Jane Stillwater's Web Log: January 2013

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Spoiled brats: How neo-con kiddies demand their Second Amendment rights but refuse to obey the rest of the Constitution

     How come so many right-wingers, neo-cons, corporate RepubliDems, NRA lobbyists, Fox News commentators and radical-extremist talk-show hosts are currently getting all up in our faces about how wonderful the Second Amendment is? "Second Amendment! Second Amendment!" they cry night and day. That's all we ever hear from these guys. You would think that they might occasionally mention the rest of the Constitution occasionally as well -- but no.

    Right-wingers, gun lobbyists, Tea Party congressmen and corporatist-owned radio talk-show hosts all scream and yell and hold their breath and throw temper tantrums about the sanctity of the Second Amendment constantly. But have they ever thrown tantrums or held their breath when other parts of our Constitution were violently stepped on -- especially by they themselves? Er, no.

    Where were these spoiled brats when George W. Bush trampled all over our Constitution and forced several illegal wars down our throats? Silent as the tomb.

     Did these spoiled brats ever throw themselves down on the sidewalk and wail and flail around violently when the PATRIOT Act gutted so many of our sacred rights as citizens? No, no, no and no. Nary a peep from the right wing noise machine.

     The Constitution begins with "We the People..." But you never hear any right-winger ever bitch and moan about how America is now run by "We the Corporations...." Right-wingers, the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, John Boehner, etc. apparently have never met a corporation they didn't like. "Corporations are people!" they always cry. And what about the rest of us? Chopped liver? "Pretty much."

     Section 2, paragraph 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that, "The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America." George W. Bush used that clause again and again to mire our country in the quicksand of trillions of dollars of debt, and not one right-winger anywhere seemed to even notice that our George had illegally used presidential executive privilege -- let alone voice any objection to its misuse. We never heard any protests at all from the Tea Party, the NRA, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, Grover Norquist or any of those guys. GWB was using executive powers to benefit the wealthy 1% but not the rest of us? Fine with them!

     And speaking of GWB, doesn't the Constitution also state somewhere that you gotta be elected before you can live in the White House? Bush was never elected. Both the 2000 election and the 2004 election were blatantly stolen. But there's been no outcry from any right-winger about that. Hell, Anton Scalia didn't even seem to mind. And neither did AIPAC or CPAC. What's with that?

    And what about our First Amendment rights such as "Freedom of Speech"? You never ev-ah hear right-wingers' strident voices raised in hue and cry whenever ordinary people like us are arrested and beaten for practicing free speech.

    "Freedom of Religion". Worth fighting for? Yeah sure -- as long as it only includes some kind of weird slash-and-burn Wall Street and War Street version of "Christianity" that wingers go nuts over and that Jesus would have abhorred.

     And what about protecting Native Americans' freedom of religion too? That the land itself is considered sacred? No freedom there. "Just shut up, stop whining and let the Great White Father shove his tar-sands pipeline up your throat."

     I'm not even going to mention Muslims' freedom of religion. For right-wingers, it simply doesn't exist.

    And what about the 19th Amendment, which dares to speak out against involuntary servitude? Neo-con spoiled brats have no issues with this one -- just as long as we allow them to keep their prison labor system of involuntary servitude going. And their involuntary sweatshops in Asia and Haiti that have stolen our jobs. And sleazy American factories that keep their doors locked even when there is a fire. And those thousands of WalMart workers who aren't allowed to organize or demand a decent wage or respect? Does that count as involuntary servitude too? Apparently not.

And the 19th amendment also covers the right of everyone in America to vote except, apparently, in Virginia -- where right-wingers are trying to return to the old "Three-fifths of a person" approach. http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/robert-parry/47801/the-return-of-three-fifth-of-a-person

     And what about "Freedom of the Press"? Are right-wingers defending it at all? Hell no. Just ask WikiLeaks's founder about that one -- or even the New York Times. It seems that if you ever even dare to publish anything in America that goes against Wall Street and War Street, you end up either fired or in jail. Like Bradley Manning for instance. No right-wing temper tantrums or breath-holding over him. The only exception to this rule is when the neo-con media darlings on talk-radio or Fox News get called out on their lies. Then right-wing spoiled brats really do start holding their breath.

   Amendment Four? No illegal search and seizure? Violating this one is the right wing's sweetest dream. "Gotta protect the Homeland!" they cry -- apparently protecting it from We the People.

     Amendment Six? "Right to a speedy and public trial." You never hear right-wingers throw a fit about this one either -- only about their treasured Second Amendment.

