America needs JOBS: And holding Washington's feet to the fire is OUR job

At the Minneapolis Netroots Nation convention of progressive bloggers last week, the main focus was on America's current crippled job market, our current high unemployment rates and the desperate need to create new jobs here in America (not offshore) -- and as well it should be.

First Howard Dean spoke, and here's what my notes say that he said: "We are still all about electing Democrats to Washington. But once they get there, however, we need to hold their feet to the fire. We, not the people in Washington, are the only ones who can make the change we can believe in. And we need to be working toward a vision bigger than ourselves -- community, security and liberty. We need security from the need for foreign oil, and freedom from religious bigots telling us what to do."

Yes, Dean actually said that. He actually called out the religious bigots -- instead of pandering to them like Palin, Bush and Gingrich have done. No wonder the corporatists and fright-wingers fought so hard against Dean getting elected in 2004.

"We can't count on politicians to stand up to the monied interests. So we must do it ourselves, building a small-picture movement based on a big-picture vision." And part of that big-picture vision is one where America doesn't eliminate and/or outsource its jobs.

Then Senator Russell Feingold spoke next. "There is too much corporate dominance in America today. But corporate power has been rocked by the internet -- and they were terrified that we might stop the flow of soft money campaign contributions and fiscal deregulation. Then along came Citizens United and now we've been taken back to the old Gilded Age of the robber barons -- only it is now a Gilded Age on steroids. But together we can stand up to corporate power."

Yeah. And we can bring our outsourced jobs back home to America too. You can't stand up to corporate dominance quite as fiercely if you don't have a job.

No wonder the corporatists and the fright-wingers fought so hard to get rid of Senator Feingold. He represents us -- not them.

Then I took a bus ride back to where I was staying over on the other side of the Mississippi River (which, BTW, runs right through the middle of Minneapolis) and I got to chatting with the bus driver, who also held down another job as a firefighter. "I work two jobs," he said -- and boy was he pissed off about all the recent forced budget cuts to municipal services.

"Your firefighting job is in danger?"

"Yes," he said. And that was a very definite YES -- a very angry-sounding yes. "I'm tired of bailing out Wall Street and financing endless wars. What do people think they're going to do if their house catches on fire? Call a banker? Call 911 and have a war-profiteer show up?"

Yeah. So. Jobs. After listening to various speeches at NN 2011, talking to various other bloggers from all over America and hearing the sad tales of several local working men and women, I was starting to get the idea. Many private-sector jobs have been outsourced overseas already and now public-sector jobs are in danger. America is becoming a nation of the rich and the poor.

And speaking of being poor, I also had a long talk with a local homeless guy. "I like being homeless," he said. "It makes me feel like I'm free, that I'm my own man. I sleep out under the stars."

"But what about during the winters?" Winters are apparently rather fierce in Minnesota -- ten degrees below zero for weeks on end.

"Then I just ride the buses all night." It's a good thing that this guy likes being homeless -- because he can set a good example for the rest of us who may be facing involuntary homelessness pretty soon. We all could be like him in a couple of years if the corporatists and their fright-wing minions have their way.

Then Rep. Alan Grayson gave a speech and he really brought the problem of America's lack of jobs into focus. "There are five things that you need to be Middle Class in America. You need a home, a car, a pension plan, healthcare and a job. And the Republican party refuses to support anything that will help you get any of these five. And right now you only have three friends in life: God, your mama and the Democratic Party." And, apparently, you only have the Democratic Party if you hold its feet to the fire.

No wonder the corporatists and fright-wingers worked so hard to get rid of Grayson too.

There were other speakers on Grayson's panel, including Rep. Keith Ellison and Rep. Raul Grijalva -- on the first leg of a nation-wide http://speakouttour.com/?page_id=8 tour. And each speaker gave us a a verbal snapshot of the pathetic state of America's current job market.

I forget who said what during this panel but here is the gist: "This is a war between the greediest people on the planet and the rest of us. If we take this message out to America, however, we WILL win! It's time to stop the politics of scarcity and go for the politics of generosity. There IS enough for everyone. We need to make jobs the main issue. If you're not talking about putting America back to work, then you are talking about nothing. It is NOT okay to destroy personal lives just to make a profit. That is the definition of evil. And these are the people who are in charge of America today. The priorities in Washington DC need to match the priorities in the rest of America!"

