It appears that Tom Salmon is not content with his role as State Auditor and would like to reach further into other branches of government, as was recently demonstrated with his odd foray into agricultural policy.

This time, as reported by Seven Days,  it’s the judiciary he’d like to influence.  Perhaps still chafing at the release of his drunk driving arrest video, Salmon took the unusual step of e-mailing Judge Geoffrey Crawford about a case that was currently under his consideration.  The issue in question was who should bear the cost of access to public records.  Judge Crawford, you may recall, is the jurist whose ruling made Mr. Salmon’s arrest video available for public viewing.

In his e-mail, Mr. Salmon apparently took the position that, in the case concerning a fee in excess of $1,300. that was levied against the Vermont State Employees Association for  the privilege of inspecting public records, the Judge should rule against the workers:

“I hope as you consider the issue with public records requests, ample consideration can be given to those in state offices which undergo political and insincere requests for information,” wrote Salmon in his Dec. 29 email. “Such requests need to have boundaries.”

Un-bloody-believable.  So much for the transparency and accountability that Salmon insists he brings to his office.  These comments demonstrate remarkable tone-deafness and a total disrespect for the state workers at the center of the case.  It seems that it’s all about him.

Salmon noted several records requests of his office, one from a Middlebury attorney Mitch Pearl, another from Seven Days and a third from his Democratic challenger in the 2010 election, Doug Hoffer. In all, his office produced more than 1500 pages of records in response to these various requests

Doug Hoffer offers this explanation of his requests:

In my case, I requested information about a number of items dealing with his official activities including 1) his office calendar to determine, among other things, if he had met with officials from Vermont Yankee before writing to legislators criticizing their efforts to make Entergy fill the decommissioning fund (he did, but he didn’t inform legislators); 2) travel expenditures for Mr. Salmon’s staff (very questionable); and 3) Mr. Salmon’s half-baked effort to “solve” the dairy crisis (a waste of taxpayer resources).

Seven Days correctly refers to Salmon’s attempt to influence Judge Crawford’s decision as being “ex parte” in nature.  As such it was, at the very least, inappropriate, bordering on unethical behavior for an elected official.

Once again, the loosey-goosey nature of legal definitions regarding conflicts of interest and related issues in Vermont make it almost impossible to hold Salmon accountable for his presumptions.  Judge Crawford, in any case, was not swayed by his arguments and ruled in favor of the State Employees Association.

Still, you’ve got to wonder in what direction Mr. Salmon’s attention will wander next.  Who knows?  Maybe the chair in the Auditor’s office is simply too small for him and he gets the fidgets.

atrocities and true loves

grow old  become new

hit us when the heart

least expects it

we are struck dumb again

unable to think

blush and bow our heads

say  are you the atrocity

I have waited for?

should I dare to make a move?

show you I care?

no  for this atrocity

is not a one and only atrocity

and you’ve been around

that block before

Peter Buknatski

Montpelier, Vt.

The headline Monday  read NRC Report Vt. Yankee hasn’t done all promised.(paywalled)  

However it reads as if Entergy had done nothing at all. According to the NRC, Entergy had promised, after the tritium leak a year ago, to do more studies on radioactive tritium and groundwater contamination.  

Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said that Entergy Nuclear had promised to do more studies on the issue of the tritium and other radioactive contamination and groundwater protection, but hadn’t carried out all those promises.  

“No significant findings were identified,” Sheehan said Friday. According to the[NRC] report, Entergy “has yet to complete its longterm groundwater monitoring program.”  

