In our digging, We The People are waking up to our soul’s prompting that America needs to model effective leadership by shifting Her values away from bottom line profits and violence.  Instead of liberally funding corporations and Pentagon pork projects, we shift our resources toward the health and safety of our global citizenry.  We are moving into a consciousness that is waking up to celebrating our Diversity in Unity.  In this process, we are co-creating a world where we are all entitled to knowing the power of Love and being treated with dignity and respect, regardless of how much material wealth we have accumulated or privilege we were born into.  But there is great resistance to the Climate Change we face.  Like anxious rabbits, our friends in Congress are fleeing from enacting effective legislation that will take military assault weapons off the shelves.  The more that we resist gun control, the more the movement will persist.  If we don’t proactively adopt some Common Sense discipline here, like a parent setting a limit with an acting out child with a toy, our right to bear arms will be taken away.  This is a paradox that the NRA and folks that pack heat because they can must understand.  There is a far greater and sustainable fire power in peaceful and non-violence strategies for societal change.  The violence is waking us up to that, as evidenced by the Peace Movement being larger than we have ever known.  But you probably won’t see that on the News tonight.  In Maine, there is a grassroots movement to stop Tar Sands oil from flowing through pre-existing refined oil pipelines.  Also, there is movement for ranked choice voting, or ‘run-off’ elections that will impact our legislature and Governor that represents the manifestation of spiritual values into politics.  But we must let go of our addiction to war as a way of life and let this die without killing ourselves.  We have a war on hunger, poverty, crime, obesity and drugs, etc.  Last time I checked, we are losing all of these wars.  As we have discussed, there is a way out of this insanity.  My mom didn’t whack herself because she wanted to die.  Rather, she took her life because she wanted to escape, avoid her pain and the dramatic, ego-centered suffering she attached to her pain.  Although there is Freewill, our actions have consequences.  In her case, she created much more pain and suffering, not less.  She has since walked into the Light, though it has taken hard work that was a missed opportunity for her to do while she was breathing.  How many folks could stand to tap into the energy of Groundhog?  How many premature deaths could be prevented and lives sustained with the help of Groundhog medicine?

When we keep Groundhog in our meditations, we are equipped to learn how to die without actually physically leaving Earth.  Groundhog has great power to guide us through the darkness, so that we see light at the end of the tunnel.  During this journey, there is a restful sleep during the dirge, a parallel process to the slower heartbeat deep within the Earth right now.  May Groundhog help you allow the light illuminate the shadows within your souls so that you see this reflection in your outer field of vision.

See you further on down the trails,

Ari

Reblogged from OK-SAFE, Inc. Blog:

Oklahoma Run-off Elections Re-Capped by OK-SAFE -- Vote Reminder August 28th!

OK-SAFE sums up key Oklahoma run-off battles. Posted by Sandra Crosnoe for R3publicans and OKGrassroots. Please share with your networks!

Our Texas Supreme Court is the court of last resort for civil matters in our great state. Justices serve six-year elected terms. When a seat vacates, the Governor appoints a replacement that must be confirmed by the state Senate.

Qualifications

• At least 35 years of age
• Citizen of Texas
• Licensed to practice law (or has been a lawyer and a judge of a court of record together) for at least ten years.

Medina – More than Qualified

Justice David Medina
Texas Supreme Court
Place-4

Justice Medina, a former Harris County state district judge, succeeded Wallace B. Jefferson in Place 4 after Jefferson’s appointment to be chief justice. Gov. Rick Perry appointed Justice Medina, who was the governor’s general counsel since January 2004.

Before that, he was associate general counsel for Cooper Industries Inc. in Houston and served on the Harris County bench in 1996-2000 after appointment in May 1996 by then-Gov. George W. Bush. He was elected in November 1996 and again in November 1998.

Justice Medina was born on Galveston Island, attended public schools in Hitchcock and graduated with a bachelor science degree from Southwest Texas State University in 1980 (now Texas State University-San Marcos). In college he competed on the university’s karate and baseball teams and was on the Dean’s List. In 1989 he earned his law degree from South Texas College of Law. He was on the Dean’s List and a member of the American Bar Association Regional Moot Court National Championship Team.

Why Vote for Medina?

Justice David Medina has been a distinguished member of our Texas Supreme Court since May 1996. Justice Medina firmly believes in the rule of law and opposes judicial activism as promised by his opponent at a recent rally in Rockwall County.

Stalwart Texas conservatives, including Gov. Rick Perry, Attorney General Greg Abbott, State Representative Jodie Laubenberg, Representative Ken Paxton and State Senator Dan Patrick endorse Justice David Medina.

I am John White, Rockwall County TEA Party organizer, and I wholeheartedly endorse Justice David Medina for re-election Texas Supreme Court Place 4.

Election Facts

Our Rockwall County Elections Office opens July 23 through July 27 for early voting. You may cast your ballot between the hours of 8:00 am and 5:00 pm during early voting.

