Monte's Site

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Friday, May 28, 2010

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, cell 202-904-7614, mclarty@greens.org
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805, starlene@gp.org

Global Greens statement on Colombian presidential candidate Antanas Mockus, possible first Green Party head of state

• Colombian election day is May 30; polls have placed Mockus in the lead

• Green Party Speakers Bureau: Greens available to speak on foreign policy http://www.gp.org/speakers/speakers-foreign-policy.php

• The US Green Party's 2010 Annual National Meeting, Detroit, Michigan, June 24-27 http://greenpartymeeting2010.wordpress.com
Media credentialing page: http://www.gp.org/forms/media
More information: 1-866-41-GREEN, office@gp.org


WASHINGTON, DC -- Global Greens Coordination has issued a statement on the possible victory of Green Party Antanas Mockus in the upcoming Colombian presidential election on Sunday, May 30.  Polls have shown Mr. Mockus leading in his race against Juan Manuel Santos of the ruling 'U' Party.

If elected, Mr. Mockus will become the first Green head of state.  The Global Greens statement is appended below and can also be read online at the Global Greens web site in English (http://www.globalgreens.org/statements/colombia_pre_election) and Spanish (http://www.globalgreens.org/statements/colombia_ante_elecion).

The first round of the elections will take place on May 30, with a runoff election on the June 20 if no candidate achieves a majority.

The Global Greens Coordination ((http://www.globalgreens.org/ggc/ggc_homepage) is the coordinating body of the Global Greens, representing more than 80 green parties from around the world.  The Green Party of the United States is a participating member.

See also: "In praise of… Antanas Mockus: This Sunday Colombians may do something extraordinary: elect the world's first Green party head of state," editorial in The Guardian, May 28, 2010 (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/28/in-praise-of-antanas-mockus).

Greens worldwide celebrated a victory earlier in May, when Caroline Lucas became the first Green Party member ever elected to Parliament in the United Kingdom, representing Brighton Pavilion.

*  *  *

Declaration of the Global Green Coordination regarding the presidential election campaign of the Colombian Green Party and its candidate Antanas Mockus

The Global Green Coordination representing more than 80 green parties from around the world, greets the surging campaign for the upcoming presidential elections being conducted by the Colombian Green Party and its candidate Antanas Mockus. The spectacular support they are receiving opens a completely new and promising perspective for this country, delivering hope to overcome the dominating violence, corruption and social injustice. We call on the Colombian electorate to vote for Antanas Mockus and the proposals of the Colombian Green Party.

Antanas Mockus as President would mean putting an end to the eight years of the Uribe government, marked by failure to respect the constitution, stressing often a militaristic approach to resolve conflicts, contributing to intensify regional tensions, tolerating a high level of corruption and the maintenance of an unacceptable level of poverty despite the economic growth achieved by the country.

The election of Antanas Mockus would open the possibility of setting a new course based on moderation, strict enforcement of the constitution, citizen’s participation, honesty, respect for human rights, job creation and the emergence of new opportunities for young people including a determined effort to improve the education system, which is a key to the future of the country. At the same time, electing Antanas Mockus would help to relegate to the past the artificial tensions which have characterized relations between Colombia and neighbouring countries in recent years.

Greens worldwide will be following closely this electoral process and will put pressure on the institutions in which we are represented as well as on the governments of our countries in order to ensure that the democratic and honest nature of the electoral contest is fully respected by the Colombian Government. We hope that all parties refrain from the temptation to manipulate or violate the free and democratic elections that the country deserves. These elections can and should become a model of democracy and an example for everyone.

Once again we would like to call the people of this great country of Colombia to support the perspective that Antanas Mockus and the Green Party are offering to the voters: his proposals open the way to a better future for all Colombians and a unique chance for peace and hope.

The members of the Global Green Coordination

Note: The first round of the Colombian presidential elections will be on 30 May, with a runoff election on the 20 June if no candidate gains a majority. For more information about the Green Party in Colombia: http://www.partidoverde.org.co (Español).


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
• Green candidate database and campaign information: http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

International Committee of the Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org/committees/intl

The Green Party's 2010 Annual National Meeting, Detroit, Michigan, June 24-27 http://greenpartymeeting2010.wordpress.com
Media credentialing page: http://www.gp.org/forms/media
More information: 1-866-41-GREEN, office@gp.org

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of the United States
Winter 2010 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog

Currently i still feel many of us are "talking" past each other, 

but we are consistently increasingly on the same page.

I still have a sense that the vast majority of the GPUS basically agrees on how to do things,

down to the content of the platform by and large, 

and trust that the NC will find a way to articulate that in voting for good proposals.

As i have come to see the NC, as it currently is, as un-poll-able,

excepting putting a proposal in que for formal vote,

i come increasingly to believe many votes should fail, 

and many more should be tuned up and brought back around frequently,

in one form or another, until we have found something 

approaching (albeit barely) optimum.

