are called Republicans. The criticisms around here are based on his performnce on specific issues. Appointments, ranging from Geithner to Dana Perino have upset people. Administration handing of the too-big-to-fail banks is a hot topic. DADT is another. Constitutional issues and the refusal to even look into the abuses of the Bush years make some people crazy. The decision not to put out an administration HCR plan, but to let Congress do the heavy lifting, also raises questions. The feckless urge to make nice with Republicans and cater to the whims of the blue dogs and corporate Democrats is another major issue. Ramping up the war in Afghanistan is not going to go down well with a lot of otherwise loyal Democrats. Then there are smaller irritants, like the reluctance to re-open the Siegelman prosecution/persecution, the glacial pace of judicial/U.S.Attorney appointments, the tolerance policy toward the Quisling, Joe Lieberman. Not all DUers are equally concerned about all of these things , but you must admit, it's a long list. There's something there to piss off almost everyone, to some degree. It's rapidly reaching the point where the loyalists who can uncritically swallow all of the above are a dwindling minority.

We aren't criticising him just to drag him down. We're trying to get his attention. We want to change his behaviour in specific areas. We see the Obama administration as a work in progress. We're hoping it can be improved. Blind loyalty is a Republican trait.

The most important single issue we face today is not economic depression, health care or war in the middle east. It's not gay marriage or union rights. It's our race toward the Carbon Death, not only of ourselves, but of most other living things as well. We are headed, warp speed, toward self-immolation.

Most of don't believe it and don't want to believe it. What most of us would like to believe doesn't matter. We have both feet firmly planted on the slippery slopes of hell and we're picking up speed. This diary at daily kos spells it out in terms even a moron like Jim Inhof should be able to understand. The graphs reflect the reality, and are compelling. Read it. If it doesn't scare you sane, maybe the experience will. But by then it will be far too late.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/7/19/75... -(updated)


"....So humans have, in the last two centuries, pushed up carbon dioxide concentrations 100ppm. That normally takes 20,000 years to happen based on the Vostok graph and it takes nearly 100,000 years to clear. Worse yet, we’ve pushed it 100ppm outside what’s been the normal range for the last 800,000 years and quite likely for the entire Holocene – the last 1.8 million years.

Modern humans have been around 200,000 years and we nearly went extinct 150,00 years ago. Genetic drift indicates there were fewer than 2,000 individuals came through this time. Notice what happened 150,000 years ago – a major climate change.

We learned to use fossil carbon for energy on a large scale at the very peak of normal atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations two hundred years ago. We’re outside the bounds of what our ancestors experienced during our first near extinction and we’re very likely on a toboggan ride towards reproducing what happened at the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum..." (lots more)

Single payer is labeled Socialism. But a huge cash giveaway to the insurance companies is billed as a subsidy to help people buy insurance. It needs to be identified as what it really is, a handout to the insurers. It's corporate socialism. It creates corporate dependence on government handouts. Can't have that. It weakens the moral fiber of American business. The corporations need to learn to stand on their own two feet. That goes for bankers too. Builds character, a trait sorely lacking in corporate America these days.

The exaggerated fear response was probably an important adaptive characteristic in the past. It kept the tribe alive. AS we've domesticated ourselves over the last 10,000 yars or so, it's become more and more an atavistic holdover; not so effective as a group survival trait, but rather one that leaves us vulnerable to social manipulation. Cheney and his groupies are probably as frightened as they say they are. They really do believe that there may be a terrorist around every corner. But that isn't a very effective response in a world of 7 billion people, where we all need to learn to get along.

but it will happen. The public is going to figure it out eventually, Maybe it will take a methane firestorm sweepng across the tundra, or a hurricane that inundates Miami or Washington D.C. When awareness dawns people will go from bland indifference to stark, raving panic. The politics will change dramatically. Fundamentalists will be preaching hellfire and damnation, abandoning their possessions and lining up for the rapture. Strange new cults will spring up and already tenuous cultural norms will disintegrate. A lot of people will figure, 'were doomed,so we may as well party like it's 1999'. (Prince was on to something there.) Suicides, individual and Jonestown style will proliferate, and survivalists will dig themselves in. Mental illness is likely to increase. Showing up for work is likely to decline. The global economy will stumble badly. Things are going to get really interesting when the sheep finally look up.

WineRev has been posting daily recaps. Franken's lawyers will finish in a week, maybe two. Then the Election Court will count some ballots, anywhere from dozens to several hundreds. Then they will rule. Coleman then has 15 days to appeal to the Minnesota Supremes. If the Election Court hands down a unanimous decision (all their rulings thus far have been unanimous) the Supremes are unlikely to override the ECC. The mathematical probability of Coleman finding enough new votes to catch Franken, is, apparently, vanishingly small. In five or six weeks we should have a decision. Coleman may still elect to appeal to Scotus, where he has a sno-balls chance. The Senate will likely seat Franken by mid April.

The Vajra Shovel award goes to Adam Deem, for living the dharma.

