michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
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Post by michelle on Jan 2, 2008 8:19:02 GMT 4
Happy New Year, Mr. President? Here is a video post card designed by friend, Monique. She is TIRELESS in her commitment to ending the Iraq war, pushing for Impeachment and bringing political enlightenment to U.S. citizens. Monique does this by writing endless 'Letters to the Editor' to mainstream newspapers and other print publications, by attending and organizing rallies and protests in Philadelphia, maintaining her own website, and creating videos of protest.
Lord how I wish more people would commit to a fraction of the effort she puts forth for our country and peoples of the world. Please give her post card a look, speakers on.
Hat's off to Monique, A BIG THANK YOU for all that you do! MichelleHappy New Year, Mr. President?About This Video: Added: 01 January 2008 Video-post card for George W. Bush and message to the good people of America. IMPEACH! Added: 01 January 2008 See: au.youtube.com/watch?v=9O5d9CZX_9Q------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ IMPEACHMENT rally, picked up by local media:Dozens Rallied for Impeachment, Sunday December 30th in PhiladelphiaBy Philly IMC | 12.31.2007 Yesterday over thirty people came out to Independence Hall in Old City to extend a warm welcome to John Nirenberg, Marcher for Impeachment. On December 1st, John Nirenberg began his 485 Mile March from Boston to Nancy Pelosi’s Office in Washington D.C. On Sunday, December 30 at Independence Mall at 1:00 PM, groups from Philadelphia and South Jersey gathered to demonstrate their commitment to John Nirenberg’s “March in my Name” 485 mile trip from Boston to Nancy Pelosi’s office in Washington DC. John Nirenberg of Brattleboro, VT, started his walk on December 1st from Faneuil Hall in Boston, MA to gather petitions for the Impeachment of Bush and Cheney, along with spurring attention to the dire Constitutional crisis we face. “We voted for change in 2006,” Nirenberg says, “but the Democrats aren’t doing what we elected them to do. The war goes on; the torture continues. Torture! Can you believe we actually discuss water-boarding, and the ‘legality’ of beating prisoners until they’re just short of organ failure and death? And what about suspending the right of habeas corpus? And of conducting illegal spying on American citizens? What has happened to this country? And why have we let it? The Bush/Cheney administration must be held accountable for their unquestionable ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ and their complete disregard for the U.S. Constitution. That’s why I’m marching from Boston to Washington, D.C. I want more Americans to become aware of this appalling situation — and to know that we can do something about it.” Nirenberg has been met by numerous rallies encouraging him along the way , including New Haven, CT; Providence, RI; Manhattan; Jersey City, Trenton and many more, emphasizing the growing numbers in this country desiring that justice be served and our rights restored. In Philly, David Lindorff, co-author of “The Case for Impeachment”, Bill Perry – Delaware Valley Vets for Peace and others presented their assessments of Pelosi’s stance of Impeachment being “off the table”. To learn more: marchinmyname website | See the video of the rally | See photos of the rallywww.phillyimc.org/en/2007/12/43943.shtml------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please give Monique's website a visit, where you can learn about her work and read her letters: I am an activist for Justice and Peace. I lived in Africa, France, and now reside in the United States. I like to write, take photographs, travel and meet many people from different cultures.Go to: sauvessanges.com/url for this post: tinyurl.com/2xzxav
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Feb 22, 2008 5:30:37 GMT 4
Election Madness By Howard Zinn The Progressive March 2008 Issue There's a man in Florida who has been writing to me for years (ten pages, handwritten) though I've never met him. He tells me the kinds of jobs he has held-security guard, repairman, etc. He has worked all kinds of shifts, night and day, to barely keep his family going. His letters to me have always been angry, railing against our capitalist system for its failure to assure "life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness" for working people. Just today, a letter came. To my relief it was not handwritten because he is now using e-mail: "Well, I'm writing to you today because there is a wretched situation in this country that I cannot abide and must say something about. I am so enraged about this mortgage crisis. That the majority of Americans must live their lives in perpetual debt, and so many are sinking beneath the load, has me so steamed. Damn, that makes me so mad, I can't tell you. . . . I did a security guard job today that involved watching over a house that had been foreclosed on and was up for auction. They held an open house, and I was there to watch over the place during this event. There were three of the guards doing the same thing in three other homes in this same community. I was sitting there during the quiet moments and wondering about who those people were who had been evicted and where they were now." On the same day I received this letter, there was a front-page story in the Boston Globe, with the headline "Thousands in Mass. Foreclosed on in '07." The subhead was "7,563 homes were seized, nearly 3 times the '06 rate." A few nights before, CBS television reported that 750,000 people with