Hillary Clinton's Run No Real Gain for Women or Feminists

The three women at left graced the December 22, 2002 cover of Time Magazine as "Persons of the Year." The article describes how Sherron Watkins, an Enron vice president; Coleen Rowley, an FBI staff attorney; and Cynthia Cooper, a WorldCom staffer, all risked their jobs and careers by exposing mistakes or crimes by their male bosses. Even if they weren't feminists, they were women other women could look up to.

And then there is Hillary Clinton, who has covered up for every patriarchal crime imagineable, including sexual assaults and even rape by her own husband, in her quest to become the most powerful person on earth. Of course, that's only because our patriarchal nation state has created more conventional and nuclear weapons than all other nations put together. (Which is why we also are the most in debt nation on the planet.)

I've found two female pundits who agree with me.

Sherrilyn A. Ifill, a civil rights lawyer and University of Maryland School of Law professor, in a June 8 article called “No loss for feminism” in the Baltimore Sun writes: “...very little about the candidacy of Hillary Clinton reflected feminism. First of all, to be a modern feminist necessarily means to reject racism. No 21st-century feminist could fail to understand the complicated but very real connection between patriarchy and white supremacy. Thus, it is impossible to run a campaign as a feminist while making racist appeals to white, male voters....When she knocked back a shot and a beer in that bar in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Clinton ended any pretense of running as a feminist. The whole point of feminism is to reject the idea of masculinized power. Feminism seeks to counter the mythology that stereotypically masculine behavior is the only legitimate way in which leadership can be exercised....Finally and most important, Mrs. Clinton's campaign at the outset was premised on the idea that she was the inevitable nominee. This air of inevitability was based largely on her connections to one of most powerful men in the Democratic Party, her husband, the former president. She campaigned hard, but it was her relationship to Bill Clinton that enabled Mrs. Clinton, who had never held elective office, to walk into New York - a state with which she had no historical ties - and become a U.S. senator on her first try. Given Mr. Clinton's political gifts and legacy and the power-packed Rolodex of both Clintons, it never occurred to Mrs. Clinton until after Iowa that she wouldn't be able to attain the presidency on her first try as well....Achieving power largely on the name of your husband is not feminist. In fact, it's very traditional.”


Susan Campbell, in a June 15 Hartfort Courant Column “I Am Feminist; Hear Me Roar Against A Clinton Mandate,” writes: “My take on feminism is this: If you believe in the radical notion that women are people, too, then you know that means we think outside the box. You know that no job is the special provenance of any gender. Our genitalia does not limit our choices, whether it's how we earn our living, the compensation we receive for said work, or how we choose our political candidates...And it means we fearlessly examine and then choose our political candidates, regardless of their — or our — gender....She was not my candidate, but not because of gender. Suggesting we all move lock-step to support only the people who look like us robs grown-ups of their ability to make their decisions based on a candidates' promise and past practice.... Because I am a woman, I must think for myself because I don't trust the yahoos to do it for me.”

And then there is the 1999 allegation of former Clinton campaign worker Juanita Broaddrick, who told a national television audience that Bill Clinton raped her in a hotel room in April 1978. In a "Letter to Hillary Clinton" published by the DrudgeReport on October 15, 2000. In it she wrote:

I have no doubt that you (Hillary) are the same conniving, self-serving person you were twenty-two years ago when I had the misfortune to meet you. When I see you on television, campaigning for the New York senate race, I can see the same hypocrisy in your face that you displayed to me one evening in 1978. You have not changed.

I remember it as though it was yesterday. I only wish that it were yesterday and maybe there would still be time to do something about what your husband, Bill Clinton, did to me. There was a political rally for Mr. Clinton's bid for governor of Arkansas. I had obligated myself to be at this rally prior to my being assaulted by your husband in April, 1978. I had made up my mind to make an appearance and then leave as soon as the two of you arrived. This was a big mistake, but I was still in a state of shock and denial. You had questioned the gentleman who drove you and Mr. Clinton from the airport. You asked him about me and if I would be at the gathering. Do you remember? You told the driver, "Bill has talked so much about Juanita", and that you were so anxious to meet me. Well, you wasted no time. As soon as you entered the room, you came directly to me and grabbed my hand. Do you remember how you thanked me, saying "we want to thank you for everything that you do for Bill". At that point, I was pretty shaken and started to walk off. Remember how you kept a tight grip on my hand and drew closer to me? You repeated your statement, but this time with a coldness and look that I have seen many times on television in the last eight years. You said, "Everything you do for Bill". You then released your grip and I said nothing and left the gathering.

What did you mean, Hillary? Were you referring to my keeping quiet about the assault I had suffered at the hands of your husband only two weeks before? Were you warning me to continue to keep quiet? We both know the answer to that question.

Bob Barr Embarassingly Funny on Colbert

See video below... and my neat graphic celebrating the Libertarian Party putting The Right to Alter or Abolish Government (from the Declaration of Independence) in its platform. Barr's obviously being affected by hanging with pot smoking libertarians. He admitted to Colbert the possibly he'd ingested drug-laced brownies and later joking about waking up with heavens knows who in bed, due to his sexy mustache. "Loose" women, men, 16 year old hermaphrodites? Oh, Bob, the wit!! Of course, it was a bit much for him to declare that he is the first good candidate of the Libertarian Party, as if the many others weren't quite good (and more hard core) in their own rights, especially Ed Clark, Ron Paul and Harry Browne.

