THIS IS WHAT TRANSPHOBIA LOOKS LIKE

The brutal murder of this sister, capture on camera and the shocking photograph that show the results of this brutal crime fills me with a combination of rage and sorrow.

Rage that this is an all too common occurrence, so common that one barely has time for either grief or anger before the story of yet another brutal murder takes the place of the victim just buried.

What makes me even sadder is when I hear heartless HBS/Classic Transsexuals with privilege or simple lack of  basic human empathy blame the victim.

Taken From Queerty: http://www.queerty.com/2-trans-murders-rock-brazil-priscila-val-executed-in-the-streets-20110316

Murdered in Cold Blood. Brazil Needs to Act Now to Stop LGBT Killing Spree

http://allout.org/priscila

I may have covered this before but it bears repeating.  Many TS/TG people are so disenfranchised as to be homeless and doing sex work simply to survive.

When one looks at the roll of dead TS/TG People that we remember on the DOR we should also remember how many were killed because they were so outside the social safety net as to be in the vulnerable position of working the streets.

Rather than looking on our most disenfranchised with contempt we should pause for a moment, share some empathy and remember there but for fortune go you or I.

Developing a Gay- and Transgender-Inclusive Federal Plan to End Homelessness

From The Center for American Progress: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/01/helping_homeless.html

By Jeff Krehely , Jerome Hunt

January 31, 2011

Download this brief (pdf)

Download the brief to mobile devices and e-readers from Scribd

President Obama last year announced an ambitious new plan to end homelessness in the United States. The plan builds on previous administrations’ work to combat homelessness as well as on existing state and local programs. When announcing the plan, the president noted the impact homelessness has on people and society, stating, “Since the founding of our country, ‘home’ has been the center of the American dream…without a safe, affordable place to live, it is much tougher to maintain good health, get a good education or reach your full potential.”[1]

The president’s plan has four key goals:

• End chronic homelessness in five years
• Prevent and end homelessness among veterans in five years
• Prevent and end homelessness for families, youth, and children in ten years
• Set a path to ending all types of homelessness[2]

The president’s plan references gay and transgender Americans, particularly unaccompanied youth, and one of the plan’s goals is to make information more readily available to all levels of government, nonprofits, philanthropy, and the private sector when working with the gay and transgender community.[3] This inclusion is an important step forward, considering that gay and transgender Americans were essentially absent from previous government strategies to end homelessness in the United States.

Yet the federal government should be much more explicit in its efforts to tackle gay and transgender homelessness if homelessness overall is to be eventually eradicated. The reason: Research suggests that gay and transgender youth and adults are at a higher risk of homelessness compared to other homeless Americans. Gay and transgender youth often face rejection at home and at school, leading to a series of failures in social safety nets that often ends with youth on the streets.

Continue reading at:  http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/01/helping_homeless.html

From Talking Points Memo: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/ex-gop_house_candidate_indicted_on_sex_kidnapping_charges.php

Eric Lach
March 15, 2011

Ohio car magnate and one-time Republican congressional candidate Tom Ganley has been indicted on charges that include gross sexual imposition and kidnapping. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that Ganley faces three felony charges of gross sexual imposition, and single counts of kidnapping, abduction, solicitation, and menacing by stalking.

The Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s office told WEWS that the charges stem from an incident in Cleveland on Aug. 1, 2009, when a woman was getting her car repaired at one of Ganley’s dealerships.

The woman filed a civil suit in the fall, when Ganley was running against Rep. Betty Sutton (D-OH). The civil suit alleged that the woman, a married mother of four described in the suit as “a conservative Republican and a fervent believer in Christian Family Values, an ardent supporter of Right to Life, and a dedicated opponent of abortion,” met Ganley at a Tea Party rally in Cleveland in July. On later dates, the two later discussed her working for his campaign. On August 1, according to the civil suit, the woman brought her van to Ganley’s dealership for some repair work, and then met with Ganley in his office. There, Ganley allegedly told her he wanted to have “fun” with her, and take her to a condo he owned and parade her around on a leash in front of his friends. Ganley then allegedly approached her, kissed her, groped her, stuck his hand down her pants and tried to pull her into a bathroom.

Continue reading at:  http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/ex-gop_house_candidate_indicted_on_sex_kidnapping_charges.php

Government should serve the people not the corporations.  Corporations are not people and should not be treated as such.