While noting that Vermont Yankee failed  to complete its longterm groundwater monitoring program as they had promised ,the NRC obligingly employs a little of its faith based regulatory rhetoric:

Sheehan said the NRC believed that Entergy “effectively evaluated the contaminated groundwater with respect to off-site effluent release limits, and the resulting radiological impact to public health and safety; and complied with all applicable regulatory requirements and standards pertaining to radiological effluent monitoring, dose assessment and radiological evaluation.” Emphasis added  

Well as long as the NRC believes they have effectively evaluated the contaminated groundwater, no doubt it will be too busy this week to work on past promises as today they start a simulated radiation leak exercise. A control room simulator will “create blueprints for everything associated with an actual disaster”

Once the plume is originated by the computers, plant employees will use wind patterns to track which way it would travel and state hazardous material technicians will be sent out to various sites to collect simulated measurements.  

William Irwin, chief of Radiological Health for the Vermont Department of Health ironically spoke of accountability when he said.

"We’re going to hold companies and people more accountable as a state. Vermonters should be proud of the systems in place."

In Video Posted on GodHatesFags.com, Cult Leader Fred Phelps Denounces Giffords as ‘Avid Supporter of Sin and Baby-Killing’ and Blasts Palin as ‘Cowardly Brute’ for Taking Down Controversial Crosshairs Map From Her Web Site — Even Nine-Year-Old Girl Slain By Gunman Draws Westboro’s Wrath

IS THERE NO LIMIT TO THIS HATEMONGER’S SICKO CONTEMPT FOR GRIEVING FAMILIES? — In a video message posted Monday on the Web site of the rabidly gay-hating cult Westboro Baptist Church, cult leader Fred Phelps announced that he and his followers will picket the upcoming funerals of the six victims who lost their lives in Saturday’s shooting rampage in Tucson — even targeting that of nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green. “That child was not innocent,” the cult said in a press release. “That child is better off dead, so the cup of her iniquity will not overflow!” The Supreme Court is due to rule by spring on a lawsuit brought against Westboro over its picketing of military funerals. (Image: GodHatesFags.com)

(Posted 2:30 a.m. EST Tuesday, January 11, 2011)

By SKEETER SANDERS

“How can someone hate so much to do something like this?”

The question was asked by a Tucson resident to NPR on Sunday about the gunman who went on a shooting rampage the day before outside a Tucson supermarket that killed six people, including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, and wounded 14 others, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona).

But that same question can now be asked about the “Reverend” Fred Phelps. I’m putting the word “reverend” in quotation marks, for as far as I’m concerned, Fred Phelps is a disgrace to the Christian clergy. What Fred Phelps preaches is the diametric opposite of what the one whom Christians revere preached.

Indeed, a case could be made that to stare into the face of Fred Phelps is to stare into the face of the Antichrist, if not Satan himself.  

In a video message posted Monday on its Web site, GodHatesFags.com, the leader of the rabid hate cult Westboro Baptist Church announced that he and his followers plan to stage “God Hates America” protests at the upcoming funerals of the six victims who lost their lives in the tragedy.

PHELPS DENOUNCES GIFFORDS OVER HER VOTE TO REPEAL ‘DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL’

Phelps, whose absolute hatred of homosexuality — and of anyone he sees as aiding and abetting “fags” and “sodomites” — is the driving force of his cult, denounced Giffords “an avid supporter of sin and baby killing” over her vote to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the 17-year-old law that forced gay and lesbian military personnel to keep their sexual orientation a secret, under penalty of discharge. He said Giffords was shot for “that mischief.”

(I can only imagine what Phelps will say when he finds out that Daniel Hernandez Jr. — the 20-year-old college student working as an intern for Giffords who is credited for saving his boss’s life — is openly gay.)

TO STARE INTO THE FACE OF FRED PHELPS IS TO STARE INTO THE FACE OF THE ANTICHRIST, IF NOT SATAN HIMSELF.

“Thank God for the violent shooter, one of your soldier heroes in Tucson,” said Phelps — apparently unaware that the alleged gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, 22, never served in the military, having been rejected by the U.S. Army. “God appointed the Afghanistan veteran to avenge Himself on this evil nation.”

