Phantom Pains Long After the Amputation

America hates explanations that take longer than 30 seconds. Or at least our current Corporate Media and our current Politicians hide behind the excuse that Americans can’t sit through explanations that take longer than 30 seconds. So the majority of what we are offered in the media and in politics are sound-bite and bumper-sticker worthy slogans that are easily consumed, like junk food, even if the long term effects are chronic life-threatening problems. Arrgh!!!

Yet we keep wanting to believe that we are informed citizens in a healthy democracy, because, as Matt Taibbi puts it, “like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there.” Matt’s latest article “The Great American Bubble Machine” in the new Rolling Stone should be required reading for all citizens. He lays out an incredible outline of all the Wall Street bubbles and crashes of the last hundred years and the common elements in all of those catastrophes: Goldman Sachs. Unfortunately, Matt’s explanations take longer than 30 seconds to recount. So I won’t rehash them all here, and I am sure most Americans won’t read the whole 12 page article. But you should.

Investment Trusts, Tech Stocks, IPOs, Mortgage based Securities, Credit Default Swaps, Commodities Futures, TARP are all bubbles that have been created and inflated by Goldman Sachs while luring dollars into the system from ordinary people, siphoning off billions of dollars, and then running for cover before the bubbles burst, and then putting the cost of the clean up on the taxpayer.. And next, Goldman Sachs wants to do the same to Carbon Credits. It is astounding the list of current and ex Goldman employees who “run” the agencies that set policy for these issues and the list of politicians they contribute to, including President Obama whose cabinet is loaded with these guys.

Read the Rolling Stone Article. http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/06/goldman-sachs-engineering-every-major.html Matt has put together a compelling narrative. I have always found his research to be compelling and he is seldom off base.

I’m getting a little bit tired of being told I live in the greatest democracy on earth and yet finding out that the facts don’t match the advertising. I’m sick of being a democratic amputee with phantom pains of accountability and participation. We are human beings after all. Our ancestors built the pyramids, went to the moon, discovered music and dance. We invented the concept of civilization. And I for one think it is time to do some hardcore triage and identify the diseases that have infected our institutions our bodies and our psyches and then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Let’s cut the crap. Fool me once Goldman Sachs, shame on you. Fool me twice, no eight, no ten times, shame on me. Fraud is not a good business model. Debt is not a good investment. Rebranding does not change the product. And real commodities and real people are not there for your gambling pleasure. I don’t think you ought to be able to buy and sell a barrel of oil an average of 27 times (driving the price up each time) before I am allowed to purchase my gas. And you should definitely not be allowed to do that with our food supplies. Nor should you be allowed to run the government agencies that are supposed to keep you honest. This Goldman Sachs Mafia needs to get dragged into the light, that place where vampires never like to be.

Sometimes You Need an Extra Set of Hands

Sometimes you need an extra set of hands to get everything done.
But I'm not so sure my girl would look at me the same way
If I actually had that second set of multitasking digits.
Play on my limited set of manipulators, play on...----------------------
Collage and Complaint by Jay "Ain't Messin' With Texas Yet, But I'm Fixin' To" Larsen

Brand Name or Generic

I feel decanted, like a pharmaceutical product.
Perhaps in my youth, or some long lost (never was) Eden of the past
We were at least deposited together en mass into one large America bottle
Like aspirins—all manufactured by the same machine, but together, rubbing shoulder to shoulder in daily contact with our fellow citizens.
But today, or at least in what passes for the present moment,
We, in our desire for disinfected security, find ourselves living in sterile blister packs
Separated from our fellows by individually-sanitized-for-our-protection bubble wrap
We can go for days, weeks, months or years without any real contact with other people.
We catch glimpses of each other through the plastic film that divides us
And we do not get each other dirty.
We do not contaminate each other.
Only the corporate broadcasts get in
Because each individual serving of consumer comes with screens:
LCD, plasma, TV, film, cell phone, game boy, iPod, computer, everywhere we look
We have been wrapped in screens, filmy plastic screens
And the broadcasts are the software within which we learn how to function
We learn to function as good corporate citizens, consumers first and last
But everything we purchase, everything we touch in this plastic bubble
Is just another screen swimming with software
We are so used to the corporate environment that we don’t even notice it
Like fish do not think about water
We swim in corporations, eat corporate products, shit corporate shit, love corporation love, speak in corporate language, argue corporate arguments, dream corporate dreams
We even die corporate deaths
The fact that I am saying this does not mean for one corporate minute that I am somehow above it all, immune or inoculated.
I am just as corporate as you as I tap on my corporate keys
Broadcasting words on my corporate blog
To be displayed on your corporate screen
It is just the way it is
It is the way we have chosen to incorporate
But the smell of plastic gets to me once in a while

Paper or plastic?

Brand Name or Generic?

---------------------

Credits: Rant and Collage by Jay Larsen, Inc. LLC

Obama on Interbeing

Heard Prez Obama talk about Education the other night. He said:

"And dropping out of high school is no longer an option. It's not just quitting on yourself, it's quitting on your country -- and this country needs and values the talents of every American."

