Come now and let’s visit Washington’s red light district, headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the front group for the plutocracy’s prostitution of politics ... And until we get clean money we’re not going to get clean elections, and until we get clean elections, you can kiss goodbye government of, by, and for the people. Welcome to the plutocracy. Bill Moyers, Welcome to the Plutocracy, Truthout, 11-3-10
I could see that the Wasichus did not care for each other the way our people did before the nation's hoop was broken. They would take everything from each other if they could, and there were some who had more of everything than they could use, while crowds of people had nothing at all and maybe were starving. They had forgotten that the Earth was their mother. Black Elk Speaks
On Pelosi, Olbermann, the Bear Totem, & Yes, the Implications & Consequences of the Bloody Mid-Term
By Richard Power
As devastating as the Citizens United decision has already proven to be, and as lethal as it could prove to be in 2012, it was not the only decisive factor in 2010.
In California and Connecticut, progressive principle and political professionalism trumped obscene infusions of personal wealth from CEOs Whitman, Fiorina and Linda "Repeal the Minimum Wage" McMahon
Nor was the political cowardice of Democrats the only other decisive factor; three of the bravest and most daring of Democrats were defeated: Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) and Senate candidate Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA).
No, the third decisive factor in many regions, I am sorry to say, was indeed human ignorance.
Did you not vote in this election? Did you vote "R" for Senate, Congress or Governor in this election? I urge you to ponder the process by which you make your political decisions, in the light of what is written here (and the stories I have linked to).
Are we so fickle that we can’t even stay the course for four years to really bring about change? Are we so dumb that we want to go back to the disastrous policies of George Bush and Dick Cheney? Yes and yes. That sums up Tuesday’s election results: Fickle and Dumb. Bill Press, Election: Fickle and Dumb, 11-3-10
Here are some further reflections on the bloody mid-terms and some of the plot twist in the immediate aftermath.
Bear Totem
Christine O'Donnell was, as she insisted, not a witch (as in Wiccan) but she was, without a doubt, dabbling in political black magic because that is what the teabaggers are in actuality. (NOTE: I don't use the term "Tea Party" because those involved seem willfully ignorant of the historical context of the Boston Tea Party, or the message it might hold for us today.)
Sarah Palin, of course, is a high priestess of this political black magic cult.
Have you seen the post-midterm video for SarahPac? A short, but powerful potion brewed by some Leni Riefenstahl of the You Tube era, it ends with a growling Grizzly standing, menacingly, on its hind legs.
The bear totem is powerful; but Palin cannot lay claim to it. Bear's medicine will not work for her. She does not understand Bear's power, or his gifts.
Bear rose in the human psyche many ages ago. And yes, Bear has much to teach America, it offers us its medicine alongside Bison, and Eagle, and Wolf, and Elk, and Fox, and Wild Turkey, and Prairie Dog, and Deer, and Raccoon, and Mountain Lion, and Wild Pig, and yes, Rattlesnake.
But Palin's crypto-fascism does not belong to the Bear; it has nothing to do with the mystical truth of the Bear totem.
The legends of King Arthur belongs to the Bear. The name "Arthur" is from "Arcturus," i.e., "Guardian of the Bear." Arthur established the Round Table, a vision of an egalitarian fellowship, and he wielded Excalibur, which was bestowed on him by the Lady of the Lake, a pagan demi-goddess.
It is the circle of life that is sacred to the Bear.
Arthur was Celtic (Welsh) legend before he was English legend, and the original Graal quest was not for the chalice from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper; no, in some tales it was a search for a magical cauldron, in other tales it was a search for a supernatural sow.
Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear, and the other novels in her Earth's Children series, belong to the Bear; in them, Auel celebrates the naked wisdom and savage beauty of the indigenous and the primordial -- yes, the wisdom and beauty of Eden.
Pelosi
I urge you to stand behind Speaker Pelosi in her bid to be minority leader in the upcoming House of Representatives to be sworn in January 2011. This is no time to turn to the weak-kneed, or to succumb to self-doubt. Pelosi has been a much more effective leader than either POTUS or Harry Reid over the last two years.
It's great to see somebody who doesn't adopt the typical DC defensive crouch when things get tough. Some politicians are chameleons, cold blooded creatures who'd rather take on the protective coloration of their opponents than stand and fight. Not her ... Pelosi lost the Speaker's gavel through no fault of her own, after the Senate nullified some of her greatest achievements and the big-money interests spent mega-millions to bring her down. The money boys won that gavel - for now - but that doesn't mean her work is done. The Democrats need her leadership, the President needs her guidance, and the country needs her voice. Richard (RJ) Eskow, Fighting Spirit of Nancy Pelosi, Huffington Post, 11-5-10
Olbermann
MSNBC's move against K.O. is a travesty. Consider Faux News' $1 million donation to the RNC. No FCC investigation. Consider Glenn Beck's fantasizing aloud about the beheading of POTUS. He is still on the air.
