* Can we use creative visualization to elect a President? Check out Aireen’s alternative “diamonds or pearls” question for Senator Clinton, from one woman to another, that instead asks the Senator if she prefers “democracy or politics?” Finally, find out why Kucinich has the best chances of winning in 2008 and beyond. *
Sean Penn Endorses Dennis Kucinich 12-07-07
read his full speech “Piano Wire Puppeteers” by Sean Penn
THE HOT POTATO
Serving Up a Weekly Helping of
Sustainable & Organic Gardening, Food, Health, and Community
by Adam Brockman & Aireen Joven, December 2007, #39
THIS WEEK’S DISH -
THE ART OF CAMPAIGNING:
Diamonds or Pearls & Democracy Is A Girl’s Best Friend
“The process of change does not occur on superficial levels, through mere “positive thinking.” It involves exploring, discovering, and changing our deepest, most basic attitudes toward life. That is why learning to use creative visualization can become a process of deep and meaningful growth. In the process we often discover ways in which we have been holding ourselves back, blocking ourselves from achieving satisfaction and fulfillment in life through our fears and negative concepts. Once seen clearly, these limiting attitudes can be dissolved through the creative visualization process, leaving space for us to find and live our natural state of happiness, fulfillment, and love. . . That is the point of creative visualization – to make every moment of our lives a moment of wondrous creation, in which we are just naturally choosing the best, the most beautiful, the most fulfilling lives we can imagine.” – Shakti Gawain, from her classic bestseller released in 1978, Creative Visualization
VISUALIZE WORLD PEACE. You’ve heard the phrase, no doubt. I like the other version too: visualize whirled peas. 
There is a science behind the popular sentiment “visualize world peace”. It is the science of imagery and the power of thought. The concept has been popularized in two recent films, What The Bleep? and The Secret, as well as in the work of Dr. Masaru Emoto. Dr. Emoto’s book Messages From Water documents how the molecular structure of water is changed by exposure to simple words and stimuli. After freezing the droplets of water, Dr. Emoto photographs the crystalline structures before and after exposure to the words or music, creating dramatic images. The book Creative Visualization by bestselling author and teacher of consciousness Shakti Gawain, a classic that I just recently picked up to read, is a simple guide for all to teach how we can use our thoughts every day to improve our lives. The most essential work on the power of thought is our favorite book series of all time, The Ringing Cedars Series by Russian bestselling author and entrepreneur Vladimir Megre.
Thought, affirmations, and images used with intention can be wonderful tools for personal or spiritual growth. This power can be used to influence many people as well. For example, any giant advertising executive or marketing branch of a major corporation can tell you that how their product is marketed, that is, what kind of image is projected to the public, is a determining factor in how successful its marketing campaign and sales will be. Stylists, magazine editors, and celebrity management can also tell you about the power of what you project. It is the their job to somehow program you, the consumer, to associate positive feelings with their product or personality. Positive thoughts, affirmations, and images used for creative visualization can be converted into marketing concepts, slogans, and logos for economic branding.
However, applications of the science of imagery go beyond personal growth, commercial interests, or pop culture and its many icons. Imagery plays a major hand in politics as well. And not just on the superficial level of image, e.g. which candidate is more “rock star”, has a “better haircut”, or “looks presidential”. The power of thought, imagery, and creative visualization can do more than manipulate a product or a person to appear more attractive to others. It can even accomplish more than bringing abundance, health, and growth into your personal life. The power of thought and images can transform the world to help all humanity and creative positive social and environmental change.
THINK ABOUT IT, FOLLOW YOUR HEART
Thought is the uniting thread in all things that have changed the world. The most powerful thoughts are those powered by love. Think about it. Before any invention, historic event, or social upheaval, there was the thought that preceded the action. If you want it to be, Gandhi said, you must be the change you wish to see. In other words, you must see the change you wish to be. See the change. Sea change. Change the scene. It’s a mind game, and don’t let yourself be played like a pawn. Take charge of your own thoughts by creating your own thoughts. If you watch TV, read the mainstream newspapers, and keep receiving “input” from outside sources all the time, you are closing yourself off from a diversity of ideas and possibilities. There are independent media outlets in print, online, and radio; books; artists; musicians; local civic and grassroots groups; and people you meet are all sources of knowledge, new perspectives, and opportunities for intelligent exchange.
Another source of information about current events is the one most often overlooked – yourself. Verisimilitude means the ring of truth. The ring of truth can only be heard through your own heart, never through the words of others alone. When you listen to the news or political candidates, if what you are hearing goes straight to the brain while bypassing the heart, the mechanism of discernment is missing. On the other hand, when your perspectives are informed by both the heart and the intellect, you are in a position to make the most informed and confident decisions with the best possible outcomes. By heart, we don’t mean how you feel about emotional issues like gun control, abortion, or marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples. Listening to your heart means going with your heart. When one doesn’t follow his or her heart, the cynical, hurt side of ourselves can take the reigns when we make decisions. If all people always believed in themselves, in their heart, and in their power to make a difference, just imagine the kind of world we could create.
