THE ZENING OF DUBYA by The Cosmic Messenger

"Carrying vitality and consciousness,
Embracing them as one,
Can you keep them from parting?
Concentrating energy,
Making it supple,
Can you be like an infant?
Purifying hidden perception,
Can you make it flawless?
Loving the people,
Governing the nation,
Can you be uncontrived?"

Tao-te Ching

The year is 2015 and the country is in its seventh year of progressive leadership by President Kucinich. Under his guidance our nation has become less dependent on corporate governance and more respective of the Constitution.

Wind turbines have replaced oil as the primary source of energy throughout the land, electric sidewalks substituted for autos in urban America and international trade agreements given a new definition which defer to the labor rights of the world. Along with these changes his Department of Peace has earned the respect of nations globally, restoring calm to the Middle East by emphasizing negotiated agreements over cataclysmic militarism.

More important than any of these upgrades though was Kucinich's decision to persuade a federal judge to include in his sentencing of former President Bush a provision to teach him Zen meditation. Bush, removed from office by the impeachment process in 2008 was subsequently convicted of crimes against the Constitution the following year. He was sent to a secret offshore federal security lockup specializing in non-violent behavior modification of prisoners to serve a ten year jail term

I pick up the story for you in March of 2009 as the disgraced Bush stands before a judge in a federal court room.

FEDERAL JUDGE: You're here in front of me today having been convicted of crimes against the people by a jury of your peers. Are you repentant of your thievery and nefarious actions against them, Mr. Bush ?

CONVICT BUSH: This is a kangaroo court and makes a mockery of freedom. You're just a little tyrant carrying out the dictates of the communist liberals who control you. Is this how you treat the Supreme Commander of the United States ? I demand personal justice at once !

FEDERAL JUDGE: One more outburst like that and you'll be escorted from the room by the guards who brought you here today. Obviously, you're unremorseful and your obstinate remarks lead me to believe you would benefit from exposure to a psychotherapy program. Therefore, I'm ordering you to serve a ten year sentence with the possibility of early release in 2015 if you chasten your attitudes by incorporating the practice of Zen into your lifestyle. Do you have anything else to say, Mr. Bush ?

CONVICT BUSH: All broad-minded people are fairies and my Dad will take care of you ! Besides, he'll just buy me a pardon and make sure I'm treated royally during my incarceration. It'll be like living in a country club. Let the party begin.

We now fast forward to the Fall of 2014. Inmate Bush has been living the past five years in CELL BLOCK W on the planet Saturn where he was transported after his condemnation. This prison wing was established to house fellow white collar criminals who had dutifully carried out the illegal schemes enacted throughout his Administration. Dubya has just been brought to a holding room for a preliminary evaluation before beginning psychotherapy treatment of his condition.

GUARD: Please proceed to the table in the middle of the room and be seated, Prisoner 666. A mentor will be in shortly to begin preparing you for your attitude adjustment.

CONVICT BUSH: This better not be physically painful. I demand to have a lawyer present under my Geneva Convention rights !

COSMIC: Greetings Earthling, Bush. I trust your stay on Saturn has been tolerable to a degree so far ? You probably noticed there's less of an emphasis on human desires here. This is deliberate and was your initial preparation for the type of mental reconditioning I wish to discuss with you today.

CONVICT BUSH: Please, help me guard ! I'm trapped in the room with a little green person. He's not white like me and I have a phobia of anyone who's different from myself. I'll write you a check for $1,000 immediately if you call my Daddy and let him know what's going on.

COSMIC: Your anxiety level really is elevated, Earthling Bush. I think you'll benefit immensely from practicing the type of daily introspection I'm about to introduce you to. Let's get started.

CONVICT BUSH: What's it all about ... can't I just take a pill, gulp a shot of whiskey or indulge myself in some pleasure with the opposite sex ? These methods always worked for me in the past.

