In a surprising “Christmas in February” move on Tuesday, a judicial panel named by the Minnesota Supreme Court redrew Minnesota’s eight Congressional Districts in such a way that Michele Bachmann no longer resides in her once-safe 6th district, but is now a resident of liberal Betty McCollum’s 4th district! The 6th District has been redrawn to include a few more traditionally Democratic precincts. It was a rare treat and welcome news for progressives everywhere. Though no longer a resident of that district, Bachmann still plans to run for re-election in the new, more competitive 6th, which means that 6th District voters (as well as the entire nation) may  soon find they won’t have the overly ideological, bitterly partisan arch-conservative Michele Bachmann to kick them around anymore! Since it is not a requirement that congressional candidates be residents of the district they represent, Bachmann’s decision is perfectly legal, albeit unusual and typically controversial. Though not a certainty, in a presidential election year when Democratic voter turnout tends to be highest, Bachmann looks like she will be facing an uphill struggle to hang onto that new 6th district seat, and will be a Carpetbagger if she succeeds. Thanks in part to her being the darling of the Tea Party set and to the infamous Citizens Unired decision, her campaign coffers are overflowing with cash, a sizeable amount of it from well outside of the District. In her typically insane and over-the-top style, Bachmann mouthed off in a recent fundraising email by accusing the courts of “cherrypicking the districts.” Funny – she seems to be the only one who thinks that way. Even Republican strategist Ben Golnik commented, “It’s fair to say it’s a pretty minimal change.”

The redistricting panel came into being only because state Republicans and Democrats could not reach agreement on new districts. Imagine that! Redistricting is done by law every 10 years to reflect population changes in the previous census.  The panel made mainly small changes to the congressional districts and rejected the drastic east-west lines the state’s Republicans had submitted. Though subtle, these changes may yet prove devastating for the state’s GOP congressional caucus. For example, 2nd District Republican John Kline has picked up several Democratic precincts, and 8th District Tea Party Republican Chip Cravaack, who upset longtime veteran Democrat James Oberstar in 2010′s aberrant Republican/Tea Party  mudslide, also finds himself in a struggle in that usually heavily-Democratic District in the northeastern portion of the state. 

My own 3rd District congressman, Keith Ellison, will now preside over one of the safest and strongest Democratic districts in the country, and I am glad, because he has been a superb voice for the people! He has proven himself time and again to be an offsetting voice of reason against the raving and fanatical Bachmann, and has been a reliably steady voice for the working people as well as the marginalized members of our entire nation.

So, it may be a bit premature, but I would like to be among the very first to say good riddance to that crazy, extremist, attention-craving and hyperbolic Michele Bachmann! May she NEVER return to elective office! 

By Jack Jodell, Feb. 21, 2012

Wednesday, Feb. 22, marks ASH WEDNESDAY, the official start of the season of LENT in the Christian church. Lent is supposed to be a season of introspection, sacrifice, and self-denial; a time to examine our consciences, and to emulate the spirit of selflessness shown us by Jesus Christ. We are supposed to humbly ask God the Father forgiveness of our many sins, and to recognize and pay homage to the great sacrifice made by His son. Surely this occasional self-examination can be a good thing. I hope everyone will take the time to acknowledge their own personal misgivings over the next six weeks, and will try to make amends for them. Donating time and/or money to charities and foodshelves would be a good way. So would taking the time to somehow help the downtrodden or homeless ourselves in a personal way. NOW, and Christmastime as well, are the perfect times to make a real and positive difference in the lives of those marginalized in our society. I sincerely hope you will consider doing something like this, regardless of your religious persuasion (or lack thereof). For positive actions are contagious, and can only lead to more good being done more frequently in this often cruel and overly-materialistic, self-centered world. I also hope that numerous public figures will likewise examine their own consciences and take appropriate measures to aid others. Among these figures and actions I’d like to see are:

JOHN BOEHNER – actually doing something to  CREATE jobs, not just talking about doing so! He might even find he’s happier with himself, and much less prone to start crying at the podium, once he finally buckles down to DO something on behalf of someone really in need of help, rather than being immersed in his own selfish political desires and ambitions.

MITCH McCONNELL –  actually working on what is best for the nation as a whole, rather than only that which is profitable for the 1% , constantly obstructing legislation beneficial to THE MAJORITY 99%,  or placing as his number one priority actions which will lead to the defeat of the President. Clearly, this stubborn and ignorant old fool has been on the wrong tack for many years, and it’s time for a big change! He can start by actually earning his paycheck and truly serving the American public!

SARAH PALIN - stopping piggishly enriching herself at every opportunity, and stopping being so vain and coy as to try and position herself to be the candidate of choice for the presidency should the wretchedly reactionary Republican Party still remain  deadlocked by the time of this summer’s nominating convention.  There is absolutely no way this deluded buffoon will be EVER be qualified, let alone nominated for, the office of President!

MITT ROMNEY – stopping talking multiple-choice on all issues and quitting lying about having been a job creator. Everyone in the world knows the only jobs he’s ever directly created have been ones he’s exported to China, or low-wage retail ones here! Just like everyone also knows his administration would be dedicated to policies  benefitting only the wealthy, and that, for him, no one else really matters at all.

RICK SANTORUM – to stop portraying himself as  a member of the working class who really understands and promotes workers’ needs and values. He left the working class long ago, and has instead devoted his entire political career to working against those interests, save for the occasional earmark he targeted for his state! This radical reactionary, who is “glad there is income inequaluty here and hopes there always will be” has long committed to the advancement of his corporate masters, has lobbied for them, and has earned an income far in excess of “working class wages”  for more than 2 decades! Not only that, but he is attempting to force his Puritan social code on the entire country!

