Tucson, Al Qaeda and Connections - Real and Imagined

Tucson has connections to too many weirdos.  Tonight while zipping through Bin Laden references, I found this reference that reminded me of the whole unfortunate connection between Al Qaeda and Tucson.  Some folks don't know, but I can't imagine how they have missed it.  The Islamic Center of Tucson was an Al Qaeda HQ if not THE Al Qaeda HQ in the U.S. in the early 1990s. 

Jihad Watch references a reprint of Arizona Was Home to bin Laden ''Sleeper Cell'' by Dennis Wagner and Tom Zoellner.  The Arizona Republic.  September 28, 2001.

* Wadih El-Hage, a former Tucson resident and bin Laden lieutenant, was imprisoned in connection with the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Tanzania. Years earlier, he engineered the purchase of a military surplus jet from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and may have had a role in the assassination of the leader of a controversial Islamic sect in Tucson in 1990.
* Unnamed "henchmen" to bin Laden, who reportedly attempted to buy a Boeing 727 jetliner in Arizona just six months before the Sept. 11 hijackings. A law enforcement official told the New York Post the men had "kicked the tires" of some used airplanes in Denver and Tucson, but ultimately did not make a purchase.

Other sources write about Fort Huachuca as a 2007 target of joint jihadi and cartel operations.

Fort Huachuca, the nation’s largest intelligence training center, changed security measures in May after being warned that Islamist terrorists, with the aid of Mexican drug cartels, were planning an attack on the facility.

They were here.  The air bases and training programs attracted Al Qaeda extremists.  The problem I have with reporting on this is that many other factors, including the U of A, as well as climate similarities, attracted lots of non-extremist, regular old people and families who happen to be Muslim.

The ICT is being focused on by the creeping sharia wing nuts.  This is hate speech pure and simple.  Tucson is better than this.  Just because a small group of people did something in Tucson does not mean that we are filled with terrorist sleeper cells.  Maybe we have some,  but they would surely be smarter than to associate themselves with ICT. 

I hope we can be bigger than the small minds that want to blame the wrong people.  Let's be civil and also aware of how we can promote sanity and safety.  

In the days while the country focuses on the fatal completion of  a 10 year hunt for bin Laden, please remember that while Tucson is forever linked to a national tragedy at the beginning of this century,  Tucson has shown itself to be better than to hate the "other"as so many neighboring areas pride themselves for doing. 

Egregious Idiocy Increases Danger from Climate Change

Will the highly rewarded political sycophants whose purposeful actions mislead the uneducated and politically faithful who follow their lead ever be held accountable for the lives and property lost from lack of preparation for climate change. 


Unfortunately hundreds of people died last night in a horrific storm that foreshadows the increasing frequency and severity of weather events likely to occur as climate change intensifies.

Let's look at the frequency of tornadoes over time.  Even though individual years may vary up or down in numbers, the overall trend is for an increasing number of tornadoes.  That is how statistics works.  Statistics isn't about individual elements of a process, it is about the overall process.  The following official chart based on scientific data clearly shows an increasing trajectory. 

Figure source:
NOAA National Climatic Data Center, State of the Climate: Tornadoes for Annual 2010, published online December 2010, retrieved on April 28, 2011 from http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/tornadoes/2010/13.


We are living through, so far, the first individually discernible new weather phenomena in quite some time.  There have been years without summers.  Humans were impacted by Ice Ages, but as far as I know no records were created documenting it.  This is the first time we as a species have known that climate is changing and there is a possibility that we could mitigate the change to some degree. We are not doing so because of superstitious suspicion of science and political manipulation for economic gain.

The cost of promoting ignorance in our citizenry is loss of life, livelihood, and perhaps, our planet as we know it.  That unpredictable social impact will result from climate change, shifts, and extremes is evident in food shortages and political unrest. 


Weather cannot be tamed nor can it be predicted with complete certainty, but it is something for which you can prepare.  Here are some starting points for weather preparedness.

•  Weather Safety and Awareness
•  Be Prepared for Spring; Severe Weather 
•  Weather/emergency Notification Radios

At one level it dosen't really matter what caused the increasing intensity of weather phenomena.   It is with us and we are going to have to deal with it. One of the best sources I've found for updates on what is happening and what are current thoughts on the topic is Daily Climate.

Getting a Take on Arizona Progressives

No the title isn't oxymoronic.  Arizona Progressives are real and easily found.  Um, the co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus is from Arizona in case you haven't noticed; and the Baja Arizona secessionist movement is real.

I recently reconnected with Lefty Blogs and am amazed at the linkage and coverage it gives me of Arizona from a perspective you will find NO WHERE ELSE.  If you want to find out what is happening in Arizona, period, you need to use this feed.


As an Arizonan I am so tired of having the same one or two derogatory and grossly inaccurate major media stories be all I hear about what is going on in my state.  I honestly do not have time to search all the blog feeds for real Arizona news when our wacko legislature and leaders get us into the news so often.


Use Lefty Blogs to peruse the hot local issues. You can always get to it from the link in the right (sorry) column. You will have to ignore a couple of posters who from my estimation seem to be on the bash Arizona bandwagon, a perspective that anyone who loves Arizona should not have, but I will let you make your own determination on that front.

Check it out.  If you want to know what the rest of Arizona (thinks beyond the Arpaio, Brewer, Pearce psychobabble) this feed is essential.


I'm stepping off the soapbox now. 

Compare the Budgets Offered -- ALL of Them

Platitudes aside,  if you are at all interested in the budget of the United States of America you owe it to yourself to at least compare the 3 options on the table.  In spite of the warm and fuzzy comments emanating from many of the progressive media sources yesterday, President Obama's budget talk is not a budget and lacks details, so there are really only Ryan's plan that decimates our government and way of life, the Democrat's plan that is getting little airplay, and the Progressive Democrats plan that has gotten no attention from national media.  The deficit reduction committee isn't a budget as such but selectively looks at programs with an eye to one end only - deficit reduction. 