COSMIC: It states in your psychological profile you're primarly motivated by GREED, ACCUMULATION OF MATERIAL POSSESIONS and SEXUAL DESIRE. The thoughts your brain produces to achieve these ends leads to your adverse behavior towards other existences around you. Do we agree, Earthling Bush ?

CONVICT BUSH: I'm a captitalist. I believe it's necessary to divide and conquer all those who get in my way of attaining this goal. Some people have called me a selfish pig but my behavior is no different than the peer group I hang out with.

COSMIC: Aaaaah yes ..... we're starting to make some progress with your realization of what makes up your conscious ego. The narcissistic sentiments created there in your mind have become the essence of your personal karma which guide your negative rationalizations. Teaching you how to let go of these dark patterns will free you from their false precepts, wash away your unpleasant emotions and harmonize you with all that is good about the universal cosmic order. Are your ready to begin ?

CONVICT BUSH: Well, I have been tossing and turning in my bed at night while getting only five hours rest. Is this some of that voodoo, Buddhist nonsense I've read about in the prison library ? I'm a fundamental Christian and the Lord is my Savior !

COSMIC: Don't worry, Earthling Bush. The technique I'm going to teach you will retain all the good thoughts you've had in the past while cleansing you of the impure associations causing harmful tension. The goal is to strengthen your mind by merging it with your body through daily self-contemplation so they become a complete individual focused on what's presently occurring naturally around you. Rather than being solely controlled by your prejudicial thoughts from the past, I'm going to show you how to eliminate them. It will reorient your current egocentric temperament to a unified self, free of personal desire and unlimited in its need to foster good will towards others. You will become one entity like the cosmos we live in, constantly growing and adapting the positive qualities you discover. Does this seem appealing to you ?

CONVICT BUSH: What you say sounds logical but I like my personal beliefs and think they will be difficult for me to overcome.

COSMIC: What is reasoning but a system of words produced by our brains to justify our behavior. Some of them translate into ill fortune for others and its this kind of flawed, exclusionary rationale that can be transcended by practicing Zen meditation every day.

CONVICT BUSH: I'm feeling guilty about all the blood I have on my hands to become rich and powerful. If this will rid me of those thoughts, I'll give it a try.

COSMIC: Your first step is developing a disciplined routine which emphasizes correct body posture and breathing patterns. Take this small cushion and sit cross-legged facing the wall. Next, gently breathe in and out from your lower abdomen while casting your eyes exclusively on its rhythmic movement. This method helps you consolidate the mind/body experience by concentrating on the stomach while thoughts flow freely through your cerebrum. As they quickly stream by and dissipate, the mind fuses with your organic host uncluttered by the outgoing harmful ideas. You become a consolidated entity, making visceral decisions with a humane understanding of everything outside of your personal existence.

CONVICT BUSH: Wow .... I'm starting to feel more relaxed already. All the dollar bills and dead bodies drifting by seem to have disappeared into some unknown abyss. Are they gone forever or will they come back ?

COSMIC: Those mentations are the source of your maladaptive behavior in the past and causing inner-conflict now. As your mind and body becomes one they will gradually recede forever reinvigorating your persona with ideas that nurture everyone you encounter in the future. Occasionally, you'll backslide into your old habits but by diligently applying the methods of introspection I've shown you today you'll eventually overcome your privileged demons. Return now to your living quarters in peace, knowing you have learned how to free yourself from the frustrations that have plagued you. I'm available for consultation anytime you request my help.

After seven months of daily practice, Prisoner 666 has made remarkable progress in rehabiltating himself. He's awakened each morning and fervently applied the meditation skills I showed him in the Fall of 2014. During this period, I've reported his gradual improvement to the judge who sentenced him and we both agree Convict Bush's new positive habits qualify him for early release. The story resumes just as my Starship touches down at the Crawford ranch in Texas and the door to his emancipation swings open.

EARTHLING BUSH: Hey ... what's that big orange ball in the sky ? Have the terrorists exploded a nuclear device in my backyard ?

