The Rescue: A Proposal to Help Fix the Current Financial and Housing Crisis – Link to Dissent Magazine

I was thinking the same thing about what Congress needs to add to the bailout legislation, though the article linked above didn’t go into the justice and why component of helping the victims of foreclosure as much as I would have liked.  Why is it that giant wall street corporations get bailouts – BIG bailouts – without anyone talking about them paying for their ‘irresponsible behavior’.  But if a homeowner can no longer pay on a predatory loan, they are ‘irresponsible’ for taking more than the government says they should have.  The CEO’s aren’t going to be homeless when they fail (they might have to sell a vacation home or two) – but ordinary Americans will be!  And they are the ones asked to take the fall without any government help!  Where is their bailout!?  Why are the most vulnerable again taking the fall with a finger of blame while the rich are cut a nice check?  We need a moratorium on the foreclosures, and someone needs to step in to help the REAL victims of this crisis – the ordinary citizens of this nation.

It’s also time to point out that these companies are getting more tax payer funded welfare than the poor in this nation ever has.  So, where is the dehumanizing monologue for them?  Where is the disdain?

Preach it brother.

It’s been a while since I’ve been here.  I think I’ll just say that I had blog fatigue, and then I became lazy and out of practice.

I now work in the Michigan Legislature.  Michigan is kind of a mess right now.  Unfortunately, there are no short term, immediate fixes for our woes.  People are losing their homes, jobs, and hope.  It’s definitely an interesting experience working in this place, and I can see the frustration everywhere.

My non-profit is keeping itself busy.  The next few weeks will have a whole bunch of events and speakers.  We have Nicaraguan peace activists that helped draft the peace accords after the civil war coming, the Wheels of Justice campaign making a stop here to talk about the occupations in Iraq and Palestine, Michael Brownlee will be talking about how to create a relocalization movement and sustainable economies, and our upcoming alternative holiday sale is going to be filled with fair trade and local goods for all – and much, much more that just hasn’t been set in stone quite yet.

So, moral of the story, I guess, is that I have plenty to blog about, and I need to get back to it ASAP.

“I think that what this election was about was a rejection of the disastrous policies of Bush, Cheney, and the Republican leadership. It was the war in Iraq. It was incompetence. It was Katrina. It was bad public policy, but it certainly was not an embracing of an alternative philosophy, because in fairness the Democrats are all over the place, and what I have said to the Democratic leadership and will say publicly every chance I get, if the Democrats — having this opportunity no one thought they would have — if they do not move boldly and decisively and make a difference in the lives of ordinary Americans, they’re going to be in a lot of trouble.”

–Senator-elect Bernie Sanders from the Mother Jones interview “A Socialist in the Millionaires Club”

http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2006/11/bernie_sanders.html

There has been a lot of talk about how our government should handle the US/Mexico border in this recent election season. Most of the arguments used to support the fence, the creation of felony charges against those here illegally, and other political immigration reforms have been based in the proclamation of following the law. I am concerned when the law is the only thing used to gauge right and wrong. Many times in the past we have found laws to be unethical, immoral, and just plain wrong. A good example would be past laws that discriminated against racial minorities. Though following the law was used as a weapon to chastise those who fought for rights, we would later look back on these laws as in fact wrong and deserving to be abolished or changed. Take Martin Luther King Jr. for example. Many religious leaders, colleagues of King, found following the law more important than fighting for what was right in the struggle for civil rights. What does it take to bring people to the realization that ethics, the decision to do what is right, comes before the law. In the sense of the US/Mexico border, we have to think of the right thing to do toward our fellow man, not just whether they cross over a desert without our permission. I’ve heard the argument that people should not have to be ethical towards “lawbreakers”, but is that how we honestly gauge ethical behavior? If you consider ethics, and look from the standpoint of many who are willing to pay coyotes to show them across a dangerous border, the crossers are making an ethical choice. They are choosing to risk their lives to ensure that they can support their own basic needs and that of their family. To them, that is the right thing to do, the ethical choice.

So how do we address the border issue from an ethical standpoint? We must first stop using ethnocentric policies to address the issue and look at the roots of the problem that drive these people into our borders. We also really need to look at what we really are afraid of. Is it really racially motivated? Are we as a country capable of looking past nationalistic and unethical standards in order to do what is right for thousands of desperate people waiting to risk it all to come here?

“The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:34)

So, Saddam Hussein is going to die. Amazing. Our government brought him to “justice” for war crimes, but yet our government created a bill (the Military Commissions Act, to be exact) which gives the Bush administration, and all that are involved on his behalf, immunity from conviction for their war crimes. There is a feeling of hypocrisy here.

This searing and poignant video is a must see.

It’s amazing how so many disapprove of what they know, how many wish to not know… and even worse, refuse to act.