My house is my castle: Barack's betrayal

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and ther persons or things to be seized."
-The Fourth Amendment, US Constitution, 1789

Barack Obama won the joyous support of progressives not so very long ago when he promised to FILIBUSTER any attempt by Congress to provide retroactive immunity for telecoms against spying on Americans.
His spectacularly disastrous reversal in the Senate vote today calls into question all of the ways that progressives have believed in Barack, because we wanted so desperately to believe. Even Hillary Clinton voted against telecom immunity today.
Yes, all politicos have to be strategists, as an old campaigner True knows all about that.... But, we Loved Barack because his strategy seemed to be telling the truth and generating support from the vast majority of Americans who have suffered under the lies of the neocons. It diminishes his campaign when he caves rather than stands up for what is right, and what can be more right than the Fourth Amendment?
The MSM have contrived to make it appear that government surveillance without a warrant applies only to the very baddest guys. Barack knows that this is not so but he also suspects that most people don't realize this and so he can get away with reversing a stand that brought him huge support from the Democratic wing of the Dim Party.....
And not only them; the 3,500 journalists at the National Conference on Media Reform believed in Barack's promise to protect the Fourth Amendment. Every single one of us understood what was at stake and we all believed Barack would stand up for the Constitution even if he had to cave on some issues in order to get elected.
Every single one of us who were there, from Bill Moyers down to the lowliest journalist like True, feel betrayed. Barack had a chance to stand up and be counted for something that the vast majority of Americans believe in: the sanctity of privacy, the home as castle.
The Repug neocons have sold the FISA surveillance by telecoms in several ways, mostly by denying that surveillance creeps into our homes in ways never imagined by the founders, but also by insinuating that anybody who is spied deserves to be, and that YOU and I have NOTHING to HIDE.... depending on who raises or lowers the bar. Who is listening and to whom? The answer, well-documented though you will NEVER see it in a MSM story, is that the National Security Agency is listening to EVERY conversation that you and I make by phone or email. Yes, modern technology permits them to do this.
True doesn 't care, True follows Her mandate to peaceably address grievances in the First Amendment and takes Her role in a Free Press very seriously.
So, who cares? Well, friend, you ought to, perhaps. You have been led to believe that only the bad guys are spied on and even if you are spied on, you have nothing to hide, right?
Don't be so sure. They go by code words in your phone conversations: did you ever say you are sick of America these dahys? Or anything mildly critical?
It never was intended -- OR EVEN IMAGINED -- that every single phone or email conversation would be monitored by paid spies of the government.
Bushcos are bragging that they WON a big victory and it is True.

Barack is/was our leader and we adored him, but we adored him BECAUSE he spoke truth to power in this essential, critical issue of the Fourth Amendment. When he doesn't do that, how can we trust him to do all the other things he promises?

