

Bush is the most anti-American President we have ever had. He is certainly the most destructive to our institutions - including our military - as well as our environment and people. And if he doesn't make good on this one measly promise to get rid of the person who leaked Plame's name, it must be the beginning of his end.

Eventually all the dirt has to come out. All the lies and treachery he has practiced in the undoing of our country for his own political ends must eventually be revealed.

I predict the case for impeachment will grow. He's more than earned it. The proof is just waiting to be outed.

Plain Dealer Kills Stories

Does anyone really think we are "making progress" against terrorism with this war in Iraq? Does anyone think we can ever "win?"

Does anyone really think this administration has acted or is acting in the best interests of the American people?

If so, think again.

Catherine the Great said: When the people start to complain about problems at home, start a war.

Why? It keeps people's attention occupied, fearful and focused elsewhere and off the treachery of those in power.

Yesterday the Cleveland Plain Dealer - Ohio's largest newspaper - announced that it had decided to kill two investigative pieces regarding our government because they were based on anonymous sources - whistleblowers still employed by the government - and the paper would be sued by our government and would lose. Reporters - after the Judith Miller precedent - would go to jail. The paper would have serious legal problems.

Although the reporters were willing to go to jail to see the stories published, the corporation that owns the Cleveland Plain Dealer was not willing to fight for a free press. It killed the stories.

In fact, even if the sources in the government came forward, because the sources are leaking classified material - and "classified" is what the government makes anything it does not want us to know about - the paper still would not print the stories.

To the surprise of the editor of the Plain Dealer, there has been no outrage expressed by the public over this story or the Administration's stifling of the press and government whistleblowers.

So what is everyone doing? Having a good time, I guess. Not too worried, I guess. The bombing happened in London, not in the U.S.

And did anyone report this death of our free press? Was it a big story on any major station?

Of course not.

Yet it should be, because secret policies - and the push for the war in Iraq - have helped create terrorists.

You know by now that this administration planned to go to war against Iraq come hell or high water. These neo-cons operate out of a limited world view that believes in "creative destruction" as a political strategy. They are far closer in ideology to Trotsky than to true "conservative" American politicians.

Although they never accepted that what they did could turn Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorists, it plays into their hands just fine.

They never planned to leave Iraq; now they argue that they can't.

You know there are documents that show the extent of the treachery. But those documents are under wraps. The administration never wants us to see the proof. And most of us seem to be okay with that.

Well, remember, there are no victims. Only volunteers.

If we continue to volunteer to be dupes for those in power, the world situation will only continue to deteriorate. Americans will continue to be killed; maybe a whole generation.

Meanwhile there are two stories that we should know about that might outrage us if we knew about them. Two stories that might make people say: get out of Iraq and stop shooting up the world and making enemies.

Stories that most likely play into the whole terrible drama of Iraq and our contribution to this terrorism fiasco and growing hate for us.

But we will never know.

If you think we should, write to your Representatives and Senators and demand protection for the press in exposing government manipulation, corruption and secrecy.

If you don't, we'll have what France had or worse.

20 years ago France's President Francois Mitterrand approved the sinking of a Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, in a New Zealand Harbor.

He did this because Green Peace was planning on protesting nuclear tests using the ship.

New Zealand, ally of France, considered it a terrorist act.

Mitterrand orchestrated a cover-up while feigning ignorance over who did the bombing. He kept up a game of "searching for the truth" while condemning and supposedly searching for the "criminals." He even called the attack on the Rainbow Warrior "a criminal and absurd act."

But the criminals were in the French administration and included the President of the republic.

According to The Standard the action earned France "...a reputation as an arrogant nuclear power prepared to go to any lengths to defend its interests" but, until now, a link to Mitterrand could never be proved.

Does any of this sound familiar?

The French story - of how Mitterrand ordered the attack - was classified and under wraps for twenty years. It has just been revealed.

When will we find out the role Bush played in 9/11? And the lengths to which this administration has gone to further its arrogant power mongering in the Mid-East?

With this precedent of jailing reporters and killing investigative reporting of government duplicity, the answer is: NEVER.

Grieving Over The Bombings

Today it hit me.

