Category: Politics

Editor: This was originally published on Sept 19, 2011, so the intro is somewhat dated. But I’ve picked this tomb up in the last few days to reread it – and it is definitely worth a second look.

Last week on KUSI’s Republican campaign infomercial, Carl DeMaio, Jerry Sanders, Kevin Faulconer, and all the usual suspects lined up to pound home the point that the pension scandal is the root of all things evil in San Diego.

If only we can bust city employees’ pensions, the future will be golden for San Diego’s taxpayers. It is time, they said, as the KUSI lapdogs nodded along, to save the city from the horrors brought them by the public employee unions. Other than the show trial-like atmosphere, this exercise in right-wing demagoguery was nothing new. And it explains little. Back in 2005 in the afterward to the paperback edition of Under the Perfect Sun, I addressed the emerging scandal by putting it in its larger context…

Jim Mahler (filming) assaulted by anti-worker petition gatherer at Mesa College, yesterday, September 14, 2011.
WARNING: The following video contains violence and graphic language.

This video documents the petition gatherer’s response to the AFT Decline to Sign team. (AFT is the American Federation of Teachers.) The petition gatherers are working for City Councilmember Carl DeMaio and his so-called “pension reform”.

The AFT Decline to Sign team at Mesa Community College on the 14th of September was comprised of African American, White, and Latina members. What the team did and is doing at Mesa is non-violent, and from a safe distance, hold up signs that ask students not to sign anti-worker petitions.

Come inside to see the video – Not Safe for Work!

Whose fault is it anyway?

A few years ago, I left politics behind in my life and tried to focus on the things which really mattered; family, spiritual self-improvement, working at a job which would give me satisfaction, doing right by others. In the past I had circulated petitions calling for Nixon’s impeachment while attending UCLA, worked hard for the elections bids of George McGovern, and Tom Hayden, railed against Ronald Reagan’s game of nuclear chicken with the then Soviets protesting as far away as Dublin, Ireland, and spoke out against the former head of the CIA, George H.W. Bush, being our president.

MoveOn has created a new petition to protest the debt deal and apparent fact that barely anyone in Congress cares about job creation. From a press release:

In the wake of the debt deal that does nothing to create jobs, and fails to make corporations and the rich pay their fair share, MoveOn.org and Rebuild the Dream today announced the new Contract for the American Dream. The Contract, born out of the new American Dream Movement, is a progressive economic vision crafted by 125,000 Americans who came together online and in their communities, and put forth their ideas to get the economy back on track. …

“Pray for your Governor,” exhorts the Lord of Hosts, “for I desire to use him and raise him up. Pray for his protection and for those around him, for all that concerns him in this critical hour, for he is Mine…. He is a key player in the shift that must take place, indeed that has already begun issuing forth from My innermost chambers.” Tom Schlueter, A Statewide Call to Prayer Day Thirty-Four, Texas Apostolic Prayer Network

“Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.” Molly Ivins

The ruling elite has created social institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance.

By Bruce E. Levine / AlterNet / July 31, 2011 |

Traditionally, young people have energized democratic movements. So it is a major coup for the ruling elite to have created societal institutions that have subdued young Americans and broken their spirit of resistance to domination.

Young Americans—even more so than older Americans—appear to have acquiesced to the idea that the corporatocracy can completely screw them and that they are helpless to do anything about it.

Author’s note 7/30/10: The link in the article below no longer goes to the original U-T article upon which I based this post (see the reposted article at Tenants Together). I’ll let you all decide whether the new article is an “update” or a “correction,” because in many ways it is a whole different animal.

Jared Lee Loughner of Tucson has been identified as the shooter of today’s murders and woundings in Tucson. Here is…

Karl Rove, once acclaimed as George Bush’s brain, was arrested yesterday by Capitol Police. Rove had returned to the Capitol for a speaking engagement, when he was confronted by officers with a warrant for his arrrest for his failure to testify before Congress.

The specific charges were not available at press time.

Alberto Gonzalez, Rove’s attorney, called the arrest “outrageous!”

by: Gore Vidal / Truthdig.com / 27 October 2008 October proved to be the cruelest month, for that was the…

OCEAN BEACH, CALIF.  After watching John McCain’s performance tonight during the second of the Presidential debates, with this one in…