Reuters ignores the Progressives Budget entirely in its Fact Box.  Ryan's proposal for the Republicans gets all the air play so you probably are familiar with it.  The Democrats' proposal isn't getting too much attention specifically, and the Progressives are getting none.

Too many supposed reporters and journalists are commenting that once again we will start with concessions from Obama and move toward the Republican points through "compromise."  This is a farcical negotiation.  Look at Ryan's proposal and look at the Progressive Democrats' proposal and then end up left of Obama's -- that is what should be happening.



So do yourself a favor,  as should our legislature,  and use the info from Jeffrey Sachs' overview of the PDA budget (starting at 1:25 seconds into the video) as a starting point in negotiations and not Obama's which is where negotiations should end up, not from which to begin.

Two Down and One (Child Murderer) Trial to Go

I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to Arizona justice or any justice in any state that prides itself on stupidity, but living in such states seems to be my lot in life.  Indiana and Arizona have both had more than is any one state's right to stupid judicial actions.  Indiana rounded off pi in in a House Committee, but fortunately did not allow it to become law.  Both states kill people for killing people though they both are "Christian" run states that I'm sure subscribe to the Ten Commandments including the one that goes, "Thou shall not kill." 

I grew up in Indiana and remember getting in my first politically charged "discussion" on a school bus in November 1964 the morning after Johnson won the election over Goldwater.  I had to be all of 7 years old, but I remember it clearly.   The oldest sister, who had to be all of 9 or 10 years old,  of a family on my bus route looked as though a family member had died when I brought up the election.  I later came to understand that the parents in the family were ultra conservative and attended The Church of the Nazarene in the town that was the county seat just south of the township grade school we attended. 


I was never a 9 year old in Arizona. I've only lived here for a few decades.  I am however the mother of a native Arizonan, and she was a nine year old here, once upon a time.  I was a Girl Scout Leader to a group of 9 year old girls.  I was a Sunday School Teacher to a class with 9 year old girls in it. 

The faces of these girls I have known and in several cases come to love are the ones who flash before me when I also pull up the class photo mental image of Brisenia Flores.  I still cry every time I think of her asking Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush, and Albert Robert Gaxiola why they shot her parents and of her then begging for her own life.  Things like this are not supposed to happen to 9 year old girls.  Tucson knows all too well that 9 year-olds can die from the heinous actions of deranged people.  But the facts of this case push even this understanding beyond what a saddened Tucson can believe.  This falls into the same league as sexual predators who torture and kill children.   This falls into the category of pure evil. 


How could we as a community have allowed such vile predators to reside in and do such harm to our community?  I will never understand this.  I know people were talking about connections between Minutemen militias and the extremely violent right wing rhetoric that routinely, at least weekly from my understanding, came to our streets in the last 10 years.  Recruiters were connected to drug traffickers.  Police refused to come to respond to calls for assistance when there were assaults at demonstrations.  Individuals burned flags and tried to bait surrounding crowds into violence.  The weaving of fringe groups into the daily life of our community must have numbed our outrage when groups of people from outside of our community descended upon our area to create a police state mentality in our backyards.  Why did and do we tolerate people who have no business here who supposedly guard a border from people who are for the most part guilty only of not looking like them. 

Could we have done more?  Of course we could have.  The portent of violence was there.  Suspected serial killers and mentally unstable individuals were allowed to play soldier with real guns where I live and where so many of the nine year old girls I have loved, lived. 


This isn't right.


I'm not sure that killing individuals who are disturbed enough to carry out such atrocities is any better than what the accused and convicted did.  But I am in the minority, supposedly,  just as I was when I expressed concern years ago about the influx of militia types into our county.  So two of the three people on trial for the murders of Bresenia Flores and her young papa, Raul Flores, have been convicted of murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection.  One trial remains. 


Killing these people will not ease my conscience of the persistent doubt that perhaps there was more that we could have done, that I should have tried to do more to wake people up to what was and is happening at the edges of our community.  The deaths from our ignorance seem destined to climb and include Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush and probably Albert Robert Gaxiola, also accused in the murders, who goes on trial June 1st.  

I'm sure I will write more then.  

The Neo Tea Tantrum and Assault on Women

The last thing I ever said in person to one of my brothers before he died was that I would fight for healthcare for the regular folks.  I need to do more.  I'm weary, struggles that never end can wear one down, though.

Today would have been the birthday of another brother who also died far too early from preventable causes.

Today is also the day the federal government shuts down most likely because a bastion of wimps and neocons have taken supposedly taken direction from an astroturf "movement" to reduce the size of government and sever all federal funding from social programs whose support touches the lives of almost everyone in the U.S.   I owe a great deal to Planned Parenthood.  I used their services to get yearly checkups and birth control prescriptions and devices in my teens and throughout my twenties.  Without them I would probably have had an accidental pregnancy with a man I lived with and who I tried to leave several times before I successfully was able to do so.  I was stalked by this guy when I left.

Public domain image from Wikipedia Commons.

My life would have been ruined if I had gotten pregnant by that man I lived with for 10 years.  I wanted to get away from him after only a few months of being with him, but without a family support system I didn't see any way to do that without becoming homeless.  I believed him when he told me I had no other options.  So I stayed in school, took out loans to complete college and went to planned parenthood for my healthcare needs and to get help making sure I wouldn't bring an unwanted child into the world.  I was lucky.  I didn't get pregnant. 


Now a bunch of selfish bullies, nearly all white and male, on Capitol Hill are trying to strong arm legislation through as a rider on a funding bill that would defund Planned Parenthood, the very organization that helped me to be able to get away from an abusive long term relationship because there was not a child connecting me to him.  I doubt I would have ever been able to get away from him if I had had a child. 


