[The revelation that more than 10,000 convicted criminals have been welcomed with open arms into Florida's mortgage industry is shocking, even in light of the state's sleazy, anything-goes history.
At first blush, things look bad for the Office of Financial Regulation and its commissioner, Don Saxon, whose long nap was harshly interrupted by last week's headlines.
And although it's tempting to view this story as just another embarrassing validation of Florida's reputation as the most crooked and most screwed-up place in America, there might be an upside to the scandal...
But let's look at it another way -- not as horrendous bureaucratic incompetence, but rather as a daring, innovative way of diverting and retraining Florida's inexhaustible supply of felons...
Isn't it better to be robbed over the phone than at gunpoint?]
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/columnists/carl-hiaasen/story/618353.html
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Friday, July 18, 2008
Nelson Mandela's Birthday: "Rockers and Rappers United as One"
July 18, 2008 marked the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela, icon of freedom in South Africa and for the whole world.
People have forgotten that Mr. Mandela spent 27 years in prison and that Pres. Raygunz said in debate against Mondale all opposition to state apartheid in South Africa stemmed from communist instigation.
27 years of imprisonment, the last 18 spent on Robben Island, where "[H]e and others performed hard labour in a lime quarry. Prison conditions were very basic. Prisoners were segregated by race, with black prisoners receiving the fewest rations. Political prisoners were kept separate from ordinary criminals and received fewer privileges. Mandela describes how, as a D-group prisoner (the lowest classification) he was allowed one visitor and one letter every six months...."
His release came after years of protests and economic boycotts against the racist regime notable among them Artist United against Apartheid, a gathering of diverse musicians organized by Little Steven Van Zandt
with rockers and rappers recording a protest song and vowing not to play in the S. African resort, Sun City.
The mtv pop-up video below Amazon link gives a good overview of issues involved.
The ska band the Specials recorded a song, "Free Nelson Mandela." Six years later, Mandela received his freedom, released from prison, "Great God almighty free at last."
Economic sanctions from governments around the world helped move S Africa to democracy and freedom for Mandela.
Many measures came after citizens lobbied their local governments and public institutions to divest investments with companies that did business with or in S Africa.
Despite opposition of the Raygunz administration, ordinary citizens helped move S Africa to freedom.
People power works: Satyagraha in S Africa, ending the reign of Ferdinand Marcos in the Phillipines, bringing down the Berlin wall
Maybe the Springsteen concert coincidentally on July 18, 1988 in East Berlin even helped mobilize people for change.
Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Obama can mobilize people to change the corrupt Washington, DC, political culture.
People have forgotten that Mr. Mandela spent 27 years in prison and that Pres. Raygunz said in debate against Mondale all opposition to state apartheid in South Africa stemmed from communist instigation.
27 years of imprisonment, the last 18 spent on Robben Island, where "[H]e and others performed hard labour in a lime quarry. Prison conditions were very basic. Prisoners were segregated by race, with black prisoners receiving the fewest rations. Political prisoners were kept separate from ordinary criminals and received fewer privileges. Mandela describes how, as a D-group prisoner (the lowest classification) he was allowed one visitor and one letter every six months...."
His release came after years of protests and economic boycotts against the racist regime notable among them Artist United against Apartheid, a gathering of diverse musicians organized by Little Steven Van Zandt
with rockers and rappers recording a protest song and vowing not to play in the S. African resort, Sun City.The mtv pop-up video below Amazon link gives a good overview of issues involved.
The ska band the Specials recorded a song, "Free Nelson Mandela." Six years later, Mandela received his freedom, released from prison, "Great God almighty free at last."
Economic sanctions from governments around the world helped move S Africa to democracy and freedom for Mandela.
Many measures came after citizens lobbied their local governments and public institutions to divest investments with companies that did business with or in S Africa.
Despite opposition of the Raygunz administration, ordinary citizens helped move S Africa to freedom.
People power works: Satyagraha in S Africa, ending the reign of Ferdinand Marcos in the Phillipines, bringing down the Berlin wall
Maybe the Springsteen concert coincidentally on July 18, 1988 in East Berlin even helped mobilize people for change.
Maybe, just maybe, Mr. Obama can mobilize people to change the corrupt Washington, DC, political culture.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
S & M Barbie?/Black Canary and Gator cheerleader Barbies
Finally Fox News runs a story worth reading on how some got their panties in a bunch when Mattel came out with a new Barbie based on a DC comic book character, The Black Canary
.
"The doll’s image is transformed with kinky fishnets, motorcycle jacket, black gloves and boots."
Of course, Fox lifted story in toto from the British Sun tabloid, minus the cute headline, "S&M Barbie Lashed By Public."
Oh those lovely Brits, always upholding standards of the Royal Navy: Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Why do they deem fishnets "kinky?" Trashy maybe but "kinky" bespeaks prude by day and prurient by night.
But calling poor, sexless, impossibly dimensioned Barbie tarty goes too far.
Calling the Mattel toy out for teaching a generation of girls impossible body type standards to live up to does however seem appropriate.
[One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman, leading to a risk that women who attempt to emulate her will become anorexic...Barbie's vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate.[13] In 1965 Slumber Party Barbie came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight which advised: "Don't eat." The doll also came with pink bathroom scales reading 110lb, which would be around 35lbs underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches tall.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie_doll#Controversies
So leave Barbie ALONE because, besides body issues, Bride Barbie teaches traditional family values, unless of course ceremony held at a dykes on bikes rally.
The haters ignore a graduating Barbie which extols educational success.
Don't the haters realize Heart Association Barbie teaches the value of charity work and wearing red gowns for formal affairs?
Would a tart market a Barbie laptop learning center?
Would the Christian Voice kooks call my University of Florida chearleader Barbie a tart when she teaches little girls to love the Gators and the importance of college football at educational institutions? They can pry my UF cheerleader Barbie out of my cold dead hands after taking the other hand off my gun!
Damn youse, Christian Voice! Damn youse!
."The doll’s image is transformed with kinky fishnets, motorcycle jacket, black gloves and boots."
Of course, Fox lifted story in toto from the British Sun tabloid, minus the cute headline, "S&M Barbie Lashed By Public."
Oh those lovely Brits, always upholding standards of the Royal Navy: Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash
Why do they deem fishnets "kinky?" Trashy maybe but "kinky" bespeaks prude by day and prurient by night.
But calling poor, sexless, impossibly dimensioned Barbie tarty goes too far.
Calling the Mattel toy out for teaching a generation of girls impossible body type standards to live up to does however seem appropriate.
[One of the most common criticisms of Barbie is that she promotes an unrealistic idea of body image for a young woman, leading to a risk that women who attempt to emulate her will become anorexic...Barbie's vital statistics have been estimated at 36 inches (chest), 18 inches (waist) and 33 inches (hips). According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the 17 to 22 percent body fat required for a woman to menstruate.[13] In 1965 Slumber Party Barbie came with a book entitled How to Lose Weight which advised: "Don't eat." The doll also came with pink bathroom scales reading 110lb, which would be around 35lbs underweight for a woman 5 feet 9 inches tall.]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbie_doll#Controversies
So leave Barbie ALONE because, besides body issues, Bride Barbie teaches traditional family values, unless of course ceremony held at a dykes on bikes rally.
The haters ignore a graduating Barbie which extols educational success.
Don't the haters realize Heart Association Barbie teaches the value of charity work and wearing red gowns for formal affairs?
