Author Archives: ObbieZ

Turning the Corner in the United States

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I should feel happy, but it’s hard.

This week, a lot of Bad Guys were flushed out of the political system. We have a new House and Senate that will keep a leash on the thieves and thugs in the executive branch. Yet I do not scream with joy. On the other hand, I’ve stopped screaming in disgust.

The winners of this latest political punch-up are an improvement on the vipers they vanquished, but they are not Good Enough. We must now hold THEIR feet to the fire, just as we did with the neocon fascists who still lurk in the background.

This election is not a step forward. It merely applies the brakes on the backward momentum. There are many more battles to be fought to stop our national decline before we can begin to repair the damage and move forward.

In spite of the brighter overall picture, there was plenty of Bad News this week. Many states – including my home state – voted to deny rights to citizens based on who they like to sleep with. It gravely disturbs me that bigotry is now enshrined in the Constitution of my home state.

It bothers me that money is more important than ideas in our elections. It also bothers me that the voting process in some parts of my country is more corrupt and inefficient than in a lot of third world countries. How can we have free and fair elections in Iraq if we can’t have them in the United States?

And why can’t opposing candidates be as respectful and gracious with each other before the election as they are afterwards?

So even though this political battle was won, it’s hard to celebrate when the political war is so far from over. Our opponents may be wounded, but they are still dangerous. We must remain vigilant and tenacious in our pursuit of all that is Right and Good.

What Kind of People Are We?

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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.

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Pro-war Party Debates with Insults

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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.

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Nyawlins

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The following is the transcript of A Different Reality #507 – Nyawlins…
Listen to the 28-minute ‘podcast’ here:
Broadband (38.4 Mb mp3) … Dial-up (4.8 Mb mp3)

Here is the channel file for A Different Reality:
broadband … dial-up

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.

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What If?

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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?

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Economic Secession

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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?

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Resist the Unacceptable

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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.

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Two Kinds of Christians

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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.

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Taxpayers should not pay for campaign rallies

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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.

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Bush Hides Behind Dumpsters in La Crosse

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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.

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