This whole tea party, fundamentalist, militia mentality connects to what I hope are the death throes of a group of dis-empowered patriarchal a**holes.  These guys believed from early on that they had a right to rule over their families, their communities, and their nation because white guys had always ruled here.  Now that change is happening, although at a far slower rate than one called for by demographics, these guys are doing everything they possibly can to regain what little power they can hold onto for a short while, even if it means the death of thousands of and the destruction of tens or hundreds of thousands more lives.


Such utter disregard for their brother and sister citizens shows that this has nothing to do with finance, Christianity, or governance and everything to do with entitlements - the entitlements that small minded and probably small body-parted white (or orange) men feel are being denied to them.  I hope these are the last throes of segregationist, racist, misogynist America. Right now it is women being attacked but the elderly, our children, our ill and infirm are next up on the tea party gallows.  This next year will be hell as these little men stomp their feet, and lash out wildly trying to hurt anything and everything they can as they manipulate, steal, coerce and destroy government of, for and by the people. 

1908 Child Laborer in North Carolina.  Wikipedia Commons.

I for one will not let them do this to us.  I believe there are enough like me out there to stop them.

Let's roll.

In the Name of Love

In the name of love... April 4.... shots ring out... Memphis sky



Remember!

A Concert To Benefit the Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding

Benefit

It is very, very difficult to try to talk about anything good associated with the January 8th assassination attempt on U. S. House of Representative Member, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that left six dead and 13 physically wounded.  Countless Tucson families and citizens and all the networks all these people touched were also emotionally changed, and indeed the very community itself was injured, for when a community member is hurt, the community itself is injured.  And Tucson is a community.  We are the biggest small town in America.  We are healing, but the perception of our community, our dear Old Pueblo, is forever changed.  When talking heads use the word Tucson now they are referring to a few seconds of violence, the act of a madman, that attempted to change the vibe (We talk that way here.) of Tucson.  It isn't going to happen;  Tucson will be more like Tucson than ever in the coming weeks, months and years.  Not all communities could attract such a diverse and positive musical outreach and support network as Tucson has in  the Benefit Concert featuring Jackson Browne, Alice Cooper for the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona's Fund for Civility, Respect, and Understanding.

Click to go to ticket site. 

  

Lineup

There is an amazingly diverse line up and it is perfect.  These are all performers who have a reason to be here other than just for a pro bono feather in their service caps.   Zelisko has been promoting shows in Arizona since 1974.  Jackson Browne has had Arizona connections for a long, long time.  And I mean that in the best of all possible ways.  In the '90s I traveled up to the Verde Valley Music Festival that happened every year during the first weekend in October until 2001 when air traffic came to a roaring halt mid-September.  Alice Cooper, has lived in Phoenix/Scottsdale most of his life (even when he was Vincent Damon Furnier, and you know, I can see him as a "Vinnie") and his Christian faith certainly aligns with the cause of this concert.  Calexico IS Tucson in so many ways. Ozomatli used to play Tucson a bunch and it will be good to have them break their boycott of Arizona and show the rest of the country that Tucson doesn't deserve to be boycotted for the things Phoenix does.  Welcome back! I've seen Crosby and Nash in Tucson before, usually with another guy often linked with them.   I've seen Keb 'Mo play in Tucson,  Lofgren plays through Tucson too,  Roger Clyne is from Tempe and a third generation Arizonan, Joel Rafael wrote "This Is My Country" that was covered by Crosby and Nash and included in the Barry Levinson documentary, "Poliwood." You may remember Sam Moore from "Sam and Dave."  Milton 'Quiltman' Sahme has worked as a composer and vocalist on soundtracks & occasionally tours with John Trudell. Jerry Riopelle lives in Scottsdale and is probably best known for producing music.  And Dar Williams, what can I say about her except that as one of the very small minority of women performers in this line up she will have no problem representing anything and everything you may want or need to have reflected in this show --as she is a singer and songwriter who can present viewpoints and essences of being with amazingly deft nuance and skill.   And speaking of smarts and talent, Jennifer Warnes, is well a music legend even if you don't recognize her name at first.  She has won Oscars and Grammy Awards for songs you know all the words to, but Jennifer is perfect for this concert because as she says about music, "I'm more interested in how close we can get through the music."

Tucson

Tucson so deserves to have great musicians play here and I think with this concert it is clear that Tucson has been exempted from the boycott of Arizona over the discriminatory 1070 law.  Instead of boycotting Tucson I think people from far and wide should inundate Arizona and talk to the people of state.  Come and support non-right wing, non-politico artisans and businesses  that are a far more fair representation of us than the big corporate money and religious minorities that control the politics of this state.   If you have not heard, some of us are so adamant about the distinction between us and the rest of Arizona that we want to secede from Arizona and become the 51st state. For more info just check out the Start Our State movement.  

Secession has absolutely nothing to do with January 8th.  But I just loved Fitz's cartoon and he is a great guy and didn't deserve the muzzling his corporate media boss gave him when they demanded he apologize for speaking to reporters as a private citizen when he happened to be in that parking lot that infamous Saturday morning.  But hey if you want to keep your job you have to do things that make you cringe at times. 

Ok, back to Tucson, we Tucsonans really try to be civil and peaceably live together.  We are a University town, we are one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in North America.  We are artists, writers, musicians, hikers, birders, and we have given rise to many  political families as well.  People who come to Tucson, even if they move on through it, are touched by it.  

Women participate in politics here, we won the right to vote in 1912 here in Arizona.   Look at Gabby Giffords, a Democrat who won a hard fought battle for what had been a Republican seat.  Look at all the women who came out to talk to Gabby that Saturday.  And by the way if you have not read Suzi Hileman's blog, The Burrow, the civic minded and loving neighbor of Christina-Taylor Green, The Burrow,  I highly recommend that you do.  It is inspiring.  It is very Tucson.  Hileman chose to live here in Tucson because it is such a great place. 

