To be of use to the world is the only way to be happy.

~ Hans Christian Andersen

Nothing is more honorable than a grateful heart.

Seneca

But if ye are attempting to have thy physical body doing just as it pleases, thy mental body controlled by "What will other people say?" and thy spiritual body and mind shelved only for good occasions and for the good impressions that you may make occasionally, there cannot be other than confusion!

Edgar Cacye Reading 1537-1

Folks will know how large your soul is by the way you treat a dog.

Charles F. Duran

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.

~ Anais Nin

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

~ Albert Einstein

The destiny of man is in his own soul.

~ Herodotus

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.

Jean Anouilh

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.

~ Mortimer J. Adler

Doesn't "expecting the unexpected" make the unexpected expected?

~ George Carlin

All You Need Is Love.

John Lennon

Huge #cleanair victory against toxic #mercury pollution: Thank @BarackObama and @LisaPJackson: http://bit.ly/uZRi8F @CREDOMobile

Progress was all right. Only it went on too long.

James Thurber

Where there is great love there are always miracles.

Willa Cather

"A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humour, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless' except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. Christopher Hitchens

"(George W Bush) is lucky to be governor of Texas. He is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent, amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured, extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of all these things." Christopher Hitchens

"Reagan is doing to the country what he can no longer do to his wife." Christopher Hitchens

"Nothing optional - from homosexuality to adultery - is ever made punishable unless those who do the prohibiting (and exact the fierce punishments) have a repressed desire to participate." Christopher Hitchens

"Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are God. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realise that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods." Christopher Hitchens

Maybe everything we've ever done has been for love.

Byron Katie

The Fox News Christmas proffers the constant drumbeat of war, the reliance on military solutions to every conflict, the demonizing of our enemies, and the gospel of American dominance.

The real Christmas offers the joyful promise of peace and the hope of reconciliation with God and between humankind.

The Fox News Christmas heralds the steady promotion of consumerism, the defense of wealth and power, the adulation of money and markets, and the regular belittling or attacking of efforts to overcome poverty.

The real Christmas announces the birth of Jesus to a world of poverty, pain, and sin, and offers the hope of salvation and justice.

Imagine Jesus walking into the mall, seeing the Merry Christmas signs, and expressing his humble thanks for how the pre- and post-Christmas sales are honoring to him. How about credit cards for Christ?

It is theologically and spiritually significant that the Incarnation came to our poorest streets. That Jesus was born poor, later announces his mission at Nazareth as “bringing good news to the poor,” and finally tells us that how we treat “the least of these” is his measure of how we treat him and how he will judge us as the Son of God, radically defines the social context and meaning of the Incarnation of God in Christ. And it clearly reveals the real meaning of Christmas.

That is the meaning of the Incarnation. That is the reason for the season. In Jesus Christ, God hits the streets.

The theological claim that sets Christianity apart from any other faith tradition is the Incarnation. God has come into the world to save us. God became like us to bring us back to God and show us what it means to be truly human.

The war on Christmas is really about what brand of “civil religion” America should have

what we actually have here is a theological problem, where cultural and commercial symbols are confused with truly Christian ones, and the meaning of the holy season is missed all together.

Last year, Americans spent $450 billion on Christmas. Clean water for the whole world, including every poor person on the planet, would cost about $20 billion.

I just emailed @SenatorReid and @MitchMcConnell to pass the RESTORE Act to protect the Gulf Coast. So can you: http://goo.gl/L3tBD.

Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.

Estonian Proverb

Think on This...
. . . that we see manifested in the material plane is but a shadow of that in the spiritual plane.

Edgar Cayce Reading 5749-3

In the hope, in the associations, in the directing; not by long precepts, but by the living example; ye may bring harmony to many. For thy presence oft brings peace to others, when they will not even admit it. But it must be within self first, before ye may give it to others.

Edgar Cayce Reading 2376-4

Insects on a bough floating downriver still singing.

~ Issa

Why go further and further, / Look, happiness is right here.

Goethe

Life is, in all its manifestations in every animate force, creative force in action; and is the love of expression - or expressing that life; truth becoming a result of life's love expressed. For, these are but names - unless experienced in the consciousness of each soul.

Edgar Cayce Reading 262-46

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

~ Ram Das

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused.

~ Anonymous

The Cleanest Line: What a Mess – Remembering a World before Plastic Pollution http://ping.fm/p0a9d

Happy Holidays from Journey Home!

“Thanks for a Brilliant Book" – Terry

There is no enlightenment outside of daily life .

Thich Nhat Hanh

It is one of the beautiful compensations of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What the world really needs is more love and less paper work.

Pearl Bailey

All You Need Is Love.

John Lennon

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

Ram Das

Inspiration usually comes during work rather than before it.

~ Madeleine L’Engle

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. " - Abraham Lincoln

Republicans are hypocrites that only care about lining the pockets of their big-money friends ...just in case you didn't know that already, already - call them out on it!

Republicans are obsessed with cutting taxes, but now that Democrats have put forward a payroll tax cut that will put real money in the pockets of working Americans, Republicans say "No!"

When people demand Wall Street be held accountable for wrecking the economy -- Republicans say "tax cuts."

When Democrats take action on education, healthcare and job creation -- Republicans say "tax cuts."

When Americans demand jobs -- Republicans say "tax cuts."

Republicans only care about one thing -- tax cuts. It's the only thing they talk about.

BBC News - Kepler 22-b: Earth-like planet confirmed http://ping.fm/YRs8T

BBC News - Harnessing desert sun to power Europe http://ping.fm/9DwPf

God doesn't play dice with the universe.

Albert Einstein

Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them whenever they require it.

St. Francis of Assisi

Remember this, that very little is needed to make a happy life.

Marcus Aurelius Antonius

Precisely the least, the softest, lightest, a lizard's rustling, a breath, a breeze, a moment's glance—it is little that makes the best happiness.

~ Friedrich W. Nietzsche

The destiny of man is in his own soul.

Herodotus

The best way to find yourself, is to lose yourself, in the service of others.

~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

Out of clutter, find simplicity.

Albert Einstein

Movie and Documentary Reviews for 2011 - Hidden Gems

A friend of mine just asked me for some movie suggestions - here are some of the outstanding movies that I have seen over the past year. I'm sort of a movie buff so none of these are either blockbusters or the latest greatest to get marketed incessantly. These are off the beaten path gems and all of them are available on net flix.

Secondhand Lions (Michael Cain Robert Duval - great family movie)
The Milagro Beanfield War (Robert Redford production – good fun)
Kick-Ass (another fun family movie)
Win Win (Paul Giamatti – good family movie)
Hesher (great cast a little more gritty r rated but excellent movie – big, big fans of Joseph Gordon Levitt and Natalie Portman)
Hard Eight (John C. Reilly – gritty has a few twists)
Cedar Rapids (under-rated comedy – big John Reilly fans)
The Yellow Handkerchief (family movie – early Kristen Stewart – Maria Bello and William Hurt – good ending stick with it)
Get Low (is great with Robert Duval)
Moon (Sam Rockwell – 2001 space odyssey vibe – mystery thriller will keep you guessing – surprisingly good)
Machete (over the top violence – better than any of the Quentin Tarantino stuff – action movie)
Runaway Jury (this is a good Hackman movie with John Cusack – it’s a drama mystery)
The Answer Man (Jeff Daniels – big fans of Jeff’s another eccentric character study but also a real pop cultural skewer – you’ll like it)
Your Highness ( a little T&A – pot movie – just good ol dumb entertainment – Not the Holy Grail but fun enough)

I totally got into Deadwood: and The Wire: both HBO television series – lots of cursing and gritty 1880’s reality, vulgar and that’s just deadwood – the Wire – lots of drugs, Baltimore street culture both raw unvarnished looks at life – needles, and heroin, and drive bys – not for children.

