Elections

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President Obama’s acceptance speech (Full transcript) | The Washington Post

OBAMA: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Tonight, more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward.

OBAMA: It moves forward because of you. It moves forward because you reaffirmed the spirit that has triumphed over war and depression, the spirit that has lifted this country from the depths of despair to the great heights of hope, the belief that while each of us will pursue our own individual dreams, we are an American family and we rise or fall together as one nation and as one people.

Tonight, in this election, you, the American people, reminded us that while our road has been hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come. Read more…

Source: Washington Post

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Pesticide Industry-Backed Opponents Prop 37: Caught Possible Criminal Act | Nation of Change

By Zach KaldVeer

The $36 million No on 37 campaign, bankrolled by $20 million from the world’s six largest pesticide companies, has been caught in yet another lie, this time possibly criminal.

These companies and their allies in the junk food industry know that their profit margins may suffer if consumers have a choice whether to purchase genetically engineered foods or not.  And that’s why opponents are spending nearly a million dollars per day trying to make Prop 37 complicated. But really it’s simple – we have the right to know what’s in our food.

To date, the No on 37 campaign has been able to repeat one lie after another with near impunity. But has this pattern of deceit finally caught up to it?

Yesterday, the Yes on 37 campaign sent letters to the U.S. Department of Justice requesting a criminal investigation of the No on 37 campaign for possible fraudulent misuse of the official seal of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The No on 37 campaign affixed the FDA’s seal to one of the campaign’s mailers.Section 506 of the U.S. Criminal Code states: “Whoever…knowingly uses, affixes, or impresses any such fraudulently made, forged, counterfeited, mutilated, or altered seal or facsimile thereof to or upon any certificate, instrument, commission, document, or paper of any description…shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.”

The letter also provides evidence that the No on 37 campaign falsely attributed a direct quote to the FDA in the campaign mailer. Alongside the FDA seal, the mailer includes this text in quotes. “The US Food and Drug Administration says a labeling policy like Prop 37 would be ‘inherently misleading.” The quote is entirely fabricated. The FDA did not make this statement and does not take a position on Prop 37. Read more…

Source: Nation of Change

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Right-Wing Billionaires Behind Mitt Romney | Rolling Stone

Presidential politics has always been a rich man’s game. But now, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United that upended decades of limits on campaign donations, financing a presidential race is the exclusive domain of the kind of megadonor whose portfolios make Mitt Romney look middle-class. “I have lots of money, and can give it legally now,” Texas billionaire and top GOP moneyman Harold Simmons recently bragged to The Wall Street Journal. “Just never to Democrats.”

In past elections, big donors like Simmons gave millions for advocacy groups like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. By law, such groups were only allowed to run issue ads – but instead they directly targeted John Kerry, drawing big fines from the Federal Elections Commission. Now, with the blessing of the Supreme Court, the wealthy can legally hand out unlimited sums to groups that openly campaign for a candidate, knowing that their “dark money” donations will be kept entirely secret. The billionaire Koch brothers, for instance, have reportedly pledged $60 million to defeat President Obama this year – but their off-the-book contributions don’t appear in any FEC filings.

Even more money from megadonors is flowing into newly created Super PACs, which, unlike advocacy groups, can spend every cent they raise on direct attacks on an opponent. Under the new rules, the richest men in America are plying candidates with donations far beyond what Congress intended. “They can still give the maximum $2,500 directly to the campaign – and then turn around and give $25 million to the Super PAC,” says Trevor Potter, general counsel of the Campaign Legal Center. A single patron can now prop up an entire candidacy, as casino magnate Sheldon Adelson did with a $20 million donation to the Super PAC backing Newt Gingrich.

The undisputed master of Super PAC money is Mitt Romney. In the primary season alone, Romney’s rich friends invested $52 million in his Super PAC, Restore Our Future – a number that’s expected to more than double in the coming months. This unprecedented infusion of money from America’s monied elites underscores the radical transformation of the Republican Party, which has made defending the interests of 0.0001 percent the basis of its entire platform. “Money buys power,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman observed recently, “and the increasing wealth of a tiny minority has effectively bought the allegiance of one of our two major political parties.” In short, the political polarization and gridlock in Washington are a direct result of the GOP’s capitulation to Big Money.

