Hold Your Heads High

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

A lot of people are pissed off that we lost the vote on cloture, clearing the way for Judge Alito to sit on the Supreme Court, but I think those of us who look at the world through non-rose colored glasses understood what an uphill battle it was. In the movie Chicago, lawyer Billy Flynn explained that the case is usually won or lost before the trial even begins, and I think this was just one of those instances. I'm not happy we lost this fight, but I was happy to see the Democratic leadership respond to the growing influence of those of us on the net. We may have lost, but we went down fighting. That may not seem like much but it's as good as we could have hoped for under the circumstances.

Instead of hanging our heads, we should hold them high. We're standing up for what's right and we're giving the party of Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Kennedy a badly needed kick in the ass. No pun intended. Since we live in an age where everything seems to happen in an instant, we don't always recognize the fact that some things just take time. We get our hopes up over big battles where we face impossible odds and when we lose we think the end of the world is near. But even though a battle is lost the war is far from over. We're only the beginning of a vast movement, and even if we had won yesterday there would still be a lot left to do. So be proud of yourselves and keep on fighting. Our day is coming.

It's Hammer Time

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

Eight months ago the Iranians elected a radical, Islamic President. Last week the Palestinians put into power a political party who wants Israel destroyed. In both cases the Iranians and Palestinians were reacting to American foreign policy. Instead of being "wimps" and negotiating with people, we decided we had to show the world what a bunch of tough guys we were, and now everyone else has to elect their own tough guys to show they're not gonna get pushed around. So we push them and they push us and who knows where it'll all lead?

If the Iranians and Palestinians can feel free to spit in our faces a little, they can do so because by invading Iraq we've shown the world that we're not so tough after all. I know some people are saying, and I used to believe it myself, that if we had only done the right thing in Iraq: helped rebuild their country and really make a better life for Iraqis things would be different. But you know what, if we had that much class we would have never invaded Iraq in the first place. Frankly I never expected much of anything from the corrupt, incompetent jerks we have running the country now. The only tool they have is a hammer, so every problem looks like a nail. And now we're all getting screwed.

But give credit where credit's due: the Republicans, their corporatist allies and their cronies in the so-called "professional" media have managed to accomplish something extraordinary. In just five short years, they turned the greatest country in the world into a laughingstock. I'm sure they're all very proud.

Things To Be Positive About

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

Since so many people harp on me for being "negative" and only talking about how lousy things are, I thought I'd let people know about the good things that are happening. Because, believe it or not, good things are happening.

First, there's Al Gore, who continues to speak out on important issues in a way that's making him hard to ignore. Some are even calling on him to run for President again.

Second, as I speak, Senator John Kerry, along with Senator Ted Kennedy and Minority Leader Harry Reid, are leading a filibuster to try to prevent Judge Sam Alito from sitting on the Supreme Court. Whether they can hold the filibuster or not remains to be seen, but I think it's significant that they're willing to stand up and fight for this.

And then there's Gov. Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He was on the Today show this week where host Katie Couric tried to push the Republican lie that Jack Abramoff gave money to Democrats. Dean would have none of it, and stood his ground firmly.

Gore, Kerry, and Dean have taken a lot of criticism for their election loses, but the truth is that every Democrat running for national office faces a huge uphill battle: not only do they have to go up against a well-paid, well-oiled Republican propaganda machine, they also have to go up against the so-called "professional" media that's clearly against Democrats and liberals. Those are some pretty formidable obstacles. True, we still have a long way to go, but a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and I believe we're headed in the right direction.

Attack Of The Trolls

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

So this right-wing troll on a message board was trying to downplay Bush's illegal wiretapping by saying he found it funny that we're criticizing Bush for adhering to an idea that's one of the core beliefs of democrats and liberal minded governments around the world. The idea that the rights of society outweigh the rights of the individual.

This is, of course, crapola. Yes, liberals believe in the idea of a greater community, of being part of something larger than yourself, and of everyone's shared responsibility as citizens. And there are occasions when the greater needs of society are more important than individual needs. But this isn't one of those cases. No liberal I ever met has ever believed in allowing the government to do and get away with acts that are clearly illegal. What Mr. Bush and his administration are doing are, to my mind at least, clearly against both individual liberty and the liberty of society overall. It's an issue that ought to be bipartisan, but in this day and age any issue can be turned into a partisan one.

Now I'm not a psychiatrist, so I'm not sure what reason this troll had for instigating trouble, I'm not even going to pretend to understand why they continue to support an administration that is among the most, if not the most corrupt and incompetent administrations we've ever had. Maybe they don't see that what these people are doing is a threat to their liberties as well as mine. But it seemed pretty clear to me that, for this guy anyway, having a Republican President was more important than having an American one.

When Government Works

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

It's frustrating for me and for others on the left as we watch the slow and torturous decline of the United States, hoping against hope that we can somehow slow it or even reverse it, because unlike our counterparts on the right, we actually believe in the things this country is supposed to stand for. We believe in individual rights and freedoms, we believe in equality under the law and that the law, not any single person or small group of people, is where the ultimate authority lies. We don't believe in big government or small government, we believe only in the idea that the government has an important and necessary role to play in our every day lives, and that it exists in balance with free enterprise and a free press. When government is run by people who also believe that, it works well for everyone.

The Bush administration, the Republican leadership, and their financial backers don't see it that way, of course. Where we liberals try to build systems that counter the darker side of our nature, and that we hope will serve our children and grandchildren as well as they serve us, they want to build systems that encourage that darker side, and aren't concerned with the long-term consequences of their actions. It's no coincidence that every time that the conservatives take the reins of power, they manage to screw up so badly. Every problem this country has faced in the last five years could have been dealt with by a competent government that understands what its role is. Instead we have a government run by people who hate the very idea of government. I think the results speak for themselves.

