Bill O’Reilly is broadcasting his “O’Reilly Fester” from Los Angeles all this week. We don’t particularly want him, but hey, it’s a free country – despite O’Reilly’s best efforts to promote authoritarian rule via his bullying brand of demagoguery.

The question I have is, “Why is he here?” Seeing as Billo is unlikely to return my calls, and I don’t have a producer like Stuttering Jesse Watters to ambush him at his hotel, I’m left with speculation.

One possibility is that the Academy Awards are being broadcast this Sunday. O’Reilly, well known narcissistic attention whore that he is, may want to rub shoulders with the celebrities he is so fond of bashing. It would not be the first time he has attempted to skim off some glory from those he routinely disparages. Two years ago, at the height of the Dixie Chicks controversy, he tried to shmooze Natalie Maines at a Time, Inc. party. She smacked that down in short order, but the same parasitic tendencies may have brought O’Reilly to Hollywood this week.

Newshounds theorizes that O’Reilly may have come to attend the winter retreat of the Republican National Committee at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. This $15,000 (minimum) per head affair featured appearances by Party big wigs including Karl Rove.

It should also be noted that we are in the middle of Nielsen’s February sweeps, one of the most important ratings periods of the year. O’Reilly may be hoping to goose his program’s performance by glitzing it up with Tinseltown glamour. Of course, the Oscars and the RepubliFest could both contribute on this measure.

But if the foregoing isn’t enough to hype the Nein-Spinster, it appears he is planning another event that can only be described as deliberately provocative and profoundly insensitive. O’Reilly is scheduled to appear at the Brentwood Theater on the grounds of the West LA Veteran’s Administration. That’s right – the Veteran’s Administration. The federal agency responsible for, amongst other things, programs to assist veterans who are homeless due to finances, emotional or physical disability, substance abuse, or other hardships. The agency that reports that there are a couple hundred thousand such veterans who are homeless. Now O’Reilly actually has the gall to show up at a facility whose purpose is to aid people who O’Reilly is on record as saying do not exist.

If anyone is in the Brentwood vicinity tomorrow, you might want to visit the VA and give Mr. O’Reilly the welcome he deserves. I wish there were more time to organize a proper reception, but a spontaneous turnout of some patriotic Americans (and hopefully some vets) to let O’Reilly know how we feel would be great. And while we’re at it, this would be a good time for Angelenos to tell O’Reilly that we don’t tolerate “lynching parties“ in these parts. Here is the information:

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 – 7:00pm (get there early)

The Brentwood Theater.

West LA Veteran’s Administration

11301 Wilshire Blvd

Brentwood, CA 90049

Tel: (310)479-3003

Brought to you by…

News Corpse

The Internet’s Chronicle Of Media Decay.

This is a review of Hutchinson, Mellor, and Olsen’s The Politics of Money, a critique of the money system that contains lots of good material, especially insofar as the authors’ discussion of the money system can be used to debunk the Republican dross about the sacredness of capitalism, but also insofar as the authors suggest a number of alternatives to the money system we currently have.

(crossposted at Big Orange)

Book review: Hutchinson, Frances, Mary Mellor and Wendy

Olsen.  The Politics of Money.  London: Pluto, 2002.

In American Presidential campaigns much is made of the role money plays in politics.  We speculate, for instance, upon how the candidates get their campaign moneys, and about what each candidate has to promise the donors, many of them importantly wealthy, in order to get the money they get.  But we rarely discuss the political ramifications of the money system itself; such a public conversation would be about how money is itself imbued with political meaning, and about what the omnipresence and omnipotence of money means for politics.  Money limits which futures are possible; other imagined futures are possible only if we were to find some way of transcending the world of money, as was pictured (for instance) in the science-fiction universe of Star Trek.

More specifically, when we talk about money, we discuss it in other ways; we talk about how people have become the slaves to money, how politicians are dependent upon it for success, or about how the Bush administration spends so much of it.  What we don’t talk about is what this thing we call “money” really is.

This gap in the discussion can be at least partially remedied by a reading of Hutchinson, Mellor and Olsen’s (2002) book The Politics of Money.  This book, written by three British women, is exemplary because it confronts how ideals, ideals of economic democracy and of sustainability often shared by “progressives,” can only be attained if the matter of money, not just how to get it and spend it, but of the money system per se, is confronted.  “New ways of theorizing and organizing economic systems are necessary if sustainable and equitable human societies are to be achieved,” the authors argue.

The first four chapters of this book enact a rather stunning critique of the money system.  No doubt this is so, not for its originality, as what is said here has probably been said before, but for the elegance and simplicity of its presentation.  The effect on the reader of reading the first four chapters is to clear the ground of all of the Republican dross about capitalism that typically dominates discussion about “the economy,” and so for that reason alone this book is an invaluable source for readers.  The latter chapters involve the reader in a rather complex look at alternatives to the current system.  The last chapter ties everything together.

