A Refreshing Breath of Fresh Air in these Crazy Times: People Who Make Sense

I just read Dennis Kucinich's brilliantly clear and simple proposal on balancing the budget: here it is, on my favorite online news and opinion source: OpEd News. I voted for Kucinich in the Caucus in 2008 and would vote for him again anytime. The link to an OpEd post (below this paragraph) has further links detailing Kucinich's entire plan for national economic reform and recovery. It makes sense. We can do this!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Kucinich-Plan-for-Nati-by-Richard-Clark-110725-480.html

And how about this? The Congressional Progressive Caucus People's Budget - written by people, not corporations! This is a coalition of progressive (NOT neoliberal or liberal) people who have good ideas on how to eliminate the deficit in 10 years, laid out in terms anyone can understand.

It's heartening to know that there are people who don't just whine or rail or finger-point about what's wrong, which is all too easy to do in these hellishly corrupt and diabolical times. Instead, they're offering concrete solutions to complex problems that are fair and do-able, while not destroying the middle class and poor and the environment and everything we've fought for - women's rights, civil rights, equal opportunity, protecting the environment, jobs, education, etc.

Anyone with half a brain would come up with these things that we can do:

~ Withdraw all U.S. troops from all wars abroad, and bring them home.
~ Put our citizens and veterans to work here in the U.S., rebuilding America's infrastructure
~ Overturn the Citizens United vs FEC supreme court ruling and strip corporations of their rights to be "people" and get every tax loophole imaginable.
~ Do away with tax loopholes, and increase federal and state taxes for anyone making over $200,000 a year.
~ Research and implement alternative and green energies and technologies, and put the U.S. at the leading edge of those technologies; thus releasing the stranglehold of our oil, coal, and natural gas dependencies.
~ Fine all profiteering polluters - no exceptions, no loopholes. Fine them exponentially for every day they are in violation.
~ Do away with the cap on social security; the rich still profiting AND collecting their social security, while trying to gut it for those who really need it.
~ force all bailout banksters to pay back the bailout "loans" with high interest, also on the hefty and obscene profits they made from the bailout.
~ cap campaign spending and contributions, and return to paper ballots in every voting jurisdiction so that elections can't be tampered with anymore.

All this and more would generate revenue and balance the budget.

The time for timidity and kowtowing and trying to please republican or democrat war hawk extremists is over. If they won't meet us somewhere in the middle, the center will not hold. Now is the time to come up with solutions and have the spine to stand firm, tell the truth, say no to the liars and crooks who would destroy this great country. throw them out or indict them for their crimes. There is so much work to do and we need to get busy saving democracy and the middle class. Let's look toward, and share ideas on, solutions.

And Now, the "Wake UP" Series....

OUTRAGEOUS!

That could be the headline to much of what is going on these days. The continued pummeling by Congress on the EPA and consumer protections, medicare & health care, Women's reproductive rights, Social Security, the dirty lies and secrets of the US Chamber of Commerce (no relation to your local Chamber!) - where only a few corporations give billions of dollars to manipulate elections and force mandatory electronic voting with no documentable monitoring of tampering, spying on regular Americans who disagree with being made powerless serfs at the hands of the ultra-rich Corporatocracy, etc. The pharmaceutical companies selling us our drugs to keep us numb sheeple who don't make waves - telling us our rage is a sickness that needs to be medicated.  The pundits for greed decide to proliferate more oil rape, more nuclear take and take and what do we get? Poisoned!

Feeling ill yet? Feeling really angry? Good. That means you're waking up. Everyone in this Sunny New Age says anger has no place in the full spectrum of human emotions. Anger is a force that can be used for good because it motivates people - it shakes them, wakes them, gets them off their collective lazy asses and shows them there's something worth fighting for. Let's use our anger for the good, people. Let's use it like a controlled burn for the health of the forest.

There are so many holes in the dike and the water is over the sea wall. People, we can't lose heart now. We can't give up even though our heads are barely above the rising waters. Get out your snorkel masks and let's get busy!

it's a far cry from pondicherry

but i thought i would add a few photos of my attempts to beautify the sidewalks. there is much to write about, all of it seemingly pressing, yet all i can muster at the moment are chalk drawings and the hope that mankind's creativity will lean toward the path of beauty more than the path of senseless destruction.