Democratic though the spirit may be, the old ruling elite are not going to go without a struggle. They haven't been arming themselves to the teeth all these years, or encouraging illiteracy and medieval thinking in the fundamentalist churches, or turning the military into a mercenary force because they're concerned about terrorism. Anyone who's noticed the cavalier attitudes towards free speech, freedom from search and seizure, or the fifth amendment practiced by the right, as opposed to their sacrosanct attitude towards the right to keep and bear arms, knows we're in for some real grief. As usual, the right is more interested in the form of a democratic culture, as opposed to substance, and this is why they always reach a point where the gun begins to command the party.

Ergo, difficult and horrible though it's going to be, we'd best be prepared for a long and terrible struggle. Obviously it would be best if we could be non-violent, but anyone who's ever walked a picket line during a labor dispute knows that the powers that be are very good at starting crap and making it look like the resistance did. Remember, also, that they've drifted toward a mercenary armed force, because they know they can't rely on recruits from the home neighborhood to do all the killing the hup ho is going to want to do when things break out.

All I can say is that we shouldn't go looking to be a viscious as these people are, but by the same token, we'd best prepare as well as we can to defend ourselves. People have been asleep at the switch way too long, too much ground has been lost.

"you want a revolution without guns? ... are you crazy?!"

- Che Guevara's closest friend.

Though, i really wouldn't fancy fighting the american military. so, shit.

I know all the boycotts and demonstrations are good and effective for change.. But we are americans and we like to fight...

This administration shows a distain for the people's will not seen since the Communist Soviet Union...

The people's will is irrelevent to the den of thieves currently in charge, only the corporate backing that allows them to steal elections and line their pockets

Protests.
Demonstrations.
Thousands, even millions of people takin' it to the street.

It didn't prevent the war on Iraq.
It hasn't stopped the war in Iraq.
It hasn't gotten Bush impeached – or better yet, indicted.
In fact, I'm hard-pressed to think of anything that any protest or demonstration ever really accomplished. Why not?
I know some people would say it brought attention to the problem. But to whom?
At the point when millions of people all over the world are protesting the impending invasion of Iraq, for example, it would seem that most people are sufficiently aware of the problem, if they're ever going to be.
Why didn't those mass demonstrations have any effect? I've often had the disturbing suspicion that our protest demonstrations are a grand exercise in talking to ourselves. Perhaps even something worse.

Today it dawned on me while I was picking manure out of my pony's paddock – a chore, itself, not unlike politics. The explanation is obvious, once you know what it is.
Horsemanship is nothing if not communication.
Horsemen sometimes refer to communication as a "V." The bottom, narrowest part, at the crotch of the V represents the most subtle communication, the softest, the quietest, the gentlest. The top, the widest part of the V, represents the most overt and direct communication, the hardest, the loudest, the most assertive.

There is a certain progression of communication that goes something like this: suggest, ask, tell, insist.
First, you suggest. This may be merely thinking a certain thought such as "Giddyup." If you and your horse are close and communicate well, he may respond to you as if reading your mind. It's like magic.
What your horse is actually doing, of course, is reading the minute involuntary changes in your body, position and balance that inevitably occur in you on a subconscious level when you think the thought. It may seem like magic, but it isn't. You're not aware of these tiny telltale changes, but your horse is. You just have to remember that your horse is smarter and more perceptive than you are.

If your steed doesn't respond when you suggest, it won't do any good to suggest again. If he didn't "hear you" the first time, he's not going to hear you the second time either. You have to turn up the volume a little. You go from suggest to ask. Asking is just a smidge louder than suggesting. You still think "giddyup" but you throw in some light leg pressure too. You make it more obvious what you want, more clear.

But suppose old Dobbin still isn't walking out for you.
Very well. You've suggested , and you've asked. Now you tell. You state exactly what you want, specifically and unmistakably. Enunciated loudly and clearly. You don't squeeze with your legs again. This time you give a smart bump with your anklebone.

What if your mount is still not responding? You're going to have to insist on that giddyup, amigo. Or, as I prefer to say, promise. "Insist" sounds kind of rude to me, but I never break a promise.
Never.
And if I promise we're going to giddyup, my brother, then giddyup is what we are going to do. That's why spurs were invented. Nothing wrong with properly designed spurs properly used. It's like a using a bullhorn; you don't have to yell into it. It doesn't have to be painful, just unambiguous. It isn't for punishment, it's for clarity of communication.
A light brush of the spur is all you'll need 999 times out of a thousand.

Suggest, ask, tell, promise.
Think, squeeze, bump, spur.

This process assumes a couple of things.
The first assumption is that your horse understands what you want him to do. That is, he knows what you're "words" mean. If he doesn't then you're one of those idiots speaking English to someone who only speaks Chinese, convinced that if he just talks louder and more clearly, the Chinese-speaking person will suddenly understand what he's saying.

