Tannishblog

The White House proposes a $20 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia. Can you believe this? The same nation that birthed Osama Bin Laden is offered high-tech weapons and upgrades to fighter jets by the nation that suffered from the same man’s obsessions: Freaking brilliant.

It’s just business as usual for the military-industrial Corporatocracy. "Who?" you ask. (Or maybe "What’s he getting on about?") You know, the people who have the money to influence elections, buy presidencies and profit on war and bloodshed; the people who really run this country. I cannot imagine that the founders of this country - in their worst nightmares - would have imagined the nation they strived so hard to create fall into the role of an unscrupulous gun seller. Kind of give new meaning to "Wild West."

Can our government get more out of touch with the will of it’s people? Can it get more arrogant? More defiant?

Yes. Things can always worsen. But I believe the bottom has been reached. The political pendulum is swinging away from rampant capitalism, pre-emptive aggression, and wanton destruction. We are moving away from the narrow, selfish greed of a well-placed few and steering the the nation back toward a sense of stewardship of it’s people and their needs.

Congress must stop this deal. But even the Democrats in congress will accept this hypocrisy if the American people don’t make a lot of noise against this move. Our unwillingness to cry foul in the face of political idiocy has gotten us into the mess we’re in. Will we, in our silence enable our nation to continue to be the butcher of the world through it’s insistence of selling war material to anyone who will pay?

What kind of future will that bring? There is only one logical end to such maneuvering: traffic in the tools of blood, and blood is the product. Only by a concerted effort of millions of Americans will this cease. Let’s make a new America: one that doesn’t profit from destruction.

Don’t expect congress to do this for us.

A Very Wise Man once said:

Today’s world requires us to accept the oneness of humanity… The world is becoming increasingly interdependent. Within the context of this new interdependence, self-interest clearly lies in considering the interest of others. Without the cultivation of a sense of universal responsibility our very future is in danger.

~ His Holiness the Dalai Lama

And that says it all.

Namaste

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks in Tannishburg. On July 9, I was laid off from a struggling company I worked for over the past three years. Too bad; I liked that job. Next came a week of ambiguous Internet job ads and digital red tape, as I emailed strangers and applied to a dwindling list of might-be-interesting positions. This activity netted three interviews.

To my surprise, I was offered a position Tuesday afternoon to start the next morning. This job will apply my skills in a new way, doing something I’ve never tried in an industry I never heard of until now. There’s a lot to learn.

That’s why my blogging has been sparse of late. In readjusting my energies, I’ve had less time to parse a whine out of the newsreels. I’ll get back into it as a routine develops. So please be patient, my three readers; the Tannishness will continue soon.

The NY Times’ Quote of the Day illustrates how broken our legislative process has become:

"Coal and nuclear count their lobbying budgets in the tens of millions. We count ours in the tens of thousands."
RHONE RESCH, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association

Where there is money, there is corruption. Our government no longer cares about steering the ship of state, nor is it concerned about helping it’s people. It gives no thought to securing a future of any kind, let alone a visionary future like the kind we dreamed during the space race.

The concern of our government, comprised of millionaires and elitists, is to further the padding of their wallets. Our congressmen (and women) are slaved to their own greed, puppets of corporate interests and are sold to the highest bidder. They are commodities in a futures market of votes as volatile as any exchange market on Wall Street. They have lost their way.

And people wonder why so few Americans bother to vote…

I contemplate loss this week. Not because I have lost a loved one, thankfully, but because I have been laid off from my job. Things come and then they go. I am at peace.

Sure there’s a family relying on my tepid ability to bring money into the house. I can still do that, will again when conditions arise. That will be soon because I am at peace. Things come and they go; peace is eternal.

While an earlier version of me would mourn the loss of a conceptual construct, through anger, resentment, denial, then finally acceptance, there is a shorter route. Why not go from loss straight to acceptance? Things com and go. That is the Nature of Things…

I do not worry because what was lost can be found, because what was lost is ephemeral, insubstantial, weightless. I wonder if it is real at all. It can be regained through a peaceful spirit, through patience.

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."

               ~  William James

No longer fear and loathing. Only peace and acceptance. And the understanding that I have lost nothing…. really.

With approval polls historically low, accountability hearings gaining momentum, outrageous deeds being questioned for a change, the Bush administration is squirming. Even Dick Cheney is on the defensive, and he doesn’t give a damn about anything.

But what’s an embattled White House to to? Trot out the fearmongers. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff lays it on the line during an interview:

We could easily be attacked. The intent to attack us remains as strong as it was on September 10, 2001…

I believe we’re entering a period this summer of increased risk. We’ve seen a lot more public statements from Al Qaeda. There are a lot of reasons to speculate about that but one reason that occurs to me is that they’re feeling more comfortable and raising expectations. In the last August, and in prior summers, we’ve had attacks against the West, which suggests that summer seems to be appealing to them. I think we do see increased activity in South Asia, so we do worry about whether they are rebuilding their capabilities. We’ve struck at them and degraded them, but they rebuild. All these things have given me kind of a gut feeling that we are in a period of increased vulnerability.

