Yeah…..I AM going there! Whatever the cost I must get this truth out to the People.
heehee
Simul-posted at Dkos….for shits and giggles…
Jan 27 2008
i’ll get hammered for this essay. so be it.
i don’t have ideas that fit easily into “progressive” or “liberal” or “conservative” or even “moderate”. or so i’ve been told. but i just have this crazy idea about freedom…
Sexual Harassment
I worked for a company that had mandatory courses on sexual harassment, which I always refused to attend. Why? I objected to this: if you’re sharing a joke/conversation about sex in a private, consensual conversation at work AND a third party overhears the joke/conversation and objects, that third party can cite you for sexual harassment. I object to that.
I think the workshop should be about harassment. It should deal with people in positions of power who abuse that power. Sexual innuendo and advances are only one way it’s done. It’s like sex is really what it’s about and it’s not. It’s about power over another. But the truth is the powers that be don’t do much about bullies, assholes, and incompetents. Except promote them. What they don’t do is give employees the tools they need to disarm bullies.
My most recent experience (the worst work situation I’ve every had) is with a Vice President who lies, blames people for problems he creates, but he looks great on paper. He continually disrupts the work place by threatening people’s jobs and demeaning their performance. You know what happened? I’ll tell you. His directors revolted, went to the President and she said, deal with it. Work it out. Oh. Okay. He answers to you and you want us to deal with it? When, in two years, 8 people have left because of this asshole. You know how they responded to this? With diversity training. I kid you not. (Well, on top of the burgeoning HR file on this guy, he has several complaints of sexual harassment as well, but none were concrete enough). And, on top of it, at first they let the Vice President pick the consultant. The directors managed to stop that nonsense. I just ran into one of ex colleagues at dinner the other night. He’s been there under a year and is looking for another job. He said he can not take it any more… My sister said she didn’t realize it was that bad. Oh yeah.
For me, it runs deeper than that. I
i still feel the same. if somebody comes on to me in an inappropriate way, i want to have what it takes to neutralize the offending party.
i don’t want the word “nigger” to be outlawed. or any racial/religious/ethnic/sexual slur. i would rather we all have the confidence and tools we need to neutralize assholes. i want government’s involvement in my personal life severely limited.
of course there are exceptions. and those hate crimes, whether sexual, race, ethnic et al need to be dealt with using the law.
but most don’t need a surrogate to step in. that’s my opinion. we have weakened ourselves by counting on government to protect us. or promote us. look who’s running the government, btw. theocrats and corporatists who have no intention of making the world better for any of us.
so it’s better to imbue your children with their own sense of self. the courage to stand up for themselves and the sense to know when to walk away… depending on the situation. self-reliance has been way under rated.
don’t expect anybody else to take care of you. you need to take care of yourself. if we had done a better job at self-reliance, we would not be so hooked into thinking the democrats will save us from impending climate catastrophe or economic ruin.
and maybe we’d all have more courage to stop assholes from picking on others. that’s the other thing that kills me. what is our responsibility, as neighbors/coworkers/friends/family, when we see others being picked on? how about the sexual abuse of children that nobody stops.
let me tell you, i’ve narrowly escaped being beat up because either i picked up a big stick or had a bottle in my hand, defending a woman from her boyfriend. the stick came in handy when, as a kid, my best friend in grade school, a black girl, was being harassed in the school yard.
i’ve been on the receiving end too. i’ve been called a dirty jew, been kicked in the shins under the lunch room table in junior high. had one friend say they couldn’t be friends with a jew. one of my best friends ended up going out with a guy who told her he didn’t like me. why? because i’m jewish. she told him to bug off.
but i never felt anybody owned me anything. not my country. not my employers. not the assholes who are so ignorant as to judge me only by sex or religion or race.
i am myself. i stand for myself. i don’t give away my power to anybody else to speak for me. i speak for myself.
so instead of trying to control the way everybody else does things or what they say or what they think, control yourself. use your power to turn those you can to clearer thinking. but don’t think that because the words are gone that the poison has left. it hasn’t. silencing words only makes hatred more invisible.
the best way to convert the ignorant and indoctrinated is through your own self-confidence and power. because if it’s just about shutting them up, well, then nothing will change.
don’t shut them up. engage them. de program them. we need to stop being scared to take care of ourselves. we have to stop expecting everybody to respect who and what we are. maybe the burden is on the outliers. to change people’s perceptions.
but leave it to government and well… we haven’t really progressed much have we?
Jan 27 2008
Saturday Night at the Pictures – Political Pictures Edition
In my odyssey over the last few years as the chair of a county Democratic Committee, I went to a lot of functions, picnics, dinners, and a lot of meetings. These photos are some of my travels in Virginia on campaigns, in meetings, and at social events.
One of the most important races this year was for the House of Delegates. This is Connie Brennan (D-59), who ran this year in an unsuccessful bid to unseat an Independent. (The event was sponsored by us and was in front of our house.)
Thomas Jefferson (re-enacted) at Tim Kaine’s Inaugural in January 2006.
The coach with Governor Kaine in it for the parade.
Governor Mark Warner with longtime Democratic businessman Bernie McGuiness, in Charlottesville, May 2007. BELOW: Governor Warner holding up the tshirt from Connie Brennan’s campaign.
Governor Kaine, raising money for Democratic state office candidates, June 2007. BELOW: Kaine greets supporters at the event, which was held at the historic Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.
The very next day, I saw the Governor again in my county, officiating at a rails-to trails ceremony.
Al Weed and Jim Webb. This was taken at the 5th Congressional District Caucus in 2006. BELOW: In Charlottesville in late June 2006, Jim Webb was having fun and campaigning among friends.