Would a tart market a Barbie laptop learning center?
Would the Christian Voice kooks call my University of Florida chearleader Barbie a tart when she teaches little girls to love the Gators and the importance of college football at educational institutions? They can pry my UF cheerleader Barbie out of my cold dead hands after taking the other hand off my gun!
Damn youse, Christian Voice! Damn youse!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Oppose War With Iran: Sojourners-Take Action Campaign
[America, Iran, and Israel have been playing war games this summer: Showing off warships in the Persian Gulf, launching missiles, and testing aerial maneuvers – it is like watching a bad game of one-upmanship.
But it’s not a game. Once again, the talk of military action against Iran has reached a fever pitch, with demonstrations of force on all sides. But this saber-rattling is a dead-end street for the United States and the Middle East.
Tell the United States, Israel and Iran to pursue diplomatic solutions, not military action, in the Middle East.
Another American-led or supported military attack in the Middle East would likely prove disastrous. While we support the elimination of all nuclear weapons, both existing and planned, Iran must be dealt with through diplomatic negotiations with real pressures and effective incentives – similar to negotiations with North Korea – rather than by threats of military attack.]
But it’s not a game. Once again, the talk of military action against Iran has reached a fever pitch, with demonstrations of force on all sides. But this saber-rattling is a dead-end street for the United States and the Middle East.
Tell the United States, Israel and Iran to pursue diplomatic solutions, not military action, in the Middle East.
Another American-led or supported military attack in the Middle East would likely prove disastrous. While we support the elimination of all nuclear weapons, both existing and planned, Iran must be dealt with through diplomatic negotiations with real pressures and effective incentives – similar to negotiations with North Korea – rather than by threats of military attack.]
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Burned over 82% of his body; casualties of war include wounded
[Posted on Sat, Jul. 12, 2008
A soldier's tale: Wounded in Iraq, struggling for a life
Nicholas Spangler | Miami Herald
last updated: July 13, 2008 12:29:06 AM
In the Bradley turret, {Staff Seargent Victor} Dominguez picked up the hand-mic. ''All right,'' he started to say. ``Let's turn around and go home.''
Ooomph! was all he heard.
The weight of the Bradley pressed the explosive device's trigger wires together, completing the detonation circuit. The mines and the artillery rounds blasted straight up into the vehicle's underbelly.
The 25-ton Bradley rocked. Its fuel tank exploded, and a 20-foot fireball shot up into the black Iraqi sky.
Dominguez thought he saw the fire coming up through the Bradley's floor between him and Turner. Then for a while he saw nothing. He and Turner had been blasted out onto the road, coated in burning diesel fuel...
Swaths of his {Dominguez} skin dried, then ignited, layer by layer, down to the subcutaneous fat. Parts of his left foot burned down to the bone.
His Kevlar body armor was melting to his chest. His boots were melting to his feet. His fatigues were burned off. He reached for the pistol he kept in a shoulder holster, but his hand was too badly burned to grab it.
He didn't stop burning until his men covered him with a fire blanket...]
Goddamn George W. Bush, goddamn President Cheney, goddamn all the neo-con supporters of the war and their press poodles.
How dare W make a joke of no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as American troops--mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons--died in his splendid little war? Messianic little shit.
[March 26, 2004
Family of Slain Soldier Calls Bush WMD Jokes “Disgraceful”
At a media dinner Wednesday, President Bush joked about how no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, eliciting laughter from many of the journalists in attendance...
{T}here was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. Bush said “Nope. No weapons over there.” Then another picture of Bush searching in his office. He said “Maybe under here.”
According to the Nation’s David Corn many of the journalists at the dinner laughed throughout the skit.
But the Daily News is reporting that the families of soldiers killed in Iraq are not laughing.
George Medina who lost his son in Iraq said, “This is disgraceful. He doesn’t think of all the families that are suffering. It’s unbelievable, how this guy runs the country.”
Medina’s son, {Specialist} Irving Medina died at the age of 22 in Baghdad on November 14.] emphasis and link added. 69 words in 3 paragraphs of a US Dept off Defense casualty report, 69 wors to sum up the life of a young man.
Pro-war politicians and pundits punishment? Read forever every word of every casualty notice, every obituary, every hometown newspaper story on fallen and injured heroes, to cry a tear for every tear a family member shed.
A soldier's tale: Wounded in Iraq, struggling for a life
Nicholas Spangler | Miami Herald
last updated: July 13, 2008 12:29:06 AM
In the Bradley turret, {Staff Seargent Victor} Dominguez picked up the hand-mic. ''All right,'' he started to say. ``Let's turn around and go home.''
Ooomph! was all he heard.
The weight of the Bradley pressed the explosive device's trigger wires together, completing the detonation circuit. The mines and the artillery rounds blasted straight up into the vehicle's underbelly.
The 25-ton Bradley rocked. Its fuel tank exploded, and a 20-foot fireball shot up into the black Iraqi sky.
Dominguez thought he saw the fire coming up through the Bradley's floor between him and Turner. Then for a while he saw nothing. He and Turner had been blasted out onto the road, coated in burning diesel fuel...
Swaths of his {Dominguez} skin dried, then ignited, layer by layer, down to the subcutaneous fat. Parts of his left foot burned down to the bone.
His Kevlar body armor was melting to his chest. His boots were melting to his feet. His fatigues were burned off. He reached for the pistol he kept in a shoulder holster, but his hand was too badly burned to grab it.
He didn't stop burning until his men covered him with a fire blanket...]
Goddamn George W. Bush, goddamn President Cheney, goddamn all the neo-con supporters of the war and their press poodles.
How dare W make a joke of no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as American troops--mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons--died in his splendid little war? Messianic little shit.
[March 26, 2004
Family of Slain Soldier Calls Bush WMD Jokes “Disgraceful”
At a media dinner Wednesday, President Bush joked about how no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq, eliciting laughter from many of the journalists in attendance...
{T}here was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. Bush said “Nope. No weapons over there.” Then another picture of Bush searching in his office. He said “Maybe under here.”
According to the Nation’s David Corn many of the journalists at the dinner laughed throughout the skit.
But the Daily News is reporting that the families of soldiers killed in Iraq are not laughing.
George Medina who lost his son in Iraq said, “This is disgraceful. He doesn’t think of all the families that are suffering. It’s unbelievable, how this guy runs the country.”
Medina’s son, {Specialist} Irving Medina died at the age of 22 in Baghdad on November 14.] emphasis and link added. 69 words in 3 paragraphs of a US Dept off Defense casualty report, 69 wors to sum up the life of a young man.
Pro-war politicians and pundits punishment? Read forever every word of every casualty notice, every obituary, every hometown newspaper story on fallen and injured heroes, to cry a tear for every tear a family member shed.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Orlando: Black babies born next to boiler room
[Jeff Kunerth | Sentinel Staff Writer
July 11, 2008
Dr. Alfred L. Bookhardt began his career as a physician in the 1960s, when blacks were barred from practicing at Orlando hospitals or joining the American Medical Association.
A belated apology for past discrimination by the American Medical Association is a small consolation for 79-year-old Alfred L. Bookhardt, a black physician who arrived in Orlando in the days of segregation.
"He feels it's necessary for an apology, but it's way too late for him. Being denied membership affected his lifestyle, his livelihood, his status and the opportunity to grow," said his wife, Ola Bookhardt.