Oh we need this concert, just like we needed the UMC vigil that lasted for weeks and helped us to meet and heal and pray, and like we needed the uplifting words of our President here in our town.   The shootings come back into the news this Wednesday, two days from now,  when a court date is set for the shooter and our wounds will hurt all over again, but this concert will help all of us to heal and will provide significant assistance to all those directly hurt by that madman's actions and tools.   

Conservative Calls Labor Members Slobs and Animals

Just heard, on the Lawrence O'Donnell show, The Last Word, on MSNBC,  State Senator Grothman of Wisconsin refuse to apologize for calling the protesting constituents who are camped out in the Capitol "slobs."  In not doing this he also managed to dig a deeper hole for himself.   It seems union workers, public servants and the like are a different "breed" of people from the Walker supporting constituents of his district.  Just click on the link above and start watching the video 1:45 min. into the clip.


Does this consdescending, pompous *bleep* really understand that he is calling the public servants of his state animals?  He might as well have said, "Oh the common people, I do think they should be kept out of sight when the upper classes are about."

This shows a basic BIG problem in the U.S. that is presenting itself all the way from Wisconsin to Arizona.  Somehow ignorant people, truly ignorant people who despise education and knowledge, people that did not finish college and have found themselves in the upper socioeconomic brackets of society, through no efforts of their own, have taken over much of our political system.

These authoritarian elitists really think that they inherently are better than every one else and have the right to impose their beliefs on the rest of us and force us to do the work as they reap the benefit.  These folks are no better than anyone else and in my opinion have no class, no honor, and no conscience.  Our country was founded to help regular people have control over their own property.  We attempted to eliminate the power of the Monarchy with our War of Independence.  We created our country so rule would not be consolidated and inherited by a privileged few.  Common landowners were citizens with equal voice in governance; there were to be no rulers. 

While the common person was watching TV and consuming the opiate of the masses, the same little *bleepers* that would have been the simpering tax collectors of the monarchy switched their loyalties to the new monarchy - the corporation.    The U.S. originally gave the corporations no rights.  They did this for a very important reason.  The East India Tea Company was buddy, buddy with the Monarchy, Lords, and Ladies.  If you haven't read about corporate personhood, you should. 

I sincerely hope that legislatures start listening to their constituents because we are not that far away from another bloody revolution.   I don't want that.  You don't want that.  If anyone in your family works for the city or state, or receives any assistance from the county or state, or belongs to a private union you are cutting your own throat by supporting corporate interests.  Forget Repulicans, forget Democrats, look at who is in favor of progressing the state of the common person.  Traditionally Democrats support labor and Republicans support management.  This is no longer true.  Democrats now support labor and management.  Republicans support corporate management and owners.  Progressives support labor and local business.  Conservatives - well that word has been co-opted to the point where it means nothing.  If you are talking about religious conservatives, well that has no place in our governance structure.  Fiscal conservatism... well, no one has been fiscally responsible for decades.  Let's just get back to government of the people by and for the people.

And if our government refuses to represent the interests of the people, well we have to change the government.  I was at a PDA meeting last week and it was amazing, a couple hundred people showed up rather than the group of 20 that were present when PDA tried to start up in Tucson a few years ago. There was an energy there that was calling to be channeled into an aggressively progressive. 

At the same time that PDA is gaining steam, the Start Our State, or Baja Arizona, movement is getting attention.  Phoenix has been draining the coffers of Tucson returning far less than than an equitable amount to our community, allowing religious conservatives and pseudo-libertarian corporatists to impose anti-American legislation on our state, gut our K-12 and Higher Education systems, and insure a low wage workforce.  People are getting fed up. 

I for one am very tired of living in states that are absolutely regressive, but I love Tucson. When you are connected to a person who teaches and does research at a University level, you are tied to working in states that may not be your first choice if all other things were equal.  I would love to live in a state that somewhat supports my belief in democracy and equality.  Baja Arizona might just do it for me. 
But if elitists like Walker run Wisconsin, and wackos like Brewer run Arizona, I'm not sure where is safe to go other than metropolitan areas, and I don't want to have to do that.  Somehow I feel like my rights are being stepped on. 

Capitalist Hippies of the World Unite!

Went to see Moonalice at The Hut on 4th Avenue Saturday Night.  Damn good musicians, damn fine crowd and damn the torpedos, full speed ahead  social marketing experiment! Okay, to read much further you will have to acknowledge that not all baby boomers are evil nor are they all they all socio-tech illiterates.  Unlike the Saturday Night Live overview of a week ago insinuated, these boomers do not need anyone to tell them what iTunes is.  And speaking of SNL, a former/occasional/whatever Moonalice member was a the SNL bandleader for quite a while. These boomers have been turning on amps, tuning in their audiences, and dropping out tunes with the likes of Jefferson Starship, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia.... and on the way were investing in Google and Facebook early on, and are most generously gifting Wikipedia on a grand scale.

The power of the boomers (who are currently peaking at age 54 - height of the baby boom was 1957) may well only now be coming into season as the Late Boomers, roughly those born 1956 to 1964, who were the neglected largest half of the boom, we are talking temporal halves here, ok?   But this same group was also the subject of a book called Generation X. So the age group, cohort so to speak, are likely to be major players who are only now coming into second careers or early retirement.

Here I'm reminded of The Who's, Won't Get Fooled Again. The late boomers came of age and entered adulthood as rock shattered into plethora of proto-genres, as they began trying to find a foothold in an economy that  thwarted them at every turn.  The yuppies of the "me" generation were not so much greedy as simply far more aware of what the purveyors and power brokers of the last days of the 20th Century's "bigger is better" mindset does to individuals.  Heck and gosh, they'd been living with it all their lives: never enough desks in the classroom for them, marketing targeted at them from the cradle on, eco-disasters as a part of life, wars up close and personal on the teevee every night ... all these and much, much more created the mindset of the last half of the baby boom.  Pardon them for being a bit cynically and skeptically in your face about it.

