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| | Protest the high price of gasoline | | | Monday, April 28, 2008 (12:20 PM)
(I'm feeling angry) | | From gemcityjeff:
How to voice your dismay about the high price of gasoline…
Many service stations make a huge bulk of their profits from the sundries that they are selling. Items such as candy, donuts, milk, bread, coffee, soda, ice, ice cream, magazines, chips, and of course cigarettes just to mention a few. (I know this because I used to manage a service station.) We may have no choice but to pay their high price of ransom for a gallon of gasoline because we need it to get us to and from our places of employment, home, school and other places where we must go, but we do have the choice of whether or not we need to purchase all these other convenient things they’re trying to peddle off on us. Tell them you don’t approve of their sky high gas prices by only purchasing what you need to purchase, which is gasoline. Purchase your other sundries at other stores and BOYCOTT the sundries at service stations.
Please join me in this! Email your friends and spread the word by telephone and personal conversation. Get the word out anyway you can. Let's get this going nationwide folks!
__________________
The high price of gas is with us for good because of Peak Oil. But insofar as profiteering by Big Oil is contributing to it, gemcityjeff may have a good idea. If nothing else, you can save money by getting those sundries cheaper elsewhere. | | | 193 Views | 0  Thumbs Up | 0 Comments |  |
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| | A Sign of a Sick Civilization | | | Friday, April 25, 2008 (9:26 AM)
(I'm feeling aggravated) | | JDProductions recently posted a photo to the bulletins of a large yellow truck with big windows into which ads had been placed. I was going to post it here, but the LV system to post photos in a blog is too complicated. (You have to give all the dimensions). So I am not going to bother.
His posting of the photo had to do with some drama that has been circulating on the bulletins of late. He modified the ad to make his point. But my point is the truck itself.
In my neck of the woods, such trucks are black and are called Bubble Media. Gas prices are rising. Fossil fuel usage is contributing to climate change and yet there are companies whose business is have solo drivers in large trucks drive ads around?
What clueless individuals thought of this crap?
| | | | 311 Views | 2 Thumbs Up | 2 Comments | |
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| | How to Stop Terrorism in 3 Easy Steps | | | Wednesday, April 23, 2008 (4:05 PM)
(I'm feeling thoughtful) | | Inspired by AnnelidaFilms video "4000".
Terrorism is not an enemy; it is a tactic used by desperate people to get rid of an oppressor when they don't have the military strength (and budget) to fight the oppressor in a conventional war. It's a last resort when other means to improve the situation, including peaceful negotiation, have proved futile.
How to stop terrorism in 3 easy steps:
1) Abandon imperialism - Read world history. Any nation that has had, or is having, a problem with terrorism is an imperialist force. This includes imperialism within borders, such as the situations in Sri Lanka with the Tamils, Spain with the Basques, and Northern Ireland with the Catholics ( just to name a few situations off the top of my head) all being oppressed by a larger, more politically and economically powerful ethnic or religious group.
2) Stop enabling friends who are terrorists. Again, off the top of my head, Indonesia and Israel come to mind. The US runs something that used to be called The School of the Americas, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, that instructs military officers, some who go on to be military dictators, in torture. Known mostly as a training ground for Latin American military elite, it does host people from other nations, such as Indonesia. Spending our tax money to do this and arm other nations, such as Israel, with weapons such as F-16 fighter planes to fly low over Palestinian neighborhoods only adds to the problem.
3) Respect human rights and deal fairly in business. Terrorism finds fertile ground where peoples are discouraged or outright forbidden to speak and publish in their own language, practice their own religion, or control the natural resources of their lands...if their lands have not been ripped off completely, that is.
These 3 simple steps are not likely to be tried, primarily because there is too much money to be made from the so-called "Global War of Terror", not only by the arms merchants, but by all the industries that have sprung up to allegedly keep us safe from terrorism. Additionally, the threat of terrorism gives the political elites the excuse to take away our freedoms to keep us "safe." Thus, the surveillance society. Also, as long as a large enough percentage of the population can be ruled by fear, there will always be cannon fodder for the next war to keep us "safe and free."
But there you have it. Three simple steps to rid the world of terrorism. Don't say I didn't tell you so. | | | | 213 Views | 4 Thumbs Up | 5 Comments | |
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| | Somebody's doing Something! | | | Tuesday, April 8, 2008 (7:55 AM)
(I'm feeling pleased) | | Truckers Protest, the Resistance Begins
By Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbaraehrenreich.com
Monday 07 April 2008
Until the beginning of this month, Americans seemed to have nothing to say about their ongoing economic ruin except, "Hit me! Please, hit me again!" You can take my house, but let me mow the lawn for you one more time before you repossess. Take my job and I'll just slink off somewhere out of sight. Oh, and take my health insurance too; I can always fall back on Advil.