Will Alito Make Congress Irrelevant?

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

As the Senate gets ready to decide whether or not to confirm Judge Alito to the Supreme Court, the left is trying to get us to contact those Senators that are still on the fence and tell them to prevent the nomination. Being the skeptic I am, I'm not sure what kind of effect even thousands of such calls would make on someone who can get more votes with massive campaign contributions than votes they might lose in protest. Especially if those callers are from out of state. And more especially if the Senator is in a state where the votes are counted by machines owned by the same corporations who would be donating.

It occurred to me, however, that any Senator who votes to place Alito on the bench is quite possibly voting to make their own jobs irrelevant. If Mr. Bush believes, as he says he does, that he has the right to break the law if he deems it necessary for national security, and he has a Supreme Court willing to back him up on it, what purpose does the Senate and Congress have? Could they even impeach him if it came down to it, or prevent him from declaring martial law? Maybe they'll be happy to keep their positions even if it's just ceremonial. The money and benefits are still good.

I'm not going to say what will or what won't happen, but it seems to me that it's awfully dangerous for the Senate to vote away its authority. And maybe that's what we ought to tell them if we call them up. Because once that authority is gone, it's going to be tough to get it back.

Jane, You Ignorant Slut

One of the things I've noticed over the last few years is how badly we fight with one another. I don't mean that in the sense of how often we fight or how heated the arguments are, I mean we're just lousy at it. No one, not the participants or the observers, seems interested in debating so much as shouting. When CNN first started it's 24-hour news network, I thought, naively, that it could have time both for hard news and serious discussion of the issues. I was wrong. Oh, I'm not going to say there wasn't a fair share of yelling or spewing inflammatory comments at each other thirty or forty years ago, it's just that as technology has made access to information easier, it's merely amplified our tendencies to act like a bunch of high-schoolers. And we do.

I'm not talking about the blogosphere alone, though with so many monkeys hacking away at so many typewriters, the signal-to-noise ratio tends to be pretty bad. What the blogosphere has managed to accomplish, however, is to show how much the well-paid, college-educated "professionals" behave like high-schoolers themselves: look at what happened with "ombudsman" Deborah Howell at the Washington Post as a perfect example. We're treading on their turf and showing them up for the hacks they are, and they just don't like it.

But I digress.

Instead of the more in-depth coverage of events a 24-hour news network would allow, we get the same talking points repeated ad nauseum. If you can't make your point in ten words or less, you're just screwed. And of course you must make it personal, it's not enough to win the debate you have to humiliate your opponent and do the equivalent of an end-zone celebration dance afterwards. It's not just the news: look at these phony courtroom shows featuring things "Texas Justice" (what the hell is that supposed to mean, by the way? Do viewers expect to see retarded people get tried and executed on the spot? Or branded, maybe?), or on Dr. Laura's radio show where people call up to get humiliated, or even on sports shows. When Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd did their famous "point-counterpoint" schtick on SNL's "Weekend Update" thirty years ago, it was a parody. Now, comments along the lines of Jane, you ignorant slut are the norm.

Things are so bad we've even invented a new word for it: snarkiness. Snarkiness is a combination of sarcasm, obnoxiousness, and smug superiority. David Spade mastered this in the late nineties (buh-bye!), Jon Stewart uses it very effectively, though in this observe's opinion, Jon is not only funnier in how he uses it, he can also get very serious about an issue when it's necessary. And Stewart almost singlehandedly took out CNN's Crossfire when he refused to go along with the program's snarky format (I'm not going to be your monkey).

The right's entire political/propaganda machine is built on snarkiness, and one reason they're so good at dominating the discussion (apart from the fact that they pay people a lot of money) is that the points they make can be made simply and quickly, and that they appeal to the baser instincts we all have. "Abortion is murder!" "Support the troops." "Whiney liberal loser!" "USA! USA! USA!" All are just variations on "Four legs good, two legs bad!" and make any serious debate impossible, because as soon as we try to explain the bullshit for what it is, the audience is heading out for popcorn. It really is a no-win situation for us under these conditions, so we need to change the conditions.

The problem with snarkiness, as the right will eventually discover, is that you have to keep topping yourself, and eventually you're going to go too far. They're trying to walk a fine line, keeping the discourse as nasty as possible without people getting violent, and there are some out there on the right just itching for the chance to get medieval on some of us. Certainly the corporatist wing of the GOP doesn't want things to get too bad, after all, it's bad for business, but sooner or later that dam is going to burst and things are going to get really ugly. The Germans couldn't stop the progression in the thirties, let's hope it doesn't go as far as all that. Or maybe it has to get that bad so we know that it can indeed happen here.

For myself, I will try in the future to avoid snarkiness, partly because I think it's wrong, but also because, well, I'm no good at it. The truth is, snarkiness works better for some people; that is, people who either don't have feelings themselves or who never had their feelings hurt and therefore have little empathy for those that do (hint hint), than it does for me. That doesn't mean I won't be a tough advocate for my views, but I'll try not to make it (and take it) so personal. I also won't tolerate it in the comments: I've banned people before and I've no qualms about banning people again. Fair warning.

As someone said in a movie, these are serious times that require serious answers. Snarkiness doesn't accomplish anything, it just makes things worse. Let's at least try to act like adults.

