Please post your list of deserving groups on facebook or twitter, and donate to them! Pass it on...

Okay people; steel yourselves for a Brave New Reality. Christmas vacation (or whatever you celebrate, or don't) is over. I hope you all had love and companionship with the people who count most in your hearts. It's back to work now, back to the reality we now face. The time to pretend that we haven't just forever lost democracy as we know it is over. Are we going to sit on our hands or do something about it? Are we going to roll over in fear and disbelief at what we've been experiencing, continue to say,"this can't be happening. They wouldn't do that. They COULDN'T. Could they?" Just ask a holocaust victim if it could or did happen.

YES they CAN (no pun intended) do what they've been doing and worse, and they've been doing it for years while we've been fattened, poisoned, and seduced into sleeping through it all without a fight.  History repeats itself againandagainandagainandagainandagain. It's extraordinarily frustrating that we humans seem unable or unwilling to evolve as a species.

if you want to skip the rest of the post, my list is here  (scroll to bottom)

how do we balance facing the worst crimes of humanity with what actions we CAN achieve?

In the week that I have not written, not knowing what to write first, that has been the primary question. While taking a break from writing and yet continuing to read something every day, I felt divided. Much of what I read seemed important to write about, but too horrifying or sad to write because where would hope be?

Sometimes, a lot of the time, there are only questions without answers. But I believe that if we don't face what's going on, own it, feel it in our hearts, grieve for the damage done by us and others; then we can't make a shift to move in a new direction with conviction that we can, and will, do better to steward this planet and the amazing life forms on it.

While taking time to be with friends and loved ones, this question kept coming up, and I felt a paralysis in my soul, so wrote nothing. A break from the trenches is good; we all need to recharge our batteries with what matters. For me, that is the people I love and the Natural world and creatures in it. But there comes a time to realize that a break can easily lead to avoidance.

Net Neutrality takes a hit from the ultra-corporate oligarchs

The vote is in the the FCC voted for the watered-down rules on Net neutrality. That is great news for comcast, AT&T, Verizon. That is lousy news for independent media and small businesses. It's lousy also for those of us with little money.

Here are some links to read. It is important reading and everyone should know what the rules do and do not protect because the internet as we knew it - the greatest, most innovative, fairest of things - is a thing of the past starting today, unless we push back at the telecoms and corporate-owned government.

The fight is not over yet. People and organizations will keep on petitioning. But we're all gonna have to be way more creative than that to even be able to get on the internet soon. Mine is already slowing down as of today.

I personally think we should go BACK to the telecommunications act of 1934, with a clause saying that all broadband (and fiberoptics, and whatever else they invent) is a telecommunications industry, NOT an information industry, which is how the big telecoms selling broadband are classified under the 1996 act, and that's how they are getting around the constraints of being regulated today.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jason-rosenbaum/breaking-fcc-breaks-obama_b_799844.html 
why the new FCC rules on net neutrality won't work and what they WON'T protect.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/21/mitch-mcconnell-accuses-o_1_n_799674.html?ir=Technology
good explanation on how the FCC has had its powers stripped in recent years, and how the telecommunications act of 1996 opened the way for big telecoms to rule the internet and broadband.

Here's a petition from Save The Internet to sign:
http://act2.freepress.net/sign/nn_pledge/?akid=2195.9816802.uMTstF&rd=1&t=5

Who better than Veterans to tell us the truth about war?

(source: Op Ed News) I just read an article about last Friday's civil resistance  outside of the White House that gave me hope. Mainstream media gave it cursory coverage. They failed to mention that many who were arrested were Veterans saying NO MORE war.

While Congress was gutting our economy and making the rich richer, pushing through more war in Afghanistan while still embroiled in the Iraq duplicity, veterans of wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan gathered in snow and frigid temperatures to speak against war and refuse to commit further atrocities for implacable corporate profiteers.

There was no violence or threat of violence. Our warriors who come back physically and psychologically damaged, forever changed, are standing for peace. Who better to get the attention of the American people and teach them what's really happening in our wars than the people who went there and witnessed those wars first hand?

Here's that article:(scroll down to see pictures and videos)
Veterans Want YOU for Civil Resistance!

FCC Votes on Net Neutrality Tuesday Dec. 21

Okay, here we are at the 11th hour - again.  Net neutrality rules will be voted on by a 5-member board of commissioners of the FCC on Tuesday. Five people will decide the fate of everyone on the internet.

NOTE: contact links to FCC toll free numbers and links to articles can be found at the end of this post. They will be streaming the meeting and the vote live on Tuesday. (Dec. 21 - just 1 1/2 days away)

Chairman Genachowski did try, to his credit, to reclassify broadband/wireless to level 2 (which would give it the same regulations as wired telecom service). If wireless stays at level 1 classification, the FCC will have a much harder time regulating telecoms if they try to pull things such as what Comcast tried to pull with Netflix. Big telecom industries know this, and have pressured Chairman Genachowski to back down and put together some toothless pablum rules and keep them at level 1 classification. (BTW- Comcast is attempting a merger with ABC, one of the largest mainstream media sources. It's chilling to think of the implications of that, and what precedent it would set. Comcast and other telecom companies are already interfering and blocking what we would read and download.)

