Happy Independence Day everyone!! Today our nation celebrates it's Declaration of Independence from the British Empire. After much sacrifice from that generation, our nation would go on to become the first that was built upon the liberal ideals of the Enlightenment. Our nation would become a bastion of freedom, and the "city on the hill" for the world to aspire to.   Read More »

I'm not advocating anarchy, nor am a talking about a political uprising across the country. What I am asking is this:

"How much are Americans willing to take before they rebel either in an armed coup or a non-violent coup against the status quo?"

Four points:
1) Our government is corrupt and supressing the middle and lower class working people.
2) Business is corrupt and suppressing the middle and lower class working people.
3) Our rights are being trampled on almost daily.
4) Media supports the above by ignoring it.

These are the very reasons that colonists revolted against the British empire.

Thoughts please.

It seems we are always complaining. No matter how hard we work, and how many we get elected, it seems that our ideals are always the ones that are being compromised. One need only look at the FISA compromise to feel that grassroots Democrats are just running around in circles. We need Democrats in Congress who will fight for us, even if it means breaking with conventional wisdom, and party leadership.   Read More »

It is obvious that the Democratic Party is rapidly unifying. All the signs are there. Hillary Clinton deserves much of the credit! It has now become clear that the most offensive alleged Clinton backers posting on the Internet were never really Clinton supporters. As many people know, Rush Limbaugh launched a major disruption campaign designed to divide Democrats called "Operation Chaos". He urged his listeners to pretend to be Clinton supporters and create chaos in the Democratic Party. I recognize some of the Free Republic.com wingnuts who are Limbaugh fans posting here pretending to be Clinton supporters. They really are just Internet political terrorists. They are really frightened by the excellent prospects for huge Democratic gains at all levels this November. There is no dirty political tactic that these enemies of honest political discourse would not use! Real Clinton supporters would never support an openly anti-Choice candidate like McCain. The Supreme Court Justices that McCain would appoint are exactly the kind of Justices that Bush appointed. McCain would continue to cut funding to equal opportunity programs for women and minorities. McCain would continue the Iraq War. McCain would oppose almost every single idea supported by Hillary Clinton during her campaign. Obama would support almost every single major idea Clinton supported. Democrats want more jobs. Democrats want universal health care. We want open government. We want less influence for lobbyists and huge international corporations. We do not want oil companies, HMO's and drus companies running our government. Democrats want to de-politicize the Department of Justice and the federal courts corrupted by the Republicans. Democrats want to address the high cost of a college education. We want to really promote alternative energy. We want to attack price-gouging by large corporations. We want to rebuild our economic infrastructure before it is completely collapses. McCain will only continue the failed policies of the Bush Republicans. He is no longer a reformer (if he ever really was one). McCain voted with the Bush White House over 95% of the time since he started his White House bid! Democrats are not idiots. We do not want a third term for Bush by electing a "McBush". We want to control both the House and the Senate. We want our government back and are uniting to get it back!

