Mar 29 2008
The tubes are slow tonight my friends, like an old man in a deli trying to send back soup…..???
It took me half an hour to get this one Tube to load far enough so I could copy the embed code…and I can’t even listen to it! But I think it is appropriate, since I will have to lean on y’all to fill out the play list tonight, Goddess Bless ALL of you!
Now, get to work!
Mar 29 2008
This new ad by McCain seems to imply that the other candidates are not American, somehow.
The voice-over is very dark, insistent and nearly foreboding in tone.
A quick dive into it, the implied contrasts here give a clue to the tone of this campaign.
“That she [America] is worth protecting, it’s people, honorable”
The implied smears against Barack Obama are loaded up, and ready to go. If we think we’ve seen nasty so far, just wait “my friends”. We’ll be swimming in innuendo up to our eyeballs.
But it’s that tone, the announcer’s voice that drives home the implications that ‘there’s something not right with the other candidates’.
The announcer in this ad, Powers Boothe played Jim Jones in the story about Guyana, in the made for TeeVee movie in 1980.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00…
Yes, there are degrees of separation here, but somehow it seems fitting in a way this guy who made his mark in Hollywood portraying an insane cult leader who led over 900 people to kill themselves should be doing voice overs for McCain.
One other thing about the announcer; he seems to think that getting an Emmy is more important than honoring a SAG union strike line
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S…
Fascinating, what’s behind the scenes at these ads at times, ain’t it?
Mar 29 2008
Everywhere I look these days there is so much to feel pain over. What is happening in Tibet is heartbreaking for both the Chinese and the Tibetans, what is happening in Burma, the suffering all around the world. And here in the United States (I don’t say America any more because … well, I don’t even know!) every day brings a new kind of suffering, people being treated so badly all across this land, whether it be dying from lack of health care, folks still suffering too much in New Orleans, soldiers coming home to homelessness and despair, the dreadful story of Don Siegelman which shows how blatantly one gets punished when trying to do the right thing … ah, the list goes on and on. And those of us here, we don’t get hardened to it but sometimes we despair, for the suffering is so great and so continuous it seems impossible to take it all in.
And of course there is the pain of thinking “can I do more? Have I done enough? Am I more part of the problem than the solution?” These doubts and fears, they are painful, too.
I read somewhere about suffering and joy. I read how suffering that goes deep within us also makes a very deep place for joy as well. And that if we do not face and allow the pain go deep into our hearts, our joys, when they arrive, and they always arrive, will not go very deep either. I read that the depth of our joy is equal to the depth of our pain. I don’t remember who said that, but it always stayed with me.
I’d like to write about deep joy, because I think we’ve all been exposed to so much that has caused us deep pain. And I think deep joy is the well that is always available to us to draw from, whenever we wish, to give us strength to do what we know is right and to love and help each other as we all wish to do.
Mar 28 2008
So, recently White House Butt-Coverer-in-Chief Dana Perino told the press…
“The President gets a report about every single soldier that passes away and he always pauses a moment to think about them and to offer a prayer for their loved ones and their family friends.”
Ignoring, for now, the phrase “passes away” (as if the dead soldiers in question gently slipped away in their sleep at the reasonable old age of nineteen) its important to note the TREMENDOUS SACRIFICE of our current leader, who goes to the extraordinary measure of… “pausing”… for each and every casualty of his civilwacuppation.
And “pausing” is just the start…
Mar 28 2008
I’m not in my happy place today. At least so far. I’m letting myself be drawn into discussions I’m better off avoiding, if only for my own sanity. Lately I’ve been seeing signs of the same sort of thing that drove me from the other place…and I don’t see signs of anyone creating another place to escape to in the near future.
I don’t like putting up walls, really. But when it becomes obvious that there is a central issue that I and someone else are never, ever going to agree on, I find I am much better off to not discuss anything like that issue with that person. And sometimes it gets to the point that I am better off leaving. I have a history of leaving, some might call it running away, just like I have a history of being told to get lost.
