Comments on: No Occupation without Representation (and Other Electoral Musings)

By: lara

lara — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:41:55 +0000

It’s said by some comments’ poster :”… if America wants to dominate the world”.
We analyze “America”; we try find out and to deliver some “evrika!” inside the meaning of the word “America”; and the measure of our succeess in our “findings” is shown by the numbers of reaction from other commentators …
Blessed by the Internet, we might feel even good for some a few minutes.
Now. “America” for us becomes another geographical entety , where
“things are going too bad to be true “.
Inside it is empty . Or dead. Or, it is empty because there was Death raviging this territory for past 400 years… At least.
We do not live there anymore. We do not want to live there, it’s understandable. But here is the thing: there is no more place in this world
where we can run away from our death-ridden territory: the death virus has spread all over. So, we are “Americans”. Tacet.
What should we do with it? We lament, we know that our territory needs the surgery. And it must be The Big Surgery.
As in masses, we are not sick with altruism. (The last one was killed in Palestine. Her name was Rachel Corrie).
So, we are not up to saving the world from death we spread. Behold, we are not up to saving ourselves as well: we, seems, agree to follow the Scripture’s script.
“America” it is us. And we are terribly guilty ( we know that).
Do we have a character left for the heroism like “Give Us Liberty Or Death!”? Or it is for some other geographical territiries, like Palestine for instance?
“America” is made out of “Americans”. It is up to us to come back to life. “Weeping for Palestine” will not do this. The Big Surgery will.

By: lara

lara — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:35:36 +0000

It’s said by some comments’ poster :”… if America wants to dominate the world”.
We analyze “America”; we try find out and to deliver some “evrika!” inside the meaning of the word “America”; and the measure of our succeess in our “findings” is shown by the numbers of reaction from other commentators …
Blessed by the Internet, we might feel even good for some a few minutes.
Now. “America” for us becomes another geographical entety , where
“things are going too baed to be true “.
Inside it is empty . Or dead. Or, it is empty because there was Death raviging this territory for past 400 years… At least.
We do not live there anymore. We do not want to live there, it’s understandable. But here is the thing: there is no more place in this world
where we can run away from our death-ridden territory: the death virus has spread all over. So, we are “Americans”. Tacet.
What should we do with it? We lament, we know that our territory needs the surgery. And it must be The Big Surgery.
As in masses, we are not sick with altruism. (The last one was killed in Palestine. Her name was Rachel Corrie).
So, we are not up to saving the world from death we spread. Behold, we are not up to saving ourselves as well: we, seems, agree to follow the Scripture’s script.
“America” it is us. And we are terribly guilty ( we know that).
Do we have a character left for the heroism like “Give Us Liberty Or Death!”? Or it is for some other geographical territiries, like Palestine for instance?
“America” is made out of “Americans”. Here we are. Guilty like hell, doing nothing but “weeping for Palestine”.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:13:29 +0000

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20080324_Rampant.pdf
This just came out a few hours ago by James Hansen, wait tell you read this

By: Arch Stanton

Arch Stanton — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 22:20:05 +0000

Another week begins and the situation is still dire (to the point where a global catastrophe is on the horizon). And there’s still lots of insipid muttering about which presidential candidate progressives/lefties/whatchamacallits should support. You know what America reminds me of? If you’ve ever seen that movie Hannibal there’s a seen in it in which some arrogant, demented FBI bigshot starts eating his own brain because it “smells good,” giggling and babbling the whole time. Bon appétit people.

By: Chris Crass

Chris Crass — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:12:58 +0000

“Want to debate Ron Paul’s social program, save it. Save it for a free and fair election AFTER we clean up the mess where we as citizens can have a fair debate and a fair election.”
When, exactly, should we save it for? When Laissez-Faire capitalism is the GOLD STANDARD and the world economy is more of a ruin than it is now? When corporations have less stipulations and regulations put upon them, in effect granting them free reign to rape the earth? When there’s no social security or medicare? When you have to pay Roadway, Inc. for the privilege of drivin’ on their state-of-the art road? When we have an openly racist president instead of all of our past crypto-racist ones?
No, thanks - I’d rather point out that Ron Paul is worthless now. Especially when there are anti-war candidates who aren’t insane.

By: COMarc

COMarc — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:11:44 +0000

I can’t help but notice the obligatory ’slam Ron Paul’ comments above. But think about this ….

In the American system, you have to win a winner-take-all election to get power. And, the opponents of corporate government are split between the left and the right. As long as we keep that split, and the other splits that keep say Nader and the Greens apart, we are playing into the corporatists game and keeping them in power.