MENTAL SPACE NOT FOR SALE
SPACE TO THINK. Here’s Adam taking a break, hanging out at the Milwaukee River bordering the organic farm where we worked in 2006, with plenty of space to think and no distractions.
Okay, if consulting one’s heart and mind is the best source of information, how do we make an appointment to consult with ourselves? When is the best time to tune into our heart’s channel? Is the reception fuzzy? Many people are overwhelmed with obligations, busy schedules, mind chatter, or personal worries. The space and time needed to sit with our own thoughts, with zero distractions, may not be there in the current infrastructure of how our lives have been set up. It’s like mental pollution that distracts us from our own thoughts. If our thoughts are the first step in changing the world, then we’ve got to stop the source of the pollution blocking our own thoughts.
Sometimes it’s visual pollution. When I used to live and work in Chicago, almost everywhere I looked, my mind was bombarded with ugly, garish advertisements on buses, billboards, benches, company cars, storefronts, t-shirts, and garbage strewn about. Then, after two and a half years of being Chicago urbanites, we had the life-changing good fortune to move to an organic farm out in Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine countryside. We spent whole work days, weeks, even months NEVER EVER NOT ONCE seeing an advertisement trying to sell us something. We didn’t watch TV. We didn’t even read magazines very much. We did read YES! Magazine, but YES! has no advertisements in its pages. No spaces for sale, no billboards, no ads distracting us from the beauty of the nature and animals all around. We planted and cultivated in the farm’s fields bordering a vast nature preserve in freedom. Our mental space was not for sale.
Maybe advertisements and commercials don’t bother you. I am a very visual person, and naturally take note of my immediate environment. You may enjoy ads, and I have found enjoyment in some particularly clever or artistic ads in the past, but there is a limit to how much mental pollution we should allow. Why? Because if ads, commercials, and downright useless entertainment is filling the majority of your thoughts and waking hours, and if thoughts do indeed create reality, then you are letting someone else create your world for you.
Take note, we think CNN, FOX, and other mainstream media can much of the time be classified as downright useless, even unhealthy entertainment. We’re not talking about in depth journalistic investigations or serious local news that covers community events. We’re talking Paris Hilton, O.J., sensationalism, ratings-based, sponsor-driven media, and a kind of coverage of politics that emphasizes celebrity intrigue and fancy hollywood production with staged interviews, high-tech graphics, and manipulative music.
THE THEATER OF POLITICS
Did you hear about the latest controversy surrounding the December 1st, 2007 CNN Presidential Debate held at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas? One YouTube video described it as “The Politics of Planting”. What’s the scoop? Certain people who were chosen to ask the presidential candidates questions during CNN’s live televised debate, described by CNN as “undecided voters”, turned out to be “planted” by CNN, and it appears that the candidates, at least some of them, were in on it.
CASE #1: A young woman named Maria Luisa Parra-Sandoval, a student at UNLV, asked hands down the #1 most trivial and waste-of-time “soft ball” question I have ever seen in all the debates. Her question to Hillary Clinton, “This is a fun question for you. Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?” was not only reflective of CNN’s low journalistic standards for choosing this question to be asked. It is also a prime example of entertainment being more important that actual, intelligent, honest debate. But the story doesn’t end there. The “diamonds or pearls” questioner, student Parra-Sandoval, has been discovered to be a political communications intern for Senator Harry Reid in Washington, D.C. The son of Senate Majority Leader Reid is the head of Hillary Clinton’s Nevada Campaign. The implications of CNN rigging the debate to favor certain candidates are not to be underestimated.
CASE #2: A Nevada woman named Judy Bagley asked Barack Obama a question about ensuring Social Security and Medicare are available to future generations. Obama’s response began with, “Well, first of all, Judy, thank you for the question, and thanks for the great work you do on behalf of the culinary workers, a great union here.” If you watch the video of the debate or review the CNN transcript, you will see that nowhere in Judy Bagley’s question and nowhere in the commentary by the CNN moderators is it revealed that Bagley was a member of the culinary workers union. It was only stated that she worked in the casino industry. Question! How did Obama know this fact about her? Well, because the two had obviously already met before she asked her question in the live debate, even though the public is given the impression that the candidates do not know ahead of time what these “undecided voters” in the audience will ask.
For more about the CNN Las Vegas Debate questions regarding the identity of the so-called “undecided voters”, please see “CNN Plants Questions To Protect Hillary” for more details and links to sources compiled by Doug Ross.