It is good to hear the president talking about how we are all dependant on each other, about how we can't make decisions without thinking about how we will impact others.

But what he said could be applied to the economy as well:

It’s not just laying off your workers; it’ laying off your country.

It’s not just denying working capital to your creditors; it’s denying working capital to your country.

It’s not just ripping off your investors and customers; it’s ripping off your country.

It’s not just avoiding paying your taxes; it’s failing to invest in your country.

Right and Left Ready to Declare Obama a Failure

Almost a month and nothing has changed?!?!?

Americans are addicted to the 5-minute fix. You know, that fictional wave of the magic wand that happens at the end of television shows where no matter what kind of trouble our heroes got into, it is all magically made better in the last 5 minutes of the show. This is great for episodic television producers who need everything reset for the beginning of next week’s episode. But in real life it doesn’t work that way. Catastrophe can strike in an instant, but healing takes time.

Almost everyone seems to have had 5-minute fix fantasies about our new President. Liberals believed he could undo decades of corporate cancer and economic addictions with the wave of a hand and few speeches. But even more surprising is the extent to which conservatives must have secretly believed Obama could magically change Washington and the world. Yes there have been some fairly incoherent arguments against the Stimulus Bill from the Right, but when tempers really flair most of my Republican friends end up saying something like, “Obama has been president for nearly a month and nothing has changed!”

I was expecting lots of liberals to be disappointed when the whole world could not be remade in 100 days, but now it looks like the conservatives may have secretly believed Obama was magic after all.

Here’s my advice:
Lefties, you still have a lot of work to do. Obama made it clear during the election that he was not going to change everything himself. He is expecting people (that’s you and me) to push him and to push Congress to make progressive changes. Quit feeling betrayed and keep advocating and educating to change the things that need changing. You don’t get a vacation just because one guy got elected to one job. It was easy to blame Bush/Cheney for obstructing all your best ideas—maybe too easy. Keep the heat on and Obama will respond better than the last group, but he was never the great liberal messiah—he’s just an intelligent and reasonable guy who is willing to wade in and try his best. Help him out.

Righties, chill out. Take a deep breath. It sucks when your team doesn’t win. But you let that last group mismanage your team to the point where it is not recognizable any more. Quit acting like you didn’t approve of actions that resulted in a huge loss of dignity, honor, cash and lives over the last 8 years. Bring some real ideas to the table and don’t reward Republican politicians for just saying NO every time Obama says anything. Enough with the fake outrage. You can admit that you are angry, confused and sickened and not lose your identity. Conservative used to be a good brand with some solid truths behind it—rediscover that and make a contribution.

Everybody, Admit we have long term systemic problems. Our political and economic systems did not get like this overnight and there is no overnight solution. Our culture did not get to be like this overnight. Obama cannot provide us with a 5 minute fix. All the anger and denial and negotiating makes perfect sense. They are all symptoms of mourning. We thought we had our addictions under control. We thought they wouldn’t cause problems in your professional and political lives. But we are not in control. It has taken us decades to screw our system up this bad. It is going to take decades of work to reshape our systems and rebalance our lives and our culture. First we have to admit we have a problem. Then we need to be honest about what caused them and what we can do to avoid them. But most importantly, we need to rediscover our basic humanity and take small steps everyday toward the culture that we want to live in. There are no sidelines here. There is nowhere to hide. The sooner we get to acceptance, the sooner we can begin to heal. We need to be the change we want to see in the world or else our show might not get picked up for another season.

No perfect choices, yet choices must be made

I had some interesting feedback from my last post.
Just for the record, I do not believe Barack Obama is a perfect candidate.
The Democratic Party is not a perfect party.
I consider myself an Independent Voter.
We don’t always get perfect choices, but we do have to make choices.
With that said, I am casting my vote for Barack Obama.
I hope you all make the best choice you can.

What I am most interested in is this: What are you going to do after the election?

I think much of what has gone wrong with our government in my life time is the result of an uninterested, under-informed, unengaged population of citizens. We have allowed the institutions and representatives of the people be influenced and purchased by corporations. It is going to take a lot of work for us to reassert the rightful place of the people in this representative republic of ours. But it is work that must be done to protect our lives and the future of our children and generations to come.

No matter who gets elected in November, we have to commit ourselves to the same task: We have to strive to be better informed and more active in monitoring the actions of our representatives, and we must do a better job of informing our government of our core beliefs, interests and desires. Only then can we hold government accountable to the will of the people.

I have my preference for who gets elected this November. I doubt everyone I vote for will be elected. But all of those elected, be they president, governor, congressman, or city councilperson, have a responsibility to represent all the people who voted. And we have a responsibility to be aware of what they are doing and what they plan on doing. We have a responsibility to communicate with our representatives as clearly as we are able.

And that means you have a responsibility to know what your core beliefs, interests and desires are. If you don’t, then you need to figure it out. And if you don’t share those things with your representatives, how can you expect them to represent you?

So no matter who is president in January. I hope that we can all be better citizens than we have been.
---------Jay the Citizen

Meanwhile, check this out: http://www.conservativesforchange.com/

Who is to Blame?

