Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Speak Out Against Burn A Koran Day

Speak out against Burn a Koran Day and Hate-Filled Rhetoric around the "Ground Zero Mosque"

Messages of intolerance and discrimination are polluting our public discourse as we approach the anniversary of 9/11. The debate about the "Ground Zero Mosque" trivializes the real tragedy of 9/11 and uses it as an excuse for bigotry. A small group in Florida is supporting a

"Burn a Koran" event on September 11th—sponsored by a church, of all places. The Florida church has posted on their website "10 Reasons to Burn a Koran."

Human Rights First is working with an interfaith movement to affirm religious solidarity and tolerance.

Unfortunately, the "Burn a Koran" day is still dominating the media coverage both at home and abroad.

Help us push back. Send us your top reason NOT to burn a Koran—we'll select the top 10 answers, post them on our website and online to make sure the other side is heard in this debate.

What's your reason not to burn a Koran?

---

Religion is a product of Homo sapiens (or the humans) who inhabit this Earth. They were created to promote security in an insecure world, to lessen the fear of death and to give human beings a feeling of social togetherness. Today’s religions should
encourage love and teach tolerance. If a religion supports intolerance such as the one in Gainesville Florida called Dove World Outreach Center, it ceases to be a promoter of peace and instead becomes a facilitator of hate and intolerance. The
ordered burning of another people’s religious bible (or sometimes called Good Book) can only spread hatred especially when the head of this so called religion advertises this notorious action as something good. Burning another group’s Good Book will not accomplish what he wishes and that is to spread scorn or prejudice towards the Islamic belief system. In the end, the only thing Pastor Terry Jones will accomplish, is that he and his religion will be thought of as belonging to agroup of sociopathic lunatics, and that is one good reason not to burn a Koran.

Click the below link to give your reasons not to burn a Koran. thinkingblue http://actions.humanrightsfirst.org/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=4306&key=138526

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Religion and Islam In America

Religion and Islam in America



I am so glad I’m not religious, in fact I’m overjoyed to be able to brand myself agnostic…



Agnosticism - Thomas Henry Huxley (1825– 1895) came up with the word ‘agnostic’ while searching for a term to describe his own beliefs. He did not consider himself “an atheist, a theist, a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; [nor] a Christian…” and
while he had much in common with freethinkers, he wanted a term to describe himself more accurately. His difference with the people who gave themselves the above labels was that he did not feel certain of his knowledge- or ‘gnosis’- that he “had successfully solved the problem of existence.” The essential problem was that Huxley believed the problem was unsolvable. And thus far, despite the existence of famous thinkers like Emmanuel Kant and David Hume who philosophically agreed with him on the matter, there wasn’t a name for someone who believed you could never know the source of, nor reason for existence.



Especially during religious debate (or should I say the lack thereof) that is going on about The Park 51 Islamic Cultural Center in New York. I would not call this a debate because debates are about deliberation; consideration. This is not about any of that; this is about hatred and bigotry.



In the controversy surrounding the Park 51 Islamic Cultural Center in lower Manhattan, we hear these same concerns. The First Amendment is clear: Constitutional guarantees trump emotions. Now opponents of the project are making the security argument and the funding argument. New York Republican gubernatorial candidate Rich Lazio, a former Congress member appeared on the August 16 edition of "PBS Newshour" along with Teaneck, New Jersey Mayor
Mohammed Hameeduddin to discuss the mosque and community center. Lazio called for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to look into the sources of funding for the mosque. Lazio also questioned the leader of the Cordoba Initiative because of some remarks he made after September 11. Lazio said this was a matter of security. These are the same concerns we heard in Boston.


The feelings of the families of people who died during the September 11 attacks are not at the heart of the issue any longer. We are back to anti-Muslim bias and fear. I say again. Islam did not attack the United States on September 11, 2001. Criminals attacked this nation. To ask every Muslim from this moment forward to prove their loyalty to the Untied States, to prove they have never been associated with someone who has said or done something offensive, and or to prove that every dollar that goes into a building project did not come from some source that the wider society does not approve is unfair. We do not ask this of any other group of citizens. FROM THIS SITE http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/valerie_elverton_dixon/2010/08/the_park_51_islamic_cultural_center_and_american_values.html



During the Cheney/Bush reign of hate the neocons wanted to wage a preemptive war with Iraq. They were planning this war for some time. But they were unable to realize their dream because public sentiment would have nothing to do with it (simply put). They needed a new Pearl Harbor to satisfy their lust for America’s World Dominance:



In 1997 Wolfowitz and colleagues including Cheney, vice-president, and Richard Perle, dubbed “the Prince of Darkness” when he was Ronald Reagan’s assistant secretary of defense, founded a think tank called Project for a New American Century. In a 2000 document, the group speculated that “some catastrophic and catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor” was needed to assure US global power.


After the terrorist attacks of September 11, Wolfowitz urged the targeting of Saddam’s regime as the first stage of a new conflict. He was overruled when Bush decided to focus on Afghanistan. Iraq had been in Wolfowitz’s sights since Jimmy Carter’s presidency, when he wrote a paper warning of the country’s pernicious influence. He also urged Bill Clinton to get rid of Saddam.


He owes much of his political creed to his childhood. His father Jacob, an eminent Polish mathematician, emigrated from Warsaw to New York in 1920. The loss of relatives in the Holocaust taught Wolfowitz, born in December 1943, that appeasement was not an option. MORE HERE http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/article432446.ece



I can’t help but believe that all the hate and bigotry that has taken hold of our country stems from all the years the so called “neoconservative ideologues” have been in power. Unfortunately, their power did not end with the election of Barack Obama. They are as strong as ever within the Libertarian movement with an offshoot dubbed "Tea Party". This time they are able to use ignorance as a power source, something that dictators have used for as long as time has been recorded.



TERROR, POWER AND NEOCONSERVATIVE IDEOLOGY

Neoconservatives desperately needed more power, and that power was delivered on a silver platter in the form of 9/11.

Neoconservative documents have long professed a desire to rule the world. Their own
documents show they knew a truly "American" society would never support their plans. ...their own documents show they understood the BENEFIT of a "New Pearl Harbor."

It has never been easy to take over the world. It has always required a certain kind of person; a person capable of things most others are not capable of. -That they must be willing to lie, cheat, murder, maim, and manipulate goes without saying. That they must accept millions of innocent civilians will suffer and die as a result of their conquest goes without saying. That they can't be bothered with such things as "moral consistency" goes without saying.

