lattitude zine 10 - october 2008

8/14/2019 Lattitude Zine 10 - October 2008

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Back on track. Issue 10 brings some interesting and promising new contributors. Fortunately, ashas always been the case, our reader base continues to slowly spread, even crossing some o thoseimaginary international lines. This is bringing about some revelations.

Lattitude Zine is and always will be an independent publication. We want to provide the ideas o reedom and liberty along with other randomness to as many people around the world as possible.I you like Lattitude and the ideals behind it, please consider o ering your support. For this, theLattitude Zine Welcoming Committee has been started. Two dollars a month is all were asking.To be completely clear, were just asking. I you cant a ord it, please dont do it. Keep reading andenjoying the zine and website or ree, we still appreciate you. I you can a ord it, below are a couplethings that will come rom your hard earned dollars:

Reduced advertising You pick up a copy o Lattitude or the words, not the ads and we dont like ipping through pageso ads anymore than you do. The more support dollars we have coming in, the less advertising wehave to rely on.

Larger print runsThe more hard copies we have out and about the more random readers we are able to pick up,there or getting everyones ideas and stories spread urther across the globe. It is very simple to getnew distribution sites throughout the world or ree publications - its just a matter o having thepostage and copies available.

Internet advertising Google AdWords and additional high-tra fc sites get more tra fc to the Lattitude site and in turnprovide new readers.

All o these things and more will come rom your increased support. I you have any ideas o yourown, please eel ree to let us know. Please visit LattitudeZine.com/welcome to help.

Thanks or reading, jimmy

Lattitude Zine is published 12X a year, monthly give or take, in Louisville, KY. Lattitude iscollectively written and designed with subjects and style that will vary from one issue tothe next. The reader base is the staff essentially. There is no formal organization at work.

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Contents05 News & info

06 In Government We Trust?Ron Paul

09 Q&A with Scott Ritcher Jimmy Flaherty

15 Sun, Sea, Sand... and ANTI-TerrorismThe Pleb

16 Review - Open GraveJimmy Flaherty

17 Stop VotingDavid Ker Thomson

18 ExistenceSly Paradox

19 Tyranny on Display at the Republican ConventionChris Hedges

20 RNC 8Friends of the RNC Welcoming Committee

21 PaintingsKali

23 TriztoonsBill Trizcinski


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October 2008 LATT!TUDE 06

Many who agree with me on a lot o otherissues do not understand my enthusiasm orgold and sound money or why I spend so muchtime studying and talking about monetary policy. Its true that I talk about money di er-ently than most, but the act is sound money o ers many benefts. For example peace.

Can sound money really bring about peace?Actually, it plays a big part in peace ul interna-tional relationships. Money based on commodi-ties, rather than paper, is not subject to govern-

ment manipulation, and is a key componentto ree and honest trade. History shows that i countries engage in trade with each other, theirgovernments tend to fnd ways to get along orthe same reason you do not kill your customersat your place o business, even i they occasion-ally annoy you. I someone outright cheats you,however, you may engage in war by takingthem to court, or example, and the relationshipwill sour. Governments and central banks withun ettered power to manipulate currency alsohave the ability to cheat their creditors. One way they do this is to simply create enough currency to pay o debts. This devalues the currency andcheats the recipient out o what they are owed.It would not be air i you watered down yourproduct the way our government waters downits currency, so it is not hard to understand,in these simplifed terms, why loose monetary

policy contributes so much to ill will and wararound the world.

Sound money, on the other hand, simply iswhat it is. Removing governmental power tomanipulate money removes the temptation orgovernment to spend, print and cheat. Soundmoney ensures that our governments spendingpriorities would be brought into sharp ocusand reduced to only what we can a ord.

Sound money also limits the ability to wagewars o aggression. Imagine how much morecare ul Washington would have to be aboutstarting a war i they did not have this fnancial

sleight o hand at their disposal! Fiat currency allows government to do expensive things they should not be doing while paying the bills withcheap money. The Federal Reserve has lately been auctioning o large amounts o treasury bills as a way to fnance the wars in Iraq andA ghanistan, and our crushing entitlementburden. The resulting devaluation o the dollaris quickly eroding our image as a good tradingpartner in the world. As a consequence, there isthere ore more talk o economic isolation andwar.

This vicious cycle o spending, fghting andin ating is not what Americans want. It is whatthe government wants, and it has had to deceivethe citizens into allowing and supporting it.Sound money curbs the governments ability to engage in these shenanigans and reduces thewars we fght to only truly de ensive ones, orwhich Americans are more than willing to standand fght. So in these ways, sound money is very conducive to peace.