Rep. Grijalva then added, "Various hot-button issues have been used in a very cynical way to divide America from the good of the many to the good of the few. The next election will define our nation for generations to come -- and we must define America for the common good."
The top one percent of people in America just got ten percent richer, I was told. And the rest of us only got threatened with unemployment. Screw that. No wonder the corporatists and the fright-wingers are working so hard to get rid of these progressive members of Congress. And now they are trying really hard to get rid of you and me too -- starting with our jobs

PS: I also want a job! Does anyone out there have any use for a 68-year-old unemployed blogger?

PPS: When progressives talk about jobs, we are talking about REAL jobs -- not just the phony jobs that corporatists are always campaigning about but which in real life turn out to be only more low-paying jobs performed by prison inmates or more jobs sent overseas or more jobs where billionaires only need apply or jobs only for corporatists' relatives or simply just more TALK about jobs.

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Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

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"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

Quiet on the set?: Filming a unicorn movie in Berkeley this week

Since it was founded back in 1880, Berkeley High School has been industriously busy cranking out whole bunches of amazingly wonderful graduates who have then gone on to do amazingly wonderful things. One of these amazingly wonderful graduates is my son Joe -- who is currently working as a sound mixer on a movie written and directed by Leah Meyerhoff, another amazingly wonderful graduate of Berkeley High.

"And right now you are filming this movie in Berkeley?" I asked Meyerhoff today after joining her film crew for lunch -- cole slaw, BBQ chicken and stuffed bell peppers -- and dragging my three-year-old granddaughter Mena along so that she could see what her daddy does when he goes off to "work".

"Mostly we are filming in Berkeley. Today we're shooting a scene in a punk warehouse in West Oakland, but last week we filmed at Bette's Ocean View Diner on Forth Street and next week we're going to be filming at the marina." Apparently they've been filming in Berkeley for the past two weeks and still have two weeks more left to go.

Meyerhoff then had to run off to do directorial things and so I talked with her assistant director who was busy roughhousing with Mena and having a food fight. "What's the plot about?" I asked him.

"It's basically a coming-of-age story, but one with a twist -- coming of age in Berkeley." But then it was time for the assistant director to get back to work so I cornered one of the actors.

"The movie as about a young girl who is having problems at home," said the actor, "and so she runs off in order to get away from a situation that she thinks is intolerable -- only to find that she has jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire and ended up in an even harsher situation. And so she retreats into a fantasy world peopled with unicorns." But then the actor had to go off to hair-and-make-up, so I went off to talk with Meyerhoff's assistant.

"Will the unicorn fantasy scenes be shot with special effects?" I asked her.

"No, we will be using animation, stop-action animation done by taking the objects we shoot and moving them one frame at a time." I wonder if they want to use some of Mena's My Little Pony unicorns in the story -- assuming of course that Mena would ever let them out of her sight.

Then Meyerhoff's assistant got whisked away too, and so did Joe -- and so Mena and I got to wander around the graphically colorful punk warehouse set all by ourselves -- where we ran into a very nice ultra-punk "suicide girl" with a mohawk hairdo and a cute little kitten named Space Kitty, and the very nice punk girl and Mena chatted for a while about how cats are fragile and need to be petted carefully.

Then after that we begged everyone we saw on set for a part in the movie. This could be Mena's and my big chance! But nobody had time for talent-scouting today. "Quiet on the set!" someone yelled and that was that.

Later on, I found out that the film crew will be traveling to New York after wrapping up here, working on the animated unicorn sequences at a studio on the east coast, where Meyerhoff had attended film school at NYU. Then the film will go into post-production for who knows how long, and then it will go out on the festival circuit where, with any luck at all, it will be released into theaters nationwide and then everyone in America will be able to see how amazingly wonderful Berkeley High School graduates can be -- plus they'll get to see some amazingly wonderful shots of Berkeley as well. And, hopefully, they may get to see some amazingly wonderful shots of me and Mena as well.

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Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

No Fear & Loathing in Minneapolis: Cheap patriotism vs. Deep patriotism

I was supposed to go to the Netroots Nation convention in Minneapolis last week, an annual event designed to appeal to progressive bloggers, progressive activists and progressive wannabes. However, 24 hours before I was scheduled to leave for Minnesota, I started to get cold feet. Why even bother? Trying to speak up for freedom, justice and democracy in America just seems to be an exercise in futility these days. Obviously the corporatists and their Fright-wing minions have grabbed hold of all us progressives by the short hairs and aren't letting go -- so why even bother to fight back? I started to reach for the phone, to cancel my reservations.

But then I didn't.

It's time to man up and not let those bastards get me down!

So the next day I bravely put on my "We sail until Palestine is Free" T-shirt, ignored all the suspicious looks from passengers who appeared to think I was about to blow up the plane in the middle of some grade-B movie by Adam Sandler, flew off to Denver, spent the night attempting to sleep in the DEN airport and finally flew on to Minneapolis to the tune of "This land is your land..." playing in my head.