The first chapter introduces us to “the money society,” in which “in capitalized market economies money means belonging.” (2)  Money isn’t something just to have, though: it’s also something to borrow: “Consumption isn’t just about having money; it is access to credit as people and countries consume far beyond their current wealth.” (3)  Credit, and financial speculation about credit, now of course rules the roost, with “a trillion or so dollars each day” changing hands.

The authors then proceed to a discussion of “the huge transfer of wealth from South to North through the loan shark system of North-South debt.”  (6)  The money economy, then, has concentrated wealth in the economies of the rich nations of the North, as wealth has been drained out of (at least) Africa and Latin America.  This concentration of the money economy, however, is not held to say anything definitive about the quality of life in said regions of the world.

The authors regard the field of economics as existing in a sort of bubble created by its own circular assumptions.  One of these assumptions is that “as long as it functions normally, money is considered to have no effect on the economic process, which is seen as operating on a barter principle, i.e. guns exchange for cabbages according to the operation of supply and demand in the market.” (13)  However, since economists only measure money values, no economic point of comparison exists between monetary values and values which can’t be monetized – we saw how this limited the economic comprehension of environmentalism and environmental values in my review of Joan Martinez-Alier’s book last month.

But, in a money economy, the exchange of guns for cabbages has to transact through money.  The cabbage sellers don’t necessarily want guns, and the gun-sellers don’t necessarily want cabbages, and so one sells cabbages for money in order to buy guns.  Money, however, is controlled, and is indeed created, by those with monetary power: the governments, the banks, the rich, and those with access to credit.  Economics, then, functions as the servant of this group of people:

Mainstream economic theory in effect operates as a system of rules, procedures and assumptions that justifies elite appropriation and manipulation of the material, social and intellectual resources of society through the institutions of the formal economy: property, finance, and markets.  The internal logic of economic theory only possesses an elegance in so far as it is detached from the wider reality that it is seen as a distinct ‘economic’ system.  For this, it is necessary to ignore the fact that the people who operate the formal economy and the materials they use originate outside the economic process… (14)

The money economy, then, exists within a larger universe, in which work is not always done for monetary reward, and in which human existence per se has an ecological basis.  And, lest anyone be further confused about the intent of the authors, they tell us this: “this book is not a debate within economics; it is a debate with economics. (24)

Chapter 2 summarizes the “basic assumptions of orthodox economics” and the authors critique therein.  Chapter 3 proceeds forward to a discussion of banking and economics.  Here we receive the news:

Currency speculation is now beyond control.  Writing in 2001 Lietaer calculated that $2 trillion were circulating per day whereas the total reserves of all the world’s banks was only $1.3 trillion of which $340 billion was in gold (2001:327). (54)

One should, perhaps, reflect upon these words when considering the monetarist doctrines of the Federal Reserve in its attempts to control the world economy.

At the end of Chapter 3 there is an excursus into the economic theories of John Law (1671-1729) to show that “money and therefore wealth is created (not through trade but) through the banking system.”  “Most phenomena going under the heading of credit could be described as a form of money.  Even government paper money can be viewed as government debt,” the authors explain.  An elaboration follows, supplemented by a quote from Schumpeter:

Banks do not lend their deposits, or other people’s money.  Banks create deposits and bank notes.  Money is not a commodity, like any other commodity, because with no other commodity can a claim to the commodity serve the same purpose as the thing itself: “while I cannot ride on a claim to a horse, I can, under certain conditions, do exactly the same with claims to money as with money itself, namely buy”. (63)

So, since the world today is awash in credit and since creating credit is creating money, aren’t we all really quite wealthy?  Isn’t the consumer in the driver’s seat of the economy?  Well, no, since “this ignores the role of advertising and the problems of those burdened with consumer debts.  Furthermore, creditworthiness becomes the basis of participation in the consumer economy.” (66)

Ultimately, within a capitalist system money is a claim upon wage labor, since “real goods and services are created by labour’s use of the natural resources of the planet.”  Without wage labor, money would have no value.  Credit, then, merely expands the system’s claim over the same pool of wage labor; the pool of labor does not expand merely because more credit has been issued.

In chapter 4, the authors probe the capitalist system as a whole.  They argue:

Capitalism is a system based on commodity production for profitable exchange in which the majority of people are obliged to take part as waged labour if they want to survive.  Capitalism is not concerned with supplying the necessities of life.  Rather, it is based on institutions engaged in denial of access to the means of sustenance for the majority class, so that the minority class can pursue power and status through predatory competition. (72)

This is of course at radical variance with the propaganda version of capitalism, which exists to please the “sovereign consumer” that von Mises praised in his attack on the likes of Hutchinson, Mellor, and Olsen, titled The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality.  Our authors continue:

Capitalism can be defined as the private ownership of the resources for sustenance.  It is lack of access to the means of sustenance that results in the phenomenon of ’employment.’  To gain employment, ‘free’ labour offer themselves to those who command the ‘means of production.’ (72)