GLENN BECK – checking himself into the nearest mental institution immediately! For far too long, this insecure man has woven one insane conspiracy theory after another into his broadcasts on radio and TV, and NONE of them have held ANY basis in fact whatsoever!

PAT ROBERTSON – that this cynical, deluded pseudo-Christian old goat will finally retire and stop bilking his innocent followers of their money with hatred, phony predictions, and manufactured fears of natural events being framed as examples of God’s supposed wrath over the “transgressions” of liberals!

RUSH LIMBAUGH – stopping his constant fabrication, fact-twisting, and outright foolishness. This lying king of right-wing talk radio should take a long look in the mirror each morning and then beg forgiveness from each and every person he has lied about…and to. If he’s very lucky, maybe ONE person will end up doing so.

RUPERT MURDOCH – resigning from Newscorp and drawing to a close his long career of deceit, bribery, slander, character assassination, and egomania. It is well past time for this lying old coot to make honest amends to the huge numbers of those whom he has deliberately wronged or destroyed in his professional career.

 HEAVENLY FATHER, PLEASE FORGIVE ME OF THE WRONGS I HAVE DONE, AND EACH OF THOSE PICTURED HERE FOR THE GRAVE OFFENSES THEY HAVE DELIBERATELY COMMITTED AGAINST OTHERS, AND FOR THEIR GREVOUS ACTS OF OMISSION. 

It is beyond my capacity to do so myself.

I have ten big questions for conservative Republicans in Congress, the statehouses,  their presidential hopefuls, and their apologists in the mainstream media. I seriously doubt that any of them will be able to provide a truthful answer to these,and I will be amazed if they ever do so, but I will still ask these questions now anyway.

First, WHERE ARE ALL THE JOBS YOU SAID YOU WOULD CREATE? After all, it was YOUR insistence on Wall Street deregulation that got us into the economic mess which caused millions of jobs to be lost in the first place. You promised that if the Republicans regained control of the House in 2010, your first priority would be “jobs, jobs, jobs.” You promised that if the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy were first adopted and then renewed that millions of good-paying new jobs would result. You have opposed President Obama’s every attempt to create new jobs, yet in spite of all that, he has shown a steady 22 momth increase in private sector jobs. HE has succeeded in getting these jobs created, while YOU have done absolutely NOTHING. You have produced not even ONE jobs bill in the past 13 months, and you haven’t even tried. Instead, you have attempted to pass numerous wedge-issue bills, NONE of which have created jobs, and you have focused on further tax breaks for billionaires who don’t need them while trying to get hurting elderly, working, and unemployed Americans to live with less in their wholly necessary entitlement programs. So again, I ask: WHERE THE HELL ARE ALL THE JOBS YOU PROMISED?

Second, WHY DO YOU INSULT VOTERS WITH BALD-FACED LIES ABOUT HOW YOU’VE BEEN A “JOBS CREATOR” WHEN YOUR PAST RECORD PROVES OTHERWISE? The whole world knows how you were all supportive of exporting good-paying American jobs and plants out of the country, and a number of you were actively engaged in doing so! Since when does this qualify you for the title of an American “jobs creator”?

Third, WHY DO YOU CONTINUALLY TRY TO DEMONIZE SEGMENTS OF OUR SOCIETY, SUCH AS GAYS, AND TRY TO INSTILL FEAR IN THE REST OF THE POPULATION ABOUT THEM? If you were in fact genuinely interested in promoting harmony and were sincere in your aim of getting government off of people’s backs, why do you continually use wedge-issues as you do to achieve only discord and state-sponsored denial of people’s basic rights?

Fourth, IF YOU ARE GENUINELY CONCERNED ABOUT THE NATIONAL DEBT, WHY DO YOU NOT SUPPORT A TAX INCREASE FOR THE WEALTHIEST MEMBERS OF OUR SOCIETY? At a time when 2/3 of the country, a landslide-sized majority, approve such an action, why is it that you have refused to even consider ANY tax increases at all? Also, why do you insist that balancing the budget be done overwhelmingly on the backs of the poor and elderly through cuts to Medicare and Medicaid instead? After all, the wealthy have enjoyed massive tax savings for the past 11 years and have failed to reinvest in this country. Why should they not be the first ones called upon to sacrifice, rather than being allowed to skate by freely?

Fifth, WHY DO YOU GIVE MASSIVE TAX BREAKS TO CORPORATIONS WHO DON’T USE THEM TO REINVEST IN THIS COUNTRY BUT CHOP VITAL AID TO SOCIAL SERVICES AND EDUCATION INSTEAD? You know the majority of these tax savings won’t go toward job creation, and that the only way for this country to compete, prosper, and lead globally in the future is for it to have a thoroughly educated, well-trained work force. Why then do you repeatedly reward huge, profitable corporations at the expense of schools and needed services?

Sixth, WHEN WILL YOU JOIN THE 99% AND GET MONEY THE HELL OUT OF POLITICS? Why do you constantly court big money and try to stamp out labor unions, the only real resource for economic leverage working people have? Why do you repeatedly attend secretive, sneaky, under-the-table meetings sponsored by multi-millionaires like the Koch brothers, whose motives are suspect at best, and who hate government to begin with? When will you agree to campaigns based on honest presentations and discussions of ISSUES, as opposed to relying on crooked SuperPACS to produce lying, negative ads for you about your opponent?

