My Blog

HEY ARE YOU READING THIS? send me a response!

tomsepe — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:27:40 GMT

I'd like to get some idea of who is still using Tribe.net! I just noticed that I have 1 page view in a week. that has got to be the slowest I've ever seen. Well I probably check this like twice a week now and hardly ever post... But I like tribe.. I like my friends on tirbe and I like a lot of things about it! sigh. well I hope that you will at least post a response - one or two words - just to let me know that you are still here.

wireless microphone I can borrow tonight?

tomsepe — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 22:35:38 GMT

Does anyone have a wireless microphone I can borrow tonight? I'm shooting a little video about myself & the whirlygig and my warehouse is right next to the freeway so my camera mic picks up too much ambient noise. 510-499-0946 thomas@tomsepe.com

In Memory of Tiffa - 1 year

tomsepe — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:50:14 GMT

Dear Tiffa, I send my prayers out to you on your journey. It has been one year since your passing and I am thankful for your presence and the talents that you shared. You remind me to strive for excellence and to be bold and to make the most of this short time we have here in our lifetimes. Your light has touched so many that I love, and your smile and the brilliance in your eyes and soul will live forever. Go with blessings and love Tom Sepe

Why Tribe.net is Back Online - Update

tomsepe — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:28:56 GMT

I did a little digging now that tribe is up again and here are some info & links to explain what has been going on with Tribe.net From what I understand, there is a very small crew of people keeping Tribe.net alive right now - I'm talking 2 - 4 people if I understand it correctly. They attempted to move the physical location of tribe.net from one set of computers to another, but a series of hardware and social problems have set in. Tangled wires, faulty equipment, politics, frayed nerves, rabid dogs and who knows what else. I don't think they succeeded in moving tribe's servers, and the process of bringing it back online was anything but smooth, so once they got tribe plugged back in it kept crashing cause everyone was hitting it so hard trying to get back on! Now apparently Darren Mckeeman - Operations Manager @ Tribe.net has resigned, (read it here on Darren's twitter blog: http://twitter.com/tjcrowley ), apparently because his co-worker Mark Pincus cursed at him: http://markpincus.typepad.com/markpincus/2008/09/keeping-tribe-a.html Meanwhile DJ Shatter has been helping put tribe back together, http://people.tribe.net/the-shatter/blog/3e17d424-1c20-4889-ada4-65fd26403b6d while also planning an escape route; a ning.com site for tribe refugees: http://triberefugees.ning.com/ and then Shatter and his dog were attacked by a Pitbull: http://shatter707.livejournal.com/387498.html and his hands are all messed up. So its seems like its a miracle that tribe is working at all, and it is also a very real possibility that unless some brilliant, amazing, dedicated hardworking people step-up to the plate, tribe may eventually collapse under its own weight. If you want to get in on some discussions and be in contact with Mark Pincus: http://markpincus.typepad.com/markpincus/2008/09/we-have-receive.html Darren Mckeeman darren@tribe.net (and here is the official company blog: http://blog.tribe.net/ but don't know how useful that is.) Shatter: twitter.com/Shatter242 Hope this helps! Tom Sepe

Hey my picture's in the paper!

tomsepe — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 04:50:54 GMT

"CAF has a rich history of performance art; pictured here are Mark Elk Baum and Tom Sepe in their 1994 performance, Taken by the Faerie." http://independent.com/news/2008/aug/26/cafs-forum-lounge-brings-avant-garde-art-events-sb/ CAF’s Forum Lounge Brings Avant-Garde Art Events to S.B. (from the Santa Barbara Independent) wow we got mentioned in the same article along with Laurie Anderson, Wayne McCall and Dick Dunlap

Hand-some

tomsepe — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:33:25 GMT

Hand-some and then some more pushing pounding pumpin p-OUCH! "i knew that was going to happen" (how many times have we said that?) now crippled by my own sense of urgency watching the painting that the universe and I have created the art of being alive bright red blood a feeiing of shock and adrenaline time to take a break will I be able to keep working? would you like some water? grab the camera - its a cool shape see it? like a man with a bleeding heart... bleeding is good (so is breathing) let it out let the offering sink into the soil let it reach for the ground water that we so desperately need let there be this exchange and let us get back to work for we do need this well to be working and let us work well as well. these hands are still working! Some hands!

China - Time to Know the Truth

tomsepe — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:17:51 GMT

Please help us forward our new video! goto: http://digitaldharmafilms.org/2008/08/china-time-to-know-the-truth/ Dear friends and supporters, Digital Dharma Films is proud to announce that our new video is launching on YouTube today! And we need your help to forward the video to all your friends, family and colleagues, as well as posting it to your social networking sites. First here's the link and then details and instructions follow: http://digitaldharmafilms.org/2008/08/china-time-to-know-the-truth/ There you can watch the video and find out more about what you can do to get involved. Background: March 10th 2008 marked the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising. In the largest Pan-Tibetan protests in history, tens of thousands of Tibetans rose up against China's illegal invasion and occupation of their country. Despite China's best attempts to destroy the Tibetan spirit, Tibetan resistance has continued for nearly half a century inside Tibet and in exile communities worldwide. With all eyes focused on the Olympics in China, Tibetans and supporters worldwide are protesting the Chinese government's use of the Olympics as a political tool to legitimize its illegal occupation of Tibet. Digital Dharma Films travelled to Dharamsala and New Delhi India, as well as San Francisco in April 2008 to document and interview Tibetan Exiles during these historic and tumultuous times. We are producing a full length documentary, due out in Spring 2009. We need your help to spread the word and in donations to make this film possible and to make a difference towards a just and peaceful world. Please help us - if we can achieve 50,000 views in the first 48 hours on YouTube, then our video will be listed on the "Daily Most Watched" page which has the potential to reach millions of viewers. Please help out in this grassroots video activist action to educate, inspire and activate! Here is the link to our website video page: http://digitaldharmafilms.org/2008/08/china-time-to-know-the-truth/ Here is the direct link to the embedded youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U1zXO-O_ng and here is the code if you want to embed it into your blog or web page: <div id="tmip-1-279108"><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/-U1zXO-O_ng&hl=en"></ param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/-U1zXO-O_ng&hl=en" type="application/x- shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></ embed></object></div> <script language="javascript" type="text/ javascript" src="http://inplay.tubemogul.com/ipembed? v=1&site=1&uid=279108&vid=-U1zXO-O_ng&key=-U1zXO-O_ng"></script> Thanks! Tom Sepe Andrea Vecchione Digital Dharma Films Illuminating Justice, Invoking Compassion info@digitaldharmafilms.org