disabilities have been waiting for years for their Social Security benefits because the system is underfunded and there are not enough personnel to handle all the requests, even desperate ones. Stories like these may be reported in the media, but they are gone in a flash. What's not gone, what occupies the press day after day, impossible to ignore, is the election frenzy. This seizes the country every four years because we have all been brought up to believe that voting is crucial in determining our destiny, that the most important act a citizen can engage in is to go to the polls and choose one of the two mediocrities who have already been chosen for us. It is a multiple choice test so narrow, so specious, that no self-respecting teacher would give it to students. And sad to say, the Presidential contest has mesmerized liberals and radicals alike. We are all vulnerable. Is it possible to get together with friends these days and avoid the subject of the Presidential elections? The very people who should know better, having criticized the hold of the media on the national mind, find themselves transfixed by the press, glued to the television set, as the candidates preen and smile and bring forth a shower of clichés with a solemnity appropriate for epic poetry. Even in the so-called left periodicals, we must admit there is an exorbitant amount of attention given to minutely examining the major candidates. An occasional bone is thrown to the minor candidates, though everyone knows our marvelous democratic political system won't allow them in. No, I'm not taking some ultra-left position that elections are totally insignificant, and that we should refuse to vote to preserve our moral purity. Yes, there are candidates who are somewhat better than others, and at certain times of national crisis (the Thirties, for instance, or right now) where even a slight difference between the two parties may be a matter of life and death. I'm talking about a sense of proportion that gets lost in the election madness. Would I support one candidate against another? Yes, for two minutes-the amount of time it takes to pull the lever down in the voting booth. But before and after those two minutes, our time, our energy, should be spent in educating, agitating, organizing our fellow citizens in the workplace, in the neighborhood, in the schools. Our objective should be to build, painstakingly, patiently but energetically, a movement that, when it reaches a certain critical mass, would shake whoever is in the White House, in Congress, into changing national policy on matters of war and social justice. Let's remember that even when there is a "better" candidate (yes, better Roosevelt than Hoover, better anyone than George Bush), that difference will not mean anything unless the power of the people asserts itself in ways that the occupant of the White House will find it dangerous to ignore. The unprecedented policies of the New Deal-Social Security, unemployment insurance, job creation, minimum wage, subsidized housing-were not simply the result of FDR's progressivism. The Roosevelt Administration, coming into office, faced a nation in turmoil. The last year of the Hoover Administration had experienced the rebellion of the Bonus Army-thousands of veterans of the First World War descending on Washington to demand help from Congress as their families were going hungry. There were disturbances of the unemployed in Detroit, Chicago, Boston, New York, Seattle. In 1934, early in the Roosevelt Presidency, strikes broke out all over the country, including a general strike in Minneapolis, a general strike in San Francisco, hundreds of thousands on strike in the textile mills of the South. Unemployed councils formed all over the country. Desperate people were taking action on their own, defying the police to put back the furniture of evicted tenants, and creating self-help organizations with hundreds of thousands of members. Without a national crisis-economic destitution and rebellion-it is not likely the Roosevelt Administration would have instituted the bold reforms that it did. Today, we can be sure that the Democratic Party, unless it faces a popular upsurge, will not move off center. The two leading Presidential candidates have made it clear that if elected, they will not bring an immediate end to the Iraq War, or institute a system of free health care for all. They offer no radical change from the status quo. They do not propose what the present desperation of people cries out for: a government guarantee of jobs to everyone who needs one, a minimum income for every household, housing relief to everyone who faces eviction or foreclosure. They do not suggest the deep cuts in the military budget or the radical changes in the tax system that would free billions, even trillions, for social programs to transform the way we live. None of this should surprise us. The Democratic Party has broken with its historic conservatism, its pandering to the rich, its predilection for war, only when it has encountered rebellion from below, as in the Thirties and the Sixties. We should not expect that a victory at the ballot box in November will even begin to budge the nation from its twin fundamental illnesses: capitalist greed and militarism. So we need to free ourselves from the election madness engulfing the entire society, including the left. Yes, two minutes. Before that, and after that, we should be taking direct action against the obstacles to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. For instance, the mortgage foreclosures that are driving millions from their homes-they should