Politics is war

Recently the media (both papers and WTIP) have nearly peed their pants over the visit by Governor Plenty-for-the-Rich. His speech was broadcast on WTIP. He was featured in photos with his oh-so-adorable wife and kid.
At the same time there were stories about the local delegates to the Dim and Repug annual love-fests.
Hey, politics is no longer a ball game, if it ever in fact was. Politics is war, at least since the 1980's when a group of Machiavellan plotters later known as "neocons" hatched up a battle plan to take over the US government permanently. Soon they also hooked up with the then-toothless "Moral Majority" and combined the advantages of wealth, power and a supposed channel to God to build a permanent one-party government. A government not of the people, by the people and for the people, but of the rich, by the rich and for the rich.
They have all-but succeeded. They have bought two presidential elections and brought to power a fool who is also a willing tool of his ultra-right, ultra-rich buddies from Yale and Texas oil.
They have decimated the middle class by outsourcing jobs and attacking unions, made college education an unaffordable luxury for many, slashed public school funding, pandered to big corporate interests to the detriment of health and well-being, created new classes of homeless people and near-poor, stacked the courts with their far-right-wing appointees, squandered the future of our children with overwhelming debt for their stupid wars-for-oil while also destroying thousands of young people's lives who idealistically wanted to serve their country after 9/11, made us the most hated people in the world, allowed and even encouraged big corporations to take over the media so the people would never get the real news, condoned torture and spying on all Americans, created a new Big Brother called "Homeland Security" that makes J. Edgar Hoover look like a pussycat, and tried to dismantle Social Security and Medicare.
Perhaps worst of all, these rich-and-powerful morons have probably doomed the earth to unmitigated disaster by denying global warming despite the melting of Artic permafrost, promoting environmental devastation in ever more invasive mining and lifting of regulations to protect air, land and water. This list actually only scratches the surface of the terrible damage done to the world by the neocons and their tame but hateful Religious Right.
This is war, war against the American people, waged by the party that controls the White House, the judiciary and even the Congress despite the 2006 election mandate to throw the suckers out. Pelosi, Reid, and the Blue Dog Dims don't have the stomach or the gumption for the hardball tactics that they COULD employ to bring democracy back to America.
Barack Obama has been voting party-line lately, too, for funding the Iraq war for another year, for giving amnesty to the big telecoms that were spying on our emails and phone calls...
I grew up in a world where the parties jousted and fenced, but had basic respect for the two-party system, the checks & balances of the Constitution, and yes, Truth, Justice and the American Way.
I was a "Nixonette" who later came to love JFK. I went to DFL bean feeds. It was all good fun in those days, until one party started assassinating the charismatic leaders of the other party.
Now it is war. Gov. Plenty has reduced taxes on the rich and replaced them with horrendous fees and sales taxes paid by the poor. He has refused to rebuild our failing infrastructure and bears direct responsibility for the 35W bridge collapse. He is angling for a high place in a McCain administration. He's a snake and also a seller of snake oil and he's looking out for Number One with every photo-op.
-True

Loose cannon, loaded gun, and Bomb bomb bomb bomb-bomb-Iran

Dear readers,

Please do take the time to read this excellent and as always well-researched article by Seymour Hersh that appeared in today's issue of The New Yorker magazine.
Possibly the forced resignation of Admiral Fallon in March, head of US Central Command in Iraq and Afghanistan, raised your eyebrows as it did mine. Admiral Fallon had expressed misgivings about an attack on Iran.
Hello, folks, it's deja vu Iraq all over again.... the secret shenanigans, the cooked intelligence reports, the public lies, and, voila! a new war, just in time for the 2008 elections.
True wrote to Rep. Oberstar with concerns about the recent resolution in the House (H. Congr. Res. 362) that would facilitate The Unitary Executive's fast track to war by declaring Iran to be a threat to peace and stability in the Middle East. Oberstar wrote to True that he will be thinking hard about whether to vote for it and he also said he is opposed to war with Iran as he was to war with Iraq. So, what's to think about?
On the same page, the Israelis are also making noise about attacking Iran. Now THAT would be a biblical situation so longed for by the end-times folks, would it not? The Israeli right joins the unholy American alliance of the Christian Right with the Big Oil Rich in a new Armageddon? Or Apocalypse? Because we can be sure of one thing: a war with Iran will unleash a world war like nothing we've ever seen.
Oh, the loose cannon? Of course that is King George the Dubya. The loaded gun? You guessed it, Darth Cheney. And Bomb-bomb-bomb Himself? That's the Repug presidential candidate who knows he won't win unless the goofy voters are rallied round the flag again.
-True

Here's the link:
Preparing the BattlefieldThe Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran. - CommonDreams.org

Obama! The world rejoices, the nutcakes rant

Though you might not know it from reading the MSM, the whole world is rejoicing with the nomination of Barack Obama. Of course as progressives and people of good will we also are happy, but do we really know HOW happy we should be? Consider these awesome words: "America, this is our moment. This is our time:"

America, this is our moment. This is our time. Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past. Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face. Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.

The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. -Barack Obama on claiming the 2008 Dem presidential nomination.

AND NOW.... look at the craziness making the rounds on the Internet. Again you won't see THIS in the MSM or even in the progressive media! Honestly, sometimes True thinks his friends have their heads up their.... er, I mean, in the sand. If you don't think McCain, a Bushie clone, can possibly win because of the 68 percent against failed policies, think again. This kind of Swift-boating stuff is pure poison, the more so because all those folks who send it on saying, "This is interesting" are just dumb enough to believe it. Come on, read it, don't say you don't want to spoil your happy day. Know your enemy:

http://snopes.com confirms this is factual. Check for yourself. Look in the box on the left side of the screen and click on Barack Obama - what they say wil chill you to the core!

