The King and his Men have historically ruled the earth. This concept is ingrained in us from birth by society and even entertainment such as "Father Knows Best". Present practice, the president and his cabinet rule US.

Democracy? Where? Developing some feeble bottom up concept where the people protest, file petitions and contact representatives all to have the Congress denounce free speech such as Move On's rightful confrontation of General Petraeus's faulty report on Iraq? Many Generals and indeed Petraeus boss disagreed with the report. Move On has always supported the Troops, seeking for them to have reasonable time off before being sent back to war, and seeking better health care and support upon returning home. Move On see's the futile effort of continuing when Iraq is in Civil war, not able to govern itself.

It is the King and his Men ruling these United States which is archaic and wrong.

We people must take a stand and demand our United States become a democracy with the people governing, not the King and his Men.

First, we must petition the government with vast numbers and what ever action it takes to accomplish gaining Initiative and Binding Referendum. We can begin a National Assembly right now to develop long range plans for this Nation dealing with health, education, welfare, foreign relations and yes the environment. It is we people who must make these plans not a political party shoving their ideas down our throats like the Republicans did with PNAC.

We are gifted with the Internet, extensive computer programs which can assist so every citizen of this Nation can have a say and present Initiative's to the Assembly for consideration. The Initiatives with the most endorsers will be put on Referendum first, at the same time as annual elections. We the people will decide what is best for our United States.

The time is Now. Bruce

Bruce Eggum
Gresham Wisconsin, USA
http://www.doinggovernment.com/
Check out my Blog too
http://bruceeggum.blogster.com/

Originally published 2/8/07 in Blogger

A news item this week lamented the fact that as many as 800 civilian employees of Pentagon subcontractors have been killed in Iraq, and as many as 3,300 wounded doing their jobs without getting "the kind of publicity or respect a soldier would."

The writer of the article missed the reality of the situation. It's normal and easy to respect and feel sadness for soldiers wounded or killed fighting to protect the nation. But these other people have voluntarily placed themselves in danger of incapacitation or death in exchange for sums of money larger than soldiers are making for doing a more hazardous job.

These civilians are doing the support functions such as cookng meals, doing laundry, guarding prisoners and standing sentry, all support services the Army can no longer provide, because it is no longer a volunteer army and most young Americans are too smart to jeopardize their lives in unwarranted and unnecessary wars. So the military is shorthanded.

These are civilian employees of companies like Wackenhut, Blackwater, and Halliburton, which make humongous profits from the war―much of it proven to be from immorally excessive overpricing As individuals who also profit from the war, these people have absolutely no claim to the same respect American soldiers receive from the American public.

Morevover, if our military leaders knew they didn’t have the manpower to support an aggressive invasion of another country, why did they initiate the venture? And why did the men and women of Congress give them permission?

Originally published 1/14/07 in Blogger

There was an interesting article in my local newspaper this week by Nat Hentoff
under the heading of "War Crime Trials," and a subheading "Proceedings leave
detainees with no voice, no hope." The article concerned the Pentagon plan to
hold war crime trials this year for dozens of prisoners at Cuba's Guantanamo
military base.

The article went on to tell how Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont,
chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee will cointroduce a bill with
Republican Senator Arlen Specter, former chairman of the committee to change
last year's Military Commission Act: an act that removed the habeas-corpus
rights of Guantanamo prisoners to petition our federal courts on the lawfulness
of their detention, and the conditions of their confinement.

Ex-Defense Secretary Rumsfeld claimed most of the detainees are "the best
trained, most vicious killers on the face of the Earth." But, two "extensively
documented reports" from New Jersey's Seton Hall Law School, based
entirely on Defense Department data" gave many examples of how flawed
are such claims, and how unfounded many of the Administration's charges.

The article gave specific examples of the unfair and tyrannical treatment
given the prisoners in the years they have been contained. It ended by saying,
"Congress needs to fix a lot more, including the National Security Agency's
lawless, warrantless spying on Americans, and the CIA's renditions of suspects
to be tortured in other countries...authorized by the president--although outside
all American and International laws." (Italics are mine.)

I don't know how many of the Guantanamo detainees are truly dangerous terrorists.
But, based upon the lies and deceit of the American president and his
Administration, I would bet very few. Based upon these actions, if I
had the power, I would be among the first to bring charges before the
International War Crimes Court against the president and his advisors as proven
terrorists, who truly deserve to be tried for their crimes against humanity. The
deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people demand it.

I would also like to advise the American people, that unless they voluntarily turn all
of these arrogant men and women over to the War Crimes Court for their crimes
soon, the world will never believe they didn't condone the actions of these
despicable people.

Originally published 11-22-06

Some Americans believe the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq happened because the Bush Administration is comprised of oilmen who, from the start, have been obsessed with grasping control of the oil resources of these two countries for their American corporations. Some believe the Bush Administration, being comprised of wealthy and influential people, is conducting class warfare against the nation’s working citizens. Others believe the men and women of the Administration have made colossal blunders; that they are honorable, but very incompetent people who have misinterpreted the information given them by the FBI and the CIA.

These are three different opinions, and an opinion is a mental conclusion formed after the brain has received information and contemplates its various possible meanings. But, the conclusion, or the opinion, is valid only if the brain has received full and truthful information.

The problem with the three opinions above is that they are formed by incomplete information, partial truths, and many lies. It’s why the first and second opinions are only partially correct and the third totally wrong.

To help you to form a more accurate opinion of Mr. Bush and the people he brought into the White House to aid him accomplish his goals while president, it is necessary to look at the record for his first six years in office. How has Mr. Bush and his Administration fulfilled the responsibilities and obligations he swore to uphold when the office of the President of the United States? How have these people nurtured the welfare of the American people and the nation? How have theysecured the principles of democracy and the security of the American people?

First: Look at the facts involving 9/11.

Records show Bush had been notified in August, the month before the twin tower horror, of an Al Queda threat to U.S. targets, and also that U.S. spy agencies had discovered Muslims were being trained in the U.S. for suicide flights against U.S. targets. This truth was revealed to the American people by CBS in May of 2002, and subsequently verified by other reliable sources. Yet Mr. Bush denies having been given knowledge of such activities and little, if any, precautions were taken by U.S. military and police forces to prevent such a catastrophe.