remind us of a similar situation after the Revolutionary War, when small farmers, many of them war veterans (like so many of our homeless today), could not afford to pay their taxes and were threatened with the loss of the land, their homes. They gathered by the thousands around courthouses and refused to allow the auctions to take place. The evictions today of people who cannot pay their rents should remind us of what people did in the Thirties when they organized and put the belongings of the evicted families back in their apartments, in defiance of the authorities. Historically, government, whether in the hands of Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or liberals, has failed its responsibilities, until forced to by direct action: sit-ins and Freedom Rides for the rights of black people, strikes and boycotts for the rights of workers, mutinies and desertions of soldiers in order to stop a war. Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens. ---------- Howard Zinn is the author of "A People's History of the United States," "Voices of a People's History" (with Anthony Arnove), and most recently, "A Power Governments Cannot Suppress." Note from Michelle: I highly recommend reading Zinn's, A People's History of the United States. It is my preferred text when teaching U.S. History. In it, Zinn focuses on rebellious movements by the people. He also examines how citizens are encouraged to feel and be helpless through 'salvationism' which interestingly, is the method of social control intrinsic to organized religion.Source:www.truthout.org/docs_2006/022108B.shtml
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Feb 25, 2008 12:16:38 GMT 4
Tax Resistance -- The Moral and Legal DefenseMore on this subject, previous page 2, at:Re: American Resistance « Reply #24 on Nov 16, 2007, 1:22pm » Ending the war begins with you!Every person who pays federal taxes in the United States contributes to the war machine. This year, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee is reaching out to average citizens to encourage them to join ranks of war tax resisters. War tax resistance doesn't mean you don't pay your federal taxes, it simply means that the money is redirected into campaigns or projects that you feel government services should be focusing on.....Michelle[/color] An appeal to A People’s Campaign to Defund the War ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tax Resistance -- The Moral and Legal DefenseRed Pills Our country, founded on the principles of liberty and independence, is no longer our country, but instead has been hijacked by a group of businessmen and businessmen who play politicians who trample over our civil liberties and sell our independence to the highest bidder, both foreign or domestic. Today, corporations, not the people, write our laws and leave the needs of the nation to waste while money is spent for bombs and bullets and concentration camps. Under the last two administrations, which were stolen harpers.org/archive/2005/08/0080696 wantonly and openly by the hijackers, Americans have seen their retirements funds stolen, the nation's treasure pillaged, their jobs outsourced, their infrustructure dismantled, and their country plunged into a never-ending war crafted by Machiavellian-Neocon minds controlling the White House. Congress, beholden to these interests, have shirked their duties to represent the people and have colluded with the hijackers by passing unconstitutional laws like the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the John Warren Defense Appropriation Act, and countless others laws that will further erode our liberties and freedoms. Isn't tax resistance the least we could do in light of all these injustices? When do we start expressing outrage (as well as freedom and bravery) by stopping the blood money spigot which is financing this rogue state? Just when do we decide to pull the plug on this illegal war that we were lied into and that has already killed over a million people? Just when do we stop paying our legislators who are actively working to destroy the U.S. Constitution? Just when do we stop funneling our tax dollars to be used to build concentration camps here in the United States for our own enslavement? Just when do we stop aiding and abetting torture? At what point do we say enough is enough!?These are the moral arguments to not pay federal taxes, but, for those of you who are worried that you are breaking the law by not paying the feds, rest assured that the very law itself says that you have no legal obligation to pay if you know that these money will be spent in the commission of a crime. For instance, if you know that the government is breaking domestic and international law, and we have ample proof that they are, see: "Summary of International and U.S. Law Prohibiting Torture and Other Ill-treatment of Persons in Custody" www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/05/24/usint8614.htm "US War Crimes During the Gulf War," by Francis Boyle www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fab090202.html "A Chronology of US War Crimes & Torture, 1975-2005" www.counterpunch.org/stephens05132005.htmlit is incumbent upon you to resist these crimes by refusing to finance them because, according to U.S. law, if you don't, you will be considered criminal liability and subject to prosecution. According to our legal system when a person kills someone in the process of committing a crime, his accomplice (who wasn't directly involved in the killing) would be just as guilty as his partner who pulled the trigger. It doesn't matter that the accomplice didn't