Declare YOUR independence
You know what? I’m sick. I’m sick to death of corporatism. Everywhere you look is either a “made in China” sticker, or some corporation that has no ties to your local community wants you to come spend your money at their establishment - so they can suck that money out of your community and send it to their corporate headquarters, be it across the country or around the world. Spend your $8 for a quickie meal at McDonalds and have the money sucked out of your local economy and sent to Illinois, though at least it’s still in the US. Go to Wal-Mart or Target to get stuff for your Independence Day get together? Those companies actually suck tax dollars out of your local community because local jurisdictions lure them in by cutting them tax deals (which makes YOUR taxes go up). Then Wal-Mart skims off their bit and sends it to their Alabama headquarters while Target skims off their bit and sends it off to their Minneapolis headquarters. But the VAST majority of your money gets funneled off and sent to CHINA. Or The Phillipines. Or Taiwan. Wherever they can pay people ten cents per hour in crappy conditions to make that doodad gadget that you just couldn’t live without. Maybe you’re paying your bills, and as you write your check to ADT for your security system, you don’t know that it is a corporation that is actually owned by a company called Tyco that is headquartered offshore in Bermuda. Yeah, they don’t have to pay their US taxes like you and I do.
It goes on and on. But why? Why is it that companies like Wal-Mart or Tyco get so big, and suck the money out of our local cities, only to send it overseas? We Americans are responsible for somewhere between 50% and 67% of the economy of the United States; do we want our money going to huge, multinational conglomerates that don’t care about your local economy, the local workers, or anything beyond their corporate tax havens overseas? And why is it that the United States Government gives contracts to the likes of Accenture millions of our tax dollars, if they are not headquartered here? In the period between October 1st, 2001 and September 30th, 2002, The United States paid $662,000,000 to Accenture for accounting purposes. Why? Yes, they’re a big company. But they are headquartered in Bermuda. Check out their company info, including the address of their post office box in Bermuda, and then check out the map. Wow, how many hundreds of miles offshore is that?
Yeah, well I’m fed up. I have had it. It makes me sick to see people lined up waiting to get into corporate chains like Outback or Chevys or Hardees or The Cheesecake Factory. You know why? Because there is absolutely nothing that is distinctive about that restaurant. You can eat a meal in California at PF Changs, then go halfway across the country and eat the same meal and SURPRISE! It tastes EXACTLY the same! So what did you get? You get corporate food that was designed in a lab in New Jersey (read Fast Food Nation if you don’t believe me) and then designed to be cookie cutter. No surprises, no differences, no distinction. Why the hell would you want to do that? Are people that much of a pushover that they prefer corporate food to a local chef at a mom-n-pop place down the street? You’d be surprised…
Think the food in your local grocery store is safe? Think again. Pick up a frozen breakfast or lunch entree and look at the ingredients. Those aren’t even the HALF of it! There’s one entry called “Spices”; did you know there can be dozens of ingredients all lumped into that one little word? A report on NPR from last year said that dozens of spices come from hundreds of suppliers all over the world, so even if you think you’re buying some food that should be safe because it’s “made in America”, it includes spices that come from halfway around the world. And we all know how safe foodstuffs and goods coming from China are. How many pets were killed because of tainted Chinese pet food? How many babies got sick, and how many died from tainted Chinese milk? Who thought it was okay to use lead based paint, and paint that had the compound that was the equivalent of a date-rape drug IN CHILDREN’S TOYS? Oh yeah, that would be China again. And you know what’s even fucking scarier? That the United States Consumer Protection Agency doesn’t even have the staff to test even 1% of the food, drugs, toys, and consumer goods that are shipped in from overseas.
Feeling scared yet? How about pissed off? Hells yeah, I’m angry! But as I’ve heard from people before, “But I’m just one person. What I do can’t affect the rest of the world”. My response? BULLSHIT!
Instead of going to Target or Wal-Mart, how about finding a local chain that provides goods and services that are comperable? Here in the Pacific Northwest, we are blessed with our own little employee owned box store chain called BiMart. They have everything that we would get at a Wal-Mart, Target, or Walgreens. But you know what? The money stays right here in the Pacific Northwest. In California, instead of going to Home Depot or Lowes, how about the California household building supply company OSH (Orchard Supply)? A lot of the same stuff as Home Depot and Lowes, but again, the money goes into the local community. Hell, in many a town around this great nation, at least where Wal-Mart has not killed competition, there are still mom-n-pop general stores that you can go to. Sure, maybe you’ll pay fifty cents more for a screwdriver, or a dollar more for a hammer. But you’re keeping not only local people employed, but a local business’ doors open, and the money stays in your community.