Obama Slips at AIPAC: Supports America (first)

Barack Obama was doing great at kissing the Israel Lobby's butt speaking at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference, so the pro-Israel media doesn't smash him down any more than it already has (repeat Rev. Wright 100,000 times).

But then he slipped and he said he's going to do what's best for America's interest. He controlled self and didn't mention registering AIPAC and its friends as foreign agents or creating a totally nuclear free middle east, including Israel.

The AIPAC candidate - Hillary Clinton, coincidentally technically defeated in her quest to extend the Clinton dynasty - picked up on that and made it the second paragraph of her speech that followed right after Obama's. (Or maybe she knows he's been rolling around in the political bed with "realists" who just love Mearsheimer and Walt?)

Just further justifying the fun graphic I put together after Obama made his "America first" statement. See my rocking video of last year's protest at the AIPAC conference that I helped organized. Photos of past years AIPAC protests here or interspersed here.


Update: William Hughes video from this year's smaller protest here(DC activists) and here (Rabbi Weiss of Jews Against Zionism).

Update: Looking at the actual transcript, Obama blabs about US-Israel "shared interests" a number of times before issuing this line which doesn't make it clear they are the same, as a good puppet would have done: "But as President of the United States, I would be willing to lead tough and principled diplomacy with the appropriate Iranian leader at a time and place of my choosing - if, and only if - it can advance the interests of the United States." If Obama wins it will be interesting to see how hard he fights the lobby.

Update: Here's a good Chris Hedges' article critical of Obama's speech, ending with "Barack Obama, when we need sane leadership the most, has proved feckless and weak. He, and the Democratic leadership, is as morally bankrupt as those preparing to ignite our funeral pyre in the Middle East.

Excellent "Don't Bomb Iran" video

American and Jewish Consciousness Shifting on Israel/Palestine

Blogger Philip Weiss makes a hopefully accurate assessment on his blog Mondoweiss. Go to link for whole May 21st entry.

[T]here has been a tremendous change in American consciousness, and the Jewish consciousness of Israel/Palestine in the last year. Jimmy Carter deserves great credit, so does Jonathan Demme, so do Walt and Mearsheimer, so do all the capillaries of the progressive movement, from the late great Hilda Silverman to the great Hannah Mermelstein to Adam Horowitz, who will be speaking tonight on the Nakba in Brooklyn, along with Zachary Lockman of NYU. There, I have just run off a few Jewish names without scratching my head. We are legion, and we are having a real effect. So is Obama. So is the Nakba recognition movement, which has shifted the focus from '67 landgrab to '48 landgrab. Israelis are panicked.Anti-Zionist Jews at a 2005 (top) and 2007 (bottom) protests of AIPAC conference. June 3rd DC peace activists will be doing another one.

Palestinian "Al Nakba" Commemorated on National Mall

I couldn't make this commemoration of the massive ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Arabs from Palestine by Israelis in 1948. But at least I can blog it!

Two Hilarious Bob Barr Videos

While I'm waiting for Bob Barr to say anything that would assure me he isn't trying to sell out the Libertarian Party to quasi-conservatives or quasi-neocons, I at least can release the tensions with these two videos, both hilarious. The music video "Bob Barr: Smells like a Republican" is tricky - proves liberals understand libertarianism, anyway. And especially rewarding are the last 5 seconds of the short one from the Borat smash hit Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

LP: Making Lemonade with Two Lemons

On May 25, on the sixth ballot, the more conservative elements of the The Libertarian Party nominated two quasi-libertarian candidates who they hope will get them all the publicity, votes and power that haunt their wet dreams. Former Representative Bob Barr has been good on some civil liberties issues (first, second and fourth amendments, Waco massacre) and terrible on others (pro-war on drugs; pro-defense of marriage act), though he alleges he now would legalize medical marijuana and down play the war on drugs and just wants the states to enforce drug laws, and maybe a bit less vigorously, and decide on the definition of marriage. He says he'll get us out of Iraq and everywhere else.

For Vice President these same starry eyed libertarians chose hyperactive, egomaniacal and proudly Jewish Wayne Root, a rich Las Vegas odds maker seems to have become more libertarian since entering the race last year - but we'll see if the stays that way, especially when it comes to supporting his favorite colonialist apartheid state, Israel.

Some joke that the wacky Root is sufficient revenge for the more reserved Barr taking the nomination from more radical candidates. See radical photos. Others make plays on their names that are plainly penile allusions. "Barr-Root: Thrusting to the future."

The good news is enough radicals were elected to the Libertarian National Committee and Judicial Committee that both candidates will know their every utterance will be scrutinized. (I already have a dozen google alerts out for certain phrases and their names.) Article 12. Sec 5. of the Libertarian Party bylaws reads: "A candidate's nomination may be suspended by a 3/4 vote of the entire membership of the National Committee at a meeting."

Anyway, here's the Lemonade:

* Libertarians did not restore the 2004 platform but wrote a short one which isn't too objectionable, except on National Defense, Internal Security and Individual Rights and International Affairs! Just too many little loopholes that allow "libertarians" to claim the platform supports neoconservative wars of aggression and impositions on civil liberties. However, the platform almost makes up for it - and for deleting the "Secession" plank with a new plank:

3.7. Self-Determination: Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of individual liberty, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to agree to such new governance as to them shall seem most likely to protect their liberty.

