Prairie Fire Journal

Zionist Senator Joe Liebermann hasn't had this much attention since he was circumcised at birth. The U.S. Senate has now become a one-man show with Liebermann playing the part of a little dictator. He has become the Republican Party's frontman for wrecking substantive healthcare reform legislation. It's time for the Democratic senate leadership to put a boot in Liebermann's ass. He should be stripped of all chairmanships and kicked across the aisle to caucus with his Republican pals. Democrats have failed in their attempt to bring Liebermann to their side, and it's time for them to kick the bum to the curb.

President Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway today. In his speech Obama tried to walk the tightrope between war and peace. Not an easy thing to do, especially when you're a U.S. president running two wars. You can find more on his speech here if you want to read it. Without analyzing what Obama said, I'm going to give you my take on what the fundamental issue is concerning war and peace and where I think Obama is coming from:

If you firmly believe in universal human rights, then you must also reject any argument that makes exceptions for religious or cultural tyranny. So long as people and nations continue to deny others their rights as human beings, there will never be an end to violent conflicts and wars.

Democracy and liberty are not without their contradictions. Freedom from tyranny first requires the most undemocratic thing of all--war and revolution. That's what Karl Marx was referring to when he coined the often-misunderstood phrase "Dictatorship of the Proletariat." Slaves must first impose their will upon their masters before they can be truly free of their masters' tyranny.

Freedom is seldom won without a fight. Tyrants don't generally go quietly into that good night. Until the day arrives when political and religious tyranny are no longer a threat to individual liberty, we must be prepared to fight the forces of oppression until we have imposed our will upon them. That "will" being the belief in universal human rights.

Angel Food Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational organization dedicated to providing food relief and financial support to communities throughout the United States. The First United Methodist Church of Morton provides the service to residents in Cochran County, Texas and the surrounding area. Orders are taken on a monthly basis. The food is top quality.

Angel Food is available in a quantity that can fit into a medium-sized box at $30 per unit. Each month's menu is different than the previous month and consists of both fresh and frozen items with an average retail value of approximately $60. Comparison shopping has been done across the country in various communities using a wide range of retail grocery stores and has resulted in the same food items costing from between $42 and $78.

Generally, one unit of food assists in feeding a family of four for about one week or a single senior citizen for almost a month. The food is all the same high quality one could purchase at a grocery store. There are no second-hand items, no damaged or out-dated goods, no dented cans without labels, no day-old breads and no over-ripe produce.

Also offered are specialty boxes such as steaks, chicken and pork. Many participants in this bonus program appreciate the expanded choices. Additionally, there is no limit to the number of units or bonus foods an individual can receive, and there are no applications to complete or qualifications to which participants must adhere. Angel Food Ministries also participates in the U.S. Food Stamp program, using the Off-Line Food Stamp Voucher system.

There are no qualifications, minimums, income restrictions, or applications. Everyone is encouraged to participate. I personally think the steaks are some of the best I've ever eaten. I hope the residents of Cochran County will support this valuable service and take advantage of the great savings and great quality of food.

For more info contact:
First UMC
419 W. Taylor
Morton, Texas 79346
Host Director: (806) 287-1118

February 2010 Menu:
English Version (pdf)
Spanish Version (pdf)

I will post each month's menu here as it becomes available. Let's all support this great service so it stays in our community.

The Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) released its unemployment figures for October showing that the official statewide unemployment rate continues to rise. That figure now stands at 8.2 percent, which is 56-percent higher than it was a year ago. The state has a net loss of over 110,000 jobs in the same one-year period.

Today's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal has the headline "City lowest in unemployment." That may be true, but Lubbock having the state's lowest unemployment rate also hides the disturbing economic reality of a 20-percent poverty rate. The A-J also reported that the Lubbock Metropolitan Statistical Area also had a net gain of 800 jobs. This is some very creative statistical manipulating on the part of the A-J since the TWC figures don't support that number.

