There’s a popular bumper sticker that says a lot in three words: “Mean People Suck.” Because the world would be such a better place if it weren’t for the small minority of mean people we have to put up with.
Most of us are not mean people. I’ve been lucky enough to have travelled overseas, and there are nice people all over the world, just as there are nice people all over La Crosse and the rest of America. But the actions of our government reflect badly on us as a people.
During a recent public hearing, a leader of the La Crosse County Republican Party made references to the Green Party that fell somewhere between fighting words and slander.
This is something we can expect to see a lot of during the upcoming debate on the Bring the Troops Home referendum: with no rational arguments to support their case, they will resort to irrational ones. Expect a lot of lies, distortions, distractions, insults and personal attacks.
The following is the transcript of A Different Reality #507 – Nyawlins…
Listen to the 28-minute ‘podcast’ here:
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Here is the channel file for A Different Reality:
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1) The Place
We pulled out our pictures of New Orleans the other day. RoZ had some from when she was there in 1988, and we had a bunch from when we went there together in ’98. Seeing these photographs while hearing the post-Katrina news coming from that city was hard, knowing that some of the things we were looking at were under water.
In a past life, I used to travel the country selling underground newspapers on the street, and in that life I worked in New Orleans several times. Most of my time there was spent in the French Quarter, which is the part of New Orleans that newcomers and outsiders tend to gravitate to. For most of us who have never lived there, the French Quarter is our image of New Orleans.
Consider a scenario in which partisan roles are reversed:
What if the election process in Ohio and Florida was supervised by the chairman of the Kerry campaign in each state?
What if the computerized voting system was designed and built by Apple Computer, where CEO Steve Jobs is a known Kerry supporter? What if there were countless “irregularities” involving these machines, all favoring Kerry?
A few weeks ago, I wrote a rant titled “Resist the Unacceptable”. It concluded that the executive branch of the United States government is occupied by the leaders of yet another coup disguised as an election. It is the patriotic duty of all Americans to resist, harass and frustrate this fraudulent regime and to impede its ability to govern.
But HOW do we resist?
The mandate is a myth. Ignore all the jabberwocky about the rise of “Jesus voters”, or the yammering about the young voters “failing to materialize.” These are the corporate propaganda machine’s diversions, designed to distract us from the real story of the presidential election of 2004: Non-verifiable electronic voting machines were used to steal the election.
The vulnerability of these machines to hacking and manipulation is well-documented. The lack of an auditable paper trail invites cheating, and the Bush Crime Family could not have won this election without cheating. All they had to do was to tip Florida and Ohio (where their operatives conveniently stood watch over the election process), and the coup was complete, with no pesky evidence proving the people’s will.
I am an atheist, but I grew up with enough Catholic indoctrination to recognize that there are both good people and bad people who call themselves “Christians”.
The “Good Christians” can be found feeding people, comforting the sick and their families, or working for peace and justice. They spend more time practicing than preaching, and they don’t impose their faith onto others.
When George Bush travels to read to kids or to lay a wreath, he always pops in to a party fundraiser afterwards. It’s as if he’s doing a fundraiser because he happens to be in town. In truth, the ceremonial appearance is an excuse to bill the taxpayers for Bush’s round trip on Air Force One, which would otherwise be billed to his campaign.
This kind of thinking is in play locally, where the richest campaign organization in the history of the world is passing its expenses onto local governments who can least afford them. Mayor Medinger must be applauded for standing up on behalf of local taxpayers in the face of shameless Republican operatives on the Common Council and mean-spirited ranters on the letters page.
Close to 500 demonstrators came out in La Crosse on Friday to show the Bush regime and their puppet press that not every American is a brainwashed drone. By the end of the day, our vocal chords were drained, but we were charged by the warm and fuzzy feelings of pure joy that comes from pissing off Republicans.
Among people who commute regularly between New York and Los Angeles, there is a small clique who refer to the rest of us as “fly-over people.” I think of this every time I cross West Avenue, when I have to face down aggressive suburban traffic charging through our city. Too many of these drivers show the same arrogant disdain on those of us who live here as their jet-setting counterparts.