Must see documentaries for everyone
Food, Inc. (very important movie for all)
Vanishing of the Bees (very important movie for all – narrated by Ellen Page)
Inside Job (if you are investing in or have any money tied up in the stock market – you’ll be horrified and rightly so – everyone needs to see this)
Crude (Trans National Corporations at their unregulated best)
Wolves: A Legend Returns to Yellowstone
We Shall Remain: (Native American History from American Native point of view – history they didn't teach you in school)


Campy Classic B Horror Movies
Val Lewton: Isle of the Dead / Bedlam
I Walked with a Zombie / Body Snatcher

God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?"

William A. Ward

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

~ Albert Einstein

When eating a fruit, think of the person who planted the tree.

~ Vietnamese Proverb

A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from his children.

John James Audubon

Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?

~ Pierre Troubetzkoy

Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?

~ Pierre Troubetzkoy

Don't worry that children never listen to you, worry that they are always watching you.

Robert Fulghum

This is a world of action, and not for moping and groaning in.

~ Charles Dickens

"He who plants a tree, plants a hope."
—Lucy Larcom

The new earth arises as more and more people discover that their main purpose in life is to bring the light of consciousness into this world and to use whatever they do as a vehicle for consciousness

Eckhart Tolle

A line is a dot that went for a walk.

~ Paul Klee

Panel finds EPA lowballing atrazine/cancer link | Pesticide Action Network http://ping.fm/JCNfo

Today's big deficits were caused mainly by big tax cuts for the wealthy, two unpaid-for wars, a horrible recession caused by Wall Street greed, and an expensive prescription drug program rigged to favor pharmaceutical companies.

BBC News - Occupy Wall Street: Arrests at New York two-month rally http://ping.fm/ZzEr2

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix

You should know by the kindness of uh dog the way uh human should be

Don Van Vliet

Crash Tax: Wall Street Should Pay Reparations to the 99% | | AlterNet http://www.alternet.org/story/153065/crash_tax%3A_wall_street_should_pay_reparations_to_the_99?akid=7851.135874.yaAgQ-&rd=1&t=18

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Admits 18 Cities Were Consulting on #Occupy Crackdowns - Digg http://ping.fm/LRiRW

Videos from the Raid: Beatings, Teargas, Tents Dismantled | AlterNet http://ping.fm/6qrkp

Multimillionaires are even receiving government checks for not working. This welfare for the well-off -- costing billions of dollars a year -- is being paid for with the taxes of the less fortunate

From tax write-offs for gambling losses, vacation homes, and luxury yachts to subsidies for their ranches and estates, the government is subsidizing the lifestyles of the rich and famous

Things are only impossible until they're not.

Jean-Luc Picard

People across the country have pledged to close more than 80,000 accounts at the big Wall Street banks

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The beauty of the band was you never knew what was going to come out next.

~ Jimmy Page

I must say that I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book.

~ Groucho Marx (my man pots and pans!)

Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want.

~ Joseph Wood Krutch

Let yourself be open and life will be easier.

Buddha

(1) Daily Kos: Ten stories of people moving their money, despite bank efforts to stop??them - Digg http://ping.fm/QKWcn

Since September 29, at least 700,000 Americans have moved their money out of big banks and into credit unions.

"There's nothing more attractive than a smart woman" Paul Burke

The ancient philosopher Anacharsis, maintained that laws were like cobwebs; strong enough to detain only the weak, and too weak to hold the strong

"You capitalize on dividing Americans, claiming people that disagree with you are unpatriotic socialists," they said to Bachmann as local police escorted the candidate from the stage.

Newt Gingrich was a lobbyist for FREDDIE MAC and Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum sponsored Jerry Sandusky for a 'Congressional Angels in Adoption' award. That's republican vision for you!

Socialism - believes that people working together for a common good can produce a greater benefit, both for society and for the individual, than can a society in which everyone is shrewdly seeking their own self-interest.

BBC News - US surfer Garret McNamara claims 'biggest wave' ride http://ping.fm/8sXgB

Dogway Melody (A Dogville Comedy) Part 1/2 - YouTube http://ping.fm/jyIm7

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled 2-to-1 that Congress, acting under its power to regulate interstate commerce, had the authority to require individuals to carry health insurance or pay a penalty

Talking to voters in SC, one woman says she won't vote for Romney "because he's a Muslim" - this opinion brought to you by the underfunding of public education - go America!

At the dawn of the new century, after years of strong job growth, rising incomes, and declining debt, we abandoned a proven path to shared prosperity in favor of doubling down, once more, on antigovernment ideology. Now we're paying for it. - B. Clinton

We need government for security, to provide equal access to opportunity, assistance to those most vulnerable, advancing economic interests at the state and national level, oversight of financial markets, protections where the markets fail, and fostering large-scale investments.

ExxonMobil made $10.7 billion in profits in the second quarter of 2011 while paying an effective tax rate of 17.6%, lower than the average tax rate for individual Americans

"The greatest accomplishment of the anti-government Republicans was not to reduce the size of the federal government but to stop paying for it." Bill Clinton

Remember this as you go to the polls - 49 million Americans are living in poverty

Tell Congress to support the Wall Street Tax! http://bit.ly/v2ey6q #TheDream

Remember this at the polls today - Last week, Senate Republicans filibustered a critical infrastructure investment bill that would have put roughly 450,000 Americans back to work.

Union of Concerned Scientists: Cartoon November 2011 http://ping.fm/e4F6i

“You don’t find out about a man from what puts him down you find out about him by what he gets back up from.” Joe Frazier

Frazier: Working man's champion | Philadelphia Daily News | 11/08/2011 http://ping.fm/eXGCc

Today's Election Day - VOTE - especially if you are not a fringe voter, highly motivated fanatic, one issue zealot - those are the ones who actually show up and why our Nation is so whacked

The Dragon In My Garage http://ping.fm/7y5DQ

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.

Goethe

Many large corporations pay no taxes even while they enjoy massive profits. Tell them to pay up. http://bit.ly/rx00E8 @Roots_Action

Tell your Senator: Stop @SenRandPaul's attack on #cleanair http://bit.ly/rhk8in @CREDOMobile

As our Constitution says, the reason why we have a government is “in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty.”

A good government uses the tools of government, like public schools, public health, the police power, taxation and monetary policy, to promote the well-being of ordinary people. A bad government steals from them, and stuffs their money into the pockets of the influential.

Tell Pres. @BarackObama: Don't sell us out to Wall Street. #ows #p2 http://bit.ly/tHFLAI

Whiplist | Save the Internet http://ping.fm/qLqRq

BBC News - Dirty secrets: What's behind carbon's rise? http://ping.fm/Ktbua

BBC News - NoW placed hacking lawyers under surveillance http://ping.fm/CZB6N

BBC News - Syrian opposition urges Homs international protection http://ping.fm/WpNFO

BBC News - Light 'promising' in cancer fight http://ping.fm/WcMsY

"In the past month, more than 650,000 new accounts have been opened at credit unions alone, according to the Credit Union National Association, a trade group representing credit unions. That compares to 600,000 new accounts in all of 2010

Leave Your Bank Today! Help Stop Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining | Planetsave http://ping.fm/CNNqc

Take Action: Tell Congress to Continue Critical Clean Energy Policies | CleanTechnica http://ping.fm/ignfZ

More than half of Americans (51%) would be more likely to buy a product if they knew it was made using solar energy.

A plurality (39%) would choose to prioritize solar if they were in charge of U.S. energy policy, more than natural gas (21%), wind (12%), nuclear (9%) or coal (3%).

Eight out of ten Americans (82%) believe that solar energy should receive the same level and type of support as fossil fuel industries have enjoyed for decades, and that the government should support solar manufacturing.