The second assumption is that you're asking your horse to do something reasonable. You're not demanding that he gallop off a cliff or something like that. In that situation, your horse -- being smarter that you are, remember – might just buck you to within a short taxi ride of senseless --- or, since you obviously are already senseless, buck you somewhere over toward your senses

Horses are unsurpassed experts at learning what happens before what happens happens.
Once your horse understands that things are going to go rather quickly from squeeze to bump to spur, he'll start to respond to the bump to avoid the spur and you won't have to use the spur. Pretty soon he'll respond to the squeeze to avoid the bump and you won't have to use the bump. And before long all you'll have to do is think the thought and you and your pony will groove along happily, cruising the bottom of the V.

Here's what you don't do because it's a guaranteed waste of time: bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump (getting frustrated now because he's not responding) bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump (he's tuning you out now) bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump (your cue is now meaningless noise) bump-bump-bump-bump-bump……

You only ask once. If you ask three times, you've just taught your horse he can ignore you twice.

I understand perfectly well that politicians aren't as smart as horses, but I believe even politicians can be trained. And I believe we've done a dandy job of it. We've trained them to ignore us. We've accomplished that by using the same magnitude and amplitude of communication over and over and over and over until it became meaningless noise.

We start out with letters to the editor and emails to their offices. We suggest.
Next we go to gathering petitions: We ask. That's the Squeeze.
Then we turn up the volume to protests, marches and demonstrations Bump.
But then what?
Nothing. That's what.
Just bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump-bump….
Just noise.
They don't respond to our bump because they know we're not going to use our spurs.

When I say "spurs" I'm not necessarily suggesting that we need half a million armed citizens to descend on Washington, dismantle the White House brick by brick and hang certain persons to remain unnamed from the nearest telephone poles.
But you must admit, if such an event were to occur, the next gang of profligates to hold office after that might be more inclined to pay attention to all those "peaceful" protests, even if only to avoid dancing the mid-air tango.
It's possible they'd even start paying more attention to petitions, to avoid the protest demonstrations.
I won't go so far as to suggest that politicians would ever get to the bottom of the V.
Let's be fair. They're not horses.

From liberal to conservative and all stops in between, I believe there are a lot of good folks out there, decent, peace-loving, people who want to do the right thing and want their country to do the right thing. Patriotic folks who actually believe in that "liberty and justice for all" we're always crowing about.
But you can tell they haven't spent much time with horses.
Or they'd know when to use their spurs.

Spartacus Jones

www.spartacusjones.com

"The spirit of resistance to Government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive."

- Thomas Jefferson

One guess as to how 99.9% of politicians in Washington DC would REALLY think of this opinion! I would also like to comment that some ultra-conservative American neocon ideologues would call a quote like this un-American, unpatriotic, and left-wing rabble rousing. At worst, a neocon (by "neocon" - a supposed TRUE American) would probably charge Thomas Jefferson of being a National Security risk if he were still alive.

Jefferson did not say wave your little sign and then go home and feel all fuzzy about it.

Signs are way too easy to ignore and so are most of the people they will do nothing but whine and march.

Like lemmings to the edge of a cliff.

The thing that most removes hope from this country is its people.

You will receive the freedom you earn. No more.
Stop whining and decide what you are going to do.

I've called for a Jeffersonian revolution elsewhere on this site at various times, and have been called insane for potentially advocating violent insurrection as recently as today. It is clear that the only thing current office holders understand are the vast amounts of corporate cash they receive from the aristocracy and their lobbyists. We get nowhere with peaceful protest anymore. The corporately owned media ignore and marginalize it in a very studied way. They learned the lessons of the Vietnam era very well - marginalize the protests and the protesters and they become invisible to the vast majority of the sheeple.

Likewise for politicians that don't toe the corporate line. Marginalize a true progressive like Dennis Kucinich as "unelectable" months and months before the first primary to ensure that he and his agenda do not gain any traction, even with the so-called progressive media. They manage to force their narrative on their opponents by massive and outrageous lies, and conversly push their corporately sponsored opposition, like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Notice that there has not even been any coverage of how much money Rep. Kucinich has raised. Clearly, the Kucinich campaign has nowhere near as much as any of the frontrunners, but they feel they are on target and have enough to run their lean insurgency as long as possible. They know that the more people get to hear what he really stands for, the more they will like and support him. So, the goal of those in charge will be to shut down his campaign as quickly as possible. Look for a concerted effort to start denying him a place in the "debates" in the not too distant future, as citizens start paying closer attention to the campaign. Same for the other candidates not considered in the "top tier". Rather than leaving the debates open until after the voting has begun, there will be an arbitrary truncation of the field by the corporate media to remove the unfavored from public consciousness.