Phelps blasted former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin for removing from her political action committee Web site a controversial map that featured gun-sight crosshairs images placed on the districts of vulnerable Democrats in last November’s election. Phelps branded Palin “a mouthy witch” and “a cowardly brute” for taking down the map.

“The crosshairs to worry about are God’s — and He’s put you in His,” Phelps said, adding that he and other Westboro members are praying “for more shooters, more violence and more dead, Praise God!”

Can you believe this sicko? He’s actually praising God for bringing about a multiple murderer — and praying for God to bring about more murderers! Forget Osama bin Laden; we have a cold-blooded, hatemongering jihadist right here in our own country who has the unmitigated gall to call himself a Christian!  

ONLY SOMEONE SICK AND EVIL WOULD PROTEST A NINE-YEAR-OLD’S FUNERAL!

Even the youngest victim, nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green, was not spared from Westboro’s wrath. In a disgustingly-worded press release, the cult said this of the girl:

“That child was not innocent. This is a nation of depraved perverts who pass their children through the fire of their rage against God and all-consuming lust. From the womb, she was taught to hate God and mock His servants. That child is better off dead, so the cup of her iniquity will not overflow!”

What kind of sick, depraved mind would come up with such language about a nine-year-old? A mind so consumed with hate that it’s a wonder how the 81-year-old Phelps can live with himself. How can he sleep at night knowing that he and his cult is causing incalculable harm to people who are at their most emotionally vulnerable?

WESTBORO IS POSSESSED BY PURE EVIL

There is something sick and twisted about Fred Phelps and his Westboro cult. There is something downright evil about Fred Phelps and his Westboro cult. As I mentioned earlier, a case could be made that to stare into the face of Fred Phelps is to stare into the face of the Antichrist, if not Satan himself.

Indeed, it could be said that Westboro is possessed.  

Fred Phelps and his Westboro cult are posessed by pure, unadulterated evil, for what they preach is hate — the diametric opposite of the love that Jesus preached. They are a hate cult. To openly preach hatred is to preach evil. Phelps and his flock are not Christians. They are Antichristians.

Only someone with an evil mind would say all manner of vile and ugly things about a nine-year-old girl whose young, innocent life was brutally snuffed out by an equally sick and depraved gunman.

I pray that the Supreme Court rules in favor of Albert Snyder, the father of Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder who was killed in Iraq, who sued Westboro in 2006 for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress on himself and his family when this despicable hate cult picketed at Matthew’s funeral.

The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, but just as freedom of speech does not give one carte blanche to yell “Fire!’ in a crowded theater when there is no fire, it likewise does not give one carte blanche to deliberately inflict emotional distress on people at a time when they are grieving the loss of their loved ones.

And for Westboro to do that to the grieving family of a murdered nine-year-old girl is to be the lowest of the low.

# # #

Copyright 2011, skeeter Sanders. All rights reserved.        

I was in Toronto when I caught the news of the Arizona shootings.  Coincidentally that evening, a Pakistani cab driver wiled away a few moments in heavy traffic by directing my attention to the new CAMH mental health facility that was still under construction in the city center.  He commented on the huge number of residential  patients it was expected to house and then added that it was a good thing because so many more people are in need of mental health services in these difficult times.

This got me to thinking about what must be the state of Arizona’s  mental healthcare preparedness.  There is a mental healthcare crisis in most states, and having heard about patients dropped from transplant lists under the hard-nosed penny-pinching of Jan Brewer’s Arizona, it was unsurprising to find the following in the June 2010 newsletter of the American Psychiatric Association:

In Arizona-which, according to the report, has the highest likelihood that a severely mentally ill person is in prison rather than a hospital-TAC reports that there are 47,974 prisoners and 827 individuals occupying inpatient psychiatric hospital beds. Assuming that 16 percent of inmates have a serious mental illness, that means that 7,676 individuals in Arizona jails and prisons have a serious mental illness-or 9.3 times more than are receiving hospital treatment for such an illness.

