Wealth Care

John McCain and others complain

Private insurance needs to stay

In the hands of profiteers,

Where wealth continues to play.

"We need price fixing and collusion;

We need the insurance cartel--

How can we get re-elected

When our campaigns go to hell?

"We need profit driven health care

That keeps our companies wealthy,

Our shareholders would be pissed

If there bottom line's not healthy.

"No regulation for insurance;

No oversight of the banks;

No rules for energy companies;

We need wealth care in the ranks!

"We cannot allow sick companies

With pre-existing bankrupt conditions,

To not get tax payer insurance;

That is our position!

"America should do the Far Right thing

For companies and their share;

These are what we stand for!

It's all about wealth care!!"

A Book with Shocking IMPACT

Many books have been instrumental in affecting and changing my perspective on the world and who I am. I remember fondly the early years of reading the whimsical and lyrical works of Ted “Dr. Seuss” Geisell to the canon of great literature I read in high school from Charles Dickens to Mark Twain to Kurt Vonnegut. Fiction was and continues to be part of the way I view the world since I also like tell stories through narrative fiction. It is through fiction that I can escape from the depressing realities that confront us each day, and go into a fictional world that may engage in its own set of depressing or humorous conventions, such as A Confederacy of Dunces and Catch-22.

These days, my reading habits are more focused on works of non-fiction and engaging the world I live in with information that helps me make sense of the world. Last year I heard an interview with Naomi Klein on Progressive Talk Radio on her new book: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. This book looks at the economic philosophy of the Milton Friedman Chicago School of Laissez faire economics and Naomi Klein puts that philosophy in context to both natural and manmade disasters around the world. Milton Friedman was also a subscriber to Ayn Rand and her "Objectivist" vision regarding limited government in order to unregulate the forces of capital. While I was familiar with the manmade disasters of CIA coups in Iran in 1953, Honduras in the 50s and last year, Chile in 1973, Iraq invasion 2002, coup in Haiti 2004 and 2009, I was not familiar with a particular socio/economic model of the Chicago school. This was a real eye opener that made me understand that unstable societies that have had either political or natural disasters such as New Orleans 2005 are ripe for the privatization of land and resources by private companies. Naomi uses the metaphor of multinational corporations as “vultures” that circle the carcass of vulnerable nations. The vultures wait for the right moment to dive in and privatize the common natural resources and industries of the vulnerable nation. This is the “shock” that Naomi talks about since the citizens of the country have no idea what just hit them. The companies, whether they be AT&T, ITT, Halliburton, KBR, Dynecorp, Blackwater (XE), etc. quickly seek to reap major profits over the shocked citizens.

While The Shock Doctrine may sound like a conspiracy novel, it is completely sourced with facts and brings the reader to an understanding that while the corporate charter is “profits at any cost,” the people will continue to lose. Naomi Klein only brings this to light in the systematic approach by the purveyors of the Milton Friedman/ Ayn Rand Chicago School. While the Chicago School is the theoretical and political arm of “objectivism,” we can take that “theoretical” school and see the practice of “objectivism” through the School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation in Ft. Benning, Georgia). This government institution of “We the People” is a training ground for insurgent forces of torture who help the Shock Doctrine make way for private industry. While these schools of “thought” are best hidden from the consciousness of public inquiry, many poor people in developing countries continue to be victims of what should be known as the Schools of Organized Crime.

Overall, The Shock Doctrine has been a valuable resource to me in my writing and my understanding of the pathology that goes into a philosophy based upon profit driven motives at the cost of human degradation. I also recommend another great book I read called Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights by Thom Hartmann which gets into the history of corporate "personhood."

CPAC and Stack

Rhythmic reflections on this weekend's news events between the Conservative Political Action Committee and Joe Stack who flew his plane into the Federal building in Austin, TX.

The neo-con's CONvention

Of fascist fellow craze,

Met in the nation’s capitol

As Joe set his house a blaze.

Dick and Newt and the arrogant suits

Smiled at Michelle’s vacant pose,

While Joe fueled up his Cesna plane

For a flight that was undisclosed.