The association Thursday apologized on its Web site for "its past history of racial inequality toward African-American physicians, and shares its current efforts to increase the ranks of minority physicians and their participation in the AMA..."
...At the same time the AMA was denying Bookhardt membership, Orlando hospitals were barring black doctors from joining their staffs and separating black patients from whites. At Orange Memorial Hospital -- now Orlando Regional Medical Center -- the black ward was in the basement next to the boiler room, and women having babies were placed next to men with tuberculosis.
"They went to Orange Memorial, where they were relegated to the basement with boiler pipes to deliver their children," said Geraldine Thompson, director of the Wells'Built Museum of African American History. "Many children were delivered in the elevator."]
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-ama1108jul11,0,3220532.story
July 11, 2008
Dr. Alfred L. Bookhardt began his career as a physician in the 1960s, when blacks were barred from practicing at Orlando hospitals or joining the American Medical Association.
A belated apology for past discrimination by the American Medical Association is a small consolation for 79-year-old Alfred L. Bookhardt, a black physician who arrived in Orlando in the days of segregation.
"He feels it's necessary for an apology, but it's way too late for him. Being denied membership affected his lifestyle, his livelihood, his status and the opportunity to grow," said his wife, Ola Bookhardt.
The association Thursday apologized on its Web site for "its past history of racial inequality toward African-American physicians, and shares its current efforts to increase the ranks of minority physicians and their participation in the AMA..."
...At the same time the AMA was denying Bookhardt membership, Orlando hospitals were barring black doctors from joining their staffs and separating black patients from whites. At Orange Memorial Hospital -- now Orlando Regional Medical Center -- the black ward was in the basement next to the boiler room, and women having babies were placed next to men with tuberculosis.
"They went to Orange Memorial, where they were relegated to the basement with boiler pipes to deliver their children," said Geraldine Thompson, director of the Wells'Built Museum of African American History. "Many children were delivered in the elevator."]
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-ama1108jul11,0,3220532.story
Ban anything offensive, even historic pictures
"I still feel that if anyone finds it offensive, it should not be displayed," the Orlando Sentinel quoted city commissioner Daisy Lynum as saying in reference to a photo of a barefoot black caddie holding the golf bag for a white golfer, a picture displayed in restaurant of renovated city owned golf course, Dubsdread.
A later report had this quote. "They say it (photograph) is a part of history," Lynum said, "but so is lynching and killing. Do we keep those pictures on display?"
Yes, Ms. Lynum, places like the Black Holocaust Museum have as an exhibit on Strange Fruit - Lynching in America so the terrible history of racism shall instruct us on how to treat our fellow humans.
Yes, blacks could not then legally golf on the course, but hopefully picture shows a black man making some coin caddying. It also shows dependency of upper class white culture on black workes: waiters and washers, caddies and domestic employees.
A later report had this quote. "They say it (photograph) is a part of history," Lynum said, "but so is lynching and killing. Do we keep those pictures on display?"
Yes, Ms. Lynum, places like the Black Holocaust Museum have as an exhibit on Strange Fruit - Lynching in America so the terrible history of racism shall instruct us on how to treat our fellow humans.
Yes, blacks could not then legally golf on the course, but hopefully picture shows a black man making some coin caddying. It also shows dependency of upper class white culture on black workes: waiters and washers, caddies and domestic employees.
Snake Handling: "You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense,"
[11:11 PM CDT, July 11, 2008
FRANKFORT, Ky. - The pastor of a Kentucky church that handles snakes in religious rites was among 10 people arrested by wildlife officers in a crackdown on the venomous snake trade.
More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting ...
Most were taken from the Middlesboro home of Gregory James Coots, including 42 copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff adder.
Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed. The practice is illegal in most states, including Kentucky.
Coots, 36, is pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, where a Tennessee woman died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a service in 1995. Her husband died three years later when he was bitten by a snake in northeastern Alabama.
Coots was charged Thursday with buying, selling and possessing illegal reptiles...
"You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense," [Jim, director of Kentucky Reptile Zoo] Harrison said. "A venomous snake isn't a pet. You don't play with it. If you do, you're an idiot."]
(emphasis added 'cause guy had 42 copperhead snakes for St. Pat's sake.)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-snake-bust,0,3002359.story
FRANKFORT, Ky. - The pastor of a Kentucky church that handles snakes in religious rites was among 10 people arrested by wildlife officers in a crackdown on the venomous snake trade.
More than 100 snakes, many of them deadly, were confiscated in the undercover sting ...
Most were taken from the Middlesboro home of Gregory James Coots, including 42 copperheads, 11 timber rattlesnakes, three cottonmouth water moccasins, a western diamondback rattlesnake, two cobras and a puff adder.
Handling snakes is practiced in a handful of fundamentalist churches across Appalachia, based on the interpretation of Bible verses saying true believers can take up serpents without being harmed. The practice is illegal in most states, including Kentucky.
Coots, 36, is pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name in Middlesboro, where a Tennessee woman died after being bitten by a rattlesnake during a service in 1995. Her husband died three years later when he was bitten by a snake in northeastern Alabama.
Coots was charged Thursday with buying, selling and possessing illegal reptiles...
"You can purchase anything off the Internet except common sense," [Jim, director of Kentucky Reptile Zoo] Harrison said. "A venomous snake isn't a pet. You don't play with it. If you do, you're an idiot."]
(emphasis added 'cause guy had 42 copperhead snakes for St. Pat's sake.)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-snake-bust,0,3002359.story
Monday, July 7, 2008
Internet Service Providers Censoring Political Speech
[... Rant all you want in a public park. A police officer generally won't eject you for your remarks alone, however unpopular or provocative.
Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed...
To wit: Verizon Wireless barred an abortion-rights group from obtaining a "short code" for conducting text-messaging campaigns, while LiveJournal suspended legitimate blogs on fiction and crime victims in a crackdown on pedophilia. Two lines criticizing President Bush disappeared from AT&T Inc.'s webcast of a Pearl Jam concert. All three decisions were reversed only after senior executives intervened amid complaints...
"As we move more of our communications into social networks, how are we limiting ourselves if we can't see alternative points of view, if we can't see the things that offend us?" asked Fred Stutzman, a University of North Carolina researcher who tracks online communities...] emphasis added
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-tec-disappearing-freedoms,0,2851878.story
Say it on the Internet, and you'll find that free speech and other constitutional rights are anything but guaranteed...
To wit: Verizon Wireless barred an abortion-rights group from obtaining a "short code" for conducting text-messaging campaigns, while LiveJournal suspended legitimate blogs on fiction and crime victims in a crackdown on pedophilia. Two lines criticizing President Bush disappeared from AT&T Inc.'s webcast of a Pearl Jam concert. All three decisions were reversed only after senior executives intervened amid complaints...
"As we move more of our communications into social networks, how are we limiting ourselves if we can't see alternative points of view, if we can't see the things that offend us?" asked Fred Stutzman, a University of North Carolina researcher who tracks online communities...] emphasis added
http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/sns-ap-tec-disappearing-freedoms,0,2851878.story
Saturday, July 5, 2008
In defense of Max Hardcore: "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press"
This summary is not available. Please
click here to view the post.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Wesley Clark: slacker only went to Airborne school for summer vacation
"...[General Wesley Clark US Army Ret.] ultimately graduated as valedictorian of West Point...Clark eventually applied for a Rhodes Scholarship and learned in December of his senior year at West Point that he had been accepted. He spent his summer at the United States Army Airborne School at Fort Benning, Georgia. Clark worked in the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) program during his Rhodes Scholarship, completing his degree at Magdalen College at the University of Oxford in August 1968..."