That's what I call getting with the program! Let's make it HARD for Barr-Root to forget it.

* Maybe a lot of those annoyed radicals will join "Secessionists for Barr-Root" - if anyone gets around to starting it.

Hillary Leaks Mossad Plan to Assassinate Obama?

I knew through my astute woman's intuition that Hillary and her aides were yapping about the inevitable assassination of Barack Obama (as I wrote before by Israel's Mossad for his poorly hidden pro-Palestinian sympathies). Little did I know she'd yap out loud about it and let the cat out of the bag, per the video below, saying: "My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it."

Meanwhile, what fun that McCain had to renounce the endorsement of "Christian Zionist" John Hagee (much mocked on this blog) for yapping about Hitler being "God's hunter" who drove the Jews to Palestine. I'm sure McCain can find similar comments as or more ridiculous than anything Rev. Wright ever said, if he investigated some of his other endorsers. Like Mike Huckabee who actually joked about an assassination attempt on Obama.

Deep in their hearts these white racists are hoping the "uppity black boy" gets it. (And they are just encouraging non-Mossad angry white men to do it!) So disgusting! Some disgusting right wing males also are insulting the hard core libertarian presidential nominee, uppity female Mary Ruwart.

Below is a video report on Hillary's comments and my video of the history of the John F. Kennedy grave and memorial with appropriate Irish folk music accompaniment. Even Irish radical decentralists can think fondly of an Irish president who stood up to certain foreign lobbies and probably were assassinated for it. (I mean isn't a bit of a coincidence that both Jack Ruby and Sirhan Sirhan worked for the Meyer Lansky gang, which ran weapons to Jewish terrorists in Palestine in the 1930s and 40s and did money laundering for the Mossad after the creation of Israel?)

Will Third Party Raiders Take Over Libertarian Party?

The Libertarian Party has had a hardcore libertarian platform - including the “right of secession of political entities, private groups or individuals” - since its inception in the early 1970s. I personally had never met a libertarian who would use military force against secessionists. See my Libertarian Party page.

However, for years “moderate” and pro-military “libertarians” have been trying to water down the platform’s most pro-peace and freedom planks - including in just the last couple years that supporting secession.

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, pro-interventionist factions - especially Israel supporters, people working for military contractors, frightened libertarians and, more and more, conservatives and neoconservatives posing as libertarians - have worked to make the radical LIBERTARIAN Party a CONSERVATIVE Libertarian Party. Most of these people are not as hardcore libertarian as Republican Ron Paul!

In 2004 this faction engineered getting its partisans to an off year LP convention held in far off Portland, Oregon. They gutted the platform of its most radical planks - including secession. Since the beginning of this year hard core libertarians (LP Radicals and Restore04, among others) have been working to restore the original 2004 platform, and to nominate a hardcore libertarian candidate for President this Memorial Day weekend. (A convention I just couldn’t get it together to make this year. That's me at 2004 convention, speaking and flashing a peace sign.)

However, some members of the Libertarian National Committee and its office staff (led by a truly sleazy operative named Shane Cory) have been manipulating to give former Congressman Bob Barr the nomination, hoping he could jump on the Ron Paul bandwagon – without being as libertarian as Ron Paul. The takeover is being organized by Richard Viguerie and Russ Verney (Barr’s campaign manager) who in the past raided and decimated the American Independent Party and the Reform Party. (Cory quit his job and now works for them. He loves to threaten to sue people for libel and slander. Would that include this paragraph?)

Read about their crass attempts to take over the Libertarian Party through infiltration and bribery - including by buying ThirdPartyWatch.com. See Is Richard Viguerie Trying to Buy the Libertarian Party? by David F. Nolan (who called the meeting that launched the LP) and Resist Much! by Tom Knapp (long time radical activist). I’ll report briefly on the outcome next time.

As I've said for decades, the problem with political parties is that they tend to attract people who want power, and they can only get that by watering down principles and driving out radicals so they can attract mainstream and even special interest money. So I'm not particularly surprised or discouraged by this. Especially because libertarians are starting to gravitate into the evolving secession movement and I'm working on helping them get there.

I do encourage people to run for office as secessionists - but on whatever party makes it easiest to gain ballot access and all the free publicity running for office can generate. A losing challenger in a major party primary can be just as effective as a losing libertarian or green challenger in the final election.

However, in the end it is the strategy of non-cooperation and withdrawal - the secession strategy – that will free us. See the outline of “198 Methods of Nonviolent Action” from Gene Sharp’s book The Methods of Nonviolent Action.

I’ve just gotten Thomas H. Naylor’s new paperback “Secession: How Vermont and All the Other States Can Save Themselves from the Empire” (intro by Kirkpatrick Sale) and once I finish reading it will report on which of those strategies he prefers.

Mourning 60 Years of Colonization with Black Balloons

May 15 Bush was speaking to the Israeli Knesset -- about the only people besides nutty American Christian Zionists who support him any more -- on the 60th anniversary of the creation of Israel on mostly Arab land. Meanwhile millions of displaced or occupied Palestinians were engaging in various forms of protest and mourning, including sending up thousands of black balloons to fly up out of their defacto concentration camps in the West Bank and Gaza and over Israel, to tweak Israeli's poorly developed consciences. (More Facebook photos here, story here. See Associated Press, UK Reuters story.)

