For the sake of this discussion I will divide our inquiry into three parts: The Imaginary NFL Team, The True Cost of a Stadium and Alternatives for Jobs and Development of Greater Los Angeles.

The obvious first question regarding the new and heretofore “Imaginary” NFL team coming to Los Angeles is ~ which city in America will it be stolen from? San Diego? Oakland? Indianapolis? You see, in order for us to have a team, some billionaire owner of a current team in the NFL would have to dislodge themselves from their current cozy home and head for the gold country of L.A. I suppose if the team snuck out in the middle of the night from some far-flung outpost of the NFL Billionaires Boys Club that we would not feel the pain of the fans and jobs it leaves behind. If though, it came from SoCal or NorCal, would the sharp stick in the ribs of our neighbors be more acutely experienced? Just think back to all of the hapless Rams & Raiders fans left holding their season tickets and soiled seat cushions, their commemorative jerseys and festooned hats, as the buses rolled out of town in the darkness for Oakland and St. Louis. Lest we forget, there are all of the jobs that left with the teams as well. So, Los Angeles would have to “poach, rob or steal” another cities’ team and then run the risk of losing that gregarious bunch of ramblers in no short amount of time. Déjà vu all over again.

Looking deeper into the fray of NFL real politik, we see that no attempt has been made to make the new L.A. NFL team “citizens-owned” like the current champions, the Green Bay Packers. Smug pols at City Hall and Sacramento chide us that “the NFL owners would never go for that!” How do they know? Have they tried? Go ahead, make a guess. If the big boys in the NFL want Los Angeles so bad then they should be made to pay our price ~ L.A. residents will own all of the shares of the team ala Green Bay. That will take care of the skipping out in the middle of the night issue. Even then, without sellout games local fans will not see the cherished lads in tights on any given Sunday. That is the NFL rule and who can afford the high-priced tickets in the first place? Beyond all of that lies the larger looming and most perplexing question of why are Los Angeles and California Big Wigs in the Democratic Party so anxious to get further into bed with Tea Bagger Billionaire Philip Anschutz and his AEG corporate colossus? Has it been lost on them that Anschutz, along with his Billionaire Boyfriends the Koch Bros., is actively supplying millions of dollars of his personal fortune to destroy the Democratic Party and the United States Government? And adding insult to injury, that Anschutz derives a large portion of those heinous funds from his ownership interests in L.A. Live and Staples Arena? Now that, dear readers, is a “Deal with the Devil!”

If that, my friends, is not enough to give you pause, then turn your attention to the question of the stadium itself, putatively monikered, “Farmer’s Field.” I could go on about the irony of that name at great length but it is crazily apparent. No, the heart of the matter regarding this new Cenotaph to Combat is how much it will cost, who will pay those costs (now and in the future) and just exactly how many jobs will it create, on how many days of the year and at what wage levels? If you were to ask those questions of any of the elected officials who voted for this project they will give you generalities – “about 10,000 construction jobs, lots of jobs during the games and more jobs at the businesses surrounding the stadium” (even the Farmer’s Field website uses the important word “could” to preface the jobs and environmental promises). This is how they have been selling the stadium to the Unions and the neighbors in the area.

AEG president and CEO Tim Leiweke has been on a furious pace, all over California, to roll over any objections to the undertaking. More importantly, AEG is making demands and the L.A. & Cali Pols are complying like obedient children. Here is a blurb from the Farmer’s Insurance website itself, “SB 292, authored by State Senator Alex Padilla, provides Farmers Field with crucial protections against lawsuits by opponents of the project aimed at derailing the stadium’s groundbreaking, and the thousands of jobs that will come with it. It also makes Farmers Field the most environmentally friendly stadium in the United States. Farmers Field will be carbon neutral, and will have the lowest ratio of “cars per game day ticket holder” in the NFL.” So, everything looks great right?

Here are some of the other elected Democrats who think so and are pushing the project: California Governor Brown, Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa, President Pro Tem of the State Senate Steinberg, Assembly Speaker Perez, Los Angeles City Council Members Reyes, Krekorian, Koretz, Cardenas, Alarcón, Parks, Perry, Rosendahl, Wesson, Garcetti, and Huizar, Los Angeles County Supervisors Molina, Ridley-Thomas and Yaroslavsky, California Assembly Members Feuer, Blumenfield, Brownley, Fuentes and Portantino, State Senators De Leon, Pavley and Padilla and a host of others across the state. Their names will forever be etched into this “Big Rock Candy Mountain” as the grease on the wheels of this boondoggle. I am sure they will be fervently hoping that it does not sink like a stone into the Pacific.

Also, we must consider all of the associated costs of a stadium this large in this part of our fair city. Who pays for the sewer, electricity, police, parking, traffic, air quality and so many other additional costs of this monument to the late 19th Century? Farmer’s Insurance, AEG and all the various politicians and Downtown interests have insisted that every associated cost will be borne by the owners of the stadium – AEG. You heard me right. No costs will accrue to Los Angeles citizens, now or in the future, only benefits. Mark Twain would have loved this Duke and the Dauphin grift. Can anyone imagine that this could be true? Not I. There are too many cities in trouble around the country because they bought this mirage, this desire for pro sports teams and their edifices to “revitalize” the city center.

When the monumental collapse of these schemes spread like a plague from Minneapolis to New Jersey to Seattle, the new mantra became “Privatize the Stadiums.” If crony corporate interests buy the team and build the arena then the public can rest easy, the new and improved canard goes. Here is an example. After failing to get the public to buy in, San Francisco, with Pac Bell, built a privately owned stadium for their privately owned baseball team. It looked like a sweet deal with the MLB title last year. But this year attendance began to fall. If they don’t win big again it will fall further. If it falls too far, like their public stadium Candlestick Park did, then the owners will not have the revenue to make the payments, will go into default, move the team to another city and the “public” will have to buy the “private” asset for it to retain any value at all. Remember, private stadiums and arenas have to borrow the money to build them. If anything goes wrong, the private interests will default and the public will have to assume the debt. Think of this entire social experiment as crawling on the edge of a razor. Or better yet, Privatizing the Gain and Socializing the Loss.

Amid all of the hoopla surrounding the impending arrival of the Imaginary NFL Team, stolen from another American city, and the great hollow celebration of civic pride based on Billionaire largesse, something has been lost. Where is the master plan for Los Angeles of the 21st Century? Where is the alternative to this 19th and 20th Century tarnished and tattered chimera of civic planning? Los Angeles sits on the Western edge of the Western World. California is an innovator of fashion, style, arts and entertainment on a global level. Does not this panegyric to the past make a mockery of the future? Is this not an abdication of leadership? What a stupendous failure of imagination and lack of perspective this represents for our elected officials and ultimately for ourselves if we allow it to go forward.

I am not alone in envisioning Los Angeles as, dare I say it, “Tomorrowland.” Yes, and why not! This is the city where two brothers and a close friend can draw a cartoon in a shed behind their house in East Hollywood and create the Mouse that Roared – Disney. This is the city of dreams and dreamers. Rather than having the Unions building another Tomb of the Unknown Player, let us put them to work manufacturing Solar Panels, installing them and maintaining them on every roof in Greater Los Angeles. Take all of the heavy industries making weapons of war and put them to work making Mass Transit Systems and then put the Unions to work making Los Angeles the showcase of Modern Mass Transit. Transform every mile of the Los Angeles River system into parkways with cisterns underneath and runoff reclamation so we can stop importing 50% or more of the water from other parts of the planet. Imagine all of the jobs that these ideas alone will create. Local, sustainable, renewable and humane jobs that Go Green and Go Big. Why not see our city and ourselves on the cutting edge of the possibilities of a new paradigm for cities, nations and the world? Let us escape the trap of the narrow-minded, self-centered, Wall Street, Sky Box Billionaires, their incessant arrogance and their obscene need for more buildings, more concrete, more gravestones to their greed.

I urge our politicians to rethink their support of this Stadium Swindle. I encourage my fellow citizens to educate themselves on the myriad of unasked and unanswered questions, the complexities of this turning point in the history of Los Angeles. We should slow down this entire process and spread the discussion around into every corner of the city at civic events. Every Angeleno should become part of the planning committee for the Los Angles Master Plan with input and study before we commit our fortunes to a shoddy future. We need a 100-year Master Plan for Los Angles and we need it now, before any new projects.

Then again, we could all just go back to sleep and hope that this “Deal with the Devil” all works out in the last frame of the movie. I guess it all comes down to your definition of – make believe…

further…

Brad Parker
October 31st, 2011

However, the stakes are too high for a protest vote or stay home and don’t vote. So, it looks like the Progressives, Liberals, Unions, Women, Youth, Blacks, Browns, Yellows, Reds, Whites and other Lefties are going to have to save the Blue Dog Democratic Party once again, today, if we want to save ourselves tomorrow.

I am as unhappy as any Progressive, or American who is not a member of the Ultra-Rich, at the incremental, glacial and cynical pace that the current Democratic Party leadership has been stalled at. None of the “Change” agenda we elected these citizens to do has been achieved. No Single Payer, No End to the Wars – Iraq, Afghanistan or Drugs, No Financial Regulation, No Voter Owned and Verifiable Voting Systems, No… you get the point. Well, that is how we see things. On the other hand…

Blue Dogs are grinning because they got what they wanted – gradualism that does not change the status quo hegemony of Profits before People that their Mega-Donors demand. The core issue behind each breed of malfeasance being perpetrated upon the public has been avoided in every case. For example; Health Insurance companies are still roaming the country with Big Pharma swallowing our paychecks unabated, Wall Street Banksters have not been broken up and are still too big to fail, while we are all failing. And in a whirlwind of delusion whipped up by Crony Casino Capitalists, the Republican’t Pachyderm, saddled with the Tea Baggers, is claiming we are suddenly a Communist state? The Oppressed doing the bidding of the Oppressors. Now, where do we go from here?

Since there is no “forward” in this election we must grit our teeth and vote for “sideways” – the Democrats. Why must we vote for the Democratic Party? Because – the only alternative to the Blue Dog Stall is the Devil – the certain Hell that will ensue if the Democrats do not retain control of the Congress.

More than any time in my memory, I am despising my choice in this election. My Democratic Party is gone. Replaced by a Crony network of corrupt internal processes, craven political strategies and hollow policy positions. You and I have struggled to change that these last many years. In reactionary response the Party leadership and majority of the “Incumbents Only Electeds” have pulled up the drawbridge and sealed off their Walled Garden, their private GOTV machine. In California, the Democratic Party refuses to make our candidates even “read” the platform much less enact it. I feel our pain. But I will put that aside for this moment to prevent the Right from stealing my children’s future.

I urge all Progressives and Liberals to join me in voting for the Democrats. Let us put them back in Washington D.C. and keep the possibility of change alive. Then it is back to the epic battle for the soul of America, starting with this lame Ass, this caucus that is just a carcass, this Donkey that is so frightened of “democracy” and its own shadow that it has morphed into a Mule.

Back where I come from, Iowa, they say the only way to get a Mule’s attention is to hit it between the eyes with a 2×4. All we need is the power of the truth, expressed in a free and open press and powered by an informed citizenry. This Mule is going to hurt but it will be good for it. We are building a Public Park and recycling the Walled Garden.

So, get ready you DC Do-Little Dems. We are going to send you back into the fire and then we are turning up the heat!

Left Turn Only…

Brad Parker
September 2010

Despite their all too human flaws, missteps and ambitions, Lincoln and King established the demarcation line between rhetoric and action. They rose above their inner demons to reveal the angels of their better nature. They set the bar high for “Change.” Not just the outward change of yearning for a better world for all but the inner change that makes all change possible. Peace, love and understanding begin at home and then travel the byways of life to bring each soul to its destiny. Like Malcolm X, John Lennon and Bobby Kennedy, Lincoln and King accepted their fate as they transitioned from the personal to the public world and brought with them not only the hope for change but also the act of change that is transformational. They each paid the solemn price for their social enlightenment. We owe them unfettered remembrance for their sacrifice and courage.

As for Mr. Beck and his band of rabid cohorts? Let them bask in the vibrations of peace that are anathema to their disposition. Let them revel in their dark demeanor under the watchful gaze of the Americans who made us better. Who better to stand, swear and pledge allegiance to the evil in men’s souls than this ragged company? Perhaps the radical avengers on the Left should join them the next time, as they are trapped in the same dark looking glass.

Somewhere in undiminished time and space, Martin, Abraham, Malcolm, John and Bobby are smiling. Look they are saying. Look at what you will become if you cannot heed our words and deeds. Behold the nightmare made real unless the Dream is kept alive.

further…

Brad Parker
Dreamer

Creeping across the heartland on velvet feet it came. Silent, maleficent and grinning it entwined the body politic – first to the right and then to the left. Decade upon decade it imperceptibly seduced the callow crowds, here and then there, a few at a time, building to a crescendo in the year 2000. Poised to render all in its path mere puppets in a tempestuous bamboozle, it had finally struck with all of its might. But by then the stupefied masses simply embraced the needle of narcotics like any willing junkie. The dope of greed and over-consumption had already done its job. Without alarm or notice, the grifters slithered from room-to-room, city-to-city, unseen as they sucked the nation dry. Comatose, the governed and the government were bound in a blanket of malignant fog. Thus begins the strange, sordid saga of the silent overthrow of both major American political parties over the last four decades. It is perhaps the greatest swindle ever perpetrated on the suckers born every minute – us, the gullible Americans. This is the story of Crony’s Triangulating Fog.

Our cast of characters, or perpetrators, is a small gang of big time swindlers. They are out to reverse the new order of the ages – Novus Ordo Seclorum – on the original Great Seal of the Republic of the United States of America. They are unhappy with the New Deal, Great Society and Liberal Ideal that took hold in America from 1932 to the present. Their strategy is fear. Their tactic is advertising. Their target is the government, local to federal. Their accomplices are the American people – in their somnambulant apathy. Their goal is the absolute control of money – all money. To a great extent their laconic racket has been successful. However, as in most plots, successes have bred complacency, inefficiency and now border on collapse. Our scam artists are known as Crony – crony corporate interests, aided and abetted by the lobbyists and politicians who represent them. Their names are probably unfamiliar to you. So, for our tale of willfulness and woe the only names to remember are – Lynde and Harry Bradley. First though, let us examine the background of this crime of the century.

