FireDogLake readers davedwards1 and oregondave — We The People Solemnly.

Oregondave sent me the video with this note:

My music friend, Dave Edwards, was inspired on King’s birthday – right after the SCOTUS Citizens United decision – to write this song tracing the historical background of the corporate personhood debacle, and registering a ringing protest of same. He plays his banjo, and asked me to backup on cello (that’s me on cello). I was honored to do so, as I believe this court ruling, if left to stand, will turn out to be one of the most significantly damaging ones in our time.

I told Dave he had channelled Pete Seeger . . .

Davedwards1 says this about writing the song:

A few railroad lawyers got together after the Civil War, conspired to get two elected to congress where they both sat on the joint committee to write the 14th amendment freeing the slaves and argued for revising the traditional language of natural persons and artificial persons to be “persons.” This land mine could then later be used in court to steal human rights from “We the People.”.  On MLK b’day,  these words came streaming into my head – I feel from the collective divine creative.

What’s on your mind?

Tags: Citizens United, live music, protest song, SCOTUS, We The People Solemnly, YouTube

Part of this goes back to high school, when I had an older friend who was a Cyclist with a capital C. He was world class cyclist, and worked his butt off to get there. He put in miles of road work in all kinds of weather, and hours and hours working the the local bike shop both to pay the bills and to figure out how to get that last little advantage out of his bike.

When the Olympic qualifying rolled around, he ramped up his training even more and was selected as an alternate.

Sadly, this was 1979.

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and the US pulled out of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, my friend was really torn. He understood and even kind of agreed with the boycott, but he also felt like this was probably his best shot at the Olympics and now it was gone.

I lost track of my friend years ago, but I remember his work, dedication, and absolute delight in what he was doing every time I see the Olympics.

God, I wish more members of Congress and Democratic political activists were more like my old friend.

With that in mind, go read Garrison Keillor, and pay close attention to this part:

I still believe in hard work. It’s more fun and it’s a better way of life. I don’t have much patience for Democrats who grab hold of defeat and find vindication there. They long to be a heroic voice in the wilderness, crying out against selfishness and cruelty and going nobly down to defeat, and for their obituaries to say they were visionaries and ahead of their time. I’d rather they were in their time and did the hard work.

My old friend knew lots of cyclists who talked a good game. They knew all about bikes, and knew all about the strategy that goes into the sport. But they didn’t do the work, and so never even had a chance of winning.

Whether you are talking about sports or political activism, doing the hard work beats hardly working, every day of the week.

(photo h/t to anatman)

Tags: activism, Democrats, Olympics

The new western White House? (photo: Express Monorail)

Last week, we launched our 2010 FDL Fire Dogs contest to determine which members of Congress the FDL community would support with both fundraising and volunteer hours. Yesterday, OFA launched a similar effort to get volunteers to support members of Congress — but the criteria was somewhat less than clear. This email arrived this morning from Lynda Tran of the DNC Press:

Just 24 hours after launching the initiative, OFA supporters have already committed more than 3 million hours of their time to help candidates who fight for health reform — and that number is continuing to grow.

In fact, OFA supporters met our goal of pledging 1,000,000 hours to supporting Congressional leaders who stand up for health insurance reform just hours after OFA Director Mitch Stewart’s e-mail announcing the effort yesterday. Today those commitments are continuing to roll in.

This display of enthusiasm shows just how determined OFA activists are about passing meaningful health insurance reform — and how hard they’re willing to fight to support President Obama’s vision for America.

So, does that mean the Senate bill is now “President Obama’s vision for America?” I’ll assume Raul Grijalva, and anyone in the House who continues to support the bill they passed instead, is still a “monster” and unqualified to participate.

Did they happen to mention that the members who don’t want to vote for health care reform now are the ones in the most conservative districts? Are these OFA members so enthralled with “President Obama’s vision for America” that they’re gonna hump to Alabama and swarm the district for the anti-immigrant, anti-gay rights Rep. Bobby Bright, who has voted against everything from Lilly Ledbetter to SCHIP? Perhaps they can all buy hand guns and wave ‘em around Montgomery in a symbolic gesture of support.