So, Arizona seems to have come to the conclusion that the best way to deal with mental illness is to wait until the patient triggers the law by harming himself or someone else. Jared Lee Lougher will now join that warehoused population.

There are a lot of take-aways from this latest incident of senseless, preventable violence.  Most will center on the angry political rhetoric directed at Tea Party outliers and other unstable individuals.  Some will focus on the complete absence of gun regulation in wide-open Arizona. Unfortunately, little attention will be paid to what this illustrates about  the crisis in mental healthcare throughout the country.

Even that Toronto cabdriver, transplanted from a country full of it’s own horrific troubles, readily recognizes the urgency of the mental health need and the value to be had in addressing it effectively.  What is the matter with the American public who will tolerate their elected representatives intoning the text of  the sanitized Constitution and referring to it as “sacred” (yes, I heard a Democratic House member actually use that word twice), while they still refuse to face the fact that so long as both the mental and physical health of their constituents is not regarded as a right, solemn references to the document meant to uphold the values of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” represent the most grotesque kind of travesty?

It would appear, at least anecdotally, that the majority of Americans would choose the broadest popular interpretation of “the right to bear arms” over the narrowest insurance of those seminal values in our Declaration of Independence.  It’s no wonder we have become such a dangerous cipher for much of the world beyond our borders.

I, along with a small group of Vermont reporters, participated in a press conference with Welch this morning.  Here are some selected notes & quotes, which may include typos:

Welch started in Congress in the same year as Giffords, and they’re fairly close.  Welch is talking about what a great listener she is and how passionate her work is: “in these times when things are so controversial and heated she was always gentle but direct, clear and warm in what she conveyed when she was taking a very clear view… showing enormous respect for whomever it was she was speaking with.”

“This is an absolute catastrophe for the people who knew Gabby… really for all of us.”

“You fight hard for your point of view, but there’s no final legislative victories.  All of us should have some humility…  What I’ve seen in Vermont is that Vermonters know that civility really matters.  It’s creating a culture of mutual respect.  You can contest highly contested ideas.  The challenges that face any state or country are serious… issues motivate people and get them extremely animated… they care about it.  

There’s different points of view on every issue.  The only way you can make progress is… you do it always with the restraint that the person with the other point of view is motivated with the same high ideals.”

Now talking about the respect shown in his race with Rainville in 2006.  “At the end of the day, Vermonters who didn’t vote for me felt it was a fair race.”

“Civility is not about manners– it’s about creating a culture where the people can effectively correct problems.”

“The Vermont approach, where civility is the foundation of our politics is the foundation of America.”

Now reporters are asking questions so I’ll follow up in the comments.

As Congresswoman Giffords Lies in Medically-Induced Coma, Homeland Security Memo Says Alleged Gunman Who Killed Six and Wounded 14 Outside Tucson Supermarket May Have Been Influenced By Newsletter Published By ‘White Nationalist’ Think Tank; Federal Judge Killed in Rampage Got Death Threats in 2009 Immigration Lawsuit

A KILLER WITH A CAUSE? — Jared Lee Loughner, shown in this 2006 photo from the yearbook of his high school, faces at least five federal charges of murder and attempted murder in connection with Saturday’s shooting rampage outside a Tucson, Arizona supermarket that killed six people and wounded 14 others, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), while the congresswoman was holding a meet-and-greet with constituents. A leaked Department of Homeland Security memorandum said that Loughner may have been motivated to kill Giffords by a newsletter published by a white-supremacist think tank. (Photo courtesy Tucson Police Department)

(Posted 5:30 a.m. Monday, January 10, 2011)

By SKEETER SANDERS

As an Arizona congresswoman lay in a medically-induced coma in a Tucson hospital a day after she was shot in the head at nearly point-blank range during a meet-and-greet with constituents, evidence mounted Sunday that the alleged gunman had plotted to assassinate her — and that the plot may have been politically motivated.

