The simplest of pleasures

Sometimes in the midst of a world that appears crazy and off the track, you have to seize simple pleasures to get through another day. There's only so much political posturing, pain, death and distruction that one can keep abreast of.

For me, music is one of those simple pleasures. Whether I’m listening to a new artist, a groove-worn favorite, or even banging out some rudimentary chords on my trusty Yamaha acoustic, it’s hard for me not to feel better with a song in my head and hopefully in my heart.

I’ve discovered a new way to enjoy more music in my life. While I’ve become a fan of internet radio through WMFU, I just stumbled upon 3wk.com. I had heard my friend Jose of Spouse make mention of the station in the past, but while reading through his tour diary from Spouse’s just completed tour, I learned that they recorded some tracks while in St. Louis for 3wk.

Thanks to my newfound internet radio companion, I’ve been able to listen to a slew of indie music ranging from new artists (for me) like the wanteds, Tegan and Sara, The Fiery Furnaces and Bright Eyes, as well as old faves like Guided by Voices, Wilco, PJ Harvey and The Mountain Goats.

Speaking of simple pleasures, there is nothing more relaxing than curling up on the couch with that someone special, both of you reading your books, while the snow falls quietly on the deck outside the window.

A quiet dinner with the one you love (and haven't seen all week), conversation, a glass or two of wine and all seems right in this little corner of civilization.

The world may be going to hell in a handbasket, but for today, I’m choosing to enjoy pleasure and tune out the pain and exploitation for a few hours.

Wanted: An opposition party

Yesterday’s events in the well of the Congress provided a glimpse of how a democracy is supposed to operate. While I certainly wish more in the Congress had been more courageous and voted against certification of the electoral vote, the 32 who did have the courage to vote their convictions have provided a blueprint for the rest of their colleagues. While it’s disappointing to me that others in the Senate didn’t follow the principled leadership of two women, one Jewish and the other an African-American, I'm not surprised that fellow senators like privileged white males Ted Kennedy, Frank Lautenberg and others, didn't think it important enough to make a real statement and push this into the mainstream media and ultimately, faces of the apathetic masses. While there was actually some debate and discussion on the subject, the fact that the vote, particularly in the Senate, indicates that the heartbeat of democracy is barely beating.

To deny that there were widespread irregularities and examples of fraud during November's vote, is to deny the evidence that is available for anyone willing to take a few minutes to review it. Organizations like Black Box Voting, No Stolen Elections, as well as the investigative journalism on the subject being done by Greg Palast has shown light into the dark corners of our failed voting processes. What galls me the most is that ordinary citizens and others, linked by technology, are more educated on the scope of the issue than our paid representatives in Washington, save for a few. Possibly, it’s less an issue of education with some and more of an issue of outright corruption. When I think of not one Republican coming forward to show support for Boxer and her Democratic colleagues in the House, I am inclined to attribute it more to the latter than the former. The handful of Republicans that should have taken a stand like McCain, Ron Paul and even my own senator from Maine, Olympia Snowe, toed the party line like the obedient sheep that they truly are.

Regardless whether their candidate won or not, when voters can no longer be assured that their votes will count, honor and rectitude would dictate the issue receiving bipartisan support. How can we continue to justify the tragic deaths of our young men and women in Iraq in the name of democracy, if we aren’t vigilant on our own shores to preserve its integrity? Unfortunately, it was obvious to me yesterday that Republicans care little about democracy now that they have control of the three branches of government, as well as the complicit support of the mainstream media.

As Palast so aptly illustrated in his book, the voting irregularities in Florida during the 2000 election disenfranchised large numbers of African-Americans and other minority voters. During the past election in November, minorities were once again subject to having to deal with lack of voting machines, long lines and waits to vote, archaic procedures, to even having their votes thrown out. Interestingly, Republicans don’t seem to have the will to address the issue because minorities, particularly African-Americans and those who live in the poorest areas of the U.S., predominantly vote Democratic. This is a form of racism that shouldn’t be present in 2005, yet it appears that the Republican Party has now become the advocates of Jim Crow in our country.

During the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960’s, the Dixiecrats in the south were the ones perpetuating racist policy, segregation and Jim Crow laws. Now, 50 years later, the roles have flipped and the Republican Party is now the proponent of racism, bigotry and Jim Crow in our country.