After 9/11, the Republican Administration immediately accused Osama bin Laden and the Afghanistani Taliban rulers of the horror, and insisted upon the invasion of Afghanistan. This despite the truth bin Laden was a Saudi Arabian not an Afghanistani, the men piloting those three planes were from Saudi Arabia, and the Bush family had a long and close relationship with the royal Saudi bin Laden family. Knowing this, is it really so strange, in our mercenary world that Osama bin Laden has not yet been captured or killed, despite the enormous $1,000,000 reward placed on his head, and that his capture has disappeared from Administration priorities, and he has disappeared from the American public’s attention?

In addition, as soon as American troops occupied Afghanistan, American oilmen began the construction of a pipeline through the country: a pipeline presumably essential to U.S. security, which the Taliban had previously refused permission to build: a pipeline whose existence the Congress of a previous Administration had been told depended upon removal of the Taliban from power.

Second: the Administration is deliberately dismantling democracy
in the U.S., and weakening the nation’s infrastructure.

After 9/11, the Administration’s passed the so-called "Patriots Bill" that removed civil many long held liberties from the American people. Hundreds of Muslims, and some Americans, were arrested upon suspicion of being terrorists. Without any evidence of guilt they were whisked away to prisons and held incommunicado from their families for weeks, months, and years without charges made against them, and without benefit of legal counsel. To gain information, some of these people were moved to foreign nations tha were friendly to the Administration, or to locations where the CIA had secret bases. Some of them were tortured, beaten, and humiliated. All with pemission, or request, of the Bush Administration.

Dissent in the U.S. is being squelched. When the president appears in public, armed troops force peaceful protesters into so-called “Free Speech Zones, away from the president and view of the media. Americans wearing, often brutally beating them. T-shirts bearing anti-Bush, anti-war, or anti-Republican slogans are also banned from media view. Local Police have begun questioning peaceful protesters about their personal–and private–political views.

Open government, the hallmark of democracy, has been replaced by a policy of subversive secrecy. Flying the banner of “national security” the Administration denies requests made under the Freedom of Information Act, or releases the documents only after heavy censure. It has authorized the closure of some government websites. More ominous is the Administration’s attempt to contain all government news by making leaks of “classified “ information a federal crime. Alarmingly the Administration ordered the FBI to polygraph all members of Congress, but to their credit, alll refused to comply with the demand.

Spying upon Americans has become a national policy. Government spy agencies cull through millions of internet email and telephone messages of innocent, patriotic Americans in an attempt to discover, possible, subversive or terrorist activities.

The Administration has knowingly neglected maintenance of the nation’s roads, sewer lines, bridges, public buildings, parks, schools and mass transportation by drastically reducing federal investment in the public welfare. In some instances, the condition of these public possesions is as bad as in third countries.

Third: the Administration is the most openly fascist government
the American people have ever tolerated.

Many Americans haven’t the slightest idea what fascism is. A simple explanation is that fascists believe a government should function on behalf of the wealthy citizens who own the country (large landowners and owners of big or giant corporations). Fascists believe the government should encourage large families to create a large labor pool to work their factories and big armies to fight their wars. They condemn labor unions, and believe government should program common workers to be obedient and subservient to both employers and government. (Early in the 20th century, the original American Boy Scout oath required members to be obedient and loyal to employers also). Benito Mussolini, ruler of Italy, accomplice of Adolph Hitler, and generally credited with creating the first fascist government, claimed the concept was wrongly named, that it shouldn’t have been named “fascism”, but “corporatism.” Today, we Americans should know all about corporatism.

The Bush Administration has passed laws drastically reducing taxes for the rich, throwing more of the burden of government upon those who can afford it least. In addition, it has passed laws making it still easier for corporations to utilize offshore tax havens and avoid taxes, and easier for corporations to close domestic factories and relocate overseas where they find cheaper labor. In addition the Administration has made it easier for corporations to outsource American jobs to foreign countries. In a most outrageous decision the men of the Administration ever made, and one rejected by Congress, it tried to outsource management of six U.S. ports to a state-owned, Saudi company.

The Administration’s most dangerous decision has been to outsource support functions of the U.S. military, which now depends upon giant conglomerates—and the smaller subconractors it employs to do the job. The military no longer controls its sources for food, mail, communications, medical services, electricity, or construction of bridges and roads. Nor does it control the maintenance of its tanks, aircraft, warships and supporting military vehicles. These functions also have been privatized. But when a private corporation provides substandard work—which they all do—it cannot be punished, as a negligent soldier can. So the lives of our brave boys and girls armies serving in Afghanistan and Iraq are entirely at the mercy of greedy American businessmen.

Fourth: the Administration is anti-working citizen.

Since assuming the powers of government, the Administration has used the National Labor Relations Board with a viciousness not seen since passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 to remove the rights of working Americans.

Not only has it restricted the rights of temporary workers, the disabled, and student employees to unionize and use the process of collective bargaining, but it has also excluded about 8 million “minor supervisory employees” who were previously allowed these rights: workers, who although they might be technicians or professionals, and not factory workers, still earn only an hourly wage and still need protection from greedy, uncaring employers.

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 makes filing for bankruptcy difficult for ordinary workers, but protects the assets of wealthy filers. The Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 makes collective class action suits more difficult to initiate.

With more than 40 million Americans unable to afford insurance, the Republican Administration has tried to privatize healthcare. It has also tried to privatize social security, initiated by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Democrat Administration 70 years ago, in an attempt to protect working Americans from callous and ruthless factory owners.

Fifth: members of the Administration are dangerous warmongers.

They have appropriated funds to develop new nuclear weapons and conduct nuclear tests, arrogantly stating to the world that it still considers the use of nuclear warfare, despite the voluntary freeze on nuclear testing initiated in 1992 by Mr. Bush’s father when he was president.

Like WWII Nazi leaders, they support the torture and humiliation of prisoners without legally accusing them of crimes or determining their guilt. The Military Commissions Act allows Mr. Bush to legally declare anyone an “unlawful enemy combatant.” This means anyone who donates money or is a member of an organization, which he disapproves, can be accused of being an unlawful enemy combatant.

They have authorized the creation of weapons to be used as tools to torture prisoners or to deter protesting marchers. One is called the Active Denial System (ADS). This weapon uses a 95-gigahertz microwave beam, and causes an unbearable burning sensation on the skin. It is designed to make "confessions" easier to obtain from prisoners, or to force political protesters away from a "forbidden" event. A second weapon is called Pulsed Energy Projectiles (PEPs). This weapon can emit a laser pulse up to one mile, hitting a target with a burning impact. Neither weapon marks, or leaves a trace on the victim. There is no proof of torture or harrasment.

