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A Declaration for Our Time
[Editors Note: Part of our ongoing Sunday series examining the intersection of religion and politics and its relationship to our present state of democracy, written exclusively for the DCP, by Matthew Carnicelli]
I became a political activist on September 11, 2001. As I watched American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crash into the World Trade Center's twin towers here in New York, I was overcome by a sense of dread. I feared that the planet was in danger of being been overrun by yet another wave of collective insanity. I groped for a few days for something that I could to do that might make a meaningful difference; and after the initial shock and numbness had worn off, I began to write. My subject then, as today, as I expect that it will be for the rest of my life, was the impact of consciousness, spirituality, and psychology on human affairs.
I hadn’t heard of the Council of the Parliament of World’s Religions back then. I didn’t know that eight years earlier, in 1993, in the aftermath of the first World Trade Center bombing, representatives of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Taoism, numerous indigenous spiritual traditions, and a host of other religions, had sounded a clarion call for global change and transformation – the Declaration Towards a Global Ethic – a declaration that might, had it been heeded, have actually prevented events like 9/11, or the later Madrid Train Station bombing, from ever taking place.
Today, some forty months and two wars after 9/11, their call has yet to be given much of a hearing. And at the very moment when this message is most needed, some of the most regressive religious voices in the nation have been permitted to frame the debate about the role of spirituality in America.
Men and women of conscience cannot allow this to continue.
If God can be said to exist, then He/She/It, is so far beyond human understanding that it must be considered hubris for any of us to imagine that we alone speak for It, or definitively understand It’s essential nature. And yet, gathered together in His/Her name, and open to the wisdom embedded in each other’s scriptures and practices, we can hope to collectively speak with greater authority and confidence than we dare alone. And as the men and women who collaborated on this Global Ethic discovered, we have much in common.
As part of the preparations for this Parliament of World Religions, leading theologians (like the Dalai Lama, and the eminent Swiss theologian Hans Kűng – who was entrusted with the writing of the formal Declaration) explored the question of common ground between traditions – and resolved that each participating religion could enthusiastically embrace four of the Ten Commandments of Moses, as well as the “Golden Rule”. But they did not stop there. Rather than just acknowledge the universal appeal of these four Commandments, they reformulated them into affirmative expressions that could reshape our understanding of global problems in the here and now. So, for instance:
– “Thou shall not kill”, the 6th Commandment, became “Commitment to a culture of non-violence and respect for life”.
– “Thou shall not commit adultery”, the 7th Commandment, became “Commitment to a culture of equal rights and partnership between men and women”.
– “Thou shall not steal”, the 8th Commandment, became “Commitment to a culture of solidarity and a just economic order”.
– “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor”, the 9th Commandment, became “Commitment to a culture of tolerance and a life of truthfulness”.
Now, seen from a conservative religious perspective, these reformulations might be considered radical. But let me suggest they are no more radical than the examples set by the men and women of scripture, legend, and history whose lives stand at the center of our spiritual traditions. In my experience, authentic spiritual leaders rarely, if ever, talk about family values, but always point the way toward profound personal and collective transformations.
And, accordingly, the Declaration continued:
“Historical experience demonstrates the following: Earth cannot be changed for the better unless we achieve a transformation in the consciousness of individuals and in public life. The possibility for transformation have already been glimpsed in areas such as war and peace, economy, and ecology, where in recent decades fundamental changes have taken place. This transformation must also be achieved in the area of ethics and values! Every individual has intrinsic dignity and inalienable rights, and each also has an inescapable responsibility for what she or he does and does not do. All our decisions and deeds, even our omission and failures, have consequences.”
There is no suggestion anywhere in this Declaration that non-believers are somehow expendable, no fantasy of a division in the world between the saved and the damned – like the one currently all the rage in Christian Fundamentalist circles. It embodies the kind of forward-looking theological thinking that even most secular humanists could embrace.
And there is no suggestion anywhere in the document of a spiritual bypass – that somehow, by a kind of magical dispensation through holding the right kind of “faith”, that the requirements for right-action with regard to each other or the natural world were suddenly absolved. In that sense, the Declaration can be thought of as being firmly grounded in the teaching of Wu Li:
"Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water."
The language of the formal Declaration is necessarily simple, as would be required of a document intended as one that could be easily translated into perhaps hundreds of different languages. And while there are few phrases in the English original that are likely to command the imagination on the basis of literary value alone, the Declaration still manages to exude a heady Universalist flavor.
The organization responsible for bringing this Declaration to the world does more than simply inspire others to talk or write. Based in Chicago, the Council for a Parliament of the World Religions is actively engaged in the process of building even more bridges between men and women of different faiths. Like the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, its work represents the front line in a battle for a harmonious, pluralistic human future.
The events of 9/11 demonstrate how interrelated we have become as a species, and how even two great bodies of water can no longer insulate Americans from the pain, suffering, or hatred of others. President Bush’s remedy for this new national insecurity was a promise of war without end. Yet, when has the threat of death offered any chance of deterring men and women already eager to die in exchange for a promised eternity in Paradise? And how many additional Muslims is Bush's policy transforming into would-be martyrs? As Donald Rumsfeld once phrased his answer:
"Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror."
And still, their policies continue. But undermine these would-be terrorists' confidence in the righteousness of their cause, and the likelihood of their reward, and you strike a winning blow in this battle for political and spiritual pluralism.