Or, maybe they just opened the email and said, yeah, I’ll select the most hours allowed in the dropdown. 20 hours? Sure!

OFA could have provided enormous support to Democratic members of Congress, which they critically needed in 2009. With 13 million enthusiastic members, they could have launched a fundraising drive right after the election that swelled the coffers of every Democrat in Congress and freed them from their ties to lobbyists.

But those were the ties that Rahm Emanuel was trying to forge, not break, so that didn’t happen. And, as Tim Dickinson of Rolling Stone recently reported, when OFA finally awakened to the need to support Martha Coalkley, “OFA discovered that most of its 13 million supporters had tuned out. Only 45,000 members responded to the last-minute call to arms.”

OFA is always a day late and a dollar short. Last year, when it became clear that tea party activists had plans to disrupt Democratic town halls in August, FDL crowd-sourced all of the events, put them up in a searchable widget and organized progressives to show up and support these Democrats. We also had an event reporting tool to keep track of what was happening. Weeks later, OFA did the same thing.

Their consistent inability to do something meaningful with the most powerful email list ever assembled is probably the biggest FAIL in the age of online activism. Their most consistent presence on the internet seems to be the overlap between their members and Cass Sunstein’s creepy “cognitive infiltrators.” If they truly wanted to support Democratic infrastructure, they’d launch a fundraiser and let the list choose the members they wanted to support.

I’m gonna bet it wouldn’t be Bobby Bright.

When we announced that the winners of the Fire Dogs contest were Dennis Kucinich, Alan Grayson and Anthony Weiner, I wrote:

After coming up for air from the health care battle, I can honestly say that there’s nothing more important than breaking the link between lobbyist money and campaigns — but campaign finance reform alone isn’t enough. Developing an alternative progressive financing apparatus is a must.

In a year when even safe Democrats are facing serious challenges to their seats, the online community can provide support by virtue of our numbers that lobbyists can’t.

Now that the President is inviting the Republicans to the White House and trying to jam their ideas into the Senate bill in order to pass it, “the President’s vision” has devolved into “whatever ends up passing.”

As Eli said, “if Paul Ryan’s plan passes, then *that* will be “the President’s vision.”

We’ve been speaking with the Kucinich, Grayson and Weiner campaigns about how we can provide the most help to them. Each of these members is a consistent leader on different progressive issues, and our community is showing tangible support in a tough election year for those who have a proven track record and consistently stand up for what they believe in. That’s substantially different from “magical activism” pledged out of personal devotion to the President and a nebulous health care vision.

You can donate to the 2010 Fire Dog campaigns or sign up to phone bank now.

"Touchdown Jesus" behind St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans (photo: bongarang via Flickr)

The New Orleans Saints won Super Bowl 44. Congratulations to the players, the organization, and, most importantly, Saints fans.

The story of the Saints is a classic rags-to-riches tale. The team had never been to the championship game. They had two playoff wins in 42 years. They were so bad that their fans wore paper bags over their head for years and unaffectionately called the team “The Aints.”

New Orleans has also had a hell of a ride, going from “Las Vegas of the South” to the flash point of modern government incompetence, racism, and social injustice after Hurricane Katrina. The city and its football team were ripe for a comeback.

Our Progressive movement is, too. Why? We took back Congress in 2006. We took back the White House in 2008. We passed health care reform We’re working on that. We need a comeback because we’re disoriented.

It’s like we just woke up. Our eyes are open, but our vision is blurred. We know our slippers are near the bed, but we have to feel around with our toes to find them.

We reorient ourselves by becoming clear in our purpose. Let’s take a page from the Saints and make that happen. Progressive organizers, activists, and politicians can learn a lot from these World Champions about how to win this year and beyond. Here are 3 key lessons.

Be who you are

The Saints have been a gutsy team all season. Their high-powered offense was planned and executed by a coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterback aligned with common purpose. They knew one another well and believed in each other. They gave each other space to be themselves.