There and Back Again - http://digitaldharmafilms.org

tomsepe — Fri, 23 May 2008 23:56:19 GMT

Dear Friends and Supporters, in this UPDATE: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1) Return From India 2) Announcing Our New Website: www.digitaldharmafilms.org 3) Fundraising! 4) How You Can Help - Connections & Donations 5) Infrastructure Creation 6) Milestones: Events Locations & Interviews We Filmed 7) THANK YOU! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1) Return from India: Andrea and I have returned from an incredibly successful trip in India and I wanted to share with you the milestones we have achieved and the current and future plans of our film project. We are deeply grateful with how magical this trip has unfolded; from the tremendous support from our community, to the incredible connections that arose in the Tibetan Exile community. 2) Announcing our new website! http://digitaldharmafilms.org We're very excited about our new webspace. It is functionally a Wordpress Blog - so we'll be able to update it easily, and we'll be able to post photos and videos and links related to the project. We've also installed a forum: http://digitaldharmafilms.org/forums/ which will provide a place for community dialogue and discussion about our film and topics such as Tibet, Non-Violence, China, Activism etc. If you have a website please add a link to us, because that is what search engines like, and it will also help get the word out. 3) Fundraising! There is a lot of exciting funding possibilities unfolding for our film. We are working on getting a fiscal sponsor which will allow us to receive tax-deductible grants and donations. If you made a contribution and would like to receive a tax-write-off, please let us know and we will get you the proper paperwork before the year's end. 4) How You Can Help: Please send us information about any grants, foundations, organizations or individuals that may be interested helping out our project. We are looking for resources of all kinds! If you know of some great informative websites, send us the link! We are still totally community and self-funded, so any donation, even $20 still makes a big difference right now. You can visit our website: http://digitaldharmafilms.org/donate/ or send checks to: Tom Sepe 430 Ashland St. Ashland, OR 97520 5) Infrastructure Creation: We are feverishly working on our mission statement and general proposal so that people can understand on paper what we are up to. We are also working on a 5-10min promo video that will give people a taste of the subject matter and style we are presenting. Stay tuned we'll let you know when its ready for viewing! 5) Milestones: Events, Locations and Interviews that we filmed: Interview: Laurel Sutherlin (1 of the 3 activists from Golden Gate Bridge Banner Action) - 4/3/08 "March To Tibet" Fundraiser at 1015 Folsom 4/6/08 Interview: Kunsang Kelden (Students for Free Tibet International Board of Directors) http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/ - 4/6/08 Golden Gate Bridge Banner Action/Protest - 4/7/08 Interview: Karsh Kale http://www.karshkale.com/ 4/7/08 Interview: Robin Goodfellow (CYPHERTOWN) http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cyphertown/ - 4/7/08 "Tibet Freedom Torch" Ceremony @ United Nations Plaza, SF - http://www.tibetanfreedomtorch.org/ 4/8/08 "Tibet Candlelight Vigil" with Richard Gere, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others at U.N. Plaza, SF - 4/8/08 Interview: Karen Garfinkle www.solutionsinaction.com 4/8/08 S.F. Olympic Torch Protest - 4/9/08 Interview: Tenzin Tsundue http://www.friendsoftibet.org/tenzin/ - McLeodgnaj, India Children & Students Candlelight Vigil & Procession- McLeodganj, India Ongoing Hunger Strike - McLeodganj, India 4/14/08 Interview: Mary Gendler (ANEC - Active Non-Violence Education Center) McLeodganj, India 4/15/08 Interview: John Powers (Author - "History as Propaganda") McLeodganj, India 4/16/08 Tibetan Freedom Torch - Delhi, India http://www.tibetanfreedomtorch.org/ 4/17/08 March To Tibet - Press Conference and March Delhi, India http://tibetanuprising.org/2008/04/18/press-release-march-resumes/ 4/18/08 Gandhi Memorial and Museum, Delhi, India 4/18/08 Interview: Pema Richardson (Tibetan-American) (Media Team of March to Tibet) Delhi, India http://tibetanuprising.org/ 4/18/08 Interview: 6 ex-political prisoners (Tibetan Monks) 4/20/08 Sherbling Tibetan Buddhist Monastary Palampur, India 4/22/08 Interview: Wangdu (Tibetan Exile) 4/23/08 Interview: Urgen Tenzin (Director, Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy) www.tchrd.org/ 4/24/08 Students at T.I.P.A - (Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts) http://www.tibetanarts.org/ 4/25/08 Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche - (Prime Minister of Tibetan Government-in-exile) http://www.tibet.com/ 4/25/08 Kyizom Tsam (Tibetan) (ANEC - Active Non-Violence Education Center) 4/27/08 Dali Lama's arrival - McLeodganj, India 4/28/08 Buddhist Monks Debating at McLeodganj Monastery 4/28/08 Interview: Dhardon Sharling (Research and Media - Tibetan Woman's Association) http://www.tibetanwomen.org/ 4/28/08 Buddhist Nuns Debating at Geden Choeling Nunnery, McLeodganj http://gedenchoelingnunnery.org/ 4/28/08 7) THANK YOU! A big shout-out to everyone: Thank you so much for your time, your support, your words, your contributions, your connections. This project is truly showing the power of community and how we can all make a difference by lending each other a hand. We are dedicated in our service to justice, non-violence, community and creative expression! Hip-Hip-Hooray!

Tibet Video Update: More great interviews & a haircut

tomsepe — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 08:12:09 GMT

We’ve had another epic couple of days. We have been so blessed. Here’s some news: 1) Yesterday we interviewed Mr. Urgen Tenzin, the Executive Director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights And Democracy http://www.tchrd.org/ 2) Today we filmed at TIPA - the Tibetan Institute for Performing Arts… 3) AND the big news is that we just had an exclusive interview with Sondhum Rinpoche, the head of the Tibetan Governement in Exile! http://www.tibet.com/ The breaking news is that the Chinese Govt. as agreed to meet with the Tibetan Parliment! On a more personal note - I shaved my head in solidarity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs1Xvqt0EkI and I've posted a bunch of photos from the trip on my flickr page, please check them out! http://flickr.com/photos/tomsepe/sets/72157604737751065/ Namaste, Tom

Tibet Connections

tomsepe — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:30:44 GMT

(photo of March To Tibet monks at the Gandhi Memorial in Delhi) Things are going incredibly well. We are getting some great interviews! We just interviewed Dr. John Powers - checkout his book "History as Propaganda: Tibetan Exiles versus the People's Republic of China" on Oxford University Press. We also interviewed Mary Gendler, who has been doing non-violent training here in India with the Tibetans for over 15 years! She was also close with the King family and involved with the March on Selma. A few nights ago we did an audio-only interview with 6 ex-political prisoners - Tibetan Monks that had all been tortured and imprisoned by the Chinese Government. They did not want their faces to be shown for fear that the Chinese Governement will persecute their families back in occupied Tibet. In addition we have been befriended by a wonderful couple here - Ronny and Rebeca Novick. Rebeca works for KPFK radio in Los Angeles, and Ronnie does video documentary work. They have a fantastic website: http://thetibetconnection.org/ Together with Ronny and Rebecca we are going to create a website tibetin49seconds.org where we will have a youtube video contest for people to submit their 49 second videos on the subject of Tibet. I'm excited to start the editing process. We are starting to review some of our tapes while here.... its been such a whirlwind! We are planning a couple of screenings here this week to share some of the footage from San Francisco - I think the Tibetans will get a kick out of seeing the thousands of protestors in SF as well as hearing the inspirational words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro3N5D7T_sk Anyhow that's the update... We are still planning more interviews and some trips to some monasteries... stay tuned! Tom

grow

tomsepe — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:43:02 GMT

I am naively and boldly stepping into a world I know little about - to show my solidarity, to witness, to learn... and hopefully to add to the discourse. To take a few steps in time. Our hearts and our minds and our very concept of humanity washes up against the shores of history... an erosion of what we know, a settling of what is real, a layer in this timely fold of earth. I am so blessed. I am so terrified. I create beauty and joy and inspiration. My choice is to reach for the sun and grow.

