PSA - SNL

Senator Sanders Speaks The Truth About "The Fiscal Cliff"

I have arrived at the point where I hardly ever believe what I hear politicians say about the state of affairs, which of course is exactly what some of them would like. If people tune out because of information (or misinformation) overload, then they get clobbered! We, the middle class, are getting clobbered! Senator Sanders explains in 14 minutes the reality of how we arrived where we are. Worth listening to if you want to wake up from a drug induced coma (brought on compliments of network television).

Religion and Politics; A Dangerous Partnership (William Stanhope)

Here is the FULL PAGE ad that Billy Graham placed in 14 newspapers over the weekend (Both days). I wonder how much good the money spent would have done to really serve the needy in NC? Extra beds in homeless shelters; more food in soup kitchens, etc. Everyone is entitled to their personal beliefs, but when they are used to deny others of basic protections and equality under the law that is unacceptable. Everyone is entitled to fair and equal protection, regardless of their personal beliefs. When the personal belief system of a select group is used to deny the rights and protections of another group with a different set of personal beliefs, then we have embarked on a dangerous journey of decline. Just look around the world to see what it looks like. People everywhere being denied BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS because their personal belief system does not correspond to the belief system of another larger more powerful group.  Anytime religion enters into the political arena, people are going to suffer. In this country there is a very troubling trend to allow religion to enter into political discussion. The separation of Church and State should be absolute. There is just too much opportunity for total cognitive dissonance when that happens. Facts become secondary a emotions prevent rational decision making to occur.

Cognitive Dissonance (Wiliiam Stanhope)

It amazes me sometimes how people can seemingly reject facts,  ideas and practices (personal and political) that are clearly good for them in favor of emotional biases that are purely personal and have no overall positive effect on society. This is explained by cognitive dissonance or the inability for most people to make a clear and rational decision because of the emotional pain associated with a strongly held belief system. .

Politicians, as well as others in positions of power,  know how to exploit this human weakness; they know how to package ideas to maximize the emotional content and to minimize the factual content. They know that certain hot button issues and highly charged words will illicit a very painful reaction in people and those people will reject the facts.in favor of a course of action that reduces their emotional discomfort.

Here in North Carolina we just passed an amendment that will do great harm to a large number of people because it will only legally sanction marriage between a man and a woman. Every other relationship, including any form of civil union or domestic partnership, will have no legal standing. The facts are that certain people will be adversely affected. Children will likely be affected because any benefits their parents enjoy will possibly be removed placing them in a less stable position. End of life decisions and medical decisions will become more delicate, possibly impossible, for partners that have no legal standing. Estate planning and wealth management will become more complicated, leaving partners (straight or otherwise) in a precarious position without legal protections, especially if contested by blood relatives.

This amendment was passed because the power brokers used the 2 "G" words; God and Gay, even though same sex marriage is already illegal in NC. They connected those two points of reference, ignoring the facts and rarely if ever mentioning the negative effects passage of the amendment would have for a very broad range of the population. Many people acted against the better interests of the group as a whole in favor of a more palatable emotional decision, one less emotionally painful but logically not the correct decision in terms of overall benefit to the collective society. How so?

Stable relationships benefit society as a whole on all levels. Children are less vulnerable. Families are less financially challenged. People are happier. There is less discrimination when people are allowed to participate in society as fully recognized and legally protected members. Equality, meaning equal protection for all, is served and this supports the constitution of the US. (We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness)


I am saddened that once again cognitive dissonance has prevented the majority of people in NC to make the right decision. I am disappointed that powerful people have chosen to undermine collective well-being through appeals to emotionally painful issues and personal preference, especially religious beliefs often used to divide rather than unite groups of people. Billy Graham, who is now 93 years old, took out full page ads in 11 newspapers the weekend before the vote, which appealed to the emotional discomfort of people by invoking the 2 "G" words, thus making it impossible for them to make a rational decision.  How sad that his parting shot in this world (at 93 there can't be much time left) would cause so much pain and harm to so many people in NC.

Corporations. Hallelujah!

