I had a kind of archetypal prophetic dream a few days before the election. I was in the upstairs of an empty massive non-descript building in a downtown area, could have been a city hall or an office building, and I was listening to KPOJ, our great liberal Am talk radio station here in the Portland/Vancouver Metro area. The broadcast was interrupted by the Federal Emergency Broadcast and jus then I looked up through the windows to see waves of a tsunami crashing through the streets, and then I looked to the south and west to see even bigger waves about to engulf the building. I wanted to get to a safe place, but I realized there was no safe place to be found, that this dream was about to be swept away by the reality of a tsunami of mega proportions.
I'm not too sure as to how to interpret my dream. I've had a few of these in times past, they don't come very often. But this one, seemed to me to be all about the election and that a new wave of democracy was about to sweep away the old, the outdated, the empty vessel that government had become under the Bush Administration. Wake up Time!
Then came election night, the outpouring of emotion and the jubilation from around the entire globe; not just here at home but from all corners of the earth.
And so now the last couple of days after that wonderful Tuesday night, I've found myself tearing up at the drop of a dime, tear of joy and amazement--on listening in on a news report about this thing or that, watching Barack deliver his first press conference, seeing the pride in people's eyes in restaurants and along the streets and byways. It's as if a huge weight has been lifted off the shoulders of our nation even now, just days into it. Who could have expected these feelings of grace and lightness? Of hope and joy and wonderment?
I remember the talk after 9/11, about how nothing would ever be the same again. Well, in a way I feel that way now after this election, but good, real good. Nothing will ever be the same ever again. Our single combat warrior has arrived in one Barack Obama, Camelot returned and the best first family ever.
And . . . now the real work begins.
For what is this really all about if not about building community, higher purpose and commitment to excellence for a more perfect union? For what’s about to be turned upside down come January 20th, is this government of ours, and from the bottom up, not the other way around.
Rest assured there will be little time for laurels, and as a wise old friend of mine once said; either we are part of the problem or part of the solution, and there's no in between. And only one question is left to ask ourselves: Now which is it going to be?
Tomorrow we take back our country!
One of the many benefits of an Obama win, if we should be fortunate enough to prevail in this election, will be an administration in support of the arts again. It's been so long, that we've endured the dismal existence of the last eight years of Bush and Cheeney that I can hardly remember what it was like to actually have a president who valued the arts and the meaning they bring to our society; one that proactively supports and promotes them in impactful ways.
Over the lat eight years, an integral part of our national character then we have allowed to languish. And it’s affected everything we do and everything we bear witness to.
So let’s work together in these final days, keeping in mind all of the blessings that will flow from a big win Tuesday, in action each in our own ways to get out the vote. Nothing happens by accident and every action taken over this next few days will contribute to our success in ways we can't begin to imagine. I'm convinced of that.
What we do know however, is that our lives and those of our children and grandchildren for seven generations depend on it.
YES WE CAN
We need better regulation of health insurance companies.
In my opinion, the Health Insurance business will be the next to financially melt down and then demand to be bailed out by tax payers. There is no shortage of evidence to draw analogies between the current Wall Street mess and the looming Health Insurance crisis in this country; gazillion dollar CEO salaries, unethical business practices, profiting off people's misery.
Barack Obama's plan is the best for our nation for the interim period, a kind of pathfinder.
But in the long term? as far as I can see, there's not much of a future for insurance companies providing for the health care needs of our people. These companies are nothing more than high dollar middle men (paid to gamble on your wellness, and then find ways of depriving you of health care when you need it the most--all to promote exorbitant shareholder profits and CEO mega-bonuses) profiting off the backs of the people, their doctors and hospitals.
All health care should be non-profit. It's a no brainer. We the people should pool our resources, then what would otherwise be skimmed off as insurance company profits would be put to much better use: like paying for health care for people.
In 2004, the numero uno Bush backer was the financial services industry, i.e., Wall Street and the banking industry if you can call a derivatives market manipulation scheme an industry at all. Directly Bush tried then to "privatize" Social Security as we remember all too well and thank God every day he failed at that endeavor.
Now only four years later we see the worst financial catastrophe since the Great Depression laid upon our national doorsteps. . . or so we are to believe if we take secretary Paulson at his "words."