Unfortunately, in a personal sense i seldom vote against the imperfect,

and prefer to vote for what i believe is considered near consensus.

The rise of hierarchy is due to the fact 

that consensus does not work well on the battlefield.

In this era the battlefield is an electronic one, 

supporting broad consensus and more diverse and distributed visions and decisions.

We can build the tools to embody such self governance in GPUS bodies,

we can proof them out and graft them onto US "democracy" as law,

when it gets us elected...

While we do, the corps(es) will be building similar toolage,

people will more frequently expect to join in governance council,

in the "private" sphere.

None of this will change the core dynamic of consensus.

No matter who he is, or what he has done,

Sitting Bull must still go sit for days at the fire of Red Cloud's clan 

many times before he is ready to call for Grand Council.

One must work out the issues between one's clan and any others,

and eliminate faction and discord in the nation,

then find the favored plan and means of major clans and elders,

then work to forge a plan that all can consent to.

Then one goes to council with one's nation.

Lacking leisurely time to react to the changes we have wrought,

we at this point can only be jealous of the ancient practices,

before kings, priests, soldiers, and guns.

Telephones, TV, Radio, the papers,

we have become inured to the idea that mass media 

is either one on one, or one to many.

The email list is no camp fire, we must find better ways,

but until we do, any elder must still go to the camp of his competitor,

and find a way to caress his ear with what he wants to hear.

However, we do increasingly have the means to create the electronic clan fire, 

and we do not have much time to do it.

We all know this, but as individuals we all keep forgetting.

The process as we have come to expect it is unwieldy, 

and we are far from helpless to fix it.

Until then, patience will remain it's own reward in these matters.

In my lifetime, the precarity, or desperateness, of people's lives,
has grown, enormously, continuously, and alarmingly!

While the educated, information society, is ever more rewarded,
efficient, and luxurious, the vast majority are left out.

As of the late 1980's, more than half of all people ever alive are living now.

That the vast majority of us are living on the edge of desperation,
or in deep desperation, as of mid first decade of the third millennium,
means we are faced with a world, where advancing technology has enabled anyone to live like royalty,
while enforcing a society where the majority, of all humans ever having lived,
are currently either starving to death, in grave danger of doing so, or worse.

Yet this technologia could engender an economy that could support most of us
in a style, that, still, very few have ever experienced.

We collectively have graver and graver impacts on our environments'
capacity to sustain us.
as a result of our individual desperate behaviors, we endanger all,
especially those who are not economically, and/or informationally, well endowed.

We must endeavor to reduce the general level of desperation among the masses,
else, even the rich will not be sustained.

The economic and information resources must not only no longer be
used against the interests of individuals, be put at the uses of the masses.

All individuals must learn to act less desperate,to spare what they can spare,
without suffering for loss, like info, pleasant labor, attention, and love.

None should not be well enough off to spare these things, for indeed,
not sharing these things is itself loss, one we all share,
not just the individuals denied.

All should be given their share of what our forbearers have handed down to us all.
the artistry, and knowledge of our predecessors should be available to all to mix,
and remix, and re-envision.

This is the only way back to an expanding economy,
over the hump of earths population limits and our increasing disparity.

Corporations are just the most powerful of such individual actors, not the best organized;
governments and other organizations are routinely,
like corporations, programmed to act desperately,
and to produce more desperation amongst others in so doing.

Wither goes our party on this path? How desperate are we?

Better, more human, communication, information, education,
and knowledge management,
allow us to fully share the most powerful resources
we have ever had, information, and the knowledge to use it with wisdom.

Humanity, and many other species, are badly losing the class war,
to the point of threatened, virtual, or real, extinction!
to our cultural toolage?

Our technology has been used to create an Earth,
where the majority of humans, who ever lived,
can only wish they had the freedoms and luxuries
of the tribal hunter gatherer life.

From most, the land, resources on and in it, tribal political power,
the heritage of passed down human imagination and experience,
even the control, use, and benefit, of their own labor and information,
have all essentially been removed.

For most, a hunter/gatherer life seems palatial for it is,
compared to squatting in a land"fill";
more control, sustainability, nutrition, resource redundancy, other securities,
more luxuries, time, and space, and freedom.

The limitations of neigboring tribes seem like a small cost, the dangers,
even of tribal war, are a small price when compared to modern war's costs,
or to working in a sweat shop to poison yourself and your land,
to work yourself to the bone to create a useless luxury product,
for wages that could never cover the cost of the useful thing,
the luxury good is a bad imitation of.

To poison the air? or to be?
a more desperate choice,even, than kill or be killed,
more stressful, less rewarding if successful, more lethal if not.
makes tribal warfare look like fun!
Tell someone feeling that desperate to preserve our environment,
there is only one answer, it is simple a question.
how do I survive?

This question more of us should be ready for a good answer to.