But do President Bush and his “rapture” obsessed religious allies actually support economic and spiritual pluralism – and the future envisioned by the Global Ethic? Or are they a mirror image, interpolated for nation and culture, of terrorists who prefer religious despotism, who glorify violence, and who live for the promise of an ultimate reward in heaven? Whatever your answer to this last question, I ask you to the read the Declaration Toward a Global Ethic – and if you are inspired by its vision, to pass it along to friends, loved ones, fellow church members, and co-workers. Ideas have power. As Victor Hugo once wrote:
"An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come."
*******
To obtain the Declaration in pdf form (Adobe Acrobat), click here.
For more information about Christian theologian Hans Kűng's vision of a global order, see his A Global Ethic for Global Politics and Economics.
I know it's off topic, but I just couldn't restrain myself from posting this article from the AP this morning. It's only on the AP wires, of course- CNN hasn't made a mention of it. All it contains is absolute proof that this president has smoked marijuana, and that he's once again lied about it. He's protecting the "children," by his lying, just like he was protecting the children when he wouldn't admit his drunk driving convictions. It is, and always has been, about the hypocrisy. Why can't the Christians I know see this. It always amazes me.
Top Stories - AP
AP
Secret Recordings Foreshawdowed Bush Plans
2 hours, 32 minutes ago
Add to My Yahoo! Top Stories - AP
NEW YORK - Private conversations with George Bush (news - web sites) secretly taped by an old friend before he was elected president foreshadow some of his political strategies and appear to reveal that he acknowledged using marijuana, The New York Times reported Saturday.
Photo
AP Photo
The conversations were recorded by Doug Wead, a former aide to George W. Bush's father, beginning in 1998, when Bush was weighing a presidential bid, until just before the Republican National Convention in 2000, the Times said in a story posted on its Web site.
The tapes show Bush crafting a strategy for navigating the tricky political waters between Christian conservative and secular voters, repeatedly worrying that evangelicals would be angered by a refusal to bash gays and that secular Americans would be turned off by meetings with evangelical leaders.
On one tape, Bush explains that he told one prominent evangelical that he would not "kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"
In early tapes, Bush dismisses the strength of John McCain for the nomination and expresses concern about rival Steve Forbes (news - web sites). He also praises John Ashcroft (news - web sites) as a promising candidate for Supreme Court justice, attorney general or vice president.
Bush also criticizes then-Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites) for admitting marijuana use and explains why he would not do the same.
"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions," he said, according to the Times. "You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
According to the article, Wead played 12 of the tapes to a Times reporter. He said he recorded them because he viewed Bush as a historic figure. He is the author of a new book on presidential childhoods.
The White House did not deny the authenticity of the tapes.
"The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said, referring to then Governor Bush.
Posted by: Linda Enterkin at February 20, 2005 12:52 PM
(Again, off topic, but here's the link to the whole article.)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/politics/20talk.html?hp&ex=1108962000&en=de99ea0739b1d129&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Now back to our topic...
Matt...im ashamed to admit that it took the tragedy of 911 to become 'aware of my political surroundings'. Like you, I am appalled by the hypocrisy of the religous community today, espousing 'values', without having a clue to what that actually means.
I do believe there is hope for our future, however...and it rest with this very discussion, here on this blog, and other blogs just like it....and the many forums, and other methods of communication now available to the average citizen. Communication, in the hands of our people will be our salvation.
Matthew:
I remember after 9-11 how the world pulled together. And people went to church and synagogue more. And the administration was please about the resurgence of religion.
Unfortunately, it is like everything Bush does. He took a failure on his part (9-11 happening) and turned it into a religious resurection. Then he took the religious resurection and used it for his political gains.
Religion is such a deeply personal thing. And the fact that it's now used as a tool to promote war is scary!
And the same religious clerics in Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc...are being asked to give permission to suicide bombers...
Before 9-11 it was a few...now it's many! And the clerics have been forced to try to talk people out of this mission.
Sounds to me like Bush's mission is convincing people to be suicide bombers (join the military and go to Iraq on a lie) whereas the religious clerics there are begging people to calm down and NOT attack us.
Church Folks for a Better America
by Katrina vanden Heuvel
excerpt:
It used to be said that the right had the wallet but the left had the pen. But then the Right discovered that if you had the wallet you could buy the pen. The rightwing take-over of religious discourse in America is part of a larger trend that has developed over the last 25 to 30 years. The right has learned to be extremely effective in shaping the political agenda and exploiting religious sensibilities.
more~
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0219-30.htm
Bush's War on Veracity
by Ralph Nader
It is difficult even for news hounds to keep up with the repeated and new prevarications of President George W. Bush. When he told his council of advisors a while back that he did not have to explain because he was the President, El Jefe was not kidding.
snip~~~~
Even a lonely dissenter quietly holding a sign or wearing a T-shirt with words critical of Bush is expelled from Bush's speaking engagements by police. Anyone striving to rebut the President, whether from a labor union, citizen group, or Congress, gets a paragraph, at best, or more likely, is shut out. The Bully Pulprit can exude bull with impunity. The Pulpit is in a bubble.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0219-22.htm
Matt:
Thank you for the cross comparison of the commandments and how their frames have distorted the commandments.
Some of us feel like we do not have the "inner experience" to fight on that level. Like somehow they must know more about religion and we have let them "bully" us into cowering to their ideas. We've become "victomized" by their harsh words and their label of "religious right." NOpe they are the religious WRONG and no longer will I even say the word "right" to describe them. They are WRONG--religious wrong, immorally wrong, prejudiced and intollerant. They are neo CONS and CONMEN! (conwomen too.)
Your article is so helpful to help is regain our inner peace with our religion and to help us gain our voice to fight them on this front.
we need to take back our religion because WE ARE THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT--we follow the moral and ethical code--not them!
