Talk Walker

One thing I have not seen anyone address about the current situation in Arizona is that one important factor in this mix is that Arizona has become over the years a Settler’s Colony of middle-class, middle-browed retirees from the Midwest, Northwest and East Coast. While these people come to Arizona for the weather (as a result of health challenges), or cheap real estate, they bring with them their sensibility, which often includes varying degrees of racism. As retirees, they are also well aware of the importance of voting, so little by little they have become active in that realm and built up their political power. Combine that with White Supremacists from all over the U.S. who run to the deserts to fill their own need of being left alone and opting out of being a part of our country. When the two combine, you have a powerful force of racism, antagonism and intimidation to the people of the state who have been there for several generation, but apathetic about the voting process.

The way I see it, if the native Arizonans of several generations register to vote and run for local office, they can take back their state. The sooner the better.

With all the talk , speculation and analysis about an economic meltdown (read Depression II), I can’t help but wonder why no one is talking as if no one could have seen this coming. I’ve lost count how many “Financial Experts” I’ve heard recommend all we (the people) need to do is stop spending and start saving (with what?). Never mind the big red flag about this meltdown having to do with a freeze on credit, I don’t get why no one is talking about $1billion dollars the U.S. is spending on the Iraq Occupation (even though Iraq has a $59 billion in oil revenues), hundreds of thousands of jobs being lost due to NAFTA, and American corporations getting tax credits for offshoring their manufacturing facilities (and jobs) overseas.

I’ve often heard people say if you want to get to the root of a problem, follow the money. Well, what about following the loss of money. It’s bad enough our middle class had been taking it in the shorts since the passage of NAFTA and ensuing loss of ”living wage” jobs, without President Bush and Vice President Cheney lying our country into Iraq, for an open ended occupation that is costing U.S. taxpayeres $1billion a month. Those two factors alone would drive any economy into the ground, without Senator Phil Gram coming up with legislation to deregulate banking and mortgage practices.

My conjecture is when income’s started falling, the financial industry came up with no-cost, no-interest loans that would balloon in 2-5 years. That way, no one would realize how poor they had become, because interest-only payments made it possible to live like they would if they could afford it. Unwitting victims signed contracts they did not want to believe they could not afford, even though their creditors did. When they defaulted on those loans, the creditors foreclosed on their homes and tried to start the cycle all over again, banking (in more ways than one) on property would continue to appreciate. Can you say house of cards?

John McCain and President Bush have a lot of nerve acting like they never saw this coming. If they are as naive (read blind and deaf) as they claim, they have no business holding their positions, but that’s another story.

If Congress and the President really want to fix this sinking US ship, they need to renegotiate NAFTA (and any other similar trade agreements), stop granting tax breaks to American corporations who offshore manufacturing facilities, end the Iraq Occupation, and force anyone holding paper on an ARM of ARM-type loan to down to lenders to negotiate home loans so the homeowners can afford to affordable rates.

That way, we can start spending money on our own needs and not those of Halliburton & KBR, and people will be able to stay in their homes until manufacturing jobs can come home.

It still looks to me that the GOP Presidential bullpen is weaker than has been seen in recent history. A significant number of registered Republicans have opted for “None of the Above,” and Independents are leaning away from the GOP and toward the Democratic Party.  Yet, the Republican Primary race continues to get attention as if any of its candidates would be a real contender against the top-tier Democratic candidates. When it comes to the Dems, an oft’ said comment I hear is the Presidential contest is the Dems to lose. WHAT?

First off, the 2000 Bush-Gore contest revealed Gore won the popular vote, and the Supreme Court’s intervention (appointment) of George Bush undermined our electoral process. Then in 2004, electronic voting dominated by Bush-friendly Diebold, especially in Ohio played a huge role in John Kerry’s defeat. So those two elections were not the Dems to lose, but rather be cheated out of.

With all the 50/50 coverage of the Democratic candidates vs. Republicans, I can’t help but think no one has gotten the memo: in 2008 Republicans are IRRELEVANT! Who has forgotten the a critical factor in Bush’s victories in 2000 and 2004 (besides election rigging, voter suppression and out and out stealing the election) was significant support from Independent voters? Furthermore with the fracturing of the Republican party, no frontrunner (so far) is guaranteed across the board backing.

Conversely, the Democratic party has mostly viable candidates who are secure in being supported by their own in “vote the bums out” movement, that is growing daily.  Added to that is according to recent polls, Independents are heavily leaning towards voting Democratic. Thus, the Democrats this year are fully capable of knocking out any Republican candidate, as long as all the votes are counted fairly, and there is no hanky-panky electronic voting scams.

