In any case, bummed by Realpolitic, American Style or not...

...the job from here is to start to communicate with everyone, whether current potentially like thinking or supportive friend or all them strangers out in Cyberville who are doing some kind of related effort and who are by the nature of what they are doing available to be communicated with and solicited to join and or support and or collaborate on the big dialogD agenda which is after all a "political call to the wild at heart" to join in an ongoing radical progressive big D Democracy overhaul throughout the political, economic, social, and cultural fabric of the United States.

For me that means spending a good chunk of time overhauling www.dialogdemocracy.org once again and getting it ready to be the Web organizing and fund development tool for all of what it is calling for. Soooo...... let the communicating and organiizing begin in earnest- finally already.

Fighting the despondency of observing the Presidential Advertising and Spin Derby...

... and that don't always come easy. You know it don't come easy. Does it Ringo.

I have to remember that transcending that despondency is crucial to moving forward with "my work"- however that is to ultimately evolve from these humble and humbling early stages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbie_Hoffman is a look at one example of someone who just couldn't handle how far in the other direction the country's right wing pendulum swing has taken us since the mistaken assumption of many during the `60's that is was inevitable that we were going to go in an almost opposite direction that `60's popular consciousness would have lead and inspired as we "changed the world."

Checking out more sites...

...and posting from me old lad's house. Sooo.......

http://www.coopamerica.org/ is one of the best "Old School" green and sort of agrarian populist pro "real" democracy with a big D Web Sites I have run across. And I'm talking so old school that I'm pretty sure it even pre dates Al Gore's inventing of the Web.

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/ is, as best I can cipher it, the risidual PAC that came out of Howard Dean's highly successful Web enhanced grassroots try for the Democratic Nomination for President in 2004. The site is obviously a Democratic Party front albeit a very progressive leaning attempt to pull the National Democratic party in the direction of better representing the interests of it's voting and constituent bases. I wouldn't mind the Democratic party if it did that. But it for the most part it hasn't as it has chased big money and the Strident Right in this country so far to the right that they are in effect simply an emasculated "Republican Light" "loyal Opposition" party in the age of the Neo Con Nut Jobs and in a mainstream climate of business and politics so far reactioanary and right wing that by the fiat of common wisdom about what's even allowed to be up for debate the actual interests of 60%-80% of the American Citizenry cannot be considered at all.

Some Sites checked out today...

...Sites checked out Thursday, August 21st, 2008:

http://brighterplanet.com/ a "make a difference" outfit about saving the planet. Agroup to contact for sure. Learn what your carbon footprint is on their site.

http://www.earthdayny.org/ the Site for NYC's Earth Day. Earth Day is great but it's a little cult outside the mainstream economies ongoing devastation and being on the wrong path and all.

http://www.winslowgreen.com/home/ is a "Green Investment" investment and management firm it looks like. This is the kind of company, like "Working Assets" and others, that need to be researched carefully and see what they are actually doing and if they might be involved in capitalizing some of the proposed entities in dialogD or if they might be models for or have talent on board who might want to be active builders of the dialogD "Real World" presence.

www.ringoffireradio.com another Alternative Media site- a must contact to be sure for dialogD...

Organizing links from days gone by...

...and here are some highlights with brief comment:


Sites checked out Wednesday, August 20th, 2008:

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/45752 is an article sent to me by my Soolay Brother in Portland now but by way of ORS at SDSU (which eventually morphed into the Leisure Connection- or Leeesh, Brew). An interesting read and provides a great intellectual lude for those seeking an excuse to not do anything about anything going on in the too far gone world we live in. You know: make your separate peace in the over privileged segment of the world's economic reality that we middle class or better semi educated American perpetual adolescents occupy- and oh well- as the great social philosopher and artist Sly Stallone said when explaining why he would not be going to Iraq early on in that fiasco resource appropriation/ occupation (ostensibly to comfort and entertain our troops there who were "fightin' for freedom and good to the core...-apologies to David Alan Coe-)... anyway, Sly said something to the effect that no, he wasn't going to Iraq because "I gotta nice life..." and he had no intention of jeopardizing that reality by doing something as risky as going to a war zone...
Not that there's anything wrong with that. And I know it's a stretch their. And I personally agree with Sly's perspective. I mean I feel bad for the misled innocent kids who wound up cannon fodder for the Neo Con Nut Jobs view of how to lead America into a disastrous new 21st century policy- but Sly doing his Rocky impressions wasn't going to bring them home any sooner and safer. Soooo....