Knowing this, it is time for some intellectual honesty. It is time we finally accept that
criminal means are no way to secure so called "moral ends." -And those who profess goals that can only be had using criminal means reveal exactly what kind of people they are. MORE HERE http://stopthelie.com/terror_power_and_neoconservative_ideology.html



This brings me back to how elated I am not to be religious. I don’t carry the burden of MY RELIGION IS BETTER THAN YOUR RELIGION. Since I don’t have a religion, I am free to see them all equally. Yes, they really are all equal when their purpose is to help people live a better life. But if they indoctrinate people to HATE one another, they are destructive and a blight towards the achievement of peace. So far, I believe the former is the intention of religion but if it is used to further political goals through the use of HATE than it doesn’t have a chance for good and will become an instrument of destruction, destroying the very lives that it was created to help. Why can't we all be tolerant of each others' belief system, why must there always be loathing when something is not explained and quite understood. We are all more "the same" than we are different. Clothing, beliefs and cultural habits do not define the core of what we are. Why is this so difficult for some to learn? thinkingblue aka thethinkingblue



ISLAM IN AMERICA
By Bobby Ghosh / Dearborn, Mich.





You don't have to be prejudiced against Islam to believe, as many Americans do, that the area around Ground Zero is a sacred place. But sadly, in an election season, such
sentiments have been stoked into a political issue. As the debate has grown more heated, Park51, as the proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque two blocks from Ground Zero is called, has become a litmus test for everything from private-property rights to religious tolerance. But it is plain that many of Park51's opponents are motivated by deep-seated Islamophobia.

The proposed site is close not just to Ground Zero; it's also a stone's throw from strip clubs, liquor stores and other establishments typical of lower Manhattan. Muslims have been praying in the building for nearly a year, a fact that has got lost in the noise of the protests. But since early August, it has been the scene of frequent demonstrations, with signs saying things such as "All I Need to Know About Islam, I Learned on 9/11." The husband-and-wife team behind Park51, Imam Feisal Rauf and Daisy Khan, seem stunned into paralysis: while opponents cast them as extremists sympathetic to al-Qaeda, they have given very few interviews themselves. Pressure is mounting on the couple to move their center to a less polarizing location. (See TIME's photo-essay "Muslim in America.")

The controversy has also brought new scrutiny to other examples of anti-Islam and anti-Muslim protests, raising much larger questions: Does America have a problem with Islam? Have the terrorist attacks of 9/11 — and other attempts since — permanently excluded Muslims from full assimilation into American life?


Although the American strain of Islamophobia lacks some of the traditional elements of religious persecution — there's no sign that violence against Muslims is on the rise, for instance — there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that hate speech against Muslims and Islam is growing both more
widespread and more heated. Meanwhile, a new TIME–Abt SRBI poll found that 46% of Americans believe Islam is more likely than other faiths to encourage violence against nonbelievers. Only 37% know a Muslim American. Overall, 61% oppose the Park51 project, while just 26% are in favor of it. Just 23% say it would be a symbol of religious tolerance, while 44% say it would be an insult to those who died on 9/11. (See "Why the GOP Should Avoid the Mosque Issue.")


Islamophobia in the U.S. doesn't approach levels seen in other countries where Muslims are in a minority. But to be a Muslim in America now is to endure slings and arrows against your faith — not just in the schoolyard and the office but also outside your place of worship and in the public
square, where some of the country's most powerful mainstream religious and political leaders unthinkingly (or worse, deliberately) conflate Islam with terrorism and savagery. In France and Britain, politicians from fringe parties say appalling things about Muslims, but there's no one in Europe of the stature of a former House Speaker who would, as Newt Gingrich did, equate Islam with Nazism.

Read "Giuliani: Mosque by Ground Zero Would Stir Hatred."

See "Ground Zero: Exaggerating the Jihadist Threat."



This is an abridged version of an article that appears in the Aug. 30, 2010, print and iPad editions of TIME magazine.


Find this article at: Click Here

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2011798,00.html




Facts don't calm debate over New York Islamic center

NEW YORK — There's no shortage of opinions — or
theatrics — at the site of a proposed Islamic center and
mosque two blocks from where the World Trade Center stood before
two hijacked jetliners crashed into its twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001.


It's a deliberate Muslim thumb in the eye to survivors of the
terrorist attacks to build the facility on such hallowed ground,
declared Andrew Sullivan, a star-spangled, red, white and blue
hard-hat-wearing union worker as he stood outside the site one day this week.


"The whole connotation of putting a mosque on conquered
lands has overtones here," said Sullivan, who runs a blog
called Blue Collar Corner and is seeking signed pledges from
union members that they won't work on center/mosque project.


An agitated and animated Anthony Hernandez expressed a
different view as he took time from his lunch hour to visit the
proposed site of the Cordoba House — or Park51 — Islamic center and mosque.


"What hallowed ground?" said Hernandez, a New York City government employee as he pointed to the Dakota Roadhouse bar next to the proposed project site.



Also nearby: a strip club called the New York Dolls
gentleman's club,





DO A GOOGLE STREET MAP SEARCH YOURSELF CLICK HERE



an off-track betting parlor and smaller mosque that's been
there for four decades. The New York Daily News recently tallied
the businesses within a three-block area of the World Trade
Center site — 17 pizza shops, 18 bank branches, 11 bars, 10
shoe stores and "17 salons where a girl can get her lady parts groomed."


"This is a false argument. There's nothing wrong with
having a mosque here," Hernandez said. "This is
religious freedom. This is the United States."


Read more: HERE

Watch A Fracking Mess 'GASLAND' here

PLEASE SIGN PETITION HERE

RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on 'Fear'

Thom Hartmann on Freespeech TV

New Robes For SCOTUS

Please sign this very important
petition "demand question time" (of our political
leaders)
HERE..
We really need more dialog from those at the top... The
Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind
"NO" any longer! thinkingblue


Click to go to MOVE TO AMEND and sing petition.

MOVE TO AMEND

Let's keep our heads, while we continue

to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

"A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE."thinkingblue



More
thethinkingblue Here

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Justice for Bradley Manning



To: US Department of Defense; US Department of Justice


We, the Undersigned, call for justice for US Army PFC
Bradley Manning, incarcerated without charge (as of 18 June
2010) at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait.


Media accounts state that Mr. Manning was arrested in late
May for leaking the video of US Apache helicopter pilots
killing innocent people and seriously wounding two children
in Baghdad, including those who arrived to help the wounded,
as well as potentially other material. The video was released
by WikiLeaks under the name "Collateral Murder".


If these allegations are untrue, we call upon the US
Department of Defense to release Mr. Manning immediately.


If these allegations ARE true, we ALSO call upon the US
Department of Defense to release Mr. Manning immediately.


Simultaneously, we express our support for Mr. Manning in any
case, and our admiration for his courage if he is, in fact,
the person who disclosed the video. Like in the cases of
Daniel Ellsberg, W. Mark Felt, Frank Serpico and countless
other whistleblowers before, government demands for secrecy
must yield to public knowledge and justice when government
crime and corruption are being kept hidden.


Justice for Bradley Manning!


Sincerely,


The Undersigned - Please sign the petition torelease Bradley Manning



We live in a country that is gripped by fear. The politicians have been using
it for years so they can have more time to gain more power. It’s pathetic how easy it is to make a free country UNFREE just by implying there is something to fear. Whistleblowers (people who make a public disclosure of wrongdoing or corruption) are protectors of freedom that is why the Powers condemn them; less public disclosure of wrongdoing, more infringement on the Rights of the People. Arresting and retaining Bradley Manning has exposed what you’ve been up to. It’s time to end using Bradley Manning as a scapegoat in order to stop anyone else that is brave enough to unveil the wrongdoings in government. Give him back his freedom; he is a hero not a sacrificial lamb. thinkingblue aka thethinkingblue.



