I think we need to make it clear that we want the stimulus, and that in fact we are pissed that the senate has added in private enrichment tax breaks and taken out the investments we need in schools, health and engergy that will get us moving in the right direction. How hypocritical to talk about the interest and inflation burden on our children after the mess they created with the war deficit and the give away to the financial barons with their billion dollar incomes. I am sick of their double dealing and slimy two faced lies they tell to fool people into supporting federal policies that keep the middle class folks in line and poor. We need investment is schools. We need preventative health care and care for everyone. We need investment in green energy to stop using the naturla resources that are under their sands. If we demand it we can have it. We have to demonstrate in the streets as decisively as we voted in November. Don't let them take the election away from us now. Please! Don't let them do it!
Tell Barack Obama to stand up for the things he got elected to do. Tell him to not be afraid to call their bluff. Them him we will demonstrate in the streets to support him. We need CHANGE. WE NEED REAL CAHNGE.
This Declaration was created by Eleanor Roosevelt during the Creation of the United Nations after WW II. The whole world agreed to it, but, given Guantanemo, maybe we all need to review it.
Link in English:
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/eng.htm
Link in Spanish:
http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/spa.htm
http://www.unhchr.ch.htm
gets you to the site of the UN High Commission on Human Rights, a very valuable launch pad to humanitarian efforts round the world.
Everyone should read this list, every New Year's Eve. There is a movement to have it printed in each new passport, so people will read it while standing in line at Security.
Gracias, ObamaDoug
I know, I know, I know! It's totally crazy for me to think I'd be chosen to be the next American Ambassador to Nicaragua since I'm just a poor pensioner, and I have no diplomatic background or past government service, or even good political networking; but, heck, this is a New America, playing by new rules, speaking a higher truth, and anything could happen, and might, even this. A guy can dream, can't he?
I'm caught up with all the possibilities for building Millennial linkage between the US and the emerging dynamo of capital and development that Latin America, especially in Brazil and Venezuela, now represents. I could transform the relationship between the US and Nicaragua, now a very wounded beast of corruption, greed, special corporate interests and controlling, covert manipulation, harking back to US imperialistic hegemony, terroristic client-state thinking from the 80's, and a blinded overview which fails to see the needs of the impoverished people of Nicaragua, 90% of the population, working for $2 a day. All the US aid which the Embassy in Managua administers ends up in the pockets of the elites, one way or another: no campesino in Nicaragua has ever seen a dime of it. All of that would have to change.
Having lived with and supported and built bridges of love and understanding between rico Coloradans and Northern Nicaraguan peasants for the last fifteen years, as American Ambassador, I would bring the peasants' voices to the table for the first time, not just the elitist voices of "The Men from Managua" who own most of the country. It would work a miracle of transformation for all the people of Nicaragua and, as well, transform our US stance as a change agent for peace, healing, mutuality and economic restoration in a country that has witnessed firsthand the nastiest face of American foreign policy, for the last hundred years. I could help President Obama bring brotherhood, opportunity, education, health and democratic power to the people, who, to a man, woman or child, are the world's most capitalistic. My American Embassy would be a new beacon of light and gratitude for the mutual benefit of all. My ultimate mission: to foster the empowerment of Nicaraguans to empower themselves, as friends working together in the Greater America, the same tool of transforming change that President Obama used to win the election in North America.
I would also bring a 21st century voice to the State Department's 20th century muddle, which really needs to happen if we are to befriend and build alliance with the emerging Latin American panthers. In many ways, Latin America is getting it together without us: we need to get on the same page with them by changing ourselves.
Gracias for participating in my dream.
Charles Douglas Evans (aka Doug Evans Betanco in Nicaragua)
So, I went and donated five dollars to the Obama Transition Team effort, but, Lord, I've lost on paper fifty percent of my net worth, so my donations may get down to a dollar, pretty soon. I also know I've pretty much said Sayonara to this Blog, but, what can I say, I break my rules all the time, as do we all. I'll at least update the National Blog occasionally, but most of my thoughts will be at centerdoug.blogspot.com, my CenterDoug Blog.