Inside Tibet today - Dead body of a Tibetan monk being kicked by Chinese Police

tomsepe — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:31:04 GMT

this photo is allegedly from inside Tibet earlier today. for security reasons, the senders details are withdrawn. "You breathe in the pain of a specific person or animal that you wish to help. You breathe out to that person spaciousness or kindness or a good meal or a cup of coffee - whatever you feel would lighten their load. You can do this for anyone: the homeless mother that you pass on the street, your suicidal uncle, or yourself and the pain you are feeling at that very moment. The main point is that the suffering should be real, totally untheoretical. It should be heartfelt, tangible, honest, and vivid." After a while you expand the exchange: "You use specific instances of misery and pain as a stepping stone for understanding the universal suffering of people and animals everywhere. .... What you feel for one person, you can extend to all people." "You need to work with ... both the immediate suffering of one person and the universal suffering of all. .... Working with both situations together makes the practice real and heartfelt; at the same time, it provides vision and a way for you to work with everyone else in the world." Tonglen practice is part of the Seven Points of Mind Training, a widely cherished set of guidelines for bringing adverse situations onto the path of meditation, and developing bodhichitta — the unconditional compassion which waters the seed of Buddhahood. Pema Chödrön

Request for Video Camera - Going to Dharmasala to interview Tibetans

tomsepe — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:33:16 GMT

I'm leaving April 7th to go and document the Tibetan uprising. I'm in need of a video camera, or funding to purchase one. Ideally I would like to use a "prosumer" HD DV camera, such as the Canon VIXIA HV20 HDV Camcorder which will cost about $1000 or less. I prefer a tape-based camera as opposed to memory stick or direct to DVD, for the sake of quality and ease of editing in native DV format. I'm hoping that someone has a camera that I can borrow for a month, or is willing to help me to purchase one for the cause of the Tibetan people's struggle for independence. I will be meeting up with my friend and collegue Andrea Vecchione who has been on the ground in India for the past month. This is a self-funded project, as most of the Tibetan activist organizations are stretched beyond their means to be able to grant such a request, although I plan to coordinate with Students for Free Tibet as well as other organizations. You can send me contributions via PayPal: thomas@tomsepe.com. What's $20? or via snail mail Thomas Sepe 430 Ashland St Ashland, OR 07520

I've been interviewed by Steampunkworkshop.com !!!

tomsepe — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:23:53 GMT

Its short and there's a cute little video and some photos and some links: http://www.steampunkworkshop.com/steampunk-motorbike.shtml feels kinda exciting... AND I was interviewed on KPFA last week along with Sean Orlando of the Steampunk Treehouse and Zach Rukstela of Kinetic Steamworks: http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=25215 tom sepe

FREE TIBET!!!!

tomsepe — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 04:11:16 GMT

Exile Groups say 30 Killed in Tibet: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031508A.shtml http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/ http://www.savetibet.org

I'm on kpfa!

tomsepe — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 05:08:31 GMT

right now Sunday march 9th 10pm-11pm on kpfa 94.1 fm with Sean from the steamtreehouse and Zach of kinetic steam works! you can listen to the broadcast on the kpfa website after the show too.

Turning 37 - 3/3/2008

tomsepe — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:24:30 GMT

Tomorrow I will mark 37 years around the Sun.... And I feel as if I may as well be turning 40. A mid-life moment. Not gonna say crisis, cause in a way that word is too small and too immediate. My whole life has been a crisis of sorts - always shifting, always questioning, always trying something new..." a time of intense difficulty, trouble or danger" as well as a time of intense joy, ease and safety. Life has felt very full. And now I seek roots. I seek land. I seek connection to a place. My visionary image is that of a very old and beautiful tree - planted, rooted, majestic, life giving, and weathering what comes - being committed to a place. And though I feel this massive Oak tree inside me, I am still but a tiny acorn rolling willy-nilly down the hill.. bouncing on the rocks, avoiding the squirrels, looking for that most fertile of places in which to hunkerdown, but mostly feeling cast by fate into the river of time... floating in spirals of possibility and watching the sky continuously change from grey to white to blue to orange to red to black.... My friends, for my birthday I ask for a simple gift from you. A magical gift of manifestation & connection. I ask you to hold a vision in your hearts of a beautiful magical rural home - a place where many of you can come to gather in the summer time, retreat to in the winter time, a place that is vibrant and life giving, with clean water and fresh air and bountiful trees. A space to build things, a space to grow things, a space to learn. Good. Now imagine a string of hands reaching out to me... maybe one hand is yours, maybe in your other hand is a friend's, maybe she reaches to another, and another, until that circle comes back around and a new hand reaches mine. And within that circle of friends there is a place called home. And I ask spirit to reveal this place to me through this circle - a real place of soil and rock, leaf and flower, house and shed. And may we someday soon stand in a real circle in that place and join hands and reside in the hearth of community. So mote it be. Thank you! I will be in Portland March 2nd - 4th, and dropping into the Bay Area Fri Mar 7th - Sun Mar 9th I hope to see some of my friends!

PREPARE FOR DREAM TRANSMISSION

tomsepe — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:24:07 GMT

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! watch this video: http://www.vimeo.com/656424/ "It began with a dream... As mind became one with the machine, our consciousness was immersed in a digital reality as real as any other... We struggled to keep spirit alive, But saturated by media we lost our ability to dream and longed for escape from the ravaged Earth... And so it was given to us..." !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

beyond the threshold

tomsepe — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:55:07 GMT

????????????? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTspKzhI4Bw&feature=related ??????????

I LOVE YOU MY FRIENDS! (with a little help...)

tomsepe — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:20:11 GMT

(come on sing along or better yet just put the song on the stereo RIGHT NOW! DO IT!) What would you think if I sang out of tune Would you stand up and walk out on me? Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song And I'll try not to sing out of key Oh I get by with a little help from my friends Mm I get high with a little help from my friends Mm going to try with a little help from my friends What do I do when my love is away? (Does it worry you to be alone?) How do I feel by the end of the day? (Are you sad because you're on your own?) No I get by with a little help from my friends Mm I get high with a little help from my friends Mm going to try with a little help from my friends (Do you need anybody?) I need somebody to love (Could it be anybody?) I want somebody to love (Would you believe in a love at first sight?) Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time (What do you see when you turn out the light?) I can't tell you, but I know it's mine Oh I get by with a little help from my friends Mm I get high with a little help from my friends Oh I'm going to try with a little help from my friends (Do you need anybody?) I just need somebody to love (Could it be anybody?) I want somebody to love Oh I get by with a little help from my friends Mm going to try with a little help from my friends Oh I get high with a little help from my friends Yes I get by with a little help from my friends With a little help from my friends MAY YOU FIND NEW AND SURPRISING WAYS TO LOVE YOURSELF TODAY AND EVERYDAY!