DEMOCRACY IS A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND
That is the politics of planting. It is also an example of manipulating the image people have of presidential debates. These debates are more than biased and unfair, especially regarding the time given to candidates, particularly Congressman Dennis Kucinich. The networks that host the debates are largely not interested in honestly educating the public. I don’t care about diamonds or pearls. I don’t even think it was a funny question. I think it was a media stunt, a cheap political grab for merit-less attention, and a call for the American voters to start seeing the game for what it is and to then reject it. A president should be elected based on his or her merits. May I tell you what my question for Clinton would have been?
My alternative “diamonds or pearls” question would have been:
“To Senator Clinton, 2007 has been the deadliest year for U.S. soldiers in Iraq – 852 deaths in 2007 as of November 6th. According to the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, an independent organization that tracks military deaths, and as reported in The New York Times, an average of 69 Americans serving in Iraq lose their life per month.
Knowing this, Senator Clinton, do you prefer democracy or politics? One option, that you are fully capable of choosing, is to bring our troops home within 3 months of the beginning of your presidency, as Congressman Kucinich has pledged he will do, thereby reducing the number of American deaths in Iraq to perhaps 207 during your presidential term, based on the average number of U.S. soldiers dying in Iraq every month being 69. Or, Senator Clinton, do you prefer bringing all troops home out of Iraq by sometime after your first term, that is, after 2013, thereby allowing perhaps over 3,200 more U.S. military men and women to die in Iraq, in a war based on lies, based on non-existent weapons of mass destruction and a false pre-war connection between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaida?”
The short version of my question to Clinton, aimed at replacing the choice between “diamonds or pearls” to instead a choice between “democracy or politics”, would go like:
“Senator Clinton, you, along with Senators Obama and Edwards, conceded in the September 26, 2007 Hanover, New Hampshire debate at Dartmouth College, that you will NOT get all U.S. troops out of Iraq before 2013. This is a serious question for you. Do you prefer democracy or politics? That is, do you prefer practicing democracy or playing politics?”
THE CANDIDATE WITH THE BEST CHANCES
Dennis Kucinich is the only presidential candidate who has pledged to move all U.S. troops out of Iraq within three months of his presidency, April 2009. Kucinich has a detailed 12 Point Plan For Iraq to make it happen, including reconciliation and reparations for Iraqi citizens who have lost family or property because of the U.S. war and occupation. Kucinich’s 12 Point Plan also calls for international cooperation and the removal of all U.S. military bases and Blackwater mercenaries out of Iraq, thereby returning true sovereignty to the people of Iraq. In the recent Black and Brown Presidential Forum specifically addressing the concerns of Hispanic and African-American communities in Iowa, Senator Joe Biden admitted that he had not yet read Kucinich’s plan to get out of Iraq. Kucinich responded, “Read it.” We agree. Download it at http://www2.kucinich.us/files/pdfs/12point_plan.pdf.
People parrot the prophesy of Iraq plunging into chaos and conflict if the U.S. pulls out. We recently saw unimbedded journalist Dahr Jamail speak at the University of Illinois-Chicago about his first-hand reports from Iraq. His unflinching, compassionate, and well-researched reports have been compiled in Jamail’s just released book From The Green Zone: Dispatches From An Unembedded Journalist In Occupied Iraq, published by Haymarket Books. Iraq is already so totally embroiled in chaos and conflict, including lack of clean water, electricity, medical services, and security. The fears people have about the what might happen to Iraq if the U.S. leaves are already happening with the U.S. present in Iraq. As Dennis Kucinich states again and again, the U.S. occupation is fueling the insurgency.
We urge you to read Dahr Jamail’s book, go to his website, and educate yourself about the absolute crimes against humanity that are right now being perpetuated by U.S. policy in Iraq, and the dire situation the Iraqi people are living in. It must stop, and we can’t wait until 2013. And don’t forget, Iraq was not about WMD’s, Saddam’s crimes, or Al-Qaeda – all lies and manipulated intelligence for an illegal agenda of preemptive war by Bush, Cheney, and Company. It was and still is about oil, money, and power. That is why Kucinich has introduced articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney, and also supports the impeachment of George Bush after Cheney. Kucinich is the people’s champion and a champion of truth. He is the only candidate supporting the defense of our Constitution by impeaching Cheney, then Bush. By impeaching Bush and Cheney, we declare to the world that the United States will hold its criminal politicians accountable.
We have encountered people whose convictions are most aligned with Kucinich, but feel a weakness in the power of their vote to Kucinich making a difference, so much that they defeat themselves by deciding to vote for a different candidate. Our answer is that Kucinich IS the candidate with the best chances. Kucinich has the best chances of restoring democracy to the United States, raising the health and prosperity of its people, and facing the looming environmental challenges of climate change and sustainability with wisdom, courage, and integrity.
