October 15, 2007 archive

Pelosi needs to quit labeling things.

From The Hill:

Pelosi labels herself:

The speaker, in an interview aired on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” stated it was ironic that, as an outspoken opponent to the Iraq campaign, anti-war activists are targeting her now.

She not only labels herself as an opponent to the war, but as an opponent of the war who speaks out about her opposition, presumably because speaking is acting, and actions talk louder than words.

Gore’s Political Future, including One Surprising Possibility

crossposted at Daily Kos and Truth & Progress

Last night, Tim Russert’s CNBC Show discussed the state of the 2008 race as it stands now.  This show, about which I’ve written before, has no transcripts available and almost every time I write about it, it is usually from memory.  Last night, however, I did take notes.

I almost always watch this one-hour show as it allows the guests maximum time to elaborate their viewpoint.  Unlike ‘Meet The Press,’ Russert rarely interrupts and proves what one of my favorite journalists ever, Robin MacNeil, once said of the concept behind PBS’ The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, “If you allow a politician or a policy maker more than a few seconds to speak, they might even say something substantive.”

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Towards the end of last night’s show, Russert and his panel discussed Al Gore’s political future.

 

You must hear Lessig’s lecture on corruption

Today, Larry Lessig posted an incredible lecture and slide presentation he delivered at Stanford, where he is a law professor. Drop everything you are doing and go listen to this now. It is the dawn of a new era of Internet-based politics.

http://lessig.org/bl…

With laser focus, Lessig zeros in on money corruption in American society and fingers the corporations and their coin-operated politicians as the bad actors – but he also indicts the REST OF US for staying silent and tolerating the increasing affronts to reason, justice, and dignity.

Lessig has decided to devote the next decade to fighting the creeping crud of big money corruption of American society, and he is just the man to do it. The most exciting part of his lecture is the hints at solutions that bypass the crooked Congress and “two-party” system. Just as the evolution of Docudharma is heading swiftly toward action-oriented reform, Lessig is advocating new Internet-propagated “norms” to fight corruption. He is a brilliant man, and he will soon figure out how the Net can generate structures, charters, and protocols to begin bypassing the stinking mess that much of the US Government has become.

Just go listen to Lessig. I cannot recommend this speech too highly.

Cooler than Greenland! Lynxgirl and Blanket the Globe on CNN!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting(Updated with permalink)Many of you here at Docudharma really helped to get the early word out about this project when Lynxgirl posted this diary, so you might enjoy this little follow-up. You may even agree that this is cooler than Greenland, although that’s not saying much these days.

Click on the link below and first there’s a great Myles O’Brien piece about Gore and climate change. But stay tuned because right after, you’ll see a lovely piece about Blanket the Globe. First Gore. Then my daughter, Casey. Then a bit about the Solar Decathlon and the battle over water with Bill Richardson. Great company!

Click here for the CNN Student News newscast.

The newscast and accompanying photo album are terrific.

Have you, your kids, your students, your grandkids, your neighbors, your friends, made squares?  If so, be sure to find their art work in the BTG slide show.  If not, Why?  Everything you need is right on the website.

(proud mama over at T&P)

Pony Party: Sunday music retrospective

Petula Clark


Downtown

My Left Wing Talk Radio

At Maryscott’s request, I am cross posting this.  I hope you will support her, and the idea of the Left working together to make Internet Radio a viable force for change!


Ready or not, here it comes: (And a pre-emptive apology: Forgive me, please… For purposes of this being an Announcement and all, I may slip into referring to myself in third person… at least it ain’t the Royal We, ‘kay?)

Next Monday, October 22, at 1pm Pacific, 4pm Eastern, Maryscott O’Connor / MSOC (EmSock to friends and enemies alike) intends to make her maiden foray into that area between “alternative media” and “traditional media” — that being the Internet-based “Blog Talk Radio”.

The designated sobriquet for said radio talk show is, of course, the only possible identification one could choose: My Left Wing Talk Radio.

The Clueless Nancy Pelosi

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told George Stepanapoulos today:

I am one of the most vociferous opponents of the [Iraq] War . . .

Excuse me Madame Speaker, but are you fucking kidding me? Nearly 90 House members have signed this letter:

The Honorable George W. Bush
President
United States of America
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

Seventy House Members wrote in July to inform you that they will only support appropriating additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq during Fiscal Year 2008 and beyond for the protection and safe redeployment of our troops out of Iraq before you leave office.

Now you are requesting an additional $45 billion to sustain your escalation of U.S. military operations in Iraq through next April, on top of the $145 billion you requested for military operations during FY08 in Iraq and Afghanistan. Accordingly, even more of us are writing anew to underscore our opposition to appropriating any additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq other than a time-bound, safe redeployment as stipulated above.

