Build Peace

Drones are State of the Art Death Squad(ron)s

2009-09-24T17:34:00.000-07:00

Creech Air Force Base "no drones" protest this coming Monday. When Drones Attack, Civilians Die.

And now these fearless (they can't be hurt, why should they show fear?) virtual (yep it's like a video game to them--virtually) will be produced at an even faster rate with a spin off program for training these valiant 9-5 warriors who live "normal" lives half a world away from those they kill.

Fly boys like McCain dropping death from on high were bad enough when it came to depersonalization of death delivery, but this train in a virtual world and deploy from a video screen takes the impersonal to a level of disconnect that is even more psychotic than war itself.

Billionaires for Wealthcare Twist Pointy Little Heads

2009-09-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

Media Excises Deep and Murky Context in Pan Am Bomber Story.

2009-08-20T10:37:00.000-07:00

Today's 'featured" news story is on the release of a man from Libya by the Scottish Government from a prison where he was sentenced to serve a life sentence. The man has cancer and is expected to die within 3 months. We know he was convicted for blowing up a transcontinental flight.

My problem with how the media is covering this is that story is being presented without context.

We/the U.S./Reagan blew up some boats off the coast of Libya. They retaliated and blew up a night club, La Belle Disco, killing two U.S. service men and a civilian and wounded many dozens of people. We attempted to assassinate Mumamar Qadaffi in a strike on Qadaffi's home that did not kill him but did kill his infant daughter. Several Libyans then were then involved in the bombing of the flight that was exploded over Lockerbee, Scotland.

Read a recount of this tit for tat escalation that helped no one but killed hundreds. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1653848.stm

Reagan chose to engage in Israeli style "diplomacy" -- i.e. assassination of a a country's leader. The U.S. and most western govenments have chosen not to engage in assassination of leaders as it elevates the person in power to a symbolic level akin to that of a regal status where the person and the government or country are all the same.

If memory serves me, this was also the time the French did not allow overflight and an "errant" bomb fell on the lawn of the French embassy in Libya.   This instance of neener, neener, neener with bombs illustrated a level of in your face immaturity that is intensely troubling and frightening beyond words.

This is akin to the problem implicit within the use of drones. It personalizes war to the level of assassination. To have to have no contact with the people you kill was a trajectory started with the use of aerial bombings. But this trend has expanded to the point that no support staff at all has to walk among the people who will be bombed.   This is supremely arrogant.   Our technological capability has evolved to a level where we cannot justify its use and maintain any sense of humanity. We must do things entirely differently.

My suggestion, train and disperse an educational militia primarily composed of women into areas of conflict and work with the women of the area to solve base level problems that percolate up through society to create international conflict. Raging Grannies and CodePink Women and Women in Black would be a good population from which to initially draw for the corps.

Women, wake up, we have to change all this.

Peace.

Huge Turnout at Phoenix Healthcare Rally Outside Obama's VFW Address

2009-08-17T22:20:00.002-07:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

As I posted earlier in the day, I was at the demonstration outside the VFW gathering where Obama spoke today. I was also near these kooks who were carrying weapons. A few pieces of information that I haven't seen mentioned in the media reports although the Maddow video above does briefly show the donkey hanging in effigy.

The people carrying the guns were parading their weaponry through the "other" side crowds. The intention of the police and permitters and such were clearly focused on keeping the opposing factions apart on opposite sides of the street. What I've not seen mentioned is how the person carrying the lynched stuffed animal had hateful notes pinned to the stuffed toy, marched directly into the opposing demonstrators and attempted to instigate confrontation and conflict and were quickly (within 5 minutes) joined by the guys with assault weapons. There were very clear provocateurs who were there at the rally to stir up trouble. I should also mention that the guns that were holstered on legs were within a foot or so of small children, in strollers next to their slightly older toddler siblings who were within grab range of the and at the very same level as the weapons.

Talking to people who are active in progressive politics and demonstrations in the Phoenix area I heard from a couple different individuals that these guys often show up, attempt to intimidate and are close supporters of Joe Arpaio. This association between extremely conservative police factions, the self proclaimed minute men and "freepers" in the Phoenix to U.S. Mexican border area is an area of great concern to me. I wrote about it 3 years ago when I was threatened by a "counter" demonstrator outside a military recruitment office -- this man told me that I was a traitor and would have been hanged to death in other times. The the threat and attempted intimidation was clear... not all of these times were necessarily in the past.

A brave soul has been valiantly continuing to stand, often alone, in an anti-recruitment protest at least that occurs at least one a week for years, before and after, the incidents I witnessed 3 years ago. This woman protester (in her late 70s) has been harassed and threatened by an individual from Tucson gun toting, Freeper thugs who "counter protest" at the recruitment center and had to go back to court a second time, from what I understand ( I need to interview her and others who attended the court hearing to cover this significant story that has had absolutely zero attention from "journalists" in the Tucson area) to keep this thuggish person and his threats and legal harassment away from her. It has taken years to even get the courts to acknowledge that there is targeted personal harassment and intimidation of regular citizens - little old ladies in fact - by thugs within the vigilante border guard/Joe Arpaio's posse/cocaine trafficking military recruiters/"Freeper" network. There is systematic assault and intimidation of the exercise of free speech by progressives in the central and southern Arizona region.

The police in Phoenix seemed far more neutral than the police in Tucson have seemed from my experience. I've been called on to private property by Tucson cops who then proceeded to cite me for trespassing. I've had police show up at my home's door and have them inform my terrified daughter they could arrest me any time they chose. Military - police - vigilante - wacko connections should be investigated.