Crony has one goal in mind – the marketplace: dominate and control the entire marketplace, if possible. Left to their own devices, it is a natural corporate objective to monopolize the market because it is the only way to sustain ever-expanding profit margins. Unfettered markets with no government regulation always consolidate power to fewer and fewer players over time. This is greed at work on the macro economic level. The current Healthcare system is but one glaring example of the Crony theology at work. Post World War II and through the late 60’s, this market consolidation was working well for the new American corporate giants – Crony. Then, beginning with the Civil Rights movement in the late 50’s, followed by the Peace movement of the 60’s and culminating in the Women’s Liberation, Farm Worker’s and Environmental movements of the late 60’s, the pressure to reform American governance began to erode public confidence and compliance with corporate objectives. It was during this time that Crony support was thrown to the Republicans, almost exclusively; in an attempt to maintain the hegemony of profits at all cost. It almost worked with Nixon but the counter culture kept gaining strength with its vision of Peace, Love and Understanding. Crony strategists needed a new plan to regain control of the markets and that is when the Triangulating Fog was first imagined. Here is how the fog works.

First, Crony bought up the Republican Party and forced all of the Liberal Republicans to the curb. Next, they began in earnest to “message” the new paradigm – “government is not the solution to the problem – government is the problem.” Neo-con Messiah, Ronnie Reagan was the perfect messenger. As a former actor and advertising pitchman, he had just the right tenor to convince the gullible Americans to privatize the government. By privatizing the government, the Neo-Cons – new conservatives organized around corporate hegemony – could shrink it down to a manageable size and loot the taxpayers on a regular basis, legally, and with the pliable assistance of the Congress, White House and the Supremes. Reagan was the man for the job but the job was not getting done because of the Democratically controlled Congress. So, the Crony corporatists hatched another plan: buy the Democratic Party. With both parties Carny-barking the same business friendly campaign ads the public would be triangulated into only one possible choice – profits before people – while believing it was the other way around. Thus, the charade of a choice would create a fog cloaking the true objectives of the men behind the curtain. The search for a smooth undetectable method to bribe the Democrats became Crony’s focused rumination.

To pull off the purchase of the Democratic Party machine, Crony needed to craft an ideology that the cowering Liberals in the Democratic Party would swallow. So, they funded a little known group of mostly Southern Democrats who said they knew the way. These fine fellows, led by Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton, formed the Third Way Foundation, which in turn spun off the Progressive Policy Institute and then the Democratic Leadership Council – the DLC, home of the Blue Dog Democrats. One of the most sizable contributions to get this ball rolling came from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. The Bradley Boy’s contrivance, along with other charlatans and gangs loosely aligned in the Crony corporate cartels, pumped money into these astro-turf Democratic think tanks, just as they had the Republican ivory towers, with one goal in mind – control the government and the legislation. The premise presented to the agitated voters was that these were the new Progressives who would make the Democratic Party more palatable to business and then use that new relationship to bring about social change. Of course, these New Democrats were neither Progressive, new or interested in social change. They were in it for the big bucks. They were Crony in Liberal clothing. Hos and Pimps as an organizing archetype had graduated from the streets to the suites. Now, the warm entrapping fog was beginning to work in earnest.

Let us look at this shell game from another angle. In order to steal the government from the citizens, you have to get the citizens to go along with the theft. That is how the grift works. Every flimflam man worth his salt knows that. The mark does the work. Here is the setup: finance the campaigns of select members of both parties, Democratic and Republican, then, finance think tanks that support these candidates and provide them with position papers and expert analysis. Most importantly, make sure that the candidates and organizations all fulfill the same pernicious mandate – privatize the American government at every level, in the name of the People. The privatization scam will seem to come from both sides of the political spectrum. The grift will appear to be a grassroots effort. The fog will set in disguising the outrageous theft of the assets of the nation that are held in public trust. Oh man, these crooks are organized!

Part II – Appearances Are Deceptive

At the center of our plot is advertising. Advertising is the principal tool in the Crony box of tactics. We tend to think of advertising as benign radio, print, Internet or television commercials for any number of products and services that we can ignore. However, advertising agencies realized many years ago that any information pumped through any media outlet could become an advertisement for any of a number of purposes beyond the product on display. Focus groups and demographic studies can then be used to sharpen and disguise the message and the source of the advertising funding at the same time. Finally, the Massage – messaging, propaganda or programmed disinformation – can then be consumed through any medium without the consumer becoming aware of its true purpose – Lie, lie big and lie all the time. Advertising theory now dominates Mass Media information in all of its categories. Politicians were successfully sold this bill of goods as the most reliable means to their end of – Permanent Incumbency. Hence, the Ad Men take-over of political campaigns in the 60’s.

Over time, Ad men and advertising agencies morphed into campaign consultants. They knew that the outcome of the consumption of information could be influenced, or polluted if you will, by the carefully disguised introduction of strategic themes. If you have enough money and clever creative staff, almost any result can be achieved. All that is necessary to succeed, as every artful dodger knows, is a gullible and greedy mark; Pavlovian dogs conditioned to accept less as more. The preconditioned pigeon or target of the crime can then be persuaded to participate by activating their weaknesses. Fear of the “others” is at the top of the list. This primal fear, shared by every human, is ginned up by politicians, talking heads on radio and TV and in editorials throughout print and Internet media. Fox news is the most obvious purveyor of this type of fear product. Eventually, the message in the information became imperceptible: hidden in the all-encompassing environment of advertising – an Orwellian twist on McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Massage.” The same fear-inducing memes were embedded in political policy advertising and woven into campaign slogans, speeches, movies, religious broadcasts and mass media outlet’s infotainment shows. Crony made sure that the context of the advertising – messages, news, policy and opinion – always said that all government is bad and all private, free and unregulated enterprise is good. Both Republicans and Democrats joined in the merry spewing of the fog over the timorous and twitching crowd.

Next, the deception required that front groups on both sides of every issue propagate false paradigms promoting the virtues of private versus public social structures. Charter schools and voucher education are the most insidious of these types of deceits. For-Profit Healthcare Insurance is another. These front groups then play upon deep-seated fears and prejudices at the heart of gullible working class and poor Americans. Most importantly – every tactic is aimed at inducing White (European) American Male queasiness and rage at the rapidly changing demographic makeup of the heartland of America. It is the new and improved Huey Long populism Redux, George Wallace’s ghost and Sarah Palin on steroids. Conservative Infotainment outlets are poking a sharp stick into this fear every day. Rally the People, while you pick their pockets – the old Three Card Monte, evil and effective.

Obviously, if you were a member of the Crony cartel that wanted to control the American government you would not advertise the fact that an assets theft was your true objective. Whenever you did advertise your grand plan for reigning in the government, you would claim that you were acting in the public interest. If you were in on the con then only you and your associates would ever know the truth behind the lie and its real purpose. At least that was the plan with our gaggle of casino racketeers, grazing in the halls of political power. Then unexpectedly, along came the true modern Progressive movement with the power of the Internet and the whole gerrymandered contraption began to disassemble and founder. That friends, is where we are today. The fog is clearing, revealing both sides of the political aisle in Congress to be in league with Crony and not the people. So, Crony, ever the resourceful extortionist, has decided, in a panic, to plump up the fog to an even greater thickness.

Barack Obama was swept into office on a monumental wave of fear surrounding the neo-liberal financial swindles caving the global economy, disgust at the George Bush neo-con policies of imperial war with homeland neglect and the possibility that we could at long last – look forward to believing in the hope for change. A soft Left turn was underway. What was the response from our privatizing pals at the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation? Pugnacious Crony fought back. They switched sides once again, and started funding Freedom Works and the Americans for Prosperity astro-turf groups, among others. These are the folks that brought us the Tea Party, Bagger, Deather, Birther and No Government Healthcare outrages of the summer of 2009. Once again, Crony ginned up the gullible Americans through racial, social and economic fear baiting and set them loose on the new Democratic Federal government. Add in a dash of true Populist Rage borrowed from the Progressive Left and a dollop of Wall Street bashing, turn up the heat with Palin parties and voila – you have a perfect gumbo that looks like the people want to throw out the government – from the grassroots on the Right and the Left! But wait – who is that we see leering at us from the edge the curtain?

Appearances are deceptive. Recall where our conversation began – the one constant behind all of this apparent “political” theory and commotion eructed by the corporate ad men is a much more craven economic animus – recapture the markets that they just destroyed. As you can see, Crony is neither Left nor Right on the political spectrum. Political parties and politicians are only the shills trapped in the fog covering the cannibalizing objective – control the government, downsize the government and privatize the government. Reap the harvest of the working-class citizens taxes for Private Interests. Pillage the land for Profit. To this ignoble end, politics, mass media, even religion are mere tools for the false advertising employed to fool the manageable marks. The Bradley Foundation is only one of numerous organizations and individuals who are riding the grift train in America. This is no penny ante grift either, sisters and brothers. These scam artists are out to get everything we hold sacred, from the Constitution to your family’s fortune and future.

So, there it is fellow suckers. Crony bought the Republicans, then the Democrats and now pimps the fakeroots. Everyone is triangulated and down in the new Foggy Bottom. Government as the “problem” is the product of a very successful advertising campaign. All sides of the political spectrum have bought into the fog. Remember – Dick Cheney thought he had triangulated the fiscally conservative Republicans to go along with his imperial war machine. Before that, Bill Clinton thought he had triangulated social liberals into going along with his let us help the business people finance our New Democrats machine. In fact, they were both tools of a larger more insidious triangulation by the Crony corporatists to monopolize the American and then global markets and harvest all wealth into the bank accounts of the chuckling elite. Americans, behavior-modified to trust advertising, swimming in the dead pool of propaganda environmentally disguised as benign advertising and Infotainment, continue to cop to the Triangulating Fog Machine’s all sizzle no steak obfuscation. The only question left to ask, now that the confidence game is more widely known, is – will they keep buying it like a beaten dog or wake up and demand their money and government back? Stay tuned.

by Brad Parker

Dear Democrats,

You may accept the Democratic Leadership Council’s conclusions, assertions, attitudes and game-plans as promulgated by Bill Clinton, James Carville, Chuck Schumer, Rahm Emanuel and any number of growling Blue Dogs but I do not. To me, as a Progressive Democrat and a Liberal American, that is a failure of imagination. Bruce Hornsby wrote, in his song “That’s Just The Way It Is”:

That’s just the way it is

Some things will never change

That’s just the way it is

Ah, but don’t you believe them

Now, that’s where I am coming from.

Most of my very large and diverse family comes from and lives in the so-called Red districts. All of my life I have worked on changing their minds about the truth of the Liberal Ideal. It has been and remains fruitful. One by one they have taught me never to concede to the past what the future knows not to be true. One by one they have changed.

As Progressives, we came together to reactivate the oldest and truest American virtues of tough-mindedness and innovation that breakthrough impossibilities and create new realities. We came together for dramatic Change.

The DLC/Blue Dogs make a lot of noise about their version of the facts. They say – That’s just the way it is. They haughtily claim that there are so-called Red districts, where the people are backward, religious, uneducated and prejudiced and that we must concede to that definition of these people and act accordingly. As I have said many times in the Progressive Caucus and anywhere I go – They are wrong, both in their characterization and in their approach to our fellow citizens. Every American has the potential to change. It is the great narrative of our history.

When I was a boy, in the Midwest, Far West and the South, Segregation was “the way it is.” My grandmother was a Suffragette, who was told that Women should not and will never get the Vote in America and that “that’s just the way it is.”

When Barack Obama once famously said that there is no red America or Blue America, only a red, white and blue America, I recognized all of the allusions he was referring to and I agreed. But that remark is only true if we rid ourselves of the illusions promoted and reinforced by Republicans from without our Party or Blue Dogs from within our Party. Among all of those illusions, continuously ginned up by Crony corporate lobbyists, the greatest is, “That’s just the way it is.” Say’s who? The men and women behind the curtain? It certainly serves to maintain the status quo. Again, that statement and political stance is a failure of imagination. It creates and maintains a monoculture that lacking diversity, even of thought, leads to dissipation and dissolution.

I lived for many years in Solano County, in the 10th CD. Many members of my family still do. The mantra there, for the last 30 years was that the 10th is a Red district, a conservative district. This accounted for Ellen Tauscher’s Blue Dog mentality and the reality that she had to do, in her own words, “a kabuki dance with the Progressives.” So it is with many Blue Dogs. To them everything is and should be a pretense, with both their constituents and the rest of us. On the one hand they pretend to be Democrats on the other they vote Republican. That’s just the way it is, they say – we must be pragmatic.

Suddenly, it seems, the dance is over in California CD 10. John Garamendi is the Representative. John is openly Progressive on Healthcare, the Wars, the Environment and a host of other issues. How is it possible that a Prog replaced a Blue Dog? Did the district change radically? I’ve spent considerable time there every year since 1970 and I would say no. These are middle class Americans with about the same traits that we see all across America. What changed was the reality that the leading candidate, who the Party could not refuse, is a Progressive Democrat who knows how to talk with everyday folks and show them the truth of Single Payer, Withdrawal from Iraq etc.

I believe that the only hope we can believe in is our Progressive Plan for the future. Let us, as Democrats and citizens, disenthrall ourselves from the old tired notion that “That’s just the way it is” and imagine, create and promote a new way – Progressive. Let us imbue that Progressive mandate with all of the vigor that makes America the land where Change is possible. Most importantly, let us take that message out, from the genial warmth of our Progressive organizations, to the People, all of the People.  Let us never give in to the DLC-Blue Dog-Republican theology. Let them have one Party and let us have the other and then let us see who shall prevail. Never negotiate with yourself on principle. Always, Collaborate on the Positive Power of the Progressive Proposal.

