We thought given the powerful position of the planets in Sagittarius — the sign of telling it like it is — and Mercury going retrograde Thanksgiving Day, that a little help was in order, in case you’re a part of a number of American families whose political views may run fully to the right of vegan.

Multibillionaire on stilts, Occupy Seattle, Photo by Genevieve Hathaway.

Ministry of Truth, aka Jesse La Greca, is from New York and is a regularly featured blogger at Daily Kos. His outstanding responses to the mainstream media’s serious and often non-serious questions about the OWS Movement have earned him national attention. Here are his recommendations if and when your family engages in a dinner table debate about current-day politics. – fb.

by MinistryOfTruth

I thought this would help us keep the conversation about Occupy Wall Street from veering off into nonsense when we have to discuss it in the media. These are also useful when you are talking with your friends and family, whether it is on Facebook or in the real world, or just at your thanksgiving dinner table.

If someone makes the following statements, here are my suggested responses

Statement:    ”Occupy Wall Street protesters are dirty and need a bath.”

Answer : “Don’t change the subject, we are talking about reforming the banks and our government. We need to clean up Wall Street and Washington DC. That is more important than what you are talking about.”

Remember that it is important NOT to let a conversation about Occupy Wall Street become a discussion of petty side issues. Immediately shift away from side issues and get back to the BIG issues of bank accountability and the corporate lobbyist influence over our democracy.

Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader,

IN A STUNNING move surely meant to steal the thunder of Colin Powell’s ringing endorsement of Barack Obama for President, the McCain campaign received a ringing endorsement of their own, as revealed in this excerpt from an article by The Associated Press:

The message, posted Monday on the password-protected al-Hesbah Web site, said if al-Qaida wants to exhaust the United States militarily and economically, “impetuous” Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is the better choice because he is more likely to continue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“This requires presence of an impetuous American leader such as McCain, who pledged to continue the war till the last American soldier,” the message said. “Then, al-Qaida will have to support McCain in the coming elections so that he continues the failing march of his predecessor, Bush.”

SITE Intelligence Group, based in Bethesda, Md., monitors the Web site and translated the message.

“If al-Qaida carries out a big operation against American interests,” the message said, “this act will be support of McCain because it will push the Americans deliberately to vote for McCain so that he takes revenge for them against al-Qaida. Al-Qaida then will succeed in exhausting America till its last year in it.”

This feels like a move not unsimilar to Osama Bin Laden’s videotape to the American people on the eve of the 2004 election. Hint: It didn’t do Kerry any good.

What this will trigger is anyone’s guess.

Special thanks to Talking Points Memo for the tip.

Yours & truly,

Fe Bongolan in San Francisco

Editor’s Note: I asked Fe Bongolan to provide us with a campaign news roundup as Obama and McCain go into the final stretch. The next 48 hours will be a telling spell of astrology. Tuesday at about 4 pm the Moon reaches its exact full phase, and 24 hours later Mercury stations direct. On the personal front this is a time to back off, not push anything you can avoid pushing, and ease through the astrology.

This stretch of time is a true hot spot of the year, and it is clear that many things hang in the balance; Mercury is stationing in Libra and the Moon is full in Aries with the Sun in Libra. Despite the Libra presence, the Aries energy makes this a potentially angry and self-centered Full Moon, particularly given that it’s conjunct Eris. Eris is not an asteroid; she is a planet larger and slower than Pluto, to my thinking the most important advance in planetary astronomy and astrology of the 21st century so far. Between this lunation and the associated Mercury station direct, we may have a good bit of mental chaos, identity crisis and relationship twisting and turning on our minds.

People wonder how a 12-sign horoscope can work; the truth is most of us act like puppets as the planets tug us around, no matter what sign we are. Pay a little extra attention as these days unfold. Expect things to go a little more slowly, leave space for the occasional bungle and change of even important plans, and let’s see what develops. And remember that the third and final presidential debate is happening right in the thick of it all. Fe is the most tapped-in person I know, well connected and obsessively informed…so you can count her observations for a little extra.