That capitulation is evident in Romney’s campaign. Most of the megadonors backing his candidacy are elderly billionaires: Their median age is 66, and their median wealth is $1 billion. Each is looking for a payoff that will benefit his business interests, and they will all profit from Romney’s pledge to eliminate inheritance taxes, extend the Bush tax cuts for the superwealthy – and then slash the top tax rate by another 20 percent. Romney has firmly joined the ranks of the economic nutcases who spout the lie of trickle-down economics. “Support from billionaires has always been the main thing keeping those charlatans and cranks in business,” Krugman noted. “And now the same people effectively own a whole political party.”

Here are the 16 donors who have given at least $1 million each to elect Romney – and what they expect in return for their investment: Read more… 

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Inauguration and Empire, and Goodbye, Mr. Bush

statueofliberty-288See Justin Raimondo’s article about how far we have sunk since the days of Jefferson’s inauguration. “Having long ago morphed into Jefferson’s worst nightmare, the closer we get to the end, the more glamorous our inaugurals become,” writes Raimondo, who sees in this celebration of presidential power the signs of a bipartisan consensus on more war. And here’s Robert Higgs looking back on another imperial inaugural.

Four years ago, Bush’s critics raised objections to the lavishness of his second inaugural, while his supporters tended to defend the ostentatious celebration. I identified the modern presidency, with all its power, as the real problem, and argued that maintaining the inauguration in all its glory would be no controversy if the power of the presidency were scaled back to no more than what’s in the Constitution. The Jeffersonian and anti-Federalists were skeptical even of the power granted to the president back in the late 18th-century; since then it has been expanded and aggrandized so many times (Jackson, Lincoln, Wilson, FDR, Truman, Bush) as to render it completely unrecognizeable by constitutional standards.

There is a silver lining this time, which is that tomorrow marks the end of the Bush era. This was the presidency gave us:

• Two undeclared, unwinnable imperial wars, with hundreds of thousands of dead, including thousands of Americans, and many tens of thousands of Americans wounded, with the violence and occupations continuing to this day;

• Detention without trial or habeas corpus;

• A torture scandal and the institutionalization, from the top down, of “enhanced interrogation techniques” that offend basic standards of human decency;

• New precedents on “extraordinary renditioning,” whereby U.S. intelligence and military agencies hand off detainees to foreign countries where they are interrogated in ways that even the U.S. at Guantanamo will not use;

• Warrantless wiretapping of the citizenry conducted by the military wing of the government;

• Spying on peaceful political activists and putting many names on no-fly lists;

• The modification of Posse Comitatus and insurrection law to empower the president to order the military and national guard to impose order on the domestic population;

• More signing statements than any president before;

• Credit expansion that helped bring on the greatest financial crisis in many years;

• The largest expansion of welfare spending since the Great Society, specifically in the area of prescription drugs;

• The biggest bailout ever, so far, with frightening moves toward economic fascism in the financial sector;

• A doubling of the deficit and debt;

• The nationalization of airline security and the introduction of the color-coded terror system;

• The Department of Homeland Security;

• Sarbanes-Oxley and other posturing corporate regulation that hurts small firms while doing nothing to improve the economy;

• Signing McCain-Feingold into law, despite knowing it violating the First Amendment;

• The further nationalization of education;

• The 21st century version of the “unitary executive,” which concentrates ever more power into the presidency;

• Massive protectionism, secrecy, duplicity, socialism, corporatism, and growing reliance on police-state tactics;

• Terrible diplomatic blunders with North Korea, the Midle East and elsewhere;

• The failure to catch Osama bin Laden.

That’s all I’ll mention for now, but I might update this with more gems from the Bush years. It will be hard, in any event, for Obama to beat this record. But we shall see.