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, of Tucson was formally charged by federal officials Sunday on two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of attempting to kill a member of Congress in the shooting spree outside a local supermarket that killed six people — including a federal judge, an aide to Giffords and a nine-year-old girl — and wounded 14 others, including two other members of Giffords’ staff.

Meanwhile, a memorandum by the Department of Homeland Security disclosed by Fox News on Sunday said that Loughner may have been influenced by a newsletter published by a white-supremacist think tank.

LOUGHNER POSTED ONLINE REFERENCES TO WHITE-SUPREMACIST NEWSLETTER

The memo noted that Loughner had made several references in postings on his MySpace page to American Renaissance, a newsletter and Web site operated by the New Century Foundation, a group described by the Anti-Defamation League as a white-supremacist organization that “promotes pseudo-scientific studies that attempt to demonstrate the intellectual and cultural superiority of whites and publishes articles on the supposed decline of American society because of integrationist social policies.”

The Foundation was founded in 1990 and is headed by Jared Taylor, who also edits American Renaissance. While the newsletter “generally avoids the crude bigotry and stereotyping characteristic of many other racist publications and Taylor himself personally refrains from anti-Semitism,” according to the ADL, “Taylor promotes his views by attacking racial, ethnic, and religious diversity, which he calls ‘one of the most divisive forces on the planet’ and therefore ‘dangerous.'”

In a separate report, the hate-group watchdog Southern Poverty Law Center says that American Renaissance “regularly features proponents of eugenics and blatant anti-black racists” and that the New Century Foundation “also sponsors conferences every other year where racist “intellectuals” rub shoulders with Klansmen, neo-Nazis and other white supremacists.”

NEWSLETTER DENIES LINKS TO LOUGHNER — EVEN AS IT BOASTS OF ‘WHITE UPRISING’ AGAINST OBAMA

For its part, American Renaissance hotly denied having any connection to Loughner. In a statement posted on its Web site Sunday, the newsletter claimed that the DHS memo “is so hopelessly wrong that it is hard to believe it is a genuine government document.

“No one by the name of Loughner has ever been a subscriber to American Renaissance or has ever registered for an American Renaissance conference,” the statement said. “We have no evidence that he has even visited the AR website.

“American Renaissance condemns violence in the strongest possible terms, and nothing that has ever appeared in it pages could be interpreted as countenancing it,” the statement said.

Yet even as the newsletter denied having any connection to Loughner, the lead article in its January 2011 issue touted “a dramatic uprising against the policies of President Obama and the Democratic Congress” in the November midterm elections, specifically citing “the decisive factor of the white vote” in making “the crucial difference as Republicans scored historic gains in dozens of elections both state and nationwide.”

The article was headlined, “The Great White Wave.”

LONG BEFORE ATTACK LOUGHNER WAS SHOWING TROUBLE SIGNS

Loughner posted numerous anti-government rants on his MySpace and Twitter pages. Both social networking sites quickly took Loughner’s pages offline.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik told reporters at a news conference that the suspect had a YouTube channel under an account called “ClassItUp10.” Loughner’s YouTube profile stated, among other things, that some of his favorite books were Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, George Orwell’s Animal Farm and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

One video told viewers that they “don’t have to accept the federalist laws,” called for a return to the gold standard, and accused the government of mind-controlling and brainwashing the citizenry.

Loughner attended Pima Community College in Tucson until college authorities suspended him last fall after receiving complaints of inappropriate behavior in class. Loughner chose in October to drop out rather than having the mental health evaluation and clearance which would have been required for him to re-enroll.

According to court records, Loughner had two previous offenses, one of which was for drug possession.

U.S. Army officials said that Loughner had attempted to enlist, but his application had been rejected as “unqualified” for service in 2008. They declined further comment due to confidentiality rules, but military sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said Loughner had failed a urine test, disqualifying him for service.

