January 7, 2009 archive

Putting my money where my fingers are.

Photobucket

So, yesterday in a diary about the looming shortage of uppercase I’s and P’s (not to mention the dire virgules (“/”) epidemic (warning: link to the GOS) there was some back and forth about “heads in sand” and “trying to silence discussion” to which I responded:

There are HUNDREDS of places in the world where people are dying RIGHT NOW… of starvation… of genocide… of apathy… of dehydration and NONE OF THOSE PLACES get 1/3 the screen time here (or anywhere else on the web) because they’re just not “SEXY” in an anger inducing way. And the next Israel vs. Palestine diary that seeks to HELP anyone may be the FIRST of these diaries I’ve ever seen.

I was referred to THIS DIARY by the Droogester which has some GREAT links for giving aide to the people who are actually suffering in Israel, but then… as if on command… the WHAT ABOUT YOU MIRROR on my computer screen was automatically enabled and suddenly I was staring right at myself.

Failure in Government

I have supported Barack Obama, but every time he appoints a rightwinger or a centrist (who are nothing more than rightwingers with apologies IMO) I lose a little hope.

I quote my friend TocqueDeville in DrSteveB’s earlier diary, Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General – worse than I thought:

I see it as a continuation of the same battle (20+ / 0-)

I’ve been having for the last 20 plus years.

If this pans out then it will be just another failed Obama appointment, along with a couple of good ones – maybe.

All of his appointments combined demonstrate what the late professor Carroll Quigley, of Harvard Princeton and Georgetown described about how the American political system is rigged so that we can have a great big election and real power never really changes hands. [emphasis my own ~ OPOL]

by TocqueDeville

The real power never really changes hands.

Four at Four

  1. Five former Blackwater mercenaries plead not guilty in the Nisoor Square massacre in Baghdad in 2007 reports the Washington Post. The men are charged with “14 counts of voluntary manslaughter, 20 counts of attempting to commit manslaughter and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence. They will face a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years if convicted of the firearms charge.” A sixth former Blackwater mercenary “pleaded guilty last month to voluntary manslaughter and attempting to commit manslaughter and is cooperating with the government”.

    Also, the Seattle Times reports of another Blackwater mercenary to be charged with Iraqi bodyguard killing. The Department of Justice plans to charge former Blackwater mercenary Andrew Moonen for fatally shooting Raheem Khalif, the bodyguard for Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, outside the vice president’s quarters after a drunken Christmas party in Baghdad’s secure “Green Zone” in 2006.

  2. The Washington Post reports Military judge’s order could keep public from hearing details of 9/11 trials.

    The protective order, which was signed on Dec. 18 by Judge Stephen R. Henley, an Army colonel, not only protects documents and information that have been classified by intelligence agencies, it also presumptively classifies any information “referring” to a host of agencies, including the CIA, the FBI and the State Department. The order also allows the court in certain circumstances to classify information already in the public domain and presumptively classifies “any statements made by the accused.”

    The ruling will, for example, prevent public scrutiny of the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Four at Four continues with nearly $2 trillion U.S. budget deficit and eating gray squirrels in Britain.

Dharmathon for Edger

Hey folks, it sounds like Edger is…a bit on the Edge.

Like, seriously.

Please pop over to OOIBC and hit the Paypal button and give what you can to help him keep food in the belly and a roof overhead. Every little bit helps, and helping is what we are about. Especially helping someone who works so hard at helping others.

Thanks.

Change: Not just a slogan anymore!

As we struggle through the emotional gut punch of PERHAPS having Soapblox shut down and PERHAPS having the blog affected, all I can think of is…

Change.

It’s HERE!

And of course change, especially on this big of a level, does NOT mean just the things we don’t like changing for the better. It means EVERYTHING will change. Including the things we don’t want to change. The things that comfort and please us will change too.

We are leaving a time where change has been repressed. But change IS life itself. It is the Life Force that changes things….and the Life Force cannot be repressed for long. And very often the change that comes after repression is sudden swift and “violent.” Violent in the sense that change has been pressing forward against the repression and once freed….tends to explode.

In unexpected directions and in unexpected ways. Be prepared, emotionally, for huge swings, explosions of good and bad, and expect the unexpected.

Buckle up. (not that it will do any good)

Stock up on the things you love. (not that it will do any good)

And Hold Onto Your Hats! (not that it will do any good.)

Change is here.

UPDATE from Soapblox: Phoenix!?!

The very definition of irony … amid Celebration

Irony

(from the Ancient Greek ???????? eironeĆ­a, meaning hypocrisy, deception, or feigned ignorance) is a literary or rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or discordance between what one says or does and what one means or what is generally understood. Irony is a mode of expression that calls attention to discrepancy between two levels of knowledge.

Yesterday was a marvelous day, on many levels, with some great people newly sworn into Congress, on both the Senate and House sides.  …

The irony …

Of watching Dick Cheney administer the oath of office to the Senators of the 111th Congress.

Soapblox going down?!?!?!?!

Hey guys this looks for real.  

from the Front Page at DKos

Servers have been hacked and sites are going dark.  If you have any content you want to save better do it quick.

I haven’t had any communication from Soapblox but pacified posted this on the Soapblox page:  SoapBlox is Dead

OMG!

URGENT info about soapblox (updated)

From  Dean Barker in dKos essay

Soapblox sites hacked? Info gathering thread

(+)   SoapBlox is Dead

by: pacified

[subscribe]

January 07, 2009 at 08:15:46 MST

It was a good ride, but it’s over.

Thanks for all the fish.

All these hackers messing with our stuff, and we here at SoapBlox have no clue what to do.  We don’t have enough knowledge, time, money, or care to fix it.

So I hope the Hackers are happy.

If you want the data from your blog, we will get it.  But we are not going to try and restore anything.

Consider this the “We’re Out of Business” post.

Most of the servers have been taken off line because they were being used to hack and exploit other websites.  The hackers install this crap on servers after they get in.  SoapBlox’s ISP then takes the servers off line.

We do not know when they will come back online.

We do not know if they will come back online.

Open Thread

 

Who knows what thread lurks in the hearts of men?

to everything, there is a season

everything has a time stamp. it’s there, telling us how long til we walk, talk, or go from trike to bike. there’s a time for our first kiss and our last breath  . . .

even bloggers have a shelf life. really. there’s that hard-to-define moment that tells you: it’s time to move on.

now it’s my turn. one more among the many in the blog-o-sphere diaspora to find their time done at a certain place.

it’s my turn. to have found that moment. at this particular place.  

Ready for the union

Original article, a comment subtitled Adam Turl looks at what unions can do for young workers–and what youth could do for organized labor, via socialistworker.org:

A RECENT study, “Unions and Upward Mobility for Young Workers,” by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) confirms that the need to join unions couldn’t be a more pressing issue for those coming of age today.

Muse in the Morning

Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Muse in the Morning

Broken Dreams

Self-absorption

I’ve seen your claims

that you desire

a better world

Why is changing

your behavior

not a footstep

along that path?

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 9, 2008

Load more