They have authorized the creation of a new space policy that rejects future arms control agreements and access to space to any country deemed anti-American.

But, most dangerous of all, they have deliberately introduced into the U.S. government––religion, humanity's most conflict-generating threat to peace. This, despite knowing the strength and longevity of the republic for more than two hundred years has, in large part, been due to the absence of religious controversy. They have used taxpayer funds to place religious dogma into public schools and under the umbrella of ' “faith-based initiatives", they taken funds from public programs to support religious organizations. They have created the very first federal ban on abortion, and have taken a stand to refuse equal civil rights to gays and lesbians, whose lifestyles are both rejected by organized religions and their members. These are religious issues, and not the business of government.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conclusions
After reviewing the information above, it’s obvious the men holding the power of the White House, are neither bumbling idiots, nor honest patriots concerned with the wlfare of the nation or the American people. Nor are they men who simply have erred in judgment. These people have always known precisely what they are doing. Yes, currently the men of the Administration are of the oil industry, but it would be wrong—and dangerous—to believe the superficial appearance implying they care solely for the oil industry's welfare. The causes for the shift toward fascism and totalitarianism in the U.S. run deeper and are more ingrained within our social system, for it's obvious the Administration's past policies have been designed to thwart democacy and build empire for a mionority of Americans.

These people knew what they intended to do long before they took control of the White House. It’s why they stole the 2000 election: it was essential the Republicans be in control of the government when the twin towers were destroyed, for it gave their accusations against Osama bin Laden authority, despite not a shred of concrete evidence he had been the culprit. It also gave them the power to invade Afghanistan, drive the Taliban from power, and invade Iraq.

The families and groups that control the federal government and many state governments are the same kind of men who have ruled human societies from the beginnings of time. They are arrogant, extremely selfish, and totally disdainful of the intelligence and capabilities of the less educated common people who serve in their homes, work in their factories, and fight their wars.

It’s why so comparatively few people own or control the natural and productive resources of the U.S., and why American “employers” refuse to give a fairer share of company profits to the workers who actually produce these profits. It’s why men of the Administration have callously sent innocent, young American boys and girls to kill and to die in Afghanistan and Iraq, and are planning to send them into Iran.

It’s why the last two Republican Administrations have drastically reduced taxes for the nation’s wealthiest families and their corporations, made it easier for them to establish offshore tax shelters and pay even fewer taxes. It’s why they have allowed corporations to relocate production facilities overseas to take advantage of non-American, non-union, cheaper, foreign labor, despite throwing millions of Americans out of work and into the unemployment lines, or into jobs that pay less and offer fewer benefits. It’s why corporate executives are allowed to loot corporate coffers and worker pensions. It’s why the political and corporate worlds have been allowed to jointly loot the U.S. Treasury, and why the federal government faces bankruptcy and can continues to function only by borrowing money from foreign nations.

These are not the results of the nation's wisest citizens concerned with the welfare of their country and its people. Nor does the behavior—and apparent thinking—of the nation's highest officers reflect those of patriotic Americans. No! It’s more like the behavior of a group of fanatics who are determined to destroy their enemies. And, indeed, that is exactly what it is: a one-sided class war conducted by wealthy Americans against ordinary, working citizens of the U.S. It's their attempt to destroy whatever chance true democracy might have to evolve in the U.S.

A bit of trivia: at the beginning of the twentieth century the majority of the American population lived and worked on farms. Family members worked outdoors, where it is natural, and healthy, for animals to be—and that includes human animals. Only some farmwomen and children worked in factories to help the family survive. Today, one hundred years later it has become essential to survival that both adults in the millions of families work, leaving the children unattended, without parental supervision, susceptible to all sorts of negative influences. Employment, today, is normally confined to a small box of a room for most of the day, and normally involves meaningless or trivial work. Millions of employees, who are restricted to the box, function little different than prisoners in a confined cell.

So, although we Americans of the 21st century posess many more conveniences and luxuries than working citizens did at the beginning of the last century, how much progress has the working American really made since then? Which of the two groups lived a healthier, meaningful, and probably, happier life?

Originally published 10-20-06 in Blogger

This morning’s paper contained an article by Sanford Levinson, law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. The article was headlined “Constitution is Broken,” and all of the author’s gripes about our political system are valid. I could find no argument.

However, I must disagree with the notion that the Constitution is broken. Quite the contrary, it is working even more efficiently than its creators hoped it would.

Common Americans had endured great hardships in the fight to free the colonies from England and expected to enjoy the fruits of their effort. They expected a voice in the new scheme of things with the establishment of a popular form of government. Their expectations, however, were unreasonable, for why should privileged Americans establish the new republic as a political democracy, when a true democracy responds to the majority of its citizens, and the American privileged of 1787, like the privileged of all past and present cultures comprised the minority. These men understood democracy was a threat to their wealth, their wealth-making opportunities, and the very existence of their economic class.

The colonial delegates who met in May of 1787 at the State House in Philadelphia were among the wealthiest, most influential men in the thirteen colonies. Farmers and craftsmen were conspicuous by their absence, but the truth is that the meeting was held in the strictest of secrecy and few American commoners knew of its existence. It is also undeniable that most, if not all, of those delegates feared the concept of democracy and political control by the common masses. This truth has been recorded in the pages of history.

So, other than an ignorance of American history, why would contemporary American believe the Constituion of the United States created a true democracy? It didn't! What those delegates produced with their superior education, their greater knowledge of human nature, and their superb command of the English language was a document that offered the illusion of democratic government: its words implied democracy, but it delivered only anti-democracy.

The two-tiered government, we're taught, is the result of compromise: the Senate satisfies the needs of smaller states for equal representation, and the House of Representatives the need of larger states for representation by population. It's pure camouflage that gave political advantage to the privleged class. Although a few states allowed commoners to participate in the selection of senators, most required state legislators---men of privilege---to do the selecting. Also, as the document was ratified, the people were not allowed to advise their senators how to vote on issues, privileged men of state legislatures retained that privilege.

Elections were staggered for the Senate, one third of the seats every two years. This, we're told, assures continuous leadership. Leadership of the privileged. The true reason is staggered elections make it difficult for commoners to win control of the Senate. The delegates knew commoners might turn out in numbers to vote on highly emotional issues and win Senate seats in states they controlled. But they also knew passionate causes have short lives, that to win control of the Senate commoners must sustain an effort of four and possibly six years: a prolonged effort which they believed the common masses incapable.

