poly-ticks: many bloodsucking parasites

Dear Ms. Palin:

I am not quite sure how to react to your remarkable claim that the way to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., is to support the military.

It's difficult to believe that you could be so totally ignorant of Dr. King's anti-war activism. King wanted us to honor our soldiers the same way that today's peace movement does: by bringing them home and apologizing to them for sending them on a fool's errand. In one of his most famous speeches, he spoke against the American invasion of Vietnam and said that it made the U.S. government "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today".

On the other hand, I am reluctant to believe that you are so evil, so deliberately and shamefully immoral, that you would knowingly and maliciously twist the legacy of one of the greatest Americans in history. I don't want to think that you're deliberately employing the Big Lie technique.

I try to assume the best in people. In a case as outrageous as this, that's really difficult; but I will operate under the assumption that somehow, you never actually learned about Martin Luther King and what he stood for.

If that's the case, at this late date I honestly don't know if it's useful to try to teach you. One would have to dig down through decades of beliefs built on top of a foundation of dangerous ignorance.

But, as I understand them, one of the fundamental teachings of Jesus Christ -- a man whom both you and Dr. King claim to follow -- is that all people, however wretched, are capable of salvation. So to attempt to honor Dr. King, I will choose to believe that even you, Ms. Palin, can be taught and can reform your ways.

So let me present you with some excerpts from that famous April 4, 1967, speech at Riverside Church in New York City, where he spoke to a meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned. Here's what Dr. King really thought about war and militarism; and where he speaks of communism in Vietnam, we could just as truthfully say the same of religious extremism in Iraq and Afghanistan:

Every religion's got 'em. Christianity has its Fred Phelps (of "God Hates Fags" fame) and its racist Christian Identity groups; Muslim extremists are in the news so much it takes effort to remember that they're a small band of nutcases; Hindus have been implicated in Indian nationalist attacks against Muslims; Pagans have the occasional racist nutjob who thinks Asatru or Druidism is about ethnicity and "White power"; and even Zen Buddhism had, during World War Two, leaders who supported slaughter in the name of Japanese nationalism.

And yep, Judaism's got them too. Haaretz reports on "The King's Torah", a collection of Halacha (Jewish religious law) put together by nutcase rabbis Yitzhak Shapira and Yosef Elitzur. It claims that "Thou shalt not murder" applies only "to a Jew who kills a Jew", that it's fine to kill children of Israel's enemies because "it is clear that they will grow to harm us", and that non-Jews are "uncompassionate by nature", and should be dealth with harshly to "curb their evil inclination". An expose in the Israeli tabloid Ma'ariv called the book "Jewish terror".

One of the book's authors, Shapira, was suspected in 2008 of involvement in a rocket attack on a Palestinian village; no arrests were made. The other author, Elitzur, penned article in a religious bulletin saying that "the Jews will win with violence against the Arabs."

According to this story at right-leaning site The Daily Caller, the GOP has made it "standard operating procedure" to pay bloggers for favorable coverage. One GOP blogger-for-hire estimates that "at least half the bloggers that are out there" on the Republican side are taking payola.

The results during the California primary for governor, pitting Meg Whitman against Steve Poizner, were almost funny:

One pro-Poizner blogger, Aaron Park, was discovered to be a paid consultant to the Poizner campaign while writing for Red County, a conservative blog about California politics. Red County founder Chip Hanlon threw Park off the site upon discovering his affiliation, which had not been disclosed.

When you combine Glenn Beck, the Tea Party, and the recent bizarre historical revisionist attempt of the right wing to claim the Civil Rights movement as a conservative one, you know there's going to be some laughs. Beckites and tea baggers from all over the country are heading to D.C. for a rally on the anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The only problem is, D.C. is full of, you know, black people; so a Maine Tea Party group has offered some interesting advice on how to stick to "safe" areas of the city, with such helpful tips as staying off of the entire Green and Yellow Metro lines -- keeping you safely away from such dangerous areas as the National Archives, Howard University, the University of Maryland College Park, and the U Street corridor.

When I head down to D.C., by the way, I usually drive to Greenbelt and take the Green Line downtown. Guess I've just got more guts than these teabaggers. (Of course, I am from Harm City -- okay, the suburbs of Harm City, but still -- so I don't scare easy.)

As i have said before, I miss having a sane conservative movement in this country. While social conservatism has pretty much always been an intellectually bankrupt attempt to institutionalize a system of prejudice and privilege, I'd like to have some good fiscal conservatives around, some button-down bean-counters making sure we get the best deal for our dollar. As unabashedly leftist as I am, there are a few things where you'll find me in agreement with a stereotypical GOPer -- I'm opposed to excessive regulation on small business, for example (since I run two of them), and to overly strong gun control laws. I'd like to have some Eisenhower-style Republicans (updated with the past 50 years of social progress) around.