Same rally, but Brian Moran and Creigh Deeds, the two men vying to run for Governor in 2009. It was a crowded stage that day.
Jim Webb campaigns at Mark Warner’s house during the 2006 Pig Roast. “Crashing the States” movie was being shot there that day as well.
I figure that’s enough for one night. I really want to see your pictures. That’s why I am doing this, so we can all compare our photos.
Hopefully if I get time, I will be playing around with Flash to see how I can make the presentation more friendly.
Have a good weekend!!
Jan 27 2008
Pony party: More Glass
My grandmother ended up on the Ortho floor when she got admitted. I think even though her initial problem was fatigue and respiratory difficulties that was the only bed open at the time. She was there for two weeks and frankly probably one of the more mentally alert and physically mobile people on the ward. Although the hospital was in was a bit old and cramped, it was clean and she got good care. I trained there as a nursing student and was astonished at how similar it still looked. The resident in charge of her care was a thoughtful and soft spoken young man who was initially a bit wary of me. I asked so many questions about tests and the plan of care he asked if I was an MD. I laughed, twenty years ago nobody would have asked a middled aged woman that question. He nicknamed my mother and I the “advocates” and when he came in to see my grandmother he asked if “the advocates” were coming in to visit. We were there every day and sometimes not at the same time as him. The local hospital system has a thorough program of assessing all elderly patients who are admitted with a goal of keeping them independent. That was why my mother was taken aback my the probing questions by the social worker upon admission. They did not suspect abuse as my mother feared but were just starting the protocol of team assessment. Health care in Canada is far from perfect, the care people receive in small towns and isolated areas is very spotty, small communities have a hard time attracting MDs, and there are wait lists for non-emergent procedures that are longer than in the US. But, my grandmother happens to live in a city with several hospitals, and the system despite flaws works quite well for ordinary people. Wealthy people or those who want special VIP treatment tend to complain about it and claim they were forced to go to the US for treatment.
Talked to grandmother today and she sounds alright.
Well… enough rambling… I will show you a few more pictures from the glass exhibit.
Thanks for looking and feel free to share any photos you have taken. Remember, don’t rec pony party, hang out chit chat and then go read the wonderful offerings on our recent and rec’d list.
Jan 26 2008
Going Metta
( – promoted by buhdydharma )
No, smarty pants, it’s not a typo.
I’m not talking about meta as it’s used around here to denote blog talk about blog.
I’m talking about mettā–the Buhddist understanding of unconditioned loving-kindness, compassion for all sentient beings. Before you non-DFHs (are there any of you here?!) click the hell out of here, here’s a lotus blossom, offered in the spirit of mettā. Please stay.
As progressives, Democrats, leftists of all stripes, what really brings us together more than the idea that peace, justice, and equality are the only worthy goals? We may have various conceptions of these grand words and ideas and how to achieve them, but ultimately we all believe in the possibility of a just and peaceful world.
It’s discouraging to live in a world that daily witnesses the proliferation of violence. The wasteland grows. At the same time, world daily astonishes us with advancements in science and technology, explosions of creativity and innovation of every sort and on every register of being. Why should peace and justice be out of reach? Our greatest challenges for all these years that humans have inhabited Earth.
It’s particularly discouraging when we witness all kinds of infighting on the left, here, there, everywhere. Yes, I agree whole-heartedly that spirited discussion is good for discernment and hashing out ideas. But does it have to be accompanied by personal vitriol?
What would it be like to argue with someone against a mettā backdrop, a stage of unconditioned loving-kindness and compassion, as the foundation and support even for those in heated argument. Can we engage in conflict in the cradle of compassion? What would that be like?
Anyway, that’s what I’ve been thinking about lately. One teacher suggests to start the circle of mettā close to home, where it may come more naturally, gradually extending the circle of loving-kindness moving outward to what and who resists most the soft touch of your compassion. This is the work of a lifetime. The perfect elegance of simplicity and challenge combined.
Maybe going mettā is a good way of going meta.
For the Buhddist monks of Burma, part of their political protest was to gather together and chant the mettā Sutta (You can listen here–just scroll down to mettā chant). Its power is not just personal but political. It’s not just for harmony between two, but the basis for peace itself. Loving-kindness meditation doesn’t just heal the meditator but the world. This is not a metaphor.
As a mother would risk her life
to protect her child, her only child,
even so should one cultivate a limitless heart
with regard to all beings.
With good will for the entire cosmos,
cultivate a limitless heart:
Above, below, & all around,
unobstructed, without enmity or hate.
Whether standing, walking,
sitting, or lying down,
as long as one is alert,
one should be resolved on this mindfulness.
This is called a sublime abiding
here & now.
And maybe this practice doesn’t even require a formal practice, but just a stance that is enlivened by compassion first.
Living as if peace were possible, as if it is already here–that is ultimately the challenge of practicing loving-kindness in this accelerated, competitive, ruthless, often cruel world.
But what else should we do? What other choice do we really have?
Jan 26 2008
Weekend News Digest
Weekend News Digest is an Open Thread
| From Yahoo News Top Stories |
1 Police question French bank trader
By PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD, Associated Press Writer
1 minute ago
| PARIS – The French trader accused of one of the biggest bank frauds ever surfaced Saturday – in the custody of police, who were questioning him about bad bets that cost France’s No. 2 bank billions of euros in a season of jittery markets.
Financial police in Paris were questioning Jerome Kerviel in a probe into Societe Generale’s allegation against the 31-year-old trader, judicial officials said. They were speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing. … Kerviel has kept a low profile since the bank said Thursday that Kerviel’s unauthorized trades caused it losses of euro4.9 billion (US$7.14 billion). His picture made the front page of newspapers around the world, and journalists staked out his apartment and those of his family members for days, but they did not catch him on camera – prompting rumors he had fled the country. |
2 Bush presses Congress on economy package
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jan 26, 11:14 AM ET
| WASHINGTON – President Bush said Saturday that Congress must give its immediate attention to an economic stimulus package and an extension of the law governing how U.S. intelligence agencies carry out electronic eavesdropping.