"...Clark was then given command of A Company, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry of the 1st Infantry Division in January 1970. In February, only one month into his command, he was shot four times by a Viet Cong soldier with an AK-47. The wounded Clark shouted orders to his men, who counterattacked and defeated the Viet Cong force. Clark had injuries to his right shoulder, right hand, right hip, and right leg, and was sent to Valley Forge Army Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania to recuperate. He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions during the encounter."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark#Military_career
"...Clark was then given command of A Company, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry of the 1st Infantry Division in January 1970. In February, only one month into his command, he was shot four times by a Viet Cong soldier with an AK-47. The wounded Clark shouted orders to his men, who counterattacked and defeated the Viet Cong force. Clark had injuries to his right shoulder, right hand, right hip, and right leg, and was sent to Valley Forge Army Hospital in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania to recuperate. He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions during the encounter."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark#Military_career
FL don't need no stinkin' Starbucks
Starbuck's? What's a Starbuck's? People living in FL should find a family or cuban cafe with cafe con leche and decent espresso. Starbucks: double frappacino, soy milk, extra nutmeg crap.
[Starbucks Corp., dragged down by a slowing U.S. economy, is pulling the plug on 600 of its underperforming U.S. coffee shops and trimming the number of stores it had planned to open over the coming year.
The shutdowns are far more than the coffee-shop chain had originally planned. In January, Starbucks said it planned to close 100 U.S. stores as part of the transformation plan set in motion by Howard Schultz shortly after he returned as CEO.
It was unclear Tuesday whether any of the affected stores would be in Central Florida.]
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-starbucks0208jul02,0,2193805.story
[Starbucks Corp., dragged down by a slowing U.S. economy, is pulling the plug on 600 of its underperforming U.S. coffee shops and trimming the number of stores it had planned to open over the coming year.
The shutdowns are far more than the coffee-shop chain had originally planned. In January, Starbucks said it planned to close 100 U.S. stores as part of the transformation plan set in motion by Howard Schultz shortly after he returned as CEO.
It was unclear Tuesday whether any of the affected stores would be in Central Florida.]
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-starbucks0208jul02,0,2193805.story
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Chinese Economists: "Washington's warped conception of regulation"
[Chinese officials seem to be galled by the apparent hypocrisy of Americans telling them what to do while the American economy is at best stagnant. China, on the other hand, has maintained its feverish growth.
Some officials are promoting a Chinese style of economic management that they suggest serves developing countries better than the American model, in much the same way they argue that they are in no hurry to copy American-style multiparty democracy.
In the last six weeks alone, a senior banking regulator blamed Washington’s “warped conception” of market regulation for the subprime mortgage crisis that is rattling the world economy; the Chinese envoy to the World Trade Organization called on the United States to halt the dollar’s unchecked depreciation before the slide further worsens soaring oil and food prices; and Chinese agencies denounced a federal committee charged with vetting foreign investments in the United States, saying the Americans were showing “hostility” and a “discriminatory attitude,” not least toward the Chinese...
...The Chinese attitude is no doubt bolstered by the lame-duck status of the Bush administration and by the fact that the United States is widely seen as having squandered its political and military leadership during the war in Iraq, which China opposed. Likewise, Chinese officials and state news media have suggested that the relatively quick mobilization of the Chinese Army during the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province contrasts favorably with the Bush administration’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/world/asia/17china.html?sq=china%20us%20regulation&st=nyt&scp=3&pagewanted=print
Some officials are promoting a Chinese style of economic management that they suggest serves developing countries better than the American model, in much the same way they argue that they are in no hurry to copy American-style multiparty democracy.
In the last six weeks alone, a senior banking regulator blamed Washington’s “warped conception” of market regulation for the subprime mortgage crisis that is rattling the world economy; the Chinese envoy to the World Trade Organization called on the United States to halt the dollar’s unchecked depreciation before the slide further worsens soaring oil and food prices; and Chinese agencies denounced a federal committee charged with vetting foreign investments in the United States, saying the Americans were showing “hostility” and a “discriminatory attitude,” not least toward the Chinese...
...The Chinese attitude is no doubt bolstered by the lame-duck status of the Bush administration and by the fact that the United States is widely seen as having squandered its political and military leadership during the war in Iraq, which China opposed. Likewise, Chinese officials and state news media have suggested that the relatively quick mobilization of the Chinese Army during the recent earthquake in Sichuan Province contrasts favorably with the Bush administration’s reaction to Hurricane Katrina.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/world/asia/17china.html?sq=china%20us%20regulation&st=nyt&scp=3&pagewanted=print
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Whites only swimming hole
The map below shows Lake Bell which lies between 2 Florida cities steeped in history.
View Larger Map
Eatonville lies to the west and "was the first such town to be incorporated. Zora Neale Hurston grew up there..." and as of 2000 census",,,makeup of the town was 89.31% African American."
To the east lies Winter Park "Winter Park was founded as a resort destination by wealthy New England industrialists before the turn of the 20th century..." and as of 2000, "The racial makeup of the city was 85.90% White."
Winter Park officials want to deny Eatonville right to build boat dock on shoreline within city boundaries.
Before casting this as purely racial, let me add a caveat: Florida leads the nation in stamping out every bit of undeveloped land with concrete, asphalt, and buildings which end the natural interlations within the ecology.
So giving the lady interviewed on tv her due when she said homeowners worried about environmental concerns and not racism, if it were about the natural resources, they would seek to compromise on access rather than seek to ban access by Eatonville.
In Florida, when they say it ain't 'bout race, usually 'tis.
"Winter Park will ask Orange County for control of Eatonville's access to Lake Bell for motorboats or swimming, according to a Monday resolution by the City Commission. The Orange County Commission has held that authority since the school district gave Eatonville a piece of lakefront property in 1997. Winter Park has annexed most of the shoreline and the majority of the lake. Lake Bell homeowners have resisted Eatonville's attempts to build a boat ramp for several years. Eatonville Mayor Anthony Grant said Winter Park has no right to control his town's access."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/winterpark/orl-b3report24_308jun24,0,2598756.story
View Larger Map
Eatonville lies to the west and "was the first such town to be incorporated. Zora Neale Hurston grew up there..." and as of 2000 census",,,makeup of the town was 89.31% African American."
To the east lies Winter Park "Winter Park was founded as a resort destination by wealthy New England industrialists before the turn of the 20th century..." and as of 2000, "The racial makeup of the city was 85.90% White."
Winter Park officials want to deny Eatonville right to build boat dock on shoreline within city boundaries.
Before casting this as purely racial, let me add a caveat: Florida leads the nation in stamping out every bit of undeveloped land with concrete, asphalt, and buildings which end the natural interlations within the ecology.
So giving the lady interviewed on tv her due when she said homeowners worried about environmental concerns and not racism, if it were about the natural resources, they would seek to compromise on access rather than seek to ban access by Eatonville.
In Florida, when they say it ain't 'bout race, usually 'tis.