The former is always painful, but I have found that I can eventually get over it. The latter is a thousand times more painful and one doesn’t get over it. Ever. At least this one doesn’t know how to do so.
But sometimes the former is necessary to do because one foresees the possibility of the latter.
Mar 28 2008
Got something you’re itching to tell John McCain, or delegates to the Republican national convention? Here’s your chance.
While some are planning to take it to the streets in St. Paul, one group wants to elevate protesting to a whole new level — the Jumbotron. (See more below on the Labor Day march, and urge St. Paul officials to do the right thing and grant a permit.)
Giant television screens – Jumbotrons, 22 feet high and 30 feet wide – will broadcast anti-Republican-themed messages to convention-goers, the media and the international audience following the proceedings.
Organizers figure they will have much more impact than bullhorns.
The goal is to have pithy, witty and compelling messages laying out the problems in the Republican agenda, and outlining better alternatives, organizers say…
Martha Ballou, an unabashed Democrat who doesn’t mince words: “Every bad guy in the world will be here – Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, gay-haters, immigration stoppers. They’ll all be sitting in a bowl in St. Paul, and we do intend to engage them.”
…”We realize that the people in the Xcel center are never going to agree with us, so our audience is the media and those who watch what’s going on,” Ballou said.
“This could change protest forever,” she said.
Messages on the giant screen could include opposition to the Iraq war as well as thoughts on social issues and labor concerns.
A steelworkers group has contributed $30,000 to the Jumbotron effort, which is enough to rent one screen for a week. Ballou hopes to raise at least $70,000 more, to get two more screens to better blanket the convention area, in the West Seventh Street/Kellogg Boulevard area…
Ballou said that most opponents to the Republicans haven’t yet figured out good ways to get their messages across. “Ironically, the only ones really organized so far are the anarchists,” she said.
“But we’re working hard on this, and our intent is to come up with messages that are witty and technologically sophisticated, so people will want to watch,” she said.
Asked for examples, Ballou said she doesn’t have any yet.
“But the guidelines are: Hold the Republicans to their record. Hang them with their own words. Show people a better way,” she said.
True Blue Minnesota is looking for ideas, and you can offer yours here.
What would you say, if you had a Jumbtron all your own to program and the whole world was watching?
MCCAIN SUCKS?
OUT OF IRAQ NOW?
WELCOME, LIARS AND THIEVES?
Well, sure, but we can do better than that. Share your ideas for words, photos and video with True Blue Minnesota. And, if you’d like, offer some ideas in the comment section here, too.
Photo credit: ThreeQBlog.
This from United for Peace and Justice:
ACTION ALERT: Tell St. Paul officials to grant permit for RNC anti-war march
For months now, organizers in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St.Paul) have been hard at work planning for a major antiwar demonstration on September 1, 2008, the opening day of the Republican Nominating Convention in St. Paul. That also happens to be Labor Day and so everyone is hopeful that because this is on a holiday it will be easier to bring large numbers of people to this important mobilization.
The Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, made up of more than 100 organizations from around the Twin Cities and across the country – including United for Peace and Justice – has been seeking permits for the Sept. 1st demonstration since days after the Republicans announced they would hold their national convention in Minnesota. The local organizers have been given a permit to assemble and rally at the State Capitol, but the City of St. Paul continues to withhold a permit for a march up to and around the Xcel Center, where the Convention will be held.
For months, City officials promised that the permit process would move forward at the beginning of March. This past March 3rd, the Coalition finally received a formal response to their application: a “provisional” permit to begin a march at the State Capitol on September 1st, with no route, no times, and with a suggestion that whatever route is eventually granted will not be for our exclusive use for the duration of the protest. The document the Coalition received was a mostly blank form, and was accompanied by a set of guidelines that unreasonably restrict the rights of any protesters planning actions during the 2008 Republican National Convention.
