STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI ST. LOUIS, LET YOUR VOICES BE HEARD! YOU CAN COMMENT ON POSTED ARTICLES OR SEND US YOUR WORK. EMAIL TO UMSLBLOG@YAHOO.COM AND BECOME PART OF OUR ONGOING CONVERSATION!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Cheney II The Reckoning!

Newt Gingrich, disgraced former Speaker of the House, leader of the so called Republican Revolution and "enemy of working people everywhere" says in an interview that we should send Special Ops Teams into Iran to sabotage their gas refinery. This is twentieth century, big country vs. little country, Empire of the Eagle geo-strategy being articulated by a possible candidate for President or more likely Vice President in 2012. This is another Cheney in the making watch and see. Here is another example of "Gingrichthink", The Contract for America. That article from Mother Jones shows his handiwork. It's alive!
[ ... ]

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Robert Reich is a Good Man!

Robert Reich is a good man. I can't say it enough. He makes me feel like there is hope without being over optimistic or gushy. His cool and reasonable approach to economic and political questions is as reassuring as when your father says, "it's going to be alright." But Reich doesn't say it's going to be alright. He doesn't know what the economy is going to do. But he has some very good ideas and he is well worth reading!

Even though he was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, he is not a "Clintonista!" During the campaign, when Bill Clinton was talking smack about Obama, Mr. Reich defended Obama and derided Clinton's attacks as "ill tempered and ill founded". Read his blog and get a new insight into what is really going on from a man who has the education, expertise and experience to explain it properly.
[ ... ]

GM, "clean diesel" and it's rebirth!

Clean diesel technology has piqued my interest. Given the restructuring and so called "rebirth" of General Motors, I hope that clean diesel motors are in it's future. I would like to see an entirely new way of manufacturing and selling automobiles. We still have to have them even though I want MASSIVE investment in public transportation and we aren't ready for electric yet nationwide (the south west needs them yesterday!). In the mean time if Detroit is going to make fossil fuel vehicles, they need to be clean diesels, have limited models, and be cheap and small.

Clean diesel looks good. They are talking 70+mpg with fewer emissions than a Prius. That is a step in the right direction and GM needs to be all over this. Big time. The idea of building twenty GM models that change every year has got to go. They need to make an ultra small two seat commuter, a four seater hatchback, a minivan, and a small truck. Commercial vehicles are a different animal and will be dealt with in another post. These vehicles need to be made in America by Americans from recycled materials and be as green as possible. Top speed needs to be DRASTICALLY reduced so that the vehicles can be lighter and still be safe.

If GM wants to be the leader in 21st Century transportation technology they need to "reinvent the wheel" so to speak!
[ ... ]

Friday, July 10, 2009

Blue Dogs, the Enemy Within!

The Blue Dog Coalition is an organization of so called "conservative" Democrats. They are focused on fiscal responsibility and accountability, or so they say. I think they are Republicans that couldn't win a primary as a Republican and run as Democrats. They gain all the benefits of being a Democrat but obstruct or derail the work of other Democrats. They can't support the current health care bill without "significant progress" which is code for making sure insurance companies can continue to deny coverage and over charge Americans. Considering the current bill, which I have not seen, has got to be watered down and loaded with earmarks as it is, their demands would further corrupt the process. This is helping me decide what to do once I graduate. I would love to make my life's work the systematic destruction of the political careers of the Blue Dogs.
[ ... ]

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Show this to your mainstream "friends"!

This is the effect of a non functioning democracy has on working people and their futures. A day by day year by year erosion of the ability for working Americans to get ahead. What is not shown on this graph are the spiking of defense spending, health care costs, energy costs, college tuition and the exporting of jobs.

I have never been a fan of the Democrats. They are part of this, a big part. So if anyone in mainstream politics tells you that your ideas are fringe or impossible, show them these charts. It is impossible for America to stay on this course. It is mandatory that people get involved and pressure our representatives to do what is best for us and not what is best for them.
[ ... ]

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Not a Typical Post

It used to be a joke. I would say "you, I don't hate" to people I really liked. And if I really liked something it was "adequate". Anyone I really hated I would never speak to unless absolutely necessary. Love and hate are active emotions requiring effort and a plan. Indifference is much more effective, much easier, much more final. So when someone I REALLY care about is indifferent to me it hurts. I don't care for many people. I feel left out and somehow in the wrong. I know I haven't directly hurt this person. My guess is that I simply don't fit into their current whirling social galaxy. I must be old hat, a fond yet forgotten thing of the past. I "hate" feeling this way. I start becoming indifferent and uncaring. The mind begins to search for ways to show this indifference which is contradictory-focused and calculated indifference. "I'll show them who is indifferent!" Sad isn't it.
[ ... ]

Monday, July 6, 2009

Sound Familiar?