In Government We Trust?

Ron Paul


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October 2008 LATT!TUDE

spread the word about some issues I elt wereimportant. Armstrong ended up pleasantly surprising me in his term as mayor and I have agreat respect or him now.

As to why Im running or Kentucky Senatenow instead o Metro Council, there are several

reasons. First, I think people in Kentucky asa whole need a lot more help than people inLouisville. One in six Kentuckians lives inpoverty, while the people in Louisville aremuch better o . Secondly, a candidate mustrun or o fce rom the district where he or shelives, so much o my impetus or running is my dissatis action with our districts current statesenator Denise Harper Angel. I I elt she were amodel Democrat and doing a great job, I wouldbe just as happy sitting at home watching TheColbert Report and enjoying some snacks. Onthe Metro Council, my districts representativeis Tom Owen, who as I mentioned earlier, issomeone I think does a good job. And again, Idont think Louisvilles needs are as critical asthe states.

Louisville Metro Council districts andKentucky State Senate districts have roughly the same number o voters, so really, theyreequally attainable. But the decisions o theMetro Council and the State Senate in uencemuch di erent areas o li e and at di erentscales. It comes down to a matter o where my e orts are best applied to bring the mostattention to the concerns I have.

Would you be willing to, or have you signed the Small Government pledge? (i youre un amiliar you cancheck it out at: http://center orsmallgovernment.com/sgpledgecand.htm)

I agree with the sentiment o this pledge, but Idont think I can sign it. I dont think the sizeo government is nearly as relevant as its e ec-tiveness. Proportional to their population andGDP, some other countries have much largergovernments than we do, but they are muchmore e ective. These people also pay muchhigher taxes than we do, but they get a lot morein return. Denmark has a comparatively hugegovernment and one o the highest tax rates inthe world, but the Danes are also some o thehealthiest, happiest people on earth. Also, Ithink any legislator needs to leave their options

open. Every issue. Every time. No exceptions.No excuses. ... that kind o statement justdoesnt allow or the exibility to weigh every measure on its own merits, based on the situa-tion at the time.

So Denise Harper Angel has fled suit to have you re-

moved rom the ballot or District 35, in hopes o her being the only option or voters to choose rom come November. Would you mind elaborating and sharing your thoughts on this move by her campaign?

Basically, Denise Harper Angels lawsuit claimssome voters who signed my ballot petition liveoutside the boundaries o District 35, a require-ment or signing those documents. The statehas certifed my candidacy and will not revokeit or remove my name rom the ballot based onthe errors. Ballot access can only be overturnedthrough a lawsuit i Ms. Angel can convincethe court to disquali y enough signatures.

Like I said earlier, Republicans and Democratsare not required to collect these signaturesto get on the general election ballot. Only independents and third-party candidates areorced through this process, and once they havecompleted it, the major parties can challengetheir petitions in court. Thats what shes doing.

In act, Kentucky Democratic Party chair-woman Jenni er Moore told the LEO that they go through the e ort o checking every petitionor every such candidate in the state. In thiscase, 83% o the petitioners they are seeking todisquali y are their ellow Democrats. So thereseems to be some disconnect between whattheir voters are asking and what the party isdoing. I have even given them another petitionwith three times more signatures than thosedisputed, but I guess it hasnt made a di erencein communicating what voters want. I thinkits clear that people want more choices. Even i the options provided are ones that people dontagree with, I think people want to preserve theright to choose.

Obviously, I understand her desire to runessentially unopposed. It seems like the easiestway to win an election. You dont even have toleave the house to win. I also understand herdesire to get me out o it and to shut me up. Idont really have anything positive to say about

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Also, i every Kentuckian paid taxes at thesame rate, and an exemption was provided orthose not earning a substantial living wage, thetax rate or most Kentuckians would be lower.Such a system would be air to everybody andgenerate more revenue or the state. The richand super rich are not currently paying a rate

proportionally on par with the rest o us. Itsonly air to close that gap. I we were to replaceKentuckys current multi-tiered income taxsystem in this way, most Kentucky taxpayerswould pay less taxes and the state would havemore resources available to provide services.When we start providing exemptions and opt-out clauses we lose sight o our common needs,however, I dont see a problem with provid-ing a voucher or deduction option i there areenough people who insist on not participatingin the state program.

On elections or representative democracy in general,how do you eel about democracy being related to thesituation o two wolves and a sheep deciding whats or dinner? Seriously.