Anyway, today, I applied again for another Obama Administration position--Hoo-hah!--a truly fantasy-fest for me, except, of course, a part of me wants it to come true. How like me!
I want to be the Ambassador from the USA to Nicaragua. Stranger things have happened. I am a truly upstanding, dignified and locally-respected senior cirizen with no money but--man, could I make a difference, in that post! In Nicaragua and here, I am both a campesino and a Sandinista pacifist for All America.
Here's the letter I sent to the Obama Transition Team:
My Vision for America
My New America keeps its word, internally and externally, and walks its talk with maturity and courage as One with the rest of the world, an honorable nation among nations. Acting maturely means being peaceably responsive to the needs of all the world's peoples, not just the rich elites; honoring international law and World Court decisions, even when they go against us; and, especially, owning to our past mistakes, rectifying them when possible, and choosing in the future to forge a higher path.
My New America, for instance, would honor the World Court's decision in the case of Daniel Ortega and Nicaragua vs the USA in the 80's: the Court found for Ortega, found the US guilty of "conducting a terrorist operation" against the State of Nicaragua from 1979-88, and levied reparations in the billions against the USA. This has been ignored by the State Department for 20 years, and the whole world knows it. If we expect our fellow nations to honor that Court’s decisions, we need to honor them ourselves. When we don’t, we build support for world-wide terrorism’s ad campaign on the ground against us. Honoring this debt is in both the national interest and for the world’s security.
My New America would honor that debt by paying those reparations with interest and monitoring the funds so at least half gets into the pockets of some of the world's poorest people, the campesinos who comprise 90% of Nicaragua's citizens and who have borne the brunt of the ruinous hardships this US action catalyzed. Nicaragua’s economy is ruined, perhaps irretrievably. While the funds might technically go to the current Ortega government, they must be administered by a third party, perhaps The Carter Center, to assure that our tax money does not end up lining only the pockets of the Nica elites. The people at the bottom of the world's economic beanstalk need nourishing, if the beanstalk is not to topple out of starvation at its roots. As well, the USA needs to honor its own laws, in order to stand taller in the world.
My New American President Obama would need to re-educate the American public to understand the truth about Nicaragua: the Sandinista Insurrection of 1979 was both reasonably peaceable and justified, very much like the American Revolution in intention and inspiration, and in no way a "Communist takeover" by wild-eyed guerrillas; the only terrorists in Nicaragua were the Dictator Somoza's National Guard, trained by the US to subjugate the population; after the Triunfo of the Sandinistas, we paid the Guardsmen who had fled the country to terrorize the new and legitimate government of Nicaragua from Honduras and Costa Rica.
The New American people need to understand that the spin-dance of Old-American foreign policy vis-à-vis Latin America in the past no longer exists in the New Millennium, that we will not be lied to anymore, because our New America will no longer lie to its citizens or to the world.
My New American President Obama would travel to Nicaragua to offer both apologies for our dreadful past together and gratitude for the opportunity to make amends, so that we can move forward to stronger democratic and economic bonds. I want to accompany him on that trip because, In my New America, I would like to help build those bonds, if only by this suggestion, or, even better, in a more visible and responsible role. It would bring great honor to my "family" there and to me, here and in Nica. As I've bonded with the people of Nicaragua and lived part time there for fifteen years and spent my time both here and there forging stronger links between these two American countries, I'd just leap for joy to see brotherhood and honor reign in both. The rest of the world would fall to its knees and pray, in a thousand languages, "Thank God, the US we know and want to love is back with us today!"
Gracias, Charles Douglas Evans (aka, in Nica, Doug Evans Betanco)
First, thanks to to Coloradans for Obama for keeping its community group going during the transition. All us mountain valley cave-dwellers here in Glenwood have gone back into hibernation for the winter, but I'm sure moveon.org will get some activism going here soon. I'm off to Nicaragua in three weeks for the rest of the winter, if the plane's are still flying, but, when I return in June, if nothing's happening in Glenwood, I commit to getting a neighborhood potluck going here to push Obama's agenda thru Congress. I'll look to Coloradans for Obama for help. Gracias.
