Stepping Back a Bit!
My writing classes are teaching me that I need to stop blogging for awhile. I am so wrong on my approach that I must stop, learn, and begin again.
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Thursday, September 3, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Read between the lines!
Sen. John McCain is doublespeaking, but in a good way. He is saying yes, Cheney violated the Geneva Conventions and international law forbidding torture. Yes, he committed crimes against humanity that helped Al Queda. Yes, he destroyed our credibility worldwide. But no we should not prosecute him and his willing minions. We know the only way to stop this activity in the future is to bring justice to bear on the participants, but we shouldn't do that.
He in fact is saying we SHOULD but in the only way he can.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM NOW!
Wow what a rally! The Organizing for America team worked up a wonderful "Health Insurance Reform Now" rally on Hampton and Elizabeth near I-44 this Sunday eve at the St. Louis IBEW Hall. The President of the Board of Alderman Lewis Reed, our County Executive Charlie Dooley, Labor Council President Bob Soutier and Rep. Russ Carnahan spoke at the event. It was so exciting and inspiring to see SO many people on the only moral side of this issue stand together and let their voices be heard!!Of course the "teabaggers" showed up but the group was small and OUR event was organized to marginalize these very sad and misguided people. We chanted them down from across the street. They tried to make noise and distract but they were ineffective in their efforts. We were probably six times their number, maybe more. I am being "conservative" with that number LOL!
The most memorable moment was when I spotted the infamous Josh Schroeder in the crowd posing as one of us. Ya THAT Josh Schroeder that turns off the comment section on his blog when someone disagrees with him. I walked up to Schroeder and asked him if he was indeed who I thought he was. He was surprised someone would recognize him. I told him, "I know who you are!" And what do hypocritical teabagger preachers do when confronted with their arrogance and greed? They cut and run! I turned around to inform an event organizer that we had an infiltrator and poof he was gone. Oh well! To have gotten a picture of him with the Health Care Reform sticker oh his gravy stained green polo would have been classic!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Back in the Saddle Again!
This has been a very rough week. School started with a BANG. I had to drop/add three classes. Then there was the accident on I-55. Things are getting better and I can start blogging again and reading the news.I guess the most important topic on my mind right now is car safety. Put a fire extinguisher in your car. I cannot say that loud enough or long enough.
Second is the death of Ted Kennedy. A facebook friend said yesterday, "I am having a hard time mourning the death of the Hero of Chappaquiddick". You do not have to mourn him. Just keep your pie hole shut if you don't have anything good to say. Put his shoes on for just one second. He lost three brothers and a sister before he turned forty. After the accident Tuesday I can vividly imagine losing my sister, multiply that times four. These weren't just any siblings either. They were literally the cream of the cream, possibly the brightest and most talented people in our nation's history. And he had to try and carry on after them. No pressure Ted, no pressure.
More later. I have a most interesting class coming up.
Hopefully make flyers tomorrow and start pimping this blog!
Monday, August 24, 2009
It is on!
First day of school. The bus ride was noisy but friendly. Got here way early which is cool with me. I sit in a well lit room full of young people. The windows along the north wall remind me of another classroom long ago in a place so far away. The instructor is late. Oh noes!
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Sunday, August 23, 2009
First Day of School!
Tomorrow will be my first day of school since 1988. I am more excited than nervous. Finally completing my degree, Political Science with some IT and Spanish. Hopefully land a job in Jeff City. I am getting a teaching certificate just in case.Getting fliers made tomorrow. UMSL Students, let your voices be heard!
Also have to join some student organizations.
Wow, this is so cool! Must not scare the neocons, must not scare the neocons! LOL, I am all about peace!
I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.
-Gandhi
Saturday, August 22, 2009
The Face of Modern American Christianity
Josh Schroeder is a Lutheran Seminary student. He is supposed to be studying the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as written in the Bible. Somehow he got lost. This is a teabagging minister with the compassion of a hacksaw and the charity of cold steel safe. When preachers work so hard to hurt so many it makes you wonder what books they are reading. Because the Jesus I read about was a communist, not an investment banker.I posted this on his blog...I like the last line the best!