There are radical right groups in AZ who are dangerous. Assault weapons and provocateurs are a dangerous combination. Perhaps you remember Timothy McVey and his Kingman connections?

I think this is enough for now.

Pro Public Healthcare Turnout in Phoenix is HUGE!

2009-08-17T11:51:00.001-07:00

It's been a long, long time since I posted here. Many fires each with many irons.

I'm writing from the Fair Trade Cafe & Gallery @1020 N. 1st Avenue in Phoenix... just across from the Roosevelt/Central Ave. light rail stop (metro?) azfairtrade.com   Just checked out of a fairly priced room at the Lexington that we got on Priceline.com This morning we met up with the Democratic contingent to welcome Obama and publicly, visibly and vocally support public options for healthcare for all.

Compared to some of my past actions this was vanilla. I am actually a bit perturbed that our President is caving to corporate interest and withdrawing from public options and he is still using drones to kill civilians.

I carried a black sign that read in pink duct tape letters, "A.I.G. killed my brother! " I now feel like I've done a little bit toward the working for justice in health care that my brother Max and I talked about the last time I ever saw him. He was dying from a recurrent, but slow to metastasize cancer that had been successfully managed for 15 years while my brother worked at a factory. When he retired his health care coverage situation changed and he could no longer get routine screening to catch the cancer in its earliest stages. I wanted to stay in Indiana and be with him, but I had driven through just to see him on my way to the Counter-Inaugural that January. He told me to go and continue working for justice and equality. It was hard but I left him and went on to D.C. knowing that would be the last time I would ever see him, hug him, or talk with him. He died two months later in March of 2005.

Saw Arizona Lizzie -- Ms. CODEPINK .   So proud of her!

Finally today I stood out in public FOR health care for ALL amidst the wacko effigy-lynching, Glock and AR15 carrying right wing nuts.

Just had a wonderful conversation with Raquel from reformimmigationforamerica.org in the coffee house. Perhaps we Dems are finally learning to work together.   Wouldn't that be wonderful!

More later.   These are just initial basic impressions.

Zen Activism

2009-05-22T11:47:00.001-07:00

There is a part of me that seems to be holding onto a great amount of regret or guilt about my becoming less active in the Peace Movement.

There is a part of me that wants to experience a normal, calm, happy life.

There is a part of me in which the fight or flight response is always active. Years of living like this created what I think of as burned out circuitry that is partially responsible for my chronic depression.

I stepped back from activism and writing last autumn after the election in order to give myself some time and space to figure out what to do in the next phase of my life. Health concerns then entered the picture.

Deciding to focus on becoming healthy and just being happy is one of the most selfish decisions I've ever made. I confess I feel some sense of guilt about "abandoning" the peace movement. I will deal with this and come to a place where I feel satisfied with what I have been able to do and what I may be able to do in the future when I am healthy and have a renewed vigor and sense of purpose. And I still have the virtual world in which I can promote the message of peace.

Being on the front lines of the peace movement is stressful. I've had so much stress in my life that the addition of constant awareness of the world's pain, physical threats, traveling and being away from home pushed me over the limit of my tolerances.

As a mother I consider the examples that are set by my choices. I wanted to teach my daughter to be politically active and to believe that individual actions make a difference. I wanted to show my daughter that even though my mother was not always the best mother in the world that I chose to be the best daughter I could be at the end of my mother's life when I moved into her home in another state and cared for her as she left this life. And now I hope I am showing my daughter that I do what is necessary to take care of myself even if it means totally changing my way of life in order to become healthy.

One of these days I will be able to do these things for myself, but for now it is okay that I do them for her.

SRI medication has helped me live a somewhat normal life this past decade. Unfortunately this past decade is also the one in which my personal belief system required me to act, protest, and write whenever I could to help build the grassroots efforts to restore our country to some semblance of a democracy.

some of these
So how does one weigh the actions that are so different? I have taken steps toward creating a virtual meeting company, I am working on a book about living well and being positively focused as a healing strategy. I enjoy a part time position that allows me to play with computers in a calm and healthful environment. I am sometimes at less than my best and have pain associated with my liver disease. We are just now finishing what has turned out to be a 10 year progressive remodeling of our home.

Repurposing This Blog: Build Peace

2009-05-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Over the last six months I have given a tremendous amount of thought to starting a new blog that better reflects my current take on "life, the universe and everything" than my build peace blog. Everytime I would find the perfect domain name for a new venture and begin to build a new whirling mass of me-ness in cyberspace I'd find that I missed this blog into which I had put so much energy for so many years. Please allow me to be a bit self-reflective here and a bit self-reflexive too as I deconstruct my thought processes about writing and blogging about inner peace, world peace, paths to peace, tools of peace, tools for peace, and... well you get the idea.

I have to admit I heaved a huge sigh of relief the evening of the election, Tuesday November 4th, when I gathered with a couple thousand other Tucsonans to watch the returns come in at the University Marriott. I will never forget standing next to a long retired colleague of my husband who came to the U of A after being booted from the California University system during the highly political days of the free speach civil rights era turbulence of the early 1960s and who helped establish ACLU to this Old West enclave. As McCain was conceeding defeat I happened to see this man's face as complete and utter joy washed over it.