Now, about those Superdelegates and Appointees to the central committees…

Brad Parker

Left Turn Only

http://bit.ly/1vOyjG

By Brad Parker

April 2009

 

Like Dorothy and her intrepid trio of lovable dreamers arriving at Oz, the Progressive Movement barreled into the Democratic Party in 2005 with high ideals and even higher hopes. Now, four scintillating years later we realize it was all a mirage of our own creation. The Party of the Left has been reduced to an incumbency business commandeered by Crony Corporate Pirates off the coast of reason and principles. With some notable exceptions like the 2008 CDP Platform, the Net Neutrality Resolution and the Out of Iraq Resolution our Party is fast becoming a dog and donkey show. The drawbridge is being pulled up and the leadership is retreating into a Walled Garden. The Democratic Party is risking irrelevancy as Decline To State registration increases. More and more it appears that as Gertrude Stein once famously remarked about Oakland, California – there is no there, there. Or so it seems.

Today, our Progressive beachhead inside the Party feels more like washing up on the island in the TV show LOST. You can never tell who is on your side or what year it is. Winning the last two election cycles has only made matters worse. A crazy mad circus of ascendancy is consuming the body politic. In the center ring of the circus, the Blue Dogs are squared off against the Progs in an epic struggle for the soul of the Democratic Party. On the periphery Crony, grasping to maintain status quo hegemony, is manipulating as many ambitious pols as possible. Washington, Sacramento and your local City Hall have become closed systems operated more by lobbyists, consultants and big donors than citizens. The Party is hunkering down in arrogance and obstinacy, while the members clamor for a bigger piece of the pie. What then shall we do?

 

First, I think we can and should all agree that Democrats want to make this a better world. Yes, some are only in it for the money but most Democrats really want to improve life for everyone. They do. If we believe that to be true, then we must ask ourselves, how could so many good intentions come to so ill an effect? Why has our success, as Progressives and then Democrats, come to this agitated impasse?

 

Maybe it’s because toxic preconceived notions have been ginned up into a pandemic struggle for illusory power. The palpable fear of change is creating inertia at the top and undeniable need for change is creating anger at the bottom of the Party. Personality is once again more important to too many people than policy. Perhaps there is an underlying problem that if it can be perceived, can be solved. Let us take a walk around the Walled Garden of the CDP and scrutinize the landscape.

Thirty years of Reagan neo-conservative social policy and twenty years of Clinton neo-liberal economic policy have inevitably collapsed and taken all of us into the pit with them. It was a giddy ride that has as its lasting elegy, “…the fetish that Washington entertains for a centrism that converts everything to mush.” (What’s Wrong with Washington? by James Wolcott – Vanity Fair – May 2009) We all know that the venal tautology of Fixed News and its co-bobble heads, led the Republican Anarchy Collective into the quagmire of a wilting Empire America. But why were so many Democrats involved and will the Party now use the political impetus of 2008 to boldly go against the grain of Beltway Babble? Maybe there is hope. There are some Party leaders and elected Democrats who want to “change” but without significant changes in the actual mechanisms of the Party structure itself, they will not prevail. If the Walled Garden is not opened up then change is not possible.

 

Over the last thirty years, since McGovern and Carter, the Rules and By-Laws of the DNC, the CDP and your local County Central Committee have been re-written to “control” the Party at every level. The Liberal Ideal has been under attack inside the Democratic Party.  The CDP Progressive Caucus reported on this reality in the 2006 Progressive Plan (www.progressivecaucuscdp.org). The key to control inside the Party is how the CDP maintains its status quo of entrenched leadership and incumbency-only interests through the Rules committee. The DNC operates in a similar manner.

 Rules are kept in place, at every level, to keep the walls of the Walled Garden high enough to be a barrier to change. Here is the rational: Change would come as a result of the rabble (i.e. loony left, progressive swarm, membership, citizens etc.) being allowed to have a majority vote on the floor of the Central Committees of the County, State or National Parties. That would lead to putting principles before pragmatism and “losing elections”, or so the current leadership proclaims.  PLEOs (Party leaders and elected officials) go further in stating that the Party only exists to win elections not to create policy. That is a relevant premise, worthy of debate, so let us examine its validity.

Voting members of the CDP Central Committee are roughly divided into three groups: elected officials (statewide electeds plus County Central Committee members), delegates elected in ADEM elections and most importantly – “appointed” and ex-officio members. Each group has about 1/3 of the votes on the DSCC and its Executive Board. The elected officials appoint the appointed members, thus securing a majority and thereby controlling the outcome of every vote. The theory behind that is: elected officials are elected by all Democrats and should have the right to appoint enough voting members to make the voting, at the DSCC and its Executive Board, turn out the way they see fit. ADEM Delegates are only elected by several hundred people at most and should not have an equal say in voting matters of the Party. Activists get to be a part of the proceedings but not a determining participant. In this way, PLEOs maintain control so they can smartly represent all Democrats. Order is perpetuated and all is well. In a nutshell, that is their argument. The DNC rationale is much the same.

 The obvious question that arises is; why have anyone else besides the elected officials in the Central Committees if you want total control? Why the charade of democracy? That is quickly followed by, what is to be done when the elected officials don’t represent the informed consent of the members, citizens or voters? What can and should be done when the electeds defy the people, like they did on the issues of Invading Iraq in 2003, Clean Money in 2006 or Impeachment in 2007? What recourse is there in this scheme? Run someone against them if you don’t like their votes, bellow the PLEOs. Yeah, right. With the current system, replacing an incumbent is institutionally next to impossible and they know that. A Walled Garden works for the establishment and relegates the worker bees into being just another brick in the wall.

The missing piece in the PLEO rational is that a closed system is like an echo chamber – it only repeats itself. It is a rigged game. It is like a pond with no source of fresh water. After a time, and that time has long since passed, it becomes self-aggrandizing, out of touch and eventually fails under the weight of its inflexible, rigid and stiff orthodoxy. Without the fresh air of new ideas and faces the mighty machine rusts and dies. Here is the proof.

Between 1994 and 2006, the multi-billion dollar, DLC led Democratic Party lost both houses of the Congress, the White House and consequently the Supreme Court – all three branches of the Federal government. You can throw in a whole bunch of state houses to that mix, including ours. How is it possible that the PLEO controlled and extravagantly lubricated CDP let Gray Davis be recalled and replaced by a grade B actor? How is it possible that the massively funded and consultant heavy DNC let two Presidential elections be stolen? If the theory of letting the PLEOs, the smartest people in the room, with the wheelbarrows of cash and plethora of votes, control the show is so sound, what accounts for these stupendous flops? And most glaringly what accounts for taking the whole thing back in 2006 and 2008? It certainly can’t be because the machine, or business as some prefer to call the CDP / DNC, suddenly sputtered to life.

We, the Progressive Swarm, have the temerity to assert that bold ideas, big ideas and the people who organized around them achieved these victories. The modern Progressive Movement began to stand up, show up and speak up in 2003. By 2005 Progressives were at the forefront of “change” inside and outside the Democratic Party. Joined by unions, minorities, independents, students and yes, some PLEOs, Progressives helped to forge the winning coalition that allowed Senator Barack Obama to overcome and defeat the Clinton Establishment within the Party and the tottering Republican contraption in the nation as a whole.

 In the Age of Information the power is in Ideas.

Like President Obama, when he was a junior Senator running for the nomination, it has been said by many Democrats that the Progressive Swarm is just a bunch of emailing, speechifying and lofty language idealists who go to meetings. However, like President Obama, Progressives do get people elected. Ask Debra Bowen (CA, SOS). Ask Rep. John Hall (NY-19). Ask Rep. Donna Edwards (MD – 4). Ask Al Franken or Norm Coleman for that matter. I could go on but you get the point. The Progs didn’t elect these people by themselves but were part of the coalition that did, a vital part.

The underlying problem is that without Progressive policy proposals from candidates that inspire people to volunteer their time, donate their money and encourage others to do the same – the Democratic Party will become a relic of the past.

 

Every rule of the Democratic Party should be reexamined and rewritten if necessary to elect not select who represents the membership. Access, openness, accountability and transparency are not merely slogans that came out of the modern Progressive Movement. They are the best paths to getting elected. Money ain’t everything folks. For those of us who have been doing the shoe leather work of precinct walking and phone banking for many decades, finding a reason to believe other than reelecting incumbents was the key to the future. If the Democratic Party wants to thrive it needs to abandon the top-down Walled Garden approach to political action and broaden its horizons. The Party must embrace Progressives, Obama organizers, big ideas and bold action or risk entropy and decline.

Lastly, a word of caution to the Progressives: sitting in our corner of the Walled Garden, smug in our righteous indignation and unwilling to reach out to those who disagree with us will not achieve a different result than the fate that awaits the DNC and CDP if they do not adapt and change. Collaboration and facilitation are the bywords of the Internet driven reality we now live in. Let us embrace them. Let us remain flexible and innovative. May we always be prepared to reach out, give the people a reason to believe and then a lofty task to achieve. All together now…

 

 

Email, meetups and rabble-rousing speeches. Enewsletters, blogs, websites, listserves and labor rallies. PDA, DFA and MoveOn. CODEPINK, Wellstone Action! and the Courage Campaign. Like a phoenix from the ashes of the Liberal ideal we rose, just four short years ago. We are the resurrection of the Spirit of 76’. We are the flame of liberal thought burning down the neo-con, neo-liberal, DLC Blue Dog, stand for nothing house. We are the Progressive Movement. We are the Progressive Swarm. We come to every Democrat with the Progressive Plan in our left hand and with our right hand open, extended in inclusion and dialogue. We are the circle that draws everyone in. The Progressive Caucus is our home in the California Democratic Party.

I have worked with many of you over the last four years on issues of importance to Progressives across the country. It has been a pleasure to serve the membership as an officer of the caucus. In fact, it has been lightning in a bottle. We have had some successes like the Net Neutrality resolution that I brought forward in 2007. Collaborating with Labor Chair, Jim Gordon, we produced an unprecedented victory for all of America on this essential issue. After that I chaired and co-wrote the Internet plank of the CDP platform with Dante Atkins. I worked with our Co-Chair Jo Olson and our Vice Chair Ahjamu Makalani on the “Immigration Town Hall”. Once again, our caucus blazed a new trail in the CDP by organizing a multi-caucus event on a critical social issue. 

The proposal that I worked on the hardest and am most proud of is the, “Progressive Plan” (www.progressivecaucuscdp.org). I co-authored this blueprint for Progressive organizing, strategizing and energizing with Ahjamu Makalani. We also received valuable editing from our fellow officers – Jo Olson, Joye Swan, Dotty LeMieux and Mayme Hubert. Not only does the analysis of the CDP and Democratic Party political infrastructure, found in the plan, still hold true today but also our proposals for change have been fundamental in building our Progressive movement in California and across the nation. 

Because I believe that I have the vision and a plan to represent you faithfully and forcefully over the next two years – I am a candidate for Chair of the Progressive Caucus. Over the next few weeks I am going to share with you my plan for our next Progressive Caucus agenda. In this article I want to share my core policy initiatives. I look forward to your collaboration on all of these proposals.

Progressive Policy

My principal issues objective, as Chair, would be to build on our original platform and the policy initiatives it embraced. That platform changed our state Party, the national Party and the political dialogue in America. Even with the invigoration it provided for all Americans, its goals remain to be achieved:

– Out of Iraq
    - Immediate withdrawal and renunciation of preemptive war
– Universal Healthcare 
    - Single-payer healthcare for all Americans
– Election Integrity
    - Election Protection (count every vote as cast)
    - Clean Money (public financing of campaigns)
– Poverty
    - Eliminate its causes
    - Alleviate its affects

Progressive Grid

Progressives have pioneered the use of the Internet and its micro-media communications in the 21st Century. Progressives use the modern technology of the Internet to organize in a new way and yes – we do get people elected. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. In the coming years, we need to up the ante of our technological innovation. What we need to do now is project our liberal ideals across the Party and the nation by building a Progressive Grid. 

I propose to you that we build a network of networks, linking the local Progressive clubs, statewide activists, the AD groups and individual members from around the 58 California counties with the Progressive Caucus. We should then link the Caucus to national organizations and build out through the states across the nation. Most importantly, we must actively help to create a Progressive Caucus in each of the 50 state Parties and add them to the grid. 

With a Progressive Grid, a Smart Grid, we can focus Progressives, from local to state to national, to wherever the most activism is needed. In essence, we will create an inter-connected communications wheel with the Progressive Caucus at the hub – a multi-directional democratization of information. The Internet not only makes this possible but achievable through the social networking software already available.

Progressive Economics

Crafting initiatives of sound Progressive economic policy should be an integral part of the work of the next Progressive Caucus. 

The economic theories of the last thirty years of unbridled greed have collapsed. We must demand that the DLC Blue Dog practices of compromising the needs of the people to Crony corporate protocols of narrow self-interest must give way to enlightened self-interest. America needs a complete reexamination of the entire monetary and fiscal policy apparatus as well as a more local, sustainable, renewable and humane ethic for all businesses, going forward. 

Progressive economics is the best long-term design for creating prosperity and opportunity for all. To that end, I have been writing and collaborating on the problem and the solution. You can find my essay, “Who’s Minding The Store?” at: www.riozen.com/salon2.html. In it, I explore the social aspects of the new economic realities. Then please read, “Progressive Economic Principles Essay” at: www.economicsfordemocrats.com. I co-wrote that article with Mark Pash. In it, Mark shares his vision for creating a quality economy through Progressive economics. 

further…

Our movement and our caucus is the fiery generator of bold ideas. We are the citizen response to too many years of the Blue Dog DLC moderate’s electoral flops. Standing for nothing with the DLC cost the Democratic Party everything from 1994 to 2006. Progressives are the first wave of new Liberal activists and the spark that lit the fire resulting in Democratic victories in 2006 and 2008. We are a key part of the new Democratic electoral majority – Labor, Progressives and minorities.

There is a great debate going on in the CDP for the soul of the Democratic Party. On one side are those who say electing Democrats, especially incumbents, is the only purpose of the CDP. On the other side are the members who say that the Party should be the incubator of Progressive Liberal policy. Some say money is everything but we say – in this “Age of Information”, ideas are the greatest capital of all. So, policy and issues are our Progressive focus, not personalities. 

I believe that when principled candidates who embody Progressive ideas are joined by modern GOTV operations, then the change we have hoped for and believed in will be possible. Then the Democratic Party will be living up to its mandate.