I for one, am going on record to say it doesn’t matter what happens in the Republican party as long as its house of cards continues to implode, its rats jump ship, and the rest start eating each other. Relax, have a beer and be sure not only to vote, but make sure everyone qualified is allowed to vote and all the votes get counted.

I don’t get all the attention being paid to the GOP candidates running for President. There’s such a big hoopla over Giuliani being ahead of the pack, or Grandpa McCain making minor gains, which in the long run, doesn’t really matter.  The one who really deserves the attention is Ron Paul, the new Maverick of the GOP, but he will surely be buried for speaking the truth at last night’s debate.

As it now stands, the who is ahead in the Republican Party is incosequential. The Indpendents have been leaning heavily toward the Democrats since last August. I can only imagine the growing dissastisfaction with the Iraq Occupation, disaffection from within the Republican Party and President Bush’s cellar  approval ratings of 28 percent have repulsed them from the GOP even more — even the Republicans expect a Democrat to win in 2008.

President Bush’s legacy will not only be that he led our beloved country into an ill-fated military occupation for self-serving reasons of getting re-elected as a wartime President, but that he took the GOP down with him.  Too bad for everyone. Even though his policies will ensure a Democratic President and Congress in ‘08, it will still be at the expense of fallen soldiers and fractured families.  It will take years to undo all the damage and havoc this President has wreaked on our nation and world, but at least we will eventaully be able to stop his runaway train of destruction. Sometimes that feels like a small consolation.

According to MediaMatters.org: “On the March 27 edition of his nationally syndicated radio program, Rush Limbaugh claimed that Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, “the first Hispanic-American attorney general — a minority” is “under fire by white liberal racists in the Senate.”

While I am honored Mr. Limbaugh has taken it upon himself to speak up for “people like me,” I can’t help but wonder what he is talking about. When Mr. Gonzales was nominated for for the position of Attorney Genereal, I as well as a number of other Latino activists did not support that nomination. In fact, several of us contacted LULAC (the oldest Latino civil rights organization) and questioned their endorsement. I for one, was not so much concerned with getting a Mexican-American promoted as much as I was concerned with having a qualified Attorney General for all Americans. I opposed Gonzales’ appointment not so much because of a dislike for him, but because I did not think he was qualified to hold such an important office (Interestingly enough, for all of LULAC’s support of Mr. Gonzales and their push for President Bush to nominate him to the Supreme Court, they have been amazingly silent since he has come under fire).

As a third-generation Chicana, with a true understanding of experiencing racism, I cannot help but wonder and question why, when virtually no Hispanic groups are stepping up to the plate to defend Mr. Gonzales, and thousands have openly opposed his appointment and policies, Rush Limbaugh has taken on the charge of attacking “white liberal racists in the Senate,” that would include Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer and — Ken Salazar!

While I appreciate anyone working for civil rights and equality, when that same person tells a Black caller in the 70’s “Take that bone out of your nose and call me back,” and comments on the 1991 NYC Marathon victory of Mexican Salvador Garcia with “an immigration agent chased him for the last 10 miles,” it gives me serious reason for pause.

Come on Rush, get off the oxycotin and join reality — living in it could bring on a whole new experience — and you won’t have to bug your housekeeper to go out and get you stronger doses of it.

Now that the Dems have taken over the majority in Congress, there is alot of talk regarding getting out of Iraq. One argument has been that if the U.S. leaves now, chaos will ensue. Well, considering the current deputy health minister, Ammar al-Saffarwas abucted today, I’d like to know what is going on now.

There are others who cite stats about how many Iraqi civilians have been killed (around 50K), the cost per day in US dollars (I think it’s $1M per minute), and how many US soldiers have died (now approaching 2,900). The number I find most interesting is the less the 1% of our American population, in the armed services, doing the bidding of our President (for the benefit of the top 2%), and the effects on their families, of which mine is one.

My son enlisted in the Army in August 2004, lured by the promise of a $9K early-signing bonus, and the security of housing and medical care. Shortly after basic training, where his MOS was cooking, he was shipped off to Iraq to join the 4th Infantry Division. He never cooked a day (that was left to Haliburton), and was given “a dead man’s gun” to go on convoys. Fortunately, he was there for only two months, and the timing was such that he was there shortly after the first wave of hositilities ended, and before the second (still in effect began).