Amend the Constitution to End Corporate Personhood

From Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/17/barbour-lobby-corporate-tax/

By Pat Garofalo

Mar 17th, 2011

Potential Republican 2012 presidential candidate Gov. Haley Barbour (MS) has been rolling out his economic vision this week, with his stated desire to “change the damaging policies that pose an even greater threat to our economic future.” One of the cornerstones of his economic plan is a huge cut in the corporate tax rate:

There is a global battle for capital, and right now, American companies are sitting on more than $1 trillion locked overseas because of our mistaken tax code. We need to unlock that capital so it can be invested in new plants, new equipment and new jobs here in America, not overseas. While we’re at it, let’s finally cut our corporate income tax rate as nearly every one of our competitors has done over the last decade.

Barbour envisions cutting the current corporate income tax, which stands at 35 percent, in half. “We need to cut the corporate income tax in half like the rest of the world,” he said.

Already, corporate tax revenue in the U.S. is at one of its lowest points in history, and the U.S. raises less in corporate tax revenue than many of its main trading partners. And the reason for this is simple: there are myriad loopholes, credits, and outright giveaways in the tax code that allow many corporations to pay little or no corporate income tax. Major corporations such as Boeing, Bank of America, and General Electric have paid literally nothing into the Treasury in recent years.

The Congressional Budget Office has found that a cut in the corporate tax rate is an ineffective job creation measure, saying that such a move “does not create an incentive for [corporations] to spend more on labor” and “is not a particularly cost-effective method of stimulating business spending.” But Barbour may have another motivation for gifting a tax break to the corporate world.

Continue reading at:  http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/17/barbour-lobby-corporate-tax/

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1170/p/salsa/event/common/public/search.sjs?distributed_event_KEY=619

As remote-controlled drones bomb civilians in rural Pakistan … as whole villages are obliterated by 25 tons of bombs dropped in Afghanistan … as permanent bases are established in Iraq, already ravaged and torn apart by years of war and a corrupt and brutal regime set up by the U.S. … as torture at Guantanamo and Bagram prisons continue in our name.

What is life like in Iraq after eight years of U.S. occupation?

Iraqi and Johns Hopkins’ physicians count more than one million Iraqis killed. According to the Veterans Administration, more than 50,000 veterans have killed themselves since these wars began. 4.5 million Iraqis were displaced. 50,000 U.S. troops remain, re-named “advise and assist troops.” But they are still killing and dying in Iraq, and the American media has left.

The Iraqi government routinely tortures prisoners with the full complicity of U.S. forces. Journalists are detained and beaten, and women now have fewer rights than under Saddam Hussein, as Human Rights Watch detailed in a report just released…

Send a message to the people of the world on March 19, the anniversary of “shock and awe” on Iraq
Signs in Wisconsin, where crowds are protesting on workers’ rights and public sector programs, say: “Egypt, We Watched You, Now Watch Us!”

TO ALL OF HUMANITY, WE SAY: U.S. wars & occupations are not in our name! Stop These Wars Now!

Join these efforts leading up to March 19th and reach out!

San Francisco
Collateral Murder Street Showings ALL WEEK long. Find out more and join in.

Washington, DC
The We Are Not Your Soldiers tour brings anti-war veterans and activists into high schools, spreading the reality of these wars and much-needed resistance among youth. Find out more and join in.

National Protest in Washington, DC:

Saturday March 19th: 12 noon at the White House. Contact dcevents@worldcantwait.net or call 866-973-4463 for more information.

Quantico, VA – Support Accused Whistleblower Bradley Manning

Sunday March 20: Rally at 2pm (in Triangle, VA at intersection of Main Street and Route 1), then march to the gates of Quantico Marine Base, where Bradley is imprisoned. Buy a bus ticket from DC to Quantico for the day online. Invite your friends via Facebook. More info. More protests for Bradley Manning are happening around the country and around the world on March 20th. Find one near you.

Scroll down to find a protest near you.
Some events are posted below the map.3

California

Laguna Hills
March 19th: 11am-12:30pm. Gather on the corner of El Toro Road and Paseo de Valencia (in front of Chase Bank. Sponsored by Concerned Citizens of Laguna Woods and Laguna Woods Democratic Club. Contact Betsy Martin at 949-581-5453

Los Angeles
Saturday March 19th: Rally and march will gather at 12 noon at Hollywood and Vine. Contact la@worldcantwait.net for more information.
Contact mfso-oc@earthlink.net or call 562-833-8035 for more information about civil disobedience planned by Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace.