Sites checked out Tuesday, August 19th, 2008:

http://www.populistamerica.com/why_dont_you_shut_up a far outside the mainstream take on the Russia-Georgia conflict and the Bush Administration/ Neocon Nutjob role in it.

http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=mahacup.0 a retail shop for sundry protest gear and the like...

www.cafepress.com a retail and possibly more of a community site that dialogD might try to affiliate with

As I blog along I wonder...

...what can come of "all of this"- nay all of these- drops of mist in the ocean. Which is about what an individual blogger or his or her respective posts amount to. I will continue to muddle along with my misting droplets and gain what traction I can as I move to the next and new phase of trying to communicate and enlist the help and support of all the great and good progressive creative and productive folks and peeps "out there" who are seemingly somewhat harmoniously atuned to the need for similar kinds of radical evolutionary changes that I am trying to call for in dialogD and here there and everywhere- so to speak and to coin a phrase but in reality with all do respect and apologies to Lennon and McCartney.

Sooooo..... check out http://www.mahablog.com/ and
http://www.cafepress.com/cp/store.aspx?s=mahacup.0 - a retail shop for sundry protest gear and the like...

An outside the mainstream look at the Russia-Georgia military confrontation...

... the link provided by a would be dialogD poster who for professional reasons deigns to remain anonymous. any way check out: http://www.populistamerica.com/why_dont_you_shut_up and see what you think.

Calling for Constitutional Ammendment Level Campaign Finance Reform...

... along with major electioneering law reform. This is and pretty much has to be a cornerstone to any meaningful change in direction in American politics and economics as well as a prerequisite for "We the people..." to be able to undertake the work we need to in order to address the large issues of social justice and the reasonably equitable opportunity structures that are necessary for a "civil society" to exist outside the gated community (literally and figuratively) lifestyles of only the most overprivileged segments of our citizenry. http://www.opensecrets.org/index.php is one of the best nonpartisan sites I have seen for the general information on the level of corruption too much money infesting our Democracy causes. My call for constitutional ammendment level reform: http://dialogdemocracy.org/campaign_finance_reform_constitutional_ammendment.htm is I think the central basis for forming a real world ongoing activist progressive movement in the United States. Citizen groups in all 50 states can be formed just like the Nader groups or GOTV groups or labor/union groups that canvass and collect money and signatures at various times for various causes only this one could be the major boots on the ground community by community organizing effort that forms the heart of the dailogD "2nd American (Peaceful and Democratic) Revolution".

Reconnecting with the dialogD effort...

...and sometimes it don't come easy.

Distractions distractions distractions... and now the conventions are upon us and the sporting event insipidness of this seemingly eternal Presidential selection process only worsens. The issues are so off and daffy: when does human life begin? What Supreme Court Justices would you not have nominated. Sometimes it is just real hard not to blame the stupidity and cowedness of the American people for the so called leadership they get from their so called "Democracy".

But I know from being out there and one of them that it's that We the people have been getting hoodwinked for so long that it's hard not to attach to some brand of misinformation or get focused on one single issue ruse or another- all while we lose more and more of our collective effective control over the larger forces that shape our lives, families, local communities, and opportunity structures.

More work to do from road trip this week...

...and I know, I know- that's no excuse to pander to the Presidential campaign debacle and all the up to the minute coverage and commentary on every phony, high production values advertisement. But since I actually got this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fvvNU7fBxk from a friend and my former tech guru who I want to be involved in "getting this whole thing started" and who also believes things could be changed in time- in a minute or almost overnight- if "We the people..." get our respective and collective acts together.

In the meantime- you go Britknee; you go Paris Hilton Paris Hilton...

And oh yeah, win this thing Barack. That is not a forgone conclusion. Look out voter rolls in Florida and voting machines in Ohio. 2000 and 2004 were OJT for the Hard Strident Right "Election Mechanics." Easily as impressive as any Nevada and Texas true card mechanics of the mythological good old days of "professional gamblers."

A pre road downs lull...

