Quote Of The Day, from Copenhagen...
To the United States Congress:
"You Approve billions of dollars in defense budgets. Can't you approve $200 billion to save the world?"
Lumumba D-Aping, Copenhagen Climate Summit negotiator for the G-77.
Say it like it is brother, there's no money for Peace, Love, or Health Care, but there's plenty for war and corporate bailouts!
And here's a quote from me:
"Halliburton, Leading The World In War Profiteering".
Dick Cheney's Halliburton is now a Dubai corporation, they moved there to avoid paying taxes in the U.S., the country that made them filthy stinking rich...
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?
That question comes to mind because we are so close to Christmas, a day of reverence and worship for the world's Christians, and Capitalists (ohhh, the irony).
And, I know what he would do, he'd be crucified for his advocacy of throwing the money-changers out of the temple.
Another quote from me:
"The Earth Is Our Temple, and Today, We Are The Money-Changers".
~PEACE~
Labels: activism, climate change, environmentalism, holidays, Jim, peace, politics, rants, social commentary
posted by Jim at 6:13 AM
10 Comments:
Sadly you are right on target with this.
Very sadly...
Yeah--and Obama sure had a lot of nerve accepting that Nobel. I voted for that guy because he promised to end the wars. Now he's defending them and winning a "peace" prize. Now THERE'S irony for ya!
Urban Wild-
I couldn't agree more, we voted for change and got more of the same.
I not only voted for Obama, I raised $1,000 for his campaign.
But, if you read my pre-election early post-election entries, you will find that my optimism was tempered by the reality of our system.
In my defense, I realized, that unless every person who supported Obama maintained their vigil and demanded that he live up to his promises, not much would come of his presidency.
I voted for Bill Clinton too (also known as Slick Willie), not because I liked him, but because he chose Al Gore, the author of 'Earth In The Balance' as his running mate.
Well, no sooner than they were elected, good old Al began his worldwide promotion of the GATT & NAFTA treaties, two of the most environmentally destructive pieces of law ever enacted by man.
Then old Al wanted me to vote for him as president when he chose the nutjob warmonger Joe Leiberman as his running mate! Sorry Al, I voted for Ralph Nader, consequently helping George W. Bush win the election.
So, this last time around, I took another chance, knowing I was voting for the lesser of evils, but hoping that Obama's considerable oratory skills might help to effect some slight bit of change. Oh Well!!!
The problem is, UW, that our system is too far gone to be fixed from within, the momentum is too great, and the magnitude of destruction our civilization wreaks upon the planet every day is now pretty much unstoppable by us, it is self-perpetuating.
The great majority of human beings alive today have jobs that are completely unsustainable, making or selling crap for the military/industrial/globalized/consumer economy that is rapidly depleting the world's critical resources, which we are now at war over.
Obama knows this, and he can't do a damned thing about it without admitting that our civilization is unsustainable and our economic system fundamentally destructive.
Americans do not want to hear this truth! If Obama chose to be honest about it, he would either be tarred & feathered, and run out of Washington, or he'd be eliminated in some expediant way by the corporate powers that actually run the world.
I feel sorry for the poor bastard, I know he had good intentions, but I remember telling my wife early in his campaign, that only a crazy person would seek that job in today's fucked up world.
Thank you for your always relevant and insightful comments.
Jim
I can't disagree with the Copenhagen negotiator's comment. We can always find enough money (by borrowing, of course) to finance military and foreign wars, but can't find a few pennies for for domestic needs, much less climate change. [Do you remember when established doctrine required that government always balance its budget, up until John Kennedy?]
I can't really blame Pres. Obama. He's making such changes as he can: some good appointments to the USDA and promoting (esp. Michelle) good food; promising appointments to the Justice Dept.; promoting negotiation and actually talking with our foreign adversaries.
I'm just saying his options are limited by the GOP, entrenched interests, conservative and cowardly Dems, entrenched officials in the bureaucracy, etc. I think people who are disappointed in him too often fail to understand the hard realities of Washington politics. And they also fail to understand that Obama, while having good instincts, is above all things a pragmatist. He does not tilt at windmills.
That was a damned good comment, Jim! Standing with both feet on earth. We can't change the world. We just can create our surroundings with our limited available facilities. Everytime.
DennisP
I just wrote a very long reply to your thoughtful comment, which then vanished into thin air.
I'm not going to rewrite the entire thing but it included the following excerpt from an essay by Shahid Buttar, of the Bill Of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC).
It sums up the fact that I'm not so much disappointed or disillusioned with Obama as I am with the lack of an informed, vigilant, and proactive grassroots constituency, something no democracy can long survive without.
"A curious mix of hope and despair seems to confront many grassroots activists and organizers. Hope seems justified by this year's welcome—indeed, long overdue—transition in the White House, and the inauguration of our nation's first post-colonial President. Yet despair lingers.
The Obama administration continues to assert executive secrecy to block court challenges to the warrantless wiretapping and extraordinary rendition programs, refuses to prosecute officials guilty of torture, and has failed to disclose secret policies and programs over which advocates (myself included) have sought transparency.
Observers legitimately fear that President Obama's campaign promises—like those of so many other politicians before him—were so much hot air. And if even Obama won't end warrantless surveillance, restore democratic transparency or respect constitutional rights, what hope remains? Whatever satisfaction last November's election may hold, it alone offers little comfort for Americans committed to the Constitution.
To the President's credit, he stressed during the campaign that change must come from the grassroots. And he should know: as a grassroots organizer who won the presidency, his is among the most authoritative voices on the subject. But consider what his view means for us, from either of two perspectives.
One possibility is that President Obama cares about neither the rule of law nor civil liberties. Under this theory, he needs continued pressure to hold him accountable to his campaign promises to reverse the nation's least intelligent—and most ineffective—steps to protect national security.
More likely, the President may indeed be committed to constitutionalism, yet constrained by political forces in Washington that oppose him. The hands of civil service bureaucrats, as well as moderates in Congress, may bear the same stains of torture, detention, and surveillance as those of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. These actors are influential and hardly willing to concede their political demise. From this perspective, President Obama will act only after grassroots pressure removes the political obstacles that stand in his way.
In either case, the prescription is the same: our nation needs an engaged, visible, and loud grassroots movement to restore constitutional freedoms. And that starts with us. This is no time to be silent".
Nevenruh-
Thank you, I agree...
Whatever one's perspective on the Obama administration - and I'm inclined to give him some slack for another year or two - there is no disagreeing with the statement "In either case, the prescription is the same: our nation needs an engaged, visible, and loud grassroots movement to restore constitutional freedoms. And that starts with us. This is no time to be silent".
That's just fundamental to the idea of democracy.
BTW--They don't want to save the world. THEY want to pillage and squeeze every last drop out of goodness out it and line their greedy pockets brimming full. And that money comes out of our ever-increasingly thin and frayed pockets. It's and old story--and ancient story--as old as civilization itself. Enjoy what you may now, because a day is coming when the sky will darken, the land will be bleak, the oceans dead and lifeless. I weep for nature more than I do man. The innocent creatures who are displaced, suffer, and driven to extinction because of man's greed and insatible appetite for all things that are ultimately trite and meaningless.
Oooops-excuse me! I seem to have gotten off on my own rant!
You're awesome Jim--I have so enjoyed your blog over the past couple year. Keep up the fight even though it seems the odds are against us--and I'll keep shouting out about it until they put me in the ground.
Peace,
Linda
BTW--if you want to read an awesome book, try "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy--it will change how you look at the life we have now.
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