"Tort Reform" Fraud, The Oids &
Corporate Class War on America

© Aldo Vidali, 2006.

As published in The Lone Star Iconoclast, July 5, 2006.

NOTICE: Permission to reprint this article in its entirety,
including this notice, is granted by the author.

A FILM STUDENTS' BREAKFAST
"Federico Fellini could help save democracy," said Lorenzo, an 18 year-old UC Santa Barbara film student, to his classmates during the complimentary Sunday brunch served by retired actress Rona Barb to her youthful room tenants.

"My dad," voiced Roger, another film student, "says democracy is dead, and our civil justice system and lawyers are being neutered by corporations that want to get away with murder without having to pay damages. My dad's an attorney -- he knows."

"That's right," said Lorenzo. "My father is making a movie about corporations stealing the planet from under our feet by using frames. It'll blow people's minds. My dad worked with Fellini. He saw people in Italy change after City Of Women came out."

"That's the craziest thing I ever heard!" jumped in Ms. Barb, participating in the discussion while pouring tea.

"No, it's not crazy at all!" protested Lorenzo. "The movie I'm helping my father make is about framing ideas to reshape the way we see the world. I learned a lot about that subject when I assisted in filming Professor Lakoff."

"Okay, okay, but changing how we see the world and saving democracy? Changing the way Italian men see women? Wow! That'll take a lot more than a movie," argued Ms. Barb as the boys laughed.

"It's like stopping global warming. That will take a lot more than Al Gore's movie."

"Some books changed the world, and movies can do it faster," insisted Lorenzo. "For years the media has been putting down trial lawyers as if every lawyer was a bad guy. They pushed Congress to vote against public protection and cut damage awards so low that lawyers can no longer take big corporations who hurt people to court. People lost and business won."

"So, what's that got to do with a movie about saving democracy?" Ms Barb queried.

"A lot. If you're hurt, you should have the right to sue. So corporations spread the myth that trial lawyers are all bad. That's a dirty corporate trick. Professor Lakoff suggests that we call attorneys 'public protection attorneys,' not 'trial lawyers.' The 'public protection attorney' frame reminds people of the good attorneys do. It would look real bad for business to try and smear public protection, right? That's all got to do with framing language! The word 'trial' is a scary word, but 'protection' -- that's a good word. People would wonder what is really going on if they saw 'tort reform' as an attack on public protection. Get it? Cutting protection for people -- that's not reform, that's a con job."

"So? I still don't get it. What's that got to do with a movie saving democracy?" persisted Ms. Barb.

"Well," Roger, answered, quoting his dad, "'Lawyers should never have to defend themselves in propria persona in the court of public opinion.' They know better. That's what they always tell other people. Well, they ought to follow their own advice. A movie can show Americans that controlled media is destroying our civil defense system. That's part of democracy."

"Thanks, Roger! Good argument! I rest my case," beamed Lorenzo.

SOUND FRAMES AND IMAGES OF LIGHT
Young energy is our greatest national asset. Let's help put that energy to work. To be a civilized nation, America must do all it can to unfold the full potential of our youth. Young adults finish college and are unable to find jobs that put what they learned to good use. Many grads end up bagging groceries or flipping burgers for years. What future do we offer them? None! The real question then becomes: "Are we a civilized country?" Gandhi was once asked what he thought of Western civilization. He replied: " I think it would be a very good idea."

An unforgettable film about civilization and the renewal of respect for human rights, a film showing how nations, after the horrors of World War II, attempted to establish a global civilization under international law with conscience and responsibility toward all life -- this is what we need. For a brief period, countries achieved common consent on civilized principles and spelled them out in the magnificent 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. All UN Member States solemnly agreed “[t]o cause it [the Declaration] to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.” That was a solemn promise. Most failed to honor it, including the U.S.

Now 58 years later the appointed pResident of the US and his Attorney General think that human rights are quaint, old-fashioned ideas written on weird, out-of-style documents -- like the US Constitution, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Exposing this stark contrast through the power of cinema will shock most audiences, and that is why we need such a movie.

So, film students got talking about coming to democracy's rescue with what the great master of film, Fellini, called cine magia – cinemagic. When informed, young people want to take up the cause and honor that pledge of 1948 by inspiring citizens to act in defense of humanity's future.