"Winter Park will ask Orange County for control of Eatonville's access to Lake Bell for motorboats or swimming, according to a Monday resolution by the City Commission. The Orange County Commission has held that authority since the school district gave Eatonville a piece of lakefront property in 1997. Winter Park has annexed most of the shoreline and the majority of the lake. Lake Bell homeowners have resisted Eatonville's attempts to build a boat ramp for several years. Eatonville Mayor Anthony Grant said Winter Park has no right to control his town's access."
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/winterpark/orl-b3report24_308jun24,0,2598756.story
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Fuck Tim Russert the "Legend of Journalism"
With all due respect to Mr. Russert as a human being and condolences to his family and friends, the last 2 days of sycophants lauding him with hyperbole better applied to real journalists such as Edward R. Murrow or Jimmy Breslin has made my head explode.
Seriously, has anyone outside the so called So Called Mainstream Media
considered Russert an impartial journalist?
I come not to bury Mr. Russert as an incompetent hack partisan masquerading as neutral obeserver, but to praise him for helping pioneer and build a fact free journalism, which "tolerate[s]lazy, undisciplined reporting, in which careless habits of thought are routinely applied to even the simplest sorts of data."
So throughout the 90's russert insinuated that President Clinton lied but after the Cheney administration invaded Iraq on the basis of lies he failed to rouse himself from his stupour to ask Jr cogent questions during an hour long interview.
Russert served his Republican masters so well that his show, Meet the Press, served as conduit for President Cheney's propaganda and lies.
Jeepers, just search Daily Howler or Media Matters
What doth it profit a man if he gains the world of media elites but loses hi acquaintance with truth?
See you in hell, Tim.
Seriously, has anyone outside the so called So Called Mainstream Media
considered Russert an impartial journalist?I come not to bury Mr. Russert as an incompetent hack partisan masquerading as neutral obeserver, but to praise him for helping pioneer and build a fact free journalism, which "tolerate[s]lazy, undisciplined reporting, in which careless habits of thought are routinely applied to even the simplest sorts of data."
So throughout the 90's russert insinuated that President Clinton lied but after the Cheney administration invaded Iraq on the basis of lies he failed to rouse himself from his stupour to ask Jr cogent questions during an hour long interview.
Russert served his Republican masters so well that his show, Meet the Press, served as conduit for President Cheney's propaganda and lies.
Jeepers, just search Daily Howler or Media Matters
What doth it profit a man if he gains the world of media elites but loses hi acquaintance with truth?
See you in hell, Tim.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Modern Slavery: the greatest shame of Florida
Surely in June 2008, no one lives in slavery in the United $tates of America?
Tell that to thousands of workers freed by work done by Coaliton of Immolakee Workers and federal prosecutors.
[Slavery exists in America. Still. This is the shocking revelation of Nobodies, the tale of author John Bowe's investigation into active slave rings on American soil. It's a discomforting notion, since modern American society has become comfortable with the idea that slavery is an atrocity that exists only in America's past, or in countries where the rule of law hasn't been established...
Bowe exposes modern-day slavery at several U.S. companies in the States and Saipan, and reveals a chilling corporate view--that what is "an embarrassment to modern notions of human rights" is a necessary consequence of free trade. Bowe also posits that more often than not, there is an enslaved worker hunched over a sewing machine or a sun-beaten fruit picker behind every cheap good American consumers enjoy.
Bowe begins his investigation in central Florida, which one former DOJ prosecutor he interviews calls "ground zero for modern slavery." He arrives in 2002, in time for the trial of Juan and Ramiro Ramos, brothers accused of operating a slavery ring in Immokalee, Fla., an agricultural area carved out of the swamps where farm workers pick tomatoes and oranges for such companies as Taco Bell and Tropicana. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Florida found the Ramos brothers guilty of conspiracy to hold people in involuntary servitude...]
Irony alert: in 2007. my favorite slave master got 30 years after prosecution by the Department of Justice, a sentence warranted by facts: [the Evans' deducted rent, food, crack cocaine and alcohol from workers' pay, holding them "perpetually indebted" in what the DOJ called "a form of servitude morally and legally reprehensible...
...in 2003. In Florida, Ron Evans worked for grower Frank Johns (query Federal Elections Commission data). Johns was 2004 Chairman of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the powerful lobbying arm of the Florida agricultural industry. As of 2007, he remained the Chairman of the FFVA's Budget and Finance Committee.]]
Booze, crack, food rent, throw in some hookers, and I'll sign up also.
Seriously, however, only a small percentage of Americans have stamina for the back-braking work of picking tomatoes and getting about $200 a week filling 32 lbs buckets. Show me the anti immigrant ignoramuses like Lou Dobbs or Pat Buchanon trying to pick tomatoes for $10,000 to $12,500 per year., and l'll show you heart attacks in waiting. In Florida, businesses have counter attacked with fake emails, misinformation, and intransigence.
Slavery exists in the tomato fields of Florida, a U.S. Senate committee was told Tuesday.
"Today's form of slavery does not bear the overt nature of pre-Civil War society, but it is none the less heinous and reprehensible," Collier County Sheriff's Detective Charlie Frost told Democratic members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. No Republicans attending [sic] the hearing...
Eric Schlosser, an investigative reporter and author of "Fast Food Nation," testified he found it "incredible" that slavery exists in 2008, but "I find it even more incredible that the tomato growers of Florida and some of their largest customers continue to deny that such abuses exist...
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said workers would have to pick almost 3,000 tomatoes to earn $14 and would have to fill and empty their buckets every two minutes.]
West Palm Beach Post, 4/16/08]
Of course, by diking Lake Okeechobee and building "flood control" systems, the state of FL and Army Corps of Engineers created land to grow fruits and vegetetables, and sugar and overbuild in coastal flood plains--y'all paying for it, suckahs--but of course Hoover Dike like "swiss cheese."
Or as Michael Greenwald put it in Why the Everglades is Burning: "Enter my friends in the Army Corps of Engineers, the ground troops in America's war against nature. They built the massive Hoover Dike around the lake, forever cutting off the Everglades from its wellspring. Then they built America's most ambitious flood-control system, with more than 2,000 miles of levees and canals, plus pumps so powerful the engines were cannibalized from nuclear submarines. The project gave water managers power to move almost every drop of rain that fell south of Orlando, allowing them to whisk floodwaters into the lake, the Everglades, or its estuaries for the convenience of thirsty farms and communities that only wanted water when they wanted it.
These waterworks made southern Florida safe for 400,000 acres of sugar fields, as well as one of the spectacular development booms in human history. On the southeast coast, suburbs like Coral Springs, Miami Springs, Sunrise, Miramar, Weston, and Wellington began sprouting west of I-95, paving over the eastern Everglades. And on the southwest coast, Naples and Fort Myers started marching east into the western Everglades." Link found at eyeonmiami.com
http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2008/05/scorched-hope-for-east-everglades-by.html
So any wonder Florida--courtesy of JEB! Bush and his development cronies--serves as
epicenter for world creit mortgage crisis. http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/search/label/Housing%20crash
Tell that to thousands of workers freed by work done by Coaliton of Immolakee Workers and federal prosecutors.
[Slavery exists in America. Still. This is the shocking revelation of Nobodies, the tale of author John Bowe's investigation into active slave rings on American soil. It's a discomforting notion, since modern American society has become comfortable with the idea that slavery is an atrocity that exists only in America's past, or in countries where the rule of law hasn't been established...
