Harper Government's Refusal to Protect Fish Habitats Another Gift to His Oil Company Supporters

Day after day in every possible way Harper's Government is destroying Canada's future quality of life in exchange for the short term profits his oil patch supporters covet. In this case it's the neo-cons attack on the word 'habitat'. Harpo wants to jettison the protection of fish habitat in the current Fisheries Act. The Globe and Mail, not usually known for its lefty perspective, points out in an editorial today titled 'Fish habitat: Why rock the boat?', The current Fisheries Act is beautiful in its simplicity: Fish need habitat to survive, and harming their habitat will inevitably cause harm to the fish. It ain’t broke, so don’t fix it.

This obvious attempt to subvert current and future environmental challenges to destructive 'development' is under fire now from all sides including real conservatives, the kind that believe conservative means to conserve. John Fraser, fisheries minister from 1984 to 1985 in Brian Mulroney's government, said in an interview Tuesday, "To take habitat out of the Fisheries Act is a very serious error because you can't save fish if you don't save habitat, and I say this as a lifelong conservative,"  "People who want to eliminate the appropriate safeguards that should be made in the public interest, these people aren't conservatives at all. They're ideological right-wingers with very, very limited understanding, intelligence or wisdom."

Of course, environmentalists and a large network of environmental scientists are furious about the idea and say Ottawa is ready to abdicate its national and international obligations to protect waterways. They accuse Ottawa of giving up stewardship of the environment to promote energy and mining projects at all costs.

Last week former Fisheries executive Otto Langer released a whistle blower's email and Langer said the move is likely intended to help Enbridge, since the proposed pipeline that is enthusiastically defended by the Harper government would cross hundreds of rivers and streams en route to Kitimat. Since then criticism has poured into the press, especially on the independent parts of the internet where corporate advertising dollars hold very sway, but also more and more in the mainstream press.

None of this though has seemed to have forced the neo-cons and corporate ass kissers in Harpo's government to change course. These people must be stopped and their destruction reversed before it's to late. The only real solution on the horizon is some sort of co-operation between the NDP, the Liberals and the Greens in the next election. The only candidate in this weekend's NDP leadership race advocating this course is Nathan Cullen. Let's hope the rank and file New Democrats agree because all of the old guard and insiders there seem entrenched in the same old lines which, unless Cullen is elected over their heads, will only keep Harpo and his cronies in power and assist them in destroying Canada's future.

Greece's Public Assets Fire Sale Part of Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine Solution

Greece's publicly owned common assets are being forced to be sold by the EU and the IMF as part of the austerity package the unelected government there has accepted. This scenario is exactly the same one the IMF and World Bank have used in the last decades to force countries around the globe to sell their commons to the private sector at fire sale prices.

In her most excellent book 'The Shock Doctrine, Naomi Klein explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically. Exposing the thinking, the money trail and the puppet strings behind the world-changing crises and wars of the last four decades, The Shock Doctrine is the gripping story of how America and the West's  “free market” policies have come to dominate the world-- through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. Now those same tactics are on display for all to see in Europe's debt ridden countries like Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.

Greece announced last month its Public Gas Corp. would be put on the auction block as part of the debt-burdened country's efforts to raise $25 billion through the sale of government-owned property -- a condition of its European bailout package. A little while ago the Greek government puts its marinas up for sale. These public assets, and many others in the troubled countries these predators descend on, were built by the sweat of the Greek people and their taxes for the common benefit of their society. After their sale all benefits from their use be it monetary revenue or royalty will go to the multi-national capitalists not the Greeks who paid for them.

The banksters are stealing the Greek commons. The people of Greece must rise up to stop these thieves before its to late. The 99%people of Greece have nothing to lose from defaulting on these ridiculous bonds, only the 1% will lose. Yet the people are being forced by the banks and their unelected government to sell the common assets that should continue to return real wealth to the people throughout their lives. The time for revolution in now in Greece and everywhere.

BC's Carbon Tax is Just Another Regressive Sales Tax

Ever wonder why Gordo Campbell and his 'Liberal Party' passed a Carbon Tax in BC when no other jurisdiction in North America has one? Because right-wing neo-con politicians love regressive taxation and the Campbell Liberals were able to spin the Carbon Tax as a green initiative to a hopeful green-y population of naive residents at exactly the right time, at exctly the time when it looked like others, especially Californians who BCer's wanna be like so much, were going to do it too for the same green-y reasons. The Californians in fact did do it until they had the next election cycle.

