Posts from — April 2006

The actions I post are those I support, at least for the present. Sometimes I change my mind when new information, evidence, or compelling argument convinces me to do so (but – note to trolls – rarely do I change my mind because of comments intended to provoke me, harass me, and drain my energy and time).

There are so many things going on right now that I feel I need some sort of realignment with my larger priorities. I will try to do my part to support actions to bring compassion and ethics and accountability to our government and public sphere, to reawaken the American people to a realization of their own interests and to the need for a functioning democracy here. But I have to refocus on some other priorities as well, and this is not my top calling.

Among other things, I have decided to change the format of the activism suggestions I post – they need to be more minimalist. There is always a lot of information on the topic at the site, and adults can use their favorite search engines and so on to find out more about any of these topics.

Click on the links to read more and to decide whether you support the views presented. Go right ahead and read up on the issue elsewhere too!

Develop discernment – among other things, it’s a survival skill.

Today’s Actions:

Demand that our government stop dragging its feet and take decisive action to stop Darfur genocide (Color of Change)

Support Real Effort to Address US Oil Dependence – Fuel Choices for American Security Act (S.2025/H.R. 4409) bipartisian legislation would save as much as 10 million barrels of oil per day by 2030 by creating incentives and standards that would increase vehicle efficiency and alternative fuel use. (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Sign petition to repeal tax breaks for oil and gas companies (they admitted they don’t need the money). (Biden, Unite Our States)

Tell your Senators to protect our coasts and stop more offshore drilling. We can’t drill our way to energy independence. (League of Conservation Voters)

Support the troops, but not the unending war. Listen to the new Neil Young album “Living with War”, then take action to bring our troops home in 2006. (True Majority)

Stop 700-ton “bunker buster simultation” bomb detonation on the Western Shoshone Native American reservation June 2nd in Nevada (Winograd)

Take a wide range of actions at: Consumer’s Union (publisher of Consumer Reports)

Weekly Unconscious Mutterings Meme Week 169

1. Out of place :: Ectopic
2. Helicopter :: Rocket
3. Francis :: Assisi
4. Ryan :: Meg
5. Wedding :: Dress
6. Apalled :: Aghast
7. Historian :: Interpreter
8. Powerful :: Corrupt
9. Sex symbol :: Charisma
10. Uncomfortable :: Uneasy

I’m trying again to add tags to my posts. So far, the categories are acting like tags, but I wanted more of a cross-reference on specific topics.

I’m using a WordPress plugin called Ultimate Tag Warrior.

Unfortunately I’ve now got to add the tags to over a thousand posts, so I’ll be working backward, adding them in as I have time. I’ve added a “tag cloud” to the footer of the page, and each post will have site-linked tags. I may also add Technorati tags at some future point. I’m not sure how the tag page that has been added to the sidebar is meant to be integrated, but I’ll figure it out soonest.

In April 100 years ago:

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”
–Teddy Roosevelt.

(April 19th, actually – I’m a few days late with this.)

Looks like the “invisible government” he was referring to has surged forward and become a lot more visible.

Consider this, from Lawrence Wilkerson: “Is U.S. being transformed into a radical republic?” in today’s Baltimore Sun:

As Alexis de Tocqueville once said: “America is great because she is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

In January 2001, with the inauguration of George W. Bush as president, America set on a path to cease being good; America became a revolutionary nation, a radical republic. If our country continues on this path, it will cease to be great – as happened to all great powers before it, without exception.

From the Kyoto accords to the International Criminal Court, from torture and cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners to rendition of innocent civilians, from illegal domestic surveillance to lies about leaking, from energy ineptitude to denial of global warming, from cherry-picking intelligence to appointing a martinet and a tyrant to run the Defense Department, the Bush administration, in the name of fighting terrorism, has put America on the radical path to ruin.

Unprecedented interpretations of the Constitution that holds the president as commander in chief to be all-powerful and without checks and balances marks the hubris and unparalleled radicalism of this administration.

Moreover, fiscal profligacy of an order never seen before has brought America trade deficits that boggle the mind and a federal deficit that, when stripped of the gimmickry used to make it appear more tolerable, will leave every child and grandchild in this nation a debt that will weigh upon their generations like a ball and chain around every neck. Imagine owing $150,000 from the cradle. That is radical irresponsibility.

This administration has expanded government - creation of the Homeland Security Department alone puts it in the record books - and government intrusiveness. It has brought a new level of sleaze and corruption to Washington (difficult to do, to be sure). And it has done the impossible in war-waging: put in motion a conflict in Iraq that in terms of colossal incompetence, civilian and military, and unbridled arrogance portends to top the Vietnam era, a truly radical feat.

…

Congress can awaken and discover that the Constitution is correct, that Congress is in fact a separate and equal branch of government. The American people will find a way to deal with the remainder of the radicals, whether at the ballot box, in the courts or in the Senate.

We can halt the precipitate slide in our standing around the world, convince the majority of the Islamic world that we can and must co-exist – and eventually prosper together – and at the same time confront, confound and defeat the small element in Islam’s midst that lives to murder innocents, Christian, Jew and Muslim alike.

Sounds like place to start for the statemanship of today.