Seventh, WHEN WILL YOU STOP TRYING TO DISENFRANCHISE VOTERS YOU THINK MAY VOTE AGAINST YOU? You know full well that incidences of voter fraud are so small as to be statistically insignificant, yet you press for strict voter ID laws, which would adversely affect the ability of the poor, the elderly, minorities, and students to vote due to their inability to purchase often expensive state-issued ID cards. Not so coincidentally, the large majority of these voters would normally be DEMOCRATIC voters. Would you rather have honest elections, or is attaining power your only real concern here? Regrettably, the answer is blatantly obvious…

Eighth, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DROP THIS NONSENSE ABOUT “CLASS WARFARE”? Lawrence O’Donnell is exactly right when he says that, when you have no defense for establishing a tax code overwhelmingly favoring the rich, you have to come up with a LIE, class warfare, to use against those who oppose it. As if outsourcing good-paying American jobs to much cheaper slave labor markets, destroying labor unions, and cutting or holding down wages and benefits at the same time labor has vastly increased its productivity are NOT blatant examples of aggressive class warfare on YOUR part? Give us a big break, you LIARS, and stop trying to scare the electorate with untruths about class warfare every time working people stick up for their own economic interests by calling for FAIRNESS and a true VOICE in the marketplace!

Ninth, WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO STOP FEEDING US FAIRY TALES ABOUT THE WONDERS OF OUR SUPPOSED-”FREE ENTERPRISE” SYSTEM? We all know this very defective economic system we live in is only “free” for those who set the wages and prices, and that everyday workers and farmers are at the mercy of those who control the purse strings. Any leverage working people once had has disappeared with the destruction of labor unions and the rollback of moderating government regulations. The very fact that millions of citizens have literally taken to the streets to protest ever-growing income disparity proves what a glaring FAILURE this corrupted “free enterprise” system has become, as do the millions of foreclosures and the millions of unemployed as well! “Free trade” has become a synonym for lowered wages and exploitation of the very many by the very, very few. Why, then, do you continue to extol its supposed virtues as you do?

Tenth, and last, WHEN THE HELL WILL YOU RIGHT-WING MEDIA PLAYERS STOP CARRYING WATER FOR THE EXPLOITATION-HAPPY 1%? How long before YOU, RUSH LIMBAUGH, and YOU, SEAN HANNITY, and YOU, MICHAEL SAVAGE, and YOU, LOU DOBBS, and YOU, BILL O’REILLY, and YOU, MICHELLE MALKIN, and YOU, GRETCHEN CARLSON, and YOU, GLENN BECK, continue spewing forth lies and distortions and hatred just to serve your corporate masters? Have you no decency or conscience AT ALL?

This is just a short little rant about a GIANT pet peeve of mine: the continual, seemingly deliberate MISPRONUNCIATION of words or terms within the English language BY PEOPLE WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER! Every day, seemingly intelligent people misspeak words as if they were ignorant, backwoods, unschooled MORONS, and there is simply no excuse for it! Mind you, I am usually quite patient and am NOT normally a petty person, but when it comes to the way some of these words are mispronounced, I lose my patience entirely! So I have come up with a list of the words whose mispronunciation in the media and elsewhere drives me absolutely NUTS, together with the proper PHONETIC pronunciation of each word. Should you not be able to understand the phonetic spelling and still continue to mispronounce these words, then it’s back to the backwoods with you, and to hell with you as well! Here goes:

1). NUCLEAR -  unless you’re deliberately trying to imitate or  mock George W. Bush, this word is pronounced “new-KLEE-er”, and most definitely NOT “new-cue-ler.” Likewise, the word NUCLEUS is pronounced “new-KLEE-us”, and NOT “new-cue-lus”!!! Get with the program on this one, will you, people? Mispronouncing this as Bush does is neither funny NOR is it cute!
2). MASONRY – the word is pronounced “MA-son-ree”, NOT “may-son-ary.” There is simply no “a” put in that word before the “r”, so don’t even think of putting one there!
3). REALTY  – is pronounced “REAL-tee, NOT “ree-lit-tee”, just as REALTOR is pronounced “REAL-ter”, NOT “ree-lit-ter.” Don’t you DARE try to slip in an “i” between the l and the t in those words! GRRR!!!
4). LOSE - is the proper spelling of losing something, NOT “loose”, unless you have a few screws loose in that head of yours! It’s “I plan to not LOSE the election”, NOT “I plan to not loose the election”!
5). USED - is the proper way to refer to something you have done previously, NOT “use.” For example, the correct way is to say or write “I USED to have a pet dog, but it died a long time ago,” The INCORRECT way is to say or write “I use to have a pet dog, but it died a long time ago.” No excuse for this one, my friends!
6). DEMOCRATIC is the name of the PARTY or its proposals, NOT “Democrat”! There is no such thing as the “Democrat Party”, unless you’re an ignorant and hateful conservative Republican or Tea-Party extremist who speaks as if he or she doesn’t know better, which they DO.
7). IRAQ – this one REALLY bugs me! Proper pronunciation is “Ir-ROCK” or “ee-ROCK”, preferably with the “r” slightly rolled, NOT “Eye-RACK”!!!!! Think about it, morons: you don’t say you are going to visit Rome, EYE-taly, do you? Or that someday you’ll do an April in Paris, FRAYNCE, do you? Of cpurse not! Then let’s stop referring to this ancient middle-eastern country in such a stupid and provincial way, shall we? GET IT RIGHT, GODDAMMIT!
8).  IRAN – likewise, this country is NOT called “Eye-RAN” but should be referred to as “Ir-RAWN” (which rhymes with “dawn”) or “ee-RAWN”, again with the “r” slightly rolled. GODDAMMIT AGAIN, GET IT RIGHT!!! You wouldn’t appreciate it if anyone referred to our country as the “Anitted Stats”, would you?
9). ITALIAN – Pizza and spaghetti are NOT “Eye-tallian” dishes. Rather, the “i” is SHORT, as it is in the word “it”. SO PRONOUNCE IT THAT WAY!!!