The White House and House leaders of both parties reached agreement on a simply drawn stimulus program, which would provide tax rebate checks to 117 million families and give businesses $50 billion in incentives to invest in new plants and equipment. In his weekly radio address, Bush asked Congress to approve the agreement “as soon as possible.” Some in the Senate, which will take up the measure after it goes to the House floor next week, have signaled that they want to broaden the bill. Democrats there want such things as an unemployment benefits extension, an increase in home heating subsidies or higher food stamp benefits. Bush suggested they could derail the whole effort, and he warned against it. |
3 Romney praises Bush, bashes Washington
By Jason Szep, Reuters
36 minutes ago
| ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Reuters) – Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney often casts himself as an agent of change who would fix a “broken Washington” but he spares an obvious target — President George W. Bush.
“I salute the fact the president has kept us safe these past six years,” he told a rally on Saturday in Florida, whose primary on Tuesday is the next test in the most wide open race for the Republican presidential nomination in 50 years. A day earlier, speaking to reporters, he was even kinder to the unpopular president, saying that while he differed with Bush at times he still deeply respects him. |
4 Annan slams ‘systematic’ Kenya abuses as scores killed
by Bogonko Bosire
Sat Jan 26, 11:17 AM ET
| NAIROBI (AFP) – Kofi Annan said Saturday he had witnessed “gross and systematic human rights abuses” on a visit to western Kenya, where scores more people were killed in the flashpoint Rift Valley province.
Nineteen people died in ethnic clashes in the provincial capital of Nakuru, police said Saturday, bringing the toll since Thursday night to 45. “We recovered nine bodies and nine others died in Nakuru General Hospital,” a police commander said. The hospital confirmed the deaths. |
| From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Recommended |
5 Countrywide earnings eyed before deal
By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer
Sat Jan 26, 5:35 AM ET
| LOS ANGELES – Investor concerns that Bank of America Corp. might try to pull out or pay less for Countrywide Financial Corp. could intensify next week when the troubled mortgage lender reports 2007 year-end financial results.
After posting a $1.2 billion loss in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 – its first quarterly loss in 25 years – Countrywide declared it would post a profit for 2007’s final three months and through this year. Wall Street has its doubts – most analysts expect Countrywide to post a fourth-quarter loss – and will be watching closely Tuesday when the Calabasas-based company reports its results. |
| From Yahoo News Most Popular, Most Viewed |
6 Gadhafi’s son said tied to Iraq attack
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 12 minutes ago
| BAGHDAD – A son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is behind a group of foreign and Iraqi fighters responsible for this week’s devastating explosion in northern Iraq, a security chief for Sunni tribesmen who rose up against al-Qaida said Saturday.
At least 38 people were killed and 225 wounded last Wednesday when a huge blast destroyed about 50 buildings in a Mosul slum. The next day, a suicide bomber killed the provincial police chief and two other officers as they surveyed the blast site. Col. Jubair Rashid Naief, who also is a police official in Anbar province, said those attacks were carried out by the Seifaddin Regiment, made up of about 150 foreign and Iraqi fighters who slipped into the country several months ago from Syria. |
| From Yahoo News World |
7 Pakistan says nuclear assets are safe
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON, Associated Press Writer
34 minutes ago
| ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are safe from Taliban and al-Qaida militants because of the military’s stringent security system and a political climate that precludes a takeover by religious extremists, a top official said Saturday.
Seeking to dispel international concerns amid increased violence, Khalid Kidwai, head of the Strategic Plans Division which handles Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, said Pakistan uses 10,000 soldiers to keep the weapons safe and has received up to $10 million in U.S. assistance to that end. “There’s no conceivable scenario, political or violent, in which Pakistan will fall to extremists of the al-Qaida or Taliban type,” Kidwai told foreign journalists at a briefing. “Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, fissile material and infrastructure are absolutely safe and secure.” |
8 Iran says surprised at sanctions plan, urges patience
By Dominic Evans, Reuters
2 hours, 59 minutes ago
| DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – Iran said on Saturday it was surprised by proposed new sanctions over its nuclear program and said major powers should have waited for the verdict of a United Nations watchdog in March.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said there had been an understanding between Iran and the major powers — Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China — to give inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency time to resolve questions over Tehran’s program. “This cooperation started five months ago and we have reached a milestone in that process. Now we are on the brink of the finalization of that cooperation,” Mottaki told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. |
9 Violence, gunfire erupts at demo in Russian Muslim region
by Vitor Vilaskas, AFP
36 minutes ago
| NAZRAN, Russia (AFP) – Security forces fired in the air and beat stone-throwing protestors Saturday to disperse a banned anti-government rally in Russia’s largely Muslim province of Ingushetia.
Automatic rifle fire erupted as police and paramilitary forces chased protestors through the centre of Ingushetia’s biggest town, Nazran, near Chechnya in the Caucasus mountains of southern Russia. There were no immediate reports of serious casualties, indicating that the shooting was in the air. |
10 Pakistan bans international observers from conducting exit polls for election
By Jonathan S. Landay, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jan 25, 6:51 PM ET
| WASHINGTON – Despite assurances to the Bush administration that it will allow unrestricted international monitoring of crucial Feb. 18 elections, Pakistan is refusing to permit observers to conduct exit polls, an important method of detecting fraud.