Santa Barbara
March 19th: 11am-2pm. Rally at De la Guerra Plaza, march down State St. to the beach. Sponsored by Veterans for Peace – Chapter 54, The People’s Coalition, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Society of Friends (Quakers) and individual citizens opposed to war. Contact: hoshidas@yahoo.com. Details.

Santa Cruz
March 19th: Rally 12:00pm-2:00pm. Gather at the Santa Cruz Town Clock (corner of North Pacific Ave. and Water St.) Contact: woicle@yahoo.com.

San Diego
March 19th: Rally 12:00pm-3:00pm. Gathering at 6th & Grape St, at the foot of Balboa Park. Details.

San Francisco
Saturday March 19th: 12 noon at Union Plaza (7th and Market). Contact sf@worldcantwait.org or call 415-864-5153 for more information. Download Stephen “Yellow Cake” Hadley flier.

Colorado

Evergreen
March 19th: Rally 11:00am-12noon. On the Bridge at Hwy 73 & Hwy 74. Sponsored by Evergreen Peace
Contact: group@evergreenpeace.org

Connecticut
New Haven
March 19th: Gather at 12 noon. Rally on the Green (Elm St and Church St.). Sponsored by ANSWER CT
Contact: 203-606-0319, ct@answercoalition.org

Delaware

Wilmington
Sunday, March 20: 2:00-4:00 pm Westminster Presbyterian Church at Pennsylvania Ave. & N. Rodney St. Panel discussion with David Swanson, Dahlia Wasfi, M.D., and Dave Lindorff. Details.

Florida
Daytona Beach

March 19th: 12noon-6:00pm. Gather at the NW Corner of Nova Road and Intl Speedway Blvd
(in front of the Steak N Shake restaurant at 1000 W Intl Speedway Blvd)
Sponsored by Veterans For Peace – Central Florida, WeAreChange – Florida, CODEPINK of East Central Florida, Military Families Speak Out – Florida
Contact: Phil Restino, Central Florida Veterans For Peace (VFP Chapter 136) at 386-235-3268 (cell), 386-788-2918 (home), or CentralFlaVFP@aol.com

North Miami Beach
Friday, March 18th: 5:00-7:00pm. Gather at US Armed Forces Recruitment Center, NE 163rd St & 11th Ave. North Miami Beach, FL 33162. Details.

Orlando
March 19th: Gather at Black Jacket Park at 12noon. March to the Department of Defense offices
Contact: 484-888-3237, koritfwLB@gmail.com

Global

Global Day of Listening. Skype with ordinary people in Iraq, Afghanistan and more. Listen to what it is like to live in war-torn countries. You are encouraged to ask questions and join the discussion. globaldayoflistening.org.

Illinois

Chicago

Saturday March 19th: Rally and march at 12 noon at Michigan and Congress. Contact chicago@worldcantwait.net or call 773-614-1819 for more information.
Iowa
Des Moines
Saturday March 19th: Rally at Nollen Plaza, 3rd & Walnut , DM IA. Details.

Iowa City
March 19th: Gather at 11:00 a.m. Iowa City Court House, 417 South Clinton Street
Sponsored by: Veterans for Peace, Johnson County Greet Party, PEACE Iowa, International Socialist Organization, Workers International League-Eastern Iowa, Campaign for a Mass Party of Labor
Contact: Dawn Jones at dawnj@netins.net, 319-335-2569

Massachusetts
Boston
March 19th: Gather at 12 noon. Rally at Southwest Corridor Park at Ruggles Station, followed by a march
Contact: 857-334-5084, boston@answercoalition.org

Minnesota
St. Paul
March 19th: Gather at 1:00 pm at the Martin Luther King Community Center, 270 North Kent Street, march through the streets of St. Paul at 1:30 pm. Rally State Capitol Building at 2:15 pm. Details.