There is absolutely no reason for the everyday American to be going around talking like an uneducated fool. It insults the people of these other countrues as well,  So let’s get on the ball and STOP talking like dumb asses! THANK YOU!

Self-appointed moralist Rick “Man-On-Dog” Santorum, the extremely socially-conservative “alternative” to Mitt Romney for this summer’s Republican presidential nomination, shocked the nation by beating Romney in three states Romney had actually won in 2008. He actually even pushed Romney to third place in the Minnesota GOP caucus vote, and soundly defeated him in Missouri as well as edging him more narrowly in Colorado. He achieved these victories with a shoestring budget, simply by making numerous public appearances in each state (as opposed to sinking millions into expensive TV ads as both Romney and NUT Gingrich had done previously).

Santorum’s victories underscore not only how tepid Republican support is for Romney, but also how extremely far-right the GOP has become. For Santorum is what once would have been referred to as an eccentric crackpot extremist, with social views well divorced from the mainstream of American politics. Proof of this lies in the 18-point thumping the then-incumbent Santorum got in his unsuccessful bid for a third-term in his last Pennsylvania senate race. Just as a reminder, he has advanced a lot of strange ideas and quotes over the years. He has declared his belief that nowhere in the Constitution is the right to personal privacy granted. He has labeled contraception “a danger” to the country. In South Carolina last year, he proclaimed,  ”The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical. And that is what the perception is by the American Left who hates Christendom. … What I’m talking about is onward American soldiers. What we’re talking about are core American values.” This would be laughable if he weren’t dead serious about it. As any lamebrain with even the slightest knowledge of history knows, the Crusades were acts of aggression undertaken for profit and plunder by corrupt popes in the pre-reformation Christian church. They helped create a rift between Christians and Islam which exists to this very day.

But it is on the subject of homosexuals and gay rights that Santorum has displayed his  bigotedness and severe homophobia. Again, he has demonstrated his extreme views in several quotes. Rather than taking a live-and-let-live approach to homosexuality, as most of the electorate has now done, he has taken a strong stance against gay marriage and gay rights in general. “Is anyone saying same-sex couples can’t love each other? I love my children. I love my friends, my brother. Heck, I even love my mother-in-law. Should we call these relationships marriage, too?” he has said. His ignorance in this area is apalling. This has gone on for years. In a 2003 AP interview, Santorum said, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does. … That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing.” This statement is every bit as far-fetched as anything the crazy Michele Bachmann has ever said. Both she AND Santorum, narrow-minded fools they are, seem to be obsessed with the idea of gay sex. This holier-than-thou attitude only sits well with an ever-shrinking number of American voters. She, of course, has already departed from the race. When will Santorum follow suit? 

Unfortunately, that may be quite a while. For, in spite of his gargantuan SuperPAC and vast personal wealth, Mitt Romney has failed to garner enough conservative support to seal the deal with the far-right reactionary base of his party. Until he does, this race will go on and on and on, and kooks like NUT Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Santorum will continue to divide that wretched party and may well hand the election back  to the President in the process. We could do worse, since none of these GOP knuckleheads is worthy of the office anyway, but it will be nauseating to see Gingrich and Santorum both trying to play the populist card in reaching out phonily to midwestern American workers. For all of these wedge-driving fools are members of, and will only really cater to, the uppermost 1% of the income scale!

This is a joint post by both authors which also appears at both of the above websites plus the ROUNDTREE 7 blog.

We are continually buffeted ny a corporately-owned mainstream media which either tells us outright lies, fills us to the brim with worthless, gossip-filled celebrity NON-news, completely omits important bits of REAL news, or marginalizes it and puts its own pop-culture, corporate spin on it. Like a modern-day DIOGENES, we have justifiably become cynics in serach of an honest person (or, in this specific case, an honest MEDIA source). For if all we shine our lanterns on is a steady diet of CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, or FOX “News”, we are bound to be disappointed and deprived. After all, they are thoroughly controlled and influenced by the 1%, and, in varying degrees, actually try to keep us UNinformed or MISinformed. Thankfully, we have a number of sources we can usually rely upon for accurate reporting.Some are television sources; some are magazines; some are blogs; some are online news sources. ALL are worth a look or visit. They will help dispel any confusion or delusion you may have about what’s really happening around us. Wnenever possible, we have hyperlinked these sources for you below, so you will always be able to view them easily with only one click. WE ASK THAT YOU BOOKMARK THIS POST so you can always refer to it. We also ask that you copy and paste this post and send it to whomever you think will need or appreciate it. For TRUTH and KNOWLEDGE is power, and the only way we in the majority 99% can ever hope for victory in the battle against the lies of the 1% is to confront them with it as often as we can. This, of course, is by no means a complete list of factual sources. However, it is a good start. We encourage you to supply us with other reliable sources we may have overlooked in our comments section below. Please include hyperlinks if you can.