Its easy to think o democracy in this way,especially when there are so ew regulationsgoverning corporate in uence in government.I we can get corporate-backed contributionsout o our elections and have clean campaignsunded only by individual voters, thats a majormove toward restoring a truer democracy. I paid lobbying were eliminated, I think thatwould be an even bigger step toward remov-ing the wall that exists between voters andtheir government. It might sound idealistic,but I think both o these steps would help ourdemocracy start resembling shepherds ratherthan wolves or sheep.

You are proposing more money be provided to schoolsand teachers, year round attendance (although thesame amount o school days) and even starting school 1 year earlier. I I may, I would like to argue that wealready spend too much money on public schools,have children attend too long and start too early.Have you ever considered the Swedish system? In asociety (that o Sweden) recognized or quality ineverything they do, surely schooling must have somee ect on this. A child cannot even begin school until the age o seven, and the Swedish system lasts only nine years as opposed to the thirteen you are sug- gesting. Reason being is that the Swedes dont want

to have the social problem that comes rom orcing children away rom their parents and community soearly in li e. Why advocate the compulsory Prussiansystem rom the 1800s?

I have almost nothing bad to say about the way they do things in Sweden. Ive spent a lot o

time there and the people I know in Swedenare some o the best-educated, well-in ormed,healthy, happy, riendly people I know. Imalways eager to look at their success ul systemsor most applications, in act, I usually lookthere frst. Kentucky is certainly not Sweden,though, and were starting rom a completely di erent set o challenges and a much smallerset o resources with which we can work.

I think the argument that were already spend-ing too much on public schools may be a hardone to win. I know that teachers in Kentucky do not eel they have the tools or acilities they need to improve the lives o children as muchas they would like. Kentuckys schools justdont receive the unding that schools in otherstates do and our results show that.

As you suggested, the quality o schools canmake a di erence or nearly everything elsein society. Crime, productivity, innovation,co-existence, personal responsibility, progress;theyre all related to the quality o oneseducation.

While this isnt Prussia or Sweden, I think wecan never underestimate what relevance ourschools have to the quality o li e we are ableto enjoy. We can learn a lot rom other ways o doing things, but ultimately, our challenges areuniquely Kentuckian and I think unding isone o the main areas our schools are in need.Trying varying approaches in di erent places isalso a proven way to pilot-test and develop newmethods. I think any strategy that provides uswith a more in ormed way o revising and im-proving our schools should be considered. Edu-cation is just too important to be under undedor to have its signifcance underestimated.

I appreciate your views towards renewable energy and the coal communities and companies that operate in them. However, how do you plan to get theextra money you are proposing these companies pay be directly unneled into the communities in which


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they operate instead o being absorbed by the statebureaucracy?

Funny you should ask, because thats exactly what happened last year. States with substantialcoal mining operations, like Kentucky, collectwhat is called a Coal Severance Tax rom the

companies that run the mines. This tax islevied on the value o the coal removed romthe ground. The money collected is intendedto be used by the state to clean up miningsites and reinvest in the communities wheremining happens. Kentucky is the third-larg-est producer o coal in the United States andour severance tax is one o the lowest. Miningcorporations pay just 4.5% o the value o theircoal back to our state.

Last year, in trying to lure a coal gasifcationplant and a ew dozen jobs to Kentucky, thestate legislature voted almost unanimously toraid this und. Denise Harper Angel and every other state senator except one voted yes togiving the worlds largest coal company, Pea-body Energy, $300 million in incentives andtax breaks. They essentially took $80 out o thepocket o each Kentuckian and handed it overto Peabody in a year when that company wasposting record profts. And they did so underthe guise that somehow coal gasifcation is aclean, orward-looking alternative energy.

Kentuckys Coal Severance Tax could be dou-bled or quadrupled and these companies wouldstill be swimming in money. Furthermore, theund this tax creates must be o limits to any-thing except what it is intended to do; reinvestin mining communities. The ree ride miningcompanies have in Kentucky must end. They must be held accountable or the devastatinge ects mining has on our landscapes and thelives o our miners. Coal is getting increasingly harder to fnd and these companies are literally moving mountains to get it. When the coal isgone, so too will these employers be. I we donttake every opportunity to collect billions in theprocess, were being played or the ools they obviously think we are.

You would like to mandate a living minimum wagecalculated to provide su fciently reasonable neces-sities. Who determines what is su fciently reason-able and isnt this just one size fts all hegemony?

As well, given I run a business and a potential employee agrees to work or $2 per hour, like serversat restaurants, isnt that voluntary interaction? A ter all, they dont have to come work at my restaurant.