actually do the killing or that he might have objected to the use of such violence, to the U.S. legal system he is just as liable for murder as his partner and would be charged with 1st or 2nd degree murder. Here is the definition of an "accomplice" in the legal dictionary: "One who knowingly, voluntarily, and with common intent unites with the principal offender in the commission of a crime. One who is in some way concerned or associated in commission of crime; partaker of guilt; one who aids or assists, or is an Accessory. One who is guilty of complicity in crime charged, either by being present and aiding or abetting in it, or having advised and encouraged it, though absent from place when it was committed, though mere presence, Acquiescence, or silence, in the absence of a duty to act, is not enough, no matter how reprehensible it may be, to constitute one an accomplice. One is liable as an accomplice to the crime of another if he or she gave assistance or encouragement or failed to perform a legal duty to prevent it with the intent thereby to promote or facilitate commission of the crime."-- The Legal Dictionary legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/accompliceI don't think it gets anymore explicit than that. The law is unambiguous: If you knowingly give assistance or encouragement or failed to perform a legal duty to prevent the commission of a crime you are liable as an accomplice to that crime. So, when we send Federal taxes off to the state and and we know the money will be used on an illegal war and to pay torturers, and to destroy our Constitution, we are breaking the law and can be held accountable. Once again, the law is unambiguous, you would be breaking the law by being an accomplice to a crime by paying your federal taxes. Now, many tax resisters are using various constituional arguments to not pay taxes. Some use the excuse that the 16th Amendment was never ratified, therefore, it is null and void; others say that tax laws only stipulate paying taxes made on certain profits, but not on income derived from labor. There may be some validity to these argument but I believe that we need to take a moral stance similar to what Henry David Thoreau would have advocated in "Civil Disobedience." It's one thing to say that taxes are wrong because it wasn't codified or was misused in a legal document, and another to say that taxes are wrong because they are being used to commit morally reprehensible and illegal acts. The added bonus to this moral/legal argument is that it is unimpeachable in its logic: One doesn't have to be a tax law/Constitution scholar to argue the "accomplice to a crime" defense. Please obey the law and refuse to be an accomplice to a crime. Stop paying your federal taxes. Also see: National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee: www.nwtrcc.org/ and WAR TAX RESISTANCE GROWS Posted by redpill8 at 9:41 AM: See article below.Source: redpill8.blogspot.com/2008/02/tax-resistance-moral-and-legal-defense.html------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WAR TAX RESISTANCE GROWS
50¢ of Every Tax Dollar Goes to Pay for Wars; Large Numbers of Americans Refusing to Pony UpBy John Tiffany Increasing numbers of Americans say the U.S. government is involved in immoral and illegal wars around the world and are refusing to support this with their tax money. The invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and the indiscriminate killing of civilians, for example, are outlawed by international law. “Of every tax dollar paid, more than 50 cents goes to pay for past, present and future military expenses. The military budget for the Department of Defense alone for 2005 will be close to $500 billion. Our payment of federal taxes enables the government to carry on a continuing program of illegal military activities,” wrote Glen Milner, a member of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Wash., in a recent opinion piece in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “International laws and agreements support and encourage citizens to resist their government when it is engaged in illegal acts,” Milner added. Under international laws, those who facilitate illegal wars and war crimes could actually be morally—if not legally—accountable, say proponents of resisting war taxes. Principle IV of the Nuremberg Principles states: “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him.” For example, a 1996 ruling by the International Court of Justice regarding the threat or use of nuclear weapons could be interpreted to mean that the United States’ deployment of depleted uranium weapons is illegal. The humanitarian measure prohibits the use of weapons or methods of warfare that are directed against civilians or cannot discriminate between military targets and civilians; cause unnecessary suffering to combatants; violate the territory of neutral states; cause long-term and widespread damage to the environment or use poisonous substances. Most war tax resisters redirect their withheld federal tax funds to outfits such as the Conscience and Military Tax Campaign Escrow Account in Seattle. This way, the money is still on hand, if they should ever be forced to fork it over. Though getting a notice from the Internal Revenue Service is likely, jail is uncommon for war tax resisters. Still, there are no guarantees. IRS public affairs officer Ken Vargas of the Austin, Texas, office of the IRS explains the collections office sends out “soft notices” first, followed by “harder notices” later. Vargas says the IRS doesn’t keep a handy record of war tax resisters. He insists “normal collection