1/18/12

Pipeline Delay - Another Flat-Footed GOP Mess

State Dept. Delays Oil Pipeline, Officials Say - NYTimes.com: "“I’m disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my administration’s commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil,” he said. He added that he would work with the oil industry to increase domestic production and perhaps build additional pipelines within the United States."

'via Blog this'

So anxious is the GOP to prove that the President is not many times as smart as they that they have once again stepped into wet concrete. There was no way the pipeline could be approved in 60 days. An alternate route is needed. Far down in the story is the fact that the President will work with oil companies on the domestic oil front. Another indication of the competence that drives Republicans mad.




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FBI Moves Against Seven Wall Street Traders

F.B.I. Makes Insider Trading Arrests - NYTimes.com: "Federal authorities announced insider trading charges against seven people on Wednesday, accusing them of earning nearly $62 million illegally trading on shares of Dell."

'via Blog this'

Looks like the Democrats are reading the writing on the wall.




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Mitt Romney will not be the nominee

ShortFormContent at Blogger: Web protests are working watch Senators run:

'via Blog this'

Mitt Romney will not be the nominee
The reasoning is not that hard to see
His liabilities will increase day by day
Until he sees his chances slip away
All hell will break loose in the GOP


Web protests are working watch Senators run

Support for Internet Bill Wanes as Protests Spread - NYTimes.com:

'via Blog this'

Web protests are working watch Senators run
The Web does the speaking and changes will come
We're on the verge of assuming control
The people the people will soon see heads roll




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Another Possible Occupy Anthem (Video)





Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger
Enjoy

Oh, ye playboys and playgirls
Ain't a-gonna run my world,
Ain't a-gonna run my world,
Ain't a-gonna run my world.
Ye playboys and playgirls
Ain't a-gonna run my world,
Not now or no other time.

You fallout shelter sellers
Can't get in my door,
Can't get in my door,
Can't get in my door.
You fallout shelter seller
Can't get in my door,
Not now or no other time.

Your Jim Crow ground
Can't turn me around,
Can't turn me around,
Can't turn me around.
Your Jim Crow ground
Can't turn me around,
Not now or no other time.

The laughter in the lynch mob
Ain't a-gonna do no more,
Ain't a-gonna do no more,
Ain't a-gonna do no more.
The laughter in the lynch mob
Ain't a-gonna do no more,
Not now or no other time.

You insane tongues of war talk
Ain't a-gonna guide my road,
Ain't a-gonna guide my road,
Ain't a-gonna guide my road.
You insane tongues of war talk
Ain't a-gonna guide my road,
Not now or no other time.

You red baiters and race haters
Ain't a-gonna hang around here,
Ain't a-gonna hang around here,
Ain't a-gonna hang around here.
You red baiters and race haters,
Ain't a-gonna hang around here,
Not now or no other time.

Ye playboys and playgirls
Ain't a-gonna own my world,
Ain't a-gonna own my world,
Ain't a-gonna own my world.
Ye playboys and playgirls,
Ain't a-gonna own my world,
Not now or no other time.

source: http://www.lyricsondemand.com/

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Pipeline Appears Doomed - Now How About?

Obama administration expected to reject Keystone XL pipeline permit today - Political Hotsheet - CBS News: "The Obama administration is expected to reject TransCanada's controversial $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline later Wednesday, a source familiar with the decision told CBS News, adding that a formal announcement is expected from the State Department. "

'via Blog this'

Add freedom for Bradley Manning and I will be enthusiastic again. Instead of luke warm.



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These are candidates who will do the Occupy thing


Here is something we all can do

These are candidates who will do the Occupy thing. Win all these seats for starters.