Marriage Equality In North Carolina

Here is an interview to help sort out the issue. This vote will go to the NC people in October 2011. Please vote. (Sorry for the 31 sec commercial at the front)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Repeal of DADT

From Day One, President Obama has said that the question wasn't if, but when, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would be repealed. Now we know the answer. This morning, the President signed repeal into law -- setting into motion an end to this discriminatory policy that weakened our military and forced some brave men and women to lie about who they are. It was a moment for the history books -- possible only because the President wasn't alone in his determination to get this done before the end of the year.

As this discriminatory law falls into the rubbish heap we move closer to the ideals this country was founded upon; a country dedicated to the idea that all men and women are created equal and deserve all the rights and responsibilities inherent in being a citizen. Sexual orientation is not chosen, and therefore part of who you are as a person. To deny that is to deny you the dignity of being a complete person, and this is outright discrimination and not worthy of this country. We must continuously be on the alert at how individual civil liberties are challenged and sometimes eroded in society and do what we can to contradict that erosion.

Today we can feel proud that as a country we move closer to being that perfect union so passionately dreamed of and fought for throughout our history.

Follow the link for the speech given on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 by President Obama.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/TellRe

Move to Amend

The following editorial is from the Huffington Post:

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Citizen United v. Federal Elections Commission case sold America down the river. It opens the floodgates to unfettered -- unlimited! -- corporate and union spending on candidate elections by overturning state and federal restrictions on electioneering. This will affect all elections: school board, zoning commissions, state and municipal judges, state representatives, congressional delegates, President.
The Supreme Court ruling means Americans can kiss goodbye whatever shred of faith we had left in the electoral process.

Forget dissent.

Forget debate.

Forget reason.

Corporate-owned media megaphones will drown out any troublesome voices. Our elected officials will henceforth represent corporations first and people second -- bluntly and boldly -- if they want to serve in "public" office.
Our ExxonMobil-funded officials will tell us climate change is good for us as they open America for coal and oil leasing. Our Big Pharma- and Big Insurance-backed congressional delegates will tell us you-don't-really-want-a-public-option in health care reform. Our Monsanto-owned officials will give us growth hormones in milk and GMO diets.

Goodbye Republic.

Goodbye Democratic Process.

Hello Corporate America.
Constitutional scholars are calling this is the most tragic assault on our human rights in the 220-plus years of our Republic. How did things come to this?
The expansion of corporate rights began over 200 years ago as the anti-corporate fervor from the American Revolution began to fade. The U.S. Supreme Court blurred the distinction between "natural persons," or real living human beings, and "artificial persons" -- corporations -- in 1886 when it conferred the 14th Amendment right of "equal protection of the laws" to an artificial person, a railroad corporation in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad. Since then, the Supreme Court has handed out other human rights to artificial persons (corporations), including the battery of First Amendment rights leading to Citizens United.
There were early attempts to reverse parts, but not all, of the trend to give human rights to corporate persons. Specifically, under First Amendment issues, Congress passed the Tillman Act in 1907 to prohibit corporate expenditures in candidate elections to end an era of big money corruption and usher in campaign finance regulation. However, regulating something allows it to happen to the extent allowed by law and laws can change.
Starting in the 1970s, the Supreme Court began to chisel away our election integrity by granting corporations First Amendment rights including: "commercial speech," as in free speech equals money; "political speech," as in unlimited corporate spending for ads to overturn citizen initiatives; "negative speech," as in the right not to speak and disclose harmful contents of products; and "false speech," as in the right to blatantly lie in advertising under the guise of let the buyer beware. "Robust speech" or unlimited corporate spending on elections is just the next chip to fall from our First Amendment protections. It may be the last chip as there's really nothing left to protect from corporate usurpation.
When I recently asked a class of fifth graders in Santa Barbara who were the "people" referred to in our Constitution, there was a stunned silence. Finally, one boy jabbed his thumb into his chest and said in an exasperated tone, "WE!" Surely our Founders had only this WE in mind when they drafted our Constitution and Bill of Rights. After all, WE had just rebelled against the monarchy and moneyed corporations of the time. When we first set out on the new adventure of our Republic in 1888, corporations were carefully controlled creatures of state legislatures. They had privileges, not rights. But no more. Powerful corporations burst their legal shackles using a backdoor approach through the Supreme Court to amend the real people's Constitution by judicial fiat. Our democracy has been hijacked by corporations through illegitimate usurpation of rights intended for human persons. It makes no sense to fifth graders that fake persons have the same rights as real people - and it shouldn't make sense to the rest of us either. The United States is no longer a government of, for, and by the real people: human rights are being trumped by fake persons - corporate - rights and power. It's time to change the rules. Our Founders knew that the ultimate defenders of the U.S. Constitution were not the government or the court. The ultimate defenders are WE, the real people. It's time to amend our Constitution through the front door approach spelled out in the Constitution. It's time to make what is obvious to fifth graders the law of our land: People rule, not property! WE need to amend the Constitution to affirm that only human beings have constitutional rights, not artificial persons, not corporations.
Riki Ott

