The U. S. Chamber of Commerce will be peddling through their Business Civic Leadership Center limb, a 3 day gig dubbed the National Conference on Corporate Community Investment at the Westin in Philedelphia, mid-April.

Here's a link to a bulk of information, including sponsors and the agenda, be sure to check out the closing event, "Plenary-The Intersection of Corporate Citizenship. They want to discuss challenges, I hope to see them provided.
<http://www.cciconference.com />

To provide a little inspiration...16 seconds of commercial first, sorry.
<http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?play=1&vid... >

For a little organizational support and a nod of gratitude to Mr. Brad Friedman for all he does in fighting the good fight.
<http://www.velvetrevolution.us/stop_chambe... />

a year, a life it is…

Bet I made near 80 calls yesterday, the first was to the company who insures the car to inform them that Wells Fargo, the bank who foreclosed on me early last year, has repossessed the car I’ve made $7,000 in payments on. Then was the call to the sithy Medusa, got lucky I guess, by getting a young man in Irving Texas, because I could easily have been connected with someone offshore. I told him I wasn’t going to be making any attempt to get the car back, just wanted the property inside it. It actually went smoothly compared to call #3, after dialing the toll free number I was given, which apparently rings up a local ’Wells Fargo’ with a tired sounding seasoned guy named Bob, who’s voice is backed up by a highway moving behind him, he summons the voice of authority, which I’m guessing is the Mrs. Don’t recall her name, but I believe to name her Jessup suits. The woman made it plain, I would have to be nicer to her, lest she charge me more for getting back the property that was inside the vehicle, a real Jack Nicholson/For a Few Good Men moment for me. The pride in her parasitic notion filled me with a rage that would fuel the day, for all the good it did me.

The next two calls were to police departments, the one in her nearby municipality, and the one in mine. Both dispatchers suggested the proper role of law enforcement in instances like this was to yield to how the financing company wants to handle the matter. Of course if I was feeling wronged, I could always go hire an attorney. I gleaned from one of them, the actual location of the car at a towing company, along with their phone number. Spoke with a guy who refused to give me his own last name, that’s his call, but the owner? He wasn’t giving out that last name either, ain’t that pride in ownership?

I learned that I’ll be required to pay a $40.00 gate fee to get access to the car to retrieve whatever property might be in the vehicle, given what I subsequently learned reading reviews of their practices, specifically a grandmother who had the Christmas gifts she'd purchased for her grandson had mysteriously disappeared while in the tow company's possession after her car was towed in December. A fistful of cases at the justice department, with a consistent complaint of unconscionable actions. Here’s where things get for me, a bit muddy. This particular company is a long standing vendor of towing services to the city of Portland. I became curious as to how such a disreputable firm could be the contractor of choice to a publicly funded entity, so I called the towing coordinator at the auditor’s office.

This is the call for me that stands out. The woman was very troubled by my plight, wanted to make a call or give me the $40 out right. I told her there are those way worse off, get it if she had it to, to those who have fallen further. I suspect the existence of me will bother her for some time. At some point I asked her if she could tell me how much money either the city or the towing company is making as a result of their lengthy union. Not only did she not know, she couldn’t get an answer to the question herself.

A little more online research leads me to the “Investigative Reporter” working the justice beat for the state’s largest newspaper, who has 20 minutes to lecture me on the harm I am doing to a struggling economy by choosing not to pay my bills, but then abruptly must go when I ask how much his paper received in ad revenue from the mighty Wells Fargo in 2010. See I reached out to their paper for help to save my home before it was auctioned. Four days later there was indeed a story in the paper about Wells Fargo, a lovely little fluff piece on the new regional head and how he was anticipating a compensation package totaling $92 million.

I thought at that point, thought I’d had my fill, grabbed a bite and about an hour’s rest but would begin the afternoon, trying to swing through elected officials who are said to represent my interests. Got hung up on by both administrative assistants working for my two senators, Wyden and Merkley. The intern at the latter who answered the phone didn’t want to talk any more when my response to her suggestion that the Senator was in DC working was to ask for some details as to how many fundraisers were on his schedule this week or this month. Imagine that. Down the chain we go, to state’s version of the senate and house, I don’t bother with Earl Blumenour anymore, I called there the day Dennis Kucinich was reading for hours aloud on impeaching Wicked Dickey. Who ever it was I spoke to that day, made me feel like I’d been cast as flash thrash in a Jaws movie. In reflection, I felt…hasty I guess, so I took a good look at the thick expensive glossy flyer he had mailed to my former home. Fluff, puff and not tough enough to have any huff is how I answered the spouse when he asked what Mr. B’s literature had to say during the run up to the elections of 2008.

