Now it appears that the commercial hucksters and hustlers are swarming our OFA site trying to sell TVs and laptops. I just received this offensive solicitation in my e-mail box:
[PublicPolicyProfessionalsforObama] Dear!
Our webmasters must be vigilant and take steps to prohibit these kinds of posts that have nothing to do with the historic work before us now.
To liveUnder the open skyDreams unboundedAnd hopes unfurledRipplingIn the windOur spirits riseCatching its currentAnd soarThrough timeAnd space
Across the landOver the seasInto the heavensOur spirits soarAn aerial balletOf aspirationAnd ambitionAn ambassadorOf our lifeTo the stars.
Into sun swept skiesAnd harsher climesOur spirits soarEver higherUnbound by roomsOr rulesOr guaranteesThey roostOnly to rest
Beneath these skiesOur spirits rootFreedom and fulfillmentPartners to the landAnd foundationOf our great claimLet lightning strike!Let kingdom come!We do not fearOur spirits soar!
Copyright © 2001 K. S. Shain. All rights reserved.
The ghosts are in the machine: Has anyone here noticed that the Heritage Foundation (a virulent right-wing organization) is scheduling events to mobilize opposition and win converts from the Obama camp using the OFA website?
Check out their recent postings for events they are scheduling in October in the Twin Cities. Seems we need a strategy to counter. Anyone involved in deriving or applying one?
A few good books to catch up on things as we get ready for inauguration. Can't afford to get blindsided!
The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank
How Race Survived US History by David Roediger
Tuned In by Craig Stull
Water Wars by Vandana Shiva
Welcome to the Terrordome by Dave Zirin
and, if you haven't read it yet, Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
Kudos to all for a fine job. But now the work really begins. First order: Make it to inauguration. Overall task as we provide the man's muscle: Watch out for those gremlins! Joe the Plumber has a cherrybomb for every Democratic toilet in town. Please do not laugh: The opponents of our agenda are not above sabotaging the peoples' plumbing to create a job for themselves in 4 years (or less.)
Let's keep those pipes clean! Defend our public infrastructure!
Tired of trying to convince your radical friends to vote for Obama? Tell them a vote for Barack is vote against racism, the nation's most dangerous pollutant. I'll bet that you can break through their iron-clad class arguments and strong-willed independence with the logic that voting for Barack Obama will change things more in diluting and ultimately neutralizing this poison than a wasted vote on a third-party candidate, even one of color.
OK, OK, I've heard the lines about principles and parties and people and profits. But the single most significant reason that the peoples' progress in this country has been retarded is racism. With that lethal and divisive force at the top of the agenda, even the most principled crusader, the most militant vanguard, the most revolutionary observer can toss in their polemical pride and vote big this year against the very thing that has been killing us in all past years - racism.
So tell all your friends who are thinking of voting for Nader or McKinney or any of those other folks espousing change that all they are doing is voting to keep things the same. They are enjoying the safe harbor of their pre-polarized world of which they've become accustomed to, railing about about all its iniquities. Tell them: Now is the time. Now is the chance. We can dilute this toxin that has been poisoning Ameirca from within for nearly three hundred years once and for all and set the stage for better things to come. Then these other candidates can come forward and offer their solutions. But let's destroy racism first! Vote for Obama.
Sons of Abraham
Isaac and Ishmael
Living in the holy land
Palestine and Israel
Both have a charter
Each has a deal
Sharing a simple meal.
Together
Forever
Can we see some peace?
With land to each a piece.
Swarms of hordes
And crusading conquerors
Pitting the two brothers
Against each other
For land olives oil
Raping the mothers
Of crusading conquerors
Claiming covenant as their own.
Will we see some peace?
To own and not to lease.
Hagar and Sarah
Could have been sisters
Couldn't have
More blisters
Standing by
Their misters
Each with a womb of her own.
Shalom Alechem
Salaam Alikum
Nobody eats the pig.
Salaam Alechem
Shalom Alikum
The pig controls the rig.
Brothers
Time to quit the jig.
copyright © 2006 K. Shain
As a result of the hardships endured by my sweetheart at the hands of those Romneyite McCain-supporting Bachmannist bullies at work, she finally gave notice and sadly left her "dream job" at one of the Lauder family holdings. Her co-workers were in tears seeing the sweetest, kindest and most effective colleague they've had in years hobble away in abject defeat. Please see my earlier posts regarding the abomination that passes for a "environmentally-friendly" company in Blaine, Minnesota owned by a family that nominally considers itself liberal. The horrific treatment she received by the caretaker managers there makes no sense at all if the owners are donors to the Democratic Party or the Obama campaign. Don't they know or care what their imported staff and their minions are up to?
Perhaps they are really neo-cons and line-up on the Lieberman side of the ideological side of the dump. All the yling-yling in the world can't cover up that smell...
Shame, shame, shame.
Everyone knows we do not need the same old jalopy even if it comes with the antiqued McCain patina with a snazzy new female rider. So far, I am tring to discern whether Barack is pledging an oil change or an engine overhaul. Anyone seen the crash book and can decipher the plan? Could it be that we need a brand new car?
The selection of Joe Biden as a running mate is a wise choice for gathering in voters who believe that CNN is an alternative to FOX News. To those of us who don't, whether Joe can live up to our expectations of change remains to be seen. Stay tuned for feet on the street and signs in the air, the only real way anything is ever going to happen to change things around here...
Demand a Constitutional Amendment to Ban the Sale of Public Infrastructure to Private or Foreign Parties TODAY!