procedures” apply to all subjects, regardless of whether they write letters stating their war tax resistance. In fact, the tax reform act of 1998 makes it illegal for the IRS to designate tax protesters as a special class. Susan Quinlan, a Bay Area organizer for the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, pegs the number of war tax resisters who have seriously faced jail time at less than 20 over the past 50 years. It doesn’t necessarily have to be your income tax that you use for protesting, either. One of the first federal taxes to spark opposition was the federal phone tax. This tax has been in existence since 1914. Originally introduced as a “temporary” tax, after 76 years Congress made it permanent and set its level at 3 percent of your phone bill. Protesters simply include a note saying that they refuse to pay their federal excise tax for conscientious purposes and pay the rest. Resistance to the telephone tax has a long and distinguished history, and most phone companies will put up no fight to customers who will not pay it. Perhaps they’re just as happy not to serve as unpaid tax collectors for the feds. In any event, tax resister groups estimate that tens of thousands of Americans don’t pay their income taxes in order to protest U.S.-backed war efforts around the world. And, they say, that number is growing every year. Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003Source: www.americanfreepress.net/html/war_tax_resistance.html
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Feb 28, 2008 17:13:07 GMT 4
Governor tells Pentagon to return Guard gearWell, well, well...It seems that the state governments are starting to put the pressure on Washington and the Pentagon. I hope we see more of this since our Congress continues to do nothing. The Governors are closer to their constituents who expect the state to be responsive to their needs. Over the years, the state's authority has been slowly overshadowed and sometimes completely erroded by the federal government....One example of this would be The No Child Left Behind Legislation [which the individual states are up in arms about] Could we possibly see an uprising of state government against the strains of unending war and the unlimited funding for it? At the conception of our country, the individual states were extremely wary of loosing control to a powerful central government....Could this be the beginning of the new revolution in our country?....just a thought....Also Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has become cool to the idea of putting his support behind presidential candidate John McCain; a war monger himself....MichelleGovernor tells Pentagon to return Guard gearZachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau Tuesday, February 26, 2008 (02-26) 04:00 PST Washington -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told Bush administration officials Monday that he is tired of the Pentagon treating the California National Guard like a stepchild by using its equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan without returning or replacing it.The Republican governor, in a visit to Washington for the annual meeting of the National Governors' Association, said the California National Guard is missing about half of its equipment - from humvees to radios. That could leave California at risk in an earthquake, fire or other emergency, Schwarzenegger said. "It's not fair to the states for the federal government to go into a war and then to take from us the equipment," he said after meetings Monday with President Bush and Cabinet officials. "Every time our National Guard leaves, they take with them equipment but they don't bring it back." Other governors have also complained about the drain of equipment. Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat, said last May that her state's response to a tornado in the town of Greensburg was limited because 15 of the Kansas National Guard's 19 Black Hawk helicopters were overseas, along with trucks, bulldozers and other equipment.Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Schwarzenegger and other governors that the Pentagon plans to pay to replace some of the equipment that is damaged or destroyed, but the compensation could take several years because of budget constraints. Schwarzenegger said states also face budget shortfalls and can't shoulder the burden indefinitely.During the Southern California fires in October, some local officials complained about a lack of air support to contain the blazes, while state and federal officials criticized the U.S. military for failing to deploy some of its C-130 planes immediately after the fires broke out. A few weeks later, when high winds threatened to worsen fires in Southern California, four of the planes were sent after state officials asked for help. About 2,500 of the state's National Guardsmen are overseas out of a force of more than 20,000. The state estimates that $1 billion worth of equipment is being used, from diesel generators to trucks to GPS devices. The California National Guard is also stretched thin because about 1,400 guardsmen are helping the federal government to secure the border with Mexico. "There's only so long you can do that," the governor said. "We now are missing 50 percent of the equipment - the equipment also (used) to train the National Guard." Schwarzenegger used his trip to press several other key issues with federal officials - although he left Washington with few firm commitments. In a meeting with Bush and a small group of border governors from the United States and Mexico, he asked for more