Still blogging from Canada - I just had trouble logging on and was helped by a nice Chinese-Canadian computer programmer here in Canadian-owned Blenz coffee shop.
As I walked over here from the Barclay Hotel, I eavesdropped on 4 American law students. They were talking about Gannon & how bloggers can crack this thing wide open. They said that if the Democrats had a media machine like the Republicans, alot of these neocons would be behind bars by now.
I have always been politically active in some way but started on the internet on 9/11/01 also. My reaction was "What did we do?" (to piss someone off enough to be able to orchestrate something this big) & then "how was this allowed to happen?" (as I'd been through the Millennium Scare and cancelled a $200 room for New Year's Eve 2000 at the Space Needle because of Al Quaida threat). I went straight to the library for history books on the middle east & straight to the Guardian-UK for English-language news that wasn't American & wasn't owned by Rupert Murdoch. & no tv since I was already afraid of the brainwashing potential ever since being horrified when the new cable news sanitized the 1991 Gulf War terribly.
Yes it really did open up a can of worms!! It's nice being up here in Canada. It's clear to me now that when I'm in the States it feels like we are at war. "Support the Troops" magnets on cars, flags, austerity budget, funerals, homecomings, political polarization.
Canada never felt that different to me - a little more European perhaps. I've been here 5x since 9/11 and it feels more different each time.
I bought two shirts here and when I got them back to the hotel and looked at them - "Made in USA". Canada has had a budget surplus for 11 years now. There are cranes up all over - building. Vancouver is vibrant.
I'm listening to the Gypsy Kings. Frankly, I wish I could just stay.
Chuck in Baku for DiAnne in BC:
That reminds me of a joke we used to have in Portland back in the early 80's -- the border between Canada and California runs through Eugene. Back then, that was meant to be a slag on CA. I've grown since then and am prepared to admit that California is indeed a great place! But still, it does have an element of truth to it from a socio-economic POV.
Chuck (ex-PDX) in Baku
And this is even more off-topic but I believe this is going to be THE story to take down the Bush White House.
Justin Raimondo sorts out everything you wanted to know about the legal, moral and ethical ramifications on the White House/Gannon story and supplies some terrific links to back it up. It's the best breakdown I've found so far on what happened and where it's going. READ THIS and pass along.
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4879
Sam,
DO you think Gannon is a story-for-real--or a distraction? Or a story-for-real made to look like a distraction?
Or a distraction made to look like a story-for-real?
It is so hard to tell--this adminstration is so deeply secretive and perverse.
on topic----
The sad thing about 'my god is better than your god' is that whoever god is probably he'she'it didn't plan for us to be living eternally in the shadow of the tower of Babel. It takes a long time to get people to speak the same language. Thousands of years and hundreds of wars later, as a species, humankind is still trying to make God conform to what they believe works for them, instead of the other way around. So far as I can tell, a global religious agreement to be good to one another and share the planet isn't any nearer now than it ever was.
The world used to be huge, and even with all of our instant ability to communicate, spy and discover what is going on in every corner of the planet, there is still not trust. The OTHER guy is the one who is keeping us from all getting along. Before we ever get to a God encouraging the diverse populations and religions of the world to get along, we have to acknowldge that God isn't going to come to any of the meetings in person to weigh in, so we are own our own getting it right.
I never much liked organized religion, because it wasn't getting me closer to God, at least any closer than I felt I could get in just speaking to God from inside my car, or while putting away laundry. Now, we have devovled to the point that you have to choose the 'right' religion or head straight to hell. Problem is, every religion says they are the 'right' one. You might get a group of more evovled thinkers together, but do they have a better bead on God?
Of all the things we can't see or explain, such as ESP or ghosts, or the paranormal, the only thing we are encouraged to believe in is God. And nowadays, angels. Maybe the key is to explain to people that there is not one religion that has proof of a God existing, and in case there isn't one, we are making a real mess in the name of something that doesn't exist.
This might be it you know. There might not be a heaven, an eternal place where we all get to meet our loved ones and live in paradise forever. What you have here might be all you have. If that could be the case, instead of worshipping and working for a place that only lives in our hopes and dreams, maybe we better finally get down to the business of mankind.
Posted by: Sam Park at February 20, 2005 03:26 PM
Posted by: Karen at February 20, 2005 05:00 PM
You know, the more I think about this story, the madder I get. An article in the NYTimes today with Eberle indicated that he was unaware of any preferential treatment Gannon got in the White House... Yeah, right...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/national/20gannon.html?
The operator of an activist Republican Web site and news service said Friday night that he had known for two years that his White House correspondent went by two identities.
But the operator, Robert R. Eberle, denied in an interview that the correspondent, Jeff Gannon, whose real name is James D. Guckert, was an administration plant or was given preferential treatment as a Republican partisan to ask soft questions at briefings.
************
So I ask, what can we do to make sure the truth comes out about this? I know there are so many issues out there, but this one, involving media reform, seems to be in line with something we should follow. My inquiring mind wants to know what's going on...
So what's our action plan? Should we call our congresspeople to ask for a formal investigation into this? (Or am I typically uninformed and this is already underway?)
Should we pound our local newspapers with LTEs asking them to uncover this?
Should we contact people like Olbermann and Maureen Dowd to help us?
All of the above? What else?
Posted by Matthew Carnicelli at February 20, 2005 12:38 PM
Matthew, thank you for this OUTSTANDING article! There is so much meat in it that I have been reading the referred material all afternoon, and am looking forward to reading even more.
