I guess it had to come to an end at some point, but my previously mentioned quest for some good conversation over at the HVAC “America, Religion, Politics” area has terminated. One can only take so much being shot at and ridiculed. It’s a shame, because there are a couple really great people over there among the liars, name-callers and mean-spirited crypt-dwellers. As for the latter, their whole purpose was to shut me up so they could have their club to themselves and continue to bathe in their own propaganda, free from confrontation with the truth. So much for Freedom. So much for America. These are the same folk who call themselves “patriots” while shutting up anyone who doesn’t agree with them.

The suppositions and grand conclusions based on absolutely nothing were staggering. My initial home heating question asked over there was labelled a “front” for my posting on the political forum. I was called a liar when I posted anything clearly backed up with facts. In fact, the reaction to just about ANY post from the most obstinate of these folk was to just simply call me a LIAR and a CHEAT and a FRAUD. Rational conversation was not possible. I should have known better. There were several others who would post well thought-out posts regarding the nature of man, the perpetual state of fear the government wants to keep us in, and other interesting observations. The reaction to those posts? More ad-hominem attacks. It seems this is all this type of person has to offer. It’s really a shame, since it seems we as a nation are not going to move far in ANY direction if the reaction to any plea for civil discourse is to be yelled at, called names, and ridiculed. The agenda of the day is to spread Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. Anything else is labelled “propaganda,” which is funny, since they don’t have the ability to spot true propaganda when they actually see it.

What really put me over the edge though was a post about Mexicans, Blacks, and how “milk white Americans” need to “wake up” basically because we’re being taken over and soon they’ll be in your town! Wow!

It’s become clear to me that liberals in general are much more open to the fact that they may be wrong and are always looking for input from the other side and a discussion of real ideas and thoughts in order to get at the real truth, or the best way to solve a problem. They are always open in that previously held beliefs can be changed. On the other side, it seems that reason and openness are simply not the best way to attempt to get their point across. Their way is the sledgehammer — the O’Reillys, the Hannitys, the Limbaughs — my way is the right way, and yours is the wrong way, and I’m going to bully you, shut off your microphone, and yell at you until you see it my way.

Clinton was a perfect example of this. He would listen to everyone in the room to arrive at policy decisions or directions. After all, the more ideas the better, right? The folks on the bulletin board, however, and Neo-Cons in general, follow the doctrine of their leader, Bush, which is that you should go by gut feeling alone, and the only people who should be in the room talking things out should be people entirely loyal to you and your cause. No dissenters allowed. No fresh ideas allowed. How else did we end up recycling all the Reagan doctrines and philosophies, no matter how badly they failed and put the nation at enormous financial risk?

Time and again, this stubbornness in face of the truth and pure contempt for anyone who thought differently is what I saw on that forum, and after a while, it just makes you sick to your stomach, you know? Someone finally asked me, “Why bother? Why take the abuse? If they choose to remain ignorant and come out with attacks instead of debating the issues, why bother?” And you know what? He was right. So right.

Just the failure of Bush’s Social Security privatization scheme alone should be proof enough that people are finally starting to wake up and see what this administration really is — a bunch of crooks and liars.

I don’t need to waste my time reasoning with the wind.

Well, what do you know? A conservative with morals! Remember those “secret Bush tapes” that the White House was hoping would just go away? You know, the ones where Bush said, “I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.” And the ones where he said he would refuse to answer questions about using LSD, cocaine and marijuana because “I don’t want any kid doing what I tried to do 30 years ago.” Well, the man who did the taping has apparently had a change of heart since allegations arose that he was merely seeking publicity for his book by releasing the tapes. He has turned the tapes over to the White House and is donating all the money from the proceeds of his book to charity. I particularly like the end of that article where Scott McClellan notes that the tapes “are in private hands” and declined any further comment. Boy, that was a close one, eh? Wonder what kind of threats the NeoCons made to Doug Wead to get him to turn the tapes over? I can’t wait to see the next skeleton come out of Bush’s closet. I wonder when the mainstream conservative press will start paying attention to these things? I guess it’s too much to ask since they’re all in the pockets of big business.