Source: Campaign for Liberty

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Obama’s Inner Circle

Obama VictoryBy Victor Thorn

FOR TWO YEARS, Americans have heard an unrelenting mantra of change emanating from the campaign trail. But now that President-elect Barack Obama has begun forming his cabinet, we’re seeing a cadre of more deeply entrenched insiders than any administration that has preceded it.

In regard to key foreign policy advisors, all three of Obama’s selections either initially supported the Iraq war, or still do. On the economic front, each appointee maintains a close relationship with the triad of Ben Bernanke, Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan—as well as bailout engineer Henry Paulson. Barack Obama himself is a Council on Foreign Relations member, has strong ties to Zbigniew Brzezinski, and participated in a clandestine meeting with Hillary Clinton at Bilderberg member Diane Feinstein’s house at the time when 2008 Bilderberg members were congregating only a few miles away.

Below is an overview of Obama’s top 14 selections to date. When considering their collective histories, a trend becomes clear, proving that the more things change under Obama, the more they stay the same.

1. TIMOTHY GEITHNER – TREASURY SECRETARY

Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, president and CEO of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, director of policy development for IMF, member Group of Thirty (G30), employed at Kissinger & Associates, architect of the recent 2008 financial bailouts, mentored by Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin.

2. PAUL VOLCKER – ECONOMIC RECOVERY ADVISORY BOARD

Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, North American chairman of Trilateral Commission, Federal Reserve chairman during Carter and Reagan administrations, president of Federal Reserve Bank of New York, G30 member, chairman Rothschild Wolfensohn Company, key figure in the collapse of the gold standard during the Nixon administration, longtime associate of the Rockefeller family.

3. RAHM EMANUEL – CHIEF OF STAFF

Member of Israeli Defense Force, staunch Zionist, senator, Board of Directors for Freddie Mac, member of Bill Clinton’s finance campaign committee, made $16.2 million during 2.5 years as an investment banker for Wasserstein Perella. His father was a member of the Israeli Irgun terrorist group.

4. LAWRENCE SUMMERS – NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL

Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, treasury secretary during Clinton administration, chief economist at World Bank, former president of Harvard University, Brookings Institute board member, huge proponent of globalization while working for the IMF, protg of David Rockefeller, mentored by Robert Rubin.

5. DAVID AXELROD – SENIOR ADVISOR

Political consultant whose past clients include Sens. Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Christopher Dodd; main Obama fixer in the William Ayers and Reverend Wright scandals.

6. HILLARY CLINTON – SECRETARY OF STATE

Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateral Commission, clandestine CIA asset used to infiltrate the anti-war movement at Yale University and the Watergate hearings, senior partner at the Rose Law Firm, key figure in the Mena drug trafficking affair, architect of the Waco disaster, implicated in the murder/ cover-up of Vince Foster, and many other deaths.

7. JOSEPH BIDEN – VICE PRESIDENT

Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senator since 1972, member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, current chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, strong Zionist sympathizer who recently told Rabbi Mark S. Golub of Shalom TV, “I am a Zionist. You don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.”

8. BILL RICHARDSON – COMMERCE SECRETARY

Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, former U.S. congressman, chairman of the Democratic National Convention in 2004, employee of Kissinger Associates, UN ambassador, governor of New Mexico, energy secretary, major player in the Monica Lewinsky cover-up with Bilderberg luminary Vernon Jordan.

9. ROBERT GATES – DEFENSE SECRETARY

Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, former CIA Director, defense secretary under President Bush, co-chaired CFR task force with Zbigniew Brzezinski, knee-deep in the Iran-Contra scandal, named in a 1999 class action lawsuit pertaining to the Mena drug trafficking affair.

10. TOM DASCHLE – HEALTH SECRETARY

Bilderberg, Council on Foreign Relations, former Senate majority leader, Citibank lackey, mentored by Robert Rubin.

11. ERIC HOLDER – ATTORNEY GENERAL

Key person in the pardon of racketeer Marc Rich, deputy attorney general under Janet Reno, facilitated the pardon of 16 Puerto Rican FALN terrorists under Bill Clinton.