It is incumbent upon those of us who care to find ways to bring friends and co-workers into the conversation as early as possible, to ensure that alternative voices continue to be heard and viable. I heard Thom Hartmann conduct a straw poll of his listeners last week, granted very unscientific, but among his decidedly progressive audience Kucinich came in second - to Obama. Hillary was not the choice of ANY of the listeners polled. I think her support comes from the "pragmatic", who out of desperation believe that she is the only possible Democrat who can win. I call on all good progressives not to be stampeded to this conclusion and vote your conscience for once. I for one, am done holding my nose and voting for the "practical" candidate.

Jefferson's rebellious reasoning would never work for our 21st century dumbed-down, scared of their shadow American citizens. Democracy as he and other great founding fathers saw it is dead, gobbled up by faceless corporations and their political cronies.

Does anyone think that our present government would change into a beacon of human consciousness if the other party were to capture the White House? Our government and all those myriad hands being held out from special interests and corporate benefactors will still be there. Business as usual will continue.

It's over, Mr. Jefferson. Sorry. We slept right through it, falling asleep in front of our televisons and computers.

We need to crash the White House gate and stage a sit-in on the White House lawn.

Please call your reps/senators once a week telling them to impeach bush and cheney. They have the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi people on their filthy hands.

========================

"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience… Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem."
Howard Zinn, "Failure to Quit", p. 45

==================

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today."
President Theodore Roosevelt - 1906

——————–

And prove to me America, that you care…

http://www.protestmusic.org/thomsen/

=====================

"The time for war has past…
Man must change or die.
There is no other course."
The World Teacher
http://www.share-international.org

spartacus jones' lessons in horsemanship make a neat metaphor, but the practical details are sidestepped.

all the people of romania had to do was storm the castle, lynch ceaucescu, and they got their country back. how do we lynch halliburton? or, sticking with the horsey image, how do we put the spurs to general electric?

we need a constitutional amendment that states plainly that a corporation is not a person and therefore has no rights.

"The US has been the world's principal anti-revolutionary force for almost a century."

No wonder the U.S. wants to attack Iran and do a regime change because the current government in Iran came to power on the wings of a grassroots revolution 28 years ago. The Iranians made a revolution by using cassette tapes. We are now better equipped with the Internet. What are we waiting for?

Walk with Cindy.

How about this: We'll set a date for a one day general strike. We'll try to dissuade everyone but emergency service providers from working that one day. We'll then build from that to a one-week general strike, and so on. We'll combine the strikes with boycotts of chain businesses--to the extent that this is possible. This will hit our corporate overlords where it hurts the most--in their quarterly bottom line.

I share the anger of everyone above, but you guys are forgetting that about a third of America still thinks Bush is doing a swell job and 22% still think the war in Iraq is going well. Even if you could launch a red-white-and-blue revolution (rather than orange, green or velvet) you'd only be starting a civil war. Big business has tens of millions of "willing executioners" who care more about keeping down those below them than hauling down those at the top, especially when the down-ers are black. Most of the rest--the sheeple--are content with the status quo. Things will have to get a lot worse for Americans (as opposed to Iraqis) before there can be a thorough house-cleaning in Washington.

I remember having read somewhere--probably on CommonDreams--that at the time of the U.S. war for independence only about one third of the colonists were in favor of breaking away, another third were loyal to the crown, and the remaining third had no opinion or didn't care. Somehow we still won our independence in spite of those sheeple.

It is imperative, not optional, that we prevent the Cheney-Rove-(bush) gang from going full term. These megalomaniacs have their sights set on global domination, and that could easily lead to global nuclear annihilation.

scottdw -- (We need to crash the White House gate and stage a sit-in on the White House lawn. . . .)

I love the sentiment, but we would be mowed down by guns and gas long before we got even close to the gate!

Long long ago in 1965, I went to Washington to protest the Viet Nam war. Back then, we could actually march in front of the White House fence.

I was a naive middle-class girl, and was stunned when George Lincoln Rockwell's American Nazis, who were marching across the street from us, broke ranks and attacked us.

I could not imagine that the police, who protected us from the Nazis, would not long in the future be attacking us themselves.

spartacus jones is right we need to move to a new level.

In our country, the bat that we have as citizens, is how we use our money. Rather then spend our earnings we can maximize our tax exempt savings and donations to tax exempt organizations. We can do good for ourselves and others, while slowing down the flow of taxes to Washington.

I think this is what Gandhi would do, Jesus too.