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political,economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent,for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State." Joseph Goebbels

We are still paying for lies that started in 1979. But the truth is like a weed, keep spraying it and it will keep coming back and it will become resistant to the spray!

Men and women all over this country are starting to wake up. Washington is feeling the heat and they are gathering reinforcements!
They are going to need them because we have just begun! I said this years ago, you will have to shut down the shopping malls and people have to lose their homes before they wake up to the fact that they are getting raped. I hate for Americans to suffer, but it is time.


[ ... ]

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Someone has to do it!

Someone has to convince working men and women that peace and justice are not good for America and Fox News is the main source of this meme. Palin, if not indicted by the Feds, will most certainly work for Fox. O'Reilly, Beck and Palin are leading the charge against working men and women all over the world. They want war, corporate dominance and hate. They promote hatred for working people by working people. When Mexicans come to our country it's because NAFTA destroyed their economy. Rich white guys pass a law that helps rich white guys at the expense of American and Mexican working men and women. Working class Americans have more in common with an illegal alien than we do with an American corporate executive or a politician. I remember in a Medieval History class I had the prof said a nobleman from England had more in common with a nobleman from Germany than he did with a serf from his own manor. Believe it.
[ ... ]

Friday, July 3, 2009

Peace and Justice!

The road to peace and justice is guarded by a heavily armed and well funded triumvirate of media, government and business concerns. General Electric owns NBC and is a huge defense contractor. They own some congressmen outright and lease several others. Halliburton, defense contractor, oil company and political machine is another all purpose entity. Not often does one company make so much for so few at the expense of so many! "Hally" even had it's own full time lobbyist in the White House for 8 years, the irrepressible Dick Cheney.

All the issues that face this country and this planet are a direct result of the this three headed chimera putting forward it's agenda in complete disregard for the consequences. Our energy, population, health care, climate, economic and defense policies are not formulated to ensure and promote peace or justice. To the "big guys", peace is a feel good word that comes with "stability", although neither are attained. Justice is a word that is only used in conjunction with prisons or courts and is conditional based on an individuals economic status.
[ ... ]

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Don't read the personals!

I was eating the best lunch in St. Louis and I accidentally opened the personals section of the Riverfront Times. And like a child, a curious child seeking forbidden delights, I started reading. Let me be kind and say that the people writing those ads think they will find that special someone. They are wrong. Most people are not kind, caring, and giving. The ones that are have already been scooped up or are trapped in relationships they can't or won't leave. Barring recent widows/widowers and virtuous divorcees, the remainder must have questionable intentions. So I will write a personal ad that is realistic and hopefully funny.

Self conscious, neurotic, compartmentalizing, straight SWM loner seeks self absorbed, facile and demanding SWF for gratuitous, meaningless sex and someone to eat with. Must be extremely high maintenance and materialistic. Do you enjoy frantic mall crawls, watery margaritas, tanning, curling irons, white lipstick, cellphones and carryout? Are you the focus of most of your conversations and feel left out when they aren't? Well you may have found your man.
[ ... ]

You down with GOP, well you know me!

What a wonderful representation of Republican hypocrisy. I have always wanted to be a Republican. Balanced budgets, a safe homeland, a strong economy and oh wait a minute the Republicans have never done any of those things!! Both parties are owned by special interest. It matters little if there is an R or a D next to a Senator's name, but the Republicans keep pressing the "family values" routine and it wears thin when you have so few screwing so many for so much...both figuratively and literally. I don't care for Ron Paul very much, but this video shows how he is by far the best Republican out there. He hits so many obvious contradictions in the party leadership, but is basically laughed at for being so on target. Notice how the rest of them look down or away because they know he is right on.
[ ... ]

Lies!!

