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| A snub can be fatal Two powerful men were just given the snub of "political death" -- one by the recent Republican National Convention in Tampa; and the other by a man of God who refused to sit at the table with a tormented British leader. Comment by Joe Howard Crews Read More |
Event Reminders: Mira Costa film Thursday, 09/06/2012 The League of Women Voters, North County San Diego is co-sponsoring a two-day free community event with MiraCosta College, entitled "Democracy in the Balance? Getting Beyond the Shouting". Thursday Sep. 6 and Sep. 7. Films include "Parties vs. the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans" ; "Getting Beyond the Shouting". Conversation with the Filmmakers. NOTE:Part on Oceanside Campus, and part San Elijo Campus. Protest against Drone manufacturer in Poway "Communicating Climate Change" Workshop Occupy Escondido demonstration every Friday List of Democratic events in San Diego County To read the best progressive newsletter west of the Mississippi, click on Jellison's EZINE here "A night out for LGBT" - Shakespeare musical Progressive North County (PNC) Meeting Occupy Vista Rally every Sunday No. Co. Film Club presents "Lonestar " Fallbrook Democratic Club Fall Picnic - Sep. 15 Occupy Vista Rally every Sunday Special Screening of Koch Brothers Exposed NCFC screens a Live Action film NC Film Club rolls A Separation This 'N ThatThe pioneers of a warless world are the young men (and women) who refuse military service.- Albert Einstein The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it. All we ask, God, is to be safe from the rain, just warm enough in winter to watch the snow with a smile, have enough to eat so that our hunger will not turn us to angry beasts, and sanity enough to make justice that will not kill our love of life. We are going to have to find ways of organizing ourselves cooperatively,sanely, scientifically, harmonically and in regenerative spontaneity with the rest of humanity around the earth.... We are not going to be able to operate our spaceship earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. Very few people chose war. They chose selfishness and the result was war. Each of us, individually and nationally, must choose: total love or total war. The hottest fires in hell are reserved for those who remain neutral in times of moral crisis. Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned. Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action. Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork? What is man? We challenge the culture of violence when we ourselves act in the certainty that violence is no longer acceptable, that it's tired and outdated no matter how many cling to it in the stubborn belief that it still works and that it's still valid. Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice. Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it. Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it stands than to anything on which it is poured. Let us plant dates even though those who plant them will never eat them. We must live by the love of what we will never see. This is the secret discipline. It is a refusal to let the creative act be dissolved away in immediate sense experience, and a stubborn commitment to the future of our grandchildren. Such disciplined love is what has given prophets, revolutionaries, and saints the courage to die for the future they envisaged. They make their own bodies the seed of their highest hope. When a true genius appears in this world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. There is a certain kind of peace that is not merely the absence of war. It is larger than that. The peace I am thinking of is not at the mercy of history's rule, nor is it a passive surrender to the status quo. The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one -- an activity that occurs most naturally, most often in the reading/writing world we live in. Accessible as it is, this particular kind of peace warrants vigilance. We cannot change the past, but we can change our attitude toward it. Uproot guilt and plant forgiveness. Tear out arrogance and seed humility. Exchange love for hate --- thereby, making the present comfortable and the future promising. Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes too much with you, try the following experiment: Recall the face of the poorest and most helpless person you have ever seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be for any use to him or to her . . . Then you will find your doubts and your self melting away. He that cannot forgive others, breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself; for every man has a need to be forgiven. The evils of government are directly proportional to the tolerance of the people. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant. The finger pulls the trigger, but the trigger may also be pulling the finger. Peace is that state in which fear of any kind is unknown. The right to swing my fist ends where the other man's nose begins Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed . . . I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other. Productive work, love and thought are possible only if a person can be, when necessary, quiet and alone. To be able to listen to oneself is the necessary condition for relating oneself to others. Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him. I stand at the altar of murdered men, and, while I live, I fight their cause. Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more. Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. Violence produces only something resembling justice, but it distances people from the possibility of living justly, without violence. Angels can fly because they take themselves so lightly. In all things it is better to hope than to despair. In April, we cannot see sunflowers in France, so we might say the sunflowers do not exist. But the local farmers have already planted thousands of seeds, and when they look at the bare hills, they may be able to see the sunflowers already. The sunflowers are there. They lack only the conditions of sun, heat, rain and July. Just because we cannot see them does not mean that they do not exist. Nonviolence which is a quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain. If you love the justice of Jesus Christ more than you fear human judgment then you will seek to do compassion. Compassion means that if I see my friend and my enemy in equal need, I shall help them both equally. Justice demands that we seek and find the stranger, the broken, the prisoner and comfort them and offer them our help. Here lies the holy compassion of God that causes the devils much distress. I am part and parcel of the whole and cannot find God apart from the rest of humanity. You can't lead anyone else further than you have gone yourself. The cause of violence is not ignorance. It is self-interest. ... Only reverence can restrain violence - reverence for human life and the environment . I believe we are on the edge of a quantum leap into a whole new way of organizing and living as a human family. Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being. Warmaking doesn't stop warmaking. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago. Non-violence, which is the quality of the heart, cannot come by an appeal to the brain. The peace process we all aim for will not necessarily be a result of the mere signing of a treaty or agreement. It must become a matter of our everyday lives, so that peace settles and lasts and becomes supported by everybody. We therefore have to give peace all the required care and preserve it and promote it. Life is a whim of several billion cells to be you for a while. None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. There have been periods of history in which episodes of terrible violence occurred but for which the word violence was never used...Violence is shrouded in justifying myths that lend it moral legitimacy, and these myths for the most part kept people from recognizing the violence for what it was. The people who burned witches at the stake never for one moment thought of their act as violence; rather they though of it as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The same can be said of most of the violence we humans have ever committed. Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought. The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. If it were proved to me that in making war, my ideal had a chance of being realized, I would still say "No" to war. For one does not create human society on mounds of corpses. The more we sweat in peace the less we bleed in war. To fight and conquer in all our battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting. Past the seeker as he prayed came the crippled and the beggar and the beaten. And seeing them...he cried, "Great God, how is it that a loving creator can see such things and yet do nothing about them?"...God said, "I did do something. I made you." It is only by feeling your love that the poor will forgive you for the gifts of bread. If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. The belief that we some day shall be able to prevent war is to me one with the belief in the possibility of making humanity really human. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it's the only thing that ever has. To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Sports plays a societal role in engendering jingoist and chauvinist attitudes. They're designed to organize a community to be committed to their gladiators. We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it. The Attainment of freedom, whether for a person, a nation or a world, must be in exact proportion to the attainment of nonviolence for each. I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do. The two kinds of people who exist in this world [at any one time] are the decent and the indecent. Color, religion and nationality are irrelevant. Kindness, decency and behavior are what matters most. Our collective challenge, it seems, is to create a city and community where decent people of all races, ethnicities and religions can look into the faces of other decent people and see only one thing -- God's image smiling back. I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. There is no time left for anything but to make peace work a dimension of our every waking activity. One day we shall win freedom, but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. They make a desert and call it peace. War is as outmoded as cannibalism, chattel slavery, blood-feuds, and dueling, an insult to God and humanity...a daily crucifixion of Christ. | Articles & News: Best Letters to the editor on 'legitimate rape' Article Los Angeles Times - "Means testing, Salem witch trials, circa 1692: If an accused witch was bound hand and foot and drowned after being thrown into water, she was innocent. Means testing, GOP, 2012: If a woman is raped and gets pregnant, she wasn't really raped. "You've come a long way, baby." / By Kathleen Klein of Tustin. Apple censors news app that reports Drone Strikes LGBT Oceanside center - Events and News Israeli Killer of Rachel Corrie ruled not guilty Know Your Rights When Traveling Racial profiling in the skies Challenge to Prop. 8 filed with Supreme Court Cartoons of the Week Obama, the negotiatorRomney, Vulture CapitalistUnions & the Middle ClassObama plays poker with GOP Hackers claim 12 million Apple IDs from FBI Choral parody of Romney: Full Frontal disclosure