12. JANET NAPOLITANO – HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR

Council on Foreign Relations, Arizona governor, attorney for Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas hearings, U.S. attorney during the Clinton administration, instrumental in the OKC cover-up, where she declared, “We’ll pursue every bit of evidence and every lead,” described as another Janet Reno, soft on illegal immigration (i.e. pro-amnesty and drivers licenses to illegals).

13. GEN. JAMES L. JONES – NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR

Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission, European supreme allied commander, special envoy for Middle-East Security during Bush administration, board of directors for Chevron and Boeing, NATO commander, member of Brent Scowcroft’s Institute for International Affairs along with Zbigniew Brzezinski, Bobby Ray Inman, Bilderberg luminary Henry Kissinger and former CIA Director John Deutch.

14. SUSAN RICE – U.N. AMBASSADOR

Council on Foreign Relations, Rhodes scholar, campaign foreign policy advisor to presidential candidates John Kerry and Michael Dukakis, member of Bill Clinton’s National Security Council and assistant secretary of state for Africa, member of the Brookings Institute (funded by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefellers), and member of the Aspen Strategy Group (teeming with Bilderberg insiders such as Richard Armitage, Brent Scowcroft, and Madeleine Albright).

Source: Ashland Resource Center

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On Obama’s Victory by Marianne Williamson

America has had a non-violent revolution.

As long as there are historians writing about the United States, this moment of fundamental re-alignment of our national purpose will be remembered, pored over and analyzed. It will be seen as one of the shining points along the evolutionary arc of the American story. Yet it will never submit itself to being summed up in a nice little package that reason alone can understand.

“It’s been noted before that Americans get excited about politics every forty years.” Then, in the words of comedian Will Rogers, “We have to go sleep it off.”

We were certainly excited in the l960’s. And this is 2008; exactly forty years since the most dramatic and violent year of the Sixties decade: the year when both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were literally killed before our eyes.

At that point, a generation of young people — looking much like the youthful army so out in full force today, only grungier — marched in the streets to repudiate an oppressive system and to try to stop an unjust war.

And then bullets stopped us. The shots that killed the Kennedys and King carried a loud, unspoken message for all of us: that we were to go home now, that we were to do whatever we wanted within the private sector, yet leave
the public sector to whomever wanted it so much that they were willing to kill for it. And for all intents and purposes, we did as we were told. According to ancient Asian philosophers, history moves not in a circle but in a spiral. Whether as an individual or as a nation, whatever lessons we were presented once and failed to learn will come back again but in a different form. For the generation of the Sixties and for our children, the lessons of that time — as well as its hopes and dreams and idealism — came back in 2008.

During our forty years in the desert, we learned many things. Then, we marched in the streets; this time, we marched to the polls. Then, we shouted, Hell no, we won’t go! This time, we shouted, Yes, we can. Then, we were so angry that our anger consumed us. This time, we made a more compassionate humanity the means by which we sought our goal as well as the goal itself.

In the words of Gloria Steinem, I feel like our future has come back. And indeed it has. For in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., No lie can last forever. What Bobby Kennedy tried to do, and was killed for trying; what Martin Luther King tried to do, and was killed for trying; what the students at Kent state were trying to protest, and were killed for daring to; Barack Obama and his army of millions of idealists with the audacity to hope have now succeeded at doing.

Praise God. Praise God.

And that praise to God didn’t just go out last night, when Obama’s election to the Presidency was finally achieved. That praise was part of what allowed the waters to part here in the first place. Millions of Americans have been deeply aware that this kind of historic and fundamentally positive effort has not gone well in the recent past, and the
spiritual understanding of this generation of Americans — an understanding not yet fully formed forty years ago — created an invisible light around the Obama campaign. How many people over the last twenty-one months have
posted, in their own way, angels to Obama’s left and angels to his right, angels in front of him and angels behind him, angels above him and angels below him. I know I have, and so has everyone I know. Hopefully we will continue to do so.

The Obama phenomenon did not come out of nowhere. It emerged as much from our story as from his — as much from our yearning for meaning as from his ambition to be President; as much from our determination to achieve
collective redemption as from his determination to achieve an individual accomplishment. And those who fail to recognize the invisible powers at work here — who see the external drama of a political win yet fail to discern the profound forces that moved mountains by moving the American heart — well, they’re just like Bob Dylan’s Thin Man to whom he sang, You don’t know what’s going on here, do you, Mr. Jones?