How creative can we be, in order to be heard?
It has to be non-violent, because the people responsible, far beyond your reach anyway.
How can we do it?
By not paying our DEBT- everybody- and all together. 60- 70% of us don't like the war?
How much don't you like the war?
Enough to refuse to pay your credit card bills, your home loan, your car pmnt?
How much do you disagree with the killing of innocent lives?
They can't take it all back, from all of us, all at once.
If we don't pay our debt, the war will end, as our entire financial system is debt-based.
Check out the google video, "Money as Debt", which didn't suggest this, but if what they say is true, then you can bet, with an activist campaign of, "End the War: Don't pay your debt: July 2007- ?", the war will end mighty quick, and seems extremely NON-violent, and UN-seditiuos to me!
And in the future, we can always say to those "elected" officials, "Hey, you better think twice about that your stupid, new war idea, you KNOW what we can do!"
The People DO have the power!

So when do we start? :|

Revolution? What a brilliant idea!

Step 1. Insurrection.
Step 2. Bush-Cheney slaughter the insurgents.

The idiocracy of the Left is so fixated on the fact that we're losing in Iraq that they barely notice the Iraqis are losing much worse. 600,000 dead Iraqis! You think it couldn't happen here?

Here are a couple of thoughts about where we are all at today
July 4, 2007 and what is to be done.
First: Break out of the "mental" boxes to analyse "WHY?" things are in such a mess. Only then can a program be created based on an understanding of the nature of the problem.

Why is the vast majority of people being destroyed?

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and Stalinism, the Project for the New American Century (global imperialism based on military superiority) become the foreign policy of U.S. under Bush regime.

We now have global capitalism, run-amok capitalism, gangster capitalism. Destruction at every level of human society institutions needed by humanity are being destroyed to maximize the profit of a small 1-5%, to the impoverishment of the rest of humanity.

A possible solution based on this analysis?

SOCIALISM FOR SURVIVAL!

Human life and progress is possible only in a world that is ecologically sustainable and in which the global economy is democratically based to provide for universal human needs.

For centuries capitalist greed has been the motivating force behind slavery, racism, colonialism, and world wars. Today, with global warming, the U.S. corporate ruling elite threatens to destroy the entire planet to maximize greed and profit for itself. The natural and economic resources essential to the vast majority of peoples for survival are being exploited and privatized for the greed and profit of a few.

The 500 year reign of barbaric capitalism must end now if humanity is to survive this century.

One final link to WSWS worth reading:

The struggle against war demands a break
with the Democratic Party
The ISO and the dead-end of protest politics

By Patrick Martin
16 June 2007

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jun2007/iso-j16_prn.shtml

So...when do we start? :|

My friends about 99% of the politicians that get to power in USA haven't read a book in their whole life. They don't even know who is Jefferson. You know what a friend of mine that works around politicians told me? That most Washington's Politicians spend a lot of money on books, to fill up their personal book-shelves and to give them a sort of intellectual status when throwing parties and meetings at their mansions. This is so you know the kind of mafia-cartel that we are dealing with, that has highjacked Washington, DC and all of its public offices since about 100 or more years ago. That's so you know the nature of people we are dealing with. Most US washington's leaders are thieves, narco-lords, bad people. They don't even have a shred of decency for books

First I would like to suggest that you click on the above link, Share International, and give it your full attention. Second, I would remind you that Thomas Jefferson's revolution, and the resulting democracy, was created at the expense of a whole race of native Americans, who were systematically exterminated. Note: Our very constitution was partially based on the constitution of the Iroquois Nation. We destroyed a way of life that was superior in every way to ours, and we dare to call them savages? I also would like to remind you that this so-called democracy did NOT include women or slaves. It was basically created for wealthy white property owners like Jefferson. White man's democracy is a poor crippled version of the real kind. The real kind includes everyone, no matter their gender, race, or color. All for one, and one for all. The common good of all is the highest priority, always. So when we call for revolution, let us call for one that upholds the rights and freedoms of all Americans, not just the rich, white, male ones.

If the pressure keeps building we are in for massive violence. Hopefully, the people pushed too far will pop off a couple of CEO's rather than poor workers of a different race, creed, or color.

My father born in 1920 told me the rich briefly flaunted their wealth at the start of the Depression. After a few rich were bumped off, beaten up or robbed they started being civic minded and donated to charity.

Regina--Right on. For all the reasons you mention, Thomas Jefferson isn't really a relevant revolutionary hero for our times.

The training camps for blackwater security and the detention centres they are constructing are not for moslems. They are preparing for the backlash by the American people against the fascist corporate takeover of the country.

MarcAL

You can start immediately.