Who is to blame?

When things go badly and when we get hurt we want someone to blame.
This economy thing (I know, what economy?) is really starting to hurt everybody (or at least to really scare everybody). So we want to blame somebody. I want to blame somebody. So who do we blame? Wall Street, Banks, Fat Cats, who?

Wall Street? Well they have been greedy bastards, and they have made tons of money collecting fees as the market went up and down. So we can criticize Wall Street for being greedy bastards. But that has been Wall Street’s job description, at least during my life time. Wall Street is set up as a capitalist playing field and they have been playing the game.

Banks? Traditionally banks make money slowly and conservatively by collecting more money than they loan out. Recently they got the rules changed and gave into pressure to make fast money. They should have known better, but they have been playing by the new rules.

Yeah, the fat cats on Wall Street and in the Banks are greedy capitalist bastards who should be watched very, very carefully. But the guys who set the rules and enforce the rules are just as much to blame and maybe more to blame. Greedy people are out there. It is the rules and the umpires that are supposed to keep the players as close to honest as possible.

Over the last several decades the people in charge of the rules have bent over backwards to change rules the players don’t like. That is called deregulation. And they have looked the other way and refused to enforce the few rules that are still officially on the books. That is called dereliction of duty. You can’t have a safe or clean game if the umpires are dirty or just not there. And the umpires have been predominately Republican appointees during my lifetime. So they are to blame, probably more so than the Wall Street players and Banking manipulators and the Real Estate speculators. They should be taken to task. They should be held responsible. And the last thing we ought to do is hire another batch of the same people who have done such a miserable job and let the system get so out of control so that they can keep this cycle of dishonesty going.

But that doesn’t mean you and I are off the hook. We had responsibilities too. We were supposed to be informed and active citizens. We were supposed to monitor the actions of our representatives and make sure that they were enforcing the rules and protecting the country and its citizens. So I think we get some of the blame here too. We hired (or at least rubber stamped) these people. We have not clearly articulated our goals, desires, and standards for participation in our economy and our society. We have not told the politicians NO. They have not told the corporate capitalists NO. And now we all get to pay the price.

So let’s take a deep breath. Admit that it took years to get things into this state. And get ready to spend years getting out of this mess. I need to live on what I make. You need to live on what you make. And we need representatives that will make government, Wall Street, the Banks, and businesses large and small live within their means. We need rules that are fair. Rules that will keep greed in check. Rules that will protect the most valuable assets and aspirations of this nation. The “Free Market” is a failure, a twentieth century concept that never worked as advertised, a social experiment of huge scope and frighteningly huge consequence that produced a very few winners and made most of us and our natural environment losers. So how about an organized and regulated market where everyone knows the rules and knows they will be penalized for breaking those rules instead? What if we quit voting against our own self interests? What if we admitted how undemocratic corporate structures are? What if we enacted rules that held people and the environment to be more valuable than capital? What if…?

Why Question?

Are answers better than questions?
Is faith better than doubt?
I don’t know about you, well I don’t know ALL about you, but I have found through experience that it is questions and doubt that keep me moving forward.
Questions are the fuel that keeps me moving into the unknown.
Answers tend to make me complacent and my ass gets stuck in certainties.
Nothing corrupts like certainty and absolute certainty corrupts absolutely. Doesn’t it?
So how do questions help?
And what kinds of questions are the most helpful?

Who is asking?
What do I know?
What are others telling me?
What is the dominant version of events?
What “facts” are presented as certain and inevitable?
Who benefits from our cooperation with the dominant version of the story?
Where have we heard similar stories told before?
Are there alternate “facts” and stories that are being ignored or marginalized?
Do I know this thing from personal experience?
Have I listened to the stories of people who have personal experience?
Does this narrative contradict things I have experienced personally?
Will this action cause pain or suffering?
Can I do anything to reduce or avoid pain or suffering?
Are there better questions?
Does this challenge my assumptions?
Is this the outcome I expected?
Would I want others to do what I am doing?
What are my motives?
What can I do?
What next?

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Credits: Words and Collage by Jay Larsen

Some More Questions About Bail Outs

The President says that only the government has the patience and the long term vision to purchase these troubled assets and hold them until they mature and increase in value.

I agree. I don't usually agree with the President. But in this case, I agree.

Doesn't that tell us something about the Corporations that dominate Wall Street and Main Street?

Doesn't that mean that the Corporate focus on short term profits and short term maneuvers makes them incapable of safeguarding long term assets (like our homes, families, and national infrastructure)?

Doesn't that mean that governments rightful position should be long term, since "the market" is dominated by short term vision and action?

Wouldn't that lend some balance and stability to our country and our economy?

Doesn't that mean that in this interconnected world that we all live in, that there is no such thing as a purely private economic transaction?

Don't we have to weigh our own private concerns and the concerns of our neighbors and the health of the bigger systems our actions are a part of when making decisions?

Are we ready as a society to learn the lessons of the last 30 years?