There's three basic types of taxes. Regressive taxes charge everybody, rich or poor, the same amount monetarily. They are called regressive, of course, because they proportionately hurt  the poorer person more. So all sales taxes, here in Canada or anywhere, hurt folks in reverse proportion to their income and wealth as does a Carbon Tax. A progressive tax is any tax that is collected in direct proportion to their income, like income tax, or in proportion to their accumulated wealth like property taxes or capital gains taxes. The third type are luxury taxes and sin taxes. Both of them are leveraged against things judged to be non-essential choices, like Hummers, BMWs, cigarettes and booze.

Rich folks love regressive taxation for all the obvious self-serving reasons. If all govt. revenue was collected from those most able to pay the corporate shareholder, the speculators, the robber barons and those born with a silver spoon in their mouths would have slightly less bling to amuse themselves with, might have to limit their holdings to one house in the Hampshires, might even have to settle for only one trip to the Rivera each season.

Poor folks live with regressive taxation because they don't have the extra funds it takes to adequately bribe enough politicians to get progressive taxes mandated. The rich are well educated in the cost-benefit analysis of paying off the every political party in every 'democracy' to keep their position secure. The poor spend their time in prayer and at the lottery ticket window.

If they made me, w. wallace mud, benevolent dictator taxation would be of two varieties only, progressive and luxury. Of course, the rich would moan, groan and buy copious advertising space trying to convince the poor of the unfairness of those dictates. Being a benevolent type though would mean using luxury taxes to their best advantage too. Things like cigarettes and booze carry lots in terms of externalized costs that everyone pays in health care and violence. Things like Hummers externalize their costs onto the coming generations in terms of lower air quality etc. Pity the rich bastards, someday w. wallace mud or some other unbribed type will come along and collect taxes fairly, will re-distribute wealth equitably and will stop capitalism from externalizing the true costs of its obscene destruction onto the unborn.

Green Beer and Paganism on St. Patrick's Day

Legend has it that St. Patrick drove all the snakes from Ireland. Sometime back in the fifth century he stood on a hill, the story goes, and used a staff to herd the slithering creatures into the sea, banishing them for eternity. In reality most scholars agree that snakes symbolize paganism, which St. Patrick is also credited for banishing from Ireland. Snakes as symbols of evil are prevalent throughout Judeo-Christian mythology, most notoriously in the Garden of Eden as a tempter of Eve.

St. Patrick's Day, like most Hallmark Holidays, has its roots deeply embedded in paganism. The historic St. Patrick was born in Wales around AD 385. Before becoming St. Patrick he answered to the name Maewyn and, until turning 16, he identified himself as a pagan (no real shocker there, as most people back in those days were pagan). He later, after being enslaved and hauled off to Ireland, had visions, heard voices and moved to a monastery in France where he converted. Subsequently he returned to Ireland and began converting the local pagan folks to the latest craze in self-delusion, Christianity.

Some modern Pagans and Wiccans quietly protest St. Patrick by wearing a serpent pin or shirt on St. Patrick's Day instead of those green "Kiss Me I'm Irish" badges. Though if you're not sure about the depth of your pagan devotion or about wearing a snake on your lapel, you can always jazz up your front door with a Spring Snake Wreath instead.

But all that is old hat and nobody, other than the odd grudge holding pagan, really cares anymore about the historic St. Paddy. Nowadays it's all about parades, the 'Luck of the Irish' and green beer-especially beer, green or not, here in Canuckistan. Oh, for sure you'll see a few folks drinking Guinness or toasting with Irish Whiskey but the real truth is Canucks, like most folks everywhere, like a buzz and whatever excuse there is for a party sounds fine.

Otto Langer's Warning About the Harper Government's Desire to Gut the Environmental Review Process

Harper and his fascist cronies are at it again. This time their objective is to gut any environmental review process that could stand in the way of his oily corporate contributors now, as in the environmental review under way into the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, or in the future. Harper and his thugs have, among other neo-conservative agenda items, the objective of turning Canada into a corporate petro-state.

In this instance the Conservatives plan to sneak this past the opposition by adding it their Budget Omnibus Bill was exposed when former DFO executive Otto Langer released an email he'd been sent by a current DFO employee and whistle-blower [who'd best be ducking as the fascists are surely circling the DFO staff's email accounts]. The video of an interview with Otto Langer about the repercussions of this move by the Harperites is available here.

NDP Fisheries Critic Donnelly is concerned these changes are designed to clear the way for industrial projects favoured the Harper Government. In a press release following the above exchange in the House, he stated, “The Conservative government is systematically dismantling environmental protection and regulation. By eliminating provisions to protect fish habitat, they can push through their agenda of pipelines, oil super tankers, mega mines and other projects that harm the environment.”