The internet as it stands right now seems to be working. But how long before telecom industries punch enough holes in the dike to flood in and take over the net, which they've been trying to do for years? And what's the solution?

Telecom corporations already have too many friends and lobbyists in Washington. The way things are set up now, the FCC has little power left, thanks to the government and the courts. The FCC can now be sued by telecom corporations if it tries to make strong rules against their corporate agenda to rule the internet - both in content and monetarily. So if the FCC makes rules, they have to be strong and loophole-free so that huge telecoms and DNS servers can't weasel out of them, or worse, sue the FCC or strip it of all its power and reverse the telecommunications act - which is the only protection from mega-telecoms we have at present.

If I were a billionaire, these are some of the people and organizations I would support

perhaps if anyone agrees with any of these choices (and wants to add their own) and puts the list on facebook and twitter, someone with money to burn may donate to some of these worthwhile sites.

Op Ed News - one of the best progressive news and opinion sites out there; articulate writers not afraid to speak the truth. I would love to see this news site get more support.
http://www.opednews.com/

Greenpeace - because they get in front of the bulldozers, the saws, the whaling boats and they stand up for the forests, oceans, and non-human creatures on this planet who can't speak for themselves and deserve to live.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/ 
another watchdog group keeping an eye on corporations and reporting on what they find. they quote all their sources for further reading.

CREDO - oddly enough, they're a mobile carrier, but read their mission statement and you'll see they're the type of telecom we need. If i ever got a cell phone, I'd use Credo. They work with other great organizations like Color of Change and Avaaz to put generate online petitions to congress and President Obama on important issues, and they (we) have had some victories.


http://www.savetheinternet.com/fighting to keep the internet free and neutral with online petitions and people and numbers to call. By the way, the FCC is voting on this issue on Dec. 21st. Calls, emails, and faxes are important! 1- 800- CALL FCC

 "Good night and good luck." - Edward R. Murrough

Everyone should read this!

This was posted on a website called Liberty Maven on 12/13. It explains how s.510 was passed in the senate. It's even more diabolical than I thought. I wish I had money to donate to all of these websites. The article is called: Understanding Congressional Trickery

It asks for donations to the project linked below. I think the project (whose website I will also post below) is worthwhile and we should support it however we can to put some fixes back into government.
Downsize DC 

article from The Progressive Mind entitled; What senators got paid off to support s.510...

Oh, the info. is coming fast and furious. This unfortunately comes too late for the s.510 cause, since I just stumbled on it. But it explains a bit more.
Dated 11/28/10. This is a list of senators and who got bribes (contributions) regarding their vote on s.510; the dollar amount of contributions for and against. Un - effing- believable.

Be prepared to be surprised at who is given a lot of campaign money to approve s.510. Read this list and scroll down to bottom to see who gave the funds.

Michael Collins - your blog just opened my naively idealistic eyes - again.

I just read Michael Collins, who is a regular blogger at Op Ed News. I read him a lot. He doesn't prettify things or mince words. Although I find his blogs depressing (because what he says is the cold hard truth with a fair measure of anger thrown in), I also find myself agreeing with what he writes because he seems to have a great b.s. meter and gets right to the point.

So after reading his blog I need to say I stand corrected. After I gushed over Bernie Sanders's senate floor speech, what Michael Collins said deflated any hope or trust I have in the senate. Senator Sanders sat on his hands without a fight or debate on this tax bill/hidden agenda bill. How bewildering is that. Despite what I saw as a heroic act last Friday by Senator Sanders (and still do),  Mr. Collins brings to light that perhaps that was just another ploy by the oligarchy to make us THINK we're not alone in this fight. What a hollow feeling that leaves in the pit of my stomach.

Read that blog entry here

honoring Friedensreich Hundertwasser and Sitting Bull

Today is Friedensreich Hundertwasser's birthday (deceased). Sitting Bull died on this day. I thought it might be nice to honor two people who made a difference.

Who was Hundertwasser? He was an Austrian artist and architect who believed, among other things, that trees as well as people should be tenants of buildings, and that people should be the well-behaved guests of Nature. He published manifestos on window rights and tree duties. He was a pacifist and activist. His ideas and what he carried out in his lifetime were way ahead of his time. He was for the environment and against anything nuclear. Read his bio HERE. Be sure to scroll down and see some pictures of what he did in his remarkable and productive lifetime. It may lead to hours of visual entertainment and inspiration.