The United States and other powers see a fair vote in Pakistan as a chance to stabilize the country, which has been under eight years of army rule and is racked by an al Qaida-backed Islamic insurgency, ethnic tensions and a political crisis fueled by the Dec. 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto . “The elections need to be free and fair, and be seen as free and fair,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf on Thursday in Davos, Switzerland . |
11 Some Sunni Muslims won’t salute Iraq’s new flag
By Leila Fadel and Hussein Kadhim, McClatchy Newspapers
Fri Jan 25, 6:22 PM ET
| BAGHDAD – Officials in Iraq’s mostly Sunni Muslim Anbar province are refusing to raise Iraq’s new national flag, which the parliament approved earlier this week.
“The new flag is done for a foreign agenda and we won’t raise it,” said Ali Hatem al Suleiman , a leading member of the U.S.-backed Anbar Awakening Council , “If they want to force us to raise it, we will leave the yard for them to fight al Qaida.” U.S. officials credit the Anbar Awakening Council , part of the American strategy of recruiting local Sunnis to battle Islamic militants, with driving al Qaida in Iraq , which once largely controlled the province, out of Anbar. |
12 The Bacchanal of Burns Night
By HUGH PORTER/LONDON, Time Magazine
Fri Jan 25, 6:35 PM ET
| …
Eddie Tait might be called a professional Scotsman, and at this time of year, the 34-year-old founder of the networking group Scots In London eats a lot of haggis. “It’s no good for the waistline,” Tait complains weakly as he savors another forkful of his country’s national dish. The traditional Burns Supper has changed little in over 200 years. Its essential elements are poetry, song, whisky, dancing, bagpipes, the recounting of raffish tales from the poet’s short life, the odd misty-eye and, of course, haggis. “It’s not just a night anymore, or even a week, it’s a whole bloody month!” Tait complains, again unconvincingly, as he raises his glass for yet another toast. The former Morgan Stanley banker has taken well to his new line of work – last year Tait attended 11 Burns Suppers stretching into February. It’s early January when TIME donned the de rigueur kilt to join him as a Burns Supper guest at London’s illustrious private Caledonian Club. “A little island of Scotland in Belgravia,” as past chairman Alex Wilson puts it. |
| From Yahoo News U.S. News |
13 NYPD analysis opposed WTC command center site: paper
Reuters
Sat Jan 26, 3:48 AM ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – A detailed 1998 New York Police Department analysis opposed the city’s plans to locate its emergency command center at the World Trade Center but then-mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s administration overrode the objections, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
“Seven World Trade Center is a poor choice for the site of a crucial command center for the top leadership of the City of New York,” the Times quoted a panel of police experts aided by the Secret Service as having concluded in a confidential Police Department memorandum which has not been previously disclosed. The longest of the analysis’ nine sections, headed “Explosives,” describes a blast analysis of the likely impact of various types of bombs, and concluded that the largest of truck bombs would have led to the building’s collapse, the Times report said. |
14 Sudan’s ex-Guantanamo prisoners demand payout
By Opheera McDoom, Reuters
2 hours, 44 minutes ago
| KHARTOUM (Reuters) – A group of Sudanese released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay demanded cash payouts and an apology from the United States on Saturday, for mental and physical torture suffered during years spent in jail there.
“We have asked for compensation and an apology,” aid worker Adil Hassan Hamad told a conference in Khartoum, which was organized by local rights groups to demand the release of seven Sudanese still held at Guantanamo Bay. Hamad, freed just over one month ago, wore orange overalls like those worn by detainees in the U.S. prison camp. He was working with refugees when arrested in Pakistan in 2002 and taken to Afghanistan and then the U.S. camp in Cuba. |
15 Commodities crime wave sweeps rural US
by Karin Zeitvogel
55 minutes ago
| WASHINGTON (AFP) – A wave of crime is sweeping rural America, with organized gangs and petty thieves heisting commodities ranging from wheat to almonds, copper wires to hardwood trees.
Attracted by the prospect of making easy money, criminals steal onto private and state-owned forests to illegally fell timber, carry off entire shipping containers of almonds, and risk their lives to strip electricity transmitters of their copper wiring. “As the price of a particular commodity increases, it becomes the target of crooks because they’re opportunists who are looking to make money,” said Bill Yoshimoto of the Agricultural Crime Task Force in California’s rural Tulare County, where nearly two-thirds of its 311,000 residents live from farming. |
16 Is Dobson’s Political Clout Fading?
By RITA HEALY/DENVER, Time Magazine
Fri Jan 25, 7:05 PM ET
| James Dobson, the founder and head of the evangelical media and counseling group Focus on the Family, is constantly described by the media as a power broker, kingmaker, and “the Christian right’s most powerful leader.” As such, his endorsement is seen as key by G.O.P. presidential candidates in the 2008 race. On Wednesday night, his political action website Citizenlink.com released assessments of the major Democratic and Republican candidates – and political observers immediately checked in to see whether Dobson’s organization was leaning toward Mike Huckabee or Mitt Romney, the two G.O.P. candidates who have made the biggest play for the evangelical vote. As Focus on the Family weighs in on the presidential race, however, an examination of the group’s records shows that its influence may not be all that it once was, and that its actual base may have become smaller. |