Back then, Mr. Jones didn’t know what was going on, but many of us did. We knew what was going on then and we knew what needed to happen; we simply weren’t mature enough and we were too wounded then, as people
and as a culture, to pull it off.

This time, we both knew and we did. We knew who we had to become and we knew what we had to do. The violent American revolution of 1776 entailed separating from another country. The non-violent revolution of 2008 — a
non-violent revolution that did not quite fail, yet also did not quite succeed in the l960’s — has entailed separating from who we used to be.

In the l960’s, we wanted peace but we ourselves were angry. This time, after hearing Gandhi’s call that we must be the change we want to see happen in the world, we came to our political efforts with an understanding that we
must cast violence from our hearts and minds if we are to cast it from our world; that we must try to love our enemies as well as our friends; and that when a genius of world-historic proportions emerges among us, we
cannot and we must not fail to do everything humanly and spiritually possible to support him. For his sake.. and for ours.

Having gone to a higher place within ourselves, a higher level of leadership began to emerge among us. A higher level of leader now having emerged among us, he calls us to an even higher place within ourselves. These two forces together can and will, as Obama has said, truly change the world. Having moved one mountain, we’ll now remove the ones that remain. With God’s help, yes we can. Yes we did. And yes we will.

Source: Ashland Resource Center


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Here’s part of the Big Chance we won last week | Ashland Daily Tidings

obamasuperheroBy Jeff Golden

Author’s Note: Obama’s reminded us every way he can that he’s not Superman. Hearing the bliss of the last week, I’m not sure we’ve fully heard him. He aptly pointed out last week that what we’ve won is not change, but the chance to create change.

Last week I used this space to write to Joe the Plumber.  I asked if he’d be willing to cool his jets before jumping on the campaign to make life as miserable as possible for the new administration.

I asked him to “try on the possibility that Barack Obama is not an agent of evil.  That his plan to raise the marginal tax rate — the rate paid on just the highest increment of income — on the wealthiest Americans from 35% back up to 39%, where it was ten years ago and less than the top rate in almost every other democracy, doesn’t qualify as raging socialism or class warfare.  That his plan to withdraw gradually from Iraq in deliberate cooperation with Iraq’s neighbors may not be surrendering to terrorism or trashing our national security.  That a full-on plan to develop green energy won’t send you and your family into a cold cave to eat roots and berries.  That we’ll have to step outside our comfort zones — yours, mine, everyone’s — to deal effectively with what’s coming.”

I haven’t heard back from him yet.  But think how busy the poor guy’s been.

One reader didn’t think it’s realistic to ask Joe to give any slack when he’s apparently not getting any in return:  Obama is off to a bad start in reaching out to conservatives, or anyone who thinks he should not have been elected. 1. Choosing homeboy pitbull armtwister Emmanuel [sic] as CoS (a man who said “F**k Republicans” on the record); (2) not calling on a Fox News reporter at his presser…  (3) evading a question on taxes, despite changed economic realities since Aug; (4) dissing Nancy Reagan.

jeffgoldenWhich just shows how much is in the eye of the beholder: people I know see the selection of Rahm Emanuel and other early Obama moves as worrisome steps towards Clintonian pragmatism that leans more right than left. continued

Source: Ashland Daily Tidings

Jeff Golden is the author of As If We Were Grownups, Forest Blood and the new novel Unafraid (with excerpts at www.unafraidthebook.com)

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Some Advice on Forging a Common Way Ahead | Commonway Institute

By Sharif Abdullah

MEMORANDUM
TO: BARACK OBAMA
FR: SHARIF ABDULLAH
DT: TODAY
RE: SOME ADVICE ON FORGING A COMMON WAY AHEAD

Yes, congratulations, you made history, yada, yada, yada.  Not to diminish your amazing accomplishment, but since you’ve heard it all so many times by now, I won’t dwell on it (although, if you and I had a few hours, I COULD!)