Why for instance were there anti-war campaigns in each party this time splitting the anti-war vote. Neither could get enough votes to be really serious in their party, and that was pretty obvious going in. Wouldn’t it have made more sense for all the anti-war people to get into one of the wings of our corporatists party and try to take over that party?

And in the general election, will it really be a winning strategy to have a Libertarian candidate, a Green Candidate, Mr. Nader, probably a candidate from the remnants of the Reform Party, a Socialist candidates, etc all running as anti-war candidates? If we want one candidate to have enough support that they can get into the debates and try to break through the monopoly, shouldn’t we all just back one candidate? If we want to win, really win, the election, its mandatory to back just one candidate and not split our votes amongst all these others.

Of course, its easy to look at someone who’s opposing the corporatist political machine from a point of view other than your own, and then pick apart their program and say ‘I don’t like this, or that’.

But, at some point we have to come together. That’s got to mean some tolerance for views that are different from your own. So how about this idea.

We pick one opposition candidate. I’d let everyone go to June 1st, then pick the one with the most support. Then everyone gets behind that candidate. Meanwhile, that candidate (or slate of candidates because we really should be doing the same for every House and Senate race) agrees to stick to a limited agenda if elected. The stuff we can call agree on. The stuff Mickey Z listed that would make our elections free and fair again.

So, we all agree on a platform that would end the corporatists hold on power. We agree on public financing for campaigns. For transparent and accountable voting and vote counting. We agree that all media concerns have to donate free and equal time to all candidates. We create a system where at least in an early round of voting all candidates are welcome and treated equally. We agree to select our legislatures by proportional vote. We agree to Instant runoff voting for executive positions. We agree to bring our troops home and to spend out money bailing out our own country and fixing the messes we have here.

Ie, we agree to clean up the mess that allows corporate government. We agree to reforms that return us to a nation of the people, by the people and for the people.

We agree to disagree on the rest. We save that for later. Want to debate Ron Paul’s social program, save it. Save it for a free and fair election AFTER we clean up the mess where we as citizens can have a fair debate and a fair election.

But, we’ve got problems that are too big right now for this stupid sniping at people who are basically on our side in the only fight that really matters. Reclaiming our government.

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:44:29 +0000

If you want to get philosophical, anthony, I think modern wstrn civ got “over-displaced” from the center of the universe when time became (essentially) infinite with 19th century geologists/Darwin, then space became (essentially) infinite with Einstein and Hubble, and then man’s inhumanity to man became (essentially) infinite with Hitler. NOW, wise and knowledgeable people are realizing it’s (essentially) all chance, at the social level. So if we’re just random motion in a meaningless universe, why NOT grab everything you can and say fuck off to everybody?

By: anthony innes

anthony innes — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:45:10 +0000

Techno fixes and politics as usual are way too late. The scrambling for oil /shortage /has it peaked is symptomatic of a distribution system that has grown too complex to be “managed”. Centralisation of power has plagued human activity since agriculture emerged.
Religion with its “go forth and multiply ” message has beenthe tool of the war mongers and is backfiring. Self education will prepare some for the huge trauma that awaits society in general. The concept of wealth is undergoing a revolution.
Mickey Z we have compulsory voting here in Oz and i regularly throw my vote in the bin by voting for the most socially responsible candidate usually some independent . Your “none of the above” suggestion has huge merit and deserves wide spread circulation. That said I do trust the vote count here . We do have an independent fully funded voting commission here that is about the most transparent organisation anywhere. Drucker has a line on things that goes ( i paraphrase) ” I do not trust any organisation that does not have a sunset clause in its charter”.
At 61 I have seen the world change enough to realise we Zero Growth people of the 70’s were correct but naive . Mass society, race to insecthood , battery human vs free range mammal whatever you want to call it based on mindless consumption is an evolutionary dead end.
The institutionalised “leadduhs” that groupthink supports are powerless really to do little more than prolong collapse. The psychology of power aquisition is a denial of reality and while we are all walking wounded the fate of the collective is sealed. Enough has been said about the meek who will inherit the world not enough about the world they will inherit.

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 01:33:47 +0000

Found Poem #2

Totality begins
at the borders of Kazakhstan,
China, Mongolia, and Siberian Russia.

The northern
third of Mongolia
lies in the 350-kilometer-
broad path that swings northeast

through Siberia and grazes
the northernmost Chinese provinces.

Continuing out
across the East Siberian Sea,
the path ends at sunset near the North Pole.