Then, on April 1, in a wave of defiance, truck drivers began taking the strongest form of action they can take - inaction. Faced with $4/gallon diesel fuel, they slowed down, shut down and started honking. On the New Jersey Turnpike, a convoy of trucks stretching "as far as the eye can see," according to a turnpike spokesman, drove at a glacial 20 mph. Outside of Chicago, they slowed and drove three abreast, blocking traffic and taking arrests. They jammed into Harrisburg PA; they slowed down the Port of Tampa where 50 rigs sat idle in protest. Near Buffalo, one driver told the press he was taking the week off "to pray for the economy."
The truckers who organized the protests - by CB radio and internet - have a specific goal: reducing the price of diesel fuel. They are owner-operators, meaning they are also businesspeople, and they can't break even with current fuel costs. They want the government to release its fuel reserves. They want an investigation into oil company profits and government subsidies of the oil companies. Of the drivers I talked to, all were acutely aware that the government had found, in the course of a weekend, $30 billion to bail out Bear Stearns, while their own businesses are in a tailspin.
But the truckers' protests have ramifications far beyond the owner-operators' plight -first, because trucking is hardly a marginal business. You may imagine, here in the blogosphere, that everything important travels at the speed of pixels bouncing off of satellites, but 70 percent of the nation's goods - from Cheerios to Chapstick -travel by truck. We were able to survive a writers' strike, but a trucking strike would affect a lot more than your viewing options. As Donald Hayden, a Maine trucker put it to me: "If all the truckers decide to shut this country down, there's going to be nothing they can do about it."
More importantly, the activist truckers understand their protest to be part of a larger effort to "take back America," as one put it to me. "We continue to maintain this is not just about us," "JB" - which is his CB handle and stands for the "Jake Brake" on large rigs - told me from a rest stop in Virginia on his way to Florida. "It's about everybody - the homeowners, the construction workers, the elderly people who can't afford their heating bills ... This is not the action of the truck drivers, but of the people." Hayden mentions his parents, ages and 81 and 76, who've fought the Maine winter on a fixed income. Missouri-based driver Dan Little sees stores shutting down in his little town of Carrollton. "We're Americans," he tells me, "We built this country, and I'll be damned if I'm going to lie down and take this."
At least one of the truckers' tactics may be translatable to the foreclosure crisis. On March 29, Hayden surrendered three rigs to be repossessed by Daimler-Chrysler - only he did it publicly, with flair, right in front of the statehouse in Augusta. "Repossession is something people don't usually see," he says, and he wanted the state legislature to take notice. As he took the keys, the representative of Daimler-Chrysler said, according to Hayden, "I don't see why you couldn't make the payments." To which Hayden responded, "See, I have to pay for fuel and food, and I've eaten too many meals in my life to give that up."
Suppose homeowners were to start making their foreclosures into public events- inviting the neighbors and the press, at least getting someone to camcord the children sitting disconsolately on the steps and the furniture spread out on the lawn. Maybe, for a nice dramatic touch, have the neighbors shower the bankers, when they arrive, with dollar bills and loose change, since those bankers never can seem to get enough.
But the larger message of the truckers' protest is about pride or, more humbly put, self-respect, which these men channel from their roots. Dan Little tells me, "My granddad said, and he was the smartest man I ever knew, 'If you don't stand up for yourself ain't nobody gonna stand up for you.'" Go to theamericandriver.com, run by JB and his brother in Texas, where you're greeted by a giant American flag, and you'll find - among the driving tips, weather info, and drivers' favorite photos -the entire Constitution and Declaration of Independence. "The last time we faced something as impacting on us," JB tells me, "There was a revolution."
The actions of the first week in April were just the beginning. There's talk of a protest in Indiana on the 18th, another in New York City, and a giant convergence of trucks on DC on the 28th. Who knows what it will all add up to? Already, according to JB, some of the big trucking companies are threatening to fire any of their employees who join the owner-operators' protests.
But at least we have one shining example of defiance of the face of economic assault. There comes a point, sooner or later, when you stop scrambling around on all fours and, like JB and his fellow drivers all over the country, you finally stand up.
If you would like to help support the truckers in any way, go to http://www.theamericandriver.com/files/TruckersAndCitizensUnited.html. | | | | 207 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | Spitzer Resigns - It's Time to Impeach Bush | | | | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 (12:45 PM) | | Today Gov. Eliot Spitzer apologized again to the people of New York for his personal failings and resigned, just 16 months after winning an historic landslide election with 70% of the vote.
But Spitzer's resignation was not entirely voluntary, because Republican leaders were busy drafting Articles of Impeachment.
What was Spitzer's impeachable offense? The "lowest" crime in the book.
As we know, the Founding Fathers wanted Impeachment to be used for "High Crimes" like treason, bribery, war crimes, and subverting the Constitution itself.
Eliot Spitzer committed no "High Crimes" - but George Bush and Dick Cheney most certainly have, and they continue to do so with absolute impunity.
It's time for Congress to impeach them for it.