Hey preacher, what would Jesus do? 20,000 INSURED AMERICANS die every year because of denied treatment. That is six 911s every year. And "God" didn't tell the insurance companies to deny coverage, their greed did. Jesus was a socialist. The US is a socialist nation. Oh and you are socialist too, because everyone in the US benefits from government programs and regulation. Your kids eat clean food and drink clean water. Conservatives fought tooth and nail to keep that from happening. Public schools, days off, vacations, veterans benefits, a safe workplace, social security, medicare, decent working hours...all the benefits of socialism. Did you take any student loans out?
And finally, it was nine years ago that my best buddy from 4th grade died because his treatment was not covered by his insurance. He was a great guy and died a painful death.
Read your Bible, it might help you understand what it means to be "Christ like". Your tone is arrogant and selfish, your words are steely and callous, your mind appears nailed shut. Preachers are usually just parasites, you tend more toward the predatory!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Sunday Morning Agnostic Reality Break
This morning we open our minds and read from the great philosopher Epicurus
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
Think on that a few minutes.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
We admire and respect Barak Obama!
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We do not want anyone to think this is an anti Obama site. I am all for this man. Politifact is tracking his progress. He is our best chance at some peace and justice in a long time.The cards are stacked against the working man. The powerful interest groups that control our Government have us fighting each other, as usual, over basic issues. Obama may help our cause. It is imperitive that we push him to do what is right.
Health Care for America Now!
We went to the Culture Cafe on the Delmar Loop to attend a solidarity meeting sponsored by Health Care for America Now. The very classy Culture Cafe has great food and it is CHEAP. It's attached to a very stylish salon and is adorned with art and books and posters. Real class.We stood outside with the HCAN crew and asked the myriad "Loop" hipsters that passed us to sign our petition, and many did! Did not see ONE teabagger. Got to pass our new UMSL BLOG cards made that day by Creative Litho Inc. Never go anywhere else for your printing needs. They made me 250 cards in 3 hours and the price was right.
Spent the afternoon passing out fliers and talking to people. It was hot but fun and if we swayed one person, it was well worth it.
My growth moment came from a guy I saw at the Mehlville Town Hall a few weeks back. He was at this event and handing out fliers with the rest of us. His name is Brian, and he said something that I took to heart. As people walked by I kept saying, "twenty thousand insured people die every year because of undercoverage or denied coverage, you are not safe, that's six 9/11s every year." He advised me that the "be afraid" tactic might make us sound like the Right and their eight year long program of scaring Americans. I could not agree more. Thanks Brian and thanks to all who showed up to this great event. Leadership is action not position...and not scaring people.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Grassroots Urban Renewal Rocks!
UMSL Blog went to the Urban Renewal Film Festival at the Black Bear Bakery hosted by grassroots community activist Mark Berry. I drank some coffee, watched some movies and was so out of place no one would speak to me, well almost no one! I did look like "Joe the Salesman" in my dockers and button down shirt. Midwest boring I was! They probably thought I was a cop!This link details the independently produced films that were presented. The first film, "Buffalo ReUse: Building Community" was really well done, informative and entertaining. It showed how grass roots organizers had set up a non profit to "recycle" houses that would have normally been demolished, made money to pay for the operation by selling the reusable resources from the homes, trained people to work and grow, and had fun doing it. We got to hear from the organizers, the workers, the customers and people from the neighborhood. I would love to see the reaction of mainstream Americans to the efforts of these men and women making a difference.
The next film, "We Need Food not Bombs" was a real crowd pleaser. It showed how people working together could help feed the poor and how a city like Buffalo could still try and stimey their efforts. There were clips of their organization's marches and demostrations against the wars and how they were abused by the police. It was stirring without making the particpants look like weak and whining victims. They came off as wise and wary veterans of the ongoing struggle for peace and justice. I loved the flick.
The third movie, "We Own It" was a like a mainstream reality TV show about a co-op housing project in Buffalo. The "Real World" with anarchists and no sex. The film told the story of people getting together and securing a property, organizing the rehab, and filling it with tenants. It was mostly about the rehab. You could smell the old wall studs and sawdust, and the plaster and lathe walls, and feel the ancient floor creaking beneath your feet. It was realistic.
I didn't stay for the last film, I hit the gym at five a.m. so I was leaving as it was beginning. I did get to speak to a young lady named Emily, a bright and cheerful Washington University student. She had some unique insights about student activism in St. Louis. She contends that students are smart and educated, but only about what interests them. They are not encouraged to get involved beyond the "formalized community service" that looks good on resumes, but keeps them away from rough neighborhoods and "interesting" people.