According to the TWC numbers, the Lubbock MSA has experienced a net loss of 2,000 jobs since October 2008. And while Lubbock's official unemployment rate of 5.4 percent is the lowest in Texas, that's still a 46-percent increase from a year ago. The majority of Lubbock workers also continue to suffer from low wages. Individual hourly wages continue to be among the lowest in the nation. Also, in contrast to the slight decrease in Lubbock's official unemployment rate, first-time claims for unemployment benefits jumped 14 percent from the previous month. October claims rose to 1003, compared to 880 in September.

Lubbock's overall reported civilian labor force also shrank by 100 workers compared to September, as more unemployed workers became discouraged and simply dropped off the official unemployment tally. The number of employed workers did show an increase of 300 from the previous month, mostly in government and education. Many of those jobs were in support positions such as janitorial and food service, most of which pay at or slightly above minimum wage. Even with the month-to-month increase, the total number of employed workers has fallen by 2000 from a year ago.

According to economists associated with the National Association of Business Economics (NABE), the American economy is no longer in recession. What's so funny about all of this is that the membership of NABE is populated mostly by the very people who got us into this economic mess in the first place. These are the same economic fortune tellers who repeatedly said we weren't in a recession even as the country plunged into a financial meltdown.

These are the economists who cheered on the rising stock market and housing bubble, saying everything was just dandy, even as workers' wages stagnated and declined to a point where many families found themselves having to borrow against the equity in their homes just to keep pace with the rising cost of living. These are the economists who thought banking and financial deregulation was a good thing.

Now these same economists who just got through driving the economy over a cliff are telling the American people that we are in a jobless recovery. This is absolute nonsense. Obviously nothing has changed and these alleged economic experts haven't learned a damn thing. Jobs are everything. And not just any jobs, but good paying jobs. And the economy is still based predominantly on consumption rather than production. If people have no jobs and there is no genuine wealth production, then what will fuel an economic recovery?

According to the NABE lard heads, Wall Street and its phoney wealth derived from thin air is going to once again bring us economic prosperity. Take a look at the shrunken value of your stock-based 401k plan and you can see just how phoney the Wall Street-created wealth really is. Nothing is produced, it's all a big pyramid scheme destined for repeated crashes. Workers are paid less but encouraged to buy more in order to fuel the economy. That requires workers to borrow more money and use more credit cards. It's an economy based on debt production, not wealth production.

Those who don't learn from history are destined to repeat it, and it's apparent that those who are driving the American economy are a bunch of amnesiacs. They are simply re-inflating the bubble once again so that a few years from now we can replay this whole mess all over again. An economy that is 70-percent based on consumer spending is nothing more than a house of cards that is destined for repeated economic collapse. That is where we are in America, and that's where we're headed.

What America has isn't change, it's just more of the same.

Three right-wing Democratic senators, along with Zionist senator Joe Liebermann, want to derail passage of a healthcare reform bill now before the U.S. Senate. The Gang of Four are opposed to a public option being part of the bill and have vowed to obstruct its passage anyway they can. They have chosen to align themselves with their obstructionist right-wing Republican brethren.

The three Democratic senators--Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), and Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas)--are described as "moderates" by the mainstream media, but they are in fact right-wing conservatives acting as petty tyrants to obstruct majority rule. Along with the worthless tird Joe Liebermann, they are more concerned with preserving and protecting the private insurance companies than they are with fixing the broken healthcare system.

The majority of Americans, as well as a majority of senators, want a public option included in the healthcare reform bill. However, the minority is apparently able to prevent that from happening. That's not democracy, that's tyranny. It's time for progressives to draw a line in the sand. A healthcare reform bill that does not contain a public option is a bill not worth voting for. Progressives in those respective states must make it clear that the Gang of Four will pay for their treachery when election time rolls around. And if the Democratic Party, on a whole, allows these wingnuts to derail healthcare reform, then none of you should be re-elected.

On this date in 1915, songwriter, poet, labor activist. and IWW member Joe Hill was executed by firing squad in Utah for the murder of a local butcher. Even before his execution, the Swedish immigrant was widely thought to have been railroaded for his IWW affiliation.

Though state authorities had little use for the worldwide clemency bid whose backers included U.S. President Woodrow Wilson -- powerless to intervene officially, since the execution was a state matter -- Hill walked spryly into his martyrdom.