1) Put $4,000 into an IRA or max out your tax exempt salaried savings. None of this is taxed. You are withholding thousands of dollars in taxes. Not even sales tax is paid on these savings. (An IRA account at Vanguard.com is a quick, low fee, way to start)

2) Donate to some tax-exempt organizations. None of this is taxed. You can direct it to your local or favorite charitable organization. This is a kind way to turn the other cheek but with a vengeance.

a)Common Dreams
http://www.commondreams.org/donate.htm
b)The ACLU Foundation(istax exempt)
https://secure.aclu.org/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1101&s_src=FNNCYY0001C00
c) Electronic Freedom Foundation
https://secure.eff.org/site/SPageServer?pagename=DON_splash&JServSessionIdr011=khfoe58352.app6a
d) The Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html
e) SmallPlanetfund.org
http://www.smallplanetfund.org/contribute.html

....

"If you wanna make omlettes you gotta break a few eggs.."

Well it's coming down to the wire. I feel the revolutionary electricity in the air because people are waking up. The Powers that Be are expecting us to rise up and fight. We as people need to be heard and our power reasserted. I don't know exactly how it will happen, but I know it is coming.. I know in this fight some of us will be hurt or imprisoned, but if these are the consequences so be it. It's worth it. It's for freedom no? It's better than fighting for oil.

P.S. General strikes are a great idea.. I wish it would catch on in popularity. Even if we could just get 10-20% of workers to do so, it would be a signal that people are sick of the bullshit.

This might just be wigged-out, or a proper exercise in revolutionary imagination:

We the People propose a post-revolutionary confab in Boston or Philly (for obvious historical resonance) to pool ideas for a national metamorphosis. We've got all these great ideas floating around, why not get a real world nexus going (non-web), not as party platform or single manifesto necessarily, but some means to launch the dynamic. A forum outside the corporate/K St agenda. New Constitutional Convention? Good political theater, anyway, and nothing to poo poo per se (Boston Tea Party, anyone?) We dont know how to get to the Better Place, but it might help to get a better idea of what that place would look like. The mere fact of it's invocation might could draw down the lighting we need to galvanize our future course. This may be a visionary notion but that shouldn't disqualify; there was plenty of visionary going around in the 1770s/80s. The Social Forum does a good job but it might not quite get that critical spatula under the flapjack of the American mythos...

'Post-Revolutionary' could be an audacious imaginative flip: not getting so hung up on the How could help make the What more contagious...

Could also be a useful go-to place in event of a national strike...

just dreaming out loud

Theres an element of protest which reminds me of the relations of a child to a parent...this quote speaks to that.

"To desire freedom is an instinct. To secure it requires intelligence. It must be comprehended and self—asserted. To petition for it is to stultify oneself, for a petitioner is a confessed subject and lacks the spirit of a freeman. To rail and rant against tyranny is to manifest inferiority, for there is no tyranny but ignorance; to be conscious of one's powers is to lose consciousness of tyranny. Self government is not a remote aim. It is an intimate and inescapable fact. To govern oneself is a natural imperative, and all tyranny is the miscarriage of self government. The first requisite of freedom is to accept responsibility for the lack of it."
E.C. Riegel

My father born in 1920 told me the rich briefly flaunted their wealth at the start of the Depression. After a few rich were bumped off, beaten up or robbed...

Brilliant! And that will look like childs play compared to what the present generation will due in retaliation.

Of all the comments here, Regina Carpenter's really struck a note with me. I read along with growing approval, nodding my head vigorously, and when I finished reading I clicked on the link she mentioned at the beginning of her comment, the same one MaxheMust cited at the end of his post.
Sigh. Cultfreak! Moonies! Jimjones! Koolaid! Run! Run!
So it's back to MarcAL, who really had the only comment worth consideration and, indeed, action, although as a lifelong horsewoman Spartacus Jones had me going there for a moment.
So when DO we start?
Eh?

P.S. That World Teacher guy reminds me of Scooter Libby a little.

Damn good - and as yet unanswered - question: WHEN DO WE START, dogdammit, WHEN DO WE START?

A couple of eager beavers on this thread asked, When do we start? When does the revolution begin?

There's a very simple answer!

It begins when a soldier of fortune from Blackwater tracks you down from your posting on CommonDreams and shoots you in the face.

Welcome to the New World Order!

It will take some creative maneuvering to battle the crooks and big business connections. There are no simple answers to overturning our present corrupt government and an old fashioned rebellion is suicide. And not paying your taxes, etc. won't work either because you will lose everything and be forgotten and forsaken. And there's the unexpected 9-11 happening that could stall every bright plan you have hatched. The forces Americans have to combat are mighty and there's still the right-wing wackos who cling to their loyalty to Bush. It will take a leader greater than King and smarter than Einstein to clean house.

Tom Jefferson was not perfect, he was very human and a creature of his times. We can still take inspiration from his ideas for our times. Our revloution *must* be for all as outlined by Regina Carpenter.

