Melissa Gragg and Jason Miller interview Derrick Jensen

11/8/08

"Top priorities may not be any of those five. It may be continuing to stabilize the financial system. We don't know yet what's going to happen in January. And none of this can be accomplished if we continue to see a potential meltdown in the banking system or the financial system. So that's priority number one, making sure that the plumbing works in our capitalist system."

--President-Elect Barack Obama

Ironically, it is the plumbing of that capitalist system that we are using as we flush the future of life on Earth down the toilet.

Now make me do it.

FDR told activists in his own party, "I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it."

Franklin Roosevelt was also famous for not staying bought, after he took huge amounts of money from the special interests of his day.  Modern politicians of either party would never do this after accepting thinly veiled bribes.  They stay bought, because they know the next election is coming up, and people will find ways to be nice to them after they are out of office and don't need to worry about campaign finance laws.

I voted for Obama, but I don't think he can fix everything unless Americans tell him how.  He'll have good advisors, but unless advisors read new things they may recycle the same old ideas.  I think the Democrats have better ideas than the Republicans, but I don't think they're quite ready for what's coming to Americans in the next few years.

Paul Watson interviewed by Jason Miller

Simulposted with Thomas Paine's Corner

"Well, as usual, you people have everything all upside down and turned around and back to front."

-Mel Gibson as Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon 2

As a species of beings that reflexively and unequivocally identifies itself as "superior," we human animals have taken self-deception to a level of inimitable brilliance. And we Americans who have self-servingly cast ourselves in the role of moral beacon to the world (while engaging in industrialized wholesale violence against humans, animals, and the Earth on a breath-taking scale) are the living embodiments of the word hypocrisy.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men~~George Orwell

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Political debates are an excersise of vapid talking points, quips and body language. Substance is irrelevant. Candidates are programmed to hold the attention span of people that watch American Idol and read tabloids while sitting on the toilet. Yet even these over scripted, dumbed down, brain massaged events have revealing moments.

Yesterday, like most political bloggers, I posted my analysis of the Biden-Palin debate and referenced Palin's most memorable sound-bite:

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Change is passé. Barack Obama squeezed all the juice out of the change orange since announcing his candidacy in February 2007. Personally, I never thought much of the "change you can believe in" slogan but there is no denying Obama went far with it.

However, Sarah Palin's selection as McCain's running mate has convinced the public change is coming no matter who wins. Even worse, the very same corporate media that complained Obama only offered "words" compared to Hillary Clinton's policy specifics during the primary season now argue that McCain's lack of specifics does not diminish his stature as a maverick. Is that fair? Of course not! But there is no sense whining about it. These are the cards we've been dealt.

So how do we change the narrative? The solution is to present the voting public with a stark choice: progress or calamity. Change vs. more of the same is stale and no longer resonates.

With the United States finally deciding to go into Pakistan when and as it likes, it is setting up its former strategic ally - which morphed into a client state after 9/11 - to go the way of Iran in the future.

McCain campaign on McCain:

"There was one man who was presidential tonight, that man was John McCain."

Let's see ... McCain never looked at Obama during the debate.

Not looking at your opponent is "presidential?"

This very much was the "don't talk to your enemies - don't look them in the eye" foreign policy expert practicing his "presidential" craft for a nationwide audience.

McCain campaign continues:

It's only fitting that a truly memorable demonstration of human gullibility will mark its 70th anniversary just before Election Day. On the night of October 30, 1938, thousands of radio listeners concluded that Orson Welles' adaptation of The War of the Worlds was the real thing: a live account of Martian invaders landing in Grover's Mill, New Jersey. Those fooled by the show's air of authenticity exhibited signs of panic and hysteria. Some called the police for guidance on how they could protect themselves. Some fled their homes for greater safety farther from the invasion site. And some listeners fainted beside their radios. Within hours the hoax was fully revealed, and public outrage swiftly followed.

Today, Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin seem intent on creating similar mass confusion for their own purposes.

Please kindly help us publish and circulate this as widely as you can

This piece is for the skeptics. Not for skeptical Republicans (I imagine you have your minds made up already), but for all the undecideds and independents, for all the middle-of-the-roadsters, for the person who is right now saying "I would be happy with either candidate as President" or, I suppose, for the one who is saying "I can't stand either of these guys". I've been listening to you, reading your editorials. I know what you're saying. Dare I say, I know what you're not saying too. Obama skeptics: This piece is for you.

The topic below was originally posted on my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Sarah Palin has enabled John McCain to revive the culture war as we argue over who is the real elitist, sexist or patriot. We've seen these sorts of smokescreens from Republicans before. They're diabolically brilliant at distracting voters with visceral appeals to the politics of cultural resentment while exploiting America's dark underbelly of racism and xenophobia. McCain/Palin even have the chutzpah to campaign as patriotic change agents eager to fight on behalf of regular folks while promoting polices that amount to class warfare against wage earners and small business entrepreneurs.

How easy to get caught up in Sarah Palin's polarizing celebrity and lose sight of the real issues at stake. That's exactly what the GOP wants. I too have been consumed by the Palin phenomenon in recent days and the GOP's toxic convention. Well it's time to get back to basics. Obama did a good job of that yesterday with respect to the new unemployment figures. I'd like to take a moment and focus attention on another vitally important issue that's easily overtaken by cultural politics: infrastructure.

I am the earth. You are the earth. The Earth is dying. You and I are murderers.

-Ymber Delecto

What a sorry lot we humans are, particularly those of us immersed in the "American Way of Life." Killing is indeed our business. And business has never been better.

Humanists plan to combat and eliminate caste discrimination and untouchability

Dear David Broder,

You sir, are a role model.  You are widely known and well-regarded as both "the dean of political journalists" and as a Pulitzer-prize winning author.  I'm sure you agree this status compels you to follow the highest ethical standards of your profession.  

As a member of The Society of Professional Journalists, you also know you are obligated to follow their Code of Ethics.  It is with dismay I note you apparently violated many of these important ethical principles in your recent column, A Way Back to the High Road?  

After reviewing the attached list of particulars, I hope you will promptly correct these mistakes, thereby avoiding permanent damage to your reputation and credibility.