IF THIS IS TRUE NOTHING WE CAN DO ABOUT IT. WHAT IS IN THE BIBLE WILL TAKE PLACE .

A man will come from the east...

MAY WE ALL PRAY FOR WISDOM AND DISCERNMENT

AND PRAY FOR EACH OTHER AS WE MAKE THIS DECISION

OF A LIFETIME! OUR LIVES, CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN'S

LIVES WILL BE CHANGED FOREVER BECAUSE OF OUR CHOICE

THIS ELECTION. MAY GOD BE WITH US ALL!

God help us if this man is elected!! But it is all stated in the Bible

and it will happen sooner or later. This is from Darlene Millican,

wife of the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church here in Sun City I have felt

for sometime now that Obama is the one person that 'Frightens Me'.

I believe the Bible has warned us that 'A man will come from the East

that will be charismatic in nature and have proposed solutions for all our

problems and his rhetoric will attract many supporters!' When will our

pathetic Nation quit turning their back on God and understand that this

man is 'A Muslim'... First, Last and always... and we are AT WAR with

the Muslim Nation, whether our bleeding-heart, secular, Liberal friends

believe it or not. This man fits every description from the Bible of the

'Anti-Christ'! I'm just glad to know that there are others that are frightened

by this man! Who is Barack Obama? Very interesting and something that

should be considered in your choice. If you do not ever forward anything else,

please forward this to all your contacts... this is very scary to think of what lies

ahead of us here in our own United States ... better heed this and pray about it

and share it.

Who is Barack Obama?

Probable U. S. presidential candidate, Barack Hussein Obama was born in Honolulu ,

Hawaii, to Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a black MUSLIM from Nyangoma-Kogel,

Kenya and Ann Dunham, a white ATHEIST from Wichita , Kansas Obama's parents

met at the University of Hawaii . When Obama was two years old, his parents divorced.

His father returned to Kenya . His mother then married Lolo Soetoro, a RADICAL

Muslim from Indonesia . When Obama was 6 years old, the family relocated to

Indonesia Obama attended a MUSLIM school in Jakarta . He also spent two

years in a Catholic school. Obama takes great care to conceal the fact that

he is a Muslim. He is quick to point out that, 'He was once a Muslim, but that

he also attended Catholic school.' Obama's political handlers are attempting to

make it appear that that he is not a radical. Obama's introduction to Islam came

via his father, and that this influence was temporary at best. In reality, the senior

Obama returned to Kenya soon after the divorce, and never again had any direct

influence over his son's education. Lolo Soetoro, the second husband of Obama's

mother, Ann Dunham, introduced his stepson to Islam. Obama was enrolled in a

Wahabi school in Jakarta . Wahabism is the RADICAL teaching that is followed

by the Muslim terrorists who are now waging Jihad against the western world.

Since it is politically expedient to be a CHRISTIAN when seeking major

public office in the United States , Barack Hussein Obama has joined the

United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background.

Barack Hussein Obama will NOT recite the Pledge of Allegiance nor will he

show any reverence for our flag. While others place their hands over their hearts,

Obama turns his back to the flag and slouches. Do you want someone like this

as your PRESIDENT? Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected

Presidential candidacy. The Muslims have said they plan on destroying the

US from the inside out, what better way to start than at the highest level -

through the President of the United States , one of their own! The Bible says

'He will come from among you!'