The balance of the afternoon I spent trying to locate some community service type organizations, found Economic Fairness Oregon. I understand they were visiting the convention center during the Wells Fargo ‘home loss prevention’ workshops. EFO was there distributing leaflets to attendees, they were made to leave.

Throughout the day, I asked a couple of things fairly often. What is a law abiding citizen to do when the spirit of justice is absent in the letter of the law and the rule of law has been abandoned to favor the apparent rulers of order? Why do places like Wells Fargo and this sleazy little band of towing trolls get away with doing people so wrong at will and then benefit from it’s relationships with entities that claim being about serving the commons. I ask a lot about the unequal application and enforcement of the rule of law, why my county promises the state’s general fund $230 million for the 09-11 biennial from revenue generated on restitution fees paid for juvenile infractions, yet there will be no criminal charges brought against Mr. Countrywide.

Night before last, when I opened my door and saw my car just gone, I came here to a thread about Anonymous, I posted a plea to push the Tyler Durden button if one is their reach trying to calm the anger and quiet the quake in the fingers by dancing them over the keyboard. I removed it out of respect for the original poster, unfortunately the draft I thought I saved in my journal, ultimately mirrored the edited post of delete and delete some more.

With guys like the Koch brothers capable of the purchase price required to assassinate a nation’s intent, Mr.’s Madoff and Standford or Ken Lewis, Richard Fuld, and the Bligh’s of the bling that run with them. I say they are faithless, they believe in no heaven or hell, I know that because they work to achieve that gap right here on earth because they see themselves as gods, unsatisfied with their designated status as mere men, insisting the wage they field is because they're just plain more valuable, they should know that if I were to be stranded on a desert island, the guy with the skill set I’m going to see as more necessary is the blue collar guy and not the bean counter.

I have been down, but maybe never this much out, it matter’s not. Cuz now that I’ve nothing left to lose, it’s on. As I said to the two real estate agents who bought and flipped my home of 15 years, you’re time in moment comes, may you greet it with as much zeal as you brought it.

Rant over, rabble is ready to rock.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w1g-idt-8U... >

Perhaps too old to be so naive
I choose to dream and dare to believe
Lady Liberty has a surprise for the corporatocracy
concealed within her billowy sleeve

delete some more.

It's illegal search and seizure performed on an adult and my repulsed reaction to the tentative body language on the two boys suggests I employ the terminology of abuse. I am infinitely more disturbed by the notion of a TSA than I was before viewing. Such considerations were already not what might be characterized as a happy thought. Plus they're stealing? Sick to my stomach I am to see such apprehension in the young and for what? This strikes me as conditioning, authoritarianism style, go younger, they'll resist less later? Abolish them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!NOW.

"The tax cut bill" is the title, just under five minutes. Hope it's a good companion!

So ironic that these pilferers see themselves as on the winning side, when I was raised to believe that it's those that lie, cheat and steal who are losers, no matter how donned they are with baubles.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7EspxXaiTM >

RECOMMENDED.

And I don't mean this to sound disrespectful, but does it matter? How we got here, I mean. My point is that even if we can see we're not where we thought or are supposed to be, that we know getting there is possible, the question becomes one of how. The why of it hasn't been as evident as it is now in just over a century. As the platform of the 1892 Populist party illustrates in its preamble, we've been here before.

<http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library... >
Disclaimer: don't know anything about the site, I pursued the language I have here at home in a book online for linking.

Use the energy of that fear to help as the effort to set proper what has gone awry needs every spirited and sensitive but sensible hand, heart and head available. The PTB has put generations of layered efforts to create this moment in global time. They are as incorrect as every fallen empire would come to know, as economist Michael Hudson rightly employed the term "dumb parasites" when describing the financial services industry during a recent interview with Real News Network's Paul Jay.
<http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option... >

Many organizations to get involved with to make a difference in the reclamation process. Pick your peeve of issues and get in the trenches, it's gotta beat the fear of not. For me it's the equal application and enforcement of the rule of law, and media integrity. Check out Common Dreams sidebar of 'America's Progressive Community', it's a little outdated but there's still lots to choose from.

"We the People of the United States of America, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

I would describe the union between leadership and the governed here as terribly adversarial.

As we have learned from fraudclosuregate, justice is a buyable commodity or entire rooms of people sharing a notary's stamp would have all been charged with a crime.

I'm sure you've been referred to Smedley Butler before, so you know war, the way we do it anyway as preached by that church of aggression we call a DOD is a major money making racket. Can you share your understanding of the roots of the term "perception management"?