17 Where Are the White House E-mails?
By MICHAEL WEISSKOPF/WASHINGTON, Time Magazine
Fri Jan 25, 7:20 PM ET
| When histories of the Iraq war are written, scholars will want to know how the Bush Administration came to grips with one of the nation’s costliest intelligence blunders: inflated estimates of Saddam Hussein’s arsenal and his links to al-Qaeda. But they may have to reconstruct some pivotal moments without access to a key channel of official communication, e-mails flowing to and from the President’s closest White House aides. According to one official analysis, there were 12 days without archived e-mail from the President’s inner offices during a troubled period, December 2003 to February 2004, when it became clear that the central premise of the war – the presence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq – had collapsed. |
18 The Democrats’ Turnout Triumph
By RANI MOLLA/WASHINGTON, Time Magazine
Fri Jan 25, 7:20 PM ET
| As the Super Tuesday motherload of primaries and caucuses fast approaches, both the Democratic and Republican races for the presidential nomination are equally tight, with no clear frontrunner emerging for either party. Most hypothetical matches for the general election are looking similarly close. But so far in at least one key respect, the Democrats are clearly beating their GOP counterparts: voter turnout. |
| From Yahoo News Politics |
19 McCain: Romney favored Iraq withdrawal
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago
| SARASOTA, Fla. – John McCain accused Mitt Romney of wanting to withdraw troops from Iraq, drawing immediate protest from his Republican presidential rival who said: “That’s simply wrong and it’s dishonest, and he should apologize.”
The fight for Florida grew ever more intense Saturday ahead of the state’s pivotal primary as a fairly civil debate over economic records and leadership credentials spiraled into an all-out showdown. As the two candidates campaigned along the state’s southwest coast, McCain sought the upper hand with a new line of criticism, telling reporters in Ft. Meyers about Iraq: “If we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher.” |
20 Florida proves tough for W.House hopeful Giuliani
By Jim Loney, Reuters
Fri Jan 25, 6:16 PM ET
| MIAMI (Reuters) – The line that has often won U.S. presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani his biggest cheers on the Florida campaign trail — “we have to end illegal immigration” — met stony silence in a Miami ballroom on Friday.
While not surprising that immigration is a touchy issue for the Latin Builders Association — replete with Latin American expatriates in an industry dependent on migrant labor — it underlined how Giuliani’s campaign has failed in many ways to catch fire in Florida, the state on which he staked his claim. |
| From Yahoo News Business |
21 Consumers at heart of stimulus plan
By CHRISTOPHER LEONARD, AP Business Writer
Sat Jan 26, 5:38 AM ET
| ST. LOUIS – The success of the federal $150 billion emergency economic stimulus plan will hinge on whether American consumers do what they do best – spend, spend, spend.
The stimulus has been debated in Washington for more than a week as the economic outlook worsened, and now Americans are armed with specifics: Individuals will get up to $600, working couples $1,200 and those with children $300 more per child. President Bush and leaders in Congress hope people will spend those rebates – a flat-screen television, maybe, or a trip to Disneyland – to help revive an economy sagging from bad mortgage lending and a lack of confidence in the stock market. |
22 NY expands Countrywide suit with more defendants
By Joan Gralla, Reuters
Fri Jan 25, 6:23 PM ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) “We will pursue every avenue to ensure that those who defrauded investors are held accountable for their actions,” said New York City Comptroller William Thompson, who helps run the New York City Pension Funds. Executives of Countrywide “cashed out to the tune of almost $700 million” while borrowers lost homes and the value of investors’ shares fell sharply, Thompson said in a statement. |
23 FDA to review Vytorin cholesterol drug study
By Lisa Richwine, Reuters
Fri Jan 25, 7:23 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. regulators said on Friday they would review a study showing a Merck and Schering-Plough cholesterol drug worked no better than a generic in preventing the build-up of arterial plaque.
The Food and Drug Administration said it was not advising doctors to stop prescribing Vytorin, but the agency’s announcement unnerved investors and sent shares of the two companies lower. The FDA said it could take up to six months to review final results of the study, called Enhance, and decide if any regulatory action was needed. A final report from the companies could be available within a couple months, FDA officials said. |
24 Goldman, Credit Suisse to cut about 2,000 jobs
Reuters
Fri Jan 25, 9:20 PM ET
| NEW YORK (Reuters) – Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) and Credit Suisse Group (CSGN.VX) on Friday said they will cut about 2,000 job worldwide as a credit crisis puts a damper on fixed-income trading and corporate dealmaking.
Goldman Sachs, the most valuable U.S. investment bank by market capitalization, plans to cut its global work force 5 percent, targeting the worst-performing employees. The reduction at Goldman, which employs about 30,500 worldwide, represents about 1,500 employees. The winnowing is something Goldman does every year, the company said. |
25 World Economic Forum wraps up with warnings for 2008
by Adam Plowright, AFP
Sat Jan 26, 8:13 AM ET
| DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – The head of the IMF hammered home the problems facing the world economy in Davos on Saturday, sounding a final gloomy note as the annual gathering of the world’s elite wrapped up.
International Monetary Fund director-general Dominique Strauss-Kahn said a “serious” response was required to counter the risk of a US recession and slowing global growth, including both monetary and fiscal measures. The suggestion from the IMF that countries should increase their public spending, even countries with deficits, was seen as “an indication of the gravity of the situation we face” by former US treasury secretary Larry Summers. |
26 EU officials warn against overreacting to market crisis: reports
AFP
22 minutes ago
| BERLIN (AFP) – EU officials both downplayed the impact of this week’s stock market crisis on the 27-member bloc and called for further market transparency in remarks published on Saturday.
“The markets are nervous and tend to overreaction. We need to stay cool and send positive signals,” European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia told Germany’s Spiegel-Online website. Still, Almunia described the extent of market turbulence as “unfortunately, not surprising,” predicting 400 billion dollars (272.6 billion euros) in losses over the coming months. |
27 WTO ministers hope for April breakthrough
by Patrick Baert, AFP
36 minutes ago
| DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – WTO members are hoping to agree on the most difficult parts of the stalled Doha round of trade talks in April, the Swiss economy minister said Saturday, raising new hopes of a breakthrough.