Uneco's film, Deflating The Elephant, will illustrate the crucial articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which are essential to our survival in this dangerous century, and vividly frame one of humanity greatest achievements with cinematic images. After viewers of Deflating The Elephant see how far we have fallen since the Declaration's creation, their hearts and minds will be transformed and moved to renew the covenant.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights Preamble Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in cooperation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge, Now, therefore, The General Assembly, Proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction. Article 1 All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Article 2 Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty. Article 3 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person. Article 4 No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Article 5 No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 6 Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law. Article 7 All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Article 8 Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law. Article 9 No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Article 10 Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Article 11 Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed. Article 12 No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. Article 13 Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Article 14 Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Article 15 Everyone has the right to a nationality. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality. Article 16 Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State. Article 17 Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property. Article 18 Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. Article 19 Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Article 20 Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. No one may be compelled to belong to an association. Article 21 Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. Article 22 Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality. Article 23 Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests. Article 24 Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. Article 25 Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection. Article 26 Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children. Article 27 Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. Article 28 Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized. Article 29 Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. Article 30 Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Few clearly perceive how dangerous the world situation is becoming.

Inhuman money controls mass media and deliberately broadcasts as many frivolous distractions as possible to keep people from noticing the fascist beast closing in on millions of unsuspecting victims. Current diabolical schemers make Hitler and Stalin look like dilettantes. Their skills at diverting attention by frequently sounding terror-lurking-under-every-bush alarms have been honed to perfection. A movie can expose them with scandalous evidence.

As a boy, I experienced arrogant Italian Fascism and the evil of rightwing fanatical religionism. In December 2000, when America was flagrantly betrayed by five black-robed hypocrites, shivers of horror went down my spine. Our grassroots organization immediately net-published a large front-page headline: "DAY OF INFAMY - Fascist Coup in the United States!" which was printed over a photo of marching Nazi SS troopers. Friends objected that to use the word "fascist" was an exaggeration. Now, six year later, most are as outraged as we were then and have been ever since.

In 2004, a second national election was stolen by the same fascist cabal and American democracy de facto ceased to exist, except in the deluded minds of sleeping TV network audiences.

That year, University of California Berkeley Professor George Lakoff's book, Don’t Think of an Elephant, appeared and was an instant bestseller. What it revealed is how linguistic frames influence social conditions.

Reading Don’t Think of an Elephant was a stunning clarification for me of how evil ideas throughout history are framed to allow "the few" to control and oppress "the many." Indeed, ideas projected through invisible linguistic frames can transform the mind.

Lakoff's scientific explanations brought back memories of working with Federico Fellini and learning from him how cinematic images change society. For example, after Fellini's Casanova and City of Women, I had watched downcast Italian males leaving theaters, stunned. Exaggerated Italian machismo was crushed by these great films and never fully recovered.

Fellini's demolition of century-old prejudices and Lakoff's linguistic art of framing suggested to me a potential cinematic cure for America.

It was my good fortune to share Federico's thoughts about dreams and metaphysical questions while he was conceiving his mysterious story, The Voyage of G. Mastorna. This work contains some of his visions and speculations about the human state in this world and after death. During that unforgettable experience, Fellini explained how cinematic images liberate, dissolve fear, and open our lives to perceiving the subtlest aspects of the world. That "sceneggiatura"-- The Voyage of G. Mastorna -- is now known as the most famous never-filmed-screenplay in the history of cinema.

Fellini's insight on the magic of light gives us a glimpse of the profundity of his art. He said:

THE MOVIE
Uneco Productions' Deflating The Elephant owes much to The Strange Voyage of G. Mastorna. Like Mastorna, it is a voyage into past and future … in this world and in an imaginary world where humanity is at last cured and grown to maturity and sanity … a satirical, historic, amusing, and symbolic movie.

Like Moby Dick, Deflating the Elephant is about hunting large beasts that incarnate evil. It will bring down the rogue pachyderms that are devastating our world (just as Twentieth Century fascists and Bolsheviks devastated theirs) by unmasking the secret class war the rich are waging against the American people. The hunting weapon this film delivers to the people is a Fellinesque-Lakoffian bow with arrows that can pierce soft, bloated underbellies of the fascist beasts and deflate them of their foul, hot air.