I URGE everyone to read the Declaration Towards a Global Ethic. It lifted my spirits to see the cooperative efforts of varied religious representatives to put in declaration form the values that the good in us all agree upon. It served as an eye opener as well. It made me even more keenly aware of how wrong this administration has gotten it.
How people of any faith or religion can sit idly by and think all is well is beyond me.
Justin Raimondo
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4879
"Who planted Gannon in the White House press pool, and gave him all that access – and to what purpose? Clearly part of the scheme was to lob softball questions at a beleaguered White House press secretary facing a barrage of pointed questions about the war and the Bush administration's many scandals. However, the idea was also to debunk and distract attention away from the questions that were beginning to be raised not only about the Plame matter, but also about the series of outright fabrications that represented a great deal of this administration's case for going to war. That case had been made by influential neocons now facing scrutiny from Congress and the Justice Department, and Gannon served as their personal pitbull, going after Wilson and other debunkers of the neocons' war myth."
"..... his attractions to the neoconized American right are all too easy to see: he offered Republican activists a more congenial view of the increasingly bad news from Iraq – and the home front – as a nefarious plot by the "biased" mainstream media (MSM) to make the president (and America) look bad."
"That they bought it, and continue buying into it, is all the evidence we need that the neoconized "conservative" movement is not only brain dead, but dangerous to boot."
"If we follow the slime trail left by Gannon and his sponsors all the way to the end, we'll stand face-to-face with the real authors of the Iraq war, and the full record of their crimes in the reckless pursuit of power and imperial glory. Gannon may be a minor player in all this, but then so was the Watergate burglary a minor escapade – the unraveling of which eventually led to the resignation of Richard M. Nixon and a general disillusionment with the neoconservative agenda of global interventionism."
Thanks, Sam Park, for the link to this story. It packs a whallop! I'm posting certain quotes because I think they are vitally important to read, let what Raimondo said sink in, and then put the suspicion radar of all of us on high alert.
And speaking of which:
DO you think Gannon is a story-for-real--or a distraction? Or a story-for-real made to look like a distraction?
Or a distraction made to look like a story-for-real?
It is so hard to tell--this adminstration is so deeply secretive and perverse.
Posted by: Karen at February 20, 2005 05:00 PM
Karen, you also packed a whallop in a few sentences. Thanks for the astute and concise observation!!!
Since Gannongate first appeared, I've had the niggling suspicion in the back of my mind that as horrendous as the unethical and immoral implications are, Gannon/Guckert is a distraction.... something for MSM and the bloggers to talk about to distract from whatever the hell's going on in secret behind the scenes which will surely be another shocker to us when we eventually find out after the fact. (And I still want to know why Novak hasn't been charged for outing Plame!!! It's a felony, fer cryin' out loud, to out an agent!!! Novak needs to spend some time behind bars!!!) No one with Guckert/Gannon's background would have that easy an access to the press room so close to the presiDunce without approval 'from on high' by someone behind the scenes; he wouldn't have passed the background check for a security clearance if the Secret Service and whoever did the background investigation is on it's toes.
IMHO, Gannon/Guckert is fall guy, a patsy, and the story is a distraction - and I wonder if he's being paid for his "services" as a "journalist" for being a plant and the center of attention while more nefarious deeds are being plotted and/or carried out by the BushCo administration and their evil minions??? I feel like I need to put my mind's ability to observe back to childhood... children are able to detect a magician's tricks and debunk them faster than adults who follow the distracting movements of the magician's hand while he does the magic with the other.... I highly suspect we should be paying much, much more attention to anything and everything that is not part of the Gannon/Guckert affair....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Posted by: tutterfly at February 20, 2005 06:07 PM
Right ON the mark, tutterfly!!!!!!!! :-)
And, thanks, DiAnne.... I haven't listened to my Gipsy Kings CDs in a while, so when I read your post I put their music on.... Great Guitar!!! :-) Have fun in Vancouver - I was there two times in my distant past, and loved the place. Scenery is quite breathtakingly beautiful in that area, and the people I met were fantastically nice....!!!
The mole, the US media and a White House coup
The reporter who wasn't is part of a wider press scandal, writes Paul Harris in New York
snip~
The Gannon case is a prime illustration. If, during the Clinton administration, a fake reporter from a Democrat front organisation, using a false name, had been exposed as attending White House press conferences it would have been a national scandal. If he had then been shown to be a gay prostitute, the scandal could have threatened a Democrat presidency. With 'Gannon' and Bush there has been no such outcry. The mainstream media has approached the story warily, while right-wing organisations such as Fox News have largely ignored it.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1418539,00.html
05:00 PM
Perverse or five steps ahead. Like in 2000, the GOP hawking the need for e-voting, allowing for privatized fraud, endless maintenance costs, and windfalls financially and electorally.
Gannon possibly saw Niger-Plame memo. He also possibly knew about the Irag invasion and Mapes-CBS document as fake hours before the mainstream news. Also possibly knew the GOP Texas cabal as initiating the Mapes memo. To what end?
I would love to uncork the Texas propaganda machine and source for swifties, but will the MSM press go that far, and will the preached to converted finally lose belief in this concocted Bush image?
Wrote this an hour ago and forgot to send it, but with other doubters, will add ine.
Meantime, all NYers, need to act on NYS e-voting legislation ASAP. Might pass within a couple of weeks, in rush to spend HAVA money on bad equipment, ideas, and get us locked into unseen future costs for maintenance and fraud. Go to http://www.wheresthepaper.org/flyNY2_05.htm
Just spoke with Theresa Hommel, prime mover on this, and it's D-Day, as in do-it day!