But instead, we get Republican politicians like Colorodo gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes, who believes that efforts by Mayor John Hickenlooper to make Denver more bike-friendly are "converting Denver into a United Nations community."

Says Maes, "This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms...These aren't just warm, fuzzy ideas from the mayor. These are very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program that mayors have signed on to." He is apparently talking about the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, an international sustainable-development association with 1,200 member communities, including 600 in the U.S.

Polls show that Maes, a Tea Party favorite, has pulled ahead of former Congressman Scott McInnis, the early frontrunner in the Aug. 10 primary for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. Maes acknowledged that some might find his theories "kooky," but he said there are valid reasons to be worried.

"At first, I thought, 'Gosh, public transportation, what's wrong with that, and what's wrong with people parking their cars and riding their bikes? And what's wrong with incentives for green cars?' But if you do your homework and research, you realize ICLEI is part of a greater strategy to rein in American cities under a United Nations treaty," Maes said.

...

"Some would argue this document that mayors have signed is contradictory to our own Constitution," Maes said.

The Guardian reports on Wikileaks' release of secret US military files, revealing a war that's even more of a failure than we realized. (If you hadn't yet realized that the war was a failure, may I respectfully suggest that you wake the fuck up already?)

The files were released by Wikileaks to the Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel. Most of the material was classified "secret" but is no longer militarily sensitive; the Guardian has withheld some from publication, and Wikileaks says it will redact harmful material before posting on its own servers.

Some of the details now available:

• IED attacks have risen from 308 in 2004 to 7,155 last year. Between 2004 and 2009, at least 7,000 Afghan civilians were killed or injured in IED attacks.
• The files detail 144 attacks by allied forces on civilians.
• There are allegations -- unproven -- that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been arming and training Taliban insurgents. There are also US military intelligence reports showing Iranian efforts to finance, train and equip the Taliban.
• Task Force 373, a "black ops" special forces unit, has been hunting down alleged Taliban and al-Qaida members -- to either assassinate them or hold them without trial or legal process. In pursuing its extrajudicial killings the unit has murdered civilian men, women, and children, and even Afghan police officers, who got in the way.
• Report of deliberate "green on green" firefights between Afghani troops and of accidental "friendly fire" incidents make it clear that the enemy isn't the only threat over there.

Maybe the god(ess)(s/es) smile upon Wikileaks. This machine kills fascists.

Even in these days of Facebook, it can take news, good or bad, months to find us.

Marty Baum was part of my original poetical family, one of the regulars at World Famous Poetry Night at the Planet X coffeehouse in College Park, Maryland, back in the mid 1990s. Though we were all equal poets there, he was a mentor to me in the full-on, balls-to-the-wall style with which he read and performed his stuff.

He was one of the nutcases who kept coming even after the place burned down, meeting on the "grassy knoll" right across the street on the campus of the University of Maryland, or under the awning of a sub shop a few doors up. I remember a bunch of us meeting under that awning one night with a tornado warning in effect -- I can't remember for sure if Marty was there that night or not, but I think he was. We were a bunch of crazy young poets, so what the hell and why not?

It was Marty, as I recall, who introduced me to the work of Charles Bukowski; Bukowski's been a favorite of mine ever since.

I had lost touch with Marty over the years, but back in February we met up on Facebook, and for about two months after that we would occasionally swap comments. I hadn't heard from him in a while, but that happens; I wasn't checking on his page or anything. So I missed the news.

I just learned that Marty left us back on April 4th, a victim of lack of health insurance. According to notes left on his Facebook page, he had lost his health insurance when he lost his job last year. And so a minor infection was left untreated and ran rampant, costing this fine young poet his life. Another needless death brought to you by our ridiculous, laughable, tragic, profit-oriented healthcare system.

So if I should happen to punch out the lights of the next goddamn teabagger who parrots the bullshit about the U.S. having the best healthcare system in the world, you'll know why. But I'll try to refrain, in honor of Marty's general good nature.

Instead I'll try to take this as a reminder to let the people who've touched my life, know what they mean to me. So all my fellow poets, those I've shared the stage at readings with, those I've struggled with crazy writing exercises with: you are my brothers and sisters in arms, and I love you.

So a few years ago, The Onion did a news spoof that featured a fake "Congressman" discussing a bill to provide funding for emergency response against zombie attacks or other supernatural disasters. It's worth a chuckle.

But now, somehow, it has resurfaced and, despite the ridiculousness and despite the "Onion-Span" logo, is being accepted as genuine news by the right-wing "Obama is a secret Muslim racist terrorist born in Kenya and scheming to destroy us all!" crowd.