George Lakoff exposed the fact that conservatives spent 40 years and billions of dollars to grow, feed, and empower these land-roving Moby Dicks. False conservative frames have just about destroyed our 230 years of progress toward a vision of democratic culture and equality before the law and have nearly extinguished the American dream.

It is especially important and urgent that millions of Americans clearly understand why sharply framed and well-aimed progressive ideas can instantly bring down the ugly beasts.

The speed of change possible through strategic use of visual frames must be understood by all those liberals who wring their hands and worry that the deceitful conservative frames erected over four decades by lavishly funded, right-wing think-tanks may take just as many years to demolish before our Constitution can be restored and "We The People" take our country back. This is not so! If we had to wait 40 years, there'd be no country left to take back and no environment to restore.

With vigorous action, immediate liberation is assured because of a self-evident universal law, which we all experience many times in our lives. It is this: to build takes time, but to destroy takes only an instant. Any structure -- no matter how big, complex, or expensive in building -- can be demolished in a tiny fraction of the time it took to erect. So, we must act now, without hesitation. No more wishy-washy, centrist, political correctness nonsense. It is assured that the ridiculous compassionate-conservative reputations of oppressive pseudo-religious fascists painted by years of false media hogwash will go up in acrid smoke the moment progressives strike back with well-framed truths and ideas because fascists fear the light.

Make this important truth your own and pass it on: all that is needed to remove their ugly framework in a day is a wrecking ball, and Deflating the Elephant is that wrecking ball. To put it to good use progressives needs only a small fraction of what neo-fascists invested to steal our country from under our feet.

The looming environmental and nuclear catastrophe set up by the insane military industrial complex is staggering. Deflating the Elephant, coming after Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, will further galvanize many to act in self-preservation.

In 1997 Uneco understood the far-reaching vision of Gore's Earth In The Balance and awarded the Vice President an honorary position on its roster of American Wilderness Heritage Guardians. Gore responded encouragingly.

Soon after coup 2000 students organized by Uneco made a low cost video titled Life & Liberty in the Balance, which preceded and, we are told, inspired Fahrenheit 9/11 since it touched on most of the same facts Michael Moore included in his powerful film almost a year later.

Now Uneco brings together the power of Fellini's cinemagic and Lakoff's art of framing in a nonprofit film brilliantly introduced by Academy Award Star Sean Penn, a true American, profoundly dedicated to saving his country from the present hypocrite-usurpers who have shown no love for the American people.

QUESTION: "Can powerful movies save our future?"

ANSWER: "Social change is caused by extraordinary content delivered with penetrating power. Think of how much Shakespeare, Dante, and Fellini changed minds."

Read on and you will marvel.

There are two kinds of content: the cathartic and the inspiring. The first grips us with fear, shock, desire for change, and finally compels us to action. The second shows us a safe and luminous future. To be effective, the screen must move us over a panorama of inspiring realistic possibilities for restoring the commonwealth for the common good. It must clearly explain why we can no longer allow our country to be the pig-trough for multinational swine. An inspiring call to action will show why our ecosystems on which all of life depends must become our national priority. The environmental insanity of current power holders is the worst danger threatening our survival. Deflating the Elephant reveals how a different world is possible.

Media whores owned by energy and military industries will lash out against this rising revolution with the usual tiresome lies, as they are presently throwing at Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Fortunately, Gore has gone through that once before and is way above their smelly swamp. The public is not stupid and when shown the records will agree that free enterprise must cover the costs of its own productions. Corporations should not expect taxpayers to pay for the toxic mess they dump on our land.

Our system is not free enterprise. It is socialism for the rich with giant subsidies paid by the taxpayers as corporate welfare. "Free enterprise" without capital or credit is reserved for working people, the poor, and the homeless. The poor are told to believe in the land-of-opportunity fiction: "Pull yourself up by your boot straps!" How can anyone perform such a miracle if they're barefoot?

RIGHTS AND OPPORTUNITY FOR THE YOUNG
All have an equal right to this world and the young must claim their share now while there is still time.