“Free” labor doesn’t look all that free here, does it?  “So what do you want to be when you grow up?”  One answer not permitted is, “I want to live off of the land.”  Of course, people actually get resources for sustenance through employment.  However, this doesn’t mean that capitalism’s main business is the production of sustenance.  The authors continue:

However it is important not to confuse the means of production with the means of sustenance.  The means of production under capitalism do not necessarily make any contribution to human sustenance.  That is why calls for the ownership and control of the means of production as defined by capital misses the point.  For economic democracy what is important is that people have control over the resources necessary for their subsistence and the capacity to decide what form of productive activity will take place to meet social needs and desires.  (72-73)

Capitalism operates in ignorance of human sustenance, of course, because “the logic of market capitalism is not satisfaction of human needs, but meeting of ‘effective demand,’ that is, demand backed by money.” (96)  The “sovereign consumer” must have money to participate, and so production must cater to money, and not to the needs of those without.  Moreover, the socialist tradition that calls for control of the means of production without questioning how the means of production has been defined by capital fails to question the real disconnection between capitalist production and production for human sustenance.  Such a tradition, then (like the Soviet tradition), does not present the world with a real alternative to capitalism.

To create a social system based on effective demand, the authors argue, that “laissez-faire,” the so-called “free market” system, is centrally planned, and to buttress this argument they list the organizational structures which must precede the “free market.”  The world of the “free market” must have previously been coded as “private property,” and enclosed.  Indeed it is true that “publicity, transport, clerical work, and storage are required to be in place before trading can begin” (91).  Beyond this, though, are a series of structures meant to ensure an ever-growing, global, elite domination:

The capitalist ‘free market’ economy has been centrally planned and controlled from its origins in the interests of the ruling elite.  In a mixed economy democratic procedures may secure some concessions for the working class, but only in so far as they continue to serve the interests of the elite class. (91)

In support of this argument, the authors grant us summary histories of capitalism, the trusts, and the present-day institutions of transnational capital.

After Chapter 4 the going gets more complex, and I am tempted to discuss the material included therein in another diary.  The typical reader should be forgiven for leaving Chapter 4 of this book with the impression that “the empire is so big and I am so small; what can I do?”  Indeed, the authors point out that the whole world has not entirely been enclosed, and there still exist common properties and resistance movements.  But the descriptions given must seem very far away to those who live in the capitalist heartlands.  The Zapatistas?  Papua New Guinea?  The authors give us a favorable summary of the argument of Mies and Bennholdt-Thomsen’s The Subsistence Perspective, but we must still figure out on our own how to subsist in a universe dominated by capitalism.

Chapter 5 is a rather complex discussion of Karl Marx and Thorstein Veblen, both 19th c. critics of the capitalist system; Chapter 6 introduces “social credit,” a proposed system of money conceived in opposition to the capitalist financial system.  This chapter, although short, puts the rest of the book on a practical basis.  We are treated to a short synopsis of the “social credit” theory of Clifford Hugh Douglas (1879-1952) as it was developed in the early 20th century.  In Douglas’ ideal system, money would be issued by the workers’ communities themselves, and there would be two forms of money-creation: consumer’s credits, intended to provide everyone with basic sustenance rights, and producer’s credits, intended to stabilize the economic situations of individual producers.  The authors explain:

Instead of attempting to recoup the full costs of past production of the product, producers would sell at the “just price” (free of the profit and interest payments of debt-finance) of their present costs.  They would be compensated for certain additional… costs through a central clearing house. (130)

The idea of such a system would be to allow for trade while at the same time allowing communities, and not a global debt-finance system, to manage their own economic affairs.  Such a system would, of course, have to exist outside of the capitalist system as a whole.

The rest of The Politics of Money, outside of the concluding tenth chapter, is a survey of different critiques of capitalism, including feminist, institutional, and environmentalist critiques, many of them regarded as curiosities because they aren’t “orthodox” capitalist or Marxist, and of different proposed alternatives to the existing money system.  The general line of advocacy throughout this book is that of localism; we should, they argue, be empowered to decide as local communities how we are to “make a living.”

This book, then, is valuable in that it opens up a conversation about how alternatives to the capitalist system can deal with the problem of money, of how to create a system of exchange without falling into the trap of the global money-system in which we are currently caught.  The analyses therein would be useful both before and after any proposed alternatives would come into being.

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

(This is the third diary in a 24-hour fundraiser for Gilda Reed, Democratic Candidate for Katrina-Burdened LA-01.)

GILDA REED WILL NOT ABANDON US

Livingston.  Vitter.  Jindal.   When it comes to Louisiana’s First District, none of them stuck it out.  There’s no stability to be had when an entire community of American citizens is used as a political stepping stone.  Gilda Reed will not abandon anyone, ever.  Imagine that.

As for the Republicans running for LA-01 today, we can see from the Times-Picayune, the new crop of candidates are just as interested in “seat-hopping” as the old:

As Bobby Jindal drops his title of U.S. representative in favor of Louisiana governor today, voters will begin posing a number of questions to the candidates who hope to succeed him in Congress. Among them:

— What qualifications do you have to be my voice in Washington?