Read just 20% of top rated posts here, that sound like tranquility to you?

Is the general welfare being promoted by having labor imported and jobs exported? Are their blessings of liberty secure?

The quoted segment is a preamble, which I believe by today's standards would be regarded as a mission statement. What should become of an endeavor when the intention bares no resemblance to the reality? Perhaps you should consult the Declaration of Independence that made the creation of the subsequent document possible; specifically, the first two paragraghs.

"...When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a descent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect the safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariabley the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolut despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

I am of a planetary public, under pressure to prove to the powers that be, we are not a Pavlovian people.

Had you any plans to show the people some love?

See, I saw that big sloppy wet kiss for the same corporations who slice, dice and splice this public, so I know you know how.

I have a few gifts in mind.

My personal preference would be for an EQUAL application and enforcement of the rule of law. The big banks have engaged in all kinds of nasty tricks to better their bottom line; I am hoping that robo signing is ringing a bell here. According to economic experts like William Black and Michael Hudson, the criteria for charges of racketeering, collusion, and embezzlement have been met, all that seems lacking is the "political will".

I'm betting a lot of folks would like to see members of the last administration be criminally prosecuted for our war of choice. Please flip through Vincent Bugliosi's book, his suggestions to hold them accountable seem quite manageable, IMO. If nothing else, could you at least sue him for a return of his presidential salary of $3.2 million and keep him from collecting the $190,000 per year pension; I tend to suspect that a)he'll get by okay without it and b)he certainly was negligent and even spiteful of the oath he took, both times. Couldn't such be construed as breech of contract?

I suppose you could help us turn the tide on the police state we find ourselves in, or explore the term stochastic terrorism the next time you have a televised chat with Bill O, or end the media blackout BP has been running down in the Gulf of Mexico.

I know to see even just a fraction of these things addressed would do my heart some good.

Do have a lovely day.

I got to 'had enough' after the elections of 2004. I cried myself all the way through to Thanksgiving that year. Not so much that the BFEE stole another term at the reigns but that in the land of the free and the home of the brave unanimously elected to discriminate in 11 states by passing gay marriage bans. What I viewed as our biggest test as a nation in 40 years and we failed, emphatically.

The damage done since runs so deep and diverse during this too perfect a storm of likely engineered winds. There are many tactics which can be employed to dislodge the stuck pendulum to see it swing true.

Are you familiar with a man referred to as a serial revolutionary?
<http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/ma... >

His role in how events unfolded in Egypt are covered in the front end of this 30 minute program from Al Jazeera called People & Power.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrNz0dZgqN8 >

The Centre for Applied Non Violent Actions and Strategies
<http://www.canvasopedia.org/home.php >

I'm trying to take a more active role in the conflict now through a couple of activities and organizations locally. I'm volunteering for a longstanding progressive news venue and a new member of the economic crisis committee at Jobs With Justice. Is there a chapter in your neck of the woods?

<http://www.jwj.org />

RECOMMENDED

An excerpt from your post:

"Here in the United States we don't suffer under the heavy hand of a dictator. We are free to travel, free to aspire to be whatever we want to be, free to associate, free to express criticism of our elected leaders... Here in the United States, we put our bravery on display in different ways."

From 2008, RNC
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ... >
So much for freedom of expressing criticism of elected leaders.

Aspirations? Let's talk higher education, the value of which lately is debatable as compared to the depth of debt vs. lack of demand. Aspirations in this regard are entirely dependent upon depth of pocket and little else. I guess it depends on who's aspiring, it should raise more than an eyebrow that tuition hikes at public universities are rising higher and faster than they are at private colleges.
<http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/28/pf/college... >

Free to associate...not real high profile, I wanted something recent. Many, many examples, 10 pages of Google responses to 'law enforcement infiltrating activist groups'.
<http://studentactivism.net/2010/07/09/uw-p... />

I don't think I need to go on in great detail about travel, the TSA can do that. "In a van, at the mall, scan the whole fam dam, we can, one and all."

Being brave in a different way is all I would contend the OP was doing. I don't have a good answer for him, I hope so. Courage I think to an extent lies in candor, and when one can find everything from character to competence criticized for asking a straight up question, it makes me wonder if courage is a thing we encourage. I think the time to ask questions is before the slithering python is coiled at our necks and bellies with a grin as it prepares to tighten its grip around the body of us. Our institutions have taken on the walk and the talk of the corporate model and such charters are not suited to govern an independent citizenry. The electoral process is to be the accepted regular remedy of the people to initiate change, yet between money and electronic voting, there is great doubt as to whether results are a genuine reflection of the public will.