Bush, of course, was ranting his malarkey about "appeasement" - insinuating that talking with governments you have problems with is defacto appeasement. That gave Barack Obama lots of air time to explain why Bush (pressed on by his only buddies mentioned above) is the war-aggressing Hitler of our time. He didn't do much to stand up for the Palestinians, however.

And of course it lead to this great television theater on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews badgering the young and ignorant talk show host Kevin James to explain just what it was that British Prime Minister Nevil Chamberlain did in the late 193os that was appeasement. James clearly did not know it had something to do with Chamberlain's concession's to Hitler's Germany - or was too stupid to explain it. (Of course, many of the concessions would have been just or practical ones given the punishment of Germany after World War I, but ones empire builders like Hitler take advantage of.) Anyway it's pretty amusing viewing and shows just how little substance there is to Bush and company's war mongering.

Hiroshima and Mother's Day

Mother's Day in the USA is as good a day as any to remind people what that mother Hillary Clinton meant when she said she would "totally obliterate" Iran if in some highly speculative future scenario it nuked Israel. Barack Obama replied: "It's not the language that we need right now, and I think it's language that's reflective of George Bush. We have had a foreign policy of bluster and saber-rattling and tough talk, and, in the meantime, we make a series of strategic decisions that actually strengthen Iran." Hopefully, in his comments he's merely pandering to war mongers!

Anyway, mothers of the world, this is where we are headed if we don't stop cooperating with - and even fronting for - patriarchal and largely male miltarism and war mongering. More photos here.
In fact, it's a great day to reprint reformer Julia Ward Howe's 1879 "Mother's Day Proclamation"

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Video of Baby Boomer Turning 60

May 5th is Cinco de Mayo in Mexico, Japanese Children's Day, Europe Day and the birth day of Karl Marx and a lot of minor and not very memorable figures - including me. Now don't all you identity thieves go running out to buy cars and houses under my identity!

Anyway, I made a fun collection of video and photo clips of my life set to a bouncy version of the birthday song. Leaving out a number of significant others so I don’t get a lot of complaining emails! Ain’t modern technology wonderful?

Your Voter ID, Senator Obama? No problem, Rev. Hagee....

The Supreme Court just upheld an Indiana law requiring citizens to present a photo identification card in order to vote. That means that all the non-driving poor and/or old and/or two-jobbed and/or busy and/or clueless people who don't know or have the time to find out which government agency supplies these cards are tough out of luck on election day. And if they can't afford the $15 - 50 such a card might cost - no, that's not an unconstitutional poll tax says the Supremely Unfair Court.

If Illinois enacts such a law, Barak Obama will have to present his card. Hope his driver's license is up to date!

Of course, by election day the media should have thoroughly destroyed Obama's candidacy, if they don't just hand the nomination to Hillary first. After all, we all know that there is no more important story than the three or four silliest things your pastor said when you weren't listening. (Or is it Wright's critique of US/Israel racism that really freaks out the media?)

Meanwhile Christian Zionist John Hagee - a speaker at AIPAC's 2007 convention - can endorse McCain and nary a word is said, even though he's been quoted saying: ''It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God’s chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day.'' Oh, and Katrina victims and 9/11 victims also deserved it - and don't get him started on those Catholics! The Columbia Journalism Review did a nice expose of journalistic bias in the McCain-Hagee versus Obama-Wright situations. (I've written about Hagee here a couple times previously - and include the groovy photo of Hagee as Satan to the left.)

In conclusion - if voting could change anything they'd make it illegal - like the Supreme Court just did, just in case...

15 Years Since Feds Massacred at Waco

I just watched the year 2000 Star Trek Voyager episode called "Memorial" about a beacon that sends the experience of a government massacre of 82 people to whoever passes the otherwise empty planet where it happened. Coincidentally this show aired the day before the April 19th 15th anniversay of 76 of the 82 Branch Davidians being killed at their Mount Carmel ranch near Waco, Texas. In writing my book The Davidian Massacre I relived that experience myself for two years.

Now that the Davidian property has been taken over by a competing faction, the 82 trees and stones that were the members' memorial to their familes and friends has been dismantled, though a group of supporters' stone memorial has been allowed to remain. The greater memorial is that when Texas law enforcement went into the Yearning for Zion Ranch over accusations of child abuse, they didn't go in shooting.

However, as television footage clear showed, the Texas Rangers went in with their own armored vehicle, and all the officers were armored more like soldier than peace officers. So there's no doubt that Texas is ready to get it on against any citizens who tick them off. Below is a 16 part video that I haven't watched, but it evidently includes a lot of interviews with Davidian survivors. (See update on this post below.)

Update: On April 20th Eric Dondero (see my expose here) posted an idiotic and factually inaccurate blog entry entitled "Mormon Polygamist Compound Raid in Texas: Where's Carol Moore and all those left-libertarian Anti-BATF Waco demonstrators now?" My reply to his inaccuracies is on the page, (including the comment: "(We're also against slave contracts where immigrant or poor women agree to marry men who then abuse them, stating that's part of the contract"). CNN actually linked to it at the "From the blogs" section at the bottom of this article about the section.