— What is your position on the war in Afghanistan and Iraq?

— How can you bring home the bacon?

For three of the candidates, however, voters might consider a special question: Will you stick around to do the work?

In this era of term limits on most local offices, politicians are always looking for ways to stay on the public payroll. But Tim Burns, Steve Scalise and John Young have taken seat-hopping to a new level. Before they even set sail in the jobs they won last year, they began sizing up the 1st Congressional District seat. If any one of the three wins, he will be jumping ship while it’s still pulling away from the dock.

Gilda Reed won’t jump ship.  Gilda Reed won’t abandon her district while it is undergoing its most difficult recovery, as our federal government continues to plunder the communities in the Gulf Coast Region.  If we want the hard work of recovery to continue, Gilda Reed is the right person, for the right job, at the right time.

I’ve written often about New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.  And I’ve often said this is a national issue.  That’s why this New Yorker is writing about Gilda Reed and asking folks both here at Docudharma and over at Daily Kos to support her in her bid for Congress in Louisiana’s First District.

George W. Bush and his rubberstamp Republicants have abandoned the people of the United States.  I don’t need to provide a link to show this — everyone knows it.

We need folks in Congress who will not abandon us and who will not capitulate to the fearmongers and bribers and corporations — and make no mistake, every person in Congress is inundated with these forces the moment they take office.  We all know this.

Gilda Reed is a Democrat.  She believes in people, regular people.  She is a fighter.  She won’t abandon us and she won’t abandon her constituents.

Gilda’s Republican opponents would bring us more of the same, more disaster capitalism, more flicking aside the needs of regular Americans like it was lint on their well pressed suits.  They wouldn’t support affirmatively dealing with the problems of the wetlands in the Gulf Coast, a disaster in the making that will affect this entire nation.

So even though I live in New York City, I know that what happens in Louisiana will affect me.  From Detroit to Chicago, from Los Angeles to Tucson to St. Louis, the disaster capitalists are rubbing their hands together, getting ready to swoop down and profit from the suffering of American citizens.

We must all start bringing more of our awareness to the fact that this is the United States of America.  For seven years that precious awareness has been battered and bludgeoned and distracted so that the disaster capitalists, like unnatural vultures, could plunder our communities and profit from our suffering.

Gilda Reed will not abandon Louisiana.  She will not abandon the commitment to community, to helping people, to making sure we stay the United States of America.

I hope you will help Gilda in her battle.  She will not abandon us.  We’ve all been abandoned far too long.  It’s time to change that.

Rebuilding Louisiana: Gilda Reed 24-Hour Online Fundraiser

Help us support Kossack Candidate Gilda Reed for Congress in Louisiana’s 1st District! She’s running in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Bobby Jindal. Diaries will be posted at Daily Kos about Gilda for the next 24 hours to raise support and bring attention to her candidacy. Please join us and learn more about this great Democratic candidate!

This is how republican politicians make nice to their torture loving base.  The New York Times reports:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said President Bush should veto a measure that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects.

McCain voted against the bill, which would restrict the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation techniques listed in the Army field manual.

His vote was controversial because the manual prohibits waterboarding — a simulated drowning technique that McCain also opposes — yet McCain doesn’t want the CIA bound by the manual and its prohibitions.

Hmmm.  McCain voted against a measure– an inadequate measure imo because among the 19 permitted “techniques” are some that amount to torture– that would forbid any “innovations” not in the 19 listed techniques.  These “innovations” include waterboarding.  And how does McTorture explain the brilliant logic of that?

‘I knew I would be criticized for it,” McCain told reporters Wednesday in Ohio. ”I think I can show my record is clear. I said there should be additional techniques allowed to other agencies of government as long as they were not” torture.

”I was on the record as saying that they could use additional techniques as long as they were not cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment,” McCain said. ”So the vote was in keeping with my clear record of saying that they could have additional techniques, but those techniques could not violate international rules against torture.”

What, pray tell, are the magical, non-torture “additional techniques” beyond the 19 in the manual and waterboarding?  F*ck if I know.  Do you know?  Does anybody?  Are there such things?  You know what?  It doesn’t matter because this vote isn’t about the content of the bill.  No, it’s about rallying the Torquemadas around this candidate’s willingness to torture.

McTorture wants all of the little torture happy rethuglicans in the base to know that he’s the true successor to Flyboy McCodpiece and that he, too, will use “other techniques” (we cannot tell you what they are because that would give it away).  And just as W says that waterboarding isn’t torture, so too the undisclosed additional techniques aren’t torture, also. And how do we know that?  Because the US doesn’t torture.  Did he tell us that already?  

What slime.

The American College of Physicians recently published a position paper in support of medical marijuana.