Change is the only permanent feature of nature. The Progressive Caucus must change as well as the Democratic Party. We need to leave the comfort of our home – the caucus – and reach out to the entire Party. It is time for us to inspire the rest of our Party to invest in our policy proposals. It is time to take the Progressive Platform into every corner of the Democratic Party and America. 

Our determination and dedication to open, accessible, transparent and accountable politics have changed the political dynamics of America. Our Progressive ideas and actions have come to demand everyone’s attention. I propose that we go further, much further. 

I ask for your vote for Chair of the Progressive Caucus and I thank you for your support.

Brad Parker
Valley Democrats United, President
Progressive Caucus of the CDP, Officer at Large
Platform Committee of the CDP
DSCC, Delegate, 42nd AD
Progressive Democrats of America, Board of Trustees
A.F. of M. Local 47
riozen@riozen.com

A malevolent cloud is sweeping across America tonight. It has permeated the air with betrayal and cowardice. Around the District of Columbia, our putative leaders are breathing in the foul stench of capitulation and finding it to not be as nauseating as they imagined it would be. Our fearsome and feckless Democratic Senate is poised on the precipice of utter degradation. Tomorrow, July 10, 2008, a majority of Democrats in the Senate will march in robotic step with a majority of Democrats in the House and drag our Party, the Constitution and our Republic into the gutter of craven careerism with gusto and enthusiasm. They will vote for the abridged FISA act and gut the Constitution.

Our venerable ”Fourth Amendment” – The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized – will be immolated on the floor of the Senate in the name of “National Security”, which of course will then be impossible to preserve because our “freedom” is our “security”. The stench of this massacre of reason and truth will not be cleansed from our Party for decades to come, let alone from the carpet on the Senate floor.

Oh yes, we know the exhausted elucidations of pragmatic exigency that will be paraded before us – spewing from every mass media outlet – by earnest apologists for the prevaricating “centrist” Democrats. We can see their bloviating bobble heads rising in the mojo mist of dawn even now as we drift off to dream of terrors yet to come. They’ll smugly chortle, “It was the best compromise we could get” or, “Politics is the art of the possible” or perhaps, “There are Islamic Jihadists in our midst!” It will all be lies, disingenuous lies, and damnable disingenuous lies. They will all do it to save their phony baloney jobs. They don’t fear any “terrorists”. These recreant cardboard politicians are afraid they will loose their job and all of the bloated perks that come with it – healthcare, pensions, per diem, staff, travel, dinners, country clubs etc – all of the perks we pay for and they deny us. Therein, dear friends, lies the problem.

One last act before the curtain: will our presumptive Presidential nominee stand for us or lie prostrate before the heel of the tyrants Cheney and Bush? Which Democratic patriots among the cowering 100 will rail against this pulverizing of the, “flag for which it stands for” into nanodust suitable for sweeping under the rug or mounting on a lapel pin? Mark their names fellow Americans; those few who brave the siren call of the incumbency circus. For these are the last representatives left in D.C., from the proud liberal ideal, the New Deal, the Great Society and the Democratic Party. In the dark years to come they will need our help.

So Democrats, if you have ever questioned the need for a Progressive Movement, there will be no better demonstration of its undeniable necessity in our lifetimes than this promenade of submission. Our ancestors are rising from their graves to demand of us the strength to deny this groveling cabal their complete usurpation of our inherent rights and independence. Heed the call. Never capitulate to the clamor for silence and complicity. King George Bush has committed high crimes against America and humanity and the Democratic Congress is aiding and abetting him in this latest illegal act. Will he ever be brought to justice? Will no Democratic leader stop him?

Do not accept the specious narration being offered by Democratic Party leaders, electeds or consultants that the dying light of our Republic and our Party is actually a bright new flame of change. Resist the woeful songs of the gradualists and incrementalists, who claim they are on our side but we will have to wait. Remember July 10, 2008. There’s a bad mojo rising. It not only comes from the Republican Anarchy Collective but from the heart of the Democratic Party. And that is the reason for the Progressive Swarm to renew its commitment to our cause – a Progressive Democratic Party and majority in America. Stand up for your rights. Show up and demand change in the Democratic Party. Speak up whenever and wherever possible and never let anyone shut you up!

Spread the Word.

Our American Revolution is forever being fought. It has become our American “Evolution”. Many of the current features are at odds with the original intent. You have to wonder if the intent of the Second Amendment to the Constitution was a blanket justification for every citizen to walk around packing heat? Our current black-robed contingent, on the highest bench in the land, thinks so. Walking around their hood – D.C. – is definitely going to be dicier this summer. And so it goes. In a time of voracious task-usurping technology and existential dislocation, we are reverting to our base primal instincts for a sense of security. The only security we actually have though, in this upside down paradigm, is in our ability to reason. In other words – our independence of thinking, speaking and acting is our bulwark against a regressive future. That is what the Progressive movement stands for in a nutshell. So, if you are one of the many who are now looking forward to believing in the hope for change remember this – you are the change. No savior on a charging steed, or FEMA, is coming to save us. We are on our own. It’s Independence Day 2008. Now go out and act like it.

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Brother Parker

Remarks by Brad Parker

Democrats – Consider these remarks on Truth and War:

Legacy of Truth 

In war, truth is the first casualty.
~Aeschylus
 
All wars are fought for money.
~Socrates
 
The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more and tolerated by all.
~Tacitus 
 
General Truths
 
It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood…War is hell.
~General William Tecumseh Sherman
 
Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear.
~General Douglas MacArthur
 
War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.
~General Smedley Butler
 
Presidential Truths
 
Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism.
 ~George Washington
 
Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
~John Adams
 
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
~James Madison
 
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible go vernment owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.
~Theodore Roosevelt
 
Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.
~Franklin D. Roosevelt
 
Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.
 ~Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
Military glory–that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood–that serpent’s eye, that charms to destroy…
 ~Abraham Lincoln
 
American Truths
 
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.
~Edward R. Murrow

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
~Barbara Ehrenreich
 
You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it.
~Malcolm X
 
I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.
 ~James Baldwin

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.
 ~ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
 
To some degree it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public.
 ~Noam Chomsky
 
The Department of Defense is the behemoth…With an annual budget larger than the gross d omestic product of Russia, it is an empire.
~The 9/11 Commission Report

The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.
~William Colby, former CIA director
 
World Truths

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
~ Montesquieu

Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained.
~Mahatma Gandhi
 
What a country calls its vital… interests are not things that help its people live, but things that help it make war.
~Simone Weil
 
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.
~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Now consider these:

Lies, Delusions and Tyranny
 
It’s not a matter of what is true that counts but a matter of what is perceived to be true.
 ~Henry Kissinger

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.
 ~George W. Bush

Evil men, obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience, must be taken very seriously–and we must stop them before their crimes can multiply.
~George W. Bush
 
Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.
~Donald Rumsfeld
 
There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that’s just a fact.
 ~Donald Rumsf eld
 
Why should we hear about body bags, and deaths…I mean, it’s not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?
~Barbara Bush

Here is what we do know about the truth and this War in Iraq:

·        There were no weapons of Mass Destruction left in Iraq

 ·        There was no Al Queda in Iraq

 ·        There was no danger of a mushroom cloud from Iraq

 ·        There was no purchase of Yellow Cake uranium from Niger by iraq

 ·        The President, Vice-president, Secretary of State, head of the CIA and much of the Executive lied about all of this as a pretext to wage war in Iraq

 ·        The Vice President and the WH COS Karl Rove outed Valerie Plame thus committing an act of treason

 ·        The Patriot Act and Illegal Wiretapping were not legal or necessary to insure our security and have robbed us of our liberty

 ·        There were and are many High Crimes and Misdemeanors that were committed by the Executive up to the Top

 ·        Congress has abdicated its duty to the American Public and its oath to defend the Constitution by not stopping the War and Impeaching the President and Vice President

 ·        A disappointing number of Democrats in the Congress have been complicit in this dereliction of duty in the name of National Security

 ·        Pragmatism, not enough votes and we can’t be seen as not supporting the troops are the hollow reasons espoused by far too many Democrats for not stopping these continuing crimes and the War

 ·        The American public has lost faith in both the Congress and the Executive with the lowest approval ratings in history

Then there is this:

Congress is finally moving to shut one of the more egregious forms of Iraq war profiteering: defense contractors using offshore shell companies to avoid paying their fair share of payroll taxes. No one will be surprised to hear that one of the suspected prime offenders is KBR, the Texas-based defense contractor, formerly a part of the Halliburton conglomerate allied with Vice President Dick Cheney. According to a report in The Boston Globe, KBR, which has landed billions in Iraq contracts, has used two Cayman shell companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions in payroll, Medicare and unemployment taxes. Unfortunately right now there is nothing illegal about this.

To which, our friend Sam Park replies:
 
Pals,

Here’s what gets me steamed. The Iraq War is being paid for with money borrowed from foreign countries. We then have to pay them back with interest. This is the first time since the Revolutionary War this has EVER happened (smell that fishy odor?). And the wealthiest elite aren’t being taxed more (as in every other past war) but had their taxes CUT!  But if you think that is bad, read below! Please note. The company that is dodging taxes WHILE TAKING OUR TAX MONEY is KBR, a company formerly a part of Dick Cheney’s Halliburton. Another thing I HATE HATE HATE about this war is how all the people involved in starting it are making billions off of it! And if you question them, they claim you are being unpatriotic and “How dare you threaten our troops by being disloyal and questioning a defense contractor!” Man, these people are the wickedest of the wicked! We have military men and women dying and getting maimed and screwing up their minds and these companies are shortening them in taxes while making a profit!

Sam Park
Valley Democrats United Board

And that dear reader is some of the Truth that has been murdered in this War in Iraq…  

END THE WAR NOW !!!!

Progressives had many things to feel good about during the 2008 CDP Convention in San Jose. There were some long sought gains made for principles and the people – especially on the Platform Committee and our new mostly Progressive platform. However, the fate of the Immigration Town Hall, initiated by the Progressive Caucus, was a donkey of another color.

On the positive side: for the first time a broad spectrum of caucuses collaborated on an important and controversial issue. Together, nine caucuses presented their consensus positions at an open to the DSCC delegates Town Hall, during a general session. This was followed by a brief amount of comment form the floor by the delegates. That’s the good stuff. Following are the curious shortcomings of the event.

When the concept was first put forward it was designed to open up the dialogue surrounding a critical issue – get ahead of the Republicans for the general election. It was conceived from the experience the Progressive Caucus had derived by holding several Town Halls. Our feeling was that there was too much talking from the podium and not enough listening to the members on the floor. Next, we wanted to include several other caucuses for outreach. We organized with the Labor, Women’s, African-American and Chicano-Latino caucuses and when we asked for a room to present this event, at the November CDP E. Bd., the current CDP leadership said they wanted to be involved. So, we met to lay out the concept and form an organizing committee.

At that meeting, in November, we came to a basic agreement on the meeting outline – as a Town Hall with as much member comment time as possible. We insisted that interaction was the key – not a lecture. It was agreed that we have just a little background and a statistical speaker, followed by caucus representatives and then the bulk of the time for member’s comments. In addition, all of the CDP caucuses would be invited to participate. That was the intent. The effect was remarkably different.

Instead of a separate meeting the event was folded into a general session. Then, things really began to unravel. Time allotted for speakers, chosen only by the CDP leadership with no input from the caucuses, grew. Time for the critical input from caucus speakers shrank. Membership time sank like the Titanic. When the event happened on Saturday – it was apparent that the original idea of inclusion had been dropped in favor of more of the usual talking heads. We were marginalized.

First – we had to follow the seemingly endless list of electeds and candidates that ate up all of the morning session time. After that wore everyone out, the ITH began one and a half hours late and at the end of the morning general session, as everyone was leaving to attend the lunch. The selected speakers ate up 30 minutes of time after some important and cogent remarks by Congressmember Zoe Lofgren. As the clocked ticked – more delegates vacated the premises. Next, each of the nine participating caucuses – Labor, Chicano-Latino, African-American, Business and Professional, Irish-American, Rural, Asian/Pacific Islander, Senior and Progressive – gave very brief 90 second remarks. You could hear the crickets. This was followed by a handful of questions, hilariously dominated by LaRouche devotees who had stacked the mikes. By the time the closing remarks came – the hall was essentially empty.

Not only were there hardly any delegates in the hall for the Town Hall but also the staging was awkward. The speakers panel sat on the dais while the caucus representatives had to deliver their remarks from a microphone on a lower level with dim lighting. It looked like the kids table at a Thanksgiving dinner. To add insult to injury; the event was never publicized in an email to the delegates, on the CDP website or on the printed agenda of the general session. Only a paltry flyer with little information was handed out on the day of the meeting and in too few places to create a buzz.

You might assume that this was an exercise in futility dear reader but you would be wrong. It was an exercise in discovery.

All of the caucuses organized in good faith and found that they can work together on important issues. That will resonate positively through the membership for some time to come. On the other hand – the current CDP leadership by their actions and not their intent showed that they are lost in the old paradigm of control rather than moving into the 21st century paradigm of facilitation – powered by the Internet. By marginalizing this event, attempting to hide it from the delegates and the public, while pretending to be cooperating they gave a bold demonstration of their true state of mind – vis a vis – this type of event, the membership and the caucuses. We all know that what’s important in relationships is not what you say but what you do.

We can and must accept that the actions of the leadership came from good intentions but their effect was the opposite. One is left to wonder if it was contempt, fear or dismissiveness that produced this sad scene of a great idea mangled in public. Here was an opportunity for the current leadership of the CDP to embrace inclusion and bold initiative but it was lost. Oh well – on to our next innovation in the democratization of information and consensus igniting action.

So, here’s to the lessons learned and now, let us press onward with the membership, as ably represented by the caucuses, dedicated to openness, transparency and accountability.

We will do this again, as a product of collaboration among the caucuses. Next time the effect will exemplify the intent and courage will outweigh fear. Next time the event will reflect and not direct the membership. See you there.