People dont have to work at your restaurantbut they have to work somewhere. I the low-

est o wages are determined by market orcesinstead o by some larger sense o air compen-sation, well simply see wages plummet andthe overall purchasing power o workers in oursociety deteriorate. This is what happens incountries without air labor laws. Theres anold saying, I the company owes you some-thing morally but not legally, they will give younothing.

So i the living wage is one size fts all hege-mony then I would think the minimum wage- or no wage restrictions - must be even moreapprehensible. Living wage laws enacted inother places in the United States are indexed toin ation and, honestly, or Kentuckys cost o living, would not be much di erent than theFederal minimum wage. A primary di erenceis that the living wage changes annually andautomatically, whereas the minimum wage is atthe mercy o legislative action, which can take years to catch up to true costs. Struggling peo-ple just cant wait around or somebody to takeaction. Ironically, the salaries o Kentuckyslegislators update automatically but those orother workers do not.

The main opponents to the living wage arentrestaurants or small businesses, theyre big-boxretailers like Wal-Mart. They can save billionssimply by paying every worker 50-cents lessper hour. Wal-Mart all but packed up and le tChicago when the city council worked to pass aliving wage bill there. Even then, Mayor Daley quickly vetoed it a ter Wal-Mart ran a multi-million dollar marketing campaign attackinghim and the e ort.

While this issue certainly has widespreadeconomic considerations, I dont see the liv-ing wage as a matter o economics. I see it anissue o morals. No civi l society should expectworkers to work or less than what they need tocom ortably survive. In a country as rich as theUnited States, there should be no such thing aslow-wage workers.


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In true socialist ashion, you want to regulate noiselevels and pollution emissions o motor vehicles,but provide assistance to drivers who cannot a ord to keep their vehicles up to standards. Why should I have to pay or the upkeep on someone elses car? Why cant they ride a bike or take the bus?

This is a matter o everyone pitching or thegreater beneft o society. Everyone beneftswhen levels o noise and air pollution arereduced. But to your point o why you shouldpay or it, the cost o this could be included inthe price o gasoline. In that case, i you ride abicycle there is a lesser chance o you sharingthis nominal burden which would amount toless than a dollar a year.

We should also recognize that in a state as largeas Kentucky, and even in a city as spread-outas Louisville, not everyone has the option orability to uses buses, bicycles, or their eet ortransportation. I agree those modes o trans-port are pre erable because they reduce noiseand pollution, but theyre not always practicalor available.

Could you elaborate on the idea to have the commu-nity vote on, as you put it, propositions to legalize,regulate, and signifcantly tax casino gambling,marijuana products, or any other controversial issuewhich is legal elsewhere? I like legalize part, but I am curious, why only the issues that are legal else-where? As well , what is the harm in all this voluntary interaction?

This might be a misunderstanding o the largerpoint o what Im saying. I dont think anythingnecessarily needs to be legal somewhere elseto be considered here. I was just trying to il-lustrate that Kentucky may be behind the curveon some o these issues. Certainly not a revolu-tionary statement considering there are placesin our state where you cant legally buy beer.

One o the main impediments to progressin Kentucky law is the absence o a ballotre erendum process. Many states have systemswhich allow voters to place statute revisionson the ballot or a public vote. Kentuckians,however, are at the mercy o a part-time legis-lature which meets only a ew weeks out o the year. It is just not responsive enough to keepup with the pace at which re orm is needed. I

the legislature isnt aware or willing to act ona particular issue, it can take many years orKentuckians to get the message through thatchanges are needed. Creating a voter-initiatedballot re erendum process in Kentucky wouldgive citizens a more direct route to their owngovernance.

With your proposed banking regulations, Im a bit put o . I know when I got my checking account I spe-cifcally signed an agreement that stated i I overdrew my account I would be charged $33 per overdra t. I have allowed the bank to charge my account i I dont handle my own fnances properly. Instead o regulat-ing how private businesses operate wouldnt we bebetter o teaching our citizens how to handle their fnances correctly in the frst place?

Absolutely. There should be practical classes inhigh school that teach students use ul li e skillssuch as how to balance a ledger and how inter-est is compounded. But Jimmy, you also haveto remember that not everyone is as intelligentor in ormed as you are, nor are they able to be.