A gay choral parody based on One Direction's hit song, "What Makes You Beautiful". Full Frontal Freedom is a coalition of independent artists and media folks using our creativity to promote civic engagement. This makes politics look like fun -- or fun to make fun of! REALLY FUN! Ron Paul Says Bradley Manning should be protected
Ron Paul answers a question on April 12, 2012 during a campaign stop in San Antonio, Texas. Addressing concerns over how he would handle whistleblowers if president, Congressman Paul offers his support for accused WikiLeaks contributor PFC Bradley Manning and says Americans should be protected for telling the truth. Ron Paul says whistleblower Daniel Ellsburg is a hero. German TV airs video on American War Crime in Iraq Drag Troupe Sings the Republican Economic Platform
A drag troupe — or rather, a “Dragapella Beauty Shop Quartet” — called the Kinsey Sicks has a new song called “The Official GOP Economic Platform.” It is about… exactly what you think it is! And it’s great. Dave Chappelle as Black George W. Bush -Comedy
What ever happened to George W. Bush? The Republicans just had its biggest part of the year, down in Tampa, and did not even invited him. He has been relegated to the backwaters of forgotten history, but this hilarious spoof of comedian Dave Chappelle portraying GWB as "the Black Bush" helps explain it all: Bill Maher on why Obama is NOT a Muslim:
Bill Maher on Why Obama is NOT a Muslim: 'Obama Drinks, Smokes, and has only one wife. Plus more reasons. HILARIOUS !! Late-breaking news: This just in ...
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Devo's Jerry Casale wants it to be known that their newest song, "Don't Roof Rack Me, Bro," isn't meant as a partisan statement -- even though it viciously mocks Mitt Romney for strapping his Irish Setter, Seamus, to the roof of his car for a 1983 family vacation. -- Did you ever know ANYONE who left his dog on a roof-rack for a 12 hour winter ride???!!!
'Sunshine' vitamin D may aid in treatment of TB
News
(CBS News) A little bit of sunshine never hurt anyone. Now, a new study shows that the "sunshine" vitamin - vitamin D - may help speed up the recovery of tuberculosis patients. -- Before antibiotics were readily available, doctors would to send their patients to receive heliotherapy - basically prescribed sunbathing. The practice was stopped since more effective antibiotics were invented, but physicians have often wondered why the sunshine treatment seemed to somewhat work.
The speech that brought the wrath of war mongers
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"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war", spoke Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1967. This abbreviated version of perhaps his greatest speech, "Beyond Vietnam", was so powerful it shook the Pentagon and the war machine of America. It drew violent condemnation and spread virulent hatred of him for speaking the Truth. Today we have a new generation speaking the truth, and once again the dark fascist forces are seeking to silence them. These word from Dr. King are immortal.
A CA hillside flows with the pain, tears of War
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MEMORIAL DAY is every day on a hillside in this northern California town of Lafayette, crowded with a giant field of crosses, one for every American soldier killed in our occupation of Iraq. One of crosses includes the name of Cindy Sheehan's son, Casey, an early fatality. This slide show is set to the passionate song "Memorial Day" written and performed by Laura Zucker of Lafayette (www.laurazucker.com/). The compilation of photos put to music is by Ko Blix of Berkeley, California (http://gallery.me.com/kofotofactory). With photo contributions by Chris Donton, Lynn MacMichaels and others.
Israeli soldiers abuse Palestinian children
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"HUMAN SHIELD", Israeli veterans, have spoken out, describing a degrading culture of abuse and harassment of Palestinian children in the West Bank and Gaza by Israeli soldiers. A report containing 30 veterans' testimonies details numerous cases of violence committed by Israeli soldiers. - The report was released to world media on Saturday by Breaking the Silence, an organization made up of Israeli army veterans formed in 2004. They compiled more than 850 accounts from current and former Israeli soldiers describing abuses they committed or witnessed. - The investigation seeks to serve as "a witness to the ongoing decline of the military system into increasing immorality." - "The words of the soldiers included here constitute an urgent call to Israeli society and its leaders: We must foster a serious discourse regarding the price of military rule of the Occupied Territories," said the report.