Isn't it becoming undeniable that pure "free market capitalism" is not sufficient to address the long term needs and health of our nation and our world?

Are we ready to admit that the organizing principles of large corporations are antithetical to principles of democracy?

Are we ready to seriously discuss how we want to govern ourselves in light of what we have (or should have) learned over the last 30 years?

How about this?

Why doesn't Congress set up an independent review board to purchase undervalued assets and get the markets moving again?

They could start with a fund of several hundred billion dollars and ask for more in the near future if needed. Why does it have to be 700 billion or nothing?

This current administration has lost the right to manage this endeavor, so it should go to an independent board with lots of review and reporting mandates.

The next administration and the next congress need to staff our regulatory agencies with people who actually believe in the ability of government to work for the good of the people and start enforcing the rules we already have. Then new regulations should be imposed, not as a burden on individuals and small companies, but as a check on the short-sighted exuberance of mega corporations and very rich individuals who can unbalance our entire economy and ecosystems with their "private" business actions.

And the media needs to start asking these kinds of questions and expecting answers.

The keys to solving these problems are contained within the problems themselves.

The clues and the knowledge are available to us.

Human beings are capable of transcending selfish and violent modes of behavior, and expressing honest empathy and compassion for others.

We are all interconnected and interdependent whether we want to admit it or not.

We caused or allowed these problems.

We can solve them carefully and creatively.

But not if we keep doing the same things over and over and expect a different result.

Conventional Thinking

I don’t consider myself to be a Democrat or a Republican.
The two party system has hijacked the Constitution and sold it to Corporations in ways never anticipated by the Founding Fathers. And typically the choice for president is usually a choice between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
So I have usually cast my presidential vote against the Tweedle Dumbest of the two choices. That is sad and frustrating.

These last two weeks I have watched the conventions.
I didn’t watch all of them. But it appears I watched more than most people I have talked to.
Now I know that the real purpose of the conventions is to solidify the base, meaning to get those people who habitually vote for your party to vote for your party and not do something unspeakable like vote for the other candidate. So I know that I am not the primary audience for political conventions. I’m not supposed to be impressed. And most of the time I am just frustrated by the dangerous voodoo group thinking that goes on at these things. And yet still I watch like a 5th grade boy watching a train wreck.

But this year was a little bit different. This year it is very clear to me that there can be a lot of difference between Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb. The last 8 years have made that very clear to me. And when the Tweedle Dumb Party is willing to purge voter rolls, cage voters, flip electronic voting machines, physically stop vote counting, and get the Supreme Court to call the election, then the Tweedle Dee party needs to bring twice as many people to the party to overcome the foul play.

Last week I was camping with my family the night Barak Obama gave his big speech. So I did not see the stadium crowd or the fake pillars. But I did listen to what he said. And once again I found myself wanting to believe that this particular candidate actually means most of what he says. I found myself crossing my fingers and hoping and praying that Obama gets a chance to be the next president. There were topics I wish he had talked about. There are some things he wants to do that I disagree with. But I do think that if he can survive the Republican dirty tricks (you know the ones they pull every September and October during elections) that Obama just might be the most genuine and charming person to run for president in my life time. And with all the crap Bush and Company has done, I think we could use a Constitutional Law Expert in the White House. Call me a radical, but I think that is extremely relevant experience for the job.

This week I watched John McCain give his big speech. After several days of Republican Voodoo Economics reruns and faith-based praise for free and unfettered businesses with few facts, I was ready to hear what the candidate had to say. I could see that the base was jazzed about their VP. I don’t get it, but they think she is great. And I sat through the complete lies they told about their competition. And McCain finally got up and told us what he wanted to do. And I found myself hoping and praying that if McCain wins the election that he only means half of what he says. Oh, and John, the “P” in “POW” does not stand for President. And by the way America does not need another War President.

I think it is astounding that neither party wanted or expected either of these two people to be their candidates for president. Somehow the people snuck into the primary process and surprised the pundits, the experts, the talking heads, the lobbyists, and the parties’ favorites. So maybe things will be different no matter who gets elected. I hope so. But I also hope it is Obama. I hope enough new voters have registered in enough states that it overwhelms the usual attempts to monkey with the results. If the Republicans steal 5 million votes, I hope Obama has 10 million more than they expect.

Either way. Whoever wins. It will still be the job of the American people to stand up and be heard. To make it very clear to our representatives that they work for the people, not for corporations. I don’t think Republican voters want to vote against their own interests. I just think they don’t follow up and pay attention. They believe the advertising slogans and don’t read the ingredients. And Democrats have the same problem to a slightly lesser degree. (Would that be a Tweedle Degree?)

Either way, I still believe that it is inherent in human nature to be social beings. To reach out and care for those around us. To gather people in and welcome them at our hearth. To feed the hungry. To care for the sick. That is the way most people act and want to act. We need to remember that, to encourage our natural humanity and not let it be twisted by the artificial isolation created by our corporate/consumer world of cubicles and cars and TV sets in every room. This is still a human world. And I still have hope. Even if that is not the Convention-al thinking.