Subject: Now that the primaries are over, remember what is truly at stake!!! Hi to all! This is kind of long, but I felt like I just had to write it. I was agonized today to see a column in "The Tennesseean" in which the writer pitched the case for many Hillary Clinton supporters to wind up voting for John McCain, and claimed that this is what is happening across our country. According to this columnist, women who supported Clinton are saying they will now vote for McCain, and the writer brandished a supposed national poll showing McCain currently with an 8-point lead among white women. Admittedly, the columnist was from the right, which throws her perspective off right away. After all, she has an agenda to help urge that switch along. But I was agonized, quite literally, to think that any woman who has called herself a Democrat or even an independent could for one second even contemplate voting for John McCain in the fall, simply because her candidate did not win the Denocrtic nomination. (That goes for men, too!) Now that the bruising divisiveness of our primary process is behind us, it is time for all of us to remember what is truly at stake here. This is no peacetime, everything's going great election cycle. Our country is in serious trouble, and perhaps standing at the precipous from which one more false step will lead to its permanent decline. The matter at stake that has lasting ramifications for many decades to come is that of the Supreme Court. Seven of nine justices currently serving were appointed by Republican presidents. As many as four seats on the Court may come up in the next four years, and almost certainly two at minimum will open up for appointments. John McCain is now firmly on record as saying he will nominate for those appointments the exact same kind of justices and federal judges we have seen from George W. Bush, and that means only one thing for those women who vote for him -- fewer rights. Fewer rights in employment and equal pay. Fewer in terms of sexual harassment. Fewer reproductive rights. The list is lengthy. As is the list of issues on which McCain's so-called "straight talk express" has been very clear in putting him on the record in the past three months: continued war in Iraq; no diplomacy when it comes to our enemies (so we make decisons in a vacuum); continued "tax cut" deficit spending that hurts our economy while benefiting the rich. It goes on and on from the man whose Senate record shows he voted the Bush line 95% of the time! It's Bush Lite -- sound centrist, but less substance! And read what the "Guardian" newspaper of London wrote today about how Republicans want to try to exploit any rifts in our party: "With the Democratic nomination settled, the Republican party are seeking to exploit divisions within the Democratic party and peel away Democrats and independents uneasy with Barack Obama. As soon as it became clear Obama had clinched the nomination on Tuesday night, the Republican national committee's research arm began releasing memos highlighting criticism of the Illinois senator from fellow Democrats. The Republicans memos featured primary-campaign comments that are critical of Obama from Democrats, including former president Jimmy Carter, senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, and of course Hillary Clinton. "Democrats vs Obama," the rubric is named. The Republican party hopes to capitalise on the lingering dissension among Clinton supporters, and to split them off from the party while they are still angry. The quarry: 17.5m Americans who voted for Clinton in the primaries. The party also hopes to show independent voters that not even the Democrats are united behind Obama. "The longer the Democrats have [to take] to heal these divisions, the longer it gives McCain to organise in the key states and raise money," said David Johnson, an Atlanta-based Republican strategist. "It keeps them from attacking him and trying to tie McCain to Bush. If his own party has so many questions about him, how can the American people support him?" Republicans say that using Democrats' own words against Obama effectively augments attacks from McCain surrogates like former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who this morning said, "for all of Barack Obama's charm, that he doesn't have the experience to lead our economy at a time like this." It's time for us all to take a giant deep breath and begin to heal from the primaries -- and then to consider the benefits our party has derived from those primaries and the risks of not following through with that process all the way to the White House. We have benefited from the 56-primary Obama-Clinton struggle because the nominee of our party will now stand as a much stronger candidate as a result of that process. The fact that the primary process actually did what it was constructed to do this time, and was not short-circuited, means that presumptive nominee Barack Obama emerges better tested and better ready for the fall. There was no free pass this time for either Obama or Clinton, and whoever emerged was sure to be strenghtened by the process and far less likely to get KO'ed by a surprise attack later. There is a far lesser chance of a John Kerry "Swift-Boat" type attack being sprung on candidates so well vetted by the primary process. Both Clinton and Obama became tougher fighters during the primaries, and that will serve both well in their political futures. We are stronger as a party now, having drawn in millions of young and new voters, as well as attracting some Republicans and independents who for the first time have declared themselves Democrats in the primaries. We are poised by any reasonable measure for victory on a national scale that may be of historic proportions -- not only in the presidential race, but in the House and Senate as well -- IF we can heal and join together to do this. It quite literally is ours to lose, and the decisions each one of us makes between now and November will decide our own fate as a party and as a nation. Do we want to help our nation emerge from this cave we are living in? Or do we want to yet again fall back into the darkness? It's up to each of us. I hope you'll reflect on this, and pray about it, and then join me in reaching toward the future! Thanks for all you do! Jim Steele Vice Chair Lincoln County Democratic Party (Tennessee)

felt that for those who had not seen it, it may be of interest. I recieved this from Hillary's campaign this morning. Dear James, I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you. On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans. I have said throughout the campaign that I would strongly support Senator Obama if he were the Democratic Party's nominee, and I intend to deliver on that promise. When I decided to run for president, I knew exactly why I was getting into this race: to work hard every day for the millions of Americans who need a voice in the White House. I made you -- and everyone who supported me -- a promise: to stand up for our shared values and to never back down. I'm going to keep that promise today, tomorrow, and for the rest of my life. I will be speaking on Saturday about how together we can rally the party behind Senator Obama. The stakes are too high and the task before us too important to do otherwise. I know as I continue my lifelong work for a stronger America and a better world, I will turn to you for the support, the strength, and the commitment that you have shown me in the past 16 months. And I will always keep faith with the issues and causes that are important to you. In the past few days, you have shown that support once again with hundreds of thousands of messages to the campaign, and again, I am touched by your thoughtfulness and kindness. I can never possibly express my gratitude, so let me say simply, thank you. Sincerely, Hillary Rodham Clinton If you feel you have received this message in error, we apologize. You can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President Contributions to Hillary Clinton for President are not deductible for federal income tax purposes. Corporate contributions are prohibited by law. All content © 2008 Hillary Clinton for President 4420 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203