    Then there's Amendment Eight. No cruel and unusual punishment. Abu Graib? No outrage. "Zero Dark 30"? That torture got cheers. Mordechai Vanunu kept in solitary confinement for eighteen years by Israeli right-wingers because he spoke out? Or the countless Palestinian non-violent protesters now in Israeli neo-con jails? http://world.time.com/2013/01/25/oscar-nominated-documentary-brings-palestinian-plight-to-center-stage/ "Oh goody!"

     But these particular cruel and unusual things are all happening to foreign nationals, not us. However, even when horrible things like that happen right here at home too, right-wing spoiled brats still don't even care. "Bradley Manning? Leonard Peltier? The Cuban Five? Lynne Stewart? Chris Williams and other legal medical marijuana growers and dispensers? Martin Luther King Jr?" Yawn.

    Rep. Alan Grayson just wrote an article in the Huffington Post stating that Tea Party right-wingers in Congress are attempting to violate two other Constitutional Amendments -- the 14th and the 27th. "As Texas Gov. Rick Perry would say, 'Oops'." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-alan-grayson/federal-budget_b_2563242.html

     I could go on and on about all the parts of the U.S. Constitution the right-wing has happily gutted over the last several decades. But you get the gist. For them, only the Second Amendment counts.

     But I have an important question here to ask "We the People" of America regarding the right wing's constant spoiled-brat behavior. "At what point do all these temper tantrums and breath-holdings get old?"

     When do "We the Parents" finally put our foot down, stand up for our own selves and send spoiled-brat Wall Street and War Street and Wrong-Wing Street and Wreck-the-Constitution Street off to bed without any supper? Apparently never.

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Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
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What next? I'm still trying to get to Haiti ASAP but unfortunately my investigative-reporting trip has had to be postponed until the end of March. Please donate toward my trip's expenses here if you can:
https://www.wepay.com/donations/going-to-a-vodou-cave-in-haiti And if this link doesn't work, please just cut and paste. Thanks.

And if anyone ever wants to hire me on as a travel writer, "Have laptop, will travel!"

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Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

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Need an actor to play an older woman in your movie? Then I'm your man! I can portray all kinds of older women -- from judges, business execs and other insane zombies to bag ladies, cancer patients, kindly grandmothers and dying patients in rest homes. I've played them all. So send me a script and let's do this. Hollywood, here we come!
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Are you a plaintiffs' attorney who is tired of writing those pesky personal injury settlement briefs all the time? No problem! I can write them for you. Years of experience. And pay me only if you win the case.
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I recently got my Notary Public commission!

Need a Notary Public? Have seal, will travel. E-mail me at jpstillwater@yahoo.com and I'll stamp your document, make it official and only charge $10. Of course if you live outside of Berkeley, I may have to charge travel expenses -- but am well worth it!

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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=cm_rdp_product
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"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

Monday, January 21, 2013

Django Unchained & Zero Dark 30: 160 years later, they're still torturing colored folks

     In honor of Martin Luther King's birthday this year, I treated myself to a movie marathon, watching "Django Unchained" and "Zero Dark 30" back-to-back. And it was like a cold slap in the face.

     "Django Unchained" allegedly took place in 1858 -- and here we are now, 160 years later, where things have apparently changed and we're now being all civilized with our I-phones and our electric cars and our digital TVs. Nobody enslaves "colored" people any more and tortures them like that any more, right? This is the 21st century!

     No one ties "colored" people up with ropes and beats them and beats them and beats them and then sics dogs on them any more, right? That's barbaric. That's why Lincoln freed the slaves and Dr. King marched in Montgomery, right? What happened to Django was old skool.

     But hold onto your popcorn, guys. "Zero Dark 30" is about to come next.

      When the theater screen darkens, suddenly here we are again, right here in the 21st century, but still tying up "colored" people with ropes, beating them and beating them and then siccing dogs on them.

     "Hey, but that's different," you might say. In what way?

     In "Django Unchained," we saw a man have all that he owned taken from him -- simply because he wasn't White -- and then we saw him beaten and tortured when he fought back against the Master.

     In "Zero Dark 30" we also see the end results of years and years of "colored" folks in the Middle East having everything taken from them by the Master too -- and then when they too fought back, they too got beaten and tortured.

     So how come we cheer Django Freeman on but hate Osama bin Ladin? Both are "colored" men fighting for their very lives.

     But I digress.

     This commentary is not about whether bin Ladin was or was not a good guy. Obviously he was a bad guy -- even making his wives do his laundry by hand, according to "0D30". Wouldn't even buy them a washer and dryer.

     This commentary is about how far Americans have progressed, between 1858 and now, along the path to moral evolution. Not an inch.