As Otto Langer writes in his article, 'Veteran Fisheries Scientist Warns Harper Government Watering Down Habitat Protections in Omnibus Bill' : "This proposed move by the Harper government is a travesty for our fishery resources and the health of the entire ecosystem and it ignores the needs of our future generations. It is little less than another attack on the biological systems that allow life to exist on this planet. To make matters worse, the political level has decided to not consult with DFO staff or the public on these proposed changes. The Harper government will attempt to sneak this neutering of the Fisheries Act through Parliament within the next two weeks by tacking it on to the end of the up coming Budget Omnibus Bill."


How BC Could Counteract Harper's Gutting of Environmental Protections for Enbridge  - Our esteemed contributor Otto Langer blew it wide open when he, using a leaked document, stated that under the Harper government the protection of fish habitat would no longer be enforced against industry and that it would use an “omnibus bill” to try to sneak it through.

"Bank of America took our homes, so we thought we'd move in here."

Today, March 15th, the Occupy movement in the US is taking on the Bank of America. The website 'Foreclose The Banks' has some very cool stuff and some great quotes. The Mud Report is totally behind the creative actions being taken across Amerika against one of that country's biggest banksters. Two Thumbs Up to the occupiers.

The website opens with, "Bank of America (BAC) is a morally and financially dead “zombie bank” poised to shock the entire global economy into crisis. Its time to Fight BAC and break up the bank! On March 15th, we will Foreclose on Bank of America." Then quotes Matt Taibbi who says, “There are two things every American needs to know about Bank of America. The first is that it’s corrupt… It is a giant, raging hurricane of theft and fraud… The second is that all of us, as taxpayers, are keeping that hurricane raging.”

One section called 'The Big Picture' reads, "We are fighting for economic justice and democracy. We are part of an international movement battling unchecked global capitalism, the crimes of Wall Street and the banks, a corrupt government controlled by monied elites, and the resulting income inequality, unemployment, environmental destruction, and oppression of people at the front lines of the economic crisis. The 99% are organizing to end the tyranny, greed, and selfishness of the 1% and usher in an era of protected freedoms, compassion, collaboration, solidarity, mutual aid, sustainability, economic justice, and democracy by and for the people."

Tonight mr. mud is going to his first General Assembly at Occupy Powell River, and couldn't be prouder. This small town group has already raised the consciousness of our little coastal rain forest community with its first few actions. There will be more actions and groups in communities both small and large  here in coastal BC and everywhere as first the spring then the summer of 2012 roll on.

As the article 'Occupy Movement to Blossom as Spring Approaches' says in part, "Organizers have also been using the winter to incubate grander plans, among them a May 1 Day of Action that may turn into a call for a nationwide general strike and proposals to occupy corporate shareholder meetings, the NATO summit in Chicago, and the Democratic and Republican conventions at the end of the summer."

As a prologue to a March 15 action against bank foreclosures, a crew of Occupiers moved into a Bank of America lobby carting their couch, coffee table and potted plant.

Maher and Limbaugh are Kissin Cousins

Ol' Rush Limbaugh and Bill Maher both use the same gimmick, they both earn big bucks by the berating and name calling of individuals instead of making light or criticizing their public statements or policy perspectives. They both try to make themselves look bigger by attempting to make others look smaller. It's a very old gimmick and it's bullshit.

The gimmick is equally lame whether you happen to agree with the lame-o's overall perspective or not. In fact it's not only lame logically but actually does far more harm than good to one's argument.

As anyone who ever reads a post at The Mud Report knows the writer of these lines wouldn't be on Rush Limbaugh's X-mas card list and that on occasion Maher's musings have probably been a far fairer fit. But when Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin [or anybody else] disgusting names or belittles her children he's not only wrongheaded, he's wrong. There's plenty of room for argument, comedic or not, with Sarah Palin's politics, there's zero for the rest. Maher's salacious name calling gives him a bad name not Palin, it effectively dismisses any further comments he has about any legitimate policy topic and it gives the object of his personal attacks the perfect platform to sidestep any of Maher's more valid critiques.

Same goes in spades for Rush Limbaugh. Certainly his arguments about publicly funded birth control have been discounted to zero by his personal insults toward an individual rather than toward her perspective. There are huge differences all around the political spectrum, plenty of real differences to debate or make jokes about for Bill, Rush and anyone else without demeaning themselves and their arguments by name calling.

Manditory Minimum Marijuana Sentences in Bill C-10 is Reefer Madness Solution for Harper's Neo-Con Base

Despite the fact that every other country in the Western Hemisphere is moving away from mandatory minimum sentences for growing and possessing small amounts of marijuana, despite the undisputed fact that this idiotic policy of Harpo's will cost Canadian taxpayers billions of dollars to build prisons, will clog up the courts, will imprison non-violent productive members of society and will only increase the leverage organized crime has on the marijuana industry, undeterred, onward the Conservatives march. Why?

