DAVID GUILBAULT

PRESIDENTIAL LEADERSHIP

Tonight, President Obama delivered a fearless, truthful speech on health care reform to Congress and the nation.  He once again demostrated his courage, conviction and charisma.  While he passionately outlined what needed to be done to ensure good health for all Americans, his Republican opponents, obstructionist pawns of the insurance industry, sat silent and stone-faced.  They are doing everything they can to obfuscate the debate in the service of their moneyed patrons.  They seek nothing less than to kill any reform in its infancy.  But, Obama was having none of it.  He is determined to pass a bill that provides affordable health care for all citizens.  Seek the truth in this debate.  Expose the lies.  Support this President, as he considers workable options, builds a consensus, respects proper legislative deliberations, leads the moral debate and gets the job done.

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Congressional Republicans and health insurance lobbyists are lying to the American people - knowingly and cynically - to protect their greedy entrenched interests by killing health care reform.  That's the truth, pure and simple.

"The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems."

- Steven Pearlstein, The Washington Post

I have not had much faith in the political leadership of House leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid in the health care reform debate.  Today, Pelosi, finally got some guts and laid the blame for our broken, greedy system at the feet of the real obstructionists of reform - the health insurance industry.  Some of her comments today:

Pelosi: Health Insurance Companies the Real Villains

"They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way," Pelosi said of the insurance industry after her weekly press conference. "It's almost immoral, what they are doing," she said, referring to industry lobbying against a public insurance plan option. "Of course, they've been immoral all along. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening, and the public has to know about it."

The current system works so well for insurers that they don't even want subsidies, Pelosi claimed. "They've had a good thing going for a long time at the expense of the American people and the health of our country," she said, adding that it will be tough to keep them from getting their way. "This is the fight of our lives."

- Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House

The New York Times' Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich has it exactly right about the importance of Walter Cronkite in his piece, "And That's Not the Way It Is."

"What matters about Cronkite is that he knew when to stop being reassuring Uncle Walter and to challenge those who betrayed his audience’s trust. He had the guts to confront not only those in power but his own bosses. Given the American press’s catastrophe of our own day — its failure to unmask and often even to question the White House propaganda campaign that plunged us into Iraq — these attributes are as timely as ever.

That’s why the past week’s debate about whether there could ever again be a father-figure anchor with Cronkite’s everyman looks and sonorous delivery is an escapist parlor game. What matters is content, not style. The real question is this: How many of those with similarly exalted perches in the news media today — and those perches, however diminished, still do exist in the multichannel digital age — will speak truth to power when the country is on the line? This journalistic responsibility cannot be outsourced to Comedy Central and Jon Stewart. ...

Watching many of the empty Cronkite tributes in his own medium over the past week, you had to wonder if his industry was sticking to mawkish clichés just to avoid unflattering comparisons. If he was the most trusted man in America, it wasn’t because he was a nice guy with an authoritative voice and a lived-in face. It wasn’t because he “loved a good story” or that he removed his glasses when a president died. It was because at a time of epic corruption in the most powerful precincts in Washington, Cronkite was not at the salons and not in the tank."

- Frank Rich, The New York Times

The secretive dirty deeds of the Cheney-Bush administration need to be investigated.  Let's see if the mainstream media spend anywhere near the time and resources on this story as they have on investigating the death, familial dramas and peculiarities of Michael Jackson.

"Cheney is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project"
Scott Shane, The New York Times

"Cheney Linked to Secrecy of CIA Program"
Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times

"CIA Had Secret Al Qaeda Plan"
Siobhan Gorman, The Wall Street Journal

"Bush Anti-Terror Policies Get Reluctant Revisit"
Carrie Johnson & Joby Warrick, Washington Post

In her column, "A Farewell to Harms", Peggy Noonan writes why Sarah Palin was (and is) bad for the Republicans, and the republic.

"In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying....

Here's why all this matters. The world is a dangerous place. It has never been more so, or more complicated, more straining of the reasoning powers of those with actual genius and true judgment. This is a time for conservative leaders who know how to think.

Here are a few examples of what we may face in the next 10 years: a profound and prolonged American crash, with the admission of bankruptcy and the spread of deep social unrest; one or more American cities getting hit with weapons of mass destruction from an unknown source; faint glimmers of actual secessionist movements as Americans for various reasons and in various areas decide the burdens and assumptions of the federal government are no longer attractive or legitimate.

The era we face, that is soon upon us, will require a great deal from our leaders. They had better be sturdy. They will have to be gifted. There will be many who cannot, and should not, make the cut. Now is the time to look for those who can. And so the Republican party should get serious, as serious as the age, because that is what a grown-up, responsible party—a party that deserves to lead—would do.

It's not a time to be frivolous, or to feel the temptation of resentment, or the temptation of thinking next year will be more or less like last year, and the assumptions of our childhoods will more or less reign in our future. It won't be that way.

We are going to need the best.

- Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal

Sarah Palin steps down.  Here's her speech - Huh?   It's a rambling, incoherent, clearly insincere performance.  And, she's clearly lying through her gleaming white teeth.  Something's up. Every time I hear this buffoon speak, I think the same thing, "Oh ... my ... God."

"We're fishermen. We know only dead fish go with the flow."
- Gov. Sarah Palin

SARAH'S STRAIGHT TALK

"Truly, Sarah Palin has come a long way. When she ran for vice president, she frequently became disjointed and garbled when she departed from her prepared remarks. Now the prepared remarks are incoherent, too.

“And a problem in our country today is apathy,” she said on Friday as she announced that she would resign as governor of Alaska at the end of the month. “It would be apathetic to just hunker down and ‘go with the flow.’ Nah, only dead fish ‘go with the flow.’ No. Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time ... to BUILD UP.”

Basically, the point was that Palin is quitting as governor because she’s not a quitter. Or a deceased salmon.

Sarah Barracuda made her big announcement Friday afternoon on the lawn of her home to an audience that appeared to include only Todd, the kids and the next-door neighbors. Smiling manically, she looked like a parody of the woman who knocked the Republicans dead at their convention. She babbled about her parents’ refrigerator magnet, which apparently had a lot of wise advice. And she recalled her visit with the troops in Kosovo, whose dedication and determination inspired her to ... resign."

- Gail Collins, The New York Times

PALIN AND HER ENEMIES

"If Palin were exactly what her critics believe she is — the distillation of every right-wing pathology, from anti-intellectualism to apocalyptic Christianity — then she wouldn’t be a terribly interesting figure. But this caricature has always missed the point of the Alaska governor’s appeal — one that extends well outside the Republican Party’s shrinking base.

In a recent Pew poll, 44 percent of Americans regarded Palin unfavorably. But slightly more had a favorable impression of her. That number included 46 percent of independents, and 48 percent of Americans without a college education.

That last statistic is a crucial one. Palin’s popularity has as much to do with class as it does with ideology. In this sense, she really is the perfect foil for Barack Obama. Our president represents the meritocratic ideal — that anyone, from any background, can grow up to attend Columbia and Harvard Law School and become a great American success story. But Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal — that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard"

- Ross Douthat, The New York Times

I’m grieving.  My car has died.  My poor car.  I’ve owned this wonderful Nissan NX 2000 for 17 years, since buying it new in 1992 in Chicago.  It has a little over 91,000 miles on it.

It’s death is not an insignificant event.  That car was as much a part of me as my breath.   Now, it breathes no more.  In it’s last throes it has been trying to speak to me.  It’s been telling me that life is running out.

That car represented a hold on hope.  It kept me going - literally and figuratively.  I poured hundred of dollars into it in the last two years, trying desparately to keep it on the road, and on the mend.  I paid for overdue parking fines and overpriced parking spaces.  I put new tires, brakes and  radiator into it.  I nursed it like a loved one.

But, it would keep failing on me.  During those times without transportation, I was off my game.  I felt trapped and powerless.  When it was running, I felt I had options, the possibility of freedom and prosperity - maybe even, perish the thought, happiness.

My poor car has endured the travails of my life.  It has carried me through good times and bad, surviving blow after blow.  It has been a faithful mechanical steed.

Now, it has given up the ghost - given away for scrap parts.  Rest in peace, my friend.

As the volatile situation in Iran develops, we should all be wary of reports circulating around the Internet, on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.  Nevertheless, we should also be grateful that there are means to get the word out on what is happening in that press-restricted country.  But beware imposters spreading false information.

The New York Times, in its news blog, The Lede, is doing the best it can to filter through a multitude of sources to try and piece together what is actually happening.  It's worth monitoring.

The chief disinformation operative of the Republican party is leading a propaganda campaign against national health care reform.  He is Frank Luntz. 

He has crafted a 28-page talking points memo for Conservatives, called "The Language of Health Care 2009," to trumpet the dishonest accusation of a "Washington takeover of healthcare."  It is cynical, distorted, fear mongering self-interest at its worst.

Luntz advises opponents of universal health care to make the debate about "politicians," "bureaucrats," and "Washington," and to highlight "horror stories" about "government takeover."  He tells them to play on the fear the public has of "denied treatment."

Luntz writes, "The best approach is to empathize with the fear, anxiety and financial pain people are clearly feeling right now. So instead of dismissing their concerns, acknowledge them – up front – and then pivot to your solution. Some conservatives will undoubtedly find this distasteful. But failure to connect on a personal level at the beginning will lead to communication failure at the end."

Later he writes, "It is essential that “deny” and “denial” enter the conservative lexicon immediately because it is at the core of what scares Americans most about a government takeover of healthcare. Then add to it the source of that denial and you have the perfect anti-government, anti-Washington and anti-Democratic message."

So, you will hear this mantra repeated from Republican after Republican:

“No Washington bureaucrat or healthcare lobbyist should stand between your family and your doctor. The Democrats want to put Washington politicians in charge of YOUR healthcare. We can and must do better. Say no to a Washington takeover of healthcare and say yes to personalized patient-centered care.”

Of course, "personalized patient-centered care" is code for health insurance company control. That is the powerful industry Luntz and his cohorts are trying to protect.

Luntz and his associates are the premier manipulators of language for selfish, partisan ends.

Read one of his mission statements from their web site (emphasis is mine): 

Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research

"Our focus is on language. We believe that every word you use matters.  Luntz, Maslansky is known across the nation for how we reframe issues.  From changing the “estate tax” to the “death tax,” “tax cuts” to “tax relief,” “global warming” to “climate change” – time after time we have succeeded in changing the course of the debate.  By focusing on how to communicate your message, Luntz, Maslansky helps you reframe the issue using your side’s words and messages.  Our unique research methodology allows us to precisely gauge public opinion and develop the most effective approach and language to take control of the issue.  We know how to change hearts and minds and motivate people to act."

from Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research website

Their goal is to help "virtually every major industry" to distort their message and mask their true agenda.  Another quote from their web site:

"In the political arena, our CEO, Dr. Frank Luntz, is known for helping change the public vocabulary – he transformed the "estate tax" into the "the death tax," moved the public debate from "school vouchers" to "opportunity scholarships," and re-cast "drilling for oil" as "exploring for energy."  ...  In the corporate arena, Luntz, Maslansky currently works for clients in virtually every major industry: pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, energy, health care, transportation, sports, entertainment, travel and tourism, shopping centers, grocery stores, restaurants, food, and beverages."

If Frank Luntz is involved in a public campaign, you may assume the goal is to "pull the wool over your eyes."

And, so then, is his mission in the health care debate.

Photo Credit:  Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

President Barack Obama delivered an honest and brilliant speech today in Cairo about peace and religion.  Take an hour out of your day to watch and listen.

"When President Bush spoke in the months and years after Sept. 11, 2001, we often — chillingly — felt as if we didn’t recognize the United States. His vision was of a country racked with fear and bent on vengeance, one that imposed invidious choices on the world and on itself. When we listened to President Obama speak in Cairo on Thursday, we recognized the United States.

Mr. Obama spoke, unwaveringly, of the need to defend the country’s security and values. He left no doubt that he would do what must be done to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban, while making it clear that Americans have no desire to permanently occupy Afghanistan or Iraq.

He spoke, unequivocally, of the United States’ “unbreakable” commitment to Israel and of why Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. He was also clear that all of those listening — in the Muslim world and in Israel — must do more to defeat extremism and to respect the rights of their neighbors and their people.

Words are important. Mr. Obama was right when he urged leaders who privately speak of moderation and compromise to dare to say those words in public. But words are not enough. Mr. Obama, who, after all, has been in office for less than six months, has a lot to do to fulfill this vision. So do others. ...

Before Thursday’s speech, and after, Mr. Obama’s critics complained that he has spent too much time apologizing and accused him of weakening the country. That is a gross misreading of what he has been saying — and of what needs to be said. After eight years of arrogance and bullying that has turned even close friends against the United States, it takes a strong president to acknowledge the mistakes of the past. And it takes a strong president to press himself and the world to do better."

