Oh, my god, it's a can of worms. Sure it has not much to do with MUSIC but that's not all that KCAC was about. Lest we forget or worse - profess ignorance..... Here is the nastiest, tackiest, most (almost) slanderous political website I have seen so far. It is a mudslinging, crapslinging attack on the Republicans. Not even a complimentary comment about the price of gasoline.
Equal time for equal crap against the Democrats encouraged (if someone has done the homework). I know... it's nasty. But, if you don't LOOK at the septic tank how will you know it needs attention before you fall into it someday? Hhhhmmmmmmm?
I am told this is where God or The Devil lives. I can only point the way - go there if you dare. Click the headline.
After all these years of observing politics, I have become an active non-participant, a non-voter by choice who believes our political system is broken. From what I have observed, being a candidate in EITHER party at any level above local politics, requires FIRST that you are capable of being blackmailed. You throw your hat in the ring and lay your head on the chopping block, right under The Sword of Damacles.
My opinion.
The Picture: Quite old - from the 1960's I believe. A poor elephant somehow ingested something indigestible like a plastic bag. The handlers flooded her with water, laxatives and gallons of mineral oil for days. She was horribly miserable.
Finally one handler literally reached in to help. You can see his feet and hat under the pile. He propped himself up and kept his face clear. A man's gotta breathe, ya know.
Politics is like that. Click if you dare. I told ya so.
Ronco
8 comments:
Sorry, Ron - I'm of the "if you don't vote, you can't complain" school. I'll spare you the many arguements for this position and boil it down to just one: by refusing to participate in elections, you're conceding control to your opponents - the people who want to take away your rights and freedoms (and are doing so as we speak). THEY VOTE and you don't; you help create a vacuum where they can advance their agenda without meaninful opposition. So come on, hold your nose and vote. If nothing else, at least you'll cancel out the vote of the right-wing nutjob down the street who thinks George Bush is God.
Hi! Though I agree with Ron that there's a whole lot seriously wrong with our current "system" and the way it works (or doesn't), I've got to side with Tom on this one. I'm a patriot. Not a nationalist, not someone who blindly believes in the government, not a naive idealist who thinks democracy is the be-all and end-all of enlightened political evolution (democracy has its shortcomings, too...), and definitely not an American dominionist. I'm very aware that there are indeed many powerful people and groups, some open and some hidden, dedicated to promoting their own agendas by any and all possible means in the fervent (and often fanatical) belief that their way is the only way. I am aware that there is a dangerous and growing polarization in our body politic, a failure to strive for compromise and harmony. In spite of all this, however, and in spite of the glaring deficiencies in our electoral system and the virtual certainty that it has been (and probably will be again) manipulated, I still believe in the fundamental integrity of the average American citizen, and think there are enough of us with a conscience and some common sense to make positive changes a real possibility. I am hopeful that we can do it through our flawed political process, by voting. If we can't, then we'll have to have a revolution - but I'd like to give the voting approach a try first, as it's so much less messy. I could be wrong (I'm not one of those fanatics who thinks he's always right), and Ron could be right, perhaps we're just doomed, and it will take a revolution. If it comes to that, I've got my gun and know how to use it, and I'll be there, but believe me, I don't want to have to start shooting people again - it's really not a lot of fun, in spite of what the movies would have you believe. I still think voting is our best option, at least for now. I know this is an argument (and I use that word in its literal sense, not as an indication of any hostility or rancor) that won't be resolved until history has played itself out a bit more. Whether or not voting will provide the avenue for change is an open question now, and my faith in the process has taken some severe blows lately, but I haven't entirely given up yet - I'm still going to march to the polls in November and try to make a difference. I have a lot of respect for Ron, though, and half agree with his position - there were many years when I didn't vote at all, and I still have mixed feelings about it. I'm not sure it will really make a difference, but I have to give it another try.
With all due respect, Tom [and a LOT of respect is due you and others who feel as you do]. I am of the school that says "Don't bother beating a dead horse - Don't even shoot it".
I sincerely believe the Master Plan of our Democracy has been totally compromised. The system is broken. Don't even put gas in it, it won't start.
Please allow mw to dump just a little "propaganda" on you...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
Did you know....