Because its an obvious wedge issue. Because Harpo's goal is to remain in power. Because the 40%, or slightly less, that voted for him are the only Canadians he cares to keep happy and many/most of them are convinced that smoking marijuana is a sin. Harpo's base of support is riddled with folks who are totally confused about the difference between a sin and a crime. It's not totally their fault individually, so many have been taught since the cradle to obey authority, to respect authority and that the minister-priest-bishop speaks for God-the big kahuna of authority.

A crime has a victim. A criminal believes he/she can get more out of a system than they put in-a free lunch. Criminals are dangerous to those around them and to society in general because they are immoral, because they have no empathy for others, because they reject the 'golden rule'-do unto others as you'd have them do unto you. A sin is a totally different thing. A sin is an internal conflict between the teachings of a religion [often totally moral and 'golden rule' appropriate] and the action an adherent is doing or the thoughts they are thinking. Marijuana growing for ones own consumption may be against the law of the land and the various churches may see it as a sin, but it is not immoral.

Anyway, as the John Howard Society of Manitoba points out: Bill C-10 will have a direct impact on rates of incarceration.  The Correctional Service of Canada is predicting an 8 per cent increase in inmates per year.  At the provincial level, the increase will likely be three or four times higher (putting it in the range of 24 to 32 per cent) given that the vast majority of minimum sentences will be served as ‘provincial time’. Added to that, the provinces will see an increase in remand wait times, as mandatory minimums make plea bargains less attractive, causing more cases to proceed to trial. All these changes will further burden our already financially strapped courts and prisons, but will not reduce instances of crime.

FAST FACTS: Bill C-10: The Truth About Consequences

How Would You Feel if a Massacre Like the One Yesterday in Afghanistan Happened in Your Home?

Didn't sleep to well last night, kept waking up from the same terrible dream over and over. Kept seeing storm troopers like the kind in 'Star Wars' busting down the door and shooting...and shooting...and shooting. Kept changing tee-shirts 'cause of the cold sweat. Always knowing within seconds it was a dream, always knowing how i'd feel if a massacre like the one yesterday in Afghanistan happened to my family.

There isn't a doubt in my mind, i'd do anything to get even. The Afghans don't feel the way they feel today because they are living in a medieval culture or because they are jihadists, or terrorists or any other bullshit characterization you choose. They feel and act as they must because they are you. If you want to understand how the Afghan people feel? Think of your kids.

Today's lead article at Common Dreams 'I Don’t Want To See Their Faces; I Don’t Want To Hear Them Scream', by Christopher Cooper, was some comfort to me. It may well be to you also, please read it, it says what we all must be feeling today.

Afghanistan is well-known as the 'graveyard of empires'. It cast off the imperialist likes of Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire, the British Victorian colonial empire and most recently, the Soviet communist empire. After 11 years of pain, death and destruction we should concede that the stories of a this soldier's massacre of innocent women and children and Quran burnings could be the lasting legacies of the longest war in the American empire's history. The US and its vassal states in NATO must get out now even though now is already far to late.

I Don’t Want To See Their Faces; I Don’t Want To Hear Them Scream - Does it feel different to be dead by drone than dead by M-1? Does Obama have nightmares? Did Bush? Do they wash their hands, trying to scrub off the blood?

Why NDP Leadership Candidate Nathan Cullen is the Best Choice for Progressive Canadian Voters

Today in Vancouver the NDP is holding its final debate before the leadership vote to pick Jack Layton's successor on March 24th in Toronto. After listening, watching and studying the websites of the various candidates Nathan Cullen appears to be only one offering any real chance of a big change in Canadian politics.

As Nathan's website says, "After just eight months of a Harper majority, we’ve seen Canada withdrawn from Kyoto; the Canadian Wheat Board gutted; expensive, radical crime bills ushered in; and attack after attack on the values most Canadians cherish. Stephen Harper's majority government is attacking Canadian values with less than 40 per cent support. The NDP is in an ideal position to lead the conversation about how the other 60% can work together to replace Harper’s majority with a progressive majority."

Canada is in a small minority of countries that do not use proportional representation already. More than 75 democracies do in some form, including Australia, New Zealand and Scotland, all of which use Parliamentary systems like Canada's. Done right, proportional representation produces stable, productive governments -- which, crucially, reflect, not fight, their citizens' beliefs.