At that time I decided that I was going to take a couple days off for R & R. I ended up taking off six months.   Long story, short version: I had continuing pain after a bout with the stomach flu and ended up finding out I have Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver between Thanksgiving and Christmas. After my esteemed scientifically-gifted genius research professor husband (he might read this, lol) looked at the literature, we think that the combination of anti-depressants I've been on for many years could have contributed to the development of this condition as well as my being significantly overweight.   It could relate to the invasive and often toxic medical tests and treatments I underwent as a child. I never had hepatitis nor am I an alcoholic.

I don't do well with being ill.   It makes me depressed. I have been working on, and off -- a lot of off, some on -- on a book about my childhood experience on the receiving end of my mother's instability that I have come to realize falls into the range of behavior that has been termed Munchause Syndrome by Proxy. At least partially due to being "sickly" and kept out of school and shuttled from doctor to doctor when I was little so that it was not uncommon for me to miss up to 100 school days a year during my primary education.

My journals during the teen years are painful to read but allowed me as a middle-aged adult to see that my isolation during my childhood coupled with being thrust into the socially topsy-turvy, psychedelic and sexually liberated world of the 1970s as a totally naive, socially incompetent, pathologically shy human being were the primary factors that contributed to multiple rapes, exploitation, and emotionally abusive relationships, and less than wise choices that pretty much characterized my teens and young adult life.

Writing helped save my life time and again when the blank page or screen was the only tool through which I could communicate - even if that communication was basically just me talking to myself.   I became fairly good at this apparently, and the winning of a state-wide writing competition in High School allowed me to win scholarships that made it possible for me to attend college.   Writing continued to be my main communication channel with the world as I wrote essays, exams, reports and post-graduate research reports and theses.

Then the internet evolved into the web and I reached out through words and found that while I was a social mutant (and mutations can be a very good thing that allow the process of evolution to happen) I was also thinking things and making observations that other people found interesting and sometimes even amusing when I wrote about them. I was blogging long before a thing called a web log existed.

Then CODEPINK and I found each other. This blog, Build Peace, has been the most consistent and meaningful body of my writing to date. It allowed me to enter the BlogHer community of women's online voices.

A few days ago I was talking to a Second Life friend about my dilemma of attempting to shift my peace activism and writing from a broader and more tempered perspective than I had in Build Peace. She said, "Repurpose the blog." Initially I thought, "Ugh, corporate speak. Yuck. Ptooey." But then, trying to live the peace and be the peace I write about, I decided that I can continue writing/blogging about info that helps me build my own peace and share that with others that is the only way peace in our world will ever be built - person to person, one word at a time.... and with my bias showing I will further state that a sustainable peace must be built by women talking to each other and creating the world we want for our children.

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

Words like emergence, energy work, calmness, spiritual, belief, attraction and the like will be far more common here than in the past. I will talk about my struggle to lose weight, the challenge of shifting to an empty nest at home, and about healing. Politics will undoubtedly creep in... I've been political since I was about 10, but I will try to mediate my outrage and use words like Fascist and F**k far less often and perhaps not at all from this time forward. Maybe I can even get the Huffington Post to end their ban on links to my site in their comments.   Purportedly this is because of profanity.   We'll see.

Anyway, consider this blog repurposed. The appearance will change dramatically. The content may too.    Peace to you all.

I'm thankful for the brave women of the peace movement.

2008-11-26T22:58:00.002-07:00

Ann Wright, Jodie Evans, and Medea Benjamin are in Iran on a citizens diplomacy mission. I just finished reading a blog entry from Jodie. Thank heavens for citizens like them. They are such a disparate group: retired military, green party and fair trade activist, and political and eco campaigner and activist. I have met and talked to and protested with and shared floor space and food with Ann and Medea more often than with Jody, so I know a have stronger impressions of Ann and Medea than Jodie, but I know each of the three is dedicated to working for peace in the way every CODEPINK activist knows peace must be created -- through person to person contact and understanding.

These women have blazed some amazing trails. I never thought I would travel around as an activist, but for me trekking to D.C. to be a main street lobbyist has become "normal." The paths these women opened up were just too tempting for me and thousands of other U.S. women to resist following.

With diplomacy once again an officially sanctioned mode of interaction, who knows what sort of wonderful connections could be forged or furthered by women who read Jodie's blog entry about her travels and are inspired to undertake their own diplomatic missions.

We rarely know what impact we may have on people -- but we can know that if we work for good in all our interactions that well, we should have positive impact. Enough of those little nudges can move a planet.

So read Jodie's recounting of the things these three women are up to, and then be thankful for all we have and then go out and change the world.

2008-11-22T07:35:00.000-07:00

Virtual Worlds, Social Media, & Social Justice

I'm coming up for air in physical life and immersing myself in virtual life after the U.S. election. I've been a CODEPINK Women for Peace activist for over five years. This election does not signal the end of CODEPINK work; we're not politically motivated, we are peacefully motivated.

Military forces are still making war, not promoting peace, so our work isn't done. I am however breathing deeply and relaxing a good bit now that an intelligent, diplomatically inclined man (sigh) is headed for the White House. This gives me the freedom to branch out a bit in my efforts to work for peace and justice.