Solar energy is non-partisan: Independents (90%), Republicans (80%) and Democrats (94%) all agree that developing solar energy is important.

Nine out of ten respondents (89%) think it is important for the U.S. to develop and use solar power.

Breaking news: All Americans love the sun

According to a new independent poll, 9 out of 10 Americans think it’s important for the United States to develop and use solar energy, and that support remains strong across the entire political spectrum.

Peru fires top indigenous rights official after she blocks g... - Care2 News Network http://ping.fm/dnBCS

7 Billion and Counting http://ping.fm/Kf27S

Say no to Frankenfish! Keep genetically engineered salmon off the menu: http://bit.ly/tpWkLE via @foodandwater

Bill Moyers: Our Politicians Are Money Launderers Not Too Different from Tony Soprano | | AlterNet http://ping.fm/Xl0Sj

INTERVIEW-Women urged to put their stamp on Arab Spring - TrustLaw http://ping.fm/9opyS

The Elephant Sanctuary : Hohenwald Tennessee http://ping.fm/SGwTY

BBC News - Syria: Homs military attacks continue, say activists http://ping.fm/t8K0h

France and Germany were in favour of a financial transactions tax and they hoped it would be implemented in 2012. Hello America anybody home?

Our Politicians Are Money Launderers Not Too Different from Tony Soprano - Bill Moyers

What’s your beef (and why’s it coming from Tanzania?) | Pesticide Action Network http://ping.fm/ZLR67

450% increase in birth defects?! | Pesticide Action Network http://www.panna.org/blog/450-increase-birth-defects

The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide jumped by the biggest amount on record, the US Department of Energy calculated, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming

What is reading but silent conversation?

~ Walter Savage Landor

Roughly 30 jobless protesters from D.C. neighborhoods occupied Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's office. They said they wanted to talk to him about jobs, but McConnell was busy at the Capitol Building, where he led Republicans in blocking a $60 billion infrastructure bill.

Drilling in ANWR Will Not Solve Our National Energy Crisis | Debate Club | US News Opinion http://ping.fm/W0J0Q

BBC News - Action urged on ships' carbon emissions http://ping.fm/Ag6PI

BBC News - US Occupy protesters clash with police at Oakland port http://ping.fm/RIyTI

BBC News - Syria unrest: activists say 20 killed in Homs http://ping.fm/gh3GU

Concentrating Solar Gets DOE (Sun)Shot | EarthTechling http://ping.fm/K3Z7x

Inspector General Finds 0.07 Percent Rate Of Fraud In Energy Stimulus Spending | ThinkProgress http://ping.fm/MpuYe

Courthouse News Service http://ping.fm/5hFLB

Solar Sandwich Uses Thin Film, Thermal | EarthTechling http://ping.fm/biUGJ

So who's interest do you think they are protecting? The only thing they fear is your vote - if you don't vote - enjoy being f'd up the a**

Members of Congress had a collective net worth of more than $2 billion in 2010, a nearly 25 percent increase over the 2008 total, according to a Roll Call analysis of Members' financial disclosure forms.

The Mountain on Vimeo

The Mountain on Vimeo

Share on Myspace

Share on Myspace

Share on Myspace http://ping.fm/zYauE

Federal Court Upholds Salmon Protection From Pesticides | Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Federal Court Upholds Salmon Protection From Pesticides | Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Federal Court Upholds Salmon Protection From Pesticides | Defenders of Wildlife Blog http://ping.fm/tReB8

May you live all the days of your life.

~ Jonathon Swift

It takes a long time to understand nothing.

Edward Dahlberg

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world

~ Albert Einstein

Menhaden has been overfished for decades. Take action now to deliver your comment to the ASMFC via @greenpeaceusa

The grand total of arrests made in connection with Occupy Wall Street protests stands at 2,750. The people actual accountable for the mess got million dollar bonuses - yea America!

The protesters will go to houses where the homeowners face eviction and 'occupy' the homes to highlight the ongoing mortgage mess....bravo!

Occupy Minneapolis successfully pressured U.S. Bank this week to postpone a Twin Cities woman's eviction. Now they're planning 'Operation F,' a campaign pushing for a foreclosure moratorium by occupying foreclosed homes.

If there's a book you want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.

~ Toni Morrison

If it weren't for the last minute, a lot of things wouldn't get done.

Michael S. Taylor

Behind all this, some great happiness is hiding.

~ Yehuda Amichai

And as to me, I know nothing else but miracles

Walt Whitnam

Harnessing the wind off Virginia's coast could provide enough energy to power 700,000 homes by the end of this decade. But that's if, and only if, Dominion leads the way with that clean energy development.

Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.

~ Sigmund Freud

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they will never cease to be amused.

~ Anonymous

...as the fruits of the spirit...man becomes aware of the infinite penetrating, or inter-penetrating the activities of all forces of matter, or that which is a manifestation of the realm of the infinite into the finite--and the finite becomes conscious of same.
Edgar Cayce - Reading 262-52

Beauty is not caused. It is.

~ Emily Dickinson

Time is not a line, but a series of now points.

Taisen Deshimaru

Tell @lisapjackson and the #EPA: We're counting on you to reject the @StateDept's #Keystone XL sham http://bit.ly/pSXYT3 #tarsands

Love the country but hate its government and people; Patriotic but won't pay war tax; Love the unborn but hate the children; Love religion but ... commit sin and lie at will...(republicans) - R. Nguyen

Congratulations Libya may you ALL live in prosperity!

let the commercial news media and pundits twist in the wind - at the end of the day we/they all know what its all about - the middle class is getting screwed.

reducing it to one byline marginalizes the myriad of problems that need addressing -

all of this and much more is all so very important to get out onto commercial airwaves -

the environment gets brought up, too expensive education, price rigging on pharmaceuticals, medicare for all, ending the wars -

I think the movement should remain demand less that way you neutralize the spin machine - in the meantime Glass Stegall gets brought up,

The most important mechanism for containing the financial sector is a modest financial speculation tax. The idea is that a modest tax on financial transactions -- sales of stocks, bonds, credit default swaps and other derivatives -- would discourage excessive trading in these assets.

By contrast, investment banking means underwriting stock and bonds issues and other activities that are inherently risky. Government insured deposits should not be tied up in more risky activities that can be less easily monitored.

Commercial banks were restricted to a relatively narrow set of loans -- business loans, home mortgages, credit card debt -- in principle these could be easily monitored and the risks controlled.

It also make sense to restore the separation between investment banking and commercial banking from Glass-Steagall. The logic here is that the government is insuring the deposits of commercial banks. If a bank wants government insurance, then it should not be taking big risks with the money that is insured.

What the financial industry wants -- and what conservatives generally support-- is to have these incredibly valuable government safeguards without restrictions on the banks' behavior.

in every area of public policy we see, conservatives are often happy to have the government intervene.

These are not people who care about free markets, they care about redistributing money upwards.

The right is about getting more money for the wealthy -- full stop.

Conservatives who claim to have a profound love of free markets have no use for them; professing fealty to the markets is only a rhetorical strategy. They favor policies that distort the market in such a way that income and wealth flows back to them.

105 US cities occupied. 1500 MeetUps around the world. 50,000 people in the streets of New York and tens of thousands more in cities across the country. Wall Street occupied continuously for one month.

"Money ruined democracy."-Bill Moyers

The Rena, a cargo ship stranded off the northern coast of New Zealand, has dumped more than 350 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the water, killing more than 1,000 seabirds.

Occupy Wall Street, Apple Pie, America and Democracy!

The democracy that we have right now needs to be strengthened because it is not democracy it is a corrupt republic. Keep your eye on practical reality when you skew off into ideology whether cloaked in religion or the verbiage of politics you miss the point.

