* Change You Could Believe In – I have never paid much attention to the multiple Inaugural Balls that follow the swearing in of a new president. The little that I recall from four years ago was that the cost was considerable. I am confident that the special interests made sure to inject their ample resources into these extravagant hooplas. I would like to suggest the following to President-elect Barack Obama: Following your inauguration ceremony immediately proceed to the Oval Office with your Cabinet and begin addressing our nation’s serious problems. Cancel the balls and parties, the regalia and pomp and get to work. If you do a good job over the next four years you will be re-elected. That will be the time to take a breather and celebrate. Knowing that George W. Bush has left the White House is a party in itself - for the entire nation.

* Change We Hope We Can Believe In – Obama’s cabinet is being called by many pundits “smart, experienced, non-ideologues”. It will be quite a while before we have a sense of impact of Obama’s presidency, his policies and appointments. He certainly seems to have gotten off to a good start. I personally ignore the drama surrounding Hillary Clinton’s probable nomination for Secretary of State as well as the minutiae being mined about other appointees. This country desperately needs leaders who are smart, experienced, non-ideologues. The person we elected to lead us through this period of grave crisis should select the talent he deems prepared and capable to develop and implement the requisite policies and programs. Now is not the time to carp and critique.

* Change We Can Participate In – I received an email on Monday from MoveOn.org asking for a monthly donation of $15.00. The objective - to offset the influence of huge amounts of money special interests will spend through their lobbyists to impede bold Obama initiatives on healthcare and energy. Anyone is welcome to use their financial resources to assist America moving forward. However, this is a belting-tightening time for most Americans and I would like to suggest an economical and perhaps more substantive way to influence our country’s path. It is called “activism.” Much of the money lobbyists have funneled to elected representatives has been used for re-election campaigns. If nothing else, politicians want to be re-elected. That is where you and I enter the dynamic. Since we are the ones that cast ballots, if we are sufficiently vocal, we have an excellent chance of gaining politicians’ attention. The website VoteSmart.org enables one to identify their Senators and Representatives and how to contact them. As a group we have the potential to be more powerful than the lobbyists and their masters. It requires each of us to take an interest in our self-interest. If we as citizens are not engaged, the government becomes an oligarchy of demagogues and special interests. The last eight years is testimony to such a fate.

To be an activist requires knowledge. The Dailey Kos political blog is launching a new website Congress Matters. The objective of the blog: “By watching, learning, analyzing and discussing the daily activities of the Congress, we hope to improve our effectiveness as advocates and activists. We'll pull back the curtains on how Congress conducts its business, both public and "private" (i.e., within the party caucuses and conferences), explain floor procedure and rules, and even throw in a little gut feeling when appropriate to try to get a better picture of what's going on, and more importantly, what we can do about it.”

Some of the organizations/websites that I feel are resources for people seeking to be better informed:
Common Cause
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
People for the American Way
Free Press
Center for American Progress
Human Rights Campaign
Amnesty International USA
1 SKY
Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
Pro Publica
True Majority
League of Conservation Voters
Corporate Accountability International
This list is far from inclusive. In the future I will suggest additional organizations I deem worthy of consideration.

* Quote of the Week – “This isn’t about big government or small government. It’s about building a smarter government that focuses on what works.” Barack Obama, November 25, 2008

* Hallelujah ~ I have found a new Pastor! – Seven Days of Sex was the title of the sermon that Pastor Ed Young gave his congregation earlier this month. “Young challenged his parishioners to have sex with their spouse every day for a week to see how it benefited their relationship.” The Baptist pastor bases his “sexperiment” on Christian ideology – that God created sex for husband and wife. I can’t wait to show the video of the sermon to my rabbi – an ecumenical action on my part that is in tune with the new effort in our country to identify areas of common interest and move away from more recent divisiveness and isolation. I would like to suggest a new rallying cry for America – “Sex, Patriotism and Rock and Roll.”

* Speaking of “ecumenical” – “President and First Lady Bush recently sent Jewish community leaders invitations to a Hanukkah reception at the White House next month. But as the New York Post reports, the invitations “raised more than a few eyebrows” because the image on them was that of a “Clydesdale horse hauling a Christmas fir along the snow-dappled drive to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.” Ho, ho ho! Oy, oy, oy!