Gratitude, Idiots, Resistance, and Attitude

My friend Steve asked me a question after the last post:
> How much better would every aspect of the world's existence be if each day
> people were aware of selfless acts that make the world better and looked at
> the positive that occurs simultaneously with the negative? It would be
> immeasurably better.
>
> But I just had a thought. Since growth takes place in the face of
> resistance maybe idiots and their effects are a necessity for our growth just like
> air and food. And if that's the case should I be just as grateful for them as
> for clean mountain air and a delicious crab? Because I have a hard time
> feeling that.

Carlos Castaneda was told by his teacher Don Juan Matus that he was a fortunate man to have found a worthy adversary, an enemy who could test him to the core. Don Juan told Carlos that withstanding life’s challenges with unbending intent was the only way to walk the “path with a heart”. Only a worthy opponent can blast your world to pieces. Teachers and friends will always show you mercy. Only a true adversary could take you past your limits and enable you to experience the impeccability of your free will. (Note: all of this is from memory of books I read 20+ years ago. I’m too lazy to look it up.)

Most of us don’t have a “worthy adversary” or even an “enemy”. We just have encounters with dopes and mean people. Does that mean you have to be “grateful” for the idiots of the world and the shitty things people do to you? I don’t know that there is a simple yes or no answer to that question.

Yes, I find it incredibly helpful to balance my otherwise pessimistic world view with a frequent survey of all the selfless and supportive things ordinary people do every day. Many of those actions go unnoticed yet they still have a helpful and nurturing impact on my continued existence. I think the media (news and entertainment) tend to focus on harsh and violent aspects of life too much. But there are still examples of good news and plenty of opportunity for observing goodness and love first hand. And it is humbling and gratifying to notice the countless beings who contribute to my life, enjoyments and health every day. It is easy to feel grateful for the beings who serve you dinner when you are hungry.

But it can be difficult to feel gratitude for the actions of idiots, fools, enemies and the blind forces of nature that cause you problems or knock you down or injure you or deprive you of comfort and loved ones. Things and people can hurt and kill you, and often do. Yet overcoming those obstacles, those situations often causes us to grow in ways we had not imagined before. That growth often makes us into better human beings. But should we be “grateful”? Good question.

Too much blind acceptance of whatever happens probably isn’t a good thing. So baseless unthinking “gratitude” for the guy who just kidnapped you, may not be good. But too much unthinking “resentment” for the guy who imprisoned you 20 years ago probably isn’t good either. Somewhere in the middle I think you can be honestly pissed off that you have been injured by someone. Work to withstand those challenges with your heart intact. And then you can be honestly “grateful” for the strength of will you developed under those harsh circumstances, even as you fight with all your passion to make sure no one has to be subjected to imprisonment again.

Even the idiots of the world contribute to your environment. And we can be “grateful” for the richness of our environment. We can be “grateful” for the precious human life that allows us to experience such a wide range of spectacle, emotion, sensation and thought. You may not find it easy to feel “grateful” for the idiots in your life. But you can marvel that some part of you thinks maybe you should or could be equally grateful for clean mountain air and that asshole that mows his lawn at 5:30 am every Saturday.

For me personally, I know I can’t control the billions of things that go on in my environment. But I have found that I can make choices about how to respond to things in my environment. Mental and emotional habits can be hard to break, but by turning my attention on them I can often derail harmful habits early and encourage helpful habits. Attitude has a lot to do with happiness and satisfaction. Good things happen in the world. Bad things happen in the world. Joy happens in me. Anger happens in me. I can give them their brief and natural time on the mental stage and remain undamaged. But when I chain myself to either of them (joy or anger) and imprison them and replay them over and over again I miss out on so much and always feel drained and diminished. I drag myself through some hard depressing episodes despite all I have learned, sometimes for minutes, sometimes for months or years. But eventually I remember how to let go and clear the stage for the next performance for the next chapter of life. On good days I let go quickly. On bad days I don’t. But I am grateful that I always remember eventually.

I find myself recently being grateful for friends who ask good questions. Hopefully I didn’t answer them. But I had fun pondering them.

Swimming Against the News Stream

Don’t think for a minute that the Main Stream Media (MSM) doesn’t have a particular story that they want to tell (make that SELL), a particular narrative that makes you react in ways consistent with their interests.

For all the good it does me, I try to swim against that stream when things in the MSM story don’t match up over time. So here are some of my recent MSM Things in the Stream that make me go hmmmm? (or more correctly WTF?)