Follow the link for Senator Feingolds remarks before the decision in which he explains why the court should respect settled expectations (past decisions).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lACObXtlFM

And for Howard Fineman's opinion of the decision

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOO1nIndyho

Nearly 39,000 people have signed this petition to amend the constitution and prevent corporations from having an inordinate amount of influence in our democratic process. Please follow the link to add your voice.

http://movetoamend.org/we-corporations

Avatar and the Power of Corporations

The subtitle of this blog contains a quote from Thomas Berry: The universe is a communion and a community. We ourselves are that communion become conscious of itself. The movie Avatar very powerfully shows what can happen if we lose sight of this truth. We must begin to rediscover our true place in the web of creation and abandon our arrogant claim to superiority and dominion of the natural world. We must begin to see that we are a part of a complex and interdependent system and that damage to one part has consequences that reverberate throughout the entire system. Thich Nhat Hahn's idea of interbeing very nicely encapsulates this essential truth.

The idea of interbeing is based on the 14 principles of mindfullness as expressed by the Order of Interbeing. Follow the link for an explanation of these principles.

http://www.orderofinterbeing.org/wiki/index.php?title=Fourteen_Mindfulness_Trainings

For a video clip of Thich Nhat Hahn speaking about Interbeing, follow the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azOZ8d0UvVs

I was struck with the timing of this movie to the recent Supreme Court Ruling giving corporations the same rights as individuals and allowing them to fund political candidates with the full measure of their financial clout. We would do well to heed the message here; corporations are beholden to themselves, their shareholders, and their profitability. They are by nature short sighted and unlikely to see the broader implications of their actions as a projection over time. Their boards are under constant pressure from share holders to increase profitability thus justifying just about any action that does that. It is Orwells 1984 revisited if we go down that path, and indeed it seems that we have started to do just that.

Many very intelligent and informed journalists and commentators are calling for a robust response to this recent development. And the window of opportunity is not large since with time, politicians will all be beholden to their corporate sponsors and not to their constituencies who will have the facts so spinned to them they will be unable to tell the difference between fact and untruth. We will be like lambs to the slaughter over time. Many are indeed calling for large scale demonstrations, even revolution in some cases. For Keith Olbermann's view from msnbc, follow the link

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34981476/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann

We must all take it upon ourselves to resist the temptation to give up in the face of this

egregious attack on the democratic process by redoubling our efforts to remain actively engaged in the process. If politicians receive just 30 calls on a particular issue they take notice.

My wish is that this film acts as a consciousness raiser for the people who see it and that somehow the message comes through.

I Have A Dream

Follow the link for the uncut historic speech given in Washington . While much has been done to end the blatant discrimination through legislation, racist attitudes continue to play a role in our society as evidenced by the reaction of some to the election of Barac Obama. It is telling that the comments section to this link has been disabled due to hatred and racist remarks. Perhaps this struggle to end oppression will never really end and we will always be called to interrupt oppression wherever we find it in what ever way we can manage, in both large and small ways. Be inspired by the prophetic words and continue to work for social justice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

And here is the text of the speech

http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html

On Civil Disobedience

Thoreau speaks on the topic of moral responsibility, consciousness, and the role of government in society. Thoreau admonishes us to take an active and conscious role in shaping the machinery that governs us if we do not wish to have that machine crush us. The recent election of Barak Obama represents, I think, a move to reclaim responsible government, a government that commands the respect of the people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjCB6W1TKcc&feature=related