Protest Pit

It seems that the Bush Administration wants to limit where protestors can gather.  The Mall is traditionally the place where demonstrators have rallied for such ideals as free speech.  See Washington Post article here.  hmmmm…

Recently in San Antonio, they have been trying to limit where demonstrators my gather as well.  hmmm…

When we allow them to shuffle us off to the side, it is a small step to eliminating our right to assemble at all.  Remember that frog…

ImpeachBush.org has a form you can fill out to send your message to the National Park service (the agency involved in this development) that you support free speech and the right to assemble at the Mall as is traditional.

In an email I received from ImpeachBush.org, they said:

The NPS has set up a “public-private” partnership that allows business interests and real estate developers — in coordination with the government — to determine the future of the National Mall. The Jan. 12 public meeting was intended to have low attendance to allow the government to claim public involvement while simultaneously excluding it. When confronted with the fact that they had done no legitimate outreach about the public meeting to the hundreds of thousands of people who have actually used the National Mall, the President of the Trust for the National Mall responded that she had sent notice to the Board of Trade!  The NPS issues 3,000 permits a year for the use of the National Mall, but there has been no effort to notify any of those organizations about the proposed changes. Their attempt to exclude people from this process could not be more clear.

I personally think this is insult to injury.  Take away our traditional place of assembly and turn it into a commercial enterprise…

Invoking the Spirit of Martin Luther King

On this day we honor a man who had a great dream.  His dream was for all of us to have the same rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  On this day, we need his spirit to come alive again; to remind us of that dream.  This video report with excerpts from Mr. King’s speeches, illustrates quite clearly our current situation.

Some of the stories remind me of an observation I made some years ago.  About 9 years ago, I worked for a corporation’s call center (setting up repair appointments for customers).  When I first started, the corporation had a weekly tradition of buying bagels for all the employees on Fridays.  After I had been there for some months, we had a staff meeting where it was announced that we had just had the “most profitable quarter ever“.  The following week, at another meeting, we were told that it was too expensive for the company to buy us bagels and would therefore discontinue the practice.  I know, bagels are such a small thing.  For me, it was not the bagel.  For me, the point was that they told us we had just helped them make more money than ever before and now they could not afford the small morale booster of a weekly bagel.

It is the way of cooking a frog to do it in small degrees at a time…Chip away at benefits…slowly raise the deductions for health care…slowly integrate two worker’s jobs into one worker’s job…they really don’t need us anymore.

Hear What Kucinich has to say in Re-hosted Nevada Debate

From what I understand, MSNBC originally invited Dennis Kuchinich (Democratic candidate for President) to participate in the Nevada Debate. Within 48 hours, MSNBC contacted Kucinich to say they had “changed their criteria” and that Kucinich was no longer invited. Kucinich then filed suit and the court sided with him. MSMBC then appealed and just prior to the debate, the court sided with MSNBC. Hmmmm.

In response, Democracy Now “re-hosted” that debate so as to include Dennis Kucinich. In spite of MSNBC’s efforts to squeeze out Kucinich, we still get to hear what Mr. Kucinich has to say. Click below to listen for yourself.

Part 1

Find Parts 2 through 5 listed here.