This land was made for you and me.

And that's pretty much what they tried to tell us at the Netroots Nation convention.

America doesn't belong to the corporatists and their brain-washed Fright-wing minions. This land STILL belongs to you and me. And there are still a lot of us who still believe this -- that America is still ours.

And I learned that we all have to stand up and fight for our country. And I also learned that I'm not in this battle alone.

Over 2,500 progressives attended the NN convention. It was inspiring! I really am not alone. And not only that, but I learned that the people of Minneapolis are really NICE. Got immigrant problems? No problem here. The people of this great city embraced their immigrants, educated them, made them productive citizens and put them to work to make Minneapolis stronger -- not becoming just one more bastion of Fear and Loathing and hate like in Arizona right now (and Warsaw in 1944). America is bigger than that.

At the convention, Van Jones gave a speech about "Cheap patriots vs. Deep patriots". Here's a video of that speech: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvdqD7bNZOs. This speech is like the Gettysburg Address of modern progressivism -- short and moving. I left the auditorium completely inspired. Screw the fright-wing media and the corporate Big Boys who tell us that progressives are un-American fools. I'm gonna go back out there into the blogosphere trenches and fight for my country!

"Don't you tell us that progressives don't love our country," said Jones. "We stand up for folks and we help people and we hold them and help and love them -- the people that you mistreat and run over and laugh at. And we see the effects of your cynicism and your disrespect and your hate-mongering. And it's not just immoral, it's un-American to abuse the airwaves and the ears of our children with your lies and your filth. We're sick of it. You're not America. We're a better country than that. Quit abusing our country!"

Jones talked about how Tea Party members have rallied around the idea of "Rugged Individualism," and how badly that plan is working out for them -- because Tea Party members are demanding rugged individualism alright, but only for the soon-to-be-extinct American middle class, not for the oligarchs. Is the Tea Party rallying around the idea of demanding "Rugged Individualism" for wealthy corporatists too? Hell no. Corporatists get to be Socialists!

"Progressives need to rally around the American Dream. Not the one that says that somehow we may someday all become millionaires, but the one that says if we work hard we will succeed." And that our government is there to help us succeed, not just to give more trillions of dollars to Wall Street and the War machine -- while taking away our infrastructure and Social Security and educational system and jobs in order to pay for the Tea Party's naive belief that their corporatist heroes need government perks but they don't. Or words to that effect.

Go, Van!

Now I'm all inspired to go back home and kick even more Corporatist arse. This is MY America. Not theirs. I'm a Deep Patriot. Corporatists and their Tea Party minions are just cheap patriots. So there!

PS: While in Minneapolis, I also discovered that I was actually staying next to the University of Minnesota chapter-house of my old sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. Wow! Here's my big chance to use my secret handshake and reminisce over the old glory days back in 1961 when I was Kappa's only token hippie. So I knocked on the chapter-house door, but no one answered. Guess you can't go home again. Sigh.

PPS: Minneapolis has some wonderful public transportation. I took their light-rail train out to the Mall of America and got there in less than 20 minutes. LOVED the MOA, that tribute to America's sacred worship of materialism. Loved the rides. Loved the shops. Even loved Hooters! But. America is so much more than just the trinkets you can buy in shops and stores.

America's true glory lies in the kind smiles on Minneapolis residents' faces -- and their willingness to help strangers. No Fear & Loathing here.

PPPS: And if you still aren't completely pissed off at the Republican corporatists and their Tea Party dupes who have set out to systematically destroy America's middle class, then just click here and listen to another Netroots Nation keynote speech by MN Senator Al Franken -- then you definitely will be pissed off! http://www.care2.com/causes/franken-tear-off-stars.html

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Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

As Bart Simpson shoulda said to Rep. Weiner, "Eat my shorts!"

Now that Jack Kevorkian has passed away, the world is badly in need of a new Doctor Death. I want to apply for that job! Heck, I can't even get my garden to grow. Even the weeds here die off, so I'm a natural when it comes to assisting old people with suicide. All I have to do is let them spend a day in my back yard and they'd be off to Heaven in no time. Plus I also know P'howa, the Tibetan art of transferring consciousness to a new body after you're dead. That's a two-for-one deal that I'm offering here! And, unlike Sarah Palin and her expensive corporate-run death panels, my rates are cheap.