Cullen has gained support with controversial positions such as advocating for strategic alliances with the Greens and Liberals, and a populist-environmentalist stand against the Enbridge pipeline. Check out Project Democracy where you'll learn how Nathan's proposal for joint nominations and electoral reform can and will defend Canadian values.  Nathan Cullen attracted more people to his events in February than any other candidate. Unless the NDP, Liberals and Greens find some way to unite the 60% who vote against Harper and his Conservative Party agenda we will continue to be ruled by a Republican style right-wing minority. The right united, now the left must do the same.

The Mud Report enthusiastically endorses Nathan Cullen for the leadership of the Canadian NDP. Go Nathan GO!



Nathan Cullen 2012


Project Democracy

Is Dutch Disease Why Only McDonalds and Starbucks are Hiring?

There used to be good jobs here in BC and across Canada when my oldest daughter graduated from high school back in '78. Back then a kid could find a job in the forest industry, manufacturing or fishing industries. A good job, a job that in time would feed a family, buy a home, maybe a vacation in the camper up at the lake and probably a pension someday. Some kids also went off to university, sooner or later they too found a job in their field [though they mighta had to move somewhere inconvenient to get a start].

But by the time my youngest daughter graduated from high school things were far different. Some still went on to university and a few still got decent jobs if they were uniquely talented or well connected. Many though hoped for a job at Starbucks but ended up at Tim Hortons. A few years later, by 2010, those who had 'secured' their position at Starbucks were happy because by then mosta the heavily indebted university grads were filling out applications there too.

What happened is called Dutch Disease. every major oil exporter from Venezuela to Louisiana has suffered some form of the ailment. 'The Economist named the economic malaise "the Dutch Disease," from which the astute Dutch eventually recovered but from which every major oil exporter from Venezuela to Louisiana has suffered at some point. Phillippe Bergevin first diagnosed Canada's growing infection in a paper titled "Energy Resources: Boon or Curse for the Canadian Economy?" Bergevin detected a number of critical and telltale symptoms including "a rising resource-led export sector coupled with a struggling manufacturing sector and a rising currency."

Jock Finlayson of the Business Council of British Columbia noted that every one cent rise in the Canada's petro dollar subtracted $150-$160-million from the forestry sector; and another $50-million from the mining sector. The Tar Sands carnival and the resulting Dutch Disease is responsible for 54 percent of the manufacturing employment loss across Canada due to exchange rate developments between 2002 and 2007 alone. By exporting vast volumes of oil instead of refining and consuming it here in Canada Alberta and successive federal flunkies have chosen to export thousands of high value jobs to U.S. refineries.

The bought and paid for politicians are right when they say the tar sands is all about jobs and revenue. They just refuse to add two important qualifiers: lost jobs and squandered revenue. Please do your own research on Canadian Dutch Disease. When you do you'll see why Caterpillar shutdown its plant in Ontario and opened a new one Georgia recently and why there's a lineup to get jobs at Mickey D's nowadays.

How the Tar Sands Threaten Canada's Economic Fate - A short course in Dutch Disease, deindustrialization and the Bitumen Curse.

Does the Canadian economy suffer from Dutch Disease?

What NATO's Kids are Fighting and Dying for in Afghanistan

Yesterday was International Women's Day around the globe but instead of focusing on the achievments of Women's Rights groups the international press concentrated on Hamid Karzai's endorsement of the Afghan Council edict a few days ago which clearly said that 'women are secondary'. On last friday the Council, Afghanistan's highest Islamic authority, issued an edict saying that women were worth less than men, then on tuesday a statement released by Karzai's office endorsed it.

"Men are fundamental and women are secondary," the edict said, adding women should avoid "mingling with strange men in various social activities such as education, in bazaars, in offices and other aspects of life". The guidelines would prohibit women to be in public places unaccompanied by a male. a condition that could dissolve the Afghan legislature. Further it said women should wear "full Islamic hijab", should respect polygamy — Islam allows a man to take up to four wives — and comply with Shariah law on divorce, which severely restricts women's rights.

In a largly symbolic move Canada last year joined other nations that have withdrawn from a combat role in Afghanistan. But along with these NATO nations Canada continues training police and armed forces plus has investments funding for education and justice projects and aid programs. Other NATO countries, notably Great Britian and the US-which has over 100,000 regular military personal on the ground there as well as untold numbers of mercenaries-continue to send their young people into battle where thousands have already died or come home severly injured.

11 years later, US troops are still burning Korans out of either insensitivity or ignorance. Thousands are dead on all sides.
thousands more are maimed in body and soul and FOR WHAT? So that Hamid Karzai's government can uphold the edicts of medieval clerics. The illegal, undeclared 'war', in Afghanistan was crap to begin with and now after 11 long years the outcome is the same as was predicted at its begining. The Afghans aren't buying the supposed benefits of western occupation, instead they wait, they wait for the inevitable day when, like that last ignoble day in Saigon, the US and its vassels leave.