Leaving Iraq Will Help Economy (duh)

tomsepe — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:28:28 GMT

Washington - The heck with Congress' big stimulus bill. The way to get the country out of recession - and most people think we're in one - is to get the country out of Iraq, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. (article from truthout.org: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021008C.shtml) Pulling out of the war ranked first among proposed remedies in the survey, followed by spending more on domestic programs, cutting taxes and, at the bottom end, giving rebates to poor people in hopes they'll spend the economy into recovery. The $168 billion economic rescue package Congress rushed to approval this week includes rebates of $600 to $1,200 for most taxpayers, the hope being that they will spend the money and help revive ailing businesses. President Bush is expected to sign the measure next week. Poor wage-earners, as well as seniors and veterans who live almost entirely off Social Security and disability benefits, would get $300 checks. However, just 19 percent of the people surveyed said they planned to go out and spend the money; 45 percent said they'd use it to pay bills. And nearly half said what the government really should do is get out of Iraq. Forty-eight percent said a pullout would help fix the country's economic problems "a great deal," and an additional 20 percent said it would help at least somewhat. Some 43 percent said increasing government spending on health care, education and housing programs would help a great deal; 36 percent said cutting taxes. "Let's stop paying for this war," said Hilda Sanchez, 44, of Waterford, Calif. "There are a lot of people who are struggling. We can use the money to pay for medical care and help people who were put out of their homes." The subject of leaving Iraq shows a sharp partisan divide - 65 percent of Democrats think it would help the economy a lot, but only 18 percent of Republicans think so. Just 29 percent of people think putting more money in the hands of the poor would help a great deal in fixing the country's economic problems. According to many economists, the lower people are on the income ladder, the more probable it is that they will spend a rebate and do it quickly - a shot in the arm for the ailing economy. In the poll, 61 percent said they think the economy is already in a recession. "Things are bad, but it will get a lot worse," said Jim Sims, 60, of Greer, S.C. And Nanette Dahlin, 52, of St. Louis Park, Minn., said the economic stimulus package "would only make a recession less damaging." The economy nearly stalled in the final three months of last year. Some economists, like the majority of poll respondents, say it may actually be shrinking now, given the strains from a persistent housing slump and a painful credit crunch. The worry is that people and businesses will hunker down further and pull back their spending, sending the economy into a tailspin. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has gotten more forceful in cutting interest rates to spur people to buy more and to energize businesses. And now Republicans, Democrats and the White House have shown rare cooperation in approving relief. Rebate checks could start showing up in mailboxes in May. However, Sanchez is typical is saying the money will "go automatically to bills." Thirty-two percent said they would save or invest the rebate. Said Sims: "I'm hoping to hold onto it." Just 19 percent - like Dahlin - said they would spend it, while 4 percent said they would donate it to charity. Paying off bills or saving the money won't give the economy a quick boost, though it may well be a wise financial decision for many people who are up to their eyeballs in bills. "What is good for the economy as a whole - spending a rebate - is not the best idea at an individual household level if you are buried in debt," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. "Issuing rebate checks to give a boost to consumer spending amounts to a Band-Aid over the much bigger problem of consumer debt burdens," he said. With Wall Street in turmoil, the top economic worry for poll respondents was seeing their nest eggs shrink. Fifty-nine percent said they were worried "a lot" or "some" about seeing the value of stocks and retirement investments drop. Those approaching retirement fretted the most. Nearly half - 46 percent - said they were worried about being able to pay their bills. This is especially a concern for people whose household incomes are under $50,000, and for minorities. Twenty-eight percent most feared losing their jobs; minorities and those with a high school education or less were especially concerned. Also, 48 percent of homeowners polled worried that the value of their homes would drop. The housing bust has led to record-high foreclosures, and weaker home values have made people feel less wealthy. Who deserves most of the blame for the economy's troubles? More than half - 56 percent - pointed the finger at mortgage lenders. Forty-four percent said Bush deserves a lot of the blame. After that come Congress, Wall Street, consumers themselves and in last place the Federal Reserve. The Fed has the public's confidence that it will be able to right the economy. More than half - 55 percent - said they have a great deal or some confidence in Fed to turn things around. Forty-one percent said that about Congress, only 28 percent about Bush. In fact, economic problems have contributed to pulling the president's approval ratings to all-time lows. Only 29 percent approve of his handling of the economy, the lowest mark yet in this polling. Bush's overall job-approval rating slid to 30 percent, also a record low. The AP-Ipsos poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday this week and involved telephone interviews with 1,006 adults. It had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. AP Director of Surveys Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021008C.shtml

Swim against the current folks! (Even a dead fish can go with the flow)