I had a strange vision a couple weeks ago, and I’m not usually one prone to visions. I guess it wasn’t so much of a vision as an “occurrence.” I was on a lunch break and tuned into Sean Hannity for a few seconds to see what he was spewing about, and as I was listening to the hatred spill out from my radio, I just had this strange feeling come over me. I could hear the desperation in his voice. I could hear the fear that his lies and the lies of the administration he hawks for was about to end. I had this overwhelming feeling — and if I ever got a message from god, this is what I’d imagine it would feel like — that the pendulum was swinging back and that the people would start realizing that they had been lied to so many times by so many people.

Today, I received the first sign of real proof that things are turning back to sanity in this country — that we might still have a shot at joining the rest of the civilized world. In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the USA categorically barred the use of the death penalty for minors. The article states that “Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who voted with the majority 16 years ago [that allowed the death penalty for minors], said the new decision was necessary to keep pace with the “evolving standards of decency” that for the last 50 years have shaped the Supreme Court’s view of what constitutes cruel and unusual punishments.”

Is there any question that this is potentially a statement in reaction to the torture that has become a common occurrence in USA controlled detention camps? This is the highest law of the land taking a stand against cruel and unusual punishment, and it’s about time. Hopefully the death penalty as a whole will be next to go the way of extinction.

While there needs to be suitable punishment for those committing such heinous crimes, the death penalty is almost always handed out unfairly and should be abolished. One of the most eloquent explanations of why the death penalty should be made illegal was made by Robert Nigh on June 11th, 2001 — the date of Timothy McVeigh’s execution. The recording is here, or you can read it.

At 7 a.m. this morning, we killed Tim McVeigh, the person responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing. But we did much more than that. We also killed Sergeant McVeigh, the young man who joined the Army because he wanted to serve his country; the young soldier that was so dedicated to his duty that he became the top gunner in this battalion of 100.

He was the young man who took up arms on his country’s behalf and traveled half-way across the world to meet and engage our enemy. He placed his own life in jeopardy because we asked him to and because he thought it was his duty to do so.

His actions were of such character that he was awarded the Bronze Star with designation of valor.

But much more importantly than any of that, what we did this morning was to kill Tim McVeigh, friend to Bob Popovic, Allen Smith and Elizabeth McDermott. We killed Bill and Mickey’s son this morning. And we killed Jennifer McVeigh’s big brother.

Of course, we can say that it was Tim himself that caused their pain.

And we would be half-right. But it would be a lie to say that we did not double their pain and that we are not responsible, because there is a reasonable way to deal with crime that doesn’t involve killing another human being.

Although we might not express it in these terms because we know better, we might say that these people are simply collateral damage, but we know too well that there is no such thing as collateral damage. There are only real people with faces and names and loved ones who may never heal because of our actions, and that is true whether their grief was inflicted by Tim McVeigh or by federal law enforcement or by us collectively.

To the survivors in Oklahoma City who have had the courage to come out against capital punish in spite of the tremendous pain that they have suffered, I say thank you. To the victims in Oklahoma City, I say that I am sorry that I could not successfully help Tim to express words of reconciliation that he did not perceive to be dishonest. I do not fault them at all for looking forward to this day or for taking some sense of relief from it. But if killing Tim McVeigh does not bring peace or closure to them, I suggest to you that it is our fault. We have told them that we would help them heal their wounds in this way.

We have taken it upon ourselves to promise to extract vengeance for them. We have made killing a part of the healing process. In order to do that we use such terms as reasoned moral response, but I submit there’s nothing reasonable or moral about what we have done today. That is true when killing a human being even means killing Tim McVeigh.

There was a time when we recognized this in our country. In 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the death penalty as it existed at the time. In its concurring opinion in Furman v. Georgia, Justice Marshall wrote, “The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in time of crisis.