Even among those who fare better, many are so stressed out,
they spend many resources and much time, trying to get hurt with panache,
in desperate sporting extremes.

The threat of our own extinction becomes the most likely prospect
of our superior ability to adapt to, and master, threats?

i don't think so...

What kind of human nature, or rationale, is that?
none at all!

Once the people seize the festival/party leadership,
first the lobbyists, then the politicians,
then the lawyers, cops, and soldiers,
may all be replaced,
then we will automate management and ownership out of their jobs
(they'll beat us to it, you know they will;
then it's just a legal change of ownership away).

At which point it will be time to sit the engineers down,
and retrain them to engineer for user usability and user desires.

Then sit the users down, retrain them for co-design of their own lives,
and resource management, the fun, easy,
joomla way.

The dTao be much more earnestly sought,
and the way to being fully human well shown,
in a world of animal, eventually vegetale, peoples.

Gia's new brain will wake up,
within years heaven on earth, lamb lies down with lion.
the new religion, respect your place, and all others, in the Allness.
the new technolgies will enable same.

to get there, we will automate management,
ownership, even visionaries, out of work.
no longer a job, the shared joy of striving to better our collective individual lives.

to preserve and embody the Earth's behavioral and genetic information,
creating the beauty of her lifeways, expanding and diversifying them, protecting life,
the duty and pleasure of all.

but more than before, faster, more beautifully, more safely.
not ever less so.
every life will be secure, soon after, eternal.
the record will preserve you,
you will be completely, and the record will record it completely,
the record will be you, you will be the record,
the record will be backed up, copied, distributed.
immortal

virtual immortality for some imaginary social construct machinery
will transform into real immortality for all Her creatures.

we all know the technical side of immortality is almost worked out.

even now, we have much farther than that to go to build a less vicious,
paranoid, precarious, and desperate world.

A world that can learn to share,
as our technology now demands,
of us all.

You cannot stop it, you may only assist,
something we can all agree on:
automate management and ownership out of a job!

With our new two year cycle it will soon be time to address new proposals that are too late for the Feb 15th deadline.

Next year we will be accepting new proposals, 

So state parties have only one year left to do a good job proposing amendments for next cycle.

Even with this deadline so close, it is still more important to me to build a list of state liaisons.

Liaisons will contact and list those interested in helping write or amend amendment proposals, 

so that proposals can be brought to the table, and negotiated, in a more timely and effective way next cycle.

 

We need at least one member in each state party to be PlatCom Liaison 

[each member state must have at least one "delegate" to the Platform amendment process in order to be effectively represented 

(representation of a caucus, committee, or non member state, is at the very least available through a supportive member state)].

Liaisons will need to keep record of those interested in drafting proposals from their state 

and those with authoritative experience consulted by the state party, 

shepherd the proposal through the process,

and negotiate in behalf of their state's proposals.

The only requirement for a liaison is 

that the state party find a way to trust them with it's representation

and interest them in the work.

We are working now to identify which states still need liaisons, and to list those who are liaisons,

so we can help individuals with an interest to find out who they need to be working with.

If you or someone you know has an interest in drafting a proposal and do not know your liaison,

it is at this point likely it should be you.

By the end of 2010 every NC delegate, state steering person, and person interested in amending the Platform, 

should know who their state liaison(s) is.

Becoming, or finding, a liaison is more important than proposing an amendment, at least for this cycle.

I expect to focus my efforts on this for the rest of this cycle,

So it seems I am your "go to" for any questions, names, or ideas (@ geanark@gmail.com ).

In only one year we will already be open for submissions again.

This cycle our schedule is compressed, and there is not much time for each step.

Next year the process will be open to input for a much longer time.

Hopefully next time some amendment proposals and liaison infrastructure will be ready ahead of time,

and we then can have some real fun hammering out, in a more widely participated in environment,

an even more awesomer document for the POTUS delegates to vote on.

If you are under the impression you may be your state's go to on platform proposals,

or if you think you know who it should be, please contact me, (@ geanark@gmail.com ),

or someone like Holly Hart, also on the committee, who can fwd you to me.

As soon we get a preliminary list it will go up on PlatCom's site somewhere prominent i'm sure.

 

Please help put this call out to your state party members whenever possible.

in service, monte letourneau - WIGP CC, GPUS NC Delegate
also@http://montesite.net & http://geanark.posterous.com/

http://code.google.com/apis/wave/

 

Google Wave anyone? i have 25 invitations, who wants one?

i'm actioning them off for best content, commitment, or ideas for:

WIGP.org editorial and media content, Green party fund raising, 

WIGP or GPUS committee work, or helping a local party grow

WIGP CC and GPUS Platcom & FunCom members are especially welcome 

to apply en masse!

if you want to quick look around at it, go to

Google Wave, or google the word "wave"

http://code.google.com/apis/wave/

the key to understanding why wave, if you have the "patience", is this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ&feature=player_embedded#

it's an hour & 40 minutes, so you might want to let it play once, then "review" the stream

deadline, 25 winners...