The illicit government of appointed and election-stealing crooks is cutting support for education so that many students start life in debt and without adequate jobs. In our hometown of Santa Cruz, in the shade of the redwood forest on America's beautiful California shores, I observe my older son, Orlando, at work, forging uphill for his own opportunity. I see his good will, his compassion for others, his constant learning, as he creates side-by-side with his good friend and partner Keenan.

Now Keenan is a rare example for the young. Strong as Samson, he has raised a little dove named "Whoo" that he rescued at birth and has cared for for many years. Whoo follows this strong and gentle environmentalist, often landing on his shoulders or nesting in his hair while Keenan crafts beautiful, inspiring HD content in his self-built studio.

Watching these two young men working together discussing ecology, health, and life, I envision a progressive, peaceful future for America. They are struggling to succeed in the marketplace on a very uneven playing field, without capital or loans. So I ask: Why should they not also inherit their share of business subsidies to capitalize their creative enterprise? Why give billions in subsidies to energy companies that stole more money from California and the rest of the nation than a highway robber? Why not fund young entrepreneurs? Why waste billions to destroy first and then abusively privatize Iraq when our young people are struggling to get a start in life and cannot even afford healthcare or equipment?

It is time to get angry and resist this domestic oppression until this government collapses in its own rottenness!

HOW THEY STOLE OUR COMMONWEALTH
Exposing how we have been robbed is sobering.

Conservatives used many deceiving frames to steal from us. We'll tackle here just a few of the metaphors they employed to deform one of democracy's most fundamental pillars: justice.

Mixing Fellini's cinematic secrets with Lakoff's scientific brilliance is like mixing nitro and glycerine -- which makes up dynamite. Liars and thieves are in for a big surprise.

The neo-crooks have been fanning the flames of a still unexplained 9/11 tragedy into a fabulously profitable perennial frame: "war-on-terror." What should have been an international police hunt by civilized nations has turned into a deadly, trillion-dollar con job. In reality, there is no war. The phony "war" frame provides a legalistic and pseudo-moral justification for flag waving, criminal wars of aggression, and the dismantling of our Constitution. The 9/11 Commission colluded with Bush and Cheney so that the inseparable twins were conveniently questioned together – to avoid contradictions -- behind closed doors, and not under oath for fear of future indictments for obstructing justice. The questioners were all tail-wagging administration's lap dogs.

Lights and cameras will capture the criminal activities of the national security organizations that colonize the world with prisons, torture chambers, and concentration camps. The horrors of so-called rendition (criminal kidnapping with torture outsourcing) and the deployment of massive domestic electronic spying networks that outrageously violate the Constitutional rights of American citizens and intrude even on their attorney-client privilege will be exposed.

What was once a country of laws is now a country run by a self-declared fundamentalist despot claiming the privilege to violate any law he chooses. The film will show how fundamentalist Christianoids want to control women's bodies and intrude in the privacy of our bedrooms, just as Mussolini did in 1929 with the Lateran Pact that gave the Pope and Vatican clergy control of family law and imposed obligatory religious education. The danger of religionistic fanatics, whether Muslim mullahs or Texas Baptist Christianoids, deserves close monitoring.

In his book: Gangs of America, Ted Nace reveals the impostrous way the U.S. was taken over by big business. Historically, it was the battle between democracy and corporations that started the American Revolution. The Boston Tea Party was an action to block the British East India Company, the most powerful corporation that ever existed, from monopolizing the American commodities markets, starting with tea. The American Revolution was a pragmatic economic rebellion against an overbearing corporation and an oppressive government thoroughly intertwined with it.

The East India Company had planned to replace independent local merchants with a company-owned distribution system, i.e., an early version of what we now call “vertical integration," like, for example, oil companies owning wells, refineries, and gas stations.

Boston pamphleteers -- we had a free press then -- laid out the scenario in detail, warning that if the British were to succeed in bringing the tea distribution system under sole control of the East India Company, they would inevitably repeat the same scheme for other imported commodities. Sound familiar? Think of the WTO.

Imagine a private company so unaccountable that it conducts its own criminal trials and runs its own jails; so dominant it possesses a 250,000 man army, twice the size of Britain’s, to fight company wars; and so predatory that for more than two centuries it squeezes the economy of the richest country in the world until observers report that some regions have been “bled white.” A third of Parliament owns stock in it, and a tax on its tea constitutes 10% of the government’s revenues. Even the King is dependent on periodic “loans” from the company!