Posted by: Linda Enterkin at February 20, 2005 12:52 PM
The ONLY drugs that are allowable under the Bush regime are those sold by Reverend Moon. After all, somebody has to fund the Washington Times, UPI, and Moon's recent acquisition of Kodiak Island, Alaska.
The only reason to outlaw and crack down on drugs is to keep the prices high - so that the Moon monopoly can fleece all of us to carry out its agenda.
Bush is right on one thing: drugs fund terrorism. Except that the terrorist drug users fund is one within our borders.
That reminds me of a joke we used to have in Portland back in the early 80's -- the border between Canada and California runs through Eugene. Back then, that was meant to be a slag on CA. I've grown since then and am prepared to admit that California is indeed a great place! But still, it does have an element of truth to it from a socio-economic POV.
Chuck (ex-PDX) in Baku
Posted by: Chazman at February 20, 2005 02:16 PM
Chuck, the border just moved south... Now it runs somewhere around San Luis Obispo, I think.
California may be "blue" but the ONLY real blue areas are the Bay Area and the City of Los Angeles. The rest of the state is bleeding red, especially the Los Angeles suburbs and the Central Valley. The fact that 1/4 of our population is foreign-born does NOT help, as our immigrants are from socially backward countries in Asia and Latin America and STRONGLY opposed to abortion and gay rights.
I wish I had stayed.
Now experiencing reverse culture shock - more obesity, more greasy spoons, more bad music, more weeds, more potholes, houses with neon crosses on the front door (2), many pickup trucks & some Humvees, many colored car magnets, & more obnoxious drivers including weaving all over the road.
Re. WA & OR - they are mostly blue in Portland and Seattle & start to deteriorate politically as you move out toward the suburbs in any direction.
God it was good to be somewhere Bush isn't President.
Here's what awaits him in Belgium:
http://www.stopusa.be/home/
link for Campaign for America's Future:
http://action.ourfuture.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=24445
I'll be putting some organization links into the "Sites" section of the Forum before long - there are some (by category) but have more ideas coming.
~~I have spent most of the afternoon at the following website...I highly recommend that everyone at least scroll through this in-depth study of how the religious right took over the Republican party. Who, what, when, where and how...its all here...how they did it, how they control the 3 branches of govt. and their plan for YOUR future...and mine....
bookmark this site to return to, its too much to absorb during one visit....
The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party
a public information project from TheocracyWatch.org
War on Secular Society
"We need to find ways to win the war" Karl Rove, President Bush's political director told a gathering of the Family Research Council in March, 2002. The Family Research Council is one of the most powerful lobbying organizations of the Religious Right today. Rove wasn't talking about the war on terrorism. He was talking about the war on secular society.
~continue
http://www.4religious-right.info/introduction2.htm
Robin (an occasional DCP blogger) put a diary on Kos that got a good response. I can't get the link there to open so asked her for the hard copy and here it is:
Citizen Bloggers: End the Disinformation Campaign
I believe the largest threat against this democracy is the disinformation campaign that has been implemented against the people of this nation. It is the single-most dangerous and damaging element in the neocon heist. As information specialists, bloggers are by definition the anti-venom for disinformation.
Incredibly enough, the blog world is having a "15 minutes of Fame" moment. We are at a fork in the road. The microphones that are set before us right now that are being pumped into every home in this nation ˆ for this minute in time ˆ is an incredible once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
We have a choice:
1. We can simply allow the mainstream press to play out this soundbyte‚ story ("Who do the bloggers think they are?") for our 15 minutes until we go back to the netherworld of the internet.
OR:
2. We can transmute and amplify our 15 minutes of fame to demand/force the mainstream press to abide by its duties and obligations under the Constitution: ensuring a free press as the cornerstone of democracy.
Face it, the only reason the Gannon story has hit the mainstream press is out of shame. We made the press look bad because they sat there in complicity with the White House disinformation campaign. Ah, the weakness of the press in this country: vanity. Karl Rove would not hesitate to exploit their weakness of vanity; that‚s his MO.
Gannongate is an incredible story that keeps growing legs, but the big issue IS not only the subversion of the free press by actions of the White House, but also by the press‚ own desire to be subverted (whether that be for money profits or laziness or whatever∑but the White House Disinformation Campaign work for them).
By shaming them the press into a semblance of action, the press has nebulously covered the Gannon story. But has ONE mainstream journalist taken one minute of his day to do ANY investigation outside of what they are getting from the bloggers? No. Nada. Zilch. They are just Œplaying the story‚, and that is no different that what they have been doing all along ˆ repeating soundbytes.
I propose that one of the most fruitful moves we can make right now while we are in the spotlight is to turn the focus ON the press itself. In a big way. We need to create a coalition of bloggers and make a demand on the press: demand that they uphold their end of their constitutional obligation. They have turned the right to a free press into a sham ˆ making it all about their rights to publish and say whatever they want. That is NOT the framers‚ intention. The right to a free press lies with the people. I have no question that "we the people‰ have the framers support in saying that IF the Fourth Estate fails in its obligation to the people (and boy has it!), the people have not only the right but the duty to hold their feet to the fire. It makes no difference if the press has failed because of government intervention or through the press‚ own complicit actions, of which we have an heinous dance of both.
Can the left blogosphere unify to hammer out a list of demands to the press? Can it transmute its 15 minutes of fame into real change? Can we unite on this one issue? To call out the Press for what it is? (That being, agent provocateur for the highest office in the USA, the presidency). The more I think about it∑ the Gannon story is not so much a question about the White House as it is a battle between Œthe people‚ and their so-called Free Press. This battle needs to be fought and the time is ripe to launch it.