It's Wanker-rific

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

A lot of bloggers who are angry about the way the so-called "professional" media treats the news, and rightfully so, are missing a greater point. The reason why they get away with what they get away with is because of their ability to reach an audience we can't touch yet: an audience that doesn't require a computer. AM radio and television are effective because they reach people in their homes and workplaces on a daily basis, and it doesn't require any special knowledge or equipment just to listen or watch.

If so many reporters are little more than wanks for the right wing, and they are, it's because they don't have any reason to change. They're well-paid and it's easier for them to spread propaganda than it is to do actual reporting. As more and more people get computers this will change, but there's still a long way to go before the blogosphere has the kind of real impact that the so-called "professionals" have. The reason why the right is able to manipulate the "pros" so easily is because unlike those of us on the left, they have a well-oiled machine already in place to do so.

I think it's important to keep harping on the pros and demand the truth. The fact that we annoy them is a good sign, because I think in the back of their minds they recognize the threat we are to their monopoly on information. Some of us, making no salary at all, even manage to do a better job than the pros when it comes to fact-checking. Imagine how we'd do if we could afford to do so full-time.

The Cup O' Joe Radio Show #113: Buyer Be Damned

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

My special guest is Branden Lee of GeorgiaWatch, a consumer advocacy and watchdog group.

Predatory lenders and credit scammers are about as scummy as you can get as far as business practices are concerned: they prey on the poor and the naive, and in some cases what they're doing is outright theft. For example, according to Mr. Lee, if you take out a title loan for $200 on your car, which is valued at, say, $5,000, and you are late on one payment, they can sell your car, pocket whatever they get for it, and still hold you liable for the loan. In this observer's opinion, that's nothing short of stealing, and the owners of these companies ought to be tossed in jail.

The only thing that realistically has the power and authority to prevent this is the government, whether you're talking about state or federal government, but because of the undue influence of money on politics, you can bet that nothing serious will get done about it. At best some band-aid laws might be passed that will be, maybe, loosely enforced. What would be just as good is if people simply refused to work for these companies, but unfortunately when you're trying to support yourselves in tough times, it's hard to ask someone to choose between what's morally right and their own survival.

I think we also need to re-define our position on crime and enforcement: if it's wrong to beat someone up and take their money, that is, to take advantage of someone's physical inability to protect themselves, then it ought to be just as illegal to take advantage of someone's inability to protect themselves from scams like these. Educating people is great and I'm all for it, but it isn't always enough.

Click here to stream the podcast

The Enemy Among Us

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

So in the wake of a new tape by Osama bin Laden, the Republicans and their paid cronies in the news media like Chris Matthews have taken to attacking Democrats for the failure to capture him. Excuse me but who the hell has been in charge of the country for the past five years? Last time I checked, we had a Republican President, a Congress controlled by Republicans, a judiciary made up more and more of Republican-appointed judges, and a news media that only the marginally insane and the perpetually brainwashed can call "liberal". And to the Liebermans and the Bidens and all the other Democrats who are apologists for these criminals, don't think your pretense at bipartisanship will be rewarded: you're next on the list.

Some are calling for an apology from Chris Matthews, a man implicitly involved in Republican corruption, for calling Michael Moore (and others) terrorists. I say, forget the apology, what we ought to demand is his resignation, and the resignation of practically the entire broadcast media who are disgraces to their profession. We ought to impeach this President and every member of his cabinet, place them under arrest and hand them over to an international court on charges of war crimes where they can sit with Saddam and Osama and all the other scum we've backed over the years in the name of some ridiculous vision of an American Empire.

The greatest threat to any nation doesn't come from the outside, it comes from within. The enemy is among us.

Robbing The Bank You Own

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

The word on the street is that there are now some conservatives who are speaking out and demanding explanations about the Bush administration's illegal wiretapping. Among those doing the complaining are right-wing sugar daddy Grover Norquist, whose goal is to "make government small enough to drown it in the bathtub". And despite their rhetoric about preserving our freedom from an all-powerful government, what these people really want is to be free to rip us off and get away with it. They figured out a long time ago that it's easier to rob the bank if you own it, and that's just what they're doing.

With all the reports of Republican corruption starting to surface (and believe me, we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg), the meme from the right is that it was Washington that corrupted them, which is, as always with them, a complete and utter lie. These people were corrupt long before they came to Washington, and however corrupt things were before they got there, they're certainly worse now.

Trying to figure out what the endgame is for people like Norquist is enough to make you start pulling your hair out. Are the financial backers of the GOP looking to cut George W. Bush loose now that he's seemingly outlived his usefulness? Are all these announcements simply part of another strategy trying to make government in general look bad? Is it a combination of these, or is it something else entirely? You know what, it doesn't matter. Let's just kick the SOB's the hell out of our government and figure it all out later.

Stop Being Wimps

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

The most memorable part of Al Gore's recent speech, to this observer, was the part where he told Congressmen and Senators of both parties to stop acting like wimps and stand up to this administration. And he is absolutely right. Of course, I'm not really surprised that Republican Congressmen and Senators are letting Bush get away with his criminal activity: it's been my opinion for years now that Republicans are Republicans first and Americans when it's convenient.

For me, the biggest wimps are those FOX Democrats, people like Joe Lieberman and Joe Biden and lunatics like Zell Miller, who go on TV and tell the Democrats to show loyalty to a President who has done nothing but lie to them and repay cooperation with backstabbing. I hear Lieberman has a serious primary challenger now in Ned Lamont, and I hope he gives Joementum a run for his money.

