Information Inequity - Candidates & Protesters

According to Project Vote Smart: Senator John Sidney McCain III repeatedly refused to provide any responses to citizens on the issues through the 2008 Political Courage Test when asked to do so by national leaders of the political parties, prominent members of the media, Project Vote Smart President Richard Kimball, and Project Vote Smart staff. So he doesn't want to share his intentions with his constituents.

Contrast this with the information stolen from the Convergence Center in a raid - at gunpoint - by St. Paul cops for reasons they don't want to make public. Sounds just a bit Gestapo-esque to me. They took pictures of the 50 people inside the rented space. These protesters were the ones who dress in black and wear bandannas to protect their identity. I guess the cops wanted to be sure they knew the identity of all the protesters even though the cops guard their identities with face shields and depersonalizing armor that masque their faces the whole time they are in the streets, and even when their is no provocation as was the case in Denver their mirrored sun glasses and weapons will strike down any imagined threat before it can develop.

Protesters use convergence centers for regrouping, eating, internet connectivity for research, props creation, training of newbies in safety and legal issues.


This pre-emptive strike by cops does not bode well for the next week.

Unity or Bust

I wish things were different than they are, but all things considered, H. R. Clinton did an admirable job tonight at the DNC. I wish I could have supported a woman. I wish I could have supported Clinton. But her stance on the war made that impossible. At least it was good to see that she got to use the best of the campaign slogans her team had created. No way, no how, no McCain. Twins McCain and Bush in the Twin Cities. Can't survive four more years of the past eight years. And the evocation of Tubman's "keep on going" was very moving. I for one was impressed.

Now if Obama would just address torture, surveillance, and endless war in an appropriate manner I would be a happy camper.

There is much more to say on this topic... per parallels with slavery and womens suffrage for example... but I'm on a borrowed computer. My hard drive mysteriously died yesterday as the DNC opened. 10th hard drive in 5 years. Hmmmm. Statistically improbable. Put that together with them dying when week long progressive protest actions were beginning and well... that is statistically impossible.

Oh well.

Wake Up America. John McCain is Senator from a Pit of Corruption.

This is the first of many posts that will be made over the next couple of months that highlight John McCain and what his interests and protection of interests vital to his family's continuing wealth have done to Arizona. This article by Halbfinger in yesterday's New York Times offers tantalizing details that require further investigation about financial holdings and interests of the McCain family. Family is an interesting term to use here, as it also has a more foreboding connotation illustrated to me by a friend of mine who was told by his Chicago-based "labor relations" father-in-law ---whose son has a beer distributorship in Northern Indiana--- "Ya don't juss marry da girl, ya marry da Family." McCain's children and wife, THE McCAIN FAMILY either run and/or hold significant shares in the massive Cindy Hensley McCain owned beer distributorship in Arizona.

I live in Arizona. October 2nd I will be into my third decade lived in Arizona under the regal rule of the very small number of families that control almost every aspect "plantation Arizona." My life has been impacted by the lack of concern these families, such as the McCain family, have for the people of the state. John McCain has never lived in this state, he has flown over the lives of the little people in strata above the everyday lives his entire time he has been associated with the richest women the state. He was arm candy for little Cindy Lou.

• ranks second highest nationally in franchise jobs
• 50th in education
• in top three in foreclosure rates
  
• Above average drug use, among the top in violent teen death, near the top in teen pregnancy, and citizens living below poverty rate usually comes in around 20 %
  
• highest national crime rates

But Arizona ranks low in taxes on beer. Close to 20% lower than the national average on alcohol taxes. Hmmmmm. What people are side-stepping is what the beer distributorship, the Keating Five, and Marley connections imply. Organized crime. Perhaps mobster perhaps not.... organized crime comes in all sorts of white collars in Arizona.

Wake up America! You don't want anything to do with any successful politician from this corrupt state.

Women Political Commentators Score! But...

Rachel Maddow gets her own show on MSNBC! I'm reporting solely from what I read in a Commondreams repost of a Washington Post article as I just got home from work and opened my laptop and whooped with joy at seeing a female Rhodes scholar rewarded for her wit and wisdom in political reporting. About damn time!

I could not care less about what Maddow's sex life does or does not include. Not my business. I don't know what Keith Oberman is into sexually nor would I care to know -- yet I am given information by national print media that is of absolutely no business of mine about Rachel Maddow 's sexual orientation. Two steps forward, one step back.

I was delighted when I started seeing the Air America radio host turn up on Keith Oberman's show. Maddow is well spoken, intelligent, witty, well-informed, young and female.

We're getting there. No where close to 51-52% of the hosts and commentators in political media though.....

Week in Review: Baby Steps Toward Justice Just a Diversion

Ted Stevens' indicted for falsification of documents yet Halliburton continues on unscathed though they broke contracts, failed to deliver on what they had contracted to do, and allowed men and women to be killed for no purpose rather than profit.

This McClatchy article links to all the pertinent documents on the Stevens indictment. This DPC report links to House testimony and supporting documentation of abuse.

So what has McCain done for the people of Arizona this week, or ever? Oh, we know he helps out his buddies such as Don Diamond but really what has he done for Arizona? Someone, please help me out here. Seems to me like he is only around Tucson for photo ops with Bush, or to meet with corporate interest groups. I'd loe to have some answers to this question.