Marijuana has been smoked for its medicinal properties for centuries. Preclinical, clinical, and anecdotal reports suggest numerous potential medical uses for marijuana. Although the indications for some conditions have been well documented, less information is available about other potential medical uses. There’s so much surrounding the world of medical marijuana that people are interested in. With this help of this weed blog, you can find out more information about how marijuana can play a large part in improving the health of many. Even taking the time to visit a michigan dispensary (where the use of medical marijuana is legal) can help you figure out if the use of medical marijuana is worth it. You never know though if you don’t try or at least look into the idea of it. The more people who require the use of medical marijuana, the more companies identify the gap in the market. This then increases the number of dispensaries that are available around the states, allowing people to buy weed online and offline provided that they have the correct permissions. But this can only happen if medical marijuana becomes legalised. It’s a topic that is quite controversial, but it is one that is pretty interesting to look into. Especially with the help of cannabis public relations companies, this could be the starting point of spreading positive messages about medical marijuana when it comes to health benefits.

Additional research is needed to further clarify the therapeutic value of cannabinoids and determine optimal routes of administration. Unfortunately, research expansion has been hindered by a complicated federal approval process, limited availability of research-grade marijuana, and the debate over legalization. ACP believes the science on medical marijuana should not be obscured or hindered by the debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana for general use. In this paper the College lays out a series of positions on research into, and the use of, marijuana as medicine.

In the paper the ACP expresses the following five positions:

Position 1: ACP supports programs and funding for rigorous scientific evaluation of the potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana and the publication of such findings. (…)

Position 2: ACP encourages the use of nonsmoked forms of THC that have proven therapeutic value.

Position 3: ACP supports the current process for obtaining federal research-grade cannabis.

Position 4: ACP urges review of marijuana’s status as a schedule I controlled substance and its reclassification into a more appropriate schedule, given the scientific evidence regarding marijuana’s safety and efficacy in some clinical conditions.

Position 5: ACP strongly supports exemption from federal criminal prosecution; civil liability; or professional sanctioning, such as loss of licensure or credentialing, for physicians who prescribe or dispense medical marijuana in accordance with state law. Similarly, ACP strongly urges protection from criminal or civil penalties for patients who use medical marijuana as permitted under state laws.

Download the full paper (PDF)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PP is an Open Thread. Do not recommend.

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

I could not believe my eyes. Elected officials are finally beginning to seriously contemplate impeachment of the president for abuse of power and violating the Constitution. Concern over “deposed judges” is one of many issues that is causing leaders of both political parties to consider the issue of impeachment. This must-read article suggests that “debate on possible impeachment may gain currency in the days to come.” It evens quotes some high profile Democratic lawmakers, who have been reluctant to press for the impeachment of George W. Bush in the past.  Senator John Kerry, pointing to a clause for impeachment in the Constitution, said this was a “great opportunity to work together to strengthen democracy.”  Not to be outdone, Senator Joseph Biden also got into the act.

“This is an opportunity for us to move from a policy that has been focused on a personality to one based on an entire people,” Biden said.

A powerful editorial also pushed for impeachment.

But if he is reluctant to call it a day voluntarily, the choice will be between banding together and getting rid of him or letting him stay as a lame duck president.

Could it be that the rule of law may finally be defended by members of the Democratic Party and the media?  

Of course, if you peeked at the link, you already know the punchline.  Impeachment is on the table in Pakistan, a so-called fledgling democracy. The irony is overwhelming.

In 2006, after years of corrupt single party domination in the United States, the opposition party gains control over the legislative branch of government. This shift is power comes after a year of disclosures that the president violated existing laws on domestic surveillance, deposed federal prosecutors that refused to do his bidding, attempted to intimidate government critics, allowed fraud and corruption to go unchecked at every level of government, and even manipulated intelligence reports to justify the invasion and occupation of a sovereign country. Much to our dismay, impeachment was quickly taken off the table, allowing the worst president in our history to remain in power and make a mockery of our democracy.

In 2008, the opposition party wins control over the legislative branch of government in Pakistan, effectively repudiating the rule of a self-appointed president favored by the American government. This shift in power comes after a year of intimidation of the judiciary, claims of executive privilege to ignore existing laws and the country’s constitution, and other abuses of power.  The first thing being discussed a day after the election by members of the Pakistani opposition parties, the media, and even leading Democratic Party members in the United States is how to remove President Musharraf from power if he refuses to resign.

So what are Musharraf’s options to avoid a possible impeachment if he does not quit?

It will require a wide split in the ranks of PPP and PML-N – by no means an impossible task ordinarily but quite unlikely given their extraordinary need to do business together, for now.

Bush avoided removal from office by opposition to impeachment hearings by members of the Democratic and Republican parties.  In short, the one issue Bush managed to unite the two parties was opposition to removing him from office.  Sad.  Very sad.

The polls threw up a divided mandate that relegated embattled president Pervez Musharraf’s allies to the sidelines but Pakistanis are hoping that the top gainers – the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) – will look beyond the short term lure of power.

It is funny how the American people were hoping that newly elected politicians would “look beyond the short term lure of power” in 2006 to protect the Constitution and our democracy. The newly elected Pakistani government is at least talking about the possibility of impeachment, which is much more than Speaker Pelosi was ever willing to do.