No, I would rather not take up your time on that.  I have a few pieces of advice for you.  If I had five minutes of your time, the following is what I would say to you directly.

But first, who am I to be offering you advice?  I have been exploring our need for a value-driven, inclusive and sustainable society for decades, including as Founder and Executive Director of Commonway Institute.  The title to my second book sums up my philosophy and my life goal: “Creating a World That Works for All”.  I offer my counsel to you.

ADVICE #1:  REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE

This part goes without saying: while you are in fact the first African-American President (Elect) of the US, that is an IDENTITY, it is not the core essence of who you are.  One day, even being President will be a past accomplishment.  You, however, will still be you.

You are the first President (Elect) of the 21st Century – I expect you to act like it. (We obviously aren’t going to count the last 8 years.  We are now seeing the close of the last Presidency of the 19th Century). As the first 21st Century President, you will set the model for all of the other Presidents to follow. Aim high.

Bill Clinton was a very admirable bridge between the 20th and 21st Centuries.  There are many advisors around you who would like to copy those times.  Don’t listen to them.  Your arc must be higher.

ADVICE #2:  BARACK OBAMA – CATALYST IN CHIEF

In our days of fear and ignorance, many Americans needed a “Commander in Chief”, the father figure to command and control their lives.  Now, we have just elected you, our first “Catalyst in Chief”.  We don’t need you to “lead” or “command”.  We know that the federal bureaucracy is virtually ungovernable and incomprehensible.  (Of course, we do expect you to do your job and govern as best as a human being can.)

We most need you to display the skills that you demonstrated so well during the primaries and election: the ability to inspire, to engage and to motivate an entire movement of people to act.

It is indeed comforting that your heroes are similar to mine.  I too am inspired by the words and deeds of Abraham Lincoln. He presided over the US when it underwent its most painful transition (to date).  Now seen as one of our greatest Presidents, he was HATED by half of the country – the half that could not face the future, the half that could not live up to the vision laid down by the Founders in the Declaration of Independence.

I remind you of Lincoln so that you can remember to inspire – even though many of our fellow citizens would rather revile you than listen to you. Right now, they CAN’T listen to you – they can’t get past the color of your skin.  However, they too will change.  They too are caught on the arc of history.  They will forget their hate – it simply is not sustainable.  We can wait them out – time is on our side.

ADVICE #3:  DON’T LET THE WEASELS GET YOU DOWN

You are a man, a model and a symbol.  You symbolize and personify our quest for a new vision for our society, a vision that is hopeful, practical, inclusive and sustainable.

You need advisors who hold all of the above qualities, who can think outside the box.

I know that you have many “real-world” political advisors surrounding you – they are needed, they are necessary and you could not effectively govern without them.  But, don’t let them be your sole source of advice – we didn’t vote for you so that you could fill the White House with the old political crowd (Democrats or Republicans).

You need advisors who can think outside the box (who actually don’t even recognize that there IS a box!)  Balance your team with visionaries, ones with some dirt under their fingernails from doing real work in the world.  There is a real difference between a visionary with achievements versus a visionary with just dreams.  You need doers, not just talkers.

ADVICE #4:  YOU ARE NOT A “CENTRIST”

Neither the “Right” nor the “Left” have the vision for an America that works for all.  Both the Left and the Right have flawed, myopic, partial viewpoints. But, paradoxically, both the Left and the Right hold key elements to the future of this country; they hold parts of the solution.  Neither side should be dismissed out of hand.

Your job is to get the dinosaurs to play well together.  Only together can those Left-Right viewpoints be transcended, harmonized, and resolved into one greater image.

You know that the traditional “Democratic” and “Republican” parties are outmoded and out of step with 21st Century realities.  You know that your campaign for the Presidency has ignited a passion for politics (with the small “p”) that the major parties cannot understand, let alone harness.  You know that you can harness this energy.

Your job is not to sit between these two warring camps.  Your job is to sit ABOVE them.  You are not a “centrist”.  You are a “trans-centrist”.  Let’s elevate the conversations beyond the uninspiring rhetoric that has been such a turn-off for many in the electorate.  (I quote in my book a line from the movie “Slackers”: “Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy”.)  Your candidacy hit the “on” switch for tens of millions of us.  And, you can help keep us turned on.