PS: Why do we as a species still engage in legalized murder?


To say the below video is disturbing is a great understatement. The horror of war is an understatement. Please be aware, there isn’t anything that warrants the mayhem that you will see if you click the “Play” button.






SIGN PETITION HERE.





You've signed, now let your friends know on Twitter.



4130 Signatures Total as of August 23, 2010



View Current Signatures



We endorse the Justice
for Bradley Manning
Petition to US Department of Defense;
US Department of Justice.
http://www.PetitionOnline.com



Sunday, August 22, 2010

Fox Parent News Corp. Funds GOP Attack Machine $1 Million

When I saw this article on Crooks and Liars, I thought, well here we go again, but this time the Corporate Greed Machine and the GOP has SCOTUS to thank for the endless flow of money being thrown around to reassure that the "R's" will regain power over all of our lives. Even though The American People have rejected this US Supreme Court ruling on Corporate Personhood, they/we, for the most part, are helpless.



But this is not the time to give-up. Sure we can't match the flow of money and sure the "R's" will be able to use the dirtiest, meanest and limitless intolerable slander attacks against their "D" opponents but We The People have our tools, they can't shut us up completely! We can speak out, write letters to our congress, go on-line and add our names to petitions, write blogs, tweet, and facebook our objections. We can also turn off the TV when one of their attack ads makes its way into our homes, and throw the
propagandized fliers in the trash also hang-up on robo-calls. Then when it’s time to VOTE, we can vote against all those who use negative campaigning and mendacity to cloud our minds.



It's not going to be easy but we the American people have the power to fight CORPORATE PERSONHOOD and not allow them an easy win! YES WE DO! thinkingblue aka thethinkingblue

PS: Please read the article below and GET MAD!

Fox Parent News Corp. Funds GOP Attack Machine to the
Tune of $1 Million - So Far



Posted: 17 Aug 2010 03:00 PM PDT



It isn't like this is a complete surprise, but still, there is
something incestuous about News Corp. donating $1 million
to the Republican Governors' Association in order for the
Republican Governors' Association to mount high-profile attack
campaigns on Democratic candidates. I think it's safe for
everyone to eliminate the terms "fair" and
"balanced" from any discussion of Fox News.


More disturbing to me than even the editorial compromise that
comes from such a contribution is the fact that the largest
shareholder (besides Murdoch) in News Corp is Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal,
who is launching an Arabic News Network in partnership with News
Corp. That raises all sorts of ethical and political issues for
me. Does the corporate veil shield News Corp from the ban on
contributions from foreign countries? It likely does, but it
certainly should disqualify Fox News from being considered a "news outlet."


News Corp. isn't the only member of the RGA Million Dollar
Roundtable, either, though they hold the record for the most
compromised by it. David Koch has also donated
$1 million to the cause, and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce has
given $2,547,500 in 2010.


There are many other corporate members of the Six-Figure club.
Keep in mind these are cumulative totals through June 30, 2010.
Expect them to at least double by November:



  • AT&T: $280,000

  • Chevron: $150,000

  • Coca-Cola Bottling Company: $100,000

  • Coca-Cola Company: $135,000

  • Consolidated Energy: $100,000

  • Contran Corp: $100,000 (also $25,000 from Harold Simmons,
    CEO Total: $125,000)

  • Devon Energy: $250,000

  • Eli Lilly: $210,000

  • Emerson: $100,000

  • FirstEnergy Corp: $250,000

  • Philip Geier: $100,000

  • General Electric Co: $105,000

  • Hewlett-Packard: $100,900

  • Hunt Consolidated: $100,000

  • IQ Innovations: $200,000

  • Jacobs Entertainment: $125,000

  • Liberty Mutual Group: $100,000

  • Metropolitan Milwaukee Assoc. of Commerce: $115,000

  • Larry Mizel/MDC Holdings: $100,000

  • MTR Gaming: $125,000

  • Mugar Enterprises/David Mugar: $100,000

  • Murray Energy Corporation: $100,000

  • Natixis Global Asset Management, LP: $100,000

  • New Balance: $100,000

  • Nextera Energy Resources, Inc.: $100,000

  • Oracle: $100,000

  • Peabody Investments Corp: $120,000

  • Bruce Rauner/GTCR Golder Rauner, LLC: $100,000

  • Ryan Innovative Solutions: $100,000

  • SAS Institute: $130,000

  • SEIU: $100,000

  • Paul Singer/Elliott Management: $500,000

  • Jack Taylor/Enterprise Holdings: $190,000 (Also $50,000
    from Andrew Taylor, CEO and Phyllis Taylor $25,000 Total
    $265,000)

  • Travelers Indemnity Company: $200,000

  • Wal-Mart Stores, Inc: $140,000

  • Richard DeVos/Alticor: $150,000



Keep in mind, this is only the list from the June, 2010
quarterly report. I'm certain there are many more on the March
2010 report who poured their money in at the first of the year.


For the publicly held corporations like News Corp, those
donations come right off the bottom line. Funny how employees are
overhead to cut, lay off, underpay and overwork in order to boost
that bottom line, but million-dollar contributions to Haley
Barbour's attack machine are just part of the cost of doing business.


Not funny. But true. FROM CROOKS AND LIARS

---
UPDATE
: FROM HUFFINGTON POST

Democratic operatives have hit back with statements calling
Fox News's RGA donation a final indication that their "Fair
and Balanced" brand is less accurate than ever.


From Nathan Daschle, executive director of the Democratic Governors Association:


"By contributing $1 million to the Republican Governors
Association, Fox has crossed a bright line. Fox can no longer
pretend that it is a 'fair and balanced' news organization when
Rupert Murdoch greenlights a million dollar contribution to
defeat Democratic governors.


"Time and time again, Fox News has defended itself against
accusations that it is nothing more than a tool of the Republican
Party. We know now that the reality is so much worse: they're
bankrolling the GOP. FOX's news division is ignoring the fact
that its own parent company made a direct and unprecedented
partisan contribution to defeat Democrats. This is hypocrisy at
its worst, and is a sad day for all of us who believe that an
independent and impartial media is vital to our democracy.


"Not only does this contribution severely compromise Fox's
news reporting, but it even breaks Fox's own promise to its
shareholders that it won't give money to benefit officeholders.


"While it might be naive to think this will ever happen, we
can only hope that Fox will own up to the activities and that its
stable of opinion hosts like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly will do
the right thing and call on their company to return the contribution."




From Hari Sevugan, national press secretary of the DNC:


"'Fair and balanced' has been rendered utterly meaningless.
Any pretense that may have existed about the ties between Fox
News and the Republican Party has been ripped violently away.