The main point Im trying to make is that over-drawing ones account is illegal and banks havethe technology to prevent electronic overdra ts.Use o this technology was standard industry practice and historically protected banks romoverdra ts until its creative use or extra proftsbegan to grow in the past decade. About 50%o all income in the banking industry is nowgenerated rom ees. The Center or Respon-sible Lending says 46% o overdra ts today arecaused by instantly-verifable transactions, thatis, debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals.Thats more than any other type o transac-tion. A practice among many banks now is tokeep transaction-stopping technology on holdwhile allowing a customer to run up overdra tees and only alerting the customer by mail,which can take days. The bank will eventually implement their ability to decline transactions,but only a ter the negative balance grows to thepoint where it becomes a collection risk.

In the same way that institutions are able toinstantly veri y whether a customer is over-drawing their account, they can also allowcustomers to view their recent activity in realtime. Many banks dont do this. Instead, acustomers online account access may


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deceptively not reveal recent transactions untilseveral days a ter they occur. These banks aregenerating huge profts by deliberately takingadvantage o con usion and providing inad-equate in ormation to the consumer.

I agree that everyone should be responsible or

their own fnances and banks should be able toreely enter into agreements with consumers,but just as with the living wage issue, i markettrends dictate what is to prevail as standardpractice, 99 out o 100 times that practicewill avor the corporations, not the people.Corporations are interested in deliveringresults to shareholders and that typically doesnot provide a lot o room rom them to re rainrom proftable practices regardless o howdetrimental or unethical those practices may be rom the consumers point o view. A 2006study also ound that the overwhelming major-ity o these ees, nearly three-quarters, are paidby fnancially-distressed customers who liveon the margins o solvency. And with theshi t toward consolidated ownership o banks,media, ood, and energy, I eel governmentmust take a role in protecting the consumersrom the prospect o un air practices becomingunavoidable standards.

Lastly, I want to note that it should be apparent I amcoming rom a stance o completely despising govern-ment intervention in any part o my li e whether it be local, state or ederal. I would really like to know what makes you (or any politician or that matter)a better candidate or making decisions on how I should live my li e, i.e. manage my fnances, educatemy children, care or my health or run my own busi-ness, than mysel ?

We might be on the same page on this one. Idont think anyone is better equipped than youare to make these decisions about your li e.But I think as a society, we have an obliga-tion to provide or those who are unable toprovide or themselves and to protect thosewho cannot protect themselves. This can o tenbe accomplished only through government. Isee government as the collective pooling o ourresources to accomplish goals we are unable toachieve individually. The dissatis action withgovernment is usually the result o disgust at

people who have un ortunately bastardized itsobjectives and monopolized it or subversivepurposes.

I dont claim to have answers, I only havesuggestions, which I eel is what we need a lotmore o . I know that taxes can be collected and

services can be provided without the obscenelevels o intervention that government has inour lives. I know the quality o health care,education, and li e in general can be improvedi we try new things. But I also know that Iam just one person. My hope is that otherpeople will hear what Im saying and add theirown ideas and perhaps become inspired to dosomething. Nothing will get better through notvoting or not being involved. Weve defnitely seen the results o leaving it to someone else.

So I agree with you that we are all responsibleor ourselves, but I also think simple compas-sion dictates that we have an obligation to try to make things better or other people as well.It may take a small sacrifces here and there,but our own selfsh demands so ar have provento be less than advantageous or admirable thanthe chances we take by doing nothing.

Scott Ritcher or Kentucky State Senate,District 352342 Grinstead Drive No. 4Louisville KY 40204

www.ScottRitcher.orgwww.BallotRevolution.org

Vote November 4, 2008


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Fuck Gas is a collective effort, part Lattitude Zine, part Shitluck Clothinillustrate the retardation of gas and its effect on the american culture all hell of a good time doing it.

Get FREE propaganda by sending a self addressed, stamped enveloP.O. Box 197535

Louisville, KY 40259

fuckgas.wordpress.com ~ myspace.com/fuckgasride


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Whod be a Hero?I you stopped a handbag being snatched,would you expect a word o thanks? Or i youprevented a Bank robbery, would you expect areward? So i someone goes out o their way toprevent Terrorism, where would they end up??A) Daytime TV shows.

B) Prison.C) Solitary confnement then massive prisonsentences under maximum security.Well i youre Cuban and subject to the U.S.Justice system then the answer is C.

They probably taught you this at School, buthere it is again. Since the Cuban Revolution o January 1st 1959 (50th Anniversary here wecome!) a bunch o nutcases basing themselves inMiami have been attacking Cuba in every way they could think o , with the help o a ewAgencies and power ul riends (!)

Whether it was bombing an Embassy, Hotel, orairliner, or using the more extravagant biologi-cal weaponry, that darn Revolution just wouldnot break.