So, this is a call to action to the Daily Kos community first, in the hopes that we can call out to our friends in the blogosphere for them to join in a formal demand of the press.
I want to draft something like a Bill of Rights of Press Consumers∑ but that doesn‚t frame the issue correctly. Seems like a List of Demands is the tone I am thinking of.
Can we come up with some bullet point items for this List of Demands?
I would appreciate a recommend of this diary, if you think worthy. I feel in my gut that we have merely a minute to make some major headway in regard to the number one problem that we face in our struggle to save this country: freedom from disinformation. If we ally the blogosphere, we can move mountains. But we only have a few minutes of our 15 minutes left in which we can be heard.
In my fantasy world, I see such a movement moving beyond the internet to Main Street. Who knows? If the people can wake up to the disinformation campaign that the presidency and the press have duplicitously unleashed upon our people, perhaps it can lead to the takedown of this criminal cabal that has infested our great nation. And we have a man of ill-repute as our friggin cover story to launch the real fight against disinformation. Not too many gifts like that are going to come down the pike. We need to seize this.
The press‚ vanity is our best friend in this. Let‚s use it. Bullet points for our list of Demands???
I don't have the comments & I can't get to them but there were many.
My comments for the day....
- The Bush Tapes deal is a non-story leaked by Rove to throw MSM media off the scent of what's stinking behind Gannongate.
-And I'm not sure how Shrub's visit is being covered by other media outlets but NBC Nightly News covered it tonite like he is winning them over. They showed him being interviewed by Belgium TV and the voiceover said that the media over there was commenting on his friendliness. Of course there was only a brief show of a protest. ACK! Puhleeze Europe don't drink the kool-aid!!!
Posted by: florida dem at February 20, 2005 10:30 PM
Here's what BBC news is saying now...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4282051.stm
--snip--
Parts of the Belgian capital had been turned into a no-go zone before Mr Bush's plane landed in the city airport just after 2100 (2000 GMT).
The president was then whisked off to the heavily guarded residence of the US ambassador in Belgium in downtown Brussels, where he would spend three nights.
Thousands of protesters are expected to stage rallies during Mr Bush's first foreign tour since his second term in office began in January.
Earlier on Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators rallied in central Brussels, carrying slogans "Bush is not welcome".
***********
I'll look around for Belgian newspaper stories. Don't worry...Europe doesn't like kool-aid.
Posted by: florida dem at February 20, 2005 10:30 PM
Here's a link with a photo of a protester. The text along side it basically says... (I'm ashamed to say it, but my French is rusty, so someone please correct my mistakes.)
Several hundred people were reunited Sunday afternoon in front of the Bourse (equivalent to stock exchange) to protest agains the visit of the American president. The demonstration is coordinated by the association Brussels Tribunal, inspired of the Russell courts created in the years 1960 to be opposed to the war of Vietnam, which militates against the policy warmonger of the current American administration. The demonstrators carried clearly hostile signs to the American president or communist flags.
http://www.lesoir.be/info_en_images/page_5188_303999.shtml
The accompanying story, which has a headline of "Bush and the Stoppers" (literal translation; I'm taking it to mean Protesters) basically says:
Other demonstrations will cover the stay of the American president, who will take part in particular Tuesday in a double top with his counterparts of NATO and the European Union. The deputies and senator sp.a will take part Monday afternoon in the demonstration organized by the platform "Bush Stop" in front of the embassy from the United States in Brussels. The Flemish Socialists subscribe to the objectives of the demonstration, underlined the head of group to the Room Dirk Van der Maelen, who has explained as there is not a word of the declaration of the platform gathering a series of ONG with which it does not agree. And to stress that in this text, the environmental organization requires the United States to subscribe to the protocol of Kyoto, the organizations of humans right require them to recognize the international penal Court and the pacifist movements stress that the war in Iraq is illegal.
Hey kids long time no post...
Seems the scum behind the Swift boat liars for Bush are now going to attack and slime the AARP, due to their opposition to Bush's Social Security privatization.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/politics/21social.html?ei=5094&en=e53f647d7614f9e4&hp=&ex=1108962000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=
"We need to find ways to win the war" Karl Rove, President Bush's political director told a gathering of the Family Research Council in March, 2002. The Family Research Council is one of the most powerful lobbying organizations of the Religious Right today. Rove wasn't talking about the war on terrorism. He was talking about the war on secular society.
~continue
http://www.4religious-right.info/introduction2.htm
Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at February 20, 2005 10:03 PM
ANYBODY HAVE anything on Rove's religious affiliation?
Have people gone mad? Somebody please wake me up and tell me this is all just a bad dream.
I just watched Fargo & it reminded me of times back in the Dakotas & MN ..
& here's a little activism project - we have to keep going on this!!
The People's Email Network ACTION Newsletter
How is it that someone with no journalistic credentials was promoted to ask propaganda questions at White House press conferences? The issue is not whether Mr. Guckert (Jeff Gannon) might have moonlighted as a prostitute. The real question is whether the press itself, in the exercise of its professionalism, should have more control over the process. Is it time for Congress to get involved to make sure the tough questions are allowed to be asked? What do you think we should do?
http://www.usalone.com/press.htm
http://www.indymedia.be/news/2005/02/93126.php
You should be able to download a video here of the antiBush protest in Brussels.
