Common Ground

Our condolences to the families of the American officials killed in the indefensible and ugly violence taking place overseas, particularly in North African and SW Asian countries. So any scoundrel or two, or a handful, can stir up major trouble in the world with nothing more than a computer or a stunt, and Uncle Sam can do nothing more than say "tut-tut," because the government is so respectful of free speech rights? Really? That would be news to a lot of non-scurrilous, respectful and humane American peace and environmental activists, or American political dissidents and minor party activists, or whistleblowers who have been jailed, arrested, spied-on, or otherwise hounded and harassed by Uncle Sam for excercising their free speech rights -- not to mention the Australian citizen, Julian Assange, who has been hounded and threatened, basically, for being a pesky journalist. However, if extreme rightists can all but ignite wars in far away lands -- or conceivab...

One of the worst tornado maelstroms in our nation's history has struck in this year of 2011, with sickening deadly tornados hitting the Deep South earlier this spring, Alabama taking the brunt of it, especially Tuscaloosa, and the Midwestern heartland just recently, Missouri taking the brunt of it, especially Joplin. Our prayers for the deceased (may they rest in peace), the injured and the survivors of these tragedies, that the latter two will quickly recover from the devastation and the problems resulting from it. The tornado misery this year is truly a national sorrow. [revised on 6/24/11] Copyright 2009 - 2011, Party of Commons TM

The people of the Pacific Northwest, including our party, gives a big thank you to the F.B.I. for capturing a suspected terrorist in Oregon a few days ago. The suspect is from abroad as, reportedly, others were in similar incidents. [revised 1/2/11] The F.B.I. website page can be seen by clicking on the title link, above. Copyright 2009 - 2011, Party of Commons TM

On March 1, when we last wrote about the corporate polluting of the waterways (on another blog), little did we know that the corporate nemesis would turn real bad policy on their part into an outright catastrophe. The BP oil company, virtually unregulated by Uncle Sam, and acting as the practical government of the Gulf of Mexico, ignored problems and took huge environmental risks in order to save a relative small amount of money, and have now ruined the entire Gulf through a massive and ongoing offshore oil runoff. The Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) made matters worst by allowing BP to use some of the most toxic chemical dispersant available in huge quantums. Instead of allowing the runoff oil to naturally coagulate so it stays on the water surface, thereby making it easier to skim off and clean up, the dispersant makes the oil sink to the bottom where it is more likely to harm the Gulf aquatic species, along with the dispersant itself. Moreover, the dangerous dispersant may ...

Somewhat astonishingly, for one of the 50 state educational governing institutions or boards, a cadre of fascist sympathizers on the Texas School Board have taken control of the board, and are trying to put their stamp of indocrination on the schools and text books, apparently before the majority of Texans will likely come to the conclusion that these changes are going overboard. Besides trying to make the corporatist appeaser and antagonist of the poor, Ronald Reagan, into a great paragon, they are also trying to re-write history more to their fascist leanings (even taking Thomas Jefferson out of the history texts in discussions about "The Enlightenment"), breaking down the historical constitutional understanding of the separation of church and state in texts, trying to stamp their decidedly unchristlike version of their religion on Texas schools, and even trying to make the seditionist, pro-slavery politician's, Jefferson Davis', viewpoints seem reasonable. Texas ma...

Sometimes the things that make the most sense are things that we have to look at over and over again until we can see all sides. This blog will concentrate on keeping an open mind regarding politics and government, looking at different points of views, and finding common ground on issues where we can agree and debating them when we cannot agree. [revised on 12/26/09] Copyright 2009, Party of Commons TM