New Hampshire
Keene
March 19th: 10:00am-6:00pm. Assemble at Keene State College Arch Gate on Main St., march to Central Square for program. Sponsored by Keene Peace Vigil
Contact: Chris Hansen at marcuschristain@hotmail.com, 603-835-6190

New Jersey
Highland Park
March 19th: Rally at 11:30 am at Route 27 and the Albany Street Bridge, followed by a march through the streets of New Brunswick to various locations to highlight impact of war economy. Rally 1 pm at Bank of America, 410 George S. Sponsored by Central Jersey Coalition Against Endless War. Contact: 732-967-9370, spring2011nowar@gmail.com

New Mexico
Albuquerque
March 19th: Gather at 11 am at Central Avenue and University. March to Lockheed Martin, rally at Civic Plaza. Sponsored by the March 19 Coalition. Contact: Stop the War Machine at 505-268-9557 or the ANSWER Coalition at 505-268-2488
New York
New York City
Saturday March 19th: 5:00-6:00pm at the Times Square Recruiting Center on Military Island, Broadway at 44th St.
Sunday March 20: World Can’t Wait/War Criminals Watch hosts two panels at the Left Forum. Details. Watch promo.

New Paltz
Tuesday, March 15: Gather at 6:30 pm. University of New York, Lecture Center 102
Contact: jacdon@earthlink.net

Setauket
Saturday, March 19th: Gather at 10:15am at King Kullen Shopping Center, Rt. 25A, followed by march. Contact ncpeaceg@gmail.com.

Syracuse
Friday, March 18: 12 noon at Federal Building, corner of Clinton and Washington. Organized by the Syracuse Peace Council and the ANSWER Coalition. Contact: syracuse@answercoalition.org

Ohio
Cincinnati
March 19th: 1:00pm-3:00pm. Gather at Fountain Square, 520 Vine Street. Sponsored by Coffee Party Cincinnati. Contact: coffeepartycincinnati@gmail.com

Columbus
March 19th: Gather at 2:00 pm at the The Ohio Statehouse (High St. Side, near the McKinley Statue)
Sponsored by the ANSWER Coalition. Contact: columbus@answercoalition.org, 614-226-7807

Dayton
March 19th: Gather at Carillon Park, Time TBD. Sponsored by the September 11 Coalition and Dayton Peace Action. Contact: Tim Lingg at 937-291-2008

Oklahoma
Oklahoma City
Friday, March 18th: 4:00-6:00pm. Gather on the Northeast corner of NW 23rd St & Broadway
Sponsored by Peace House and Oklahoma Center for Conscience. Contact: Peace House at 405-524-5577, peacehouseok.org

Oregon
Portland
March 19th: Rally at 1:00pm, march at 1:30pm at Pioneer Courthouse Square, SW 6th and Yamhill (downtown). Cosponsored and endorsed by over 50 peace, labor, faith, civil rights and other organizations
Contact: Peace and Justice Works at 505-236-3065 or pjw.info

Roseburg
Saturday March 19th: Rally at Stewart Park Pavillion. Details.

Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh
Saturday, March 26th: Gather at 12 noon at 47th and Butler St. March through Lawrenceville at 1 pm
Contact: info@pittsburghendthewar.org

Roseburg
Saturday March 19th: Rally at Stewart Park Pavillion. Details.

South Carolina
Hilton Head Island
March 19th: Gather at 10:00am at the Hilton Head Library. Vigil on Rt. 278 and Beach City Rd. Sponsored by Hilton Head for Peace. Contact: 603-264-6102

Texas
Dallas
Saturday, March 19 11:00 a.m. – Meet at Mockingbird Station to march to Potomac Park Noon-1:30 p.m. – Rally at Potomac Park Where: Potomac Park, Airline Rd. @ E. Potomac Ave. (behind La Madeleine). Details

Houston
Saturday, March 19th: 11:00am to 1:00pm. Rally and march beginning at Bell Park, 4800 Montrose.

Utah
Salt Lake City
March 19th: Gather at 1:00 pm for a rally at Utah State Capitol (350 North Main St # 600). Initiated by the Revolutionary Students Union. Contact: uvursu@gmail.com, uvursu.com

Virginia
Quantico
Sunday March 20: Rally at 2pm (in Triangle, VA at intersection of Main Street and Route 1), then march to the gates of Quantico Marine Base, where Bradley is imprisoned. Buy a bus ticket from DC to Quantico for the day online. Invite your friends via Facebook. More info.

Washington
Seattle
Saturday March 19th: Rally at Westlake (4th and Pine Seattle) 12pm. Details. Facebook event.