Censoring the Declaration of Independence (Jefferson's Birthday)

Today would be Thomas Jefferson's 265th birthday. And while the patriarchal slave holder wasn't perfect, he did give us these immortal words from the Declaration of Independence, its second and third sentences:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

This video shows a couple of examples of government and media trying to censor this message.

Should Elephants Replace Humans??

Watching this artistic elephant at work makes you wonder. Something tells me they'd never be foolish enough to invent nukes!

Carol Went to See the Beatles - and Now It's in a Book

This fun book "We're Going to See the Beatles" includes interviews with Beatles' fans who saw them in person - including me! It has several passages from my adventures seeing them twice in 1964. (Note my blog description above - "Imagine there's no countries, and no religion too.") The book is available at Amazon.Com.

As I wrote, in part, in an earlier blog entry about the Beatles and the Apocalypse of Love:

In 1964, at sixteen years, I had three experiences which helped me leave the constrictions of the Catholic faith. I read most of Ayn Rand’s novels, which raved against religion of any kind. I had my first spontaneous experience of the universe as being one connected consciousness and of my being part of that consciousness. And finally at the end of the summer of 1964 I saw the Beatles twice in person, August 30 in Atlantic City, New Jersey and September 20 in New York City. (Yes, I am one of the anointed ones!)
.
Before the latter concert four of us went exploring through the upstairs halls. We separated at a staircase when a guard appeared. Our friends who went down the staircase ended up at the entrance to the Beatles' reception room! They saw two live Beatles! My sister and I ran the other way and ended up in the lobby. I've always seen that as the great symbol of the many missed opportunities in my life.

Of course I say something more positive in the book which also is true: I think about it from time to time when I'm having decisions in my life - should I take the more conservative or aggressive route - and I think of those stairs and I think, "I gotta go down those stairs!" 'Cause I don't know what I'd miss if I don't.

Well, now that my arm is out of a cast and at least two fingers on my left hand can type, I've run out of excuses for laying on my butt watching TV all day. It's back to fulfilling my New Year's Resolutions!

Low Consciousness Angry McCain Videos

Some of the best from YouTube. (One could do a whole blog on angry or nutty McCain videos.) First, McCain and the red button.

* *
McCain Needs Anger Management-CNN

**
"You Little Jerk"

mccain is lieberman's stupid, vicious puppet

here's one piece of evidence...

Oops - Spitzer Really Busted for Opposing Predatory Lending!

Bottom Line: This week George Bush's government bails out a bunch of predatory lenders using $200 billion of tax payers funds - or maybe just through printing press money. Last week - coincidentally? - it busted one of America's foremost critics of predatory lending practices, and governor of the state that harbors the biggest banks engaging in them, Governor Eliot Spitzer. Even though he is just one of the thousands of politicians engaged in lewd and/or illegal behavior. But we won't hear much about that from mainstream media.

Here's some of what Spitzer wrote in the Washington Post.com February 14, 2008 in Predatory Lenders' Partner in Crime: How the Bush Administration Stopped the States From Stepping In to Help Consumers:

...Predatory lending was widely understood to present a looming national crisis. This threat was so clear that as New York attorney general, I joined with colleagues in the other 49 states in attempting to fill the void left by the federal government. Individually, and together, state attorneys general of both parties brought litigation or entered into settlements with many subprime lenders that were engaged in predatory lending practices. Several state legislatures, including New York's, enacted laws aimed at curbing such practices.

What did the Bush administration do in response? Did it reverse course and decide to take action to halt this burgeoning scourge? As Americans are now painfully aware, with hundreds of thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure and our markets reeling, the answer is a resounding no.

Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.

Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function.

But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers. In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.

Greg Palast has written more about this at DissidentVoice.Org: "The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked." So has F. William Engdahl at Global Research: "Why the Bush Administration 'Watergated' Eliot Spitzer."

Yup, one more reason to secede from our very crooked union.

Which reminds me, check out my most recent entries at my Vermont Commons "Secede and Survive" blog:

Secessionist Theory and News: a listing of links to theoretical works, plus links to and brief descriptions of a couple of secession news items of note.

Benefits of Secession for Minorities: The benefits of political decentralization to them are positive, similar to the benefits I described previously for women.

Secession and Sectarianism: Secessionists face the problem of sectarianism both from the most rabid unionists who oppose secession on ideological grounds and, contrarily, from those who support it as a means of advancing and even imposing their sectarian agenda, be it racial, ethnic, religious or ideological. ...So it is very important to build a secessionist movement that recognizes and has strategies for dealing with sectarianism.

Liberty and Democracy as Antidotes to Sectarian Secessionism: This is a continuation of my previous entry on “Secession and Sectarianism.” It details two important antidotes to the problem of sectarian conflict among secessionists - Liberty and Democracy.

Raimondo on "Smearing Obama"

Now that Ron Paul has dropped out of the presidential race, Antiwar.com's Jusin Raimondo confesses he has become an Obama Cultist. "This is really the core of Obama's appeal, and not just in my case: his calls to end the war, and change our crazed foreign policy, always elicit the loudest cheers at his mammoth rallies. It doesn't matter that he's not a consistent, principled, down-the-line opponent of interventionism: in the public mind, he is the antiwar candidate. Which is precisely what that 3-in-the-morning Clinton ad was all about: do you trust a peacenik like Obama to be ready to go to war at a moment's notice – to bomb now, and consider all the possibilities later?... In the world of Hillary's red-phone ad, war is a constant option – so that, at any moment, and probably close to if not exactly at 3 a.m., the President of the United States is more than likely to be woken up and forced to make a decision: war, or peace. Which is it to be? No time to think, or consult: it's either give the order to inflict mass death – or chill with a cup of coffee, and maybe even a secret smoke in the Rose Garden, before giving the order to launch World War III."