"No Republican who appears on Fox can be seen as answering
to an independent press and all should appear with a disclaimer
for who they truly are -- the favored candidate of the
corporate-friendly network. No Fox News's political coverage can
be seen as impartial and all of it should have a disclaimer for
what it truly is -- partisan propaganda."




Get HuffPost Media On Twitter, Facebook, and Google Buzz!

Know something we don't? E-mail us at media@huffingtonpost.com


Fox News and Wall Street Journal parent company News Corp donated
$1 million to the Republican Governors Association in June,
Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. The media conglomerate,
controlled by Ch... Fox News and Wall Street Journal parent
company News Corp donated $1 million to the Republican Governors
Association in June, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported. The media
conglomerate, controlled by Ch...

Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:

Ari Rabin-Havt: Rupert Murdoch Lied to Me (Personally)

Back in April, when I confronted Murdoch about Fox News' support
of the Tea Parties, he told me, "I don't think we should be
supporting the tea party or any other party." Now it is
clear Rupert Murdoch lied to me.



Watch A Fracking Mess 'GASLAND' here


Please sign this very important
petition "demand question time" (of our political
leaders)
HERE..
We really need more dialog from those at the top... The
Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind
"NO" any longer! thinkingblue

Let's keep our heads, while we continue

to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

"A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE."thinkingblue

Monday, August 16, 2010

Is America more Sane than Insane?

Is America more Sane than Insane?



Not if you watch TV... On all my fav political shows (Olbermann, Maddox, Sanchez and other progressive slanting TV) there’s always some story (albeit negative) about Jan Weber, Sharron Angle, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and the other squirrely cast of R’s, that make me want to HOLLER UNCLE but instead I mute the sound and wonder about the sanity of this country. (And I'm not even going near the likes of FOX NEWS...)



I just came across the smelliest of all the right-wing STINK-BOMBS letting loose his latest VERBAL FART… Rush Limbaugh is now defending the right-wing whack jobs like Sarah, Sharon (Limbaugh calls her Shirley), Michele and Jan... by lambasting the Repubs...



( A beast eating its own) ???



Rush slams Republicans for fighting against their own





Holy steaming bat sh*t Batman, LimP-augh is grasping at BENDY STRAWS for his hate hyperbole by going after the Grand Old Party… Hmmm, I wonder if the majority of Republicans still consider Ole Rush, The Führer of the GOP? thinkingblue aka thethinkingblue


PLEASE SIGN PETITION HERE

RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on 'Fear'

Thom Hartmann on Freespeech TV

New Robes For SCOTUS

Please sign this very important
petition "demand question time" (of our political
leaders)
HERE..
We really need more dialog from those at the top... The
Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind
"NO" any longer! thinkingblue

Click to go to MOVE TO AMEND and sing petition.

MOVE TO AMEND

Let's keep our heads, while we continue

to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

"A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE."thinkingblue

More thethinkingblue Here

Friday, August 13, 2010

Good Grief, do you believe this?

Good Grief, do you believe this?

Click below link for a real eye-opener as to what the Tea Party
Movement Is Really About $$$$!

Dayton Tea Party activist starts conservative business exchange

The Tea Party Republican Leaders or Tea Party Repugnant Organizers seem to have one eye http://www.thethinkingblue.com/temppics/eyeball.jpgon brainwashing their sycophants and the other eyehttp://www.thethinkingblue.com/temppics/eyeball.jpgon HOW TO MAKE MORE MONEY from their ignorance... But they did admit that... “It might attract some customers. It might drive some away,”... Let's hope for the latter. thinkingblue

PS: They will promote the Tea Party Exchange concept to other chapters of the Tea Party, whose members advocate for reducing taxes and cutting spending and the size of government.(WTF? Where were these assholes when Bush was spending us into the dire straits we're in now? They want it two ways... CUT TAXES FOR THE RICH AND LESS SPENDING ON THE POOR (or less social programs for the middle-class to help them from becoming poor...!) which means MORE MONEY FOR THEM... it makes me sick to my stomach ...! Go get your puke bucket and listen to this F**king jerk here: http://www.teapartyexchange.org/ ) or here.



Here's a tea party member with a business who doesn't want it mixed with politics... OH MY, A "THINKING" TEA PARTIER, will wonders never cease?

Click link below:

Tea Party backer doesn't want his business mixed with politics

PS2: I searched for a list and found the one below. I don't know why the TPX thingy ticked me off so much... I think it was Hutchinson's
persona
CLICK IMAGE TO HEAR THIS JERK TALK ABOUT HIS TPXand voice so typical of the know-it-all rethugs of the right who learned how to use propaganda to get the ignorant American to embrace their wealthy agenda while stepping on the faces of those they subjugate. The tea party is so full of ignoramuses that it
makes you want to
SCREAM...!
thinkingblue



List of businesses participating in Tea Party discounts


Tea Party supporters who obtain a TPX-Great American card — similar to a customer-loyalty card
consumers can attach to key rings — and show it at a participating business can get a discount on the company’s services. The local merchant then gives 5 percent of the sale revenue to the local Tea party chapter to help fund rallies.

Participating businesses:
  • Anderson Mechanical Associates, LLC

  • B & K Heating, Inc.

  • Beef O’Brady’s Family Sports Pub

  • Cool Solutions Heating & Air Conditioning

  • D.A.R.E. Automotive Specialists,Inc.

  • Essex & Associates, Inc.

  • Essex HR & Associates

  • Evans BMW, Volvo, Volkswagen

  • Flash Quick Copy, Inc.

  • G.L. Dart General Contracting/A-1 Roofing

  • Gamber Family Dental

  • Graphic Impact

  • HouseMaster Home Inspections and Radon Testing

  • Marketing Consultants

  • McAfee Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc.

  • O’Learys Pub & Grub

  • Reiber Cleaners, Inc.

  • Rich Roofing

  • Right at Home-Dayton

  • Ryan B. Walker CPA Inc.

  • Safeguard Print & Promo

  • Screen Works, Inc.

  • Susan Essex Realtor

  • Tea Party Payroll, LLC

  • The Accounting & Business Coach

  • The Bronze Salon Tanning - This
    one is probably AOK with John A. Boehner (R - OH).



----------------------







Here is the TPX article in full:

Dayton Tea Party activist starts conservative business exchange

DAYTON — About 30 local businesses are participating
in a program to link conservative consumers with
businesses owned by conservatives to help support the Tea Party.

Donald Hutchinson, a businessman and Tea Party
supporter, calls his initiative the Tea Party Exchange Inc.

Tea Party supporters who obtain a TPX-Great American card — similar to a customer-loyalty card consumers can attach to key rings — and show it at a participating business can get a discount on the company’s services. The local merchant then gives 5 percent of the sale revenue to the local Tea party chapter to help fund rallies.

“It might attract some customers. It might drive
some away,” said Herb Asher, an Ohio State
University political science professor. “If I were a
businessperson, the first thing I’d ask: Is this a
winner or a loser for me?”