Thanks for tuning in…

Dear Friend and Reader:

I’M FINDING myself having an increasingly hard time imagining what’s been going on in John McCain’s head.

He was forced by the religious right in his party to make the worst choice of his political career by having unvetted Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate and next in line to the Presidency (McCain wanted Joe Lieberman as his choice for VP, the same Joe Lieberman who ran on the ticket with, yes, Al Gore). The Alaska Troopergate investigation revealed last Friday that the governor abused her position in a relentless vendetta against her former brother-in-law Mike Wooten defying governmental ethics laws, and providing the country further evidence of her amateurish leadership.

McCain “suspended” his campaign mid-September to fly up to Washington and “save the economy,” disturbing a fragile balancing act between both parties needed to sustain a majority vote to pass a bailout plan. His one-day interjection of political showmanship caused further delay in creating an accord between the parties, adding more days of economic anxiety for the nation. It shone an unwelcome light on the Republican Party that allowed deregulation to flourish for decades and helped create the crisis, solidifying the perception that this “suspension” by McCain was yet just another campaign stunt.

Then you have McCain’s campaign on the stump asking “Who is Barack Obama?” whipping red-meat craving right-wing throngs into a frenzy by Palin proclaiming “Obama is palling around with terrorists,” and getting responses that “Obama is a bomb-carrying Muslim,” “He’s an Arab!” and “Kill him!” In a just and perfect world, words like Palin’s would at least garnish you a trip to your local Secret Service headquarters for further questioning. But its October 2008 and there’s an election to win.

The media storm and public outrage over the Hate Talk Express (hat-tip to Democratic Underground for the term) during the last week-and-a-half caused a further drop in the polls and high unfavorability ratings. Its more than likely McCain was pressed hard by Republican Party leadership to ratchet down the race-baiting which was hurting not only his chances, but down ticket races for other Republican congressional candidates. Party first.

Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader,

AS A PERSON of color in America,В I amВ always aware of vocal tone. Tone in how one is addressed,В theВ volume of the voice,В whether its brazen and condescending, or concerned and respectful. In a way, I’m hard-wired when it comes to deciphering what people say to me. Words can sometimes mean something absolutely different from what is actually said. Call it a survival instinct, but I’ve learned living in America that I often need to filter what people say to me, because they don’t know what they’re really saying, or meaning.

I remember having a conversation with my sister on a beach in Honolulu. We were vacationing, and my sister asked me about the geneology of the families in War of the Roses fromВ Shakespeare’s Richard II and III. As we were talking, a white woman came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and said, in all earnestness, “You speak English so WELL”.

My sister, with a Master’s degree in education was flummoxed, and I paused, counting to five. “Well, we’re American”.

She said “Is that so? But really, what are you?”

“We’re American.” I said.

“Well yes, but what are you, really?” she asked, sweetly.

At last night’s debate, in Senator McCain’s response to a question about energy,В he pointed to his side, not even looking at Senator Obama,В saying “..do you know who voted for it? (an energy bill in 2005)…THAT one!”

Maybe he meant well. But–”that one”? That, as in not even a person. Not a person fromВ your peer group, which he is, professionally. That one. No name. No face. No identity.

Being pegged as a non-entity is nothing new for “others”. Everyone has had it happen to them–women, men, people of color, young people, old people, gay, straight. When someone calls you “that,” you’re an example, a piece of evidence, not a human being with a history, a family, deserved respect for your accomplishments. You’re an “other”, at your expense. Definitely outside the “norm”. Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader:

OVER THE LAST four years, whenever I felt unsure about the political state of the nation, I’d run and grab for my Casey fix. My friend Casey, met while volunteering for the Kerry-Edwards campaign as a blog moderator in 2003-4, is a political strategist and communications consultant who has worked for local representatives in upstate New York as well as for Tom Hayden here in California.

It’s been said about Casey, with all due respect and admiration, that you can count on her to bring the perfect knife to use against the opposition in a political fight. Thank God she’s on our side.

Henry Paulson, Secretary of the US Treasury, in Asian garb for some reason. Maybe his mom bought it for him.