- Editorial, The New York Times

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Crowley, The New York Times

"Truth Sessions: Insights on the Common Struggles of Life" (A journalistic jazz piece) from David Guilbault on Vimeo

We all have stories to tell. We all need and want to be heard. But many of us are invisible members of our own communities. Because we may be poor, downtrodden, struggling with mental conditions or fighting addictions, our opinions and observations are largely ignored.

But our experiences and insights are valuable. Like everyone, we’re coping the best we can with the challenges of life. This ongoing project is intended to give voice to those struggles.

"Truth Sessions" is a multimedia storytelling project by filmmaker David Guilbault, photographer Doug Vann, painter Keven Furiya and composer Andy Zadrozny.

The first session features ten people living in a low income apartment building in Seattle, across the street from the artist lofts where David, Doug, Keven & Andy live and work.

These ten interviews are the first in a series of sessions. Our intention is to hear from a range of our neighbors from disparate cultural, economic, ethnic, educational, racial and spiritual backgrounds. This is just the beginning of the conversation. The stories continue.

(To see the complete multimedia work, please visit www.truthsessions.tv)

I invite you all to a fundraiser for a wonderful work-in-progress, "Walk Right In", on April 24th, at 7:00p at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle.  Details on the film and a trailer are below:

"Walk Right In" captures the stories of a unique educational experiment at Yale University through interviews with its participants 40 years later.

Created as part of the war on poverty with a mandate to address issues of social and economic injustice, The Yale Summer High School brought underprivileged kids from across the nation to the Yale Divinity School during the 1960s. In 1968, as American cities were rife with protest, racial rioting and civil disorder, a small group of educators redefined the enterprise, creating a living laboratory in the problems and promise of the American democracy. Drawing on the 'Great Books' of Western literature, the school made these classics relevant to the times and lives of its students, bringing sensitive issues of race, tolerance and personal identity to the fore. From Sophocles' "Antigone" to Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn," they searched together for that which eluded the nation--a working definition of "community"--the shared values that ground people and bind them together.

Four decades after leaving Yale, Larry Paros--former Director of the Yale Summer High School--traveled the country to interview more than two dozen of his fellow teachers, tutors and students about how they each experienced the Summer High School in 1968.

A compelling and deeply personal narrative of education and individual transformation, "Walk Right In" recreates the summer of '68 through first hand accounts, following students from their moment of selection and their arrival on campus to the culmination of the program and where they are today, reminding us of the importance of inclusive and effective education and the impact it has across generations.

The Writer

by Richard Wilbur

In her room at the prow of the house

Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,

My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing

From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys

Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff

Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:

I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,

As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.

A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,

And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor

Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling

Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;

How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;

And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,

We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature

Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove

To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,

For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits

Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,

Beating a smooth course for the right window

And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,

Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish

What I wished you before, but harder.

Richard Wilbur, “The Writer” from Collected Poems 1943-2004. Copyright © 2004 by Richard Wilbur. Reprinted with the permission of Harcourt, Inc. This material may not be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Source: Collected Poems, 1943-2004 (Harcourt, Inc., 2004).

As I search for vindication and validation, I ponder the words of Mickey Rourke to Barbara Walters on the Oscar award:  "You can't eat it.  You can't fuck it.  And it won't get you into heaven."

 

Can anyone listen to and watch Ingrid Michaelson without smiling?

W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95
By Tim Weiner, The New York Times

"W. Mark Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most famous anonymous source in American history, died Thursday. He was 95 and lived in Santa Rosa, Calif. ...

Mr. Felt played a dual role in the fall of Nixon. As a secret informant, he kept the story alive in the press. As associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he fought the president’s efforts to obstruct the F.B.I.’s investigation of the Watergate break-in.

Without Mr. Felt, there might not have been a Watergate — shorthand for the revealed abuses of presidential powers in the Nixon White House, including illegal wiretapping, burglaries and money laundering. Americans might never have seen a president as a criminal conspirator, or reporters as cultural heroes, or anonymous sources like Mr. Felt as a necessary if undesired tool in the pursuit of truth."

'Deep Throat' Mark Felt Dies at 95 - Patricia Sullivan, The Washington Post
How Mark Felt Became 'Deep Throat' - Bob Woodward, The Washington Post

I want to thank staff reporter Cydney Gillis of Real Change newspaper in Seattle for her cover story featuring the 'Truth Sessions' multimedia storytelling project I co-authored with photographer Doug Vann, painter Keven Furiya and composer Andy Zadrozny.  The newspaper's mission is "to create opportunity and a voice for low-income people while taking action to end homelessness and poverty."

Photo: Doug Vann

Well, the blogosphere and some of the mainstream media have been embarrassed again for publishing supposedly inside McCain campaign information from what turns out to be a hoaxster.  Read the story, 'A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence', on The New York Times website.

"We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can."

- Barack Obama, January 8, 2008

We all have stories to tell.  We all need and want to be heard.  But many of us are invisible members of our own communities.  Because we may be poor, downtrodden, struggling with mental conditions or fighting addictions, our opinions and observations are largely ignored.

But our experiences and insights are valuable.  Like everyone, we're coping the best we can with the challenges of life.  This ongoing project is intended to give voice to those struggles.

'Truth Sessions' is a multimedia storytelling project by filmmaker David Guilbault, photographer Doug Vann, painter Keven Furiya and composer Andy Zadrozny.  The first session features ten people living in a low income apartment building across the street from the artist lofts where David, Doug, Keven and Andy live and work.

These ten interviews are the first in a series of sessions.  Our intention is to hear from a range of our neighbors from disparate cultural, economic, ethnic, ediucaltional, racial and spiritual backgrounds.  This is just the beginning of the conversation.  The stories continue.

Bruce Springsteen at a Vote for Change rally in Philadelphia:

"I've spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality. For many Americans, who are today losing their jobs, their homes, seeing their retirement funds disappear, who have no health care, or who have been abandoned in our inner cities, the distance between that promise and that reality has never been greater or more painful. I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe he understands, in his heart, the cost of that distance, in blood and suffering, in the lives of everyday Americans. I believe as president, he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning. ...

Our sacred house of dreams has been abused, looted, and left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs care; it needs saving, it needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, hearts, and minds. It needs someone with Senator Obama's understanding, temperateness, deliberativeness, maturity, compassion, toughness, and faith, to help us rebuild our house once again. But most importantly, it needs us. You and me. To build that house with the generosity that is at the heart of the American spirit. A house that is truer and big enough to contain the hopes and dreams of all of our fellow citizens. That is where our future lies. We will rise or fall as a people by our ability to accomplish this task. Now I don't know about you, but I want that dream back, I want my America back, I want my country back."

 - Bruce Springsteen

In his recent stump speeches, John McCain is demonstrating a classic example of Freudian Projection, "A defense mechanism in which the individual attributes to other people impulses and traits that he himself has but cannot accept. It is especially likely to occur when the person lacks insight into his own impulses and traits."

Speaking in Albuquerque today, John McCain directly attacked Barack Obama's character.  McCain painted Obama as risky, touchy, secretive, dishonest, aloof, misleading, reckless and angry.  All of these are exactly the adjectives that describe McCain's fundamental personality.  It is, as I've said, classic psychological projection.

Larry Rohter, of The New York Times has a blog called 'Drilling Down on the Facts in McCain's Speech' that puts the lie to most of what McCain had to say about Obama.

Likewise, Sarah Palin, today and yesterday, has been out spreading untruths about Obama,  saying that Obama was 'palling around with terrorists'.  The New York Times also put the lie to that in their in-depth article exploring the relationship between Obama and Weather Underground founder, turned education professor, William Ayers.

"A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”

- Scott Shane, The New York Times

All of these attacks from the McCain campaign are of course coming as the voters' opinions of the two candidates are solidifying and the poll numbers between the gaining Obama and the declining McCain are widening.

Standing by salivating, already 'taking the gloves off', are all those Pavlovian Rovian attack dogs, like William Kristol, ready and willing to re-stir the Rev. Jeremiah Wright pot.

Hopefully, the thinking American electorate will see this dishonest guilt-by-association ruse for the slander it is.

It is now when we see the measure of the man. John McCain shows himself be a self-deluded, desperate, ambitious phony who will say and do anything to get elected, by hook or by crook.

The foul candidate that John McCain is describing, on the last legs of his lifelong ambition to be president, is himself.

Photo Credit:  Todd Heisler/The New York Times

I was a news producer at ABC News, mostly working on the evening news programs, for over 20 years. Working my way up from copy boy to producer, I worked on the newscasts anchored by Howard K. Smith, Harry Reasoner, Barbara Walters, Frank Reynolds, Max Robinson and Peter Jennings.

I was in network news during some of its best days, post Watergate, learning from and admiring true broadcast journalists.

Came a time, I produced news reports for 'World News Tonight with Peter Jennings'.  There, I had a reputation for being able to work with 'challenging' correspondents and was thought to have the ability to bring out their best.

One of the network's correspondents was Bill O'Reilly.  I was assigned as producer on several of his stories.  They were painful experiences.

Firstly, at that time, network news producers usually took the lead role in outlining a story and setting up its elements, in coordination with the correspondent and the senior producers.  For the few stories I produced with O'Reilly, he did most of the set up.  Not knowing him or his sources, that made me uncomfortable.  But, the stories were innocuous and I never suspected or detected any bias or dishonesty in his reporting.

However, I did find him to be the single most self-centered person I had ever worked with.  He literally talked about himself non-stop.  I spent hours and hours with him on the road and the conversation never strayed away from the topic of Bill O'Reilly.  He showed me that his was an ego of uncontrollable expansion.

He was always bemoaning that others were getting undeserved breaks.  Forrest Sawyer and Stone Philips were rising stars at ABC News when O'Reilly was there.  He kept saying you have to be an inanimate object, like a forest or a stone, to make it at the network.  His jealousy and underlying insecurity was always evident.  He hated those that he felt were less deserving than he.

He couldn't survive in an atmosphere where he was not the be-all and end-all.  So, he left the network for syndication anchor positions where he was the headliner.  Then, finally to FOX News where his transformation was complete.

I've watched Mr. O'Reilly, now, over the years, turn into a monster.  And I've always held my tongue.

But, watching his latest bullying attack on Barney Frank has pushed me to comment.

Bill O'Reilly has no business on the public airwaves.  He is belligerent and ignorant.  And I mean those adjectives in the most negative light.  He abuses the very air over which he is heard.   As Rep. Frank said in response to O'Reilly's shouting, 'Your stupidity gets in the way of rational discussion'.

There is nothing rational about the way O'Reilly conducts himself.  Because he is popular, on TV, radio, and in print, he gets away with his unconscionable tirades.  He is dangerously powerful and powerfully dangerous.

As he has no respect for intelligent discourse or common decency, he should be shown no respect in return and held in derision.  To mock his most recent self-aggrandizing book, he is 'A Bold Fresh Piece of Shit'.

Wise and relevant quotes from Abraham Lincoln, pertinent to the failings of today's journalism, the belligerence of the Bush administration, the greed of corporate America, the dangers of misgovernment and the cynicism of politics:

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to  tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will  endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until  the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed."

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people."

"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure."

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?"

"Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap -- let it be taught in schools, in seminaries,  and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;  -- let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and  enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave  and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars."

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

Photo Credit:  Matthew Brady

Missive Twelve
To My Darling Children

Here's the truth, my darling children.  The differences between Democrats and Republicans are the differences between right and wrong.

It's pretty simple, really.  Republicans want little or no government.  And so, they have always done all they can to starve it to death, with massive tax breaks for the wealthy and taxpayer-funded giveaways to big business.  They can't stand that the federal government has taken any of their money.  So, they want it back.

You see, they want to be able to make money without interference, with no governmental regulations or restrictions.  They don't want to answer to anyone, particularly Washington, as they build their wealth.

In order for them to grow that wealth, they need to keep wages low and benefits meager.

The bottom line is that the bottom line is all that matters to them.  It's their money, and they will decide how they get it, how they keep it, and how they'll use it.

They are on a crusade to stop funding any and all social safety nets, like Social Security and Medicaid.  They are on a mission to bring an end to worker pension funds.

They don't care if American workers lose their livelihoods and, in some cases, their lives, as they send jobs overseas for a pittance.

The only thing that gets their unbridled funding is an all-powerful military-industrial complex.  That's so they can wield their muscle around the world, maintain their hold on power and protect their monied, corporate interests.

If you were privileged enough, or clever enough, or lucky enough, or educated enough, or connected enough or unscrupulous enough to become wealthy, then you are in their club.  And club members look out for one another.

