January 2009 archive

Open Thread

From NOLA blogger Raymond Ward at Minor Wisdom this:

The coolest thing I’ve seen in a while is the Photographic Dictionary. While most dictionaries define words with other words, “the photographic dictionary is dedicated to defining words through the literal, figurative, and personal meanings found in each photograph.” Go have a look, but be prepared to find yourself transfixed. (Hat tip to Slaw.ca.)

Open Thread is Open!

Quote for Discussion: Kerry Howley on the limits of Journalism

There is a tendency among those of us who value freedom of speech to believe that the virtuous thing to do is to speak out, access be damned. I don’t know that that is always the right impulse. I don’t know that I did the right thing in trading access to people trapped in Burma for a few opinion pieces critiquing vapid  Western media coverage of the country. The world does not need another American reporter declaring the junta barbaric and incompetent, a position for which there is almost no opposition in the United States. Indeed, those intent on raising awareness have done harm by encouraging both economic sanctions and hardliners within the junta.  I have never understood how American “awareness” of the Myanmar situation was supposed to help the Burmese trishaw driver surviving on two meals a day.

There is one young woman in Myanmar who continues to write me from time to time, thanking me for the time I spent coaching her toward competent journalism. I spent months teaching her how to structure a piece, a skill that does not come at all naturally to people raised in countries without an independent journalistic tradition. Surely helping her shape a single article was more important than any Burma-related op-ed I’ve written. And yet I’ve traded the right to go back-to have influence over individual lives-for the right to spill some ink. I am a journalist by nature, and it’s possible that I would do it all over again. But there is at least an argument to be made for playing by the rules of a paranoid military dictatorship to maintain access to the lives inside.

Kerry Howley, Sad Thoughts on Being Kicked Out of Military Dictatorships

Poem about 60’s freaks

The Wine is Ready

how many

of those

tripping boys and girls

were mad bodhisattvas

not needing to trip at all

or tripping heavy

didn’t matter

their presence

a shower of benediction

planting seeds of

brand new ways

to be!

They were everywhere

but never said much

about that.

Except maybe

“wow, man.”

Too young to have

known them then,

I find myself

hilariously blessed

now in the new

Millennium.

Goofy moon

Juney loon

in January

Happy Lunar New Year to All.

Can you say “frog march”?

Congressman John Conyers has upped the ante, issuing a fresh, brand spankin’ new subpoena for KKKarl Rove, requiring his appearance “to testify regarding his role in the Bush Administration’s politicization of the Department of Justice, including the US Attorney firings and the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.”

Poor Karl, no friendly occupant in the White House to shelter him now. With negligible legal standing, it’s looking as though he may actually have to show up and defend himself against charges of organized politicization of hirings and firings in the Justice Department.

Four at Four

  1. The Guardian reports the Global recession claims 67,000 jobs in a day. More than 67,000 jobs were destroyed today as corporations across the U.S., Britain, and Europe announced lay offs.

    Big companies around the globe lay off tens of thousands, adds the NY Times. “The United States economy has dropped some 2.59 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007, and unemployment rose to 7.2 percent last month. Economists worry that the economy could now be losing as many as 600,000 jobs a month, and they said Monday’s layoff announcements served to underline the stricken state of the labor market.”

    And the Banking crisis topples its first government, adds The Guardian. In Iceland, Prime Minster Geir Haarde “announced the immediate resignation of his government because of the country’s severe financial crisis, which saw the collapse of the currency and banking system.”

  2. The LA Times reports Vice President Biden expects more U.S. casualties in Afghanistan.

    “We’ve inherited a real mess” in Afghanistan, Biden said. “We’re about to go in and try to essentially reclaim territory that’s been effectively lost. . . . All of this means we’re going to be engaging the enemy more now.”

Four at Four continues with an update from Iraq, China denies currency manipulation, and change in Bolivia.

FTA Is Back!!

Premiere Screenings of FTA in Los Angeles and New York

Email from Siegelman: Tell Specter to Release Hold on Holder

This diary is in the way of a community alert.  Over the fold is the body of an email being sent out by Don Siegelman about Specter’s hold on the Holder confirmation.  Let’s sound off on this.  These creeps are trying to subvert justice.

The confirmation of President Obama’s choice for U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, is being held up by Senator Arlen Specter and others.

guard home

State campaigns are active in Alaska, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Vermont, Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington D.C., Wisconsin, and new states are joining all the time.

National sponsors include AfterDowningStreet.org, Cities for Peace, CODEPINK, Courage to Resist, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Liberty Tree, Military Families Speak Out, Peace Action, Progressive Democrats of America, United for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, and U.S. Labor Against the War.