The grief over Thursday's bombings in London.

Today was a beautiful sunny day - a perfect day. I walked down to our local market filled with fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers. Happy people wandered, drank coffee and chatted with each other.

I felt so fortunate to be alive and part of such an idyllic scene. Then a quartet of four young women set up and began playing violins.

It was then that it hit me. Those notes dipped deep into my being and suddenly the photos in the newspaper came alive. The pleas for missing friends and loved ones became real. It could have been us. In a very real sense it was us.

I wept.

Life can be so beautiful.

And life can rip you apart.

Last night I watched an interview from - I think it was from 2002 - of a Muslim cleric who lived in London and was happy over 9/11.

He said any Muslim who did not admit he was happy over 9/11 was a liar. He said the United States has been menacing the Middle-East and disrespectful of her people for decades. He saw terrorism as the only possibility of stopping a rogue state from taking over the world.

Rogue state. That's us he was talking about.

Or, more exactly, it's our government he was talking about, the one we like to ignore as we go shopping. The one that has waged a war somewhere in the world every year for the last fifty years. The one that does these things in our name, supposedly to keep us safe.

But all that aggression is coming around now to bite us - you and me and others - in the ass.

Yet, although government policies are backfiring on us now, we continue to allow our government to do these things.

Why? Are we are too busy watching American Idol or CSI?

Those running this dog and pony are counting on it.

They ratcheted up the terror index to orange.

A lot of good that does.

What a pathetic joke. It's just a lot of crazy making.

Thursday's tragedy and its message was this: we need to back off and work for peace instead of war.

Our leaders are way too disconnected from the real pain of what is happening in this world. They don't get that they share responsibility for it.

They ought to listen to some violin music.

Who'll We Invade This Time?

Thomas Friedman has an article in the New York Times today. In it he states that "when Salman Rushdie wrote a controversial novel involving the prophet Muhammad, he was sentenced to death by the leader of Iran. To this day - to this day - no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden."

Mr. Friedman makes an important point. Right-wing fanatics, under a banner of religion, are waging this war of terror against Western politics and values.

And why have Muslim leaders not condemned it? Because they share the terrorist's fears that, given free reign, the United States will turn their cultures and societies into clones of ours and they don't want it.

Who can blame them? American corporate culture has turned all of us into servants of the dollar. Thanks to our culture of entertainment bred by television, lack of meaningful work and bankrupt social values in which we are mostly focused upon consuming, tens of millions of us are hooked on one addiction or another, whether it's alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, television or shopping.

It is not our real freedoms that they despise. It's our petty vices.

One of those vices was the arrogance of pursuing revenge and shooting up Iraq.

We have a decades long road to travel now to try and get back to sanity.

To get the Arab world to condemn these bombings; to have all major Muslim leaders declare a fatwa condeming Osama Bin Laden, Al Quaeda and terrorism, it is time for us to admit our vices.

It is time to admit we were wrong to invade Iraq.

It is time to admit that corporate America has been itching to get its hands on Middle-Eastern markets and turn them into clones of the U.S. model.

Just because the Arabs are paranoid doesn't mean no one wants to take them over and kill their cultures.

If we are going to have peace, we need to get honest about motives.

And we need to back off.

We need to stop this arrogance of thinking our way is so much "better."

Arabs brought civilization to a primitive and Medieval Europe - our ancestors - centuries ago. Baghdad was the cradle of Civilization. Yet we act as though the Middle-East is some back water that needs us.

It doesn't need us or our way of life. It's complete arrogance to think we have any right to impose our ways on those cultures - especially in terms of turning Muslims into Christians.

American firepower obviously cannot cure this or it would have.

It's time for honesty and walking a higher path.

It's past time trying to prove we're "right."

It's time we accepted that Muslim cultures are as valid as ours and said that OUT LOUD.

And 9/11? Why doesn't Bush take a lesson from the families of the victims? Most of them are focusing on forgiveness and working for peace.

Our arrogance is our Achilles heel. Hanging onto it isn't working and if we want a blanket condemnation of terrorists by Muslim clerics, it's time we got over thinking we're superior and banging the 9/11 drum.