So, what to do with all of these homes going into foreclosure? Let them go. That’s right – walk away from the house. Wait a minute – you are thinking. Are you suggesting that all of these Americans just drop their mortgages and give up on the American dream? No – I’m not. They should realize that, by staying in their dream, they would only wake up to discover that it is a nightmare. The price they bought their home at will not be realized again unless they stay put for maybe up to ten years. Most of these homes were sold to Americans who couldn’t afford them and most importantly at prices that were inflated 100% above what they should have been selling at. These Americans were suckers in a scheme with many deceivers but the sucker punch that will hurt the most is if they stay and continue to pay for all of that equity which does not exist.

Just as in the 1990’s speculative real estate bubble, prices on real estate in the last ten years were gamed by the sellers, flippers and every financial player and institution to create more and more wealth on paper. Rather than continue with sustainable 1 to 2% growth in home values, the rise in prices reached breathtaking double-digit heights in the past two years to as much as 28% year over year in some regions. That type of appreciation is of course unsustainable. Certainly, every player in this giant greater fool scheme knew that didn’t he or she? Well no, they did not.

The greater fool was, as it usually is, the buyer, especially the low-income buyer. Thanks to predatory lending practices, which prey upon low-income, elderly and minority buyers, the lenders were able to create an entirely new group of buyers to fuel their scheme. Some of these buyers may have sensed that buying homes worth hundreds of thousands of dollars with no money down, bad credit and ballooning payments looming on the horizon was a mirage but their need to have a part of the American dream of home ownership was too great. Probably, the largest numbers of these buyers were recklessly unaware of the dangers inherent in their purchase.

So, here comes the Congress to save our hapless fellow citizens. They will do whatever is necessary to keep these good folks in their homes. But wait – this is the bubble inside the bubble – if you stay in your home for let us say, the $300,000 price at which you purchased it. Meanwhile, all of the homes around you are revalued down 30% or perhaps as much as 50%. Then you are left holding the bag for equity that no longer exists. Equity it will take years and years to just get even with. Why would our saviors from the DC Swamp punish the distressed even further? Because dear reader – the myriad lenders and holders of the bad faith paper that the home mortgages were rolled into would be able to save their sagging fortunes on the backs of the suckers. The big guys bottom line would stabilize while ours would disappear into limitless debt. Now, that’s a true roundhouse sucker punch.

Inevitably, the proud and bellicose defenders of free markets, lassiez faire capitalism and neoliberal economic policy bristle at the thought of government intervention in business unless and until it comes time to save them from their failures. Then, you and I get to bail them out – think: the Savings and Loan debacle. Yes, smaller non-interfering government is the way to go, trumpet the strumpets of Wall Street but if necessary the public must and will pay the price. That time to save those who refuse to help us with government programs that could help these very same citizens get a real home at a realistic price is here again. At least that’s what we are being told.

I favor another approach to this meltdown. Let the people who created the scheme pay for it. Any and every financial institution and lender who participated in the bubble should be left holding the bag along with the buyers, even the ones who were suckered into it. If the Congress wanted to help, really truly help, the buyers, they should enact a program that let’s the buyers default without any harm to their credit rating. Housing prices should be allowed to revalue – decline – and the so-called market should be allowed to fail. If no one pays a price for this deregulated and over speculated financial mess then people will try it again and soon. Buyers who walk away with their credit unharmed will be more financially solvent when the market bottoms out and the home they buy at that point will have a realistic price tag.

Let the free market triumphalists swallow a big dose of the nasty medicine they love to talk about but rarely consume. Let the market and it’s failure work. Let the American citizens live to dream another day without paying the bill for the sucker-punch crowd.

Progs,

First – let me apologize to anyone who has had their feelings hurt by my posts in favor of John Edwards or on any other matter. My contrast and compare style, with colorful language, has seemed reckless to some and excellent to others. For those on the WTF side of the discussion – it’s a debate. Nothing I have ever said should be construed as demeaning. It’s not. My experience of politics is that it is a life & death struggle and brutally serious – full of intrigue and ambition. I don’t think that has changed or will. I write, speak and organize with that in mind. I respect all of you.

I have contemplated the attraction of Clinton & Obama and written about the reasons as I see them. If you agree, and most of the responses I have received from across the country have been very positive, then I thank the choir. I am happy to have said what others were thinking and provide them with a voice. If you disagree, then by all means just throw my opinion out with the trash as you probably do all the time. I will support the nominee. I’m a yellow dog Democrat.

For the record – I am not hurt by any personal attack on my opinion or character. That’s politics. In fact some of the attacks are thought provoking and others downright funny. Some anonymous bloggodyte on DailyKos commented on a recent piece I wrote with Wayne Williams and Ahjamu Makalani – “what were the other four dwarves doing?” Other than maligning little people, I thought that was hilarious. BTW – if you stand by your thoughts and comments – put your name on it – I do.

I take politics very seriously, as you know. More importantly, I don’t take my part in it seriously at all. That’s why I feel free to take every candidate and elected to task, primary, general and in office. I encourage all of you to do the same. I encourage you to take me to task, after all I have quite a few political titles after my name. Go for it.

As a candidate, I have lost as many elections as I have won. The last time I ran for County Central Committee here in LA I got the lowest votes. My feelings or policies were not hurt. 3000 plus local citizens voted for me. Now, I just have to convince 15,000 more. I lost to Susie Shannon and Andrew Lachman for E. Bd. Rep in the 42nd last year. I congratulate them and support Susie as our Rep. However, I did get the second highest votes for AD delegate in the same election. It’s not personal, it’s politics.

I don’t believe in candidates – I believe in citizens. I believe in ideas, issues and policy. I have worked for too many candidates and been left standing on the side of the road with all of the other worker bees when they got what they wanted, which was inevitably always the next election and continued incumbency. I am absolutely astonished by the Progressive Swarm and completely convinced that “we” are changing the world. I believe in us and that has been my message for four years and will remain so.

In the Democratic Party, the only issues being discussed now have come from the Progressive Movement. This caucus articulated them well and continues to do so. Candidates are only administrators of our will. We make policy. They’re supposed to implement it not run from it. They all need to be reminded of that continually and held accountable permanently – especially the ones we support. The pyramid is citizens-side up now. Members are the leaders. We don’t need a hero anymore.

One more thought. I have many children and a couple of grand kids. It’s inevitable that I relate undeveloped reasoning with children and mature reasoning with adults. At the same time, children have the most valuable asset in life, beginner’s mind as we say in Zen, and adults are easily trapped in stiff intransigence. Virtue is where you find it. So, go ahead and ignore me, my kids do, except when they need a problem solved.

I love the fact that all of you are here and standing up for what you want. I stand with you. I won’t be silenced if I disagree and I will be there to the end for all of us in the struggle.

Group Hug…

Brad Parker
Progressive Caucus of the CDP, Officer at Large

By Brad Parker, Wayne Williams and Ahjamu Makalani
Jan 6th 2008

Dateline – America, 2008. Barack Obama must have spent a lot of time studying Bill Clinton because he has become an eerie doppelganger of the same triangulating, capitulating dogma aimed at romancing any citizen who wants all image, vague promises and little substance; a citizen on edge about the future. Mr. Obama says, “I am the change!” Change to what, we ask? Mr. Obama says, “Turn the page!” Turn to what page from what book, we ask? Mr. Obama says, “Hope we can believe in!” Hope for what, we ask? The siren song remains the same – a lot of smoke and mirrors and no ideas. Here is how the dog and pony show works.

Ginned up fear and anxiety conspire to create an opportunity and into that vacuum walks another friendly face – a face in the crowd. As one great seducer leaves the spotlight, another enters from stage right. Their personas are created on Madison Avenue, financed by Wall Street and sold on YouTube. It’s a crony corporate trifecta and the sullen youth of America, frightened soccer Moms and salivating militarists are giddily marching together down the prim rose path once again. Why do these pied pipers of faux political policy so continually beguile America? The answer is – they pimp the sizzle and ditch the steak

Like in any rock and roll circus the lead singer needs to be believable; at least when you see them on stage or in a video. However, Barack Obama is not Elvis Presley or James Brown, he’s Millie Vanilly plus Vanilla Ice and appearances are decidedly deceptive. Poke any policy proposal put forward by Mr. Obama and the air will rush out of the bogus balloon. There is no there there, when it comes to substance or his favorite word, change.

Examine Mr. Obama’s proposals for Health Care, energy, education, Social Security or any other macro policy program and you will see that Mr. O’s thoughts are aligned with the people who put up most of the money for his campaign – Corporate America! Mr. O would privatize all or part of each of the aforementioned government programs. Oh – you missed that part? Let’s take a look.

His health care program is neither Universal nor Single Payer and would leave out at least 15 MILLION Americans, while leaving the corporations in control. Nor would it provide for the future healthcare needs of the young Americans who are currently swooning over his candidacy. In fact, like his distorted energy policy, which embraces dangerous nuclear and polluting coal as primary energy sources, Gen-X, Y & Z’s will end up paying dearly for the tune this pied piper is downloading for free to their hard drives. Generations of Americans, used to racking up enormous credit card debt, have no idea what this purchase is going to cost them.

Then, there is the fact that Mr. O pointed the finger at all the other candidates who voted to allow Bush to invade Iraq and yet when the time came to give BushCo permission to invade Iran, Mr. O couldn’t find the time to show up and vote against it. His track record in Illinois and in the Senate has followed the same pattern; when crucial votes are counted and its time to take a stand: where is Mr. O? As always, he’s missing in action. Mr. O subscribes to that old Clinton/DLC dictum; stand for nothing other than rhetoric, move to the right and call it the Third Way – an end to partisan bickering.

Under the guise of being all things to all people, Mr. O is heartily solidifying corporate America’s control of the political process in the name of – you guessed it, change. It’s no surprise that clever advertisers have once again figured out how to sell the same ole – same ole as something new. Young Americans say that they are enthralled because Mr. O gives them hope. What they perceive as hope is…. a placebo. They believe they are seeing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Kanye West and John Mayer all rolled into one – here to save the day. In actuality, they are staring at a mirage cleverly adapted to reflect their hopes, dreams and desires while picking their pockets. Buyer beware.

So, why would a bright, well-educated man with all the good intentions in the world, play this deceptive part in the American political drama? Perhaps the answer lies in his progenitor – Bill Clinton. Perhaps it is simpler than that. Maybe Mr. Obama became Mr. Opportunity because he saw an opening, a chance to do what he wanted no matter the price, a chance to advance? We may never know why, but we know how. Mr. Obama became Mr. Opportunity because America was desperate for it and if he played their song, the corporations would mortgage his future. Whatever success electorally may follow for him, failure for the rest of us will be close behind. Just ask our most recent hollow Democrat, Bill Clinton. Eventually the Madmen who finance the show come for their ROI and it will cost the rest of us big time in the form of more corporate driven policy and legislation.

Somebody needs to tell the twittering Obama crowd that this isn’t American Idol. This is for real and a price will be paid for every choice that is made. If you really want to choose change that isn’t Progressive in name only then elect John Edwards. If you really want to win a better place at the table for every American then support John Edwards. If you yearn for a President who is more substance than image then choose John Edwards. John Edwards stands for an immediate end to the Iraq War, Full Public Campaign Financing, Universal Healthcare, Public Education through college and all of the policies and programs America needs now. That’s the change we’re looking for.

A truly powerful African-American, Fredrick Douglas, famously wrote and strenuously insisted “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.” Somebody needs to tell Mr. Opportunity that this isn’t a luncheon, this is a struggle – this is a fight for everything we all hold dear. Let’s send a fighter into the ring – John Edwards – not a capitulator, appeaser, or talking head that claims that he can make everything nice without a battle. But then again, as Mark Twain was fond of pointing out, America loves a huckster. We shall see.

By Brad Parker
12/24/2007

If Calvin Coolidge was right and, “the chief business of the American people is business”, then the current management needs to be fired, without a pension. It is bad enough that the Republicans celebrated their unchallenged federal control with wave upon wave of higher and higher deficits but the Democrats giddily joined in, as if their complicity would go un-noticed in the binge of corruption and malfeasance. Moreover, where were all of the Ivy-league MBAs during this collapse of reason? Absent while searching for their scruples? Is there no decency left? Well, in a word, no.

We have quite literally gone to hell in a hand-basket. Perhaps the current Democratic crew in Congress has the fortitude to stand up to their corporate enablers? Remember though – it is hard to bite the hand that feeds you, so we will wait and see but don’t hold your breath dear reader. So, in lieu of any current political leadership – it’s time for some new, BIG ideas on how to right the ship of state and clean the Stygian stables of the marketplace. Herein, I offer the following proposals from a Progressive Liberal Democrat’s point of view. They are offered from a sociological as well as an economics perspective, putting people before profit.

Local / Renewable / Sustainable / Humane

If we use those four words – local, renewable, sustainable, and humane – as our maxim, our code of conduct, in the futuring of business then we can mitigate the disasters that are unavoidable and enhance the possibilities for prevention of the afflictions that are brewing. Narrow self-interests must yield to enlightened self-interests. A little more sharing will go a long way. A cleaner greener world is still possible but time is perilously short.

We must rise to the occasion, open our minds and work together to untether ourselves from the tainted past. We must demand that our elected officials turn the ship of state away from the rocky shoals of stupefied greed. While we are at it, we had better get the looting of the treasury out of their clammy palms with some true transparency. Post all upcoming expenditure bills on the Internet so we can all weigh in on their efficacy before any votes are taken. Make every economic bill a jobs bill not a corporate profit bill. Make every trade agreement fair not free. End the obscenity of the so-called War on Drugs. Make the tax system progressive not regressive. The better you do in Business America the more you are responsible for maintaining it. Paying more in taxes because you made more in profits as an individual or company is a privilege not a punishment. You owe it to the company that made it possible for you to earn those greenbacks – Business America.

Our American government is the most successful business enterprise in the history of the world if you insist on looking at it that way. It is time to stop privatizing or selling it off to the lowest incompetent bidder. It is time for all stakeholders to reinvest in our shared responsibility and opportunity. Like Robert Johnson sang – we’re down at the crossroads with the hellhound on our trail. As a Progressive Liberal Democrat, I see a possible clean and green future but it will take a massive correction in course for Business America. Cal Coolidge may have been right about something but not about the business of America. When the only business in America is business – with no principles, no ethics – then the business is finished. Put the people before the profit and we can finally get down to business.