Doris Leuthard, who has invited negotiators from 20 countries for talks on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, said ministers were working towards a ministerial meeting in April to agree on trade in farm and industrial products. “We decided we will have probably a ministerial meeting in April,” she told reporters, adding that it would likely take place in Geneva. |
28 Investors hope Fed will deliver more rate relief
AFP
48 minutes ago
| NEW YORK (AFP) – US stocks regained some stability in the past week with investors hoping the Federal Reserve will deliver fresh interest rate cuts in days, but analysts warned that markets would remain volatile.
Global markets have slumped and rebounded sharply in the past week amid fears that the world’s biggest economy could slip into US recession. A surprise Fed rate cut of historic proportions on Tuesday helped calm the markets, and analysts said the central bank is poised to cut rates again at a looming January 29-30 policy meeting. |
| From Yahoo News Science |
29 UN calls water top priority
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jan 25, 1:11 AM ET
| DAVOS, Switzerland – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world on Thursday to put the looming crisis over water shortages at the top of the global agenda this year and take action to prevent conflicts over scarce supplies.
He reminded business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum that the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan was touched off by drought – and he said shortages of water contribute to poverty and social hardship in Somalia, Chad, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Colombia and Kazakhstan. “Too often, where we need water we find guns instead,” Ban said. “Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon.” |
30 Dust samples prompt rethink about comets
By Will Dunham, Reuters
Fri Jan 25, 5:26 PM ET
| WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Samples of rock dust retrieved from a comet called Wild 2 are forcing scientists to alter they way they think about these intriguing objects that streak through our solar system.
A chemical analysis of the samples brought back to Earth by NASA’s Stardust spacecraft showed that the comet is much more like an asteroid than scientists had expected. Comets are celestial bodies made of rock, dust and ice with characteristic tails of gas and dust streams that are formed in the solar system’s distant, frigid reaches. A long-standing notion had been they were sort of a frozen time capsule of material from when the solar system formed 4-1/2 billion years ago, including stardust from other stars. |
31 Japan wants change to 1990 emission baseline, says PM
AFP
Sat Jan 26, 11:44 AM ET
| DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) – Japan will push for a year after 1990 to be used as the reference point for greenhouse emission cuts in a post-Kyoto deal as chair of the G8 summit in July, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Saturday.
The Kyoto Protocol requires major developed nations to slash emissions causing global warming by an average of five percent from 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. “The base year should … be reviewed from the standpoint of equity. Without equity, it will be impossible to maintain efforts and solidarity over the long term,” Fukuda said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. |
32 Greenpeace vessel ends pursuit of Japanese whalers
AFP
2 hours, 5 minutes ago
| SYDNEY (AFP) – The Greenpeace vessel trailing Japanese whalers in Antarctic waters to prevent them from killing the giant sea creatures has ended its pursuit, the environmental group said Saturday.
The Greenpeace ship Esperanza was running low on fuel and needed to turn back, expedition leader Karli Thomas said in a statement. “While the Esperanza must return to port, the campaign to stop whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is far from over,” Thomas said. |
33 Hot New Trend Allows Computers to Get Faster
Lamont Wood, Special to LiveScience
Sat Jan 26, 9:35 AM ET
| PCs will continue to get faster, in accordance with Moore’s Law, but it won’t be like the old days when vendors brought out successive generations of microprocessor chips that ran at faster and faster speeds, to the delight of the users.
“They’ve hit the wall because of heat,” Tom Halfhill, senior analyst for the Microprocessor Report newsletter in San Jose, Calif., told LiveScience. Currently, chip speeds have topped out at a little under 4 gigahertz (4 billion cycles per second) because they get hotter as they run faster, and at higher speeds they fry themselves. |
Jan 26 2008
The Calling of Names
( – promoted by buhdydharma )
What if they had a special week and nobody noticed?
Last week was No Name-Calling Week. From all appearances, at least on the level of the blogs, there wasn’t much notice. Name-calling is de rigeur.
Which raises a good question. If adults demand their right to call people names as part of what they think is intelligent debate, why would we expect the children to behave any differently.
It would probably be prudent of me not to mention that fact. I’ve never been accused of being prudent.
I think about the children. Big surprise. I’m a teacher.
Originally posted in Teacher’s Lounge at Daily Kos
I oppose bullying. I’ve been a victim of it and it has been and will be my foe my entire life. It is an incredibly easy stance to take. It is apparently just as difficult a philosophy to put into action.
Verbal bullying is still bullying. This is where I enter a huge disagreement with a whole lot of people. I believe in thought control if it means improvement of relations among our species. In the long run, the benefit of the human species is served by reinforcing the fact that some thoughts are detrimental to human survival since they keep us at each others’ throats rather than cooperating for the benefit of us all.
Have I mentioned I’m a socialist?
I’ve worked with the organization that sponsors No Name-Calling Week on occasion, though I am not a member. I teach college and GLSEN, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, is aimed at the younger set. They do have an agenda. The entire human race should have an agenda.
GLSEN, or the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, is the leading national education organization focused on ensuring safe schools for ALL students.
That’s certainly an agenda I can get behind.
“Safe” does not mean physically safe. Learning requires a degree of self-confidence. Children who are daily subjected to verbal abuse have that confidence eroded. The door of opportunity, to be the best human beings they can mature into being, is being slammed in their faces. It doesn’t matter if the verbs and nouns hurled are about race or gender, ethnicity or religion, sexuality or gender identity, or disability or appearance, children are damaged by the barrage of insults they receive.
Telling them they need to develop a tougher skin doesn’t help. That’s just pouring acid in the open wound. Failing to teach our children that the verbal bullying is wrong and framing it as a First Amendment issue in order to excuse it allows those wounds to fester.