If you were underprivileged, uneducated, poverty-stricken, discriminated against, born into a cycle of despair or just plain unlucky, then you are really not their problem.  You are on your own.  They feel they owe you nothing, except charity.

Forget that institutional racism, sexism and classism have always been alive and well in this country.  Forget that hard-working people across this nation struggle with low-paying jobs, inadequate education, dangerous working conditions, no health care, crippling debt, diminishing opportunities, mortgage foreclosures and no savings for the future.

Republicans accept those poor souls as the price of doing business.  Let the churches feed and cloth those ne'er-do-wells with hand-me-down Republican threads.

But, do NOT tax the Republicans to provide a working government with laws to protect a decent minimum wage, universal health coverage, earned retirement, a safe and sustainable environment, worker rights and safety, an equal public education system, discrimination-free housing or a fair justice system. 

Those are the right things that Democrats work to build and maintain.

I no longer accept the argument that both Republicans and Democrats are good people, just with differing policies on how to tackle the problems of the world.  Bullshit.  Republicans who are out for themselves and who are complicit in allowing the less fortunate to fend for themselves are bad people - period.

The 40 most party-loyal House Republicans, according to the Washington Post.

On election night, 2004, I wrote the following email to my friends and family:

My fellow Americans,
We have doomed a great nation to its demise.
Bush's second term will be calamitous.
The treasury will be raided by the influential rich.
A towering national debt will be left to our progeny to fund corporate and defense build-up.
Corporate power will grow unchecked around the world.
Protections for our natural wildernesses will be abolished.
Our personal rights will be weakened.
Our privacy will be increasingly violated.
The invocation of gods against gods will cause devastating worldwide conflict.
Environmental regulation will be pushed-back, opening the landscape to be stripped of its resources for profit.
Social Security will be decimated under the dishonest guise of privatization.
Over-heated patriotic bravado will lead to more bloodshed.
Misunderstanding of the rest of the world will lead to continued hatred of the U.S.
American workers will increasingly lose whatever benefits they have left.
The right to dissent will be ridiculed and attacked.
The nation will become more bitterly divided.
Verbal bullies will dominate public discourse.
Critical questioning by the media, already mistrusted, will be stifled.
Opposition positions will be countered and quelled by personal attacks.
A Republican-controlled legislature will ram-rod its agenda into law.
The culture wars will poison civil, intelligent, political conversation.
The ability to see and understand nuance will be falsely mocked as vacillation.
Lies will be told boldly, loudly and repeatedly until they are wrongly accepted as truth.
Policy makers, who have little knowledge or regard for other cultures, will make blunderous decisions.
Undeterred terrorism will be bred around the globe.
Issues will be framed simplistically in black and white, right and wrong, good and evil.
More of our children will die for the wrong reasons.
We will all rue the day a jingoistic electorate gave carte blanche to the puppet masters Rove, Hughes, Cheney, Wolfkowitz, Rumsfeld, Frist and their corporate cronies.
I wish you and yours all the best.
David.
I despair for us all.

And, so, most came to pass. Please, please do NOT elect John McCain for four more years of the same.

On this date, August 28th, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his conscience-raising 'I Have a Dream ' speech in Washington, D.C.  Tonight, on the anniversary of Dr. King's call for justice, Barack Obama will deliver another momentous address on hopes and dreams.

In 1963, Dr. King said, 'Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.'

Tonight, Sen. Obama has an opportunity to emblazon another moment, speaking as the first African-American nominee of a major party for President of the United States.  It is a long overdue triumph that should be shared by all Americans, regardless of political leanings.

As Barack Obama said in his thoughtful oration on race in Philadelphia earlier this year, 'In the end, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.'

Before we watch Obama's speech tonight, it would do us well to watch again the righteous words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., from 45 years ago.

Let's live in the truth.  The truth is that too many people in this country are just plain stupid.  They are ill-informed and easily misled.  They buy into simplistic perversions of the facts.  They know too little, think too little and they listen to those that know how to influence their little minds.  They can be made to be fearful and hateful and, thus, politically useful.  They are dangerously ignorant - and they vote.

These are the people that Karl Rove and his ilk target to mobilize against progressive candidates.

This week, John McCain has played to these voters with two outrageously disgusting campaign ads against Obama.  One compares his celebrity to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and mocks his overseas trip, where he was greeted by throngs of enthusiastic foreign admirers.  A second uses Obama soundbites, distorted and taken out of context, to paint the man as messianic.

The McCain camp undoubtedly knows that these ads are puerile and unconscionable.  But, they also know that 'just plain stupid' people will eat them up.  Both obnoxious ads - Celeb' 'and 'The One' - are proudly displayed on the McCain website. 

The ads have been roundly criticized from most quarters for the mud that they are.  Yet, McCain and his handlers, knowing they can't possibly win the election on the strength of their candidate or the failed policies he represents, continue to try and paint their charismatic and visionary opponent as a demon, in hopes of getting those easily persuaded 'just plain stupid' people mobilized against him.

It's sad to watch this repulsive display of dirty politics and even more frightening to consider that it might likely work.

 

 

'CELEB' - McCain Campaign Ad

 

 

'THE ONE' - McCain Campaign Ad

 

 

'LOW ROAD' - Obama Campaign Ad

'A World That Stands as One'

'I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares.

What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.'

Barack Obama, Berlin, July 24, 2008

It saddens me greatly to hear the phrase, over and over, 'That's why I don't watch the news'.  As a life-long broadcast journalist it pains me to know that too many people have given up, for whatever reason, on following the events of the world.  Ignorance is not bliss.  The undeniable truth is that powers of ill-will thrive when citizens hide their heads in the sand.

Missive Ten
To My Darling Children

This country has a shameful past, a past that too many Americans willingly or blindly ignore - the forced migration and genocide of Native Americans and the capture and enslavement of African-Americans.  These are hard facts, painful to accept, but necessary to recognize.

One cannot love one's country without admitting to its sins.

I think it is time for a government sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission to codify past injustices and officially apologize to the ancestors of those wronged by this country.

President Clinton took a step in that direction in 1997 when he apologized on behalf of the United States for the immoral Tuskegee Experiment that deliberately let 399 African-American men go untreated with syphilis.  Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey have apologized for slavery. And the Congress apologized in 1988 for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

But, it is long past time for the nation to officially atone for its crimes.

There is some movement in the Congress this year to apologize for slavery.

And there is Joint Resolution H.J.RES.3 in Congress - 'To acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States.'

Of course, the argument against official apologies is the high cost of reparations.  I won't entertain the merits of that debate here.  Suffice it to say that wrongs should be remedied and justice should take its due course.  It is a cop-out to say, 'Well, it wasn't me' and sweep the dastardly governmental acts of those that came before us under the rug.

This government, like all governments, is capable of unthinkable acts against its citizenry and its enemies.  It is up to each and every member of society to stand guard against immoral acts taken in the name of the electorate by the ruling government.  That goes too for the waging of  immoral and illegal wars, and for the abolition or restriction of inherent human rights.

These outrages are not just historical artifacts. One only has to look at the sanctioned abuses at U.S. detention centers at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib to see that 'crimes against humanity' are alive and well.

Now, in America, we are witnessing the nascent, ill-informed and hateful intolerance against Muslims and those that practice the faith of Islam.

A sad truth is that many Americans can't distinguish between Sunnis and Shias and Arabs and Persians and Muslims and Islamists.  They don't know the differences between an ethnicity, a culture or a religion.  Too many are quick to suspect that those who are 'other' than themselves are 'islamofacists' or 'terrorists'.

And so, there is the so-called USA Patriot Act - 'To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes' - which is being used by the Bush administration to circumvent protections in the Constitution against spying on Americans and to justify torture against anyone they designate an 'enemy combatant'.

Intolerance is rife in the land.  We must be diligent in admitting to the errors of our ways and guarding against their repetitions, especially under the imprimatur of our government.

Painting: 'Trail of Tears' by Robert Lindneux

Paul Krugman has a spot-on opinion piece in today's New York Times.  Again, and again, words in the political barrage are purposely misrepresented to tack a point or attack a foe.

Rove's Third Term

'Al Gore never claimed that he invented the Internet. Howard Dean didn’t scream. Hillary Clinton didn’t say she was staying in the race because Barack Obama might be assassinated. And Wesley Clark didn’t impugn John McCain’s military service. ...

The latest fake scandal fits the usual pattern as an awkwardly phrased remark, lifted out of context and willfully misinterpreted, exploded across the airwaves.

What General Clark actually said was that Mr. McCain’s war service, though heroic, didn’t necessarily constitute a qualification for the presidency.  It was a blunt but truthful remark, and not at all outrageous — especially given the fact that General Clark is himself a bona fide war hero.

Yet the Clark affair did reveal something important — not about General Clark, but about Mr. McCain. Now we know what a McCain administration would represent: namely, a third term for Karl Rove.'

Paul Krugman, The New York Times, July 4, 2008

Today, from personal experience that I won't share here, I am once again reminded of the value and paucity of truth. And on a day when there are reports of finding the archeological remains of George Washington's boyhood home, I invite one and all to read The Fable of George Washington and the Cherry Tree, from 'The Life of Washington' by Mason Locke Weems, 1809.

As always, you can count on Bill Moyers to see through the lies and report on the underlying motives of the powers that be.  Watch and/or read his essay on Big Oil and Iraq.

Excerpts from Bill Moyers Journal

'Oh no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire, and ashes. And now the bottom turns out to be the bottom line. It is about oil. ...

Take a look at this headline the other day in The New York Times: "deals with Iraq are set to bring oil giants back." Read on: "Four western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. ...

There you have it. After a long exile Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP are back in Iraq. And on the wings of no-bid contracts - that's right, sweetheart deals like those granted Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater. The kind of deals you get only if you have friends in high places. And these war profiteers have friends in very high places.'

Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal, June 27, 2008

Missive Nine
To My Fellow Voters

The simple truth is that the oil companies want to extract every last drop of oil in the earth for short-term profit before alternative fuels make fossil fuels obsolete and unprofitable.  In its final throes, the Bush administration is doing all it can to scare the public into backing this grab for energy resources by their corporate sponsors, before Democrats come to power and develop common-sense energy policies and effective initiatives for energy independence.

Here is what the President is demanding:

President Bush Discusses Energy

'First, we should expand American oil production by increasing access to the Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS. Experts believe that the OCS could produce about 18 billion barrels of oil.

Second, we should expand oil production by tapping into the extraordinary potential of oil shale.

Third, we should expand American oil production by permitting exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR.

And finally, we need to expand and enhance our refining capacity ... So today I'm proposing measures to expedite the refinery permitting process.'

President George W. Bush, June 18, 2008

Hmm?  Where have we heard this before?  Can you say, oil executive?

Don't Blame Us for Prices - Oil Execs

'Amid increasing public outcry over record-shattering oil and gas prices, senators on Wednesday hauled industry executives in to testify about the recent runup.

The Senate Judiciary Committee called the hearing to explore the skyrocketing price of oil, which jumped over $4 a barrel to a new record of over $133. The committee grilled executives from Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips Co., Shell Oil Co., Chevron and BP as to how their companies can in good conscience make so much money, while American drivers pay so much at the pump ...

Lawmakers criticized the firms for not investing enough in finding new oil and developing renewable resources and told them, in thinly disguised terms, that they'd be forced to enact extra profit taxes if Big Oil continued to post such large earnings.

The oil men said they're making business decisions in the best interest of their shareholders. They repeated their often-stated position that the best way to lower prices and bring more oil to market is to open up wide swaths of the U.S. that are currently off-limits to drilling.'

Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com, May 21, 2008

This poor-mouthing by Big Oil, and the obvious attempt to grab up all the last reserves while they still can, comes as they make obscenely high record profits.

This is obviously an attempt at a massive give-away to ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, BP and others.  Seems, under this plan we are switching our reliance on supplies from greedy foreign governments to dependance on greedy energy corporations.  Where is the independence in that?

UPDATE: July 6, 2008:
The Republican National Committee has gotten in lockstep with the oil companies and the Bush administration, and is praising McCain for calling for more oil production in the U.S.  They do it in a campaign ad attacking Obama's energy policy.  This drumbeat for opening more lands and reducing restrictions for oil drilling will continue unabated.  The Republicans owe their corporate benefactors and are dutifully doing what they are told by their sponsors.

Photo Credit:  Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

Missive Seven
To My Fellow Voters:

FIGHT THE SMEARS

It would be naive to believe that this presidential election campaign won't be filled with outlandish lies meant to besmirch the good name and attack the candidacy of Barack Obama.  The Obama campaign has launched a Web campaign to counter those lies with the truth.  You can see their answers to the barrage of mistruths being amplified around the Internet and on cable talk programs at 'Fight the Smears'.