Of course, you will have to drag the mainstream media, kicking and screaming, into this new viewpoint. They still can’t comprehend what your victory means for America.  Yesterday, CNN was reporting on how “black” churches were celebrating your election, completely missing the fact that there were at least a few “white” churches that were just as celebratory.  They can’t see it.  You can. WE can.  And the media will, too… eventually.

ADVICE #5:  YOU ARE THE LEADER OF A MOVEMENT

As you correctly stated, your job as President doesn’t start until mid-January.  (Do not deny Bush the opportunity to further lower his poll ratings or to increase his historic position as the worst president in modern history.  It’s his karma.)

However, you are not just “President” — you are also the leader of a movement.  That job started decades, perhaps centuries, ago – it has just reached a powerful nexus point.

I started in this movement to save our human family and our planet 45 years ago (yes, you were 2 years old). The movement will continue when both of us are dust.  This movement is the legacy that we leave to your daughters and my grandsons.

Unless there is a transformation in how we interact with each other, with our neighbors, with the Earth and with the Divine, those young ones have no future.  Once we make these transformations, the future for our children and grandchildren is limitless.

Your role in the movement is obvious: KEEP IT MOVING.  The politicos will want the people to sit down, shut up, and “leave it to the pros”. RESIST THIS.  The movement for an inclusive, sustainable and loving society will not wait.  Leading this movement is the single most important thing that you can do as President. It far exceeds any piece of legislation, any Executive Order, any policy initiative of your Administration.

Although you take the Oath of Office in January, you can stimulate and catalyze this movement RIGHT NOW. Don’t wait for the Inauguration – put us to work.

ADVICE # 6:  TAKE THE FIRST STEPS

What you can do, right now, is catalyze a community, regional and national dialog on the fundamental issues facing us as we enter the 21st Century.  (Given your present world stature, this dialog could be global.)  Ask us: what can we do, on the local level, to address our social, political, economic, ecological and spiritual mega-crises?

This dialog would NOT be: “What must government do for us?”  (You are about to find out how little government can actually do!)  But, by bringing the conversation to the local level, you can catalyze building the most powerful people’s movement America (and the world) has yet seen.

So, what are these first steps?

  1. Dialogs on Food, Water and Energy Security.  Every community should know where its food, water and energy come from.  Every community should launch discussions on how they can achieve sustainability on the local and regional levels.  From these dialogs, each community should develop plans for local sustainability for food, water and energy.
  2. Dialogs on the Future of Economics.  All of our media-driven discussions on our economics have been focused on fear and insecurity.  Most of our “rescue” attempts are aimed at reviving a system based in waste and greed. It’s time to re-define economics, to focus on hope, vision, and the realities human beings in the 21st Century.
  3. In my work with Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka, we are experimenting with something I’m calling “relational economics”.  The economics of people who are in actual relationship with each other.  Economics not controlled by individuals, corporations or by the State.  Economics at the community level.  (A side piece of advice for you: to stimulate a community-based relational economics, your stimulus packages should be based on community, not on individuals or governments.)
  4. Dialogs on Healing.  How do we heal our society?  After years spent in a wrong-headed and meaningless war, the men and women in our military are hurt, bruised, confused, angry and sick.  After decades of divisiveness, our politics is fractured and visionless.  Our legacy of slavery and American-style Apartheid continues to haunt us.  The pending economic collapse hangs over our head like a crushing weight.  We must atone for the pain and damage we have caused the Earth. In the face of this, healing is necessary.  We all share the pain and we all can, through the exercise of compassion, share in the healing.  Asking us to engage in healing dialogs can serve as a start to this long-term process.
  5. Dialogs on Our Vision for Our Society.  According to Thomas Jefferson, our present Constitution was meant to last only one generation.  He believed that every generation should re-write the Constitution.

We are long overdue.