Glenn Beck’s rubberneck

Blared out his federal hate,

Joe Stack aimed his Cesna plane

For federal disaster mandate.

Bolton, Coulter, DeMint, and Tucker

Drank wine with venom they spewed,

Joe Stack hit a federal building

With hatred he fostered and grew.

Marco, Mitt and Rick didn't quit

Lying on the CPAC stage,

How many more Joes are ready
To take out their violent rage?

E-mail Campaigns for We the People

As an avid listener of Progressive Talk radio, AM620 KPOJ, and a reader of publications such as The Nation magazine, and viewer of LinkTV cable that features Democracy Now!, I appreciate getting my information without a corporate spin. I rely on these independent media outlets and those who sponsor its programming to refer me to online sites for more information that I view with frequency. With a lot of garbage on the internet, I have come to trust the referrals I get from progressive media outlets to check out progressive online media campaigns for their products and services.

I tend to go back forth between cynicism and hope with the state of our country. I have contributed to online e-mail marketing campaigns by becoming a member of MoveOn.org as well as contributing to progressive candidates in states where the threat of reactionary politicians is more prevalent than in Oregon. I have given $50 contributions online to Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) for his campaign seat as well as Allan Grayson (D-Florida). Progressive talk radio is but a small fraction of the overall talk radio market which leans "conservative." This is why I believe that the continued growth of progressive talk radio coupled with the internet and world wide web can become valuable tools to spread the message of democracy in this age of corporatism. When I am not giving to notable causes on the internet, I like to support independent businesses as well as local businesses for local economies.

My feelings overall have been positive in supporting causes I believe in by using the internet and the web. The greatest fight I believe in is the fight for getting accurate and free information. While the internet was funded through a research project of DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency), the ground work for creating the world wide web was funded with federal dollars by We the People. Members of congress who have been getting huge campaign donations from ISPs such as Comcast, Qwest, and AT&T have been proposing legislation to impose fees to We the People in the form of "tolls" for the uploading and downloading of content on the internet. This imposition of fees would effectively stifle free speech on the web when companies can impose arbitrary fees for download times to progressive organizations that do not fit the same profit driven model. Disney.com, Exxon.com, or Cocacola.com would be able to pay $20,000 month for quick download times of content versus organizations such as TheNationMagazine.org, MoveOn.org, or GardenOfLightPublishing.blogspot.com that has a very limited budget to express our ideas on various issues. The threat of private industry to get rid of net neutrality is very real especially since the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United versus the FCC that corporations can send unlimited money to Right-wing politicians, essentially legalizing bribery.

I believe that our country is on the precipice between an age of openness and enlightenment and a dark age of corporatism (fascism). While the internet is still free and I am able to go to websites that I trust, I will continue to support those organizations and their e-mail campaigns that support a world view of openness and enlightenment.

Confessions of a Digital Blog Publisher

Behind the doors
Of dusty floors,
Are flickering computer screens.
Lights are dim,
Our thoughts begin;
We type thoughts in digital streams.

Millions sit
For mental trips,
But we're plainly out of sight,
And in the dark,
Our butts are parked
Well into the moonlight.

We sit at tables
With laptop fables,
And virtually organize,
Our cluttered thoughts
Where memories caught
In files of any size.

We’re millions strong,
With solo songs,
And distant e-letters to send.
We’re all about
The muscular clout
That twitch from numb rear ends.

We’re a nation,
In isolation,
With many virtual powers,
Through e-mail,
We cannot fail,
To stay up ridiculous hours.

From millions of home,
In bubbles and domes,
We’re a nation that’s out of sight.
But even alone,
We have a home,
“Agoraphobics UNITE!”