When the cargo ship Dartmouth arrived in Boston Harbor on the night of December 16, 1773, approximately 150 men assembled at the home of the Boston Gazette and Country Journal's founder. They came from many backgrounds: some were apprentices, some tradesmen, some wealthy owners of businesses. By dawn, the entire shipment of tea had been destroyed. The American Revolution would soon be underway.

It is self-evident that giving legal personhood to a corporation, while enjoying all other rights, also creates the right to do wrong and escape responsibility. In the 2006 California primaries, the residents of Humboldt County said enough is enough and successfully challenged corporate personhood.

In states across the country Tuesday, primary elections named candidates for Congress, governorships and other important offices. But the most interesting, and perhaps significant, election did not involve an individual. Rather, it was about an idea. In Northern California's Humboldt County, voters decided by a 55-45 margin that corporations do not have the same rights -- based on the supposed "personhood" of the combines -- as citizens when it comes to participating in local political campaigns. Until Tuesday in Humboldt County, corporations were able to claim citizenship rights, as they do elsewhere in the United States. In the context of electoral politics, corporations that were not headquartered in the county took advantage of the same rules that allowed individuals who are not residents to make campaign contributions in order to influence local campaigns. But, with the passage of Measure T, an initiative referendum that was placed on the ballot by Humboldt County residents, voters have signaled that they want out-of-town corporations barred from meddling in local elections. Measure T was backed by the county's Green and Democratic parties, as well as labor unions and many elected officials in a region where politics are so progressive that the Greens -- whose 2004 presidential candidate, David Cobb, is a resident of the county and a active promoter of the challenges to corporate power mounted by Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County and the national Liberty Tree Foundation -- are a major force in local politics. The "Yes on T" campaign was rooted in regard for the American experiment, from its slogan "Vote Yes for Local Control of Our Democracy," to the references to Tuesday's election as a modern-day "Boston Tea Party," to the quote from Thomas Jefferson that was highlighted in election materials: "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Just as Jefferson and his contemporaries were angered by dominance of the affairs of the American colonies by King George III and the British business combines that exploited the natural and human resources of what would become the United States -- and wary of the machinations of those who would establish an American economic royalism -- so Humboldt County residents were angered by the attempts of outside corporate interests to dominate local politics. Wal-Mart spent $250,000 on a 1999 attempt to change the city of Eureka's zoning laws in order to clear the way for one of the retail giant's big-box stores. Five years later, MAXXAM Inc., a forest products company, got upset with the efforts of local District Attorney Paul Gallegos to enforce regulations on its operations in the county and spent $300,000 on a faked-up campaign to recall him from office. The same year saw outside corporations that were interested in exploiting the county's abundant natural resources meddling in its local election campaigns. That was the last straw for a lot of Humboldt County residents. They organized to put Measure T on the ballot, declaring, "Our Founding Fathers never intended corporations to have this kind of power." "Every person has the right to sign petition recalls and to contribute money to political campaigns. Measure T will not affect these individual rights," explained Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap, a resident of Eureka who was one of the leaders of the Yes on T campaign. "But individuals hold these political rights by virtue of their status as humans in a democracy and, simply put, a corporation is not a person." Despite the logic of that assessment, the electoral battle in Humboldt County was a heated one, and Measure T's passage will not end it. Now, the corporate campaign will move to the courts. So this is only a start. But what a monumental start it is! Sopoci-Belknap was absolutely right when she portrayed Tuesday's vote as nothing less than the beginning of "the process of reclaiming our county" from the "tyranny" of concentrated economic and political power. Surely Tom Paine would have agreed. It was Paine who suggested to the revolutionaries of 1776, as they dared challenge the most powerful empire on the planet, that: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation similar to the present hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of the new world is at hand, and a race of men, perhaps as numerous as all Europe contains, are to receive their portion of freedom from the events of a few months." It is time to renew the American experiment, to rebuild its battered institutions on the solid foundation of empowered citizens and regulated corporations. Let us hope that the spirit of '76 prevailed Tuesday in Humboldt County will spread until that day when American democracy is guided by the will of the people rather than the campaign contribution checks of the corporations that are the rampaging "empires" of our age.