Keith Olbermann on on "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKZKETizybw
With an excellent origin of corporate personhood and some sober predictions.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, The Ruling:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/09pdf/08-205.pdf
http://www.scotuswiki.com/index.php?title=Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission
http://www.scotusblog.com/2010/01/citizens-united-v-fec-opinion/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZS.html
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/08-205

Sign-up With These Drives For An Amendment To Overturn This Ruling:

Liberty Tree's effort to amend the constitution to protect human speech.
http://www.movetoamend.org/we-corporations

Move To Amend - Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Move-To-Amend/423436625530?ref=ts

The two following petitions are identical:

Public Citizen's petition, and a link to easily send your opinion to Congress:
http://action.citizen.org/t/10315/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=2190#Petition & http://www.citizen.org/

After Downing Street's effort to amend the constitution to protect human speech,
http://www.freespeechforpeople.org/
and social media:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=52265396400
http://www.youtube.com/afterdowningstreet
http://twitter.com/afterdowningst

Pages to send your objection on this to Congress:
http://www.wispirg.org/action/democracy/citizens-united?id4=es

https://secure3.convio.net/change/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=571&autologin=true&JServSessionIdr004=r2kfnu4e29.app305b

http://salsa.mydccc.org/o/30019/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4&tag=redirect

http://pol.moveon.org/fairelectionsnow/?r_by=18673-7407359-tvmnT2x&rc=comment_paste

http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/fairelections/

One Million Strong for the Separation of Corporation and State - Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43811311612

More info and history about corporate personhood:
http://www.movetoamend.org/learn-more
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood_debate

Thom Hartmann. Eloquent and articulate via books and radio in very helpful well-researched detail:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/2001/12/31/to-restore-democracy-first-abolish-corporate-personhood/

Liberty Tree
http://www.libertytreefdr.org/

Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County (DUHC):
http://www.duhc.org/

Program on Corporations, Law, and Democracy (POCLAD):
http://www.poclad.org/

WILPF's excellent packet:
http://www.corporatepersonhood.com/

Great place to read of successful local fights so far, and HOW THEY DID IT,
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund:
http://www.celdf.org/
For example, the Town of Halifax VA, the 10th municipality in the US to
prohibit corporate rights from being used to override the rights of human
and natural communities:
http://www.celdf.org/Default.aspx?tabid=504

A movie asks, if human, what is the personality type of the typical corporation?
http://www.thecorporation.com/

An excellent annotated list of links to sites working against corporate personhood - Zot Lynn Szurgot
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=279729610824

“I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan. November 12, 1816

Wall Street Journal Poll - 74.4% Against (Jan. 23)
http://online.wsj.com/community/groups/question-day-229/topics/do-you-agree-supreme-courts

How We Can Trump the Supreme Court and End Corporate Domination of Government - Rich Whitney
http://www.whitneyforgov.org/joomla/index.php

The Supreme Court decision further weakens our democracy - Ralph Nader
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Supreme-Court-decision-by-Ralph-Nader-100122-424.html

Corporate Personhood Should Be Banned, Once and For All
Outrageous SCOTUS Decision Should Reignite Most Necessary of Debates - Ralph Nader
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/statement-of-ralph-nader-on-supreme-court-decision-in-citizens-united-v-federal-election-commission/
0r @ http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/01/21-10

A Supreme Victory for Special Interests - John Dean
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/a_supreme_victory_for_special_interests_20100121/

Manchurian Candidates: - http://www.gregpalast.com/ also @
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/manchurian-candidates-supreme-court-allows-china-and-others-unlimited-spending-in-us-elections-by-greg-palast/

CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ARREST OF 5 SUPREME COURT JUSTICES FOR TREASON - Gordon Duff
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/01/22/call-for-immediate-arrest-of-5-supreme-court-justices-for-treason/
"Their ruling has made it legal for foreign controlled corporations to flush unlimited money into our bloated political system"

The Big Question: Will corporate money change campaigns? - Sydelle Moore, Brooke Wylie and Drew Wheatley
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/judicial/77279-the-big-question-is-the-supreme-court-right-on-campaign-finance

Comments on Supreme Court's Decision Killing Campaign Finance Reform - "Granny D"
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/49472
http://www.truthout.org/doris-granny-d-haddock-response-supreme-court56272

Justices Block Key Part of Campaign Law - Associated Press
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/21/us/AP-US-Supreme-Court-Campaign-Finance.html

NY Times Editorial - The Court’s Blow to Democracy 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/opinion/22fri1.html

Justices, 5-4, Reject Corporate Spending Limit - Adam Liptak
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Lobbyists Get Potent Weapon in Campaign Ruling - DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22donate.html?sudsredirect=true

Fair Elections Are the Answer to Citizens United - Nick Nyhart
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-nyhart/fair-elections-is-the-ans_b_418594.html