* Being dragged into the 20th Century – “State (South Carolina) GOP chairman Katon Dawson, who is campaigning to lead the national Republican Party organization, has resigned a 12-year membership in a whites-only Columbia country club… Dawson said he began working to change the club’s admissions practices in mid-August after reading about the deed in an article in The State.” After being a member of a club with racist policies and no black faces on members for 12 years, it took an article in a newspaper to alert Mr. Dawson to the situation. Maybe when other members were saying no “Coloreds” allowed, Mr. Dawson thought they were saying no “collards” allowed. Apparently the Republican Party has not reached rock bottom in spite of its considerable efforts.

* Being dragged into the 21st Century - Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman Tuesday declared that Florida's 50-year-old ban on gay adoptions unconstitutional. Judge Lederman said, ''It is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person's ability to parent.''

* I love contests – The Nation magazine has a contest for readers to offer suggestions, in 25 words or less, what President Bush should do after he leaves office. The response I submitted: “Nothing”!

* Intelligent and responsive governance – Two weeks ago I noted a report by Pro Publica (Journalism in the Public Interest) how gas drilling is resulting in carcinogens entering our water supplies. This week New York City and state politicians called for the state Department of Environmental Conservation to hire an outside consultant to evaluate the impact gas drilling could have on the city's watershed, and to hold public hearings in New York City and in the watershed region. It seems appropriate that we each ask our city and state representatives what respective local governments are doing to ensure the safety of the water we consume. Over the last eight years the federal Environmental Protection Agency saw its mission as protecting industry. I hope and optimistically expect this will change in an Obama administration but, some of the responsibility should be assumed by each of us to pressure and hold accountable our representatives. Our dependence on the “other guy” to do it came up short.

* No pardon in this season for a duck – An article by Joe Klein of Time Magazine summarizes the presidency of George W. Bush. It should be read in its entirety for its incisiveness and as precursor of assessments that will follow in the days and decades to follow. One sentence from this article, that generates more pathos for America than for Mr. Bush, Klein writes, “At the end of a presidency of stupefying ineptitude, he has become the lamest of all possible ducks.”

* “Consequences, Schmonsequences, as long as I'm rich.”
Daffy Duck in 1957 film Ali Baba Bunny

* Republican pride ~ an historical phrase – As I waited to enter the voting booth this past week the man behind me was checking in at the registration desk. I heard him ask the clerk if he was registered as a Democrat. When told he was registered Republican I saw his shoulders slump. He then asked if he could vote for the Democratic candidates in this primary and his shoulders slumped even further as he was told not until next year if he subsequently changed his party affiliation. This was a man about 60 years old and I began thinking what it must be like to have been a Republican for decades and realize where this political party is today. The Republican Party of small government, low taxes and a balanced budget has been hijacked by special interests, war fever and a unitary executive. It advocates torture, the demise of the working class, huge deficits, attacking and divisive politics and the integration of church and state. The Grand Old Party (GOP) is no longer Grand, the philosophy and principles it once stood for are an Old memory and aPart would best describe its connection to the ideas and ideals that once made America a great country and a world leader. The GOP never entered the 21st Century

* Does a woman count? ~ not to Republicans – The Supreme Court, in a recent 5 to 4 decision, ruled that Lilly Ledbetter could not sue Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. for wage discrimination because she had not sued within 180 days of the discrimination. After working for Goodyear for 20 years she retired and subsequently learned that “while she earned $3,727 a month the lowest-paid male working in the same position earned $4,286 and the highest-paid earned $5,236. Ledbetter proved that this disparity was because of her sex, and a federal district court in Alabama found Goodyear liable for sex discrimination.” The less than Supremes overruled the decision. In response to an inadequate law and a lame ruling by the court the House passed a measure to improve workers’ rights in this area and the Senate was about to do the same. There was one obstruction, and it goes by the name “Republicans”. It is worthwhile noting that John McCain wants to appoint more Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Scalia, Roberts and Thomas. The Republicans and this court have set back workers rights and unions decades while enabling corporate America to operate with impunity. The next president and the next congress will have a huge impact on whether this shameful trend continues. If John McCain is elected president do not expect any help on sex discrimination in the work place. McCain said that “he opposes a Senate bill that seeks equal pay for women because it would lead to more lawsuits.” This is reasoning I would expect from a rutabaga. His solution to gender-based pay discrimination is that women “need more education and training”. My solution for McCain is to have his Bush brain transplant reversed.