Anthrax Guy:
The Feds just paid off their old public suspect in the Anthrax case (to the tune of 5+ million dollars). Part of the settlement is that they guy can’t talk about the investigation and the FBI doesn’t have to go to court, where records are still public. Then said Feds announce that their shiny new suspect just killed himself and now they might close the case without presenting evidence to a grand jury, where records become public eventually. We are supposed to believe that recently and conveniently dead scientist guy was behind all those mailings of anthrax to Democratic politicians and we are supposed to ignore the fact that said scientist was a registered Democrat.
Can we prove the recently deceased was set up? No. But will the FBI have to prove he was guilty? No. Hmmmmmm…

Military Tribunals:
Finally the Pentagon is beginning to hold trials for all those guys locked up in GITMO. That’s good news, right? If they are guilty, they get punished. If they are innocent, they will be let go. No. The Pentagon says that despite the outcome of these tribunals the status of these men as “enemy combatants” will not be changed. In other words, if Osama Bin Laden’s driver is found “guilty” his time served so far (5 years + so far) will not be applied to his sentence. And if he is found “innocent” that will not change is “enemy combatant” status and he will continue to be held indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay Cuba by American military personnel.
So, these prisoners might get executed because of the out come of these tribunals, but no body will be released.
Justice, you ask? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

The Tight Presidential Race:
The MSM insists night after night that the Presidential Race is too close to call. Yet Obama’s voter registration drives in all 50 states are ignored. Surveys only call cranky old people who don’t have caller id on their phones. And nation-wide surveys don’t count in the Presidential Race, Electoral College delegates are what count (that and the Supreme Court). According to most of the Electoral College counts done by non-MSM organizations (including right-wing groups) Obama is leading by any where from 68 to 137 Electoral Votes.
Obama McCain Margin
Real Clear Politics 322 216 Obama +106

Electoral-Vote.com 316 209 Obama +107

FiveThirtyEight.com 303 235 Obama + 68

Pollster.com 284 147 Obama +137
AVERAGE 306 202 Obama +104
Last time I checked, +104 Electoral Votes makes you President of the United States.
That is not a very close race. So why is the MSM telling and retelling this close race story? Do they expect enough Election Day shenanigans, enough voter purging, enough electronic machine hacking, enough denial of service to make this a “close race” at the last minute? Close enough that the Supreme Court can call the winner again? Do they need to prime the pump so that the expected “official” results seem reasonable and expected on November 5th? Hmmmmmm….

Experience vs. Celebrity:
People are just fascinated by Obama. But he is just a celebrity. He doesn’t have any real experience. Only John McCain has real experience.
Well if McCain is so damned experienced, how come his campaign commercials are so ham-fisted? Why has McCain’s campaign been the one on the rails so many times, running out of money, turning over staff, changing strategy? He has campaigned before. He has been an elected official for 28 years. Why can’t he bring all that experience to bear on the campaign? What, didn’t getting shot down in a plane give him the experience he needs to run an effective campaign? Maybe hiring all the sleazebags that ran Bush’s 2000 campaign will help?
Meanwhile, Obama has run one of the most efficient and effective campaigns of my life time. His staff has been stable. His message has been consistent. His ability to excite the voters and to raise money has been incredible. But we are supposed to believe that he has no experience and that his success is just due to celebrity. We are supposed to believe that a Constitutional Lawyer with experience in local, state and federal government is an untested neophyte with no ability to lead or organize people.
Hmmmmmmmmm….

The Housing Crisis:
The “housing crisis” has undermined our economy. All those people borrowing money they couldn’t pay back for homes they couldn’t afford are dragging down the system.
There is no “housing crisis”. There is a mortgage investment problem fueled by Wall Street and enabled by the Banking Industry. The Wall Street wizards told Congress and the people that we were too stupid to understand how their financial instruments work, so we shouldn’t even try to regulate there profit taking activities. They skimmed off all the profits of the “housing bubble” as their demand for more and more mortgage activity drove up the price of housing for all of us. And now that their scheme has fallen apart and they are losing money, they want government welfare for their Wall Street firms and mortgage banks to cover their losses. They weren’t willing to share their profits, but they are willing to let us cover their losses. Is that “free market capitalism”? No. That is “oligarchical socialism” (where the rich few get government handouts paid for by the taxes paid by the many poor citizens).
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

The Rants of Bloggers:
Has this new medium changed the way people get their news and information? Does the ranting of some obscure blogger make any real difference? Can bloggers, who post what ever crap they want for free, compete with the corporate budgets of the MSM? Hmmmmmmmmmm….

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Credits:

All words spun off the top of my head.

Research done: 0, zero, nada, none.

References: none, zip.

Don't believe anything I say. Go check your own facts.

But don't believe CNN either without double checking.

Spitzer Splits, Bush Remains

Governor Spitzer resigned, and he probably should have. Not because he had sex, but because his shady financial dealings and participation in crime opens him up to blackmail and undue criminal influence. Plus he was lying to his family, his employees and his employers, and the people of New York.

But let's be clear here, the main reason Gov Spitzer resigned was because Republican lawmakers in New York were busy drafting articles of impeachment.

If Republicans agree that lying about sex is grounds for impeachment (and Bill Clinton will testify that they do) then they must be willing to impeach public officials for committing serious crimes. Crimes like, (1) Starting an illegal "war of aggression" (2) torture (3) arbitrary detention (4) war crimes (5) warrantless wiretapping (6) signing statements (7) election fraud (8) outing a covert CIA operative (9) the "unitary executive" (10) gross negligence for Katrina and global warming. etc, etc, etc.