In addition, although the Constitution gave the House of Representatives power to create tax legislation, to temper taxation of their weaalth, privileged men of the Seanate were given amendment powers over House bills.

To ensure control of their new central government, the delegates created the Electoral College. Delegates to the college had the "privilege" of electing the President and Vice-President of the United States. In most states the privileged men of state legislatures--and not the electorate--chose college delegates.

Even the method of railroading the ratification of their new constituiton by special state conventions, and not by colonial legislatures as the existing Articles of Confederation demanded ,was a desparate and illegal act.

The bottom line is that the Constitution of the United States was designed by men of the privileged class to keep control of the new government away from the common people. Can anyone who knows even a little of this nation's history, and the perpetual control of government by the privileged class to the detriment of common working Americans, truly claim that the Constitution is broken?

If you want to know how a true democracy should work and some of the benefits it would provide to its common citizens, visit the website www.voicesfordd.com/book3.html and read about a fictional democracy called “America.”

Originally published 9-27-06 in Blogger

This Plea for Direct Democracy originally was to have been structured around the theme of equal rights for women, for female equality with males in the U.S. can never become a reality for you. Not in your lifetime. Not while you live in a hierarchical society governed by a Constitution written by privileged, white males to favor privileged, white males. I make this claim as a seventy-seven year old white male who knows American history a bit more than most Americans.

But the need for a changing the U.S. political system has suddenly become more urgent than mere equality among the sexes, races, and religions. Our most knowledgeable scientists have claimed, if human pollution of the atmosphere is not substantially reduced immediately, global warming will reach a point of no return within ten years and the threat to all Earth life will become a bitter reality. Since that warning these scientists have made a distressing discovery. Global warming is melting the permafrost (soil that is permanently frozen, such as in the Arctic and Antarctic), and not only releasing into the atmosphere carbon monoxide trapped within, but also methane gas that has been trapped in the frozen soil for thousands of years. Methane, they say, is even more efficient than carbon dioxide in trapping heat inside the Earth's atmosphere. It means as global warming quickens the melting of permafrost and increases the release of methane gas, the point of no return will happen sooner than originally predicted.

Humanity's survival is now dependent upon drastic changes in human behavior, which can happen in the U.S only by removing political power from greedy, private interests that control our political system, and by changing the system to one in which individuals and private groups cannot grasp control. The only political system with the potential to do that, and the only one possessing the potential to create a fairer more equitable world in which females are truly equal and truly free, because it is the only true democracy, is participatory democracy--also called direct democracy. DD is the political system deliberately rejected by the creators of our Constitution; the system dissatisfied Americans of the Peoples Party of 1892 and 1896 intended to install in this country, should they have won an election; the political system suggested by the angry young Americans, frustrated by the inequities of the U.S., who wrote the Port Huron Manifesto of 1962, a document all Americans should read. DD is also the political system feared most by elites of every culture, past and present.

However, there is much uncertainty and fear of DD within current American generations, because of ignorance and misinformation. I would like to dispel this ignorance once and for all time. I have envisioned a fictional, DD, the way it works, some of the benefits it provides its ordinary working citizens, and a plan for creating it in the U.S. Although it is merely one man's vision, it is a realistic vision based upon Professor Peter Dienel's Planning Cells that have been used successfully throughout Europe since 1970 and, which have proved, beyond any reasonable doubt, that common, uneducated citizens, given full information upon which to make decisions, can make them as well, or better, than their opportunistic political representatives. I call this theoretical society, "America."

Our economic rulers and their political puppets have proven they will make no changes infringing upon their profits or power. Are you going to passively sit and watch the possible horrors and hardships inflicted upon your loved ones by global warming and unnecessary wars when you and all other common, ordinary American women, together, hold the power to change such a future? I beseech you as an intelligent person to read about fictional "America" on the website http://www.voicesfordirectdemocracy.com/dd-page.html, and understand, once and for all, there is an alternative for a better and fairer society. There is hope for a peaceful and safer world, a world that our elite rulers don't want, for such a world would deprive them of being an elite. Then, when you fully understand the promise of DD, forward this email to your relatives, friends and members of your women's organizations.



P.S.
A candidate for the presidency in 2008 who understands the dire need for change has magically appeared. Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska. (http://mikegravel.us/about.htm) advocates a National Initiative Amendment to the Constitution that will give ordinary Americans the power to participate in government policy-making. This would be a giant step forward. However, such an amendment is merely a patch job on a constitution designed to keep political power from the people, and will not provide the necessary crucial immediate action. Email Gravel at info@gravel2008.us and tell him you will vote for him, if he promises to advocate changing our representative to a true democracy, as a U.S. possessing a such a political system is the surest and quickest way to stop humanity's rush toward an unimaginable and nasty future.

Originally published 9/17/06 in Blogger

The editorial in this morning's newspaper focused on a 2004 federal law, which dictates every school and college receiving federal funds must teach about the Constitution on or about the 17th of September (the day in 1787 the document was passed for ratification by delegates to the Constitutional Convention). The editorial denounced the intrusion of the federal government into education, claiming local schools already do that well enough: a highly debatable statement, as so few Americans know American history.

I, for one, hope that schools are pressured to teach about the Constitution, but not in the sterile, one-sided way it was taught to me in high school many years ago. I would like teachers and professors to highlight the fact that only wealthy, "privileged," white males attended the Constitutional Convention while few of the common farmers, craftspeople, and workers even knew about the meeting, and none were invited to attend. I would like students to know many of those privileged delegates are on record that they feared the uneducated, emotional masses, believed a stable society was possible only if these "commoners" were kept under control, and dreaded the thought of true democracy, which is a political system demanding the participation of, and promising political equality to, commoners. I would like students to be made aware of the truth that although our hallowed Constitution does not appear to be prejudiced against any group or class of people, it is highly biased toward rich, influential, white males.

Creating a bicameral Congress gave advantage to privileged senators and their peers, for although a few states allowed commoners to participate in the selection of senators, most required senators to be chosen by the men of state legislatures--privileged, white men. Also, as demanded by the delegates to the convention, commoners were denied the privilege of advising their senators how to vote; privileged males of sate legislatures retained that privilege.