Regarding my blog post of 08/08/08,
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/kenshain/gG5K5J
what do you suppose Barack Obama would advise us to do about managers that punish their employees for supporting Barack in their free time?
1) Keep our mouths shut and put up with the abuse?
2) Notify the Lauder family that owns the business that some of the members of their management team in Minnesota are violating their very principles... to the core (read "camps")?
3) Organize an office workers' resistance and out the scoundrels?
4) Try to raise awareness of the injustices being commited daily so that they can be brought to light and justice?
5) Just vote for him and he'll make everything better?
For the record, my fiancee already went to HR and they said to her, "And lying is bad, why?"
Seriously, how are others handling management abuse of Obama supporters on the job?
It's bad enough that my fiancee's father disowned her because she supports Barack Obama for president and attended his rallies here in town, among other reasons; these things happen all the time in racist America. But now she is being persecuted at work by a Romney bully. What makes this especially perplexing is that she works her heart out for a famous Minnesota company in the personal care products marketplace that has a reputation for being "green." Maybe somebody should tell Billy Lauder that intolerance and greed has run amuck in one of his prized holdings?
Anybody else having these kinds of problems, plausibly deniable or otherwise?
Republicans say that they are all about individual responsibility so then why is it that Barack Obama's suggestion that we all take individual responsibility for the fuel efficiency of our cars by keeping our tire pressure at spec is met with jeers and derision by the McCain camp?
By their own ideology, they should be celebrating that a Democrat "gets it" whatver the difference in plans may be. Instead they howl like monkeys throwing stuff around the room against the wasteful roar of motorcycle engines going nowhere and boast of a military plan to guarantee $5.00 gallons of gas in one year. Ah, the sweet sound of freedom!
No elephants here; sounds more like Larry Fischer's monkeys versus donkeys to me!
What is known as the Iraqi government has been asking the US to leave for months and, until Barack Obama visited there, the US media was reluctant to report this fact. Now that the truth is out, the advocates of expanding the US military mission in the region are disappointed that the story has finally broken to the public and are now screaming that Obama has overstepped his bounds. Until Obama's visit, no one of any stature here in the US was communicating this truth, though it had been roundly reported around the world. Our press was negligent as usual. Now that the proverbial djinn is out of the bottle, let's see how much more of the Cheney kayfabe will come tumbling down!
Here's a challenge: Can anyone out there document the earliest instance of Iraq officials asking the US to leave?
What motivates the modern voter? Is it personality? The Issues? The proverbial pocketbook? Ever since Nixon was outed as a scoundrel in the 70s, America's sponsored media have pushed hard on identifying the problems with America as not being the result of a system in decay but rather the result of aberrant personality types and have refocused public attention to individuals rather than on the systemic source of the problems themselves. One look at the preoccupation of the public with celebrities gives you an idea of how far this obsession's been carried to consensus. Reviling Bush and Cheney only serves to divert attention from the systemic process these men only lead and refocus attention onto a cavalcade of personalities we call elections.
But not all people respond to this kind of distraction. What then does motivate the modern voter?
In my experience, there are 4 types of voters out there: About 30% of the public responds to what is commonly called "charismatic authority." This is when people respond to personality types regardless of what their position is.
Another 30% responds to what might be called "administrative authority." These are people that respond to the bureaucratic authority of the society's rule keepers, people likely to want law and order.
A third group of another 30% constitutes "the authority of self-interest." You know the type; the ones who ask "What's in it for me?" This group is exemplified by salespeople and their penchant for a 10% cut for anything to happen.
The 10% balance are those of us who believe that we are motivated by logic and reason, a small number compared to the 3 great motivators at work. Whether this is true or we all simply fooling ourselves remains to be seen.
Now, a good leader has to learn how to manage all 4 constituencies to effectively run any kind of organization. But a politician only needs a simple majority to win. In this way, it is easy to see how Ronald Reagan can gather in the charismatics and the bureaucrats and still preside over a crappy economy that wasn't in anyone's interest, and still fool the country into thinking he was a great president. It's also easy to see how Bill Clinton was able to win over many of the same charismatics while appealing to the self-interest crowd and ignoring the rule-keepers entirely. After all, he was our nation's rule-breaker-in-chief, wasn't he?
As for Senator Obama: He seems to have the ability to attract supporters from all 4 constituencies, attesting to his brilliance as both a politician and a manager making him a true leader. Hence, moving forward, as we continue discussing electoral choices with voters, our approach depends on what each voter's motivators are. As a result, as we approach the general voting public, it is probably wise for the campaign as a whole and each of us as individuals to grasp these archetypes, understand each audience's needs (and hot buttons) and then proceed with each accordingly. Make sense?
So now the oil tycoon is an environmental crusader, is he? A common refrain heard throughout the business world is that if a mob is chasing you, jump out in front and make like you are leading the parade. After profitably exploiting our resources and economy for years, now suddenly oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens has emerged with a plan that seems to cater to our growing concern about the environment and transform it into a terrific source of profit for him and his friends during the coming democratic administration, just like his ilk did with day care after Bill Clinton became president. Like the oil and gas industry's recent ad campaign to convince the public that we the people are the true owners of the oil and gas business, the misinformation campaign built up around Picken's rather mundane and self-serving plan is incredulous and the seriousness with which some quarters have greeted it is mind-boggling. People have been making wind power for years so nothing new here, and the idea of natural gas powered cars? A paradigm shift or more of the same with a slightly different fuel source?
And who will supply the natural gas? Entrepreneurs?