I do not care a whit about a chump change ethics violation in an environment in which supposed "journalists" report that "we have always been at war with Eastasia."
Look, it is likely that MSNBC is making a move against K.O., Maddow, Schultz, etc. Mark my words. I said in 2008, that if Obama-Biden had not won, the corporate overlords would have moved against them then. Well, now it is 2010, and the House has fallen, and POTUS is perceived as weak and ineffectual. The cruel irony is that K.O. and Maddow have done what journalists should, they have reported the truth, they have held POTUS and the Democrats to the light of truth for better and worse, and been wrongly excoriated by POTUS and all his men (yes, men -- Gibbs, Axelrod, Emmanuel).
It is outrageous that General Electric/MSNBC would suspend Keith Olbermann for exercising his constitutional rights to contribute to a candidate of his choice. This is a real threat to political discourse in America and will have a chilling impact on every commentator for MSNBC.
"We live in a time when 90 percent of talk radio is dominated by right-wing extremists, when the Republican Party has its own cable network (Fox) and when progressive voices are few and far between.
"At a time when the ownership of Fox news contributed millions of dollars to the Republican Party, when a number of Fox commentators are using the network as a launching pad for their presidential campaigns and are raising money right off the air, it is absolutely unacceptable that MSNBC suspended one of the most popular progressive commentators in the country.
"Is Rachel Maddow or Ed Schultz next? Is this simply a ‘personality conflict' within MSNBC or is one of America's major corporations cracking down on a viewpoint they may not like? Whatever the answer may be, Keith Olbermann should be reinstated immediately and allowed to present his point of view." Sen. Bernie Sanders, 11-15-10
Bold Progressive has a petition to sign.
Results of the Referendum
In my last two posts before the 2010 mid-term elections, I asked Is This A Nation of Fools? and suggested This Election is NOT a Referendum on POTUS or Speaker Pelosi, It is a Referendum on Us.
Well, the results are in, and they are mixed.
The U.S. House of Representatives is lost to reason and goodness for the next two years.
(Just in case you have forgotten exactly who and what John Boehner is, watch this video clip about the time he handed out tobacco industry checks on the floor of the House.)
Floridians certainly live in a state of shame; they elected a teabagger, Rubio, to the Senate, and a disgraced hospital executive to the Governor's mansion, while voting the brave Rep. Alan Grayson out of office.
Kentuckians live in a state of shame. They elected a teabagger, Rand Paul, who questions the constitutionality of the Civil Rights Act, to the Senate of the United States.
Pennsylvanians too live in a state of shame. They elected something more dangerous than a teabagger, they elected the former President of the Club for Growth (a.k.a. "Club for Greed") instead of the brave Rear Admiral Joe Sestak.
The cheese-heads of Wisconsin clearly live in a state of shame, defeating the brave Russ Feingold.
But there were other states in which the American people avoided shame, and chose life over death, and reason over madness: teabaggers Angle, O'Donnell, Paladino and Miller went down in flames.
And there is the promise of California.
California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer defeated challenger Carly Fiorina by a ten-point margin on Tuesday, winning a total of 3.7 million votes, more than the combined vote total of ten Tea Party senate candidates. Jon Weiner, The Nation, 11-3-10
California is the only place in the country where climate and clean energy activists aggressively pushed their message across the board in the face of strong, well-funded opposition by Big Oil. Prop 23 lost by more than 20 points. Whitman and Fiorina were crushed running on an explicit dirty-energy agenda and/or running against candidates with an unabashed clean energy agenda. Brad Johnson, Climate Progress, 11-3-10
In an Oakland theater renovated while he was mayor, and against a backdrop of students from two high schools launched while he was mayor (an art school and a military academy), Governor-elect Jerry Brown delivered a poignant victory speech:
And I see a California once again leading on renewable energy, leading on education. We are all God's children and while I understand politics, I will always carry with me my sense of that missionary zeal to transform the world -- that's always been my calling. That's what it's all about -- the vision. I'm hoping and praying, and I know this breakdown that's gone on for too long in Sacramento will pave the way for a breakthrough. That's the spirit that I am going to take with me as I go back to Sacramento 28 years later -- full of energy, full of creativity, and ready to solve our problems. Jerry Brown, 11-2-10
California, of course, belongs to the Bear (again).
Jerry Brown's victory speech, 11-2-10
Welcome to the Clan.
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