So, I decided to create an on-line project — part newswire, part call-to-action, part library of articles. I would send bulletins to thousands of meditation and yoga centers, spiritual communities, teachers, healers, etc., encouraging them to get political, to take their practice from the mats and safus of studios, ashrams, and zendos to the world. I myself wrote more than 30 articles, which were published widely, including “President Bush: I’m Coming for You,” which drew upwards of 500 emails to my inbox within a matter of days.

I also wrote “An Open Letter of Conscience and Choice,” which was co-signed by many prominent figures from spiritual and political circles. This letter was widely published and circulated. This letter also drew many rebukes from yogis, practitioners and teachers alike, who were angered at my presumption in telling them Bush was bad. Some were glad he “had the guts to rid the Earth of the terrorists who wanted to come and kill our children and steal our way of life.” Some suggested I move to Iran (I think they meant Iraq), go to hell, read the Bhagavad Gita to learn what Krishna told Arjuna (I had read it, albeit a long long time ago; still I can’t think of a thing that Krishna allegedly told Arjuna in that fabled myth that I thought relevant), and do something to myself that is anatomically impossible.

Truth for President.org was an election-year project. I took down the web site at the end of 2004. But I learned in that year that social responsibility and political activism were as much a part of spiritual endeavor as meditation, chanting, and studying. Radical Sages, launched in 2005, was the re-incarnation of Truth for President.org

Here are excerpts from the Truth for President.org (TFP) web site:

Introduction
We will soon elect a president, an event of immense importance to us all. TFP wants a president who will represent universal spiritual values; one who is committed to peace through peaceful means, to environmental purity, to corporate social responsibility, to civil liberty and labor rights, to equitable taxation and distribution of wealth, to affordable health care and quality education, to equal opportunity and rights under the law — regardless of gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. I want a president who understands the spirit and law of the people, by the people, for the people. I do not believe that George W. Bush stands for any of these principles.

I therefore believe the most urgent spiritual and political challenge facing us this year is to vote George W. Bush out of office! I believe the initiative outlined in this proposal will be instrumental in achieving this end.

As the self-styled “war president,” I am particularly appalled at President Bush’s militaristic attitude and philosophy of unilateral and pre-emptive military action. The U. S. currently deploys almost a half million troops in 156 countries, with U. S. military bases existing in 63 of those countries. Our military budget is more than $400 billion dollars per year — equal to the combined military expenditure totals of the top 25 military spending countries. The Department of Defense is the world’s largest landlord, controlling 845,441 structures covering 30 million acres. The US continues to spend tens of billions of dollars annually on its nuclear weapons programs even though it already has a nuclear arsenal equivalent to 150,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned us, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

There are other reasons to vote Bush out of office. Author Jack Huberman writes that in the past three years the Bush administration has created “a record of deception and hypocrisy, relentless rollbacks of progress of every kind, tireless devotion to the interests of big business and the wealthy, and confederacy with the programs and prejudices of right-wing and religious zealots. Its message is that this administration’s policies will leave America more isolated and less secure, its public finances crippled, its people less secure financially and less healthy, its children more poorly educated, its scientific progress blunted, its culture coarser and stupider, its wealth concentrated in fewer hands, its news media likewise, its federal courts packed with partisan right-wing judges, and its corporations more free to escape taxes, pollute the air and water, and lie to consumers — all for decades to come.”

Paul Waldman writes in Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn’t Tell You: “For this president, lying is only sometimes done ad hoc, as a reaction to an unexpected question or a discomforting criticism. But most often it is the essence of his political strategy, the key to every major policy move. Whether the topic is taxes or Social Security, the environment or education, Medicare or foreign wars, the aggressive deception of the American people is the foundation on which each Bush policy is built.”

These authors, as do many others, substantiate their claims with solid evidence and extensive documentation as to the failures of the Bush administration policies. But this information is not widely known, and the Bush “spin” continues to masquerade as truth.

The Problem
In his stump speech, Senator John Edwards refers to “two Americas.” Defining his image, I would say the two Americas are separated by the quality of their news: one America tunes in to mainstream, corporate-owned news outlets like the evening network news, daily newspapers, and weekly magazines such as Time and Newsweek; the other America reads and listens to independent and investigative media like Mother Jones and Democracy Now!

These two Americas are separated by a huge divide. One has only to enter the world of independent media and investigative journalism to realize this. Independent media journalists and reporters are not emissaries of corporate culture, values, and interests. They are not apologists for Bush administration policies nor simple stenographers for Bush administration press briefings. Rather, they challenge Administration claims and let their search for truth illuminate their stories. The in-depth investigation, reporting, and analyses required to truly understand current events comes primarily from the independent media, which most Americans do not even know exist.

Though the independent media preach daily to a large choir, they still exist on the outskirts of mainstream America’s consciousness. The issues, stories, analyses, opinions, and revelations presented by this “second America” are not reaching a wide enough audience — the bestseller status of books by Michael Moore, Al Franken, Molly Ivins, Arianna Huffington, and other politically progressive authors notwithstanding.

The Solution
Radio commentator Wes Nisker said, “If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.” This is what I propose to do with TruthForPresident.org: Create a web-based publicity machine to bring the stories, analyses, and opinions of the independent media and politically progressive writers to the attention of the American public through the mainstream media!

There is good reason to believe this can be the case. In the March issue of The American Prospect, Michael Tomasky and Eric Alterman write:

“Are our national media—schoolyard silly during campaign 2000, by turns somnolent and sycophantic ever since—starting to rouse themselves from their long torpor? It's still way too early to answer that question with a "yes," but if that's what the answer turns out to be, the first week of February may have marked a turning point.

“In that week, the media started raising new questions about the justification for the Iraq War; broke an important story about the administration knowing last fall that the Medicare bill would cost $134 billion more than it let on to its employers (the public); broke another about a probe of alleged bribes at Dick Cheney's Halliburton; and finally, led by The Boston Globe's Walter Robinson, started to take a semi-meaningful look into George W. Bush's disputed National Guard record.

“Don't start dancing to the music just yet, though. Bad habits die hard, and we've all come to expect too little genuine journalism and far too much of what might be called "journalism-related program activity."

TruthForPresident.org will capitalize on this emerging opportunity by feeding “our national media” with the information presented by independent media and politically progressive writers, columnists, and activists. But since “bad habits die hard,” we have to help the national media rouse fully from their long torpor; we can’t let them go back to sleep.

The Action
TruthForPresident.org will influence the consciousness and actions of the mainstream media, political policy-makers, and cultural thought-leaders through a campaign of daily press releases to thousands of contacts. Each press release will be a succinct “headline” summary of a story intended to counteract the publicity machinery of the Bush administration and its propensity for deception, distortion, and misinformation. But, since it is not enough to just criticize, press releases will also provide a positive contrast by promoting a socially progressive agenda of issues, analyses, and solutions. Press releases will deal with all issues pertinent to the election and will draw from dozens of sources.