Representative Dennis Kucinich at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, 26 August 2008

It’s Election Day 2008. We Democrats are giving America a wake-up call. Wake up, America. In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neo-con artists seized the economy and have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care.

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the president’s oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq’s oil.

Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia, while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette.

If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four-year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children’s inheritance and hollow out our economy.

We can’t afford another Republican administration. Wake up, America. The insurance companies took over health care. Wake up, America. The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing.

Wake up, America. The speculators took over Wall Street. Wake up, America. They want to take your Social Security. Wake up, America. Multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost.

Wake up, America. We went into Iraq for oil. The oil companies want more. War against Iran will mean $10-a-gallon gasoline. The oil administration wants to drill more, into your wallet. Wake up, America. Weapons contractors want more. An Iran war will cost 5 to 10 trillion dollars.

This administration can tap our phones. They can’t tap our creative spirit. They can open our mail. They can’t open economic opportunities. They can track our every move. They lost track of the economy while the cost of food, gasoline and electricity skyrockets. They skillfully played our post-9/11 fears and allowed the few to profit at the expense of the many. Every day we get the color orange, while the oil companies, the insurance companies, the speculators, the war contractors get the color green.

Wake up, America. This is not a call for you to take a new direction from right to left. This is call for you to go from down to up. Up with the rights of workers. Up with wages. Up with fair trade. Up with creating millions of good paying jobs, rebuilding our bridges, ports and water systems. Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions and protect the environment.

Up with health care for all. Up with education for all. Up with home ownership. Up with guaranteed retirement benefits. Up with peace. Up with prosperity. Up with the Democratic Party. Up with Obama-Biden.

Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Wake up, America.

(more…)

McCain says he does not know how many houses he owns while many are facing foreclosure on the only home they own. And the same people who keep claiming Obama is an elitist get their feathers ruffled when people point out how McCain actually fits that bill.

“Who cares what he has. He earned money and bought them!” they say.

If that were true, you’d think he’d at least have some idea of how many he bought. I know how many houses I have. Like most Americans, I do not mind that McCain’s wife is successful and has a lot of capital. Good for her. I bet she knows how many houses she owns (and if she didn’t, she does now.) Who is more in touch with America? Keep in mind that 85% of Americans make less then $125,000 a year (a far cry from the $5 million McCain thinks of as “rich”).

The reason this is important is that gaffes like not knowing how many houses you own not only make you look out of touch with the average American worker, but easily point out the hypocrisy of Republicans calling Democrats elitists while trying to portray themselves as “everyman”, one of us — like George H. W. Bush not knowing what a supermarket scanner was. Remember that?

But let’s take a look at the word “elite”… as if that is somehow a negative trait.

elite : Someone who is among the best at certain tasks.

I don’t know about you, but I’d prefer to have someone who was the best at running the country, and that isn’t John McCain.

“He will never withdraw all troops from Iraq — because the withdrawal of troops always means surrender to him. He wants a “surge” for Afghanistan. And he has pledged not to raise taxes to pay for any of this. You want a Bush third term? McCain would take us right back to Bush’s first, with bells on.” — Andrew Sullivan

We cannot put another warmonger in the White House where he is liable to do more damage than George W. Bush. Didn’t we learn over the last 8 years that under-achievers propped up by family money and connections are classic examples of the Peter Principle? Let’s try something different for a change.

After eight years of Republican fiscal mismanagement which wiped out the balanced budget the last Democrat in the White House left, we’ve certainly got nothing left to lose and everything to gain.

I’m Not Dead
Pink (2006)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
There’s all these cracks
Crack of sunlight
Crack in the mirror on your lips
It’s the moment of a sunset Friday
When our conversations twist,
It’s the fifth day of ice on a new tattoo
But the ice should be on our heads,
We only spun the wheel to catch ourselves
So we weren’t left for death.

And I was never looking for approval from anyone but you,
And though this journey is over I’ll go back if you ask me to.

I’m not dead, just floating
Right between the ink of your tattoo
In the belly of the beast we turned into,
I’m not scared, just changing
Right beyond the cigarette and the devilish smile
You’re my crack of sunlight

You can do the math a thousand ways, but you can’t erase the facts
That others come and others go, but you always come back
I’m a winter flower underground, always thirsty for summer rain
And just like the change of seasons
I know you’ll be back again

I’m not dead, just floating
Underneath the ink of my tattoo
I’ve tried to hide my scars from you
I’m not scared, just changing
Right beyond the cigarette and the devilish smile
You’re my crack of sunlight, oh

I’m not dead just yet
I’m not dead, I’m just floating
Doesn’t matter where I’m going
I’ll find you
I’m not scared at all
Underneath the cuts and bruises
Finally gained what no one loses
I’ll find you
I will find you

I’m not dead, just floating
I’m not scared, just changing
You’re my crack of sunlight, yeah

None of these snippets, which I have read before in various places, ever really made that much sense to me… until I put them in this order right here on this profile late last night… and got a Whoa! reaction myself from it.

Interesting, no? I’m just not sure what to think about it all.

∞ Infinity ∞

… … … … … … … … …

Jim Morrison (December 8, 1943 - July 3, 1971) was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band, The Doors. He was also an author of several poetry books. Lyrically, the Doors broke new ground in rock music, with Morrison’s complex, surrealist, allusive lyrics exploring themes of sex, mysticism, drugs, murder, madness and death.

