"I identify with him more than anyone else I’ve seen in the last 40 years. I was willing to go to prison and give my life and be executed."
(– Daniel Ellsberg, before being arrested with 30 others outside Quantico)

"If I don’t have moral integrity, what do I have?"
( – Jonathan Jones, Kalamazoo Community College student and member of arrested 'Fab 5' protestors)

“I wanted to say thank you for everyone who’s kept this fight going, who have awakened all the union members. I’m a union member. I’m also a mom whose kids have been kept safe and clothed and fed by union workers...”
(-Susan Sarandon)

"I'm asking everyone who can to take Wednesday off and head to the State Capitol in Lansing to protest the cruel and downright frightening legislation currently being jammed down our throats ... Governor Snyder, once elected, yanked off his nice-guy mask to reveal that he is in fact a multi-millionaire hell-bent on destroying our state and turning it over to his buddies from Wall Street ... Trust me, you will rue the day you sat home and did nothing while thieves posing as politicians stole your Great Lakes State from you."
(–Michael Moore)

"If you take a job away from someone who is paid a reasonable wage because they enjoy the protections and prosperity of democratic government, move it across a border, and give it to someone living under a thugocracy, forced to work for pennies with no protections whatsoever, it should be just plain obvious that the worker on our side of the border and the worker on the other side of the border are not going to be better off. And when you do this on a massive scale it just stands to reason that most people on both sides of the border are going to be worse off.
But propaganda being what it is, we were somehow convinced to try a worldwide experiment in taking good jobs from democracies and turning them into bad jobs in thugocracies. Now, of course, the experiment has run its course and we can see the results..."
(-Dave Johnson on "Free Trade")

"I have watched as the world has grown further and further from the terms the MC5 launched four decades ago. Throughout these years, the fate of advancing capitalism has undermined all of the quality from our sensory perception and creative imagination until we are barely able to connect with the essence of anything. That is because our whole existence is channeled by digital electronics and the capital gains of technology that captivates the consumer public. Instead of pursuing the technology of truer personal enhancement, we have created a world of quicker and immediate personal enhancement, but more importantly, a world of immense capital enhancement. That is, the largess of capital gain has become our ruling factor and god. The banks are running this world, not the people. This is not a sermon or a complaint that we aren't religious enough; that is everyone's personal matter. I don't care what anyone believes drives this existence. What I do care about is what do we get out of it, and brother, I think we are being cheated of our freedom by the financial monster we allowed to rule our behavior. Watching the TV, as the monumental destruction was taking place, on the other side of the Pacific, I could not help but envision the allegorical end of the world taking place here and now..."
(-Michael Davis, Motor City Five)

"On May 4, 1886, in Haymarket Square in Chicago, the public rallied peacefully in support of 40,000 workers in Chicago who had gone on strike, to win the right to organize. The police attacked, and eight died.
On July 6, 1892, in Homestead, Pennsylvania, 3800 workers went on strike, to win the right to organize. Three hundred hired and armed goons attacked them. Five people died.
On April 20, 1914, in Ludlow, Colorado, 1200 coal miners went on strike, to win the right to organize. The Colorado National Guard attacked their shantytown, and burned it to the ground. Nineteen people died. Two women and 11 children were asphyxiated, and they burned to death.
Here and around the world, many people have fought and died, so that you and I would have the right to organize.
And so that 250,000 public workers in Wisconsin would have that right, too. This is not exactly a new idea. Six months after the Ludlow Massacre, President Wilson signed the Clayton Act, prohibiting the prosecution of union members under Antitrust Law. That was almost a century ago. Two decades later, during the Franklin Roosevelt's first term as president, he signed the National Labor Relations Act into law. It protects the right to organize. That was over 75 years ago. The right to organize also is a fundamental principle of international law. Over 150 countries have ratified the "Right to Organize" Convention, an international treaty. It was adopted in 1949, over 60 years ago.
So why are we even talking about this, 11 years into the 21st century? Because the teabaggers want to "take back America." They want to take it back, all right -- take it all the way back to the 19th century. When there was no right to organize. When people worked for a dollar a day. When grown men competed against children for jobs. When women were barred from most jobs entirely. When you worked until you died. Not to mention slavery.
I want to see an America that is healthy and wealthy. They want an America that provides cheap labor to our corporate overlords. An America where the middle class is chained by debt. We didn't ask for this fight. But we have no choice except to fight back. For the survival of the middle class in America. For us, for our children, and for our grandchildren. And so that the victims in Haymarket, in Homestead and in Ludlow did not die in vain. As Cardinal Spellman said 45 years ago, "it is a war thrust upon us, and we cannot yield to tyranny.'"