When he returned stateside and tried to redeem his bonus, the Army told him they had no evidence of such a promise. This began an 18-month struggle, of submitting copies of the original contract, involving our Congressmember (who initiated a Congressional Inquiry), demotions, harassment and abuse. Finally, after two years of service, the Army decided he was not worth the hassle and gave him an administrative release, also known as “failure to adapt.”

With no place else to go, he and his wife moved in with us, until they could find work and save enough money to get their own place, which took a little over a year. For the most part, I referred to him as one of the fortunate ones — he didn’t have to kill anyone, nor did he witness any atrocities.

His unit was redeployed to Iraq just before last Christmas. He kept in touch with a few guys who usually had little news to report — at least that he was willing to share. I continued to think he was one of the fortunate few, and had emeged relatively unscathed from the experience. 

A few weeks ago, he received a phone call from an Army buddy who expressed an interest in coming out here to live. The unit had finished their second tour of Iraq, and he was due for discharge. Unfortunately, along with this greeting came news of a fellow soldier who had been killed by an IED (Improvised Explosive Device — a another word for a hand-made bomb). My son was at work when he received the call, and it set him off to no end. His co-workers and supervisors are part of the 99% who are not serving in Iraq, and have no experience dealing with the ripple effects of the war. Fortunately, his supervisor cut him a break (often missing in the Army) and excused him from his work area to process the information. Later, he shared with me how “Smithie “(made-up name) was one of the best people he had ever known. “She was really great.” 

No one escapes the atrocities of the Iraq war. For my son, each time his unit is redeployed he will wonder whom of his friends is not coming home. For the families, each time they say good-bye, they can only pray it is not the last time they will see each other. And then, when these soldiers are discharged, the baggage they bring often destroys their own marriages and sometimes results in them ending their own lives.

No matter what happens in Iraq, there will be chaos. The longer our government sends our children, siblings, aunts, uncles, and friends into Iraq, more families stateside will be subject to chaos and unintended cruelty and neglect. President Bush often says “We are fighting them there, so we won’t have to fight them here.”  It looks to me like it’s turning into fighting them over there is fracturing our own families here. 1% of Americans and their families have already paid a high enough price for Bush’s blunder. It’s time to stop the carnage overseas before the hemorrhaging from within our homes begins.

As people and voters debate the upcoming election, I am periodically hearing how the Dems are just the same, or not much different than the Repubs. To a degree, that may be true, especially regarding traditional, dyed-in-the-wool politicians. But there is a new wave of activist Dems I have seen within the Party, who are vastly different, and at this point sincere and adamant about effecting change.

Since this is much more difficult to achieve from within the Party than without, many of my fellow-activist Dem voters have made a committment to voting for a Green candidate, Byron Delear, to replace Lieberman-West Howard Berman in California’s 28th District. Congressman Berman is a staunch supporter of both Israel and the Iraq war — never mind the latter has weakened the position of the other.

Without going into Mr. DeLear’s background here, he is intelligent, thoughtful and willing to take bold actions for change. Ultimately, his election will send a strong message to Dems in the power machinery, it will take more than “going along to get along” if they want to remain in power. If Delear falls short the message will be a wake-up call: There are plenty of new voters (Gen Xers and Y’s alike) whose dismissal of the Dems in favor of a Third Party is no secret.

If you are truly committed to change, instead of criticizing and jawing about it, why not vote for DeLear, and if you can’t do that, send his campaign some $$$. Then you yourself can be truly proud of walking the talk about changing our political system.

I am so disheartened and disgusted at the Senate’s passage of “The Military Commissions Act of 2006,” I almost have nothing to say. I expected as much of the Republicans. How could they accept President Bush’s back-door fundraising and not give him their pounds of flesh, but what about the Democrats?

How so-called Democrats Carper (Del.), Johnson (S.D.), Landrieu (La.), Lautenberg (N.J.), Lieberman (Conn.), Menendez (N.J), Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.), Pryor (Ark.), Rockefeller (W. Va.), Salazar (Co.), and Stabenow (Mich) can hold their heads up and ask their constituents to re-elect them is beyond me.

Their sell-out has really put American voters between a rock and hard place. All we have been hearing since the campaign season began, is how only a Democratic majority can change the direction of our country. Now it looks like these Turncoats actually like the status quo, and are capable and willing to carry the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld’s water, and clear the way for the ill-wind that is blowing in the White House.

Batten down the hatches and CYA.

Last night I went to an impressive indie film about our American Soldier’s experience in Iraq, and how it has affected them personally and psychologically. The Ground Truth is a documentary that addresses how our military prepares our soldiers for war, by conditioning them to be able to kill anyone under any circumstance. The military’s logic is this is for their own survival; otherwise they won’t come home.