tomsepe — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:21:46 GMT

True stories about commonsense people who are choosing to buck the system and make their escape from the given order in such areas as business, politics, health care, food, banking, and religion. Here's an excerpt from Jim Hightower's new book: "Swim against the current folks! (Even a dead fish can go with the flow)" original article can be found here: http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/1538 ~ Tom SUSAN DEMARCO AND I WANT TO GIVE YOU LOWDOWNERS A SPECIAL PREVIEW of our new book, for it personalizes the positive grassroots message that the Lowdown keeps hammering. Titled Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, our book encourages people to break away from conventional wisdom and live their progressive values. We've written it by telling stories of more than 50 individuals and groups all across the country that are showing the way for all of us. These are commonsense people who are choosing to buck the system and make their escape from the given order in such areas as business, politics, health care, food, banking, and religion. None are Einsteins, heirs to Rockefeller fortunes, or people who just got lucky. They're regular Americans who've decided to exit the corporate interstate, define success for themselves, and do exactly what the established powers want you to believe can't be done--forge new paths toward richer lives, happiness... and a better world. The institutions of power use everything from the lure of money to punitive threats to keep us hitched to their plows, but the wonderful thing about Americans is that we have a healthy rebellious streak and the freedom to make choices. The kinds of rebels you'll read about in our book are the great hope and true leaders of America. Here are excerpts from the stories of just a few of these folks. Call me a cab I first encountered Union Cab Cooperative one morning in 2000 when I asked a Madison hotel clerk in Madison, Wisconsin, to call a taxi. On the ride to the airport, I struck up a conversation with the driver, who proudly informed me that I was riding in the car of a worker-owned company. He said he'd been one of the founders of the co-op and that they'd come a long way, enduring lots of struggles. "But it's been worth the ride," he told me, for he'd been able to raise a family, send his kid to college, and live a modest, middle-class life. It started when a group of drivers in Wisconsin's capital city got fed up with the situation at Checker Cab, where they were being paid only 40c an hour, with no benefits and no rights. In July 1976, they took their first rebellious step by trying to unionize. Dave Everitt (still with the co-op) approached the Retail Clerks union, an organizing committee was formed, 75% of Checker workers signed certification cards, and union representatives and potential new members were invited to a general meeting. It was a disaster. When the union reps arrived, they found a roomful of spirited cabbies deep into several cases of beer, with sweet-smelling herbal smoke billowing out the doors. Shortly afterward, the union said, "No, thanks," leaving the drivers fearful of losing their jobs. But they held firm, reached out to other unions, and in the fall signed an agreement to join the Laundry and Dry Cleaners International Union (LDIU). The what!?! It might seem like an odd fit, but one of the cabbies knew Tom Kiesgen, the organizer of LDIU, and Kiesgen took a sincere interest in representing the group. "Here were people with ability, intelligence, and good hearts who were willing to help each other out," he said. "They were left hanging, and we moved on it." The anti-union boss at Checker promptly trumped up reasons to dump anyone who'd been on the union-organizing committee. Then, to test the resolve of the workers, he stalled contract negotiations for months. In September 1977, the cabbies went on strike, and 99% walked off the job. Four days later, Checker signed. With this success, the members really bonded, which is not easy for taxi drivers since they're mostly alone in their cabs and vying against one another to get the best fares. "Now, suddenly, we were working as a unit," said one of the drivers. However, in September 1978, the owner walked away from negotiations on a new contract. This led to a second strike that brought three months of confrontations and anxiety. But the strike also generated a growing camaraderie among the members, and they came up with some clever labor actions (for example, when the owner tried to bring in scab drivers to make airport runs, the union chartered a bus, drove to the airport, and offered free rides into the city as an alternative to taking a scab cab). Again, nearly 100% of workers supported the strike. Then, just in time for Christmas joy, news came that the owner was bailing out and shutting down Checker Cab, leaving the cabbies with a union but no jobs. That's when many of the discarded Checker drivers asked, "Why not start our own cab company?" After all, who had done the driving, dispatching, maintenance, bookkeeping, and all the other chores involved in running the company? Not the boss--them! They figured that within their ranks, they had enough expertise to be successful. Later, one admitted, "Our desire to form a cab company was greater than our realization of how difficult it would be." In January 1979, five of the cabbies decided to form a workerowned company, stepping off the cliff and fashioning their wings as they went. The founders split up the tasks of finding a lawyer, applying for taxi permits from the city, getting an FCC radio license, making financial projections, and so on. The one who was best at numbers drew up a business plan, calculating that the group needed $150,000 to start up. But who was going to front money for a bunch of unemployed cab drivers? At first, no one. While scrambling for capital, they decided to organize not merely as a workerowned company, but also as a cooperative, for this both reflected their values and opened up brighter funding prospects. The original five, plus a couple of others, raised money from friends and family members; after a community appeal, the people of Madison put up a few thousand dollars in donations of $25 each; and a citysponsored development fund came through with a loan. This loosened up other loans from the Small Business Administration and a local bank, giving the organizers the lift they needed. On October 29, 1979, Union Cab Cooperative opened for business with 11 used cars and an average wage of 80c an hour. Then trouble started for real. Union Cab did not yet have a listing in the Yellow Pages, gasoline prices were spiking, the co-op lost $35,000 in the first three months, and the bankers got fidgety. But from out of the darkness, Lady Luck suddenly smiled, casting three rays of hope upon the endangered co-op. The first came in February 1980, when the Madison city council, recognizing the unexpected financial squeeze caused by fuel prices, allowed the city's two taxi companies to boost their rates. Ten weeks after that, the second ray of luck shone down when the other taxi company closed, a victim of a community backlash against its truly horrific service. Then, just one week later, the brightest beam radiated from above: Madison's bus drivers went on strike. Grabbing the opportunity, the co-op quickly added five more cabs and enjoyed a three-month bonanza, giving the company the financial strength it needed to keep moving forward In the early 1980s, Union Cab was doing well. It moved into expanded facilities, added new services (such as parcel deliveries and airport limousines), and brought in new members to the co-op. With rapid growth, however, came dissension. "Size dictates some changes," said former general manager Steve Krumrei. "When you have over a hundred people, you can't have the same intimacy as you can when you've got a group of twenty or thirty people." The founding cohesiveness was waning, and internal conflicts flared. In such times, a family needs to reach out for help, and Union Cab did. From its start, the co-op had benefited from the advice and support of other cooperatives in the area, and the board now turned to them and to a national co-op for assistance in reorganizing management structure. Today, Union Cab Cooperative is the largest of three taxi companies in Madison and the third largest in the state. It still has ups and downs, but the co-op is now firmly rooted in the community and bearing fruit for all involved, with annual revenues of $6 million. Equally important, Union Cab has retained its cooperative spirit. Its slogan is "Democracy in Motion"--and yes, T-shirts are available. Connection: www.unioncab.coop Get on the bus Then there is politics. Yes, American politics are a mess, but they don't have to be. You are a citizen, and if you really want America to be a self-governing nation, then you have to take responsibility for making it so. Self-government means just what it says. The selves are you and me--and you and you. Look what happened when a loose group of politically frustrated young Oregonians gathered at the Rogue Brewery in Portland in 2001 to talk about fomenting a little rebellion in the politics of their state. These young folks were not "political" people in the usual sense--none held office, worked in politics, or were politically connected. But they were concerned that Oregon, with a long tradition of progressive policies and politicians, was suffering from