THIS IS NO LONGER FUNNY

In today’s news (Oct. 14, 2004) we come across the unhappy knowledge that in Nevada (and probably elsewhere) Republican front organizations have been registering Democratic voters and, then, destroying their registration forms. Combine this news with the news of a few weeks ago about Republican plans in other states to go to the polls and intimidate minority voters before they can vote by asking for picture ID, by plans in Detroit to “suppress” the African-American vote, by Florida Republicans to cleanse voter lists of Democratic voters, and by Republicans in other states who send out false information in heavily Democratic precincts about the location of polling places, and we get a picture of a concerted effort by Republicans to steal a second straight election from the American people.

Those with knowledge of history recognize the continued effort by Republicans to undermine democracy, to shut people out of democracy rather than to bring them into it. The GOP is the party of special financial interests, the party of privilege and power. Their goal for the past 60 years has been to return America to the days before Roosevelt when America was awash in poverty-stricken desperate workers who’d work for pennies and make capitalists rich. The Republican goal is not to put a chicken in every pot; it’s to pluck every chicken in their pot. Since Reagan, it’s no wonder the number of American working people in poverty has increased while ever more money flows to the richest among us.

One other example serves my purpose here: through Republican efforts to downsize government, the regulators who oversee government spending with private contractors has been cut in half. Naturally, in Iraq Halliburton has been overcharging for its services because who’s to keep on eye on them? Multiply this Republican effort to enrich their friends by downsizing regulation, and you can clearly see the future of America—impoverished workers whose taxes are used to enrich corporate America and their CEOs.

The corruption of freedom by the Republican Party is limitless; their efforts to undermine American democracy ceaseless. In fact, I’ve not witnessed a more callous and sustained attack on the democratic process since Nazi Brown Shirts pulled similar stunts in their successful effort to turn German democracy into Nazi government. Rancorous policy debates are one thing. Even distorting an opponent’s record is not the worst thing that can happen, but to show a callous disregard for the election process itself undermines Americans’ basic rights to choose how they’ll pursue life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.


THE ORIGIN OF MINDS

by Peggy La Cerra and Roger Bingham

This is the book!

I’m only into Chapter Three and I can see these two are walking down a line I think we ought to pursue when it comes to discussions of consciousness and determinism. It’s good stuff and, so far, very understandable to a layman like myself. Read this:

“Your mind is a product of your evolved behavioral intelligence system, which functions as a customized cost/benefit analysis system. It is modulated throughout the life span by the LHRS [life history regulatory system], which regulates and schedules the sequential acts of our lives, using a genetically encoded script as its guide—but it is always responsive, moment by moment, to environmental pressures. And underpinning all this is a fundamental requirement to meet the bioenergetic bottom line.” (pp. 27-28)
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"The Republican Party either corrupts its liberals or it expels them." —Harry S. Truman