Sep 26 2011
 Muse in the Morning |
Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.
| You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.
–Buddha |
 Blue and Gray |
Sep 26 2011
In too many countries, power has been concentrated in the hands of the few.
The United States opposes the use of violence and repression against the people of the region.
80 Occupy Wall Street Protesters were arrested yesterday alone. There were numerous reports of brutality. This violent repression happened here, is still happening here. The region is New York, sir. Wall Street to be exact. Why are you not against violence to people of that region?
Our message is simple: if you take the risks that reform entails, you will have the full support of the United States.
The officer in the video responded on YouTube (misspellings intact):
“ATTENTION: My name is Officer Larson of the NYPD and I am the one you see in this video lawfully restraining that dissident, in response to his aggressive posturing.
If any of you have a problem with that, please send me a private message with your address, and I’ll go down to your house, and drop-kick you in your dumb, beligerent mouths.”
That is the full support of the United States for the risk of peaceful protest. Here, anyway. Which is to say, no support at all. In fact quite the opposite of support. GOVERNMENT OPPOSITION.
Sep 26 2011
The recent results from CERN (the acronym for the original name for the outfit, Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) about neutrinos being propagated faster than light speed has caught a lot of attention. I am still not convinced that the data are correct, but 15,000 individual measurements at the high certainty that is claimed certainly gets one’s attention.
I am not prepared to say whether or not these results are valid as of yet. The folks at CERN are begging other laboratories with comparable apparatus and expertise to verify (or to refute) the findings. That is how science is supposed to work!
However, 15,000 individual determinations are a LOT of data! Let us for the moment take the data at face value and assume that this is not a fluke nor a mistake, but an actual “violation” of the Special Theory of Relativity that indicates that no massive particle can exceed the speed of light, henceforth called c. Ready to do some thought experiments? I am! Let us go!
Sep 26 2011
Our regular featured content-
These featured articles-
our weekly feature-
Our special coverage of the Singapore Grand Prix–
This is an Open Thread
Sep 25 2011
“They lay there, clinging to one another and trying to shield the more vulnerable parts of their bodies from the blows of the nightsticks, while the police hauled them apart and dragged them bodily into waiting patrol wagons.”
– NY Times, March 31, 1948
Every once in a while an underdog defeats a Titan.
This isn’t one of those times.
It isn’t the victory of an underdog that inspires us so much as it is the incredible courage it takes to even challenge the overwhelming champion.
Sixty-three years ago the labor movement took the fight literally to capitalism’s door-step in one of the most lopsided battles in history. The name of the underdog that championed the cause was Merritt David Keefe.
Sep 25 2011
In my usual cryptic incoherent style I have presented yet another article about which nobody has a clue nor even cares. Why. Well the vast majority thinks not as I do in the live and let live category. That freedom of choice thing once a US Constitutional certainty now gives way to “Oh my God, you didn’t get your seasonal flu shot?” “What is wrong with you.”
A modern day Saint.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
Tyranny for certain.
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Tyr…
Johnathan does an excellent job fighting against/researching and illustrating fraudulent big pharma practices and how government “regulatory” agencies, or rather Big pharma’s bitch is made to enforce the profit margins of these multi-nationals who are and have already exported most of this industry outside of the continental US. Well, OK I have extrapolated that last comment myself but I can reference that long lost industry electronics.
Simple Googles for this.
Foxconn+suicide nets
big pharma litigation
and of course codex alimentarius
Are Purelle dispensers less used today that in the height of the mandatory swine flue shot era? Are there stats on this? Do people still pay attention to those workplace posters admonishing “Clean hands SAVE LIVES” or have these things somehow been relegated to that bullshit which corporate promotes and turns into a sour deal, sort of like that dire need of purchasing burial insurance for your three year old. That prospect of never again having neither conventional nor alternative medical security in this post 911 security obscessed world.
On a more personal note. Can I buy the horse farm. Should I buy the horse farm and is the rest of my family willing and able to lend a hand in doing so. Even my very psychic self and the spirit guides are silent. Not a good sign. It is a leap of faith to prosperity or bankruptcy for all involved.
Sep 25 2011
Cross-posted at Firedoglake.com
I posted this on Grayson’s website:
http://congressmanwithguts.com/
Hello Alan-
I am a former supporter and donator to your first campaign, and have generally been very impressed with the positions you have taken. I heard you on Sam Seder’s show of Wednesday the 21st, though, and must say that I am very disappointed to hear you denigrate the idea of a primary challenge to President Obama.
I have asked a number of high-profile progressives what they would think about a primary challenger, and of the ones who have taken the negative position, the reasoning seems to boil down to the old “lesser-of-two-evils” argument-that no matter how little difference there appears to be between Obama and Bush on matters of substance, we still must reelect Obama because he’s, I don’t know, not a Republican, or not as illiterate as Bush, or something. The best argument I’ve heard is the Supreme Court one: If we don’t put Obama back in, then when the critical 5th vote comes up, we’ll get another evil corporatist. This fails on a number of levels: Change originates from an organized electorate, not from the top down, for one; and for another, Obama has never done anything to in any way hinder the oligarchy, so where does the idea come from that, at such a critical moment, he would suddenly change? Not a good reason to support Obama, or to fear a Republican win.
Sep 25 2011
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
A Message From Occupied Wall Street (Day Eight)
If you wait long enough, they will come but not necessarily to join you.