Thank you, readers, for sharing our dogged determination to persue truth in media. Below are the sites we recommend:

DEMOCRACY NOW! with Amy Goodman (http://www.democracynow.org/). This may also be seen on LINK TV, channel 375 on DIRECTV or channel 9410 on Dish Network, as well as at http://www.livestream.com/democracynow.

COUNTDOWN with Keith Olbermann. Available on CURRENT TV, channel 358 on DIRECTV, channel 196 on Dish Network, channel 107 on Comcast, channel 102 on Verizon Fios, channel 103 in NY and 143 in LA on Time Warner Cable, or try http://current.com/shows/countdown/.

THE NATION (http://www.thenation.com/) is a superb magazine featuring some of the best progressive writers around. Contributors include Kristina Vandenheuvel,  Chris Hayes, and Naomi Klein, among many others. This link leads you to their online version.

THOM HARTMANN (http://thomhartmann.com/) is your online source for a man who often features news other sources often don’t have.

CROOKS AND LIARS (http://crooksandliars.com/) is an outstanding digest of stories often ignored or underreported by the mainstream media.

POLITICS PLUS (http://www.politicsplus.org/blog/) is another not-to-be-overlooked source for a wide range of political information.

MOTHER JONES (http://motherjones.com/) is a great source for a wide variety of topical issues.

THE DAILY KOS (http://www.dailykos.com/) reports on a number of items rarely covered by network TV news.

ALTER NET (http://www.alternet.org/) is a tremendous source of thought-provoking info gathered from a huge variety of sources and knowledgeable authors. This resource is definitely worth frequent visits!

BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/) gives you a wealth of worldwide news from outside our country, and even provides us with an insight as to how events in the U.S. are perceived by the rest of the wotld. AL JAZEERA (http://www.aljazeera.com/) does much the same as BBC News, but gives us a unique Middle East perspective. English language versions can also be heard daily on LINK TV. GOOGLE (https://www.google.com/) is a much used, highly valuable search engine that can lead you to vast stores of knowledge found anywhere on the internet. Just go there, key in a term or phrase, and you will instantly receive literally thousands of choices to choose from for virtually anything you wish to find out.

CBC NEWS (http://www.cbc.ca/news/) is THE site to go for comprehensive world and local news from our great neighbor to the north. You will find their coverage of events within the U.S., to be quite interesting and revealing.

THE GUARDIAN (http://www.guardiannews.com/) will give you world news and insights from the UK’s greatest progressive newspaper about stories rarely found in our own TV or newspapers.

OPEN SECRETS (http://www.opensecrets.org/) is a goodie which reveals exactly who, and how much they have contributed to, the officeholder or challenger of your choice.

RUSSIA TODAY (http://rt.com)   offers unique news coverage, essentially an open and HONEST international coverage that is quickly becoming THE resource for several co-ordinate news services such as Young Turks, Countdown and Democracy Now. Apaer from regular news updates, yjis source offers valuable insights into Russian history, culture, and opinions.

THE REAL NEWS NETWORK (http://therealnews.com/) provides us with great international coveragevia independent objective video  reporting of current events coupled with progressive / Left commentary.

RAW STORY (http://rawstory.com/) gives aggregate online news with sensational / objective coverage.  They cover breaking news with an honest, progressive bent.

WIKILEAKS (http://wikileaks.org/)  is an international online self-described not-for-profit organisation that publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and whistleblowers.   Vital resource in deep research or the breaking news they can be singularly responsible for.   They represent a ground breaking free press for the new age.

TRUTH OUT (http://truth-out.org/) has ontemporary writers forming the Progressive push in the United States… Chris Hedges, Robert Riech, leading the way.  Truthout provides an independent platform for  in-depth investigative reporting and critical analysis, to reveal systemic injustice and offer transformative ideas to strengthen democracy. _

ROLLING STONE -POLITICS (http://rollingstone.com/politics) offers  edgy, accurate, politically corrective opinions via the Gonzo tradition!   Matt Taibbi, Tim Dickerson, David Browne….honest, competent coverage of what is really going on.

BUZZFLASH! (http://buzzflash.com/) BuzzFlash’s model of progressive journalism is truly unique.  They don’t just write about progressive change; they provide — through the BuzzFlash Progressive Market Place — a vehicle to create change.  (I’ll discuss our support of direct activism in a future blog, that is the kind of public demonstrations the Green Movement in Iran is engaging in). There is simply no other journalistic model we know of that helps create a new economy to advance progressive ideals and uses a small portion of those sales to finance progressive journalism!

GRIST (http://grist.org/) Grist has been dishing out environmental news and commentary with a wry twist since 1999 — which, to be frank, was way before most people cared about such things. Now that green is in every headline and on every store shelf (bamboo hair gel, anyone?), Grist is the one site you can count on to help you make sense of it all.

OCCUPY WALL STREET (http://occupywallst.org/) Worldwide revolution!  Daily Action reports from all over the US and the globe.  Calender of Action events and coordinate Actions with sister / brother Occupy’s global.

OCCUPY TOGETHER (http://occupytogether.org)  American and international coverage of Actions / Events supporting the Occupy Movement.
MEDIA MATTERS (http://mediamatters.com)  News correct!  Watchdog news group reporting the lies and duplicity of the MSM.

“Always remember the first rule of power tactics; power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.”

“Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have.”

“Last guys don’t finish nice.”
- Saul Alinsky -

Mouthy, grandstanding Republican presidential wannabe NUT GINGRICH, ever the master of hyperbolic distortion, has been running around lately claiming that President Obama has been following “the radicalism of Saul Alinsky.” Like most of the self-described “historian”‘s recent statements, this, too, is a load of poppycock. For this late great political organizer was no wild-eyed radical or far-left socialist. Instead, he was the father of modern community organizing, and devoted nearly four decades to improving the living standards of the poor across North America, and trying to empower them via the ballot box.