On December 10th people from all over the world will join together to celebrate and further advance the goals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted and proclaimed by
General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) on 10 December 1948. I'm working with people from the U.S., U.K, Sweden, Italy and a host of other countries on a celebration that will last almost a week in the common countryside that is the virtual world of Second Life. I won't try to explain virtual worlds beyond saying what was once a game platform where people moved online characters that represented them in a game around a 3D graphic representaton of a world. My online representation, my avatar, is named Ana (Ana and Nancy have the same root meaning so that let's the very nerdy me identify with my avatar more deeply than a silly name might have allowed).... Anyway Ana has been an entity in the virtual world of Second Life for two and a half years. In that time she/I has started a virtual chapter of CODEPINK Women for Peace and developed real relationships with people around the world who are also working for peace and justice.

I've linked avatar hands in solidarity with hundreds of other folks in support of Burmese Monks standing up to tyrrany and protesting for democracy, protested Newt Gingrich's first major Second Life appearance that was streamed into the virtual world from where he was speaking in Atlanta, joined with lots of avatars from around the world protesting the G8 summit, and dropped virtual banners off virtual Washington monuments, as well as providing information about things CODEPINK was doing in the physical world. You can see pics of some of these actions in Ana's Flickr pics.
Many folks say this is just "play" protest, but it is just as real as protesters you may drive by on the street and think for a second or two (or hopefully more) about the cause they in which they are proclaiming support. The ultimate aim of any protestation is influence through the dispersal or broadcast of information to an audience that does not already possess that information.
The structure of the celebration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights draws on Second Life's popular usage as a "place" to share and enjoy live music. People in their homes or studios around the globe have their avatars "play" at virtual clubs and cafes in the virtual world and people from everywhere have their avatars show up to listen to the music and dance. It can be difficult to picture until you have done it, but the experience is very real for the participants. The HRF (Human Rights Festival) in SL (Second Life) is gathering together some of the most sought after performers in Second Life who will play at various locations around "the grid" which is just another name for any virtual world or all virtual worlds. (Yes, Second Life is but one of many virtual worlds in a rapidly developing interconnected grid of grids.) People (avatars) who follow those particular performers or want to take a date to a concert or cafe or club will show up at the various places where the music is being played. Non-activists will be exposed to the Human Rights Exhibits that are also in those locations. Mission accomplished.

Anyway I wanted to share my happiness that I can now more fully dedicate myself to exploring how to use the grid for the betterment of humankind now that I don't feel I have to dedicate most of my energies to counteracting the influence of the Bush-Cheney administration.
I'm very excited about the development of the virtual world as meeting space as it allows a much greater potential for global friendship and interaction than has previously been possible as well as a host of other benefits such as the saving of fuel when complex meetings that require more presence and personal commitment than a simple cnference call or video conference. Promoting virtual meetings is such a great area for women entrepreneurs, too. And then there is the whole "differently abled people are not differently abled in virtual worlds - unless they want to be" thing, and how these virtual platforms will liberate the eldery, mobility challenged individuals to walk hand in hand on beaches with old and new loves.

I'm so psyched up about all this, there are so many opportunities to explore and create!

post script: I will cross post this to a couple of my blogs as well as an entry on Blogher. I apologize for any duplication to which you may be exposed due to this cross posting.

Act NOW or kiss your freedom good-bye

2008-10-10T15:14:00.002-07:00

The Bush Coup is happening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20975.htm

The coup occurred on October 1, 2008. An armed insurrection has taken place.

Press your District Attorneys NOW to arrest the Bush Administration.

Here Come The Fascists

2008-09-16T10:00:00.003-07:00

RFK, Jr. leads a call for awareness of the vile and violent bigoted philosophies that informs Palin's small town conservatism.

Fascist writer Westbrook Pegler, an avowed racist who Sarah Palin approvingly quoted in her acceptance speech for the moral superiority of small town values, expressed his fervent hope about my father, Robert F. Kennedy, as he contemplated his own run for the presidency in 1965, that "some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow flies."

I read that she tried to get one of my favorite authors, Madelaine L'Engle, books banned from her town's library. Here's the story,

"Sarah Palin never asked anyone to ban a book as Mayor. As Mayor -- of a Wal-Mart and a snowmobile trail -- she was only interested in censorship in general.

As the New York Times reported this weekend, she only pushed to ban books by name when she was on the city council.

I hope that clears up everything.

Why was it so important for Brian Rogers to slip in the words "as Mayor" a week ago, before anyone had heard about Sarah Palin's city council campaign to protect Alaska from Daddy's Roommate?"

I no longer have any tolerance for hair splitting truth tellers who are micro-meters from lies in order to further their goals through deception. Vile, lying, neo-con, fundamentalists who would impose their narrow, violent, sexist, biogoted world view on us all. Eff em. This is war. I'm declaring war on fundamentalism -- all fundamentalism descended from the intolerance of Abraham's world view -- Christian, Islamic, or Judaic.

(P.S. if such attitudes of "I'm doing well so God must favor me " informed by just this kind of thinking hadn't been allowed to prosper under deregulated skies, the 2nd Great Depression wouldn't be gaining steam as we speak. Squelch the facsistic tendencies of the police state that can flip into power seemingly in an instant in such times. Poll watchers/election observers arrested. Peaceful protesters exercising their rights of free speech and journalists attempting to cover their stories are intimidated, brutalized, and jailed. What are we waiting for, a "Krystal Nacht?" -- I write this as Alan Greenspans wife, Andrea Mitchell, interviews Carly Fiorino, a fired HP Exec who walked away with a severance balloon of somewhere around 40 million dollars, about the mess our country is in. Now that is journalsim.... AAEEeee and ARGH!")

Palin is sooo retro!

2008-09-06T23:06:00.004-07:00

RNC protest - it's a wrap.