Fight the Smears

'What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon - that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but as enemies to demonize.  Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first.  We are always Americans first.'

Barack Obama, June 3, 2008

FRANK LUNTZ

And speaking of disinformation campaigns, the premier manipulator of language for selfish, partisan ends is Frank Luntz and his associates.  Read one of his mission statements from their web site (emphasis is mine): 

Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research

'Our focus is on language. We believe that every word you use matters.  Luntz, Maslansky is known across the nation for how we reframe issues.  From changing the “estate tax” to the “death tax,” “tax cuts” to “tax relief,” “global warming” to “climate change” – time after time we have succeeded in changing the course of the debate.  By focusing on how to communicate your message, Luntz, Maslansky helps you reframe the issue using your side’s words and messages.  Our unique research methodology allows us to precisely gauge public opinion and develop the most effective approach and language to take control of the issue.  We know how to change hearts and minds and motivate people to act.

from Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research website

Their goal is to help 'virtually every major industry' to distort their message and mask their true agenda.  Another quote from their web site:

'In the political arena, our CEO, Dr. Frank Luntz, is known for helping change the public vocabulary – he transformed the "estate tax" into the "the death tax," moved the public debate from "school vouchers" to "opportunity scholarships," and re-cast "drilling for oil" as "exploring for energy."  ...  In the corporate arena, Luntz, Maslansky currently works for clients in virtually every major industry: pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, energy, health care, transportation, sports, entertainment, travel and tourism, shopping centers, grocery stores, restaurants, food, and beverages.'

If Frank Luntz is involved in a public campaign, you may assume the goal is to 'pull the wool over your eyes'.

Photo Credit:  Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

‘Truth Sessions’ is a multi-media storytelling project by filmmaker David Guilbault, photographer Doug Vann, painter Keven Furiya and composer Andy Zadrozny . The first session features ten people living in a low-income apartment building in Seattle, across the street from the artist lofts where David, Doug, Keven & Andy live and work.

We all have stories to tell. We all need and want to be heard. But many of us are invisible members of our own communities. Because we may be poor, downtrodden, struggling with mental conditions or fighting addictions, our opinions and observations are largely ignored. But our experiences and insights are valuable. Like everyone, we’re coping the best we can with the challenges of life. This ongoing project is intended to give voice to those struggles.

What's to say in tribute?  There are so few people who really 'tell it like it is'.  George Carlin always did.

George Carlin, Irreverent Comedian, Dies at 71

'George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday. He was 71. The cause of death was heart failure ... Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist".'

Mel Watkins, New York Times, June 24, 2008

GEORGE CARLIN QUOTES

'By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.'

'Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.'

'Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.'

'I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.'

ON THE CORRUPTION OF LANGUAGE

What can be done when people willfully invent and spread mistruths to mislead and manipulate the electorate? Luckily, in the YouTube era, political claims can be challenged and either verified or corrected in short order.  Below, a running tally:

OBAMA CLAIMS McCAIN IS RUNNING FOR BUSH'S THIRD TERM

"According to Congressional Quarterly's Voting Studies, in 2007 McCain voted in line with the president's position 95 percent of the time – the highest percentage rate for McCain since Bush took office – and voted in line with his party 90 percent of the time. However, McCain's support of President Bush's position has been as low as 77 percent (in 2005), and his support for his party's position has been as low as 67 percent (2001)."

FactCheck.org, June 13, 2008

Missive Two
To My Darling Children:

Today, in this country, you can destroy a man/woman  in the public forum by making a false accusation against that person which will be dutifully and woefully parroted by the press under the guise of ‘vetting’ someone’s character.  In fact, the media, now routinely, is complicit in repeated character assassination.

One’s words can be easily misquoted, misrepresented, distorted and denounced and broadcast in damning snippets around the world and across the Internet while the truth of one’s statements are buried under an avalanche of oft-repeated, intentionally amplified lies.

It is next to impossible to defend oneself against critical and destructive attacks when the accused has no platform where he or she can expect the intended audience to listen fully, carefully and open-mindedly.  The press snaps to attention and gleefully plays a full-throated game of ‘gotcha’.

Even when someone is able to mount a reasoned public defense, the chattering mob of bogus commentators pull phrases out of context and distort the true intent of the statement to service their own self-interest.

A case in point is the public pillory of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  For months his past words have been truncated, misquoted, distorted and purposely misrepresented.  He has been labeled as an anti-patriotic, hate-mongering racist.  In fact, he is a thoughtful, learned, passionate advocate for the downtrodden.

I watched the complete Bill Moyers interview with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, extended clips of the Reverend's 'controversial' sermons, and Rev. Wright's recent speeches to the NAACP and Washington Press Club.  He didn't say ONE thing that wasn't true.  He talked about governments, this one included, that have not always done the ‘right thing’ (my words, not his).  He drew our attention to the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of African-Americans, the internment of Japanese-Americans, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed untold numbers of civilians.  He noted that America develops, manufactures and sells chemical weapons (weapons of mass destruction).  He lamented the subversion of ‘other’ cultures by the dominant White Anglo-Saxon power holders.  And he comically demonstrated that different cultures think and act differently – in their religious practices, anthropology and sociology.  All, reasoned and incontrovertible truths.

But, today, under political pressure, and after the press has demonized the man, Barack Obama has thrown his former pastor under the bus and backed up over him.

I'm saddened by the current turn of events and state of public discourse.  When the Rev. Wright was first condemned by the political Right, Obama gave a thoughtful speech in Philadelphia calling for a national conversation about race in America.  Instead of calm, deliberate dialogue between people of different skin color, religious beliefs or cultural practices, we continue to demean and suppress other people out of ignorance and a refusal to even hear or understand their opposing points of view.

Thoughtful dialogue is being drowned out by the loud barrage of the righteous mob.

Again, I plead to you, to seek out the truth.  Listen, learn, understand, question and then make up your mind.  When you find a person or opinion contrary to yours, don’t go on the attack, or even on the defensive.  Hear them out.  Understanding and respect are the ways to peace.  Know what you stand for and what you oppose.  But, more importantly, know why.

When you see or hear someone and their thoughts being so vociferously and unrelentingly attacked, ask why.  Investigate who is behind the assault. Whose interests are being jeopardized?  Whose position and power are being threatened? Who wants to drown out the voice and why?

And, finally, don't be afraid to listen to other voices.  Seek out all viewpoints.  Even if their language is incendiary, even if their ideas are challenging, even if their passionate expressions make you uncomfortable, they may be speaking the truth.

All my love,
Dad

Photo Credit: Getty

Missive One
To My Darling Children:

You live in a dangerous time.  It is not hyperbole when I say that I have not seen a more treacherous period in my life.  It is an era of deceit.  Powerful forces are skilled at manipulating and distorting information for their own greedy and malevolent ends.  Those people are in positions of control, around the globe, in the government, business and the media.  Their unchecked ability to initiate and control world events is frightening.  Their threat to your safety and liberty is real.

Your generation is being lulled with a flood of lies, masked by a deluge of misinformation.  It is very difficult, even for me, a professional observer, to filter through the obfuscation in order to find the truth.  There are battalions of liars skilled in herding the public to accept and embrace their selfish actions, unwittingly many times, by persuading listeners with purposely misleading arguments.

You two occupy the highest tiers of my love and concern.  I worry that you are not hearing or discerning the truths of your world.  There are things you ‘need to know’.   To that end, I am going to begin sending you missives that I feel will help you navigate your days and protect your futures.

I hope you will respect and embrace my wisdom.  I have lived an enlightening and adventurous life.  I have travelled extensively.  I have talked with people from all walks.  I have always listened with an open and analytical mind, a skeptical ear, an empathetic heart and with nuanced understanding of actions and motives.

As a journalist and adventurer, I have been blessed with extraordinary opportunities to satisfy my unending curiosity.  I have seen things and been places.  I have climbed on glaciers, watched whales breach the surface of seas,  witnessed the thundering launch of space shuttles, gazed awestruck at herds of elephants crossing the savannah, been at the site of a nuclear power plant accident, travelled on political campaigns with presidential candidates, walked down streets of poverty and decay, been moved by emotionally charged religious services, dined with a Vice President and a black-separatist minister, confronted a dangerous white separatist, helped start nascent cable and Internet news organizations.  I have heard and told the stories of countless characters from incredibly diverse backgrounds, who have revealed volumes about life – the good, the bad, the evil, the beautiful and the sublime.

All that is to say, that you would disregard my insights at your peril.  I expect the both of you to make your own judgments in life.  But to do so without knowing the truth behind your decisions would also be at your peril.  Please listen to all that is around you.  Ask questions, question authority.  But, most importantly, seek out the truth.  It will not come to you on its own, especially in the current climate of deception.  You are responsible for what you truly know to be true.

Know where you stand and why you stand there.  And when you take a stand, I expect you to be kind, understanding, generous and loving in your criticisms.  Don’t ever hold your ground for its own sake.  Know when to compromise, when to hold fast, when to relent and when to accept defeat.  And certainly, know how to be right graciously, not triumphantly.

I love you both more than you might ever know.  I will do everything in my power not to misguide you, knowingly by personal motive, or unknowingly by flawed personality.  But, do know that my insights have been powerfully accurate through my life.  Digest them, ponder them, reject or accept them.  I implore you, seriously consider them.

Life is spectacular.  Live it fully.  Love courageously.  Fight righteously.  Listen with compassion.  Be passionate.  Use your talents.  Travel curiously.  Embrace foreign ideas and cultures open-mindedly.  Be just.  Be kind.  Be you.

So, having said all that, you need to know that the implications of the Iraq War are having a tragic effect on your future and freedom.  The invasion of Iraq was an opportunistic outrage, unjustly launched by the neo-cons in the Bush administration who are beholding to powerful corporate interests.  It is not about freedom and democracy, it is about the wielding of political power over a region rich in oil resources.  The tax treasure and military might of the United States have been stolen by a cabal of determined power-holders to remake the world in their own interests.

To enlighten that point, please watch the Frontline documentary called “Bush’s War”.  Frontline is a stellar series of PBS programs produced by credible, conscientious journalists seeking the truth.  They have been reporting on the war for five years, conducting hundreds of candid interviews with the actual players in the government and other reporters with unique access and insight.  They have compiled it all into an enlightening report.  You can watch it online, in short chapters.

This war is far from over.  Forces are at work to keep it going and to expand it across the region.  True motives are still being masked with intentionally misleading phrases from the Bush government and the McCain campaign that it is about “freedom and democracy”.  It is not.  It is about greed and power.  Please, please, arm yourself with the information in “Bush’s War”.

This election is the most critical in my lifetime.  I will write more about it in subsequent missives.  But, for now, don’t be deluded that this war is not profoundly driving the geopolitical world in which you live.  You must take an interest.  Your lives are at stake.

I love you,
Dad

UNHEALTHY LIES

Congressional Republicans and health insurance lobbyists are lying to the American people - knowingly and cynically - to protect their greedy entrenched interests by killing health care reform.  That's the truth, pure and simple.

"The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems."

- Steven Pearlstein, The Washington Post

HEALTH REFORM VILLAINS

I have not had much faith in the political leadership of House leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate leader Harry Reid in the health care reform debate.  Today, Pelosi, finally got some guts and laid the blame for our broken, greedy system at the feet of the real obstructionists of reform - the health insurance industry.  Some of her comments today:

Pelosi: Health Insurance Companies the Real Villains

"They are the villains in this. They have been part of the problem in a major way," Pelosi said of the insurance industry after her weekly press conference. "It's almost immoral, what they are doing," she said, referring to industry lobbying against a public insurance plan option. "Of course, they've been immoral all along. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening, and the public has to know about it."

The current system works so well for insurers that they don't even want subsidies, Pelosi claimed. "They've had a good thing going for a long time at the expense of the American people and the health of our country," she said, adding that it will be tough to keep them from getting their way. "This is the fight of our lives."

- Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House

RIGHT ON CRONKITE

The New York Times' Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich has it exactly right about the importance of Walter Cronkite in his piece, "And That's Not the Way It Is."

"What matters about Cronkite is that he knew when to stop being reassuring Uncle Walter and to challenge those who betrayed his audience’s trust. He had the guts to confront not only those in power but his own bosses. Given the American press’s catastrophe of our own day — its failure to unmask and often even to question the White House propaganda campaign that plunged us into Iraq — these attributes are as timely as ever.

That’s why the past week’s debate about whether there could ever again be a father-figure anchor with Cronkite’s everyman looks and sonorous delivery is an escapist parlor game. What matters is content, not style. The real question is this: How many of those with similarly exalted perches in the news media today — and those perches, however diminished, still do exist in the multichannel digital age — will speak truth to power when the country is on the line? This journalistic responsibility cannot be outsourced to Comedy Central and Jon Stewart. ...