Saul David Alinsky was born in 1909 to Russian strict-orthodox Jewish immigrants. He grew up with them in Chicago, and observed years later that “their whole life revolved around work and synagogue…I remember as a kid being told how important it was to study.” He studied hard and worked his way through the University of Chicago, where he majored in archaeology. With the Depression at hand and archaeology majors definitely not in great demand, he dropped out of graduate school after two years and became a criminologist for the state of Illinois. In his spare time, he also began to organize for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.). By 1939, he found himself becoming more active in organizing the community around and in the slums of the city than he did for labor. He began a determined effort to “turn scattered, voiceless discontent into a united protest.” His efforts soon gathered the attention and respect of Democratic then-governor Adlai Stevenson, who praised Alinsky by saying his aims “most faithfully reflect our ideals of brotherhood, tolerance, charity, and dignity of the individual.” As a result of this recognition, Alinsky spent the next 10 years repeating his organization work all across the country, giving the poor unprecedented access to government and input along the way.

He was once asked by the San Francisco Bay Area  Presbyterian Churches to help organize the black ghetto in nearby Oakland. Then as now, the citiy’s leaders took a reactionary approach to their problems by hurriedly passing a resolution banning him from their city.  He often employed highly original techniques to get his message across. One time, in Rochester, NY, he threatened  to stage a “fart-in”, whereby community leaders would ingest large quantities of baked beans and then descend on a concert hall being played by the Rochester Philharmonic, whereupon they would loudly and forcefully expel their noxious vapors in such a manner as to compete with the woodwinds for attention. He also threatened Chicago with a “piss- in”, whereby nicely-dressed blacks would occupy all of O’Hare airport’s urinals and toilets until the city would come to the bargaining table. The threat alone got the city to comply.

Alinsky published two books, “Reveille for Radicals” in 1946, and “Rules for Radicals” in 1971. In the latter, he wrote, “What follows is for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.” He also advised, “the job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will attack him as a ‘dangerous ebemy.’…the hysterical instant reaction of the establishment [will] not only validate [the organizer's] credentials of competency but will also ensure automatic popular invitation.” He was once asked whether ge had ever considered becoming a Communist Party member. “Not at any time,” he replied. “…I prize my own independence too much. And philosophically, I could never accept any rigid dogma or ideology, whether it’s Christianity or Marxism.” So much for Gingrich’s hyperbolic accusations of “Marxist radicalism”!

Saul Alinsky was planning a massive action on behalf of the white middle class in 1972. This great visionary correctly saw that those whom Richard Nixon had termed “the silent majority” were being sadly misled, and that someday they would need to rise up or fall prey to the false promises of reaction, such as we have been seeing with the recent aberration known as the Tea Party. Regrettably, before Alinsky could initiate such an action, he died of a massive heart attack on a street corner in Carmel, CA.

Rather than being reviled, as NUT Gingrich would have us do, Saul Alinsky should be revered for his lifelong efforts in trying to level the political playing field for the poor and marginalized members of our society. He was out pushing for the majority 99% long before it was fashionable to do so, and provided inspiration to such notable progressive leaders as Cesar Chavez, Ralph Nader, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.  HE WAS A TRUE AMERICAN HERO!

Those who justifiably bemoan the fact that Washington is broken and is rife with corruption know very well the root cause for all of this lies in the overabundance of professional lobbyists.  These “specialists” influence- peddle on behalf of special interests all throughout our nation’s Capitol.. Many are former members of Congress, who, a scant two years after leaving the House or Senate, are hired at substantial salaries to persuade their old remaining colleagues to vote a particular way on specific bills. Other times, a lobbying firm itself will even draft an entire bill to submit to a specific Congressperson for sponsoring, a vote, and eventual passage into law! Unfortunately, many times this particular bill will have little contained in it for the public good, and will instead benefit primarily its prime corporate originators at public expense!

Today, lobbying firms have grown malignant and have mestastisized alarmingly in recent times. They, more than anything, have been the primary “tumors” which have been directly responsible for obstruction  and the complete absence of good, beneficial legislation for the vast majority of the country who are without corporate or special interest affiliation.  Today, there are an unbelievable 12,200 + legally paid registered lobbyists in Washington, according to Open Secrets.org. This is down a bit from the record of  14,856 set in 2007, but it is still much higher than it used to be (10,406 in 1998). This being an election year, the number will undoubtedly swell again. These lobbyists spent an ungodly record of $3.51 BILLION in 2010, and that amount, too, may well be eclipsed this year. Some of this money legitimately goes to paying the salaries of those hired to plead a particular group’s case, but far too much goes into legal fees and actual bribes for congresspersons, carefully slipped to them secretly under the table. Is it any wonder that special interests have no trouble getting THEIR bills passed while YOU are left dangling in the wind?

There is nothing wrong with lobbying per se. The right to redress our government is guaranteed in the First Amendment of the Constitution. Lobbying Congress or even federal agencies to inform them of citizen or business wants and needs can be a vital and good thing. But the issuance of outright bribes to specific congresspersons or threats to reward their opponent in the next election with large campaign contributions goes FAR beyond what is desirable, permissible, or even proper!