Match the conservative commentator to the offensive act:
I feel I am reaching my outrage quota for the day & I haven't even read the news yet.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=103
*Heat from press rises on White House over Gannon*
A broad array of mainstream publications and television networks are aggressively pursuing various angles of the burgeoning scandal
surrounding discredited White House reporter Jeff Gannon, RAW STORY has learned.
Washington sources tell RAW STORY that calls are flying around the District as much of the mainstream press seeks to catch up with online
reporting–including some from such prestigious magazines as The New Yorker.
The wire services have also begun digging, sources say, which could place the Gannon scandal in hundreds of smaller newspapers across America.
Some suggest that the mainstream media–which initially left blogs and online outlets like this site to flesh out the story–are now seeking to
reestablish their grasp and perhaps break new elements of it themselves.
Major newspapers, such as the New York Times, may also run Sunday pieces detailing all of the information that has come to light on the Internet to date.
Reporters are trying to flush out how the conservative escort/reporter got such access to the president and possibly to classified state secrets. The tenor of calls, it appears, has reached a fevered pitch.
Mainstream journalists are scrambling to be the first to hammer down a solid connection between President Bush’s White House and the conservative reporter with a dubious history who was given daily access to White House briefings and invited to the White House Christmas party.
Media sources are reluctant to say which publications and networks will break into the game; many of the networks and national newspapers have been exploring leads but thus far none have confirmed a release date.
For now, they say, it’s wait and see.
Did Jeff Gannon Help the GOP Bring Down Daeschle?
http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/credible-evidence-emerges-that-jeff.html
Blogs Vs Mainstream Media: May the Battle Begin:
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000808960
Just reading Free Republic .. never thought I'd live to see the day when someone would refer to Tom Daschle as a "Socialist" LOL
More nasty business:
Chavez Threatens to Stop Oil Exports
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said Sunday that he would stop oil exports to the United States if the U.S. government tries to assassinate him.
``If anything happens to me, forget about Venezuelan oil Mr. (George W.) Bush,'' said Chavez during his weekly radio and television show.
Chavez and Cuban leader Fidel Castro accused the United States last week of planning to assassinate Chavez.
``If I am assassinated, there is only one person responsible: the president of the United States. You must take action if this happens,'' Chavez said to listeners of his show.
Relations with the United States, Venezuela's main oil buyer, have deteriorated in the past months due to Washington's criticism of weapons purchases by Venezuela.
Venezuela is the world's fifth oil exporter and is the fourth largest supplier of oil to the United States, shipping nearly 1.2 million barrels of crude to U.S. ports daily.
However, relations have been tense under Chavez, a strong critic of U.S. involvement in Iraq and free market deals backed by Washington.
Chavez has accused the U.S. government of being behind a 2002 coup attempt that it was slow to condemn.
this is so sad.
Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050221/ap_on_re_us/obit_thompson
..yeah on Curt Cobain's birthday, no less
DiAnne---
You amaze me, are there possibly seven of you and we just don't know it? I just read your post about the Bloggers and our 15 Minutes of Fame. Strangely enough, I had a conversation with Pcdoc about this just hours ago. The MSM is portraying the blogs as a fad that will only be hip for a short while ,and of course people will always get their news from print journalism and television. They have to make us go away, because there is only so much spotlight to go around.
MSM doesn't want us around. They want to treat us like a bastard at a family reunion. Bloggers are gathering legitimate news. News that might as well be fantasy, because if MSM news reports give us any weight, then we belong to the news family. Not only is MSM guilty of lying for the Bushies, they are also guilty of refusing to report truth when it's shoved in their faces by blogs.
It's said that 38% of the country knows what blogs are, and reads them. We need to increase that number rapidly. That means that we need a way to encourage more people to let the MSM know where they are getting their news. Would it be a terrible idea to encourage everyone in the blogoshpere to send an e mail to every media outlet they can find and say 'I NEWS BLOG?'
So, that is my idea. We need to have an 'I NEWS BLOG' day. For one day, all blogs everywhere flood the MSM with our committment to using blogs to find the truth. No matter what a person says in their message to the MSM, it gets that header. And, then we tell the MSM that we know what they are not reporting, and if they want us to include them in the family any longer, they will get on board with the truth, and start reporting it.
My choice for a day to flood the MSM is April Fools Day fo obvious reasons. Isn't it time to just let MSM know who the fools are?
DiAnne---
You amaze me, are there possibly seven of you and we just don't know it? I just read your post about the Bloggers and our 15 Minutes of Fame. Strangely enough, I had a conversation with Pcdoc about this just hours ago. The MSM is portraying the blogs as a fad that will only be hip for a short while ,and of course people will always get their news from print journalism and television. They have to make us go away, because there is only so much spotlight to go around.
MSM doesn't want us around. They want to treat us like a bastard at a family reunion. Bloggers are gathering legitimate news. News that might as well be fantasy, because if MSM news reports give us any weight, then we belong to the news family. Not only is MSM guilty of lying for the Bushies, they are also guilty of refusing to report truth when it's shoved in their faces by blogs.
It's said that 38% of the country knows what blogs are, and reads them. We need to increase that number rapidly. That means that we need a way to encourage more people to let the MSM know where they are getting their news. Would it be a terrible idea to encourage everyone in the blogoshpere to send an e mail to every media outlet they can find and say 'I NEWS BLOG?'
So, that is my idea. We need to have an 'I NEWS BLOG' day. For one day, all blogs everywhere flood the MSM with our committment to using blogs to find the truth. No matter what a person says in their message to the MSM, it gets that header. And, then we tell the MSM that we know what they are not reporting, and if they want us to include them in the family any longer, they will get on board with the truth, and start reporting it.