Corruption and the lack of accountability, the absence of a level playing field, and the rules already on the books not being enforced or being tenaciously done away with is what Occupy Wall Street is all about. In fact I draw the conclusion Occupy Wall Street is a strengthening of democracy in our Republic by the exercising of the right to assembly, the right of free speech and the right of petition.

Who was the last President to invoke the Sherman Anti-Trust Act - why was Glass Stegal overturned? Why is our so called democracy trying to eliminate class action law suits? Why isn't medicare for all law because the status quo wants more and more of our tax dollars for their own private accounts. That's why there is this decades long push to "privatize" everything. The for profit motive is not a panacea for all of our problems and in fact is at the root of many of them.

Practical reality teaches us that Washington D.C. is just a huge bucket of tax dollars getting re-allocated. There's plenty of money but how it is allocated is the question. Lately the bucket has been drained and the money siphoned off to individual accounts - its not being re-invested back into the Country its being hoarded in individual accounts. We have to re-invest in America that means the people through education, health, and infrastructure. But we truly have pigs at the trough with little to no accountability.

The system is a broken feeding frenzy by the richest corporate powers who are so busy trying to corner their individual markets that they have crippled the macro demand side of the economic equation (supply and DEMAND) and weakened all the worker bees muscle.

Homes get seized, disposable income - the grease to our economic wheel - dries up. Graduates are saddled with debt and can't go out on their own (buy homes, cars or even rent). Without the rest of us (99%) carrying the water the macro economy crumbles and the tangible results are everyone who was encouraged to buy into the capitalist system are just indentured servants to the banks.

Taking to the streets is the only way to get the corporate minions (politicians) to actually do something for the 99% of us WITHOUT representation. Why? Because just like back in the days of Nixon when he looked out his window what did he see - not only draft dodgers, and hippies, and pacifists with acoustic guitars who he tried to denigrate in an effort to kill the message by invalidating the messenger, but hundreds of thousands of people representing millions of motivated VOTERS who weren't going away until the changes they wanted were met.

So the politicians can either flip flop from appeasing those who finance their campaigns to appeasing the people who pull the levers at the voting booth.

They can save their own skin (which is what they do best) and follow the will of the majority, or loose at the polls to those who represent the middle class, main street, livable wages, good working conditions, not for profit health care, the revision of corporate person-hood, the reinstatement of glass stegal, and enforcing and strengthening the laws and regulations that keep everyone honest and create jobs.

That's the only way capitalism can work and the 99% for whom capitalism isn't working for right now - know this. Its just a shame that we have to take to the streets and non-violent protesters have to get beaten and arrested for the powers that be to wake up and go oopps.

We better make sure the economy works for all and know that employees are our partners not our enemies. We shouldn't cheat them, marginalize them, give them cancer, or destroy their neighborhoods and we need to put back into the system what we take out. It's simple, its basic, its practical and its been lost sight of........Too bad our so called Captains of Industry aren't the geniuses they think they are. Lost in the minutia of gaming the system, power tripping they have wrecked it even for themselves.

Don't let auto dealers sell us a lemon. Tell them to support new clean car standards: http://j.mp/rtA1NM

A knowledge of the path cannot be substituted for putting one foot in front of the other.

M. C. Richards

Think on This...
Do not rail at anyone. Do not hold grudges. Do not hold ANY of those tendencies that have so long made for disturbing conditions in the experience.

Reading 1311-1

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

Aesop

Defend 1st Amendment or we'll see Denver-style end to Occupy in every city. #occupyeverywhere @roots_action http://bit.ly/pRaJWz

By way of comparison, jobs in the overall economy grew at just 0.7 percent over that same time period, while jobs in fossil fuel electric generation subsector actually shrank by 2 percent.

Overall, there are now an estimated 100,237 people working in solar energy in the United States, an increase of 6.8 percent since 2010.

Solar sales and distribution jobs are growing the fastest with nearly 6,000 new jobs created since last year, and employers predict 35 percent growth in those jobs over the next year.

Solar jobs are growing in every part of the value chain. From manufacturing line workers to electricians to sales associates, all 31 solar job categories experienced growth over the last year.

Silent gratitude isn’t very much to anyone.

Gertrude Stein

“It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.” Voltaire

Scott Brown is trying to adopt someone else's life and experiences as his own. According to a report from the Boston Globe, a section of Brown's autobiography posted on his website was ripped from a speech given by Elizabeth Dole in 2002.

Tomorrow is the deadline for mere-mortal committees to present their budget cutting plans to the super committee. The ranking House Democrats have all submitted plans. The Republicans haven't.

Last year the average consumer spent 365 dollars on Black Friday, with a total US holiday spending estimated at 45 Billion, for that weekend. That spending benefits corporate america directly but they don't want to pay taxes. Vote with your dollars!

What you give you get, ten times over.

~ Yoruba Proverb

Defend the Occupy Wall Street protesters from eviction by Mayor Bloomberg: http://bit.ly/pkSZBi #ows #occupywallstreet #p2NY

Demand the release of student leaders in Iran! - Act w/ @Amnesty http://bit.ly/oS7cat

Defend the Occupy Wall Street protesters from eviction by Mayor Bloomberg: http://bit.ly/pkSZBi #ows #occupywallstreet #p2NY

In Florida, not just one, but a few beekeepers lost millions of bees suddenly in one day. The bees are being tested for chemicals because pesticides are suspected. Irreplaceable hundreds of thousands of dollars were lost instantly.

Nearly 100,000 U.S. millionaires pay lower tax rates than more than 10 million middle class families, according to the Congressional Research Service.

I for one am ditching Bank of America - investing directly without using a broker, pulling all my big bank credit cards and refinanced with a local bank screw their "new world order". I'm not a pawn in their game and refuse to be one.

Too Big to Fail - yeah right - another campaign slogan like "free trade" in the two worlds of america - corporate and the rest of us - we the people need to flee the big banks and head to credit unions, and local community banks - strengthen your neighborhoods - not their global domination agendas and watch them fail, bail and shed salaries.

The House will move forward on three trade deals that are billed as job creators. Yet the pacts come along with assistance for workers whose jobs will be lost.....they assume we don't know or care....What a bunch of idiots.

All animals except man know that the ultimate of life is to enjoy it.

~ Samuel Butler

"When shall it be said in any country of the world, my poor are happy; neither ignorance or distress is to be found among them; my jails are empty of prisoners, my streets of beggars; the aged are not in want, the taxes are not oppressive...when these things can be said, then may that country boast of its constitution and government."
~ Thomas Paine

"Good luck on the book, I wrote it on my list of books to pick up. Also watched your snippet of guitar and harp playing. Good for you, keep up the energy of life, we need more people like you - Mitakuye Oyasin" - Dandelion

“G.E. doesn’t pay any taxes and we are asking college kids to take on even more debt to get an education, and asking seniors to get by on less. These aren’t just economic questions. These are moral questions.” Elizabeth Warren

The #OccupyWallStreet movement has spread to some unlikely locations. Namely, there's now Occupy Waikiki, Occupy Puerto Rico, and Occupy Nova Scotia to name a few

Paths cannot be taught, they can only be taken.

~ Zen Saying

It takes a long time to understand nothing.

Edward Dahlberg

Reason is powerless in the expression of Love.

Rumi

What I have to say about this book can be found inside the book.

~ Albert Einstein

The Government gave $16 trillion to the banks. And nobody else is talking about it. Page 131 of GAO Report No. GAO-11-696.

Tell the #SuperCommittee - if you want to #cut the #deficit, start by ending the big #oil bailout http://bit.ly/pqUXTl via @USAction #p2

This is what needs to be done. Congress isn't listening. I'm with #occupy_DC #occupywallstreet http://bit.ly/nsn0VZ RT @roots_action

Help protect @OccupyWallSt protesters' constitutional right to peaceful assembly http://bit.ly/ppUtUE @CREDOmobile @other98

“Bank of America paid zero dollars in taxes last year but they got a $1 billion tax refund,” she said. “The CEO got a bonus of $3.4 million, even as he slashed 30,000 jobs. How’s that for a ‘job creator?’ - Karen Brown-Norfolk, Va.