Yet one is left wondering if might not this somehow all been planned in advance by the Bush Crime Family, like so many of their previous scams? Well, today we were told as much by his press secretary, Dana Perino, who to paraphrase said something like, yes, the President had been working on this 3 page bail out lanuage for weeks, even a month!
Is that right, well, then how so? if the "derivatives market melt down" all just happened less than one week ago?
These people are CROOKS, that would make the likes of Richard M. Nixon roll over in his grave!!!!!!!!!!!
And John Bushboy McCain, who can't decide which side he is on from one day to the next is no better. These Republicans are "free market" crooks in mumbo jumbo, and let there be no mistake, they are totally OUT OF TOUCH with the collective financially astute American people who refuse to be fooled again!!
NEVER FORGET WE WERE TOLD? YES, WE WILL NEVER FORGET HOW MANIPULATED WE HAVE BEEN!
NO BAIL OUT NO BAIL OUT NO BAIL OUT NO BAIL OUT NO BAIL OUT NO BAIL OUT NO BAIL OUT
Seems to me Sarah Palin is probably about the most unvetted VP pick in American History. Troopergate and Abuse of Power? Book censorship and Abuse of Power on Librarians? Alaskan Independence Party member, a group wo would destroy the Federal Government, and she tells them at thier convention last year (2007), Good Work? Give me a break, this is a gift from on high, like cosmic payback for the Rev Right smears.
And McCain is trying to sell himself as some kind of a Republican moderate? If Dwight D. Eisenhower could see his party today what would he think? And more imporantly who would he vote for? I have a feeling his grandaughter would assure us it would be Barack Obama hands down.
Once upon a decade, I belonged to an organization committed to transforming people's lives and the world. In my capacity as a team coordinator I was on an important phone call with another team leader in a far away city, exactly twenty years ago today.
As it happened, in the background, Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a Dream" speach was being broadcast across the PA system at the shopping center from where I made the call, that day being the 25th anniversary of his historic speach.
And hearing Dr. King's impassioned words ring out over the public address system, my friend on the other end of the phone line said, Wow, where are you, anyway? I told him I was in Pasadena California, in a shopping center, ten minutes walk from work, this being my mid week lunch hour. Those are some powerful words that I'm hearing in the background, he said. It's Martin Luther King blasting across the loud speakers, and isn't it great? I said, letting the words speak for themselves.
And as the speach carried across the phone lines into that far away city, we both listened in amazement for a good several minutes That's the real thing, that is what this life is all about, that feeling, that commitment, that sense of common purpose.
Today Dr. King's predictions are about to come to fruition. And what better place? than at the Democratic Party national convention in Colorado, a mile high, near the geographic center of our beloved country!
This is no ordinary day, not just any political rally. Today is a celebration of brotherhood, sisterhood and of the family of humankind! A celebration of love, human rights, freedom, and of our destiny as Americans. LET FREEDOM RING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so proud to be an Obama Democrat today of all days! God Bless America!
YES WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
best,
Mike George
Lucia Falls, Washington State
http://luciafalls.com
How we treat our soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan should be a major issue for us all. Honor thier service and treat them with kindness, respect, and understanding. There's alot to be done, alot of pain and suffering to be healed.
And as a society, no matter what you think of the war, we owe these men and women bigtime. Medical care to those in need, psychological care to many, a good education and decent good paying jobs.
But all too often, these heros may fall through the cracks that society has left for them, you see a homeless man with a sign at a freeway entrance, chances are he may well have been a Nam or Gulf War vet.
I wrote a song about this a while back:
http://luciafalls.com/songs/track2.html
Many Thanks to Eval Luchini for hosting us tonight for a great first get together. The food was awesome, and it is always great to meet like minded folks who are looking to make a big change in 2008. What a success! 10 attendees, all willing to help in any way they can. I love it that we are all jazzed to begin building even greater support for change through patriotic voter registration in the coming weeks. I wish we had taken some pictures. So, I'm going to form a group on this site called the CW United for Change, and put out an invite to all of you. It can be a place where we can continue to organize and plan our events.