GIFFORDS PUT IN MEDICALLY-INDUCED COMA AFTER SURGERY

Doctors at the University Health Center in Tucson said Sunday that although Giffords was shot in the head at nearly point-blank range, the bullet did not strike any critical parts of her brain. “This was a devastating wound that traveled the length of the brain on the left side,” Dr. Peter Rhee, the hospital’s trauma director, told reporters during a press conference.

The bullet entered the back of Gifford’s head and exited through her forehead, according to her family. She was put in a medically-induced coma and on a ventilator after surgery that doctors said will help her brain rest and recover.

The next few days and weeks will be critical to determine how much brain function Giffords has lost, if any. Also of importance is how much swelling there is of the left side of Gifford’s brain and whether she’ll be able to recover speech and movement on the right side of her body, which the left side of the brain controls. “Brain swelling is the biggest threat at this point,” Dr. Michael Lemole, chief of neurosurgery at the University of Arizona, told ABC News.

FEDERAL JUDGE KILLED IN RAMPAGE GOT DEATH THREATS IN 2009

Among the six people killed in Saturday’s rampage was John Roll, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. Judge Roll, 63, was not appearing at Representative Gifford’s event in his judicial capacity, but rather as a courtesy visit, according to AZ Central.com, the Web site of The Arizona Republic newspaper of Phoenix.

A statement posted Sunday on the district court’s Web site called Roll’s death “a grievous loss,” hailing him as “a warm, compassionate judge and inspirational leader in what is one of the busiest districts in the country. His death will leave a significant void in the District of Arizona and the entire federal judiciary, and we are all deeply saddened.”    

Roll was appointed to the federal bench in 1991 by then-President George H.W. Bush and had served as chief judge of the district since 2006.

Roll had presided over some of Arizona’s most contentious court battles, many of them having to do with illegal immigration. At the time of his death, Roll was the presiding judge in a federal lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of a recently-imposed ban on Latino ethnic studies in the Tucson Unified School District.

Roll had previously received numerous death threats in 2009 while he presided over a $32 million civil-rights lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants against an Arizona rancher who made citizens’ arrests. A jury dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims of civil-rights violations, but did find the rancher liable for assault against several of the plaintiffs.

During the trial, Roll informed everyone in the courtroom that he had received telephoned death threats and that court security would be tightened. Passions over illegal immigration were running so high that Roll’s office received more than 200 threatening phone calls in a single day.

Callers threatened not only Judge Roll, but also and his family. “They said, ‘We should kill him. He should be dead,'” U.S. Marshal David Gonzalez told The Arizona Republic at the time.

THE YOUNGEST VICTIM: A GIRL BORN ON THE DAY OF THE 9/11 ATTACKS

The youngest victim of Loughner’s alleged rampage was only nine years old — and, as it turned out, her life both began and ended amidst a major national tragedy.

Christina Taylor Green, the youngest granddaughter of former Philadelphia Phillies manager Dallas Green, was born on September 11, 2001 as the nation was reeling in shock from the terrorist attacks that destroyed the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and killed more than 3,300 people.

Ironically, Christina had come to see Representative Giffords at her meet-and-greet after having been elected to the student council at her elementary school. Her parents, John and Roxana Green, both saw their daughter as a future politician.

“She was a good speaker. I could have easily seen her as a politician,” John Green, a supervisor of amateur scouts for the Los Angeles Dodgers, told the Arizona Star-News. Roxanna Green said of her daughter: “She was all about helping people, and being involved. It’s so tragic. She went to learn today and then someone with so much hatred in their heart took the lives of innocent people.”  

Dallas Green, vacationing at his winter home in the Caribbean, was stunned by the news. “It’s pretty hard,” he told the New York Daily News. “We’re all hurting pretty bad. I can’t believe this could happen to any nine-year-old child. [It’s] the worst thing to ever happen to us.”