2008-09-05T09:18:00.006-07:00

There is so much that didn't make it in to the corporate media -- I don't know where to begin. So I will start with CODEPINK. It is interesting to note that the dark blond woman who had the banner ripped out of her hands is a constituent of John McCain who knows he has done nothing for the people of Arizona although he has helped corporate Arizona -- and with the trickle down effect has p---ed all over the people of Arizona.

The night before Medea and Jodie engaged in a free speech act at Palin's speech.

Here you can see real journalistic news coverage of the act of free speech:

A very Republican friend of mine summarized his reaction to the free speech engaged in by Liz and Nancy last night during the McCain speech after I distributed a URL to AP coverage of my pink sisters that lands at a video of the event near the spot on the page where the speech act is accessible under the heading "Protest...." I find it interesting that I couldn't link directly to the proper video. Oh well.

"I KNEW it. You CodePinksters are a resourceful, albeit deeply irritating (but that is the point, after all, isn't it?) lot!

Though I disagree with your group's policy prescriptions, I am glad to see someone was able to penetrate the unconstitutional barriers to free speech both parties erected on the pretext of security concerns. I only wonder why Code Pink did not crash the love fest at Mile High Stadium, also, or did they but went unheard in such a massive, outdoor venue?"

You can see that Pinksters interupt Obama too in the video immediately above.

CODEPINK actions at the RNC on Flickr.

I believe the Make Out Not War action best captured the spirit of CODEPINK - presenting the other side of the coin per the war in and occupation of Iraq in a non-violent jester inspired manner that can even make people laugh until they stop and think deeply about the action -- then tears are likely.

Things were not quite as peachy for journalists engaging in what is supposed to be doubly protected reporting through free speech acts instances of free speech acts. Amy Goodman was arrested when asking to speak to a police officer in charge so as to find out where the cops in Darth Vader suits had taken two of her producers they had arrested. I recommend watching the entire program to get a feel for the abuse of power that went on throughout the entire RNC. Amy Goodman got the most attention of the group but several other journalists were detained, arrested, and charged with very serious misdemeanors or felonies.

If you don't have time to watch the entire video -- go to the end so you can see a reporter summarize another event where the police were way out of line to begin with... but then exaccerbated the situation by rounding up the journalists too.

This doesn't even begin to cover the huge number of other outrageous acts instigated by the police. Here are links to just a few.

Pepper spray directed directly and purposesively into the eyes of a photojournalist.

From the blogosphere, Pam's House Blend covers the situation well.

Here's the photo of police abuse of a protester that got the photographer arrested. This could have broken the protester's neck or crushed his throat.

More than 50,000 have already signed on to a petition delivered today to St. Paul City Hall to have charges against journalists dropped.

Photography is not a crime discussion on flickr is worth checking out. So is this about photographer's rights.

And then there are the hundreds of arrests that even CNN finds used questionable tactics as well as pre-emptive search and seizures.

And then there was the arrest of a photographer last week at the DNC who took a pic of a democratic honcho and some big donors who was arrested -- that must have been a warm up.

Information Inequity - Candidates & Protesters

2008-08-30T08:31:00.004-07:00

According to Project Vote Smart: Senator John Sidney McCain III repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on the issues through the 2008 Political Courage Test when asked to do so by national leaders of the political parties, prominent members of the media, Project Vote Smart President Richard Kimball, and Project Vote Smart staff. So he doesn't want to share his intentions with his constituents.

Contrast this with the information stolen from the Convergence Center in a raid - at gunpoint - by St. Paul cops for reasons they don't want to make public. Sounds just a bit Gestapo-esque to me. They took pictures of the 50 people inside the rented space. These protesters were the ones who dress in black and wear bandannas to protect their identity. I guess the cops wanted to be sure they knew the identity of all the protesters even though the cops guard their identities with face shields and depersonalizing armor that masque their faces the whole time they are in the streets, and even when their is no provocation as was the case in Denver their mirrored sun glasses and weapons will strike down any imagined threat before it can develop.

Protesters use convergence centers for regrouping, eating, internet connectivity for research, props creation, training of newbies in safety and legal issues.

This pre-emptive strike by cops does not bode well for the next week.

Unity or Bust

2008-08-26T22:32:00.004-07:00

I wish things were different than they are, but all things considered, H. R. Clinton did an admirable job tonight at the DNC. I wish I could have supported a woman. I wish I could have supported Clinton. But her stance on the war made that impossible. At least it was good to see that she got to use the best of the campaign slogans her team had created. No way, no how, no McCain. Twins McCain and Bush in the Twin Cities. Can't survive four more years of the past eight years. And the evocation of Tubman's "keep on going" was very moving. I for one was impressed.

Now if Obama would just address torture, surveillance, and endless war in an appropriate manner I would be a happy camper.

There is much more to say on this topic... per parallels with slavery and womens suffrage for example... but I'm on a borrowed computer. My hard drive mysteriously died yesterday as the DNC opened. 10th hard drive in 5 years. Hmmmm. Statistically improbable. Put that together with them dying when week long progressive protest actions were beginning and well... that is statistically impossible.

Oh well.

Wake Up America. John McCain is Senator from a Pit of Corruption.