Drew Brees doesn’t have the strongest arm in the league, but he’s the NFL’s most accurate passer. Instead of throwing long balls, they played to Brees’ strengths and ran quick, short plays that relied on timing and precision.

Progressives must do the same and play to our strengths. Let’s quit trying to act like people we’re not and pretending to hold views that we don’t. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t grow our thinking or our skills as a movement (see below), but it does mean that we must look at what makes us who we are and work with that.

Now, Discover Your Strengths by Mark Buckingham is a book we all should read. It asserts that the most effective method for motivating people is to build on their strengths rather than correcting their weaknesses. We’re a big tent with big ideas and strong convictions. Let’s remember who we are, remember what our movement is about, and use that to boldly move forward.

Be bold or go home

The Saints didn’t get to the Super Bowl by playing not to lose. They went for it on 4th downs. They kicked an onside kick to open the 2nd half. They went for the 2-point conversion. Some gambles worked, some didn’t. When they were down 10-0 after the 1st quarter, they didn’t forget the traits that made them the highest-scoring team in the NFL and NFC champions.

Progressives must do the same: Be courageous enough to be boldly progressive. Stand up for your vision of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If something is disgusting, call it disgusting. If someone is dishonest, call them a liar. If something is possible, tell that story. Wimpy politicians finish 2nd. Wimpy organizers don’t win. Sick of losing? Get sick of being timid.

The dirty little secret is that this makes us more attractive to the debutantes everyone is courting: independents. Persuadable, undecided voters are more likely to vote for candidates/support parties that stand strongly for something. Shyness wins neither dates nor political victories.

Remember your supporters

We neither win nor lose alone. The problem is that when we win we salute ourselves, and when we lose, we focus on our opponents. This must cease. Movements, like football teams, thrive on passion. Every player, coach, and representative of the New Orleans Saints thanked their fans first during every interview they gave. They know who propelled them to the top, and they didn’t forget them.

The passion that drives us and keeps us working and organizing must never be aimed toward our opposition. To become sustainable and resilient, we must focus on and feed off of our supporters. Our fans. Our base.

Progressives [sensibly] spewed venom towards the Bush Administration for years, but now we can’t quite articulate what we’re shooting at. What if we showered our fans with hope and a coherent worldview to organize around? Investments made in supporters are like spending time with your grandparents: always a good idea.

Let’s invest in ourselves and our allies. Training. Networking. Leadership development. Technology infrastructure. You want donors of talent, time, and treasure? Invest in your fans. They’ll love you for it.

Congratulations New Orleans.

Thank you for showing me and the rest of the Progressive movement what it takes to win.

Garlin Gilchrist II is the Director of New Media at the Center for Community Change.

Moloch Unchained

History might be written by the winners, but our most profound, long-lived legends and stories are created by the folk. That’s why the stories, songs and poems are not called Elite Lore. Many of them are cautionary tales about the blindness, cruelty, hubris and dehumanizing excesses of authority.

The Framers, aware of this creative power, protected the people’s voices with the principle of free speech. The folk have never achieved political ascendency, of course. It seems rather obvious to say that authentic popular democracy has nowhere been achieved.

After a brief flourishing of grassroots, popular literature in the 19^th Century, the high costs of mass communications handed the elite some ability to keep the gates of culture and mediate or censor popular tales. I say “some ability” because a remarkable thing about human creativity is its radical persistence and resistance to authority. It was Joshua’s music that brought down the walls of Jericho. African-American creative traditions of resistance, made necessary by failure of the Framers to abolish slavery, are the ghosts in the machine of popular culture.

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission greatly strengthens the authoritarian domination of the people’s speech, reversing the intent of the Framer’s free speech principle. By freeing unaccountable, global corporations to use their nearly unlimited resources to dominate the political sphere, the authoritarian Court has sacrificed free speech on the altar of greed. They would have us believe that it is the powerful and nearly irresistible voices of the rulers that need liberating.

Moloch is unchained.