But the reality of this theory put in action in Iraq is any circumstance includes killing women, children and young and old men who pose no threat. The film depicts some innocent Iraqi civilians being shot as if they were target practice, or as a way of “cooling down” like one walks a horse after a fast run. Once the soldiers make the connection of killing someone who was not a threat, they struggle internally with what they have done, and what else they might do while they are in that arena.The Ground Truth explores the cause and full effect of this experience on our soldiers’ psyches, which is not pretty and painful to say the least.

“Who we are when we leave, is not who we are, if and when  and if we are lucky to return.” Sean Huze, Corporal, U.S. Marine Corps

Producer and Director Patricia Foulkrod said, “I produced and directed THE GROUND TRUTH so we could start talking about what really happens in war - the fact that people kill and get killed; the realities of the thousands who are injured and have to live out their days in pain and suffering long after the conflict is gone - long after the faces of the “bad guys” are gone.”

Former Army Specialist, Aiden Delgado, addresses how many Americans support the troops in a cursory fashion with yellow “Support Our Troops” stickers on their cars. He says if you really want to support them “Honor the veterans by really listening to what they have to say.”

We didn’t have this opportunity after WWII, The Korean War or Viet Nam, and so many of those veterans live to this day with their own horror stories. We can’t do anything about that now, but we can listen to today’s veterans now with this film, and really hear what they have to say. I urge everyone reading this post to go to a screening this week-end. If that is not possible, purchase the CD and host an event during the week of October 4-11.

Then, think about if you agree with or oppose what this Adminstration is doing and what “Staying the course” really means to our soldiers and their families. If you oppose it, what you are willing to do to stop it?

Today, the Senate fell short of the 60 votes needed to raise the hourly minimum wage by $2.10, and the House of Representatives  delayed debating the issue until after the November elections.

The Senate version, proposed by Senator Ted Kennedy would have raised the minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $7.25 over the next three years. This year would have seen an increase of 70 cents, next year, another 70 cents and the third year, another 70 cents.

In everyday language, that would have meant a $28 raise per week, for the next two years, without medical benefits.

In the past, many conservatives and businessmen have argued raising the minimum wage only helps teen-agers in their first jobs, and in the long run, hurts the economy. Their logic is, in order to be able to pay that increase, businesses would hire fewer people, so that would result in fewer jobs. 

Considering teen-agers only make up one-fourth of minimum-wage earners, and almost half are 25 or older, that argument doesn’t really hold water. Then when you realize one-third of these workers are the sole-support for their families, and 75% of those are women, it becomes clear how much raising the minimum wage is a family value.

When our Republican Congress campaigns on and for family values, I guess they are talking about their own families’ value. Never mind the cloud of corruption that hangs over their most high-powered members like Senate Majortiy Leader  Bill Frist, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and recently indicted and now former Representative Tom Delay.

What speaks volumes to me is the fact that they recently voted to give themselves a $3,500.00 annual raise. Considering they are quickly becoming known as the “Do Nothing” Congress, I am sure that breaks down to a lot more that 70 cents an hour (If they worked full-time, like 65% of minimum-wage workers, that would be $1.68).

In spite of 85% of Americans polled supporting raising the minimum wage, just a week after voting to pass a minimum wage amendment out of the House Appropriations Committee, five of those members- Reps. Bill Yound (R-FL), Jim Walsh (R-NY), Don Sherwood (R-PA), Mike Simpson (R-ID) and Ray LaHood (R-L)- switched their votes yesterday, putting off what they could not deal with today, until after the November elections, when they won’t have to worry about getting re-elected.

For those of you who continue to insist the Democrats are no different than the Republicans, in the Senate,  ALL DEMOCRATS VOTED FOR THE RAISE, and ONLY four Republicans joined them (Lincoln Chafee, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins and Mike DeWine). It’s interesting to note Norm Coleman may be challenged for his seat in November by Air America host, Al Franken, and Mike DeWine is already being seriously challenged by Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown.

I hope you keep this in mind as you hear them during the campaign season, talking about how they are protecting the interests of the American people — especially when they insist on spending an average of $4.1 billion to $7.2 billion a month in Iraq and Afghanistan. If this expenditure were only for Afghanistan and we had captured Osama bin Laden, or dismantled Al Queda, that could be considered an investment in our future.

Anything less is not a family value or money well spent. It’s just proof you don’t have to be drunk to be wasted.