Supreme Court Rolls Back Campaign Finance Restrictions - Arthur Delaney
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/supreme-court-rolls-back_n_431227.html

What does the "Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission" ruling mean for New Yorkers? - Evan Johnson
http://www.examiner.com/x-34784-NY-Public-Policy-Examiner~y2010m1d23-What-does-the-Citizens-United-v-Federal-Election-Commission-ruling-mean-for-New-Yorkers

This has been a long time coming, we have for far too long been beholden to the misreporting of a court recorder on this very important issue. The 14th amendment was intended to apply to humans, such rights never were intended to be applied to corporations.
These immortal social machines must be seen as potential monsters which are inherently dangerous to humans' rights, not seen as humans with rights. The insistence by recent courts that money is speech is similarly spurious, transparently insane, and extremely dangerous to living beings. We must move beyond both of these travesties if we are to have a world where complex living beings have a chance to survive for purposes that do not serve profits.
Ultimately money and corporations are abstractions of the human social order and they should not have obtained the domination of life on Earth that they already have. By whatever means necessary we must defend the ability of life to continue evolution beyond the reign of imaginary machines.
These imaginary constructs will become increasingly embodied in robot and computer intelligence and thus more independent of beings that have life as we have known it to date.  We are in a time when we must choose whether the machines are to become more human means of fulfillment for the living or if life itself is to become a mere cog in the machine.
Defining human rights as money, and as belonging to corporations, is a recipe for nothing but continued acceleration of the rates of extinction of species and changing of climate, which have already begun to make the lives of many humans precarious, and will continue to get more and more unsustainable in terms of large mammal specie's survival. We are already losing species at the rate of several hundred a day. Humans need other species, and we need species to have rights, much more than we need corporations to have rights.

“Today the business once transacted by individuals in every community is in the control of corporations, and many of the men who once conducted an independent business are gathered into the organization, and all personal identity, and all individualities lost. Each man has become a mere cog in one of the wheels of a complicated mechanism. It is the business of the corporations to get money. It exacts but one thing of its employees: Obedience to orders. It cares not about their relations to the community, the church, society, or the family. It wants full hours and faithful service, and when they die, wear out or are discharged, it quickly replaces them with new material.

The corporation is a machine for making money, but it reduces men to the insignificance of mere numerical figures, as certainly as the private ranks of the regular army."

~ Fighting Bob La Follette, speech on the Dangers Threatening Representative Government, Mineral Point, Wisconsin, July 4, 1897

As though we must always eternally be at war against each other to win forth on the glorious field of money for all that matters is accumulating abstract measures of wealth amongst those who already can not even begin to spend it all without dictating the lives of many others.

Care2.com article with poll
http://www.care2.com/causes/civil-rights/blog/corporations-are-people-too-goodbye-campaign-finance-reform/

Another Care2 article
http://www.care2.com/causes/politics/blog/unrestricted-corporate-influence-cant-be-allowed/

Stephen Colbert on the upcoming decision in Sept 2009
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/249057/september-15-2009/citizens-united-v--federal-election-commission---jeffrey-toobin

Congressman Grayson's petition:
http://salsa.mydccc.org/o/30019/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4&tag=redirect

Keith Olbermann Interviews Alan Grayson About The Supreme Court Case of Citizens United vs. FEC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z_UCyOyRU8&NR=1

Want legislation written by and for humans?
Vote with the party that takes no corporate money and
is committed to an amendment abolishing corporate personhood; see http://gp.org
peace justice democracy responsible local sustainable
diversity and equality for women and Earth

MYTH AMERICA:
20 GREATEST MYTHS OF THE ROBBER CLASS AND THE CASE FOR REVOLUTION
http://www.ipdop.org/myth_america_II_cindy_sheehan_promo.pdf

http://www.nonviolentworm.org/DiaryOfAWorm/20100123-WormsAreNaturalPersonsToo

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/01/24/1922211/Pope-Urges-Priests-To-Go-Forth-and-Blog

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/01/24/1554207/Why-the-IRS-Should-Automatically-Fill-In-Returns-With-What-It-Knows

 ~ Alan Watts Remix:

"The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes.
Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be.
Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown.
Belief clings, but faith lets go. In this sense of the word, faith is the essential virtue of science,
and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception," fr. "The Wisdom Of Insecurity."

Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes.
Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.

we try to pretend, you see, that the external world exists altogether independently of us.

We identify in our experience a differentiation between what we do and what happens to us.

The relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible
without loving everything defined as other than yourself.

Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to this and that, there is another self more really us than I. 

You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.

The trouble is, that we have one-sided minds, and we notice the wave of life when it is at its peak or crest. 

And the more you become aware of the unknown self - if you become aware of it -
the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that is.

I find that the sensation of myself as an ego inside a bag of skin is really a hallucination.

Well actually, when you look out there and see all these people and things sitting around,
that's how it feels inside your head.  
 