1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
These statements are backed up with homework at
http://nightweed.com/20AmazingVotingFacts.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
... and there is much more at that site.
Not me. My vote means more to me than what is happening now and I will not sully it on a broken and (I believe) corrupt and controlled system.
Time to try something new.. either in the political structure or the voting procedures. We have the technology NOW to BECOME Congress to BECOME our own representatives within the broken but still existant Democracy. WE THE PEOPLE could vote on issues every day but our vote and its meaning has been neutralized. We can DO this. By phone, by computer, by voice mail. It's how we manage OUR MONEY and OUR BUSINESS and yet we can't VOTE this way?
You have my full respect Tom, PARTICULARLY if you are among the educated and informed voters.
But............. pee in THAT river anymore? Why?
Ronco
Those things that Ron mentions have been documented in many different newspapers and media here and in overseas papers. Since living overseas several decades ago (Reagan years) I have always read overseas newspapers to get a broader look at the 'world body politic." There are some great links. Scroll down and you'll see some that I posted.
BTW Tom, there is a great website you'd probably like, it's eff.org which stands for the electronic frontier foundation. They report on all sides of issues relating to freedom of speech/net etc. and have done some seriously wonderful work to preserve our democracy. If you sign up for the newsletter they don't send spam and their newsletters are a wealth of info.
EFF.org broke the story about the various phone companies (except Qwest) handing over phone records to the government arbitrarily without any reason (no suspicion, etc.) This of course gave the government en masse info on eveyone, which may explain why I get loads more spam and phone solicitations from both parties now.
I've never signed up for anything that would cause my info to be 'out there.' As Caroline Kennedy so eloquently wrote in her book about privacy rights "The End of Privacy" freedom of speech is something that will end if we don't
actively understand, appreciate and use our constitutional rights.
Maybe I'll repost a thing I wrote about democracy on the 4th of July, or you can look in the July archives for it. Sort of explains how I feel about the whole deal-io. But I believe that we only have the power we use, and as for democracy, my slogan is 'use it or lose it."
By the way, in the hubub about Tom Foley and his 'stalking' of pages via internet, the fact that the president is about to sign a new bill that would PERMANENTLY SUSPEND THE RIGHT TO HABEAS CORPUS IN AMERICA has been lost. Coincidence?
Many of our esteemed representatives and Senators did not even bother to read it before they signed it (by their own admission) citing that the president said it was critical to pass it before they break for the holidays. Pass the buck is the game du jour on the hill and both parties are guilty of it.
The same sort of pressure was exerted about another document that has changed America without most Americans having a clue as to the sweeping changes it made to our cherished freedoms. I'd like to see Jay Leno ask his random on the street Americans what that act is called and what it does to the fabric of our democratic checks and balances system. He'd probably get the gal who didn't know Africa is a continent or WHERE the Civil War took place. )o:
Personally, I plan to vote every incumbent out. Perhaps then the politicians of both parties will 'get it' that they are there to represent their constituent citizens, not to cow tow to lobbying loonies who stuff money in their pockets.
Feel like a good time to sit back and listen to Richard and Mimi Farina's "House UnAmerican Activity Blues Dream" and Phil Ochs "Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, I'm a Liberal" for good measure! Jimmy???
You are voting when you dont vote... and if you vote and your only choises are 'more of the same...' well then you can blame yourself when thats what you get. The Dems & Repubs... together, have run things for 150 years... and they blame each other every 4 years... i dont want to insult any ones intelligence... but... some people don't get it. Its only the illusion of two partys... they are one and the same... and they wont invest 50-100 million on some loose cannon... if they are a candidate they are compromised... bought and sold... blackmaled... tools... its a piece of shit ... walk away.
just my simple little opinion... so whos wastin there time and there vote?
well enough...
before i get started...
anyone want a pasifier?
Oh yea... thanks for votin then assholes in.
Well I'm bein to kind
Bruce Frank
The system isn't broken or corrupt for the right-wing Christian extremists; it's working beautifully for them. They're using it to their full advantage, and we're sitting back and letting them twist the Constitution to their own ends. Think both parties are corrupt? Damn right, but that's where we come in: we can vote them out of office, send them a message in terms they understand. Bruce to the contrary, "not voting" is not a vote; it's apathy, defeat, and capitulation to the American Taliban (who DO vote).