 

1. The New York Times reports that After his wins, Obama is the focus of McCain and Clinton. “Mr. McCain has turned his attention to Mr. Obama, calling on him to pledge to abide by the limits of public financing for the campaign. Mrs. Clinton also focused on Mr. Obama as she went on the offensive early Wednesday in a speech at Hunter College in Manhattan, charging that her rival has substituted rhetoric for practical experience. ‘It is time to get real,’ Mrs. Clinton, of New York, said. ‘To get real about how we actually win this election and get real about the challenges facing America. It’s time we moved from good words to good works, from sound bites to sound solutions.'” Clinton is campaigning in New York, while her “must win” primaries are in Texas and Ohio.

   Mccain’s motivations are obviously not driven by belief that campaigns should be publically financed. Rather, “Mr. Obama has broken all political fundraising records in this election he has taken in more than $150 million so far, $36 million in January alone, and Mr. McCain’s advisers have privately questioned why he would disarm himself of that advantage and not spend the prodigious amounts he has raised on his own.”

   Meanwhile, The Guardian reports the Obama campaign urges Clinton to concede. “Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, dismissed her camp’s hopes of making a comeback… ‘This is a wide, wide lead right now,’ Plouffe said in a conference call with reporters. ‘The Clinton campaign keeps saying the race is essentially tied. That’s just lunacy.’ The argument from the Obama camp appears designed to paint Clinton as a nuisance candidate — much like Mike Huckabee… Clinton’s hopes of upsetting that equation now turn on delivering a convincing performance in tomorrow night’s Democratic debate in Austin, Texas”.

2. The AP reports the Supreme Court says 401(k) participants can sue under a pension protection law to recover their losses. The court’s decision was unanimous. “James LaRue of Southlake, Texas, said the value of his stock market holdings plunged $150,000 when administrators at his retirement plan failed to follow his instructions to switch to safer investments… Justice John Paul Stevens, in his opinion for the court, said that such lawsuits are allowed. ‘Fiduciary misconduct need not threaten the solvency of the entire plan to reduce benefits below the amount that participants would otherwise receive,’ Stevens said… The Bush administration argued in support of workers. The government said the appeals court ruling barring LaRue’s lawsuit would leave 401(k) participants without a meaningful remedy from any federal, state or local court when plan administrators fail to live up to their duties. Business groups supported LaRue’s employer.” Will this make any difference to most people?

3. Newsflash! Well, maybe not… Just more bad news. Bloomberg News reports Federal Reserve outlook predicts more joblessness and higher inflation. “Fed policy makers now expect U.S. gross domestic product to increase by 1.3 percent to 2 percent in 2008, compared with the 1.8 percent to 2.5 percent they predicted in October. The fourth-quarter jobless rate will be between 5.2 percent and 5.3 percent, up from a range of 4.8 percent to 4.9 percent in the last forecast… Inflation, excluding food and energy, will run at 2 percent to 2.2 percent this year, compared with 1.7 percent to 1.9 percent projected in October. Total consumer prices will rise by 2.1 percent to 2.4 percent; the FOMC projected an increase of 1.8 percent to 2.1 percent three months earlier… Food prices rose last year at the fastest pace since 1990, the Labor Department said Jan. 16.”

   Oh and Reuters reports Oil steadies at $100 after touching record high. As predicted, $100 per barrel is now the new low. Meanwhile in Germany, Spiegel wonders if their country is about to have the “worst financial crisis since 1931?” Because, according to them German state-owned banks on verge of collapse. So if history repeats itself, which country will be the first to fully embrace fascism. My money is on the U.S. this time around.

4. If you live in a cave, you become accustomed to the dark. So, it was with great enthusiasm that I read the news in the Washington Post that Scientists create a black that erases virtually all light. “Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made — about 30 times as dark as the government’s current standard for blackest black… By voraciously sucking up all surrounding illumination, it can give those who gaze on it a dizzying sensation of nothingness.”

   Of course the military is interested in (and funding) the research, but the article also explains that “Solar panels coated with it would be much more efficient than those coated with conventional black paint, which reflects 5 percent or more of incoming light.” Maybe something good will come from the darkness?

The People’s House, The House of Representatives. Emphasis on……Represent. Conceived as the most basic building block of our democracy, elegantly simple. The People living in an area choose someone, one of their neighbors, to go to Washington and sit in The Peoples House and represent their interests, their concerns and their identity within our national government. But all too often this most simple of mechanisms of democracy has been corrupted, and those who are chosen to Represent The People…. instead represent the moneyed and powerful interests who would use our democracy for far less noble ends.

Especially those darn Republicans!

So when there is a chance to elect one of those “better Democrats” that we all wish to see in the halls of The People’s House, it is incumbent on us to do so. When we can take a seat that has been held by those aforementioned Republicans, it is URGENT that we do so.

And today, and for the next 24 hours, you have a chance to help!

I give you Gilda Reed, Candidate for Louisiana’s First Congressional district.