Elections for the Senate are staggered, one third of the seats every two years. We, commoners are taught in public school this assures continuity of leadership, and indeed it does: leadership of the wealthy. The delegates knew commoners would turn out in numbers on highly emotional issues and win Senate seats in states they controlled. But they also knew passionate causes have short lives and believed the ignorant masses unable to sustain a prolonged effort of four, and possibly six, years: a belief verified often during the past two centuries.

The new Constitution gave the House of Representatives the power to create tax legislation, but to temper taxation of their wealth, privileged men of the Senate held amendment powers over House bills.

As originally passed, commoners were automatically excluded from serving in the judicial branch of government, as only men with legal experience were chosen to serve on the bench and few, if any, commoners were lawyers. But, to absolutely guarantee control of the new central government, the delegates created the "Electoral College." Delegates to the college originally held the privilege of electing the President and Vice-President of the United States. In most of the thirteen states the privileged men of state legislatures held the privilege of choosing college delegates.

In 1787, the Articles of Confederation was the official Constitution of the thirteen colonies and it required colonial legislatures to amend or change it. The delegates, however, demanded ratification of their proposed, new constitution by special colonial conventions, and not the official legislatures. This was ultimately done. It may have been illegal, but it was brilliant strategy. It eliminated the awkwardness--and uncertain results--of state politicians having to relinquish some of their own powers to a central authority, and because a special convention ceases to exist once it is adjourned, it eliminated the possibility of a legislator changing his vote in a future meeting of the legislature.

In essence, the Constitution was foisted upon the colonists without the knowledge or approval of common Americans. It is the document, and the two-part Congress the device, which has allowed privileged white men to keep control of government for more than two hundred years. They are the reasons the economic gap between privileged and common Americans have never been breached, but continue to widen.

The easiest way to change the destructive consequences produced by this biased political system is to transform our pseudo-representative democracy into a direct democracy, which is the only true democracy, for it is a political system holding the potential to curb the greed and power abuse of individuals and groups, and to create a truly free and just society.

Originally published 9-08-06

Today, the shrill calls for harsh laws, steep fines, and tall walls across the Mexican-American border to stop the growing flow of Hispanic immigrants into the U.S. is an echo of past times: times when Americans did many foolish and terrible things that remain as stains upon our history. I shudder when I hear or read the voices of the hatred, which warn us of the dangers of our Hispanic "immigration problem." The fear and hatred of American anti-immigrationists have always run deep.

This syndrome is called, "Nativism," defined as an excessive reactionary movement of native born citizens against new immigrants to their country, who are different. Basically, nativism pops up in the U.S. during periods of economic instability and increased competition for jobs. It is a viewpoint claiming that people with religions, races, cultures, and languages different than the original immigrants to this country, who had come from England and northwestern Europe are dangerous to the American "way of life." It is a fear of an non-white majority eventually ruling the nation. We, Americans, have been here, in this situation many times.

During 1830-1850, the immigration of Irish Catholics fleeing the famine in their homeland, caused an increase in competition for jobs and housing and frightened American Anglo-Saxon, Christian Protestants, who believed this country was theirs alone, to the exclusion of all others who differed from them. Their fears were fueled by the explosion of Anti-Catholic publications describing presumed Roman Catholic crimes and conspiracies to conquer the U.S. Consequently, in Boston, a Catholic convent was burned, and in Philadelphia, more than 100 Catholic churches and homes were destroyed and many American Catholics murdered.

By 1849, the fear of a Catholic takeover of the U.S. gave birth to the Order of the Star Spangled Banner, an Anti-Catholic political organization, which created the American Party in 1850. In 1854, the party made its presence known in both state legislatures and Congress and their presidential nominee, former President Millard Fillmore, preying upon the fears of ignorant Americans, won twenty-two percent of the popular vote in the election of 1876. By 1860 the American Party was in decline as many of their members switched allegiance to the new Republican Party whose goal-the exclusion of slavery from the territories-was more to their liking.

During 1850-1870, California imported thousands of Chinese laborers to work its mines, farms, and manufacturing plants while the railroads took advantage of the cheap Chinese labor to lay its tracks. By 1870, poor economic conditions and growing unemployment caused a flood of race-baiting talk against the "Chinese Menace" by political demagogues and the growth of a network of Chinese Exclusion Leagues throughout California and across the West. In 1882, Congress passed a Chinese Exclusion Act. Anti-Chinese riots followed resulting in the massacre of helpless Chinese workers, the looting, burning, or destruction of their homes and the forced evacuation of the remaining Chinese from their neighborhoods.

The ugly face of nativism appeared again with the advent of World War I. A backlash against Germany, and everything German, swept across the nation in response to the flood of anti-German propaganda issuing from Washington D.C. German language newspapers were forced out of business, German books were burned, German language classes in school were discontinued and in some parts of the country made illegal. Music written by German composers was removed from scheduled concerts, and the names of schools, streets, and cities with German names were changed. Some German-Americans were harassed and brutally beaten.

After World War I, American nativists took issue with the flood of immigrants from eastern Europe who were flooding the labor markets of the nation. Their fears gave birth to the pseudo-science of "eugenics," which claimed that certain races were superior to others in intelligence, cleanliness, and industriousness. It was followed by a rash of eugenics societies and groups popping up around the U.S. with names such as the "Race Betterment Foundation" and the "American Eugenics Society" all of which spread the idea that eugenics meant better breeding habits for "true" Americans, and promoted the exclusion of people from the U.S. with undesirable traits in their national heritage

Beginning in 1907 some states passed laws requiring the sterilization of citizens who were mentally ill, handicapped, criminals, or degenerate. The Emergency Immigration Act of 1921 and the National Origins Act of 1924 restricted the entry to this country of people who were not from northern Europe and who were "biologically inferior." By 1937, thirty-two states had passed sterilization laws.

The year 1915, saw the resurrection of the Klu Klux Klan. Originally, it was a nativist organization founded by fear of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the potential rise of black supremacy in the country. The new organization was not only anti-black, but also anti-Jewish, anti-Catholic, and anti-immigrant. It's popularity, however, diminished during the depression years of the 1930s.

In 1917, Russian workers rocked the Establishments of Europe by forcing the Tzar to abdicate his throne and in 1918 withdrew Russian military forces from the European conflict (WWI) claiming it to be a war of Establishments and not of the common people. World War I ended on November 11, 1918, but the American Establishment kept troops in Russia for almost another year to assist Russians loyal to the Tsar in their fight against worker forces. Many Americans condemned this action.