Smokey the Bear Sutra
(by Gary Snyder)

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings — even grasses, to the number of thirteen billions, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

"In some future time, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur, Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."

"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."

And he showed himself in his true form of

SMOKEY THE BEAR
A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.
Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display — indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the West, symbolic of the forces that guard the Wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the True Path of man on earth: all true paths lead through mountains—
With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth of One Mind;
Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;
Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless suburbs; smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;
Indicating the Task: his followers, becoming free of cars, houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes; master the Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.
Wrathful but Calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him,

HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.
Thus his great Mantra:

Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana
Sphataya hum traka ham nam

"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND.
BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED"

And he will protect those who love woods and rivers, Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children.

And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:

DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS

And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel.

Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in practice willl accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.
AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT.
thus have we heard.

(may be reproduced free forever)

Link not available.

They are embracing the developers argument. Just give us a little bit more. Extinction has to be non-negotiable. If you surrender on your core principle, you no longer have a leg to stand on. An what imagined benefit do they hope to gain? This is like your lawyer telling you, "Look, I know you're innocent, but we may lose, so I want you to cop a plea. Guilty with extenuating circumstances. Oh,and by the way, we may lose anyway."

Besides, the principle is not ours to give away. Who wants to be the one who goes to the polar bear or the upland gorilla and tells him sorry, pal, we had to let them pull the plug on you. Fuck them. This is bullshit.

much given to self-deception. We've been brainwashed and propagandized to the point that we can't tell shit from shoe polish. If any European counry had the government we do, the people would have been at the barricades years ago. Don't expect much from us. We're too frightened of the Arab-under-the-bed to to think clearly, much less stand up for ourselves against our Dear Leaders.

evokes the line from Aeschylus, that Bobby Kennedy cited the night MLK was murdered. "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." It's been a long time, and I'm still waiting for God's grace to transmute the pain into something I can understand.

In the first Federalist, Franklin worried that Americans might some day degenerate to the point where they would no longer be able to hold onto the Republic. That's us he was talking about. We elected these thugs--twice. The Constitution will never exist that can protect us from our own weakness and stupidity. This is a Democracy. For better or worse, you get the government you deserve.

was that Clinton was using coded language to stir up the race issue. If he had referred to "all that other stuff" before a good government forum in Minneapolis one could plausibly argue that he was just talking about divisive campaign tactics in general. In front of a Southern audience, it becomes a lot harder to believe that this isn't racially coded language. In fact, it sounds a lot like the words in praise of Strom Thurmond, that got Trent Lott into so much hot water a couple of years back. If that was not his intent, another sentence or two could have made his message crystal clear. He chose not to provide that clarification.

I understand why Clinton supporters are angered by this kind of textual parsing. But for the last forty years this coded sub-text has been pretty much typical, as a way of talking to white audiences about race and reassuring them that that the pol doing the talking has their back on this issue. It gives me no pleasure to lay this trash at Bill Clinton's door. Maybe I've got it all wrong. I wish I believed that.

Iran-contra was swept under the rug as were the criminal excesses of the S&L scandals of the '80's. We have government of, by, and for the corporations. We have a judiciary that the McKinley administration would have been proud of. We have an attorney general who condones torture and embraces an above-the-law, all powerful, unitary executive. We have politically motivated prosecutions and star chamber justice. We have an increasingly militarized system of governance, that spies on its citizens, marshalls them through armed check-points when they travel and insists that it is above the law, and needs to explain itself to no-one. All this is condoned by a feckless Congress, that has abrogated its responsibility in a tri-partite system and is no longer an effective player. How can we reach out to a Republican party that has in effect become a criminal conspiracy aimed at undermining the Constitution and American Democracy in service of the multi-national corporations who are the real powers behind the throne. We don't need to make nice. We need wholesale reform of a system that has lost its way.

as consisting of two elements, populaton growth, and the increase of atmospheric carbon, we're fucked. Action on either front would require a global consensus, which does not currently exist. We don't have 20 years to debate the issues and form a series of five-year-plans. Atmospheric carbon is close to 400 ppm and rising, unleashing forces that will not be eaily reversed. World food stocks are perilously low even as food-stuffs are being diverted to energy production. Feeney thinks that, "Fortunately, expert consensus tells us we can address population humanely by solving the social problems that fuel it". I am aware of no such "expert consensus". This seems like a dubious proposition at best, and one arrived at without consulting the Pope, or the leaders of the third world nations who would be expeced to implement the steps needed to achieve "humane" solutions to the problem. One can easily imagine the charges of racist imperialism and genocide any such effort will trigger.

We're having an epochal election in this country, and there has been no meaningful discussion of peak oil or global warming, and no mention what-so-ever of population. Before action is possible, there will need to be a massive effort to educate the public about the peril we face and the steps needed to mitigate it. But who will educate the leaders? Generally I'm as optimistic as a bird dog, but I've got a bad feeling about our current fix. We're going to do too little, too late. I'm afraid we're going to pay in blood for our fecklessness.