The hippie ideology of the first half of the baby boom, leading edge boomers, is melding with the tactical knowledge of the late boomers. Age allows the collapsing of these distinct cohorts into a generation for the first time in their lives though the rest of the World has referred to them as a unified group since at least the late 1970s when the term "Baby Boomers" began to be used.

All this was realignment of cultural semiotics was made "perfectly clear," to borrow a "Tricky Dick" phrase, last evening when I watched, listened, and danced to the music of Moonalice [each member  listed with one of their more famous gigs;  Roger McNamee (T. Rowe Price,) Ann McNamee (Flying Other Brothers), Pete Sears (Jefferson Starship,) Barry Sless (David Nelson Band,) John Molo (Bruce Hornsby and the Range)] and the last couple days of research didn't hurt either.  Blogging note:  Research is good.  Action note: The revolution can be finished and podcasted, if not televised if the late boomers and early boomers combine forces for the good of human kind.  Rock, all sizes and shapes of it,  is our soundtrack! Okay back to the intriguing business aspects of Moonalice.

Roger McNamee is creating a different (as in "and now for something completely different") model of music making, performing, recording and playing that is a far more cooperative venture than anything the music industry would have ever tolerated.  This is good.  New types of organization require resources and advocates with influence.  McNamee is commenting on the corporate system itself, and, since he is an acknowledged master of at least some components of that system, and in the end this is one of the reasons I am intrigued by Moonalice.  While the musical ability of all the members will bowl you over whether or not you've had a bowl, the core of a revolution is contained within the marketing and relationship of all the participants to the ideology.  This new music model is build on relationship -- and that is more than just buying a ticket to watch or listen at some huge arena.

Rant About Lazy Citizens

I’m so tired of idiocy; Uneducated, close-minded, easy answer seeking schmucks!

People close their eyes to everything political around themselves for decades if not all of their lives, then when manipulated by large, powerful corporations or their surrogates, these blue-collar rubes fall into line behind the people and groups who are selling them down the river.  Yes, I am aware of the slavery metaphor.  I am also aware that processes are two-way exchange systems at the minimum.  If you are a slave then at some level you are condoning the behavior.  We can resist.  We can refuse.  And even though it feeds energy into the existing system we can fight.  Yes, you might feel the force of the waves you make.  You might be roughed up.  You might be killed. 

Everyone who doesn’t want to make waves in a corrupt system is a chicken shit.  I am tired of the weak willies and the small time operators and overseers who profit from the corruption in a small way. 

There were huge (read million plus people) demonstrations in D.C. pre-Iraq war.  No media coverage and complete collusion with an illegal and corrupt administration.  There is enough evidence in the new Rumsfeld book to demand a special investigation.

The Ronald Regan Administration’s arms for hostage deal opened the flood gates for strengthening terrorist actions that created the extreme religious terrorists that are everywhere in the world.   The same administration funded corrupt regimes and thugs throughout the mountainous regions of South Central Asia and Central and South America.  And the very same administration deregulated everything that is now destroying out economy, as well as allowing out media to be purchased by foreigners, something that is antithetical to a democratic country. 

The “war” on drugs did nothing but channel funds and energy into the producer countries and the cartels that support them and now prop up a prison industry that begins channeling children into the industry when they are still wet behind the ears. 

If we do not take down the corporations RIGHT NOW and restore judicial integrity the world will descend into total chaos before climate change and the 6^th extinction take us there.  If we act we may be able to survive the now inevitable global climate change and 6^th Extinction. 

This country had a few basic things right at the outset: 

• Keep religion out of politics. 
• Reject monarchy and the inheritance of governance. 
• Allow commerce but regulate it. 
• Create a government of, by, and for THE PEOPLE. 

I’ve just about had it.  I reject violence as it ultimately feeds the thing you attack.  But it is time for serious action.  

-     Keep your purportedly Christian Religion out of my life and government. 

-     Tax the rich.  Tax inheritance.  Tax estates.  Consolidation of wealth and power by a few families is antithetical to every belief embedded within the foundations of our government. 

-       Regulation is protection of the people.  

-       Commerce is to support the economy/livelihood of the people not to amass corporate wealth.

-        People need to work together, collectively, to be the government. 

Freedom and democracy requires work, and most people are too *bleeping* lazy or greedy to want to participate in the hard work and political struggle it takes to have a democracy.  I understand the libertarian position, but we have to have Federal level infrastructure.  You cannot have a country as big as ours, or a population as large as ours without taxes, regulation and infrastructure. 

I am absolutely convinced that the only way we will be able to survive as a people, a free people, is if the women of the United States complete our revolution and redirect our resources back to democratic action that allows all our beliefs to coexist through a collective and cooperative infrastructure that benefits the human family.  

I will talk about what got me so riled up (there are several things) in another post.   

Shawna Forde Found Guilty of the Murders of Brisenia Flores and Her Father

I don't like to use the names of crazies who commit murder, but in this case I am choosing to use the name of one of three  people charged with with a nine year old girl in southern Arizona.  The little girl, Brisenia, was nine when Shawna Forde masterminded the home invasion robberies of drop or stash houses near the Mexico - U.S. border south of Tucson, in Pima County, in 2009 in order to finance border militia operations.  The problem is that Brisenia's home wasn't a drop or stash house according to the evidence and the invasion turned into a double homicide.

The first of three trials for her and her father's murders ended just after noon today, February 14,2011.  Shawna Forde has been found guilty of first degree murder of both 9-year old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul.  Arizona does have the death penalty.  Sentencing of Ms. Forde will take place separately.

Two more trials of men accused in the murders have yet to take place.