a bad case of creeping right-wingism. They wanted things to change, but what could they do? One guy seemed to have the closest thing to an actual plan. Jefferson Smith, a twenty-something lawyer, had done the political math. He reported that although Republicans dominated the state house by a margin of 35-25 and the senate by 16-14, a significant number of the GOP lawmakers came from suburban and rural districts where they were winning elections by margins as slim as a few hundred votes. "Let's get out of Portland!" Smith exclaimed in a Eureka! moment. What if hundreds of young volunteers were to go to these swing districts to help progressive candidates? Flip a couple of seats in the senate and six or so in the house, and the whole state agenda would change. Yeah, let's go! But where? How? To do what? "None of us knew what we were biting off," Smith admitted later. Still, they pushed ahead. Funding is always short in these grassroots ventures, so an ability to scrounge is essential. The initial group kicked in some funds, hit up some friends and family members, and soon got a reputation for throwing cool parties to raise cash. From the start, everyone agreed that to engage young volunteers, the effort had to be different... and fun. This led to the notion of the bus. It began as a mundane discussion on how to transport volunteers to the districts. "We'll just rent a bus," said Smith. "You know," chimed in Charles Lewis, "you can buy one a lot cheaper than rent one." Okay, our own bus! Cool. Where do we get one? Turns out Smith's dad, Joe, knew a mechanic who knew a guy out in Spokane who sold used buses. Joe made a call, flew out with a mechanic friend to kick the tires, loaned the group $11,000, and drove back to Portland in a 47-seat 1978 charter bus. Now the group had both wheels and a name: Oregon Bus Project. Just quirky enough to grab people's attention and give them a symbol connected to the inspiring history of Rosa Parks and the Freedom Riders (with maybe a little Ken Kesey and Willie Nelson thrown in). Plus, it provided a big, visible, mobile presence, physically representing democracy in motion, while also offering the Project a snappy slogan: "Get on the Bus!" This was politics that did not seem off-putting, intimidating, hierarchical... dull. "We knew that most of our friends weren't spending their time going to politicalparty meetings," Smith said. "We needed to make politics a piece of people's social lives." Caitlin Baggott, who was one of the first trip organizers, said, "A question we're asked all the time is 'How do you do it? How do you get these young people involved?' And I think the answer is really simple: You ask them!" The Project was not about a political party but about values and ideas, engaging young people to make a difference in moving Oregon and the country in a progressive direction. It was welcoming, fun, idealistic, and important--elements that appeal to people of all ages. The Project contacted a couple of senate candidates in suburban districts who said, "Yeah, if you can bring us a few kids to go door-todoor with us on Saturday, that'd be swell." Project organizers recruited volunteers from activist groups, circles of friends, and colleges. They also made use of something new to politics--email--and created the first political email list in the state. "We had no idea if this was going to work, whether we'd get ten people or fill up the bus," said Baggott. She got to the staging area at seven in the morning, hung the big "Get on the Bus" banner, put out the coffee and doughnuts--and hoped. A car arrived, then another . . . and eventually more than 150 people rolled in. The only ones more pleasantly surprised than the organizers were the candidates. "They didn't really expect us to come through," Baggott said. The Project quickly gained some serious political buzz, and candidates began to call them, putting up a few bucks for gas money and supplying food. On a typical trip, the bus and accompanying caravan of cars pulled into a school parking lot in the targeted district and were greeted by the candidate and a throng of local supporters. Garrett Downen, now the managing director of the bus, said that the local folks usually erupted in cheers "because here comes the cavalry." Making trip after trip into numerous suburbs, down the coast, into the hard-hit timber communities, out to Deschutes County, and elsewhere, the Bus Project brought thousands of new people into politics, knocked on tens of thousands of doors, and had an impact that those who had met in the Rogue Brewery six years earlier would not have dared to imagine. In the 2002 and 2004 elections, the Project focused on the senate, targeting a total of ten races. Project candidates won nine, taking control of the senate out of right-wing hands. In 2006, the Project turned to the house. Focusing on ten swing districts, Project candidates again won nine, moving the house out of right-wing control, too. But the impact goes beyond legislative realignment to the personal. The Project's approach empowered ordinary people to be the difference makers. It bought no ads, hired no consultants, and did no mass mailings. It was all volunteer power--face-to-face, doorstep politicking--and enormously invigorating for the volunteers because they could truly sense that their individual participation mattered. Connection: www.busproject.org Acorn Not all effective participation has to be aimed at candidates. George Wiley, the smart, charismatic founder of the National Welfare Rights Organization, realized in the late 1960s that very-low-income people were destined to remain a small minority with limited power in the American system unless they could forge an alliance with those living a rung or two higher on the economic ladder. To give this broader strategy a try, Wiley dispatched a young, savvy, tireless, and talented organizer, Wade Rathke, to Little Rock, Arkansas. All Rathke had to do was to unite such disparate constituencies as black welfare mothers and lowincome Southern whites in a state that was deeply divided racially. At the time, this seemed as impossible as trying to herd cats. However, anyone who says you can't herd cats never tried a can opener. Rathke's can opener was the notion of the common interest. Thirty-seven years after its Arkansas start, ACORN has become America's largest neighborhood-based group fighting for economic justice. It has some 350,000 members in 110 cities in 39 states. While the establishment media has largely ignored it, ACORN has been a key member of coalitions that have passed living-wage laws in 140 cities and dozens of states. Like the churches and unions that are also integral to the success of the living-wage coalitions, ACORN has the institutional staying power to keep pushing. William Kyser and the ACORN chapter in Albuquerque show the importance of this staying power. Kyser's family joined in 2004, and the next year they became heavily involved in the group's campaign to raise the city's minimum wage to $7.50 an hour. By then, William had become the host of ACORN's talk show on the local publicaccess television channel, and he interviewed economists, citycouncil members, and minimumwage workers from such outfits as McDonald's to inform and energize the community. "I'm not Merv Griffin," William said, "but I like talking to people." The whole Kyser family helped ACORN gather 33,000 signatures to get the wage increase on the ballot. It was a tremendous organizing effort, but business interests dumped a truckload of cash into the fight, and the initiative lost by a narrow margin. In too many progressive battles, that would have been the end. Volunteers would be discouraged, money would dry up, and the coalition would disperse. With ACORN, however, a loss can be seen as a learning experience and a building block for the next step. "We've got people talking about the wage increase now," William said buoyantly, just after the 2005 vote. "We've learned a lot. I think we know now how to pass it." And they did. ACORN came back in 2006 to win in Albuquerque, and in 2007, it got New Mexico's governor to extend the pay raise statewide. Connection: www.acorn.org Where you live Such stories abound throughout our land, getting little or no media attention. Our book covers a wide range of these mavericks--the women of the Lusty Lady Theater http://www.lustyladysf.com/ , for example, along with Peace Coffee http://www.peacecoffee.com/ , evangelical environmentalists, Organic Valley http://www.organicvalley.coop/ , the Granny Peace Brigade http://www.grannypeacebrigade.org/ , Fighting BobFest http://www.fightingbobfest.org/ , ShoreBank http://www.shorebankcorp.com/ , Wellstone Action http://www.wellstone.org/ , Patagonia http://www.patagonia.com/ , and the Feral Cows of Cheeseboro Canyon http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-os-cows06dec06 . The power elites don't want you reading about these stories, and they certainly don't want us learning from each other. But DeMarco and I have found that such rebels are not uncommon at all--any given city has enough of them to fill a book of its own. We hope that learning about even a few of the people we consider true heroes can encourage each of us to turn loose the same rebellious, uproarious, glorious human spirit that is in all of us and that can finally free this country from the suffocating power of those who believe that they should decide for us. you can order a copy of the book here: http://jimhightower.com/store/swim_against_the_current