So what does this have to do with Anti-Terrorism???Well the Cubans arent stupid, and they dontactually like being subjected to Terrorism, sothey sent people to Miami to gather in ormationabout the dodgy groups operating there. Thiswould enable Cuba to have a heads-up on utureterrorist acts and thus give them a better chanceo stopping them.

The task given to these Cuban anti-terroristswas not without risk (just how brave did they have to be!), but nobody predicted whathappened next

A ter gathering in ormation and passing it tothe Cuban authorities the FBI was invited toHavana to receive the in o.

So, the FBI is given the details o terroristorganizations operating rom U.S. soilPerry Mason or Jessica Fletcher would have had this

one sorted be ore the frst advert break!The FBI returned to Miami and arrested themessengersnot the terrorists.

The men now known internationally as theCuban 5 (aka Miami 5) were arrested and heldin solitary confnement or 17 months, ollowedby a trial where the jury were tailed by the Mi-ami Mafa (who have a bloody history when itcomes to what they see as being so t on Cuba).

So what do you get for trying to preventTerrorism?Gerardo Hernndez: 2 Li e sentences plus 15 years.Ramn Labaino: Li e plus 18 years.Antonio Guerrero: Li e plus 10 years.Fernando Gonzlez: 19 years.Ren Gonzlez: 15 years.

The Cuban 5 have now been in prison for 10years.

Perhaps one day there will be a United Stateswhere terrorists go to prison and anti-terroristsare given the respect they deservethere are 5heroes hoping that day arrives soon.

Visit www.theplebsite.com or cartoons, poetry and other random creativity.

Sun, Sea, Sand and ANTI Terrorism

The Pleb


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Review

Open Grave

In ull disclosure Jeani Rector has been payingor advertising in Lattitude or a ew monthsnow. When she o ered us a copy o the bookor review this thought did come to mind, butat the same time - it was a ree book. My opin-ion is honest and true, i you still eel I may bebiased, I really dont give a uck. Too bad.

Open Grave - The Book o Horror, beginswith 9 short stories and concluding with a26 chapter novella to which the book itsel derives its name - all horror or thriller storiesto some extent. I may not be the best personto have reviewed this as I am not a big an o fction, I tend to opt or more re erence based

literature. However, I can honestly say I truly enjoyed reading these stories and even oundmysel questioning what would happen next asthe drama un olded, even without the book inhand. Because I dont want to spoil anythingor anyone, Ill just note that my avorites wereOpen Night Dive, or tipping its hat, in asense, to a di erent way o li e and the endingnovella, Open Grave.

Dive, went a completely opposite directionthan what I expected at every point, and le tme with a smile a ter the read. It was entertain-ing all while preparing me or the worst. Open

Grave on the other hand was as much as I hateto use the term - a roller coaster. This damnstory never stops, and thats a good thing, aswell as adding in one more twist as soon as youthink theres nothing le t. Good stu .

More good news is there really arent a lot o negative things I can say about the book. In my opinion, cover art as a tad middle schoolish- i that makes any sense, which really has zeroe ect on the readability and enjoyment o thebook.

All in all, I thought this was an enjoyable read.I fnd this to be meaning ul coming rom

mysel , as like I mentioned be ore, I am no fc-tion an. Jeani seems to have put a lot o workinto this book and I think i you get a copy or yoursel , you wont be disappointed.

To Pick up your own copy visitwww.opengravenovel.com


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Just drop the vote and step quietly away fromthe vehicle.

We hope youll join us. We are a multitude, andwe have been on the increase or orty years.Forty years, and now our time is at hand.

You looked or us when you sought an objector your ill-conceived charity, but we quietly sent you away. We who will not vote, who willnot grati y you with an opinion o your ool-ish and indistinguishable pretenders to this orthat throne, we in uriated you. You called usapathetic or re using to play the game. Re usingeven to register. You said it was the only gamein town.

But i were so apathetic, why have you soughtus so desperately, coveting even our style, askingour barbers i you are real, begging us to holdthe mirror or you while you compose yoursel ?You have courted our swingers, but we have seen your anxious eyes in the rear-view o your Volvo.

You like statistics, go see i it isnt true: voterturnout has been decreasing in the establisheddemocracies since the 1960s. Youre desperateor a mandate, but its owing away rom you.

Your empire unkies are banging at our doors,telling us were red or blue, or striped with whitebars, and we should go to our color-coded sta-tions. Greens, now theres a hue or you. Use emor a side salad while you get on with dinner. Orget them to do the washing up. Greens are excel-

lent or washing things. And you know how they just love to be included.