* Does your vote count? ~ not to Republicans – Much has been written about the unreliability of electronic voting machines and the ease with which they can be hacked (manipulated). Unless there is a paper trail of a voter’s decision, uncertainty remains. This is not a good development for the democratic process. Voting rights activists hoped that the federal government would help local governments pay for paper trails and audits for electronic voting machines. Their disappointment is palpable. Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) introduced legislation, Emergency Assistance for Secure Elections Act, intended to help ensure that elections are as secure and reliable as possible. The legislation was blocked by Republican congressmen. Holt said, “The bill’s failure will mean that millions of voters will leave the 2008 election questioning the process and whether their vote means anything.” Today all eyes are focused on the presidential election hoping for better leadership in the White House. That will be step one but America’s leadership problems also extend deeply through the House and the Senate. America is beyond a quick fix. If you would like to stay informed about bad election management, questionable voting machines and partisan tricks to influence elections the news organization AlterNet offers a free subscription to the weekly newsletter Democracy and Elections.

* More illusions from Iraq – The Bush administration continually tells us that it will draw down American troops as the Iraqi forces stand up. This has been the mantra for several years in this interminable war. An audit by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, found “Iraq's government has kept thousands of dead, injured or absent policemen and soldiers on the payroll as a way to compensate or care for their families.” I have no problem with families being cared for out of the $20 billion the U.S. is spending to train Iraqi forces. I do have a problem with the U.S. and Iraqi governments’ accountability, including phantom troop levels that belie the reality of conditions in Iraq. Additionally, the Iraqi troops that are in place leave much to be desired. When the Iraqi government recently moved militarily against the forces of radical cleric Sadeq al-Sadr we were told how admirably they performed. This Time magazine article discusses how 1300 of the Iraqi troops refused to fight as well as other examples of poor performance that subsequently required US troops to be called in. The eventuality of US troops being able to stand down is no closer now than it was one or two or three years ago. From day one of this war the American people have been lied to or misled and that is the constant in Bush and Cheney’s Iraq war.

* More illusions from the nation’s capitol ~ meet the Pentagon – For quite some time we have known how the Bush administration sold us the Iraq war in a similar way that a pharmaceutical company sells the next miracle drug to cure male erectile dysfunction. And like a drug company the sales pitch continues. This week the NY Times exposed a Pentagon program designed to manipulate the news. It is known as the Pentagon military analyst program. Basically, the program recruited retired high-level military officers, in most cases now employed by defense contractors, and indoctrinated them as to what to say as “experts” when appearing on TV and radio networks such as CNN. Hidden behind the appearance of military analysts, “It is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.” The program “has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.” So the next time you see the likes of Col. Ken Allard, Gen. Wayne Downing, Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney, Maj. Gen. Bob Scales, Gen. Montgomery Meigs and Maj. Gen. Don Sheppard pontificating about the war and policy and covering the Pentagon’s ass, think of Michael Jordan selling you a line of underwear that covers your ass.

* Blood from a stone – An ironic smile occurred when I received an email from Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA). She was requesting that I sign a petition to President Bush “taking him to task for his failure to lead on global warming and urging him to step up.” For seven years Bush has ignored overwhelming scientific evidence about mankind's impact on global climate change and the Bush Administration has done everything it could to block, delay, and rebuff efforts to stop global warming. In a major speech last week Bush’s solution for global warming was to end the growth of greenhouse gases by 2025. Bush did not attempt to cut emissions or to develop a multi dimensional approach. Unlike the rush to invade Iraq our leader wants to wait another 17 years to help the environment! I would characterize his approach as spitting a chaw in the ocean to raise sea levels. Does Sen. Boxer really think that Bush cares about 25 thousand or 25 million people signing a petition? Does anyone really believe that anything positive on any issue will be achieved in this country before January 20, 2009?

* Blood from a migrant worker ~ Burger King has it their way - Wages for Florida tomato pickers have stayed the same for nearly 20 years. In 1980, the going piece rate was 40 cents per bucket. Today, twenty eight years later, workers are paid an average of only 45 cents per bucket. They work 10 to 12 hour days with no overtime pay. They earn about $50 per day and much of this money goes toward paying for trailers where 8 to 10 workers live together. There is evidence of physical abuse and wage fraud by crew leaders, supervisors, and growers. The workers have asked for a one penny more per pound but Burger King and their lobbyists have fought this request. The insensitivity and inhumanity on the part of BK goes way beyond bottom line concerns and is contrary to what I believe was once a fundamental American value. I have added Burger King to the list of companies I will not patronize that includes Exxon/Mobil and Wal-Mart. I also signed a petition available at TrueMajority.org that “calls on Burger King to end exploitation in the fields and modern-day slavery in the 21st century”.

* “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743 to 1826), 3rd President of the United States of America