“This is a country that stands tallest in troubled times; a country that clings to fundamental principles, cherishes its constitutional heritage and rejects simple solutions that compromise the values that lie at the roots of our democratic system. In striking down capital punishment, this court does not malign our system of government; on the contrary, it pays homage to it. In recognizing the humanity of our fellow beings, we pay ourselves the highest tribute. We achieve a major milestone in the long road from barbarism and join the approximately 70 other jurisdictions in the world which celebrate their regard for civilization and humanity by shunning capital punishment.”

There has been a movement in the states to celebrate the dignity of human life and to start a moratorium on executions. It did not come soon enough for Tim McVeigh, but it can come soon enough for others.

Where we go from here is a question of critical importance. I have told you, honestly, that Tim cared for people. And some of the people he cared deepest about were his brothers on the federal death row. Even Tim recognized that our claims that we are not racially biased are false. If we believe that, then we ignore the reality that 18 of the 20 men behind me on the federal death row in Terre Haute are persons of color. Fully 90 percent belong to a minority. If we do not acknowledge that, we are lying to ourselves about what we are doing. We are killing the poor and the minority and people that we believe to be different and lesser than ourselves.

Even in Tim McVeigh’s case, to which the racial disparity doesn’t apply, we were incapable of inflicting the death penalty in a fair manner.

The FBI could not participate in the prosecution without breaching its obligation to turn over the witness statements. This must make us realize that we are too fallible, we are simply too human to extract so final and irreversible a punishment.

If there is anything good that can come from the execution of Tim McVeigh, it may be to help us realize sooner that we simply cannot do this anymore. I am firmly convinced that it is not a question of if we will stop, it is simply a question of when.

Thank you all very much.

I recently took part in an interesting exchange on a bulletin board in cyberspace. The board was a blue-collar type board for people in the heating/AC industry and it had a section where talking about religion and politics was allowed. At first, it appeared as if there was some intelligent discussion going on: What are Neo-Cons really? Where is the Democratic leadership headed with Dean as the DNC Chair? So I responded, eager to take part in this discussion.

A few posts later though, and the attacks began. I received private e-mails of support from two other members, but most of these people must’ve known better than to get in the ring with the people whom I found myself standing up against. I made one slip up and said that Max Cleland jumped on a grenade that he at first thought might have been thrown at his troop, but then he realized it might have fallen off his own belt and that’s how he was injured in Vietnam. The right-wingers on the site quickly looked up Cleland’s own words on his website where he mentions that he just grabbed his own grenade which he realized had fallen off his belt. No jumping, but I was nailed as a liar. My own fault, and I should’ve known better. What proceeded after that was a slide into a pit of hatred and attacks. It was interesting to say the least. One member prompted another to “go after him — I got yer six.” This is the type of people we on the left are dealing with day after day. There is no room for conversation, it’s just attack attack attack. There must be a way to talk with more reasonable conservatives without the distraction of these extremists who have nothing better to do than shoot at people who are stupid enough to put their heads up in a forum? One of these guys has posted over SIXTEEN THOUSAND posts in the forum. That tells you what these folks’ motivation is… The question is, where are the real conservatives? How do we find them to get back to some common ground? You can’t have a conversation when half the people are yelling.

I recently watched “The Power Of Nightmares,” a BBC documentary that chronicled the rise of Muslim extremism and the Neo-Conservative movement. For the last few years I had asked everyone I knew on the Republican side of the aisle just what it was that attracted them to Bush and his administration. No one was able to give me a logical answer, and most eventually attributed their backing of Bush to emotional safety in the era of the “War On Terrorism.”

I never knew exactly what the Neo-Conservative movement was all about, and learning about it and the rise of extremists like Osama Bin Laden (who was less a terrorist than a man with the money to make terrorism happen) has helped me understand how each of these philosophies sprouted from basically the same point — how the masses were out of control and society was virtually crumbling because people were out for their own self-interests. By creating a common enemy — real or imagined — the masses could be kept under control.