Just further proof that for any way-out, wild, irrational, outlandish theory, you can find believers on the web.

As I previously mentioned, I'm running for President of the Free Spirit Alliance. My complete candidate's statement is now available at http://www.infamous.net/FSAPresStatement.php.

Here's an abbreviated version; the version linked above goes into more detail about my experience in FSA.

When the Master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists...When his work is done, the people say, "Amazing: we did it, all by ourselves!" -- Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu (trans. S. Mitchell)

Hi. I'm Tom Swiss, and I'm currently serving as vice-president, and running for the presidency, of the Free Spirit Alliance. You might not know my name, but odds are that you know my face. You've been to the concerts that I've MCed, or to the Bardic Circles I've hosted, or you've been to one of my workshops on shiatsu or Zen or self-defense, or you've heard one of my Discordian fire circle rants. After the past year or two, you might know me as "that guy in the purple top hat".

From my involvement in our events and in our political process, I've come to believe that 1) we have a lot of smart, determined, hard-working, and productive people in our community -- and 2) we need to do a better job of making it easier for them to participate in this organization.

One of the obstacles I saw was the use of Robert's Rules of Order in our meetings. Last year I began a campaign to replace them with an alternative called "Martha's Rules", a more consensus-oriented approach that encourages dialog and discussion, but still allows for majority rule when deadlocks occur. I'm very pleased that at the most recent business meeting, the membership decided to adopt this alternative on a trial basis.

I also think that we can do a better job in using the Internet to enable communication. As a professional computer geek, I've been involved in on-line discussion groups since the late 1980s, from FidoNet and USENET through mailing lists to web forums and social networking sites. I've recently started working with Eve, our webmaster, to set up a wiki site for FSG staff to record and document procedures and information, and I think we can also expand it as a general community resource.

The past few years I've been trying to promote FSA events within the Baltimore area arts community. As part of that, I've been hanging out with "Burners" -- attendees of Burning Man and of the local Burns, Playa Del Fuego and Wicker Man. This is a community that already overlaps with us -- I've seen many familiar faces at PDF and Wicker Man -- and I think that many other people in it are looking for a spiritual connection in a way that is right in line with what we do.

And I think that we can learn from the radically participatory way that Burns are organized. The Burners have a wonderful term, "do-ocracy": those who do stuff, make the decisions. I would like to bring that idea of radical participation into FSA.

I want to make it so easy for the people of our community to participate and get stuff done, that there ends up not being much for the officers and trustees to do but sign checks and schedule meetings. I want to work hard to make it easy for members to get stuff done so that I can be a supremely lazy President. It's paradoxical, but you should expect that from me by now.

For that to happen, the President must be a highly visible presence. The President acts as the official spokesperson for FSA; as a writer, a performing poet and musician, and with my experience as MC, I believe I have the skills to represent us in any medium or circumstance, from presiding at our scholarships awards to composing press releases to being interviewed by the media. I would like to raise FSA's visibility in the community, and I think I am well suited to act as our representative.

On a more practical note, after this election the first thing the new FSA officers must address is ensuring that our financial records and paperwork are up to date. We recently learned that we may not be in full compliance with tax law changes from 2006, and we have to get right on that. This is why I recruited Alison Chicosky to run for Treasurer.

As of the June meeting, we've got a powerful line-up of candidates for President. (The line-up may have changed by the time you read this; so it goes.) Duckie and Kal have proven their ability in the position; Fred has held the VP slot and worked hard for us in his role as quartermaster. I'd be happy to continue to serve as Vice President with any of them.

But I think I can offer fresh energy and a new direction for this organization.

I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Please feel free to comment here, or to e-mail me at tms@infamous.net.

If you haven't read John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, you oughta. Not just because it's a great book, but because it might be the best way to understand the current political climate, where the investment classes use astroturf movements, big lies, and media manipulation to prey on the fears of working people and actually get them to argue against their own interests, to set the ordinary citizens fighting each other so that they will be too busy to throw off the aristocrats and parasites. The one-percenters read Steinbeck's warning and took it to heart:

Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlage of the thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here "I lost my land" is changed; a cell is split and from its splitting grows the thing you hate -- "We lost our land." The danger is here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first "we" there grows a still more dangerous thing: "I have a little food" plus "I have none." If from this problem the sum is "We have a little food," the thing is on its way, the movement has direction. Only a little multiplication now, and this land, this tractor are ours. The two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to words their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold. Here, take this blanket. It's wool. It was my mother's blanket --take it for the baby. This is the thing to bomb.This is the beginning -- from "I" to "we."