Brisenia's mother identified Ms. Forde as one of the three people who broke into her house and killed her family in 2009.  There were also recordings of Forde's phone conversations and one of the father's rings was in her possession after the murders.  Apparently these things were enough for the predominantly female jury to find Forde guilty for planning and ordering the murders even though she did not fire the weapons.

The Minutemen, a border militia group, has splintered since Forde helped found the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps.  Forde, has been called unstable by this group, and she later founded another group , the Minutemen American Defense, of which one of the others charged in the slayings is National Operations Coordinator as well as being associated with Aryan Nation.   The Minutemen Project disavows affiliation with Ms. Forde.

The border militia groups deny being vigilante but at least some of the members of some of the groups  show the disregard of law as well as disregard of the rights of certain ethnic groups.  These actions of disrespect that are central to border vigilantism. 

Murder of 9 Year Old Arizona Girl Goes to Trial

While there is much debate about using the names of crazies who commit mass murder, in this case I am choosing not to use the names of three people associated with the border militia movement who stand accused of killing a nine year old girl in Southern Arizona.  The little girl who was gunned down was named  Brisenia Flores.   Brisenia Flores!  Brisenia Flores!!   Brisenia Flores!!!

Not the name you were expecting?  


I am aghast that Brisenia's name isn't on the tongue of every mother in this country.  A child, a little girl filled with promise, hope, and potential was gunned down in her home along with her father in a home invasion in Arivaca, AZ in 2009.  Her mother is alive only because she played dead after being shot, called 911, and shot one of the intruders after they returned.

The trial in her murder has started and we hear (as in national talking head coverage) nothing of it?  Why?  The violent nature of life on the border may or may not have had anything to do with the now infamous January 8th attempted political assassination of Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, 6 of whom died. People want to believe that.  But this trial certainly portrays a violent and obviously mentally deranged group of individuals who are very much part of life in Pima County, Arizona.

Do we hear nothing because there is no debate possible about motive?  Is the obvious motive one that no one in the U.S. media wants to look at?   Is it because a white woman appears to be behind the murders?  Is it because the little girl and her daddy who were brutally executed in their home had darker skin than the people who murdered them? 

The least coarse and provocative account of the shooting and arrests I can find to inform you, accurately, about the whole gruesome occurrence is from February 4 on All Things Considered by NPR. 

The trial is in recess until mid-week and is still in the jury selection and instruction phase of the trial process.  Arizona Daily Star reported on January 25th about the opening arguments.  The Daily Star reported on January 17th about the intricacies of the case and likely arguments to be used by both sides.   

Home Sweet Virtual Village

I can’t begin to do justice to any detailed explanation of just what the heck the metaverse is. But this sort of limitation has never stopped me. I’m absolutely sparkling with energy whenever anyone mentions virtual worlds. We’ve had virtual worlds inside our heads since the evolution of the capacity for language. We live in worlds that we create in our heads. We build worlds from input from eyes, ears, interaction with others, and our own understanding of the world. It is that understanding that is so crucial to really “getting” the concept of virtual worlds.

Just think about how a single bit of knowledge can shift everything in our “real world.” While I have many difficulties with the reasoning behind such actions in this example, I think most contemporary women in the western world can completely understand how the knowledge of an affair by a husband or life partner changes everything. Most women cannot view anything through the same lens once an affair is disclosed.

Similarly the mind’s eye is shaped by our understanding of it. Knowing that our reality isn’t real, as in immutable, changes everything. A new world is evolving. The created world that each of us has in our head can not in the foreseeable future be shared, but mutual realities beyond what we share with our families and most intimate friends began in earnest with oral traditions that contained epic tales. This aspect of shared reality enjoyed another burst of punctuated evolution when fictionalized worlds created by writers climbed the various rungs of shared cultural fictions (drama – think Shakespeare, novels – think Dickens, broadcast media – radio, movies, television, internet.) And now we are coming into the another phase of internet media and one that very well may indicate a change in kind and not just quantity – one that allows vast communally development of ideas outside of the physical world. Single novels each created by thousands of people. Vast networks of women providing direct markets to other women and bypassing the male constrained economic and political systems that may limit their access traditional forms of capital resources and mobility but not their creativity and drive to innovation.

I see organizations that work with global women’s concerns and I see non-profits that help women’s organizations, but most of these seem to mirror the male conceptualizations of hierarchy, corporate structure and hyper-territoriality.

I want to find out what women can do if they build community based on their conceptualizations. The endeavor that I’m undertaking is not only for feminists, communists, anarchists, lesbians or any other stereotype that is often associated with uppity women. What would a women-oriented, women-conceptualized network look like? What would it do? How would it do it? Why would it do it? The only answer I have is that I can provide one node in the answer to “Where would it do it?”

My answer, "here."


-- first draft written in Jan. 2010 on another one of my blogs

Trying to be Positive in Tucson

I'm serious about trying to be positive and build upon rather than to tear down.   I'm taking tiny steps toward this end.  Blogger and Tucson Massacre survivor yesterday called on all of us to something:

The history is defined a little awkwardly right now, and I'm not sure any of us has it in the place we need it to be.  But I have you here in The Burrow to help me think it through, and I have all of Tucson rooting for something good to come out of this horror.  I'm going to do my part.  And I wonder, as did Mr. Obama last night, what you as citizens and parents are willing to do.

If you don't mind, why not take a few minutes and give it some thought.  Feel free to let me know in the comments if you want to make a public commitment to something.  I know that it helps me to stay focused if I say it aloud.

America is not going to get better unless we are all in it together again.  Our President is asking us to join hands and take part.  I'm throwing in my two cents, too........ let's do something..... Christina will never be able to fulfill her incredible potential..... it's on us now to do it for her.