That’s stating it very simply, and the documentary took three hours to explain it all with research and interviews with the key players in the NeoCon and Militant Islamist movements. It has caused me to re-think this whole approach of just documenting the hypocrisy of the modern right-wing, as I’m starting to realize that the religious right has been used by the Republican Party and that it’s not the religious right or the people who vote Republican that I’m upset with or have a lack of understanding about. It’s the Neo-Cons themselves. Merely stacking up evidence of wrongdoing and flip-flopping on the part of the Neo-Cons is an exercise performed very well by other websites. And while I believe this recordkeeping is totally necessary, less of my time should be spent merely relaying this information and more should be spent actually thinking about the situation — where we are today and how we can change things to benefit the little guy and the planet instead of just the rich and the mighty.

I’m not trying to suggest I’m any kind of philosopher, nor am I an expert on the culture wars and history. I do think though, that it’s high time I stop acting like a parrot who just repeats things in unison with the crowd and who starts to further his own personal journey in an attempt to actually do something about where we are rather than just point it out. I’m not sure if that makes any sense, but that’s why I’m turning the two Blue State Journal sites into one. If you need proof that the media is run by conservatives, Media Matters handles that better than anyone out there. If you prefer a few conspiracy theories mixed in with your proof of right-wing dominance of the media, check out LegitGov.org. I will, of course, continue to talk about current events in this blog, but I think it’s time that I start viewing citizens of the United States more as people than as members of one club or the other. We are all manipulated by our leaders, some people are manipulated more than others. Some people respond to reason, some do not. Some people are led emotionally, some are not. Some people view issues based upon the impact to the family, some do not have families. Either way though, there are common issues that bind us all together. Will we have clean air tomorrow? Will we be taken care of in our old age? Will we be able to leave a healthy planet to our children? These general issues can be approached a million different ways, but one thing is for sure — the people in charge right now do not have the interests of the planet at heart. They do not have the interests of veterans at heart (witness even more budget cuts and the new “stop loss” letter that recently went out that re-enlisted people until 2031 — that’s not a mistake… TWENTY THIRTY-ONE). They do not care that so many children do not have health care. They do not care that people who desire to work cannot find work that will support their families. They blame the victim. This is morally wrong, and when people see it, I think they know enough to understand it. The debate comes in how to solve these problems. The first step is waking people up from the brainwashing that the administration has performed on them. I think this is already happening with the religious right. The Bush administration, through two election cycles, made promises to the religious right — those people that came out in droves this election to tip the vote just enough to put him in office — that have been (and probably will continue to be) nothing more than lip service. The right is getting angry and they’re starting to feel they’ve been used.

On the other side, I think the election of Howard Dean as DNC Chair will mean that more attention is paid to local Democrats all over America. This is where the real action needs to be taken. The DNC has taken its strategy from Washington for too long, thinking that the same centrist rhetoric that worked for Bill Clinton would work for other candidates. It didn’t, and it won’t. Dean is sure to do everything he can to re-frame the debate at the local level and make sure that people know that issues like affordable health care, affordable housing, and social security are MORAL issues that can be better addressed by Democrats. That’s the first step. When more people at the local level start connecting the drastic cuts in education and social services in their communities directly with the policies of this Neo-Conservative administration, hopefully their eyes will begin to open.

There also has to be a way for people to break out of the fear of terrorism that has been spread by this administration. Each time they want to raid some fund, or raise more money for their corporate buddies, they pull the terrorism card. Terrorism has always been with us, and it will always be with us. What we need to do though is stop seeing our neighbors as potential terrorists and stop being so paranoid that the cells are everywhere. They aren’t. But the thought that they ARE everywhere plays so well in the White House echo chamber called the mainstream media, doesn’t it?

I’m slowly waking up. Someone finally helped me understand what it’s all about. If you can find a way to see it, PLEASE see The Power Of Nightmares. It makes regular appearances on USENET in alt.binaries.documentaries. It was also posted in alt.binaries.hipclone a few days ago.