Tomorrow the republicans will still only be worried about one thing and one thing only - winning the next election - losers.

Occupy Wall Street is spreading like wildfire. There are now supportive groups for the protests in over 250 communities in the United States and Canada.

Tomorrow, 300 children under the age of five will die in the Horn of Africa because of famine.

Tomorrow, 400 million children will still lack access to clean water.

Tomorrow, three billion people around the globe will still be living on less than $2.50 a day.

Tomorrow, one in four American children under the age of six will still be living below the poverty line.

Tomorrow, one in seven U.S. households still won’t know where their next meal is coming from.

Tomorrow, the homes of more than 2,500 new U.S. families will enter foreclosure.

Tomorrow, almost 14 million Americans will still be unemployed.

Tomorrow, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be more than $1.259 trillion. Talk about unfunded mandates!

The American Jobs Act could spur 2% in economic growth and create up to 1.9m jobs. Will the republicans stop playing politics and vote for YOU - better pick up that phone amigo and start calling.

If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.

~ Albert Einstein

Help protect @OccupyWallSt protesters' constitutional right to peaceful assembly http://bit.ly/rcfaGl @CREDOmobile

Last night the people of West Virginia elected Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin to serve as their governor. Democrats were outspent by national Republicans two-to-one.

There is always music amongst the trees in the garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.”

Minnie Aumonier

What do the protesters want? A solution to the jobs crisis, corporate money out of politics, fairer tax rates, and policies that work for 99% of Americans instead of the 1% at the top.

Vote for jobs, schools, and small businesses—vote for the American Jobs Act. #passthebill

Center for Biological Diversity - get involved - your activism is needed - http://ping.fm/rqQLT

The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a game-changing lawsuit against the EPA targeting more than 300 of the nation’s worst pesticides, including atrazine.

These pesticides kill 72 million birds each year, but the EPA and Fish and Wildlife Service are pointing fingers at each other instead of taking action, allowing pesticides to kill or deform wildlife such as polar bears, Florida panthers, sea turtles, condors and salmon.

Two billion pounds of pesticides are sold in the United States every year, and chemical giants Monsanto, Syngenta and others are heaping the pressure on Congress to keep these dangerous pesticides flowing.

"When you do the right thing, for the right reason, right things happen!" - Paul Burke

My God is IT!

My god is IT and yours isn't IT. That pretty much sums up the stupidity of IT mankind and all of the different religions, cults, factions, and parties vying for power, profit, and control over the naturally occurring people wondering about IT the who, what, when, where and why of life - not to mention the how.

So anyway settle down all of you - settle down I've got a surprise. My God is IT and unless yours is IT too then yours isn't IT! Time to rethink IT.

That's right my god is IT. IT is my god. IT is the only one. IT is everywhere and IT is everything. IT is my god. IT is your god. IT is wonderful. IT is terrible and IT is in everything.

IT is your name, IT is your being, IT is your soul, IT is your laugh, IT is your humor. IT is comedy, IT is tragedy, IT is your face. IT is your tears, IT is your mind, IT is your heart, IT is your love, IT is your sex, IT is your anger, IT is your hatred, IT is your envy, IT is your greed.

IT is your breath, IT is your eyes. IT is your ears. IT is your voice. IT is the water, IT is the rain, IT is the ocean, IT is the streams, IT is the rivers, and IT is the mountains. IT is the forest, IT is the trees, IT is the dirt, IT is the rock, IT is the street, IT is the road, IT is the journey, IT is home.

IT is the tiger, IT is the bear, IT is the hawk, IT is the fox, IT is the wolf, IT is the bird, IT is the trane, IT is the music. IT is the earth, IT is the moon, IT is the stars, IT is the universe, IT is the air, IT is lunch. IT is listening, IT is speaking, IT is hearing.

IT is everything. IT is your life, IT is your friends, IT is your neighbors and IT is your enemies. IT is your balls, IT is your ass, IT is your tits and IT is your intention. IT is your meaning, IT is why, IT is how, IT is where, and IT is your plans. IT is your dreams and IT is two different things.

IT is your guitar, IT is your horn, IT is your drum, and IT is your canvas, IT is your clay, IT is your body, IT is your soul. IT is your thoughts, IT is your memory, IT is your library, and IT is everywhere.

IT is your life, IT is your desert, IT is your iguana, IT is your lover and IT is sad, and IT is hungry, and IT is full and IT is happy, and IT is amazing. IT is and IT is not.

IT is your brothers and IT is your sisters. IT is your children and IT is your parents. IT is the north and IT is the south. IT is the west and IT is the east. IT is the sunset and IT is the sunrise. IT is the canyon, IT is the surf and IT is the wind. IT is everyone and everything and everything and everyone is IT. IT is finITte and IT is infinITe.

We are all IT and IT is all.

So when dividing up the world, arguing over borders, waring over resources, bribing each other over profit, robbing each other over money, killing, stealing and lying to each other about any of IT, or all of IT remember your are doing IT as surely as IT is doing you.

Be careful what you say and do because IT knows about IT and this my friends is IT! Get IT? IT is and IT will always be no matter what IT is.

So be IT, Live IT, Love IT, Enjoy IT but there is no getting away from IT. IT's got you and IT's got me......and that be the truth of IT.

You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.

~ Henry David Thoreau

Stunning Statistics of the Week:

* 12: Number of members of the supercommittee charged with reducing the debt
* $41 million: The amount the supercommittee lawmakers have received from the finance, insurance and real estate sector while they have been in Congress
* $900,000: The amount given by JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo alone to these members

Music Maker Foundation - The Real Deal

Recently my path crossed with a Foundation down in North Carolina called the Music Maker Foundation. We ended up doing a fundraiser on their behalf. Music Maker came about through the initial efforts of Tim Duffy. He had been studying folklore in North Carolina and discovered a whole vein of untapped and forgotten talent and started to document and promote the artist he re-discovered and discovered.

The music industry is rife with stories about the screwed up priorities and underhanded manipulations of the king pins of corporate america. They are an unkind suitor who gets it wrong more often than right. We all know local and regional talent that was homogenized and laden down with strings to make their sound commercial, destroying uniqueness, auto-tuning voices, lip syncing live performances, and serving up the same old sounds in the name of mass marketing and the biggest bang for their investment buck.

What happened to art, and fun, and music as life? Well along the way it got botox, a lip job, and boob implants making the search for authenticity damned near impossible over the commercial airwaves.

That's why it takes almost a researchers drive, dedication, and interest to find any music worth listening to, let alone purchasing or seeing live. The commercial music world is largely devoid of originality and soul but by the power of repetition, marketing and cross marketing profitable for a few.

Music Maker comes about by love. Love of music, love of the people and a sense of justice. Long forgotten players who may have had a glimpse of fame, a hit, or a television appearance or two back in the 50's live in forgotten squalor. Their guitars in hock, their homes often just a trailer without heat or running water living on the bare minimum on a forgotten lane, down a country road or stuck in a ghetto.

Music Maker as a non-profit foundation helps to get the musicians they discover back up on their feet, touring and producing CD's. The talent they have uncovered is miraculous, authentic, salt of the earth, genuine, fun, real, historic and although left for dead by the industry, full of life.

Its a wonder that corporate america can be so dense as to not cultivate niche markets and corner them all. Instead they create one market and flood it out in every direction through radio, television, magazine, and the news outlets they control. Leaving the rest of us to tune out.

Even satellite radio is depressingly familiar with generic content. That being said run don't walk over to the Music Maker Foundations website and be blown away by their story, videos, and overflowing catalog of under represented and forgotten American Treasures.