In "Smearing Obama" Raimondo asserts that "Every antiwar candidate has to endure the same hate campaign." "With [Ron] Paul, it was tarring him with the brush of "white nationalism," even though any sort of nationalism – white, black, pink, or purple – is anathema to libertarians of Paul's ilk...In the case of Obama, the assault is taking the form of an attack on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the now-retired pastor of Obama's church whom Obama describes as a religious "mentor" in his autobiography The Audacity of Hope. Again, the basic strategy is to make Obama answer for each and every one of Wright's pronouncements, no matter how wacky or lame-brained..."

Of course, what really upsets the establishment is the true things that Wright said which Obama, Raimondo and tens of millions of Americans agree with:

"We've got more black men in prison than there are in college. Racism is alive and well."

"America is still the No. 1 killer in the world…. We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns, and the training of professional killers…. We bombed Cambodia, Iraq, and Nicaragua, killing women and children while trying to get public opinion turned against Castro and Ghadhafi…. We put [Nelson] Mandela in prison and supported apartheid the whole 27 years he was there. We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God."

"We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being anti-Semitic…. We care nothing about human life if the end justifies the means…"

Raimondo ends by saying:

"Clearly, Obama is the candidate the neoconservatives fear and loathe: the loathing is on account of his antiwar views, at least when it comes to Iraq, and the fear stems from the fact that campaigning against him will be difficult. Hillary they can handle: she'll mobilize the troops and weld together the fractured Republican coalition in opposition.

The War Party is in full battle mode, and it is determined to destroy Obama. Will it succeed? Stay tuned…"

Prosecute the hypocritical prosecutor?

As a feminist I have no doubt that many young women and men are forced into sex work because of a variety of personal and economic problems - or by "boyfriends" who are little more than pimps. Making sex work illegal just makes it harder to protect sex workers from abuse by clients and pimps. It also leaves them open to abuse by police and prosecutors. As a libertarian I believe those who freely choose sex work -- and those who pay for it - have a right to do so and should not be prosecuted. (Assuming no other real crimes are involved.)

But what about "law and order" prosecutors and attorney generals who have prosecuted sex workers (and occassionally clients)? What about elected governors of states overseeing thousands of police and prosectors who harrass arrest, prosecute, jail and imprison sex workers? What happens when such a prosecutor turned governor breaks both state and federal prostitution laws - crimes which do lead to 5 or more year sentences for others? Should libertarians support prosecution of such hypocritical bastards? It's so tempting to prosecute for the "crime" of hypocrisy. But I'll leave a discourse on this topic for another place and time.

Let me quote a Manhattan libertarian's blog - linked from the Libertarian Party of New York site on that topic:

Happy Days Are Here Again!

Eliot Spitzer caught with his pants down! I love it!! Expect the man who shall forever after be known as Client 9 to resign shortly.

That he was a patron of a prostitution ring with a name like The Emperors Club VIP makes it even more fitting. These guys really do think of themselves as emperors and the rest of us as serfs, above the laws they use to oppress the masses.

As attorney general, Spitzer prosecuted at least two prosecution rings — callously ruining dozens of lives over the quintessential victimless crime. Now he reaps what he sowed.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Dog, Cat, Rat - sex and neuter status??

An extremely popular video on YouTube called "The Dog, the Cat and the Rat" has had 1.7 million hits in 3 months. It shows the animals in happy harmony.

Wish I knew their sex and neuter status. All neutered males certainly would suggest one conclusion - all non-neutered females another. However, it also suggests that even animals can overcome primal negative emotions through training and experience. Something humans SHOULD be even more capable of. Why do you think there is so much brainwashing in religion, politics and the media to keep us scared and distrustful of each other?

We even see it with Hillary "the monster" Clinton (and all right wing talk radio) trying to scare people about whether Barack Obama is a secret Muslim. Of course, if she's nominated they'll start speculating about whether she's really a wiccan "witch."

John Lennon needed another verse: "Imagine we're all conscious."

Ron Paul vs. Blaming Palestinian Victims

See antiwar.com for details of Paul being only Representative to vote against this prejudiced resolution that puts the interests of the state of Israel before the interests of Americans - and all principles of human rights. Here is Paul's statement:

Mr. Speaker: I rise in opposition to H. Res. 951, a resolution to condemn Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. As one who is consistently against war and violence, I obviously do not support the firing of rockets indiscriminately into civilian populations. I believe it is appalling that Palestinians are firing rockets that harm innocent Israelis, just as I believe it is appalling that Israel fires missiles into Palestinian areas where children and other non-combatants are killed and injured.

Unfortunately, legislation such as this is more likely to perpetuate violence in the Middle East than contribute to its abatement. It is our continued involvement and intervention – particularly when it appears to be one-sided – that reduces the incentive for opposing sides to reach a lasting peace agreement.