Speaking of transferring consciousness, someone ought to transfer some consciousness over to Anthony Weiner. Does he not know that you don't mess with the big bosses? Taking on Clarence Thomas for insider trading? What was he THINKING! This is NOT Wisconsin and there is no Ian's Pizza available in Washington DC.

Senator Vitter can get away with visiting whore houses all over the country but that's only because he's a Republican. Democrats taking photos of their own lingerie? Not so much.

And speaking of Wisconsin, I'm about to leave for the 2011 Netroots Nation convention in Minneapolis from June 16 to June 19. Sorry, Joe, but I'm going to have to miss Father's Day. Listening to some representative from the Bush-Obama-Bush White House tell us what a wonderful job Obama is doing while serving as a place-holder for John Ellis Bush is something that I just can't afford to miss.

And speaking of missing the boat, how about that old Ship of Fools? Someone just equated America in 2011 with Germany in 1939. He could be onto something there. Both countries were/are run by National Socialists -- where corporations and governments happily entwine themselves symbiotically while folks like you and me are left out in the cold, passengers on the infamous USS Ship of Fools.

Back before it was too late, all of us poor American middle-class fools shoulda just said to the corporatists the same thing that Bart Simpson shoulda told Anthony Weiner to say -- "Eat my shorts!" But we didn't.

"Jane, I think that we progressives should all get out of America and immigrate to Costa Rica or Canada or somewhere while the getting is still good!" said the guy who thought America was like Germany back in 1939. No way! I wanna stick around and see how America's post-2012 National Socialist corporatist concentration-camp thingie is gonna play out.

Plus there will surely be a lot of Fools left here in America who will be needing P'howa after the soon-to-be-legendary 2012 election takes place. After 2012, when the corporatists and "endless war" advocates have finally taken over completely, America is going to be needing a new Doctor Death even more than ever. And in America's current wretched economic crisis situation, that's an employment opportunity that I just can't afford to pass up.

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Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters

Off Topic: An ode to Ashby Nails
[Originally published in the Berkeley Daily Planet http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2011-06-08/article/37942?headline=First-Person-Luxury-Living-Returns-to-South-Berkeley]

Not everything that goes on in south Berkeley these days involves drive-by shootings. There is some pretty neat stuff in my neighborhood too. I can't imagine living anywhere else besides across the street from the Berkeley Bowl. And what about the Ashby flea market? Or the Daily Kos or the East Bay Community Law Center? Or the Ashby BART station that can whisk me away on the first step of a journey to Antarctica or Iraq? Or how about story time at the south branch of the Berkeley Public library? Wonderful stuff. I rest my case.

But one of my absolute most favorite places in my neighborhood is Ashby Nails (http://www.yelp.com/biz/ashby-nails-berkeley). Did you ever see that old movie with Queen Latifah, about a local beauty salon? Ashby Nails is like that. You not only get a fabulous pedicure on the cheap that involves a foot and leg massage to die for, but you also get to be caught up on all the neighborhood hot gossip.

Imagine my distress when Ashby Nails actually closed down for remodeling last February. Sure, I wasn't as upset as when Washington's Bush-Obama-Bush sandwich declared war on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, etc. But I still was upset. So when I discovered that Ashby Nails was back in business again, I was delighted. One less thing for me to worry about. Now I could concentrate on fretting about the thieves in the Federal Reserve Bank.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, every season has a color that goes with it, and so, thanks to Kim at Ashby Nails, now my toenails are all beautiful and sparkly and GREEN -- and I'm back up to speed on all the neighborhood hot gossip. Thank goodness Ashby Nails is back in business!


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Want something good to read? Buy my book! "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket: Helpful Tips for Touring Today's Middle East," available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. http://www.amazon.com/Bring-Your-Own-Flak-Jacket/dp/0978615719/ref=cm_pdp_rev_itm_title_1. It's like if Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain and/or Janet Evanovich went to war.

I also wrote a book about going on Hajj (also included as a chapter in "Bring Your Own Flak Jacket," but this book is cheaper -- but it's worth buying them both!) My book on the Hajj is so outstanding that I bet even Christian fundamentalists will love it! Please buy it here: http://www.amazon.com/Mecca-Hajj-Lessons-Islamic-School/dp/0978615700/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238806637&sr=1-2

****

"Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved: World peace in one generation!" You can now buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for parents and teachers. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters



"Life is a competition. The winners are the ones who do the most good deeds." You can also buy T-shirts, coffee mugs, tote bags, truckers' caps, baby gear and/or teddy bears with this logo printed on them. They make great gifts, especially for those of us who are still idealists in these troubled times. To purchase, just click here: http://www.cafepress.com/StillTWaters