Whenever that sense of overwhelm grips and I feel so fearful that I can’t quite read the portents, I call Casey for my fix of real political straight talk, take the load from our minds on what’s happening, and laugh our asses off over the strange kabuki that American politics has become.

When I asked about the credit crisis on Wall Street, Casey quipped: “First of all, Fe, you have to do a ‘what’s up?’ with Hank Paulson’s resume. He’s formerly the CEO and Chairman of Goldman-Sachs. (Paulson joined the Bush White House as Secretary of the Treasury in 2006.)

In the heat of Wall Street’s shakeup two weeks ago (described in full here at Planetwaves) Goldman-Sachs seems now to be relatively safe, quietly announcing their new role while competition roiled and fell in the midst of the “economic crisis.” Do you think Goldman-Sachs might have been working off of insider information? Does this remind you of how a certain Vice-President we know, formerly of Halliburton, whose former company benefitted from no-bid contracts from the Iraq war and reconstruction?

Using the name that’s now a verb in popular culture: Was Paulson Cheney-ing the country’s economy? Was the over-hype of the crisis a cover to protect Goldman-Sachs while they re-structured and allowed other larger banks free reign to swallow up their smaller-sized competition?

On another front, losing in key battleground states on the issue of the economy, the McCain campaign’s strategy now is to use its most recent shiny object, VP candidate Sarah Palin, as our latest distraction. She reminded us at Thursday’s debate how dangerous a nuclear Iran was, and that Obama’s ‘naive’ plan for Iraq was tantamount to “the white flag of surrender”. Not that I am sure she understood what she was saying, but yes more military, more threat, more outside incursion. No common sense. No communication. Just four-inch heels and boogeymen.

Continue Reading »

Dear Friend and Reader:

IN LOS ANGELES, there is a cultural phenomenon started in downtown’sВ Mayan Club called Lucha Vavoom.

Produced as a cabaret of Mexican wrestlers, midgets and strippers, it is a cult phenomenon attracting LA club scene singles, wrestling aficionados, the LA punk scene andВ the ubiquitous college crowd. Once advertised, Lucha Vavoom tickets fly out the box office.

Audiences are drawn to the fighting tactics ranging from the typical WWF matches you see on tv — chair on the head here, full body slam there, from female mud-wrestling to scatalogical attack using your own shit to repel and humiliate your opponent. Between bouts there are beautiful female bodies in sexual display.

Sex and violence. What more distraction could you ever possibly want?

Which leads me to tonight’s Vice-Presidential debate.

In this corner, you have Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the neocon wet-dream vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party. She appeals to evangelicals.В She appeals to post-pubescent right wing boy-men. She’s the MILF. She’s Caribou Barbie. She’s the “pitbull” of Wasilla, Alaska with lipstick. She reads loads and loads of papers. All of them. Ask Katie Couric.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9go38MgZ4w8[/youtube]

In the few short weeks that Hurricane Sarah has been in the public eye (notВ shuttled to an undisclosed locationВ like Cheney’s compound), she has managed to claim Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were government entities (they’re private companies),В that Russia routinely flies over Alaskan airspace (refuted by NORAD), and she seems to have trouble naming a Supreme Court case outside of Roe v. Wade.

Then, in the other corner, there’s Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

For the news media, the blogosphere, in Washington circles and throughout the country, tonight’s debate has the same Lucha Vavoom appeal of watching something you know is really tasteless and awful but you can’t bear to look away. В 

It’s a freak show that happens to star a sitting U.S. Senator and a normal mainstream news commentator.В In a perfect world, a debate between these twoВ opponents would only beВ plausible in a film script by the Coen Brothers.В  But tonight we’re dealing with the highest end of distraction politics by the party that brought us 9-11, duct tape to prevent biochemical attack and Paulson’s Wall Street Bailout.В So anything goes.В В 

NowВ with everything that’s been said about Sarah Palin, the last thing we should do is underestimate her and her debate coaches. Yes, I could very well be saying this with a smirk, but this is the McCain campaign’s last chance to show just how competent a decision-maker John McCain is in this regard.В She is trained in the Republican attack dog mechanism of avoidance to direct questions. These tactics are theВ one-set play for when you get in trouble. They are:

1. Repeat back some of the words in the question to establish that you’re “answering” it;
2. Parry by steering the frame of your answer toward a talking point that bears some relation to the subject of the question;
3. Spray some transitional buzzwords that help you segue from what you were asked to what you have prepared to say, and;
4. Deliver the focus group-tested answer you originally planned, even if it’s kind of a non-sequitur.