Additionally, this bill will continue the march toward war with Iran and Syria, as it contains provocative language targeting these countries. The legislation oversimplifies the Israel/Palestine conflict and the larger unrest in the Middle East by simply pointing the finger at Iran and Syria. This is another piece in a steady series of legislation passed in the House that intensifies enmity between the United States and Iran and Syria. My colleagues will recall that we saw a similar steady stream of provocative legislation against Iraq in the years before the US attack on that country.

I strongly believe that we must cease making proclamations involving conflicts that have nothing to do with the United States. We incur the wrath of those who feel slighted while doing very little to slow or stop the violence.

Israeli Leader Admits They are "Holocausting" Palestinians...

Even a broken arm should not stop me from a short entry on the U.S. backed Israeli barbarism (continuing into its 60th year) against the Arabs in Palestine. Los Angeles Times notes in Israeli's use of 'holocaust' has fallout:
The Hebrew word shoah, or holocaust, is not used casually in Israeli society. Occasionally, it is employed to denote a massive disaster...In what may prove to be a significant miscalculation, Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai on Friday used the term in warning of more military action in Gaza. By allowing constant rocket barrages from Gaza on nearby Israeli cities, the Palestinians, Vilnai said, were "bringing upon themselves a greater shoah because we will use all our strength in every way we deem appropriate, whether in airstrikes or on the ground." As the three-day death toll in Gaza climbed toward triple digits, senior Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal accused Israel of "implementing a real holocaust against the Palestinian people for the past 60 years. What is happening today in Gaza is a new holocaust." The nongovernmental Palestinian Information Center issued a statement calling Vilnai's words "the first indirect admission by an Israeli official that what Israel is conducting against the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is a holocaust, albeit a slow-motion one." Given the Arab reaction and the rising Palestinian death toll, Vilnai's use of the word is proving controversial within Israel as well...

John McCain must be creaming in his 72 year old jeans. Meanwhile 74 year old Arab-American Ralph Nader is running for president very explicitly - as he revealed last week on "Meet the Press" - to make almost half-Arab Barack Obama feel guilty for dropping his past criticisms of Israel's barbarism; he evidently does still support publicly an undefined just peace for the Palestinians.

Of course, Obama has to hide his true feelings or he'd be assassinated before he had a chance to win. The Mossad probably will take him out if he wins. He can have a nice talk on the other side with JFK and RFK about the good old days where the Mossad just had the Meyer Lansky gang and their leftist patsies and/or their brain-washed Arab employees do it. However, World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein and his Mossad buddies have brought assassination to a whole new level, so expect the assassination to be part of some catastrophic terrorist act blamed on Muslims or Arabs.

Ouch. Think of all the broken bones that will entail!

One dang thing after another

In the last year I've had to put up with Lyme disease, 2 bouts of walking pneumonia and just when getting better - broke my left arm slipping on black ice on Lincoln's birthday. These anti-secessionists will stop at nothing! A bunch of writing projects - including paid ones - on hold. But it's relatively easy even one-handed to bang out musical rhythms and chords on my casio, sing and make music videos. So that may be my main outlet for the next month. See my last couple music videos here.

Huge Turnout to Pick Fuhrer Nominees! About 13% Eligible Voters

Only 13% of eligible voters voted in the primary - and many of them are on the dole. But even if 100% had voted they just voted for a representative who will listen first and foremost to powerful special interests.
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The Associated Press reports: "Voters came out in record numbers in about half the states that have voted in presidential primaries so far, according to an analysis Wednesday...About 14 million people voted in the Democratic primaries this year compared with the slightly more than 10 million who voted in GOP primaries, according to the analysis."

Now that's 24 million who voted out of WHAT percentage of the population actually is old enough, etc. to be eligible to vote? That number didn't pop up on numerous searches but a quick look at the map - and mental calculations from the state populations chart - shows that probably 3/4 of eligible voters have had their chance to vote. Let's say for argument that's 180 million eligible voters. (24 million is 13% of 180.) That's about 13 percent of eligible voters having picked the presidential candidates. That's consistent with Presidential Primary Turnout Rate averages from 2000 and 2004.

13% is less than the almost 16% percent of people who work for local, state and federal governments! And then, as of 2003, there are the 47 million Americans were collecting Social Security and most of them vote! And don't forget the millions more getting paychecks from government contracts. Did anyone vote in the primary who is NOT on the dole?? One thing for sure, a large number of primary voters were voting the way party leaders told them because they know who's going to keep those checks coming.

To me, “democracy” (from the Green “rule by the people”) means giving every member who shares the groups’ overall goals a way to participate equally in group decision making. And I believe representative, majority rule “democracy” does nothing of the sort.

In small organizations, and even more so in large ones, but particularly in government, the current system of majoritarian representation leads inevitably to de facto minority rule. Wealthy and/or well-organized elites and special interests know who to fund, who to elect, who to pressure, who to pay, in order to get their way. And all it takes is a small minority of members or citizens to elect a nominee or will be elected by a somewhat larger number of people to be an executive or a representative. In a legislature, this representative may be among a mere quorum of representatives voting on a bill - and they pass by a bare majority any number of liberty-denying and tax and spend laws. Reformists’ tweaks cannot fix these majoritarian and representative structural flaws.