“Solar-Eclipse Preview - March 9, 1997”
Fred Espenak

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:26:20 +0000

The point of no return can be
avoided, even if the tipping level is temporarily exceeded. Ocean and ice sheet inertia permit
overshoot, provided the climate forcing is returned below the tipping level before initiating
irreversible dynamic change.
Equilibrium sea level rise for today’s 385 ppm CO2 is at least several meters,
Alpine glaciers are in near-global retreat (54, 55). After a flush of fresh water, glacier loss
foretells long summers of frequently dry rivers, including rivers originating in the Himalayas,
Andes and Rocky Mountains that now supply water to hundreds of millions of people. Present
glacier retreat, and warming in the pipeline, indicate that 385 ppm CO2 is already a threat.
Thus moderate delay of fossil fuel
use will not appreciably reduce long-term human-made climate change. Preservation of climate
requires that most remaining fossil fuel carbon is never emitted to the atmosphere.
Policy relevance. Desire to reduce airborne CO2 raises the question of whether CO2 could
be drawn from the air artificially. There are no large-scale technologies for CO2 air capture now,
but with strong research and development support and industrial-scale pilot projects sustained
over decades it may be possible to achieve costs ~$200/tC (59) or perhaps less (60). At $100/tC,
the cost of removing 50 ppm of CO2 is ~$10 trillion.
Realization that we must reduce the current CO2 amount has a bright
side: effects that had begun to seem inevitable, including impacts of ocean acidification, loss of
fresh water supplies, and shifting of climatic zones, may be averted by the necessity of finding an
energy course beyond fossil fuels sooner than would otherwise have occurred.
A practical global strategy almost surely requires a rising global price on CO2 emissions and
phase-out of coal use except for cases where the CO2 is captured and sequestered. The carbon
price should eliminate use of unconventional fossil fuels, unless, as is unlikely, the CO2 can be
captured. A reward system for improved agricultural and forestry practices that sequester carbon
could remove the current CO2 overshoot. With simultaneous policies to reduce non-CO2
greenhouse gases, it appears still feasible to avert catastrophic climate change.
Present policies, with continued construction of coal-fired power plants without CO2 capture,
suggest that decision-makers do not appreciate the gravity of the situation. We must begin to
move now toward the era beyond fossil fuels. Continued growth of greenhouse gas emissions,
for just another decade, practically eliminates the possibility of near-term return of atmospheric
composition beneath the tipping level for catastrophic effects. The most difficult task, phase-out over the next 20-25 years of coal use that does not capture
CO2, is herculean, yet feasible when compared with the efforts that went into World War II. The
stakes, for all life on the planet, surpass those of any previous crisis. The greatest danger is
continued ignorance and denial, which could make tragic consequences unavoidable.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:09:35 +0000

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/2008/TargetCO2_20080317.pdf
This is the draft of the report to be submitted by James Hansen this is the big one people. I am still reading get back later tonight.

By: hp

hp — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 22:11:55 +0000

Rush Windbag’s old stomping grounds.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:16:48 +0000

In southern Missouri, water poured through several breaches in levees and led authorities to evacuate towns west of Cape Girardeau. At least 200 homes and 13 businesses had been evacuated in Cape Girardeau County, said emergency management director Dick Knaup. At least 70 Missouri counties have reported flooding this week.

Much of the flooding in Illinois was in sparsely populated areas, but several dozen people were evacuated from their homes in Murphysboro on Saturday, said Patti Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

“For some of these places, this is their 500-year flood,” she said.AP

Alright no longer 100 year floods now we have raised the bar 500 year floods and next the 1000 year floods but first a word from our sponsor. “Heat on apply directly to the forehead”, “Heat on apply directly to the forehead” or your money back. You can’t be serious.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:33:35 +0000

This is not about Ward Churchill or Rev Wright to me we are at the crossroads and this is about the whole ball game. For some just to sit in a quiet coffee shop and watch the World go by is enough. For some to have a family and watch them grow is what they want. For some a 100 million in the bank is still not enough. For some war is the answer and others a unless waste. Some people like action movies some love stories and others a good book. This is about all the people on this planet. On CNN I think yesterday they did a report on oil. Basically what they said was the easy stuff is gone and more people Worldwide want it now and this may not work out well. Yes you could certainly say that and then they went to a story about the effects of high cholesterol. To me that’s where a splinter in your mind part comes in. I still say a flying saucer now day’s could land in front of the Capital and they would show it of course and then go to a commercial. Do you know what I am talking about?

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:45:51 +0000

Yep. And it takes varying times for that splinter to fester and for many it never does.