EARTHLINGS - Must see this documentary

tomsepe — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:27:48 GMT

ok fasten your seatbelts. here's another one to add to the growing list.... EARTHLINGS directed and narrated by Joaquin Phoenix You can watch the whole movie online here: http://veg-tv.info/Earthlings or here: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-1282796533661048967&q=earthlings&subtitle=on&pr=goog-sl BUY THE DVD!!! http://www.isawearthlings.com/buyDVD.html EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity's absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called "non-human providers." The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby. With an in-depth study into pet stores, puppy mills and animals shelters, as well as factory farms, the leather and fur trades, sports and entertainment industries, and finally the medical and scientific profession, EARTHLINGS uses hidden cameras and never before seen footage to chronicle the day-to-day practices of some of the largest industries in the world, all of which rely entirely on animals for profit. Powerful, informative and thought-provoking, EARTHLINGS is by far the most comprehensive documentary ever produced on the correlation between nature, animals, and human economic interests. There are many worthy animal rights films available, but this one transcends the setting. EARTHLINGS cries to be seen. Highly recommended!

The $100 Barrel of Oil vs. the Global War on Terror: The Bush Legacy (Take Two)

tomsepe — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:16:28 GMT

By Tom Engelhardt TomDispatch.com Tuesday 08 January 2008 Consider the debate among four Democratic presidential candidates on ABC News last Saturday night. In the previous week, the price of a barrel of oil briefly touched $100, unemployment hit 5%, the stock market had the worst three-day start since the Great Depression, and the word "recession" was in the headlines and in the air. So when ABC debate moderator Charlie Gibson announced that the first fifteen-minute segment would be taken up with "what is generally agreed to be the greatest threat to the United States today," what did you expect? As it happened, he was referring to "nuclear terrorism," specifically "a nuclear attack on an American city" by al-Qaeda (as well as how the future president would "retaliate"). In other words, Gibson launched his version of a national debate by focusing on a fictional, futuristic scenario, at this point farfetched, in which a Pakistani loose nuke would fall into the hands of al-Qaeda, be transported to the United States, perhaps picked up by well-trained al-Qaedan minions off the docks of Newark, and set off in the Big Apple. In this, though he was surely channeling Rudy Giuliani, he managed to catch the essence of what may be George W. Bush's major legacy to this country. The Planet as a GWOT Free-Fire Zone On September 11, 2001, in his first post-attack address to the nation, George W. Bush was already using the phrase, "the war on terror." On September 13th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz announced that the administration was planning to do a lot more than just take out those who had attacked the United States. It was going to go about "removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism." We were, Bush told Americans that day, in a state of "war"; in fact, we were already in "the first war of the twenty-first century." That same day, R.W. Apple, Jr. of the New York Times reported that senior officials had "cast aside diplomatic niceties" and that "the Bush administration today gave the nations of the world a stark choice: stand with us against terrorism or face the certain prospect of death and destruction." Stand with us against terrorism (or else) - that would be the measure by which everything was assessed in the years to come. That very day, Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested that the U.S. would "rip [the bin Laden] network up" and "when we're through with that network, we will continue with a global assault on terrorism." A global assault on terrorism. How quickly the President's Global War on Terror was on the scene. And no nation was to be immune. On September 14th, the news was leaked that "a senior State Department official" had met with "15 Arab representatives" and delivered a stiff "with us or against us" message: Join "an international coalition against terrorism" or pay the price. There would be no safe havens. The choice - as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage would reportedly inform Pakistan's intelligence director after the 9/11 attacks - was simple: Join the fight against al-Qaeda or "be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age." The price of a barrel of crude oil was, then, still under $20. From that day to this, from the edge of the $20 barrel of oil to the edge of the $100 one, the Global War on Terror would be the organizing principle for the Bush administration as it shook off "the constraints," "took off the gloves," loosed the CIA, and sent the U.S. military into action; as it went, in short, for the Stone Age jugular. The phrase, Global War on Terror, while never quite catching on with the public, would become so familiar in the corridors of Washington that it would soon morph into one of the least elegant acronyms around - GWOT - sometimes known among neocons as "World War IV," or by military men and administration officials - after Iraq devolved from fantasy blitzkrieg into disaster - as "the Long War." In the administration's eyes, the GWOT was to be the key to the magic kingdom, the lever with which the planet could be pried open for American dominion. It gave us an interest everywhere. After all, as Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke would say in January 2002 (and this was a typical comment of that moment): "The estimates are anywhere from 50 or 60 to 70 countries that have al Qaeda cells in them. The scope extends far beyond Afghanistan." Administration officials, in other words, were already talking about a significant portion of existing states as potential targets. This was not surprising, since the GWOT was meant to create planetary free-fire zones. These al-Qaeda targets or breeding grounds, after all, had to be emptied. We were, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top officials were saying almost immediately after 9/11, going to "drain" the global "swamp" of terrorists. And any countries that got in the way had better watch out. With us or against us, that was the sum of it, and terror was its measure. If any connection could be made - even, as in the case of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, a thoroughly bogus one - it immediately offered a compelling home-front explanation for possible intervention. The safety and security of Americans was, after all, at stake in every single place where those terrorist mosquitoes might be breeding. If you had the oil lands of the planet on your mind (as was true with Dick Cheney's infamous Energy Task Force), then the threat of terrorism - especially nuclear terrorism - was a safe bet. If you wanted to fortify your position in new oil lands, then the ticket was to have the Pentagon move in - as in Africa - to help weak, possibly even failing, states prepare themselves against the forces of terror. For us or against us in the GWOT, that was the way all things were to be judged, no matter the place or the complexities of the local situation - in Pakistan no less than the Gulf of Guinea or Central Asia. And that was to be true at home as well. There, too, you were for us or against us. Those few who opposed the Patriot Act, for instance, were obviously not patriots. The minority who claimed that you couldn't be at "war" with "terror," that what was needed in response to 9/11 was firm, ramped up police action were simply laughed out of the room. In the kindliest light, they were wusses; in the worst light, essentially traitors. They lacked not only American red-bloodedness, but a willingness to blood others and be bloody-minded. End of story. In the wake of those endlessly replayed, apocalyptic-looking scenes of huge towers crumbling and near-mushroom-clouds of ash billowing upwards, a chill of end-time fear swept through the nation. War, whatever name you gave it, was quickly accepted as the obvious, commensurate answer to what had happened. In a nation in the grips of the politics of fear, it seemed reasonable enough that a restoration of "security" - American security - should be the be-all and end-all globally. Everything, then, was to be calibrated against the successes of the GWOT. Domestically, a distinctly un-American word, "homeland," entered our everyday world, was married to "security," and then "department," and suddenly you had a second defense department, whose goal was simply to make the American people "safe." Alone on the planet, Americans would now be allowed a "safe haven" of which no one could rob us. From Seattle to Tampa, Toledo to Dallas, fear of terrorism became a ruling passion - as well as a pure money-maker for the mini-homeland-industrial complex that grew up around the new Department of Homeland Security. A thriving industry of private security firms, surveillance outfits, and terror consultants was suddenly among us. With its help, the United States would be locked-down in an unprecedented way - and to do that, we would also have to lock down the planet by any means necessary. We would fight "them" everywhere else, as the President would say again and again, so as not to fight them here. The Elephant and the GWOT If the Global War on Terror initially seemed to be the royal road to the Bush administration's cherished dream of a global Pax Americana and a local Pax Republicana, it was, it turned out, also a trap. As manipulatively as they might use their global war to stoke domestic fears and create rationales for what they wanted to do anyway, like so many ruling groups they also came to believe in their own formulations. The GWOT would, in fact, be a Presidential monomania. According to journalist Ron Suskind in his book The One Percent Doctrine, "The President himself designed a chart: the faces of the top al Qaeda leaders with short bios stared out. As a kill or capture was confirmed, he drew an 'X' over the face." According to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, the President kept that "personal scorecard for the war" in a handy desk drawer in the Oval Office for the next hot piece of good news on terror. In the universe of the GWOT and homeland security, everything would be obsessively U.S.