I'm ready to fight for what's right. What about you?"

(-Congressman Alan Grayson)

Have ya noticed how anytime the people find out about "the man", the man just changes names? Movies like "Food Inc." and "King Corn" have outed high fructose corn syrup, among people who care about their basic health, so the industry-the Corn Refiner's Association, has been advised by their marketing people to switch it up. They already shell-game it's name in varying nations-it's also known as "glucose/fructose" in Canada, and "glucose fructose syrup" in Great Britain. Anyway, High fructose corn syrup-a widely used, unhealthy sweetener, hidden in most everything manufactured in the U.S., is rebranding itself as, "corn sugar"-much like Blackwater changed it's name to Xe Services and a dozen other shell companies; Halliburton changed it's name to KBR; and the Bush Regime changed it's public face to Obama's. The disaster-capitalists are using chaos to clamp-down on civil rights and spread wars for hegemony, but we Americans are too bamboozled, by red versus blue culture-wars distractions to ever unite, to oust the elites, who actually cause the unrest. WHY is the "defense" dept. funding vaccine research? Just a decade back, they said the U.S. was attacking Saddam, because he had weapons of mass destruction, plus he invaded other nations and tortured people in secret dungeons and used chemical weapons on his own people. Look up. What's that shit being dumped in the sky? The Discovery Channel-basically a tool of Pentagon propaganda, even did a program on the mysterious Haarp program, seldom mentioned in the corporate-media, but no one is currently, talking about it, at all, in relation to Haiti or Japan. Youtube it. The religious people seem to think all these wars and atrocoties are the work of their own exclusive, loving God, punishing the symbolic others...but the poison in the food, air, water, and soil, casual human rights violations, and non-stop, sport killing, look more like the work of a devil, to others. They say the fake Dems in the Whitehouse are polling for ways to "fire up the base", without deviating from the far-right, Dick Cheney agenda, that Obama has been so successful in streamlining, and accelerating. They claim he was a slick Constitutional lawyer, not just a Kissinger sock-puppet, but he's done NOTHING to restore our Constitutional rights, while assuring us it's okay to torture people who have never been convicted of any crimes. Nixon never even got away with anything that Nazi-like. It's cake, now: every six months, they entrap another Muslim patsy to be the latest fill-in-the-blank bomber, to ratchet up bigger TSA, and DHS budgets. All the money goes to occupations and domestic-spying. It's not trickle-down, it's vacuumed up. Ya hear that big sucking sound? That's the trillionaires stealing your pension, your medicaid/medicare, college-tuition, affordable housing, and living wage jobs. Obama is not opposed to the Wall Street elites, or globalist rightwing hawks. He's one of 'em. That should be abundantly clear, by now. Code Pink, Human Rights Watch, his entire base has called for an end to TSA gropings, torture, and the mistreatment of whistle-blowers, Obama governs just like Evil-Dick.