I recently bought five discs from artist know as Precious Bryant, Cool John Ferguson, John Dee Holeman and Eddie Tinger.

Precious Bryant: This disc has 26 cuts of standards and originals. It reminds me of the best songs Bonnie Raitt did on her first album when she was featuring Robert Johnson and Sippie Wallace. From Talbot County Georgia she still lives on the old farm she was raised on. I absolutely love this CD!

Cool John Ferguson: Scorching blues guitarist that Taj Mahal calls one of the best he's ever heard. John is one of those guys who can play what he's thinking in real time. It doesn't seem like there is a nano-second between the thought and the execution. He defines playing from the heart. I have two discs of his. One is a surprising jazz effort that is just sweet, vigorous and flat out perfect for this genre of guitar jazz. The other is a righteous blues work out. They both will leave you wondering how the heck this guy isn't on the cover of Rolling Stone. He tours look him up, check him out - your jaw will hit the floor.

Eddie Tinger: Eddie's a real tour veteran and performed with Elmore James - whoa - Elmore James - if that isn't street cred I don't know what is. He's a keyboard player and his disc is chock full of standards that you'll listen to at the office, in the car and at dinner. Its a wonderful CD widely accessible to all with a lot of spirit and humor. He does a version of Goin Down Slow and Stormy Monday as well as Route 66. This is a great piano album that will make you smile.

John Dee Holeman: Out of Durham North Carolina his fingers pop on that old national steel. Country blues pickin that rocks he has several albums out on the Music Maker label. The music is soaked with wisdom and backed by a rockin band that never gets in his way. Great, great authentic playing by a man that has lived the blues, played the blues and loved the blues his whole life.

Here's more of the Music Maker Story in their own words all I can say is that I'm blown away. I am championing their worthy cause the best I can and it just goes to show you; When you do the right thing, for the right reason, right things happen!
________________________________________________



Music Maker Relief Foundation keeps our culture vital by directly supporting senior (over 55) American roots musicians in need. We provide for basic life essentials while expanding their professional careers so that our rich musical heritage can be shared with the world and preserved for future generations.

Since the organization’s founding in 1994, Music Maker has assisted hundreds of musicians who represent the traditions of Blues, Gospel, Old-Time String Band, Jazz and more.

Music Maker’s programs ensure the talents of these cultural treasures are accessible through hundreds of US and international live performances, multi-media documentation and outreach initiatives.

Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. is a tax exempt, public charity under IRS code 501(c)3.

Programs

* Musician Sustenance - grants to meet basic life needs and emergency relief.
* Musical Development - grants and services for recipient artist professional development and career advancement.
* Cultural Access - supports the preservation and proliferation of American musical traditions.

"We’ll be playing as long as there’s somebody there to listen.” Gregg Allman

A house is just a place to hand your clothes, brush your teeth, and get some sleep. Then you’re back out in the world. - Dickey Betts

The invisible hand of the free market = absentee management.

Large segments of the G.O.P. reject climate science and even the theory of evolution, so why expect evidence to matter for the party’s economic views?

Gratitude is the heart's memory.

French Proverb

Tell #SuperCommittee to tackle deficit the right way. Save EPA, cut wasteful farm subsides. Sign @EWGFoodNews ltr: http://bit.ly/nQekgY

Republicans in Congress ran for office on job creation promises. But since taking office, they have been a complete failure

Around the world, more than 200 million women want to prevent pregnancy but lack contraception.

Whether the world population reaches 8 billion or 11 billion in this century depends on the choices we make today.

The world increases by nearly 80 million people each year - the numerical equivalent of adding another U.S. to the world every four years.

Regulations the Human Element to Capitalism

There are realities in the world:

It is Congress that makes the laws. We need to get a better Congress and filibuster proof Senate.

The fox is watching the hen house. You need a cop on the beat.

The elimination of glass stegal caused the financial collapse. Regulators at the Bureau of Land Management were literally partying with the mining/oil industry reps they were supposed to be policing.

Corporations push off downstream waste and expense of polluted rivers, streams, and Bays onto the tax payer and no one calculates the cost of reclamation into the offending parties’ bottom line.

Self regulation does not work in capitalism. Unregulated capitalism consumes itself and its resources as fast as it can.

Capitalism unregulated is just a math model. The faster it achieves a sale, and the more sales it makes -faster- is its mathematical goal. Clear cutting forests, blasting off mountain tops, overfishing all in an attempt to get the most for the least and the quickest to get to market and cash out.

Unregulated capitalism is a short term profit nightmare. Regulations are more than needed. Regulations are the human element to the purely math model of capitalism's supply and demand.

Do you feel me? Think long term and globally on a macro scale that requires sustainability in order to ensure a healthy survival for the entirety of mankind.

Anything less is eventually self destructive....disease unchecked by borders, famine, resource wars, poverty, crime, power struggles the haves versus the have nots..

History will repeat itself until we shake off the single minded "me" thinking of rugged individualism and start thinking we - you know as in We The People...

The worst corporate and civil rights abuses throughout history were enabled by government's/kingdom's failure to enforce law and maintain a level playing field. Which is why we need an uncorrupted cop on the beat?

So how do we un-corrupt government? By taking the money out - its simple remove the middleman and have citizens vote directly on policy by being able to self direct their tax dollars to the programs and departments they wish to support.

Government is just a huge redistribution system of our tax dollars. The powers that be are in the trenches trying to grab/steal whatever they can by coercing the representatives with the promise of or the withholding of campaign contributions. Eliminate campaign contributions - why not? In other words the system has to be cured.

How is government small enough to drown in a bathtub going to sue GE when it puts out a product that gives us cancer? I don't have the means to sue GE- do you? Class action suits - who's paying for them some law firm - even international firms don't have the bucks to go up against GE?

Who was going to reimburse all of our savings, 401k's, IRA's when Wall Street collapsed under the weight of AIG? Should all of those trillions of dollars from Mom and Pop investors, and worker bees just disappear in the collapse?

A multi generational effort of honest savings wiped out by the criminal activity of a few that's why Wall Street got bailed out. Would I have liked to see them all go down those crooks, and arrogant SOB's and stupid greedy single minded people? You bet. Would it have harmed more people and been counter productive - yep.

So its not so simple. What I absolutely abhor is ideology (religion and fanaticism). We have to cull the best ideas from all comers. Wholesale buy-ins to factions, parties, clubs, religions, theorists, schools of thought is another "big" problem. We need practical solutions to apply in a real world....on a problem by problem basis....not theories, and world views.

There is no panacea cure all party, politician, religion, cult, economic theory, school of thought about how things ought to be. There is how things are and what can be done to make them better. Public and private policy combined as well as science, labor, capital and sweat equity are the tools we have. And we need every one of them all in a country that boasts 300+ million people and a world now bulging at 7 Billion residents.

The only savior is practical reality and practical solutions to our everyday problems on a case by case basis that no school of thought, economic theory, party, faction, or religion is ever going to solve all on its own – anything less is a pipe dream.

The new earth arises as more and more people discover that their main purpose in life is to bring the light of consciousness into this world and to use whatever they do as a vehicle for consciousness

Eckhart Tolle

FACT: In the last ten years, the population of the United States has grown by 27 million people.

FACT: There are one million fewer private sector jobs in America today than there were ten years ago.

So much for job creation.

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.

~ Aristotle

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

Buddha

Nice work George...

Bush turned Clinton's surplus into a $5 trillion deficit through outrageous tax cuts for the rich, two disastrous wars, and a financial crash that caused the Great Recession.

In 2001, President Clinton handed George Bush a projected 10-year budget surplus over $5 trillion.

Love is, above all, the gift of oneself.

Jean Anouilh

We are at this moment participating in one of the very greatest leaps of the human spirit.