Bowe exposes modern-day slavery at several U.S. companies in the States and Saipan, and reveals a chilling corporate view--that what is "an embarrassment to modern notions of human rights" is a necessary consequence of free trade. Bowe also posits that more often than not, there is an enslaved worker hunched over a sewing machine or a sun-beaten fruit picker behind every cheap good American consumers enjoy.
Bowe begins his investigation in central Florida, which one former DOJ prosecutor he interviews calls "ground zero for modern slavery." He arrives in 2002, in time for the trial of Juan and Ramiro Ramos, brothers accused of operating a slavery ring in Immokalee, Fla., an agricultural area carved out of the swamps where farm workers pick tomatoes and oranges for such companies as Taco Bell and Tropicana. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District in Florida found the Ramos brothers guilty of conspiracy to hold people in involuntary servitude...]
Irony alert: in 2007. my favorite slave master got 30 years after prosecution by the Department of Justice, a sentence warranted by facts: [the Evans' deducted rent, food, crack cocaine and alcohol from workers' pay, holding them "perpetually indebted" in what the DOJ called "a form of servitude morally and legally reprehensible...
...in 2003. In Florida, Ron Evans worked for grower Frank Johns (query Federal Elections Commission data). Johns was 2004 Chairman of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the powerful lobbying arm of the Florida agricultural industry. As of 2007, he remained the Chairman of the FFVA's Budget and Finance Committee.]]
Booze, crack, food rent, throw in some hookers, and I'll sign up also.
Seriously, however, only a small percentage of Americans have stamina for the back-braking work of picking tomatoes and getting about $200 a week filling 32 lbs buckets. Show me the anti immigrant ignoramuses like Lou Dobbs or Pat Buchanon trying to pick tomatoes for $10,000 to $12,500 per year., and l'll show you heart attacks in waiting. In Florida, businesses have counter attacked with fake emails, misinformation, and intransigence.
Slavery exists in the tomato fields of Florida, a U.S. Senate committee was told Tuesday.
"Today's form of slavery does not bear the overt nature of pre-Civil War society, but it is none the less heinous and reprehensible," Collier County Sheriff's Detective Charlie Frost told Democratic members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. No Republicans attending [sic] the hearing...
Eric Schlosser, an investigative reporter and author of "Fast Food Nation," testified he found it "incredible" that slavery exists in 2008, but "I find it even more incredible that the tomato growers of Florida and some of their largest customers continue to deny that such abuses exist...
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said workers would have to pick almost 3,000 tomatoes to earn $14 and would have to fill and empty their buckets every two minutes.]
West Palm Beach Post, 4/16/08]
Of course, by diking Lake Okeechobee and building "flood control" systems, the state of FL and Army Corps of Engineers created land to grow fruits and vegetetables, and sugar and overbuild in coastal flood plains--y'all paying for it, suckahs--but of course Hoover Dike like "swiss cheese."
Or as Michael Greenwald put it in Why the Everglades is Burning: "Enter my friends in the Army Corps of Engineers, the ground troops in America's war against nature. They built the massive Hoover Dike around the lake, forever cutting off the Everglades from its wellspring. Then they built America's most ambitious flood-control system, with more than 2,000 miles of levees and canals, plus pumps so powerful the engines were cannibalized from nuclear submarines. The project gave water managers power to move almost every drop of rain that fell south of Orlando, allowing them to whisk floodwaters into the lake, the Everglades, or its estuaries for the convenience of thirsty farms and communities that only wanted water when they wanted it.
These waterworks made southern Florida safe for 400,000 acres of sugar fields, as well as one of the spectacular development booms in human history. On the southeast coast, suburbs like Coral Springs, Miami Springs, Sunrise, Miramar, Weston, and Wellington began sprouting west of I-95, paving over the eastern Everglades. And on the southwest coast, Naples and Fort Myers started marching east into the western Everglades." Link found at eyeonmiami.com
http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2008/05/scorched-hope-for-east-everglades-by.html
So any wonder Florida--courtesy of JEB! Bush and his development cronies--serves as
epicenter for world creit mortgage crisis. http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/search/label/Housing%20crash
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Florida Follies: Huge Confederate Flag and Shot 68 Times
Nothing to do with a black man getting nominated for President of the United States. just honoring Jefferson Davis' birthday.
Huge Confederate flag is raised early along I-75 and I-4
By Jan Wesner and Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writers
In print: Wednesday, June 4, 2008
TAMPA — Men [missing teeth and of limited mental capacity] driving pickups honked and flashed a thumbs-up sign. One yelled "Hell, yeah!" Another pumped his fist [the 1 not holding the beer] in the air.
Others, though, weren't nearly as pleased at the sight of a Confederate flag the size of a semitrailer truck flying Tuesday high above the junction of Interstates 75 and I4.
"It's huge and it's obnoxious," said Curtis Stokes, president of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP.
Organizers building a Civil War monument at the site said last week they hoped to fly the Confederate flag sometime next year. But they raised it shortly after sunrise Tuesday to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederate States of America...
"I love it. It's gorgeous," said Tanya Heard [whose white ancestors used to own black people], 27, who lives nearby and pulled over to look up at the flag, along U.S. 92 in the Eureka Springs neighborhood just west of I-75.
The flag, which cost $800, was lowered at sundown and organizers said it won't go up again until the site is officially dedicated...[yesirree Bob, just a damn coincidence]...
Tampa resident Marion Lambert [an ignorant redneck cracker bitch], a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, paid $7,000 for the 0.19-acre site in January 2004. In February 2005, Lambert met with six planners from Hillsborough's Planning and Growth Management Department, who advised him how to prepare an application for a variance to build a monument.
In April 2005, county records show, a land use hearing officer approved Lambert's request for a lighted park with monuments and a flagpole "to commemorate American [and lynching. Jim Crow and segregation] veterans."
But no one in county government asked Lambert which veterans he planned to honor, or how...
While the flag's outline was visible from more than a mile away at some points, it was the view from the southbound lanes of I-75 that took drivers' breath away.
It was suddenly, jarringly there as drivers rounded a bend in the road and crested the I-4 overpass, and just as they came upon the exit sign that says "Martin Luther King Blvd. 1 mile." The flag made [Florida a national laughingstock] this week on CNN and Fox News...
[In an unrelated except in a desecration of what little passes for justice these days]
LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Department of Justice says SWAT team officers didn't use excessive force when they shot the suspected killer of a sheriff's deputy 68 times during a manhunt near Lakeland in 2006.
[68 freakin' times! How dead can you make someone? No trial for this dreadlocked (pic on newscast) cop killing nigra. Why he even shot the police dog! He's lucky we didn't shoot him 168 times.]
Angilo Freeland was the man believed to have fatally shot a Polk County deputy and his police dog. Nine officers fired on the 27-year-old after finding him hiding in the woods the next morning. They say a sudden movement by the suspect caused them to fire.
The Justice Department sent a letter to Sheriff Grady Judd this week saying an investigation had concluded that Freeland's civil rights had not been violated.
Don Brown, president of the local NAACP chapter, says he still believes the number of shots fired at Freeland was excessive. He called it "profoundly disturbing."
Huge Confederate flag is raised early along I-75 and I-4
By Jan Wesner and Andrew Meacham, Times Staff Writers
In print: Wednesday, June 4, 2008
TAMPA — Men [missing teeth and of limited mental capacity] driving pickups honked and flashed a thumbs-up sign. One yelled "Hell, yeah!" Another pumped his fist [the 1 not holding the beer] in the air.
