The contrarian in me is screaming that Reuters’ recent piece on food prices is the food inflation equivalent to Businessweek’s famous “Stocks are dead” headline from a 1982 issue. Yet another piece is whispering in my hear “baby, it ain’t over yet!”
August 22, 2008 archive
Aug 22 2008
Four at Four
Welcome to phone-it-in Friday. Where I’m off in the wilderness, totally oblivious to whom Obama has chosen as a running mate and any other breaking news story. So, please post a news story or two and help fill in the gaps.
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The CS Monitor reports on Germany’s key to green energy.
Germany is in the throes of a green revolution that has made it the global leader in solar- and wind-power generation.
The reason? A pioneering law that requires utilities to buy electricity from renewable sources at premium rates. This means anyone with a rooftop solar generator or a small water turbine can sell the energy they produce at a healthy profit.
The Congress and six states, according to article, are weighing similar bills here in the U.S. “The goal behind feed-in tariffs is to foster a growing network of small and medium-size energy producers.”
Supporters of the policy argue that such a grass-roots movement is the only way renewable energy will ever be deployed on a large scale. “The big energy companies have too many vested interests in sticking with conventional energy sources,” explains Hermann Scheer, a veteran parliamentarian who pioneered Germany’s feed-in tariff. “They will never be the driving force behind renewables.”
Meanwhile in Back to whale oil, Grist reports that John McCain claims “the truly clean technologies don’t work”. “Late last year, after his campaign tanked, no one was paying much attention to McCain. As a result, some of the amazing things that he believes didn’t get a lot of attention”:
John McCain: “When you say wind solar and tide, most every expert that I know says that, if you maximize that in every possible way, the contribution that that would make given the present state of technology is very small, is very small. It’s not a large contribution. It’s wonderful, it’s great to have it, I encourage it everywhere. I hope everyone will, for Christmas, buy their family a solar panel. But, that would be exciting. But they, but, I’d be glad to send you the figures that there’s the amount of — even if we gave it the absolute maximum, uh, wind, solar and tide, uh, etc. The clean tech — the truly clean technologies don’t work.”
(Town Hall Meeting; Portsmouth, N.H. 12/04/07)
And here’s the video on YouTube proving McCain, once again, is an idiot.
John McCain shouldn’t even be in the U.S. Senate, let alone be running for the presidency.
Four at Four continues with stories about a man eating mountain in Bolivia, smart magpies, solving a 100 million-year-old galactic mystery, and a BONUS Bus GAME.
Aug 22 2008
Through the Darkest of Nights: Testament XXXIV
Every few days over the next several months I will be posting installments of a novel about life, death, war and politics in America since 9/11. Through the Darkest of Nights is a story of hope, reflection, determination, and redemption. It is a testament to the progressive values we all believe in, have always defended, and always will defend no matter how long this darkness lasts. But most of all, it is a search for identity and meaning in an empty world.
Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb, we did not know our mother’s face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father’s heart? Which of us has not remained prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? ~Thomas Wolfe
All installments are available for reading here on Docudharma’s Series page, and also here on Docudharma’s Fiction Page, where refuge from politicians, blogging overload, and one BushCo outrage after another can always be found.
Aug 22 2008
Thank You Maddow Movement Petitioners!
The folks over at Brave New Films (who put out just fantastic stuff!) sent me a mail today asking if I was planning anything to thank all the folks who signed the Maddow Movement petition. Unbeknownst to me they had posted the petition on their site back when we were pushing it Being a complete boor and social misfit,…….I wasn’t! But thanks to their gentle kick in the posterior….I am! Though I would love to take credit for Rachel getting her own show and Keith did go out of his way (ha!) to thank me personally (ha! The Sequel!) in his announcement diary over at Daily Kos…..
5) Yes, you had something to do with it.
(What, KO, no crosspost??!!??)
…… the lion’s share of the credit (duh!) goes to Rachel herself for kicking serious bee-hind on the tee-vee. And then to the over 1400 people who signed the petition and all the others, on the Net and off, who Yelled Loudly enough to get some attention on this. Then to Keith for ‘sponsoring’ her…and finally to the suits over at NBC for finally realizing what a gem they had on their hands and giving her the show. If there were credits scrolling, I would be under the gaffers and grips.
Yay Rachel!