Hutchinson is co-founder and president of Essex HR and
Associates, a Washington Twp. human resources consultant.
He said he plans to speak at the national March on DC Tea
Party rally Sept. 11 in Washington, D.C., and will
promote the Tea Party Exchange concept to other chapters
of the Tea Party, whose members advocate for reducing
taxes and cutting spending and the size of government.

But businessman Greg McAfee, president and owner of
McAfee Heating and Air Conditioning in Kettering, said
his company is participating in the Tea Party Exchange,
along with about a dozen other businesses.

McAfee said Thursday that since he started speaking at
Tea Party rallies in April 2009, he received four
negative letters from customers who said they would stop
using his company because of his politics. But McAfee
said he also has received about 75 positive letters and
e-mails from conservative consumers, and that they have
helped bring him an increase in new customers since then.

----

Tea Party Leader or Participator (The
Blog)

There are a number of businesses getting involved in
the Tea Party Exchange. Some are Tea Party leaders and
take a position they are going to put their stake into
the ground and announce to the public they are Tea Party
Exchange Members. They do this through window decals,
banners, and posters. These businesses do not worry about
whether or not they may offend someone because of their
beliefs in the Tea Party’s three core values: (1)
limited federal government, (2) fiscal responsibility,
and (3) free markets. I applaud these businesses and
owners for taking a stand for what they believe in.
Without their courage, this movement would be much
harder. However, just as important as these leaders, are
the future leaders of the tea party, the participators.

These businesses join Tea Party Exchange yet do not want
to be as outspoken on the conservative topics. They often
have a substantial liberal client base that they do not
want to disturb. Many of the businesses have found their
rightful place in the Tea Party Exchange. They become
members in the exchange yet do not place window decals or
other advertising material in their place of business.
Therefore, they can be located within our conservative
database yet remain neutral on the issues to the general
public. Both groups will be very effective at fund
raising for our combined conservative cause.

One very important note to understand, whether you are a
Tea Party leader or participator does not define you as a
person, it simply defines the position you have placed
yourself within. In other words, sometimes we are leaders
and sometimes participators. It all depends on the
situation.

Question: How would you reply to a business owner that
says they would like to join the Tea Party Exchange yet
they do not want to risk upsetting their not so
conservative clients? Should this be a worry and how do
you plan on addressing it?


Watch A Fracking Mess 'GASLAND' here

PLEASE SIGN PETITION HERE

RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on 'Fear'

Thom Hartmann on Freespeech TV

New Robes For SCOTUS

Please sign this very important
petition "demand question time" (of our political
leaders)
HERE..
We really need more dialog from those at the top... The
Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind
"NO" any longer! thinkingblue

Click to go to MOVE TO AMEND and sing petition.

MOVE TO AMEND

Let's keep our heads, while we continue

to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

"A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE."thinkingblue

More thethinkingblue Here

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Apathy should not be allowed to flourish.

Apathy should not be
allowed to flourish.



The below article is quite sad. Sad because war is sad, sad because lives are lost for practically no good reason and sad because even though so many Americans said no to these wars, their demands fell upon deaf ears. The Bush/Cheney administration finally had their anxiously awaited reason for war, the attack of September 11, 2001, a day when a handful of hoodlums attacked America clearing the way for this administration to declare war. Whether the attack could have been prevented is still being debated but the fact that it happened and was milked by the Bush/Cheney Whitehouse so they could realize a dream they had cultivated for years prior to this dreadful event. (a dream they called at the time...The Wolfowitz Doctrine)



In the aftermath of such horror, Bush/Cheney could not wait to send US troops to a country who did not actually commit the crime (there was no, one country at fault just a band of marauders, a gang of thugs). They picked a country and all agreed we must preempt a war there as payback for the assault upon our soil. We had the power, they would say to each other, so why not and once this war is underway we will be able to slip in the war we really want in Iraq. (under the People's nose before the insult of 911 wears too thin.)



Well, they got their way and now these wars continue to kill and maim and have yet to produce the REAL perpetrator of that horrible day, Osama Bin Laden.



Cheney, Bush and the rest of the neocons are now out of office and are safely back living their comfy lives as celebrities but not so for the American troops who are still sacrificing their lives every day in a hapless war. Most who die are soon forgotten, most who are forced to live a life of pain after being mutilated will never be known.



But on facebook a woman named Pat McDermott Nixon is trying to bring these fallen Americans out of obscurity and put a real human face behind the statistics. Something I tried to do once, after the Iraq war was underway. But I was stopped in my tracks by a Bush devotee who had lost a relative in that war and told me that because my politics were of a Liberal nature she did not want me to use her relative's name to spread a negative view of Bush's wars. (???) The hurt and sorrow of losing a loved one in war made me ask the question to myself: DO I REALLY HAVE A RIGHT TO POST NAMES AND BRIEF BIOS OF THOSE WHO HAVE PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE OF WAR ESPECIALLY IF IT OFFENDS THOSE LEFT BEHIND? So I took the page down.



This Afghanistan war has gone on so long with new casualties being added to the already long list of those lost, everyday. It makes me wonder, are there still people out there who believe that Bush and Cheney were right to, so carelessly and without much emotion wage a war that appeared impossible to win? (with not only one country but two simultaneously). If there are still people who think that casually going to war is just and warranted, I can’t help but believe that these very people are somewhat responsible for the enormous suffering.



Please read the short article below and the poignant comment from a veteran of another war that was also carelessly waged so long ago...
called Nam. thinkingblue



PS: Great tribute to a Great Man, Phil Donahue.






Maddi: July 23 at 2:40pm from Gary in Dayton
who was a medic in Nam




Finding pieces of service members' lost lives: Connie Schultz



DOD announced today the death of a soldier. Sgt. Mario Rodriquez, 24, of Smithville, Texas, died June 11 in Powrak, Afghanistan "of wounds sustained when insurgents attacked his unit using small arms and rocket-propelled grenade
fires [sic]." He was assigned to the 264th Clearance Company, 27th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne), 20th Engineer

For the last year and a half, I've been posting... Department of Defense casualty alerts to remind me, and my 2,400 or so "friends" on Facebook, of the human beings behind the statistics of American losses in Iraq and Afghanistan. In recent weeks, a woman named Pat McDermott Nixon has added an update of her own after each of my posts about a fallen American.
Nixon's Facebook comment on June 15 , 9:56

p.m.:

Sgt. Mario Rodriguez, 24, left behind a... wife and 7-year-old daughter. His was the fourth active duty death from Smithville (a town of fewer than 5,000) in four years

-- three in the last year alone.

She listed the three other residents' names,

and when they died.

After I thanked her, Nixon explained in a second post that she often did "a little search to discover

something more personal" about each American who dies.

"Tonight," she added, "I decided to post what I'd found."

Thus began an online partnership with a woman I've never met. I post the latest DOD announcement, and Nixon almost always follows up with a bio, and a link to the obituary.

Earlier this week, I decided to find out more about this 62-year-old woman in Strongsville. Why was she willing to do this?