Whats driving you nuts is, were not even re us-ing. Were not saying anything. And we know youre nuts. Weve seen your conventions. Also, your good wars, and your bad ones. Your MotorVoter legislation so you can register to kill twiceat one convenient location.

You are a computer virus. You thrive on at-tention. Say no to you, and you preen becausesomeone noticed. We say nothing.

You probably think this song is about you.Dont you?

You have immense standing armies, and they wish to march le t, right, le t, right. We are morethan orty percent o the adults in America, f ty percent in Europe. I we would just say some-thing, anything, le t, right, le t, right, you couldget a stronger mandate, get these armies work-ing e fciently, instead o going around losingwars to tiny countries. But like you say, its hardto fght a war i we dont all stick together.

David Ker Thomson is taking a year out romthe Centre or Comparative Literature at theUniversity o Toronto to write a book on Americanradicalism since 1637 entitled A.

Stop Voting

David Ker Thomson


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The thing I love about the human existenceis our ability to constantly evolve, to pullourselves up rom whatever trenches we haveallen into, whatever traps we have managed toensnare ourselves in. Our minds and imagina-tions are never an absolute, our potential neverfnite; the only blockades we will ever come

across are the ones we put up ourselves.

Your destiny is as mailable as wet earth; youcan mold it to whatever conclusion you see ft.You hold the power to do so, no matter whatsuperfcial outside orces try to lead you tobelieve.

Remember; the things that will try to divert you rom your chosen path are not going to bewearing a big, ashing neon sign spelling outevil. The serpent understood that long be oreit dained to show up at the Tree o Knowledgeit had to lull Eve into a alse sense o security in order to convince her to take a bite o theapple. True evil is seductive like that. It ischarming, even charismatic in some cases. Itwill tell you whatever it knows you need tohear to get what it wants.

But that is the thing. The ability to charm isnot the same as being a genuine person withgood intentions. Too many gullible people whowant to live in a certain state o denial as to

the bad things in the world make this mistake.A ter all, Ted Bundy was an aw ully charmingellow who still to this day probably has wom-en who will swoon over him. Scott Petersonhas groupies, receives an letters every week,even wedding proposals. Charles Manson hadwomen crawling on their hands and knees or

him and shaving their heads.

Evil can talk a very good game. It is per ectly capable o gaining your trust in order to takeadvantage o you. People always seem to orgetthat.

It is up to us to learn how to flter out the lipservice and jive, and fnd the genuine souls inthis world, because they are truly becoming adying breed. We need to bring ourselves backto helping our ellow man just out o good willand no other reason. Paying it orward is whathelps sustain us and gives us momentum inour own lives, spiritually and literally.

For more rom Sly Paradox, check her blog at:www.slyparadox.com

Existence

Sly Paradox


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LattitudeZine.com19

Tyranny on Displayat the Republican Convention

Chris Hedges

St. Paul is a window into our uture. It is auture where, as one protester told me by phone,people have been pepper-gassed, thrown onthe ground by police who had drawn theirweapons, had their documents seized and theirtattoos photographed be ore being taken away to jail. It is a uture where illegal house raids arecarried out. It is a uture where vans containing

heavily armed paramilitary units circle and flmprotesters. It is a uture where, as the protestersaid, people have been pulled rom cars becausetheir license plates were on a database and hand-cu ed, thrown in the back o a squad car andthen watched as their vehicles were ransackedand their personal possessions rom computersto literature seized. It is a uture where constitu-tional rights mean nothing and where law uldissent is branded a orm o terrorism.

The rise o the corporate state means the riseo the surveillance state. The Janus-like ace o America swings rom packaged and cannedspectacles, rom nationalist slogans, rom seas o ags and Christian crosses, rom pro essions o aith and patriotism, to widespread surveillance,illegal mass detentions, in ormants, provoca-teurs and crude acts o repression and violence.

We barrel toward a world flled with stupendouslies and blood.

What di erence is there between the crowdso ag-waving Republicans and the apparat-chiks I covered as a reporter in the old EastGerman Communist Party? These Republicandelegates, like the at and compromised party unctionaries in East Berlin, all awned on cueover an inept and corrupt party hierarchy. They all purported to champion workers rightsand reedom while they systematically eeced,disempowered and impoverished the workersthey lauded. They all celebrated the virtue o astate that was morally bankrupt. And while they played this con game, one that gave them special

privileges, power and wealth, they unleashedtheir goons and thugs on all who dared to chal-lenge them. We are not East Germany, but weare well on our way. An economic meltdown,another catastrophic terrorist attack on Ameri-can soil, a war with Iran, and we could easily swing into an authoritarian model that wouldlook very amiliar to anyone who lived in the

ormer communist East Bloc.