If we're ever going to take power away from Republicans, we have to stop acting like them, and the first step is to get rid of these appeasers and apologists. Frankly I don't understand why we didn't just kick these people out of the party years ago. If you want to be a Republican, just switch parties. If you want to be a Democrat, then get with the program. Too many of us have lost our jobs, our pensions, and in some cases our lives because the Republicans don't care about anyone but themselves and the Democrats have been too afraid to fight back. Enough is enough.

Power Corrupts

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

Nothing scares power-hungry politicians more than someone who represents a real threat to their authority. The USA is supposed to be a nation where the law is more important than any one person, no matter how powerful, but anyone who has studied our history knows that powerful and ambitious people think they're above the law and will use any means necessary to get rid of troublemakers.

President Bush thinks he is a dictator. You don't have to believe me, he's said so himself: when he said he had the right to break the law if he felt it was necessary for national security. The question is, how far will he go? As others have pointed out, just because he hasn't, say, started throwing troublemakers like me into prison isn't relevant: according to Mr. Bush, if he thought it was necessary he would just do it, and worry about the consequences later.

That's what bothers me about Judge Alito. He said he believes in the rule of law, but what's to prevent him from interpreting the law as saying that the President can do whatever he wants? When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they wrote it to prevent that kind of power from falling into the hands of one person or a small group of people. If the Republicans maintain their control of the House and Senate, and are backed by a Supreme Court filled with judges who support Mr. Bush more than they support the Constitution, then none of us is safe. Because people who ask for that kind of power only do so if they plan on using it. And they usually do.

Dr. King's Legacy

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

More than forty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King told the world of his dream of racial equality. He stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial and said, in bold and powerful language, that people of color were sick of being second class citizens and that they wouldn't rest until they were truly free. So how far have we come since then?

Look, let's face a simple reality here: no legislation, no matter how well written, is going to wipe away hundreds of years of bigotry. It was almost a century after Jefferson wrote that all men were created equal that Lincoln legally freed the slaves, but a hundred years after that, things were still so bad that there were riots in the street. And anyone who thinks it's ended is wrong. Sure, the racists have to be more deceptive about spreading their hate, but the hate is still there. I'm not saying things are as bad as they were in 1963, but face it we still have a long way to go.

And here's the deal: Dr. King's speech was specifically about racial inequality in the United States, if you read between the lines you'll see he was speaking of something greater. Because his dream wasn't just about freeing one group of people in one country, it was about freeing all of us from the darker side of our nature. When we truly start to judge a person by the nature of their character, when we stop exploiting people for profit, when we stop killing each other over land or money or oil or religion, then we can finally say that we are free, at last.

The CEO Mentality

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

It's been said that Mr. Bush is the first CEO President, and this observer agrees: like a CEO, Mr. Bush and his administration prefer to operate in secrecy, have little concern for how their company actually works and even less concern for the welfare of their customers. It's a top-down mindset where loyalty to the executives is more important than loyalty to the company: though as they see it, the executives are the company. That's why you hear all this rhetoric about how anyone who opposes Mr. Bush and his policies opposes America.

Of course, being an elected official in a democratic republic is not the same as being a corporate executive: you can't fire a Senator or a Congressman, and the laws regarding your behavior are a lot stricter than they are in the business world. To the current administration, however, these are just obstacles. Instead of firing an elected official, they find ways to intimidate or marginalize them. If you need to lie, cheat, or even break the law to get something done you just do it and worry about the consequences later. As anyone who's ever worked in a big company knows, this is standard operating procedure.

What's important to understand about everything that's going on is that the current administration is just a front for corporate interests who want to remake the federal government into a tool to serve their own interests rather than the interests of the citizens from whom governmental power theoretically derives. And while they're stealing our government, they're stealing our money as well.

Mrs. Alito's Political Theater

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

(A transcript of today's daily "Cup O' Joe Report" podcast)

A dramatic moment occurred during Judge Alito's confirmation hearings yesterday when the nominee's wife, the mysterious figure known only as "Mrs. Alito", ran from the hearing in tears, presumably because of the "tough" questions being asked of her husband. It was an obvious piece of political theater orchestrated by the Republican propagandists at FOX and elsewhere who are so anxious to prove that all Democrats are vicious thugs and Republicans are high-minded civil servants being victimized.

You wonder, at what point will the millions of Americans who only marginally pay attention to what's going on begin to see how phony this all is? You'd at least think that the highly-organized, well-paid right wing hate machine could hire a better acting coach. No wonder they have to rig elections. And meanwhile, the so-called "professional" media is as always playing this off as just another fight between Democrats and Republicans, and that it doesn't really matter one way or another whether or not Judge Alito gets confirmed.

I wonder, did Mrs. Alito cry when she saw the images of the dead bodies floating in the waters of New Orleans? Did she cry when she learned of the deaths of the eleven miners in West Virginia? Did she cry at any time during the war in Iraq, at either the loss of one of our soldiers or any of the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis? Don't make me laugh.

Abuse

Throughout my life, I've often found myself to be involved with abusive people. Mostly it's been verbal abuse, but on occasion there has been physical abuse. When you feel like you're always unpopular, as I often do, you tend to feel like you deserve to be treated that way. Therefore I am uncomfortable in social settings because I feel like I have to watch every word I say. Sometimes I feel like people only tolerate my presence and are just looking for a convenient excuse to attack me. Paranoid? Perhaps, but it's happened often enough for me to be concerned about. I feel far more comfortable speaking in front of a thousand people than I do in a small group, even if they're friends. Cathy was the only person I could always be totally comfortable around.