And by the way, I'm not some starry-eyed idealist. I've been involved in environmental politics here in rock-ribbed, right-wing Arizona for 35 years, and I worked my ass off for the first 12 of those years through repeated failures and defeats before I even STARTED to see results. But the effort ultimately paid off in measurable terms. The measurement, in my case, is 3 million. That's the number of acres of federally-protected Wilderness Areas in the state that exist because of a political effort involving a small group of activists willing to deal with an imperfect system to get concrete results. Not even George Bush has fucked with the Wilderness Act that made this possible.
Anyone who wants to be cynical and apathetic is free to do so, but they're making it easier for the extremists to take away our freedom, and making it harder for those of us willing to fight for it. I've earned the right to be cynical; I've seen "the system" at its worst. But I've also seen it at its best. And like Bill Compton, on the 4th of July tape that you've all heard, I choose to believe that positive change IS possible, but that it can only be achieved by people who care enough to make it happen. It's the people who don't care that put George Bush into office, and who will put Condi Rice or John McCain into office two years from now.
Don't want to vote for the lesser of two evils? Perfectly understandable. But understand this as well: when enough people take that attitude, the GREATER of two evils will prevail. It's a Hobson's choice, but it IS a choice.
Hey, I'm an archaeologist, remember? I study the past, and I know something about the decline and collapse of cultures when "tipping points" - crucial moments that will generate either one outcome or its opposite - are ignored. Here in the Phoenix area, the Hohokam culture lasted for over 1000 years, then vanished in less than 50 years because they refused to deal with (1) changing environmental conditions, and (2) the consequences of sociopolitical upheavals that disrupted a previoulsy stable system. Sound familiar?
Look: what I worry about is not this year's crop of rotten candidates or hot-button issues, but the potentially fatal combination of creeping fascism and public tolerance thereof that I see all around me. Tolerance can be active (by people and entities who stand to benefit from the consolidation of power) or passive: passive through LACK of meaningful action, and LACK of development of workable, real-world alternatives. So, I intend to vote; and if the candidates I support lose (which, in Arizona, is a virtual certainty), it just means I need to intensify my commitment to change, and work within my community to convince others to make the same commitment. Individually, our voices are tiny and inaudible to the powers that be. Together, we can fuckin' ROAR.
Peace out, as the kids say. From this point on I will not preach to the converted or to the skeptical. I will focus my input on the narrow but worthy cause of preserving and celebrating the legacy of Bill, Toad, Hank, Marty, and the many others who made up a community that DID make a difference in our lives and in our city's history, poltics, and culture. (If that wasn't true, this blog wouldn't exist.) I'm almost done digitizing all of my old tapes, and I hope to continue working with ALL of you, politics aside, to do something positive.
Got Vote ??? :
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/book.html
The Official Site :
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
The above site is considered to be the "Bible" ...
Explore for more,
Your points are well taken and i wouldn't want to discourage you from pursueing any path you see open to you to affect positive change... Even saving the dolfins can make people feel better at tax time... when they pony up there share of the war effort... the next nuc... black opps training and equiptment for antisipated action against american citzens ... in our citys.
I think the problem is a little deeper than saveing the earth though cause, truth be known, the earth will be fine once were of of it.
Revolution is perhaps a better responce than more politics if we can agree what we realy want... I see...
"A WORLD WITHOUT WAR, HUNGER or DISEASE'
I beleive that is posible... we deserve that... and we can have that... but you wont find that in any party platform... We must put that on the table.
Sooo... were both dreamers.
Wont ya dream a little dream with me?
Carry on my brother there's plenty for us to do. I think you were right on target when you said...
'I [read we]need to intensify my commitment to change, and work within my community to convince others to make the same commitment. Individually, our voices are tiny and inaudible to the powers that be. Together, we can fuckin' ROAR.'
Well your right there... thats why the rebirth family and Bill, Toad, Ron and all the other Savvy media warriors... had such a big effect... media... and communication... on a personal level and a community level... So talk it up, what do i know... I support you and your efforts and all togather we can make a diference by increacing our awareness and others... yes and voting... for what it worth.
Hope we get to talk some more,this deserves more so till later...
Happy trails my friend
Bruce
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