RED TO BLUE 2012

The DCCC’s Red to Blue program highlights top Democratic campaigns across the country, and offers them financial, communications, grassroots, and strategic support.
Red to Blue Races (18)

Ami Bera (CA-07)
Jose Hernandez (CA-10)
Mark Takano (CA-41)
Sal Pace (CO-03)
Val Demings (FL-08)
Keith Fitzgerald (FL-13)
Christie Vilsack (IA-04)
Brendan Mullen (IN-02)
Pam Gulleson (ND-AL)
Ann McLane Kuster (NH-02)
John Oceguera (NV-03)
Dan Maffei (NY-25)
Charlie Wilson (OH-06)
Kathy Boockvar (PA-08)
Nick Lampson (TX-14)
Denny Heck (WA-10)
Jamie Wall (WI-08)
Paul Hirschbiel (VA-02)
Majority Makers (3)

Alan Grayson (FL-27)
Steven Horsford (NV-04)
Joaquin Castro (TX-20)

Emerging Races (12)

Clark Hall (AR-01)
Raul Ruiz (CA-36)
Leonard Bembry (FL-02)
David Crooks (IN-08)
Rob Wallace (OK-02)
Manan Trivedi (PA-06)
Jackson Eaton (PA-15)
Eric Stewart (TN-04)
Pete Gallego (TX-23)
John Douglass (VA-10)
Rob Zerban (WI-01)
Pat Krietlow (WI-07)


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For thousands of years, Lampedusa has served as a garrison for empires

Everyone Is an Immigrant by Eliza Griswold: " It’s a spectacular show when the open, wooden boats come in, people huddled against the gunwales. In this human drama, the police are the supporting actors. So are the journalists like me, struggling against the cordon to talk to arrivals. So are the paramedics. We are all waiting for refugees."

'via Blog this'




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A way of life that will never return? Not so fast!

South Carolina Diarist - NYTimes.com: "I agree with the sentiment, but it makes for an incredibly backward-looking campaign. I sometimes wonder if the Republican Party has become the receding roar of white America as it pines for a way of life that will never return."

'via Blog this'

David Brooks has the capacity to say what is not the case and then double down.

What way of life are we talking about that we need to get back to? Strange fruit evenings? Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney dead in Mississippi?

OK - When we could guzzle gas for pennies a gallon? And smoke all day without a warning? And gather eggs in the farmyard?


Hmm? When the power of corporations was more hidden than it is now? When a GOP President could single-handedly drive a nation to near-bankruptcy on the strength of scare lies?

Brooks actually goes on to suggest that we need to go back to recover some values we lost. Who is he kidding?

Values do not get lost. They are permanent, internal and choosable. Tolerance, democracy, helpfulness and non-idolatry are as available now as they were to Diane Nash and John Lewis on the streets of Nashville in 1962.

If the values Brooks wants to recover differ from these values he is guilty of what we might call pundit pandering.

Another Tempest in A Media Pot

Risks for G.O.P. on Attacks With Racial Themes — Political Memo - NYTimes.com: "Mr. Gingrich drew a standing ovation when he responded that a historically high number of Americans were on food stamps under Mr. Obama, and defiantly declared, “I believe every American of every background has been endowed by their creator with the right to pursue happiness, and if that makes liberals unhappy, I’m going to continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn someday to own the job.”

Mr. Gingrich is correct that food stamp program participation is at record levels but he ignores the depth of the recession inherited by Mr. Obama when he took office."

'via Blog this'

There is so much blame for the reality that is rarely even referenced that all this brouhaha is lost on people who understand that we live in a minority-abused society top to bottom. Anyone who thinks the Great Society was the cap of progress is whistling in the wind. The fact is that both parties have created the context of today's rampant and growing poverty. Both need to be replaced by persons who can see to the truth and not be sucked in by what the media says in its binary blindness. I believe most in Occupy understand this.



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Mitt and Bush One Share A Core Problem

Hunting, Dear Sir? Delighted! - NYTimes.com:

"Poppy drinks martinis; Mitt drinks chocolate milk and Coke Zero. But 41 and the man he endorsed to be 45 share the gee-whiz language, hokey humor, awkward stage presence, sense of entitlement and noblesse oblige, need to break away from powerful patriarchs and prove themselves in business, gentlemanly demeanor that masks surprisingly sharp elbows, and the willingness to make whiplash switches from blue-blooded positions to red-state ones, leaving everyone to wonder: “Who is this guy at his core?”"

'via Blog this'

I would rather have four years of Obama getting things done competently than four years of blah and behind the scenes puppetry. Fact is whoever wins will bring much of Congress with him, so the contest is about the whole kahuna not the man. 2012 needs to be the GOP's Waterloo.





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Palin: Would Vote for Newt in SC

Palin: I'd vote for Newt in S.C. to prolong race: "Newt Gingrich has a semi-endorsement from a prominent Republican: Sarah Palin.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee told Fox News host Sean Hannity last night that she would vote for Gingrich, if only to prolong the Republican presidential race."