COSMIC: That's the sun, Earthling Bush. While you were away President Kucinich cleaned up the environment and now it shines radiantly in the sky once again for all to admire. The heat it generates is no longer locked in by a ceiling of smog in the atmosphere and the adverse effects of global warming have disappeared. Go ahead ... take a deep breath and experience the delight of inhaling fresh air again.

EARTHLING BUSH: I never realized clean air could be so invigorating nor did I believe I'd ever find inner peace before meeting you. Now when contemplating my navel in the morning while ventilating I can relax even more with each respiration I take. Thank you, Cosmic.

COSMIC: Don't thank me ... it was you that took the initiative to change your life. I just reacquainted you with some tools for moving beyond yourself. If you act as one being, mind and body combined you won't foolishly chase after bad desires that limit your potential. Like the universe, you become one entity constantly altering your beliefs and actions in search of ways to improve the existences all around you. I must return to Saturn now. Your former Vice-President is in need of my help.

EARTHLING BUSH: Goodbye brother Cosmic ... there's always a bunk bed here at the ranch for you.

COSMIC: That's not really necessary, Earthling Bush. You can repay your gratitude to me by teaching the proficiencies I've shown you to your family members and oil industry friends.

Liberal Politics

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CODE BLUE FOR DEMOCRACY by The Cosmic Messenger

"We need to get out of war, get our economy back up, quit spending money outside of America and bring it here," ... Democrat Lisa Pollard, 45, an insurance company analyst in Arlington, Texas.

The metallic explosion of the hospital's ER trauma room doors echo loudly throughout the nearby waiting room as an EMS gurney enters transporting a cardiac victim in ventricular fibrillation. Two first responders have been working over the unfortunate person the past 15 minutes frantically applying chest compressions while manually breathing oxygen into her lungs.

At this point a team of medical professionals steps in and a physician begins shouting protocol commands used to stabilize a situation when the loss of life is imminent. Get a monitor on the lady immediately, I need to see if we have a heart rhythm. Continue chest compressions. Someone secure her airway with an endotracheal tube and begin bagging her. We need a IV line flowing, time is critical.

No pulse exists and a cart with a crash defibrillator is brought forward beside the stretcher. A decision is made to forgo epinephrine and administer shock pads without further delay. Their jolt succeeds in restoring a weak heart rhythm and nearly a half hour later the woman is moved to the intensive care unit of the facility. While being transferred someone asks if she's been identified. One of the EMT's who brought her in responds she's a boxer and told us her name was Liberty right before losing consciousness.

Last month's Congressional compromise on the Iraq war funding bill dealt a painful blow to Lady Liberty. In round one of the fight between corporate hegemony vs constitutional democracy, our legislative branch delivered a near fatal body punch to the female symbol of freedom. Cheered on maniacally by CEO kingpins sitting ringside waving greenbacks to motivate their actions, business centrists of both political parties savagely pummeled its opposition into submission.

For those who follow my Column regularly this came as no surprise. In a January commentary titled, "HAPPY NEW YEAR ?," I responded to a reader's remark by stating Democrats would ultimately turn their backs on the electorate.

"Like you, I'm hoping the new Congress will follow through with their pledge to charter a progressive policy direction for our country in 2007. I don't see it happening though," I wrote.

"Rather than guide the President away from the mistakes of the past three years through rationale persuasion, they'll opt for a DEAL WITH THE DEVIL himself. In return for not cutting off funding to the Iraq Pork Barrel, Congress will ask Bush to sign a minimum wage increase, renegotiate the Medicare drug benefit and drop demands for privatizing Social Security. Absent from their request will be a push to reform environmental protection because of intense lobbying pressure."

"Let's be realistic .... practically all of our Congress people are business oriented at heart and live to negotiate a transaction. Unfortunately this type of thinking still prevails in the Capitol and they'll sell us out again."