There are methods like the power of example that triumph over the example of power. One day perhaps the US and its allies will understand that the force of their ideas not the force of their armies can change minds. The only avenue to change in the long run is mutual respect and honest interaction. Our history of human rights in the west has slowly evolved through common cause, through mutual understanding and acceptance of the inalienable fact that we are all in this together, that, being one life-one interconnected life-any harm done to another is actually harm done to oneself because there is no 'other'. So too for the Afghans.


Hamid Karzai endorses Afghan edict that 'women are secondary' - Hamid Karzai's US-backed government is under fire this International Women's Day, accused of selling out on Afghan women's rights as it tries to woo the Taliban into peace talks.


Hamid Karzai backs restrictive code for women - Afghanistan's president endorses 'code of conduct' which activists say is a giant step backward for women's rights.

The Woody Guthrie Centennial Celebration - This Land is Your Land

The movie version of 'Bound for Glory' was on TCM recently as a follow up to 'The Grapes of Wrath'. Watched them both back to back that night and was left with a feeling of awe and a greater understanding of how, as the saying goes, 'those who fail to learn the lessons of history are bound to repeat them'. The uplifting part being that perhaps we all are, as Woody Guthrie was, bound for the glory of what can be if/when we do finally learn those lessons.

Woody Guthrie was born on July 14th 1912. This coming July would have been his 100th birthday. A centennial celebration of Woody's life and music, headlined by Arlo-his son, and many others will seek to convey some of the emotion that Woody's artistry added to the hopes of so many depression era folks and have continued to inspire us, his fellow travelers, since.

Personally, i met Arlo a few times many years ago [the early 60's] in Stockbridge Mass. where the few young aspiring hippies of Birkshire County traveled in order to feel and touch the movement that was then just begining to change the world. Arlo was part of that early movement and his song/alblum/movie 'Alice's Restaurant' was an early anthem for many of us. Later we all learned that Woody had been a mentor to Bob Dylan and Ramblin Jack Elliot two of the great troubadors of my generation. We all owe Woody Guthrie a great debt for his contribution to the ever evolving Revolution. Thanks Woody!

Woody wrote many excellant verses that will always underlie the spirit of The Mud Report. Below are a couple great ones.

Yes, as through this world I've wandered,
I've seen lots of funny men.
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

And as through your life your travel,
Yes, as through your life your roam,
You won't never see an outlaw
Drive a family from their home.

Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs. Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression, earning him the nickname the 'Dust Bowl Troubadour' His most famous song was titled 'This Land Is Your Land'. The two verses below from the original song were often omitted in subsequent recordings by some singers.

As I went walking, I saw a sign there,
And on the sign there, It said "no trespassing."
But on the other side, it didn't say nothing!
That side was made for you and me.

In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I'd seen my people.
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking,
Is this land made for you and me?

Even Stupor Pacs and Billionaires' Bucks Can't Buy Mudslinger Mitt any Love on Stupor Tuesday

Poor Moneybags Mitt, seems no matter how much mud he slings at his rightwing rivals a large majority of the Republican base just aren't sufficiently hypnotized by what he's selling. For instance, Moneybags Mitt and his Stuopr Pac, Restore Our Future [yuck], spent over $12million slinging mud in Ohio alone compared to Righteous Rick's measley $1million. Yet Mitt won by less than 1% of the vote. Poor Mitt, even the reddest of rednecks, the bluest of bluecollars, bornest of born agains or the whitest of whites just aren't buying what he's got for sale.

Robert Reich said of the Republicans the other day, " A party of birthers, creationists, theocrats, climate-change deniers, nativists, gay-bashers, anti-abortionists, media paranoids, anti-intellectuals, and out-of-touch country clubbers cannot govern America." Maybe, maybe not, in this writers opinion. They certainly can't win in an old fashion head to head gunfight at the OK corral kinda showdown, at least not yet. But they have been pulling the strings that make the puppets dance for years now through the dark force of fear.

What America needs, and by extension the whole world needs, is a 'High Noon' kinda showdown. We need a clear choice, we need Gary Cooper to stand up intellectually in the dusty street and call bullshit on these ultra rightwing fear mongerers. We don't need 500 national ho-hum non-choices between RINOs and DINOs, between various flip-floppers where everybody chooses the candidate that makes them puke the least.