His dauntless last message to fellow Wobbly Bill Haywood -- "Don't waste any time mourning. Organize." -- is a permanent fixture on pins and placards among every stripe of left activist. The songs he wrote remain in print -- and in performance.

Source: TalkLeft.com

Joe Hill (1879-1915)

The Associated Press reported this week that Texas officials are concerned that the state's water supply won't be able to keep pace with the state's population, which officials say could nearly double over the next 50 years. It's expected that the population of Texas will increase from the approximately 24.3 million residents today to about 45.5 million by 2060.

Lawmakers and water planners are trying to raise awareness about the issue and the importance of the 2011 Legislature investing in changes called for in the state's water plan. Among the moves the plan calls for are the construction of 19 new reservoirs, water reuse programs more pipelines, desalinization plants and conservation methods.

The problem with building more reservoirs is the fact that many of the state's current reservoirs are suffering from lack of adequate rainfall to at least keep them at viable levels as potable water sources. Building more reservoirs will just result in spending huge sums of money on what will inevitably end up being more useless mudholes.

Texas officials should focus on recycling waste water, building desalinization plants, and stricter enforcement of wasteful agricultural runoff. And the real biggy, population control.

More efficient means of reclaiming municipal waste water could drastically reduce the need to use scarce fresh water supplies for irrigation and watering yards. The technology now exists to purify waste water to the point where it's safe to drink. That doesn't sound too appetizing to most people. But even if such reclaimed water was only used for non-consumptive purposes such as watering parks and landscaping, that would significantly reduce the strain on fresh water resources.

Saline aquifers have abundant water supplies, but the high salinity makes the water unuseable for agricultural or municipal use. Economically-viable desalinization projects would go a long way toward addressing future water needs. The Gulf of Mexico is a vast untapped water resource just waiting for us to implement the technology necessary to make it useable for human consumption.

On the Texas South Plains, more water is used to irrigate cotton fields than is used by most municipal water systems. While many farm producers have installed drip irrigation systems that have significantly reduced water usage, many more still depend on center pivot and flood systems that waste millions of gallons of water annually.

And last but not least, there's the one major conservation method that no public official wants to talk about--population control. It's not preordained that the state's population will double in 50 years. Prudent family planning and educating the public on birth control methods can keep the future population projections from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Large families should be discouraged and even publicly ridiculed.

I believe that over population is the most fundamental issue facing humanity and its future survival, regardless of race or ethnic group. Large families should be discouraged. Period. Beyond inflated egos, there's no reason why any woman should have more than two children. All natural resources are finite in nature. And we are only kidding ourselves if we think we can address the future problems we face concerning scarcity and depletion of natural resources without addressing the problem of over population.

Michigan Democratic congressman Bart Stupak is another right-wing conservative infiltrator of the Democratic Party. Stupak represents Michigan's 1st Congressional District, which is located in the woodsy outback of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The area is about as conservative as West Texas. Not exactly a hotbed of progressive thinking. It's the kind of place where they like to keep their women barefoot and pregnant.

That helps explain Stupak's vehement opposition to women's reproductive rights. He's supported by right-wing anti-choice religious fanatics and is himself a right-wing religious zealot. While living in Washington, DC, Stupak rents a room at the C Street facility of The Family, a right-wing religious group that includes some of the most fanatical Republican religious zealots as its members.

The Democratic Party's platform supports women's reproductive rights, so it's hard to understand why someone like Stupak, who is opposed to those rights, would become a member of the party. Stupak has more in common with wingnuts such as Minnesota Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann than he does with most members of the Democratic Party. And here's an interesting factoid: Stupak's Michigan congressional district is located close to the same degree of latitude as Bachmann's Minnesota district.

Stupak describes himself as a moderate, as do most of the conservatives posing as Democrats. But he's really a dyed-in-the-wool right-wing theocrat. Progressives need to call him out on that.

The face behind the
acronym STUPAK
(Stupid-ass
Knucklehead).

Sarah Palin's new book is full of delusional paranoia and fantasy. Palin doesn't disappoint, as she once again proves that she's totally detached from reality. Facts to Palin are just minor inconveniences that should never stand in the way of a good rant. Sarah should keep a close eye out for the men in white. They could come knocking on her door at any time.