Here's a fresh story full of the essence of Colorado for me. Enjoy. Doug
99.44% Pure Democracy
©Doug Evans 2008 (730 words)
For the Glenwood Post Independent
On November 3, 2008, the day before Vote Day in America, my intuition led me to rush down to Obama HQ in Glenwood Springs, to volunteer for standing in the middle of the busiest intersection in the City, Grand and Sixth, at the Bridge. I felt I had to do something different from phone-banking, canvassing, and walking downtown in Obama regalia: “Dancing in the Streets” with my Obama/Biden Yard Sign fit the bill! Full of joy and fervor, having chosen a month earlier to believe the President-Elect would win in a blue-state landslide, centered in Colorado, this sign-dance would not only be good exercise, practicing The Stroll and the Cha-Cha and The Frug in traffic, but, also, maybe one of my former students from CMC might decide for the Dems because of my example. I’d also carried a “Vote, Please” sign in downtown Glenwood on Election Day, 1976, for Jimmy Carter: it felt like a way to Get Out The Vote and integrate disparate parts of my life, as well.
When I got to the Bridge at the 4:30 rush hour, two other Obama supporters stood with their signs, so my dance floor had shrunk a little, but the company was welcome. We really got it together as a chant team out there, yelling “President Obama, For 8 Great Years,” while I twirled and whirled and boogied—There were even some ballet leaps, at the start!—shaking my power-stick-sign at passing motorists like a Ute Shaman on warpath for “Liberty and Justice for All.” It was, as they say in London, “quite brilliant!” Horns were honked, more often than not; thumbs went up as much as down; I only saw a few middle fingers, which made me laugh. I honestly haven’t had such fun since I played Sancho Panza in “Man of La Mancha, singing about impossible dreams!
Then, the rest of the world intruded on my patriotic-trance-dance.
From out of the “Road to Nowhere,” as if by magic, 20 men, women and children appeared along the edges of the intersection, carrying McCain/Palin cardboard signs, soon flooding the island in the middle and all the other corners with ardent Republicanism. Ay, Chihuahua!
“Uh-Oh,” I thought, “this could get ugly.” So, instinctively, I began to laugh at the top of my diminished lungs, just giggling hysterically at the comedy life was showing rather than dwelling on potential tragedy. It was—and it became even more so—a laugh riot, for some time, in front of the Hotel Colorado, with everyone having chuckle fits of excitement. I’ve been told many times that my laugh is infectious, especially by directors of comic plays who want me in their audiences, so maybe my giggle made a difference. At any rate, we were all most civil and joyful, for two hours of red-white-and-blue; some of the kids broke away from their Moms and picked up Obama signs, balancing the ratio; four passing Glenwood High students also got into the spirit with more OBAMA placards, doing their patriotic duty with gothic flair; and every car honked for one or the other candidate, so I’m sure the Valley echoed all the way to Carbondale. It must’ve sounded in Glenwood Park like the world’s longest wedding caravan! Yet, imagine: how often has anyone seen the two Parties sharing the same space, deliriously happy?
Reporters and photographers then showed up to make us part of the City’s visual history, and-- Goodness Gracious!—I ended up looking stern and somewhat patriarchal, probably because my back hurt, on the front page of the Post on Election Day! Now, I guess I really am a star, though I wish the photo had shown me giggling: that’s what I’ll remember. And this: All of us had the thrill of participatory democracy in action. All of us felt “special.” All of us knew we were witnessing a unity of purpose above partisan division: we were all there to Get Out The Vote for America.
What a great lesson for all those young kids holding signs with us older patriots! People who are divided over issues or candidates or campaigns can still be united by common values of fair play, free speech, and respect for law and order, at least here in America. We have much to be grateful for. We could’ve been clubbing each other with our signs! In many places in the world, we would’ve been. Instead, we participated in a Happy Birthday Party for a proud new America, walking its talk, for the rest of the world to see.
Perhaps, I should rent myself out as a dancing, laughing clown, or, even, a court jester.