The main thing of course, is that we ALL win here by getting another sharp, witty, cogent, LEFT WING voice on cable news…and who knows maybe even one day the Mother Ship of NBC itself! As it says in the petition:
Aug 22 2008
“American Prayer”
The song always contained one of my favorite passages from Dr. King, which was hauntingly delivered the night before he was assassinated. King says: “I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!”
There’s abit more at the link and the ability to download the song from his site.
If change is to come it will take All Of Us, to Succeed!!
Aug 22 2008
Olympic Protesters Punished Without Trials
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
Evidently, it’s not a really good idea to assert free speech rights in China or to protest the policies of the Chinese government. If you’re Chinese, as I previously wrote, you can be sent to “re-education through labor” if you apply five times to get a permit to protest legally. And what if you’re a US Citizen and you protest? You are summarily punished without trial. Or deported. After all, protests about freedom for Tibet, or anything else that might offend you about the Chinese Government’s policies, might tarnish the luster of the perfect, mechanistic Olympics.
The New York Times reports:
Six Americans who were taken into custody on Tuesday as they tried to protest against China’s rule in Tibet have been given 10-day detentions, the Chinese police said Friday.
But members of their organization, the New York-based Students for a Free Tibet, said that they had no information about four other protesters – two Americans, a German and a British citizen – who were detained early Thursday during a protest near the National Stadium. Extrajudicial detentions are a common form of punishment for Chinese dissidents, but are rarely handed out to foreigners, who are often deported almost immediately after being taken into custody. Members of Students for a Free Tibet have staged eight protests involving 55 people since the Olympics began on Aug. 8, and human rights advocates said the government might be seeking to deter those contemplating similar activities in the Games’ final days.
/snip
Reached by telephone, Public Security Bureau officials declined to comment, but faxed a two-sentence statement explaining that the six Americans had been “apprehended for upsetting public order.” The statement, which did not include the detainees’ names, said the men were being held at the Dongcheng police station.
You read that right. Extrajudicial detentions means punishment without trial. And the offense is “upsetting public order.”
What exactly did these protesters do that so grievously “upset public order”?
Most of the organization’s demonstrations have involved unfurling “Free Tibet” banners or displaying Tibetan flags, which are illegal in China. In the latest action, four protesters raised their fists and shouted slogans while waving a Tibetan flag near the National Stadium. As at the other protests, the participants were quickly bundled off by plainclothes police officers.
So. The protesters are summarily detained and punished without trial. But it gets more interesting:
Two photographers for The Associated Press were also roughed and taken into custody, according to news agency reports and press freedom advocates. The police questioned them for 30 to 40 minutes and took the memory cards from their cameras.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has received dozens of complaints from foreign journalists who have been detained, trailed or had equipment damaged by the police.
How dare anyone so grievously upset public order during the Olympics! How dare newspeople and photographers actually do their jobs and record the protests! Didn’t Chairman Mao write, “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend?” Well maybe. But he must not have meant during the Olympics.
Aug 22 2008
The Patriotism Puzzle
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it. George Bernard Shaw
The nation is divided, half patriots and half traitors, and no man can tell which from which. Mark Twain
Patriotism is a arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles
George Jean Nathan
Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.
Bertrand Russell
Just saying you’re patriotic is like saying you have a big cock. If you have to say it, chances are it’s probably not true. Bill Maher
You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or says it.Malcolm X
Patriotism is the religion of Hell. James Cabell
I have always had an uneasy relationship with patriotism. As it happens I grew up in a country where the expression of was rather muted. Canadian patriotism has often been infused with a tinge of smugness: hey we aren’t American, as if that was something that conferred moral righteousness.Yay. We aren’t a British colony any more! Indeed much of the debate over Canadian nationalism has been a discussion of what Canadians aren’t. Sharing a continent with the United States can create a sort of defensive resentment that can sound petulant.
Then I moved to the United States. And I started to wonder: Does God bless America mean fuck everybody else? Is America only a “great” country if we are “number one”? Why does a country have to be smothered in greatness to be a decent one? Is patriotism like a gravy that has to be dumped on something to either cover the rancid taste or to enhance the ingredients?
I suppose my ongoing internal reverberations about patriotism have been stimulated by watching the horrific coverage of the Olympics and the realization that much of the election will be dotted by accusations and counter accusations about who is the greater patriot.
