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Aurora massacre

In the wake of the Aurora Massacre, pundits of all stripes are saying the same things they always say after all the massacres. In this sort of situation, poems are better, even if they may be just as inadequate as any other form of communication.
Aurora Massacre
The survivors will hug and tell their stories
With flashing lights the living and the dead
Will be taken to the morgues and to the hospitals
We'll hear about the last words that they said
At least if it was a notable occasion
Like if it happened just down the road from Columbine
If the victims numbered in the dozens
The murder plan especially malign

The governor will talk about the senselessness
The madness that must explain the crime
Some will ask about the guns, six thousand rounds of ammunition
He bought legally all at the same time
If the murders were especially dramatic
This man will have his week of fame
But by around this time next year
Just a few will remember his name

Fewer still will remember his victims
In this great nation that seems to have no peer

Abolishing war: One last step -- Remarks delivered at Peacestock 2012

Almost our entire population claims to favor peace. At least three quarters of us favor getting the U.S. military out of Afghanistan and ending that particular war, which by the way isn't ending. When carefully surveyed and shown what the federal budget is, a large majority of U.S. residents favors cutting huge amounts of money out of the military and putting it to better use.

But those doing anything about peace as part of a peace movement are a tiny fraction of a percent of the country. I have been lucky enough to see some of my cousins from this part of the country on this trip, and one of them referred to me as her famous cousin who speaks at events and writes books. There are others here much more famous than I within our little movement. But I'm willing to bet at least 99% of the country has never heard of any of us. Maybe the wonderful Coleen Rowley who made it onto the cover of Time Magazine. Maybe a few others.

New certifications, planned expansion

Black Box Voting has been investigating and reporting on this disconcerting trend for nine years now. Everything we've been reporting has not only turned out to be true, but is increasing. A press release today about the planned expansion of Unisyn into more USA locations renews attention on foreign ownership of corporations selling voting systems into the United States.

Unisyn is owned by a Malaysian gambling outfit. Another major elections industry player, Canada's Dominion, purchased the massive Diebold Election Systems division (which it shares with ES&S); Dominion also owns Smartmatic, which handles electronic vote-counting in the Philippines and Belgium. Military voting is now handled in several states by Barcelona, Spain-owned Scytl. In January 2012, Scytl acquired the largest election results reporting firm, SOE Software.

About the Colorado movie theater shooting

The second amendment of the United States Constitution states: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Obviously the need for a state militia has been replaced by the National Guard and Coast Guard whereby trained military personnel are entrusted with the defense of this country against domestic enemies. Their weapons are tightly controlled and safeguarded.

The only two reasons for a citizen to own a firearm are for hunting or defense of the household from intruders. In either case, ownership of a handgun, shotgun or rifle is more than adequate to satisfy these purposes. There is absolutely no need for any U.S. civilian to own any weapon more powerful or sophisticated than these.

Accordingly, all handguns, shotguns and rifles must be licensed and registered to the degree necessary to match weapon to owner at the click of a computer key. Furthermore, if we had prevented the purchase of more sophisticated weapons several innocent victims would not have died or been harmed at shopping malls, college

The Geopolitics of Compassion

Beyond the spectacle of the presidential race, the Washington consensus pursues business as usual. This is the season in which I wonder, with an ever-intensifying sense of urgency, what it would take to turn our political system into a democracy.

"And yet the militarization of the United States and the strengthening of the national security complex continues to accelerate," Tom Engelhardt wrote earlier this month. "The Pentagon is, by now, a world unto itself. . . ."

And as the world’s major powers play a 21st-century version of the "Great Game" to control the resources of the world, the U.S., in contrast with China, writes David Vine, "has focused relentlessly on military might as its global trump card, dotting the planet with new bases and other forms of military power."

Election

“We’re fighting for our families” say striking Ohio refinery workers

“We’re fighting for our families,” shouted Steelworkers (USW) District One Director Dave McCall, speaking at the Saturday rally of hundreds of striking Husky Energy refinery workers in Lima, Ohio. “The right-wingers like to talk of ‘family values. Well, real family values, the right to be able to spend time with our families, is what this fight is all about, and we are united, strong & we’re be here one day longer than this company that wants to take that away from us!”

McCall was speaking to a spirited crowd of striking USW refinery workers and supporters at the Stand Up-Fight Back Solidarity Rally, July 14, in Lima, Ohio. 230 members of USW, local 624 have been on strike since May at the Husky Energy refinery there, mainly over “family issues,” including ending of forced overtime, hiring a full workforce, maintaining their right to flexible scheduling practices so that they can spend time with their families and numerous safety issues.

Thanks Woody - We're standing on your sholders

It is the 100th Birthday of Woody Guthrie, the true folk hero, the epitome of the Beatles’ “working Class Hero,” a really true American hero (a description that Woody would no doubt despise). Born in Okemah, Oklahoma on July 12, 1912, named after his father’s favorite politician, Woodrow Wilson, Woody was born into and was a product of that rough and tumble time and place.

Well known as the author of “This Land is Your Land,” “Dust Bowl Blues,” “Hard Traveling,” “Talking Columbia” and so many more songs of and for poor folks, beaten down and fighting back in the Great Depression of the 1930’s, Woody was that, and so much more! We today know Woody as the fighting troubadour that traveled with the Dust Bowl “Okies,” forced off their farms by greedy banksters, fighting and singing with striking workers, memorializing the Grand Coolie Dam , and traveling, singing for the Merchant Marines in the Atlantic. In all of that, we know and are inspired by Woody’s life, but only 200 of the over 3,000 songs that Woody wrote were ever published.

CALL TO ACTION: Please help Ohio farmers

Hello Fracktivists,
We are beginning a program to hold ODNR accountable for allowing permitting of Oil & Gas extraction/injection wells and the inspection of these sites. There are many operating sites that are not following code and are not being inspected.
Call to Action: Please review and call at least one of the listed sources to assist Crawford County residents in protecting their lands. This is an elderly farming community and folks are scared and need our help. The site is located down a long access lane through a cornfield but is only 100 yards from residential properties. The Owner of the property, Fishburn Oil Inc., did well improvements, using their own company, and have not followed safe environmental practices. (see pics) Oil has been spilled in a 35 foot radius, there is oil sludge and contaminants on everything in the area with corn growing 10 feet away. There is an open pit with 50-60 gallons of crude plus other oily debris and the plastic lining is pulled almost all the way into the pit, down to the level of the liquid. The stench was overwhelming. The odor of the site can be detected from a mile away.

War and Climate Change

The heat backs up across the country, causing drought, wildfires, a mega-storm on the East Coast. More than 4,000 "hottest day" records have been shattered in the U.S. in the past month.

"The ecological ego matures," Theodore Roszak wrote 20 years ago in The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology, “toward a sense of ethical responsibility to the planet that is as vividly experienced as our ethical responsibility to other people. It seeks to weave that responsibility into the fabric of social relations and political decisions.”

Social change of real value is slow-going indeed. How do we manifest responsibility to the planet? A serious consensus is building across the globe that doing so is crucial, that the weather extremes of recent years are no less than global warming in action, the result of centuries of unbridled, industrial-age irresponsibility toward the planet, and something fundamental has to change in how we live our lives and sustain ourselves, but our leadership, certainly in this country, seems incapable of addressing an issue of such complexity.

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