The following is a repost of a something I recently posted elsewhere. This is the tale of Casey's Dream. It is an important story because it demonstrates the shortcomings of two segments of American life, a broken healthcare system, and a declining economy. It is also the story of one person, a little boat, a blog page, and the end of one. The person is me; the boat is called Casey's Dream and so is the blog. So let me take you back to the summer of 1998.   Read More »

I attended a meeting of the London match girls who were on strike and who met daily... The low wages that were reported at the meetings, the phossy jaw that was described and occasionally exhibited, the appearance of the girls themselves I did not, in any wise connect with what was called the labor movement, nor did I understand the efforts of London trade unionists, concerning whom I held the vaguest notions.

But of course this impression of human misery was added to the others that were already making me so wretched.

I think that it was up to this time that I was still filled with the sense which Wells describes in one of his young characters that somewhere in Church or State there were authoritative people who would put things to rights as soon as they really know what is wrong. ...

Jane Adams, TWENTY YEARS AT HULL HOUSE, page 81-82
near the conclusion of the chapter, "The Snare of Preparation" in which she describes how she came to decide to open Hull House.
http://books.google.com/books?id=h9oJAAAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=subject:%22+Political+Science+%22

The London matchgirls strike of 1888 was a strike of the women and teenage girls working at the Bryant and May Factory in Bow, London. The strike was prompted by the poor working conditions in the match factory, including fourteen-hour work days, poor pay, excessive fines, and the severe health complications of working with yellow (or white) phosphorus, such as phossy jaw.[1]

Wikipedia, "The London Matchgirls Strike of 1888"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_matchgirls_strike_of_1888

Wikipedia, "Phossy Jaw"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phossy_jaw

Graphic photograph of a person with phossy jaw
http://www.osh.dol.govt.nz/kidz/gore/jphossy.shtml

In June 1888, Clementina Black gave a speech on Female Labour at a Fabian Society meeting in London. Annie Besant, a member of the audience, was horrified when she heard about the pay and conditions of the women working at the Bryant & May match factory.

The next day, Annie Besant went and interviewed some of the people who worked at Bryant & May. She discovered that the women worked fourteen hours a day for a wage of less than five shillings a week. However, they did not always received their full wage because of a system of fines, ranging from three pence to one shilling, imposed by the Bryant & May management. Offences included talking, dropping matches or going to the toilet without permission. The women worked from 6.30 am in summer (8.00 in winter) to 6.00 pm. If workers were late, they were fined a half-day's pay.

Annie Besant also discovered that the health of the women had been severely affected by the [yellow or white] phosphorous that they used to make the matches. This caused yellowing of the skin and hair loss and phossy jaw, a form of bone cancer. The whole side of the face turned green and then black, discharging foul-smelling pus and finally death. Although phosphorous was banned in Sweden and the USA, the British government had refused to follow their example, arguing that it would be a restraint of free trade.

On 23rd June 1888, Annie Besant wrote an article in her newspaper, The Link. The article, entitled White Slavery in London, complained about the way the women at Bryant & May were being treated. The company reacted by attempting to force their workers to sign a statement that they were happy with their working conditions. When a group of women refused to sign, the organisers of the group was sacked. The response was immediate; 1400 of the women at Bryant & May went on strike.
* * *
Annie Besant, William Stead and Henry Hyde Champion used their newspapers to call for a boycott of Bryant & May matches. The women at the company also decided to form a Matchgirls' Union and Besant agreed to become its leader. After three weeks the company announced that it was willing to re-employ the dismissed women and would also bring an end to the fines system. The women accepted the terms and returned in triumph. The Bryant & May dispute was the first strike by unorganized workers to gain national publicity. It was also successful at helped to inspire the formation of unions all over the country.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUmatchgirls.htm

In 1886 Clementina [Black] became friends with Eleanor Marx, the daughter of the political philosopher, Karl Marx. As a result of their friendship Clementina became a member of the Women's Trade Union League. In 1886 Clementina Black was appointed honorary secretary of the organisation. For the next few years she travelled the country making speeches trying to persuade women to join trade unions. In 1888 she attended the Trade Union Congress where she moved a motion on equal pay for equal work.