On Monday, March 24th, attorneys from the National Lawyer Guild and the ACLU filed a complaint in federal court, on behalf of the Coalition, asking the judge to order the City to approve the Coalition’s permit application and that no extra guidelines be attached. The hope is that legal action will help win the permit that’s needed – one that takes a massive, anti-war march to the doors of the Republican Convention at the Xcel Center.
Local organizers also know that political pressure is no less important than legal pressure. St. Paul City officials have worked hard to create the impression that they want to work with and even welcome protesters. If they truly wanted to roll out a welcome mat, they already would have. The Coalition is planning for a march against the war on Iraq, and we shouldn’t have to wait for a court ruling to force the City to issue a permit that takes us to the Xcel Center on September 1st.
NOW IS THE TIME TO TAKE ACTION.
1) Contact St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. Urge him to deliver a final permit to the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, taking us from the State Capitol to the Xcel Center on September 1, 2008. Mayor Coleman can be reached at [email protected] or 651-266-8510. Please send a copy of your message to the Twin Cities organizers at [email protected]
2) Send a letter to the editor at either of these two newspapers in the Twin Cities and explain why you believe the permit needs to be granted, now:
– Star Tribune in Minneapolis – send by fax to 612-673-4359
– St. Paul Pioneer Press – send by fax 651-228-5564 or by e-mail to [email protected]
Mar 28 2008
I was just wondering what everyone thinks about Nader in the presidential mix? I am not oo thrilled with him, but not for the reasons that some democrats have. He is blamed for Gore’s loss, I hold no grudge on that matter. I, however, have a problem with him because of his constant running for office. While I hold must of his issues close to my heart, I do not like the fact that he seems to be a perpetual candidate. But in the years between the elections he has little to say. But then he revs up and all hell breaks lose.
I would like my candidate to be there even in the “off season’ fighting for the progressive agenda, not just show up every 4 years and spout some left leaning agenda and expect people like me to support him. Nader does have a wide range of progressive stands and some are very appealing, but I just have a hard time throwing my support in his direction.
I would like to hear others thoughts about his candidacy.
Mar 28 2008
Exclusive: Who’s Behind Abu Ghraib?
“It is important to understand that the MI units at Abu Ghraib were far from complete units,” reads the internal report. “They were small elements from those units. Most of the elements that came to Abu Ghraib came without their normal command structure.
One of Numorous F***ups!!
Mar 28 2008
Okay, what’s wrong with this scenario? From the LA Times: “Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki today extended a deadline for militiamen battling government troops to disarm as fighters showed no signs of ending a standoff with Iraqi forces. U.S. forces intervened in the battle in the southern city of Basra by dropping two bombs on militia positions overnight. A British military spokesman in the city, Maj. Tom Holloway, said that Iraq had requested airstrikes on the targets and that American jets happened to be in the vicinity and responded.”
Which of these headlines means the “surge” is working?
Answer beneath the fold.
Washington Post: U.S. Appears to Take Lead in Fighting in Baghdad
The Guardian: American jets attack Basra
The New York Times reports Destruction of torture tapes hovers over “detainee” cases. 
“When officers from the Central Intelligence Agency destroyed hundreds of hours of videotapes documenting harsh interrogations in 2005, they may have believed they were freeing the government and themselves from potentially serious legal trouble. But nearly four months after the disclosure that the tapes were destroyed, the list of legal entanglements for the C.I.A., the Defense Department and other agencies is only growing longer. In addition to criminal and Congressional investigations of the tapes’ destruction, the government is fighting off challenges in several major terrorism cases and a raft of prisoners’ legal claims that it may have destroyed evidence.”
The Los Angeles Times reports Warming felt more in Western U.S. “The American West is heating up faster than any other region of the United States, and more than the Earth as a whole, according to a new analysis of 50 scientific studies. For the last five years, from 2003 through 2007, the global climate averaged 1 degree Fahrenheit warmer than its 20th century average. During the same period, 11 Western states averaged 1.7 degrees warmer, the analysis reported.”