When it comes to my music, I really try to do the right thing by the ones who create a product that gives me great joy. I always try to support artists I love, especially indie artists like Juliana Hatfield and Shannon Wright, who had the bravery to decide that music was what they were going to do with their lives, and damn everything else. Whenever possible, I try to buy the music directly from the artist. Ms. Hatfield has even started making unreleased tracks available on her website with a voluntary link to PayPal so you can pay if you like.

This is all leading somewhere, I promise.

I used to be a music purist, who would only listen to vinyl and/or reel-to-reel tape. Analog was where it was at. Eventually, CDs started replacing my vinyl, mostly for convenience and party because they would pretty much never degrade in sound quality over the years. I remember when CDs first arrived at a $18-20 price point, and all the major labels were promising that once manufacturing capability caught up, CDs would be down to the $7.99 to $9.99 that vinyl LPs were. We’ve all heard the story or have personally lived through it. Once the record companies found out that people were still buying music at $17-20 a disc, they had no incentive to drop the price by $7-10 per disc. At the same time they started gouging their consumers for music, they started stepping in the way at every turn of people copying music for themselves or their friends. Some of you may remember the furor of the “digital cassette” that tried to gain traction in the consumer marketplace. The RIAA didn’t like that at all. In fact, if the RIAA had its way (along with a method of tracking), there would be a tax on every mix tape anyone ever created for a friend.

When I was a kid, I got into music because my uncle would give me his old vinyl LPs when he got the same music replaced on 8-track tapes. That’s how I initially got into the Beatles, Yes, Jimi Hendrix, etc. And over the years I bought more music from them because I liked what I heard.

Fast forward to the weekend. I was looking for some tracks by this awesome band named Myracle Brah. The website had a few downloadable MP3’s, so I downloaded, listened, and wanted more. I was listening to them using Windows Media Player and was brought to a link where I could buy one of the albums online. I figured that if I could buy some of their stuff through Windows Media player that I could probably also try this “99 cent per song” thing through iTunes that I had heard about. So I downloaded iTunes and bought a couple albums from the band, since I didn’t want to wait for their CDs to arrive. I figured the money would go to them anyway when I paid for their album on iTunes, so it was pretty much the same as getting a CD, and I’d have the music immediately.

So I’m listening to the songs on my computer and decide to transfer them to my laptop so I can listen to them while I’m at work. My laptop is a Debian Linux box, but I figured there would be some application to listen to “m4p” files that I had received from iTunes. After all, Beep Media Player has plugins for just about any audio format.

Boy, was I wrong. Apparently, I need a computer “authorized” to play iTunes format, and that capability is not available through Linux. You can use VideoLAN to decode the files, but you first have to get a key from the computer that was authorized to play these files, then copy the key along with the files. Needless to say, I’m more than a little bit steamed about all this. I guess I shouldn’t be so amazed that I can’t play the files I paid for on any of my computers that I wish, let alone let any of my relatives have a listen on their own computers. I have several computers at home, including an Xbox configured with Xbox Media Center, from where I can play my MP3 collection. Basically, I can’t “host” the music files on one of my computers and use a shared folder to listen to them on any other computer in my own damn house.

It certainly looks to me like the argument the file-swappers make is accurate: Digital Management Rights only inconvenience those who legally buy the music. All I really have to do to get around this is make an analog copy of the file (play/record — hell, I can even make a very clean digital copy) and put it on a file sharing network and the deed is done. Why can’t we just pay for our music and then use it anywhere? I know I’m not the only one asking this, but it just seems ridiculous, if not unsurprising given how totally out of control the RIAA is getting. Witness this story where members of the RIAA dressed up in paramilitary garb to take down a guy in a parking lot, or this one where they’re suing a dead person for sharing music.

I’m not big on the MPAA either, but at the very least they usually offer HOURS of content and lots of interesting extras on DVDs that sell sometimes for less than a 30 minute CD. It really sucks when you try to do the right thing and you end up getting bitten in the ass for it. Hopefully more and more artists will start offering MP3’s on their own websites for purchase. I’ll pay. I don’t mind. I just want the ability to easily play that purchased music anywhere I want to listen to it. I guess that’s too much to ask from iTunes and the RIAA though.