Clementina Black was also involved in the formation of the Consumers' League, an organisation that tried to cajole customers to put pressure on employers who paid very low wages to women. One successful campaign involved the boycott of Bryant & May matches. This eventually led to the match-girl strike led by Annie Besant in 1888.

In 1889 Clementina Black helped form the Women's Trade Union Association. Five years later this organisation joined forces with the Women's Industrial Council. Clementina became president of the council and for the next twenty years she was involved in collecting and publicizing information on women's work.

By 1914 the Women's Industrial Council had investigated one hundred and seventeen trades. In 1915 Black and her fellow investigators published their book Married Women's Work. Black was also a member of the executive committee of the Anti-Sweating League and in the years preceding the start of the First World War she was involved with people such as Cicely Corbett Fisher and Hilda Martindale in organizing conferences on the subject. The organisation defined sweated labour as "(1) working long hours, (2) for low wages, (3) under insanitary conditions".

Black's solution to the problem of low pay was the establishment of wages boards that would enforce a minimum wage for certain types of unskilled workers. She wrote several books on the subject including Sweated Industry and the Minimum Wage (1907) and A Case for Trade Boards (1909).

As well as campaigning for women workers, Clementina Black was also an active member of the Fabian Society and the London branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and in 1912 was editor of their journal The Common Cause.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wblack.htm

Of what relevance is this today. The issues of "fair trade" and "sweatshops" are still with us.

I have recently received an e-mail from the "Farmworkers Association of Florida."
http://floridafarmworkers.org/facts_farmworkers.html

Jim Callahan
Orlando, FL

To all my Democratic friends,

I will no longer post to the Democratic site. I've come to the conclusion that a good majority of our representatives are also significantly tied to lobbyists.

I'm hopeful Senator Obama is an honest citizen and will vote for him in the general election.

If anyone wishes to continue to read my writings you'll be able to find them at:

http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

At some future date I'll also be posting to the Democratic Socialist site:

http://www.dsausa.org/join/index.html

Take care my fellow citizens,
Ray Pairan Jr.

You can see the activity in the medians of the interstate expressways the energy is palpable. The elevated structure that will carry the bullet trains traveling in excess of 350 miles per hour is visible while driving down any expressway of the country. There is a feeling of participation exuded by my fellow citizens as if they understand the significance of their being present at this momentous period in our country's transformation. Across the fields in places like Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas large wind turbines, solar collectors, and other innovative structures utilizing a multitude of technologies are being constructed to provide the much needed power for our nation.

Everyone is talking about the activity with an air of anticipation. The undertaking is one of pride that all Americans acknowledge the significance and urgency in completing. We may have been late to act to secure our country's future in a world of uncertain energy supplies but have expended the money and energy that typifies the unique strength of our citizens when faced with a Herculean effort.

It was only a year ago that most of us felt that once again nothing would be accomplished given all the divergent business interests that were vying to derail any initiative that would disrupted the preferred societal stasis. For it was through this static regressive state that the business elite were able to most effectively maintain their control over our society. Why should they consent to changing a totalitarian economic system that had benefited them enormously? What transpired was truly miraculous one by one citizen's starting standing up demanding that the yoke of business be removed from their government. Even governmental representatives who had been the stewards of business interests for years started moving from the shadows into a new light of realization that their country's economic survival was more important than any single business. We could have either continued down the same worn paths of acceptance of our business handler's dictates or rise above the sludge and build a better tomorrow for our nation - together. It was the latter decision that was ultimately chosen.

A patriotic pride has enveloped our nation from the most remote to the most populous regions. It is impossible not to understand how important the completion of all these efforts is, given the continual pressure that is being placed upon our environment by a nation whose expansiveness demands burning unimaginable amounts of fossil fuels just in a daily commute. Not to mention the continual rise in a barrel of oil that has been accelerating of late given OPEC's understanding that once our green industries, and cross-country mass transit systems fully come 'on line' our consumption of oil will drop precipitously.