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.

The Bodhisattva saves all beings, not by preaching sermons to them, but by showing them that they are delivered,
they are liberated, by the act of not being able to stop changing.

So then, in Buddhism, change is emphasized. 

You must understand as one of the fundamental points of Buddhism, the idea of the world as being in flux. 

The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination.
There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it's only money...
they don't know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination.

The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.

“The more we try to catch hold of the present moment the more elusive it
becomes. It is like trying to clutch water in ones hands. The harder we
grip, the more it slips through our fingers.”

Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize
that they are one and the same process as the universe.

In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America.
And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way.

what I think we could aim for in the way of human civilization and culture would be a system
in which we are all highly aware of our existing interconnection and unity with the whole domain of nature,
and therefore do not have to go to all sorts of wild extremes to find that union. 

a person who is fanatic in matters of religion,
and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe,
becomes a person who has no faith at all.

To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.
When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown.
Instead you relax, and float.

the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.

Faith is a state of openness or trust.

And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.

The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.

the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.

nothing - the negative, the empty - is exceedingly powerful.

Buddhism has in it no idea of there being a moral law laid down by some kind of cosmic lawgiver.

Religion is not a department of life; it is something that enters into the whole of it.

My metaphysics, let me be perfectly frank with you, are that there the central self,
you can call it God, you can call it anything you like, and it's all of us. 

Buddhism is not saying that the Self, the great Atman, or whatnot,
it isn't denying that the experience which corresponds to these words is realizable.

Omnipotence is not knowing how everything is done; it's just doing it.

If you awaken from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other,
life implies death - or shall I say, death implies life - you can conceive yourself. 

reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.

"The only Zen you'll find on mountain tops is the Zen you bring up there with you."


 ~ Krishna from The Bhagavad Gita:

It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another.
Nothing is ever lost in following one’s own dharma. But competition in another’s dharma breeds fear and insecurity.

He alone sees truly who sees the Lord the same in every creature...seeing the same Lord everywhere,
he does not harm himself or others.

As long as you have attachment to the body and attachment to objects, fear and suffering will be with you.
Therefore, Krishna told Arjuna to develop his discrimination and rid himself of body consciousness.
He told him that once he was free of body consciousness he would be able to develop integral vision.

The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results.

Abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace.

 ~ J.C. :
I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for me.

A chance combination two Facebook posts and a late night email:
Scott McLendon commented on Cindy Sheehan's status:
""What is to give light must endure burning."
"The experiences of camp life show that a man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress. We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way. The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity—even in the most difficult circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to life."
"Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."
"Just as a small fire is extinguished by the storm whereas a large fire is enhanced by it-likewise a weak faith is weakened by predicament and catastrophes whereas a strong faith is strengthened by them. "
"For the meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters, therefore, is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person's life at a given moment. "
"Our generation is realistic for we have come to know man as he really is.
"After all, man is that being who has invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who has entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or Shema Yisrael on his lips. "
"Only to the extent that someone is living out this self transcendence of human existence, is he truly human or does he become his true self. He becomes so, not by concerning himself with his self's actualization, but by forgetting himself and giving himself, overlooking himself and focusing outward."
" "So, let us be alert-alert in a twofold sense:
Since Auschwitz we know what man is capable of.
And since Hiroshima we know what is at stake."
--Viktor Frankl

--------------------Freedom for what ?

- OSHO, BEING YOUR SANNYASIN HAS GIVEN ME THE SENSE OF FREEDOM OF NOT BELONGING TO ANY PARTICULAR PLACE, COUNTRY OR EVEN NATIONALITY. IT'S REALLY GREAT. I'VE FELT ABLE TO MOVE ABOUT WITHOUT MUCH FEAR AND TO BE COMMITTED WITHOUT FEELING IMPRISONED. WHY THEN, AFTER NINE YEARS, DO I FEEL A BITTER SADNESS MIXED WITH THIS SENSE OF FREEDOM?

- Freedom has two sides and if you have only one side of it, a single side, you will feel freedom mixed with sadness. So you have to understand the whole psychology of freedom.

The first side is freedom from: from nationality, from a certain church, from a certain race, from a certain political ideology. This is the first part of freedom, the foundation of freedom. It is always from something. Once you have attained this freedom, you will feel very light and very good and very happy. And for the first time you will start rejoicing in your own individuality, because your individuality was covered with all those things that you have become free of.

But this is only one half and then there will come sadness, because the other half is missing. Freedom from is fulfilled, but freedom for what? Freedom in itself has no meaning, unless it is freedom for something, something creative -- freedom to sculpt, freedom to dance, freedom to create music, poetry, painting. Unless your freedom turns into a creative realization, you will feel sad. Because you will see that you are free: your chains are broken, you no longer have any handcuffs, you no longer have any chains, you don't have any prison, you are standing under the starry night, completely free, but where to go?