Founding Father James Madison warned us about the emergence of what he called “factions.” He defined these as “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” Surely Madison was right in warning us of the dangers of this tyranny, expressed as it has been through corporate lobbying which has led over time to air and water pollution, as well as disastrous Wall Street market speculation! And surely Madison is spinning in his grave to see how blatantly self-serving modern corporate lobbying has become!

In 2010, there was an effort to try to close down K Street banks in Washington, D.C., an area composed overwhelmingly of major lobbying firms and their clients. This effort, a forerunner to last fall’s massive #OCCUPY WALL STREET protests, caused a Bank of America office to close temporarily. As we have . occupied not only Wall Street, but foreclosed homes, public squares, universities, Congress, courts, and even Federal Reserve banks as well, In December, an attempt was made to occupy that notorious street, but unfortunately the police had ample time to keep protesters well away from their targets. I say that NOW IS THE TIME TO RE#OCCUPY K STREET ONCE MORE, EN MASSE. For we have occupied the recipients of tainted corporate money; now is the time to again occupy the very offices and streets of those distributing these sordid funds! The time has come for us to let them know WE know and object to their repeated blatant attempts to BUY preferential government consideration at taxpayer expense! Let these smug, overly-paid messengers of the 1% see our eyes and hear our voices up close. Disrupt their daily flow and let them know in no uncertain terms how devastating the effects of their slavishly carrying out the wishes of their corporate CEOs are to the 99% below them! If even one or two of them come to the realization of how perverse their role in life has been, to have acted as deliverypersons for a group of greedy exploiters, we will have gained an important victory. If we are as persistent in occupying K Street as we have been with Wall Street, these lobbyists may soon feel like pariahs and some may even stop carrying corporate CEO water.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step. This spring, when the weather improves, let us take that step and see literally many THOUSANDS descend on the nation’s Capitol to RE#OCCUPY K STREET!

Mitt Romney just can’t seem to excite many of his wretched party’s members. In every single one of his caucus or primary challenges, he has never gone beyond 50% of the total GOP vote. That means, no matter who has run against him, the combined total of his opponents has always eclipsed his. The once-presumed Republican front-runner for the 2012 presidential nomination has screwed-up badly in recent days. Last night, this fabulously wealthy member of the 1% was resoundingly defeated in South Carolina by his mouthy, upstart, egomaniac rival, NUT Gingrich. Romney this time came in a distant second, 41%-27%.With his money, organization, and huge SuperPAC there to aid him, he should have done far better. 

The fact that Romney is ultra-rich, a major and highly vocal proponent of capitalism, and has had a long time, stable family and religious life, yet STILL can’t excite the Republican base seemingly defies logic. For he has done everything a Republican could ask for: amassed a huge fortune, paid as little as possible in income taxes, and even placed millions in offshore tax havens. He has exported thousands of American jobs, supported right-to-work legislation, and publicly sparred with members of THE 99% who have verbally challenged him on his support for corporations. One would think Republicans everywhere would enthusiastically support and encourage his presidential bid. But alas, that has not been the case.

But Romney has not only transparently flip-flopped his way through nearly all of his political career; he has demonstrated little knowledge of or insight into the very wants and needs of the overwhelming 99% of those who reside beneath him on the income scale. Having displayed very little firm conviction pn most issues, is it any wonder, then, that he has been defined by his opponents as having “no soul”? He insanely accuses those of THE MAJORITY 99%, whose income has largely been stagnant for more than 30 years, of trying to “divide America”, even as he and other members of  the 1% have seen their incomes skyrocket upward by 275% during that same time frame! Not only that, but he has failed to understand the very real rage, ALBEIT TOTALLY MISGUIDED AND MISDIRECTED, felt by members of his own political party, as they have been repeatedly outmaneuvered by a black President they absolutely and irrationally HATE in Barack Obama.

For this is not the more rational Republican Party Romney’s father George had actively also sought the presidential nomination from in 1968. That party, though never fond of labor unions or government regulation, understood and accepted their importance and absolute necessity, and followed the very prudent course of tolerance with them. No, today’s Republican Party has taken a very reactionary rightward turn back to the Gilded Age of the 1890s, with its domination by the unchecked power of banks and the major industries of the day, when big business ruled and labor had little or no voice at all. There were no social safety nets, and millions of people suffered needlessly. Then as now, there was great disparity in income, and then as now, the Republicans simply didn’t care, so they did absolutely nothing about it. Romney, though not as rash as Gingrich, fits in more with today’s far-right irrational GOP than he would with his father’s more sane version of 44 years ago. After all, George Romney had a soul AND integrity as well. He released a full 12 years of his previous tax returns in 1967, well ahead of the following year’s primary season. He did so because he was an honest man who had nothing to hide. He said that releasing only one year of returns could be viewed as “a fluke”, and he wanted voters to see exactly where he was coming from.  Today, already IN primary season, his son Mitt has yet to release even ONE year of HIS returns, which will undoubtedly reveal the extent to which he has used ethically-questionable offshore tax havens to shelter his money from Uncle Sam. Today’s voters smell a rat, and justifiably so. After all, NOBODY likes a cheating rich man!

So Mitt Romney, once the proud front-runner for the Republican nomination, now finds himself to be a poor little rich boy in among a pack of extremist far-right crazies who are racist and favor the replacement of grown union workers with cheaper child labor. His SuperPAC may yet rescue the nomination for him, but the rest of us, the majority 99%, won’t care in the least because he will never get our vote. For Mitt Romney has sold himself consciously to the highest bidder, and has all but abandoned theintegrity and  moral principles his father displayed in abundance 45 years ago. Now, it’s on to Florida, the next stop in this umprecedented up and down merry-go-round of crazy Republican presidential contenders.