2008-08-23T09:38:00.004-07:00

This is the first of many posts that will be made over the next couple of months that highlight John McCain and what his interests and protection of interests vital to his family's continuing wealth have done to Arizona. This article by Halbfinger in yesterday's New York Times offers tantalizing details that require further investigation about financial holdings and interests of the McCain family. Family is an interesting term to use here, as it also has a more foreboding connotation illustrated to me by a friend of mine who was told by his Chicago-based "labor relations" father-in-law ---whose son has a beer distributorship in Northern Indiana--- "Ya don't juss marry da girl, ya marry da Family." McCain's children and wife, THE McCAIN FAMILY either run and/or hold significant shares in the massive Cindy Hensley McCain owned beer distributorship in Arizona.

I live in Arizona. October 2nd I will be into my third decade lived in Arizona under the regal rule of the very small number of families that control almost every aspect "plantation Arizona." My life has been impacted by the lack of concern these families, such as the McCain family, have for the people of the state. John McCain has never lived in this state, he has flown over the lives of the little people in strata above the everyday lives his entire time he has been associated with the richest women the state. He was arm candy for little Cindy Lou.

But Arizona ranks low in taxes on beer. Close to 20% lower than the national average on alcohol taxes. Hmmmmm. What people are side-stepping is what the beer distributorship, the Keating Five, and Marley connections imply. Organized crime. Perhaps mobster perhaps not.... organized crime comes in all sorts of white collars in Arizona.

Wake up America! You don't want anything to do with any successful politician from this corrupt state.

Women Political Commentators Score! But...

2008-08-20T19:25:00.004-07:00

Rachel Maddow gets her own show on MSNBC! I'm reporting solely from what I read in a Commondreams repost of a Washington Post article as I just got home from work and opened my laptop and whooped with joy at seeing a female Rhodes scholar rewarded for her wit and wisdom in political reporting. About damn time!

I could not care less about what Maddow's sex life does or does not include. Not my business. I don't know what Keith Oberman is into sexually nor would I care to know -- yet I am given information by national print media that is of absolutely no business of mine about Rachel Maddow 's sexual orientation. Two steps forward, one step back.

I was delighted when I started seeing the Air America radio host turn up on Keith Oberman's show. Maddow is well spoken, intelligent, witty, well-informed, young and female.

We're getting there. No where close to 51-52% of the hosts and commentators in political media though.....

Week in Review: Baby Steps Toward Justice Just a Diversion

2008-08-03T03:38:00.006-07:00

Ted Stevens' indicted for falsification of documents yet Halliburton continues on unscathed though they broke contracts, failed to deliver on what they had contracted to do, and allowed men and women to be killed for no purpose rather than profit.

This McClatchy article links to all the pertinent documents on the Stevens indictment. This DPC report links to House testimony and supporting documentation of abuse.

So what has McCain done for the people of Arizona this week, or ever? Oh, we know he helps out his buddies such as Don Diamond but really what has he done for Arizona? Someone, please help me out here. Seems to me like he is only around Tucson for photo ops with Bush, or to meet with corporate interest groups. I'd loe to have some answers to this question.

Rambling, Synchronicity & Stuff in the Offing

2008-07-27T20:49:00.002-07:00

No time to write (and that really means research as after the research is done the writing happens as if by magic.... yeah right on a good day....) involved posts in the last week. Immediately after returning from BlogHer 08 I came down with a hellacious case of cold/flu. Now I'm really behind and I have to return Rae's call about blogging and/or Second Life involvement of CODEPINK in the DNC and RNC activities, protests, marches and street art. Of course there is work, my personal life and my non-blog writing. Oh there is also the intermittent activity with the property back in Indiana. If I start sounding sloshy it is just because I am drooling in my shoes --- too many things going on and I can't really piggy back any of them on each other. AND ---- my cat has started taking the occasional crap on the thrown rug in our bathroom in front of my husband's sink.

Speaking of smelly disgusting things, check out this pic of the diagram from Salon about the overlapping criminal spheres and which scum bags were involved in which treasonous activities. I can't bring myself to use the namby pamby word "scandals" for these overt criminal acts of deception and hundreds of other misuses and abuses of the judiciary and unconstitutional attacks on privacy.

On Slate you can click on the various plots, ugly actions, and crimes against the constitution and the various criminals and find out a bit about the facts and interpretations of actions. Well worth checking out.

When I start to get too over-heated with steam coming out of my ears about the state of the nation (not to mention the world) I've found that hunting for public domain out of copyright images (see below) for import into Second Life, and playing Scrabble on Pogo.comis really a good getaway from politics and the frustration I feel about politics.

Okay, that's it for now -- next time -- P. W. Songbird.

Rove, Citizen's Arrest, and Federal Judges

2008-07-26T22:03:00.001-07:00

Four peace activists Mona Shaw 57, Kirk Brown 25, Chet Guinn 80, and Frank Cordaro 61 were arrested and charged with trespassing when they attempted to place Karl Rove under citizen's arrest yesterday as Rove spoke at a Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines where he was scheduled to speak at a Republican Fundraiser. Iowa law contains reference to the obligation of citizens to place persons who have committed felonies under arrest until law enforcement can transport the person to a hearing before a Federal Judge.

The only problem is that these sort of people, people within the Bush administration who are guilty of treason or sedition, never step foot outside walled enclaves when coming out "in public" and walk very quickly between limos and heavily policed buildings. There is something wrong with this picture.

Shouldn't the police have assisted these patriotic folks, average age 62, who were only doing their civic duty (remember that phrase from your high school government class?) Instead they arrest citizen's doing what the law and a good conscience requires of them.