Who was Sitting Bull?
Here's what the opening paragraph of Wikipedia says:
Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake (in Standard Lakota Orthography),^[2] also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a war chief during years of resistance to United States government policies. Born near the Grand River in Dakota Territory, he was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him and prevent him from supporting the Ghost Dance movement.

And you thought Monsanto was scary! (Another reason to try to stop the House from passing s.510)

Some of us come late to knowledge.... but better late than never. Until a few nights ago, I didn't know who or what Cargill was; I'd never heard of them. A user comment on an article mentioned Cargill and Monsanto as being in control of the world's food. That got my attention. So, I looked them up. There is no current information on Cargill that I can find, but I found an expose from 2006.

You can listen to both parts of that here.
http://www.kootenaycoopradio.com/deconstructingdinner/020807.htm
At the top right, there is a header saying "Agri Business Exposed." Click on that and it will take you to part one. It's all archived now, as the site is no longer active. Thank the Universe for archives! These are two parts of a Radio broadcast from 2006. Brewster Kneen, who wrote the book "Invisible Giant: Cargill and its Transnational Strategies" was one of the speakers.John Sauven, Greenpeace's campaign director in London, was the other guest speaker. Greenpeace was instrumental in getting Cargill to back down from its deforestation in the Amazon. Go, Greenpeace!

 I imagine all the figures quoted are higher now. Cargill is Canada's hidden Monsanto, but they do plenty of damage here in the U.S. and worldwide, just as Monsanto spreads like a cancer on the Earth.

Cargill's three principal strategic modes of operation are:
Keep a low public profile
Market Dominance
The world is their oyster

Senate reform: How would a working model of that look?

There's a new coalition called Fix the Senate Now. It's made up of "mostly progressive" organizations. I got a petition from the Sierra Club today asking me to join in and sign on to demanding senators to reform. Sounds good on paper. But nowadays, one needs to dig deeper, ask questions. Who's in the coalition? Will the organizations and people behind Senate reform carry this message in transparency? Is Senate reform just another shell game? Because the cynic in me thinks it would behoove the incoming Congress to know the minority senate won't be able to filibuster, so I don't quite trust getting rid of the ability of just one brave Senator (like Sanders) to get out on the floor and stand up for us. Because sometimes only one will have the courage to speak for the many.

Here are a few links to what I read:

Senator Merkley's ideas on Senate Procedure Reform

Senator Tom Udall on the Constitutional Option
Senator Udall says in here (pdf) that Congress uses the Constitutional Option to set procedure in every new congress.

Huffington Post's article on Filibuster Reform (with links to other articles)
In this article, they put forth the 9 principles for altering senate procedures. It's going to take me awhile to decipher what many of them mean. Some I wholeheartedly agree with, some are double edged swords, too simplistic in a corrupt political model.

something, anything, besides politics! - one of the world's artistic wonders

okay. time for something more hopeful or inspiring.

this article was so inspiring when i stumbled on it late one night a few years back. this guy hand dug a temple underground in italy and it is an amazing work of art. well, it's actually 5 temples with many interconnecting underground tunnels. there is painting, sculpture, mosaic, you name it. check it out! be sure to scroll all the way down and see some extraordinary pictures of these creations.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-495538/Eighth-wonder-world-The-stunning-temples-secretly-carved-ground-paranormal-eccentric.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-495538/Eighth-wonder-world-The-stunning-temples-secretly-carved-ground-paranormal-eccentric.html

Congressional update

Hello out there in deep space. C-Span is live streaming the senate debates. I'm learning a bit, which may be handy in some fantasy life as a high powered lawyer or superhero, bringing crooked corporate slimeballs to justice, bwaaaahahahaha....  

HR 4853 and hr3082 are house resolutions, meaning they are CRs - Continuing Resolutions. All this debate and pushing through a fast vote is JUST to allocate funds through the end of the year so that the lame duck congress can vote in the things they want quickly, leaving little if any time for public input.
So much for transparent government that listens to the will of the people.

I understand all the arguments President Obama makes on why we need this, and parts of it are necessary - for the middle class. But he scolds us for being angry about it, saying WE need to compromise. The billionaire tax breaks are a betrayal to the American people, who won't forget, come 2012. While big bank profits doubled from the wall street bailout, people out of work and kicked out of their homes on fraudulent foreclosures are put out on the streets by the same booming banks. That is beyond corrupt.

STOP HR 4853, the so-called "middle class tax relief act" and some bills hidden within it

Hello. I am new to blogging. I am not a lawyer or an expert on law. I started this blog today because I am so strongly against many of the things the government, in cahoots with mega-corporations, are doing, including rushing to pass a whole lot of bills that will increase the national deficit by trillions, before the end of the lame duck session in a week.

The top issue that is pressing down on Americans right now, whether they know it or not, is the impending passage of HR 4853; a bloated behemoth bill purporting to give tax relief to the middle class. Inside this bill are many other hidden bills with name changes and opposing agendas. The senate debates and votes on this TOMORROW (Monday Dec. 13).