Expanding on the danger of corporate personhood, the movie screen will explode with images of corporate abuse against individuals and society.

THE NEAR FUTURE IN LIGHT OF HISTORY
America won its greatest victory against Italian fascists, German Nazis, and Japanese imperialists while fighting for democracy under the leadership of liberal President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After WWII, humanity renewed its hope in the flowering of a great civilization founded on the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: a world in which nuclear holocausts like Hiroshima and Nagasaki would never again happen; where war, death-camps, fascist oppression, and gulags, would forever be mere memories of past insanity; where international law would settle disputes and people everywhere would become self-governing; where victorious nations would cease selling instruments of death and instead spread the profitable tools of healthcare, economic prosperity, and environmental conservation.

However, the realization of this hope, this beautiful dream, never did come to pass.

Bloodshed and destruction quickly resumed and continue to this day: Korea, Vietnam, Palestine, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Iran, East Timor, Africa, Cambodia, Chile, Argentina, Bosnia, and Iraq. Why did all members of the UN including the U.S. fail so miserably? Because of the perennial Oids!

THE ODIOUS OIDS - WHO ARE THEY?
Thomas Paine said: “He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” So, we are going to tell you about the Oids, and then insult them with every name in the book. Read on.
Christianoids

To pre-empt the extreme rightwing's evil reaction to well-deserved insults, we refer hateful and blind Christianoids to the ultimate authority on how to deal with hypocrites: Jesus of Nazareth -- but not the fictional straw-Jesus invented by triple-born-again fundamentalists (we say "triple-born-again" advisedly because to be a Christian already means to be born again, so to be a "new born" Christian means to be a "new born-new born," which equals being born three times!).

Deflating the Elephant takes us into the Dantesque other-worldly nightmare of triple-born Christianoids who commandingly claim that a fetus is an unborn soul or child even when the Bible, their ultimate authority, contradicts them. Scripture speaks of life from birth to death, not from conception to decay, of the soul entering the body when the body receives its first breath, and ending when it exhales its last. To "expire" is defined as "to die; to breathe one's last breath; to exhale; to breathe out." Confer Genesis 2:7: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Clearly, the body of Adam came to life not when God completed the molding of his flesh from clay, but when his body received its soul by inhaling the spirit, which is God's breath and which must return to God when we breathe out or exhale our last breath.

When we die, our flesh and organs are still living and are in fact viable enough to be transplanted into another person. However, once the soul is gone with the last breath, the body --even if parts of it are technically living -- is not a person. So it is for the fetus.

Whether it is aborted by nature or choice, the fetus never incarnated the divine breath, the soul. Until the first breath vivifies it into a person, the fetus is only a vessel, a body, and not a living human being. This fact will never be accepted by Christianoids because it is one more politically inconvenient truth. Unborn flesh (a miscarried fetus?) has never been legally considered a person. Even so, fascist rightwing pseudo-Christians backing the Bushist partyline are unabashedly trying to trump thousands of years of precedent.

So, who are the Oids!? They are that recurring percentage of psychotics throughout history that makes peace and justice impossible. It is imperative that Oids be exposed if we are to cure humanity and create a progressive world.

By way of explanation, adding "oid" to any word alters its meaning to: "made in the form of" or "pretending to be." For example, when "oid" is affixed to the word "sphere," it becomes the word "spheroid," which means "made in the form of a sphere" (not a real sphere). "Oid" is, therefore, a label for "hypocrites" and for all those who pretend to be something they are not. A Christianoid can then be defined as "a pseudo-Christian" or anyone pretending to be a follower of Jesus while at the same time supporting war, torture, and the death penalty."

Let's be creative here.

A patrioid is a flag-waving idiot who forgot that the flag represents the Union established by the U.S. Constitution. "Monkeys can wave flags, but that does not make them patriots!" noted Scott Ritter (who is a real patriot).

All evildoers can be lumped under a single label: "humanoids" -- that is, beasts made in the shape of humans.

What makes the Oids what they are? It takes great writers and film authors to penetrate and expose the dark workings of reptilian brains in humanoid form. Indeed, to explain the intrinsic Oid madness and how to deal with it is a Dantesque, Shakespearean, or Fellinesque task.