My choice for a day to flood the MSM is April Fools Day fo obvious reasons. Isn't it time to just let MSM know who the fools are?
i hate double posting. sorry
Can't describe how it warms the cockles of my heart to know Europeans are protesting shrubbie and the images are at least making it to the Internet...! I wonder if he will be shielded from the sight of the protesters and kept in his little bubble where no news he doesn't want to hear ever reaches him...? I'd like to see mainstream media showing a motorcade driven very, very slowly through the sea of protesters over there.... (ah, well... I have pretty daydreams)... US TV media would never, but never, ever show more than two to five seconds of European protesters while talking about his trip there (if they bothered to show it at all). The US media will put a positive spin on his begging Europe for help, anyway - conciliatory message and all that s*** and spin that his speech writers usually do. I hope the European leaders remain as polite to him as they always have... and diss him entirely and ignore him once he's gone....
Off topic: Sandra Dee died today from a chronic kidney problem. I was sad to hear that.... I remember her from movies, her marriage to Bobby Darin, etc.....
Bush Faces Iraq Critics, Calls for Unity
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050221/ap_on_re_eu/bush
BRUSSELS, Belgium - President Bush dismissed the rift with Europe over Iraq as a "passing disagreement of governments" on Monday and urged greater trans-Atlantic cooperation, including more support for the fledgling Iraqi government.
"As past debates fade, and great duties become clear, let us begin a new era of trans-Atlantic unity," Bush said in a prepared speech. Excerpts were released before delivery.
"No temporary debate, no passing disagreement of governments, no power on earth will ever divide us," he said.
~~~~~~~~~~
Really??? Doesn't Dumbya realize there will be no "unity" until after we have a new president in Jan. 2009?!?!? Duh... Europeans have been around much longer than he has, and they have the patience to wait out his disastrous corporate fascism that he's instituted in the US.... Next to European leaders, Dumbya is just an uncouth hothead and a bullying cowboy upstart with a short fuse - and he was the author of the divide between Europe and the US to begin with.... His "dismissal of the rift" between Europe and the US deserves to be treated with a dismissive attitude in return by European leaders....
Or does he think that setting up a puppet democracy in Iraq deserves high praise from European leaders??? His war has decimated Iraq and is a recruiting factor for more terrorists in the world. And for that he expects European leaders to pat him on the back in good ol' boy fashion?!?
Let's see.... N. Korea has now got nuclear weapons and the leader of N. Korea has openly said he is arming because of the threat Dumbya poses to N. Korea; Chavez has openly declared that if anything happens to him to look first to Dumbya as the cause (and he heads a country with oil).... To me, that's a "hint" that other countries are arming themselves against the day when Dumbya and his evil minions will seek to unjustly and illegally attack another nation.... If other countries unite in a defensive position against the US, then what???
Nonny--
Insomnia again? Same here.
I think that the 'Coalition of the Pissed Off' is forming rapidly. You can't push the whole world around, no matter who you are, and much to my horror, it seems like the presiDunce doesn't get it. The world is busy NOT lining up in the 'you are either with us or against us' program, and I can't blame them.
This spreading of freedom and democracy is a pig in a poke. What I don't get, is how long does he think the game is going to last?
Bush arrived in Brussels? Big deal.
Here are some exerpts from Le Figaro today, a mainstream soft liberal paper.
THE EU WANTS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
Beyond words, the EU is expecting acts from the American president.
"Never in history did an American president show so much hotility and comtempt to the Old continent" sadly says a European Comissioneer. The smile of Condi Rice... was not enough to reinsure the Europeans.
More moderate, for sure, but quite as messianic, and blowing cold and heat, upon Irak, the speech of BushII leaves them sceptical. "It's the same wine in the bottle, only the label changed", sys martin Shulz the president of the Socialist European party.
......
What worries Europeans the most are the American bombs supposed to free the world from tiranny. Bush may have put on his diplomat suit, he hasn't apparently given up his concept of premptive war.
....
During the visit, EU wants to focus on short terms goals: irak, iran, Middle-East, China...
....
The Kyoto protocol and the international court of justice won't be left aside.
...
Sorry, I cannot translate the whole article here.
But in my opinion, Bush might not get back with his diplomat suit on. He might get rid of it again during the talkings.
It's the same wine in the bottle, and you know it too well!
Sorry, I forgot the source link.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/20050221.FIG0144.html
Seems that the Guardian and I agree on the topic. They reflect people feelings, and people don't get A thing about Bush. He is as an alien coming from an other planet, but we do not intend to play vassals. We'll go our own way, wether he likes it or not, because we know he is wrong and dangerous.
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1419221,00.html
Bush seeks to repair European Relations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4814109,00.html
The brownshirts were busy this weekend........
'Unpatriotic' Artwork Removed After Complaints From Lakewood City Council
POSTED: 8:00 am MST February 20, 2005
LAKEWOOD, Colo. -- City Manager Mike Rock has ordered the removal of an art exhibit that three City Council members called "anti-American and anti-military.''
The ceramic "Hope Stones'' by Air Force veteran Gayla Lemke includes quotes from such people as Benjamin Franklin and is part of an exhibit in the Lakewood Cultural Center that features the work of three artists.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4215161/detail.html
WTF??? We are "spreading" freedom and democracy, but not imposing it?
President Bush told European leaders today that the future of free nations is linked to the future of the Middle East. "Our greatest opportunity, and our immediate goal, is peace in the Middle East," he said, adding that "lasting successful reform in the Middle East will not be imposed from the outside. It must be chosen from within."