When to start?

Start now. You already know what to do. So, do what you can, but do something. Don't wait for a leader, be your own revolution. A better world is possible, we can make it happen.

A piece of advice for any would-be revolutionaries...

Try going to a protest first: it isn't nearly as big of a time commitment, you might meet some kindred spirits (beware the most zealous...they're probably government spies or provacateurs), and you'll also get a chance to look up-close at some of what you'll be up against (dressed in full riot gear).

Understand, also, that once you commit to the cause of revolution you will become a terrorist in the eyes of the State. You will be a criminal, and in some ways a very real threat to the very people you are struggling to free. Should you fail, your capture or defeat will be used to justify the further intimidation and repression of the American people.

In my view the most practical revolution the American people can and should engage in is a simple revolution in mindset. We should flatly reject our State's protection from bogeymen and terrorism. What needs to happen is for America to make clear to our leaders in Washington that we simply don't care about the so-called threat of terrorism, and that we do not need the wasteful, inefficient, and ultimately useless measures our government is employing supposedly in the name of our protection.

Screw 'em. We'll take our chances.

That's what we need to say.

If the supposed multitudes of terrorists out to get us had any strategic sense whatsoever, they'd likewise shift their plan as well. They'd release one of their nice little tapes with the bearded villain-of-the-month wagging his finger, crying jihad, and this time saying that they're no longer interested in attacking American citizens (who clearly have no power over their politicians anyway), but would instead focus their efforts solely on the senior leadership of our State.

There would no longer be a need to tap our phones, no longer a need to make us take off our shoes when flying. It wouldn't be our problem anymore. It would be the President's problem...and potentially an issue for any official who holds enough authority to check / balance his executive excesses.

I wonder why they haven't. Curious, isn't it?

Just a thought Jihadis, if you're out there reading... ;)

If you're out there AT ALL... ;)

I gotta say, Thom Hartman's audience is NOT a broad swath of Americana. If we don't get behind THE Candidate for the democrats this time, we will get four more years of this crap, along with a president that will not hesitate to use Blackwater (and the Amway fortune behind it) to kill any and all protestors that you are talking about. When they storm Thom's studio and drag him off the air for his fiery speech, I'll start to pick up my pitchfork and storm the castle. But first, let's try another, equally deadly approach, at least for the Corporations!

I REALLY love the idea of no-buy days. How about Tuesday and Thursday? How about we just clean out our pantries of the food already in them and stop eating out so damn much? No three dollar lattes and $100 sneakers made by slave labor that we know is used? Freeing the slaves was wonderful (and just and necessary here), but we live on the backs of de facto slaves every day.

Do you know how Ghandi got the Brits out of India? He made homespun and gathered his own salt ( I know, I know, and peaceful resistance and other things!). Lately, women farmers have been sharing seeds in defiance of the "suicide seeds" that were being pushed on them. How about making one piece of our own clothing, or trading with our family or friends for things that maybe are still good, but are things that we no longer need? I give to Disabled Veterans now so that others do not have to buy new. Freebay and other sites are trying to reduce what gets bought. That is the holy grail, my friends. This is a consumer-driven economy, and we are just sheeple being led to slaughter. Waiting in line to spend $600.00 for an IPhone? Are we out of our f**king minds? Unless it can make money for me as I sleep and feed, dress, bathe, and educate my kids while walking the family dog and taking my blood pressure while washing my dishes and doing my taxes (whew!), I fail to see how such an apalling waste of my money can change my life. If I need to be that connected, I have serious abandonment issues that I can work out cheaper on Facebook or MySpace, or even with say, a PERSON IN PERSON!

We are out of control addicts, hoping that the next shopping fix will bring together all of the loose ends of our lives. Of course, we know it won't. It's the boob-tube that tells us our life is crap without Walmart. But a good start is to show everyone around us that this stops with us. This Christmas (or Kwanza or Hanukka or whatever), make something for everyone that you love. Get on the internet that we all love so much, and get some ideas about meaningful gifts that come from the heart. Really shop for something that will help someone else, or offer to do a task that they need help completing.

Teach your kids that their birthday is not a time to upstage the neighbors, but a time to see all that they can be grateful for. No $600 IPhone or sneakers, no gas-guzzling f**k-you mobile, no Super Sweet Sixteen for god's sake. More to the point, do not let your children go to these ridiculous, wretched excess-fests either. These parents are morally bankrupt, substituting things for time, values, and love. Trust me, there is no where to go but down after daddy buys you a BMW for your college graduation. What do they think that an into salary buys, a Ferrari?