The report reveals “the growing consensus among scientists who study the West that climate change is no longer an abstraction,” said Bradley H. Udall of the University of Colorado, whose work was cited in the study. “The signs are everywhere.” …
According to Udall, the data suggest that the trend will accelerate — with the West warming about 1 1/2 times faster than the global average. Martin Hoerling, a NOAA meteorologist, has predicted that the West could heat up as much as 5 degrees by mid-century. In Alaska, the annual mean air temperature has risen 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last three decades.
Think your job stinks? The Oregonian reports Testing what sea lions eat isn’t for the faint of nose. “As if prepping for a delicate operation, Sarah Libert slips her hands into a pair of green surgeon’s gloves. She arranges sterile test tubes on a laboratory bench and spoons up a bit of the unlikely object of her studies. It’s sea lion dung. About 10 pounds of the stuff sits neatly packaged in sandwich bags in her lab at Portland State University. ‘I have to mix it up first so I get a good sample,’ Libert says. ‘Here’s where the smell starts coming out.’ The odor hangs thickly in the enclosed room.” What some people will do to earn a graduate degree. Amazing!
Mar 28 2008
The obscenity that is American politics, circa 2008.
This is funny, and the Reverend Wright’s comments are outrageous? What planet am I living on?
Mar 28 2008
I have always been “out of touch” with popular culture, even though I look distressingly ordinary in person. One of the popular axions these days is that “protest” doesn’t matter, it is ineffective, and a yawning legacy of the 1960’s which if one is particularly young is seen as quaint and if one is middle aged or older, the 1960’s were a time when the trusted order of society fractured a bit. I don’t think it fractured enough.
I would argue that protest has at least symbolic meaning for a few reasons. It is a basic exercise in democracy, peaceful protest is a healthy alternative to unfocused violence, and there is in the United States today a silent majority who don’t agree with the direction this country is going in but feel either paralyzed or reluctant to join in any activity. If your expectation of protest is that there will be a rapid response, an indication from authorities that the action has even been noticed, disappointment is sure to follow. Typically even when large numbers gather, the media under reports numbers and it is framed as being an unusual “event” rather than a fairly benign one.
People who protest aren’t radicals, they are simply exercising their right to free speech and assembly but America is increasing reflecting other states in which capitalism flourishes in absence of civic action. Indeed, the new emerging democratic model seems to be one in which people have theoretical rights but aren’t actually supposed to invoke them. People protest for a variety of personal/political/ and moral/spiritual reasons and telling them that voicing these ideals “don’t matter” and that they aren’t “effective” is arrogant. I would apply that critique even to peaceful protests on subjects I stringently disagree with. I might disagree, but I won’t ever claim they are a waste of time. Watching reality TV is a waste of time, having enough conviction to stand alone on a street corner holding up a sign is not. Using your voice is never a waste of time and anybody who tells you it is, is either struggling to find their own voice and envious or fearful of your message.
I attended a small protest last week and I actually do have a few criticisms. The fact that it was small was of no consequence to me. I was intrigued by the one obvious paradox, while the group of people were cheery and amiable, very few people struck up a conversation with me. Most came with friends or other groups and clearly all knew one another. My take on the Memphis activist scene at least with regards to the anti-war effort, is that it might suffer from a bit of clique behavior. My advice to wanna be community activists is that if you see a stranger at one of your events, go introduce yourself or designate somebody in your group to look for and cultivate newbies. A few people saw my camera and asked if I was from the media and when I explained it was a hobby, they lost interest. That certainly won’t discourage me from attending future events but at a time when community activists are interested in engaging “ordinary” Americans on the big issues like the war, somebody with thinner skin than I might have concluded they weren’t necessary or welcome.
Mar 28 2008
I know that our fine, upstanding, Corporation assisting Bush Administration is assuring us that this whole credit / housing market mess is just a “blip” on the US economic screen, and that all the “indicators” still project a strong economy, but Americans just don’t seem to be feeling it.
From CNN:
When she was laid off in February, Patricia Guerrero was making $70,000 a year. Weeks later, with bills piling up and in need of food for her family, this middle-class mother did something she never thought she would do: She went to a food bank.