I am blogging here again and will continue to do so.  Is that something?  It is a start. And trying to stay as positive as possible is something.  At least it will be for me when I look at topics such as those I wanted to be today's topic: Arizona as an example of what is to come if the slow, occasionally punctuated, evolution of social policy of the United States follows Arizona's example.   The most conservative political factions in the country seem to be doing this.

Shining the light of day into, the dark shadowy areas of how the non-wealthy are treated in Arizona which is a proving ground for uber States Rights funded by out of state and corporate sources will be focused on over the next few months.  I will try to keep my barbed wit within tasteful limits in memory of  little Christina murdered by a madman who has become symbol of a call for civility, but remaining civil will be difficult because of little 9 year old Brisenia Flores who, though she begged for her life, was slaughtered in her home by Arizona border militia, and all those poor Arizona children who will be denied either transplants or basic health care due to Brewer's death panels.

The Strength of a Woman in Tucson

This morning I read two blog posts by a Tucson blogger, a member of the BlogHer Network, and a survivor of recent shootings.  Suzi Hileman, who writes The Burrow under the blogonym, Ashleigh Burroughs, is a new heroine of mine.  She writes about walking through the vigil garden at UMC on Sunday evening with her husband, and by law enforcement.  The garden was created for her and for the 19 others that were hurt or killed on January 8th.  She writes with a grace and strength that I can only describe as exceptional.

The first post of hers I read was written on Sunday. It was moving.  The second was written on Monday and it is inspirational.  It is as powerful of a piece of writing as I have read.  That she is able to write just over a week after being shot multiple times by a madman is beyond amazing. 

Many folks, myself included, allow the bumps in life to disturb them more than is necessary.  Our absolutely wimpy nature is made clear when we compare ourselves to this woman.  First she has written consistently for two years and built up a following and received recognition for the quality of her blog in that time.  That is an achievement.  Now as a survivor of a shooting that was an attempt at a political assassination, as the woman who was holding hands with little girl, Christine Green, as she was murdered by the madman, as the wife of a man who spoke eloquently and rationally about a vile act of a disturbed mind, she speaks calmly and with a clarity of a person who is either being guided by the divine if that exists, or who somehow has a gift to be able to see hopeful, blossoming patterns of what might be and guide us to them through this maze of absurdity that is now. 

In the midst of all this, there is also the fact that her personal life now connects to her writing life.  They were separate.  I put the two together when I was looking at a list of survivors and victims and saw no Ashleigh there.  Then I realized the wounds described by Ashleigh's daughter on the blog were the wounds described by the media as those of Suzi Hileman.  On top of everything else inflicted upon her and stolen from her, her anonymity was gone, she had been outed.  Fate saw fit to have the real woman behind the great blog emerge.  We cannot know why.  I hope she continues to blog, but it is not something that would be fair to ask of her.  If she continues to blog, it will be a gift. 

There are such treasures of people all around us.  People with gifts.  Angels Unaware so to speak.  I am adding Suzi to my list of comforts: places, thoughts, friends, readings, songs and poetry to which I can go, think, talk, read, listen when I need to find peace within myself.  Genuine voice.  Voice that takes me to a place in which I can find comfort. Real voices that know oh so much more than they ever wished to know.  Voice from which I can learn. 

I also feel tremendous sadness for Suzi.  As a person who has come to a point in life where she can give and speak from a point of wisdom, she is not to be envied.  Wisdom gathers knowledge into us through sadness, trauma, and loss.  Wisdom is the balance that comes with perspective showing beginnings and endings, full circles, and fearful beauty of birth and death.  Wisdom is nothing I would wish on anyone.  For those who have reached its sun and shadows I am most grateful when they share bits of what they have come to know, but it is nothing for which I could ever ask.  It is too personal.  It is a gift.   

Thank you Suzi. 

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Calls on Legislature to Do The Lord's Work

This is getting ridiculous.  You can read it for yourself, here, but basically Governor Jan Brewer seemed to step over some political/religioius boundaries when in today's replacement statement for the State of the State address she said, "With our faith and our courage tightly in place, we will step forward from this Chamber, dedicated to the Lord's work -- continuing our service to the public."

Arizona is run by right wing corporate money and has over-representation in its legislature by Christian and Mormon fundamentalists, most of us know that, but essentially charging the legislature to leave the legislative chambers and go out and do the work of a feudal concept of a male diety is way, way over the top. 

Being over the top is nothing new to Brewer.  She and her ilk seem to want to rule and not govern.  I don't want any elected official to do the Lord's work,  I want them to do what they were elected to do, the people's work.  I can ignore references to God by officials now and then, but this purely Christian religious charge to the legislature is offensive to me and probably is to others who think that the welfare of citizens beingplaced in the hands of people who believe in a feudal framing of the concept of a deity to be quite frightening. 

Polarization and Hate Speech from Elected Officials, Talking Heads, and Each and Every Citizen Impacts Each and Every One of Us

I write this for myself as much as for my friends who are readers and wondering what my take as a Tucsonan is on the horrors of yesterday.

My heart aches.  My eyes tear up on and off throughout the day.  Could I have done more to decrease the culture of hate and violence that has torn our nation apart and killed members of my community? I have to say that, "Yes, I could have done more."

No, no one killed was a personal friend of mine, but being an occasional participant in local political gatherings, being one of Gabby's District 8 constituents, and being an activist with a peace group who has made many trips to D.C. to participate in peace messaging to House and Senate members and office staff, I had met and interacted with several of the injured and killed.

After I returned from Indiana in 2007,  where I cared for my mother during the last months of her 92 year long life, I greatly decreased the frequency of my activist activities, that had began in 2003 and continued through early 2007, for several reasons.