A rec for the OP.

The red shirts of Thailand, the recent episodes in Greece, the students from the United Kingdom. It's already not just Egypt's battle. I don't feel that to identify with them in terms of the obstacles to accessing the existential infrastructure and wanting to fight for fairness in that is an insult. My first question would be if all we want is fair, why have we been made to fight for it?

But your thread has developed and also degraded as the topic turns to talk of revolution here, what it means, what it looks like and what justifies it. Some of the comments up thread are contentious and phrased in ways that borrow a wide brush of authority with an audacity I find a bit mind boggling.

I say a revolution is what we make it and one does indeed need making if the notion of this nation is to endure. I don't appreciate being painted into a box with tea party noodles for thinking that, either. My allegiances lie to the spirit of the democratic principle, you know social and economic equality? If what I understand about how my government is supposed to operate is true, then I know that none of it is working as designed or intended. If you want a branch by branch break down of that, let me know. That's why I contend revolution is justified.

So zip through about a cajillion scenarios and subsequent what ifs to arrive at what it can look like. I contend it depends on the means, a blood in the streets confrontation doesn't have to be had for revolutionary tactics to be engaged in. That is a worst case scenario, (given no other countries armies are here, liberating us from the tyranny of our leaders) will bring the kind of open ended ugly, survival of the fittest crap it hurts me to see any child face.

What I have called for is a bloodless coup, what that entails is non compliance in some facets and a good hard push in others. Stop the flow of money to the machine and demand the EQUAL application and enforcement of the rule of law. The man power exists due to the lack of jobs to visit local offices of DA's and Justice Department satellites. Go in number, go repeatedly, go with alternative media in tow and arm yourselves with the tools as outlined in Vincent Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush. A separate contingent could apply that same principle to the financial services industry which economist Michael Hudson recently described as a stupid parasite that believes it can suck its host dry and move on freely to the next victim. I owe people around the world the effort of trying to see that discontinued.

What does it mean? It may mean we live without electricity and cell phones and plumbing for awhile. Seems to me the pioneers managed. If fear of being without modern day conveniences convinces some that a lifetime of servitude is preferable, I guess that's their call to make, but I wonder how they'll feel when the day comes, that they are without those things anyway. It might mean that the call to mold governance as needed in the view of this public can be seen to still and all these years later, the declaration of independence us calls us home even when echoed from far off lands like Egypt.

This populace risking violence, death and disappearance and where we're at or what is necessary is not for you alone to determine. I find us not where we are supposed to be as a nation, based on the repeated usurpation of the public will, which we are said to be of, by and for. I know I am not alone in these beliefs, and that more share my beliefs than did last year or even last month. The swell is on and government here will learn to act as a conduit of the public will or find itself replaced, or deemed unnecessary by its monetary masters who will leave them high and dry when there's nothing left if we don't revolt. That's the bed they've made for themselves and when the time comes, them who'll be sleeping in the wet spot.

Many a poster put on the defensive in this thread, a couple have handled some pretty snarky comments with respectable grace and one in particular has garnered my awe for their ninja like precision as a debater, I hope you know who you are! Well done.

So, I'm trying to feather some interesting frolickings again.

As a DUer, caught a 30 minute political video, all in all I think most who frequent this part of the boards are already informed about, I link because of the faces put on the 'bad guys'. It's a message geared to a still thirsty for their bearings kind of audience. I've since seen the image elsewhere though, and presented in a completely different context. As the parent of an imposing girly dancing teenybopper, I rented Step Up 3, (a Disney production), the crew we root and cheer for at the end uses pretty much the same imagery and color scheme as the team flag.


From about 13 minutes and on, you see a lot of the 'red shield' which my grown son says may be a reference to Rothschild name and family crest.
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu... >

Trust me, flash forward to two minutes in, that's the best shot at the image in question close up. It's preceded by a mushy romance resolution scene, and a pretty syrupy one at that.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snIqAyFE9us... >

I guess I'm wanting to sense an effort to slip subliminal suggestions so I associate positively with the image. But then again, I'm not the film's intended audience.

How layered is communication as a process at this point? That's the most generic way I can think of to ask.

My understanding, on the short form is that fascism is a merging of state and corporate interests. Out of fairness, I also grabbed my dictionary and confess, I was disappointed not to find a description which supports my assessment but...a list of three definitions.

1) a totalitarian governmental system led by a dictator and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism, militarism, and often racism.
2) the philosophy, principles or methods of fascism.
3) a movement toward embodying fascism, as established by Mussolini.

I have quoted this dictionary on the democratic principle with great pride, but these definitions strike me as scrubbed. There is a list!