'via Blog this'

Interesting. It means she is a bystander. If Newt should win it would up her stock and perhaps sink Romney ultimately. But Occupy has eclipsed the Tea Party and Newt's arguments seem unable to thwart the unseemly motive to beat Obama at any price. With a one-percenter who cannot talk without memorizing what he is told to say? I hear someone in the West Wing saying bring it on.




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Fluency is Abba’s gift to you.


Beware all who deny complexity;
No one can grasp all truths, not one.
Choose your good friends with care, and patiently.
Sometimes the worst of enemies is you.
You are the one for whom you lie in wait.
Ah, lonely one, one day you’ll be yourself,
Beyond all barriers you have in you.
Learn to converse with every force within,
And to negotiate the way ahead.
This is creation, creativity.
Fluency is Abba’s gift to you.




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Funny we might have never known

Occupy protesters dispersed outside White House; apparent smoke bomb thrown - The Washington Post: "Ogilvie says there were 1,000 to 1,500 protesters at one point. He said something appearing to be a smoke bomb was thrown over the fence and that the device was being removed."

'via Blog this'

I doubt this would have attracted notice without what apparently was a harmless event. Nonetheless nonviolence involves the idea of being the one exposed to retaliation, not anything to distract from that linchpin of nonviolence. Of course we will never know if this was a yippie-type thing, in which case I would retract the stern sentence preceding.



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Our Patriotism Is The Nationalism Hans Kohn Warned Us About


In his classic work Nationalism Hans Kohn warned us that 
unbridled nationalism leads to fascism
Seymour Martin Lipset warned us that an ego-bolstering culture
creates a dangerous seedbed of malleable souls
Subject to the vagaries of manipulation 
and  the seductive poison of lies
Robert Nisbet warned us that when we shelve community
We are left with society which he identified with impersonal forces
Which cannot substitute for the learning and growth
That takes place where community thrives
We are in the  world presaged by these prophets
And Occupy is the sign that shows
We know it
And intend
To do something about it
But have no illusions
Underneath the bravado of those who pull the strings 
There is fear
Find candidates who understand
Now
Identify seeing allies
Protect the vote
Hone the messages
Eschew nationalism
And look to our returning crucified veterans for the antidote to
Cheap and manipulative patriotism


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Alabama 3 Pins It (Woody Guthrie Video)





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Can you name values and claim them as well?


Can you name values and claim them as well?
This is the fruit of graceful solitude,
The essence of all creativity;
For Abba is sublime and within you,
And only Abba leads you to what’s true.

Some feedback on the shutdown

Wikipedia Goes Dark For 24 Hours To Protest Web Piracy Bills | Fox News: ""My main concern is that it puts the organization in the role of advocacy, and that's a slippery slope," said editor Robert Lawton, a Michigan computer consultant who would prefer that the encyclopedia stick to being a neutral repository of knowledge. "Before we know it, we're blacked out because we want to save the whales.""

'via Blog this'



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Those anti-piracy bills are still pending

Web Site Will Shut Down to Protest Antipiracy Bills - NYTimes.com:

The bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate, are backed by major media companies and are mostly intended to curtail the illegal downloading and streaming of TV shows and movies online. But the tech industry fears that, among other things, they will give media companies too much power to shut down sites that they say are abusing copyrights.

'via Blog this'

The key to everything is the 2012 elections. We need candidates who will pledge to serve us, not the interests that fill the trough of both parties with the bribes that run our system now. Litmus test for all candidates should be corporations are not people and get money out of politics.

Abba's Way Will Soon Be Available in All eBook Formats


We are glad to inform you that your book, Abba's Way, has been successfully converted to a new eBook file format. This new eBook version, called EPUB, is quickly becoming the new standard for the eBook industry. The new eBook file does not affect any previous eBook versions you may have for this book. iUniverse has submitted the new eBook file to our partner eBook vendors to increase the overall distribution of your book. Your new eBook will appear on each vendor's website after each company has had a chance to review and process the file. Please note we cannot guarantee your eBook will be accepted by every vendor.

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From an email just received.

Abba's Way 

Paper versions in soft and hard cover remain available - see the box to your right.

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RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press