Then comes a sudden sadness. What path to choose? Up to now there was no question of going anywhere -- you were imprisoned. Your whole consciousness was concentrated on how to get free, your only anxiety was how to get free. Now that you are free, a new kind of problem has to be encountered. What to do now that you are free?

Just freedom in itself does not mean anything, unless you choose a creative path. Either you go deeper into meditation for self-realization -- that's what I was talking about: unless you become like Premda, pregnant -- or if you have a certain kind of talent that has not been allowed to develop because of your fetters -- you could not compose music because your hands were in chains, you could not dance because your feet were in chains ... If you have a talent to be a dancer, then be a dancer. Then your freedom is complete, then the circle is complete.

Freedom from and freedom for -- this is not something new that you are facing. It is being faced by every person who struggles first for freedom and then suddenly finds, "Now that I am free, what am I going to do?" Up to now, he was so occupied, so engaged, so very busy. Even in his dreams he was thinking only of freedom. And he has never thought about what he is going to do when he will get freedom.

Prem Islamo, what has happened is beautiful. But something more is needed. You have to become a creator. You have to find some creativity that fulfills your freedom, otherwise the freedom is empty. You need either to create something or to discover something. Either bring your potential to actuality or go inwards to find yourself, but do something with your freedom.

Freedom is only an opportunity for you. It is not in itself the goal. It simply gives you the whole opportunity to do whatever you want to do. Now you are free and you are feeling sad, because you have not used this opportunity yet. Meditation will do, music will do, sculpture will do, dancing will do, love will do. But do something with your freedom. Just don't sit with your freedom, otherwise you will become sad.

Freedom has to be a creative force in your life, not just a negative kind of freedom. The first part is negative: it is simply getting rid of the prison, it is getting rid of the chains. That you have done: now you are standing underneath the sky, completely lost.

Perhaps you have never realized that the imprisoned person has a certain reason for remaining imprisoned. That's why millions of people in the world remain prisoners of religion, of caste, creed, nation, color. All kinds of prisons they go on tolerating -- not without reason. Their reason is that when they are imprisoned they don't have any responsibility, they don't have to be creators, they don't have to find some positivity in their freedom. It is enough for them to remain imprisoned, because then others will go on taking care.

Why are people Christians, why are people Hindus, why are people Mohammedans? Because Jesus will take care. You need not be worried. All that you have to be is just a slave of the Christian church. And the Christian church will take care of all your sins and of all that is needed. One feels absolutely unburdened with responsibility -- no responsibility.

But remember one thing, fundamental to the whole question of freedom: responsibility and freedom are together. If you don't want to have responsibility, you can't have freedom either. They both come together or they both go together. If you leave responsibility, you have to accept slavery in some way or other.

read full note here:
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=270594700094

Osho

Two versions of the responsibility for freedom, how green...

Hi, Monte,
 Thought you might appreciate this. I've had this reference in my library for years, I was going to send this text and reference to you last summer, but, time and tides wait for no spam.
--charles

From:
Sutra Spoken By The Sixth Patriarch On The High Seat Of The Treasure Of The Law
(Aka: The Platform Sutra)
---------------------
...
 Thus, to the knowledge of no one, the dharma was transmitted to me at midnight, and consequently I became the inheritor of the teaching of the Sudden school as well as of the robe and the begging bowl.
 "You are now the sixth patriarch," said he «Hung-jen, the fifth patriarch --c.o.», "Take good care of yourself, and deliver as many sentient beings as possible. Spread and preserve the teaching, and don't let it come to an end. Take note of my stanza:

   Sentient beings who sow seeds of enlightenment
   In the field of causation will reap the fruit of buddhahood.
   Inanimate objects void of buddha-nature
   Sow not and reap not.