In the Hebrew Bible, it is the idolatrous Solomon who builds an altar for the sacrifice of children to Moloch, “the abomination of the sons of Ammon” (1 Kings 11.7). In early 21^st Century America, it is the five be-robed authoritarians, led by a dull, uncharismatic elitist with the unpoetic name of John Roberts.

The Iliad is a tragic and bloody tale of the failures of kings and elite warriors. The Old Testament is a colorful compendium of woeful human leadership. Buddha found enlightenment only after forsaking his royal family. Jesus’ radical parables pull the spiritual rug from under the powerful. The lone and rugged western hero of the American imagination loathes power.

The democratic revolutions of the 17^th-20^th centuries represented the political rise of the tale-tellers. Democracy was designed, in principle, to give the people a voice so that the tragedies of kings could be avoided, that Absalom might live, that there would be no Pilate in need of handwash.

But the American political elites flourish behind the walls of Jericho. We expect too much if we think any of them will, without a popular uprising on par with the abolitionists and civil rights movement, participate in the revolutionary music making that might bring down the walls.  The Supreme Court’s ruling undermines both government and the competitive marketplace (by allowing corporations to buy government-enforced market dominance rather than compete for it). But they will not see that. They will see only the possibility of more wealth and power.

Already they are accepting the Court’s decision as not all that significant.

If ever there was a voice for status-obsessed Washington, D.C. insiders, Politico is it. And Politico is telling us the outrage against Citizens United v. FEC is unjustified, that freeing corporations to spend what they want to elect or defeat whomever they want is no big deal.

Beware. The elite are coming to the realization that the Supreme Court’s decision is just the ticket. Officeholders see a new source of cash. Consultants, who work for candidates and corporations, are getting teary eyed at their potential windfalls. Pundits work for corporations. So do journalists.

The Court’s decision repudiates the Framers and the principle of free speech. It is a kind of ultimate empowerment of Moloch that spits in the face of humanity’s ancient search for liberation and equality.

Only a full-bodied revolt from Americans of all political stripes will undo what the court has done. Small, incremental legislative solutions should be pursued, but it will take a constitutional amendment or a new Supreme Court majority to reverse this awful ruling.

Sing, America, like it is our last song.

Tags: Citizens United versus Federal Election Commission, free speech, Moloch, U.S. Supreme Court

Small acts of kindness can cause a shift. When New Jersey skate shop owner Chris Nieratko learned that Cuban skaters

rode awful setups, warped and dilapidated decks, rusty bearings, square wheels, and skate shoes that were so worn and torn they looked more like sandals or flip-flops than anything

he decided to do something for these kids who were affected by the ongoing embargo that started nearly half a century before they were born.

The only way for Cuban skaters to get a new deck is if someone brings it to them. So Chris did.

And here’s the whole story, recorded for posterity and presented by ViceTV.

Tags: Cuba, diplomacy, skateboarding

Buy Nothing Day (via: Alisa Bertucci)

Today, Friday, 134 million American lemmings with credit cards will clog roads, parking lots, and cash registers, scurrying and reaching and inching along together to take hold of dead stuff. Then they’ll all reverse course, burning yet more carbon to drag the dead objects home with them. Most of the objects that they’ll burn lots of carbon to acquire travelled to America in huge ships burning lots of carbon (and toxic bunker fuel): manufacturing these objects burnt more carbon.

How else can we spend this Friday?

How did 43% of America’s population end up doing synchronized Anthropocene fire dances on a dangeously warming planet?

The usual suspects: Freud’s nephew and the Philadelphia Police Department.

Freud’s nephew, Eddie Bernays, broke the Sense Barrier: he figured out how to use our feelings to trick us into ignoring our common sense, largely creating modern advertising, PR, and propaganda at the same time. Over the last couple of decades, Bernays’s understudies in propaganda with channels TV began to show us pictures of long lines of shoppers in November. Good lemmings and primates that we are, we keep turning to join the lines we’ve seen. All these lem-people wouldn’t keep lining up there without getting rewarded, right?