You got some strong blank verse in you too, R.Jack. From center of financinal military activity to a factory manufacturing chocolate Easter bunnies…

Will it be reincarnated, and if so as what? A Giant Bunny Manufacturing Easter Lattes?

By: rosemarie jackowski

rosemarie jackowski — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:26:34 +0000

What thought provoking comments to ponder… “…a splinter in your mind, driving you mad…” Great poetry!

Lloyd…The first time I heard the Rev Wright speak, the words of Ward Churchill immediately came to mind.

The happenings on Wall Street remind me of the movie. Remember when Gordon Gecco said, “Greed is good”. Life would be so much better is there was no Wall Street, no Pentagon, no Feds controlling everything…The World Trade Center was a center of financial military activity. It was not a factory manufacturing chocolate Easter bunnies. No wonder it was a target. If it was in Iraq or Iran it would have been on the top of the US hit list.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:48:41 +0000

It seems that the truth or another way of looking at it just information that has not been censored to fit some ones agenda is hard to come by. Maybe it has always been that way. Just look at candidates running for President. What they say is nonsense in many way’s but it is more than that it is that perception of reality that is on going. I think most people have that little voice in the back of there head that tells them something is wrong but most people don’t run networks or governments or corporations that control that perception of reality.
I know *exactly* what you mean. Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re here because you know something. What you know you can’t explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire life, that there’s something wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I’m talking about?
I listened to Obama this morning talk about the economy and how the treasure secratary and head of the fed was doing a good job. A miracle could happen an get this economy cookin again but remember the cookin of the Planet part and all that debt. There was no hard choices none in the last 6 months none just the easy way out. I am sure that I am not the only one that see’s the big picture, do you know what I’m talking about?

By: Lloyd Rowsey

Lloyd Rowsey — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:02:47 +0000

Big Don, I can see you’re flying fast and low today, and don’t need any fuel from me. But in re your first post, do you cotton to the resemblances btw Rev Wright and Ward Churchill? W.Churchill of fallout from the Deshowitz-plagiarism-flap fame, the ex-academic at Colorado U. who was drummed off CU’s fair campus for making statements almost identical to the ones widely quoted in “the media” as having slipped from the Rev’s lips? And especially, if my memory serves, for reviving Malcolm X’s hoary “Chickens Coming Home to Roost” quotation, in re 9/11. Shit that comes around goes around, that’s for sure.

BTB, if you’re not my main man in Southern Georgia, Don old buddy, you’ll do until my main man comes along.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 12:24:05 +0000

updated 6:17 p.m. ET, Thurs., Sept. 14, 2006
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A leading U.S. climate researcher says the world has a 10-year window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert catastrophe.

NASA scientist James Hansen, widely considered the doyen of American climate researchers, said governments must adopt an alternative scenario to keep carbon dioxide emission growth in check and limit the increase in global temperatures to 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit).

“I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change … no longer than a decade, at the most,” Hansen said Wednesday at the Climate Change Research Conference in California’s state capital.

If the world continues with a “business as usual” scenario, Hansen said temperatures will rise by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 7.2 degrees F) and “we will be producing a different planet.”

On that warmer planet, ice sheets would melt quickly, causing a rise in sea levels that would put most of Manhattan under water. The world would see more prolonged droughts and heat waves, powerful hurricanes in new areas and the likely extinction of 50 percent of species.

“We cannot burn off all the fossil fuels that are readily available without causing dramatic climate change,” Hansen said. “This is not something that is a theory. We understand the carbon cycle well enough to say that.”

One of those studies was from Hansen’s institute. “It is not too late to save the Arctic, but it requires that we begin to slow carbon dioxide emissions this decade,” Hansen said in a statement.

This was written in 2006 and the summer of 07 data from the ice sheets was not good. Let’s see what James Hansen say’s about a different planet soon I hope.

By: Don Hawkins

Don Hawkins — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:19:31 +0000

Last week on one of the financial channels a man said, look at the Carlyle group and how well connected they are and it still didn’t help them. Yes you could certainly say Carlyle is well connected but why did the capital part go under? Again my best guess is arrogance and greed, have and have more. Unfortunately placing blame won’t solve the problems we now face. I have seen some change in going after this little problem called climate change and oil and the lack of it. Not with policy makers but some business leaders are starting to understand although it be slow. It’s the slow part that won’t work out well. James Hansen will put out a paper soon I hope with some numbers that will tell us more. That is if this administration doesn’t crash his web site. Without business working together to solve these problems it won’t happen. Let’s see how this play’s out after that paper. Just on the off chance that Hansen and many more are right this paper will be one of the most important documents ever written.