Yep. That should distract the American public from thinking - make them scared and their tiny little brains will cease functioning. It happened before, it’ll happen again. Ramp up the fear factor, multiply by ten, so the criminals in the White House can skate through the next few months, grab their overflowing portfolios full of defense firm stocks, and get the hell outta here.

Whip up the terror, whip it good.

Happy Monday to you! If you are indeed having a happy Monday, let me spoil it by highlighting some interesting stories from the weekend:

Nancy Pelosi is challenged by Cindy Sheehan, of all people, to deliver articles of impeachment in two weeks. So far, reactions are less than encouraging.

The White House refuses to cooperate with congressional investigations, are are blocking testimony of a White House aide. Still, Bush whines about our Do-Nothing-Congress, as if concerning itself with a six-year backlog of oversight is laziness.

While momentum grows for the impeachment of Dick Cheney, the Republican base jumps ship.

While the world obsesses over the price of oil, the real crisis of the twenty-first century is sneaking up on us: a water shortage. Or perhaps the collapse of the US Dollar.

British news preps their audience for 15 years of war, while Americans are warned of the dangers of premature withdrawal.

Halliburton’s stock is recovering nicely from last October’s fall; Blackwater still hasn’t announced it’s IPO, but other choices abound for the savvy investor.

That should curb your enthusiasm.

As for me, I’m holding my breath waiting for this fragile house of cards we call civilization to collapse. Shouldn’t be too long, now. Cue Elvis Costello: "Waiting for the end of the world…"

Another week, another Zen. While contemplating this ephemeral life, I note how time seems to accelerate even while relaxing. It does not last long. The wise make every moment count, knowing how few there are. The foolish squander their one true possession, time, to travel headlong and heedless toward time’s ending. Once there, we must all ask ourselves: What have I accomplished?

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God…

~ Walt Whitman

Another Zen realization from a Westerner. More proof that wisdom is reachable to anyone open to receive.

Namaste

"Illegal is only getting caught." That’s what my brother always said. But I "Scooter" Libby got caught. Yet because he’s pals with Karl "Puppetmaster" Rove and Dick "Shotgun" Cheney, George "Warmonger" Bush commutes Scooter’s prison time, like the puppet he is. A shag-carpeted prison is too onerous for a millionaire White House hack convicted of perjury. Thirty months is too harsh a punishment for aiding and abetting the uncovering of a covert agent - an act that would’ve been treasonous at any other point in American history.

Above the law doesn’t cut it: Transcending the law is more accurate. Illegal wars, patronage, incompetence, violations of Geneva Conventions, suspension of Habeas Corpus, illegal surveillance of citizens, illegal purges of US Attorneys, Using US troops for corporate advantage - all in a days work. Don’t look, don’t tell. Ask me no questions, I’ll tell you no lies. The laws are for everyone else, not me.

If you’re as sick of all this as I am, try this: the Honk To Impeach campaign is starting tomorrow, July 4th. Make a big signs that reads: "Honk to Impeach Bush" and "TEXT "IMPEACH" to 30644," bring a camera, and hang out at a busy intersection and have fun! Don’t forget to post your location on the events board.

Obviously our Democratic congress is not going to make the right move unless a huge noise is being made in the streets. Let’s make that noise! Demand action, take back our country from the multinational corporations who buy our candidates. Help reinstate Democracy! Do this because the laws are for everyone.

Chicago’s Edens Expressway was closed yesterday for seven hours. A Semi trailer tipped over and spilt it’s load on the northbound lanes near my house. Thankfully, no injuries were reported.

The northbound lanes of the Edens Expressway were shut down after the spilled pig ears, pig feet and grease created slippery road conditions. The affected lanes were reopened at about 3 p.m.

A sudden shift in the truck’s load caused it to tip onto its side near the Dempster Street entrance ramp in Skokie, according to Illinois Department of Transportation spokesman Mike Claffey. The Edens Expressway connects downtown Chicago to its northern suburbs.

[…]

The mess took hours to clean up.

IDOT workers used sand to absorb the grease, Claffey said. They also sprayed a foam usually used in hazardous materials situations, and dispensed rock salt to provide more traction.

"This is obviously something that’s really hard to clean up," Claffey said.

For those unfamiliar with Chicago area demographics, the Village of Skokie, where the accident happened, hosts one of the most prominent Jewish communities in the state. (So well-known that a Neo-Nazi group petitioned to stage a rally and parade in downtown Skokie in the late Seventies. They were denied.) Indeed, as one travels north on the Edens into Lake county, most of the suburbs serviced by the road are heavily populated by the Jewish community.

So, my twisted mind finds this incident ironic. C’mon - pig grease? Will the local Rabbis try to cleanse the tarmac?

NOTE: Before you start calling me names, I confess to being a happily married Jewish husband-by-proxy. My soulmate and I are busy raising an outstanding young Jewish woman who happens to have a Scandinavian surname. I’m no stranger to irony…