Watching many of the empty Cronkite tributes in his own medium over the past week, you had to wonder if his industry was sticking to mawkish clichés just to avoid unflattering comparisons. If he was the most trusted man in America, it wasn’t because he was a nice guy with an authoritative voice and a lived-in face. It wasn’t because he “loved a good story” or that he removed his glasses when a president died. It was because at a time of epic corruption in the most powerful precincts in Washington, Cronkite was not at the salons and not in the tank."

- Frank Rich, The New York Times

EXHUME CHENEY-BUSH DEEDS

The secretive dirty deeds of the Cheney-Bush administration need to be investigated.  Let's see if the mainstream media spend anywhere near the time and resources on this story as they have on investigating the death, familial dramas and peculiarities of Michael Jackson.

"Cheney is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project"
Scott Shane, The New York Times

"Cheney Linked to Secrecy of CIA Program"
Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times

"CIA Had Secret Al Qaeda Plan"
Siobhan Gorman, The Wall Street Journal

"Bush Anti-Terror Policies Get Reluctant Revisit"
Carrie Johnson & Joby Warrick, Washington Post

WADING IN ON SARAH

In her column, "A Farewell to Harms", Peggy Noonan writes why Sarah Palin was (and is) bad for the Republicans, and the republic.

"In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying....

Here's why all this matters. The world is a dangerous place. It has never been more so, or more complicated, more straining of the reasoning powers of those with actual genius and true judgment. This is a time for conservative leaders who know how to think.

Here are a few examples of what we may face in the next 10 years: a profound and prolonged American crash, with the admission of bankruptcy and the spread of deep social unrest; one or more American cities getting hit with weapons of mass destruction from an unknown source; faint glimmers of actual secessionist movements as Americans for various reasons and in various areas decide the burdens and assumptions of the federal government are no longer attractive or legitimate.

The era we face, that is soon upon us, will require a great deal from our leaders. They had better be sturdy. They will have to be gifted. There will be many who cannot, and should not, make the cut. Now is the time to look for those who can. And so the Republican party should get serious, as serious as the age, because that is what a grown-up, responsible party—a party that deserves to lead—would do.

It's not a time to be frivolous, or to feel the temptation of resentment, or the temptation of thinking next year will be more or less like last year, and the assumptions of our childhoods will more or less reign in our future. It won't be that way.

We are going to need the best.

- Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal

A RAMBLING FOOL

Sarah Palin steps down.  Here's her speech - Huh?   It's a rambling, incoherent, clearly insincere performance.  And, she's clearly lying through her gleaming white teeth.  Something's up. Every time I hear this buffoon speak, I think the same thing, "Oh ... my ... God."

"We're fishermen. We know only dead fish go with the flow."
- Gov. Sarah Palin

SARAH'S STRAIGHT TALK

"Truly, Sarah Palin has come a long way. When she ran for vice president, she frequently became disjointed and garbled when she departed from her prepared remarks. Now the prepared remarks are incoherent, too.

“And a problem in our country today is apathy,” she said on Friday as she announced that she would resign as governor of Alaska at the end of the month. “It would be apathetic to just hunker down and ‘go with the flow.’ Nah, only dead fish ‘go with the flow.’ No. Productive, fulfilled people determine where to put their efforts, choosing to wisely utilize precious time ... to BUILD UP.”

Basically, the point was that Palin is quitting as governor because she’s not a quitter. Or a deceased salmon.

Sarah Barracuda made her big announcement Friday afternoon on the lawn of her home to an audience that appeared to include only Todd, the kids and the next-door neighbors. Smiling manically, she looked like a parody of the woman who knocked the Republicans dead at their convention. She babbled about her parents’ refrigerator magnet, which apparently had a lot of wise advice. And she recalled her visit with the troops in Kosovo, whose dedication and determination inspired her to ... resign."

- Gail Collins, The New York Times

PALIN AND HER ENEMIES

"If Palin were exactly what her critics believe she is — the distillation of every right-wing pathology, from anti-intellectualism to apocalyptic Christianity — then she wouldn’t be a terribly interesting figure. But this caricature has always missed the point of the Alaska governor’s appeal — one that extends well outside the Republican Party’s shrinking base.

In a recent Pew poll, 44 percent of Americans regarded Palin unfavorably. But slightly more had a favorable impression of her. That number included 46 percent of independents, and 48 percent of Americans without a college education.

That last statistic is a crucial one. Palin’s popularity has as much to do with class as it does with ideology. In this sense, she really is the perfect foil for Barack Obama. Our president represents the meritocratic ideal — that anyone, from any background, can grow up to attend Columbia and Harvard Law School and become a great American success story. But Sarah Palin represents the democratic ideal — that anyone can grow up to be a great success story without graduating from Columbia and Harvard"

- Ross Douthat, The New York Times

MY POOR CAR

I’m grieving.  My car has died.  My poor car.  I’ve owned this wonderful Nissan NX 2000 for 17 years, since buying it new in 1992 in Chicago.  It has a little over 91,000 miles on it.

It’s death is not an insignificant event.  That car was as much a part of me as my breath.   Now, it breathes no more.  In it’s last throes it has been trying to speak to me.  It’s been telling me that life is running out.

That car represented a hold on hope.  It kept me going - literally and figuratively.  I poured hundred of dollars into it in the last two years, trying desparately to keep it on the road, and on the mend.  I paid for overdue parking fines and overpriced parking spaces.  I put new tires, brakes and  radiator into it.  I nursed it like a loved one.

But, it would keep failing on me.  During those times without transportation, I was off my game.  I felt trapped and powerless.  When it was running, I felt I had options, the possibility of freedom and prosperity - maybe even, perish the thought, happiness.

My poor car has endured the travails of my life.  It has carried me through good times and bad, surviving blow after blow.  It has been a faithful mechanical steed.

Now, it has given up the ghost - given away for scrap parts.  Rest in peace, my friend.

MISTRUSTED SOURCES

As the volatile situation in Iran develops, we should all be wary of reports circulating around the Internet, on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.  Nevertheless, we should also be grateful that there are means to get the word out on what is happening in that press-restricted country.  But beware imposters spreading false information.

The New York Times, in its news blog, The Lede, is doing the best it can to filter through a multitude of sources to try and piece together what is actually happening.  It's worth monitoring.

SICK TALK ON HEALTH CARE

The chief disinformation operative of the Republican party is leading a propaganda campaign against national health care reform.  He is Frank Luntz. 

He has crafted a 28-page talking points memo for Conservatives, called "The Language of Health Care 2009," to trumpet the dishonest accusation of a "Washington takeover of healthcare."  It is cynical, distorted, fear mongering self-interest at its worst.

Luntz advises opponents of universal health care to make the debate about "politicians," "bureaucrats," and "Washington," and to highlight "horror stories" about "government takeover."  He tells them to play on the fear the public has of "denied treatment."

Luntz writes, "The best approach is to empathize with the fear, anxiety and financial pain people are clearly feeling right now. So instead of dismissing their concerns, acknowledge them – up front – and then pivot to your solution. Some conservatives will undoubtedly find this distasteful. But failure to connect on a personal level at the beginning will lead to communication failure at the end."

Later he writes, "It is essential that “deny” and “denial” enter the conservative lexicon immediately because it is at the core of what scares Americans most about a government takeover of healthcare. Then add to it the source of that denial and you have the perfect anti-government, anti-Washington and anti-Democratic message."

So, you will hear this mantra repeated from Republican after Republican:

“No Washington bureaucrat or healthcare lobbyist should stand between your family and your doctor. The Democrats want to put Washington politicians in charge of YOUR healthcare. We can and must do better. Say no to a Washington takeover of healthcare and say yes to personalized patient-centered care.”

Of course, "personalized patient-centered care" is code for health insurance company control. That is the powerful industry Luntz and his cohorts are trying to protect.

Luntz and his associates are the premier manipulators of language for selfish, partisan ends.

Read one of his mission statements from their web site (emphasis is mine): 

Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research

"Our focus is on language. We believe that every word you use matters.  Luntz, Maslansky is known across the nation for how we reframe issues.  From changing the “estate tax” to the “death tax,” “tax cuts” to “tax relief,” “global warming” to “climate change” – time after time we have succeeded in changing the course of the debate.  By focusing on how to communicate your message, Luntz, Maslansky helps you reframe the issue using your side’s words and messages.  Our unique research methodology allows us to precisely gauge public opinion and develop the most effective approach and language to take control of the issue.  We know how to change hearts and minds and motivate people to act."

from Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research website

Their goal is to help "virtually every major industry" to distort their message and mask their true agenda.  Another quote from their web site:

"In the political arena, our CEO, Dr. Frank Luntz, is known for helping change the public vocabulary – he transformed the "estate tax" into the "the death tax," moved the public debate from "school vouchers" to "opportunity scholarships," and re-cast "drilling for oil" as "exploring for energy."  ...  In the corporate arena, Luntz, Maslansky currently works for clients in virtually every major industry: pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, energy, health care, transportation, sports, entertainment, travel and tourism, shopping centers, grocery stores, restaurants, food, and beverages."

If Frank Luntz is involved in a public campaign, you may assume the goal is to "pull the wool over your eyes."

And, so then, is his mission in the health care debate.

Photo Credit:  Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

PEACE BE UPON YOU

President Barack Obama delivered an honest and brilliant speech today in Cairo about peace and religion.  Take an hour out of your day to watch and listen.

"When President Bush spoke in the months and years after Sept. 11, 2001, we often — chillingly — felt as if we didn’t recognize the United States. His vision was of a country racked with fear and bent on vengeance, one that imposed invidious choices on the world and on itself. When we listened to President Obama speak in Cairo on Thursday, we recognized the United States.

Mr. Obama spoke, unwaveringly, of the need to defend the country’s security and values. He left no doubt that he would do what must be done to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban, while making it clear that Americans have no desire to permanently occupy Afghanistan or Iraq.

He spoke, unequivocally, of the United States’ “unbreakable” commitment to Israel and of why Iran must not have a nuclear weapon. He was also clear that all of those listening — in the Muslim world and in Israel — must do more to defeat extremism and to respect the rights of their neighbors and their people.

Words are important. Mr. Obama was right when he urged leaders who privately speak of moderation and compromise to dare to say those words in public. But words are not enough. Mr. Obama, who, after all, has been in office for less than six months, has a lot to do to fulfill this vision. So do others. ...

Before Thursday’s speech, and after, Mr. Obama’s critics complained that he has spent too much time apologizing and accused him of weakening the country. That is a gross misreading of what he has been saying — and of what needs to be said. After eight years of arrogance and bullying that has turned even close friends against the United States, it takes a strong president to acknowledge the mistakes of the past. And it takes a strong president to press himself and the world to do better."

- Editorial, The New York Times

PHOTO CREDIT: Stephen Crowley, The New York Times

TRUTH SESSIONS

"Truth Sessions: Insights on the Common Struggles of Life" (A journalistic jazz piece) from David Guilbault on Vimeo

We all have stories to tell. We all need and want to be heard. But many of us are invisible members of our own communities. Because we may be poor, downtrodden, struggling with mental conditions or fighting addictions, our opinions and observations are largely ignored.

But our experiences and insights are valuable. Like everyone, we’re coping the best we can with the challenges of life. This ongoing project is intended to give voice to those struggles.

"Truth Sessions" is a multimedia storytelling project by filmmaker David Guilbault, photographer Doug Vann, painter Keven Furiya and composer Andy Zadrozny.

The first session features ten people living in a low income apartment building in Seattle, across the street from the artist lofts where David, Doug, Keven & Andy live and work.

These ten interviews are the first in a series of sessions. Our intention is to hear from a range of our neighbors from disparate cultural, economic, ethnic, educational, racial and spiritual backgrounds. This is just the beginning of the conversation. The stories continue.

(To see the complete multimedia work, please visit www.truthsessions.tv)

WALK RIGHT IN

I invite you all to a fundraiser for a wonderful work-in-progress, "Walk Right In", on April 24th, at 7:00p at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle.  Details on the film and a trailer are below:

"Walk Right In" captures the stories of a unique educational experiment at Yale University through interviews with its participants 40 years later.

Created as part of the war on poverty with a mandate to address issues of social and economic injustice, The Yale Summer High School brought underprivileged kids from across the nation to the Yale Divinity School during the 1960s. In 1968, as American cities were rife with protest, racial rioting and civil disorder, a small group of educators redefined the enterprise, creating a living laboratory in the problems and promise of the American democracy. Drawing on the 'Great Books' of Western literature, the school made these classics relevant to the times and lives of its students, bringing sensitive issues of race, tolerance and personal identity to the fore. From Sophocles' "Antigone" to Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn," they searched together for that which eluded the nation--a working definition of "community"--the shared values that ground people and bind them together.