 He further said, "When the patriarch Bodhidharma first came to China, most Chinese had no confidence in him, and so this robe was handed down as a testimony from one patriarch to another. As to the dharma, this is transmitted from heart to heart, and the recipient must realize it by his own efforts. From time immemorial it has been the practice for one buddha to pass to his successor the quintessence of the dharma, and for one patriarch to transmit to another the esoteric teaching from heart to heart. As the robe may give cause for dispute, you are the last one to inherit it. Should you hand it down to your successor, your life would be in imminent danger. Now leave this place as quickly as you can, lest some one should do you harm."
 ...
 After saying good-bye, I left him and walked toward the south. In about two months' time, I reached Ta-Yü Mountain. There I noticed that several hundred men were in pursuit of me with the intention of robbing me of my robe and begging bowl.
 Among them there was a monk named Hui-ming, whose lay surname was Ch'en. He was a general of the fourth-rank in lay life. His manner was rough and his temper hot. Of all the pursuers, he was the most vigilant in search of me. When he was about to overtake me, I threw the robe and the begging bowl on a rock, saying, "This robe is nothing but a symbol. What is the use of taking it away by force?" [I then hid myself.]
 When he got to the rock, he tried to pick them up, but found he could not. Then he shouted out, "Lay brother, lay brother [for the patriarch had not yet formally joined the Order], I come for the dharma, not for the robe."
 Whereupon I came out from my hiding place and squatted on the rock. He made obeisance and said, "Lay brother, preach to me please."
 "Since the object of your coming is the dharma," said I, "refrain from thinking of anything and keep your mind blank. I will then teach you." When he had done this for a considerable time. I said, "When you are thinking of neither good nor evil, what is at that particular moment, venerable sir, your real nature [literally, original face]?"
 As soon as he heard this he at once became enlightened. But he further asked, "Apart from those esoteric sayings and esoteric ideas handed down by the patriarchs from generation to generation, are there any other esoteric sayings?"
 "What I can tell you is not esoteric," I replied. "If you turn your light inwardly, you will find what is esoteric within you."
 "In spite of my staying in Huang-mei," said he, "I did not realize my self-nature. Now thanks to your guidance, I know it as a water drinker knows how hot or cold the water is. Lay brother, you are now my teacher."
 I replied " if that is so, then you and I are fellow disciples of the fifth patriarch. Take good care of yourself."
 ...
pp73-76,
From: _The Diamond Sutra & The Sutra Of Hui-Neng_, tr. A. F. Price & Wong Mou-lam, 1990, Shambhala Press.  Excerpt from The Platform Sutra of Hui-Neng.

i hear the 7th Master had known for some time that the uninspiring acolyte coveted his robebut thought he was concealing it

Out of the desperation born of lack of talent the acolyte began to plot,

One night he made up his mind

On the way, in the rain, knowing they are alone they meet

Looking in the eye he disrobes dropping the robe in the puddle, he walks away

The 8th kneels and weeps, the office is passed

I may have the enumeration wrong, these things all run together in my mind...

want to know why i like the one hand clapping koan?

 

Human Responsibility, Zen, mental liberty, you, myself, Allness Is Being, Life, death

and then bring it back 'round again

Vote with the party that takes no corporate money. See http://gp.org

Protest Everything with an Aggressive Threatening Demeanor!

 

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/250815/thu-october-1-2009-joy-behar

In the middle segment, John Oliver gets advice for G20 protests from tea baggers.

Very funny, very effective, very surreal, highly recommended.

  

Click the 2nd white hash mark on the blue line at the bottom of vid to skip right to it.

  

 Sums up all you really need to know about grassroots protesting in 2009 
http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/250815/thu-october-1-2009-joy-behar 

http://xkcd.com/

 

Check out Green Change if you haven't already,
and the same with Rev Billy Talen, running for Mayor of NYC

Otherwise, this just seemed a most worthy effort to me,
'twould be Awesometagious!

http://voterevbilly.org/

http://www.youtube.com/user/reverendbillytalen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverend_Billy_and_the_Church_of_Stop_Shopping

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rev-Billy-Talen/52676562761

http://www.revbilly.com

not too hard to do, no down side, could be a great meeting of minds,
not to mention the possibility of completely hilarious results.

Rev Billy's street theater background should match even Maher's extemporaneous wit

Joan Baez and the Life After Shopping Gospel Choir
http://www.greenchange.org//article.php?id=4781

monte letourneau
WIGP CC, GPUS NC Delegate
http://montesite.net
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Marnie Glickman <marnie@greenchange.com>
Date: Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 11:28 PM
Subject: [usgp-dx] Get Rev. Billy Talen on Bill Maher
To: USGP Discussion 

Dear Green friends,

I don't watch TV. And I don't own one. But there is a TV host I'm hearing a few good things about -- Bill Maher.

In June, Bill Maher asked, "Shouldn't there be one party that unambiguously supports cutting the military budget, a party that is straight up in favor of gun control, gay marriage, higher taxes on the rich, universal health care -- legalizing pot -- and steep, direct taxing of polluters?... what we need is an actual progressive party to represent the millions of Americans who aren't being served by the Democrats."

Let's introduce Bill Maher -- and his national audience -- to Reverend Billy Talen, the Green Party candidate for mayor of New York City.

Rev. Billy is an eloquent spokesperson for the Green movement. He's smart, dynamic and hilarious too.

Will you ask Real Time with Bill Maher to have Rev. Billy on the show?
http://bit.ly/getrevbillyontv

Rev. Billy just turned in more than 18,000 signatures to earn a spot on this November's ballot to run against the "billionaire mayor," Mike Bloomberg.

Can you help Rev. Billy spread his message that we need Green solutions to create vibrant, diverse neighborhoods?

Yes, I want Green voices in the media - I'll contact Real Time With Bill Maher today!
http://bit.ly/getrevbillyontv

Thanks for your help. Remember, it's up to us!

Peace,
Marnie Glickman
Proud VoteRevBilly volunteer and donor