If this electoral silly season doesn't produce a clear cut defeat of the religious rightwing robots there might not be another chance. The best case scenerio, IMO, would be if Newt got the boot letting Rick do the trick of cutting Mitt to shit. Then maybe the fork-tongued Obama might end up with a real Democratic majority in both houses of Congress, not a DINO filled mock majority like the one he and 'Rahm thre Fixer' built 4 years ago. If all this were to come true, as my inner soothsayer assures me, if the religio-fascists were slain in the political dust of Main Street, if then Obama was forced by a progressive majority to actually fulfill his promises of 4 years ago we might still see America rise to its potential as that golden city on the hill.

Is The Mighty Unity Scared of the Occupy Movement? You Betcha!

Fearing a replay of the 1968 major riot in Chicago the 'Chickenhawk in Chief' quietly announced Monday evening the move of the G8 summit in May from 'Sweet Home Chicago' to the remote fortress at Camp David. This is a major victory for the Occupy Wall Street movement and Adbusters.

Obama's decision is a humiliation for 'The Mighty Unity' and is making huge headlines all over the world. "It's hard not to see at least some of the Ghost of '68 in President Barack Obama's decision to slap his hometown and abruptly pull the G8 summit out to the Maryland woods." - Chicago Business

Those were heady days back in August of '68. Revolution was in the air. The assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, the escalating doom of the Viet Nam War, the nationwide race riots and the rapid rise of the counterculture created an atmosphere where real change seemed possible. i was 20 that summer, a college kid who's world was forever changed by the terrible glorious events of that year. By year's end i had dropped out of college determined to be a part of the solution not part of the problem.

The problem, the problems, have only gotten worser and huger since my epiphany in '68. The ghost of '68 still haunts the halls of power in America. Hopefully this victory for the Occupy Movement will be a cataylst that continues the spread of the revolutionary reaction to the forces of corporate greed gaining momentum around the world.

Sweet Home Chicago: G8 Summit Moved but Protests Will Continue - Years ago, when I was at The London School of Economics, I received a letter inviting me to Chicago for the 1968 Democratic convention. No it wasn’t from then Mayor Daley but from my Yippie friend Abbie Hoffman who predicted a hot time in the old town that was burned down by Mrs. O’Leary’s famous cow. To this day, I regret not going. I am hoping to be there this time because it promises to showcase the revival of the Occupy Movement that so many are hoping for. - Danny Schechter

Rapidly Rising Atmospheric CO2' Causing the Worst Ocean Acidification in 300 Million Years

The recent study titled The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification and published in the journal Science, details the work of 21 scientists from the U.S. and Europe. In it the authors conclude, “The current rate of (mainly fossil fuel) CO2 release stands out as capable of driving a combination and magnitude of ocean geochemical changes potentially unparalleled in at least the last ~300 [million years] of Earth history, raising the possibility that we are entering an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change.”

Who's responsible for this? Is it some big cultural mindset? Or is it the individual choices each of us makes everyday? The answer is both i guess. But they aren't seperate, the culture of consumption is simply the total of our individual choices. Each of us cooperates differently and in different amounts, from the hermit-desert rat type who lives off grid and walks to the nearest trading post once a month to the suit wearing freeway commuters waiting out another traffic jam in their air-conditioned cocoon.

Each of us performs a conscious or sub-conscious cost/benefit analysis whose output we use to maximize the mojo of our moments. Defining costs and benefits then is central to maximizing our individual mojos. Each of us solves the problem slightly different because of how our unique pasts have shaped our present worldview, that worldview is what we use to assign weights to different costs and benefits. The one thing we all share is the difficulty of our time frame.

We rogue primates seldom have any connection to deep timeframes, we have affinity or real empathy for about the 5 generations we meet in our lives, our grandparent's-our parent's-our's-our children's-our grandchildren's. These temporal blinders we all have that focus us so narrowly in time allow us to externalize the full costs of our actions somewhere into the future beyond our circle of empathy while apparently gaining the full benefits of those actions in the here and now. The Geological Record study, at least for a moment, has re-opened my focus to a grander time scale and re-validated my evolving inner desert rat.


'Unprecedented Rapidity of CO2' Causing Worst Ocean Acidification in 300 Million Years - The Earth's oceans are becoming more acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the past 300 million years due to increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, a new study shows.

An Inspiring Note from Karen Willis and Clear Answers at the Dogwood Initiative

The title, Med Student Donates Scholarship Money, and link in an email this morning brought me to this inspiring note:
"Apparently, I am a radical. I am a Canadian, a proud B.C. resident and a medical student. I am currently thousands of dollars in debt so that I can achieve my dream of being a rural family doctor and bring medical care to the underserved areas of our province."
"However, something worries me more than the pressing need for rural doctors in Canada or my ability to pay my bills — it is the Northern Gateway pipeline and the proposal to put supertankers on our coast. That is why I would like to donate the scholarship money I received this year to your initiative. I know it’s not much, and I would give more if I could. I love what you are doing for our province".