Four decades after leaving Yale, Larry Paros--former Director of the Yale Summer High School--traveled the country to interview more than two dozen of his fellow teachers, tutors and students about how they each experienced the Summer High School in 1968.

A compelling and deeply personal narrative of education and individual transformation, "Walk Right In" recreates the summer of '68 through first hand accounts, following students from their moment of selection and their arrival on campus to the culmination of the program and where they are today, reminding us of the importance of inclusive and effective education and the impact it has across generations.

STILL THE TRUTH

TO MY DARLING CHILDREN

The Writer

by Richard Wilbur

In her room at the prow of the house

Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,

My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing

From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys

Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff

Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:

I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,

As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.

A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,

And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor

Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling

Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;

How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;

And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,

We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature

Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove

To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,

For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits

Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,

Beating a smooth course for the right window

And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,

Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish

What I wished you before, but harder.

Richard Wilbur, “The Writer” from Collected Poems 1943-2004. Copyright © 2004 by Richard Wilbur. Reprinted with the permission of Harcourt, Inc. This material may not be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Source: Collected Poems, 1943-2004 (Harcourt, Inc., 2004).

VINDICATION AND VALIDATION

As I search for vindication and validation, I ponder the words of Mickey Rourke to Barbara Walters on the Oscar award:  "You can't eat it.  You can't fuck it.  And it won't get you into heaven."

 

YA GOTTA LOVE INGRID

Can anyone listen to and watch Ingrid Michaelson without smiling?

BLESS THE WHISTLEBLOWERS

W. Mark Felt, Watergate Deep Throat, Dies at 95
By Tim Weiner, The New York Times

"W. Mark Felt, who was the No. 2 official at the F.B.I. when he helped bring down President Richard M. Nixon by resisting the Watergate cover-up and becoming Deep Throat, the most famous anonymous source in American history, died Thursday. He was 95 and lived in Santa Rosa, Calif. ...

Mr. Felt played a dual role in the fall of Nixon. As a secret informant, he kept the story alive in the press. As associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, he fought the president’s efforts to obstruct the F.B.I.’s investigation of the Watergate break-in.

Without Mr. Felt, there might not have been a Watergate — shorthand for the revealed abuses of presidential powers in the Nixon White House, including illegal wiretapping, burglaries and money laundering. Americans might never have seen a president as a criminal conspirator, or reporters as cultural heroes, or anonymous sources like Mr. Felt as a necessary if undesired tool in the pursuit of truth."

'Deep Throat' Mark Felt Dies at 95 - Patricia Sullivan, The Washington Post
How Mark Felt Became 'Deep Throat' - Bob Woodward, The Washington Post

HARD LUCK AND HOPE

I want to thank staff reporter Cydney Gillis of Real Change newspaper in Seattle for her cover story featuring the 'Truth Sessions' multimedia storytelling project I co-authored with photographer Doug Vann, painter Keven Furiya and composer Andy Zadrozny.  The newspaper's mission is "to create opportunity and a voice for low-income people while taking action to end homelessness and poverty."

Photo: Doug Vann

UNCHECKED SOURCES

Well, the blogosphere and some of the mainstream media have been embarrassed again for publishing supposedly inside McCain campaign information from what turns out to be a hoaxster.  Read the story, 'A Senior Fellow at the Institute of Nonexistence', on The New York Times website.

YES WE CAN

"We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics who will only grow louder and more dissonant in the weeks to come. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we’ve been told that we’re not ready, or that we shouldn’t try, or that we can’t, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people.

Yes we can.

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom through the darkest of nights.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballot; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can."

- Barack Obama, January 8, 2008

TRUTH SESSIONS

We all have stories to tell.  We all need and want to be heard.  But many of us are invisible members of our own communities.  Because we may be poor, downtrodden, struggling with mental conditions or fighting addictions, our opinions and observations are largely ignored.

But our experiences and insights are valuable.  Like everyone, we're coping the best we can with the challenges of life.  This ongoing project is intended to give voice to those struggles.

'Truth Sessions' is a multimedia storytelling project by filmmaker David Guilbault, photographer Doug Vann, painter Keven Furiya and composer Andy Zadrozny.  The first session features ten people living in a low income apartment building across the street from the artist lofts where David, Doug, Keven and Andy live and work.

These ten interviews are the first in a series of sessions.  Our intention is to hear from a range of our neighbors from disparate cultural, economic, ethnic, ediucaltional, racial and spiritual backgrounds.  This is just the beginning of the conversation.  The stories continue.

FROM THE BOSS

Bruce Springsteen at a Vote for Change rally in Philadelphia:

"I've spent most of my creative life measuring the distance between that American promise and American reality. For many Americans, who are today losing their jobs, their homes, seeing their retirement funds disappear, who have no health care, or who have been abandoned in our inner cities, the distance between that promise and that reality has never been greater or more painful. I believe Senator Obama has taken the measure of that distance in his own life and in his work. I believe he understands, in his heart, the cost of that distance, in blood and suffering, in the lives of everyday Americans. I believe as president, he would work to restore that promise to so many of our fellow citizens who have justifiably lost faith in its meaning. ...

Our sacred house of dreams has been abused, looted, and left in a terrible state of disrepair. It needs care; it needs saving, it needs defending against those who would sell it down the river for power or a quick buck. It needs strong arms, hearts, and minds. It needs someone with Senator Obama's understanding, temperateness, deliberativeness, maturity, compassion, toughness, and faith, to help us rebuild our house once again. But most importantly, it needs us. You and me. To build that house with the generosity that is at the heart of the American spirit. A house that is truer and big enough to contain the hopes and dreams of all of our fellow citizens. That is where our future lies. We will rise or fall as a people by our ability to accomplish this task. Now I don't know about you, but I want that dream back, I want my America back, I want my country back."

 - Bruce Springsteen

FOUL CANDIDATE

In his recent stump speeches, John McCain is demonstrating a classic example of Freudian Projection, "A defense mechanism in which the individual attributes to other people impulses and traits that he himself has but cannot accept. It is especially likely to occur when the person lacks insight into his own impulses and traits."

Speaking in Albuquerque today, John McCain directly attacked Barack Obama's character.  McCain painted Obama as risky, touchy, secretive, dishonest, aloof, misleading, reckless and angry.  All of these are exactly the adjectives that describe McCain's fundamental personality.  It is, as I've said, classic psychological projection.

Larry Rohter, of The New York Times has a blog called 'Drilling Down on the Facts in McCain's Speech' that puts the lie to most of what McCain had to say about Obama.

Likewise, Sarah Palin, today and yesterday, has been out spreading untruths about Obama,  saying that Obama was 'palling around with terrorists'.  The New York Times also put the lie to that in their in-depth article exploring the relationship between Obama and Weather Underground founder, turned education professor, William Ayers.

"A review of records of the schools project and interviews with a dozen people who know both men, suggest that Mr. Obama, 47, has played down his contacts with Mr. Ayers, 63. But the two men do not appear to have been close. Nor has Mr. Obama ever expressed sympathy for the radical views and actions of Mr. Ayers, whom he has called “somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8.”

- Scott Shane, The New York Times

All of these attacks from the McCain campaign are of course coming as the voters' opinions of the two candidates are solidifying and the poll numbers between the gaining Obama and the declining McCain are widening.

Standing by salivating, already 'taking the gloves off', are all those Pavlovian Rovian attack dogs, like William Kristol, ready and willing to re-stir the Rev. Jeremiah Wright pot.

Hopefully, the thinking American electorate will see this dishonest guilt-by-association ruse for the slander it is.

It is now when we see the measure of the man. John McCain shows himself be a self-deluded, desperate, ambitious phony who will say and do anything to get elected, by hook or by crook.

The foul candidate that John McCain is describing, on the last legs of his lifelong ambition to be president, is himself.

Photo Credit:  Todd Heisler/The New York Times

BILL O'REILLY

I was a news producer at ABC News, mostly working on the evening news programs, for over 20 years. Working my way up from copy boy to producer, I worked on the newscasts anchored by Howard K. Smith, Harry Reasoner, Barbara Walters, Frank Reynolds, Max Robinson and Peter Jennings.

I was in network news during some of its best days, post Watergate, learning from and admiring true broadcast journalists.

Came a time, I produced news reports for 'World News Tonight with Peter Jennings'.  There, I had a reputation for being able to work with 'challenging' correspondents and was thought to have the ability to bring out their best.

One of the network's correspondents was Bill O'Reilly.  I was assigned as producer on several of his stories.  They were painful experiences.

Firstly, at that time, network news producers usually took the lead role in outlining a story and setting up its elements, in coordination with the correspondent and the senior producers.  For the few stories I produced with O'Reilly, he did most of the set up.  Not knowing him or his sources, that made me uncomfortable.  But, the stories were innocuous and I never suspected or detected any bias or dishonesty in his reporting.

However, I did find him to be the single most self-centered person I had ever worked with.  He literally talked about himself non-stop.  I spent hours and hours with him on the road and the conversation never strayed away from the topic of Bill O'Reilly.  He showed me that his was an ego of uncontrollable expansion.

He was always bemoaning that others were getting undeserved breaks.  Forrest Sawyer and Stone Philips were rising stars at ABC News when O'Reilly was there.  He kept saying you have to be an inanimate object, like a forest or a stone, to make it at the network.  His jealousy and underlying insecurity was always evident.  He hated those that he felt were less deserving than he.

He couldn't survive in an atmosphere where he was not the be-all and end-all.  So, he left the network for syndication anchor positions where he was the headliner.  Then, finally to FOX News where his transformation was complete.

I've watched Mr. O'Reilly, now, over the years, turn into a monster.  And I've always held my tongue.

But, watching his latest bullying attack on Barney Frank has pushed me to comment.

Bill O'Reilly has no business on the public airwaves.  He is belligerent and ignorant.  And I mean those adjectives in the most negative light.  He abuses the very air over which he is heard.   As Rep. Frank said in response to O'Reilly's shouting, 'Your stupidity gets in the way of rational discussion'.

There is nothing rational about the way O'Reilly conducts himself.  Because he is popular, on TV, radio, and in print, he gets away with his unconscionable tirades.  He is dangerously powerful and powerfully dangerous.

As he has no respect for intelligent discourse or common decency, he should be shown no respect in return and held in derision.  To mock his most recent self-aggrandizing book, he is 'A Bold Fresh Piece of Shit'.

LINCOLNIAN TRUTHS

Wise and relevant quotes from Abraham Lincoln, pertinent to the failings of today's journalism, the belligerence of the Bush administration, the greed of corporate America, the dangers of misgovernment and the cynicism of politics:

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to  tremble for the safety of my country; corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in High Places will follow, and the Money Power of the Country will  endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the People, until  the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed."

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people."

"Allow the president to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose - and you allow him to make war at pleasure."

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disentrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?"

"Let reverence for the laws, be breathed by every American mother, to the lisping babe, that prattles on her lap -- let it be taught in schools, in seminaries,  and in colleges; let it be written in Primers, spelling books, and in Almanacs;  -- let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and  enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave  and the gay, of all sexes and tongues, and colors and conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars."

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

Photo Credit:  Matthew Brady

BAD PEOPLE

Missive Twelve
To My Darling Children

Here's the truth, my darling children.  The differences between Democrats and Republicans are the differences between right and wrong.

It's pretty simple, really.  Republicans want little or no government.  And so, they have always done all they can to starve it to death, with massive tax breaks for the wealthy and taxpayer-funded giveaways to big business.  They can't stand that the federal government has taken any of their money.  So, they want it back.

You see, they want to be able to make money without interference, with no governmental regulations or restrictions.  They don't want to answer to anyone, particularly Washington, as they build their wealth.

In order for them to grow that wealth, they need to keep wages low and benefits meager.

The bottom line is that the bottom line is all that matters to them.  It's their money, and they will decide how they get it, how they keep it, and how they'll use it.

They are on a crusade to stop funding any and all social safety nets, like Social Security and Medicaid.  They are on a mission to bring an end to worker pension funds.

They don't care if American workers lose their livelihoods and, in some cases, their lives, as they send jobs overseas for a pittance.

The only thing that gets their unbridled funding is an all-powerful military-industrial complex.  That's so they can wield their muscle around the world, maintain their hold on power and protect their monied, corporate interests.

If you were privileged enough, or clever enough, or lucky enough, or educated enough, or connected enough or unscrupulous enough to become wealthy, then you are in their club.  And club members look out for one another.

