Kucinich comes to take back America

My friend Steve Cobble gave Kucinich a great introduction, receiving applause for each point he made about Kucinich's platform and past performance, arguing that Kucinich was right four years ago that opposition to the war and support for fair trade were key to winning, and that's how Democrats won in 2006.

Kucinich opened with the need to cut off the money.  He proposed simply not offering any more bills to fund the war.  Kucinich won huge applause as he shouted about the troops coming home, the bases being closed, the oil being left to the Iraqi people...

We must challenge the very idea of war in order to reconnect with the nations of the world, Kucinich said.  "I believe that the path to peace runs right through Jerusalem," Kucinich said, promising an even-handed approach.  He got loud applause for being the first to raise the topic.

Comfest Satuday ends in radical street demo

The first ComFest took shape when a handful of political hippies who had already formed, among other things, a free medical clinic, a food co-op, a tenants union and an alternative newspaper, pulled off a big street party at the convergence of East 16th and Waldeck Avenues in the OSU area. Saturday June 23rd, 2007 Comfest regained some of its political clout when the festival ended in a radical street march against the War in Iraq. At around 10pm a crowd assembled by the pond at the northeast corner of Goodale park. Demonstrators brandished bullhorns, bucket drums, banners, signs, and torches. The festival had been going on all day and much of the crowd had grown rowdy and boisterous after a day of Comfest beverages and music.

Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity

You can't generally hold a writer responsible for a headline, usually written by an editor, but you can take issue with it. The headline "Antioch's sunk itself by refusing to evolve," in the June 17 Columbus Dispatch over a Mike Harden column, suggests that the new corporate college and university model is in some way a step forward for humanity.

Remember that the Antioch College motto, taken from the great educator Horace Mann, is: "Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity."

How one talks about the death, or temporary closing, of the legendary Antioch College – without talking about the great victories that it has won for humanity, this nation, the state of Ohio, and even the city of Columbus – is puzzling.

Let's recall that history. The Christian Connection founded the college in 1852. It's a little hard to believe now, in the era of George W. Bush's warmongering, profit-loving, pro-corporate version of Jesus, but there was a time when the American Christian churches drew more from the Sermon on the Mount than Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.

TOTALLY boom/doom Solartopian green by 2030

We are all now desperate runners in the epic race between doom and boom. It's a global- warmed dead heat between apocalyptic ecological collapse, versus a Solartopian green-powered prosperity.

Defeat is defined by a death spiral that decimates our planet. Victory means the wealth, jobs and organic well-being that can come with renewables, efficiency and a post-pollution prosperity.

A middle ground is likely along the way, but would almost certainly happen by dividing humankind even further between rich and poor. That polarization is ultimately unsustainable, and will demand correction, one way or the other.

The "tipping point" where climate chaos becomes self-accelerating and irreversible may be as close as ten years away. Some believe we're already over the edge.

The global economy runs parallel. Any system addicted to huge inputs of irreplaceable, monopolized resources whose prices are soaring must soon collapse.

The cure is clear---a technological, economic and social revolution built around the transition to green power.

Overgrown kids, unshackled ids, and the death of the superego

"Children are completely egoistic; they feel their needs intensely and strive ruthlessly to satisfy them."
--Sigmund Freud

Frightening as it may be, the Earth’s fate rests in the hands of children. With incredibly formidable military firepower at its disposal, the United States could catalyze Armageddon at any time. And while they may be adults chronologically, our sociopolitical structure is dominated by emotional infants.

Nietzsche once pronounced God dead. In the United States, we have a more readily demonstrable (and perhaps related) problem. Our collective id has rendered its governing superego impotent, and perhaps dead. Our prevailing moral standards, as inconsequential as they have become, are of the Jerry Falwell variety. They are mean-spirited, self-serving, judgmental, narrow-minded, selfish, and belligerent. As far as US Americans are concerned, Christ may as well have preached the Sermon on the Mount from the lowest recesses of Death Valley.