Glenn Greenwald Tweets the media hypocrisy
The corrupting effects of journalistic “objectivity” and Occupy Wall Street: http://is.gd/QuxYmY Paging @jayrosen_nyu
America’s future rallies near Wall Street- Lend them an ear!
t’s hard to walk in lower Manhattan without noticing a dense police presence. At first a passerby is likely to think that the NYPD is there to protect the 9-11 Memorial, but soon they’ll realize that it’s something else. There’s a protest happening nearby.
A few blocks away there are about 1000 young people assembled- they’re playing instruments, dancing happily and carrying signs that say things like The American Dream is a Pyramid Scheme, Stop Wall Street Greed, Americans Against Bankster Parasites and so on…
“We’re peacefully protesting economic injustice,” says seventeen year old Lucas Vazquez, “We don’t believe that politicians from either party are going to make things better for us.”
The “we” he’s referring to is a movement that goes by names like “General Assembly” and “Occupy Wall Street”. Vazquez says its aim is to create a participatory democracy.
Should Blacks Answer Obama’s Call To March By Joining ‘Occupy Wall Street’?
N A ROUSING SPEECH delivered at the 41st Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference, President Obama urged African Americans to keep the faith as African Americans struggle against a 17 percent unemployment rate and 40 percent poverty rate for their children.
snip
Obama said he was “going to press on for the sake of all those families who are struggling right now… [but] I expect all of you to march with me and press on. Take off your bedroom slippers, put on your marching shoes. Shake it off. Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying. We are going to press on.”
As it happens the most potent protest to occur in recent decades is occurring at this moment in New York where ‘Occupy Wall Street’ is calling attention to the U.S.’s “corporate greed and corrupt politics.” Eighty protesters were arrested Saturday.
‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters Regroup at Liberty Plaza With Pizza, Tales of Battle
The Observer arrived at Liberty Plaza-the site of the camps, kitchen and “media tent” holding up the backend of the “Occupy Wall Street” protest that has been going for six days-just after 3:30 p.m.
Today’s march, which started on Wall St. and headed up to Washington Square Park and then to Union Square-was winding its way back, having lost a few dozen good men to police custody, a.k.a. an out-of-service MTA bus. A protester, Josh Lewis, is tweeting from zipties on the bus, which he reports made its way eventually to 1 Police Plaza.
If you can’t be there in person: DONATE
Sep 25 2011
Our upgrade has left a few artifacts some of which I can correct, like the labels of our ratings system.
I’m firmly convinced of the utility of the Wrong! and Hide ratings and the useless confusion of trying to encapsulate every possible reaction to a comment in snide labels and outlandish numeric gradation.
The question on the table is-
‘Pony’ (for which I have historical affection) or ‘Excellent’.
Vote and talk amongst yourselves.
Sep 25 2011
Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette
Find the past “On This Day in History” here.
September 25 is the 268th day of the year (269th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 97 days remaining until the end of the year.
On this day in 1789, the Bill of Rights passes Congress.
The first Congress of the United States approves 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, and sends them to the states for ratification. The amendments, known as the Bill of Rights, were designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guaranteeing the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government were reserved for the states and the people.
The Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. They were introduced by James Madison to the First United States Congress in 1789 as a series of articles, and came into effect on December 15, 1791, when they had been ratified by three-fourths of the States. An agreement to create the Bill of Rights helped to secure ratification of the Constitution itself. Thomas Jefferson was a supporter of the Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights prohibits Congress from making any law respecting any establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, guarantees free speech, free press, free assembly and association and the right to petition government for redress, forbids infringement of “…the right of the people to keep and bear Arms…”, and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. In federal criminal cases, it requires indictment by a grand jury for any capital or “infamous crime”, guarantees a speedy, public trial with an impartial jury composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy. In addition, the Bill of Rights states that “the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people,” and reserves all powers not specifically granted to the federal government to the people or the States. Most of these restrictions were later applied to the states by a series of decisions applying the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, after the American Civil War.
The question of including a Bill of Rights in the body of the Constitution was discussed at the Philadelphia Convention on September 12, 1787. George Mason “wished the plan [the Constitution] had been prefaced with a Bill of Rights.” Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts “concurred in the idea & moved for a Committee to prepare a Bill of Rights.” Mr Sherman argued against a Bill of Rights stating that the “State Declarations of Rights are not repealed by this Constitution.” Mason then stated “The Laws of the U. S. are to be paramount to State Bills of Rights.” The motion was defeated with 10-Nays, 1-Absent, and No-Yeas.
Madison proposed the Bill of Rights while ideological conflict between Federalists and anti-Federalists, dating from the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, threatened the final ratification of the new national Constitution. It largely responded to the Constitution’s influential opponents, including prominent Founding Fathers, who argued that the Constitution should not be ratified because it failed to protect the fundamental principles of human liberty. The Bill was influenced by George Mason’s 1776 Virginia Declaration of Rights, the 1689 English Bill of Rights, works of the Age of Enlightenment pertaining to natural rights, and earlier English political documents such as Magna Carta (1215).
Two other articles were proposed to the States; only the last ten articles were ratified contemporaneously. They correspond to the First through Tenth Amendments to the Constitution. The proposed first Article, dealing with the number and apportionment of U.S. Representatives, never became part of the Constitution. The second Article, limiting the power of Congress to increase the salaries of its members, was ratified two centuries later as the 27th Amendment. Though they are incorporated into Madison’s document known as the “Bill of Rights”, neither article established protection of a right. For that reason, and also because the term had been applied to the first ten amendments long before the 27th Amendment was ratified, the term “Bill of Rights” in modern U.S. usage means only the ten amendments ratified in 1791.
The Bill of Rights plays a key role in American law and government, and remains a vital symbol of the freedoms and culture of the nation. One of the first fourteen copies of the Bill of Rights is on public display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