When the troops took Baghdad during the first two weeks of the war, and let the looting begin at Rumsfeld's direction, the only ministry building protected from the looters was the Iraq Ministry of Oil. I saw it with my own eyes on CNN.
And at that moment, I turned to my friend and said, its for the oil, it was all for the oil. That was back in what? 2003. Well, if I could see it was true, same as I knew it to my core that when Bush asked Congress to provide war powers as a "last resort," that he had no intentions of holding back in the least, then there were alot of other people that knew it as well. Take Cheeney for example, who probably planned the oil take over at his secret energy summit.
So lets see, what were all their excuses? Immanent threat, WMD, Saddam, greeted as liberators, blue finger spead of democracy throughout the middle east, get Al Quada, but never once did they say it was for the oil. The one reason, that to these two oil men, Bush and Cheeney, and thier cronies made the most sense of all.
Here is a link a Bill Moyers article on the subject at truth out.
http://www.truthout.org/article/it-was-oil-all-along
We need Barack in the Whitehouse more than ever to, bring and end to the madness, bring our troops home once and for all, and begin a new era of energy independence, and the freedom and prosperity that will result at home.
Tim Russert's death last friday was really sad. I was bummed for days and still feel the effects. I felt like I knew Tim, a relationship of one hour each Sunday morning--year in year out--for decades. Fact is heart disease is a number one killer of Americans. Imagine if we would have spent what we have on Iraq on fighting heart disease here at home? The number of Americans that die each year of heart disease is orders of magnitude more than any terrorist bombings. We need to rethink our national priorities big time in this country, and with Barack Obama as president I have no doubts that we will! YES WE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
452,327: the number of deaths due to heart attacks in the United States in the year 2004.
20% of all deaths were due to heart attacks in the United States in the year 2004.
1.2 million heart attacks occur each year.
233,000 women died from cardiovascular disease each year.
14 million Americans afflicted with some form of heart disease or angina.
Every 20 seconds a new heart attack occurs somewhere in America.
Every minute another heart attack death occurs.
Check the stats out for yourself:
Reference web site
Change we can put our trust in is at hand!
In my view, the people of our country, and the world, will be best served when the US proposes a multilateral demilitarization of all nuclear weapons on earth and in space. And to give it some teeth, we should lead by example; Do as I do, not as I say. This should be a bold and innovative effort, verifiable and enforced by the UN’s international bodies that govern such weapons and technologies (IAEA, etc). My hopes are that this would be a major international goal of an Obama administration.
The president of Iran, Amadenajed (sp?) on his CBS 60 minutes interview; to paraphrase, said that nuclear weapons are a thing of the past and should never be pursued but should rather be banned. The man has also said many other disturbing and reprehensible comments with regards to Israel with which any reasonable person would strongly abhor and reject.
But fact is he’s no more a loose cannon or nut case, and certainly no more presently dangerous than Kim Jung Ill. North Korea, who to this day considers itself at war the US, HAS nuclear weapons, not just a program, have a means to deliver them to the west coast of the US, and with whom the US is currently engaged in talks--which by the way makes the Bush administration tant amount to Nazi appeasers in Bush's own recent remarks.
Over the weekend, there appeared a supposed AP news story--and that you may have heard referenced on the ABC news blurb on KPOJ this Saturday afternoon in Portland Oregon. My Republican nephiew emailed me the text of the story with the headline:
"TEHRAN, Iran — Iran warned Sunday it may limit cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, expressing disappointment over the agency's recent report that was critical of Tehran." and so forth . . . .
When conducting a Google search on its contents however, there was no Associated Press links what-so-ever. The story text contained no sources, and the quotes were two and three word approximations. The origin was questionable. Interestingly, the number one reference was FOX NEWS, which as we all know is the official propaganda machine for the Bush administration, and which at this point has ZERO creditability for anything even slightly resembling the truth.
Arguably Fox Noise has much more in common with the old TASS news agency, than with any other of the mainstream US news outlets. As I’ve heard my wife advise her best professional journalists friends and associates at times, check your sources first. I suppose Scott McClellan would probably have about the same advise.
I myself tend to align my views on this with the research of Seymour Hirsch who believes Bush is hell bent on attacking Iran before he leaves office. Stories like this one from Fox News are highly suspect--as we now know others were regarding the dangers posed by Iraq in 2002.
God help us if the US Congress does not put a stop to this madness.
Well, the Congressional District Caucuses were held on Saturday. I had filed my declaration of nomination to run for National Delegate. However, I volunteered to be the Campaign Manager for Jonathan Fant who is running for State House of Representatives, Postion 2 for the 18th Legislative District. This is going to keep me very busy over the summer. I had planned on dropping my name from the list, until we got an invitation to a 'strategy' meeting.
The Old Guard in the party wanted to meet to pre-arrange who they wanted to go as a Delegate. This would be based on who's turn it was to get the reward. The person would be the one that had served long and hard for the party, and hadn't gone yet. Then, the horse-trading with the other counties would begin. If they voted for your person, you would vote for theirs.
They were upset the Obama delegates wouldn't play ball. We agreed among ourselves that it didn't matter what county the delegate came from, or how long they had been working for the party. It was choosing the right person that was important.
As the Clinton delegates left after a separate meeting, they sneered at us. Saying 'Well, you won't get anybody from Clark county elected.' We replied we didn't care.
And it turns out they were wrong. Even though it seemed one county had organized around a single person, Moe Spencer from the 49th LD in Clark county was elected as the single male delegate. The other person was elected alternate. He was an inspiring speaker, and if he didn't work so hard for an advocacy group, I would talk him into running for office.
I think we did elect the right people, and am proud we didn't do it they way it's always been done.
I came upon a child of godHe was walking along the roadAnd I asked him, where are you goingAnd this he told me
Im going on down to yasgurs farmIm going to join in a rock n roll bandIm going to camp out on the landIm going to try an get my soul free
We are stardustWe are goldenAnd weve got to get ourselvesBack to the gardenThen can I walk beside youI have come here to lose the smogAnd I feel to be a cog in something turningWell maybe it is just the time of yearOr maybe its the time of manI dont know who l amBut you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
(The bowl at the waterfront today
Barack put me in the mind of
All these familiar lyrics)By the time we got to woodstockWe were half a million strongAnd everywhere there was song and celebrationAnd I dreamed I saw the bombersRiding shotgun in the skyAnd they were turning into butterfliesAbove our nation
Billion year old carbon
Caught in the devils bargain
ack to the garden
Joni Mitchell
It's interesting to me that I suddenly become so involved. As I think about it, my parents were never active in politics. This had a couple of reasons. My father was enlisted in the navy for 27 yrs. He and my mother felt awkward about getting involved, as it seemed to them it was not their place. Also, for most of my dad's career, we weren't in one place long enough. By the time we did have an opportunity to live somewhere longer than 3 yrs, they were set in their ways.
I new the importance of voting. But as time went one, I came to the realization that voting was not enough. I credit Sen. Obama with tipping the balance. His message of change resonated with me. I wanted to do more, and his campaign made it easier. And the fact that the Democratic party in Washington was going to ignore the results of the primary in favor of the caucuses, I went to the causus for the first time, as did a large number of people. The turnout was 3 times bigger than in the last Presidential primary. I learned about Delegates. I stepped forward to take charge of the delegate elections for my precinct, as I have a voice that carries and no one else stepped forward. In the county convention, I was honored to be elected to be a delegate to the Congressional District Caucus and State Convention. I am campaigning to go on to the National Convention in Denver.
I will teach my children by example to be involved. It is the only way we can take back control from the special interests.
I've always been horrible at journalling. In school, I would always wait to the last minute and write it all the night before it was to be handed in.
I've been inspired to get involved, thanks to Sen. Obama's message of change. I signed on as a Campaign Coordinator for a local candidate, Jonathan Fant (http://www.fant4us.org), seeking a State House of Representatives (Washington, 18th LD).
It's pretty exciting - pushing past boundaries of comfort to talk to people, ask for donations, etc. I am confident we can beat our Republican opponent. The challenges will be fundraising and getting people energized to volunteer at this local level. I read that getting 2-3 volunteers is lucky for a local campaign. I am working hard at getting more than that.
I am also encouraging people to get involved with the other local campaigns, since we all share common goals.
Get out there and volunteer for your local campaigns - make a difference!