"At first, I was reading the posts and saying the names aloud to myself," she said. "Saying their ages, too. I have three boys, ages 29, 25 and 22."

She started researching the names of the fallen online.

"I've always been intrigued by the micro of life, rather than the macro," she said. "I don't know anyone who has died in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can become so insulated by where we live and who we know -- and don't know."



Nixon is a retired children's librarian, so research is a lifelong habit. But there's more to her story. She came of age during the Vietnam War, and as we talked she recalled another list of names -- and faces -- that may have planted the seeds for her current practice of honoring the fallen.



In 1969, she was a young elementary school teacher in Cleveland when the June 27 issue of LIFE magazine devoted 12 pages to 242 young men who had died in Vietnam in a single week, from May 28 to June 3. Nine were from Ohio, which ranked fifth in the number of Vietnam deaths by the time the war was over.



"[W]e must pause to look into the faces," read the introduction to LIFE's photo gallery, which listed each man by name, age, rank and hometown. "More than we must know how many, we must know who. The faces of one week's dead, unknown but to families and friends, are suddenly recognized by all in this gallery of young American eyes."



You can find that LIFE issue online, with the Vietnam feature starting on page 20.



Forty-one years later, Nixon still remembers looking at those pages of young faces, reading each name and age aloud and feeling "a deeper awareness of the loss." Now, she publishes her own version of a gallery, one bio at a time.



On Tuesday, July 20, I paused in writing this column to post the following DOD alert on Facebook: Sgt. Justin B. Allen, 23, of Coal Grove, Ohio, died July 18 in Zhari, Afghanistan "of wounds suffered when he was shot by insurgents while conducting combat operations . . ."



Another Ohio boy.

A few minutes later, Pat McDermott Nixon posted

an excerpt from his obituary in the Ironton Tribune:

In November, Justin was going to marry his fiancee, Kimberly Schwartz, whom he had met when she moved to Lawrence County from Florida. "She had already bought her dress," [his mother] Bonnie said.



The last time Bonnie saw her son was this spring when he came home between deployments. She wants her son to be remembered for his generosity, honesty and patriotism.



It was Sgt. Allen's fourth tour of duty.



COMMENTS:

Mike Ludwig July 24 at 8:01am

Reply:the thing that, as a veteran of the shitpile... that the rest of the country referred to as 'the war in vietnam' but we G.I.'s simply referred to as the 'nam, puts a glob in my throat and gut is the fact that these guys in the sandbox are doing, often, up to four combat deployments of 15 months each.
think about that! about how that can totally leave a person an emotional wreck and a spiritual garbage bag! in 'nam it was a year - 12 months - and we knew that if we were lucky enough to 'make it' we'd be comin' back to the world. '364 and a wake up' we called it. and as our date of exiting drew nearer, we were 'short', and the shorter we got, we became the more frozen in our paranoia of not making it. can you imagine the stress on THESE guys?? goddamn, it pisses me off to no end! may we never forget them and the heartache their families must bear! i hate fucking war! "those who start wars never fight them, and those who fight wars never like them." - michael franti. thanks for
this post, maddi. peace, mike



Carolyn Ward July 24 at 1:44pm

These Bush wars have been horrible beyond anything that resembles reason. Not only for those who were caught in the middle of the tragic chess game, the neocons cooked up but also for humanity. We are becoming desensitized because these wars have continued for so long. When Boy Dubya was able to play out his war game, I thought I was living in the twilight zone. Life was dark for most of us who hate that wars can be so easily pitched forth. Now we hardly hear of the ongoing tragedies that are occurring each and every moment. Thanks so much for
posting this. We need more articles and more comments about these disgusting wars. Apathy should not be allowed to flourish.



Carolyn Ward July 27 at 1:42am



Maybe this will start waking people up especially those who play chess with living chess pieces...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/38316361#38421035



Free Hugs From Sondrio Italy

Free Hugs in Sondrio, Italy

This is truly heartwarming. Please watch the video "FREE HUGS FROM SONDRIO ITALY" and give somebody a hug today. thinkingblue

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Help Al Franken Save Net Neutrality

HELP SAVE NET NEUTRALITY



Please sign Al Franken's Petition to SAVE Net Neutrality... Don't allow the CORPORATE PERSON-HOOD to stamp out the LEAN-OVER-THE-FENCE freedom we enjoy on the Internet today...
(FYI - In many neighborhoods in the US, houses are separated by fences, and if you are in your back yard the only way to communicate with your neighbor is to"lean over the fence" and talk to them..."as a small child I would watch my mother do this daily... Today we do it on FACEBOOK and The Internet!" tb)


If BIG CORPORATE BIG DADDY could charge us for the air we breathe THEY WOULD...! But I don't think they've figured out how to do that just yet, but then again, maybe they have, BY DIRTYING IT UP!.

SIGN HERE:
http://www.alfranken.com/index.php/thankyou/netneutrality/f thinkingblue aka thethinkingblue




SIGN PETITION HERE


I just signed and there are at this moment, 76,666 signatures.tb aka ttb


PLEASE SIGN PETITION HERE

RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on 'Fear'

Thom Hartmann on Freespeech TV

New Robes For SCOTUS

Please sign this very important
petition "demand question time" (of our political
leaders)
HERE..
We really need more dialog from those at the top... The
Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind
"NO" any longer! thinkingblue

Click to go to MOVE TO AMEND and sing petition.

MOVE TO AMEND

Let's keep our heads, while we continue

to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

"A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE."thinkingblue

More thethinkingblue Here

Sunday, August 08, 2010

Voice Of Reason Bob Shrum - Re: Back From Recess


Pelosi Calls Congress Back From Summer Recess To Vote On Bailout

The Voice Of Reason Bob Shrum
- Re:House Being Called Back From Recess To Vote On Bailout To
Fund States On Behalf Of Teachers, Police and Firemen.

The last time the House came back from recess was in 2008, as lawmakers’ debated providing aid for the auto industry. Before that, the House came back to Washington to deal with the case of Terri Schiavo, a comatose woman whose husband was seeking to remove her feeding tube.***
----

”Ah yes, we all remember that 2005 hypocritical move by the Republican Leaders, which had proved beyond a shadow of doubt that all the Congressional Leaders who wear an 'R' as a badge of honor are nothing but a bunch of 24-carat charlatans." thinkingblue aka thethinkingblue



Voice Of Reason Bob Shrum
Re:House Being Called Back From Recess
To Vote On Bailout




Pelosi Calls Congress Back From Summer Recess To Vote On Bailout


The House will return to Washington next week
to act on Medicaid and education funding for states.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the news via Twitter, saying: “I will be calling the House back into session early next week to save teachers’ jobs and help seniors & children.”

The news means lawmakers will be interrupting their August recess to come back into session.


A House leadership aide told The Hill the early return was discussed following the Senate’s vote Wednesday to move forward on the $26 billion package.

Separately, a Democratic aide said if members return to Washington to vote on the package, it would be Monday or Tuesday next week.
The House gallery said the chamber will be in session Tuesday but there was a possibility members could return Monday for votes.