When America lines up for Black Friday’s carbon dance, how come the Philadelphia Police Department gets to call the steps? Simple: they proved they’re the go-to guys in burning down the house around us – kids and all. Hell, they’re the go-to guys in burning down the whole damn block around us. Who better to block out the action for America’s annual fire dance on our roasting planet? Philly’s PD has history on their side, too. They’ve been calling shoppers’ tune since shortly after Dick Clark moved his Bandstand from Philly to Hollywood. Bonnie Taylor-Blake from the American Dialect Society discovered:

The earliest known reference to “Black Friday” (in this sense)… refers to Black Friday 1965 and makes the Philadelphia origin explicit:

JANUARY 1966 — “Black Friday” is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. “Black Friday” officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing.^{[1] [h/t wiki]}

Without Black Friday, who’d be following in Philly’s footsteps this week? Definitely not Ted Dave – the Vancouver artist who founded Buy Nothing Day. Definitely not Kalle Lasn and the other Adbusters magazine folk who made Buy Nothing Day a global celebration. And most defintely not the folks around the planet who’ll be celebrating Buy Nothing Day this Friday in North America and this Saturday in the rest of world.

Why let the other lemmings people have all the fun? You can celebrate Buy Nothing Day, too: share the day with folks you love at home – or go out and meet new friends at Buy Nothing Day events. You can even celebrate Buy Nothing Day at your local mall – and get a second chance at Halloween!

Zombie Walk: Participant ‘zombies’ wander around shopping malls or other consumer havens with a blank stare and marvel at the expressionless faces of the shoppers (their fellow zombies).

Or this Friday you too can join 134 million walking dead, burning more carbon to bring home more dead stuff on our roasting planet. After all, how you go wrong imitating the Philadelphia Police Department?

Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Buy Nothing Day!

Tags: Black Friday, bunker fuel, Buy Nothing Day, Century of the Self, Edward Bernays, Global climate change, global warming, MOVE, Osage Avenue, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Police Department

1-    The Supplemental. Yet another blank check for war and occupation – and while our leadership in Congress refused to include an amendment from Rep. Jim McGovern merely asking for a report on an exit strategy by the end of the year, the Senate zipped through confirmation of General McChrystal to head up the Afghan effort with barely a whisper of concern over his command of torture forces like those who ran Camp Nama.

2-    Graham Lieberman – make it possible for the administration to refuse to comply with FOIA requests to release the torture photos.

3-    IMF funding – another bailout package without the proper controls to guarantee the funds aid the poorest countries and people most impacted by the economic crisis.

So we have a big ball of yes for war, no for torture accountability and bucks for big banks.

Now we could shake our heads and murmer something about “not the change…” but we have a better option – we can counter Rahm’s aggressive lobbying with some of our own. Already, we’re seeing signs that a number of members are willing to stand firm but we need your help to make sure more listen to their constituents and supporters and say No.

Tomorrow you can help to whip the vote – and Jane has put together the tools to do just that. Click here to see the list of members who need calls and then get calling!

We know that eventually the administration will find a way to fund the wars – but we have a unique chance over the next few days to make them take notice of our strong opposition and our intention to not back down, no matter who is in the White House.

For lots of great background, see David Swanson’s roundup and see Jane’s this afternoon – and if you have questions in preparation for your calls tomorrow, lets discuss them in comments below.

Photo by Roebot 

photo by Rickydavid

It’s incredibly easy to give yourself over to cynicism in the wake of the Tiller murder. The net effect will be that politicians continue to turn their backs on women as anti-choice advocates push the ball incrementally further toward the goal of limiting a woman’s right to choose, and doctors who provide these services will continue to do so with the knowledge that they’ll be the targets of demagogues, religious fanatics and violent extremists.

The media won’t cover the story because of the "ick" factor, and we’ll be treated to the spectacle of the American Taliban preening in its righteousness and its inability to be appeased. Pro-choice advocates will be painted as unreasonable extremists incapable of compromise in a "pox on both your houses" burst of sensible (mostly male) centrism, and major pro-choice groups will sweep up the cash yet somehow fail once again to come up with a political strategy that manages to get choice off the ropes.