Congress's unconditional retreat from the will of the people last month confirmed my New Year's premonition about the vagrant style national politics practiced today. Like vagabonds, the Capitol Hill crowd wanders aimlessly through its hallways for sale to the highest corporate bidder who furnish them legislative drafts of agendas they want implemented. Their loyalty continually shifts among businesses depending on the amount of remuneration received for the services they provide.

Law making has become a pay to play process which rejects Constitutional democracy as unfashionable in favor of delirious, unrestrained profit seekers who mask their selfishness behind a value and economics agenda suitable for only a small segment of American society. It's a tainted luxuriant routine voters realize no longer preserves the beliefs they were taught as adolescents and is injurious to our country's global esteem.

Despite overwheming public sentiment for a change in war policy both Republican and Democratic centrists opted to stay the course. Their pigheaded votes were snorted loudly as if shouted through a megaphone for no other reason than too much campaign cash was at risk by changing the previous fundraising formula. Easier to stick to the same message and make subtle alterations about values and economic goals voters wouldn't detect if repeated often enough by complicit journalistic cohorts.

I first recognized this new scheme being implemented at the local level when I attended an area meeting of the Democratic Association to recruit members two weeks ago. The organization whose governing body has long been dominated by businessmen, realtors and attorneys featured a prominent DA whose role was to hook newcomers' interest with a speech asking them to define what values meant to them. The event was basically a data mining exercise to gather names, phone numbers, Email addresses and determine whether patronage of faith based values or unregulated capitalism still existed in the wake of the Iraq fiasco.

To his credit the headlined orator got the audience involved almost immediately soliciting from them ideas about what role they expected the Democratic Party to perform. A variety of opinions were offered such as returning to Roosevelt ideals but with programs that address the contemporary needs of citizens and dispensing with the Republican-lite recipe. An hour into the exercise a motion was abruptly made to end the meeting after one attendee stood up and stated she'd like the Democratic leadership to get back to protecting her Constitutional rights. Time constraints were cited and the audience was encouraged to stay and continue mingling. I suspect this happened because the sentiments put forth offered no useful information which could be repackaged for later use.

The local contrivance I described above epitomizes the latest aberrant methodology being used by both political parties to attract voters whose allegiance may be wavering and convert them into steadfast loyalists prior to the next election. It's a marketing technique which sifts for minor changes in attitudes and identifies new citizen blocs who could help shape the electoral outcome of 2008. The information garnered is passed to political consultants at the national level for development so what's being articulated by presidential or state candidates sounds consistent with their audiences' expectations.

The Iraq war funding vote indicates that machine style, big money business politics still pervades over the will of the people. However, Republican and Democrat centrists know their constituents have grown weary of the Reagan philosophy practiced the last 25 years and are scrambling to recast another illusive message to con them with. Our nation's families recognize the killing in Iraq is contrary to what they were taught about the sanctity of life and the country's global quest for dominance has offshored jobs which once provided them with economic sustenance. They're no longer marching lockstep to the beat of the neocon drummers.

Their message to our elected leaders is irrevocable. It's not being conveyed by anti-war Democrats or radical fringe elements on the political right as the the corporate media misstates but comes from a burgeoning coalition of interests that span most demographic groups who demand Congress stop jeopardizing America's personal freedoms and breathe life back into its original intent:

We're fed up with your misrepresentation of us. We don't want negotiated deals which try and buy our loyalty for the status quo with minimum wage increases which will be eaten up immediately by further inflationary war spending.

Furthermore, quit trying to micro-manage your message to us because we reject being governed by propaganda handed to you by PR advisors on your payroll.

What we do expect is for you to remove Attorney General Gonzales, Vice President Cheney and the Liar In Chief no later than September. We're not willing to wait for the next election and demand a cohesive plan which restores our nation's integrity by the end of the summer.

Either lead us in the direction America's families desire or ....

GET OUT OF THE WAY !


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Liberal Politics

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