If you were underprivileged, uneducated, poverty-stricken, discriminated against, born into a cycle of despair or just plain unlucky, then you are really not their problem.  You are on your own.  They feel they owe you nothing, except charity.

Forget that institutional racism, sexism and classism have always been alive and well in this country.  Forget that hard-working people across this nation struggle with low-paying jobs, inadequate education, dangerous working conditions, no health care, crippling debt, diminishing opportunities, mortgage foreclosures and no savings for the future.

Republicans accept those poor souls as the price of doing business.  Let the churches feed and cloth those ne'er-do-wells with hand-me-down Republican threads.

But, do NOT tax the Republicans to provide a working government with laws to protect a decent minimum wage, universal health coverage, earned retirement, a safe and sustainable environment, worker rights and safety, an equal public education system, discrimination-free housing or a fair justice system. 

Those are the right things that Democrats work to build and maintain.

I no longer accept the argument that both Republicans and Democrats are good people, just with differing policies on how to tackle the problems of the world.  Bullshit.  Republicans who are out for themselves and who are complicit in allowing the less fortunate to fend for themselves are bad people - period.

The 40 most party-loyal House Republicans, according to the Washington Post.

AND IT CAME TO PASS

On election night, 2004, I wrote the following email to my friends and family:

My fellow Americans,
We have doomed a great nation to its demise.
Bush's second term will be calamitous.
The treasury will be raided by the influential rich.
A towering national debt will be left to our progeny to fund corporate and defense build-up.
Corporate power will grow unchecked around the world.
Protections for our natural wildernesses will be abolished.
Our personal rights will be weakened.
Our privacy will be increasingly violated.
The invocation of gods against gods will cause devastating worldwide conflict.
Environmental regulation will be pushed-back, opening the landscape to be stripped of its resources for profit.
Social Security will be decimated under the dishonest guise of privatization.
Over-heated patriotic bravado will lead to more bloodshed.
Misunderstanding of the rest of the world will lead to continued hatred of the U.S.
American workers will increasingly lose whatever benefits they have left.
The right to dissent will be ridiculed and attacked.
The nation will become more bitterly divided.
Verbal bullies will dominate public discourse.
Critical questioning by the media, already mistrusted, will be stifled.
Opposition positions will be countered and quelled by personal attacks.
A Republican-controlled legislature will ram-rod its agenda into law.
The culture wars will poison civil, intelligent, political conversation.
The ability to see and understand nuance will be falsely mocked as vacillation.
Lies will be told boldly, loudly and repeatedly until they are wrongly accepted as truth.
Policy makers, who have little knowledge or regard for other cultures, will make blunderous decisions.
Undeterred terrorism will be bred around the globe.
Issues will be framed simplistically in black and white, right and wrong, good and evil.
More of our children will die for the wrong reasons.
We will all rue the day a jingoistic electorate gave carte blanche to the puppet masters Rove, Hughes, Cheney, Wolfkowitz, Rumsfeld, Frist and their corporate cronies.
I wish you and yours all the best.
David.
I despair for us all.

And, so, most came to pass. Please, please do NOT elect John McCain for four more years of the same.

HOPES AND DREAMS

On this date, August 28th, in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his conscience-raising 'I Have a Dream ' speech in Washington, D.C.  Tonight, on the anniversary of Dr. King's call for justice, Barack Obama will deliver another momentous address on hopes and dreams.

In 1963, Dr. King said, 'Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.'

Tonight, Sen. Obama has an opportunity to emblazon another moment, speaking as the first African-American nominee of a major party for President of the United States.  It is a long overdue triumph that should be shared by all Americans, regardless of political leanings.

As Barack Obama said in his thoughtful oration on race in Philadelphia earlier this year, 'In the end, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.'

Before we watch Obama's speech tonight, it would do us well to watch again the righteous words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., from 45 years ago.

JUST PLAIN STUPID

Let's live in the truth.  The truth is that too many people in this country are just plain stupid.  They are ill-informed and easily misled.  They buy into simplistic perversions of the facts.  They know too little, think too little and they listen to those that know how to influence their little minds.  They can be made to be fearful and hateful and, thus, politically useful.  They are dangerously ignorant - and they vote.

These are the people that Karl Rove and his ilk target to mobilize against progressive candidates.

This week, John McCain has played to these voters with two outrageously disgusting campaign ads against Obama.  One compares his celebrity to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and mocks his overseas trip, where he was greeted by throngs of enthusiastic foreign admirers.  A second uses Obama soundbites, distorted and taken out of context, to paint the man as messianic.

The McCain camp undoubtedly knows that these ads are puerile and unconscionable.  But, they also know that 'just plain stupid' people will eat them up.  Both obnoxious ads - Celeb' 'and 'The One' - are proudly displayed on the McCain website. 

The ads have been roundly criticized from most quarters for the mud that they are.  Yet, McCain and his handlers, knowing they can't possibly win the election on the strength of their candidate or the failed policies he represents, continue to try and paint their charismatic and visionary opponent as a demon, in hopes of getting those easily persuaded 'just plain stupid' people mobilized against him.

It's sad to watch this repulsive display of dirty politics and even more frightening to consider that it might likely work.

 

 

'CELEB' - McCain Campaign Ad

 

 

'THE ONE' - McCain Campaign Ad

 

 

'LOW ROAD' - Obama Campaign Ad

CITIZENS OF THE WORLD

'A World That Stands as One'

'I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

But I also know how much I love America. I know that for more than two centuries, we have strived – at great cost and great sacrifice – to form a more perfect union; to seek, with other nations, a more hopeful world. Our allegiance has never been to any particular tribe or kingdom – indeed, every language is spoken in our country; every culture has left its imprint on ours; every point of view is expressed in our public squares.

What has always united us – what has always driven our people; what drew my father to America’s shores – is a set of ideals that speak to aspirations shared by all people: that we can live free from fear and free from want; that we can speak our minds and assemble with whomever we choose and worship as we please.'

Barack Obama, Berlin, July 24, 2008

SEE NO EVIL ...

It saddens me greatly to hear the phrase, over and over, 'That's why I don't watch the news'.  As a life-long broadcast journalist it pains me to know that too many people have given up, for whatever reason, on following the events of the world.  Ignorance is not bliss.  The undeniable truth is that powers of ill-will thrive when citizens hide their heads in the sand.

TRUTH & RECONCILIATION

Missive Ten
To My Darling Children

This country has a shameful past, a past that too many Americans willingly or blindly ignore - the forced migration and genocide of Native Americans and the capture and enslavement of African-Americans.  These are hard facts, painful to accept, but necessary to recognize.

One cannot love one's country without admitting to its sins.

I think it is time for a government sponsored Truth and Reconciliation Commission to codify past injustices and officially apologize to the ancestors of those wronged by this country.

President Clinton took a step in that direction in 1997 when he apologized on behalf of the United States for the immoral Tuskegee Experiment that deliberately let 399 African-American men go untreated with syphilis.  Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and New Jersey have apologized for slavery. And the Congress apologized in 1988 for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

But, it is long past time for the nation to officially atone for its crimes.

There is some movement in the Congress this year to apologize for slavery.

And there is Joint Resolution H.J.RES.3 in Congress - 'To acknowledge a long history of official depredations and ill-conceived policies by the United States Government regarding Indian tribes and offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States.'

Of course, the argument against official apologies is the high cost of reparations.  I won't entertain the merits of that debate here.  Suffice it to say that wrongs should be remedied and justice should take its due course.  It is a cop-out to say, 'Well, it wasn't me' and sweep the dastardly governmental acts of those that came before us under the rug.

This government, like all governments, is capable of unthinkable acts against its citizenry and its enemies.  It is up to each and every member of society to stand guard against immoral acts taken in the name of the electorate by the ruling government.  That goes too for the waging of  immoral and illegal wars, and for the abolition or restriction of inherent human rights.

These outrages are not just historical artifacts. One only has to look at the sanctioned abuses at U.S. detention centers at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib to see that 'crimes against humanity' are alive and well.

Now, in America, we are witnessing the nascent, ill-informed and hateful intolerance against Muslims and those that practice the faith of Islam.

A sad truth is that many Americans can't distinguish between Sunnis and Shias and Arabs and Persians and Muslims and Islamists.  They don't know the differences between an ethnicity, a culture or a religion.  Too many are quick to suspect that those who are 'other' than themselves are 'islamofacists' or 'terrorists'.

And so, there is the so-called USA Patriot Act - 'To deter and punish terrorist acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement investigatory tools, and for other purposes' - which is being used by the Bush administration to circumvent protections in the Constitution against spying on Americans and to justify torture against anyone they designate an 'enemy combatant'.

Intolerance is rife in the land.  We must be diligent in admitting to the errors of our ways and guarding against their repetitions, especially under the imprimatur of our government.

Painting: 'Trail of Tears' by Robert Lindneux

STRAIGHT TALK DISTRESSED

Paul Krugman has a spot-on opinion piece in today's New York Times.  Again, and again, words in the political barrage are purposely misrepresented to tack a point or attack a foe.

Rove's Third Term

'Al Gore never claimed that he invented the Internet. Howard Dean didn’t scream. Hillary Clinton didn’t say she was staying in the race because Barack Obama might be assassinated. And Wesley Clark didn’t impugn John McCain’s military service. ...

The latest fake scandal fits the usual pattern as an awkwardly phrased remark, lifted out of context and willfully misinterpreted, exploded across the airwaves.

What General Clark actually said was that Mr. McCain’s war service, though heroic, didn’t necessarily constitute a qualification for the presidency.  It was a blunt but truthful remark, and not at all outrageous — especially given the fact that General Clark is himself a bona fide war hero.

Yet the Clark affair did reveal something important — not about General Clark, but about Mr. McCain. Now we know what a McCain administration would represent: namely, a third term for Karl Rove.'

Paul Krugman, The New York Times, July 4, 2008

I CAN'T TELL A LIE, PA

Today, from personal experience that I won't share here, I am once again reminded of the value and paucity of truth. And on a day when there are reports of finding the archeological remains of George Washington's boyhood home, I invite one and all to read The Fable of George Washington and the Cherry Tree, from 'The Life of Washington' by Mason Locke Weems, 1809.

MOYERS ON BIG OIL & IRAQ

As always, you can count on Bill Moyers to see through the lies and report on the underlying motives of the powers that be.  Watch and/or read his essay on Big Oil and Iraq.

Excerpts from Bill Moyers Journal

'Oh no, they told us, Iraq isn't a war about oil. That's cynical and simplistic, they said. It's about terror and al Qaeda and toppling a dictator and spreading democracy and protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction. But one by one, these concocted rationales went up in smoke, fire, and ashes. And now the bottom turns out to be the bottom line. It is about oil. ...

Take a look at this headline the other day in The New York Times: "deals with Iraq are set to bring oil giants back." Read on: "Four western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power. ...

There you have it. After a long exile Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and BP are back in Iraq. And on the wings of no-bid contracts - that's right, sweetheart deals like those granted Halliburton, KBR, Blackwater. The kind of deals you get only if you have friends in high places. And these war profiteers have friends in very high places.'

Bill Moyers, Bill Moyers Journal, June 27, 2008

SLIMY OIL (Update)

Missive Nine
To My Fellow Voters

The simple truth is that the oil companies want to extract every last drop of oil in the earth for short-term profit before alternative fuels make fossil fuels obsolete and unprofitable.  In its final throes, the Bush administration is doing all it can to scare the public into backing this grab for energy resources by their corporate sponsors, before Democrats come to power and develop common-sense energy policies and effective initiatives for energy independence.

Here is what the President is demanding:

President Bush Discusses Energy

'First, we should expand American oil production by increasing access to the Outer Continental Shelf, or OCS. Experts believe that the OCS could produce about 18 billion barrels of oil.

Second, we should expand oil production by tapping into the extraordinary potential of oil shale.

Third, we should expand American oil production by permitting exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR.

And finally, we need to expand and enhance our refining capacity ... So today I'm proposing measures to expedite the refinery permitting process.'

President George W. Bush, June 18, 2008

Hmm?  Where have we heard this before?  Can you say, oil executive?

Don't Blame Us for Prices - Oil Execs

'Amid increasing public outcry over record-shattering oil and gas prices, senators on Wednesday hauled industry executives in to testify about the recent runup.

The Senate Judiciary Committee called the hearing to explore the skyrocketing price of oil, which jumped over $4 a barrel to a new record of over $133. The committee grilled executives from Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips Co., Shell Oil Co., Chevron and BP as to how their companies can in good conscience make so much money, while American drivers pay so much at the pump ...

Lawmakers criticized the firms for not investing enough in finding new oil and developing renewable resources and told them, in thinly disguised terms, that they'd be forced to enact extra profit taxes if Big Oil continued to post such large earnings.