Fearful of more worker revolutions throughout Europe, the American Establishment, unleashed its National Security League to promote hatred against foreigners. It passed a naturalization law giving it the authority to deport noncitizens for taking part in antigovernment activities, such as labor strikes. Consequently, hundreds of eastern European immigrant union strikers waiting for naturalization were deported. Socialist Party headquarters were broken into and zealous American “patriots” terrorized anyone claiming an interest in socialism.

When unexpected bombings racked the nation, the attorney general blamed them on "immigrant, communist, union agitators." When a bomb destroyed the front of his home he asked Congress for funds to fight this "Red Scare," although the origin of the bombings wasn’t known, and has never been proved He established a General Intelligence Division within the Bureau of Investigation (later to become the Federal Bureau of Investigation) to spy upon Americans holding incorrect political views. In 1919, with little regard for due process of law, his Justice Department raided labor union halls in twelve cities, arresting, brutally beating, and deporting hundreds of workers, despite the illegality of the actions, for the Labor Department possessed the sole power of deportation, not the Justice Department.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry to World War II, fear that some Japanese Americans might be spies for Japan resulted in the uprooting of thousands of Japanese citizens from their California homes, who were placed in concentration camps scattered throughout the nation. White Americans quickly, and legally, confiscated their homes and businesses.

The 1950s was a bad time for Americans who questioned the integrity of the American System, or who investigated alternative political systems. Despite inconsistencies and changed stories by paid informants and known liars, accusations were always assumed to be true, and all were accused of being Communists and assumed to be spies. There was little attempt by the Establishment's House UnAmerican Committee-or the American people-to distinguish between truth and lies.

Today, American nativists wish to stop the flow of immigrants from Mexico. With publication of his new book, "State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America," the popular Christian demagogue, Pat Buchanan, has finally added his voice to the national concert of hate. Buchanan claims the central issue of our times is the entry into America of millions of people from different cultures who refuse to adapt to ours. He claims Hispanics don't really want to be part of this nation, but prefer to build their own communities and retain their own language. What he doesn't say, and what an educated person like Buchanan knows, is that this is the "American Way." Every immigrant people to the U.S., after the first white, Protestant immigration, have eventually been forced to build their own communities or migrate to "their own kind" after having experienced the lack of neighborliness and animosity of fearful white communities.

The problem with nativism movements is that their negative solutions to the perceived problems are always detrimental to constructive reforms, as witnessed by the most heinous nativism movement of modern times-Adolph Hitler's demonic regime and its extermination of a supposedly inferior Jewish population.

What ordinary, working Americans so casually ignore is most immigrants to the United States are merely honest, hardworking people, just like us, seeking the means to help their families to survive. What ordinary, working Americans so casually ignore is that these people have always been invited, or unofficially allowed, to enter the United States by our business influenced and controlled government to increase job competition and keep wages low. This is where the anger of working Americans should be directed, not the innocent immigrants. It is upon the leaders of our political and business communities and the economic rulers of our social system upon which the vengeance of American worker's should fall, not upon innocent immigrant scapegoats.

If you would like a logical and believable theory of why our Anglo-Saxon, Protestant rulers have allowed California to be overrun by Mexicans, and the state's characteristic changed to hispanic, why they have allowed the Cuban invasion of Florida, which changed this state's characteristic to hispanic, and why they have changed their traditionally "anti-anything but Anglo-Saxon" policies and invited so many thousands of Asian people into the U.S.--visit www.voicesforddd.com/menu/morebooks.html--and read "A Theory of Subversion." It gives you another perspective aabout the causes of our national problems. Read "The Democcracy That Could Be" for a logical plan to solve these problems.

Originally published 6/14/06 in the Blogger

Well, the very first YearlyKos convention in Las Vegas has come and gone. According to
all accounts, the four day gathering was a remarkable success and kudos are due to
Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the young 34 year old entrepreneur and blogger who founded
DailyKos, the most popular political internet website in the U.S. The convention drew
more than one thousand activists, comprising a well rounded representation of liberal
interests: African-Americans, Latin-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans,
mothers, students, feminists, advocates of science, political internet bloggers, and of
course, prominent Democratic politicians.

As I live in Las Vegas, I had planned to attend the convention and was excited about it,
for this was an opportunity to meet many well-known people who had concerns similar
to mine. But when I saw the schedule of topics to be discussed, I balked, thought about
it for a few moments, and decided I would not attend.

Panel discussion topics were varied: Reforming the Electoral Process, Championing
Science, Ethics, Corruption and Movement Politics, Changing Education-Changing
America, Healthcare, and CIA Leak Investigation. Workshop topics included: Using
the Blogosphere, Abortion, and Engaging Right Wing Talk Radio and Coming Out
on Top. Roundtables included: Reforming the Electoral Process, Immigration,
Environment, Current Events, Religion, and Framing Workforce Issues in the 2006
Election. And this is just a partial list of events discussed during, what must have been,
an exciting four day gathering.

Why didn’t I attend this event? Because I didn't see a topic of discussion, such as How to
Take Control of Government Away From the Professionsls. Why, I believed, should
I get involved with activities I considered preparations for minor battles when preparing
for and winning one major battle could win the entire war for working Americans And
because I believed the main thrust of the convention would be to determine ways to
strengthen and assist the Democratic Party for the coming election, which I believed a
waste of time, for other than few men and women of moral character and dignity, most
members of the party are cowards and opportunists who build their own small empires
of influence and sell their votes to the highest bidders.

Expending limited funds and effort discussing topics such as discussed at the convention,
although important topics, is comparable to concentrating upon the consequences of the
core problem rather than upon eliminating the problem. And as I have long seen it, the
core problem of American working citizens is a political system that excludes them from
participating in political decisions. This is my belief.

Today because the political system was created by rich Americans for the benefit of rich
Americans, and because these Americans have used their political powers to their exclusive
advantage, we are a country not as rich in natural resources as we were a mere twenty
years ago. We are not as cohesive or united, nor as moral or ethical, or as idealistic. We
face immediate problems of global warming, overpopulation, and a world that no longer
respects us. A world that is rapidly becoming armed, violent, and dangerous.

Worst of all, it is our wealthiest citizens who have created these conditions. They have
invaded and looted smaller nations, thus creating international animosity. They have
invested weaalth created in this country in the growth of other countries, deliberately
weakening the nation’s industrial and social strength. And sadly, these arrogant Americans
insidiously carry on their subversion without being recognized as the enemies of democracy
and freedom, which they are.