... which is to be expected with the road, AC, The Shore, The Hollow Deck, and getting back to "the life" looming. I will try to get "work" done as I can. For today I will only say that the path forward has to entail narrowing the scope or at least articulating some specifics about the major issues that a fairly radical progressive grassroots solidarity movement would have to embrace in an ongoing activist manner in order for any progress toward the substantive core sea changes that are needed and being called for in our business and politics to be even remotely approachable.

Here are the ones that always seem to come to mind off the top of my head whenever I start thinking about what has to be considered in this regard. The major issues and or slash proposals that I will focus on are:

• Constitutional Ammendment Level reform of the money in politics cancer that is an ongoing worsening problem and deterrent to "our Democracy."
• The "Bipartisan" problem of "our" gridlock and incumbancy corrupted two party system. Among the first reforms related to this quagmire is to eliminate the Electoreal College altogether or- if people want to keep it for nostalgia's sake just make it be a figurehead entity by having the Electoral Votes for each state be divided proportionately and have the number for each state be exactly a function of said state's population. I am sick of my vote counting less than any other American's based on the density of the population of our respective environs. And I also think that no President should ever again be sworn in who didn't get the most votes by the people of this country. Much much more on this "Electioneering Reform" part of "the movemnt"
• Single payer national health care- a no brainer to everyone but the Insurance company and big pharma PR legions and and all the politicians in their respective but none too respectable hip pockets.
• A complete overhaul of our public education and social welfare priorities and approaches- most especially as these institutions fail in our major urban centers and fail the people and children most at risk because of the social problems and economic and opportunity inequities exacerbated critically by the dysfunctional operations of current status quo "business and politics as usual."
• The need to develop a major new Federal Project called, for lack of a better term, the "Department of Peace." Eventually this department would become equal to on funding and scope levels as the current "Department of Defense", or the "Pentagon System for a planned economy," or the "Military Industrial (and Congressional Incumbency) Complex.
• Calling for a "Brand New and Green This Time New Deal for the American People. It's possible that this "new green deal" could be part of the above "Department of Peace" and could also be closely aligned with the new kinds of "Fair Trade" and "Fair Exchange" trade and treaty agreements we need to enact in the face of climate change and "Peak Oil and Everything Else, Too" that we will all be dealing with as we move forward into our collective, local, and global futures.
• And finally, an overhail of our archaic, draconian, and failing "War on Drugs" system of drug laws, incarceration policies, and arbitrarily unjust and unequal enforcement policies.

Addressing these at length and coming up with proposals and very specific calls to organized activism around those proposals will be where this blog and www.dialogdem0cracy.org focus for the most part for the next couple weeks. On that and on occasionally lamenting the sad state of our Democracy as the Presidential Election Seasons Prime False Advertising Campaigns heat up.

Lot's of guys and gals doing it (blogging, that is)...

... Plenty of gals doing it too, for that matter. Me, I took a little time off to reflect and kick back after another apparently failed attempt to recruit even one collaborating ally from my limited pool of like thinking- though not professional political activist- real people friends. So what does that mean. I am going to proceed as the way opens with my efforts. And I am going to work on getting www.dialogdemocracy.org more functional and coherent as I plow forth.

There are, after all, central core proposals and issues that are at the heart of what I am calling for and I do want to raise money to start some of the activity necessary for any of that to be going on in the "real world." I must say I am impressed by a lot of what I find in the Progressive literature out there. Books, blogs, organiziations that are trying to fight the good fight and so on- speak truth to power and all of that rot. Yet here we sit as the pendulum swing to the right has continued almost unabated now for a couple two tree generations now. And many people really fo believe it's too late. Check this out: http://www.energybulletin.net/node/45752 and read about on some of the links. And this is basically the response I got from my Soolay Brother when I ask him to join me on a co-blogger here on this eponymous blog.

Still, it's the old dilemna: arms (or action anyway) against a sea of troubles or making our separate peace as Rome burns- or the polar ice caps melt at any rate.

So now it's Obama playing the race card...

... mainstream media coverage of and mainstream political reaction to the new turn in the tit for tat Presidential campaign blathering is truly maddening. Where is and was the under the microscope coverage of the Republican party's racist card playing capture of the once "solid Democratic south" when they pandered shamelessly to the Wallacite working class as well as the old plantation south's modern day ruling hierarchy? And the gutless Democratic party has never really stood up to it as a major national party should because they were afraid of losing even more ground to the crazy assed new breed Neocons lead by the likes of Karl Rove and Jack Abramoff. More on this later