SHOOTINGS SPARK DEBATE OVER POISONED POLITICS; GIFFORDS WAS ON PALIN’S ELECTORAL ‘HIT LIST’

The shootings have sparked a nationwide debate over what observers say is the increasingly poisonous histrionics and superheated rhetoric that has dominated political discourse in recent years, particularly over illegal immigration. Sheriff Dupnik blamed the shootings on what he called “The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country,” and that, “unfortunately, Arizona . . . has become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.”  

Giffords became the target of numerous threats against her last spring after she voted in favor of the health-care reform law. Her offices in Tucson were vandalized. Giffords was one of 20 members of Congress who were placed on a political “hit list” by former Alaska governor and GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin on her Web site, which included a map of the U.S. that featured gun-sight crosshair images placed on the districts of vulnerable Democrats in last November’s elections.

In a March appearance on MSNBC following the vandalism at her Tucson office, Giffords lashed out at Palin. “Sarah Palin has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district and when people do that, they’ve gotta realize there are consequences to that action,” she said.  

In a statement on Facebook, Palin said “my sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today’s tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.”

The controversial target map was subsequently pulled from the Web site of Palin’s political action committee, SarahPAC, but numerous screenshots of the map remain online elswhere.

# # #

Copyright 2011, Skeeter Sanders. All rights reserved.

Yes, this is true:

The massacre in Tucson is, in a sense, irrelevant to the important point. Whatever drove Jared Lee Loughner, America's political frequencies are full of violent static.

But the point is larger than that:

[Y]ou may find yourself as the vast majority of Americans do, as a passive observer with little sense beyond your ability to vote — without having an avenue to express your beliefs and ideas when it comes to the national conversation.

Both the power class and the passive class are experiencing this sense of frustration and unfairness to one degree or another…For the passive class, have you chosen to deal with your knowledge of this unfairness either through denial of its existence, or through a logical apathy founded upon the belief that nothing you do will matter?
…
[S]etting a path to resolve the unfairness that plagues this country will originate not by looking outward at those whom we believe are perpetrating a given unfairness, but through a period of brutally honest inward reflection into the values that each of us apply to the ways we make the decisions in our days, from one minute to the next.

It is through investment in internal reflection that we can open the door to the knowledge that only our own happiness and fulfillment can manifest a peaceful path to resolving the problems that we face as a nation.
…

Through that reflection, the passive class can muster the strength to shed the protections of denial and apathy.

While your voice may feel hollow by itself, the possibility of becoming part of a national chorus of awakened can serve as a deeper foundation for the compassion and wisdom to accept our own shortfalls and those of our leadership as we continue the national trip toward a more fair and free America.

I have to believe that we can still effect change despite the current political climate and all obstacles in our way.  No era has been charmed, no electoral system has been perfect, no movement has been instantly victorious, but the arc of history does indeed bend toward justice.

The key is for the People to rediscover their individual and collective power, and to exercise it instead of giving in to disenfranchisement, cynicism and hopelessness.  There will be no one thing or person that will save us, so I encourage everybody to try something new, something outside your comfort zone just a little bit, something that used to be unimaginable to you.

It's not practical for most human beings to drop everything they're doing and fight totally for a cause, no matter how noble.  Even the most dedicated activists cannot be all places at once, nor can they be expected to maintain constant vigilance 24x7x365.  Maybe some can pull that off, but movements are made of Ordinary People, not superheroes.

And again practically, we none of us can be expected to defeat evil, either singly or collectively, or even have the will to do so.  It's not even really necessary to try, when you get down to it: survival is really our prime directive as animals, and when you're trying to feed and shelter your family and whatnot, how can you really find the energy to fight for some larger moral issue?