EMOTIONAL HONESTY vs. POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
Recently Senator Murtha – who is to be highly commended for is outspokenness against the war -- protested criminal military actions in Iraq. While he deserves praise for this, it is evident that Senator Murtha is unfortunately still a victim of political correctness. After the Haditha massacre committed by U.S. troops, he said: "One woman, as I understand it in talking to the officials in the Marine Corps, was bending over her child, pleading for mercy, and they shot her in cold blood. That's the thing that's so disturbing." What an astounding hyper-understatement!

As much as Senator Murtha must be admired for his courage, in following the Washington-accepted PC communications style imposed by the conservative culture of hypocrisy, he failed to galvanize public condemnation. How can murder in cold blood be referred to as simply "disturbing" -- is such a satanic crime not outrageous beyond belief? Diabolical? Insane? Nauseating? Evil? Does it not call for Divine vengeance?

To bring it home, just imagine yourself finding your own family slaughtered in cold blood and hearing someone politely saying: "I am troubled" or "I'm disturbed." Emotionally honest people express their pain and anger openly and directly.

One trick satanic corpo-media uses is to make justified outrage and righteous indignation look like hysteria. Any sincere expression of shock and revulsion in the face of a crime is treated as excess so insistently by criminal media whores, that all truth is neutralized and soon forgotten.

This is how the odious media-oids subliminally train decent people to restrain sincere dismay, disgust, and rage to grotesque levels of apparent indifference to the suffering of others. We are told by inhuman monsters never to "lose our cool," never to let anger roar to the level of rage in our voices, never to dare call killers murderers, especially if they are a part of our own despicable government.

ROOTS OF TERRORISM
The kind of shameful injustice deliberately perpetrated in Haditha against the innocent without remorse, honest apology, or meaningful restitution is the proverbial root of all terrorism and the cause of endless violence.

Deflating the Elephant will examine some historical instances of terrorism with the stark realism of Gillo Pontecorvo's famous film, The Battle of Algiers (which the Pentagon is studying today).

One example: For centuries, Samson, a suicide terrorist, has been viewed as a biblical hero, invoking the same Semitic God as he brought down a crowded temple in Gaza and killed 3000 Philistines as Muslims invoke when they slaughter innocents and blow themselves up. This evokes a strange similarity to the destruction of Manhattan's World Trade Center 3000 years later. Samson did not bring down the temple because he hated freedom -- that's bush-shit -- he did it after having been cruelly blinded and brutally chained to a stone mill for many years. He probably loved freedom, but had no hope for it or for justice being done. As a consequence, he committed an internecine terrorist act.

Not a single corporate media whore has mentioned the glaring fact that the Bible regards Samson's act of terror as a good thing. For centuries Christian cultures have accepted it as justifiable revenge on the part of a badly persecuted Jewish Samson. The neo-cons never called him a terrorist! Figure out that one. Doesn't God talk to Bush? Is God a racist? Is America the only "nation under God" or is God above all nations? Confusing, to say the least.

DEACTIVATING THE OIDS
Let's confront this failed Administration of appointed criminals and all who betrayed us in Congress, regardless of party, and kick them out of office. We can do it by peaceful resistance, boycotts, loud protests, massive turnouts at the polls, cleaning up our voting and election systems, and, if it becomes necessary, by calling general strikes in the spirit of a full-fledged Gandhian revolution.

Our reward will be an economically sustainable future where wealth is multiplied by all, for all, with fair compensation for labor and renewal of our environment so that at last we can lift the poor out of despair, increase our general security and wellbeing, and eliminate most crime.

A STIRRING PROGRESSIVE FUTURE
In conclusion, a stirring progressive future can be ours if we educate ourselves and invest some of our time and resources to actualize the principles contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S. Constitution. By learning the art of language framing we can participate in deactivating the Oids and in finally deflating the elephant. When progressives unite in their common vision, the fascists who have taken over our country will scurry into the woodwork. Then our world will be renewed and the future will be very bright.

Both the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen. Ref. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s Rolling Stone article.
To learn how the Oids did it and about their plans to steal the next one, read Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse.

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