Wisconsin
Milwaukee
Pray & Fast at Marquette University Raynor Memorial Library 4-5pm on Wednesdays: March 9, 16, 23, 30, April 6, 13. Contact don2roberta@yahoo.com.

Madison
Stand in Solidarity March 19: Iraq Veterans Against the War calls for rall at 10am: Library Mall, 750 State St., 11am march up State St. to the Capitol.

Add an event in your area if you can’t find a local protest near you. More protest events posted at answercoalition.org. And on unitedforpeace.org.

Republi-Nazis hate women.

From The Des Moine’s Register: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110317/NEWS10/103170339/0/OPINION04/?odyssey=nav|head

Written by JASON CLAYWORTH
Mar. 17, 2011

Poor Iowans would be prohibited from having a taxpayer-paid abortion in cases of rape or incest under an amendment to a budget bill approved by a House committee this week.

Existing state law follows federal requirements and allows the use of Medicaid money to pay for abortions in those situations and when a mother’s life is threatened.

Civil rights and abortion rights groups were quick to sound an alarm about the amendment.

“What are we saying here?” asked Randall Wilson, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa. “We’re saying that if a rich woman is raped, she can get an abortion because she can afford one, but a poor woman will have to bear the child. There’s no social justice in that.”

Wilson said, “It’s an attempt to take away the reproductive rights of poor women.”Medicaid-paid abortions for rape and incest are rare in Iowa. State records dating to 2005 show no state or federal money was used to pay for abortions in those situations, said Roger Munns, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Human Services.

Continue reading at:  http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110317/NEWS10/103170339/0/OPINION04/?odyssey=nav|head

Today I came across a link to Books We Love at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

I’m reading people writing about imperialism, economics, ecology and the power structures that have brought us to this place of disaster and these people are reading fiction and crap like “The Dynamic Laws of Prosperity, by Catherine Ponder; The Celestine Prophecy, by James Redfield”.

Others read mysteries and other fiction.

No wonder I’m a radical and they are corporate activist shills.

I actually have hope that Get Equal might be  able to break out of the beg and live well  pattern that has become the gold standard of what passes for progressive activism but is really just liberal careerist wankery.

Fuck Gay Inc.

I have better places to put my working class activist energies than into donating money so some overly privileged liberals who sit around some NPO congratulating each other on how liberal and intelligent they are can wear nice clothes and go to parties populated by nice upper class donors  while working class people are watching every single part of the social contact shredded.

Audre Lorde said, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”.  She wasn’t talking about the poor and disenfranchised rising up and voting the bastards out, or flooding the streets and putting our bodies against the machine.  Nor was she talking about our seizing control over our lives.

Gay Inc have become the “master’s tools”, the deceptive image of activism that actual acts as an agency of control.

This Saturday we will be at a demonstration organized by World Can’t Wait.  Why do I imagine Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin’s reading list is probably a whole lot meatier than the entire list of of the people at NGLTF?

The nature of Gay Inc is bourgeois, more concerned with the interests of the middle and upper class gay men than with poor TS/TG folks who are more likely to live in poverty.  The concerns of the people of Gay Inc  often seem more focused upon the latest fund raising event than upon the astronomically high rate of unemployment/under employment among working class LGBT/T folks who are too obvious, too butch or too femme to be considered a part of the desirable LGBT/T corporate marketing demographic.

Survival sex work and homelessness is probably not even on their radar screen.

Perhaps I should put together a remedial reading list for them.

Perhaps we need a new grass roots movement that tells Gay Inc to bugger off.

I can understand TS/TG anger with Gay Inc.  For many M to F people coming out as TS or TG equals stepping on the social mobility elevator and hitting the down button.

Once again the Republi-Nazis use the Constitution as toilet paper.

From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/16-12

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to get Emergency Manager powers this week

by Eartha Jane Melzer

Published on Wednesday, March 16, 2011 by Michigan Messenger

Public workers in Michigan lost job security yesterday as the state House signed off on a bill that allows the governor to appoint people to take over financially troubled local governments and schools and cancel labor contracts.

Less than two months after Gov. Rick Snyder asked the Legislature to expand the state’s ability to intervene in communities facing budget problems, the Republican-controlled House and Senate have finalized a bill that gives unprecedented power to appointed Emergency Managers.