[See my centerdoug.blogspot.com Blog for a picture of my out on the streets. Obama Doug]
I hardly slept last night, too edgy, too expectant of miracles, too full of predictions. I'm tired and scattered and hardly can believe how excited I was yesterday, out on the pavement with my Obama/Biden yard sign. My back hurts this morning from waving and shaking the sign at 5000 passing cars for four hours. Oh, well. Maybe 12 hours from now, we'll see what this outstanding election campaign has wrought. We've all done our best, I believe "right" is on the Obama/Biden side, and I pray that all voting Americans have been inspired by the potential of this great race.
I hope my enthusiastic prediction of a Landslide actually becomes a tsunami of blue, spreading east to west, across this glowing land. I simply can't imagine how anyone could vote Republican in this election year.
GOTV!
GOBAMA!
President Obama, for 8 Great Years!
Gracias, Doug Hussein Evans Betanco
It's good to know, since I've adopted the name, that "Hussein" means "the Good," and "the Handsome" in its heritage as a name. "Hussein" was a grandson of the prophet Mohammed of Islam, but President Obama was named Hussein because it is the name of his Kenyan grandfather.
I really like adding the "good, handsome" magic to my name. Oh,well, at 63, beggars can't be choosers.
I just got back from GOTV work, standing in the midst of rush hour traffic in Glenwood for three hours with my yard sign. What a trip! I got far more honks and thumbs-up than middle fingers. About halfway thru my time at the intersection, about thirty McCain supporters showed up, as if prompted by a reaction to the Obama people already there; honestly, it was like the sixties in Glenwood for a change, and all of us, both sides, were just darned happy for the American Democracy! For Glenwood Springs, it was an electric moment. I haven't ever seen anything like it here. The Press was there. That bodes well for both the Obama campaign and for America! Huzzah! I was just so darned happy! Hope my beaming face shows up in the Post tomorrow.
Sleep as well as you can on this bittersweet night, my son. She's just more accessible now.
A letter to the editor appeared in our local paper on Saturday. A local man wrote that he hoped he'd never see the day that a President would bear your middle name. Yikes! It incensed me. And, so I decided to not only add Hussein to my pen and blog name, but also to write the following letter:
Dear Mr. -------,
I want you to know that as a direct result of your Letter to the Editor of the Post, I have added "Hussein" to my pen name, so that I am now Doug Hussein Evans Betanco, in my articles, letters and blogs. Hope it makes you grow in tolerance.
I love individuating on that powerful name! Huzzah!
"President Barack Hussein Obama, for 8 Great Years!
Today, I electrified the GOTV staff in Glenwood by telling them, that instead of canvassing, I wanted to stand at the busiest intersection in Glenwood, holding up my Obama yard sign. Heck, everyone in Glenwood knows I'm a wise old fool from my local articles and 25 years of teaching practically everyone who drives by, so maybe you'll get more spur-of-the-moment votes tomorrow, and I'll definitely have the grateful time of my life with my Vote sign T-shirt on, GOTV.
Gracias, my son and grandson and father, and Power to you!
Doug
Repeat after me: "President Obama, for 8 Great Years! President Obama, for 8 Great Years! President Obama, for 8 Great Years!" I did that most of yesterday, and, believe me, it not only centered me up with joy but also disappeared the worries about these final days and the volatility of the nation. "President Obama, for 8 Great, Graceful, Grateful Years!
Try it: you'll like it and it will empower you to GOTV today and tomorrow. I'm hitting the streets this afternoon!
Gracias,
Doug Evans Betanco
This word has power in it in a transformative Presidency, since most of us down here, at least, feel robbed of what we've worked damned hard for! Restoration can be slow to come, then, quick, as in the long fight to restore the English Monarchy under Charles II. Or it can be as quick as a vote machine lever going down (up) for Obama. The point: I want to be restored as an American citizen, proud to walk in this world. I'd say that's happening, even if Election Day doesn't go my way: the rest of the world, inspired by Obama's candidacy, has already gone up the esteem ladder because we're considering a "Hybrid" President. (God, knows we all are! When people at the door say, "I just can't vote for a N-----," I just tell them, "OK, vote for his Irish Granddaddy's Granddaddy! My family probably drank whiskey with his, before the potato famine, since I have Irish blood, too." This works.