Hilarity was abundant during Olympic coverage when I noted that half the time the networks chose to focus exclusively on American who did not even medal which would have been just fine if they had showed the medal performances. Then there was the “cold war” tone when China and the US squared off in events. Do the networks think Americans are so insecure they cannot stand to watch something Americans don’t win?
Are Americans so insecure they cannot watch a sporting event in which Americans don’t win?
Aug 22 2008
The Long War
For those who have not noticed, the Global War on Terror has morphed into what is now being labeled as “The Long War”.
Soon after the neo-cons got their “Pearl Harbor”, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Americans what to expect. “Forget about ‘exit strategies, we’re looking at a sustained engagement that carries no deadlines.”
Donald Rumsfeld is today a discredited and widely reviled figure. Robert Gates, Rumsfeld’s successor as Defense secretary, is generally admired for manifesting qualities that Rumsfeld lacked — a willingness to listen not least among them. Yet on one crucial point, the two see eye to eye: Both believe that the United States has no alternative but to wage a global war likely to last decades.
LA Times The ‘Long War’ Fallacy by Andrew J. Bacevich
Speaking at West Point in April of this year, Gates, echoed his predecessor’s assessment. “There are no exit strategies.” Gates described a “generational campaign” entailing “many years of persistent, engaged combat all around the world.”
Aug 22 2008
The Long War
For those who have not noticed, the Global War on Terror has gradually morphed into what is now being labeled as “The Long War”.
Soon after the neo-cons got their “Pearl Harbor”, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Americans what to expect. “Forget about ‘exit strategies, we’re looking at a sustained engagement that carries no deadlines.”
Donald Rumsfeld is today a discredited and widely reviled figure. Robert Gates, Rumsfeld’s successor as Defense secretary, is generally admired for manifesting qualities that Rumsfeld lacked — a willingness to listen not least among them. Yet on one crucial point, the two see eye to eye: Both believe that the United States has no alternative but to wage a global war likely to last decades.
LA Times The ‘Long War’ Fallacy by Andrew J. Bacevich
Speaking at West Point in April of this year, Gates, echoed his predecessor’s assessment. “There are no exit strategies.” Gates described a “generational campaign” entailing “many years of persistent, engaged combat all around the world.”
Aug 22 2008
Condi, Condi, Condi…………………..
You gotta get your ducks all in a row there before tooting those horns:
At a press conference she and Zebari said the negotiators were close to signing the deal but cautioned it had not yet been clinched.
Everyone says how intelligent you are, and after all you’re the Secretary of State with a whole department working for you, or are they being allowed to.
Aug 22 2008
Docudharma Times Friday August 22
How Many Homes Do You Own?
I Don’t Know
You’re Qualified To Run For President
Iraq Takes Aim at Leaders of U.S.-Tied Sunni Groups
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
Published: August 21, 2008
BAGHDAD – The Shiite-dominated government in Iraq is driving out many leaders of Sunni citizen patrols, the groups of former insurgents who joined the American payroll and have been a major pillar in the decline in violence around the nation.
In restive Diyala Province, United States and Iraqi military officials say there were orders to arrest hundreds of members of what is known as the Awakening movement as part of large security operations by the Iraqi military. At least five senior members have been arrested there in recent weeks, leaders of the groups say.
Edgy Georgians now thinking about resisting invasion
By Tom Lasseter | McClatchy Newspapers
GORI, Georgia – After more than a week of Russian troops occupying his town, Kishvardi Taturashvili said the time for resistance was drawing near.The Russian armored fighting vehicles that are blocking routes in and out of Gori are slowing the flow of humanitarian aid and stifling trade, he said.
Travel is controlled by Russian soldiers; a McClatchy reporter was turned back at checkpoints, and had to slip in via a footbridge.
USA
US candidates face up to image problem
· Obama seems too anxious and McCain lacks emotion
· Facial and vocal analysis shows poll race weakness
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
The Guardian,
Friday August 22 2008
Barack Obama, who is generally regarded as a gifted orator, would do well to find time to unwind before he delivers the speech of his lifetime to the Democratic party’s convention next week.A new analysis of Obama’s voice patterns and the delivery of his speeches made available to the Guardian yesterday, found the Democratic candidate somewhat restricted in his range of facial expression.
Specifically, Obama’s face is locked in an almost permanent attitude of anxiety, with his forehead muscles contracted.
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