I'm hardly alone in this. I see people put up with abuse every day at the workplace. Abuse in the form of intimidation, and sometimes just straightforward insults. I'm not talking about people goofing around, either. People put up with it because they feel they have to, some, like me, just feel the need to quit after a while. Which is a good reason why I always have trouble holding on to a job. And the fact that I'm always broke and have trouble supporting myself only adds to the insecurity. Even when I know how skilled I am, I find it difficult to express that to a potential employee. Often I feel like I ought to apologize for my very presence. and when I'm working, every little mistake I make is magnified.

Insecurity drives both the abuser and abusee: abusers enjoy dominating people because that's how they get self-esteem. Those who are abused have trouble accepting that they deserve better. It's a vicious cycle: If we believe we deserve to be treated badly, we will be treated badly. It's hard standing up for ourselves because it's hard to believe in yourself. As I'm so fond of saying, we all know how screwed up we are. What we don't always know is that others often feel the same way.

I've reached a point where I'm sick of taking this abuse, and I've begun to suffer some consequences for it. But so be it. My friend Phyllis always tells me that the reason I'm not financially successful is that I don't bullshit about myself very well, and that I have this nasty honest streak that makes me bring up my negatives. It'll be a hard habit to break, but once broken I can at least feel free to live my life to my own standards and not anyone else's.

I can, however, be pretty good at sarcasm. Maybe this is something that can be discussed behind my back on the super double secret message forum.

COJ Report: Get Your Priorities Straight

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

Of the numerous issues we're dealing with today, none are so important to this observer than the creation of an accurate and accountable election process. If we believe, as we say we do, in the idea of self-rule, that is, the idea that the citizens of a nation have a right to determine their own futures as opposed to, say, a king or a dictator, then we owe it to ourselves to create a system that accurately reflects the desires of the citizens. Unfortunately, too many of us would prefer to be as uninvolved as possible or worse, not to be involved at all.

Politics however, like nature, hates a vacuum. There will always be those who want to rule over other people for their own benefit, if we decide we don't want the power, they will be perfectly happy to take it. Saying you want no part of politics will eventually condemn you to being a second-class citizen or worse, a subject. You can find yourself losing a son or daughter in a war we have no business fighting, or die in a mine shaft because the government cares more about the mining company's profits than they do in the lives of their employees.

For those of us who are active in politics, we need to understand that however important other issues are, and they are, this issue must take priority. According to the Declaration of Independence, a government's power derives from those governed, but if instead our officials are chosen by a machine programmed by a corporation we will lose our voice altogether. Because elected officials answer to the will of citizens, kings and dictators do not listen to subjects and slaves.

Breaking The Cycle

I got yelled at again today from another activist for being "defeatist" because, at an election reform meeting, I stated that I have little hope that we will truly achieve election reform here in Georgia and across the country. I feel that way because I believe most people are too cynical or too apathetic to the cause, or too concerned with their own individual issues to become active. I also feel that too many of us progressive types get caught up in our own pet issues and God forbid you don't share their views or you're a traitor to the cause.

Again I feel the need to point out that there are many issues that are equally as important as our right to vote, but strategically this is one horse we have to put before the cart. You can't deal with any of the other issues unless we put the power of the government back into the hands of the people. How are you going to convince your Congressman or Senator about the merits of a particular issue if he or she knows that their seat is safe because of electronic voting machines? The people they have to answer to are the ones who can flip the code in their favor.

I also have history on my side. Twice in history, nations that began as democracies or governments eventually became empires, and we're right about at that same time frame, too. It's a vicious cycle that has yet to be broken.

For the record, this isn't a Democratic or Republican issue to me, it's not even an American one: it's a human issue. It goes to the very heart of who has control over our own lives. I would gladly sacrifice the career of any politician, regardless of party, in order to get free and fair elections throughout the nation, and eventually throughout the world. But it's up to us. Republicans who support an Imperial Presidency as long as it's a Republican President need to take a step back and realize that what they're doing is as bad for them as it is for everyone else. Same goes for Democrats who are more interested in their cushy jobs than in serving their constituents. And activists on either side ought to realize that regardless of which direction the country takes, it ought to be decided by those governed, and not a few people who act in secret and above the law.

We still have a chance to break this cycle, but we're running out of time.

Opinions

Opinions, the saying goes, are like assholes: everybody has one. As many of you know, I happen to have a lot of opinions on a lot of different subjects. I don't claim to be right about all of them, nor do I always do an inordinate amount of research to back them up. Some of my opinions are based on my personal observations and experiences, others are based on pure speculation.

I don't have a problem with people disagreeing with me. My ego isn't so big that I feel the need to be proven right on every issue. I don't even feel the need to require someone who disagrees with me to back it up, and if I think an opinion is reasonable I will say so, even if I continue to disagree with it.

But I do have a temper, and I do have a problem with people who write snarky, sarcastic remarks and pretend that it's a debate. I see way too much of that these days. I admit I do some pretty stupid things sometimes because I take things too personally and don't stop to think before I talk (or write). But that doesn't justify the personal attacks that led to me being pissed off in the first place.

And for the record, I'm not just talking about here. You see it on TV with guys like Bill O'Reilly, you see it on some left-wing talk shows, you even see it on sports shows. No one, it seems, can have a debate or a discussion on any issue without trying to make the other person look stupid. Now maybe I'm just being a pussy, but it seems to be a pretty shitty way to act.

But that's just my opinion.

COJ Report: Abortion

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

One of the reasons people oppose putting Judge Alito on the Supreme Court is that he will likely vote, one day, to overturn Roe vs. Wade and end a woman's legal right to have an abortion. But in many parts of the country, the right is moot, because of a combination of intimidation, expense, and lack of facilities. And as with so many things in our society, it is an option that will still be available to the very rich regardless of whether it's legal or not.