Not to mention pardoning Scooter Libby and then singing a disrespectful and unfunny song about it.
Not to mention the thousands of dead American soldiers and the tens of thousands of wounded soldiers who had their VA programs cut.
Not to mention the million dead Iraqis and the millions of displaced Iraqis.
Not to mention the 3 trillion dollars of financed war money.
Not to mention the thousands of public documents withheld by the Bush Administration.
Not to mention the cronyism.
Not to mention the billions of dollars in kickbacks and payments to business partners and friends.
Not to mention the Bush Administration's contempt for the Constitution.
All of which should be mentioned, and investigated, and prosecuted (except for the singing, there is no law against bad singing).

So if Spitzer has to go for his crimes, then Bush and Cheney are long overdue. They must deserve Impeachment more than the Governor of New York. But I don't hear the Republican leadership calling for Impeachment for Bush and Cheney. And the Democratic leadership has taken Impeachment off the table. And I don't see Bush and Cheney getting ready to step down.

I guess the only chance we have is if Bush and Cheney get caught lying about their sex lives.

Taking Care of Business

Taking care of business, every day.
Personal, Emotional, Professional.
It's all business. It's all good.
Don't make me show you the business end of this!
What kind of business are you in, friend?
Business is as business does.
If a Business falls and no Analysts are there to give us the numbers,
Does it make a sound?
CNBC, IPO, WSJ, ROI, PDQ, IOU
The market is a place for people to come together, it's not a force of nature.
Take your golden parachute and ride into the sunset.
Me and my monkey have real work to do.

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On another topic:
So Bro, where have you been?
More importantly, how have you been?
You don't answer your phone.
I can only guess that you are still reading email.
Let me know, because we worry about you.

Happy Sad News Mashup

So which is it? Are we happier than ever or more depressed than ever?

The New York Post says 94% of Americans are happy.

While at the same time the BBC says more people are being diagnosed as depressed than ever before.

Maybe people just don't like telling anonymous pollsters that they are dissatisfied with their life?

Or maybe all those antidepressant prescriptions are working really well? (Despite the fact that Americans pay more for prescriptions than any other county on the planet--Now that's depressing.)

Or maybe the Rupert Murdoch owned New York Post wants to make sure Americans know how we are expected to respond: "Say you are happy damn you or your Corporate Overlords will give you something to really cry about! Oh and by the way, the economy is doing great, pay no attention to the reduction in wages for 80% of Americans or the doubling foreclosure rate in 14 states. You are happy if I say you are happy."

I suspect most people have not taken the half-an-hour of quite time it would take to check in with themselves to see if they are basically satisfied or not. But don't take my word for it, or Rupert Murdoch's, turn off your cell phone and TV and watch the sky for 30 minutes. Then ask yourself if you are happy or not. The answer may surprise you.

Iran?

Research says the suicide bombers in Iraq are mostly Saudi Arabians. The President says Al Queada and Iran cause all the problems. The Vice President says we should be attacking Iran. But meanwhile we give/sell billions of dollars of new weapons to Saudi Arabia, our great allies who supplied 43% of the suicide bombers in the above study. Iran, who are our sworn enemies, aren't even in the footnotes of the "other" category. Which if math still works the way it did when I was in high school means those dastardly Iranians supplied 0% of the suicide bombers. Because no one in American politics is permitted to stand in the way of a $20 billion dollar arms deal, it makes sense that the politicians will buy the new math. $20 billion is greater than 43% of all suicide bombers. The corporate keepers of Washington DC will not allow their purchased representatives to stand in the way of profits. And we, the public, are expected to swallow the Bush Administration's latest PR product "Iran source of all evil & Saudi Arabia our great ally" like the docile consumers they have trained us to be.

War really is Peace.
Love is Hate.
We have always been at war with Eurasia.
Swallow at your own risk.
They don't call him Big Brother for nothing.

Monkey See, Monkey Doo Doo

My Zen Calendar presented me with the following this morning:

Yan-shan once asked Chung how one can see into one's own self-nature.

Chung replied: "It is like a cage with six windows, and inside is a monkey. When someone calls 'Monkey! Monkey!' at the east window, the monkey answers. Same thing happens at all the other windows."

"Very instructive," said Yang-shan. "But what happens if the monkey is asleep?"

At that, Chung junped down from his straw seat and toll Yang-shan's arm, dancing and saying: "O Monkey! O Monkey! My interview with you is finished!"

More metaphors for the self. More attempts to understand who we are with story, allusion, misdirection, fantasy, imagery, comparison, poetic phrases, frantic pointing and gesturing, and the occasional poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Behind each metaphor are actual perceptions. And behind each perception is an awareness that perceives. A watcher. An observer. An Iamness.

But what if your monkey is asleep? What if your monkey acts like a little tyrant, insisting that he is you and he is in charge because he is the monkey king and you are just a worthless turd?What if your monkey is screeching so loudly you can't hear the subtle music that arises silently out of vast field of awareness? What if your monkey is flinging so much poo onto the windows that you can't see the world clearly any more? What if your monkey stinks so badly that you cannot think clearly for even the moment that would be required to sink into the calm quiet of awareness?