Here in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, we had a great local group of restaurants called Stanfords. They had good meals, good drinks, and everyone was happy. They did so well that some corporate group from out of state came in and bought them out. That was good, until the changes started coming. See, Stanfords used to take their food seriously. Their chefs perfected a veggie burger that was made on site, in the kitchen. They had fresh produce that they did a multitude of ways. And they had a wide-range of other dinners that were simply delicious. Then, the corporatist beancounters came along and said, “Well now; if we standardize, we can squeeze a few more pennies out of every dollar for profit!”. Gone went the house-made veggie burger. They did away with spinach cooked 4 different ways and standardized on one. Away went the multitude of cuts of steak and they went down to two. Why? Not because of customer demand, but because the beancounters wanted to squeeze out more profit. One night at Stanfords, when I received a veggie burger, I challenged the waitstaff, saying they changed the recipe or something. They flatly denied and went and got me the corporate recipe - which called for 1 Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Pattie. Gee, that’s not brown rice, black beans, cheese, and spices mixed together by hand and cooked delicately, is it? Hell no it’s not. But that’s corporate food for you. A steak at Outback Steakhouse is going to be the same whether you buy it in Tigard, Oregon or Orlando Florida. How about you find a local independent steak house to try instead? Know why you can never get your home made french fries to taste like McDonalds? Because the essence of the fry was developed in a lab in New Jersey and is standardized. Are you standardized? Hell no. You’re an individual. And as an individual, you deserve REAL food, not corporate food!
Concerned about your food, and all the preservatives and additives that come from around the world, only to end up in your digestive system? Become a locavore. Your local non-corporate restaurants already do - you should, too. There are butcher shops that still exist outside of the local megamart grocery stores. Gee, you aren’t going to be able to get White Out and Juicy Fruit Gum when you buy your hamburger, but you’re going to have DAMN good hamburger, that’s a hell of a lot fresher, if not healthier than your local megamart grocery store. And hell, as I write this, it’s the middle of Summer. Know what is in season near you? You should. And how can you? Find out at LocalHarvest. They tell you what’s in season, and where your local farmer’s markets are. Sure, there are going to be people peddling crap that they get drop-shipped from China, like socks and stuff. But there are going to be other people there from local farms that have the most delicious produce, the freshest herbs, the best cheese, and the best treats. And quel surprise, it’ll be just about the same price - or cheaper - than what you pay for at the megamart!
You know what I want to get this country for its 233rd birthday? I want to see the drive through at Burger King to be empty, and the local burger joint to be packed. I want Texas Roadhouse and Outback Steakhouse to be closed due to lack of customers that night and the local steak, chicken and bar joint to have a line out the door. I want Kohls and Sears and Wal-Mart to have an empty parking lot, and for people to get their crafts from local stores and vendors, or from ordering their goods from companies that STILL manufacture things here in the United States.
We can be our own best friends, or our own enemies. You make the choice every day when you purchase goods and services. Will you choose to help your fellow American? Or will you toss our future away by sending our money, and our jobs, overseas?
When headlines LIE
Oh man… You have to give it to Don Wildmon and the AFA. They can lie with the best of them (which, oddly enough, God said you shouldn’t do - but they don’t care. I get an email newsletter from the AFA that declares “Teacher fired for conservative website”. Being someone who is TOTALLY for free speech (including the speech of republicans, the KKK, Aryan Nation, etc - just because you don’t like what they’re saying doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to say it), I read the article. Seems a teacher in the Lawrence, KS school district had a conservative website that he paid for himself and expressed himself on - and that’s why they’re saying he got fired.
What a load of crap.
What they aluded to in the article, but did not explain out totally was the fact that this teacher REQUIRED his students and their parents to log on and use the website for school information. Yes, he was basically forcing his views to be spread by making it the way students and teachers could get information about their school work. Their school work.
So hell yes. He could have set up a totally separate website to handle homework and grading information for students and their parents. But he didn’t. He refused to couple his political beliefs website with a website that students were REQUIRED to use if they wanted information. And for this, he SHOULD be fired. And good riddance!
Just shows, once again, that the AFA lies. And if you have to lie to make your point, you had no point in the first place — and the people that swallow the lie are just as guilty. Ignorance, for them, *is* bliss.
FOX News counts on you having a 12 second memory. Do you?
This is just so blatantly awful that it is not even funny anymore. FOX News is whining because ABC News will have an exclusive with the President. So what do they do? They go off about “This has never happened before” and “We haven’t seen this type of access to a President in decades.” Decades? Try MONTHS. FOX News had it’s collective head up the Bush Administration’s ass for so long, that I’m surprised George W. Bush doesn’t have the imprint of Hannity’s helmet-hair on his colon wall!