Cordara and Shaw had previously attempted a citizen's arrest of Rove in 2007. Last year these two were released without charge when detained by the police, this year they were charged with trespassing.

I hope this sort of thing happens more and more frequently. These criminals believe they are above the law. They are not. Condi had to dodge New Zealand Students as the Auckland University's Student Association is offering $5,000 reward for the citizen's arrest of Condoleeza Rice.

I like the way this is progressing. " If not us, who? If not now, when? "

"Yee Ha! Let's arrest us some war criminals!"

Read the press release from the Reverend and the Catholic Workers DesmoinesCatholicWorker.org has video, news coverage, and additional information for those interested.

Senate Hearing on FLDS/Polygamy and a personal rant on religious freedom and the separation of church and state.

2008-07-24T11:08:00.001-07:00

I didn't catch most of this hearing as I didn't read my email that said that Terry Goddard would be testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary panel on the FLDS and Polygamy and that it would be on C-Span 3 as well as streamed on the internet. My sketchy notes are at the very bottom of this rant. :-)

Many women I know watched in horror as the abuse of children became evident when the FLDS compound in Texas came under scrutiny and massive media coverage a few months ago when hundreds of children were removed and again when they were returned to the compound.

The absolute authority of religious doctrine over how a family conducts its business, both private and public, if it wishes to remain within a congregation of a church is nothing new. I happen to have a couple of my ancestral family branches come from a group of people who attempted to leave the Catholic Church a few centuries ago in Switzerland only to meet with horrific torture and death before escaping the country and then continent. The FLDS may be a much smaller group than other larger organized religions within which the repressive doctrine of absolute servitude to a single person through whom God speaks is at the core of the religion but it is not the only one and certainly not the most sizable example.

This is why the men, with significant input from their wives and scholarly female friends, wrote the constitution to address the centuries of inequity in European governments and religions with which they were most familiar and which they were specifically addressing in the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States of America, and the Bill of Rights - the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. They addressed both the tyranny of monarchy and religion albeit they addressed it in a bit more diplomatic manner speaking of freedoms. The flip side of any freedom is the tyranny to which it stands in contrast.

People in the United States, especially in the Mid-West where I grew up, don't like to talk about religion or politics,at least not in "polite company." As far as I have been able to discern, "in polite company" means in the company of women, children, in groups of diverse background be they socially, ethnically, or economically diverse. In other words, don't stir up the rabble with potentially revolutionary thought. Ha! They don't know me very well do they? Obviously someone like me, questioning everything from the get go, did not fit in well with those folks who were interested in preserving or conserving the status quo. Society needs a few folks like me or we would stagnate and die. Too many folks like me and we would become unstable with a lack of integrative infrastructure. At least that is the simplistic view. Complex systems are way too hard to talk about, so we simplify and get the basics wrong from time to time. That is just the human condition.

Let me let you in on a little secret. Tories still exist. Monarchists still exist. Just because people are living in the U.S.A. doesn't mean they actually support the tenets of our Representative Democracy. Most of the folks who don't support democracy don't even know they aren't supporting it. Religious freedom (which can also be read as freedom from specific religious tenets,) equal protection under the law, and freedom of speech are the pillars of our fledgling democratic state. And yes, we are still fledgling. The United States is less than 250 years old. We allowed slavery until 150 years ago, and women have had the vote for less than 100 years. This is all transitory and very unstable. This is why every citizen of the U.S.A. has responsibilities as well as rights. If we don't exercise these responsibilities then everything will disappear. Poof. No more democracy. Anyone who attempts to impose his or her way of thought and belief on you is engaging in distinctly un-American activities. When people say that by not allowing them to impose their way of thought that I am imposing mine, well let's just say that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. I don't expect or want others to view the biosphere as a complex living system that holds special spiritual meaning for them. I like my own view of life and love.

Don't talk about religion or politics (or sex) in polite company. WTF? We have to talk about these things. Nothing gets me madder than a swarm of killer bees than perfectly competent women saying that they don't get involved in politics. Ick. Ptooey. Hack. Spit. That leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Who is carrying their share of the political responsibility? No. NOT their husbands! Their husbands do not understand the impact of current policies on families in the intimate way that women do. Allowing men more political input than women pretty much guarantees that education, health and the general welfare of the common person will take a back seat to areas where there is a concentration of male power: territorial aspects of life like borders, both real and imagined, and large symbolic tributes to power and status. It's okay, that is just how they are, for the most part.

I simply wish women would look at where submission, deference, and allegiance to a centralized patriarchy leads... to Warren Jeffs and if allowed to become ineradicably entrenched in society and culture to the cruel and immoral domination of papacy as represented by many corrupt papal regimes throughout the ages.

We need equal access to education so that all children are presented with access to the best understanding of art, literature, science, and world geography and history that our country can offer them. These children have a right to be well fed before the school day starts, as well as well fed in the evening when they complete their homework. These children have a right to healthcare. These children have a right to childhood, adolescence and early adulthood that broadens their understanding of the world and opportunities that it holds.

Religious indoctrination cuts off these avenues of learning and opportunity at an earlier age than the age of consent, the age of majority, and the age of full adult citizenship. Anything that cuts off opportunity to full rights and privileges as an adult is decidedly not American in spirit if not in law.

The separation of church and state, equality under the law, and the right to freedom of expression are all being denied by religious groups in the United States. Speak up women. Speak up for our children.