Morrison moved to Paris in March 1971 with the intention of concentrating on his writing and quitting drinking. He died on 3 July, 1971, in his bathtub at the age of 27; many fans and biographers have speculated that the cause of death was a drug overdose, but the official report listed “heart failure” as the cause of death, although there was apparently no autopsy performed.

Audio: Riders on the Storm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMvfAYEaE8c

…

…

‘When the doors of perception are cleansed
Things will appear as they are:
Infinite.’

∞ William Blake

…

‘There are things known
and there are things unknown,
and in between are the doors.’

∞ Jim Morrison

…

Moment of inner freedom
when the mind is opened & the
infinite universe revealed
& the soul is left to wander
dazed & confus’d searching
here & there for teachers & friends.

…

People need Connectors
Writers, heroes, stars, leaders
To give life form.
A child’s sand boat facing
the sun.
Plastic soldiers in the miniature
dirt war. Forts.
Garage Rocket Ships

Ceremonies, theatre, dances
To reassert
Tribal needs and memories
a call to worship, uniting
above all, a reversion,
a longing for family and the
safety magic of childhood

…

A man rakes leaves into
a heap in his yard, a pile,
and leans on his rake and
burns them utterly.

The fragrance fills the forest
children pause and heed the
smell, which will become
nostalgia in several years.

…

An angel runs
Thru the sudden light
Thru the room
A ghost precedes us
A shadow follows us
And each time we stop
We fall

…

The Endless quest a vigil
of watchtowers and fortresses
against the sea and time.
Have they won? Perhaps.
They still stand and in
their silent rooms still wander
the souls of the dead,
who keep their watch on the living.
Soon enough we shall join them.
Soon enough we shall walk
the walls of time. We shall
miss nothing
except each other.

…

No one thought up being;
he who thinks he has
Step forward

…

The Crossroads
a place where ghosts
reside to whisper into
the ears of travelers &
interest them in their fate

Hitchhiker drinks:
“I call again on the dark
hidden gods of blood”

-Why do you call us?
You know our price. It
never changes. Death of
you will give you life
& free you from a vile
fate. But it is getting late.

-If I could see you again
& talk w/ you, & walk a
short while in your company,
& drink the heady brew
of your conversations,
I thought

-to rescue a soul already
ruined. To achieve respite.
To plunder green gold
on a pirate raid & bring
to camp the glory of old.

-As the capesman faces
poisoned horns & drinks
red victory; the soldier,
too, w/ his trophy, a
pierced helmet; & the
ledge-walker shuddering
his way into inward grace

-(laughter) Well, then. Would
you mock yourself?

-No.

-Soon our voices must become
one, or one must leave.

…

There was preserved

in her

The fresh miracle

of

surprise.

…

open

The Night is young
& full of rest
I can’t describe
the way she’s dress’d
She’ll pander to some strange
requests
Anything that you suggest
Anything to please her guest

…

AWAKE

Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and
choose the sign of your day
The day’s divinity
First thing you see.
A vast radiant beach
in a cool jeweled moon
Couples naked race down by it’s quiet side
And we laugh like soft, mad children
Smug in the woolly cotton brains of infancy
The music and voices are all around us.
Choose, they croon, the Ancient Ones
The time has come again
Choose now, they croon,
Beneath the moon
Beside an ancient lake
Enter again the sweet forest
Enter the hot dream
Come with us
Everything is broken up and dances.

…

STONED IMMACULATE

I’ll tell you this…
No eternal reward will forgive us now
For wasting the dawn.

Back in those days
everything was simpler and more confused
One summer night, going to the pier

I ran into two young girls
The blonde one was called Freedom
The dark one, Enterprise
We talked and they told me this story

Now listen to this…
I’ll tell you about Texas radio and the big beat
Soft driven, slow and mad

Like some new language
Reaching your head with the cold,
sudden fury of a divine messenger

Let me tell you about heartache
and the loss of god

Wandering, wandering in hopeless night
Out here in the perimeter

there are no stars

Out here we is stoned

Immaculate.

…

THE HITCHHIKER

Thoughts in time and out of season
The Hitchhiker stood by the side of the road
And leveled his thumb
In the calm calculus of reason.

Hi. How you doin’?

I just got back into town,

L.A.

I was out in the desert for awhile

“Riders on the storm”

Yeah. In the middle of it

“Riders on the storm”

Right…

“Into this world we’re born”

Hey, listen, man, I really got a problem

“Into this world we’re thrown”

When I was out on the desert, ya know

“Like a dog without a bone
An actor out on loan”

I don’t know how to tell you

“Riders on the storm”

but, ah, I killed somebody

“There’s a killer on the road”

No…

“His brain is squirming like a toad”

It’s no big deal, ya know

I don’t think anybody will find out about it, but…

“take a long holiday”

just, ah…

“Let your children play”

this guy gave me a ride, and ah…

“If you give this man a ride”

started giving me a lot of trouble

“Sweet family will die”

and I just couldn’t take it, ya know

“Killer on the road”

And I wasted him

Yeah.

…

‘Death makes angels of us all
and gives us wings
where we had shoulders
smooth as ravens claws.’

- Jim Morrison