We obviously cannot start with a Constitutional Convention – that would be suicidal.  Most Americans have spent so much time as “consumers” instead of “citizens”, we no longer recognize the principles that lie at the foundations of our society.  (This is why President Bush could get away with using the Constitution like toilet paper – most of us didn’t know what was in it to begin with.)  We are going to have to start over again – to teach ourselves to become the intelligent, informed citizenry that Jefferson and the other Founders envisioned.

We can start with an interactive national dialog on “American Vision and Values”.  According to the Bible, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29: 18).  You can catalyze a dialog process with teeth – the people need not perish.

ADVICE #7:   DON’T FORGET TO BREATHE.

I strongly encourage every person who works with me to have a daily meditation practice.  It is the best (perhaps only) way to stay focused on the long haul, to not get caught up in the swirling madness of our times.  It is the best way to stay true to our common mission: to create a world that truly works for all beings.

Peace,
Sharif Abdullah
PS:  Incidentally – if you are interested in my help with any of the above, please do not hesitate to call.

Resources:
Commonway Institute

by

The Day After the Election – USA

POST-ELECTION BLISS

Today we’ve elected a new President of the United States of America and the tides of change are upon us. After listening to Barack Obama’s acceptance speech last night I was touched and inspired by new possibilities. I couldn’t remember ever having such a good feeling after an election in my entire lifetime. I was elated at this victory and hopeful.

I witnessed plentiful tears in the eyes of the people in the crowd cheering him on in Chicago last night. I caught a glimpse of Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey in the crowd with a look of astonishment in their eyes. To have finally elected a black man to the White House was an achievement few of us thought possible in our lifetime. Tonight I was proud to stand here as an American and sing with them, “Yes, we can.”

Obama gave thanks to his supporters and friends. He acknowledged McCain as a great leader who’d sacrificed much for his country. He pledged to “renew this nations promise” and open doors of opportunity. He recognized the youth for their enormous activism and for rejecting the myth of apathy. He told the story of a 106 year old woman from Atlanta who’d cast her ballot and lived through so much change in her lifetime. He said our “destiny is shared with the world”.

VOTING

This is the first time I’ve voted in a Presidential election since 1972. I didn’t pay much attention to 21 months of campaign rhetoric and media commentary. I knew intuitively though this was an important turning event for the country and the world.

I was confident Mr. Obama would get elected if indeed we could have a fair and honest election. Of course I don’t really know if my vote was counted or shredded given the evidence of vote manipulation and fraud. Apparently on this occasion the will of the people prevailed. In my opinion the better of two men got elected.

TRANSFORMATION AND SHIFT

In the long distant past I got disillusioned by the electoral process when McGovern was defeated by Nixon in 1972. Of all the Presidents I liked Jimmy Carter the best. At least he saw the necessity of funding renewable energy projects during his term. I’d seen Clinton speak on the campaign trail in Oregon, but got disillusioned later on after his mishandling of Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing and signing off on the anti-terrorist laws which have been disastrous for our civil liberties (particularly rewriting the habeas corpus laws).

The Bush years were disastrous for the country. No further attention will be given them except to unravel and correct the damage done.

Now this is an opportunity for a shift in consciousness, to move beyond the despair, cynicism and jadedness many of us have felt for decades. Having been a political prisoner incarcerated for advocating accountability in government and sovereignty for all the people, this election was a healing for me – an opportunity to step away from the past and move into the future with a fresh viewpoint while “reality asserts inself.”

ORGANIZING COMMUNITY

As of today I’m willing to turn over a new leaf and re-pledge my efforts, not to the political process or what government can do for us, but what I and this local community can do for yourselves so we are no longer reliant and dependent upon others to run our lives (food, water, energy, shelter, etc.).

In my opinion, regardless of what the federal government does over the next four years from the top-down, it’s still essential each of us takes complete responsibility for building our own self-reliant, local community infrastructure in all areas of our lives. So let’s dig in, get to know each other and work together. That’s what the Ashland Resource Center was designed for!

Edtor’s Note: For continued live and archived news coverage from an independent perspective we’ve embedded “The Real News Network“. This is a international organization worthy of your support.

Source: Ashland Resource Center