Fellow Americans, time is running out for the United States of America. The land of the free
and the brave of our forefathers is slowly disappearing from the face of the Earth as our
enemies transform it into an aggressive, military nation. Unfortunately, I’m afraid too many
Americans neither understand this truth, nor want to hear it.

The bottom line why I didn’t attend the YearlyKos convention is, because I’m tired of fighting
a losing battle for so many years. I'm getting tired of trying to convince people like those who
did attend the convention that winning one or more of their minor battles will not change the
major problems confronting them, for I am not a talker and have never been capable of
persuading, or winning an argument, with people who refuse to think.

Originally published 6/1/06 in Blogger


The Congress of the United States cannot repair the terrible mistake it made by the
illogical and illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Nor can it stop the death and
mutilation of thousands of innocent Iraqi and American soldiers. But Congress can
divert the attention of ordinary Americans from their errors in judgement, which
they now do with their sudden declaration of war on "illegal" Mexican immigrants.

The Republican dominated Senate, which doesn't know the meaning of fairness or
justice, has once again made a mockery of the American System. It passed an
immigration bill authorizing a few hundred miles of fencing along the 2,000 mile
Mexican-American border and a few thousand new Border Patrol agents. The bill
also grants the possibility of citizenship to the illegal immigrants who have been
n this country more than five years--if they pay both a fine and back taxes, learn
English, and avoid criminal activities.

This is yet another multi-million dollar waste of taxpayer's money on a boondoggle
project with little chance of success. A wall that exends only 200 miles of a 2,000
border? Who is kidding whom? Even should the U.S. duplicate the Great Wall of
China along the 2,000 mile border, it would only slow the migration north. It wouldn't
stop it. Why not?

Because if you truly want to stop bees from gathering pollen, you must permanently
remove the flowers. In this case, you must remove the promise of employment in
the U.S.,
for this is the magnet drawing so many underprivileged Mexican peasants north across
the border. It is the American farmers and businessmen who knowingly employ illegal
Mexican workers that are the real criminals in this sad situation. It is they who should
be punished by the American legal system, not our hungry neighbors from the south
seeking the means to feed their families.

This new war against "illegal" immigrants is sheer hypocrisy, considering that we
Americans have enticed these desperate people to cross our borders. The recent
publicized six-day raids in Las Vegas turned up only 179 "immigration violators."
Imagine, fewer than 200 in an area that cannot exist without the thousands of
underpaid immigrant employees saturating casino properties: employees fulfilling
functions ranging from blackjack dealers to the wait staff in casino restaurants and
buffets. Are we to believe that there are so few "illegals" among the Vegas Strip’s
horde of Mexican workers? Or is the thought of disrupting the smoothly operating
mechanism that makes Vegas such an extraordinary profitable place too frightening
a thought for Vegas' public officials?

The saddest part of the Vegas episode, however, is that those few people who have
been "captured," some of whom have been in the U.S. many years, and who have
married and had children born in this country, have been viciously and uncaringly
torn from their families, perhaps never to see them again.

Where will this new phoney American war end? Who knows. All I know is that
the American business community has influenced the decisions of the American
government since the passage of the Consitution of the United States, and has
been in total control of the American political system since 1980. The American
business community made it possible for these people to enter the country. It has
prospered by their being here, and it has never cared for the welfare of either
Mexican or American workers.

What does this tell us about the future?

Originally published 5/8/06 in Blogger

Bush and his cohorts have blatantly lied to the American people time after time after time.

Their biggest lies are the reasons for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Taliban, they claimed, were guilty of supporting the 9/11 attack on this country,
despite the truth all 9/11 conspirators were Saudi Arabs, and not Taliban. What the
Taliban were really guilty of was preventing the construction of a 1,040 mile long
oil pipeline beginning in the northern Turkmenistan town of Chardzhou and running
across Afghanistan and Pakistani to a Pakastani seaport on the Arabian Sea.

They said Sadddam Hussein possessed chemical weapons of mass destruction which could
be a threat to the U.S. But those who knew the truth understood all such weapons had
been destroyed, or removed, from Iraq after Desert Storm, and Hussein posed no such
threat whatsoever. What they didn’t say was that the U.S. had originally provided
Hussein with the chemicals and the technology to produce biological weapons; and in the
past Hussein had been a paid U.S. agent.

By invading the two Middle East countries, the Bush gang ignored all warnings by
knowledgable people such aggressive intrusions into the Middle East would merely
increase fear and hatred of Americans and produce reactive violence. The warnings have
proven to be accurate. In conjunction with the Administration’s policy of preemptive strikes
against possible terrorist threats anywhere on the globe, Americans, and the people of planet
Earth, have been saddled with a permanent environment of fear.

Some Americans believe Bush and his gang are sincerely good people who have simply
made errors in judgement. I don’t think that’s true. I believe the creation of what promises
to be a permanent climate of war is simply another scheme by the rulers of America who, to
keep control of the political system and the American Treasury, have placed the country in
one artificial, unnecessary, war after the other since the end of WWII.

For more than twenty years I have tried to warn the American people in my writings that
if they don’t do something about it, some wealthy and powerful American families and groups,
who have been conducting a one-sided war upon them, will eventually destroy the United
States as a power, and whatever chance true democracy had of evolving in North America.

I have tried to explain how the American Establishment's permanent environment of war is
similar to the strategy used by George Orwell’s oppressive government of Oceania in his
book, 1984. Actually, the book has been the role-model for many American Establishment
strategies used against the American people during the past fifty years.

It is these wealthy Americans, who were so frightened by the growth of labor unions and the
demands made by factory workers in the 1930s, that they invested in the Nazi war machine,
had their companies fuel Nazi submarines, and build factories in Germany that produced war
materials used against Allied troops. All done with the expectation that a German victory
would reward them with iron rule over the American people they had always wanted and
been unable to grasp. But when the Nazi's strategy for military conquest failed, they and their
international cohorts immediately shifted gears and planned for economic conquest.

Make no mistake about it, these “Americans” have little respect for those who must work to
survive, and they hate and fear democratic government, for such a political form is a threat to
their wealth and their lifestyles. These families and groups no longer consider themselves
Americans, for their ambitions are no longer restricted to ruling the U.S., as in pre-WWII
times. They have homes and factories everywhere, consider themselves “world citizens,”
and once again strive to dominate the entire globe.