Love this whole crazy blog!
Gracias, Doug Evans Betanco
I feel there's an "inside revolution" going on, right now, an internal conflict, as late voters, still a huge majority of American voters, get angrier and angrier over the economic situation they're powerless against, and mostly blameless for, having spent their lives being careful. This bubble of resentment might twist the last-minute-vote with a contrary repudiation of the Republicans: "If I can't really punch the Bush-bastards who built this fiasco that's made a question mark of my future, I can at least make sure the bums don't get re-elected to make it worse." Vote: Obama, and maybe lots of other Dems, as well.
Good Lord, this is a volatile election. Everyone breathe deeply. "President Obama for 8 graceful years!"
GOBAMA2008!
I'm surprised when I hear that the religious right is solidly for The Other Candidate, because my instincts and acquaintance with many born-agains now runs contrary to that: what I'm hearing, inside and out, and which I KNOW from having looked in President Obama's eyes in Grand Junction, on a rope-line, yet, for 15 seconds--it was enough for me to know that Brother Barack Obama is "Spirit-filled," in the Christian parlance, just brimming over with "Grace"! It's shining all over him, especially in his presence, but also over the Tube.
We have a candidate here who is a self-chosen, "shining Christian," ironic, given the smears.
So, I'm surprised more religiously right people, who usually have great discernment, have not seen this in him, as well, and, moreover, have not contrasted the President's glow with the shaded presence of the Republican Alternative, whose only shine comes from using too much white greasepaint, to underline him as the Great White Hope, I guess. Looks spiritually-dead, sorry to say, to me. I'm praying for his soul.
Maybe it's just an illusion from my obvious bias.
But many born-agains on the fringe of my circle--I was re-saved in 1993, but unchurched again soon after--validate my intuition. Some have been voting Republican for years; even with their pastors' rhetoric ringing in their ears, though, when in the booth, they tell me they're voting Obama, the candidate with the "Holy Spirit" in his eyes.
I really think this may be major.
I hope so.
Repeat after me: "President Obama for 8 Graceful Years," "President Obama for 8 Grateful Years"
Why would anyone want anything else?
Yesterday's Streetwalking for Obama was empowering for me, but a tad unsettling, mainly because so many supporters of PBO are vocally fearful of an assassination attempt in this election period or afterwards: I shudder. I won't stand for it!
I understand it comes from the deep-woundedness we've all felt over the traumatic losses we've suffered since the Sixties. It also comes from the recent Skinhead Plot. But, remember, please, on my knees, thinking makes it so, sometimes, especially when a whole population is thinking it at once.
We must stand, in our thoughts, words and deeds, for the immaculate security of all our national leaders, especially the current candidates for President and their families, and, of course, for ourselves. We must stand for a more graceful 8 years to come, rather than dwell on such an evil.
Period.
Another blogger, Gina, has stated a more productive vision to practice. It's beautiful. Words are Power: read these:
To All Obama Supporters,
I believe whole-heartedly in the transformative politics of Barack Obama. I believe that he can transform politics as usual.
I have found it unsettling and disturbing in the last few months to hear people casually say, with such certainty!, that Obama "will be assassinated." I am not standing for this. And neither should any of us who support his candidacy. I want to suggest that something be done to offer a hopeful, powerful alternative to such speech (see my suggestion below). This thought with its sinister expression in spoken words is on the minds of too many people. What can we do collectively to stand for his health, his safety, and his two terms in office to steer this country in a healthful, edifying direction for all U.S. residents and the whole world?
A suggested response to that dreadful statement:
I understand that in the 1960s our most transformative leaders were assassinated. This history does not have to repeat itself. It is in the past. It is gone and over. I stand for Barack Obama's health and vitality and for a spectacular first term in office as well as a powerful, inspiring, and transformative second term. His straightforwardness, clarity, judgment, and deliberative capacity are what we need in a president. He is not a reactionary. He carefully considers the circumstances and speech of others that he faces and he remains calm under fire. We need his inspirational leadership. Many of the country's systems are broken or depleted in some critical aspects and geographic areas: education, health care, immigration, justice, police, railroad, energy transmission lines, emergency management, highways and bridges, and public media (there isn't enough of it!). Barack Obama will gather the best and brightest skilled people to go to work to build new systems that are sustainable and uplifting for all of our citizens and residents. His dialogue of inclusion has inspired millions of people to work together for transformation. He will be president and he will serve two terms.