federal help in stopping drug smuggling, human trafficking and money laundering. He also pushed the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to open more traffic lanes at the border to ease congestion and boost trade with Mexico, California's biggest trading partner. He met with Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson to discuss mortgage issues. The recently approved stimulus package raised federal mortgage limits in high-cost areas from $419,000 to $729,000, but the provision expires at the end of the year. Schwarzenegger wants to see the new limits become permanent, which would help many Bay Area homeowners. Any such package would require congressional action. The governor is also leading a new effort to lobby the federal government to increase spending on infrastructure. The White House has been cool to the idea, although Democrats in the Senate are talking about a new stimulus package that would add more money for rebuilding highways, bridges and water systems. "It doesn't need to be part of the stimulus package, it can be separate," Schwarzenegger said, suggesting the money could be inserted into appropriations bills. The governor said he was too busy this trip to lobby the administration to reconsider its denial of California's waiver to implement its first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas regulations for cars and trucks. The state has sued to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to reject the state's rules. Schwarzenegger took a few political questions Monday. Asked if he had any advice for Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, he did not urge him to quit the race, but he did suggest the race for the GOP nomination was over. "The people have made their decision," he said. Schwarzenegger, who endorsed Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain before the Feb. 5 California primary, also downplayed the idea that he would spend much time campaigning for McCain before November."There will be a time he will ask me for my help," he said. "He also knows and makes it clear that I am busy and my No. 1 priority is the people of California."Schwarzenegger took his mother-in-law, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, to a dinner with Bush and other governors at the White House Sunday. He also found time for two fundraisers for his political action committee, the California Dream Team, that were expected to raise about $250,000. E-mail Zachary Coile at zcoile@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco ChronicleSource: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/26/MN29V8FHL.DTL
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michelle
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I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Apr 9, 2008 14:11:33 GMT 4
Every year, I help prepare income taxes. I see what people are actually making, families they support, and I LISTEN to their stories. 'Been hearing much from independent truckers and what they see and who they talk to across the country. I met some who participated in the events described below. Times have been tough on the independents and they transport all the goods we need....."EVERYONE does better when EVERYONE does better!" Michelle Truckers Protest, the Resistance Begins By Barbara Ehrenreich Barbaraehrenreich.com Monday 07 April 2008 Until the beginning of this month, Americans seemed to have nothing to say about their ongoing economic ruin except, "Hit me! Please, hit me again!" You can take my house, but let me mow the lawn for you one more time before you repossess. Take my job and I'll just slink off somewhere out of sight. Oh, and take my health insurance too; I can always fall back on Advil. Then, on April 1, in a wave of defiance, truck drivers began taking the strongest form of action they can take - inaction. Faced with $4/gallon diesel fuel, they slowed down, shut down and started honking. On the New Jersey Turnpike, a convoy of trucks stretching "as far as the eye can see," according to a turnpike spokesman, drove at a glacial 20 mph. Outside of Chicago, they slowed and drove three abreast, blocking traffic and taking arrests. They jammed into Harrisburg PA; they slowed down the Port of Tampa where 50 rigs sat idle in protest. Near Buffalo, one driver told the press he was taking the week off "to pray for the economy." The truckers who organized the protests - by CB radio and internet - have a specific goal: reducing the price of diesel fuel. They are owner-operators, meaning they are also businesspeople, and they can't break even with current fuel costs. They want the government to release its fuel reserves. They want an investigation into oil company profits and government subsidies of the oil companies. Of the drivers I talked to, all were acutely aware that the government had found, in the course of a weekend, $30 billion to bail out Bear Stearns, while their own businesses are in a tailspin. But the truckers' protests have ramifications far beyond the owner-operators' plight -first, because trucking is hardly a marginal business. You may imagine, here in the blogosphere, that everything important travels at the speed of pixels bouncing off of satellites, but 70 percent of the nation's goods - from Cheerios to Chapstick -travel by truck. We were able to survive a writers' strike, but a trucking strike would affect a lot more than your viewing options. As Donald Hayden, a Maine trucker put it to me: "If all the truckers decide to shut this country down, there's going to be nothing they can do about it." More importantly, the activist truckers