A K Street source said $10 billion in aid to teachers, which is part of the package, drove the issue, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees was pushing Pelosi to call the House back to Washington.

Pelosi seemed to acknowledge that in her tweet when she wrote the return was “to save teachers’
jobs.”

States would have to lay off thousands of teachers if the money isn’t approved by Congress until September. The House was scheduled to return the second week of next month.

It would be “very difficult for the House to be away from Washington for five weeks” while thousands of state employees face layoffs because of budget shortages, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Wednesday.

The package would set up a $10 billion Education Jobs Funds to spare teachers from layoffs. It would also disperse $16 billion in Medicaid funding to states struggling to balance their budgets.

It isn’t as urgent that Congress approve the Medicaid funding, because that portion of the package
approves payments that would be dispersed beginning in January.

The Senate invoked cloture on the package Wednesday, setting up a final vote on passage.

“The House must pass this bill with no changes as soon as possible,” AFSCME legislative affairs
specialist Linda Bennett wrote in a memo obtained by The Hill.

“There is talk that Speaker Pelosi could call back the House to vote on this matter before September. An August vote would alleviate teacher job losses before school starts in September,” Bennett wrote in the memo, which was circulating Wednesday on K Street.

“Please call offices of allies and those who had deficit concerns with the tax extender bill. We need
support for this (soon-to-be) Senate passed bill to move quickly in the House,” Bennett wrote in the memo.

A senior Democratic aide said Reid’s and Pelosi’s staff were in discussions over whether the House needs to return to Washington to pass the legislation.

Otherwise, the package would have to wait until the week of Sept. 13, when House lawmakers were scheduled to return from the August recess. Both chambers must pass the legislation before President Obama can sign it into law and states can begin accepting the federal assistance.

A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) score assumed the bill would not become law until mid-September.

Republicans might object to passing the legislation in August, which could affect its estimated cost.

Michael Steel, spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), criticized the Democrats’ talks.

“The American people don’t want more ’stimulus’ spending —
particularly spending for labor unions attached to a job-killing
tax increase. Democrats would be better off listening to their
constituents, who are asking, ‘Where are the jobs?’ rather than returning to Washington, D.C., to vote for more tax hikes and special-interest bailouts,”
Steel said.



WTF??? It's the same ole tune and the same ole meaning... Keep the populous down and miserable so they will vote "R" thinking the "R" Swindlers will be good to them. PRICELESS! thinkingblue aka the thinkingblue

NOT MANY COMMENTS JUST A FEW WITH A COUPLE OF KNUCKLEHEAD ONES IN BETWEEN:

Sentinel at the Gate August 4, 2010 at 2:38 pm

This would be a good time for Repubs to just stay on vacation and
let the Dhimmis fully own this one. Skip any debate or
fillibuster as they will just howl and pass it without you anyway.

But we all know that Repugnants like Snowe, Collins, Graham,
Brown and others will show up panting and salivating like
Pavlov’s dog to get a “little gravy”

---

Chuck O August 4, 2010 at 2:58 pm

I thought bailouts were bad? Oh silly me. I forgot it’s only
bad when the president has an R behind his name.

---

jasjfarrell August 4, 2010 at 7:40 pm

Snowe and Collins cave once again and agree to use taxpayer money
to prop up the wasteful spending of a few states. Will it ever end?

---

phil August 6, 2010 at 7:03 pm

jasjfarrell your honestly an asshole

---

thinkingblue August 8, 2010 at 7:25 am

Hey Phil, You sure hit the proverbial nail on the head! Thanks


PROP UP THE WASTEFUL SPENDING OF A “FEW”
STATES…??? WTF? How horrible to give aid to states so they
can maintain their Fire Departments, Police and Teachers…
SUCH WASTEFUL SPENDING. IMAO, Repugs sure are easy to
brainwash… And the Repub Leaders Know It All Too Well!! CHEERS!

---



In any case, I just wished the American people could understand what dire straits we will be in if the "R" leaders take control of our government once again. I love my country but I feel so helpless in watching what is playing out (as in game) before our very eyes. It's
demoralizing! thinkingblue



Watch A Fracking Mess 'GASLAND' here

PLEASE SIGN PETITION HERE



RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on 'Fear'

Thom Hartmann on Freespeech TV

New Robes For SCOTUS

Please sign this very important
petition "demand question time" (of our political
leaders)
HERE..
We really need more dialog from those at the top... The
Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind
"NO" any longer! thinkingblue

Click to go to MOVE TO AMEND and sing petition.


MOVE TO AMEND

Let's keep our heads, while we continue

to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!

"A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE."thinkingblue

More thethinkingblue Here

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Beautiful Art Using Hands

THIS IS AMAZING! Please
watch it in full screen to make your day.



carolynward.com



The Creative AT&T Advertisements on
YOUTUBE



Sunday, August 01, 2010

Goal of The American Educational System - LEARN HOW TO PASS TESTS!

Goal of The American Educational
System - HOW TO PASS TESTS!

An excellent THINKING speech by a High School Student.

It seems that the American Educational Public School system is interested in one goal and that is to teach students how to pass tests. I can assert this to be true since my daughter is an elementary school teacher and I have heard from her how frustrating it is to be a teacher who is unable to inspire because of the pressure of being forced to only teach how to pass tests.
http://www.thethinkingblue.com/education.html

I received this in my mailbox this morning. So good it’s worthy of a pass around. The American Educational System leaves a lot to be desired and no one could have said it better than this young man, his words are eloquent and quite thoughtful. thinkingblue



PS: I did a Google Search and found that the Ron Paul Libertarian Movement had included this speech in many of its blogs. I do not and cannot subscribe to the Tea Party Movement but this speech has many of the elements that I believe in. Perhaps if the Tea Party Drive would start weeding out the Lunatic Fringe that have overtaken its notoriety, we might all be able to understand what exactly they are trying to promote. But
as it stands today their position appears to be bigotry, selfishness and insanity.

The following speech was delivered by top of the class student Erica Goldson during the graduation ceremony at Coxsackie-Athens High School on June 25, 2010




Here I stand


There is a story of a young, but earnest Zen student who
approached his teacher, and asked the Master, "If I work
very hard and diligently, how long will it take for me to find
Zen? The Master thought about this, then replied, "Ten
years." The student then said, "But what if I work
very, very hard and really apply myself to learn fast – How
long then?" Replied the Master, "Well, twenty
years." "But, if I really, really work at it, how long
then?" asked the student. "Thirty years," replied
the Master. "But, I do not understand," said the
disappointed student. "At each time that I say I will work
harder, you say it will take me longer. Why do you say
that?" Replied the Master, "When you have one eye on
the goal, you only have one eye on the path."

This is the dilemma I've faced within the American education
system. We are so focused on a goal, whether it be passing a
test, or graduating as first in the class. However, in this way,
we do not really learn. We do whatever it takes to achieve our
original objective.