We encourage you to go the Black Bear Bakery and get a taste of great food, savory coffee, homegrown anarchy, urban radicalism, and a lot of interest in what can make this city, nation, state and world a better place for all men and women.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Frank Rich says what I have been saying all week!
I have been rubbing elbows with many right wingers lately. At work my buddy John is an "evangelical catholic" with a love for Glenn Beck. On Facebook I have been spanking righties as seen in the last post. Of course during the Mehlville debacle I was surrounded by them. Surrounded!As a way to gain some common ground and break the ice with them I have been using this line, "I don't know why your upset with Obama because I see little change from the past administration. We are still torturing, still illegally eavesdropping, we still have troops in Iraq, we are escalating in Afghanistan, what is the beef?"
We know what their beef with Obama is, *whispering* he's black.
I have to say it was Michelle that got me to vote for the President. She was in rural Illinois giving a speech and I saw it on CSPAN. She was talking about how Obama said he wanted to run and how she said yes. He was shocked she related and he asked if she was afraid. Her reply was, "You have to run because I am tired of being afraid." BAM!! That knocked me out, I got misty, I got online, I got out my CC.
He did, however, seal the deal. Remember when all the Reverend Wright nonsense, and the saluting nonsense, and the lapel pin nonsense, and his middle name nonsense was swirling through the media, when bloggers, pundits, anchors, editors and even sportscasters were questioning his patriotism? When article after article, newscast after newscast tried to smear him, he said in one sentence what none of the aforementioned assholes could ever hope to express. "Everything that I am is because of this country." Pwnt! Uberpwnt!
Progressives never really thought he was a progressive and knew he would not meet their expectations. But Joe Democrat was hypnotized. The glassy eyed cheerleaders were in LOVE! And I can see why. Even the mainstream media started treating him like a man. But six months into his first term the man on the street who backed his play is starting to question his overall plan. Frank Rich wrote this in the NYT and hits the nail on the HEAD! This is the key paragraph from the article...
"No president can do that alone, let alone in six months. To make Obama’s goal more quixotic, the ailment that he diagnosed is far bigger than Washington and often beyond politics’ domain. What disturbs Americans of all ideological persuasions is the fear that almost everything, not just government, is fixed or manipulated by some powerful hidden hand, from commercial transactions as trivial as the sales of prime concert tickets to cultural forces as pervasive as the news media."
That's it! It's a WWF match, a three scene farce at the theater of the absurd, a monstrous passion play of deceit and denial? No, it's reality. His reality. He is doing what he thinks is right and can fly. But he is seriously blowing it on health care. Susie Mandrak sums it up in this post from Crooks and Liars.
I want the man to exceed my expectations. He is barley meeting some of them. He is my President and I salute him. Everyday!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
U City is Smart and Teabaggers get Lucky!
Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill had scheduled a Health Care Reform Town Hall Meeting on Tuesday at the University City High School, a very diverse suburb of St. Louis MO. The school district wisely, and I mean very wisely, decided to unilaterally cancel this event citing safety concerns.
The "teabaggers" are lucky, very lucky. University City is probably the most diverse of St. Louis' many suburbs. It is home of the St. Louis' China Town. It boasts about it's large Russian and Jewish communities. It is the home of "The Loop", a cosmopolitan stretch of Delmar Ave. with many music, art, food and fashion venues. It also has a strong and vibrant African American community. U City is proud of this diversity but struggles with a recent history of gang related violence that left a University City Police officer dead last summer.
"U City" is not a 93.9% white, low key, South County suburb like Mehlville where violence erupted at a town hall meeting hosted by Missouri 3rd District Rep. Russ Carnahan.
The primarily white and definitely rowdy "teabaggers" that hijacked that event are just spiteful and stupid enough make the same play in U City, but the results would be MUCH different. And the U City school board was smart enough to know that and the "teabaggers" got lucky, very lucky.
Friday, August 7, 2009
I made it!
I started this blog in June and was basically playing with it. I was just repeating what read on other blogs and commenting on them. Last night I wrote an original piece of citizen journalism and it got quoted and posted all over the web. I was on a local radio station this morning. I have finally made it.Thursday, August 6, 2009
Chaos in Mehlville
Update: I made the News!I am the guy pointing and shouting down the "baggers"!!