By winning his third test in three attempts  among the shrinking number of Republicans seeking the presudency, it appears that Mitt Romney will be unstoppable in securing the GOP nomination for President. A win in the South Carolina primary will all but seal it for him. Only a few days ago, 16 of the nation’s largest hedge fund managers held an elaborate fundraiser for Romney in Manhattan, which he attended. Naturally, this was to be expected, because he was among buddies there, the filthy rich members of the 1%. These ultra-wealthy candidates see in Romney a presidential candidate who will look after their interests, and to hell with everyone else who is in the 99% below them. 

For Mitt Romney talks a good game, but in the end, you know he has no time for the working men and women of this country. They are but pawns in his game, to be fired or laid off as he and the other members of the 1% see fit. In his 59 points, for example, he is dismissive of labor unions. He says, “Unfortunately, some union CEOs are less concerned about an industry’s competitiveness than they are with how many of their union’s jobs they can protect, how much they can increase wages, and how they can impose even more favorable work rules.” WHAT, Romney? WHAT?! Should they be more concerned with finding ways to outsource and export jobs, as YOU  have done, and to find ways to LOWER wages, as YOU have also done? And what is this nonsense about IMPOSING more favorable work rules? Isn’t it within a union’s right to press for safer and better working conditions? YOU BET IT IS, ROMNEY, AND YOU HAD BEST NOT FORGET IT!!!

Romney claims to be the candidate who “best understands how our free enterprise system works” and touts this as an advantage. I disagree entirely. All Romney understands is maximum profit for greedy corporations, and outright exploitation of workers, and those attributes are a huge DISADVANTAGE to the 99% who work for a living! His warped, Friedman-esque view of economics tells him that American workers must compete with the lowest-paid workers in the world to keep their jobs, otherwise those jobs can and should be exported to cheap, slave labor markets just so ownership can reap the highest profit attainable. He has never come to understand the responsibility businesses have to their labor force and the communities in which they reside, and completely misses the point that good pay is a WORKER’S “profit”, and that with enough of this profit, more goods will be bought, leading to more production and greater overall profit for ownership! With Romney, all one will get is an economic dictatorship where workers have little or no say about working conditions, and wage rates must be controlled, to be kept as low as possible. At this time of record-low membership in private company unions, stagnant or declining wages for workers (even though productivity is at record high levels), and corporate boards of directors’ salaries at an ever-rising, astoundingly high level, Romney is actively calling for more ”right-to-work” laws and what he views as a more even-handed approach to labor issues by the National Labor Relations Board. This, of course, means he would purge the NLRB of its union members and replace them with pro-corporate nonunionists. At this point in time, with unions under constant assault and with declining membership, that would be an absolute disaster for working Americans! Wisconsin’s notorious Scott Walker would enthusiastically support this one-sided effort. In his forced admission that he only pays “around 15%” in income taxes due to most of his income coming from capital gains on investments he has made over the years, and that he made “not that much” from speaking fees last year (the figure was actually $374,000), we are supposed to merely accept these figures without any further thought.  Of course, the thoroughly dishonest Romney doesn’t admit that he has invested many MILLIONS in offshore tax dodges, which means he pays actually LESS than his stated 15% on a good share of his investment income! And yet he is pressing for even further reductions in the capital gains tax. This swindler is unbelievable, and  these are only a few of the many good reasons why Romney should NEVER become President! 

Iran, being the hostile, unstable, anti-American nation it now is, poses great danger to us and our ally, Israel. Depending on its behavior concerning world oil supply, we may very well end up going to war with her. But if Mitt Romney enters the White House, war with Iran will be a certainty. For Mitt Romney has loaded up his foreign affairs advisory team with George W. Bush-era neocons, who have been itching for a military confrontation with Iran for many years. Romney himself has even intimated he would support a pre-emptive strike to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb. He has likewise been crowing about how he will again build up our military and has even leveled criticism at China. He has faulted the Obama administration’s reliance on cautious diplomacy and consensus-building and seems to favor a throwback to Bush’s disastrous go-it-alone unilateral recklessness. In short, if you enjoyed George W. Bush’s Iraq, you’ll love Mitt Romney’s Iran. And that is yet another in a long list of reasons Mitt Romney must NOT become President!

Romney has proven he is untrustworthy by flip-flopping constantly on major issues for many years. He has shown he is blatantly anti-worker and anti-labor union, and is in favor of expanding corporate influence and power for the richest 1% at the expense of the working 99% below them. He has also shown he is a reckless pro-military hawk at a time when most Americans have had their fill of constant, expensive military escapades in foreign lands. He seeks dangerous continued American military dominance rather than sensible multinational cooperation. This man is no moderate; he is as imperialistic and reckless as Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld ever dreamed of being! He won’t govern as a conservative, but rather as an activist reactionary. His SuperPAC is poised to drown us in lying TV and radio ads all spring, summer, and fall. So be ready for it, and make sure your remotes are freshly stocked with batteries – you’ll need them to mute the sound or switch channels any time you’ll see a Romney ad. I know I’ll have mine handy!

You’ll note that all throughout this series I have not made even one reference to Romney’s religion. The fact that he is a Mormon doesn’t concern me in the least. A person’s religion (or lack thereof) should NEVER have any bearing on their ability to hold high office!

 These other points, though, are precisely why hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to #OCCUPY everywhere! They are also all strong and valid reasons as to why MITT ROMNEY IS NOT OUR MAN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2012!