The Local Government and School District Fiscal Accountability Act creates a range of triggers for state involvement in local communities and allows the governor to appoint managers to fire local elected officials, break labor agreements, suspend collective bargaining rights for five years, order millage elections, take over pension funds and even dissolve local governments.

The law also contains a provision added by the Senate that gives towns a chance to avoid takeover by entering into a budgeting consent agreement with the state and becoming exempt from collective bargaining agreements.

“The Governor will sign,” spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said Tuesday afternoon. “He believes this was an important step forward and will be a key tool to help indicate and address fiscal problems earlier and more clearly in Michigan’s cities and schools with the hopes of avoiding the appointment of an emergency manager to begin with.”

Critics say that the Emergency Manager legislation is part of a nationwide Republican effort to consolidate political power by undermining unions.

Continue reading at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/16-12

First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemoller

From Truth Out: http://www.truth-out.org/class-warfare-final-chapter68146

Michael Pirsch
Tuesday 15 March 2011

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” -Warren Buffett to The New York Times, November 26, 2006

There is overwhelming evidence that we are entering the final chapter of class warfare in the US. Today, in the “public arena,” it is forbidden to say class warfare, and many citizens do not regard themselves as working class. The assault on language comes compliments of the propaganda apparatus, which includes: public relations, marketing, corporate media and the entertainment industry, universities, think tanks and so on. Its purpose is to distract our attention from serious matters so we can focus on trivial matters – usually involving consuming. Edward Bernays, the founder of the modern propaganda industry, described the process:

Those who manipulate the unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested largely by men we have never heard of … in almost every act of our lives whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.[1]

In addition to inventing the propaganda model still in use today, Bernays’ model created support for World War I, first in England and then in the US, calling the war to save Morgan’s billions the war for “making the world safe for democracy.”

We have been overwhelmed by the propaganda apparatus to the point that it controls our thought processes, causing us to become relentless shoppers, even against our own interests. It controls our thinking in the public sphere so that we support the wealthy elite, even against our own interests. Far too many of us have been rendered thoughtless and clueless as to what it means to live in a democratic society. It is not democracy because the government says it is; it is democracy when the masses are informed and act through their delegates to develop policy that promotes the general welfare. Today there are two sovereign nations that exhibit more democratic tendencies than all others: Venezuela and Bolivia. Because of their efforts to build democracy, both sovereign nations have been under attack by the US. In Venezuela, the US sponsored a coup in 2002. In Bolivia, the US government has sponsored a secessionist movement made up of the wealthy elite, whose tactics includes murder of government supporters. The Bolivian government expelled the US ambassador for his role in the destabilization attempt. Both Venezuela and Bolivia have adopted new constitutions which were the result of a process that involved all citizens and especially both countries’ indigenous populations, who were previously completely excluded from any role in government. Both countries have improved access to their medical systems, increased literacy and established local spaces where democracy can be practiced. This shift causes the US empire considerable distress, because the empire fears the spread of real democracy more than anything else.

An essential element in a democracy is the development of a critical consciousness that allows us to resist succumbing to the siren call of the propaganda apparatus. Hugo Chavez, in a 2003 interview, spoke of the need to develop critical thinking:

It seems to be part of a larger social defect in the US – that’s a society that should really develop some kind of response to the intellectual battering that seems to take place daily. I sincerely hope that one day the US public will develop some kind of critical consciousness, that they will remove the veil from their eyes and see the media powers for what they are. No part of the human community can live entirely on its own planet with its own laws of motion and cut off from the rest of humanity. They must be critical, and make it their personal responsibility to humanity and morality to discover the truth.[2]

Eduardo Galeano, well-known Latin American author and critical thinker, continued in the same vein:

Never have so many been held incommunicado by so few. More and more have the right to hear and see, but fewer and fewer have the privilege of informing, giving their opinion and creating. The dictatorship of the single word and the single image, much more devastating than that of the single party, is imposing a life whose exemplary citizen is a docile consumer and passive spectator. Never before have so few fooled so many.[3]

What better time than now for the wealthy elite to crush any chance of developing any critical thought. A substantial majority in the US have been so overwhelmed by the consumer/celebrity culture that distracts from the real situation that they are now fearful of harboring a critical thought, let alone speaking critically about the surrender of democracy to the wealthy elite. No matter what outrage the wealthy elite throws at us all, every indicator suggests there would be little, if any, resistance to that outrage. In fact, now is the best time for the wealthy elite to finally win the war and put into action all the highly repressive measures passed by Congress this decade. The repression already authorized, if put into full effect, would make the US a recognizably totalitarian state.