Let me preface this post with a few facts. I supported Obama in his run for the Presidency with time, money and effort. The most inspirational politician in my lifetime won the election and promised a new beginning, a new hope. We get lies. We have come to expect lies from politicians. Dogs bark, cats meow, birds sing and politicians lie. The two big glaring lies of the past few days, Obama prepares an Executive Order authorizing indefinite detainment of "terror" prisoners, and a Signing Statement concerning the new "war spending" bill.

Here is the first lie. From a Glenn Greenwald piece on Salon,"my Administration will work with Congress to develop an appropriate legal regime." He is not. He is making it "legal" for him to incarcerate human beings without due process. He is avoiding the trial of those "terrorists" and their possible confinement in an U.S. facility. Since most of those men have been tortured, their cases would be thrown out of any lawful court. Good job Cheney!! But even if they were convicted we could certainly hold them in "super max" prisons. We hold hundreds of thousands of hardened career psychopaths who are infinitely more dangerous than these guys.

The second lie. From an article on Politico, “This president will use signing statements in order to go back to what has previously been done — that is to enumerate constitutional problems that either the Justice Department or legislative counsel here see as potential problems with their reading — but not ask that laws be disallowed simply by executive fiat,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said. He is disallowing part of the legislation. From the Huffpo piece, "However, provisions of this bill within sections 1110 to 1112 of title XI, and sections 1403 and 1404 of title XIV, would interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the Congress prior to such negotiations or discussions. I will not treat these provisions as limiting my ability to engage in foreign diplomacy or negotiations." Then don't sign the Bill. It's that simple.
[ ... ]

Friday, June 26, 2009

Sadness!

The life and death of Michael Jackson. It is so sad. Take a child and turn him into a superstar. I have a feeling this story is the final chapter in the life of an aging, tormented, disfigured, broke, junkie, pedophile who committed suicide by Doctor via Demerol. I once heard a comedian say Michael's surgeries were an attempt to turn him into his ultimate role model, Diana Ross. I also read that his psychopathology may have been molded by his father physically/emotionally abusing him and his older brothers "sinning" in his presence when he was quite young. Being a Jehovah's Witnesses cult member could not have helped. The JWs have a very special kind of hierarchical and all encompassing credo that is very inconsistent with the life of a pop star. Violent parenting, indifferent siblings, abusive church life and then to be given over to an entire planet. Criminal.
[ ... ]

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Sleep easy my dear!

Farrah Fawcett died at age 62. She was in Extremities and The Apostle and did a great job in both. I never thought of her as the uber sex symbol like most guys my age. I liked her ability to appear real and go well beyond the typecasting that could have strangled her career. I would never post about a celebrity unless I thought they were really making a contribution. She did, and I am not that big a fan. She was married to Lee Majors which creeps me out. He creeps me out. I don't know why.
[ ... ]

Obama is real!

Huffpo posted a video of Harry Smith from CBS interviewing President Obama. Watch how Obama reacts after Smith uses the word "treacherous"! His persona changes for a couple of seconds. The President straightens up and looks Smith in the eye and laughs. It was the "You don't want to do that" laugh and it was SO good. Then the most powerful man on the planet quickly reverts to his usual calm, refined, dignified visage. It was a glimpse, an affirmation of the reality of that man. Both headlights came on full bright!

And as bright as that light shines, I am still torn about this President. You have to just love the guy because of what he has done and what he has said. Remember when the mainstream media were wearing us all out over his "patriotism" and all those blog postings and all those pundits and all those ranting racists screamed to high heaven at how Obama was a combination Marxist Antichrist Muslim Taliban Superfly born in Kenya and raised on some exotic soviet controlled Indonesian collective named Hawaii? All he had to say was this, "Everything that I am is because of this country." Nine words. he didn't raise his voice, he didn't cheese, he just looked at the camera and made history.

Then I think about how he is a mainstream center right Democrat. We knew from day one he isn't a progressive. His FISA vote last summer made many of us crazy. I was a "Get FISA Right" member from the beginning. He never promised to be a progressive but he did promise hope and change, and now is the time. The GOP is rotting away! Of course there are plenty of Republicans and neocons out there, but their main political engine is withering. But Big Business is still in control and that is the problem. He has to go both barrels with the media and cut threw the corporate propaganda and do what HAS to be done. Today!
[ ... ]