Search Engine Words for "42"

In a world of mysterious coincidences, George Olson struggles to understand why he is the central suspect in a Portland, Oregon murder mystery that’s wrapped in a numerical enigma of 42. This suspenseful thriller takes place in the great northwest city of Portland where George Olson’s paranoia seizes control of possible conspiracy theories that threaten his own perception of reality. Mr. Olson continues to see the recurring “42” throughout the story and builds conspiracy plots around his alleged crime. Is this a murder mystery with a mastermind conspiracy plot about to devour the mind of George Olson or is George Olson a delusional paranoid bent on his own self-destruction? Find out in the Ooligan Press novel “42.”

Getting Dick Shelby

Dick Shelby

May well be

The blood clot in democracy's heart,

With a blanket hold,

We're all told,

Barack's appointments just won't start.

With seventy holds,

Obstruction unfolds,

And the White House cannot lead,

Why does Dick

Love to stick

His 'bama rod with STDs?

"Gimme pork

With a silver fork

Of forty billion for my state,

Or holds will simmer

Without a glimmer

Of hope for Barack's mandate."

Zero sums

The outcome

For Dick and his fascist plans,

While Democrats

Feel the trap

Of a majority that just won't stand.

The obstruction clot

Makes Dems stop

Looking for a spine to change the rules,

But these jellyfish

Only hope and wish

Drifting in an ocean of weaker fools.

Amazon, MacMillan, and Sherman Anti-Trust

Amazon’s meteoric rise to online publishing and distribution in the print and digital media markets presents huge challenges for the state of late capitalism in global markets. Because of the World Wide Web as the distribution highway of content, the legislative challenges world wide to regulate markets are fraught with the inability to regulate from single nations. With no uniformity of legal regulations to prohibit a media giant such as Amazon from completely dictating the market, the state of democracy becomes a "balloon in a needle factory."

The recent decision by the largest online distributor, Amazon, to back down from threatening to undercut MacMillan’s profit by having Amazon lower it’s digital price to $9.99 for e-books would cut sharply into the profit margin of what MacMillan had in mind to sell their books, especially front lists. Since the arrival of the iPad by Apple, Amazon’s Kindle has seen the rise of a content exhibitor and competitor for digital publishing. The biggest differences between the two business models however vary greatly which may have led Amazon to back down. Steve Jobs announced with the iPad that Apple would only function as a digital distributor for a publisher and not the wholesaler. This would give the publisher that much more control over the pricing of their products, both digital and print. More publishers would be much more inclined to have the iPad as a digital exhibitor than the Kindle due to the overwhelming power that Amazon presents as a publisher, distributor, and wholesaler if digital and print media.

The rise of the internet as a world wide distribution marketplace has made doing business that much more complicated in terms of intellectual property rights, distribution rights, taxes, tariffs, etc. As Amazon is currently the largest player in its industry and has a monopolistic stranglehold in terms of its vertical integration as publisher, wholesaler, distributor, and exhibitioner of their line of products, the ability to regulate the market away from monopolistic practices becomes that much more difficult. Bob McChesney and John Nichols of The Nation magazine write about the corporate business structure just in terms of stranglehold on markets, ideas, and democracy in bringing more diverse players to free enterprise. In their new book, The Death and Life of American Journalism they speak about what happens when media ownership gets in fewer and fewer hands and how price fixing, collusion, propaganda, and anti-democratic values are eschewed upon the American people. If Amazon to some degree were to get into the broadcast ownership business, just as Comcast is seeking to acquire NBC, we would see a much more narrower field of players and points of view that don’t reflect the overall sentiment of what it means to live in a democracy with access to divergent points of view.

The founding fathers saw the threat of the early corporation known as the British East Indian Tea company and vowed to fight entrenched power to save the republic. Since Amazon’s overwhelming growth and vertical integration in the online publishing industry, I think it is time for the government of the people to regulate the industry and break up this disproportionate amount of power from the hands of one company. President Jimmy Carter saw the threat with AT&T and used the Sherman Anti-Trust Act to break up the monopolistic practices the telecom giant had on the American people. It’s time for Obama to use the Sherman Anti-trust act and break up these monopolistic companies like Amazon, Comcast, Qwest, etc. in order to save the republic from the tentacles of transnational corporations.