Continue reading at:  http://www.truth-out.org/class-warfare-final-chapter68146

I am afraid there are people in this country who really want to bring forth a Forth Reich.  The people involved in the Christo-Fascist Dominionist Movement that includes “The Family” and other large tax scamming political organizations that are disguised as churches regularly speak of exterminating LGBT/T people in the name of their magic invisible sky daddy.

When I mention this people tell me I am being paranoid but I look at what these sorts of people did less than a century ago.

Then you have the Republi-Nazi political movement with their violent rhetoric and utter contempt for both the Constitution and for anything this country used to stand for.

Rushdoony is/was one of their messianic leaders and created much of the ideology of their movement.

From Talk to Action: http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/3/15/142615/800

Rachel Tabachnick
Tue Mar 15, 2011 at 02:26:15 PM EST
Biblical Capitalism – Part FourWhat would a Reconstructionist America look like?  Meet Bobby Franklin and his pastor and advocate Rev. Joseph Morecraft.  In my recent article The Rise of Charismatic Dominionism, I quoted a 1994 series of articles by Frederick Clarkson in The Public Eye which included a section subtitled “The Wrath of Morecraft.” Rev. Joseph Morecraft is a nationally recognized leader of a religious/political belief system called Christian Reconstructionism. One of the better known congregants of Morecraft’s Chalcedon Presbyterian Church is Rep. Bobby Franklin who has served as the state representative of the 43rd District of Georgia (north Cobb County) since 1996. Franklin argues that the Tea Party should be focused on the illegality of taxes and other federal powers he claims are not constitutional, as opposed to concerns about reducing taxes. Franklin wishes to abolish: drivers licenses (calling it the Right to Travel Act); public schools; income taxes; and mandatory vaccinations.  He has introduced a bill to make gold and silver the only legal tender, a bill relabeling rape victims as “accusers” in Georgia statutes and a bill that would require women to provide evidence that their miscarriages occurred naturally or face felony charges.

Franklin was recently quoted in the Marietta Daily Journal as equating allowing homosexuals to serve in the military to allowing unrepentant drug dealers in the military. Franklin is author of the “Georgia Food Freedom Act” and “Georgia Right to Grow Act.”  In the Marietta Daily Journal article titled “East Cobb Rep Franklin takes on gays gold goats and God,” Franklin states:

Continue reading at:  http://www.talk2action.org/story/2011/3/15/142615/800

I have a hard time defending Obama on much of anything.  He is so wishy-washy and unwilling to stand for any principle.  He caves in to the most egregious hateful demands on the part of the ultra-right wing as to make a bad joke out of his platform of “Hope” and “Change”.

If he were only a real Democrat like FDR, who stood taller and stronger from a wheel chair than Obama stands on two strong healthy legs.

I am disgusted and disappointed with him, even more than with Bill Clinton, who was certainly no real friend of the hard working American people or of the down trodden.  LBJ was the last real Democrat who gave a shit about the poor and down trodden.

Damn I wish we had an LBJ instead of this empty suit.

Nonetheless the Republi-Nazis hate him for not joining them in extolling hatred and bigotry.  Not because he is actively doing anything to get rid of DOMA but because he won’t defend keeping some 10% of American People as second class citizens by denying them the same rights heterosexuals take for granted.  Even lying cheating scumbags like Ensign, Vitter and Gingrich can marry one trophy tramp after another dumping them like used condoms when they tire of them and still get their relationships officially recognized.

How fucking special rights for straights is that?

From The Advocate:  http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/03/15/81_Reps_Condemn_Obamas_DOMA_Stance/

By Michelle Garcia

Posted on Advocate.com March 15, 2011

A House resolution with 81 Republican cosponsors, including Rep. Michele Bachmann, condemns President Barack Obama for his decision to stop defending section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in federal court cases.

<snip>

The resolution finds fault with the the Obama administration for ceasing to defend DOMA, despite a large majority in Congress approving it, but in contrast, the administration is defending other laws, such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act after it “barely passed both chambers of Congress on party line votes.”

Continue reading at:  http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/03/15/81_Reps_Condemn_Obamas_DOMA_Stance/