White trash go for Hillary

Dear True,
I grew up in the Kentucky mountains of Appalachia. So I know from White Trash. They don't want no "Boy" to be president and so they cut off their own faces to vote against him. Obama is the only candidate who cares about the working poor. Hillary? Ha! She is the working rich. She and Hubby sent zillions of good jobs overseas with their trade agreements.
But the White Trash of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia hear from the pulpit how to vote and it ain't for the only guy who cares about them.
A terrifying parallel exists between Appalachia and Northeastern Minnesota. Both are victims of big coal, big mining. In Kentucky the beautiful mountains of my childhood are being cut off at the top to get more coal. The debris of the dynamiting and destruction are plunged into the watershed; toxic chemicals are re-named as the bland label "fill." So it well may be here in Minnesota if Polymet goes ahead with a new copper mine that leaches into the St. Louis county watershed and ultimately creates a new dead zone where life just doesn't go on.
Ya, the White Trash of the South and the dumb shits of the Northeast either don't know or don't give a shit that their lands and waters are being destroyed by big money interest to whom both Clinton and McCain are beholden. BUT, here at least we like Obama. Down there they won't ever, ever vote for a "Boy."

A "Sub-deb" from Kentucky (meaning I was White but not Trash)

PS If it is True that 56 percent of Minnesotans approve of "Pawlenty for the Rich" who was in large part responsible for the Minneapolis bridge collapse and our tanking economy, well I guess you get the government you deserve.

Relaxing with the Sunday paper: It's the news, stupid

How astonishing that only 40 percent of Americans know that nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq so far. If that is the case I imagine far fewer know that over a million Iraqis have died, mostly civilians, and four million have been displaced. Or that returning soldiers have huge suicide rates and are refused treatment for PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder for you dummies). Or that to the rest of the world the United States is synonymous with torture and unilateral aggression against other sovereign nations.
Ya ya, Fox news is a Repug mouthpiece and the MSM parrot the Bushcos. But, even an ordinary reader of the Sunday paper should know how many soldiers have died in Iraq. Even dummies ought to figure out that the Iraq war was a disaster which will also cripple our children's generation with debt, and that the impending war of aggression with Iran orchestrated by our nutty right wing neocons who welcome the Apocalypse will ignite a new world war with superpowers Russia and China against us. What IS it with you, amigos?
Hmm, reading on in the new Strib Lite, there's a story about how folks are leaving their houses behind so they can make their car and credit card payments. Say, what? Isn't that deja vu Depression all over again? Why aren't people asking that question? If you can make your own house payment, do you just blow it off?
Another story, about Tibet:
The repressive Chinese government is blaming the victim, not to mention killing them and rounding them up into jail. The Chinese regime has refused to acknowledge Tibetan Buddhism ever since their 1951 coup and takeover of this small country in the Himalayan mountains. The Dalai Lama, the holiest person on the planet, who now "rules" his worldwide constituencies of faith from Dharamsala, India, is being blamed for the violence perpetrated by the Chinese. Buddhits devotees and monks are imprisoned for their nonviolent protests. Look more closely at the photos: the monks are in pain on account of the "violence" by the Chinese police with their night sticks and guns.
People will rise up when their deepest beliefs are subjugated (except in the modern-day US of A where the pioneers have morphed into limp wimps who cave at the bogey "terrists"). This is sorta mentioned in the LiteStrib story but like everything else the MSM reports it favors the party line. In this case, the Chinese party line.... And who will stand up for the peace-loving Tibetans in the press? So far, nobody. Not even the groupies who reverently attend appearances by the Dalai Lama around the world, and who listen to his wise and loving message of peace to all beings.
Soldiering on, as we move into the afternoon and toss the junk pages that could have saved a couple acres of rainforest: Readers learn how fed reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is "improvising" and making "bold moves" to save the U.S. economy. Hmph. Jumping ahead: On Monday it appears that the latest bold move bails out Wall Street mega-giant Bear Stearns to the tune of billions, just a little blip, while children go without health care, our infrastructure crumbles and collapses, and people don't have jobs. Even AP reported this news but maybe you missed it on Fox.....
We get the government we deserve. True admits it is harder to get the real news now but it is the duty of us citizens to try. You just have to actually read the paper and skip front page which might as well be what we used to call the "Women's Page," back in the day.
The people divided will always be defeated. The people, stupid, will always be conned.
True

Lutsen: who's minding the henhouse?

