ModernMusings.com

The Washington Post reports today that the Slaughterhouses providing meat for school children, the elderly and the poor as well as the general public are breaking laws in place for protection against contamination due to e coli and mad cow disease contamination.

Does this footage make you think twice about consuming American meat?

“Fourteen companies, including some of the world’s largest banks, are being investigated over possible accounting fraud, improperly securing loans and insider trading during the sub-prime mortgage scandal.

The FBI said yesterday that it had opened criminal investigations into improper lending in the American housing market.

Neil Power, head of the FBI’s economic crimes unit, told journalists that the investigation includes the companies that securitised the loans and investment banks that bought those products, as well as the developers and sub-prime lenders.

“We’re looking at the accounting fraud that goes through the securitisation of these loans,” said Power.

The FBI did not name the companies it is investigating.

Several of the world’s largest banks separately revealed yesterday that they are cooperating with official investigations. Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley all announced, via official filings to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, that government investigators have asked for information about their sub-prime lending practices.

According to Reuters, Swiss bank UBS - which today unveiled new sub-prime losses - is also being investigated by the FBI.”

F.Y.I. : In order to save time, I have been recently utilizing digg’s “blog it” feature to share what I feel is valuable and informative information that my readers may not have seen. Scroll down to the end of the post and select “read more” to see the article in full.

In Bush’s State of the Union address he referred to the housing crisis but failed to mention that it may very well been concocted by these international banks that the F.B.I. is now investigating.

He droned on and on about trusting the American people with home ownership.

Clearly, we should not trust our economic system that produces a housing crisis, depressions, recessions, the loss of American jobs and a consumer based false economy.

What is your prediction? Will the investigation prove conscious and calculated tampering with our economy and home ownership?

read more | digg story

Darren Rowse of Problogger fame provides a great checklist that will insure a great post that engages your readers, promotes action and involvement in the post and keeps your blog optimized.

This advice is especially important for me to follow since I have less time to blog|write than when I started this outlet, so I do want to make sure I provide and produce quality.

Works for all writing projects too.

read more | digg story

A casual and concise look at the Man {Dennis Kucinich} and his Mission {restoring our Nation}. Mr. Kucinich has created a national movement while working to retain the 10th district seat in Ohio that he “holds in trust”.

That movement is integritynow.org.

read more | digg story

Dennis Kucinich had to drop out today to save his congressional seat. His fight continues for Americans with impeachment though.

So what now for the Americans he has forever changed?

read more | digg story

It was interesting to see my horoscope for today:

Your goals are changing, but this is a long and drawn-out process, so don’t expect to know where you are heading anytime soon. It’s not that you can’t make any plans; it’s just that the map is undergoing revisions as you are traveling. You might not be able to rely on your previous experience. Instead, trust your ability to respond to the circumstances, even as they morph into something else.

From Tarot.com
Friday, January 25, 2008

Since I have started this blog, first on blogspot and now here, I have started a maturation process regarding politics. By hopefully inspiring others to take an active part in the political process, I have taken the leap of logic realizing my vote is as worthy as the research that goes into it.

Stumbling upon an piece written by Betsy Angert author of Bethink.org introduced me to my candidate Dennis Kucinich. I researched into his voting records, his policies and his vision and placed him upon a pedestal. So much so that when I had the opportunity to speak directly to him in a town hall meeting I became a dumbstruck groupie.

Then came statements made by Kucinich that Ron Paul would make a good running mate, trying to get off the Michigan ballot adhering to the Democratic National Committee’s sanctions on state’s moving their primaries forward on the calender, a cherry picked excerpt from a editorial from the Nation omitting criticism of the Kucinich campaign spread as a press release, and most recently an endorsement of Obama for Iowans also released as a national press release which was explained to me by campaign headquarters as a Michigan strategy since Obama met the deadline to remove his name and Kucinich did not, though the Obama campaign has not confirmed acceptance of such a scheme.

I found myself looking at Kucinich surrounded by a pile of pedestal rubble. My disappointment of the above was deep but I have vowed not to be reactionary in any aspect of my life but to absorb information and situations slowly in order to make a more critical decision.

I have realized that Kucinich is human. A progressive human politician who has made the decision to remain within the constricts of the Democratic Party, especially since he is running for his Congressional seat in 2008 as well as President. That is the reality of this essentially two party race since the Green Party doesn’t have ballot access in all 50 states.

My individual choices are caucus for Kucinich and work to achieve the 15% of the caucus participants in my precinct to achieve viability, be counted as undecided, or throw my developing conscience out the window and chose the so called lesser evil. Since I am late to political awareness, I cannot go with my true second choice Cynthia McKinney [former Representative of Georgia] since at this time the Green Party has lost ballot access in Nevada.

Any form of idealism needs to be tempered with realism in order to produce any lasting results. Any campaign promises need to be tempered with verifiable research of voting records, policy incentives, campaign adviser choices and money trails. Any decision taken seriously cannot be based on reactionary emotions, doing so is a recipe in disaster.

I am not alone in my disapproval of the Kucinich campaign and have read former strong volunteers and supporters jump ship when the pedestal came tumbling down.

Here are some excerpts of comments circulating…

“That’s it. I’m out. I am no longer for Dennis. Ron Paul is against everything I stand for and for Kucinich to say he wants him for a running mate is a betrayal to our progressive cause. “

“I’m not supporting Kucinich anymore either. He doesn’t care about his progressive base one bit, is what I hear in that video. “

There are influential people as well in the Progressive Movement who seem easily swayed as well. I for one will not compromise my integrity due to bumbles from the Kucinich campaign. I won’t. I know too much now to compromise.

The secret the Republicans weld is that they do not compromise, they vote as a block helped by faux democrats, and they stay on message. The message is crafted and parroted through many voices picked up by the media and spread forth. That message is often picked up by Democrats.

Edwards, Clinton and Obama have all parroted Bush’s exact words in regards to Iran: “All options are on the table.” All options means nuclear weapons though we have not used nuclear weapons on a non-nuclear country, well we have used depleted uranium which is radioactive and generationally destructive.

The so called front runners in the Democratic race all say change, change, change. I say it is high time we evolve! Evolution is a lot more lasting than campaign promises spreading hope and change, especially since every non-incumbent pushes change while incumbents want us to stick with them to get the job done.

Kucinich realizes the dangers of genetically modified organisms, the health risks of factory farms, the vulnerability of electronic voting, media propaganda machines, the nature and origins of terrorism, and the connection between not for profit health care and the economy.

Health care should be considered INFRASTRUCTURE.

Education should be considered INFRASTRUCTURE.

Living Wages should be considered INFRASTRUCTURE.

A healthy Earth should be considered INFRASTRUCTURE.

These are the very foundations of a progressive society. If we are to progress, lasting progression, we need to realize this.

We must also realize that the government will not solve all our problems. We must be accountable. I have been struggling with ending my own hypocrisy in certain areas of my life. We must invest through introspection and reflection of ourselves and shake off despair and hopelessness.

Self improvement is not an easy task and takes commitment despite failures so why would Political Improvement be any easier?

Remember if the People Lead, the Leaders will follow.