Others, though, weren't nearly as pleased at the sight of a Confederate flag the size of a semitrailer truck flying Tuesday high above the junction of Interstates 75 and I4.
"It's huge and it's obnoxious," said Curtis Stokes, president of the Hillsborough County branch of the NAACP.
Organizers building a Civil War monument at the site said last week they hoped to fly the Confederate flag sometime next year. But they raised it shortly after sunrise Tuesday to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Jefferson Davis, the only president of the Confederate States of America...
"I love it. It's gorgeous," said Tanya Heard [whose white ancestors used to own black people], 27, who lives nearby and pulled over to look up at the flag, along U.S. 92 in the Eureka Springs neighborhood just west of I-75.
The flag, which cost $800, was lowered at sundown and organizers said it won't go up again until the site is officially dedicated...[yesirree Bob, just a damn coincidence]...
Tampa resident Marion Lambert [an ignorant redneck cracker bitch], a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, paid $7,000 for the 0.19-acre site in January 2004. In February 2005, Lambert met with six planners from Hillsborough's Planning and Growth Management Department, who advised him how to prepare an application for a variance to build a monument.
In April 2005, county records show, a land use hearing officer approved Lambert's request for a lighted park with monuments and a flagpole "to commemorate American [and lynching. Jim Crow and segregation] veterans."
But no one in county government asked Lambert which veterans he planned to honor, or how...
While the flag's outline was visible from more than a mile away at some points, it was the view from the southbound lanes of I-75 that took drivers' breath away.
It was suddenly, jarringly there as drivers rounded a bend in the road and crested the I-4 overpass, and just as they came upon the exit sign that says "Martin Luther King Blvd. 1 mile." The flag made [Florida a national laughingstock] this week on CNN and Fox News...
[In an unrelated except in a desecration of what little passes for justice these days]
LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Department of Justice says SWAT team officers didn't use excessive force when they shot the suspected killer of a sheriff's deputy 68 times during a manhunt near Lakeland in 2006.
[68 freakin' times! How dead can you make someone? No trial for this dreadlocked (pic on newscast) cop killing nigra. Why he even shot the police dog! He's lucky we didn't shoot him 168 times.]
Angilo Freeland was the man believed to have fatally shot a Polk County deputy and his police dog. Nine officers fired on the 27-year-old after finding him hiding in the woods the next morning. They say a sudden movement by the suspect caused them to fire.
The Justice Department sent a letter to Sheriff Grady Judd this week saying an investigation had concluded that Freeland's civil rights had not been violated.
Don Brown, president of the local NAACP chapter, says he still believes the number of shots fired at Freeland was excessive. He called it "profoundly disturbing."
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
A new dawn in America; Obama and RFK's dream
In 1968 at the tender age of 10, I saw Julian Bond nominated for office of Vice President of the United States in America.
Little did I know it would take 40 years, a biblical generation, for one of African American descent to achieve nomination for President.
While the electoral map looks favorable and all rationality lines up behind Senator Obama rather than a third President Cheney term--"This is the baseline. Democrats have the money advantage, the issues advantage, and soon, we'll be unified. When that happens, expect this map to improve significantly." (Also from Kos link)--all progressives need to work to heal wounds among factions so as to protect the Constitution and our very liberty.
If the Good Lord were willing, then we will have a President who embodies the vision of Robert F. Kennedy as described in eulogy by his brother, Ted: [ "The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.
"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."
This is the way he lived. My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.
As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
"Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not."]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JTYnMpRyg
[During the 1968 Presidential election, Bond led a challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Here, unexpectedly and contrary to his intention, he became the first African-American to be proposed as a major-party candidate for Vice President of the United States. While expressing gratitude for the honor, the 28-year-old Bond quickly declined, citing the constitutional requirement that one must be at least 35 years of age to serve in that office.]
Little did I know it would take 40 years, a biblical generation, for one of African American descent to achieve nomination for President.
While the electoral map looks favorable and all rationality lines up behind Senator Obama rather than a third President Cheney term--"This is the baseline. Democrats have the money advantage, the issues advantage, and soon, we'll be unified. When that happens, expect this map to improve significantly." (Also from Kos link)--all progressives need to work to heal wounds among factions so as to protect the Constitution and our very liberty.
If the Good Lord were willing, then we will have a President who embodies the vision of Robert F. Kennedy as described in eulogy by his brother, Ted: [ "The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.
"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."
This is the way he lived. My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.
Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.
As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:
"Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not."]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9JTYnMpRyg
[During the 1968 Presidential election, Bond led a challenge delegation from Georgia to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Here, unexpectedly and contrary to his intention, he became the first African-American to be proposed as a major-party candidate for Vice President of the United States. While expressing gratitude for the honor, the 28-year-old Bond quickly declined, citing the constitutional requirement that one must be at least 35 years of age to serve in that office.]
Thursday, May 29, 2008
ABC spiked stories that conflicted with pro-war propaganda
[On Wednesday night, CNN's Jessica Yellin talked to Anderson Cooper about Scott McClellan's tell-all memoir and agreed with the former press secretary that White House reporters "dropped the ball" during the run-up to war.
But Yellin went much further, revealing that news executives — presumably at ABC News, where she'd worked from July 2003 to August 2007 — actively pushed her not do hard-hitting pieces on the Bush administration. [See update]
"The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings," Yellin said.
"And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president's approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives — and I was not at this network at the time — but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time...."
But then a shocked Cooper jumped in, asking, "You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?"
"Not in that exact.... They wouldn't say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces," Yellin said. "They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive. Yes, that was my experience."]
WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA? THE TRUTH ABOUT BIAS AND THE NEWS
But Yellin went much further, revealing that news executives — presumably at ABC News, where she'd worked from July 2003 to August 2007 — actively pushed her not do hard-hitting pieces on the Bush administration. [See update]
"The press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives, frankly, to make sure that this was a war presented in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings," Yellin said.
"And my own experience at the White House was that the higher the president's approval ratings, the more pressure I had from news executives — and I was not at this network at the time — but the more pressure I had from news executives to put on positive stories about the president, I think over time...."
But then a shocked Cooper jumped in, asking, "You had pressure from news executives to put on positive stories about the president?"
"Not in that exact.... They wouldn't say it in that way, but they would edit my pieces," Yellin said. "They would push me in different directions. They would turn down stories that were more critical, and try to put on pieces that were more positive. Yes, that was my experience."]
WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA? THE TRUTH ABOUT BIAS AND THE NEWS
Monday, May 26, 2008
Why hysterical Hillary hate?
Reading political blogs lately, even progressive ones, reveals an extraordinary amount of bile poured out on the presidential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton, akin to what normally describes President Cheney.
Without dog in this fight-perhaps a poor choice of metaphor but I will work for whomever the Democratic party selects--the depth of rhetoric shocks even my jaded sensibilities, coming as it does from bloggers I read regularly like Americablog, sorry Mr. Aravois.
Wih the recent ginned up controversy over HRC's metion of Bobby Kennedy, otherwise normally rational people rushed to claim she should not even use the word "assasination" and equated it to sme racist comment when the selfsame bloggers used it detailing security breakdowns at Senator Obama's campaign appearances.
For the sake of the US constitution in mortal peril under a McCain/Cheney administration, seems to me we ought to tone down the rhetoric, get a beer or other libation of choice, and watch a sunset with no laptop, ipod, 'net connections or other tools of the devil to hand for it occurs instaneous communication breeds excessive vitriol on all sides.