Summary:        Press conference launching the national “Bring the Guard Home! It’s the Law.” campaign. Legislators in over a dozen states plan legislation

           ending the unlawful overseas deployment of their National Guard units.

           The legislation limits Guard units to service within their respective

           states, unless called into federal service following a declaration of war

           or a duly enacted federal statute.

           Guard units currently in Iraq are there under the 2002 Authorization for

           the Use of Military Force. The 2002 AUMF having expired, the legisla-                

           tion recognizes, there is no lawful basis under which state Guard units    

           may be released into national service for deployment to Iraq.

Campaign Seeks To Keep National Guard At Home

BY KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL

Portland, OR  January 21, 2009 1:03 p.m.

E-mailDiscuss new!listendownload

A campaign aimed at keeping the Oregon National Guard in Oregon started Wednesday with a 7000 signature petition being handed into the Governor’s office. Kristian Foden-Vencil reports.

To learn more, see the videos of the national Press Release for the campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v… and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

http://news.opb.org/article/40…

Oregon Public Broadcasting

The campaign is part of an effort in 18 states to bring National Guard troops back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Supporters in Oregon have drafted a bill to enable Governor Ted Kulongoski to refuse a federal call up — unless there’s  a constitutionally authorized federal directive.

Leah Bolger of ‘Veterans for Peace’ says the current directive is not valid because it’s expired and troops are no longer there for the stated goal of finding weapons of mass destruction.

Leah Bolger: “The keep the guard home campaign is trying to empower governors to stand up and say I am responsible for my state’s welfare and I need the guard to stay here and I will not release them to federal authority unless there is a valid authorization.”

Kulongoski’s office sent a representative to accept the petition, but did not take a stance on the issue.

In the past, however, he has bemoaned the low availability of troops for wildfires and other local problems.  

Manufacturing Monday: An Open Letter to a New President

Greetings, Mister President, congratulations on your recent electoral victory and inauguration.  I, like many others, voted for you in the hopes that our nation would be steered in a new direction.  Normally, I try and put out a blog piece highlighting certain news and tidbits in regards to manufacturing in this country.  It’s not one of the best blogs in the world, nor one of the worst.  I’m no one of great importance either, just another blog writer among many who hope to voice an opinion or two or highlight something.  Trust me, there are much better bloggers out there.  Chances are you will never hear of this blog, or series, or entry.  Still, in the slight hope that you may hear about this or even read it, I wish to bring something up, that well to me at least, is of great importance.

Same Old Story

The Field Negro is a lawyer who lives in Philadelphia. He regularly reports on what he calls “Killadelphia,” his name for tracking the murder rate in his city (13 so far in the 26 days this year). And this weekend, he told the story of Dwayne Ramsey.

Earlier Tuesday, Dwayne had gone for his annual medical check-up, his mother said yesterday. He’d just gotten paid from his job at the McDonald’s in Plymouth Meeting.

The family returned home to watch the presidential inauguration and remained in high spirits the rest of the night, she said.

Later on, she grew hungry and Dwayne offered to treat.

He left and almost immediately Ramsey said she felt something was wrong.

‘I heard the shots and I got a sinking feeling,’ she said, her voice quivering.

She flung the blanket that was draped over her onto the floor, threw on a pair of pants, and, forgoing a coat, ran out.

On the corner, police and a crowd of curious neighbors had already congregated by the time she arrived. Ramsey tried to reach her son, who lay riddled with bullets on a small grassy area, but was held back by cops.

 

Transport Stimulus: Doing It Right

Adapted from an entry at Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence … links to crossposts may be found there.

OK, so, to make an egregiously long story merely excessively long, a very strange thing happened on the road to the Stimulus Package. As Rep. Oberstar told the U.S. Conference of Mayors:

That is why we set forth this $85-billion initiative from our committee. It’s been reduced in the final going. We expect that it’ll come out somewhere around $63 billion, but $30 billion for highways.

The reason for the reduction in overall funding … was the tax cut initiative that had to be paid for in some way by keeping the entire package in the range of $850 billion.

As I described in Transport Stimulus: You’re Doing It Wrong, actual effective stimulus spending was shortchanged — and in particular spending with substantial long term economic and strategic benefits — to “pay for” tax cuts.

In reality, if we want to be able to “afford” tax cuts, what we need first and foremost is growth, and economic growth requires effective government investment in the infrastructure of a New Energy Economy.

A power greater than their hoarded gold

Original article, by Adam Turl, via socialistworker.org:

IT ISN’T often that a member of the U.S. Congress acknowledges that the source of wealth in modern society is labor. But there was Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) at a rally outside the Republic Windows & Doors factory in Chicago in December, as workers inside occupied the plant.

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