Joseph Campbell

I have realized that the past and future are real illusions, that they exist in the present, which is what there is and all there is.

Alan Watts

The U.S. House just passed the TRAIN Act – aka “Dirty Air Death Bill” – that will cause more pollution, up to 139,500 premature deaths, and kill jobs. Tell the Senate to block this monstrosity: http://goo.gl/fFbmR

Living well is about good nutrition, decent homes, access to good quality services, stable communities, satisfying employment. Tim Jackson

Fixing the economy is only part of the battle. We also have to confront the convoluted logic of consumerism. The days of spending money we do not have on things we do not need to impress people we do not care about are over. Tim Jackson

Appalachian residents want strong enforcement of clean water protections, and the majority do not approve of mountaintop removal, according to poll results released just a few weeks ago.

This estimate does not include healthcare costs, loss of home values, and the need for water treatment.”

These costs include: increased road expenditures, operating mining-specific health and safety systems, supporting training and research and development for the industry, and various tax-breaks and subsidies.

Recent studies concluded that coal mining costs Kentucky and West Virginia taxpayers more than it brings into the state – a net loss of more than $100 million annually in Kentucky.

"Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for." Bob Marley -(Thanks Jola!)

Dan Burton, the second-ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee slammed Obama and argued that "the green thing is a scam"....But signed seven letters to the DOE seeking green projects for his State Indiana. (????)

Stop. Breathe. Allow yourself the luxury of doing nothing for a moment, or an hour, or even a day. It is in emptiness that inspiration will appear.

Carole Katchen

Mercury is a heavy metal that accumulates in the fish we eat and can negatively impact brain function- and coal-fired power plants are the main source of this toxin.

If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.

Because it is funded by the payroll tax and not the U.S. Treasury, Social Security has not contributed one nickel to our deficit.

When Social Security was developed, 50 percent of seniors lived in poverty. Today, that number is 10 percent -- still too high, but a testament to the success of Social Security.

The truth is that today, according to the Social Security Administration, Social Security has a $2.7 trillion surplus and can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible American for the next 25 years.

Republicans have spent years demonizing Social Security. Their long-term goal is to end Social Security and convert it into a private account system which will enable Wall Street to make hundreds of billions in profits.

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

Native American Proverb

Solar now employs more than 100,000 workers domestically, the Solar Foundation census found, a 6.8 percent growth from the same time last year."

Furthermore, prices continued to plummet as completed module prices dropped 12 percent in the second quarter. And the initial findings of another report, from the nonprofit Solar Foundation, concludes that the solar industry added 6,735 U.S. jobs between August 2010 and August 2011 ...

A report from the Solar Energy Industries Association finds that grid-connected photovoltaic installation in the U.S. grew 17 percent from the first to second quarter of 2011 and a whopping 69 percent from the second quarter of 2010.

"There is not a single country that has not increased its GDP quite a lot without increasing pollution quite a lot...." Soumya Dutta,India People's Science Forum.

In 2009, mountaintop removal coal mining had destroyed 352,000 acres and 135 mountains in West Virgina alone

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.

Victor Hugo

A group of 44 Senators are holding hostage the nomination of our first consumer financial watchdog - so basically they don't want a consumer watchdog group - pretty much spells it out for you- right?

The political hopefuls "ALL" rail against government while breaking their necks to get a government job, receive a government pay check, and secure a ridiculously lucrative government pension - but yeah government is bad.

"If I cannot paint... There is no reason for me to draw breath." Vincent Van Gogh

“‘I believe that, with color, I can capture a more enduring truth. Something more in the nature of a dream, that has a truth of its own that may be different from what we experience every day." Vincent Van Gogh

The school of life offers some difficult courses, but it is in the difficult class that one learns the most.

~ Corrie ten Boom

The energy doesn’t end at the hands. I want such intensity that it feels like light is streaming from every finger.

~ Bob Fosse

"If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one."

~ Mother Teresa

Continued industry growth enhances our energy security and diversifies our domestic energy portfolio.

Solar power in the U.S. now exceeds 3,100 megawatts (MW), enough to power more than 630,000 homes.

The U.S. was a net exporter of solar products in 2010 by $2 billion. We were even a net exporter to China.

Since the beginning of 2010, the price of solar panels has dropped by 30%, and costs continue to fall making solar an even more viable choice for residential and business customers.

The U.S. solar industry grew by 69% in the past year, making it one of the fastest growing sectors in the U.S. economy.

The solar industry employs more than 100,000 Americans, more than twice as many as in 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies, the vast majority being small businesses, in all 50 states.

National Solar Jobs Census 2011 report found:
* 100,237 jobs as of August 2011
* 6.8% growth from August 2010 to August 2011
* 6,735 new solar jobs created between August 2010 and August 2011

He who wants to do good knocks at the gate: he who loves finds the door open.

Rabindranath Tagore

The solar company Solyndra filed for bankruptcy last month, which media reports have depicted as the end of solar power...This is like saying there is no future for the internet because Netscape went out of business.

Can an online petition save a house from foreclosure? It did in Seattle. "I'm overjoyed, and thankful to the thousands who took action on Change.org to help me keep my home and business," Vera said. "The success of my campaign shows that homeowners can take power back from banks if we work together."

Dear @BarackObama – the New Deal needs to be #OffTheTable from the Super Congress – RT if you agree http://bit.ly/offthetble

The GOP: Preserving Life (Except the Uninsured)

"Working with the president on a bipartisan jobs-and-deficit-reduction plan makes him look like, well, a good president. And good presidents often get reelected." … Thanks Republicans I can't eat my American flag lapel pin.

Deadwood- Movie Review

Deadwood is an HBO series that came out in 2004 and ran for 36 Episodes. It wasn't enough. I highly recommend this series and even the way it ended wrapped it up nicely. Not like the Riches which just ends abruptly. The problem with Deadwood is that it is so well written and shot with such care and thought that you will plow through 36 1 hour episodes in a day and a half if you are not careful. Band of Brothers had the same impact on me. I couldn't get enough of Deadwood. The characters are dynamic, the plot twists, the scenery is stunning, there are surprises and quiet moments. It's bawdy, its brash, its vulgar, its awesome.

It is an absolute crime that they didn't keep this series going after just three years. It's about the real life mining town of Deadwood South Dakota and the series borrows from history to keep things authentic. But the writing only uses history as a jumping off point. It's sort of a jambalaya of history and creativity. The actors blew me away. Not big name Hollywood, people magazine crap but honest hard working actors laboring at their craft and trying to make a living.

The series is set in the 1870's and charts Deadwood's growth as an outpost gold mining town on Native American territory to a possible future statehood. All of the main characters are based on actual historical figures which makes for compelling writing as they blend actual historical events with well crafted fiction. Newspapers and diaries were consulted to blend the story line and then the writer David Milch applies his craft.

I don't know much about Milch but in a few interviews I was stunned at his depth intelligence, thoughtfulness and heart. And I look forward to exploring his other work.

Deadwood is a raucous affair of dancing girls, raw humanity, virtue mauled by reality and reality usurped by virtue. Real tension is created between the characters. Timothy Olyphant seethes as Seth Bullock the former sheriff and hardware store owner, Ian McShane is as in your face as a character can get, bombastic, brutal, candid, like a howitzer, loud, spitting profanity and action and yet his character isn't all just bombastic.

I had a tough time with the first few episodes the profanity was prolific but the writers either toned it down or I got used to it after a few episodes. Kim Dickens lends an air of femininity to a heavily brutal and victimized cast and Robin Weigert just kills it as Calamity Jane. Powers Booth brings the ice, cold hearted ways to the screen, and Paula Malcomson another actress I had not heard of fills the screen with strength, angst, venom, vigor, honesty and crassness as Trixie.

All in all a great series- get it from Net Flix. If you haven't been to Deadwood you are missing something truly raw, and human. Five outstanding stars!