KUCINICH SWEEPS THE PRIMARIES…EDWARDS, OBAMA, CLINTON CONCEDE…KUCINICH WINS!
This presidential election is more than matters of a difference of opinion that should be respected. We respect people’s right to choose their candidate. That is democracy…and democracy is a girl’s best friends. However, there is a difference between the right to choose and who a person ultimately chooses. It matters that you make a choice, and it also matters who your choice is. Frankly, these are matters of life or death.
Healthcare, education, war and peace, and the sustainability of humanity on planet Earth. We need a president who has a proven track record of standing up for the best interests of the people, no matter what. And above all, we need a country made up of people who will be leaders themselves, that take action from the heart and mind, and will go all the way to do what is right. Humanity faces extraordinary challenges now and in the near future. We need an extraordinary leader. Now more than any other time in history, we need a leader who is not in debt to corporate contributions. Money talks in the debates, but what our world needs is not the candidate with the most money.
A fellow Kucinich supporter said “When people tell me Dennis doesn’t have a chance, I say, he’s our only chance!” We honestly feel that, out of all the Republican and Democratic candidates, Dennis is our best chance for humanity and the planet to not just survive but also thrive. It is after the election in November 2008 when the REAL work begins – the forging of peaceful relations among all people and bringing our planet forward out of the disastrous consequences of human behavior destroying ecological systems we cannot live without and into a harmonious balance of a sustainable civilization.
Some people feel Kucinich has no chance against the status quo. We ask in reply to this thought: which candidate has the best chance against what humanity is collectively facing?! Forget the status quo. The status quo, frankly, have slim chances of surviving on planet earth. We need to change, and change fast. Dennis is the candidate with the best chance against our problems.
Climate change; topsoil depletion; loss of biodiversity; increasing drought, floods, and fires; non-local, petroleum dependent economies and agriculture; and pollution of air, land, and water: theses are the real candidates up for election. Fortunately, we have good candidates to choose from too, like: adopting sustainable practices in our homes, businesses, and cultures; growing food locally, organically, and sustainably, using methods like biointensive, permaculture, and indigenous practices; educating others about taking positive action while being a model for change in whatever way you can; and electing candidates to office who are ready to make choices based on wisdom and courage.
DECEMBER 15, 2007 AND JANUARY 20, 2009
www.DECEMBER152007.com
THIS DECEMBER 15, 2007, THE PEOPLE WILL SPEAK.
It was on that date in 1791 that the Bill of Rights took effect. This December 15, donate to the one candidate who restore those rights for all Americans..DENNIS KUCINICH.
There are two dates we can keep in mind while using the power of creative visualization. The first date is a call to all who resonate with Dennis Kucinich to support his campaign by pledging to donate $100 on December 15, 2007. December 15 is the anniversary of the Bill of Rights being enacted. It is also the anniversary of when Dennis Kucinich, as Mayor of Cleveland in 1978, protected the best interests of Cleveland by refusing to privatize the city’s municipal electric system, a choice that later garnered him great thanks, including a city council resolution honoring Kucinich for saving Cleveland’s citizens $300 million in payments since December 15, 1978.
On December 15, 2007, Kucinich needs your help. Our goal is to get 100,000 people to commit to donate $100 each to Dennis Kucinich on December 15, 2007, for a total one-day contribution of $10 million. Imagine the possibilities of our candidate having greater funds from 100% grassroots donations to campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire, and in the other February 5th Super Tuesday states, including here in Illinois. Please visit www.december152007.com to make your pledge and donate to Dennis on December 15 at dennis4president.com or by calling 1-877-41-DENNIS. You can donate $10 or $1000, but the goal is 100,000 people donating $100 each. If your imagination is sparked by this coordinated “money bomb” for Kucinich, then pass on December 15, 2007 to as many other people as you can.
If you are reading this far, then you must be a seeker of knowledge, with an open mind, thinking towards the future. The second date to keep in mind is seemingly far off into the future – January 20, 2009, the date that the 44th President of the United States will be inaugurated into office to serve the best interests of all people and living beings. When you think about January 20, 2009, remember the power of thought and the science of imagery. Activate your hope for the future with the love you feel for what is important to you now. Imagine yourself watching tv, reading the paper, or perhaps attending in person the inaugural parade and oath of office. Imagine that what is happening is exactly what you wish to see. Imagine the possibilities. Start living the days that will lead up to January 20, 2007 as you see it. Until next week, The Hot Potato is in your hands. Pass it on!
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Summay of CNN Debate
+ Special Guest Appearance
by 35percenters.com
CNN: The Politics of Planting
DEC. 15TH KUCINICH MONEY BOMB- PAY IT FORWARD
To Be The President.