Randi Rhodes and Greg Palast hunt Giuliani's favorite vulture

"Can't he make a living in a more reputable, less disgusting way, say, in child pornography?"

Randi Rhodes is asking you, Mr. Singer.  And we're still waiting for the answer.  [To hear the Palast/Rhodes report, click here.]

Paul Singer is a vulture. And a billionaire. And, with his underlings at Elliott Associates, the number one sugar-daddy donor to the presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani, dropping $168,400 so far and, according to secret campaign documents, committed to raise $10 million for Rudolf the Great, Emperor of 9/11.

So who is this bird of prey Singer who holds Rudy in his beak?

Unlike feathered predators, Singer preys on the living.  Singer figured out a way to siphon off funds intended for debt relief to some of the poorest countries in the world.  Nice guy.

And by the way, I didn't come up with the moniker "vulture."  Just about everyone, from the new Prime Minister of Britain to the World Bank, calls Singer and his ilk "vultures." 

Curbing the imperial presidency

While the Take Back America conference has included two self-organized and underpromoted panels on impeachment, on Wednesday it included an official panel, well promoted and in an actual room on the topic of "Curbing the Imperial Presidency." Former Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta opened the event by listing endless Bush crimes and offenses, concluding that Bush recognizes few if any limitations on his power. Congress must act, Podesta said, to oversee, review, and litigate. (Litigate?) This being a conference dedicated to the policies of Nancy Pelosi, impeachment is off the table.

The second speaker was Ambassador Joe Wilson. How do we restore the balance of power, Wilson asked. He didnt answer, though. He told the story of his writing his NY Times op-ed, and concluded that by publishing that op-ed he had held his government accountable. Of course, I applaud him for publishing that op-ed, but who exactly has been held accountable? Wilson went on to win huge applause by calling Cheney a son of a bitch. But the son of a bitch is still vice president.

Who are the insurgents?

  Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President, International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus
Alabama A&M University

There has probably been no other nation in history that has used with such frequency the word “insurgents” as often as the United States. What does this word mean? Dictionaries tend to describe the word “insurgent” as one who rises in opposition to lawful civil or political authority, one who is rebellious. The New Webster Dictionary of the English Language tells us that an insurgent differs from a rebel in holding less pronounced position of antagonism, and may or may not develop into a rebel.

Analysis of Distorted Concept

Northern Light: Tony Sutton of ColdType interviewed by Jason Miller

Nearly asphyxiated by the fetid stench wafting from the mendacious corporate media pundits I've been profiling, I decided to ascend from the intellectual sewer into which I had crawled in order to observe them in their natural habitat. At last some detoxified air! It was an incredible boost to my faltering faith in humanity when I recently had the privilege to conduct a cyber-interview with Tony Sutton, the editor and publisher of ColdType, an online journal which presents "Writing Worth Reading from around the World."

As you will discover, Tony and his marvelous publication are two of the best kept secrets we political educators and agitators for social justice have in our arsenal. Domiciled in the Great White North, Tony publishes one of the finest radical journals in existence.

In terms of content, contributing writers, and presentation, ColdType's quality is unparalleled.

Judge for yourself:

http://www.coldtype.net/

The hearts of all sane men

So we bomb a school and then are aghast when seven children die. “If we knew that there were children inside the building, there was no way that that air strike would have occurred,” a spokesman for what the media still bother to call “the coalition” said afterward, by way of explanation if not apology.

The public has mostly tuned out of these wars. Of those who still pay attention, many do so from behind Fortress Patriotism, with its ramparts of cliche: “freedom isn’t free,” etc. Thus when children die and it’s our fault and publicity is unavoidable, the media will usually remove the stinger from each tiny death, and keep the American conscience untroubled, by putting the deaths in the larger context of U.S. strategy or mission.

We bombed the eastern Afghanistan compound, which contained a mosque and a madrassa (Islamic school), this past Sunday because we were hunting insurgents who may have been involved in the massive suicide bombing of a bus a few hours earlier in Kabul, which had killed as many as 35 people and wounded 52.

Got it? Next question . . .

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