The central question of the abortion issue is of course, "what is a human life?" Is a fertilized embryo deserving of the same rights and privileges as a one-year old baby? Do we treat every miscarriage as a possible murder? On the other hand, taken to extremes, is the issue of whose life is worthwhile and whose isn't. The Nazis argued that Jews and other non-Aryan races were inferior and that they needed to be destroyed to preserve the Aryan race. There are many in this country who feel the same way.

Extremes aside, the abortion issue is only one of many that is used by religious and political leaders to manipulate people into giving up power, nothing more. If "pro-lifers" were so concerned about "life" they would be just as outraged by the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who were killed because of the greed of a few powerful people. Their silence on this is proof that their definition of "life" is pretty narrow. And as with so many other issues, it probably won't be resolved until we stop allowing ourselves to be manipulated by our fears and by our baser instincts.

COJ Report: Alito

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

The confirmation hearings on Judge Alito begin today, and whether he will actually become a Supreme Court Justice remains to be seen. The battle to oppose him is just one front in a larger war that has been raging for the last thirty years, but it's an important one: Judges such as Alito, who have been appointed by the President, share his belief in the idea of an Imperial Presidency. Mr. Bush has already gone on record as saying that if he feels it necessary to break the law in order to win "the war on terror" he will do so. This is no theory, he has already broken the law on several fronts, not just American law but international law as well.

When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution they were trying to create a system whereby power would be distributed throughout the government, because they knew from experience what happens when too much power falls into too few hands. The power of the President has risen and fallen over our two-hundred year history, but it seems to this observer that the balance the Constitution provides for is in serious jeopardy. Should Judge Alito become a Supreme Court Justice, he will almost certainly rule in favor of more Presidential power, especially if it's a President with whom he shares a radical, ideological agenda.

I hope the Democrats in Congress will have the courage to fight this appointment, because Supreme Court Justice Alito would be a bad thing for the whole country, Democrats and Republicans alike. When we place one person or one group of people above the law we have less control of our own lives and freedoms, and that goes against every principle this nation was founded on.

Top Ten Things Overheard At The GOP's Conference To Elect A New Leader

with apologies to Mr. Letterman

10. "Put your clothes on and stop acting like an idiot!"
9. "I'm telling you for the last time, no one wants to hear about your damned lobotomy!"
8. "My mistress can kick your mistress's ass!"
7. "Glad to see you found a new career, Mr. Watts. Can I have my drink now, please?"
6. "Sorry but I'm not touching any cold cuts since I voted to cut the FDA's budget."
5. "I don't know about you, but if I find out I'm sharing a cell with Cheney or Rumsfeld I'm just gonna kill myself."
4. "I'm not going to comment on that, Mr. Cunningham: and stop making me talk into your lapel!"
3. "So I said to the cop, I said, 'Honest officer, no one was driving...we was all in the back, singing!' "
2. "You can get out from under the podium now, Ms. Coulter. Everyone's gone for the day."
1. "Let's make this easy. Who doesn't have a restraining order against him?"

You Are Not Authorized To View This Protected Entry

I don't know a lot about LiveJournal and how it operates, but I have been getting a few hits from here and from other livejournal sites. You can click the tracking link (upper left, then go to "Referrer tracking 1") and see for yourself. I have an account on LiveJournal but only for the purpose of being able to post on sites like my friend Dave, who I've been fighting with. So if there are any livejournal users out there, could you tell me if it's possible to set up a topic that's only available for a few people to read? Because I get the very strange feeling that people are talking about me behind my back...

COJ Report: Diebold

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

Unity isn't the only weapon we working people have to defend ourselves against corporate power. The other weapon is the ballot box. There is only one institution powerful enough to fight corporations, and that's the federal government, and that because the law is backed up by physical force. When corporations seek control of the federal government they do so because they want to use that force for their own profit or agendas. And since raising and supplying an army is too great an expense even for the richest of corporations, it's cheaper for them to control the government that controls the Army.

The Republican leadership, which is just a front for corporate power, is using Diebold electronic voting machines to prevent us from using the power of the government to protect ourselves, because no matter how good or persistent your propaganda is, getting large groups of people to go along with policies that make their lives miserable isn't easy. Especially if those policies prove to be fatal. So it's easier for them to be the ones that count the votes. Stalin would be proud.

A democratic society operates on a balance of power between free government, free enterprise, and a free press. All of these play an important role in our daily lives. But what is happening today is that corporate power is attempting, and mostly succeeding, in taking over the government and the media. By demanding an accurate and accountable count of the votes, we have a chance to regain some of that balance.

COJ Report: Unity

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

Note: These next two reports are summaries of this post. But as I promised, I will print them here as they are transcripts of the actual reports.

There are only two weapons that we working people have at our disposal to fight against corporate power. One of them is unity. When working people stick together we have more power than any force in the world. Ayn Rand wanted us to believe that just a few special people make the world run. But if all the working people decided that enough is enough and they would just stop going to work because they felt like they weren't getting paid or treated as they deserved, then no corporation in the world would ever see a penny in profit. The only reason we don't just walk away is because we still have rent and bills to pay and families to feed. And the powers that be, knowing this, want to do everything they can to make sure it stays that way, because a hungry worker is a powerless worker.