As an empathetic human being I can’t allow that festering. As a former sissy who suffered from it, I rejected it…but it took much of my life. As a PFLAG parent, I will fight you tooth and nail about this.
Hell hath no fury like a PFLAG mom defending her child.
Don’t start telling me about slippery slopes. I rejected the Slippery Slope Theory when it was called the Domino Theory back in the day. I don’t care who invokes it.
Changing society for the better is a Good Thing™. It was a good that GLSEN sponsored No Name-Calling Week. It would be good if more people joined and/or supported organizations like GLSEN, organizations which, I hope you notice work to protect ALL the students. That’s the thing about so-called gay rights groups. We work for all of us.
I just wish it were No Name-Calling Year or No Name-Calling Lifetime.
Jan 26 2008
Maybe I should be here, instead
I haven’t been here much. I spend a lot of time over at dailyKos, and I can’t handle being very active on both sites.
But maybe I should be here instead.
Tomorrow, I will write a diary over there entitled “Memo to admins: Do you want us to leave?” in which I will say why I am considering GBCWing over there.
There are some aspects of dailyKos I really like. I like a lot of the people. I like playing to the big crowd. I like how, in an active diary, you can have hundreds of comments and all sorts of interesting threads. I like the huge variety of diaries
But it’s bad over there. The candidate diaries suck up more and more oxygen, and good diaries scroll down the recent list into oblivion. Many people have left, others are thinking of it.
So, maybe I should be here, instead?
Jan 26 2008
The Fight For America: Make it Personal
( – promoted by buhdydharma )
I’d been away for a while. Offline and watching television and listening to Hillary and Barack. Bleech. And, oh my good god, Bill Clinton has become a political hack. Dennis seems to have disappeared. But it’s hard to miss the American economy’s free-fall.
Tell me something. If I was waiting for the bear and you all were waiting for the bear, how is it that candidates (except John Edwards), Congress, and MSM blowhards seemed to have little concern about this clear and looming economic middle class disaster? Katrina-like in its scope, isn’t it? Well, it’s been my story now for the past 18 months: Democrats are complicit in the rape of the American middle class. Face it. And we citizens are the ones who need to deal with it.
I have a suggestion. Read or reread “Common Sense.” That’s what I’m doing. Because we need to get ourselves in a mind set, build a frame work, for going forward.
We have a heritage here. A history. It is clear. What we need to win is not a seat for a Democrat in the White House, but an awakening of Americans and their stake in America.
from Aaron Russo’s Restore the Republic website
We have, I believe, one essential thing still in our favor: the facade is still attached. The age of American Fascism is not yet fully realized. We haven’t had overt signs… like troops in the street or martial (not Marshall) law. If those things were to happen, the game changes and makes our work exponentially harder.
So here’s my suggestion for what a place like Docudharma could choose to do…
1. Compile bulleted list of ALL Bush and BushCO lies and somehow, have it scroll every day like the Out of Iraq Caucus blog roll. Each item in the list will link to credible news sources (& change links of major lies to different sources every week or two).
2. Research and write FP essays each week on specific aspects of these lies and how they undermine the middle class. These need to be written in a way that people see the threat as personal… as robbing their kids of a future… ignite the MADD in mothers about corrupted manufacturing processes that put toxic toys in the mouths of their babes.
3. Orchestrate the essays and REPEAT THEM regularly. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel every week. But let’s rotate stories like this: essay A, B, C first week all week. Then next week, new essay D, B, & C. Then E, A comes back, & C. Then F, A, B. Something like that so the message gets pounded. So it doesn’t get lost. So when it gets read, people know where to come back once they initially digested it. Then make them easy to find on the Dharmazine. I think repetition and making it personal are key elements.
I’d love to see a story from some of our economic folks about the impact on a privatized social security system in this free-fall.
I wonder if drational or xrepub would help in putting together essays on military outsourcing. perhaps teacher ken could write on the NCLB plot to make public education fail in order to outsource it… and lukery might help us by providing an overview of the impact of outsourcing intelligence…
CEO pay increased some 30% since 9/11. Why? How does that compare to what most Americans have lost in pay and benefits over these last seven years. Can we make the case that reduction/loss of benefits correlates with the dramatic uptick in CEO pay?
Can we make the case that fraud and profits driving decisions are the real reasons our health care system doesn’t work for so many of us?
Or how theocrats on school boards have corrupted education in pursuit of limiting what kids learn/read/discuss.
4. But all of this has to, right up front, be clear about what regular Americans are losing in these deals. And what their kids are losing. Clear. Present. Concrete. Simple language. Short as possible and no complicated quotes longer than the essay.
And maybe hardest of all is assuring people there are things we can do to push back. Perhaps we can have a proactive group here that can look into ways that work in undermining BushCo. What others have done and are doing.
In conclusion, the way to turn this around is to shake the “defense of territory and young” in Americans. We have to move this from fighting against BushCo to fighting for our lives and our country AND the legacy left to our children. This really needs to be about fighting for something… a movement evolving out of love for our kids and their future.
We need a few good conductors to get us and keep us organized. I volunteer to edit, help with research, and take assignments for essays. But gotta find some good city editors to run the crew.
Whaddya all think?
Here’s a link to the full text of Common Sense.
And just to entice you…
…a long habit of not thinking a thing WRONG, gives it a superficial appearance of being RIGHT,
our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.
For the fate of Charles the First hath only made kings more subtle – not more just.
This one could read “For the fate of Nixon hath only made presidents more subtle – not more just.”