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discu... >

For historical red flags, hit Youtube and check out some Smedley Butler and War is a Racket, or give a listen to Eisenhower's farewell address and note his warning regarding the military industrial complex, which has since grown a couple of new limbs with the media to manage perception, and the full support of all three branches of the federal government. Our nation's 'leaders' view the agenda of this exclusive collective as seeing to the 'people's' business. I don't believe that is in keeping with the job the were elected to do. This country has but a single vibrant industrial feather left in the proverbial cap of commerce at the moment, weaponry. Electronic scans of the bod coming soon to a mall near you? Have you seen the mobile 'family' units yet? Are you familiar with how deeply involved former Homeland Security boss Michael Chertoff is in the company/ies delivering this technology? How about the media black out BP supervised last spring? Or why after four years of disclosing information, Wikileaks is demonized once Bank of America is expected to be the meat of the next bone they throw?

If I sound torked, it's true, but I hope it's clear, it's the situation that's got me bent out of shape, and not this chat. What ever you call it, I ain't going there willingly, and I'll scream like the diligent fool from the distant hill that I am as long as I can think and breathe, tyvm.

I'm gonna list some things; easy, affordable, and doable things that might not make a difference, but there's no chance at all if I say nothing...

A few weeks ago while posting a response about our military exploits, I felt a burn in my face, as it had gone red with embarrassment and anger. I tried to think of a peaceful way to make those feelings publicly known and readily visible. Time and time again in the forums here, I call for a bloodless coup, rather than a blood in the streets kind of revolution. What methods might one employ to see peace and progress through given those objectives?

The 'Give a Sheet' campaign is what I call one; it involves the making, selling and wearing of temporary facial tattoos. A primary image in mind is the red palm of a traffic light signal. I've done a little checking and can have 1,000 made for $100.00 of a single image in a 2x2 inch size. Other images have come to mind, I believe as many as 8-10 images would fit on a 4x6 inch sheet, hence the tag on the 'campaign'.

'No Fear, No Favor' is about the pursuit of EQUAL justice. Vincent Bugliosi's book lays out the ground work for having the last administration face the consequences of it's disregard for the stations one and all took oaths to uphold. It's not so much about revenge as it is future administrations understanding what becomes of those who usurp the will of a free people. The Union for the Unemployed, aka U-cubed is a great source for people with the time to regularly visit in number and armed with a list of the local soldiers who have died. The plan would be to visit District and U.S. Attorneys, at first to request, then to follow up and then to include what media can be lured to investigate any appearance of reluctance. These mechanisms belong to us. The folks who work at them clearly need to be reminded of that, often and publicly.

'Monday's Child'. I tell myself week after week, I'm gonna post an essay about the roots of yellow journalism, and how the modern day version is at the heart of why ACORN has been dismantled, thanks to the willful disregard of places like the New York Times, whose articles are still posted here daily. The membership numbers here speak to over 160,000. The states forums are a handy place here to meet up and make plans with folks close by. I'd like to see a regular time from week to week where folks here report for a block of time on Monday nights and discuss solution and remedy, rather than a media who has failed them. All in all, I guess it's a challenge to be 'fair of face'. An hour a day, a day a month, how much time is it worth to put some integrity back in the media?

Whatever the issue: homelessness, education, environment or these lies of militant necessity perpetuated by an entity I refer to as the church of aggression, known in wider terms as the U.S. Department of Defense. Support action rather than remain satisfied with complaining folks, or none of us is gonna like where we go next. Harsh as this sounds, I'm compelled to say it. Whether or not revolt, whether or not the country finds itself ruled through the faith in fascism crowd, the nation I believe existed is no more. We either build new, or accept what the powers that be have in store. Given what that's starting to look like, I opt for door number 1.

The United States has three governing bodies at the federal level, all of which in my opinion are clearly failing to govern as assigned. The judicial branch has provided the corporate model with an exponentially enhanced voice, limited only by its limitless resources. The legislative branch spends the bulk of their time hosting and attending fund raisers while lobbyists write the letter of the law, which of course, further favors moneyed interests. The executive branch pushes forward with the lusty pursuit of becoming a unitary authority. A overflowing cabinet of arm twisters, war makers and spin doctors, there to provide cover to those who fund their careers while we are made to fund their masters. It's broken. Go back to the blueprint and see if it can't be built as a better reflection of its intent. If not us, who? If not now, when?

Last little tidbit: All war will ever beget is loss. Life, limb, land and loot. Lucidity precedes them all as reason must fall first.
You say war is a lie, I claim there can be no war on terror as war is terror.

Rant over.

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