Manning Video:American troops slaughter civilians
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Army intel analyst Bradley Manning faces decades in prison for allegedly leaking this video of a U.S. helicopter attack killing 11 civilians and wounding two children in Baghdad, Iraq. The Army covered up the evidence and declared the war crime "justified". Now they say that exposing the massacre is criminal.
INFO CLICK HERE:
Rachel Corrie's death no accident says witness
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Tom Dale, a British activist who witnessed the death of Rachel Corrie refutes the judgement of an Israeli court that the death of the American activist was "a regrettable accident". On March 16, 2003, Rachel could not have been more visible: standing, on a clear day, in the open ground, wearing a high visibility vest. "On that day, she had been in the presence of the Caterpillar D9 bulldozers used by the Israeli army for some hours. - She was standing in front of the home of a young family which was under threat of demolition by a bulldozer. ...Whatever one thinks about the visibility from a D9 bulldozer, it is inconceivable that at some point the driver did not see her, given the distance from which he approached, while she stood, unmoving, in front of it."U.K. TELEGRAPH
LGBT Oceanside center - Events and News
News
For news and events of special interest to the gay, lesbian, trans-gender and questioning community, see CLICK HERE. The LGBTQ Resource is located in Oceanside at 510 North Coast Highway (one block north of City Hall
Oceanside.
The naked face of a police state in America
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Police pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis - In this video, now gone viral nationwide, a group of college students are huddled on the ground in a defensive position at UC Davis on November 18. UC police Lt. John Pike, then casually douses them with a chemical agent. Bystanders who were simply watching what was going on are also exposed. - If the police had legal grounds to make arrests, it seems apparent from the video that little or no force was necessary to achieve that goal. The students are obviously not a threat to the officers. It appears that the heavily armored riot police could have simply grabbed them and put them in flexi-cuffs had they chosen to do so. That means that this entire assault appears to be a perfect example of excessive force.
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Late-breaking news: This just in ...
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News that did not make our deadline:
50 years ago, JFK forced integration of Ole Miss
News
Fifty years ago James Meredith became the first black man to be admitted into the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss). October 1, 1962. Robert Kennedy called in 500 U.S. Marshals to take control, who were supported by the 70th Army Engineer Combat Battalion from Ft Campbell, Kentucky. They created a tent camp and kitchen for the US Marshals. To bolster law enforcement, President John F. Kennedy sent in U.S. Army military police from the 503rd Military Police Battalion, and called in troops from the Mississippi Army National Guard and the U.S. Border Patrol as well. In the violent clash, two people died, including the French journalist Paul Guihard on assignment for the London Daily Sketch. He was found dead behind the Lyceum building with a gunshot wound to the back. One hundred-sixty US Marshals, one-third of the group, were injured in the melee, and 40 soldiers and National Guardsmen were wounded.
Prophetic words from Chalmers Johnson
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San Diego's own sage, author, scholar and prophet,Chalmers Johnson, gave his take on the Military-Industrial Complex, American defense spending and the coming downfall of the Empire years before it happened. Johnson is the author of "Blowback" and "The Sorrows of Empire".
Gay Pride at the Oceanside Beach - October 13
News
The North County LGBT Coalition announced it great Fall fun festival, "Pride at the Beach" on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2012. A full day of fun, music, food, friends, making new friends, meeting politicians who are our friends -- and much more!
Ted Olson Interview With Fox News Chris Wallace
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Wallace, insinuating that Gay Marriage is judicial activism, asks where is it in the Constitution that permits gay mariage. "Where is the right to interracial marriage in the Constitution" asked Ted Olsen of Wallace. Brilliant arguments by Olson. When Wallace insists the voters have the right to outlaw gay marriage, Olson asks if it would be constitutional for the voters to force blacks to drink at separate water fountains.
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