A ew o those arrested in St. Paul, includingeight leaders o the RNC Welcoming Com-mitteeone o the groups organizing protestsat the GOP convention in St. Paulnow aceterrorism-related charges. Monica Bicking, ErynTrimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland,Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, GarrettFitzgerald and Max Spector could get up toseven and a hal years in prison under the ter-rorism enhancement charge, which allows ora 50 percent increase in the maximum penalty.This is the frst time criminal charges have beenfled under the 2002 Minnesota version o theederal Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act, which was put in place as muchto silence domestic opposition as to erret out

real terrorists, has largely lain dormant. It hasauthorized the government to monitor ourphone conversations, e-mails, meetings andpolitical opinions. It has authorized the govern-ment to shut down anti-war groups and lock upinnocents as terrorists. It has abolished habeascorpus. But until now we have not grasped itsull implications or our open society. We catchglimpses, as in St. Paul or in our o shore penalcolonies where we torture detainees, o its aw uldestructive power.

The commercial media told us that what wasimportant in St. Paul was happening insidethe convention hall. The vapid interviews, theridiculous soap opera sagas about Sarah Palins


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daughter and the debate about whether JohnMcCain or Barack Obama has proprietary rights to Change divert us rom the trutho who we have become. You had to searchout Democracy Now!, TheUptake.org, TwinCities Indymedia, I-Witness, along with a ewother independent outlets, to see, hear or readreal journalism rom St. Paul.

It does not matter that the RNC WelcomingCommittee describes itsel as an anarchist/anti-authoritarian organization. We dont

have to embrace a political agenda to protectthe right to be heard. Shut down ree speechand radicals only burrow deeper under-ground, splitting ossifed political systems intoractured extremes. We may well end up withthe Christian right on one side, with politi-cians like Sarah Palin providing an ideologicalveneer to a Christian ascism, and embitteredle tist radicals who turn to violence on theother.

St. Paul was not ultimately about selecting apresidential candidate. It was about the powero the corporate state to carry out pre-emp-tive searches, seizures and arrests. It was aboutsquads o police in high-tech riot gear, many with drawn semiautomatic weapons, burstinginto houses. It was about seized computers, journals and political literature. It was about

shutting down independent journalism, evenat gunpoint. It was about charging protesterswith conspiracy to commit riot, a rarely usedstatute that criminalizes legal dissent. It wasabout 500 people held in open-air detentioncenters. It was about the rising Orwellian statethat has hollowed out the insides o America,cast away all that was good and vital, anddonned its skin to shackle us all.

Chris Hedges is a journalist and author, special-izing in American and Middle Eastern politicsand society. You can fnd more o his work atLewRockwell.com

CALL FOR SUPPORTPLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

Hello to all our riends and supporters,

In the last week, eight people a fliated withthe RNC Welcoming Committee were arrestedin their homes or picked up o the streets andcharged with conspiracy to riot and urther-ance o terrorism. The Welcoming Committeewas a group that ormed to acilitate logistics( ood, housing, convergence center) aroundthe 2008 Republican National ConventionProtests in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Most o them were arrested in the days leading up to

the convention, and many had their homesraided by law en orcement. They were beingheld in the Ramsey County jail but as o Thursday were all released on bail or bond.They are now acing serious criminal chargesand the potential o a protracted and expen-sive legal battle.

This case is potentially dangerous not just orthese individuals but or organizers and activ-

ists all over the country. It represents a seem-ingly coordinated e ort between state andederal agencies to crack down on organizersas a way o intimidating and systematically re-pressing movement building in all its orms. Itnow alls to all o us to fght these charges not just or these eight people but to protect ourriends, our movements and our communities.

Currently, our immediate need is or fnancialresources. We are asking or people to donatemoney or set up benefts in their own com-munities.

You can donate by going to www.nornc.organd clicking on the Donate to RNC Welcom-ing Committee Legal Support button.

To check out ongoing updates on the case visitwww.RNC8.org.

Thank you so much or your support.

In solidarity,The Friends o the Welcoming CommitteeVisit St. Paul in September 2008!http://www.nornc.org

continued rom 19


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LattitudeZine.com21

Paintings by Kal


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www.kalitattoo.com


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[email protected]


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October 2008 LATT!TUDE


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lattitude zine 10 - october 2008

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