One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in Kings, is that nature disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule, by giving mankind an ASS FOR A LION
Jan 26 2008
Gulf Coast Civic Works Debate Question: Vote
As anybody who regularly watches candidates’ debates knows, questions about Katrina and New Orleans have been extremely rare, even though this is a valid national campaign issue. Here’s a chance to vote for such a question to be asked during either of the two debates, one Republican, one Democratic, which are slated for Los Angeles on Jan. 30th and Jan. 31st, and will be aired on CNN.
colorofchange.org is offering those of us who want to see Katrina recovery discussed to vote for the following:
Two years after Katrina and Rita and Gulf Coast schools, hospitals, police stations, roads and flood protection still lie in ruins, keeping displaced residents from returning and communities from recovering. Will you support H.R. 4048, the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, as President to rebuild community infrastructure and create job and training opportunities for residents?
Per colorofchange.org, vote for the above question to be asked during the Republican and the Democratic debates.
Here’s the Republican question page.
And here’s the Democrats question page.
Please vote for this question–it’s time we heard more out of the candidates of both parties on Gulf Region recovery than we have been hearing.
Jan 26 2008
The Problem With Republicanism…It Just Doesn’t Work
The most infuriating thing about Republicanism to me is the fact that we keep trying it, and it keeps not working. American Imperialism doesn’t work. The flip side of the Republican Foreign Policy of bombing various Brown People, Isolationism, doesn’t work either. One of the main reasons Republicanism doesn’t work is because America is ot an island, it never has been. Like it or not, we are part of the greater world, part of the planet. Mishima’s headline and LithiumCola’s essay both talk about this. In perhaps the greatest oxymoron of all, the Republican philosophy of global trade and either bombing brow people or isolationism are incredibly mutually exclusive. That oxymoron is part of what is splitting the GOP now, along with another global issue, which no amount of Karen Hughes type diplomacy can solve, economic migration. Or as the Republicans like to frame it….dirty Mexicans stealing your jobs and threatening your families…or conversely, a cheap labor force to be welcomed and exploited. The Republican dream of American Exceptionalism and Manifest Destiny just doesn’t hold up on a planetary scale. It’s internal conflicts aside, it simply cannot work on a planet that is now undeniably interdependent. It just doesn’t work. It especially doesn’t work without a Big Daddy figure to weave together the warring factions within the party. Without a Reagan or a faux Reagan like GWBush, the whole thing falls apart.
The two major factions in the Republican party are Business and the Traditionalists. (to put it as kindly as possible) Business wants to reap the harvest of globalization and if possible, if it doesn’t cost too much, resource hegemomy. Unfortunately for them they are finding out i Iraq that resource hegemony carries a heavy price, it may be good for the MIC, but it is bad for every other business sector. The Traditionalists want an Isolated America where through legislation and social pressures, everyone is “like us.” No Brown People, no gays, no weirdos. A safe orderly society that presents no challenges, but holds no fears for their ill-defined (since it doesn’t hold up to logic if it IS defined)”way of life.”
Sorry folks, it just won’t work…especially if you can’t meld the two factions and use that combined power to shout down the rest of us…you know us humans who value justice and fairplay and cooperation with the rest of the planet….because we have learned that….it works.
Fortunately for sane people, without this coalition they are toast…and none of their candidates except the Amazing Plastic Mitt has any hope of forming it, and he won’t be able to because his plasticness is so transparent. The only question is will the traditionalists hold their nose and vote McCain and “Amnesty?”
Trickle down economics doesn’t work. We have had seven years of Bush tax cuts to “stimulate the economy,” and now……we need to stimulate the economy? “nuff said…except to those who refuse to listen. Voodoo Economics indeed!
The Politics Of Hate doesn’t work. Like all of their recent strategies it works…for a while, and then the REAL Silent majority starts standing up to it and it is revealed as something that’s only goal is to hurt harm and separate. It’s only real appeal is xenophobia, and while America loves to flirt with xenophobia…it will never fully marry it. It is only when the politics of hate has a champion in power that it becomes popular. The REAL Silent Majority in America is not the white male evangelical…it is everybody else.
In conclusion then, it has once again been demonstrated….amazingly well…..that Republicanism doesn’t work. The only question now….is how to drive this point home. For GOOD this time, so we o longer have swing this low in the political pendulum again.
Jan 26 2008
Pony Party: Glass
On the way to visiting the hospital I took a detour to the RBG ( Royal Botanical Gardens) in the Hamilton-Burlington area to see a glass exhibit. My mother wasn’t interested initially but I heard her tell a friend on the phone how lovely it was. It wasn’t officially open but all the displays were up and we had a nice talk with the director/manager who was catching a quiet moment on a bench enjoying the hypnotically calm atmosphere of the indoor gardens. She told us that due to budget cuts, she had about half the staff she used to and every time they had a new exhibit, they wondered if they could even get it done. It made me realize that one of the unspoken necessities of urban life are public spaces where people can enjoy low cost or free entertainment/education with their family. When gardens, libraries, parks, and other “public spaces” disappear, we become less of a democracy, more of a lemming like consumer organism.
Here are a few pictures. All of the glass items were done by local artists….
When I was a university student on a budget, my then boyfriend and I often went to the outdoor portion of the local RBG gardens for a picnic. He was an artist (painting,photography, graphic design)and I often acted as his “assistant” finding items that had visual appeal. It never occurred to me I might try and develop my own creative side at that time. I was more into local political activism and thinking I was going to help change the world.
The supreme irony of appreciating a glass exhibit, while negotiating the philosophical and practical realities of what happens to us as we become more fragile, was not lost on me. I will include a few more pictures in the last pony party of the day.
Thanks for looking and please feel free to share your own pictures. Remember, please don’t rec pony party, hang out, chit chat, and then go read some of the excellent offerings on our recent and rec’d list.