     In 1858 we had Candyland, where Leonardo di Caprio's character used torture to maintain his power over people of color who rebelled against their own exploitation.

     And now, 160 years later, we have the CIA instead -- with Jessica Chastain's character using torture to maintain her power over people of color who rebelled against their own exploitation.

    On past Martin Luther King birthday holidays, I've honored the day by watching "The Long Walk Home" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-YwJKIqyOE or "The Help," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbuKgzgeUIU, listening to Joan Baez sing the hauntingly immortal "Birmingham Sunday," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ0y-vO9QLE and/or remembering back when I myself marched with Dr. King in Montgomery in 1965 -- while seven months pregnant with my first baby.

     During past MLK birthday celebrations, I was always filled with hope.

     On this MLK birthday celebration, however, I was only filled with despair.

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Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
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Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

In your face: Homelessness in America

     And what are YOU doing about the vast new epidemic of homeless people flooding the streets of America right now?

     America's wealthiest 1% are doing something about it -- they're creating even more homeless men and women just as fast as they possibly can!

     The Department of Defense is doing something about this problem too, creating vast brigades and armies of blind, paralyzed, traumatized and/or limbless disabled 20-somethings who should have been in their prime of life right now, the backbone of America's labor force -- but are instead sleeping rough, out on the streets.

     The CIA, DEA, FBI, local police forces, INS, Homeland Security, TSA, etc. are also doing their bit regarding homelessness here as well -- they are housing Americans in jails just as fast as humanly possible, with or without being charged with a crime. How patriotic is that! And you can even get thrown in a jail cell for using legal medical marijuana or driving an unregistered car (or being homeless). The vast American prison-labor system is always here to help out.

     The Department of Housing and Urban Development is also doing something about homelessness in America too -- by actually supplying housing. Imagine that. And if HUD closed its doors tomorrow, America would immediately reveal its true self -- as Great-Depression-style tent cities begin springing up like mushrooms and we start tripping over the dead bodies of homeless senior citizens left and right. Without HUD, America would look like background shots from the movie "Les Miserables".

     Thank you, HUD. It's nice to know that somebody else besides just America's 1% is getting a safety net these days.

     But what am I myself doing about homelessness in America today? Besides giving an occasional dollar to a street person shivering out in the cold? Obviously not enough. (But I did act in a docu-drama on the subject recently. Does that count? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2cTACN-iNA)

     Can you imagine what it is like to stay out all night, every night, in the rain and the cold, vulnerable to criminals and rapists, being humiliated, vilified and scorned by those lucky enough not to have been chewed up and spit out by Wall Street and War Street quite yet, shamefully begging for spare change and having no place to go? I can't.

     If it was me out there on those mean streets, I'd be lucky to still be alive after only a week.

PS: Speaking of being homeless, I will be going to Haiti as part of a Global Exchange delegation at the end of March to do research on homelessness there. No other country in the western hemisphere has as many homeless people as Haiti -- even though it is still being milked like a cash cow by the world's NGOs.

     According to journalist Bill Quigley, "Despite billions in aid which were supposed to go to the Haitian people, hundreds of thousands are still homeless, living in shanty tent camps as the effects from the earthquake of January 12, 2010 remain. The earthquake devastated Haiti in January 2010 killing, according to Oxfam International, 250,000 people and injuring another 300,000. 360,000 Haitians are still displaced and living hand to mouth in 496 tent camps across the country according to the International Organization of Migration. Most eat only one meal a day." http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-quigley/47484/how-the-international-community-failed-haiti

    And you think that America's homeless won't fare any better than Haiti's homeless if the 1% have their way? Think again. Just remember all those homeless Americans created by Hurricane Sandy -- who are still homeless now. And then thank whichever God that you pretend to follow that it wasn't you living out there in Far Rockaway.

    And when the 1% finally get their hands on your Social Security money pot like they have been trying to all along, you won't need a hurricane to know which way the wind blows either.

PPS: If you want to be a part of Global Exchange's delegation to Haiti in March 2013, here's the program's contact information: http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/haiti-beyond-disaster-alternative-spring-break-trip See you there!

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Advertizements for myself: In these hard times of brutal (and illegal) corporatist ball-busting socialism-for-the-rich-only, I am doing whatever I can to make a spare dollar. Here are some of my current alternate-economy schemes that never seem to work -- but I keep hoping!
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Need someone to help you throw out stuff? I'm really good at deciding what needs to be thrown out (starting with all those corporate-owned bums in Washington!)

Jane Stillwater's Web Log

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Monday, January 21, 2013

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

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