I went to the Russ Carnahan's (D-MO 3rd District)Town Hall Meeting on Health Care and Aging at the Bernard Middle School in beautiful Mehlville Missouri tonight. It was more than I expected. What was setup as a multi guest, informational resource for seniors and those that care for them turned into a chaotic political showdown between partisan groups.
I got there about 5:45pm and was in a hurry because I had printed fliers to pass out to the many people in line to get in.
The flier said, "For 2500 years people have gathered and discussed issues that face their families, their communities and their nation. It is the bedrock of our living democracy. It is America! We gather here to continue this tradition in a civil and respectful manner. Efforts to disrupt and thwart public discourse are profoundly undemocratic and divide us when we desperately need unity! Please show the same respect for these proceedings you would show your family or your church." It didn't work.
I walked down the line and handed the people my flier while saying "any patriots here" or "any veterans here" or "hey you look like an American read this!" People quickly grabbed for my fliers and started reading. I knew those phrases would get the attention of the "teabaggers" and "astroturfers" that were as thick as flies. One old man didn't like what the flier said and tried to get the cops to take away my fliers. The cops laughed.
There were some union and clean air people clustered around a side door and I went over and introduced myself. They took our names, I took my mom who is a senior and an ardent progressive, and we got "juiced in" with great seats, because we were progressives. That was nice! As the auditorium began to fill you could hear the "teabaggers" warming up.
We sat down next to an older couple named Dan and Dot. Dan is a very well spoken and classy guy and we discussed some issues while we waited for the speakers to start. He didn't really have any strong opinions but seemed to enjoy my answers to his questions. Realize I am SURROUNDED by "teabaggers" and they are listening to every word I say. Dot, is a sweet lady but the firebrand of the family. She balked at my "out of the box" analysis of Obama and Clinton, Defense spending and aggressive wars, health care and workplace issues-so did the "teabaggers" listening in. She really flipped when I explained that all Americans are socialists. It was a lot of fun. But the fun ended quickly.
It is important to note this was not a broad based health care town meeting. It was specifically about aging, resources for seniors, and related policy. The "teabaggers" would have none of it. Carnahan introduced the speakers and was booed. He gave me thumbs up, which was the highpoint of the night. One by one the speakers would come to the podium, one from AARP and one a regional federal Senior Care official, and were greeted with applause for the Democrats and progressives and boos and chants from the "teabaggers". As each speaker made points the "teabaggers" jeered and booed, stood up and turned their backs then sat back down, and called for Representative Carnahan to come to the podium.
That is when I got vocal. I know, I know I wasn't supposed to lose my cool, but after about twenty minutes of this inexcusable and blatant disrespect and rudeness from this crowd of "teabaggers" I got up and yelled, "don't you have the common decency and manners to let this man talk?" That actually caught them off guard and I got some applause. It was a short lived victory. They started chanting and individuals started approaching the podium demanding that Carnahan speak. I got up again and yelled, "sit down, sit down." One lady jabbed me with her flag and another guy started whining about Carnahan not speaking. I did not take that well.
I am 6'4" and 250 pounds, and not one to back down from ANYONE. I told the whiner to shut up, he didn't run this meeting and he should wait for the Q&A session like an adult. I was then told by three male "teabaggers" sitting behind me to shut up or they would shut me up. My adrenal gland opened up. I emptied my pockets and was fully prepared to duke it out. After eight long and deadly years of the Right running this country into the ground I was not about to let those douchebags muscle me. And for them to try and hijack this meeting was making me go nuts. But reason prevailed and I got up and walked out. I had at least ten people slap my back and high five me on the way to the door.
I failed. I wasn't able to live up to the flier I proudly passed out before the event.
I failed. I didn't know how evil and rude and spiteful those people were.
I failed. But I did not harm anyone or break any laws.
I will not fail again.
Carnahan to speak in Mehliville
Rep. Russ Carnahan will be speaking at a Town Hall meeting held at the Bernard Middle School 1058 Forder Rd. in Mehlville tonight at 6pm. We expect that "AstroTurf" or artificial grassroots demonstrators will try and disrupt these proceedings. That is unacceptable. Big time Washington PR firms are organizing this thuggery and we will be there to encourage civil and polite discourse on this gravely important issue.Twenty thousand people die every year because of no coverage or denied coverage. That is six 911s every year. Carnahan must know we need economic and social justice for working families! Help us!
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