We need direct democracy that only permits laws to be passed if they are voted on directly by a large percentage of citizens. And then only if a large majority of them approve it. If 80 per cent of 80 per cent of the public is necessary to approve a law, few special interest laws even will be proposed, not to mention passed.

I myself have a long and generally positive experience with direct and consensus-oriented democratic groups starting with anti-nuclear organizing in the 1970s and early 1980s, then Green/bioregional organizing in the 1980s and early 1990s, and finally peace organizing since 1997. I have seen the “tyranny of structurelessness.” But I’ve seen far more tyranny in structured organizations, from anti-globalization “spokes councils” to loosely structured coalitions to Robert Rules of Order run groups with carefully structured constitutions. I have seen all turn into clique dominated autocracies, reinforcing the idea that giving away one’s power leaves one powerless.

However, I remain hopeful that constitutions combining direct, consensus-oriented democracy with simple and effective process rules can minimize the damage done by special interests, cliques and opportunistic apparatchiks. And our “revolutionary” organizations can be models of the political organizations we create in the future. See more about his at my site Secession.Net.

Changing Men... Women, it's our duty...

After four (or more) posts in a row about the extremely low consciousnesses of power hungry males who insult, degrade, threaten and scream at anyone who does kneel before their demands - especially if they are female, I thought a nice long OOOOOOOOOOOOOOM was in order. If I did it long and often enough I might actually focus on and finish my book in progress in one form or another since 1976 CONSCIOUSNESS AND COMMUNITY: TRANSCENDING GOD AND STATE.

Anyway, I felt a nice higher consciousness post was in order - something about RAISING male consciousness. Searching about I found this introduction to Steven Andrew Schapiro's 1985 dissertation - CHANGING MEN: THE RATIONALE, THEORY, AND DESIGN OF A MEN'S CONSCIOUSNESS RAISING PROGRAM. Women, check it out, mix it up with your own conception of feminist consciousness raising, and start roping these surly apes into our workshops - and they'll come, too, if they want dinner and the skid marks washed off their undies.

This study describes the theory and design of a pedagogy that attempts to help men to develop new ways of being male that are less oppressive to women and more fulfilling to men. The goals of this pedagogy are summarized with the terms: autonomy, androgyny, awareness, and activism. These goals are based on an integration of three alternative models of masculinity: the 'liberated man,' the 'androgynous man,' and the 'anti-sexist man.'

The need for the study is established through a description of the current societal transition in male role norms, an exploration of the critique of traditional masculinity, and a review of existing approaches for educating men about sex roles and sexism. The study demonstrates that these approaches are inadequate because they have limited objectives and/or do not take into account both key facets of men's identity in regard to this issue: the limitations imposed on men by traditional sex roles, and men's role in the oppression of women.

A theoretical model for a more adequate pedagogy for 'raising men's consciousness' about sexism is developed through a review, critique, and synthesis of four relevant educational approaches: human relations training groups (T-groups), Paolo Freire's education for critical consciousness, feminist consciousness raising groups, and anti-oppression education. The implications of a developmental perspective on men's identity for how the pedagogy should be implemented are then explored through a review of several theories of sex role identity development and male identity development, leading to the articulation of a more differentiated model that can explain developmental patterns experienced by men.

A college course, 'Men and Masculinity,' which was designed on the basis of the pedagogical model, is described in detail. An informal evaluation of the course's effectiveness in meeting its objectives is reported. Based on an analysis of students' written materials and of pre and post scores on the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, the Women's Liberation Scale, and a questionnaire on 'Men and Sexism,' there were significant increases in androgyny and activism, with smaller but still significant increases in androgyny and activism.

Insane McCain - More Videos

When you've got nut jobs like Ann Coulter and certain acquaintances of mine who have hated Hillary Clinton for years saying they would vote for Hillary over McCain, you know you have a guy who can truly unite left and right! Of course, some left wingers applaud his more fascistic, pro-government views.

These two videos from Ron Paul supporters are pretty amusing. Wish I could find the one where he's screaming "Shut up! Shut up!" at a woman trying to ask a question about immigration. Given his insane temper, it's likely he'll have a stroke or a heart attack on the campaign trail. But these stupid republican poll numbers show far too much support. Do they really think he'll control himself during debates against Hillary or Obama and not go INSANE??

McCain is being voted in by people who are scared shitless of a Mormon. SURPRISE!! Romney may be a little flakey and dodgey, but he's not itching to push the red button.

Meanwhile Ron Paul gets 5-7% of voters - and probably 20% of the half who don't vote. The beginning of a solid critical mass to make a libertarian/secessionist revolution at the height of the next sunspot cycle around 2010-13. You heard it hear first.





And lest we forget, McCain's verision of BOMB BOMB IRAN- More broken internet cables to the middle east anyone?

McCain Saturday Night Live Imprison Americans Sketch

I couldn't find the SNL sketch about John McCain becoming president and going crazy because he was having flashbacks to his prisoner of war days - 5.5 brutal years in a Vietnamese prison camp. I think there have to be serious questions about his mental stability because of those days. I'm sure others will raise the "Manchurian Candidate" issue, though "brain washing" remains a questionable theory.

However, searching YouTube I did find one where he, as guest host, plays the attorney general and says tens of thousands of Americans have to be imprisoned for Americans to feel safe! So where's Rudy Giuliani giving the thumbs up in the background?? (And, of course, both of them exposing their manliness.)