----------
Notes from the last few minutes of the hearing
______

human trafficking -- it is not the travel - it is the servitude.

the land they purchase

income streams, laundry of money in Nevada and Wyoming through corporations

task force

centralization of property and power to the leaders of FLDS
Bryce canyon property sold for 8 million - probably to fund legal
members of the community regularly go without pay for work
businesses were expected in the 1980s to turn over ownership to the church
mid to late 1990s leadership determined not only who marries whom but also how long they stay married to whom. "shem dear you need to get dressed and meet me at uncle Rolands--- I've been released from your father. 3 wives of his father -- he was not worthy of three wives. sons were admonished to support the church. "the time is too short, there is no support
waren and roland. women were remarried to others -- home was taken -- financial support without visitation of children. 2000 - stop doing business with those who have left and remove any such employees. 1999 end of the world was immanent. This gentleman spoke of his father, himself, his brothers -- 70 year old father had to drive alone -- unlike usual practice of traveling with a family member which he no longer had -- and he careened into a ravine to his death later that day --- with no skid marks evident.

Wooing the Blogging Mama Demographic -- my notes on Hybrid Media session

2008-07-23T12:34:00.001-07:00

I am so amazed by the energy put into commercial support of this conference. That is both good and bad. Corporatization (is that a word?)-- changes the game.

----------------
Panel:
redbook, essence, bravo
Lisa Stone (moderator), Stacy Morrison, Lesley Inckney and Lisa Hsia
----------------

Bravo -- old media &. new media

revenues from this

also learning how to monetize and grow the audience

project runway (Hsia)

1-2 % respond in most interactive polls
98% respond to bravo and project runway

-------
Redbook -- diary of V. Diary of E. biggest draw. 2nd referer after giveaways. authentic -- comments have to
2nd largest web mag. property.
but if you like redbook please buy one once in a while.

--------
Time Warner/ Essence not as restrictive as they once work. have loosened up.

media is inherently is grassroots now

malest oldest rooms she's ever been in.

-------
fox & nbc
huloo (spelling?)
trying all the new ad models

kaboodle -- hearst

redbook
i only want to make the best mistakes

essence
try telling these old male folks that they will
never be dominant
never be perfect

-------
constant effort to tell personal stories

-----
sex life roadtest
take it to tv

----
shoot em up kill em
romantic comedies
oscar winners
-----

recruiting bloggers
creating an ad network

--

ivillage = nbc = fox

-----
innovation
corp. won't do quick......

time warner wants to own twitter not use it

smaller network and just do it

it's not don't do it
it is you have to wait

redbook reaches across the country evenly
except washington and oregon
not just shoes and cosmopolitan
thinks that redbook is a family magazine

change the font - lose the audience
she is a professional empath.

she represents an openness to every idea
but she has to censor 25 % of her self

-----

use versus be the media

-------
would be nice to have mega corps change from support incubation .....rather than just buy/own......

--------
big furry beard
snowboarder
mike dunn
if you see him at a meeting it is going to be big

---------

netroots & blogher joint session

2008-07-18T15:36:00.001-07:00

twitter as a support tool
gives reg. folks undeniable voice and reach.
it's been fun too
celebs and pol. change. -
how to reach nonpolitical folks -- what political social networking tools -- harry potter & sirius black - dumbledors army ---- dumbledoors army in the real world
myspace ---bands -- wizards rock the vote --

"voldemore can't stop the rock"

love of a mother for her child is the greatest force

36 million women on line and blogging and they are talking about politics

mommy bloggers aren't just about potty training

corporations?

twittering.... facebook...

streaming netroots blogher and live from the web and twittering
reflexivity on reflexivity
fractal communication

darfur tibet myamar/burma..... allow supportive action and giving

all this intersects.

we need to become the traditional media and have it take a back seat

world domination

2012!

What we believe: how to take names and be taken seriously as a political blogger.

2008-07-18T14:07:00.001-07:00

Morra Aarons-Mele,Fausta ,Mona Gable, and Shark Fu (Pamela) are the panel members that will be speaking at this session of BlogHer '08 and I will be posting while in this session, probably about the session but maybe not.... who knows?

This is the "first" session I've attended. I was on a panel in SL this a.m.

Topics:

Anonymity and political blogging.

Comments versus getting out there.

The bias question.

What actually happened versus the take on it.

choose your battles

tone vs. true to yourself

authenticity

both news in one post and perhaps later doing a commentary on the same topic

dont think before you hit publish (Shark Fu)

Personal entries within a political blog
do you talk about your children brothers spouses etc.?

do you use your kids pics?

compartmentalize.

multi-sourcing

Facts. Do they exist?

Show, don't tell. Quote, reference.....

question on networks.... some don't network with comments at all. some do. some answer comments, most don't. but serial volunteerism is one persons network. one is cozy with sources.

you are a source.

Gone to BlogHer

2008-07-17T18:05:00.001-07:00

and I'm also at:

BlogHer in SL

So tired. Traveled to SF today on 2 hours of sleep. Wrote like a mad woman on the plane! Every other word in The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein set me off on a major scribble event in my ever present little black moleskine book with a pencil. I have my work cut out for me later to attempt to get it posted somewhere. Maybe here.

Took BART (much dirtier than I remember it being) to The Westin St. Francis -- Got settled in. Met some of the speakers and key BlogHer players. Woot! Woot! Great Roomie too! Amy from Ohio. She gave me a buckeye. Shoot. I should brought cactus spines. LOL. I also caught up with last years roomie -- Ann Marie -- she's on the BlogHer Speakers page.