In some parts of the country our citizens are already enjoying their commutes on bullet trains after parking their cars at their local station. Fully realizing that they'd better become acclimated to this form of travel given that the Emergency Oil Corporation will cease to exist after the completion of the entire transport system and 75% of the green industries are operational - rider ship has increased exponentially over the past few months. For a fee that is a fraction of what we pay for gasoline even at a retail rate with no profit included it represents a significant savings in money not to mention the time saved by not having to sit in traffic during a daily commute. Some people have even begun using the monorails (for they do resemble something you'd see at Disney) for travel during their vacations. With expansive luggage compartments underneath the passenger section most people find that their still able to take between 2 -3 suitcases on a trip for 1/10 of the cost of a plane ride.

Newly formed public utilities are beginning to supply power to homes and business at rates reminiscent of the 1950's generated through renewable energy sources. These public utilities (that are essentially electric cooperatives) are supplanting the private electric companies that for years had been raising rates beyond the means of our citizen's ability to pay.

The benefits are to numerous to quantify - every sector of our nation's economy has been benefiting through the foresight of a few visionaries willing to stand up and push back the selfish business elites in an effort to once again allow our country to travel down the road of prosperity. The only difference this time is the road of our memory where millions upon millions of vehicles burning fossil fuels each competing for space has now become a swift moving steel monorail blazing down the center of a highway.

There is once again talk about the future not in the despair reminiscent of yesterday but the promise of tomorrow - for both our government and economy is finally free to move towards new horizons. We are united under one nation of citizens within one country that we all call home - what a beautiful home.

Visit my personal blog at:

http://structuraleconissues.blogspot.com/

An awakened aggressive nation of citizens has been voting with passion expending their emotion in a torrid of energy that will eventually crest over the parapets of a government embalmed by a cadre of lobbyists. What our citizens are desperately seeking is a leader that will cross the boundary of obscene doctrinaire generalizations into a clear valley of dreams.

Envision our nation not in disconnected segments but coalesced into a future without preconceived barriers. The only barriers that exist are those that are conceptual self imposed granite walls gouged by bloodied fingers attempting to scale an illusion. We must allow our vision free rein realizing that the walls of impossibility don't exist but were constructed within our minds through well placed preconceptions. Allow your thoughts the freedom to wonder across the valley of dreams.

A leader requires the ability to envision something when nothing is present. A cold stark emptiness devoid of hope or cause filled in by a gentle breeze of the possible. Clearly envision what is possible without logic or preconceptions crowding out your creativity - block out every distraction. We will, we can, we'll be able to accomplish anything - there is nothing that is insurmountable when a nation of citizens resolves to transcend from mediocrity to greatness.

Be that leader - Senator Obama - for we have seen sparks of greatness. Now is the time to present your unencumbered vision, plans, and actions that will result in our nation achieving the unimaginable.

A government isn't supposed to tell its citizenry what to expect given certain precepts or inalienable truths never once questioned to determine their validity. Governments have one function that overrides all others, to answer to the will of the people. Whether in a direct fashion as in a democracy or an indirect way through a responsible monarchy that perceives the general tenor of their subjects - the foundation of all good governments rests upon a respect for the citizens that they govern.

When a government disrespects its citizens by engaging in activities or passing legislation that benefits a small select block of citizens to the exclusion of the majority that their supposed to represent - the citizens have every right to dissolve this form of illusory representation. Once corrupted through the melding of the interests of the government representatives with those of the pirates seeking to cannibalize the interests of the general citizenry into their exclusive domain - all is usually lost. It then becomes far too difficult to differentiate the representative from the pirate that has initiated the capture of legislative expectation that once was the exclusive purview of the people.

In their communications with the general citizenry the representatives increasingly disrespect those whom their charged with governing. With the representatives conveying beliefs encased as facts in ever more potent condescending tones the citizens of a nation begin to acquire a subservient posture. Juxtaposed against the patriarchal airs of their representatives the cast is formed and is hardened around the citizens becoming an impervious belief in their own idiocy on a multitude of matters of the state. Once this process is initiated it can be used to silence all dissent by pointing out the ignorance of the former constituents on any matter and contrasting it to the impervious infallibility of their governmental representative benefactors.

Never mind that the supposed infallibility of judgment of the representatives is slanted towards the benefits that they extract through their direct connection with lobbyists that are hooked into business elites. The illusory representation of facts and logic conveyed by the representatives becomes more and more