This will be posted at Daily Kos in one hour, to kick off the Round-The-Clock  Fundraiser, please head over there then…and do what you can to help. As usual, you Dharmaniacs are ahead of the curve!

And since it is a special election (May 3rd)…. and since LA-01 is still suffering, under Bushcos neglect, from Katrina and Gilda has vowed to do all she can to remedy that…. and especially since we have a chance to take a Republican seat….there is no reason AT ALL not to focus all of the considerable power of Daily Kos and Docudharma to help put a Fellow Kossak into The People’s House. And that is what we will be doing for the next 24 hours!

This is just first the diary in a 24-hour fundraiser for Gilda Reed, Democratic Candidate for Katrina-Burdened LA-01.

To Gilda Reed, via ActBlue.

Is Gilda a good progressive candidate? I will let her tell you:

“I am running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Louisiana’s 1st Congressional District to make a powerful difference in the quality of life for the working middle class and the poor, to put an end to the War in Iraq, bringing our troops home safely, and to work on environmental issues vital to the health and well being of all of our citizens.”

“I am a strong Louisiana Democrat and I embody hard-headed determination. Early on, I learned how to say what needs to be said, even when unpopular. We all need to get involved and put our District and our Nation back on the right track, for the benefit of our families and fellow citizens.”

Is Gilda a good person to represent her district and to fight for progressive causes? Again, in her own words:

I have worked hard for the past year traveling through all 6 parishes contacting mayors, police chiefs and everyday citizens.  I have the determination, resiliency and intellectual capacity to leave no stone unturned as I search tirelessly for all possible solutions.  Representatives are not supposed to accept NO for an answer.  They are supposed to fight tooth and nail, beating on Capitol Hill doors, making a persistent clamor until urgent constituent needs are met.   For less urgent matters, a representative needs to be a skillful, unpretentious negotiator.

Does Gilda have the support of the Netroots? Well over the next 24 hours some great Netroots activists will be bringing diary after diary to the pages of Daily Kos and Docudharma in an effort to fill her warchest for the coming fight against her Republican rival. Here is what you can look forward to:

Next up:

chigh

“I Survived Katrina”

This is my first diary, lurker since 2004 and commenter beginning in 2005, I think. I am a Katrina survivor and live in LA 01. Never wrote my Katrina story as it never ends and the lack of justice just goes on and on, a new insult every single day. I will give a brief overview of my initial Katrina experience. My father died of Katrina related natural causes in LA 01. My sister was missing for a week in St. Bernard, rescuing people in the oil contaminated waters. At the time she worked for the Coast Guard and was actually rescued by the Royal Canadian Mounties. Maybe, one day congress people like Gilda can bring resolution to the very unsteady lives of the people of the Gulf Coast and I will have time to write a book. Until then, I just deal on a day to day basis.

3rd                 Nightprowlkitty

“She Will Not Abandon Us”

Livingston. Vitter. Jindal. When it comes to Louisiana’s First District, none of them stuck it out. There’s no stability to be had when an entire community of American citizens is used as a political stepping stone. Gilda Reed will not abandon anyone, ever. Imagine that.

Candidate for the people:

Reed has pledged to never run for a different office, saying that the lack of stability in the seat puts the district at a disadvantage in obtaining help at the national level.

Gilda Reed won’t jump ship. Gilda Reed won’t abandon her district while it is undergoing the most difficult recovery, as our federal government continues to plunder the communities in the Gulf Coast Region. If we want the hard work of recovery to continue, Gilda Reed is the right person, for the right job, at the right time.

4th                 Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse

Round-The-Clock Gilda Reed Fundraiser Part Four

My diary is about how Gilda’s life and Katrina have provided her with unique perspectives not shared by our typical rich or millionaire lawmakers and how these insights and experiences make her a “more and better Democrat” to address and resolve national issues across the board, including Katrina aftermath.

5th                 blueintheface

“The FDR of Louisiana”

The parallels between the United States just before the Great Depression and our current socio-economic conditions are frightening: high consumer and business debt, ill-regulated markets that permitted malfeasance by banks and investor, growing wealth inequality, and natural disasters all paved the way for a devastating collapse in our nation’s economy.

Strong Democratic leadership brought us out of the Great Depression. Politicians like Franklin Delano Roosevelt took on the fat cats and corporations and ushered in an era marked by progressive government programs and greater industry regulation. One local paper in Louisiana called Gilda Reed, “the FDR of Louisiana”.

6th                YatPundit

Meet Steve Scalise

A profile of Steve Scalise (R-Metairie), the leading Republican

contender in the LA-01 race.  Included are some of YatPundit’s personal

observations on the people of Jefferson Parish and why Gilda needs our

support.