Karen is donating her scholarship to the Dogwood Initiative, a non-profit, volunteer group that brings together everyday British Columbians to reclaim decision-making power over their air, land and water. Even more important perhaps than Karen's inspiring note are the clear responses given on the blog to a series of excellant questions about the Northern Gateway Project pipieline project. The answers there are great talking for us all when encountering these same basic questions in conversations with our friends, be they supporters or objectors to the pipeline.

Please check out the Dogwood Initiative website and, if you feel so moved, sign the petitions and/or join the cause, mr. mud did.

Alberta's Wiebo Ludwig is Fighting His Last Battle

The Dutch-born eco-warrior and enemy of the oil industry is a yoeman, a hero, a warrior, a free man and at peace with his god at the end, what could be better. But still it's a sad day for those many of us who've cheered Weibo on from afar, those many of us Weibo wannabes who've never been able to take the heat as he has.

Here's a couple of excerps from an interview published today, March 03, 2012, titled: Wiebo Ludwig dying of cancer:

"For those who espouse green living and turning our collective backs on uncontrolled oil and gas drilling and development, Ludwig is something of a messianic folk hero. For decades he has stood as an outspoken, implacable, media-savvy foe of the oil and gas industry, as evidenced by Toronto filmmaker David York's 2011 National Film Board-backed documentary, Wiebo's War."

"Ludwig, a carpenter, has completed his final construction project: a wooden casket. Last month his daughters finished the lining — a cream-coloured satin that covers a layer of soft foam and straw. The simple casket rests on two metal stands in one of the compound's main houses."

Not a believer myself, but if Weibo's right about crossing over the river maybe i'll be lucky enough to meet him one day on the other side.

Wiebo Ludwig dying of cancer: An interview - March 03, 2012

The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert

The Sonoran Desert is a vast irregular-shaped area of some 120,000 square miles. It stretches from southeastern California across the southern half of Arizona and extends south into Sonora, Mexico. More than one thousand years ago, the Hohokam Indians began diverting water from the Gila River in order to irrigate the arid soil. Working with sticks and stones these primal people pioneered an extensive system of desert agriculture and produced art like the clay toad pictured above.

One of the most unique inhabitants of the Sonoran Desert is the native toad, Bufo alvarius. The metabolic pathway of the venom of B. alvarius is unique within the Animal Kingdom in that it produces large amounts of 5-methoxy indole derivatives. The predominant alkaloid among these, as much as fifteen per cent of the venom by dry weight, is 5- methoxy- N,N- dimethyltryptamine (5-MEO-DMT). 5-MEO-DMT is a potent hallucinogen, psychoactive in man at doses of three to five milligrams.

When vaporized by heat and taken into the lungs in the form of smoke, this indole-based alkaloid produces an incredibly intense psychedelic experience of incredibly short duration. There is no hangover or harmful effect. On the contrary, a pleasant psychedelic afterglow appears quite regularly after smoking the venom of B. alvarius, the Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert.

In 1983 Albert Most of Gila, Arizona formed The Church of the Toad of Light. His writings, especially Bufo alvarius: The Psychedelic Toad of the Sonoran Desert which is The Bible, draw thousands of young searchers to the Sonora Desert around Gila every year. Here is a link to the best general information about Bufo alvarius. Here is another to information on the church itself. Most interestingly Bufo alvarius is a mudite in that it lives underground in the mud under year around water sources, like the Gila River and the extensive modern irrigation systems that draw on the Colorado River, during the hot daylight hours found in this harsh zone where temperatures can reach 140 F. in the shade and rainfall amounts at as little as five inches per year.

The Quality of One's Life Has Zero Correlation to the Quantity of One's Money

Today's inbox contained a this beautiful picture above and various well meant comments on compassion, love and the politics of homelessness. All the folks commenting made good points, but it's the picture itself that touches me.

In anything there's the container and its contents to consider, including this picture. The container here seems to evoke a response of-maybe pity or compassion, the contents another-maybe universal love. But those are only my opinions. My opinions are, as are all our various opinions, a projection of my worldview.

So then this photo is real art. It follows the defination, my opinion again, that art is symbolic and that all real art, like all good symbols, are windows in that it doesn't matter how they are built-rather it's what you see through them that counts.

Through this window, this symbol, this art i bask in the warm glow of appreciating that the quality of one's moments-one's life-has nothing to do with one's material circumstances-at least once that person has acheived a level of comfort above starvation.