My music wasn't written by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach or Schubert. It's written by God and me. They go "a one and a two and up." We start on the downbeat. Bam! And that's where we got them.

~ James Brown

The most effective way to strengthen Social Security for the next 75 years is to eliminate the cap on the payroll tax on income above $250,000....

Roughly 26 percent of all clean economy jobs lie in manufacturing establishments, compared to just 9 percent in the broader economy.

The clean economy offers more opportunities and better pay for low- and middle-skilled workers than the national economy as a whole.

Though modest in size, the clean energy and tech industries already employ more workers than the fossil fuel industry; some 2.7 million jobs spread across a diverse group of industries.

Overall, today’s clean economy establishments added half a million jobs between 2003 and 2010, expanding at an annual rate of 3.4 percent.

Taxpayers will hand out nearly $100 billion in tax breaks and loopholes to oil and gas companies in the coming decades.

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Don’t let Congress sweep the #Murdoch scandal under the rug. Take action and demand an investigation: http://bit.ly/rsqpu1

Even with these job losses, the top five companies paid their senior executives a total of nearly $220 million in 2010.

Just in 2010 alone, the top five oil companies (the above four, plus ConocoPhillips) reduced their global workforce by a combined 4,400 employees, while making a combined $73 billion in profits.

'Give me a win?' Mr. Obama said, his voice rising as the crowd started cheering. 'Give me a break. That’s exactly why folks are fed up with Washington.'"

Despite generating $546 billion in profits between 2005 and 2010, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP combined to reduce their U.S. workforce by 11,200 employees over that time

The global human population is expected to hit 7 billion by the end of October....

the United States imports 50% to 60% of its oil supply, and with prices averaging at least $80 to $90 per barrel, we’re sending approximately $1 billion every day to foreign oil providers.

These payments constitute the single biggest contribution to the country’s balance-of-payments deficit and so is a major source of the nation’s economic weakness.

oil’s share of the world total energy supply -- dropped to 35% in 2010 and was projected to continue declining to 32% in 2020 and 30% in 2035. In its place, natural gas and renewable sources of energy are expected to assume ever more prominent roles.

Beauty is everywhere, but one may see the beautiful view and the other sees a dirty window. You have the power within you to choose what you see, what you think and what you paint.

~ Leanne Cadden

A recent Brookings Institute report that found the clean-energy economy employs 2.7 million American workers across a diverse group of industries — greater than the number of people employed by the entire fossil-fuel industry —

clean tech has outperformed the national rate of job creation during the recession.

Colorado's wave of gas and oil drilling is resulting in spills at the rate of seven every five days — releasing more than 2 million gallons this year of diesel, oil, drilling wastewater and chemicals that contaminated land and water http://ping.fm/00C2t

every $1 billion of military spending costs anywhere between 3,200 and 11,700 jobs or more when compared to other ways of spending the money.

Dear Oil Industry Fuck Off!

Fantastic news - the oil industry's permit approval for oil rigs in the Gulf is down from pre-Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster levels. It's up from last years approval process, but since its not back to pre-Deepwater disaster levels the oil lobby is crying like stuck pigs to the Department of the Interior.

They of course are claiming they would have a positive impact on jobs if they were left to do business as usual and more people would be put back to work like helicopter pilots and oil rig workers. Keep in mind we are talking about 20 oil permits for drilling. I have a few things to say about all that so lets use the dirty energy sectors own language and talk about "affordable" energy and "multiplier" effects.

When it comes to pollution and its across the board devastation the region, contractors, builders, local fisherman, car dealerships, airlines, deep sea fishing industry, furniture, retail, retirement community, restaurants and motels would be better served by a healthy environment and robust tourism trade versus a few more helicopter pilots.

Sorry dirty energy sector - I know you are going to drag your heels, kicking and screaming into the 21st century but the byproduct of your last century technology and the "multiplier" effects of pollution and cancer have ramifications across the board including hyper inflating health care costs. That order of magnitude washes away the economic benefits of 11 workers per rig, and 2 helicopter pilots. Seriously the spin is overwhelming.

You need to see the handwriting on the wall and stop dragging your heels and get in front of the trend. Just because you are making money for a few people hand over fist doesn't mean what’s good for your old deregulated business model is good for the entire region or country. The iron clad monopoly of cars being only powered by oil is slowly but surely coming to an end as well as the death grip of nuclear, coal and oil for generating electricity.

Cheaper? Cheaper for who? The overall aggregate cost of healthcare and the drain on our economy? The overall aggregate cost of cleaning up your Superfund sites? The overall aggregate cost of storing your nuclear waste? The overall aggregate cost of your yearly tax payer funded subsidies? The status quo maintained is cheaper for who again do tell? Certainly not the tax payers.

To use the dirty energy sectors own language claiming the “administration is practicing its own form of selected industrial sabotage" is also called "governing". That's what governments are supposed to do. Unregulated capitalism destroys all the natural resources in its path, whether its mountains, forests or oceans for a quick buck and passes the damage they cause right back to the tax payer the way the system is set up now.

Well done but the cost is finally too high and your days are numbered. Not because the dirty energy sector or individual businesses are inherently evil but because they are short sighted, and grossly, narrowly, hyper focused on their own interest and bottom line to the exclusion of all else.

They don't see the macro economy as an integrated system and thus overfish, blow mountains to bits, pollute the water, air, and food and claim its not their responsibility - "we are only responsible to our share holders and profit margins" - great way to run a business if you can get away with it - lousy way to "govern" a country.

So while you complain you are not getting your own way anymore and the permit approval is up but not at the old levels - you revel for the umpteenth time you are only concerned about yourself. You don't give a rat’s ass about helicopter pilots or your oil rig workers or no one would have died in the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

So guess what genius - your market sector is only one part of the overall economy - you are not going to get special treatment, and your tax subsidies are going to be taken away from you and hopefully directed to the more beneficial macro affordable, clean energy market.

When you don't count the pollution and destruction of your business practices in your bottom line - you are cooking the books. Dirty energy is not cheaper when you add in the resource wars going on in foreign countries, the death of our soldiers, the costs of the wars, the cost of the destruction of the oceans and the death of your employees.

Coal, nuclear and oil are only cheaper when we look the other way and tell Appalachia tough sorry for the contaminated water and cancer, sorry about the dead miners, gulf coast sorry for the gusher and the end of the billion dollar fishing and tourism industry and oopps sorry Japan for the meltdown and catastrophic loss and devastation.

There's no free lunch. We do not operate our separate industries in a vacuum and yes you are responsible for your actions, decisions, and down stream pollution and its affect on our health, quality of life and the impact on the other market sectors.

And yes governments job is to govern the country to the best benefit for ALL, insure a level playing field, and to police those who won't hold themselves responsible or accountable for the destruction and danger of their business models; including but not limited to the pharmaceutical industry, the pesticide industry, the tobacco industry, the agriculture industry, the financial industry, and the defense industry as well as the coal, oil and nuclear industry.

Wake up and straighten your act out. We have zero sympathy for you and your spin is complete and utter bullshit. Hell you don't even share royalties with the States that let you drill off their coasts. What a bunch of shit stains you are and I'm calling you out! Wah, wah we don't get our way anymore Texas cry babies.

The Census Bureau credits Social Security with keeping nearly 14 million seniors out of poverty in 2010.

Earth cannot escape heaven, flee it by going up, or flee it by going down; heaven still invades the earth, energizes it, makes it sacred.

Meister Eckhart

Think on This...
Depend more upon the intuitive forces from within and not harken so much to that of outside influences--but learn to listen to that still small voice from within... Reading 239-1

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.

Buddha

This is a world of action, and not for moping and groaning in.

~ Charles Dickens

Think on This...
Music should be a part of each soul's development.

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