7th                 Chicagoa                    

“Gilda Reed LA-01 — Labor Champion”

“Chicagoa’s diary is a call to the Edwards faithful to recognize one of their own. Openly and enthusiastically supporting the right to organize, the working class, and strict political ethics, Gilda Reed shows us she is a true John Edwards Democrat. As a former Edwards partisan he breaks down why Gilda Reed inspires him to escape the presidential primary insanity and fight for progressive candidates we can all support”

8th                 kath25

“A Scholar and a Congresswoman”

kath25 will discuss why she thinks it’s so wonderful that a professor is running for Congress, as well as why it is important that our elected legislative body include individuals from all walks of life.

9th                 DailyKingFish

Mrs. Reed epitomizes what it means to be a Democrat

The Daily Kingfish, a local Louisiana community blog, will be endorsing Gilda Reed in the LA-01 Democratic Primary.  While it’s fantastic that there are two Democrats running for the right to represent us in the general election in LA-01, Mrs. Reed epitomizes what it means to be a Democrat – while raising her children with her husband, and going to school to get her own degrees, she never stopped doing unto others – serving on her Church Parish School Board and teaching classes of her own at UNO while she was seeking her Ph.D.

10th               possum

“Gilda Reed for Congress”

This is an unabashed plea for your support of Gilda Reed in the

race for the US House of Representatives in LA-01. Gilda is the sort of

person we need in Congress these days. She is a lifelong Democrat,

Progressive, and people oriented. This is an opportunity for one and all

to support a very fine candidate.

Daily Kos is all about electing

Democrats according to the FAQ. Our purpose for

coming together on a daily basis is to focus on putting Democrats into

political office. That cause takes money as any candidate can tell you.

Please visit Gilda’s website

or ActBlue

page and put something in the coffers. Many of you have contributed

already. I thank you and I am sure Gilda and her other supporters thank

you, too. If you have not yet donated to Gilda please consider dropping

any amount, $5, $10, $25, $50 or more into the campaign war chest.

11th               nolalily  

“Who is Gilda Reed?”

The person introducing me to Gilda Reed, Democratic candidate for Louisiana District 01, was gesturing to the young woman with the dark hair who had just arrived with a group of people.  My first thought was, “I thought she was older and a blond.”  I turned to say “hello” to her but she indicated another person.  I looked to where she had pointed and there stood a middle aged man.  Now I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.  I was really confused.  Isn’t Gilda a woman?  Not wanting to appear dumbstruck, I put out my hand and said, “Gilda”?  He smiled and stepped aside to let the person behind him step through the little circle that had formed.

I recognized her instantly.  A diminutive blond, who will always look several years younger than either you or I at the same age, fresh and calm, reached out to shake my hand.  She looked me straight in the eye but there was nothing aggressive about it.  In fact, she seemed more interested in observing me.  Gilda Reed is a born psychologist.

If this woman was going to perform surgery on me, I’d trust her immediately!

                             

12th               gabriella

“New Orleanians – Mere Cattle!”

Unbeknownst to Gilda Reed, a decision made back in 1965 led to her decision to enter the political fray, to pursue with strong-willed determination the need to represent the People of LA-01! Hurricane Betsy had just slammed into the Gulf Coast. Reacting to the devastation wrought by “Billion-Dollar Betsy”, Congress past the Flood Control Act of 1965 which placed the responsibility of the safe-keeping of New Orleans solely with the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps was the designer and architect of a flood protection system for a major city, but, instead, provided protection at a level no greater than intended for cows! You read that right! Cows!!

And finally to cap things off, and to thank you for your generosity in the fight to rebuild Louisiana and put a responsible, accountable, Progressive Representative in The People’s House…

13th              Gilda Reed

Our very own Kossack, Gilda Reed!

Gilda Reed 24-Hour Online Fundraiser

Help us support Kossack Candidate Gilda Reed for Congress in Louisiana’s 1st District! She’s running in a special election to fill the seat vacated by Bobby Jindal. We’ll be posting diaries about Gilda for the next 24 hours to raise support and bring attention to her candidacy. Please join us and learn more about this great Democratic candidate!

Donate to Gilda securely via ActBlue.

So DIG DEEP folks! This IS what we are here to do!

And settle in for a 24 hour ride that could change the face of Louisiana politics….from the Netroots up!

There was once a little kitty. She was black with a crooked tail. She was quite neurotic all by herself and her neurosis should in no way be attributed to the person who fed her and napped with her and petted her on demand.  Not at all!  They shared a life and so maybe some neurosis spilled over but her fear of cars and traveling was all her own.

This kitty traveled half-way across the country, twice. She really hated highways. She never offered to drive and when the car stopped she’d howl like a banshee. She once tried to escape to an Amish village.  She was fiercely opposed to modern methods of transportation and thought the Amish might be her people and a good place to find a home. She was captured and kept from that life and never quite forgave her capturers for not allowing her to fulfill her destiny as a Cat of the Amish.

She really didn’t like tornadoes, either and took thunder and lightening sort of personally; fireworks, too. She had a special shoebox she’d go to whenever the gods of the sky made themselves known. She did like SciFi however and was a big fan of Mystery Science Theatre.

The kitty had many stories to tell.  There are many stories to tell about the kitty.