Election Day falls on July 31 and polls will be open from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.

Bill Whitehill
Candidate
Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals | Place 2

Dear friends,

Please mark your calendars for the July 31^st Election Day and early voting from July 23 through July 27.

There is a vote by mail option available for those who will be out of town during the voting period, who are over age 65, or who are disabled.  For general information regarding early voting, see http://www.longdistancevoter.org/texas and http://votetexas.gov/voting/when#early-voting.  I have attached an application for Dallas County.

Here are the time schedules for requesting a vote by mail ballot and when the vote by mail ballot must be received:

• Absentee Ballot Application: Received NO EARLIER than 30 days before Election Day, and NO LATER than the close of business on the 7th day before the election (or, if the 7th day lands on a weekend, the Friday preceding the 7th day)
• Voted Absentee Ballot: Received by close of polls (7pm) on election day

Also, please see the following for the six counties in this district:

Dallas:  See the attached Ballot By Mail Application

Collin:  http://www.co.collin.tx.us/elections/election_information/absentee_bymail_voting.jsp

Grayson:  http://www.co.grayson.tx.us/County%20Clerk/CtyClkElecBal.htm

Rockwall:  http://rockwall-tx.connect4.clarityelections.com/voter-information/ballot-by-mai/

Kaufman:  http://www.evoter.com/tx/kaufman-county/absentee-ballot-applications

Hunt:  Contact the Elections Administrator, Almina Cook, either by calling her office, or by mail. Her phone # is (903) 454-5467, or her mailing address is 2217 A Washington, Greenville, TX 75401.

Turnout for this end of July runoff will be light, thus every vote will be valuable.  Please make sure you vote (for Kit and me) and encourage your family, friends, and neighbors to do the same.

We have received numerous strong endorsements since our last update, including Former Opponent Kevin Keith; Family Law Appellate Specialist and Irving City Council Member Brad LaMorgese, Esq.; Family Law Specialist Ike Vanden Eykel, Esq.; Dallas courtroom legend James E. Coleman, Jr., Esq.;

Grassroots Activist Russ Ramsland; Grassroots Activists Dr. Jeff and Pam Colquitt; Grassroots Activist Barbara Adamson; Grassroots Activist Larry Wainer

Please let me know if you want a new yard sign (or even a medium sign).

Thank you for your continued interest and support.  Kit and I appreciate both very much.

Bill Whitehill

Endorsements: http://www.whitehillforjustice.com/supporters/

Former opponents Kevin Keith and Jeff Coen support Bill Whitehill.

No term limits, but no consecutive terms

I was quite fortunate in that I ran low on money after my music scholarship ran out and ended up compromising by taking some of my core liberal arts credits through night extension courses at Oakland Community College through both the Auburn Hills and Farmington Hills campuses. I say fortunate because larger universities seem to be gathering places for a lot of left-wing thinkers and it tended to be a source of conflict at both Oakland University and Eastern Michigan University where I later transferred after moving to Ann Arbor. (although one of my most enjoyable college classes of all was a business ethics course run by a brilliant philosophy teacher at EMU who was admittedly a liberal)
O.C.C. however, especially in their extension courses (which were often run by professionals from the community rather than tenured faculty), more often than not had conservative minded teachers. One such class was a basic economics course run by an obvious supply-side thinker. All that is neither here nor there to my idea of how to handle term limits, however, one day in class he was discussing the principle of ‘velocity of money’ and this potential solution struck me.

The notion was that I, at the time, foresaw one of the biggest problems with the entrenched incumbency existing in our government as being a lack of new ideas. The same out-of-touch guys keep getting elected and re-elected through combination of their celebrity/name-recognition, franking privilege, party backing, practices like gerrymandering and the use of their pulpit. I don’t really support the notion of term limits because it reduces choice, but at the same time the desires of the founding fathers was not to have ‘career politicians’ holding the same office for life. Moreover most of them were reluctant to even hold office themselves and quickly reverted to civilian pursuits as soon as their one or two terms were complete.
THAT was the intention of their interest in republican rule. To encourage the common man to serve as leader if his ideas resounded with the people, but then to return to the common. The problem was in essence, a lack of ‘velocity of ideas’.

The economic principle was that you did not need to increase money supply to stimulate an economy. You simply needed to seek means by which to increase the ‘velocity of money’ – to make the existing money supply change hands rather than stagnate in savings or investments. In short, to encourage spending to stimulate production to revitalize the economy. Gross National Product goes up faster with increased velocity of money than with any other means.

Therefore if you are going to address problems with stagnant ideas in politics, you need to increase the velocity of ideas. You need to get back to – or at least attempt to approach closer to – the founders’ intentions. Encourage the common man to enter politics and discourage the career politician from stagnating in office.