The oil men said they're making business decisions in the best interest of their shareholders. They repeated their often-stated position that the best way to lower prices and bring more oil to market is to open up wide swaths of the U.S. that are currently off-limits to drilling.'

Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com, May 21, 2008

This poor-mouthing by Big Oil, and the obvious attempt to grab up all the last reserves while they still can, comes as they make obscenely high record profits.

This is obviously an attempt at a massive give-away to ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Shell, BP and others.  Seems, under this plan we are switching our reliance on supplies from greedy foreign governments to dependance on greedy energy corporations.  Where is the independence in that?

UPDATE: July 6, 2008:
The Republican National Committee has gotten in lockstep with the oil companies and the Bush administration, and is praising McCain for calling for more oil production in the U.S.  They do it in a campaign ad attacking Obama's energy policy.  This drumbeat for opening more lands and reducing restrictions for oil drilling will continue unabated.  The Republicans owe their corporate benefactors and are dutifully doing what they are told by their sponsors.

Photo Credit:  Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times

DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGNS

Missive Seven
To My Fellow Voters:

FIGHT THE SMEARS

It would be naive to believe that this presidential election campaign won't be filled with outlandish lies meant to besmirch the good name and attack the candidacy of Barack Obama.  The Obama campaign has launched a Web campaign to counter those lies with the truth.  You can see their answers to the barrage of mistruths being amplified around the Internet and on cable talk programs at 'Fight the Smears'.

Fight the Smears

'What you won't hear from this campaign or this party is the kind of politics that uses religion as a wedge, and patriotism as a bludgeon - that sees our opponents not as competitors to challenge, but as enemies to demonize.  Because we may call ourselves Democrats and Republicans, but we are Americans first.  We are always Americans first.'

Barack Obama, June 3, 2008

FRANK LUNTZ

And speaking of disinformation campaigns, the premier manipulator of language for selfish, partisan ends is Frank Luntz and his associates.  Read one of his mission statements from their web site (emphasis is mine): 

Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research

'Our focus is on language. We believe that every word you use matters.  Luntz, Maslansky is known across the nation for how we reframe issues.  From changing the “estate tax” to the “death tax,” “tax cuts” to “tax relief,” “global warming” to “climate change” – time after time we have succeeded in changing the course of the debate.  By focusing on how to communicate your message, Luntz, Maslansky helps you reframe the issue using your side’s words and messages.  Our unique research methodology allows us to precisely gauge public opinion and develop the most effective approach and language to take control of the issue.  We know how to change hearts and minds and motivate people to act.

from Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research website

Their goal is to help 'virtually every major industry' to distort their message and mask their true agenda.  Another quote from their web site:

'In the political arena, our CEO, Dr. Frank Luntz, is known for helping change the public vocabulary – he transformed the "estate tax" into the "the death tax," moved the public debate from "school vouchers" to "opportunity scholarships," and re-cast "drilling for oil" as "exploring for energy."  ...  In the corporate arena, Luntz, Maslansky currently works for clients in virtually every major industry: pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, energy, health care, transportation, sports, entertainment, travel and tourism, shopping centers, grocery stores, restaurants, food, and beverages.'

If Frank Luntz is involved in a public campaign, you may assume the goal is to 'pull the wool over your eyes'.

Photo Credit:  Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images

TRUTH SESSIONS

‘Truth Sessions’ is a multi-media storytelling project by filmmaker David Guilbault, photographer Doug Vann, painter Keven Furiya and composer Andy Zadrozny . The first session features ten people living in a low-income apartment building in Seattle, across the street from the artist lofts where David, Doug, Keven & Andy live and work.

We all have stories to tell. We all need and want to be heard. But many of us are invisible members of our own communities. Because we may be poor, downtrodden, struggling with mental conditions or fighting addictions, our opinions and observations are largely ignored. But our experiences and insights are valuable. Like everyone, we’re coping the best we can with the challenges of life. This ongoing project is intended to give voice to those struggles.

GEORGE CARLIN: 1937-2008

What's to say in tribute?  There are so few people who really 'tell it like it is'.  George Carlin always did.

George Carlin, Irreverent Comedian, Dies at 71

'George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday. He was 71. The cause of death was heart failure ... Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist".'

Mel Watkins, New York Times, June 24, 2008

GEORGE CARLIN QUOTES

'By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.'

'Honesty may be the best policy, but it's important to remember that apparently, by elimination, dishonesty is the second-best policy.'

'Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.'

'I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.'

ON THE CORRUPTION OF LANGUAGE

SAY, WHAT?

What can be done when people willfully invent and spread mistruths to mislead and manipulate the electorate? Luckily, in the YouTube era, political claims can be challenged and either verified or corrected in short order.  Below, a running tally:

OBAMA CLAIMS McCAIN IS RUNNING FOR BUSH'S THIRD TERM

"According to Congressional Quarterly's Voting Studies, in 2007 McCain voted in line with the president's position 95 percent of the time – the highest percentage rate for McCain since Bush took office – and voted in line with his party 90 percent of the time. However, McCain's support of President Bush's position has been as low as 77 percent (in 2005), and his support for his party's position has been as low as 67 percent (2001)."

FactCheck.org, June 13, 2008

AGE OF ACCUSATION

Missive Two
To My Darling Children:

Today, in this country, you can destroy a man/woman  in the public forum by making a false accusation against that person which will be dutifully and woefully parroted by the press under the guise of ‘vetting’ someone’s character.  In fact, the media, now routinely, is complicit in repeated character assassination.

One’s words can be easily misquoted, misrepresented, distorted and denounced and broadcast in damning snippets around the world and across the Internet while the truth of one’s statements are buried under an avalanche of oft-repeated, intentionally amplified lies.

It is next to impossible to defend oneself against critical and destructive attacks when the accused has no platform where he or she can expect the intended audience to listen fully, carefully and open-mindedly.  The press snaps to attention and gleefully plays a full-throated game of ‘gotcha’.

Even when someone is able to mount a reasoned public defense, the chattering mob of bogus commentators pull phrases out of context and distort the true intent of the statement to service their own self-interest.

A case in point is the public pillory of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  For months his past words have been truncated, misquoted, distorted and purposely misrepresented.  He has been labeled as an anti-patriotic, hate-mongering racist.  In fact, he is a thoughtful, learned, passionate advocate for the downtrodden.

I watched the complete Bill Moyers interview with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, extended clips of the Reverend's 'controversial' sermons, and Rev. Wright's recent speeches to the NAACP and Washington Press Club.  He didn't say ONE thing that wasn't true.  He talked about governments, this one included, that have not always done the ‘right thing’ (my words, not his).  He drew our attention to the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of African-Americans, the internment of Japanese-Americans, and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed untold numbers of civilians.  He noted that America develops, manufactures and sells chemical weapons (weapons of mass destruction).  He lamented the subversion of ‘other’ cultures by the dominant White Anglo-Saxon power holders.  And he comically demonstrated that different cultures think and act differently – in their religious practices, anthropology and sociology.  All, reasoned and incontrovertible truths.

But, today, under political pressure, and after the press has demonized the man, Barack Obama has thrown his former pastor under the bus and backed up over him.

I'm saddened by the current turn of events and state of public discourse.  When the Rev. Wright was first condemned by the political Right, Obama gave a thoughtful speech in Philadelphia calling for a national conversation about race in America.  Instead of calm, deliberate dialogue between people of different skin color, religious beliefs or cultural practices, we continue to demean and suppress other people out of ignorance and a refusal to even hear or understand their opposing points of view.

Thoughtful dialogue is being drowned out by the loud barrage of the righteous mob.

Again, I plead to you, to seek out the truth.  Listen, learn, understand, question and then make up your mind.  When you find a person or opinion contrary to yours, don’t go on the attack, or even on the defensive.  Hear them out.  Understanding and respect are the ways to peace.  Know what you stand for and what you oppose.  But, more importantly, know why.

When you see or hear someone and their thoughts being so vociferously and unrelentingly attacked, ask why.  Investigate who is behind the assault. Whose interests are being jeopardized?  Whose position and power are being threatened? Who wants to drown out the voice and why?

And, finally, don't be afraid to listen to other voices.  Seek out all viewpoints.  Even if their language is incendiary, even if their ideas are challenging, even if their passionate expressions make you uncomfortable, they may be speaking the truth.

All my love,
Dad

Photo Credit: Getty

NEED TO KNOW

Missive One
To My Darling Children:

You live in a dangerous time.  It is not hyperbole when I say that I have not seen a more treacherous period in my life.  It is an era of deceit.  Powerful forces are skilled at manipulating and distorting information for their own greedy and malevolent ends.  Those people are in positions of control, around the globe, in the government, business and the media.  Their unchecked ability to initiate and control world events is frightening.  Their threat to your safety and liberty is real.

Your generation is being lulled with a flood of lies, masked by a deluge of misinformation.  It is very difficult, even for me, a professional observer, to filter through the obfuscation in order to find the truth.  There are battalions of liars skilled in herding the public to accept and embrace their selfish actions, unwittingly many times, by persuading listeners with purposely misleading arguments.

You two occupy the highest tiers of my love and concern.  I worry that you are not hearing or discerning the truths of your world.  There are things you ‘need to know’.   To that end, I am going to begin sending you missives that I feel will help you navigate your days and protect your futures.

I hope you will respect and embrace my wisdom.  I have lived an enlightening and adventurous life.  I have travelled extensively.  I have talked with people from all walks.  I have always listened with an open and analytical mind, a skeptical ear, an empathetic heart and with nuanced understanding of actions and motives.

As a journalist and adventurer, I have been blessed with extraordinary opportunities to satisfy my unending curiosity.  I have seen things and been places.  I have climbed on glaciers, watched whales breach the surface of seas,  witnessed the thundering launch of space shuttles, gazed awestruck at herds of elephants crossing the savannah, been at the site of a nuclear power plant accident, travelled on political campaigns with presidential candidates, walked down streets of poverty and decay, been moved by emotionally charged religious services, dined with a Vice President and a black-separatist minister, confronted a dangerous white separatist, helped start nascent cable and Internet news organizations.  I have heard and told the stories of countless characters from incredibly diverse backgrounds, who have revealed volumes about life – the good, the bad, the evil, the beautiful and the sublime.

All that is to say, that you would disregard my insights at your peril.  I expect the both of you to make your own judgments in life.  But to do so without knowing the truth behind your decisions would also be at your peril.  Please listen to all that is around you.  Ask questions, question authority.  But, most importantly, seek out the truth.  It will not come to you on its own, especially in the current climate of deception.  You are responsible for what you truly know to be true.

Know where you stand and why you stand there.  And when you take a stand, I expect you to be kind, understanding, generous and loving in your criticisms.  Don’t ever hold your ground for its own sake.  Know when to compromise, when to hold fast, when to relent and when to accept defeat.  And certainly, know how to be right graciously, not triumphantly.

I love you both more than you might ever know.  I will do everything in my power not to misguide you, knowingly by personal motive, or unknowingly by flawed personality.  But, do know that my insights have been powerfully accurate through my life.  Digest them, ponder them, reject or accept them.  I implore you, seriously consider them.

Life is spectacular.  Live it fully.  Love courageously.  Fight righteously.  Listen with compassion.  Be passionate.  Use your talents.  Travel curiously.  Embrace foreign ideas and cultures open-mindedly.  Be just.  Be kind.  Be you.

So, having said all that, you need to know that the implications of the Iraq War are having a tragic effect on your future and freedom.  The invasion of Iraq was an opportunistic outrage, unjustly launched by the neo-cons in the Bush administration who are beholding to powerful corporate interests.  It is not about freedom and democracy, it is about the wielding of political power over a region rich in oil resources.  The tax treasure and military might of the United States have been stolen by a cabal of determined power-holders to remake the world in their own interests.

To enlighten that point, please watch the Frontline documentary called “Bush’s War”.  Frontline is a stellar series of PBS programs produced by credible, conscientious journalists seeking the truth.  They have been reporting on the war for five years, conducting hundreds of candid interviews with the actual players in the government and other reporters with unique access and insight.  They have compiled it all into an enlightening report.  You can watch it online, in short chapters.

This war is far from over.  Forces are at work to keep it going and to expand it across the region.  True motives are still being masked with intentionally misleading phrases from the Bush government and the McCain campaign that it is about “freedom and democracy”.  It is not.  It is about greed and power.  Please, please, arm yourself with the information in “Bush’s War”.

This election is the most critical in my lifetime.  I will write more about it in subsequent missives.  But, for now, don’t be deluded that this war is not profoundly driving the geopolitical world in which you live.  You must take an interest.  Your lives are at stake.

I love you,
Dad