UPDATE: Credit goes to kagro x from the excellent Daily Kos diary posted on these tactics which can be read in full here.

In her short time on the public stage, Palin has shown herself to be a candidateВ whose credentials and responsesВ leave the most jaded mainstream political press corps aghast. Maybe that’s good, because they are sure calling her on it.

Even with his own embarassing gaffes — referring to the market crash in 1929, Joe Biden said “Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn’t just talk about the princes of greed…” (FDR wasn’t president then, and television wasn’t around) — Biden has an impressive record of accomplishment and the trust of his constituentsВ in his state and in the bigger world. I have every reason to believe Joe will cope well having a co-starring role inВ tonight’s circusВ and well afterwards. His reputation will not be tarnished by participating in what one could call a “wrestling cabaret.”

Your astrological weather report for tonight’s debate comes from Planet Waves’ own Genevieve Salerno, who says:

There is a grand trine between the rising sign Taurus, Jupiter in Capricorn and Saturn in Virgo, all within the 14th or so degree of those signs. The economy is going to be a hot topic tonight. You’re going to have a side striving to reintegrate more conventional methods of control to basically make sure there is no change at all, while another side will probably prefer to talk about all the mistakes that have been made.

I’m not too sure anything stellar as far as ingenuity is going to come up. I say this because Taurus will be rising, and Saturn is trining that in Virgo. Jupiter in Capricron is like a really fat guy wearing a corset screaming “I can’t breathe!” so I’m not sure anyone will be addressing that, though that might come out as blaming greed on Wall Street…

Also, Chiron is conjoined with the North node in Aquarius. I would suggest this denotes a personal struggle within to do what is right for oneself instead of vying for the popularity and approval of the masses. Venus has just sunk below the descendant line, and the Moon is next to follow it. They are both in Scorpio: watch out for people trying to personify the warrior of light in the fight against evil.

If you’re interested in the astrology for tonight’s debaters, our friend Nancy SommersВ at Starlight NewsВ providesВ interesting aspects as well.

Actually, what worries me is not what cringe-producingВ moment PalinВ will inevitablyВ produceВ nor howВ Biden responds or is not allowed to. What worries me is McCain.

If we can bear to watch US election politics’ equivalent to Lucha Vavoom tonight, let’s remind ourselves that the unwritten story on Sarah Palin is still what’s at the top of that ticket. From McCain’s doomed charge on a white horse to bail America out of the Wall Street crisis last week, to tonight’s debate between Caribou Barbie and one of the most trusted US Senators in the realm of foreign policy, we’re bearing witness to the freak show of McCain’s judgment.

As we have learned the last eight years, and even these last eight days, the one who distracts the most has the most to hide and to lose.

Yours & truly,

Fe Bongolan

We are running on the assumption that despite calls by the McCain campaign to suspend and postpone them, the presidential and vice-presidential debates will continue as scheduled. We offer you this article as a tool to use as you observe the candidates in debate — whenever that will take place. FB

Dear Friend and Reader:

MY FRIEND, KAREN BRADLEY, has a job and life I totally envy. She is the head professor of the graduate program in dance at the University of Maryland,В and a movement specialist licensed in Laban Movement Analysis or LMA.

Devised by Rudolph Laban, LMAВ  is a system and language for understanding, observing, describing and notating all forms of movement. LMA draws on his theories of effort and shape to describe, interpret and document human movement.

Used as a tool by dancers, athletes, physical and occupational therapists, it is one of the most widely used systems of human movement analysis.

LMA movement analysts map human movement to help people from all stripes to move in healthier and more expressive ways. LMA’s connection to dance is immediate. But its principles of movement analysis are also applied to actors, industrial workers and, yes, politicians. Continue Reading »