What happened in the mines of West Virginia is a perfect example of what happens when corporate power and profits are placed above the rights and safety of working people. Those twelve miners were killed because the mining company felt that the expense of keeping the mine safe was more important than the lives of their employees. It would be easy to say that the company murdered them, with the help of an administration who places property rights over the rights of humans, but that's not the entire truth. Because we have allowed ourselves to believe in the lie of "rugged individualism" we turn against each other, treating anyone who complains about working conditions as a whiner. In other words, shut up and be happy you have a job.

The government and the company manufactured the gun, but we took it into our hands and pulled the trigger.

Baby Steps

Political organizations take time to build. The Republicans didn't get where they are overnight, and they understand that eventually the electoral tide will turn against them. In using Diebold machines to count the votes, what they are attempting to do is to present the appearance of public support without actually having public support. This way they can maintain their hold on power for a lot longer than they could if the general public had any real say in the electoral process. Of course, they may or may not realize that nothing is permanent: the Soviet Union had far more control of their government and media than the Republicans do over ours and they still fell. Why they think it'll be different for us, I don't know.

I think the problem is that too many of us have these Pie-In-The Sky fantasies that the Republicans are gonna get taken out, blah blah blah, but the reality is that the GOP leadership won't go down without a serious fight and the only question in my mind is how violent they're willing to get with Americans. As Atrios pointed out:

Bush has declared that one man has the right to make the law whenever, in his determination, national security warrants it. While even I can understand the necessity of broad executive powers in emergency situations, we aren't anywhere close to being in one of those. If Bush decides that personally shooting dissident bloggers or pesky journalists in the head is in fact necessary for national security, then no one can object. The fact that he has not, as far as we know, done any such thing does not matter in the slightest. By conferring dictatorial authority on himself Bush has declared that this is, in fact, a dictatorship even if he hasn't (yet) bothered using such authorities to the fullest of his claimed ability.

Which brings me to my point.

There are only two weapons that working people have at our disposal to fight against corporate or governmental abuse of power. One is unity. When working people stick together we have more power than any force in the world. Ayn Rand wanted us to believe that if just a few special people decided to drop out that the world will stop. But it's the reverse that's true: if all the working people decided that enough is enough and they would just stop going to work because they feel like they're not getting paid or treated like they deserve to be, then the Taggerts and the Reardons of the world would never see a penny in profit. Industrial enterprises require manpower regardless of the expertise of the executive management. The only reason we don't just walk away is because we still have rent and bills to pay and families to feed. And the powers that be, knowing this, want to do everything they can to make sure it stays that way, because a hungry worker is a powerless worker.

The other weapon we have is the ballot box. The federal government, should it decide to flex its muscles, is more powerful than any corporation or group of corporations, because the law is backed up by physical force. What corporations want when they seek control of the government is control of that physical force to intimidate anyone who threatens their profit margins or their leadership positions. Since raising and supplying an army is too great an expense even for the richest of corporations, it's cheaper for them to control the government that controls the Army. That way we wind up paying for the very force that protects them and ensures that we'll always be just hungry enough to acquiesce when push comes to shove.

The corporate power structure has already taken away our first weapon: unity. They did so in two ways: one, they travel led the globe in search of working people hungrier than we are. Southerners lured big corporations away from the industrial Northeast by providing them with less taxes, less regulations, and a cheaper labor force. Now those corporations are abandoning the South for places like Mexico, China, and India where there are even less taxes and regulations and an even cheaper labor force. If things continue as they are, sooner or later the only places corporations will set up shop in are places where the work force consists of slaves. We're actually pretty close to that now in many places: just ask the Chinese workers who manufacture the crap you find at Wal-Mart.

The other way they took away our unity is by turning us against each other. They did this through a combination of propaganda and manipulation, and the sad thing is that too many of us fall for it. Anyone who complains about salaries or working conditions is just a whiner. Hell, you all know what I mean. You see it at work every day.

The Republican leadership, which is just a front for corporate power, is, as I mentioned earlier, using Diebold to take away our other weapon. No matter how good or persistent your propaganda is, getting large groups of people to go along with policies that make their lives miserable isn't easy. Especially if those policies prove to be fatal. Just ask the relatives of the miners who just died because a company felt that the expense of safety requirements superceded the lives of their workers. Or on a larger scale, ask the residents of New Orleans, those that survived anyway. So it's easier for them to be the ones that count the votes. Stalin would be proud.

There are so many things wrong with American society today that it would probably take a month of continuous blogging for me to list. But the first thing we need to do before we even begin fighting is to properly arm ourselves. We may only have two weapons, but they are the most powerful weapons on Earth. As important as other issues are, and they are, we can't do a thing about them if we don't properly prepare ourselves for the fight. Unless we work together and unless we get control of the government and the physical force to enforce our will, we will lose the war even if we manage to win a battle here and there. And the only way we can retake control of the government is by establishing the most accurate system of counting the votes as opposed to the one that's the most convenient. And since these, according to the Constitution, are state-wide fights, we have to take them fifty battles at a time.

It also means putting aside or re-prioritizing whatever other pet issues you have, or your social status on a particular blog. This is way too big to worry about that. And we have to be patient and not pretend that because we have won one battle that the war is over. The war never ends. We're just taking baby steps now, eventually we'll begin marching in earnest.

As much work as that appears to be, and it's a lot, it's child's play compared to the real work. Where the New Deal ultimately failed is where it decided that its benefits were only for Americans. We have to think bigger than that now. Because even taking back the country isn't enough. Whether we like it or not we have a global economy and we have to deal with the fact that we're not the biggest bully on the block anymore. If the current administration has proven anything it's proven (again) that no matter how powerful a nation's military is, it isn't enough. We have to act as neighbors in a global community, and we have to fight for the rights and quality of life for people all over the world.