But you know what? It actually IS starting to stick. I have overheard people actually talking about this, parroting FOX! Those people are just mindless automatons though, I swear.
Want proof? The good people at DailyKos have the video proof. Click here to watch.
Harassment by any other name…
Wow… On the West Coast, there really are a few cities that you look towards for GLBT leadership. Those cities are San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Portland (probably in that order - at least in my mind). We have leadership in those cities that not only welcome the GLBT community, but help fight the ignorance and hate from those on the right. But what’s going on in Seattle right now is scary as hell.
The City of Seattle has various groups that employees of the city can join. One of those groups is the GLBTQF (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered, Questioning, and Friends) Club. The city gives each of the groups $1,000 per year and allows employees to work on behalf of their group for two hours per month. That’s all fine and dandy. And then along comes Seattle City employee Philip Irvin. He wanted to join the GLBTQF Club, but he was not allowed. Why? Because Philip is a fundamentalist who does not think that gays should be allowed to exist, much less have a club. Obviously the GLBTQF Club is within their rights to refuse him entry. After all - would you want to bring someone into your home that’s just going to yell at you endlessly? No - that’s why we all moved out of our families homes!
Well Philip would not let it sit. To “get even” with the group, he is suing the city and is asking to force the names of everyone in the GLBTQF Club to be named publicly. He wants the names of ALL GLBTQ Seattle employees to be published so that everyone knows who they are and the City of Seattle almost went along with it, until a temporary injunction could be put into place. If the names are released what are you going to do, Mr. Irvin? Will these employees end up like Dr. George Tiller? Haunted constantly, and then some whackjob goes and tries to assassinate them, too?
Think I’m a little out there? Think again. The rate of hate crimes - specifically murder - against GLBTQ folks is rising at an alarming rate. Yeah. This is 2009, and people are still being racist, homophobic, murdering bastards. So excuse me for NOT wanting to give out the names of the GLBTQF Club employees!
A year of civil disobedience for GLBT rights
People are up in arms over the big DOMA flap, and rightly so. Yes, there are the apologists, but it really appears that we have numbers on our side; the side that says the President and his DOJ is wrong for citing incest and child marriage in trying to fight against gay marriage.
Many people are trying to figure out what to do. Yes, we have to vote with our pocketbooks; no more money for the DNC until a true apology comes. Yes, the President made many of us feel somewhat better when he granted some limited rights to some LGBT government employees. Even I was willing to give him a little bit of a break - until I re-read the brief and get angry again. Still - what to do?
Dan Savage has come up with the BEST plan ever, and it won’t involve a million people on the Washington Mall this coming October. No, actually it involves just 730 people per year. You see, Savage’s idea is that every day, a GLBT couple goes to the White House and asks to talk to the President about DOMA. Every day they are told they cannot meet with the President. And every day they refuse to leave and are arrested and forcibly removed from the premises. It would not take all that long to get someone’s attention with that kind of tactic! The White House Press Corps would see couples arrested day in and day out - different couples every day, some everyday folks, some celebrities - and start hounding Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on DOMA. And start hounding the President on DOMA.
That’s how you get things done.
What can we do to shut you up?
That’s basically the question that I read into a post over at AmericaBlog.com. Specifically, John Aravosis wrote:
Joe and I got an email the other day from a well-connected gay friend, and he said he was hearing rumors that the Obama administration, in an effort to woo back the gays, was thinking of possibly announcing the following this month:
1. Something on Hate Crimes.
2. Federal benefits for partners of gay federal employees.
3. A gay ambassador.
First of all, I would really like to tell the DOJ to drink a nice big cup of STFU. I mean, trying to buy our silence and let the calls of incest, child rape, and child marriage stand? Not only is the White House insulting, it seems to be actively working at making sure the reprehensable DOJ brief stands, without any apology or explanation.
For some reason, this reminds me of the very first episode of The West Wing when religious leaders storm the White House and, besides demanding the firing of a staffer, come out with “What do we get? School prayer, pornography, condoms. What’s it going to be?”. Except in this case, it’s the Obama Administration offering to hand us a trinket, and the GLBT community tell him to get his fat ass out of our White House.
Here’s the original clip; it’s powerful.
The GLBT community starts to respond to Obama on DOMA
First of all, I know that I don’t speak for the entire GLBT community. And neither do the guys over at Towleroad.com or AmericaBlog.com. But there is a movement afoot, and I hope that it continues to grow. The Obama DOJ, and Obama himself, need to be held responsible for the hateful DOMA defense brief that was filed last week. You know, the one that says that “normal” American’s shouldn’t have to pay for the benefits of GLBT married couples, or the statement that preventing same-sex marriage protects us from child marriage, child rape, and incest? Yeah, that one.