Some of you may be thinking, "Well, if you pass a test, or
become valedictorian, didn't you learn something? Well, yes, you
learned something, but not all that you could have. Perhaps, you
only learned how to memorize names, places, and dates to later on
forget in order to clear your mind for the next test. School is
not all that it can be. Right now, it is a place for most people
to determine that their goal is to get out as soon as possible.

I am now accomplishing that goal. I am graduating. I should look
at this as a positive experience, especially being at the top of
my class. However, in retrospect, I cannot say that I am any more
intelligent than my peers. I can attest that I am only the best
at doing what I am told and working the system. Yet, here I
stand, and I am supposed to be proud that I have completed this
period of indoctrination. I will leave in the fall to go on to
the next phase expected of me, in order to receive a paper
document that certifies that I am capable of work. But I contend
that I am a human being, a thinker, an adventurer – not a
worker. A worker is someone who is trapped within repetition
– a slave of the system set up before him. But now, I have
successfully shown that I was the best slave. I did what I was
told to the extreme. While others sat in class and doodled to
later become great artists, I sat in class to take notes and
become a great test-taker. While others would come to class
without their homework done because they were reading about an
interest of theirs, I never missed an assignment. While others
were creating music and writing lyrics, I decided to do extra
credit, even though I never needed it. So, I wonder, why did I
even want this position? Sure, I earned it, but what will come of
it? When I leave educational institutionalism, will I be
successful or forever lost? I have no clue about what I want to
do with my life; I have no interests because I saw every subject
of study as work, and I excelled at every subject just for the
purpose of excelling, not learning. And quite frankly, now I'm scared.

John Taylor Gatto, a retired school teacher and activist critical
of compulsory schooling, asserts, "We could encourage the
best qualities of youthfulness – curiosity, adventure,
resilience, the capacity for surprising insight simply by being
more flexible about time, texts, and tests, by introducing kids
into truly competent adults, and by giving each student what
autonomy he or she needs in order to take a risk every now and
then. But we don't do that." Between these cinderblock
walls, we are all expected to be the same. We are trained to ace
every standardized test, and those who deviate and see light
through a different lens are worthless to the scheme of public
education, and therefore viewed with contempt.

H. L. Mencken wrote in The American Mercury for April 1924 that
the aim of public education is not "to fill the young of the
species with knowledge and awaken their intelligence. ... Nothing
could be further from the truth. The aim ... is simply to reduce
as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed
and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and
originality. That is its aim in the United States."

To illustrate this idea, doesn't it perturb you to learn about
the idea of "critical thinking?" Is there really such a
thing as "uncritically thinking?" To think is to
process information in order to form an opinion. But if we are
not critical when processing this information, are we really
thinking? Or are we mindlessly accepting other opinions as truth?

This was happening to me, and if it wasn't for the rare
occurrence of an avant-garde tenth grade English teacher, Donna
Bryan, who allowed me to open my mind and ask questions before
accepting textbook doctrine, I would have been doomed. I am now
enlightened, but my mind still feels disabled. I must retrain
myself and constantly remember how insane this ostensibly sane place really is.

And now here I am in a world guided by fear, a world suppressing
the uniqueness that lies inside each of us, a world where we can
either acquiesce to the inhuman nonsense of corporatism and
materialism or insist on change. We are not enlivened by an
educational system that clandestinely sets us up for jobs that
could be automated, for work that need not be done, for
enslavement without fervency for meaningful achievement. We have
no choices in life when money is our motivational force. Our
motivational force ought to be passion, but this is lost from the
moment we step into a system that trains us, rather than inspires us.

We are more than robotic bookshelves, conditioned to blurt out
facts we were taught in school. We are all very special, every
human on this planet is so special, so aren't we all deserving of
something better, of using our minds for innovation, rather than
memorization, for creativity, rather than futile activity, for
rumination rather than stagnation? We are not here to get a
degree, to then get a job, so we can consume industry-approved
placation after placation. There is more, and more still.

The saddest part is that the majority of students don't have the
opportunity to reflect as I did. The majority of students are put
through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a
complacent labor force working in the interests of large
corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are
completely unaware of it. I will never be able to turn back these
18 years. I can't run away to another country with an education
system meant to enlighten rather than condition. This part of my
life is over, and I want to make sure that no other child will
have his or her potential suppressed by powers meant to exploit
and control. We are human beings. We are thinkers, dreamers,
explorers, artists, writers, engineers. We are anything we want
to be – but only if we have an educational system that
supports us rather than holds us down. A tree can grow, but only
if its roots are given a healthy foundation.

For those of you out there that must continue to sit in desks and
yield to the authoritarian ideologies of instructors, do not be
disheartened. You still have the opportunity to stand up, ask
questions, be critical, and create your own perspective. Demand a
setting that will provide you with intellectual capabilities that
allow you to expand your mind instead of directing it. Demand
that you be interested in class. Demand that the excuse,
"You have to learn this for the test" is not good
enough for you. Education is an excellent tool, if used properly,
but focus more on learning rather than getting good grades.

For those of you that work within the system that I am
condemning, I do not mean to insult; I intend to motivate. You
have the power to change the incompetencies of this system. I
know that you did not become a teacher or administrator to see
your students bored. You cannot accept the authority of the
governing bodies that tell you what to teach, how to teach it,
and that you will be punished if you do not comply. Our potential is at stake.

For those of you that are now leaving this establishment, I say,
do not forget what went on in these classrooms. Do not abandon
those that come after you. We are the new future and we are not
going to let tradition stand. We will break down the walls of
corruption to let a garden of knowledge grow throughout America.
Once educated properly, we will have the power to do anything,
and best of all, we will only use that power for good, for we
will be cultivated and wise. We will not accept anything at face
value. We will ask questions, and we will demand truth.

So, here I stand. I am not standing here as valedictorian by
myself. I was molded by my environment, by all of my peers who
are sitting here watching me. I couldn't have accomplished this
without all of you. It was all of you who truly made me the
person I am today. It was all of you who were my competition, yet
my backbone. In that way, we are all valedictorians.

I am now supposed to say farewell to this institution, those who
maintain it, and those who stand with me and behind me, but I
hope this farewell is more of a "see you later" when we
are all working together to rear a pedagogic movement. But first,
let's go get those pieces of paper that tell us that we're smart enough to do so!

Reprinted from
Signs of the Times.

An astounding video posted on the Signs of the Times Website

Julian Assange: NDTV India interview - concerns about neighbor Pakistan:
Wikileaks Afghan war diary




Watch A Fracking Mess 'GASLAND' here

PLEASE SIGN PETITION HERE

RNC Document Mocks Donors, Plays on 'Fear'


New Robes For SCOTUS

Please sign this very important petition "demand question time" (of our political leaders) HERE.. We really need more dialog from those at the top... The

Republicans have got to be made to realize they can't hide behind
"NO" any longer! thinkingblue


Click to go to MOVE TO AMEND and sing petition.


MOVE TO AMEND

Let's keep our heads, while we continue
to watch THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD!!!
"A SEARCH FOR TRUTH WILL FIND INJUSTICE."thinkingblue