No doubt, he seems like a very likable man. Charming on TV. Like you, my family and I shed tears of relief on his election-night, and tears of hope and joy on his inauguration. I was even assaulted by two furious, racist, meth-head farmboys, at my rural grocery store job, on the night of his election, while facing product, on end-caps. They assumed my braided pony tail was sufficient evidence I'd voted for a black man, and therefore, deserved a pummeling. The Obama sign in my relatives' yard was vandalized by insane, cable-TV watching, Limbaugh listeners...And yet, the most "audacious" thing he's done since taking office, on behalf of real people, was when he said it was "stupid" that some townie cop was able to bust in to a widely revered black professor's home, his own private property, and arrest him, without just cause. The still powerful-for-now, cop unions, along with the military-dictatorship sensibilities of the overpaid, authoritarian cable news fraudcasters, even demanded that Obama "walk back" that one true, mildly honest, statement. Ever since then, he's been allowing the Israeli Navy to kill American citizens on humanitarian aid-vessels to Gaza, he's allowing the monarchy of Bahrain to hire-in Saudi Arabian enforcers, to crush the Democratic movement, same as in Yemen. He's got Blackwater and JSOC drone-operating killers bombing peasant children in Yemen and Pakistan. He stands idle, while various other puppet dictators kill their people, in Egypt and Libya. His health-care sham was just another wag-the-dog, big giveaway to insurance companies. He couldn't even keep his vague, minimal promises to the gay community. He's done nothing, but perpetuate the Bush agenda, let's face it. Yes, I know the Heritage Foundation/Koch Brothers/Karl Rove, far right, is going to keep rolling out even kookier police-state extremists to make Obama seem liberal, but come on.

Has he ended any occupation? Has he stood with labor? Has he rescinded any executive orders justifying citizen-assassination lists, and indefinite detentions? Did he repeal the Patriot act, or insist the TSA stop feeling-up travellers, and nuking them with dangerous radiation? Has he ever considered freeing non-violent pot-offenders, from for-profit prisons? Has he demanded Gates and Clinton quit abusing, political-prisoner, Bradley Manning-who has still been convicted of no crime, besides alledgedly leaking video of war criminals snuffing out children's lives like it's a video-game? Has he ceased extrajudicial killings in Pakistan? Has he closed Gitmo, restored the Geneva Conventions, and/or prosecuted torturers? Is he discouraging Saudi Arabia and Israel from attacking Iran? Has he made the wealthiest pay their fair share of taxes? Has he ordered the Justice Department to go after the white collar criminals of Wall Street, who are entirely responsible for the economic crisis? Has he seized B.P.'s assets to help restore the Gulf? Is he defending true net-neutrality? Has he told his spy agencies to quit referring to peaceful, peace activists as terrorists? Has he ordered the FBI to quit entrapping Muslims, and sending spies to infiltrate vegan pot-lucks? Has he insisted the old, deteriorating, nucleur facilities from the fifties, and sixties, be closed down? Okay, so can you name even one token gesture this guy has done, on behalf of real people? Did he apologize to 71 year old peace activist, Ray McGovern, after his Secretary Of State, Hillary Clinton's goon-squad roughed him, up during his peaceful protest? Has he outlawed cop-tasers? NO!!!