1)  I was tired, exhausted.
2)  I had to find a job to pay off the significant debt I incurred caring for my mother because there is no good end of life health care in the U.S.
3) The escalation of violence in Tucson against peace activists by "counter demonstrators" continued during my absence and also during that time the Tucson Police Dept had stopped responding to requests for help from peace demonstrators outside weekly protests in front of a recruiting center when assaults by "counter demonstrators" occurred.  These "counter demonstrators dressed in military uniformed and had personally threatened me previously.  I was somewhat relieved when I found out I had to work on the morning when this vigil is held and this shames me.
4) I set off on a path to increase my inner peace and personal health.
5) I decided to focus on national level actions that spoke to me.
6) I selfishly felt the likelihood of personal injury to myself was much greater in Arizona than personal injury in the U.S. Capitol activism.

Had I been more vocal, and more articulate,  about the growing undercurrent in the atmosphere of hate and violence here in Tucson, that IS a real and palpable presence by the way, could I have nudged a thing or occurrence here or there that might have somehow changed something?   I absolutely believe that it is no accident that this horrible attempted assassination, and the related murders and shootings, which so many on the left were afraid would happen, happened in Tucson.  Many people in Tucson and across the country had voiced concern about  just such a thing happening after images and speech suggesting violence became routine parts of political campaigns.  Many feel that this horror happened here in the rabidly out of control Fundamentalist Mormon & Christian and Republican controlled state of Arizona because the atmosphere here helped a very disturbed young man feel it was acceptable to attempt to assassinate a Congresswoman.

No, I don't feel personally responsible for any one thing, but I do feel there is some possibility that I could have done something more to help change the atmosphere; I know we all, each and every one of us, have impact on others far beyond what we will ever know.  My favorite movie is It's a Wonderful Life, not only because I'm a sap, but because this story so beautifully shows the inadvertent and indirect, but significant, impact we not only have on those we love or interact with on a daily basis, but on those whose lives only tangentially brush our lives.

I am upset that health care in Arizona has devolved to such a degree that individuals who are known to be potentially violent and dangerous are not getting needed mental health care and are able to buy weaponry and carry out murders and assassination attempts.

I am grateful that the anti-education machine in the AZ government has been unable to completely strip the University of Arizona and the University Medical Center of funding for the only Trauma Center in Southern Arizona.  Without this, many more people, including Gabby would have probably died.

I am sickened that guns can be carried and concealed practically anywhere in the State of Arizona.  I can't imagine what the upcoming redistricting in Arizona will do to the remaining and already irrationally fragmented political districts.  The ability of liberal areas to have any meaningful self-governance have been politically silenced in the state as is evidenced by Tucson and other liberal Arizona enclaves division in egregious gerrymandering that will probably only get worse this year.

I am quite upset by statements made by various elected officials in Arizona who have called for "moving on"  from this tragedy within hours of the shooting, by Senator Kyl's statement that condemns Sheriff Dupnik rather than a statement decrying the violence.  This reversion to political speak within hours of a mass murder in their jurisdictions unfortunately illustrates the disconnect these officials have from the real world.  These leaders should apologize, at the very least, for such callous behavior when a city, state, and indeed, a nation are in mourning.  I am upset that Boehner has chosen to focus on protecting House Members and their staff when half the dead were simple innocent constituent civilians--we don't just need to increase security.  We need to increase civility.

Jesse Kelly's ad on the Pima County Republican website in early June 2010

I unfortunately continue to be outraged by folks on the political right who say the left wanted this to happen for some perverse reason.  By we progressives saying we were afraid something like this would happen when gunsights or target icons were placed over congressional districts in campaign materials and websites, or when Gabby's opponent had an automatic weapon shooting fest to remove Gabby from office does not mean that we wanted it to happen.  As I think you can see by this ad image, the implications of this vitriolic language was over the top and could have even unconsciously influenced the gunman.

The best thing the political right and or left can do right now is to apologize for anything they may have said or done,  or that was said or done on their behalf, that in any way helped to create an atmosphere that allowed or incited this mass shooting and murder to happen.

We all have to tone it down.  But to deny responsibility is childish.  We all create our world.  We must all take responsibility for it.  The people who were killed or injured were human, no more, no less.

Arizona Shooting in Tucson Calls for Much Explanation & Investigation

The atmosphere here in Tucson is tense and emotions are running very high due the shooting of 18 people, including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords this morning outside of a grocery.   

I've gotten calls from friends wanting to make sure I wasn't at the grocery store gathering where the shooting happened.  I wasn't.  I could have been.  My husband could have been.  He has spoken to Gabby outside Safeway Grocery stores before.   Gabby has petted our mastiff and asked if he was a blue dog Democrat.  My husband said, "Yes, he is a blue dog, but I am a yellow dog."

A person who grew up next door to Jared Laughner told my daughter that Jared was relatively normal until High School when he reportedly suffered emotional problems and was rumored to have tried to harm himself more than once. 

The shooter was disturbed, no doubt about it, but whether he was politically motivated or not, the zeitgeist that allowed this to happen was partially created and constantly churned by Right Wing Hate Speech including Sarah Palin and Jesse Kelly.

Read about Jesse Kelly's target practice aimed at Giffords here. 
Read about Sarah Palin's targeted list including Giffords here.
Read about previous problems Giffords has had with violent hate speech and actions here.

The powers that be here in Arizona have some explaining to do.   Gun laws here allowed this slaughter of innocents to happen.  Law enforcement's comfortable numbness to the wackos here who in many cases are their buddies helped this to happen.  The unconscionable statements by the Govenor of Arizona and other Republican elected officials from Arizona today to "move on" from this event show the disconnect from reality that the right-wingers in this state have  developed over the last few decades and last few years in particular.  The shooting was this morning.  The terribly disturbed partisanship and sense of right and wrong in this state is well evidenced by these statements.  Move on?  MOVE ON?  How about investigate?  How about mourn?  How about draw together to learn and grow from a horrific event.   But move on?  How callous.  This is the type of depersonalization or devaluation of those who disagree with you that must end. 



 

Giffords was TARGETED by Palin