The inimitable Paul Krugman agres with me in his column today, "So what should Mr. Obama and his supporters do?
Most immediately, they should realize that the continuing demonization of Mrs. Clinton serves nobody except Mr. McCain."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/opinion/26krugman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Also with 2 talented nieces, both of whom I'd like to become US President someday, the conundrum facing succesful women--a take charge female boss gets perceived as a "bitch" while identical actions by a male manager evoke descriptions as strongwilled--makes me fear them someday bumping up against a glass ceiling.
This has a historical context also, perhaps starting with literal witch hunts in Middle Ages when some reports exist of female populations nearly wiped out in some areas.
Please read the Chicago Tribune column in entirety at http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-fempower-0518may18,0,4333714.column
[...Revealed in the coverage of Clinton's campaign is the persistence of an ancient and distasteful cultural theme: the powerful, ambitious woman as cackling fiend, as fantastically terrifying ghoul threatening civilization. And because this creature (or "she-devil," as MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews called Clinton) is not human, the only solution is to kill it. Not just derail its career—obliterate it. Smash it to smithereens. Vaporize it. Leave not a trace of the foul beast behind.
Hence the appalling preponderance of violent, death-infused imagery in conversations about Clinton, smuggled into otherwise ordinary political discourse like a knife taped on the bottom of a cake plate: On CNN, pundit Alex Castellanos said democrats must realize that "it's time to take the family dog to the vet." Matthews' MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann expressed the hope that "somebody will take her into a room—and only he comes out." CNN's Jack Cafferty gleefully floated the specter of Clinton being run over by a flatbed truck. A recent Tribune editorial compared Clinton to a euthanized Kentucky Derby contender...
One of the most barbaric medical procedures ever performed legally in this country was the lobotomy, and a look at its early history is chilling. As Jack El-Hai recounts in his book, "The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness" (2005), the frightening operation that could leave patients catatonic or dead often was employed as a way to deal with "difficult" women, with wives and mothers who had minds of their own, with willful daughters and headstrong sisters. The message was clear: Do whatever you have to do—but shut her up.
The notion of a powerful, driven, influential woman as a hideous threat—a threat that can be curtailed only with her death—ripples through literature, from the D.H. Lawrence novel "Sons and Lovers" (1913), with its protagonist's conviction that he must escape the clutches of his looming, clingy mother if he is ever to realize his destiny, to the 1962 novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey, with its way-scary female character: the loathsome, larger-than-life Nurse Ratched. The joyless, hulking harridan who wants to keep her patients drugged and miserable so she can control them. From the Furies in Greek literature onward, the women-as-mythical-monsters theme has shrieked, flapped and lurched its way through the arts.
These observations, by the way, have nothing to do with the issue of Clinton's or Obama's continued candidacies. That's a subject to be debated on the editorial pages, not here. This corner is reserved for cultural imagery, for a spirited exploration of the way a shared belief or preoccupation ultimately manifests itself in our entertainment products. Such an idea is like a splinter driven so deep, resting undisturbed for so long, that for a time you may not even be aware of it. Then slowly, slowly, it begins to work its way to the surface. One day, the sharp tip breaks the skin, and you see what's been down there all along, spreading its poison.] emphasis added
So please give my hope for my nieces a chance.
Without dog in this fight-perhaps a poor choice of metaphor but I will work for whomever the Democratic party selects--the depth of rhetoric shocks even my jaded sensibilities, coming as it does from bloggers I read regularly like Americablog, sorry Mr. Aravois.
Wih the recent ginned up controversy over HRC's metion of Bobby Kennedy, otherwise normally rational people rushed to claim she should not even use the word "assasination" and equated it to sme racist comment when the selfsame bloggers used it detailing security breakdowns at Senator Obama's campaign appearances.
For the sake of the US constitution in mortal peril under a McCain/Cheney administration, seems to me we ought to tone down the rhetoric, get a beer or other libation of choice, and watch a sunset with no laptop, ipod, 'net connections or other tools of the devil to hand for it occurs instaneous communication breeds excessive vitriol on all sides.
The inimitable Paul Krugman agres with me in his column today, "So what should Mr. Obama and his supporters do?
Most immediately, they should realize that the continuing demonization of Mrs. Clinton serves nobody except Mr. McCain."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/opinion/26krugman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Also with 2 talented nieces, both of whom I'd like to become US President someday, the conundrum facing succesful women--a take charge female boss gets perceived as a "bitch" while identical actions by a male manager evoke descriptions as strongwilled--makes me fear them someday bumping up against a glass ceiling.
This has a historical context also, perhaps starting with literal witch hunts in Middle Ages when some reports exist of female populations nearly wiped out in some areas.
Please read the Chicago Tribune column in entirety at http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-fempower-0518may18,0,4333714.column
[...Revealed in the coverage of Clinton's campaign is the persistence of an ancient and distasteful cultural theme: the powerful, ambitious woman as cackling fiend, as fantastically terrifying ghoul threatening civilization. And because this creature (or "she-devil," as MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews called Clinton) is not human, the only solution is to kill it. Not just derail its career—obliterate it. Smash it to smithereens. Vaporize it. Leave not a trace of the foul beast behind.
Hence the appalling preponderance of violent, death-infused imagery in conversations about Clinton, smuggled into otherwise ordinary political discourse like a knife taped on the bottom of a cake plate: On CNN, pundit Alex Castellanos said democrats must realize that "it's time to take the family dog to the vet." Matthews' MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann expressed the hope that "somebody will take her into a room—and only he comes out." CNN's Jack Cafferty gleefully floated the specter of Clinton being run over by a flatbed truck. A recent Tribune editorial compared Clinton to a euthanized Kentucky Derby contender...
One of the most barbaric medical procedures ever performed legally in this country was the lobotomy, and a look at its early history is chilling. As Jack El-Hai recounts in his book, "The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness" (2005), the frightening operation that could leave patients catatonic or dead often was employed as a way to deal with "difficult" women, with wives and mothers who had minds of their own, with willful daughters and headstrong sisters. The message was clear: Do whatever you have to do—but shut her up.
The notion of a powerful, driven, influential woman as a hideous threat—a threat that can be curtailed only with her death—ripples through literature, from the D.H. Lawrence novel "Sons and Lovers" (1913), with its protagonist's conviction that he must escape the clutches of his looming, clingy mother if he is ever to realize his destiny, to the 1962 novel "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey, with its way-scary female character: the loathsome, larger-than-life Nurse Ratched. The joyless, hulking harridan who wants to keep her patients drugged and miserable so she can control them. From the Furies in Greek literature onward, the women-as-mythical-monsters theme has shrieked, flapped and lurched its way through the arts.
These observations, by the way, have nothing to do with the issue of Clinton's or Obama's continued candidacies. That's a subject to be debated on the editorial pages, not here. This corner is reserved for cultural imagery, for a spirited exploration of the way a shared belief or preoccupation ultimately manifests itself in our entertainment products. Such an idea is like a splinter driven so deep, resting undisturbed for so long, that for a time you may not even be aware of it. Then slowly, slowly, it begins to work its way to the surface. One day, the sharp tip breaks the skin, and you see what's been down there all along, spreading its poison.] emphasis added
So please give my hope for my nieces a chance.
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