"I think you might be confusing tyranny, with losing"

Changing guards... these days we are picking different types of representatives, from a different type of media, to leverage our opinion through new channels of influence. Forget the slow and tedious process of electing officials to officially speak for us in the "appropriate" legislative venues. We can speak through the popularity of those who share our views, and those who strike a chord of truth in the seas of propaganda and partisan news. We can vote with our attention for the most intelligent representation of truth. Which in turn focuses more attention. Kind of an agile regulatory action. And sometimes when the truth is not padded, common sense can be a rude awakening.

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Let's just hope it's effective in countering this type of stuff. If it can collect enough awareness of what is happening to change it:

Obama has taken the Bush party line ---declaring that even an investigation into the "possibility of warrantless wiretapping against innocent americans" would constitute "exceptionally grave harm to national security." Which keeps it from coming to court, of course. And thus to the public

Gimme a frick'in break. This like shouting "MIND YER OWN BUSINESS" to the American public. As if "national security" was none of our concern. I don't think it's "our" security they are worrying about above though, I think they are worried about dissent and backlash if it was generally known that certain government agencies operated above the law. But this is a catch-22 clause. The backlash could be because our security was being trampled, but should we keep that secret to protect our security? Only if it's based on delusion.

Perhaps power obtained, even by an office, is not so easily relinquished for the good of the people. Even with a new resident to said office. And especially hard to relinquish for professional politicians.

On the macro level, this doesn't actually concern me. Things are unfolding as they should, action, reaction, hand over hand, we're struggling up from the mud of ignorance, forged by nature to skirt forces of complete annihilation, honing our evolution into something useful, as is its way, at breakneck speed.

So yeah, focus on the near ---get hopp'in mad, or crazy happy, live with passion ---but don't get so absorbed in passion that simple presence is lost in the current. Presence where every human experience, without judgment, is an unknown factor. Like the Chinese farmer below, who knows where it might be leading? And in all this chaos and change, hold somewhere in the background of the day, that simple awareness that hasn't been touched by anything we've experienced since we came into this world.

Only time can truly judge these arcs of experience, and our vision in time is so small. What can we remember, as an individual or a culture? What can we try envisioning, tethered as we are to the collection of an infinitesimally small scope of occurrences and memories? What do we mistake for the structure of "reality" rather than just limited samples of content and how does this blind us to un-lived possibilities of infinite perception?

A farmer in a poor country village was considered very well-to-do, because he owned a horse which he used for plowing and for transportation. One day his horse ran away. All his neighbors exclaimed how terrible this was, but the farmer simply said, "Maybe."

A few days later the horse returned and brought two wild horses with it. The neighbors all rejoiced at his good fortune, but the farmer just said, "Maybe."

The next day the farmer's son tried to ride one of the wild horses; the horse threw him and broke his leg. The neighbors all offered their sympathy for his misfortune, but the farmer again said, "Maybe."

The next week conscription officers came to the village to take young men for the army. They rejected the farmer's son because of his broken leg. When the neighbors told him how lucky he was, the farmer replied, "Maybe."…