Last night I watched the Congressional proceedings on C-Span. Sitting in my living room, I witnessed Republican after Republican speaker get up and condemn the machinations of democracy and speak in favor of African-American disenfranchisement. As I listened to Republican pieces-of-shit like Tom Delay, the most obvious charlatan in the chamber talk about the Democrats’ "spite, obstructionism and conspiracy theories," I thought it would be more appropriate for he and his fellow Republicans like Trent Lott and Bill Frist, as well as George Voinovich (who sold out his African-American constituents) to come to the podium wearing their white hoods. Delay, who is the poster boy for the right-wing, Jeebus-loving, "left behind" fundamentalists who voted en masse for the Fuhrer Bush, permeates the chamber of the Congress with the stench of hell and death whenever he rises to speak.

While the gauntlet was being thrown down by 32 courageous champions of truth and integrity, other members of Congress continued the business as usual approach to validating the agenda of plutocracy. Given the opportunity to act like an opposition party, the Democrats, including newly elected Senator Barack Obama, tucked their tails between their legs and ran. Democracy for all intents and purposes is finished, at least in the short term and we are in for one hell of a rocky road the next four years.

I want to end my monologue by saying how disgusted I was with both John Kerry and John Edwards. Both of these men were absent in voting on yesterday’s certification. Both of them invalidated the toil and commitment of time that tens of thousands of ordinary citizens put in trying to get them elected. To not be a part of the debate on one of the primary issues of our electoral system yesterday proved to me how unsuited both of them are to lead.

32 out of 530

For only the second time since 1877, a challenge was issued to the counting of the electoral votes for president. The last time it occurred was in January 1969 when the two chambers were forced to interrupt their joint vote-counting session and meet separately due to a North Carolina elector designated for Richard Nixon, deciding instead to cast his vote for Independent challenger George Wallace. Both chambers agreed to allow the vote for Wallace.

A handful of members from the House and a lone Senator, Democrat Barbara Boxer (D-California) showed courage and integrity in trying to bring the voting irregularities to the floor for debate. When Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones (D-Ohio) and Boxer formally protested the Ohio votes, it forced the House and Senate to convene seperately and debate the irregularities.

While the final votes on certification were not close at all, with the House voting 267-31 to uphold the Ohio votes (John Edwards was absent) and the Senate voting 74-1 in favor of the Ohio electoral votes, with Boxer being the lone Senator showing any courage and willingness to dissent. Democratic challenger for president John Kerry also was absent from the voting.

I've posted a link to the roll call votes for the House and the Senate.

While the Democrats didn't show themselves to be much of an opposition party today, the Republicans were absolutely lacking in any integrity, with not one GOP representative or senator breaking ranks and challenging the massive irregularities endemic during the the November vote for president.

Stolen election?

Here's an interesting website that keeps the door open concerning November's election results. There is also plenty of information on the site that might give you fodder, should you care to involve yourself in the process, to reform our elections.

What? Elections need reforming? In America??

Ah, just leave me alone!

Fascism phase II

We are in that post-holiday period of the year when many go into some form of hibernation. Part of it has to do with the letdown that accompanies the harried activity and build up that is our modern day version of the holidays. If you live in colder climes, part of it is due to the inhospitality of the weather and the shorter days.

Some might be jacked up by their New Years’ resolutions. Whether they are losing weight, getting a new job, spending that holiday cash, or some other form of self-delusion, after about a month, all those good intentions and other diversions will come crashing down. Life will revert to a boring routine of watching TV, renting movies, drinking/drugging and generally “tuning out” the realities of the real life, modern day progression of birth, school, work and death.

It’s in the context of this milieu that government and in particular, the current administration, is seeking to ram through legislation and additional elements of their blueprint designed to undermine democracy in the good ‘ole U.S.A.

If you don’t think what I’m talking about is progressing more rapidly than I care to imagine, try David Neiwert’s blog Orcinus, for a reality check about the shakeout from America’s shift rightward.