There are a lot of folks online who stay informed, donate to candidates like Representative Giffords, and vote. That's all great, especially going to the polls when so many people think it won't change anything, but voting “correctly” isn't enough.  As Thoreau said:

All voting is a sort of gaming, like checkers or backgammon, with a slight moral tinge to it, a playing with right and wrong, with moral questions; and betting naturally accompanies it. The character of the voters is not staked. I cast my vote, perchance, as I think right; but I am not vitally concerned that that right should prevail. I am willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation, therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail. A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance…

There are many ways to effect political and social change.  Being informed can be a part of it.  Casting a ballot can be a part of it.  Working for a good candidate so elections aren't left to the mercy of chance and well-funded hatemongers can be a part of it. 

What isn't a part of it: passivity, impotent outrage, throwing up your hands and blaming politicians or other voters.  Do something, then do it again, then do something else.  Rinse.  Repeat.

We all are busy.  We all have lives.  And all our busy lives are directly impacted by the system, including campaign rhetoric and political violence.  Thus it's in our best interest to try mitigating the dangers of

Perhaps boycott the media who not only refuse to denounce the vitriol Sheriff Dupnik identified, but actively market it.  Perhaps go a little further and destroy support for hate as my friend and hero, Spocko, does.  Whatever, we all could afford to spend a little time in the wake of yesterday's violence focusing less on how other people have failed and more on how we can be a part of the solution.

Benjamin Franklin replied when asked what the Framers had created for themselves and their posterity, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”  That means we all must be actively involved in the process, rather than passively allowing our elected proxies to do all the heavy lifting, and blaming them when things go wrong.  We cannot guarantee we'll keep the Republic through engagement, but with passivity we're guaranteed to lose it.

ntodd

Team Palin goes on the defensive with this absurdity:

“We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights. It was simply cross-hairs like you’d see on maps,” said (Palin aide) Rebecca Mansour on the Tammy Bruce radio show. Moreover, there was “nothing irresponsible” about the image…

Like on a map? What kind of map has crosshairs?

It’s clear this incident isn’t going to quiet the scary fringe of the tea party movement, as embodied by Sarah Palin. Self-examination, reflection, and rational introspection are not qualities this crowd is interested in. Enraged ignorance and extreme, absolutist self-righteousness are considered virtues among that set.

What it will do is crank the battle for the soul of the GOP up to 11, and as partisan a type as I often am, I have to believe that compassion and reason will rule the day. I may seem like a grouch much of the time, but I really do like my fellow human beings. A lot. And I like them because, at the end of the day, I believe in us as a species – even those with whom I viscerally disagree – despite the bad eggs (and yes, there are plenty, but still…).

BTW, Talking Points Memo is really the place for fleshing out this story in more depth. They’ve doing their usual great job.

Here’s the image folks are talking about, that I linked to in a previous diary:

Team Palin goes on the defensive with this absurdity:

“We never ever, ever intended it to be gun sights. It was simply cross-hairs like you’d see on maps,” said (Palin aide) Rebecca Mansour on the Tammy Bruce radio show. Moreover, there was “nothing irresponsible” about the image…

Like on a map? What kind of map has crosshairs? (UPDATE: OK, OK, so surveyors use symbols like these. And I’m sure that’s the message Palin was trying to send… she was surveying… riiiiight. Is the phrase “taking responsibility” even in some of these folks’ lexicon?)

It’s clear this incident isn’t going to quiet the scary fringe of the tea party movement, as embodied by Sarah Palin. Self-examination, reflection, and rational introspection are not qualities this crowd is interested in. Enraged ignorance and extreme, absolutist self-righteousness are considered virtues among that set.

What it will do is crank the battle for the soul of the GOP up to 11, and as partisan a type as I often am, I have to believe that compassion and reason will rule the day. I may seem like a grouch much of the time, but I really do like my fellow human beings. A lot. And I like them because, at the end of the day, I believe in us as a species – even those with whom I viscerally disagree – despite the bad eggs (and yes, there are plenty, but still…).

BTW, Talking Points Memo is really the place for fleshing out this story in more depth. They’ve doing their usual great job.

Here’s the image folks are talking about, that I linked to in a previous diary: