Moon up on Empire

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(No) Escape from Corpus Mundi

Euclid Avenue

Vile Clownish Demagogue

A Grim Assessment -

On August 11, a man with a loaded firearm in a holster appeared outside a town hall meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where President Obama was speaking. He carried a sign that said: "It is Time to Water the Tree of Liberty"—a reference to Thomas Jefferson's statement that "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Neither the Secret Service nor police ushered the man away from the area of the president's town meeting. ("Protestor at Obama Healthcare Town Hall Carried 9mm Pistol-Legally," Guardian, August 12, 2009)

On August 17, a reported dozen people carrying guns, including two with assault rifles, were among protestors outside a convention center in Phoenix, Arizona, where President Obama was speaking. It was the latest incident where protestors with guns were seen outside events where the president had appeared to speak about his healthcare proposals, which right-wing opponents denounce as an assault on liberty. Neither the Secret Service nor police ushered the persons carrying guns away from the event, nor were any persons carrying firearms arrested. ("Armed Men Seen Outside Barack Obama Event," Telegraph/UK [via Common Dreams], August 18, 2009)

Compare this restraint by the Secret Service and police to the following events.

In July 2008, a 61-year-old librarian was arrested at a McCain campaign event in Denver for carrying a sign that read, "McCain=Bush." ("Woman Arrested at McCain Event for ‘McCain=Bush' Sign," AlterNet, July 7, 2008)

In 2005, three people were ejected by police from a Bush town hall meeting in Denver after they arrived in a car with a bumper sticker that read, "No More Blood for Oil." ("Politicians Are Stifling Dissent, Critics Say," Knight-Ridder [via Common Dreams], February 4, 2006)

In October 2004, three school teachers in Medford, Oregon, were threatened with arrest by police and thrown out of a political rally featuring President Bush after they showed up wearing T-shirts with the slogan, "Protect Our Civil Liberties." ("Teachers' T-Shirts Bring Bush Speech Ouster," NewsChannel 8, Portland [via Common Dreams], October 15, 2004)

In July 2004, a Wisconsin county supervisor wearing a blue-denim shirt over a T-shirt that said "Kerry for President" was ejected from a Bush campaign speech after the Secret Service reportedly took his driver's license, social security number, and phone number. (" County Supervisor Booted from Bush Event for Wearing Hidden Kerry T-Shirt," The Progressive, July 22, 2004) - Howard Friel


Republicans, Religion and the Triumph of Unreason -

If you look at the history of like situations like in Rwanda in 1994, the talk radio was a big part of leading to the conditions that created a genocide. The Hutu radio disc jockeys would call the Tutsi cockroaches. There’s the sense that these aren’t human beings. You know, they’re not human beings with children or grandchildren. These are cockroaches. And when you hear in talk radio that liberals are evil, that they are traitors, that they are godless, that they are on the side of the terrorist. That’s hate language. You don’t negotiate with evil people. You don’t live in community with people you consider to be traitors. - Chris Buice, Pastor of the Unitarian Church, Knoxville, TN, which was shot up by a talk-radio fan, July 2008.

One Serious Sand Artist from the Ukraine -

The Town Hall Mob -

Bill Moyers on the Health Care Lobby -

10 amazing truths you already suspected -

More About Haggis -

At the Coconut

Rachel Maddow on new-and-improved rightwing conspiracy theories-

Carter, Obama, Israel and blood-and-guts powerplays

Bill Moyers on Rightwing Media - It's all here - a 5-Star vid -

John Stewart tackles the Birthers -
And again here -
Birth Certificates and the Right -

The Far-Right's Dark Ambitions -

the bull and the moon

Hamfist

Vegas with Bird

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies and debts and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both...No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
- President James Madison, 1795.

Film: The Corporation - Pretty much a must-see.

Orla Wren: Song & Picture: Some sweetness.

Escape from Las Vegas

"It appears to me, that the people are ingenious, and would be good servants and I am of opinion that they would very readily become Christians, as they appear to have no religion."
- Christopher Columbus, The Bahamas, October 12, 1492.

flea circus

A call to the front lines from Chris Hedges

"In the counsels of Government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the Military Industrial Complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together."
- President Eisenhower - January 1961.

"If the people knew what we had done, they would chase us down the street and lynch us."
- George H.W. Bush, when asked, "What will the people do if they ever find out the truth about Iraq-gate and Iran contra?", 1992.

Uh Oh

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
--Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864.
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)

the good vs the unconscionable

Vid on Media & Obama
Self-Portrait -
Make Your Own Music -