First off, there is the Democratic Party fundraiser with Vice President Joe Biden, among others, at the 10th Annual LGBT Leadership Council Dinner (from the Democratic Party’s LGBT Leadership Council). This is a dinner that raises a LOT of money off of the GLBT folks to benefit the Democratic party. Thing is, it appears that the fundraiser itself is falling apart. It doesn’t sit well when you insult a group of people, then ask them for money. Blogger Andy Towle and Clinton era gay advocate David Mixner have pulled out, and Mixner has one hell of a response to all the hubub.
Strike two has just been made. HRC, the Human Rights Campaign, has come out swinging against the hate-filled DOMA brief. The HRC has not come out against a President this harsh since 1996, when DOMA was put into effect. And what’s worse (for Obama) is that, according to John Aravosis at AmericaBlog.com, HRC is doing this in a VERY public fashion. They are calling out Obama and in particular, the citation of incest, etc in the brief. When HRC is condemining you publicly, watch out.
Now, Senator Harry Reid came out and said that there will be no legislative action to end DADT. He wants the White House to do it; nobody plans on ending DADT from the Congress. That would be strike three for Obama.
I would expect this kind of hate-filled argument to come out of the Bush White House. Indeed, it appears that the author of the DOMA brief is actually a Bush era holdover. But remember, Obama said (about AIG) that the buck stopped with him. And I, for one, am holding Obama responsible for this. Unless he recants and comes to the GLBT community with an apology, many of us will be more than willing to keep our $2,300, not go in to volunteer, and stay home on election day.
Obama is losing support from the GLBT community
So first we had the presidential contest of 2008. Obama and Clinton were jockeying for support from the GLBT community. Lots of great things were said, like ending DADT, repealing DOMA. Where are we, less than six months into the Obama administration?
We, the GLBT community, are under the bus, having been thrown there by President Barack H. Obama.
Yes, we had the beautiful words that came from our candidates to the GLBT community. Pledges of Employee Non Discrimination Act passage, talk about repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Words about repealing the hateful Defense of Marriage Act. But now? The Obama Administration is putting forth arguments like “incest” and “marrying children” as reasons to SUPPORT the hateful DOMA, and kill a lawsuit from a legally married California couple who challenged DOMA.
Obama, why don’t you go and support former Senator Rick Santorum. Bring up some “man on dog” stuff. How about that?
Oh how I wish I could get my $2,300 back.
Attention GLBT Community: Are you still shopping at Wal-Mart?
My partner and I stopped shopping at Wal-Mart years ago. Remember when Sam Walton was alive, and every single Wal-Mart commercial was about “Proudly American” and aimed to display products “Proudly Made in Ameria”? Well of course all that died with Sam. His heirs greatly expanded the company and said “Screw you, America!” when they started pushing for Chinese made products. Our trade deficit? A full 10% of it is one company trading with China. Yeah, that would be Wal-Mart. We see no reason to continue to give Wal-Mart money, while they send it overseas.
But the latest kicker is the CEO of Wal-Mart, and what he has done. In Arkansas, where Wal-Mart is headquartered, and where they are petitioning to send gays and lesbians back a few decades by taking their children away, and preventing them from raising children, Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke has signed on as a petitioner. Yes, that means that every dime you spend at Wal-Mart not only goes to China, but also pays the salary of a biggot.
Don’t get me wrong. Mr. Duke certainly has every right to his freedom of expression, and can sign or petition anything. I just don’t think the GLBTQ community needs to give the man, or his company, one more cent.
The AFA can bite my shiny metal ass
Note: I normally can control my temper, but this really pisses me off.
The AFA has been pushing their right-wing hate-filled biggoted agenda for YEARS. So now that gays and lesbians have a chance to be PROTECTED under the law for people who try to hurt/bash/endanger/kill them for simply being gay, the AFA is up in arms. And the tactics that they are using are DISGUSTING.
Take a look at the link the AFA just sent out. Go ahead, read the list. Congress is protecting sexual orientation in hate crimes legislation. But the AFA drags out a list of not only sexual orientations (which, they include “heterosexuality” in their list of the “perverted” things being protected - go figure, morons!), but sexual activities, most of which nobody except the perverts at the AFA think about. I mean, who in the hell sits around thinking about “klismaphilia” besides the AFA? Do they get off on this kind of stuff?
As a gay man, and as someone who has been a VICTIM of a crime due to my sexual orientation, I take massive offense to Wildmon and his actions. Reverend Don, you stupid fucking hate-peddler: until you have been chased down the road and beaten with baseball bats simply because someone thinks you were gay, you can shut the fuck up.