-centric. In fact, the administration's "war" brings to mind an old joke in which various nationalities are asked to write essays on "the elephant." The Frenchman, for instance, writes on L'Éléphant et L'Amour. In an updated version of the joke, the American would, of course, write on "The Elephant and the Global War on Terror". The media picked up this obsession. On some days you can still see this reflected clearly in news accounts - as in this typical first paragraph from a news piece in the January 2nd Wall Street Journal on the aftermath of fraudulent presidential elections in Kenya. "Kenya's marred presidential vote and the violence that has spiraled from it are threatening an island of stability in the otherwise volatile horn of Africa and endangering U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the region." Or, to return for a moment to Charlie Gibson's loose-nuke terrorism scenario in that Democratic debate: It was a given that neither Gibson, nor any of the Democratic presidential hopefuls on stage would mention the single country for which such a scenario might have an element of realism - Pakistan's neighbor, India. But that's just par for the course, since other countries, other peoples, except as they relate to the American War on Terror, have neither purpose, nor reality. Without the GWOT, without the (narrowly defined) issue of American "insecurity," they all qualify as just "the elephant." And yet, as an obsession, as war policy as well as domestic policy, banking everything on the GWOT has proved about as foolish, as self-defeating, as - let's say it - mad, as anyone could possibly have imagined. To put this Bush legacy and its significance in perspective, here's my own fantasy scenario for you to debate: Imagine that, by some unknown process, the GWOT succeeds. Instantly. Al-Qaeda and other like-minded terrorist and wannabe terrorist groups are simply wiped off the face of the Earth. They cease to exist. Tomorrow. No al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. No original al-Qaeda (with its local admixtures) in the Pakistani tribal areas or Afghanistan. No al-Qaedan-style car bombers lurking in London. No more hijacked vehicles heading for American buildings or U.S. Navy vessels. No more trains blowing up in Madrid railway stations. No more al-Qaeda-labeled suicide car bombs going off in Algiers, or Istanbul, or anywhere else. The end. Finis. This would mean, of course, that the American obsession of these last years, the Global War on Terror would be ended, too. There would then be no reason for the world to be with us or against us; no need for a Department of Homeland Security, or draconian laws, or major surveillance programs, and so on. Now, we still have a few minutes left in this segment of our "debate," so let's just keep imagining. Take a glance around the world - theoretically made "secure" and "safe" for Americans - and ask yourself this: If the Global War on Terror were over, what would be left? What would we be rid of? What would be changed? Would oil be, say, $60 a barrel, or even $20 a barrel? Would Russia return to being an impoverished nearly Third World country, as it was before 2001, rather than a rising energy superpower? Would the Iraq War be over? Would the Arctic Sea re-ice? Would Afghans welcome our occupation with open arms and accept our permanent bases and jails on their territory? Would all those dollars in Chinese and Middle Eastern hands return to the U.S. treasury? Would Latin America once again be the "backyard" of the United States? Would we suddenly be hailed around the world for our "victory" and feared once again as the "sole superpower," the planetary "hyperpower"? Would we no longer be in, or near, recession? Would hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs begin flowing back into the country? Would the housing market bounce back? Would unemployment drop? The answer to all of the above, of course, is resoundingly and repeatedly "no." Essential power relations in the world turn out to have next to nothing to do with the war on terror (which may someday be seen as the last great ideological gasp of American globalism). In this sense, terrorism, no matter how frightening, is an ephemeral phenomenon. The fact is, non-state groups wielding terror as their weapon of choice can cause terrible pain, harm, and localized mayhem, but they simply don't take down societies like ours. The IRA did not take down England despite years of devastating terror bombings in central London; nor did al-Qaeda take down Spain, even with a devastating bombing of trains entering a Madrid railway station. And neither the British, nor the Spanish acted as though that might happen. The Global War on Terror's greatest achievement - for American rulers and ruled alike - may simply have been to block out the world as it was, to block out, that is, reality. When it came to al-Qaeda's ability to cause death in the United States, any American faced more danger simply getting into a car and hitting an American highway, taking up smoking, or possibly even (these days) going to an American suburban high school. A Nation of Cowards? Most of the things that needed to be done to make us safer after 9/11 undoubtedly could have been done without much fuss, without a new, more bureaucratic, less efficient Department of Homeland Security, without a new, larger U.S. Intelligence Community, without pumping ever more money into the Pentagon, and certainly without invading and occupying Iraq. Most societies which have dealt with terror - often far worse campaigns than what we have experienced, despite the look of 9/11 - have faced the dangers involved without becoming obsessional over their safety and security, without locking down their countries, and then attempting to do the same with the planet, as the Bush administration did. In the process, we may have turned ourselves into the functional equivalent of a nation of cowards, ready to sacrifice so much of value on the altar of the God of "security." Think of it: nineteen fanatics with hijacked planes, backed and funded by a relatively small movement based in one of the most impoverished places on the planet, did all this; or, put more accurately, faced with the look of the apocalypse and the dominating urges of the Bush administration, we did what al-Qaeda's crew never could have done. Blinding ourselves via the President's GWOT, we released American hubris and fear upon the world, in the process making almost every situation we touched progressively worse for this country. The fact is that those who run empires can sometimes turn the right levers in societies far away. Historically, they have sometimes been quite capable of seeing the world and actual power relations as they are, clearly enough to conquer, occupy, and pacify other countries. Sometimes, they were quite capable of dividing and ruling local peoples for long periods, or hiring native troops to do their dirty work. But here's the dirty miracle of the Bush administration: Thinking GWOT all the way, its every move seemed to do more damage than the last - not just to the world, but to the fabric of the country they were officially protecting. Among their many GWOT-ish achievements, top administration officials demarcated an area extending from the western border of China through the territories of the former Central Asian SSRs of the Soviet Union and deep into the Middle East, down through the Horn of Africa and across North Africa (all of this more or less coinciding with the oil heartlands of the planet), and dubbed it "the arc of instability." Then, from Somalia to Pakistan, they managed to set it aflame, transforming their own empty turn of phrase into a reality on the ground, even as the price of crude oil soared. Opinion polls indicate that, in this electoral season, terrorism is no longer at, or even near, the top of the American agenda of worries. Right now, it tends to fall far down lists of "the most important issue to face this country" (though significantly higher among Republicans than Democrats or independents). Nonetheless, don't for a second think that the subject isn't lodged deep in national consciousness. When asked recently by the pollsters of CNN/Opinion Research Corporation: "How worried are you that you or someone in your family will become a victim of terrorism," a striking 39% of Americans were either "very worried" or "somewhat worried"; another 33% registered as "not too worried." These figures might seem reasonable in New York City, but nationally? As the Democratic debate Saturday indicated, the politics of security and fear have been deeply implanted in our midst, as well as in media and political consciousness. Even candidates who proclaim themselves against "the politics of fear" (and many don't) are repeatedly forced to take care of fear's rhetorical business. Imagining how a new president and a new administration might begin to make their way out of this mindset, out of a preoccupation guaranteed to solve no problems and exacerbate many, is almost as hard as imagining a world without al-Qaeda. After all, this particular obsession has been built into our institutions, from Guantanamo to the Department of Homeland Security. It's had the time to sink its roots into fertile soil; it now has its own industries, lobbying groups, profit centers. Unbuilding it will be a formidable task indeed. Here, then - a year early - is a Bush legacy that no new president is likely to reverse soon. Ask yourself honestly: Can you imagine a future America without a Department of Homeland Security? Can you imagine a new administration ending the global lockdown that has become synonymous with Americanism? The Bush administration will go, but the job it's done on us won't. That is the sad truth of our presidential campaign moment. -------- Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com, is the co-founder of the American Empire Project. His book, The End of Victory Culture (University of Massachusetts Press), has been thoroughly updated in a newly issued edition that deals with victory culture's crash-and-burn sequel in Iraq. -------