This isn't a struggle to save The United States Of America or the American worker, it's a struggle to save the entire idea of government of, by, and for the people. That, more than anything, was what the American Revolution was all about.

I Need To Know

Because whatever little fighting spirit I have left in me demands an answer, and because Dave Merrill decided to "declare victory" and just ignore me, and finally because I just can't let it go, I'd like to ask my regulars a favor:

Go here and scroll down to where the comments start. Don't bother to read the actual post, just start with my first message (I'm "joeve").

I just want to know:

1) While the shit flew fast and furious in both directions (and I freely admit to throwing my share of it), which of us, Dave or I, do you think instigated the personal attacks? I'm not saying I didn't make any, I just want to know, in childish terms, who started it?

2) My initial impression of Atlantic Station (and places like it) is that it's a haven for yuppies the city is looking to lure back from the suburbs, and that none of the people who work at these shops can afford to live there, despite it being advertised as a live-work-shop area. Even though that impression was made without doing any research on my part, is it a valid assumption based upon the current economic situation in the US?

3) Based on the link that Dave put up, and the information I got from the apartment complex, was my first impression proven to be right or wrong? Even though there were some affordable apartments available (no more than fifteen out of about 250), do you consider it to be a significant enough number to make me wrong?

For the record, I stand by my first impression of Atlantic Station, and I believe I was unfairly attacked and that whatever I said, however rude, was made only in retaliation. I also don't buy Dave's assumption that it's his livejournal and he can say what he wants, but I've been known to be somewhat nasty to commenters here as well. Never to friends I know in real life, however.

Do not, I repeat, do NOT comment on Dave's livejournal. Trust me on this, you won't like the response, and he locked the thread anyway. I'll try not post in the comments here, except to thank whoever decides to participate or to answer a specific question from a poster.

Thanks,

Joe

COJ Report: Conservativism

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

Republicans have done a good job over the years in making the term "liberal" such a dirty word that people are afraid to admit being one. But they've also, quite unintentionally, done a lot of damage to the term "conservative" in the sense that no one seems to be really sure exactly what a conservative is these days.

Strictly speaking, a conservative is someone who prefers the past to the present or the future, and tends to fight against political and social changes. But that can hardly be used to describe the current Republican party, unless the "past" they are talking about is the past of oh, say, Europe of the seventeenth century. As Atrios points out: In his defense of illegally spying on Americans, President Bush has insisted that he has the right to circumvent the law in emergency situations, though such a situation doesn't exist.

Yes, it's true that Bush hasn't sent the FBI into Atrios' house and placed him under arrest: or Kos or Digby or even me. But if we are to take Mr. Bush at his word, if he felt they were a threat to national security he has the right to do so. In other words, he thinks he's a dictator whether he uses that authority or not. Is that what they mean by conservativism?

I don't care how big an insult it's become, I'm proud to consider myself to be a liberal, because I understand what being a liberal really means. But when someone these days tells me they're a conservative, I have to ask them what they mean by that, because frankly I don't know anymore.

COJ Report: Cowards

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

Several left-wing bloggers have pointed out that the right wing blogosphere, who claim to espouse the ideology of "rugged individualism", have a tendency to cower in a corner whenever they face a real threat. That's not surprising: like any schoolyard bully, these people only attack those who can't or won't fight back, like us liberals. President Bush has gone on record as saying he's in office to "protect the American people". And they all agree, and run for cover behind him as he stands behind the flag and the soldiers he put into danger without reason.

After the Pearl Harbor attack, millions of men rushed to join the service, not even bothering to wait to be drafted. They had lives to lead, they had wives and children and careers, and going to war was the last thing they wanted to do. But they did it because they understood how important it was, and rightfully so. After 9/11, there were thousands of men who did indeed sign up, but if you look around the right-wing blogs and websites, and at organizations like the College Republicans, you'll see plenty of able-bodied men and women who fully support the war in Iraq, but can't be bothered to go out and fight it themselves.

Now it seems to me that if you believe in something that strongly, you'd be willing to risk your life for it. But these people aren't even willing to risk their precious careers. It makes you wonder if they really believe what they say they believe. Maybe if they took all the energy they use attacking real war veterans like John Murtha, Max Cleland, and John Kerry, we'd have won the war on terror long ago.

I Think This Says It All

COJ Report: OBBIGGIN!

Special Commentary! Click Here To Listen!

You won't get any argument from me that 2005 was a pretty bad year for the Bush administration. Much of their key legislation for destroying America's social infrastructure was stalled or derailed, and the air of invincibility they've worked so hard to maintain has been severely damaged.

But we shouldn't be fooled by appearances. The Republican political machine is still incredibly powerful and is not going to go down without a fight. Which is why I get mad when I read one of these Oh Boy Bush Is Gonna Get It Now! (OBBIGGIN) posts on a blog or message board. If Bush was going to "get it" he would have "gotten it" years ago, so please let's stop kidding ourselves that the next "big scandal" will be the one to get him impeached or force him to resign.

As much as I admire people's enthusiasm to remove the current administration from power, and no one wants that more than I do, I think we need to face a little reality here. If lying about the war or creating torture chambers or any one of the numerous impeachable offenses this administration has committed hasn't forced him from office yet, I can't imagine anything that would.

Remember, George W. Bush is only a symptom of what's wrong with this country. He is only the product of our ignorance, our apathy, and our racist tendencies. Until we overcome those aspects of our nature, the George W. Bushes of the world will always be with us.