understand their protest to be part of a larger effort to "take back America," as one put it to me. "We continue to maintain this is not just about us," "JB" - which is his CB handle and stands for the "Jake Brake" on large rigs - told me from a rest stop in Virginia on his way to Florida. "It's about everybody - the homeowners, the construction workers, the elderly people who can't afford their heating bills ... This is not the action of the truck drivers, but of the people." Hayden mentions his parents, ages and 81 and 76, who've fought the Maine winter on a fixed income. Missouri-based driver Dan Little sees stores shutting down in his little town of Carrollton. "We're Americans," he tells me, "We built this country, and I'll be damned if I'm going to lie down and take this." At least one of the truckers' tactics may be translatable to the foreclosure crisis. On March 29, Hayden surrendered three rigs to be repossessed by Daimler-Chrysler - only he did it publicly, with flair, right in front of the statehouse in Augusta. "Repossession is something people don't usually see," he says, and he wanted the state legislature to take notice. As he took the keys, the representative of Daimler-Chrysler said, according to Hayden, "I don't see why you couldn't make the payments." To which Hayden responded, "See, I have to pay for fuel and food, and I've eaten too many meals in my life to give that up." Suppose homeowners were to start making their foreclosures into public events- inviting the neighbors and the press, at least getting someone to camcord the children sitting disconsolately on the steps and the furniture spread out on the lawn. Maybe, for a nice dramatic touch, have the neighbors shower the bankers, when they arrive, with dollar bills and loose change, since those bankers never can seem to get enough. But the larger message of the truckers' protest is about pride or, more humbly put, self-respect, which these men channel from their roots. Dan Little tells me, "My granddad said, and he was the smartest man I ever knew, 'If you don't stand up for yourself ain't nobody gonna stand up for you.'" Go to theamericandriver.com, run by JB and his brother in Texas, where you're greeted by a giant American flag, and you'll find - among the driving tips, weather info, and drivers' favorite photos -the entire Constitution and Declaration of Independence. "The last time we faced something as impacting on us," JB tells me, "There was a revolution." The actions of the first week in April were just the beginning. There's talk of a protest in Indiana on the 18th, another in New York City, and a giant convergence of trucks on DC on the 28th. Who knows what it will all add up to? Already, according to JB, some of the big trucking companies are threatening to fire any of their employees who join the owner-operators' protests. But at least we have one shining example of defiance of the face of economic assault. There comes a point, sooner or later, when you stop scrambling around on all fours and, like JB and his fellow drivers all over the country, you finally stand up. If you would like to help support the truckers in any way, go to www.theamericandriver.com/files/TruckersAndCitizensUnited.html. Source: www.truthout.org/docs_2006/040808M.shtml
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michelle
Administrator
I have broken any attachments I had to the Ascended Masters and their teachings; drains your chi!
Posts: 2,100
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Post by michelle on Sept 1, 2008 18:15:10 GMT 4
MY BIRTHDAY WISH FOR TODAYI was playing music last night and this one was on; I thought: What a wonderful b-day wish! So, won't you help me blow out the candles and join me in my wish? Speakers up! Singin' and dancin' are encouraged..... Michelle [What's that you say? The card's in the mail? You guys are great! ;D ]Neil Young: Let's Impeach The PresidentFrom: killuglyradio Joined: 2 years ago Videos: 13 Added: November 01, 2006 The official video for Neil Young's "Let's Impeach The President" (also available as a free download on neilyoung.com). Sing Along!Let's Impeach The PresidentNeil Young Let's Impeach the President for lyin' Misleading our country into WAR Abusing all the power that we gave him And shipping all our money out the door
Who's the man who hired all the criminals? The white house shadows who hide behind closed doors And bend the facts to fit with their new story Of why we have to send our men to war
Let's Impeach the President for spyin' On citizens inside their own homes Breaking ev'ry law in the country By tapping our computers and telephones
What if AL QUAEDA blew up the levees, Would New Orleans have been safer that way? Sheltered by the government's protection Or was someone just not home that day?
Flip....Flop Flip....Flop Flip....Flop Flip....Flop Flip....Flop Flip....Flop Flip....Flop Flip....Flop
Let's Impeach the President for hijacking Our religion and using it to get elected Dividing our country into colors And still leaving black people neglected
Thank GOD he's crackin' down on steroids Since he sold his old baseball team There's lot's of people lookin' at big trouble But of course the president is clean
Thank GOD You can also read Neil's political news at:www.neilyoung.com/lwwtoday/index.htmlFor more reasons to Impeach the President, See today's post at:Re: Labor Solidarity « Reply #30 Today at 5:53pm » HAPPY LABOR DAY, AMERICAN WORKERS! This one's for you.....airdance.proboards50.com/index.cgi?board=generalworldaffairs&action=display&thread=147&page=3#3064
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