Organic / Green Up

It is a happy coincidence that the color of American money is green. After all – Green represents growth, vitality and the unfolding of new ideas. Green represents recycling and clean energy. Green also represents the organic agriculture industry. Over the next decade, organic food will become the dominant symbol of not only good nutrition but also a sustainable planet. Locally grown will broaden the horizon of possibilities for a reinvigorated market system of fair trade. When the counter-culture bloomed in the last century, grocery store shelves carried only white bread with few exceptions. Hippies and New Agers brought consciousness to the health of the nation with the retail availability of “whole wheat bread”. This coincided with the publication of the “Whole Earth Catalog”. Then came “Earth Day”. Now, what seemed bizarre and dangerous has been revealed to be practical and pragmatic. The soundtrack of the “Summer of Love” – do good for all and not just for the few – is becoming mainstream fair trade economics and none too soon.

However, beware dear consumer of the phenomena of “Greenwashing”. That is when corporations try to put a positive spin on their products and services by claiming to employ environmentally sound business practices when the truth is that they are merely painting themselves green and not organically growing themselves green. Take dairy products for instance. If you keep all of your cows in a crowded feedlot and just give them grains and water, you could claim to have “organic” dairy products but that’s a stretch. Taste some milk or cheese from cows that roam green fields eating green grass and you will know what I am talking about. Every business has the potential for green, organic growth and sustainability but consumers must remain vigilant as to the truth of every companies “green” bona fides.

Energy Independence

Big Oil is dead. Of course, the big oil operators, private and public have known that for years. They are all for conversion just as soon as they squeeze that last dollar/euro/yen/yuan out of the last barrel of crude. We cannot afford to wait for that. The Republic of the United States of America should declare a complete end to the use of all energy extractables (oil, coal, natural gas and uranium) in ten years. We should follow the lead of the Apollo Alliance and be bold, like JFK’s prediction of putting us on the moon in ten years. There is no need to wait until the science makes this practical. Lead with a BIG idea and the science will follow.

Renewable energy produced here in America along with alternative fuels (wind, solar and geothermal) and conservation is the future. One has to wonder why there is not a LEED “Green Roof” with solar power cells on every public building – city, county, state and federal – in America already. There is a direct line connecting whole wheat bread and the “Prius”. Democratic Party leaders should muster the courage to not only discern but also promote it instead of leaving it to the Japanese or Brazilians to show us the way forward.

Healthcare for All

The saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, was coined by old Ben Franklin. It has never been more apt. With corporations crowding the exits from their responsibilities to their work force past and present because of the rising cost of private healthcare, it would seem that the time for prevention is at hand. That prevention will be found in Single-payer Universal Healthcare for all Americans. In addition, if that healthcare is led by more preventative medicine then the costs of cures and procedures will decrease dramatically. America will at last join the civilized world when the citizens who vote politicians into office will be afforded the same level of healthcare that the politicians vote into law for themselves. All businesses will enjoy more green – profit – with the cost of healthcare off their books. All citizens will enjoy more green – vitality – when their investment – taxes – is vested in their health and well-being.

Drugs & Medicine

All drugs and medicines and their abuse should be reclassified as a medical problem and not a criminal obsession. The legacy of J. Edgar Hoover and the sociopathic leaders of the Twentieth Century must be brought to an orderly close. The War on Drugs is and has always been a war against logic and reason. The Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 must be repealed. Sadly, only Republican leaders like William F. Buckley, Milton Freidman and George Schultz have had the courage to recognize this glaring reality.

As of yet there are no leading Democrats, save in the grassroots or at the local level, with the courage to face this calamitous obscenity. Illegal drugs and their cultivation and distribution have undermined every society on the globe so much so that now even once legal over the counter medicines like cold remedies are part of the worldwide trafficking of substances threatening to bring down civilization as we sit by idly and watch. If you are for the “War on Drugs” then you are for terrorists, gangsters, murder, rape, over-crowded prisons and corruption on a scale not witnessed since the Dark Ages. If it is not the root of modern evil then it is at least the grease on the wheels. The “War on Drugs” is the wellspring of funding for every modern madness – especially organized terror.

Some Democratic leader must summon the mighty courage as well as loss of vanity and ambition to lead us out of this purgatory and into a new age of reason. Drugs are a medical problem not a criminal problem. If we are honest with ourselves and our descendents, we will dry up the swamp of so many of these tyrannies by ending the criminalization of drugs and beginning the era of education, rehabilitation, taxation and legalization.

Investment / Taxes / Infrastructure

Who built the highways that connect every corner of America? Who pays for the police, the fire fighters and the emergency services? Where does the money come from to provide for the common defense? How do we afford municipal water and sewer systems? I could go on but you get the point; we all want these benefits to society and more and somehow they must be invested in for everyone’s mutual benefit. We are woefully behind in that endeavor. Katrina’s swath of pain is a symptom of the greater cause of this dilemma, which is the failure to secure the infrastructure and invest taxes for the public good.

Our American infrastructure is paid for by our American investment in our government. This is most commonly known as taxes. If you regard America as one large business enterprise, as many conservatives are fond of believing, then we are the shareholders. We are the investors in this enterprise. As stated before, the current management, who work for us, must go. Then we, the shareholders and investors, must reassess where we want our investment dollars, i.e. taxes, to be spent. Unfortunately, Katrina and the crumbling bridges, schools and hospitals of America are currently neglected not only for reasons of corruption and malfeasance but by the so-called Reagan revolution against taxes. Grover Norquist and the sniveling purveyors of, “no more government” – “no more taxes” were bald-faced liars on the hustle for our money and they have gotten way too much of it.

Taxes are not a punishment – unless you are one of the deceitful grifters of the Conservative No-Think tanks – they are an investment. Like most investors we have been happy to let our brokers (politicians) run the investment funds and manage the company until now we find our accounts in the red and we are busted, dead flat broke and headed for monumental bankruptcy. The sub-prime meltdown of 2007 is only the beginning of the Main Street ‘Global Warming”. Be advised though that the pigs at the trough – corporate oinkers and the bleating swine of the political hackocracy – are living high off the investment (taxes) they have stolen from us, the shareholders. There are far too many examples to cite here so just pick one of your local thieves.

Whenever the new Democratic led Congress investigates the waste and fraud, they will not have to look very far to find the missing money in the budget or the waste and the corruption. Just look in the mirror. If you think, I am being unfair, check out how much money each one of them has in their campaign funds treasure chest. A good start to cleaning house would be to call for Full Public Campaign Financing at every level of the government. In fact, that may be the best remedy for everything that ails U.S. It is past time to get a refund on our investment, fire the current managers and get back to building our business – the infrastructure that works for all of us.

Jobs – the Primacy of the Middle Class

Name the most valuable resource in America? In the world? If your answer was – people – then you are a winner! Now, what is the one thing all of the people need to sustain them? A job. Mahatma Gandhi pointed out long ago that the machine was replacing the human hands in the workplace to the detriment of the stability of the community. This lesson was lost on the industrialists who could only see their own profit – community be damned. That state of affairs was tenable for a period of time but that period has passed.

Even before we run out of the most valuable resources that nature has gifted to us – water, air and land – life will become unsustainable for humans because the parasite will have eaten the host. That is – the ultra-rich and monopolist corporations, which they control, will have devoured so much of the productivity of the working class that the entire scheme of capitalism will fail. With no jobs and no productivity, the working 99% will no longer be able to support the idle 1%. Rome repeats itself on a worldwide scale. Of course this is all avoidable. Good jobs that pay a living wage with benefits and the opportunity to become an owner not just a worker are necessary for a sustainable economy. Somebody tell Wall Street.

Federal fiscal policy, beginning just before 1913, when the 16th amendment to the Constitution was ratified creating a federal Income tax, has been for more than 100 years chiefly designed to enhance the economic well being of Americans. At least that was the theory. Regrettably though, rich citizens ate the largest part of the pie baked in Congress. Clever prescriptions like the tragicomically named “minimum” wage provided flimsy band-aids to the sustained imbalance between rich and poor. Only during the FDR years and into the 60’s was public policy generating a more robust middle class. Since the Nixon years, wages have stagnated. This is not only a glaring reason for a true “living” wage but public policy designed to enhance responsible consumer spending. Asking the profligate electeds to lead in responsibility is laughable at best.

A balance between the income of the rich or managers of Business America and the stockholders – workers and citizens of Business America – is necessary to keep the business model sound and afloat. However, the gap between the ultra-rich and the poor is widening at an exponential rate. With more of the wealth created in any society – and wealth is created by the working class not the monied class (e.g. productivity) – going to fewer people at the top, our America as a business model is fatally flawed. Imagine running your own small business, corporation or household where the majority of the profit only went to the top managers. You guessed it – your operations would fail. Who wants to work for nothing? Certainly not the CEOs of corporate America. Warning – kill the buying capacity of the American consumers and the corporations die. Oh – and do not count on global markets to bail out the craven dismantling of the American working class. Without the American middle class – the global pipedream vanishes. Therefore, it is either more good jobs or too much of nothing. As Bob Dylan wrote, “too much of nothing makes a man feel ill at ease”.

Public Education

How can you get people to work in the 21st Century jobs when 15 to 20% of Americans are illiterate and only 25% have gone to college? The answer of course is a more robust “Public” education system. However, current educational trends show a stampeding, to the mantra of “privatization”, towards charter schools. When this idea – vouchers part II – first crept out of Knoxville, Tennessee, Chris Whittle said that business could educate our children better than the government. In reality, it was just a clever bait and switch game calculated to take the curriculum out of the teacher’s hands and the money out of our pockets.

Charter or voucher schools follow a cut and gut philosophy used by take-over specialists to buy then flip undervalued companies. Once they have the green light in any school district, in come their quasi-private schools in place of our public schools. Memorization and testing replace learning and experiential immersion. The arts and physical education are minimized or eliminated. The books are brought in from publishers who toe the new line on just the facts but not the reality in all subjects. Graduation rates are insured at the cost of any semblance of a real or classic education.

Here again, the business model of top-down command creates citizens with a shell of an education. Meanwhile, the public schools are drained of their funds so the test results can show that the charter/voucher schools are better and the downward spiral continues.

It is time to stop this ineffectual shell game and get back to public schools with a broad liberal arts education. A welcome addition would be to offer technical schools as well for those students inclined toward the new technological frontier of the Internet. Every neighborhood should have the best in facilities, books and teachers. To make that possible, teachers should be among the best paid jobs not the least. You can throw in firefighters and police for that raise while you are at it.

Re-Train America

Ok – we get it now. You cannot continue to put an unending stream of automobiles on the face of the planet without disastrous results in air and land use quality. So, let’s go back a step to go two forward. We should “re-train” America. Rail travel in all of its forms – light, metro, high speed – is cleaner and greener. As a massive infrastructure undertaking, at all levels of government, it would create more good jobs and new industrial innovations than any other project including space exploration. America’s non-productive and pointless war economies could be recycled into heavy industry with a purpose. The world would follow suit if they wanted to keep up. Therefore, more rail travel would lead to less auto travel, creating numerous environmental benefits. Mass transit would at last replace the bloated highway budgets and urban development might be able to come into a sane perspective as well.

Internet / Entrepreneurship

Technology always pushes the past and its masters out of the way. As most business bon vivants are fond of saying – it is amoral. What is immoral is when the power to control technology lays in the hands of an elitist few. Most interesting about the underlying principles of the latest tech tool – the Internet – is that control (favored by the wealthy past) is the antithesis of its fundamental architecture, which is, “facilitation”.

Notwithstanding the forgoing statement, major business leaders and old-line businesses are scurrying about trying to devise newer and cleverer ways to subvert the public good and get a grasp on the Internet. Of course, this is futile. For starters, the Internet itself is designed to be so democratic that all tyrannical master plans are merely foolish flops on arrival. More importantly, if allowed to flourish as a democratic technology, former titans of industry stand a better chance at reaping larger profits. Now, that is truly ironic. Again – facilitation of greater participation in the rewards of productivity will increase the bottom line of every interest as long as they are shared interests, e.g. the common good. This is not a new idea limited to technology though. Our Constitution was designed with the same principle in mind – facilitation of the many rather than control by the few. Hmm – maybe the Founders were on to something!

If allowed to stand as a public utility, maintained for the many not the few, the Internet will provide the greatest advances in entrepreneurship, public discourse and futuring of the Liberal Ideal heretofore known – in America and across the globe. Within the architecture of the Internet, lies the potential for not only the democratization of information but also the democratization of wealth.

Environment / Resources / Recycling

If you need to be convinced that the Climate Crisis is real, then like the dinosaurs you are headed for extinction. If I may presume to speak for the majority of sentient beings though, we don’t relish the thought of going down with you. So, what is to be done? How can we save the planet?

Well, the planet doesn’t need to be saved. As has been said before, the planet will do just fine if we manage to finish off our miserable existence upon it. It is we, the people, who are in danger of perishing not our mother earth. We can avoid this calamity only if we wake up to the central theme of this entire essay: enlightened self-interest must prevail over narrow self-interest. We are all self-interested. That is a function of our survival instinct. In this decade, millions of years of human evolution have come to the tipping point. Either we all survive and thrive – together – or we all disappear into the echoes of time.

Every being is dependent upon the vitality of every other being. We are inextricably mixed. All resources – especially water – are rare and must be managed for the benefit of each of us. This does not mean that a utopian dream is achievable but without greater sharing and less disparity between the haves and the “ain’t ever gonna haves” we are doomed and sooner than we think. Of course, nothing is written yet. Wise use of our most miraculous resource, human reasoning, might just save the day. I think mother earth would like to keep us around for a little longer. Stay tuned.

Last but not least, I think that it should go without saying or contradiction that “recycling” every possible resource is paramount to our design of a cleaner – greener world. We should all start by recycling our outdated notions of I got mine – you get yours.