When we stop being the mindless buying machines that the corporations need to keep going, their stockholders will get the idea. Dropping stock prices ruin everyone's day, trust me. Posting quarterly drops in earnings should be the music that we long to hear every four months. Starvation diets are the only way to get the corps attention. No one wants to make that telecom call to the shareholders and tell them that the revolution is on, and they can count on another disappointing quarter.

Let's have these next six months leading up to and beyond Christmas be the worst in recent memory. Come on, we don't need all this stuff - we DO have each other, even if we are a big, unruly tent! We can cheer each other on, and give advice for those who need to keep going, but don't know how. We can do sonething that will kilo the beast, and get the politicians attention in the process. Bringing this economy to it's knees may seem harsh, but a revolution is what you want. The posters are right, sacrifice will be the name of this game. But if we look out for each other, we can be as effective as any union ever was. And I'll bet it won't take a 5% drop in profit to accomplish this.
So, shop mom and pop stores, use it up and wear it out, and when you DO buy, only buy quality that will last. Buy on Ebay (used), trade on the freebay sites, give away clothes and household stuff to charity or friends in need. Learn to sew and eat out only for special occasions. Use your giftcards up, and only for things that you truly need. Learn at least one new recipe on the internet every week, using what you have in the kitchen as much as possible. Bring back the dreaded "leftover night", or get a recipe that uses some or most of the leftovers. Plant a garden and watch it grow. Turn off the faucet when you brush. Time your showers. Learn to live without. Turn off the noise and blog, blog, blog to anyone who will listen, and then get them involved. It's not the glamorous life, but it could be a more meaningful life. This may be the life that the Corps are keeping you from enjoying. Time with your kids, your spouse, your lover, your friends.
Create your own culture if you look around and find the current one not to your liking. I'll be right next to you, and instead of comparing new cars, we can compare new bikes, or hybrids, or the new relationship we found with our kids. Sounds better with every line I write! Viva la revolucion!

The ideas here that seem most practical are the general strike, the non-payment of debts, and the idea of not buying anything for a few days.

Last week, I had a situation in which some large bills (including a traffic ticket) had to be paid, and a some expected income was a week late.

I went for a whole week without spending more than about $10, total, including gasoline, since I work from home. This is an experiment I've intended to try for some time, just to see if I could do it. It helps if you are well stocked with groceries, including a lot of staples, and are willing to give up coffee and cigarettes.

I think we could all manage a general strike for a few days--taking off work, paying no bills, buying nothing (with some exceptions, of course--such as diapers and baby formula). Maybe we should use little or no electricity during the strike--no TV, lights, or cooking on the electric range. Turn off everything non-essential.

One thing about taking off work: For most people, this will mean a repeat-performance of the "buy nothing" experiment, since it will lead to a short paycheck at a later date. Perhaps not such a bad thing.

I'm ready to do it.

One thing I have to add: My week without spending money turned out to be rather pleasant. I visited a friend I hadn't seen in awhile, spent time with my kids, and worked in the garden.

It kind of took me back to my childhood--when people mostly stayed home (only one family car), shopping expeditions were limited to one day a week, everyone cooked meals that didn't come out of a box, and people did a lot of sewing. Those days were really far more pleasant than these days: There seemed to be so much more time at ones disposal. There was so much time that we invented ways to fill it, by doing things like bicycling to the post office or the next town, just for the hell of it.

I'd have to say that life without shopping was better.

Ooooh!!! Shopping boycotts!!! That'll get 'em!!!

So let's see...how would this work? We hurry up and buy a whole lot of things NOW (so we'll be able to withstand a long period of no shopping) then we sock it to 'em by--gasp!--not shopping until we run out of things we need! Why...it's pure genius! While they're busy not giving a rat's ass, our brave commandos can chow down on Ramen noodles for two weeks straight and feel like they're accomplishing something!!

It just might work...

Think about it...

If enough of us do it, our government will view us as even bigger, contemptible imbeciles than they treat us as being now, and they might realize we don't even need to worry about a domestic terrorism threat! They'll be laughing so hard at our stupidity that we'll be able to storm Washington D.C. and depose the President while they're still slapping their knees and gasping for air!

Non-shoppers of America, unite!!!