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88?ad=d8
16 months ago, we posted a petition listing 10 High Crimes which justified their impeachment:
(1) Starting a "war of aggression" (2) torture (3) arbitrary detention (4) war crimes (5) warrantless wiretapping (6) signing statements (7) election fraud (8) outing a covert CIA operative (9) the "unitary executive" (10) gross negligence for Katrina and global warming.
Each one of these crimes is as unacceptable today as it was then. After 5 years in Iraq (see below), Bush has killed nearly 4,000 Americans and over 1 million Iraqis and incurred $3 trillion in costs. And there are many more crimes we could add, including Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence to stop him from testifying about the crimes of Bush and Cheney themselves, and Bush's ongoing threats to bomb Iran. And each one makes Spitzer's "crime" utterly insignificant by comparison.
Over 137,000 of you have signed this petition, and we thank you. (If you've forgotten, our form won't let you sign twice.)
But many of you have not. And in the wake of the Republican effort to impeach Eliot Spitzer for his "low" crime, every American who is outraged by Bush's "High Crimes" should sign it.
Please tell your Senators and Representative to Impeach Bush and Cheney Now:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88?ad=d8
And thanks for all you do to make the world a better place.
| | | | 327 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | A message from Anti-RFID Crusader Katherine Albrecht | | | | Wednesday, March 12, 2008 (12:03 PM) | | Hi, all:
I am about to leave for Phoenix, where I and other advocates will be
briefing the Arizona state legislature on privacy issues associated with
new remotely-readable, spychipped "enhanced" driver's licenses. If you
are in the area, you are invited to join us on Thursday evening for a
public town hall meeting on the topic sponsored by the Arizona ACLU
tomorrow night.
As you may know, several states, including Arizona, Washington, Vermont,
and New York have agreed to issue the RFID-tagged cards for
border-crossing purposes. The idea is that state residents who
voluntarily pay an extra $40 to receive the remotely-trackable cards
will be allowed to cross more "efficiently" into Canada or Mexico, since
border officials will see them coming before they reach the guard
station.
To anyone who's clued in about RFID, the spychipped driver's licenses
are a complete privacy nightmare, however. They can be silently read
from 20-feet away, through a person's wallet, pocket, backpack, or purse
-- even when the target is in a moving car. They are unencrypted and
contain a unique ID number that can be used to identify and track people
miles from the border -- indeed, anywhere the government chooses to put
a reader.
But it's not just the government that could use the cards to track and
surveil people. Anyone with a rudimentary RFID reader can remotely
access the the unique ID number on the card. Retailers could use them to
ID customers as they walk in the door. Marketers could use them to track
people around the store. Stalkers could use them to track their victims.
Terrorists could scan for them in crowds and pinpoint Americans
traveling in other countries. Hackers could duplicate the signal emitted
by chipped licenses to impersonate people. The list of potential abuses
for the ill-conceived ID card are staggering.
If you are in Phoenix and would like to learn more, the ACLU is hosting
a Town Hall Meeting tomorrow evening (Thursday, 3/13) at 7:00 PM at the
University of Arizona. I will deliver a PowerPoint presentation on
RFID-tagged ID cards and sign books after the event, so be sure to bring
your copy of Spychips (or you can pick one up while you're there).
The event is free and open to the public. Further details are available
below my signature,
or on-line here: http://www.acluaz.org/News/PressReleases/3_10_08.html
If you cannot attend in person, please send your prayers and well wishes
with us to the state of Arizona, as we work to inform the public about
the encroaching police state.
In freedom,
Katherine Albrecht, Ed.D.
============================================================
Dr. Katherine Albrecht
Founder and Director, CASPIAN Consumer Privacy
Host of "Uncovering the Truth"
We the People Radio Network, M-F 10AM-12PM EST
Listen Live: http://www.wtprn.com
Archives: http://mp3.wtprn.com/Albrecht08.html
Co-author of "SPYCHIPS: How Major Corporations and Government
Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID"
http://www.spychips.com/book/booksales.html
WEBSITES:
Human Chipping: http://www.AntiChips.com
RFID: http://www.SpyChips.com
Shopper Cards: http://www.NoCards.org
Bio online at: http://www.spychips.com/media/katherine-albrecht.html | | | | 245 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | To find my blog... | | | | Wednesday, February 13, 2008 (9:20 PM) | | go to http://radiokellia.blogspot.com/
The name of the blog is RadioKellia in Print and it is a blog for my political editorial with links to the videos that inspired them. Some bugs have been reported with the HTML editor on Live Video, plus I don't have answers yet to two questions that I need answered before I decide to move: 1) can I put Google Ad Sense on my LV Blog and 2) and I have multiple blogs per username? So for now I am staying put with Blogger.
My baseball blog, Down The Left Field Line: Life, Baseball & Eric Byrnes, is at http://byrnesblog.azsportshub.com/ and it's not going anywhere either. But for precisely the opposite reason, everything is fine there. Baseball fans, please vidit the Byrnesblog. You don't have to root for the Diamondbacks or Byrnes to be welcome. | | | | 144 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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