The answer was obvious. Don’t limit terms – just don’t let anyone hold the same office twice in a row. The big argument on term limits has always been ‘it takes a while for someone to learn the system’ – I replace the word system with the word ‘game’ because that’s pretty much what it is… political game playing. Well guess what, if everyone is coming in to the office fresh (or at least reasonably fresh), far less entrenched ‘system’ of game playing to learn.

Would this mean no career politicians? NO, not at all. But tell me it would be a bad thing for someone that wanted to make a career of it to have to leave the Senate to take a seat for 2 years in the house or back at his state level before again running for the 6 year term!

Instant run-off ballots!

This one is by far not my idea. It’s actually been done. The concept of an instant run-off ballot is that you are not restricted to one choice. I see this as a benefit also because many times third parties with legitimately viable ideas are overshadowed by people’s desire ‘not to waste a vote’ on a candidate they think is unlikely to win. The old Douglas Adams argument comes into play:

“The people are people, the leaders are lizards. The lizards hate the people and the people hate the lizards. It’s a democracy! [...] of course people vote for [the lizards], if they don’t, the wrong lizard might get in.”

An instant run-off ballot gives you the ability to make more than one choice in order of preference or to vote no preference at all on candidates you do not like. i.e. if you really like what the reform party candidate is saying but don’t want to waste your vote afraid that party ‘x’s popular candidate will win over your second choice in party ‘y’, you make your first choice for the reform candidate and your second for the party Y candidate.

After ballots are collected, if there is not a ‘super majority’ (over 50%), they take whoever’s name is the last on the list (least number of ‘first choice’ votes) off the list and tally in any ‘second choice’ candidates on those voter ballots to add to the existing totals and so on until one candidate has earned 50%

I think this kind of a process with so many conflicting ideas out there makes a lot more sense than the current ‘this guy or that guy’ method of the bi-cameral, one-person-one-vote-for-one-candidate nonsense we have in place today. And it would go a long way to introduce new concepts into politics as those 2nd (and beyond) choices needed to be tallied in.

Proportional salaries for politicians

I commented briefly on this in another response to someone on another facebook page who was referring to government dictation of executive pay as a factor of corporate profits and company well being. I’m ever and always saying we should hold our politicians to the same standards they try to introduce, legislate and enforce BEFORE giving them any audience for ridiculous notions sold as ‘fairness’.

Therefore, politician salaries should be proportional to the ‘average income’ of people whom they represent. It wouldn’t have to be a 1-to-1 correlation but should be across the board in any political wing (states could decide their own ratio, federal ratios should be uniform in the house and senate) and should be fixed so that only a public vote could change the ratio. (I also firmly believe that politicians should NOT be allowed to arbitrarily vote on their own compensation, benefits or what have you – that is insane!)

This would shift the incentive of politicians from ‘what they could get to give to their voters’ to what they can do to improve the lives, salaries and self-sufficiency of their voters overnight!

Zimbawe’s 84 year old leader  has been busy showing the world the real way to  ensure a Magabe victory.  After all, what hope have Zimbabwe’s citizens against the force of the gun and the violence administered by the ruling party’s militia.

Today’s report in the Guardian shows how an election is conducted in Zimbabwe:

From Hwange to Harare, the abductions, torture and beatings of opposition activists and supporters have continued. The police raided the opposition Movement for Democratic Change’s headquarters and hauled away scores of men, women and children who had sought shelter there from the terror campaign.

Joseph Kuratidzi, an opposition activist in Mashonaland, agreed: “Mugabe said he will never give up power. It was a mistake to think a vote would change that. When you vote you let him know who to kill. We were all targets,” he said.

Magabe’s thirst for power at all costs and now Morgan Tsvangirai’s withdrawl does not bode well for the population who have been starved and beaten into submission over his years of tyrannical reign.

The quiet diplomacy as advocated by Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa has brought little change in the face of such state mandated intimidation. The UN security council unanimously adopting a statement condemning the government’s “campaign of violence” that had “denied its political opponents the right to campaign freely” is a beginning, but much more must be done.

Until the political leaders in Southern Africa take a principled stand on the human rights violations in Zimbabwe the silent deaths are set to continue.

Yes, too much blood has been shed in this country to prop up the ego of a man who has been blinded by power and who cannot and will not be denied in his megalomania . The Guardian quotes him as saying that only God can remove him from office, no doubt there are many who cannot hold out until their prayers are answered.

Those in countries not so afflicted should value the democracy they live under that puts the pen above the gun in determining who leads their nation.  They should see each election as a privilege and an opportunity to express their choice, such a basic human right that is still denied to so many.

How long will the world just stand by and watch the suffering of the people of Zimbabwe doing nothing.

We are all diminished by what is happening in Zimbabwe.

PHOTO OF THE DAY:

The blue underside of a slab of sea ice protrudes up through the surrounding ice. Shifting annual sea ice, pushing against the permanent Ross Ice Shelf, creates pressure ridges of uplifted ice.

Photograph by: Steven Profaizer, National Science Foundation. Date Taken: October 16, 2005.