The followıng appeared in a Turkısh newspaperon July 4th

Please take tıme to read:
The American Question
by
CHRISTOPHER VASILLOPULOS*

No country, no society, is shielded from the evils that
the passivity of decent citizens can bring about. That is
a German lesson of the 20th century for all of us.
Fritz Stern, 'Einstein's German World'

Twentieth century political and social thinkers were consumed by two tragically related questions: the German Question and the Jewish Question. After a thousand years of precarious existence in Europe in which the Jewish Question was raised and answered in a variety of ways, ranging from humiliation to persecution to exile and to murder, in the late 19th century the question was decisively formulated and in the 20th decisively answered by the Nazis. How can the Jews be eliminated from Europe? The answer was genocide, from which less than 10 percent of European Jews survived.
The German Question was formulated in the aftermath of the Holocaust. How could a highly educated, cultured and sophisticated people have followed Hitler into a catastrophic war and the Final Solution? Although provoked by Nazi Judeocide, the German Question has offered much more profound challenges to Western civilization than the murder of almost 6 million Jews. The near annihilation of the European nation-state system, the political pillar of the West, called observers to analyze the fundamental concepts of modernity: secularism, materialism, progress, tolerance, democracy and natural and civil rights. The world is still struggling to clarify what these concepts might mean in the aftermath of World War II. Unwilling to wait upon scholarly consensus on this difficult series of question, the near universal response is a call to define and support fundamental human rights. Almost everyone appreciated the unbreakable relationship between racial prejudice and genocide.

This movement was spearheaded by the United States, despite its history as a slave-holding society and its virtual genocide of Native Americans. In the 200 years since the ratification of its natural rights-based Constitution, the US has made great progress in overcoming its crimes against human rights. Thus, the American Question is framed: How can a society that has largely overcome the horrors of slavery, the genocide of its indigenous peoples, a catastrophic civil war and many other acts of inhumanity, how can such a society undermine its foundation in natural rights? How can the US, which has prided itself as leader of the free world, as the enemy of tyranny, as the defender of the individual, how can the US threaten the rights of its own citizens? How can the US engage in aggressive war? How can the US commit atrocities in the name of national security and anti-terrorism? How can the US engage in torture, support secret prisons and cooperate with regimes with long records of human rights abuse, without undermining its reason for being? If the US becomes just another power state, just another player in the Realists' game, then it will forfeit the moral authority it has earned since its inception. As the only superpower, how can the US not honor its highest principles without forcing the world to unify against it?

Although this series of questions demands responses primarily from the American people, their answers will have global repercussions. If Americans kowtow to the power state, if Americans become too afraid to assert their rights, how can citizens around the world, without all the advantages of the American experience, avail themselves of their natural rights? If Americans lose the struggle with the US as a power state, how can any other people expect to win? Thus, the restated American Question: How can Americans ignore their own heritage in liberty, their own triumphs over slavery and genocide, their own finest moments, and their leadership in the struggle to establish the worth and dignity of every human being?

As this century unfolds, there will be many who will pose this question in many versions and in many languages. Many answers will be offered by demagogues in the streets to scholars in universities. The best answer, however, will have to come from the American people. It will go something like this: Yes, we lost our way in the wake of September 11th, but we are now back on the path to freedom and dignity. Yes, we were afraid, but we have found our courage. Now with a restored faith in human rights, we will resume our struggle against tyranny at home and abroad. With the help of freedom loving people around the world, we will win this fight.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Christopher Vasillopulos is a professor of international relations at Eastern Connecticut State University.

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What Jefferson feared with an executive coup over the US government has already occurred. Corporations have silently taken control of the government in back rooms and behind closed doors. The contradictory, hypocritical failure of the new 06 dem-dominated Congress is proof that all American politicians have become the unwilling puppets of powerful corporate tyrants.

They fool us into thinking it is not so, by continuing to flood our minds with a big front yard of media designed to hide the truth and maintain the facade. US democracy is a big front for the corporate empires and a fiasco for the common people.

A new American revolution is way past due.

I see so many voices of descent and discontent, a lot of good suggestions as to what to do to put things right, and they're all going to go to waste. You know why? Because you're not organized.

You read the bad stuff, you righteously get pissed, you post your comment and read others', and then that's it, nothing, Nada. You do the same thing the next day, and the next day, and the next day. But you haven't moved an inch from where you were the fist day. You know why? Because you're not organized.

Like-minded people should have an organization so that they can pool their resources together, so that they can be easily reached and notified, so that they can act and act in unison. A progressive organization like Common Dreams that has established its credentials to the progressive community is a good example, because we all come here. This is our meeting place. We may not, and should not, start an organization from the scratch for fear that some moles may get into it. Because we, the posters on this site, don't really know one another, do we?

Let's all ask Common Dreams to take on this task and to organize us, to show us the best course of action, so that when we act, we all act together, so that our actions are effective, so that our spineless and corrupt representatives will take notice of us. This should be the first step towards anything we want to do. Unless we organize, nothing will happen. Nothing, Nada, waste of time, and just blowing some steam.

I hereby would like to request the Common Dreams to get us all together and act as our organization.

Another good tax exempt organization to save up that spare change for.

f)wikipedia
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising

Have everyone in the family put their spare change in a family donation collection jar. If you write off your donations, any part of your income that you donate does not fund BushCo.

I'll tell you how to form an army of rebellion... just entice people with student loan forgiveness.