More than 3,742 of our brave soldiers have died in Iraq. More than 27,000 have been seriously wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed or injured in the hostilities and more than 4 million have been displaced from their homes. Furthermore, this conflict has degenerated into a sectarian civil war and U.S. taxpayers have paid more than $500 billion, despite assurances that you and your key advisors gave our nation at the time you ordered the invasion in March, 2003 that this military intervention would cost far less and be paid from Iraqi oil revenues.

We agree with a clear and growing majority of the American people who are opposed to continued, open-ended U.S. military operations in Iraq, and believe it is unwise and unacceptable for you to continue to unilaterally impose these staggering costs and the soaring debt on Americans currently and for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Co-signers: Murphy (CT), Jackson, Brown (FL), Thompson (MS), Watt, Meeks, Loebsack, Weiner, Kucinich, DeFazio, Farr, Waxman, Thompson (CA), Lee, Woolsey, Waters, Watson, Frank, Conyers, Filner, Rush, Towns, Clay, Wynn, Delahunt, Holmes-Norton, Butterfield, Solis, Maloney, Nadler, Honda, Cohen, Hare, Napolitano, Hastings, McGovern, Kaptur, Schakowsky, Carson, Linda Sanchez, Grijalva, Olver, Jackson-Lee, McDermott, Markey, Fattah, Pallone, Hinojosa, Stark, Scott (VA), Moran, McCollum, Oberstar, DeGette, Tauscher, Holt, Hinchey, Pastor, Davis (IL), Hall, Velazquez, Rangel, Hodes, Blumenauer, Lynch, Artur Davis, Johnson (GA), Payne, Cleaver, Lewis, Clarke, Abercrombie, Moore(WI), Ellison, Baldwin, Christensen, Scott (GA), Paul, Gutierrez, Welch, Capps, Rothman, Cummings, Tierney, Doggett, Eshoo, and Tubbs-Jones.

The name Pelosi is not among the signatories. When Pelosi signs that letter; when she promises that she will not put forward any bills to fund Iraq without a date certain to end the Iraq Debacle, then she can claim to be “one of the most vocieferous opponents of the Iraq War.” She is not one of the most vociferous opponents of the Iraq war. She needs to do everything she can to end it and then she can truthfully claim to be such. Until then, Pelosi is simply not telling the truth.

The New Stupid

Glenn Greenwald points to some remarks Bill O’Reilly made on Thursday.  After announcing that “Partisan politics bore me,” O’Reilly said the following:

So just talking about your personal security, would you support President John Edwards? Remember, no coerced interrogation, civilian lawyers in courts for captured overseas terrorists, no branding the Iranian guards terrorists, and no phone surveillance without a specific warrant.

I read this, and I wonder what television is going to be like, over the next, say, twenty years.  I read this, and I see the coming of The New Stupid.

I see it in various places and in various forms: the attempt to drive the American population into a dreamspace of total ignorance of the world around them.  A forced march from the observable into a land of faery.

Why The Left Blogs Suck

Dr. Jeffrey Feldman is a smart, insightful and good man. But what the fuck is this?

I am sorry, but if Dr. Jeff thinks that is the biggest problem with Daily Kos and the Left blogs at the present time, I think he is actually illustrating what the biggest problem is – the inability to think for a fucking second about the issues RIGHT NOW!

Iraq. FISA capitulation. A Democratic Congress that sucks utterly. Is it fucking impossible to focus on issues now?

The Netroots are so fucking bad now. Completely useless. I am disgusted.

I am going back into my cave now. I do not have the stomach right now to say what needs to be said about all this bullshit.

Yuyanapaq: To Remember

When my mother was in the hospital giving birth to me, my father was in the jungles of Peru, in the province of Huanuco, setting up a post from which to clear the rain forest, build roads, establish cattle ranches and evangelize the natives. When I was just a couple of months old, my mother, eighteen month old sister, and I joined him. I lived there the first few years of my life and then we moved to Lima, where we stayed until I was 7.

Like most people, I have very few actual memories of the first few years of my life. And its hard to distinguish what I do remember from the 8mm home movies that were made of us to send back to my grandparents in the US. I think it was pretty rough going for my mother and an attempt by my father to prove himself worthy to his boss, my grandfather.

As an adult, I’ve been so ashamed of this family history, that I’ve never wanted to talk to my father about what he was doing. I just wanted to put it in the past and move on. This last week I’ve decided to take my own journey and do some exploring on the internet to see what I can learn about the area and the people who live there.

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