You could kill your monkey. You could capture it and chain it to a wall. You could train your monkey to do tricks and dance while you turn the crank handle on your hurdy gurdy life. But you will still have a monkey after all that. Pushing and fighting with your monkey just gives it power. That is how your monkey got so out of control to begin with.

Or you can make friends with your monkey. Let it know you hear it when it screeches. Clap with appreciation when the monkey does a trick. Laugh when the monkey tells a joke. Then the monkey will grow calm and there will be moments of natural silence. And you and your monkey can gaze out the windows and marvel that the whole world arises out of awareness.

Monkey, Can You Hear Me?

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Credits: My Monkey drew those pictures.

My Monkey wrote those words.

My Awareness watched with equal measures of interest, gentle humor, and non-attachment.

You and Your Monkey can go fling poo.

What Do We Know? Not Ourselves.

An article on Live Science tells us that scientists think that human beings don't have a solid understanding of how their own brains and consciousness work:

"So when it comes to our actions, consciousness really just skims the surface. Most of what drives what we do is embedded in neural networks not readily accessible by conscious thought, said Joseph LeDoux, a neuroscientist at New York University.
“The intuitive everyday idea about the sense of self and its control over behavior is as incorrect as the idea that the earth is flat,” Morsella agreed. Although we think of ourselves as independent agents, we’re not. Everything we do is influenced by unconscious processes and our environment, he added. "

The article also compares the workings of the brain to a Wi-Fi Network. I remember when our brains were IBM Mainframes, or clocks. We don't really have good metaphors for ourselves either.

Buddha was telling us about the illusory nature of the self 2500 years ago. So it is not surprising that scientists are finally looping back around to discover that we know a lot about the world but almost nothing about ourselves.

Personally, I think human consciousness is like a Blog. Most of the content is shaped by systems and templates created by mysterious subconscious servers arranged in googleplexes. And our eyes are like an iPhone, only less expensive. And our ears are like Bluetooth headsets, but easier to connect to that damn iPhone. And our memories are like MP3 players, but they don't have a true random setting and keep repeating the same old tracks from the 80s. I can feel it, coming in the air tonight. Oh Lord. I think this metaphor is like a mysterious tiki god with burning red eyes surfing on the surface of consciousness with a PDA. Sometimes a PDA is just a PDA, but cigars are never just cigars Tiki Man. Well, if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand. I've seen your face before my friend, But I don't know if you know who I am.

Cows in my Yard

One of my neighbor's cows pushed through our fence and was running loose in my pasture yesterday night. The fence bent out like a funnel or an old-fashioned fish trap. The cow got through but couldn't get back. Meanwhile the rest of herd was trying to decide whether to come on through and join the party on my property.

Staring into the eyes of this beast at close range I realised just how big cows are. And how small I am. A scared cow is a scary thing. The cow was running around getting frantic and I was afraid cows and people might get hurt.

With a lot of team work from the wife and kids, my daughter's boyfriend, and the neighbors who own the cows we managed to open up the fence (literally by taking it apart), and we herded the frightened cow through the gap so she could join her herd. Then we had to rebuild the fence and get things back to normal. I guess good fences do make good neighbors.

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Kind of made me think about the Bush Administration. They have been pushing through the fences and doing things they shouldn't. If a group of concerned citizens can get together, I think we can herd this administration back to their side of the fence. Then we need the Congress to repair the lines between Executive Power and Congressional Power and Judicial Power. When each herd operates inside its Constitutional fences things just work better. But we have really let these old bulls push the old fences down. If we are going to be good neighbors, we need to fix those fences. The Bush Administration looks big and intimidating, but citizens working together can put them back in their assigned place.

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Credits: Original Painting by Jay Larsen

John Edwards: spell that H-I-L-L-A-R-Y

Has anyone else noticed how the mainstream media fauns over Hillary Clinton?

Right Wing and Left Wing pundits all agree, Hillary is the Democratic Candidate of choice.

But whose choice? They aren't leaving that up to the citizens. They are proclaiming Hillary the only good choice in the Democratic field. Even when they talk about other candidates, oh yeah there are other candidates, they still subtly and not-so-subtly remind us that Hillary is who we should be looking at.

The New York Times did a focus piece on John Edwards and filled half the accompanying photo with HILLARY.

Why would the mainstream media want Hillary as the Democratic candidate?

That is an easy one. The mainstream media is all Corporate Media. And the Corporate majority shareholders want Hillary. She is a proven corporate agent, while some of the other Democratic candidates are not clearly in corporate pockets. Edwards made his law career suing big corporations and Obama is new and as yet unpurchased. So if a Democrat is going to win, it needs to be Hillary with her clear corporate allegiances.

On the Republican side? The corporate world is not too worried. Ron Paul doesn't have a chance, and all the other candidates are known corporate players. So any Republican but Paul is a corporate win.

Hillary vs. Any Republican is a Corporate wet dream. Too bad the American voter has been so sidelined by the process. The Parties prepick our top two choices for us and we just get to rubber stamp one or the other. That is not a real choice.