Just back from a couple of trips to Montana and Idaho, Neiwert gives us the lowdown on what’s shaking out in Red State America. If you read Neiwert at all, you know he’s thorough and analytical to a fault. Because of this his writing is so invaluable, as well as difficult to refute. I don’t like to do a lot of cut and paste, but with someone as good as Neiwert, it’s required. I’ll post just a bit here, but make sure you visit his site and read the entire piece; it’s very good, albeit scary:

(From Orcinus, Jan. 4, 2005)
Having made two post-election jaunts to the red state hinterlands of Idaho and Montana, I'm back to report that, well, things are getting ugly out there. In some cases, really ugly.I've been talking for some time about the course that eliminationist rhetoric on the right would eventually take by the force of its own nature: pretty soon we'd go from talking about liberals as traitors to overtly wishing for violence to be visited upon them and discussing locking them up, followed in due course by such violence and incarceration becoming a reality.Well, it is now becoming a commonly spoken sentiment on the right to wish for violence against liberals and to simultaneously suggest they and all "traitors" (including Muslim Americans) should be locked away. We're firmly into Phase II now.

You hear it when conservatives -- especially those red-state cultural conservatives from the working class who are most likely to vote against their own self-interest, and then blame liberals for how lousy their lives are -- get together among themselves for their communal liberal-bashing hatefests. They'll say it when they think no one else is listening. You can hear it from "fringe" radio figures like Michael Savage. Or you can read it in the unpublished letters to the editor that most publications choose not to run.It's the natural outgrowth of the kind of rhetoric we've gotten from the national conservative punditry, manifesting itself on a less sophisticated but more direct and plain-spoken mode.My very clear impression of the rank-and-file American right is that many if not most of them, at the behest of their leaders, now believe that opposing George W. Bush and the Iraq War, as well as his handling of the War on Terror, is an act of genuine treason worthy of the ultimate social condemnation, including incarceration and execution. They feel not only vindicated but profoundly empowered by the election result, empowered to silence their opposition, by force if need be.These aren't just my impressions from hanging out in Deep Red Country. The evidence is abundant elsewhere as well. Consider, for instance, some of the letters to the editor received by Editor and Publisher after it published a piece by former USA Today publisher Al Neuharth (who is not exactly a liberal) questioning the administration's handling of Iraq.One writer wished we had formed an alliance with Hitler (so we could have eliminated Commies and leftists from the planet first), while the rest called the offending authors "cowards and traitors", "unAmerican," "jackals," and the like. Then the threatening notes enter:

Their dissent equals treason. The terrorists got him just like all the other rich liberals who side against our victory. They forget that wars end, and then the country takes stock of who was where.

More along those lines:

• Neuharth should be tried for treason along with a lot of other blowhards who should be spending their energies condemning the barbarism of our enemies, the same people who destroyed the Twin Towers.... In the end William Joyce was executed for giving aid and comfort to the enemy during war time. Would that the same fate befall Al Neuharth!
  The consummate expression of these attitudes was this:
  
  The Patriot Act will put both of you (Neuharth and Mitchell) on trial for treason and convict and execute both of you as traitors for running these stories in a time of war and it should be done on TV for other communist traitors like you two to know we mean business. This is war and you should be put in prison NOW for talking like this. Who the hell do you people think you are? You give aid and comfort to our enemies and aid them in murdering our proud soldiers. You people are a disgrace to America. Your families should be put in prison with you, then be made to leave and move to the Middle East ...This is a great Christian nation and god wants us to lead the world out of darkness with great leaders like President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Communists like Al and Greg will soon be in prison and on death row for your ugly papers. We won the election and now you are mad. We own America and all the rights, you people are trash, go back to Russia and Africa and take your friends with before we put you on death row after a fair trial.

Editor and Publisher had earlier been the recipient of a similar e-mail from a fellow named Joe M. Richardson voicing similar sentiments, while holding forth on the subject of the soldiers who dared to question Donald Rumsfeld (cited by Atrios):

• The duped soldier should be put at the very front of the action, no armor. The cooperating sergeant's career should be over and maybe become MIA. Pitts and all his cronies should be executed as traitors. We are fighting a war, the debate is over, you’re either for us or against us, there is no middle ground. I say start executing the leftists in our country, soon.
  Bow-tied Beltway Republicans (and liberals, too) like to disregard talk like this as unrepresentative. But I don't think that's the case any longer. I think they're not just blowing smoke, they're deluding themselves. It's out there, and it's just about everywhere.

In addition to all of Neiwert's stuff, there is this on the Bush crime syndicate's concentration camp at Guantanamo, as well as—thanks to the machinations possible under USAPA—dissent can lead to indefinite imprisonment if the current administration has its way.

Maybe we should be paying a little more attention, don't you think? A good place to begin might be Mike Malloy's show via Air America. Become a truthseeker!