China Collapses

Amid the furious dash to be embraced by the illusion of billions of consumers eagerly awaiting our every possible trinket, a dark and ominous truth is emerging. Its ramifications promise to annihilate the largest number of humans ever, in one long agonizing fell swoop. I refer to the imminent collapse of Communist China – aided and abetted by globalization and mountainous greed.

Simply put, the industrialized nations’ perversion of sound labor practices, as witnessed in the unconscionable abandonment of manufacture in the developed world and the switch to basically slave labor in China, will reap what it has sown. This curse of chasing lower and lower labor costs will come home to roost in horrifying ways that were avoidable and predicted. A century of labor organizing, workplace safety and necessary business regulation will be for naught – especially to the hapless Chinese workers.

Recent discoveries of tainted food and products from China are only the tip of the iceberg of the coming internal Chinese collapse. Imagine what America would be like today if robber baron corporate interests had prevailed here over the last one hundred years. What would life in America be like without laws to protect workers, public safety, food supplies, regulate unsafe manufacturing, reduce pollution, root out corruption and graft, prosecute elected officials who steal from the public treasury etc.? Yes, I know that many of these protections and laws are not working, as they should here but what if there were none at all? What would America look like then? It would most closely resemble the plot of one of HBO’s recent dramatic series. It would start as the Sopranos, evolve into Deadwood and end up as Rome. That is where China exists today. A lawless land pillaged by foreign investment and so-called Socialist or Communist leaders who are nothing more than gangsters. If you‘re looking for a persuasive argument about the absolute necessity for Labor Unions and the right to organize, not to mention the right to vote, this is it.

Consider just this one scenario of the soon to be Chinese collapse: a healthcare system unprepared for hundreds of millions of emphysema and asthma victims all showing up at the same time. Besides the monstrous effects of no pollution controls in their air, water or land use, the Chinese have been happily consuming the world’s largest number of cigarettes per capita for decades. When the business practices ennobled by Wal-Mart and a host of other companies are combined with the environmental catastrophe fast approaching the Chinese healthcare system, as lacking as it is, will be brought to its knees. Then, the business interests will be unsustainable and the government will disintegrate as the wealthy try to catch the last plane out, stranding the vast majority of citizens.

Running away from everything that made America and its middle class work is going to costs us all – especially the Chinese. As I said, if the business of America is business then the current management needs to go if only for creating this onrushing gruesome calamity in China.

In Conclusion

There is nothing new in these proposals. These concepts are a compendium of common sense, win-win ideas that were available long before the Hippies and New Agers dared to utter them. Maybe it is their simplicity – as expressed in John Nash’s brilliant equilibrium theory – that has made them illusive. Perhaps it’s the venality of the ruling class and their desperate zero-sum proclivity. Of course, there is the inertia of the voting class and their fearful manipulation by political strategists – breeding a catatonic state of disinterest. Whatever the cause, most likely all of the above, the results are killing us.

Progress demands a new idea of community doing business in a local, renewable, sustainable, humane paradigm. All other models have failed and will continue to do so. As a Progressive Liberal Democrat, I believe in a new course of human interaction and interdependency. I have presented a few of the ideas that would make that new world possible. My hope is that collecting these progressive proposals for furthering business into one article will stimulate debate and most importantly – ACTION! Hesitation and obstruction are no longer viable.

Now is the time for change. This is the place for a breakthrough. We are the people who can make it happen. So, please pass the whole wheat bread and let us get back to “minding” the store.

(Many thanks to my editor – Margie Murray – VP Valley Democrats United)

By Wayne Williams and Brad Parker

We Americans are simple people who seek clarity on matters of national importance. So, here it is, The Issue of National Importance: the Executive branch of the Federal government is in charge of all security agencies and all military forces in the United States and thereby responsible for all security breaches allowed by the government.

It follows that the Executive Branch, aka the Cheney/Bush Administration, failed to stop the attacks of 9/11 and failure to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice for these crimes. They are responsible not only for the lies that assisted them in creating the false premise for invading Iraq but responsible for the massive failure to plan for the aftermath of the invasion that has brought us to where we are today – a quagmire.

This bears repeating: all of the national security failures of the last seven years, domestic and foreign, are the primary responsibility of the Republican Executive Branch, not the Legislative Branch of government. Any future attacks will be the responsibility of this White House. To be fair, we should add that the previous Republican Congress does shoulder significant blame for abdicating their role as a co-equal branch of government, allowing the monumental profiteering and mounting failures to continue unchecked. Most distressing though is this current Democratic controlled Congress, which deserves special condemnation for failing to stand firm, instead acting with the excuse that the House and Senate votes are not there – a favored capitulation ploy of the Clinton DLC. In any case, the executive still runs the “security” show.

Instead of making us more secure, we are being prepared by the White House for another attack.  Our fear is induced. We see daily “fear” reports on our national news. Talking heads constantly remind us that we have to fear terrorists but we don’t have to sacrifice anything; no higher taxes, no shortages of goods or services – not like in other wars. It’s guns and butter forever! Keep shopping or the terrorists win. That’s the Republican feed ala Karl Rove.

The current Democratic leaders are in a catatonic state.

The Democratic feed is: don’t do anything and then when we’re attacked the Republicans will be blamed. DLC Blue Dog Dems and their consultant class apparatchiks have been paralyzed by the thought of another attack – thus their cowardice at standing up to the lunatic White House. After all, their political careers are on the line and that’s more important to them than all the deaths in the desert.

Republicans have run this nation for seven years.  Everything they have accomplished or failed to do is 100% their responsibility.  Taken further, anything that may happen (terrorist attacks – war with Iran) or continue to happen; failure in Iraq, Afghanistan, economic collapse, loss of the middle class, global environmental collapse… EVERYTHING rest on them. The failure to openly acknowledge this truth and respond appropriately clearly falls at the feet of the Democrats.

For our part, we say enough is enough. It’s time for the Democrats to go on the Public Relations offensive and replace the “fear” message with a “clear” message: if America wants to survive we must repudiate the war-mongering Republicans and elect a Democrat as President. If the Democrats want to thrive they must act now and with moral clarity not career ambitions.

Democratic leaders must make it crystal clear to the American electorate that the security failures of this new century are Republican failures. Any new security failures or blunders will also be Republican in nature because, with their actions, they have created more terrorists not less. Clearly the responsibility for the continuing paucity of “Homeland Security” and the growing “national Insecurity” is the fault of the Cheney/Bush administration and the previous Republican Congress.
As a final note we repeat that far too many Democrats, led by the DLC, have capitulated to the Republican malfeasance. Therefore, by not acting to stop these failures, they become accomplices in these crimes. In particular, Hillary Clinton’s inability to choose Peace over War and the current Democratic leader’s complicity in this rogue executive’s plundering of the blood and treasure of the nation has not gone unnoticed.
 
Accountability and a day of reckoning come for us all. When the elected officials that took part in this deception go to sleep at night, we hope they are visited by the ghosts of all those who didn’t come home from Iraq, of all those who perished on 9/11 and all those who are yet to die because of these elected officials craven careerist arguments and legislation.
 
Clear Enough!

Memo to the current Democratic leaders: Search your souls Democrats, have some principles, find your conviction and act now. Democrats in Congress must only provide funds for the orderly withdrawal from Iraq and never authorize war with Iran.  Impeach this White House that brought America this continuing “Insecurity”, stop the madness of Iraq and show us you can lead… or get out of the way!!!

GQ killed a 7,000-word article about infighting in Hillaryland after Bill Clinton’s aide told the magazine that running the piece might imperil access to Bill. The incident, as Howie Kurtz wrote in The Washington Post, reflected pressure tactics that “may be practiced with unprecedented aggressiveness by the tightly controlled Clinton media operation.”

So says Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. She says a lot more and it’s a good read. (The Nepotism Tango By MAUREEN DOWD – Published: September 30, 2007) Here’s my two cents on the dynasty effect we are being bludgeoned by the DLC Clinton machine and its sycophants in the macro-media to accept.

How much of the hope of this nation are we going to squander on the royal aspirations of this family? Wasn’t the dynasty debacle of the Bush tree enough to prove the lucidity of the original “W” when he put aside all offers of the crown? If not then let’s just tear up that fading document in the Library of Congress and invite Liz and Chuck to embark from the merry ole’ motherland and reinstall the Windsor’s in the White House. I mean why settle for some Mississippi River Valley vagabonds when you can have a family with centuries of unearned heraldry to back it up?

Billary is not a word I coin lightly. Hey – they have always claimed it to be so. Why beat around the bush – pun intended – let’s just state the obvious – Billary is running again – as Hillary. They are squashing the press and cozying up to Crony the corporate huckster with that same old alacrity. Will Billary deliver anything different this time around if they get the nod and the Repubs cry in the corner thus laying the limp laurels on their guileful heads? Let’s revue.

Billary bequeathed more than the stained blue dress to us the last go round: NAFTA, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, MFNTS for Communist China, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the Defense of Marriage Act, the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and so much more. Now let’s look at the cumulative effect of these “center” pieces of conservative legislation.

We have: massive American layoffs and heightened undocumented immigration fleeing collapsing foreign subsistence economies, more oligopolies swallowing the media and less information, Chinese products made by slave labor flooding the marketplace with killer effect, increased millions left behind in poverty without assistance, denial of civil rights for millions of same sex couples, oodles and gobs more money for the ultra-wealthy, punitive adventures provided to children operating modern media without guidance and well – you get the picture.

There is a simple reason for Billary’s behavior: the DLC led hysteria for coveted corporate campaign cash provided by Crony – the lobbyist-consultant’s pimp from K Street in DC. In other words: the DLC dictum is that money is the chief value of politics and all effort should be expended by current and potential electeds to accede to any demand of the monied class to increase their bottom line. All other social, justice and equality considerations must be danced around so as not to upset the major donors. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) called the “kabuki dance we do with the Progressives”. Hence the Billary machine’s capitulation to the Republican Anarchy Collective – the RNC – and the devastation their pro-corporate polices are wreaking on the globe.

Billary – second verse, same as the first. They are the epitome of what is wrong with the American political landscape. Their howling ambition has become a match for Lady and Lord Macbeth. Their fierce need for fame and fortune is obscene. Their obsessive insistence on the secrecy surrounding their dubious financial dealings is bordering on paranoid and tyrannical. Then there is their personal behavior.

Public humiliation and the lying, cheating smarminess that goes with it are part and parcel of the Billary lifelong marriage charade. Bill lied and people did die. Democrats rode the disgrace train down to the bottom leaving the nation with the current disasters, the cowering Congress and death in Iraq every hour on the hour. Ask Al Gore about the lie. Hillary puts up with Bill’s appetites but we no longer have to. I’m not speaking of the just mentioned peccadilloes. I refer to the governing issues I elucidated earlier. It’s that personal behavior exhibited by both of them – Billary – that sucks up to the Republicans, Wall Street and the cavalcade of Cronies and sickens the body politic to the core that is at issue here.

So, dear reader, cut through the Arkansas-Illinois-New York smokescreen and ask yourself these simple questions: Are the Clinton and Bush families the only families in America qualified to run the country? Should we expend hundreds of millions of dollars as the Democratic Party to continue the reign of Billary over our Party and the nation? Would it not be better to send a thousand informed Progressive Liberal Democrats into office across America with that precious energy and those resources? Have you had enough of this royal family shenanigans and sophistry? If so – you know what to do. If not – well, we should talk…

Citizens,

On July 15th, 2007 the Executive Board of the California Democratic Party passed the following resolution in favor of Net Neutrality and affordable high speed Internet for America.

The adoption of this resolution was made possible by the unprecedented cooperation of both the Labor Caucus and the Progressive Caucus of the CDP. Working together over the months following the CDP convention in San Diego, representatives of both caucuses, led by Jim Gordon, chair of the Labor Caucus and Brad Parker, officer of the Progressive Caucus, were able to craft a resolution that addressed the concerns of both groups and Americans as a whole. Once again, after 100 years of organizing and political activism, Progressives and Union members have found common cause. Our hope is that this resolution will become a blueprint for legislation across the country that preserves Internet integrity with open, equal and impartial access and Net Neutrality. Further, that the build out of high speed Internet be undertaken as a public utility maintained by union members bringing affordable broadband Internet access to all Americans.

No issue of public governance is more critical at this time in our history than the immediate need for every level of government to pass and enforce legislation to embody the principles of this resolution. Therefore, we call upon every Democrat in America to send this resolution to every elected official across the nation and to insist that Net Neutrality and affordable high speed Internet become the law of the land.

Support of Affordable High Speed Internet for America And Internet Neutrality

WHEREAS to secure the rights of assembly, and free speech online, which are guaranteed by the Constitution and encourage new innovative American businesses to flourish, Americans are entitled to and require, open, equal and impartial Internet access; we need high speed internet for our homes, schools, hospitals and workplaces to grow jobs and our economy; enable innovations in telemedicine, education, public safety and government services; foster independence for people with disabilities and strengthen democratic discourse and civic participation and;

WHEREAS the United States – the country that invented the Internet – has fallen from first to sixteenth in internet adoption; US consumers pay more for slower speeds than people in other advanced nations; millions of Americans, especially in rural and low income areas do not have access to affordable, high speed broadband; the United States alone among the advanced nations has no national, Internet policy; the US definition of “high speed” at 200 kilobits per second (kbps) is too slow and has not changed in nine years: the US and California collection of broadband data does not tell us what we need to know about broadband deployment, adoption, speeds and prices and consumer and worker protections must be safeguarded on high speed networks and;

WHEREAS the growth of a free and open Internet has provided historic advances in the realms of democracy, free speech, communication, research and economic development; California and US consumers are entitled to and require open, unfettered access to the lawful Internet content of their choice without interference by any entity, public or private; build out of universal, high speed, high capacity networks will promote an open Internet by eliminating bandwidth scarcity;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party endorses national, state and local policies to promote affordable, high speed broadband for all with strong protections for consumers and the workers who build, maintain and service those networks; and a national goal for universal access and deployment of networks capable of delivering 10 megabits per second downstream and 1 megabit per second upstream by the year 2010 and the California Democratic Party supports federal and state initiatives to improve data collection on high speed broadband deployment, adoption, speed and prices as a necessary first step; upgrading the current definition of high speed to 2 megabits per second downstream, 1 megabit per second upstream and policies that promote public programs to stimulate build out of high speed networks to all homes and businesses in the nation and;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the California Democratic Party in order to promote vigorous free speech, a vibrant business community, and unfettered access to all information on the Internet, supports policies to preserve an open, neutral and interconnected Internet; protect against any degradation or blocking of access to any websites or content on the Internet and insure consumers have the right to free email; encourages build out of high speed networks to all homes and businesses so that everyone can go where they want and upload or download what they want on the Internet as a public utility maintained by union workers.