God bless Senator Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and Sasha and Malia.
Very truly yours,
Gina
And, God Bless You, Gina! This is Affirmation of the Highest Order. Thanks
Let's include all these vulnerable public figures, as well, OK? Yes, even Whatsisname, the Republican Alternative.
OK, so all of us white, racist pigs are going to go into the booth and vote our racism?!! Please.
What's happening as we speak is that millions of decent, human-affirming Americans, many of them Moderate Republicans, are going to the polls or in their ballots, and voting for Obama, without daring to tell their wives or husbands (somehow treacherous), because Obama is the kind of person everyone but wackos would want for our President. They won't tell anyone, of course. Who cares? It's a landslide of the Authentic in America, the Bradley Effect Upside-Down!! Wait and see!
Colorado has a wicked storm brewing over the Rockies’ in the form of Colorado’s Republican Secretary of State, Mike Coffman. Coffman also happens to be running against Democrat Hank Eng for the seat being vacated by Republican U.S. Congressman Tom Tancredo in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District. A lawsuit was filed in Denver’s federal court Friday against Mike Coffman to force him and his office to reinstate the more than 30,000 registered voters that were recently purged by the Secretary of State.
Advancement Project, who filed the lawsuit, states Coffman illegally disqualified 26,931 voters by removing them from voter rolls between July 31 and October 31. Federal law prohibits purging voters within 90 days of Election Day unless they have died, been convicted of a felony or requested removal. In addition, they claim another 14,089 voters were missing from that same list when a comparison was done; those names disappeared between August 15 and October 13.
As if that were not enough another 5,000 newly registered voters aren’t registered due to a check box on the new voter registration forms. In the IDENTIFCATION (Required) section voters were to enter their Colorado driver’s license number, OR Department of Revenue ID number OR if you have neither “must provide the last four digits of your Social Security number”. It goes on to say, “If you do not have a driver’s license number, a Dept. of Revenue Id number, or a Social Security number, you must check the appropriate boxes.” The “NOTE” at the bottom of that section states, “If the identification section is left blank and you do not check the boxes indicating you do not have identification you will not be registered to vote”. One check box says “I do not have a Colorado Driver’s License or Dept. of Revenue Identification Number”, the other box says “I do not have a Social Security Number”.
Thousands of people put their Social Security number and did not check the box saying they don’t have a driver license; others put both their driver license and social security number without checking any box. What’s the problem? Mike Coffman told County Clerks these applications cannot be registered until “corrected”. While two big Republican counties who have Republican clerks have disregarded Coffman’s order saying other laws favor the voter there are still thousands of new registered voters that as of this writing won’t be given a ballot.
Colorado’s Attorney General and Bush appointee, John Suthers, says in his opinion that “people may use their SSN only if they don’t have a Colorado driver license or ID…” Why wasn’t it worded like that on the registration form, the current wording is confusing. Most people have their SSN memorized but not their DL so it’s logical many would put the last 4 digits of their SSN as a matter of convenience. If a person put their SSN, with or without their Colorado DL number, why would they check the box saying they don’t have a DL if they do?
According to Mike Coffman, "Voters can rest assured that maintaining accurate voter rolls is our top priority”. I can assure you Mr. Coffman that not many are resting including I’m sure Hank Eng knowing that you are counting the ballots.
Make no bones about it, President Barack Obama will be the next President of this country; to me, he's already President, far more Presidential now than our current one or the RNC Alternative.
He's in Denver today, 1:30, at the Civic Center Park downtown, near the Statehouse, Art Museum, Denver Public Library and City Hall. As it's already too late this morning to get down there, I'll be watching the Obama Blog livefeed or local TV, sending affriming energy to the wonder and miracle of the Obama landslide to come.
Gracias, Doug Evans Betanco (aka CenterDoug) Glenwood Springs CO