He has yet to even end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan! This guy is Bush on steroids. He has not betrayed his base. His loyalty was always to the billionaires, bankers, Nixon spooks, and executive-level spies who guided his rapid ascent. Nader and Mcinney both warned us. Show me a sliver, a shred of evidence this guy has even a trace of concern for the Bill Of rights. Some shining Constitutional lawyer. Sure. And Palin's a doctor, and Michelle Bachman's an accountant. All these people just read teleprompters, cover up for war-makers, insult progressives, and punish truth-tellers. Sad but true. I wanted Obama to be a champion of the people, as much as any of you did. I stayed in willful denial for a good year into his term. I told friends, "You can't undo twenty years of fascism overnight". I made excuses for him. I wondered why his wife, Michelle, who seemed vital and educated, was not outspoken about ending the wars, stopping torture, or restoring the Constitution. Instead, she gave interviews about her workout regimen, dieting, and clothes. Eventually, I had to come to terms with the fact that these people worked for the Bush billionaire, Top Secret America, war machine...not, "we, the people". They're not with us. They're with the military-industrial complex. We were all fooled again. Don't mourn, organize. Every five minutes, the generals and their Republican-shill from Kentucky, Mitch Mcconell, demand another five hundred million for the wars, while they moan incessantly about "the deficit", and public spending, here at home. Kucinich dissents. Obama complies. He's bi-partisan, doncha know? We're all going broke here, while the military-profiteers and oil companies use their "Shock Doctrine" crisis/shock-theater tactics, to price gouge, steal trillions, and demand always more money to spy on you, build nukes, bust unions, dissolve local townships/school boards/elected officials, and to kill poor people in Muslim countries, who've done them no harm. Where is the gutsy alternative-media? Where is the true opposition party? We have no democracy, not when they've shredded the Fourth Amendment, and the war-manufacturers own the air-waves. Who represents YOU in Congress? Personally, I can't afford to hire lobbyists.

Anyone who thinks it's a good idea to close schools, lay-off civil servants, bust up public-sector unions, and spend five hundred billion more dollars on killing and repressing brown-skinned people, on the other side of the globe, all while they keep insisting there's no money for jobs, infrastructure, education, quality health-care, or affordable housing, here in the States, is either a radical, racist, far-right, religious zealot, or they've just watched way too much TV, and listened to too much talk-radio, since Bill Clinton handed the airwaves to just eight corporations in 1996. The media keeps consolidating, and Americans keep telling themselves they're being told the truth by the Pentagon's propaganda wing. They've never told the truth about Kennedy, you think it was eleven cave dwellers with box-cutters that were responsible for the hole in the side of the Pentagon, the controlled demolitions on 9/11, of the towers AND the building never hit by a plane, but still, mysteriously, "pulled", Building Number Seven? Do you think we were told the truth about Iraq, Afghanistan, New Orleans, Haiti, B.P. in the Gulf, or the ongoing nucleur fall-out, and radiation, in Japan? War Criminals roam free, Truth-tellers are fired, and imprisoned, under Obama. Meanwhile, Koch-whore governors are ramming through legislature, essentially, stating, that anytime, when prompted by their corporate over-lord financiers, who seldom pay any taxes, they can choose to declare a "fiscal emergency", and appoint their own "crisis mgt."/local dictators, dissolving municipal governments, and ignoring all previously binding contracts. I was watching the TSA hearings on C-Span, today, and the congressman were sucking up to the TSA and Chertoff Group lobbyists so hard, they reminded me of the politicians in the second "Godfather" film, just completely grovelling before them, both these 'Dems and 'Thugs are so interchangeable, I've been calling 'em all, "RepublicRats". Obama and Emmanuel=Bush and Cheney. 'Still makes me wanna Ralph!

I'm from rural America, where the only industries still thriving, besides Wal-Mart are prisons, hospitals, and D.U.I.'s, and many well-intentioned, but under-informed, white folks are still endeavoring to distinguish themselves from the KKK and the skin-heads, by "supporting the President". It's bleak. People rise up to protest in Wisconsin and Michigan, and get swatted back down, Libya-style, by cops and judges. The FBI pay young college girls to spy on peace protesters. That's insane to me. The only good jobs left are in the espionage, corrections, a-killin', poisonin', propaganda, and repression fields. "Saturday Night Live" and the young punks ought to be exposing the cover-up's, of the CIA kingpins and oligarchs. All we get from the big-media classes is more war, more lies and pro-war propaganda. Now, Obama's "liberating" Libya, by bombing the shit out of them, too. The corporate tools on TV keep saying "Al Quada" has "infiltrated" the Libyan rebels, so even if Gaddafi's overthrown, naturally, Libyan's can't be trusted to govern themselves. It is a grotesque theater of obscene perversity. Even if the vast majority of us oppose these drone wars, torture, and occupation, they drag on and on.