The day dawns for Lutsen township elections and Paul Quinn is challenging incumbent Supervisor Marland Hansen. Sounds like a healthy democratic process? Guess again.
Hansen and Quinn are both on the same page when it comes to the HUGE issues facing Lutsen township, namely the downtown development design approved by a public process and the Lutsen Mountain mega-developers who are not answerable to anybody. Not for their mega-slump dump of dirty water into the Poplar River. Not for their increasing push toward the limits of the TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) that can't absorb additional turbidity. But most of all, not for their Mega-Development of a new McCity on Lutsen Mountain with 55 foot high buildings, curb-and-gutters designed for a mini-urban area, and no, repeat, no, plans to mitigate the already challenged TMDL on the Poplar River watershed, a huge area affected by the Mega Mountain Corporation.
So, people of Lutsen, do you want to elect Tweedle Dum or Tweedle Dee? Either candidate washes his hands over the Poplar River/Lutsen Mountain pollution issues. Either candidate expresses disdain for the public-process-approved downtown design by the U of M Center for Changing Landscapes. True, having closely studied these designs, has nothing but praise for them, especially for the seamless integration of the bike trail into the overall plan and for the "intelligent design" (if you will pardon the reference) that will limit new development to the town center and to the publicly determined good--i.e., housing and commercial development that serves citizens.
Lutsen citizens: True can't vote for y'all. You need to stop being world-class wimps while others decide the fate of your lovely, lovely township.

Minnesota: raise income taxes!

Hello, Governor Pawlenty. Hello, Cook County. Hello, Minnesota legislators!

Stop taxing the poor! New gas taxes, new sales taxes, new fees, but NEVER new income taxes! Y'all are shifting the tax burden from the richest to the poorest.
Can you say, REGRESSIVE TAXES?
Minnesota used to be all about graduated taxes, all about ability to pay. No more. Cook County and Grand Marais are hollering for a new one percent sales tax, claiming that it is borne by tourists. Hello, hello? WE are the ones who live here, who pay the tax every single day on every single thing we buy.
The legislature passed a new gas tax without even asking what anybody thinks about that. This happens even as gas prices break all records. Us po' folks can hardly manage to buy gas to get to work. Our food, our heat, our rents and mortgages, not to mention our health care have all shot through the roof. How much blood can you squeeze out of a stone? How much poorer will we have to be before the big D word is spoken aloud?
As for property taxes, nobody seems yet to have caught on: we are being taxed on inflated property values!!! We can no longer sell our homes for their inflated values but we still have to pay taxes on them. Property taxes are also regressive, but necessary at the local level, WHICH is why Minnesota used to offer lots of aid to local governments as well as homeowners. Back in the day when Minnesota government meant something good for people, before the Repugnants took over.
As for the No New Bridges governor, who keeps sending my "tax bill" spiraling by increasing all those fees like license tabs in the name of "no new taxes" meaning no new FAIR income taxes, well I hope you will be soundly defeated by an old-fashioned Minnesota DFL progressive next round.
True

Obama landslide winner in Cook County: Yes!

Nobody even came close to challenging Barack Obama's caucus victory in Cook County on Super Tuesday. This is good. True is old enough to remember the 1960 election of President John Kennedy, also an inspiring and charismatic figure but he only won by a short margin. How different the future of our country might have been if he had lost; despite the right wing assassins who took him down along with his brother Bobby, MLK Junior and John Lennon, we at least had a time where idealism found a place in the sun, where young people were thrilled to work on behalf of their country, where the rich and the poor united in working for America and for the world. "Ich bin ein Berliner," said JFK to screaming crowds in Berlin, long before the Wall was torn down. "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Thousands of young people flocked to the Peace Corps and millions more of us worked on a more local scale to bring peace and justice to our people.
Much of being a great leader is being a visionary, capturing the hopes and dreams of the people. John Kennedy made some big mistakes early on, most noticeably bringing us to the brink of nuclear war over the Bay of Pigs. But, he learned and he always led from the heart.
And that is why True believes in Barack Obama. He might not stand up so strong as John Edwards on behalf of the poor, the two Americas, but when elected I believe he will step into the big footprints of history. I believe he will try to extricate us from the endless and evil war in Iraq, will start a new dialogue with other nations, will build a base of Americans with his experience as a community organizer guides him....Nobody else has the capacity to inspire the young, to bring everybody back to the table where peace and justice might be on the agenda.
YES, Cook County!
True