And yet, some still hope:

About 100 people got together tonight for a candlelight vigil in memory of Dr. George Tiller, organized via Twitter a few hours before it started.

After hearing of Tiller’s murder, Tanya Tarr, who works in the labor movement, put out a call for D.C. residents to join her in Dupont Circle, less than a mile from the White House. She posted her first message at around 5 p.m., four hours before the vigil started. (Various liberal bloggers, including the Daily Kos’s Markos Moulitsas and Firedoglake’s Jane Hamsher, passed the word on to their Twitter followers as well.)

"It is outrageous that a ‘pro-life’ movement would kill someone in their church," Tarr told me as people walked into the park to light candles in Tiller’s memory. Because of the short notice, Tarr passed out leftover Hanukah candles, with foil cupcake wrappers to catch melting wax.

The crowd stood quietly lighting candles and talking; there were no counter-protesters.

I was so grateful when Tanya’s Facebook announcement hit my email last night that Tiller’s killing at the hands of domestic terrorists wasn’t going to get sucked down the memory hole.

Wichita and Lawrence also held vigils last night. Tonight Boston, Seattle, Portland and Kansas City will do the same. Tomorrow, Ottawa. Feministing recommends that donations go to the following:

• Medical Students for Choice — to train the next generation of abortion providers
• National Network of Abortion Funds — to help low-income women access abortion

You can also write letters to the editors of your local papers.

Thanks to everyone for making the effort, and refusing to go quietly.

h/t Show Me Progress

Earlier this week, Sen. Claire McCaskill held a town meeting in Sedalia, MO. In itself, there’s nothing earthshattering about that — it’s what members of Congress do when they go back home, and about 150 folks turned out to hear her and to let her hear them. 

Local MO democrats, though, have taken things one step further. Michael Bersin posted a three part transcript of her Q&A at Show Me Progress and They Gave Us a Republic (part one, part two, part three, and part four). The whole thing is a good read — not too long — and McCaskill and her constituents covered a lot of subjects, from closing Gitmo to reforming government contracting to energy policy to Native American concerns to . . . well, to anything that was on someone’s mind.

And that’s the whole point of these events.

When McCaskill stepped to the microphone, here’s how she opened her remarks (from the transcript in part 2 above):

Good morning everyone, it’s terrific to be here.  I am not here to give a speech, I’m here to listen and answer questions.  So, I’m not gonna do a long introductory set of remarks.  I will tell you that when they talk about us leaving Washington, I want to reassure everyone that when we get a week off from Washington, at least this senator and I think most of my colleagues  don’t  go home and watch Oprah. [laughter] We do things like this, which is a really important part of my job, is to come out in a public forum, no screening, no, no preset questions, to listen.  And to understand what’s on your mind.  And so, the more we get a few weeks off in Washington, the better it is I think, because that gives us the time to move around the state and have the kinds of meetings and opportunities to talk to the people that we work for. Because you can get to thinking you’re a pretty big deal out there.  They’re very deferential and it’s kind of an insulated environment. And I can see how you can lose perspective about what’s important and, and how you should conduct, how you should set your priorities. 

This is why connecting with senators, representatives, and candidates for those positions is so important. It helps them to keep a healthy perspective about themselves and the people of the nation they serve, and to set priorities that reflect that broader perspective.

Email contact is nice, and so are letters and phone calls and faxes. But nothing says to a senator or representative "This matters to me" more than someone who takes the time and makes the effort to show up in person. It could be at their office in DC, one of the offices "back home," or at public events like these.

Today’s a Saturday, and I’ll bet there are hundreds of events like this going on around the country. Come by here at 11 AM FDL, and chat with Howie Klein’s Blue America guest Linda Ketner from South Carolina. But also check the websites of your senators and representatives, see if there’s something happening around you, and then go ask them a question or two. 

You’ll be glad you did, and (if they’re smart) so will they.