And if you don’t believe some Americans consider themselves superior to ordinary
working citizens, possess fascist, Nazi ideals, and prefer totalitarian government and tight
control over working Americans, then explain the transformation of the U.S., the planet’s
leading democracy, the traditional advocate of freedom and peace, into an aggressive, war
mongering military nation? Explain the Establishment's callous use of torture as a device
to punish people who are presumed, but unproven enemies of the U.S. Explain the
persistent assault on the personal freedoms of Americans? Explain Halliburton's multi-
million dollar government contract to build a network of detention centers throughout the
nation? Who are they going to imprison? Explain the criminal looting of the American
Treasury, deliberate bankrupting of the country, and the burdening of our children and
children’s children with humongousdebt? Explain the dismantling of social programs
established by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s as a means to protect working
Americans from the consequences of these selfish and cruel people? Explain the uncaring
assault on our national forests and other previously protected environments? Explain the
complete disdain for the opinions of our smaller, less powerful international neighbors?
The point is this: it isn’t the people holding political power who are responsible for all of
the above. They are merely puppets on strings who take orders from their masters, or
opportunists who sell their votes to the highest bidders. Nor is it the existence of political
parties, one of which is has always been recognized as the representative of wealth, and
the other which has evolved into the harlot of wealth. The villain is the political system,
itself. The one that was created in 1787 by wealthy Americans for the benefit of wealthy
Americans.

Our “Founding Fathers” hated and feared democracy just as much as privileged
people do today, and they deliberately chose to restrict the ordinary citizen’s
participation in, and access to, government. It is this political system that has created
the politically powerless and the politically powerful. It is this political system that
allows deep poverty to exist beside great wealth. And it is this political system that
must be changed. But it must be changed only by creating a new Constitution, one
designed and approved by ordinary, working Americans in a free, public forum.

Unfortunately, most Americans in their ignorance of history believe the Constitution to be a
hallowed document. Unfortunately, most working Americans float through life in their little
bubbles of restricted interests and knowledge surrounded by a world of illusion created by
Establishment controlled media. Their values, their interests, and their role models are those
of innocent children motivated by emotion and base instincts and not by the adult abilities and
disciplines of contemplation and reason.

So, how can the American people be awakened to the true danger they face? For those
of you would like to know, or to take action, read the information found on the CD: A Better
World Is Possible available at www.voicesfortruedemocracy.com

Sleeping Giant Stirs

I read an editorial in this morning paper that should give Americans food for thought, but I doubt if they even will take a bite.

The article begins by commending Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) that restricts government's growth. The bill was initiated and passed as a constitutional amendment a decade ago by the citizens of Colorado. This law requires the state to refund tax payments in excess of the prior year's collections after adjustment to inflation and population growth. It means the state's politicians can no longer tax as much as they want, nor squander as much as they can get away with.

The editorial then go on to laud California Governor, Arnold Schwartzenegger who wants Californians to pass his version of TABOR called "Live Within Our Means Act" that would limit state budget growth to the average budget growth of the past three years.

The difference between the Colorado and California plans, however, is that in Colorado the citizens initiated the program and in California, the state did the initiating. Colorado's is a bottom-up law while California's is the usual top-down sneaky law.

In November, more than a dozen states will have a TABOR bill, or a candidate proposing one, on the ballot. Many states already possess what they call "Taxpayers Bill of Rights". Most, however, are all meaningless, merely declaring what citizens can or cannot legally do. Few of these bills restrict the power of politicians to tax and spend.

Furthermore, as usual, the political power structure in Colorado--via the governor--is currently proposing "Referendum C" that will allow the state to keep excess tax money and, in essence, begin the chipping away of TABOR.

What I wish to point out in this blog is that Colorado's TABOR is an example of how direct democracy (true democracy) works as opposed to how representative democracy (pseudo-democracy) does. In DD the citizens initiate the laws and regulations under which they live, whereas in the pseudo-democracy under which we Americans live, the opportunistic politicians and their wealthy masters do.

Common citizens all over the world are dipping their toes into the waters of DD and bottom-up law-making, timidly beginning their revolution against the corruption, militarization, and wars initiated by top-down governments.

If you haven't already done so, I recommend visiting the website www.movementfordirectdemocracy.com just to see what's really going on in the world outside the fantasy world of illusion created by the American mass media.

Just remember, our world could be a better place to live, for the future will be whatever current generations will it to be. What do you will it to be, and how will you help to make it happen?

Have a wonderful day!

Hi, I'm Lee Gottlieb

I'm a 75 year old (2005) retired graphic designer. I'm married, and have two children. I spend most of my days on the computer corresponding with other Americans who are upset with the deteriorating conditions in the country and with people all over the globe who feel as I do about the miserable conditions suffered by the masses of humanity, discussing ways to change things for the better.

I'm a quiet person and publishing a diary of my thoughts to be read by strangers is a little intimidating. Add to this the fact that all of the things I'm angry about are social problems many people shy away from in the mistaken belief they are unsolvable, and I doubt if I'll ever get much of a readership. But the problems of poverty, illiteracy, violence and war are not unsolvable, for they have been caused by people (sometimes deliberately), and so they can be solved by people.

The motivation for producing this blog (and my website) is the frightening future American children, and the children of the world will face, if some wealthy Americans are successful in their plans to conquer the planet via economic means. Today, in 2005, not only has their economic strategies been successful, but their political puppets have finally taken full control of the American political system and in their maniacal drive for empire have converted this rich and powerful country into a typical arrogant, war mongering bully, not much different than the Roman empire or any other primitive, powerful nation of the past. But they can be stopped dead in their tracks by a determined, unified people who have the will to stop them, for the only weapon needed is the vote.

The purpose of this blog is to help Americans develop the will to change things for the better, for there are better ways for people to live than the hierarchical "American Way," which is biased toward wealthy citizens and uncaring about the rest of us. And though my blogs may be complaints and criticisms of one aspect or another of government policy or of our traditional culture and institutions, I will always try to end on a hopeful note by pointing to solutions.

I have always believed that most people will do the right thing when confronted with a crisis. And the crisis does exist. Some super-wealthy Americans are determined to extinguish any real possibility of true democracy shining its rays of hope on planet Earth. With "9/11" as their battle cry and with their detestable "Patriot Act," they are quickly removing the protections from their oppressive ways our Constitution has provided us, and just as quickly adding to their tools of repression and oppression.

With that said, let me begin my journey into blogsville.