Submitted July 14th, 2007 by the
Labor Caucus of the California Democratic Party
represented by Jim Gordon – Chair
Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party
represented by Brad Parker – Officer

Adopted July 15th, 2007 by the
Executive Board of the California Democratic Party
meeting in Sacramento, California.

Up until this week we were the Progressive Underground. That has changed. If you didn’t see this program then you are in for a surprise. The rap from guest Matt Bai is all about us – yes, us.

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/200709/20070907.html

further…

brad parker

This is the third in a series of articles that we will be publishing this summer. In them we will be discussing possible scenarios behind the current Presidential campaigns in the Democratic Party and the inherent dangers ahead. None of the opinions expressed herein are the official positions of either the Progressive movement – inside and outside of the Democratic Party – the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party, any Democratic candidate for President or the California Democratic Party. They have been written by, endorsed by and published by the signers only. If you agree with our analysis please feel free to repost it everywhere you can. Sign your name to it as well if you wish. If you disagree then we look forward to your comments. This is the beginning of what we hope will be a tough-minded debate and an essential victory for the Democratic Party in the Presidential election in 2008…

WHY IS JOHN EDWARDS LEADING IN IOWA?

Written, endorsed and published by
Jo Olson, Brad Parker and Ahjamu Makalani
August 14th, 2007

Why is it that John Edwards is leading in Iowa, yet his name is never mentioned in mainstream media reporting about the Democratic frontrunner candidates? The first state to choose it’s Democratic candidate for President frequently polls with John Edwards in the lead, and yet the media is more likely to mention Bill Richardson at the tail end of a conversation dominated by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, than make even the briefest mention of John Edwards. Why? This is a painful paper to write. Each and everyday I strive personally, professionally and politically to move this country forward. I yearn for us to move away from narrow-minded stereotypes, racism and blind faith. I am a woman in a traditionally male dominated profession, medicine. True, time has yielded more female physicians in the past forty years, but sexism still exists in choice of subspecialties, salaries and promotions, plaguing those of us who forget our gender in the midst of the vigorous workday.

John Edwards is a Democratic candidate who displays a remarkable empathy for others. Now listen carefully to this, because it is not a given, and certainly should not be taken for granted. In his career as an attorney, he defended ordinary people against travesties committed by corporations. In a time when so many horrific issues face Americans and candidates, John Edwards understands that we need to get out of Iraq, halt global warming, and change our broken healthcare system. But underlying the chaos that this administration has driven the country into lays the issue of poverty. It’s not sexy, it’s not even a hot enough topic to be discussed in the debates, and yet poverty remains one of, possibly the biggest, problems Americans face. Right under our noses is a person who understands the deep needs of the country beyond the horrifying debacle that has been created by the Neocons over the past seven years.

So why doesn’t the media want to talk about this empathic, white, Christian Senator from the South? Why are the media, Republicans and the DLC machine forging every conversation regarding Democratic candidates around the race between a woman and an African American? I believe it is because; once again the American public is being manipulated by a subtle and alarming framing of the debate. Rather than a true discussion about the qualities of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the discussion focuses around the elements of these candidates that are easily exploitable, and will doubtless be exploited should one of them become the Democratic nominee.

I don’t believe this to be a “Republican conspiracy” but rather a well-planned strategy that is being employed to deter Democrats from nominating a truly “electable” candidate. The concept of “electability” emerged in the 2004 Presidential race, when Democrats began mirroring the media in their conversations about who was too short, too tall, too thin, or too “French-like” to get elected in America. It seemed like it was perfectly reasonable to embrace these utterly ridiculous notions about how Americans would choose their candidate come Election Day. But ironically, in a country where misogyny, hate crimes, and bigotry continue to knot up our societal fabric, it is not acceptable to say someone is too African or too female to get elected. Unfortunately, we are too socially conscious to discuss racism and sexism, but not too socially conscious to eradicate these two dwindling but virulent and insidious “isms.” The purist progressive voice in me screams that if we accept the reality of current social construct and our fallibilities, we are condoning it. We should rage against the machine, and fight the good fight by supporting female and African American candidates for the Presidency. But with the country in such a perilous state of affairs, reeling from the trampling of our Constitution, mired in outrageous debt, engaged in an illegal occupation, and struggling to recapture any semblance of international respect, we can’t take the chance at losing the White House in 2008.

The reality is that Democrats were unable to win the Presidency in 2004 with a white, male veteran because the smear campaign against John Kerry was furious, evil and thorough. If any Democrat thinks that the smear campaign against the Democratic nominee isn’t being planned and implemented right now, he or she really hasn’t been paying attention. The Karl Rovian tactics that have been honed to an art form over the past eight years will cut through any youthful notion of social equality like a sharpened rapier, exploiting the fear that lingers in the American subconscious. I’m not happy about that, but it is reality. Again, this is a painful paper to write.

To better understand the true state of race relations in America, take a look at this rather recent story from the Los Angles Times in 2003: “Americans support the stand taken by the Bush Administration against a University of Michigan affirmative action program which uses race as a factor in determining student admissions.” Or this; in an Associated Press poll in 2003, the question “How close do you think we are to eliminating discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities in America once and for all?” Fifty-nine percent of respondents answered “not too close” or “not close at all.”

Furthermore, consider these facts: the Census Bureau tells us that African Americans are less likely to graduate from high school, more than twice as likely to live in poverty, and are more likely to be in prison than Caucasians. There are only two choices:

Accept the racist belief that people of color are deprived of quality of life because of laziness, lack of intelligence, or anatomical inequalities or…

Accept that limited opportunities for people of color exist as a result of institutional racism.

In a time when elections are determined by a significantly small margin, starting out “behind the eight ball” simply because of an unalterable demographic characteristic would have a seriously negative impact on a presidential candidate. A New York Times article last month wrote:

A third of Americans in the poll say most people they know will be “less likely” to vote for Mrs. Clinton because she is a woman — more than twice the number who say her being a woman will make people more likely to vote for her.

Linda Carroll, 59, who lives in Crystal Springs, Miss., and works at an assembly plant, said she supported Bill Clinton and admired Mrs. Clinton for standing by her husband through their marital problems. But Ms. Carroll said she was “not ready for a lady president.”

“I’m not for this women’s lib stuff,” she said.

This may seem like an isolated incident, but check out the numbers of women currently holding elected seats in government:

Women hold 16, or (16%), of the 100 seats in the Senate and 70 (16.1%), of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives. In addition, three women serve as Delegates to the House from Guam, the Virgin Islands and Washington, DC. In state legislatures the number is slightly higher at 23%.

So, why is John Edwards leading in the polls in Iowa? What is it that the good citizens of Iowa know that the national media is willfully ignoring? Maybe it’s that he sincerely cares about all Americans and what America could and should be? Or maybe it’s that he is the most electable in these trying times? Who knows? Whatever the reason is: the sober truth is that racism and sexism are alive and well in this country, and I’d hate to have that proven by losing the Presidency to a Republican in 2008 because Democrats refused to see America as it really is and not what they are hoping it will become.

This is the second in a series of articles that we will be publishing this summer. In them we will be discussing possible scenarios behind the current Presidential campaigns in the Democratic Party and the inherent dangers ahead. None of the opinions expressed herein are the official positions of either the Progressive movement – inside and outside of the Democratic Party – the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party, any Democratic candidate for President or the California Democratic Party. They have been written by, endorsed by and published by the signers only. If you agree with our analysis please feel free to repost it everywhere you can. Sign your name to it as well if you wish. If you disagree then we look forward to your comments. This is the beginning of what we hope will be a tough-minded debate and an essential victory for the Democratic Party in the Presidential election in 2008…

ANOTHER INCONVENIENT TRUTH

Al Gore’s acclaimed and Oscar winning documentary, “The Inconvenient Truth”, exposed the dark reality of what’s to come for a carbon based society if radical and progressive steps are not forthcoming. Well, here is another inconvenient truth; Republicans and their conservative corporate supporters are favoring Hillary and at times Barack as the Democratic Presidential pick. What is it that they know that we don’t? Could it be that the Republicans would rather run against Hillary or Barack and if so, why?

Republican pundits, strategists and status quo editorial pages are lauding, if not anointing, Senator Clinton and at times Senator Obama as the Democratic Party front-runners. I guess that it’s not surprising since Senator Clinton and Senator Obama have raised much of their campaign money from Wall Street financiers who are not flaming liberals to anyone’s knowledge. It’s no secret, according to William Domoff, author of, “Who Rules America” that Wall Street contributes to both political parties with most of their largess going to the Republicans; but why are they so happy to support Clinton and Obama this time around?

Well here it is; they know America’s dark social reality. Yes, they know the reality of racism, commonly known as white supremacy, and sexism, the ism that has stifled female wage earners – no matter what their race – from organizing along common and natural interests with their male counterparts; thereby getting equal rights in the workplace and throughout society. Maybe that old saying is true; “the truth will set you free if it don’t kill you first.” Now, we know that many good white liberals and progressives alike may find this proposition uncomfortable and deplorable, with good reason. After all, there has been significant social progress for people of color and women over these past 230 years.

With the enactment of civil rights legislation and the implementation of equal rights policies, African-Americans have made tremendous gains in government policy, housing and education. An African-American woman is now Secretary of State and was formerly the National Security Advisor, a position that influences the decision making process of the most powerful public officer in human history. Furthermore, an African-American man served as Secretary of State and previously on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds have made gigantic steps from business CEO’s to healthcare professionals, to public office holders. Currently, a woman sits two offices away from the Presidency. Yes, we as a society have made significant strides in social progress, especially since the Sixties.

It was just some forty years ago that peace, love and understanding, espoused by the Hippies, offered hope for America amid the war, assassinations and social upheaval of the Sixties. This was lucidly portrayed on the History channel airing of the documentary on the Sixties. The Hippies who gathered in cities, such as San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, celebrated and reveled in the goodness and potential of the human spirit. They believed that the artificially constructed social barriers of all types could be overcome through flower power. This, we affectionately refer to as a Hippie trip.

While we do share a profound belief in, and a deep affinity for, human kindness and generosity represented by the Hippies, the reality is that we are not there yet. We must come out of our Hippie haze and see our political and social reality for what it is; white supremacy and sexism are intricately intertwined into every facet of our social and political life.

Hence, Americans for centuries have come to view our reality through the prism of these concepts, whether consciously or unconsciously. One of the major tenets of the white supremacy mentality and mindset is the superiority of the white male. This was magnified in the fallout surrounding black athletes playing quarterback in the NFL. Just recall the controversy with black quarterback Donavan McNabb and right wing conservative provocative talk show host Russ Limbaugh who raised doubts about the mental ability of McNabb. The institutionalized message communicated was that the quarterback position required leadership ability, the proper temperament and the cerebral capability for abstract thinking. The benign overt message carried the malignant subliminal message that a black man could not play quarterback because he did not have the required skills, which his white counterparts possessed.

Another example is Al Campanas, executive for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who was candid and deliberate in his statement about the lack of cerebral ability in black athletes in high profile leadership positions. This assertion of white superiority is manifested throughout American history in the fields of science, culture and sports. Democrats should not be naïve and blithely assume things have changed. This concept will be exploited in the electoral process as long as it yields the results that those unscrupulous harbingers of hate like Karl Rove know are possible. Fear and hate are great motivators in a cowering and terrorized population.

The office of President of the United States, since its inception, has personified the aforementioned white male superiority mindset. The succession of Presidents has been overwhelmingly white males from the upper class of American society. While we have seen traditionally white male dominated positions both public and private undergo a transformation, the Presidency is the last bastion of white male superiority. With that being said, the question is: can a black man or any woman be elected President at this point in time? The answer, sadly, is – NO.

To buttress our point let’s look at the recent high profile election between DLC Democratic candidate Harold Ford Jr., a black conservative Democrat, running for the Senate in Tennessee against a white Republican. To win the race the Republican machine ran that age-old racist stereotype that D.W. Griffith exploited in the first movie blockbuster, Birth of A Nation, where black men were sexually accosting a white woman. This type of sexual liaison lies at the core of white supremacy doctrine and has precipitated many race riots and attacks on blacks – i.e. Emmett Till, a teenager in Mississippi, who was brutally beaten to death for whistling at a white woman.

Jessie Jackson, during his Presidential campaign also witnessed similar subliminal inferences and often openly racist statements about his ability to lead. Black Presidential candidate Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm of New York was subjected to this notion as well as the gender bias inculcated in the typical American voter. The sexist stereotypes that haunted Congresswoman Chisolm were also brought to bear against Vice Presidential Candidate Geraldine Ferraro, however, with Italian racist overtones. The efficacy of her ability was constantly being discussed within the context of the patriarchal framework; that she was not masculine enough to lead and make difficult decisions.

This is what corporate conservative Republicans will use against Hillary or Barrack if either one are chosen as the Democratic nominee. If either of these candidates is nominated, the Republicans will resurrect Lee Atwater from the grave to mount a campaign that will dig into the dark side of the American psyche. So, that raises the question, what would be the most logical and strategic choice for progressive, liberal and working class men and women? You got it – John Edwards. Senator John Edwards is the candidate whom corporate conservative Republicans fear the most.

Let’s look at the facts bluntly and honestly. Edwards would be their toughest opponent for all of the unfortunate reasons we have stated and the good reasons he has put forth in his policy positions and his work as a lawyer protecting citizens from corporate abuse.

The Republican machine has already made this assessment and that is why they working over time in both the print and visual media to persuade Democrats to support Hillary or Barrack as the Democratic nominee. This is the inconvenient truth we must come to terms with.

Endorsed and published by
Ahjamu Makalani, Jo Olson and Brad Parker
July 27th, 2007